Return of the Runebound Professor

“Should we kill her?” Lee asked, watching Evergreen warily. “We aren’t going to get another chance to do it if she wakes up. I can get rid of the evidence.”

“If Evergreen dies, none of us are going to leave Arbitage alive,” Moxie said. “It wasn’t hidden that we left with her, and playing Noah’s low rank card isn’t going to work anymore when people realize he’s already at Rank 3 after being a Rank 1 just a few months ago. Even if we somehow pulled the wool over the Enforcers’ eyes, the Torrin family would kill all of us. There’s no question.”

“What do we do, then?” Lee frowned and looked away from Evergreen. “She saw way too much. We can’t let that much information slip. I’d suggest trying to force her into an oath, but if Evergreen wakes up, I’m pretty sure she can kill all of us.”

“I’m not so sure,” Noah said. Something about Evergreen was off. For a Rank 6 mage, she was surprisingly not great at picking things up. There should have been no way that Evergreen missed her scroll in his bag in the first place.

Janice had picked it up easily, and she hadn’t even been searching for it. There was no doubt that Evergreen was stronger than Janice, so her failure to notice something that obvious grew odder the longer Noah thought about it.

If it had been just that, he might have been willing to pass it off as Evergreen not paying attention. But then she’d gotten taken out in the blink of an eye by a demon that was a rank below her.

I know demons are strong, but is the strength disparity really that high? Evergreen didn’t even get a chance to fight back. I would have thought the fight would be much closer than that. Something is off here.

“Moxie, have you seen Evergreen fight anyone before?”

Moxie blinked, then shook her head. “No. Why?”

“Didn’t she go down way too easy for a Rank 6? The demon is supposed to be a Rank 5 or the like. How could that be strong enough to completely defeat Evergreen?”

Moxie opened her mouth, then paused for a few moments before letting it close, a confused expression passing over her features. She looked back to Evergreen, brow furrowed. “You’re right. That is odd. The demon was really fast, but at Rank 6, you should have enough magical energy in your body to protect you from a blow like that – not to mention your domain.”

“Do you think it’s an imposter?” Lee asked. “If it is, we should eat her.”

“I think you’re just hungry,” Noah said.

“Possibly.”

“It’s not an imposter,” Moxie said with a firm shake of her head. “Not one that’s working against the Torrins, at least. Evergreen knew too much – and considering how perceptive Garrick seemed to be, I highly doubt that a fake Evergreen would have slipped past his nose.”

“Not unless the Evergreen that showed up here was never meant to be the real one in the first place,” Noah said softly. “Family heads are pretty busy, aren’t they? I was honestly surprised that Evergreen was coming herself. I can’t see Father ever doing that, and Evergreen doesn’t seem like some paragon of love.”

“She isn’t,” Moxie agreed. She walked up to Evergreen and peered down at the old woman’s unconscious form, still not risking touching her. “But she’s very capable. More than capable enough to avoid a situation like this. I think you might be right. This may not be the real Evergreen, but if it isn’t, Evergreen still sent them.”

“Then who is it, and can I eat them?” Lee asked.

“Possibly,” Noah replied. He joined Moxie beside Evergreen. “Did you notice that she seemed really focused on her staff? Do you think–”

“Yeah.” Moxie pulled her hand inside her sleeve and picked the staff up, using the material of her uniform to avoid accidentally touching the staff’s surface. It was covered with thin, almost invisible, lines of Imbuements.

Unfortunately, they were done in the same manner that most Imbuements seemed to be – namely, the Runes were completely unreadable and hidden within the pattern. The method was great for keeping people from yanking the power out of Imbuements when they weren’t supposed to, but certainly wasn’t conducive in deciphering what an item did.

“I’d love to bring the staff to an Imbuer and try to get their thoughts on what this is, but I doubt we’ll be able to leave the room with it.” Moxie sighed and shook her head. She walked to the other end of the room and set the staff down on the far end before rejoining the others.

Noah glanced at the images of their students on the cube. The kids were well into erecting a shelter. It didn’t look like they were having nearly as many problems as he was.

And to think I was worried about them. I should have been more worried about myself.

Moxie’s brow was creased in thought. Noah remained silent to avoid breaking her concentration. It looked like Moxie was thinking something through, and he didn’t want to mistakenly interrupt that.

Lee, as usual, had no such qualms.

“What do you think?” Lee asked.

It took Moxie a few more seconds before she responded. “It might be some sort of magical construct. I can’t even imagine how complex that would be, though. Maybe it’s just somebody who changed their appearance or something?”

“We’ve certainly run into more than a few people like that,” Noah said.

Lee approached Evergreen and tugged on her hair slightly. Then she prodded Evergreen in the head. Lee scrunched her nose and shrugged. “Not a Skinwalker or a demon. We physically change our form, but it doesn’t hold well if we’re unconscious. Doesn’t feel like an illusion either. It could be a look alike?”

Noah chuckled.

Imagine if that was actually the case. We’re all trying to figure out fancy magical ways that someone could take Evergreen’s place, but it’s really just some random old woman that’s really good at acting and carries around a magical stick.

