emergencycomplaints

Chapter 81

It was actually kind of impressive just how deep the new road penetrated into the forest, but then again, Nym supposed a few thousand industrious soldiers could fell a lot of trees very quickly, especially if they needed that lumber. The wagon rumbled over the dirt, bouncing over various ruts that had already formed in it, but Nym bypassed all of that discomfort by simply flying at a walking speed six inches off the ground next to it.

“What weapon did you end up getting?” Ophelia as...

Chapter 80

Without the military presence, Ebalsan would have reminded Nym a lot of Zoskan. It was on the eastern border of the same forest instead of the north, and it was probably two or three times bigger, but the homes were constructed in the same style and its people wore the same clothes. Ebalsan was what Zoskan could have been if it was more conveniently located on important trade routes.

That was before the undead showed up, which Nym was becoming more and more sure was related to what he�...

Chapter 79

Valcort proved to be just a brief stop on their trip. They topped off their supplies, inquired about any other large dangers roaming the local area that they should be aware of, and left. There was no work for a crew of earth mages to be had there, and nobody was much interested in hanging around for more than a single night’s stay at an inn. Beds were nice, but all of them were eager to be on their way, each for their own reasons.

The Earth Shapers wanted work, and where there was no...

Chapter 78

There was no way he was going to make it in time. The bird, which looked ridiculous in the air with its two long legs trailing behind it, was already diving down at the wagon. It would be seconds at most before it made contact, and Nym was still the better part of a mile away. Even pushing as hard as he could, it would take him almost a minute to catch up.

Just as the bird was coming in for a landing, a huge spike of stone shot up from the ground. The bird crashed into it and the stone ...

Chapter 77

The wind flowed past them as they stood in the sky, nearly half a mile straight up. Analia tried to say something, but Nym couldn’t hear her over the noise. He hardened the air around them in a dome to cut the sound and said, “What was that?”

“I was asking how you handle this wind for hours and hours while you fly.”

“Oh, that. Mostly with warm clothes. I also got a special mask that has goggles built into it to protect my face.”

“So you’re telling me you do...

Chapter 76

“So obviously something is messed up here,” Ophelia said. “But I cannot for the life of me figure out what I did wrong on these calculations. I expected it to be high just because it took three of us to hold the spell, but more in line with Analia’s. She’s already enough of an outlier as it is.”

“Whatever the correct number is, it’s obvious that Ermy, sorry, Nym, is strong,” Bildar said. “What he lacks of a thorough education. Now, we were hoping you’d want to come...

Chapter 75

The Earth Shapers showed up about an hour after Nym and Analia got there. The two waited outside of the city a ways, with Analia guarding Nym while he scried up and down Sunset Lane watching for them. They waited, both of them sitting on the floating trunk, until the earth mages pulled up next to them.

“Coming along then?” Bildar asked, eyeing the trunk.

“For now, if you’ll have us. We’re not sure if we’ll go all the way to Ebalsan though.”

“That’s fine. We...

Chapter 74

The Quarterhouse was as full as always, but there were already two empty chairs between Bildar and Ophelia waiting for them when they got there. The host waved them past, pointing out the table the earth mages were seated around. Nym and Analia joined them, with him making introductions.

“Hi everyone, this is my friend Analia. This is Bildar, Ophelia, and the twins are Nomick and Monick.”

“You got us backwards,” one of the twins said.

“Oh, sorry. Then this is Monic...

Chapter 73

“Come eat with us tonight,” Ophelia said.

“I… really can’t afford to,” Nym replied, not looking up from where he was inscribing the runes on the blocks. He’d learned that they weren’t quite as simple as he’d initially thought, and that the runes were only meant to hold everything together temporarily. Interlocking lips were grown among the blocks after they were stacked up in such a way that they could not be removed without lifting everything on top of them up first. ...

Chapter 72

They briefly got caught up while they ate, with Nym giving her the abridged version of how he’d killed the hive queen and Analia giving him a dubious look. “How did you manage to hold three separate spell effects at the same time? Most mages can’t even hold two,” she asked.

“I… don’t know? I just do. It’s not easy or anything. I don’t think I could do four, if for no other reason than I can’t get a wide enough conduit to sustain that much magic at once.”

