Return of the Runebound Professor

“You’re kidding me,” Moxie said, shaking her head in disbelief once Noah finished the retelling of his first meeting with Silvertide. “You’ve got a talent for this, you know.”

“Hey, it was hardly my fault. It’s because I got so connected to the monkeys that the Hellreaver managed to worm its way into my mind after I died to it. How was I supposed to know something like that would happen?”

Moxie just rolled her eyes. It had been a few minutes since they’d gotten back to her room, and she’d been shuffling through papers on her desk throughout the entirety of Noah’s story. She had a remarkable ability to do two things at the same time that completely baffled Noah.

Whenever I try to split my focus between two things, I end up ruining both.

That problem seemed to be his alone. Moxie finished arranging a pile of papers and books, then leafed through a few of them.

“What do you have over there?” Noah asked. “Plans for where we’ll go over the summer?”

“Ideas for it. I’ve specifically ruled out any locations with Great Monsters, by the way.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Noah admitted. “Do you actually have a plan beyond finding a bunch of strong monsters and killing them?”

Moxie shot him a withering stare. “That’s what I’m working on. As you’ve already said, we have more than just one goal. Here, you can help. Help me figure out exactly what we need to accomplish. We’ve only got two and a half months to work with.”

Vines wound out from Moxie’s sleeves, forming into a green chair at her side. Noah shrugged and sat down, grabbing a quill and a blank sheet of paper from her desk. He raised the quill, then paused.

“Is there a reason that the break is two and a half months? That’s awful coincidental.”

“Two months are spent in training, usually at home with your family. Preparations for taking over the business, learning politics, whatever it is that they’re focusing on. The last half month is to destress and prepare yourself for the next year.”

“Huh. Interesting,” Noah said.

Guess it’s just a coincidence that their summer breaks are basically the same length as the ones on Earth. I used to always feel like two or three months were nowhere near long enough.

Noah tapped the quill with his pointer finger as he studied the paper, trying to pull his thoughts back together. So many things had been piling up that it took him longer than he cared to admit to actually remember all of them. He put the tip of the quill to the paper and started to write.

Hellreaver

Todd’s Injury – Silvertide is hopefully taking care of this one, but we should still keep our eyes out.

Isabel’s Runes & the Herron Family.

Isabel & Todd’s vendetta against the nobles, including Dayton – who is still out there somewhere, as far as I’m aware. He’s probably waiting for me to pop up at some point.

Contessa – mostly handled and no longer an opponent, but need to ensure she doesn’t swap sides or try betraying us.

Karina – Not sure what to do here. Need to somehow get Father to break off the engagement or I will have to handle her in some other manner.

Fix Lee’s Runes

Improve my own Runes to make sure Natural Disaster is completely perfect. Adding something snow-based should help balance it a little better.

Torrin family – just about the whole family is a problem, really.

Formations – learn from Revin’s book.

Fruit basket for Renewal – need to avoid getting squished when she next finds me. Ideally, she never does.

Fragment of Renewal & Sunder – still don’t know exactly how the Fragment works. It needs testing.

Father – Make sure the old bastard isn’t planning anything else.

Tim – It’s been a while, but I promised myself that I’d find a way to help him. His Runes are bad, and I should figure out how to repair them without him figuring out it was me that did it.

Azel – Really need to get the damn demon out of my head. Maybe I can chug demon poison until–

“Damned Plains,” Moxie said, startling Noah. He accidentally jerked his quill, leaving a line across the last sentence. He’d gotten so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed Moxie standing up and moving to peer over his shoulder.

“What?” Noah asked.

“You’ve got nearly two pages there,” Moxie said. “And you weren’t showing any signs of slowing down. Maybe you should focus a bit more on the problems that are actually solvable in the near future.”

Noah cleared his throat. “Right. Got carried away. It’s been a while since I just sat down and tried to compartmentalize everything. Normally, I just keep swinging until something works out.”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Moxie leaned in closer, moving her chin over his shoulder until their cheeks were nearly touching. A strand of long hair brushed against the back of Noah’s neck, but Moxie didn’t seem to notice. She examined Noah’s writing closely. “What language is this, Noah?”

“Ah, English. Not one you’d know. It’s a cypher, I guess.”

“What good is that going to do me?” Moxie asked, rolling her eyes. “I can’t read your mind, Noah.”

