Return of the Runebound Professor

At some point during Noah’s song, his eyes had closed. When he finally finished playing and let them open once more, he found the cat sitting before him. It was the closest the little monster had gotten to him since Arbitage.

Red spines glittered all along its back, emerging like spikes of blood in its snowy fur. The horns sprouting from its head, made of the same glowing red energy as the spikes, were really more like the antlers of a deer.

Noah lowered the violin, and the cat directed an annoyed glance up at him. Its were pitch black pools, each containing a pair of glowing pupils.

“How long have you been sitting there?”

The cat, as cats tended to do, did not respond. It licked its paw, then padded in a circle around Noah before settling back down in the exact same spot that it had been sitting in before.

“Should I be worried about a monster jumping up beneath me or something?” Noah asked, casting his tremorsense out preemptively. He found nothing – the ground seemed to be devoid of any major life.

That question got him an annoyed look. The cat let out a small whuff of air that definitely could have been construed as a sigh if it had been human.

“It’s kind of hard to tell what your goals are when you keep showing up with a monster on your heels. Part of me feels like you’re trying to help us, and the other part feels like you’re just enjoying watching us fight things.”

The cat extended a paw and poked at one of Noah’s feet. If he didn’t know better, Noah might have been convinced to believe that the creature before him was just a very odd-looking housecat.

“Not going to give me anything, huh?” Noah asked. “Can’t you at least tell me if you’re friend or foe?”

The cat sneezed.

Noah let the violin and bow vanish from his hands and return to the Imbuement on his forearm. He reached into his bag and rifled through it, pulling out a strip of jerky and his eternally growing to-do sheet. Noah tossed the jerky down to the cat, which caught it in its mouth and swallowed the entire thing in one bite, not even bothering to chew.

House cat my ass.

“See, I’m trying to fill this out,” Noah said, tapping his finger on the paper. “And you’re on here as one of the things I need to deal with. I’d like to cross you off, if that’s possible. Whether I do that in a fight or agreeing to some sort of friendship is up to you. You’ve already helped us a few times. If it weren’t for that goop monster that pulled Moxie underground, I’d already assume you were on our side. I want confirmation, though. I know you’re smarter than you’re letting on.”

The cat looked up at Noah. He sighed.

“Come on. You’ve clearly understood my conversations with Moxie and Lee. You’ve brought us monsters with the exact Runes I need – and then you dragged Brayden over when we were looking for him. Give me something to work with.”

The cat pawed at the list in Noah’s hand, slapping it to the ground. Noah’s eye twitched. He reached down to grab it before it could get torn, but froze as he saw a tiny wisp of smoke curl into the air.

With a flick, the cat pulled its claw across one of the lines on his paper, then stepped back. Noah picked it up, his eyebrows creeping up on his forehead as he saw what it had just crossed out.

Cat - Figure out what the weird cat thing was and determine a way to get rid of it.

By the time Noah looked back up from the paper, the cat was gone. He stared at the spot where it had been standing for a few seconds, then let out a soft chuckle and rolled the paper back up, returning it to his bag.

I suppose that’s about as much of an answer as I’m going to get at the moment.

He stood and brushed the dirt off the back of his pants, spotting Lee and Moxie heading over the hills in his direction, their bags bulging with gems.

“Be seeing you, then,” Noah said quietly to the air around him. “Maybe give a bit of warning next time you drop by, huh?”

As usual, he received no response.

***

The trip back to Dawnforge went quickly – and it turned out that Lee and Moxie had brought in considerably more of the rock monster eyes than the job had requested. Noah was pretty sure they’d stayed out longer to give him more time alone, but none of them mentioned it.

Their extra work did end up netting them three hundred bonus gold. Even though the rock monster eyes weren’t uncommon in Dawnforge, the sheer number they’d brought in was enough to be worth the time.

When all was said and done, each of them got another three hundred gold. The remaining two hundred went into a mutual fund to be saved for housing, food, and for other general-purpose activities.

Noah’s stomach started to grumble as they headed out of the Adventurer’s Inn, drawing a surprised look from Moxie.

“Again?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re hungry twice in one day? That’s new.”

“It was a long day. I kind of want something filling. Meat pies?”

Moxie grinned. “You don’t have to ask twice about that.”

There wasn’t any need to convince Lee, of course. As soon as she’d heard the first rumblings of hunger from Noah, she’d already started to sniff out the nearest food cart.

Dinner felt a little wooden that night, but Noah didn’t particularly mind. He still enjoyed it. A part of him wondered what Brayden was doing, but he didn’t let himself dwell on it for long. It was none of his business.

