There were no less than a dozen assistant golems waiting for Nym when he finally opened the door. “Exarch! You’re alright,” Naera said, stepping forward from the crowd.
“Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be? Didn’t I ask you to go finish preparing the fox experiment?”
“Yes, Exarch. Everything is all set up and ready, as soon as the batteries are fully charged.”
Nym made a show of looking around. “And you needed twelve other golems with you to tell me that?”
“Ah, no, about that. Baracia wanted to be notified the instant you were finished. Every time she asked and you weren’t done, she set another golem to watching the door.”
That explained why nine of them were already reorganizing themselves into a line and heading down the hall, but he didn’t know who Baracia was. He gave it even odds that it was another ascendant or the golem in charge of organizing all of the other ones. There was only one way to find out though.
“Who is Baracia, again?”
“She heads up the research for all plant-based experiments,” Naera said.
That didn’t answer his question, though he was leaning more towards the idea that she was an ascendant. If so, the fact that she was interested in him was extremely bad news. He assumed every ascendant who had access to the facility was in some way loyal to Exarch Niramyn, but that had also been prior to the whole… everything… that had resulted in the creation of Nym.
[Incoming.]
The world pulsed and shivered around him as something pushed through reality, shoving it aside and taking its place. A woman stood next to him, had always been standing next to him now that she’d dictated that reality. She was tall, well over six feet, with pale skin and glowing midnight blue hair that fell halfway down her back. Her eyes, soft gleaming silver, trained over to Nym, and she let out a soft little, “Ah. I had wondered.”
“Baracia?” Nym asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt. She was at least into the eighth layer, based on the crushing presence of the arcana he felt around her. Unless Rizin jumped in to save him, Nym was completely at the woman’s mercy. He swore right then and there that if he ever found out that one of the golems reached out to summon her, he would find out which one did it and dismantle them.
“That is correct,” she said. “You do not have the capability to recharge these arcana batteries. Whatever scheme you’re up to, I won’t let it disrupt the lab.”
“That was not my goal.”
“A new ascendant, hmm, and a hidden one at that. Someone has been playing games they should not be playing. Tell me, what is your goal?”
“At this moment? Get as many of these batteries charged as possible. I’m open to suggestions after that.”
“Fascinating,” was all she said.
After a long moment’s awkward silence, he asked, “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Perhaps, but not right now. I just came to see who was mucking around with my lab.”
“I wouldn’t call it that,” Nym said.
“No? You’ve canceled an ongoing experiment on a whim and are setting up another one. Neither jeopardizes any of my experiments, so I’m not inclined to complain. You are lucky that Joarsin is not here. He would not be happy that you removed that mortal talisman from the vault, even if the lab can manufacture another in an instant.”
“Lucky me,” Nym said. “If you don’t need anything then, I have some more work to do?”
“You do not,” Baracia said firmly. “But when your associate is finished, please make sure he leaves the lab without damaging anything.”
“I- Yes, of course. If there’s nothing else?”
Her eyes lingered on him for an uncomfortably long time before she said, “For now. I will call on you again soon.”
“I’ll be expecting you then,” Nym said. If he was lucky, the hidden presence spell would protect him from that particular future. As far as he could tell, it was still working. Baracia had only found him because of those nosy golems, or perhaps some sort of internal alarm he’d missed. If that was the case, either Naera had lied to him or she hadn’t known about it herself.
“Mmm. I doubt it. Spend your time in this reality wisely. You don’t yet realize how limited it is and how foolishly you are squandering it.”
Then reality flexed again and the strange woman was gone. Nym wanted to heave a huge sigh of relief, but Naera and three other golems were still loitering in the hall with him. He turned a baleful glare on them and said, “Did you need something else?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“No, Exarch,” Naera answered for them. “The four of us are the team working on your new experiment. Everything is ready to go. We are just waiting on the arcana to be placed in the batteries and your word to start.”
“Can you tell that the batteries are ready to go from where you have the experiment set up?” Nym asked.
“Yes, of course.”
“Then I would like you to go wait there. As soon as the batteries are full enough, start the experiment.”
The four golems all bowed in unison and walked off. Nym glowered at their backs, then scrubbed a hand across his face. He’d thought things were going well until he’d opened that door. Now he had an extremely creepy ascendant interested in him, one who was very, very aware of what he’d been up to in the lab. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to care.
[Well, this has been a disaster,] he said to Rizin.
[It could have been much worse. I’ve already started on the next set of batteries. Fortunately, there are only a fraction of the first room’s and they are in relatively better shape. This should not take more than six to eight hours.]