“She did use some fairly powerful magic before the demon showed up, though. There’s Probably only one way to find out for sure,” Moxie said with a heavy sigh. “At this point, I think we might be in so deep that there’s no coming out safely on the other side unless we take some drastic measures.”

“Co-incidentally, drastic measures seem to be the ones I’m best at,” Noah said. He flexed his fingers, then sent Moxie a pointed look. “Do you want to be here for this? There’s always a chance you can pretend you had no idea what happened and could escape alive.”

“Unless this goes perfectly, I’m dead,” Moxie said flatly. “It doesn’t matter if I’m in the room or not. Let’s just get on with it. If we’re wrong, Evergreen is probably going to kill us all the instant she wakes up.”

“Maybe running isn’t such a bad idea,” Lee muttered. “We could get out of Arbitage pretty quickly.”

“We’d never escape,” Moxie said with a shake of her head. “The full force of the Torrin family searching for us would be more than enough – forget the Enforcers that would also be hot on our tails. We’d be dead before nightfall.”

“Then let’s just hope we were right,” Noah said. He cupped his hands, using Natural Disaster to call moisture into his palms. It still took a little more effort than it had when he’d been using his Rank 2 Runes, but it didn’t take him too long to form a pool of cold water in them. “Play along. I have a good idea as to how we can play this. Assuming that we’re right and this isn’t actually Evergreen, as long as we come at it from the angle of defending the Torrin family rather than ourselves, we’ve got some pretty good plausible deniability.”

Noah let it splash down onto Evergreen’s face. Her eyes snapped open and she let out a startled gasp, jerking upright in her chair. Evergreen’s eyes shot around the room. At first, Noah thought she was searching for the demon. Instead, Evergreen’s eyes landed on the staff at the far end of the room and she lurched out of her chair.

Grabbing the old woman by the shoulder, Noah pushed her back down. He felt a little bad in doing what was essentially bullying an elderly person, but nothing he’d ever heard about Evergreen gave him any sympathy for the woman.

“I don’t think so,” Noah said. “Who are you?”

“What? Are you a moron? I’m Evergreen. Get your filthy hands off me, Linwick.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid I have reason to suspect that you are pretending to be Magus Evergreen for some nefarious purpose. As such, it is my duty as a professor of Arbitage to ensure that you are who you claim to be.”

“What proof do you need beyond who I came with and my strength?” Evergreen snapped, glaring at him with her silver-grey eyes. “You have exactly one second to remove your hand from my shoulder before I sprout vines from every single pore in your body.”

“Such a thing would certainly prove you are who you say you are,” Noah said, a cold smile passing over his features. “That would be within your bounds, I think. Go ahead, Magus Evergreen. Prove that you are who you say you are.”

Evergreen’s eyes burned into Noah’s. Nothing happened. His smile grew wider.

“Unfortunate. Moxie, I don’t think this is Magus Evergreen. Would you restrain her for me?”

Vines curled out from Moxie’s clothes, binding tightly around Evergreen and pulling her down into her chair. Her eyes smoldered with fury as she glared at them. “Idiots. You’re making a mistake. I am Evergreen.”

“That’s clearly a lie,” Noah pointed out. He shook his head and nodded to the staff lying on the ground. “You don’t have any magic without that staff, do you? Evergreen is a Rank 6 mage, but you’re weaker than a Rank 1. I think you should shift your moves here a little – instead of worrying about trying to trick us into thinking you’re Evergreen, you should be figuring out how to make us keep you alive. Impersonating a powerful mage is grounds for death, isn’t it?”

Evergreen pressed her lips together so tightly that they turned white. Then she let out a slow hiss. “Magus Moxie, remove the Linwick from this room. This information is confidential.”

“No.” Moxie shook her head. “I don’t have any way to know for sure that you’re actually who you claim to be, and I need to ensure that any information you may have stolen from the Torrin family doesn’t get out. That means not taking any risks. As such, unless you have a way to prove that you are Evergreen or work directly for her, I will have to assume that you are a threat.”

Evergreen’s eyes shot back to the staff. “Give me my staff. I can prove–”

“Not happening,” Noah interrupted. “Your staff is clearly the source of the magic you were using. We aren’t stupid. Who are you, and what are your goals?”

“I will tell you nothing,” Evergreen snarled. She jerked against her bonds, failing to move even an inch, then turned her glare toward Moxie. “You will bleed for this, Moxie. Throwing your lot in with a demon. Pathetic. Garrick will come for me and kill all of you.”

Noah and Moxie exchanged a glance, both resisting the urge to look at Lee. Then they burst into laughter.

Yeah. There’s no way this is Evergreen. And that means I don’t have to tiptoe around at all.

“I think you misunderstand your situation severely,” Noah said, rubbing his chin. He took Evergreen’s face in his hands, forcing her to look into his eyes. “This exam lasts for a week, and we’re in a lovely room where nobody is going to disturb us. That means we’ve got seven days to figure out exactly who you are and what your goals are.”

“Insolent fool. You will get nothing. I will not spill the Torrin family secrets to a demon.”

“Still playing that angle, huh?” Noah shook his head. “No matter. What was it you said? Ah, right – I have it on good word that the exam this year will be very entertaining. Settle in, Magus Evergreen. I’ll do my best to make sure everything lives up to those words.”

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