Chapter 89: Chapter 88

Nym flew back to the camp an hour later with a few spellbooks Analia loaned him in his pack and a small basket of pastries he’d picked up from a bakery she’d recommended. No one was at the hut they’d built for themselves when he arrived, but the camp followers were already getting things started for dinner. Great big cauldrons were bubbling and boiling when Nym landed, right next to what had to be a whole cow, maybe even two, roasting over a fire.

Nym stashed the surprise dessert in his room and used terrakinesis to pile up some loose earth together, sorted it, and then slowly and laboriously transmuted it into stone flatware and cutlery. Normally someone else did that chore, as any of the earth mages could do it almost instantly, but they were still working and Nym needed the practice anyway.

Once everything was ready, he pulled out the notes he’d copied showing the final spell construct for Analia’s air golem. Under her guidance, he’d managed to successfully create one before leaving Ebalsan, and he wanted to look around using a combination of the air golem, scrying, and far sight.

A minute later, the golem was in the air and following the length of the wall while Nym looked around through it. It was kind of a nauseating experience while the golem was moving, mostly because things in motion tended to blur, which wasn’t too terrible to deal with when the golem was floating in place, but was almost overwhelming when he commanded it to move.

Unfortunately, once the golem got far enough away, the only way he knew what was going on was to look through the scrying spell he’d linked to it. That combined with the fact that he could only realistically stretch the connection to about a quarter of a mile limited the golem’s usefulness, even though that was far more reach than he got out of any other golem model he could cast. He could picture it acting more as a sentry or lookout than a scout.

There was a lot of missing functionality in the spell, but Nym wasn’t sure it was possible to make it do what he wanted, at least not with his current understanding of spell structures. If he could construct a golem made of pure arcana with no elemental flavoring to it, that might change things, but then there was the massive problem of the golem not having an actual body to operate. He didn’t think it would even still be a golem at that point.

His musings were interrupted by the sight of several earth mages coming into view of the spot he’d stationed the air golem at. Nomick and Monick showed up first in the procession, with Ophelia a minute or so behind them and Bildar trailing at the end. By the time the bearded earth mage came into view, the leading workers had already reached the camp.

Nym scooped up the flatware he’d constructed and went over to claim some food for himself and his friends. The cook regarded him with a raised eyebrow when he spread out five bowls in front of the stew cauldron, holding them all steady with a minor application of telekinesis.

“It’s not all for me!” Nym said. “I’m just grabbing food for my whole team.”

“Sure, if you say so,” the cook told him. She ladled stew into each bowl, and a second cook threw a chunk of meat onto the plates he’d made. Half the camp stopped what they were doing to stare at Nym as a line of food followed him back to his hut. A few people laughed, but no one stopped him.

The twins came through the door, both of them groaning and with sweat-stained clothes. They stopped upon seeing the food spread out at the table in front of them, with Nym already seated. He’d lined the interior of the bowls and tops of the plates with just enough arcana to heat them up and keep everything steaming hot.

“You may in fact be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to us,” Nomick told him seriously.

“Oh sure, you say that when I have food,” Nym said. “But what was it you told me two weeks ago when I was working on that spell to predict what card would be drawn next?”

“That you were a damn cheater and I was never playing cards with you again,” Nomick supplied. “I should have known Monick would teach you that.”

His brother cackled. “I can’t believe it took you almost an hour to realize what he was doing. You lost three shields to him.”

“I gave it back!” Nym protested.

“Wait, you did? Whhyyyyyyyy?”

“Because he’s a better person than you are!” Nomick said.

“Oh please,” Monick replied. “Like you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing.”

“I didn’t say I was a better person. If anything, I’d have made sure to teach him a bit about properly fleecing a mark before I sat him down at the table with you.”

Ophelia walked through the door then, interrupting the conversation. “What’s all this?” she asked, a smile on her face. “I’m sure it wasn’t you two that fetched the food. So it must have been Nym.”

“Of course it was Nym. When would we have had time to?” Nomick said.

“Even if you did have time, would you have done it?”

“Nope.”

Ophelia rolled her eyes and turned to Nym. “Thank you,” she said. “After the day we’ve had, this is a welcome surprise.”

Other than getting beaten down repeatedly by Babkin, Nym hadn’t done much work himself. Part of him felt kind of guilty switching jobs instead of going out to the wall to help, but he reminded himself that he also had made very little money today, certainly less than he would have made staying with the earth mage crews.

“What’s all this?” Bildar said as he came in through the door. “Dinner already waiting on the table? I could get used to this kind of treatment!”