Nym thought he heard a touch of weariness in the fox’s mental voice, which wasn’t surprising, considering how much magical heavy-lifting he’d been doing. He let himself into the second battery room, cast a new barrier spell just in case the golems got annoying about what he was doing in there again, and settled down to wait.
[Do you know anything about that ascendant?] he asked.
[I’m not familiar with ascendant culture other than that they have two large hubs. One is in the sixth layer, and as I understand it, is considered something of a slum. Ascendants who are unable to take the next step and stall out at your current level forever exist in this hub. Those who manage to reach at least the eighth layer have another hub there. Of course, those who ascend even higher have their own private sanctuaries, which they place wherever they please.]
[All of that,] Nym mused. There was so much he didn’t know about them still. [And yet you’re still sitting here on reality prime.]
[One part of me is, yes. It is important to my goals.]
That was fair. Rizin obviously wanted company. Maybe there weren’t too many mystic foxes in the universe, and he was hoping some of this new race would rise to the occasion, that they would become the fox equivalent of an ascendant. That was as good a reason as any to spend a lot of time in the mortal world.
[I wonder what she wants. She was annoyingly vague.]
[Whatever it is, it will no doubt be good for her and unlikely good for anyone else. Be careful about letting her use you.]
[I don’t plan on letting her find me again. The only reason she ran into me was because of where we are. Once this program is running, we shouldn’t have to set foot in here again.]
[A shame,] Rizin mused. [There are many fascinating things here. Also, you wished to help the snow wolves, did you not?]
[I did, but I suppose I could do that now. The primary factor holding me back was the need for secrecy. I’ve already been discovered, so I might as well take care of that before we leave. In fact, I think I’ll go do that right now.]
Nym sent a scrying spell out through the lab to locate Naera, then followed it to her location. Though he couldn’t teleport, there was nothing stopping him from skimming across the floor at high speeds. “Naera, I forgot to tell you. Once you’re done with all of this, please implement the procedure we discussed for fixing the snow wolves as well.”
She glanced up from some sort of illusory display she was studying and looked towards the doorway Nym was standing in. “Of course, Exarch. We should have more than enough arcana left over to do that as well. We would need an additional arcana infusion in another three thousand cycles when reserves begin to dip dangerously low in this case.”
“That’s fine.”
Baracia or some other ascendant could do the next one. Nym didn’t have a lot of plans on returning to the lab once they left. Idly, he wondered what would happen to the containment field and all the weird monsters living inside it if the batteries died completely. Maybe they’d scatter into the frozen wastelands of the north and die of exposure or starvation. He doubted many of them would adapt well to a world that was both considerably warmer than their current environment and blindingly bright.
“Thank you, Naera.”
Nym zipped back across Lab Six to the battery chamber and crossed his barrier. It was designed to let him through, and no one else, though it wouldn’t stand up to someone with Rizin’s power. Even a mortal archmage could probably cross it if they were clever or patient enough to figure out the key. It definitely stopped nosy golems though, and that was the important part.
[All set on the snow wolf project. The golems want another recharge in a decade or so, but I’m sure some other ascendant will come along and take care of the next top up.]
[One can only hope. My own project should be long since completed by then, and it shall no longer be my problem.]
They didn’t talk much after that. Nym spent his time getting a feel for the arcana that filled the room. It was something heavy, something that pressed down on the room despite being contained in the batteries, or perhaps for that brief moment of Rizin channeling the arcana into the batteries. It was an uncomfortable sensation, like being deep underwater.
The pressure didn’t ease up, but in time he grew more used to it. It wasn’t a physical sensation, and he wondered what effect it would have on his magic if he tried to use something weaker than fifth layer arcana. It was possible the effect would warp the delicate construct of the spell itself if he cast it in the room.
[There! Finally, it’s done.]
Nym blinked and stood up. Within seconds, the crushing feeling had all but disappeared. Of Rizin himself, there was of course no sign. But they both knew the plan. He would slip back out through the specimen teleportation platform, Nym would nudge the piece he’d loosened back into place, and then he’d leave through the foyer.
He skimmed down the halls again, desiring nothing so much as leaving quickly before some assistant golem found him and started trying to keep him around. Or worse, Baracia changed her mind and found him again before he could get out. He was a lot more confident in his ability to hide once his actual physical location wasn’t known.
Part of him wondered if he was overconfident. She’d known there was something else with him, though that could have been a logical deduction on her part. Nym couldn’t refill the batteries, so something else must have been doing it. He made a mental note to ask Rizin if he’d been spotted by the ascendant once they were both clear of the lab.
[I’m through,] the fox said in his mind once he reached the specimen teleportation room. Nym relocked the part of the rune sequence he’d left open for the fox to slip through, then made his own exit. Nobody tried to stop him, including Baracia. Just like that, he’d done his part for the pact.