“What are we doing tomorrow?” Lee asked as the three headed back toward their inn to tuck in for the day.

“We could do more quests,” Moxie offered.

“I think we should try to see if we can get our hands on a Rune for Lee,” Noah said. “Let’s take a look at Dawnforge’s records or library and see if we can figure out if there are any nearby monsters that have a good chance of having a Space Rune. Even if it’s a bit of a trip, we’ve got a few weeks and my flying sword.”

“You sure you’re Noah?” Moxie asked, peering closer at him and squinting. “Because you just suggested going to a library. Of your own volition.”

Noah rolled his eyes and waved her away. “It’s a good idea, isn’t it? I’ll just make the two of you read the books while I do something more interesting.”

“That sounds a little more accurate.”

They made it back to their room. Noah found that weariness had set in today harder than normal, so he wasted no time in taking a bath and heading straight for bed. There were too many things that he still had to do, but they’d be better handled when his wits were properly about him.

He flopped into bed as Moxie headed out to clean off. No more than a few minutes later, he was fast asleep.

***

Noah was sitting in a wooden chair. It wasn’t the nicest chair he’d ever been in, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either. It was padded on the bottom and back by red velvet pillows, and across from him was a desk that strongly resembled Father’s.

The table was piled high with stacks of books perched precariously upon each other, one slight breeze away from toppling down. Rows of bookshelves stretched out behind the table, walled off by thick ropes.

And, standing between the table and the shelves was Azel, a flame burning between two of his fingers. The remains of a rope laid at his feet, and he looked over his shoulder at Noah as another rope dropped to the ground before him with a thud that echoed through the large room.

“The hell is going on?” Noah asked, blinking. “What are you doing, Azel? And where am I?”

“Poking around. And this is just your soul. Nothing special. I just made a few tweaks to make it feel more homely,” Azel replied. He waved a hand and the bookshelves vanished. The ropes blinked out of existence and the chair disappeared from beneath Noah, dumping him onto the ground as the dark expanse of his soul stretched out around them.

Cracks of white light shimmered at the edge of his mindspace, the damage left over from his recent death.

“Is this better?” Azel asked. “Nice and boring.”

“I’m not sure better is the right word.” Noah picked himself off the ground, watching Azel warily. “Poking around is hardly a sufficient answer when it’s my soul you’re screwing with. What did you do?”

“Haven’t you noticed? It should have been pretty apparent by now.”

Noah started to shake his head, then paused. His eyes narrowed. “You’re making me hungry? What purpose is that possibly going to serve?”

Azel burst into laughter. “What? No. I mean – I suppose that’s part of it, but more a symptom rather than the goal. You can do better than that, Noah.”

Noah stared at Azel. Neither of them spoke for several seconds. The demon’s smug grin faded away.

“You’re not going to make me say it. That takes all the fun out of things.”

Noah remained silent.

Azel’s eye twitched. “Guess, at least. The symptoms have been getting more intense over the past few days. Surely you’ve figured something out.”

“I know you’ve been preoccupied, but I’ve been a little busy as of late. I don’t have the time – or the desire – to play your games. Especially when I don’t have anything to gain. Tell me what you screwed with.”

Azel crossed his arms. “No.”

I don’t feel all that different. Azel said he’d take something from me, but… nothing feels like its missing. Playing along is exactly what he wants, though. I’m not giving him anything to work with.

“You do realize that I will not hesitate to kill both of us, right?” Noah asked. “If I suspect for even an instant that you’re going to do something that will put Lee or Moxie at threat–”

“Oh, relax for a minute.” Azel threw his hands up into the air. “You’d think you were the demon with the way you act. Killing yourself as a solution to every single problem. Don’t you want to play around a little?”

“No. I want the people I care about to be safe.”

“Enough that you’ll send yourself back into that line you hated so much?”

“Want to find out?”

The two stared at each other, locked in a wordless battle. Finally, Azel heaved a sigh.

“Trust me, I’m more than aware of how much of an insane fool you are. I’m not trying to get myself ripped apart in oblivion. Despite what you think, if my mind gets wiped after I die, that still seems like a true death to me.”

Noah shrugged. “Then tell me what you’re doing. You clearly want to.”

“Fine, you boring cretin. I’ve just been going around and pulling a few knots free. It turns out that the mortal mind isn’t meant to remember the infinity of the great beyond, and you locked a few things up while you were up there. Ever since I woke up, I’ve been unraveling those defenses. Isn’t that fun? I’ve been learning so much about you.”

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