Return of the Runebound Professor

A sharp rap on Father’s door broke his concentration. His forehead creased in a frown as he looked up from the ancient scrolls on his desk, many of which outdated him by hundreds of years. Moving slowly but deliberately, Father rose from his desk and gestured, opening the door.

He walked out to stand before the desk and Janice entered the room. She paused as she spotted Father standing, missing a step and nearly tripping over herself.

“Father? Is something wrong?”

“No. I am just stretching my legs. Did that fool Dayton finally come asking about the Soulrend Poison?”

“That was this morning, actually,” Janice said, adjusting her glasses. “You said it was a low priority task, so I didn’t want to disturb your peace.”

“This is why I keep you around, Janice,” Father said. “You know when to not waste my time. Why are you here, then? I trust it is important.”

Janice gave him a jerky nod. “Yes, Father. Dayton has fled the city.”

Father wasn’t often taken aback. It was a difficult thing to catch him off guard, and it was harder still to take him by such surprise that he actually let it show. But, this time, Father’s guard flickered. He paused, blinking in surprise.

“What?”

“It was confirmed by the guards at the gate,” Janice said nervously. “I double checked his mansion myself. He has left the Linwick Estate, and he did not say where he was going. It was reported that Dayton was in a significant hurry as he departed.”

Father’s spine tingled. He reached up to the shelf, pulling down a bottle of wine – one of the few that he didn’t actually have poisoned, and studied the label.

The demon actually did it. How? I received a few reports of some minor explosions in his mansion, but nothing that should have actually scared Dayton. The man is a battle maniac. He’d only retreat if he knew he was completely outmatched in every single way or if the threat was so large that it was obviously not worth the fight, even to a fool like him.

“I see,” Father said, turning to Janice. “Do you have an important task scheduled for tonight?”

Janice shook her head. “Nothing that is pressing, Father. Most of my tasks involved Dayton. Unless you want me to follow him out of the city–”

“I have other spies for that. Sending you would be a waste of your talents,” Father said with a grunt. “You will join Brayden for dinner.”

“Brayden? What information do you want me to acquire from Brayden? I believe he would simply just tell you anything you might want to know. He fears you, but he respects your power.”

“Brayden will be eating with the demon and his ilk,” Father said. “You will find out more about what happened.”

Janice paled, but she nodded without waiting. “Understood.”

“You will use any means necessary.” Father turned toward Janice, his face deadly serious. “Any that do not incriminate us or draw his ire. We should remain cordial for the time being. This demon is not what I originally thought it to be. I need to determine more about its motives and abilities.”

“I will do ask you ask, Father,” Janice said, inclining her head. “But… is Brayden going to be able to make it? He’s currently in communication with the investigative team from Arbitage about the Hellreaver’s death.”

Father’s brow wrinkled. He extended a hand and one of his crystal goblets floated over to him. Father poured the wine into the glass and took a slow sip from it. “He should have been finished already. Why is he still speaking with them?”

“They still believe that the Hellreaver’s death was an attack on the school, and are searching for the culprit – or group of culprits. They have the corpse of one man, though it is burned beyond recognition.”

“The demon, no doubt. We already have a replacement Great Monster prepared. I’ve had it ready for months. Hasn’t Brayden told them yet?”

“He has, but they are equally concerned in figuring out who killed the Hellreaver.”

Father grunted. “I see. I could interfere in the situation, but I think it will be more interesting to see how the demon handles it. Thank you, Janice. Please inform Brayden that his attendance at this dinner is mandatory. If the investigators have any issues, then they may speak with me personally.”

Janice managed to turn a shade paler. She nodded, bowing her head as the door opened behind her. She scampered out of the room and the door rumbled shut behind her, leaving Father alone once more.

He set the wine bottle back on his shelf, finishing off the rest of the goblet before putting it away as well and returning to his desk.

