Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah and Moxie were still wondering where Lee had gone off to when she climbed up through the window.

“I’m back!” Lee dropped into the room and pulled the window shut behind her. She looked form Noah to Moxie, and then down to the violin resting in the wooden box on the bed. “What’s that?”

“Welcome back,” Noah said. “This is a violin. It is not edible.”

Lee scrunched her nose in disappointment. “Oh. Well, I want to eat. The jerky in this city isn’t as good as the one that you guys carry around.”

Noah decided not to ask Lee where she’d gotten jerky from. Chances were, he was better off not knowing.

“As a matter of fact, we were thinking it was about time for breakfast,” Noah said, casting his gaze out the window to the rising sun. “I’m sure we can go find something nice.”

“Not too nice, though,” Moxie added, reddening. “We aren’t exactly as rich as we were yesterday. We’ve still got a few hundred gold to work with, but it might be wiser to save it for when we really need it – at least until we get our hands on a job that pays better.”

“Food is food. We can eat the fancy stuff later,” Lee said with a shrug.

The three set off, leaving the inn and heading out into the streets of Dawnforge.

“How have you been doing on your Runes?” Noah asked Lee as they walked. “I know we can’t quite go about fixing everything yet, but have you figured out the path you’re going to want to take?”

“Yeah. I found a few Runes that’ll probably work, but I think I’m still missing some,” Lee said. “I bet we can get those somewhere in the area, though.”

“Dawnforge has an extensive market. I’m sure we can buy or trade for any Runes we really need as long as we have enough gold and they aren’t really rare,” Moxie said. “I can probably use my noble standing to get us access to them.”

“Getting some new Runes would be pretty solid,” Noah mused. “Both for Lee and for the rest of us. And I guess you just need energy, Moxie.”

Moxie nodded. “The whole point of coming to Dawnforge was to get access to some adventurer jobs, so it would be a shame to not actually go through with that. We can look into it later today.”

They came to a stop just a short way down the street, at a small breakfast joint that was already starting to fill tables. Warm, inviting scents wafted from the kitchen, bearing notes of fresh bread, greasy bacon, and maple syrup. None of them even said a word – they all just exchanged a silent glance and then turned, heading straight into the restaurant.

The meal came and went quickly, and Noah didn’t regret the few coins they spent on it in the slightest. Moxie’s suggestion to save money had quickly gone out the window once they got a taste of the food, but not a single one of them was complaining as they headed back to the inn.

“Can we do that again?” Lee asked, running her tongue along her lips as she rubbed her stomach. “I don’t know what muffins are, but I want to hunt more of them.”

“You don’t hunt muffins. You bake them,” Moxie said.

Lee’s brow furrowed. “Bake?”

“Oh boy,” Noah muttered, hiding a laugh. “This is going to turn out well.”

“What’s baking?” Lee asked. They reached their inn and stepped inside, passing the common room and heading for the stairs at the back.

“It’s a way of mixing a bunch of ingredients into something that you put in an oven,” Moxie said. “It’s pretty difficult to bake anything on the road because you need an oven to do it, but you can make a lot of tasty food by baking.”

Lee let out a thoughtful hum. That hum likely spelled doom for anyone with an oven in the nearby vicinity, but Noah wasn’t about to pour water on Lee’s enthusiasm. He hadn’t forgotten what life had been like for her in the Damned Plains, and he suspected she’d never had the chance to pick up hobbies other than fighting.

If she burns down a few buildings in the process, so what? We’ll just have to make sure that nobody gets stuck in them. Buildings are replaceable, but happy memories last forever.

“I can try showing you some of what I know, but I’ll be upfront and say that I’m not a particularly talented baker,” Moxie warned.

Oh, that’s a smart move. If someone is with Lee, the chances the building burns down are a lot lower. I’d volunteer to join as well, but I really want to try out my new violin.

“That sounds fun,” Lee said.

They reached their room and stopped by the door.

“You know, we walked back here, but we should probably check out the city,” Moxie said.

“To get baking stuff?” Lee asked. “I want to hunt muffins.”

“Maybe that can be one of the things we do,” Moxie offered diplomatically. “We’d have to find someone with an oven that we could use if we were going to do that, but I’m sure we can figure something out. We also need some more money, so we should check out what adventurer jobs we can grab.”