“T...

Chapter 71

True to her word, Ophelia was waiting for him in the common room the next morning. She was demolishing her breakfast, on her third plate at least judging by the amount of flatware scattered across the table when Nym sat down across from her, still rubbing at his eyes.

“How are you this perky?” he asked.

“I’ve always been a morning person,” she said. Then she grinned wickedly and added, “And Bildar is really, really, really not. It drives him crazy, so I make an effort ...

Chapter 70

By the time they caught up with the earth mage crew, they’d already finished the job and had gone to the Quarterhouse for dinner. When Nym and Berndart got there, they asked the host to fetch Bildar for them so as not to disturb everyone and make an unnecessary scene. The bearded earth mage came back a minute later, eyebrows raised when he saw Nym with a constable.

“What’s going on? Are you in trouble?” he asked Nym.

“No, no, he’s not in trouble,” Berndart said. “I...

Chapter 69

“Nice,” Nym said.

Bildar looked up from where he was cleaning dirt out of his ear. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Nothing. Just felt like the right thing to say in the moment.”

“Ugh, why do they always use wet, sloppy mud,” Bildar complained. “Well this isn’t coming out easily.”

He cast a quick spell and all of the dirt sloughed off him, but left the water behind. When the earth mage didn’t make a move to dry himself back out, Nym cast a small hydroki...

Chapter 68

Nym approached the table Ophelia claimed cautiously. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever told them where he was staying, and the whole crew liked to drink after they finished a project, so he wasn’t sure how sober she would be. This conversation probably wasn’t going to be fun.

“Ermy,” Ophelia called out, having noticed him noticing her. “Come, sit, talk to me.”

Nym slid into the seat opposite the earth mage. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Wrong? No, wh...

Chapter 67

The twins took the lead on the conversation, as they were the youngest and had most recently obtained their licenses. That was still six years ago, but Bildar had been a licensed mage for two decades and Ophelia for almost as long. Both of them readily admitted that they barely remembered their own exams and had no idea if they could even pass a current day one.

“So there’s the written exam,” Monick said. “And it’s not all magic stuff. There’s a lot of stuff about knowing th...

Chapter 66

Apparently, in Thrakus they called the local guard constables. Nym had no clue why. Everywhere else he’d been, the guard was just the guard. Also, apparently in Thrakus the constables were quite annoyed with the group for beating up a bunch of men, even if those men had been the ones to start it.

Even so drunk they could barely stand, it was no contest. The ground just opened up around the thugs, swallowing them whole and then closing again. Six of them were buried up to their necks i...

Chapter 65

The Quarterhouse was probably the largest restaurant Nym had ever seen. It wasn’t as fancy as the inside of the Felstal manor, but it was plenty expensive. In fact, it was too expensive. Nym could afford a meal there, but he would never waste his money on something so frivolous. He really only came to see if he could actually learn more about elemental earth magic, and also because the bearded mage had promised him a free steak.

Nym didn’t know what steak tasted like, but he figured...

Chapter 64

Thrakus was not what Nym expected in a city. He’d pictured something like Abilanth, just scaled down to a smaller population and a lot flatter since it wasn’t built on the side of a mountain. Instead, it sprawled miles in every direction. It was a trading city with agriculture to the south and lumber to the north. Three different major roads ran directly to it, one coming in from the west coast, though far north of Palmara, one from the east to the kingdom’s border, and one from the sou...

Chapter 63

Nym told the matriarch all about his fight with the hive queen, and when he got to the part where it had attacked him through his arcana, he asked, “Do you think it could use third layer arcana?

[I don’t know what that is. It is a very powerful monster though. Was a very powerful monster.]

“Right.” Nym blew out a sigh. That was the trouble with the wolves. They were intelligent, but they just didn’t have some words and concepts that he took for granted. “Well,...

Chapter 62

Arcana dribbled along behind him as he trudged forward, leaving a trail from the larvae clutch to his current position. Nym tracked through the hive queen’s body blind, taking turns seemingly at random as he tried to narrow down the source of the arcana. It got trickier where the larger arteries intersected each other, especially if there were smaller tunnels looping around and connecting them, but he was making progress.