Splayed out across it was the oldest and most accurate information on demons that Father could find – including the ways to best locate and kill them. The information was sparse and written by fools who had made up more than half of what they’d written, but when they were compared against each other, the truth came out.

Father’s lips pressed thin as he sat back down in his chair and leaned over his work. He would find out the demon’s weakness before it left the Linwick Estate. No matter how clever it was, everything had a weak point. Either Janice would find it by searching for the cracks in the demon’s persona, or he’d discover it in the papers. Eventually, he’d figure out what it was. He always did.

***

“Well?” Lee asked, peering over Noah’s shoulder at the scroll on his bed. “Is it any good?”

“I have no idea. It certainly looks impressive,” Noah said, staring at the long rows of Runes running down the length of the unfurled scroll. He let a finger brush across the first Rune – an Empowered Lightning Storm Rune. A spark of energy leapt into his finger and he yanked it back, swearing. “Little bastard has an attitude.”

“I think that’s a Rank 3 Rune,” Lee said, her eyes flashing with interest. “Wow. I can’t really tell without actually absorbing it, but it feels strong. It might be a perfect Rune.”

“Considering Dayton was filthy rich and it looked like lightning was his main focus from my interactions with him, that wouldn’t surprise me,” Noah said with a nod. His eyes traveled down the list. Technically, he’d promised to give it to Father, but he’d never said when.

“Don’t try to take any Rank 3 Runes,” Lee warned. “Your soul will pop like a grape.”

“That bad?”

“That bad. I’ve seen it happen to greedy demons.”

“Noted. Do you see anything you can use here?”

Lee shook her head. “I’ve already got all seven of my Runes for this level. I’m just working on filling them and then preparing myself to get past the Gap.”

Noah rubbed his chin. There were quite a few Runes in the scroll, ranging from Rank 2 through what he suspected to be 4, just based on how they tingled at his fingertips. It would take him a while to really go through and study all of them.

“Hm. What should I do with these, then? I promised Father I’d give him the book, but I have absolutely no plans of actually letting any of these Runes go. I want copies.”

Because, if I can get copies, then I can Sunder them into a bunch of partially filled or even fully filled lower Rank Runes. This is a treasure trove.

“I should have enough space in my Soul to absorb a small amount and re-Imbue them on something,” Lee offered. “I haven’t been trying to form my Runes from scratch, so all that extra space that comes from combining runes isn’t being used for lower tier Runes. I won’t be able to hold it long, though.”

“So I just need to get my hands on more Catchpaper,” Noah concluded. “A lot more. Expensive, too. Unless you could do it with something normal?”

Lee shook her head. “Catchpaper for sure. Imbuing powerful Runes is difficult, and I don’t think you want to risk them getting damaged or lost. Catchpaper makes it a lot easier.”

Noah nodded thoughtfully. His eyes drifted to the end of the scroll, where it looked like an extra section had been stitched on. It was a bright green rather than the dull beige of the rest of the scroll. Every single Rune on it glittered with faint magic that was palpable, even when Noah wasn’t touching them.

“What about these?”

“They look like they’ve got a lot more energy in them. A whole lot more.”

Noah studied the runes. His smile faded the closer he looked. Each of them had a tightly drawn signature beneath them.

Evergreen.

“I think I know why Dayton was so scared of Evergreen,” Noah muttered. “I think he somehow managed to steal a whole shitload of her Runes. He was probably expecting her to send someone after them at any moment.”

“He did break pretty quickly,” Lee agreed. “You think Evergreen misses those?”

“Considering how much energy there is in here?” Noah asked. “And forget that – considering how scared Dayton was? Yeah. She misses these. I wonder how the hell Dayton got them.”

Lee shrugged. “Sucks for him.”

“Sucks for us,” Noah muttered. “If someone figures out I’ve got these, then I’m in all the shit that Dayton was.”

“Oh.”

Lee was silent for a moment. “Have you considered just making sure nobody figures out you have ‘em?”