Noah coughed into a closed fist. “Right. I’m not really used to sharing my writing with other people. I think the main things we can work on this summer are improving our runes, fixing Lee’s Runes, and attending one of those auctions that Karina mentioned. We should be able to earn a lot of money from killing a bunch of monsters, and then we can use that to get some gear. Shields, real healing potions, some Imbued items. Oh! That’s another thing I need to do.”

Noah jotted another line down at the bottom of his paper.

Fix the Body Imbuements I lost when I reached Rank 3. I’d love to have Tremorsense back.

Moxie sent Noah a pointed look and cleared her throat. His cheeks reddened and he lowered the quill. That seemed to remind Moxie of their proximity and she suddenly pulled back, brushing her hair back over her shoulder. “That’s about what I was thinking we should do as well. It might be wise for us to be adventurers for the course of the break.”

“Like Soldiers?”

“Soldiers are beholden to rules and orders,” Moxie reminded Noah. “Adventurers aren’t. They’re just mages for hire. Good way to get access to some money, so long as you don’t mind getting your hands dirty killing monsters.”

“As a matter of fact, I’m particularly good at that.”

“So I’ve gathered.” Moxie rolled her eyes. “There are a few different locations that I think could work, but it’ll take me a bit to figure them out.”

“Want help?”

Moxie shook her head. “I just wanted to make sure our goals were in the same vein. We just want a location where Lee can find some Runes that fit her and where we can both push ourselves and grow stronger. You don’t have to do any more.”

The paper in Noah’s hands would have sagged in shame had it been alive. Noah just shrugged, folding it up and sliding it into a pocket. He got the feeling that he’d remember a few more things to add to it in the near future.

“If you’re sure,” Noah said. He glanced around the room, then frowned. “Should I have brought some sheets from my room? I don’t have anywhere to sleep.”

“Just use the bed. I can make a hammock from vines pretty easily.”

Noah wasn’t going to argue with that. Moxie’s bed was comfortable – something about the vines she was using made it much softer than his own bed, which made absolutely no sense to him.

Vines shouldn’t be softer than cotton.

Hopping onto Moxie’s bed, Noah let out a satisfied sigh. He slipped out of his jacket and hung it at the foot of the bed as he slid beneath the covers. Noah set his gourd and travel bag against the back wall, then looked back to Moxie. “You’re sure you don’t need–”

“Go to sleep. This won’t take me long, and it’ll be faster if I can just read quietly.” A vine slithered out from the bottom of Moxie’s pants, traversing the room and rising up to the window, where it pulled the shutters closed. It smacked Noah lightly on the forehead as she retracted it, but she wasn’t looking in his direction so he had no way to know if it had been intentional or not.

Some sleep sounds great, though. I won’t make Moxie argue with me about it.

Noah closed his eyes, letting himself sink into the bed. He drew in a deep breath, preparing to push his thoughts away and let rest take him. A weight settled in on his chest. At first, it just felt like it was slightly harder to breathe.

But, after a second, it became very apparent that the weight wasn’t just in his head. Noah’s eyes snapped open. A large, catlike creature had curled up on top of him. It was about the size of a large toddler, with long fluffy hair. The cute expression on its features was ruined by the smooth, reddish spines jutting out from its gray fur. Glimmering purple runes flickered in and out of existence along its body, pulsating with every thump of Noah’s heart.

What the hell is this?

Noah opened his mouth – and the cat vanished. The weight disappeared from his chest as if nothing had been there. He shot a glance at Moxie, but she was hunched over the desk, not looking in his direction. She hadn’t seen anything.

An involuntary twitch took a hold of Noah’s right eye. He pushed himself upright and grabbed the note he’d written, stalking over to the desk beside Moxie. She glanced at him in surprise as he snagged a quill for himself and wrote one more line on the paper.

Figure out what the hell the creepy cat thing was.

Noah folded the paper back up and stalked back to bed, not saying a word. If he addressed anything verbally, that just made it real. The cat – and whatever extra problem the stupid thing wanted to add to his ever-growing list – could wait until tomorrow.

“Goodnight,” Noah said, lying back in Moxie’s bed.

“Goodnight,” Moxie replied, a note of amusement in her voice. “Is everything okay?”

“Yep. Just remembered another thing I have to deal with.”

Noah closed his eyes once more, then paused for a second before opening them again. There was no cat. He shook his head, grumbling under his breath, and let himself start to relax.

Neither he nor Moxie noticed the glimmering red eyes watching him from the darkness at the base of the bed, just beside his gourd, as he drifted off to sleep.

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