The group sat down to eat, scarfing food while they chatted about the day’s work and bemoaned the new supervisor assigned to their crew. “That one yesterday, the chubby guy with the mustache and the thinning hair line, he didn’t make it through the ghoul attack. I guess he managed to hold off four ghouls though, long enough that the entire group working on the outer edge of the wall managed to escape,” Ophelia told Nym.

“And the new supervisor is a lot harder to work with. He’s not an earth mage and doesn’t understand how these things get built properly so that they last. There’s been a lot of trying to explain to him why what he wants done isn’t possible, or why it’s better to do it a different way, and a lot of yelling that he’s in charge and we all need to do what we’re told,” Bildar said. “You picked a good day to switch jobs.”

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“Why is this bowl so hot?” Nomick said, picking it up and looking at it.

“Oh, I used a spell I made that lets me coat a solid surface with arcana and causes it to release heat for a few hours. I used to sleep on it when I was up north,” Nym explained.

The twins both stared at him for a moment, then turned to Bildar. “You need to get him back on our crew,” Nomick said. “Double his pay.”

“I wasn’t paying him to begin with.”

“Triple it then,” Monick said. “We need this kind of luxury in our lives.”

“You’re not very good at math, are you?” Bildar said, squinting at him.

“Tell us about your first day,” Ophelia said to Nym, ignoring the rest of the crew’s antics.

He related the paperwork, and talked about the freelancer facilities, and about what kind of jobs he was authorized to do. When he mentioned Babkin and their fights in the training arena, Nym kept the details deliberately vague. He didn’t much care for the burly innkeeper and would rather gloss over that whole part of the story.

As they finished up, Nym levitated the basket of pastries he’d picked up for dessert out of his room and set them on the center of the table. This set off a whole new round of surprised and appreciative noises from the Earth Shapers, as well as an argument between Nomick and Ophelia over who got the last tart, followed immediately by a group condemnation of Bildar for swiping the final custard while everyone was distracted.

Later, long after the food was gone and everything was cleaned up, Bildar sat down next to Nym, who was reading the book he’d gotten from Analia on counter-undead spells. “Next time you go to town, I’ve got some news for you to pass on to Analia,” he said.

Nym set the book down and looked over. “For Analia? About her father?”

“Surprisingly, no. I mean, he’s around here somewhere I’m sure. There’s some big project that’s tied up a lot of the army’s mages, but I wasn’t able to find out what exactly they’re doing. I do know he’s running that thing though, and I guess it keeps him pretty busy. It’s why so much of the fortifications was contracted out to people like us, and why they’ve got a whole division running logistics to have freelancers do work.”

“She might find that interesting, but that’s not what you want me to tell her?”

Bildar shook his head. “I heard from someone that the higher ups are thinking about instituting a draft. I guess even with the king’s army out in force, and even with the freelancers who came in, we’re still having trouble containing the undead. If they do start drafting people, they’ll look for mages. She might be safe given her age and pedigree, but she’s also right near here. It might be better for her to be proactive and either sign up for something herself or relocate to somewhere less likely to see some army recruiters.”

“Ah… that… could be a problem. She figured out how to spend her family’s money from afar and bought a ton of books, and who knows what else. We’d need a second wagon just for her now when it’s time to leave.”

“Then it might be better to get involved with the military now while she still has a choice about it. Maybe she’ll be able to find some work that’s more suited to her talents.”

“Do you really think she’d get drafted?” Nym asked. “She’s thirteen.”

“So are you,” Bildar pointed out, “Or close enough, at least. They’re letting you work, aren’t they? And besides, have you gotten a look at some of those soldiers out there? Some of them are as young as fifteen or sixteen. It’s not too much of a stretch that they’d press a mage into service despite being younger than usual.”

That was a good point. “Thanks for the warning. I think I might have to fly back into town tonight and tell her before she buys too much more stuff, or at least convince her to buy a wagon or carriage or something while she still has access to the family accounts.”

“It’s a bit late now, don’t you think? Maybe better in the morning.”

Nym shook his head. “I can be there and back in under an hour if I hurry. This is kind of important.”

“That fast, huh? In that case, bring back another basket of those pastries, why don’t you?”

Nym rolled his eyes. “Sure, with an extra custard for you. You’re paying this time though.”

He held out his hand for some money, and was surprised when Bildar pressed two shields into it. “It was worth every last wedge,” the earth mage told him. “If you’re going to make regular runs into town, you could probably make a side business just out bringing stuff like that back out here.”

Nym couldn’t help but laugh at the idea. “It might even pay better than running errands for the army. Do you think they’d get upset if I stopped taking jobs from them to be a mobile pastry shop instead?”

“Who the hell cares what they think! We want custards!”

“Heard and understood, sir. I’ll be back soon.”

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