Return of the Runebound Professor

As it turned out, Noah was completely wrong. It wasn’t Olive that had no idea what he was getting into – it was the rest of them. No sooner than they had agreed to his terms did he dart into the back of his shop.

Olive re-emerged a minute later, a huge pile of folded clothes stacked high in his arms. He set it down in front of Lee, whose eyes lit up with delight. There was everything from tight leather suits to beautiful, frilled ballgowns within it.

“Is this for me?” Lee asked.

“To model in,” Olive confirmed, rubbing his hands together. “Choose the one you like the most.”

“Do I get to keep it?”

Olive’s eyes narrowed. “No.”

Lee harrumphed, but didn’t argue any further. She dug through the pile, rifling through the clothes and tossing the ones she didn’t like over her shoulder. While she looked through them, Olive headed into the back once more and returned with another pile.

Noah and Moxie exchanged a glance.

“This might take a while,” Moxie muttered under her breath.

Moxie’s eyebrows rose. “You? Being patient?”

“Look, I’m working on it, okay? Besides, this won’t take too long. I’ll just study my book.” Noah pulled the book on Formations out and started to read through it, mostly to prove his point.

Moxie snickered, but said nothing. Her prediction did end up being quite accurate, as about an hour later, Lee had still yet to decide on an outfit. Olive had brought out four more stacks in the meantime, but he didn’t look even slightly annoyed at all the delay. He simply went back and got yet another pile of clothes.

“How many clothes do you think he’s got back there?” Noah whispered. He’d been watching Lee with his peripheral vision for the latter half of the hour.

“Don’t want to know,” Moxie replied. “I feel like Imbuing might be his side hobby, not his real passion.”

Fortunately for all of them, Lee finally ended up spotting something she liked after another hour of searching. It was a plain pink dress that went down to the knees, with slight frills running around its cuffs and collar.

“This is a nightgown,” Olive said.

“It’s nice. I like the color.”

Olive shrugged. “Then we will go with it.”

He snapped his fingers and the clothes strewn across the floors all jerked, flying past him in a wave and shooting through the door into the back of the shop. He noted the surprised looks that everyone gave him and chuckled.

“All my work is Imbued. That includes the clothes.”

“You make the clothes?” Noah asked.

“I make almost everything in this store.” Olive clapped his hands together. “Now, the easy part is out of the way. What was your name again, lass?”

“Lee.”

“Lee. Come. Where would you like to pose? You mentioned wanting to hit something. I have some straw dummies in the back. Would those work, or do we need something more fleshy? It could bring out more evocative emotions if you are fighting something that fights back.”

Is he planning a murder?

“Let’s start with those and work our way up if they aren’t fun enough,” Lee suggested, pulling the pink dress over her own shirt and peering down at herself.

Olive gave her a firm nod and the two of them strode into the back of the shop as one, almost like they were telepathically connected. Or, more likely, on the exact same wavelength of mildly insane.

The door closed behind them, leaving Noah and Moxie sitting alone in the storefront.

“Well,” Moxie said. “That was something.”

“It’s nice that they get along, though.”

“Someone’s probably going to get killed.”

“Probably,” Noah agreed. “I bet Lee’s never had a painting made of her, though.”

“Why does it sound like you’re implying that murdering someone just so Lee can have a nice portrait is an entirely acceptable thing?”

Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, as long as they’re evil, it’s fine, right?”

Moxie looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, then shook her head. “At least we’ve progressed to only going after evil people. A while ago, I’m pretty sure you would have just shrugged.”

***

“What in the Damned Plains is she doing?” Ezwad demanded, drumming his fingers on the hilt of his sword.

“Screwing around in Olive’s store,” Xael replied, his scarred face twisted into a mask of irritation.

Tracking the woman down hadn’t been difficult. Ezwad and Xael had gotten their orders late last night, and by the time the sun had risen over Dawnforge, they’d located their target. She didn’t make it very difficult for them.