“Do you need help for that?” Noah nodded to the door. “I really want to… you know.”

Moxie grinned. “I figured. Go ahead. Lee can come with me and we can try to find a job and figure out if there’s anywhere that will let us borrow their kitchen.”

“Thanks,” Noah said. “How long do you think it’ll be? I don’t imagine anything will go wrong, but…”

“Better safe than sorry,” Moxie agreed with a nod. “Three hours at the longest. I think we’ll probably be back well before then, though.”

Noah nodded. Moxie and Lee waved farewell and headed back down the stairs while Noah opened the door to their room, but paused midway through it. Moxie had given him such a surprise that he hadn’t actually had a chance to test out his new Body Imbuements.

He sent a tiny tendril of energy into the Imbuements in his eardrums. A stream of information assaulted Noah’s mind. If he hadn’t controlled the energy it so tightly, it probably would have completely overwhelmed him.

Instead, he managed to filter through all the data flooding into his mind, pushing the ripples passing through him into vague images. Blobs representing Moxie and Lee appeared on the stairwell, but they were badly warped by all the other noise entering the picture from the rest of the city.

He couldn’t even start to make out the people at the bottom of the tavern. They were all just one shifting, roaring blob. Unlike his previous tremorsense, the new Imbuements picked up all the vibrations traveling through the air.

The Imbuement she had on his feet weren’t of much use, as they were all standing on wood rather than earth.

Still, Noah was pleased with the results of what he found. There was still some work to do in getting his Imbuements fully back up and running, but they were starting to get closer to where he needed them to be again.

Grinning to himself, Noah deactivated his Imbuements and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. There would be time to do further work with the Imbuements later. For now, they could wait. He had something far more important to do.

He made a beeline to his bed, then lifted the violin from its box. He only spent a minute marveling at its beauty before he carefully lifted the bow from its special slot in the box. He braced the violin between his collarbone and his shoulder, letting his chin rest on the smooth wood.

Noah’s hand felt unsteady as he raised the bow. It fit perfectly in his hand, and it was without a doubt far superior to any instrument that he’d ever held before. Playing inadequate music on such a piece of art almost felt like it would disgrace him.

But, as soon as he rested the bow against the strings of the violin, he felt a sense of calm wash over him. It didn’t mute out his worries, nor did it make him forget them. It was a comforting embrace.

The violin didn’t care what he played on it. It didn’t care if the music was good, or if it was the most horrendous music to ever grace the world. All it wanted was to be played.

A tiny smile passed over Noah’s features. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting his eyes close as the tension drained from his shoulders. He adjusted his stance, calling on memories that were so old that he’d nearly forgotten them entirely, and started to play.

Even a fool could have said that the violin possessed the voice of an angel. Every individual note rang out perfectly, echoing through the room around Noah. He could feel the energy thrumming within the instrument, rejoicing with the opportunity to sing for the first time.

Noah didn’t play any song in particular. He simply played one note at a time, trying to ease back into a passion that he hadn’t truly touched in thousands of years. It was an instrument meant for a true master. But, If he were honest with himself, the music was horrible. No matter how good the violin was, it could only sing as well as he could play – and he was out of practice.

But, with each trip that his bow took across the violin’s strings, Noah’s smile grew. Memories flooded through him, and his stance adjusted subtly as more and more of his experience started to return.

The notes grew more harmonious, and even though the three new strings were completely foreign to him, he could feel that the violin was striving to help him. The strings shifted as the knobs turned on their own volition. The violin tuned itself as he played, changing to fit him perfectly.

Noah doubted the song would have impressed anyone else. Even though the music wasn’t as bad as it had been a short while ago, it wasn’t anywhere near anything that he could consider incredible.

But there wasn’t anyone else in the room. It was just Noah and his violin, and with every note that he played, the two understood each other just a little bit more.

The song he played was not a song that anyone but he would have appreciated. It was a promise, born of mutual understanding. Understanding that, while the music today was nothing but a seed that had been planted, it would eventually shoot up and grow into a mighty tree.

And, today, Noah was more than happy to enjoy the company of the seed as it started to sprout, poking out over the ground and spreading its metaphorical leaves. Even though Moxie wasn’t physically there with him, he could feel the personality and energy she’d poured into the violin enveloping him in its warm embrace.

Music was a journey, and as far as first steps went, he wouldn’t have traded this one for anything.

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