“Great advice. I’ll do that,” Noah said with a chuckle. He rolled the scroll back up and studied it for a moment. It was too large to fit into his bag, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to leave it around the house either.

Nothing to do about it now. Can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the thing has rotten ass morning breath. Guess I’ll just carry the scroll around with me for now. I’m not letting Father nick it from under my nose under the guise of our deal. He should have been more specific with when I had to give him the grimoire.

Lee shot Noah an odd look.

“What?” Noah asked. “Is there something on my face?”

“No. You were just grinning in a weird way.”

“Sorry. Just thinking,” Noah said, tucking the scroll under his arm. There were still a few hours before Brayden was supposed to meet them for dinner, and Noah didn’t particularly want to deal with Father quite yet either.

Also, I have no idea if Dayton has actually left yet. I’ll need to make sure he has before I go making any claims.

“I’ve been meaning to get around to this for a while, but the time never felt right,” Noah said, setting the scroll down on his bed. “Lee, do you know how to passively get more power in your Runes?”

“Yeah. Do you not?”

“I’ll give you one guess.”

“I feel like you’re more of a demon than I am,” Lee grumbled. She sat down on the bed, crossing her legs, and patted the space next to her. “Copy my movements.”

Noah sat as well.

“There are a few ways to get passive energy, but all the other stuff actually requires you to have things to work with. Monster parts or the like. This is the only one that just draws energy out of your surroundings.”

“Does that mean it would vary in usefulness based on what kind of energy is around you?”

Lee nodded and placed her hands palm facing up on her knees. “Exactly. You can always do it, but depending on the Runes you’ve got and where you are, it’ll vary in how useful it is. The method is pretty simple. You just have to picture the Rune you’re filling in your mind, then draw it with your hands while letting its energy run through you. It’ll call matching energy from the environment into it and fill at a very slow rate.”

“Huh. That is simple. That’s it?”

“Well, depending on how good you are at actually drawing your Rune, it’ll vary. And as I said, it’s slow. But for when you don’t have any other options, it doesn’t hurt. Just don’t do it for too long without taking a break,” Lee warned. “It’ll wear your body out pretty badly.”

“Noted. Thanks, Lee.”

Lee just shook her head and hopped back to her feet. “No problem. Did you always just kill monsters for power, then?”

The way she worded the question made it clear that she was talking about Noah’s life before he’d taken Vermil’s body.

“It’s pretty much always been monsters,” Noah said. It wasn’t technically wrong, but he was well aware he wasn’t answering the question that Lee was asking. “In recent memory, at least.”

Lee nodded her understanding at the last sentence. “I’m going to go make sure Todd and Isabel haven’t gotten into anything, then.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be here until dinner. Can you get me if Brayden shows up?”

“Sure.” Lee headed out the door, closing it behind her. Noah set his scroll on his lap, then closed his eyes and envisioned Pyroclastic Resonance. Once he had a firm image of it in his mind, he raised a finger and started to draw it in the air.

It took several repetitions before he felt anything at all. But, slowly, the air around him started to warm. It was almost imperceptible, but as the minutes ticked by, he could feel a tiny trickle of energy running into his body and into the Rune.

Noah wasn’t sure how long he sat there, drawing the Rune over and over again in the air before him. At some point, the warmth faded and inverted, turning into a faint chill. The chill intensified as the hours passed, growing sharp enough that he actually started to shiver.

I must be pulling the heat out of the air. I wonder if that’s literally heat energy, or if it’s just the lack of energy in general turning the area cold.

Before he could think much more on it, the door creaked open. Noah opened his eyes, blinking heavily to unstiffen his eyelids.

“Brayden’s here,” Lee said. “And the lady with the big book from last time showed up as well.”

“Janice? Interesting.” Noah rolled his neck and rose from the bed, tucking his scroll under his arm. “Let’s eat, then. Would be a shame to keep them waiting.”

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