He bounced off a wall of ice and tumbled backwards. “Ow!” h...

Chapter 61

Nym was tossed around in the snow. He layered a kinetic barrier over a thermal barrier and tried to escape the maelstrom, but there was nowhere to go. If he got caught between those icy teeth, he’d be ground into nothing. His only hope was to go deeper, past the teeth. He couldn’t fly now, but he could use the snow burrowing spell to push himself through the snow he was stuck in.

His path was nothing even remotely close a straight line, and he wasn’t entirely sure which direction ...

Chapter 60

It took a week total, from the time Nym had first woken up and caught Cold Paw raiding his pack for food to where he currently stood, at the top of the now shattered pit, looking down at what he now recognized as an enormous version of the spell the matriarch had taught him to generate a blizzard. It was so huge that it took a conscious effort to distinguish it as individual strands of arcana and not just a massive aura. He understood how the spell worked now, and despite the size, he was sur...

Chapter 59

There were enough unexplained anomalies in Nym’s life that he couldn’t honestly rule it the idea that he might not be human. If that was true, he was even more confused about where he came from than before. He doubted the Creator who’d made the magic ice wolves had much to do with him though. If the matriarch hadn’t insisted that she’d known him personally, Nym would have dismissed the whole thing as some pagan creation myth.

So maybe it wasn’t the Creator who’d made him, ...

Chapter 58

Nym didn’t remember much of the trip back. There was flying, and Cold Paw getting them back under the snow, and after that, he mostly just followed the wolf in a daze until they were back to the pack’s cavern. He vaguely recalled throwing heated arcana all over a section of the floor and collapsing on it before he passed out.

When he woke up, everything ached. He definitely had arcana poisoning, which he supposed he couldn’t complain about, all things considered. It was relatively...

Chapter 57

The plan was simple. Nym was going to hit it with an arcana injection. For something that size, and the amount of arcana it was putting out constantly, it would have to be a massive attack, but he had time to build it up. Casting it with a ritual would be best, but he lacked the equipment or practice. So, instead, he was going to do a sustained and channeled arcana injection and hopefully poison whatever that crystalline lump was.

Nym took his time setting it up. He’d never actually u...

Chapter 56

Nym needed to take a break, but he was afraid of a repeat of the worm monster incident. Cold Paw seemed to be getting more anxious as they traveled too, coming back to tug at his sleeve every time Nym stopped for any reason. Reluctantly, but aware of the danger, he forced himself to keep moving. The strain of keeping up the thermal barrier and night vision was wearing him out, so much so that he was long past even considering casting a flight spell as well.

He rounded a bend in the tunn...

Chapter 55

As it turned out, Cold Paw had more going for him than just telepathy. In hindsight, it was obvious, but watching him plow through hardpacked snow faster than Nym could crawl after him would have been enough of a tip off even if he couldn’t see arcana gathering around Cold Paw. Nym just wished his magic extended to the snow he was pushing out of the way. That all flew backwards, and Nym quickly learned to give the animal a spacious twenty feet lead if he wanted to avoid being constantly pel...

Chapter 54

The road leading away from Abilanth was treacherous, deliberately so. In his studies of geography, Nym had learned that he’d been living in a capital city, one that they’d built on the side of a mountain to protect themselves from the neighboring country. He didn’t feel the politics or history of it was all that interesting, but the short version was that he was living inside a country called Delvros and they were not on friendly terms with Nordram to the east.

In the event that h...

Chapter 53

Jorak was once again manning the clinic, and Nym was silently thankful both that the man always worked the same shift and that every time he’d needed healing, it had been at night. The healer gave him a sour grimace when he came in. “You’re back,” he said.

Nym was wearing an oversized shirt and pants combo he’d bought off the outer-ring healer, both meant for adults. He was practically swimming in them, but his old clothes hadn’t held together after the lightning strike, plu...

Chapter 52

Nym didn’t want to say the last week was a total waste. He’d learned a lot about magic fundamentals and a few new spells. More importantly, he’d recovered a second memory that had showed him the importance of structuring his magic not only in the correct order, but also with the correct timing and in such a way that it would be altered. Learning how to essentially pin part of the spell in place to weave other elements around it would no doubt be invaluable in the future.

Being gif...