Unfortunately, she was traveling with two other mages. It was difficult to tell exactly how strong they were, but considering the company, it was likely that they were far from pushovers. And so, instead of finishing the job and heading back for a nice payday, the two assassins were stuck sitting in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

“It’s just an Imbuer,” Ezwad said, spinning a dagger idly in one of his hands. It slipped from his fingers and flew into the darkness as he lost his grip on it, but somehow rematerialized in his palm before it could land. “How long could it possibly take?”

***

Four more hours. That was how long it took Lee and Olive to finish – well, whatever it was they were doing. Noah wasn’t sure if it was just a portrait anymore. Ever since the two of them had headed into the back, it sounded like the events of a horror movie had started up. He did try to spend the extra time working on his Body Imbuements, reading his book of Formations, and contemplating the future of his Runes, but it wasn’t easy.

Loud crashes, accompanied by screeching and muted explosions constantly shook the shop. Noah half expected guards to break down the door and come sprinting inside, but no such thing happened. Instead, he and Moxie sat on a small bench, listening in a mixture of bewilderment and growing interest.

Finally, Lee emerged from the back. She was back in her normal clothes, and her new axe was slung over her shoulder. She carried a small canvas in her other hand. It was barely any larger than her palm.

“What happened in there?” Noah asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

“I posed! Olive painted me a smaller version so I could have it as well,” Lee said with a huge grin. She held the painting out so Noah could see it.

Odd methods or not, it was impossible to say that Olive wasn’t talented. The painting was incredible, to the point where Noah almost thought it was a photograph. It showed Lee, clad in her pink dress, with her axe embedded in a pumpkin. Orange flesh flew through the air all around her, and Lee sported a huge, joyful smile.

“Wow,” Moxie said. “That’s… actually really nice.”

“What was the screaming?” Noah asked.

“The pumpkin.”

What kind of pumpkin screams?

“Pumpkins don’t normally scream,” Moxie said slowly.

“Olive was making screaming noises so it felt more realistic. He was roleplaying as the pumpkin.”

That… somehow doesn’t clear anything up in the slightest. Why would a pumpkin scream? You know what? I don’t want to know.

“Well, Moxie is right. The painting is lovely,” Noah said. “We should probably pay Olive and get moving, though. No point wasting good sunlight.”

“Already have all the money counted out,” Moxie said, holding out a pouch. Olive’s head poked out of the back and he stuck his hand out, gesturing for Moxie to toss it. She did, and Olive snagged it out of the air.

“Brilliant! Come again any time,” Olive said. “Lee should consider a career in modeling. I am confident that she would be able to make it up there with some of the greats. I’ve never had such a passionate model. Normally, they end up trying to run away by the two-hour mark.”

That might be because you’re roleplaying a screaming pumpkin.

“Okay! Thanks!” Lee said, waving to Olive. She turned back to Noah and Moxie. “We should go now, right? Don’t want to waste too much time sitting around.”

Might be a bit late for that. Oh well. Lee’s happy. A few hours isn’t that big of a deal.

After a short round of farewells, they headed out of the store. Noah hung his new flying sword from his belt, adjusting it as they made their way back into the city. It was far busier now than it had been in the morning. The streets bustled with passersby, but Moxie seemed to know where she was heading. She cut through the crowd like a knife. Noah and Lee had to increase their pace to keep up with her.

Moxie led them through winding streets that seemed to weave back and forth on themselves. Noah was well and truly lost after just a few minutes, but somehow Moxie brought them up to one of Dawnforge’s gates without ever stopping to catch her bearings.

“Why didn’t we just fly out on the sword?” Lee asked as they approached it.

“Because you’re not allowed to just start flying around inside the city,” Moxie replied. “Things would get way too chaotic if you could. Flying is reserved entirely for Dawnforge’s guards and upper class. The rest of us have to walk outside the normal way, then fly after we’re outside the city. There are actually a few launch spots inside Dawnforge we could have used, but they were farther than the exit.”

“Fair enough,” Noah said. They passed through the gates easily – the guards were far more concerned with people entering than exiting – and continued on. Once they’d put a few minutes between them and the city, Moxie finally slowed to a stop.

“Okay. We’re far enough now. Shall we?”

Noah drew his new flying sword and tossed it down. “Yeah. I’m looking forward to testing this thing out. Let’s see if we can still manage to wrap everything up before nightfall, shall we?”

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