Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah remembered little of the trip back to their room or the rest of the day. It was a vague blur of pain and agony as what felt like rusty razors tore into his mind. He vaguely recalled collapsing at some point on the walk back, but even that was a blur.

Colors and thoughts melted together into a kaleidoscope. Seconds felt like hours and he repeatedly reached for the comforting energy from the Fragment of Renewal, only to find vast emptiness waiting for him.

The Rune was spent. It stubbornly refused to give him even the slightest reprieve from the pain.

Time ground on, though Noah was barely aware of it. All he could do was repeatedly grasp at straws in his mindspace, begging the Fragment of Renewal to grant him relief from the pain.

And, finally, it did. As soon as the first flickers of energy responded to Noah’s mental grasp, he nearly sobbed in relief. The cool rivers of power slithered through his body and wound into his ravaged, shattered mindscape.

Precious peace nipped at the pain. The Rune worked agonizingly slow, taking its time with the repairs. If anything, that almost made the pain worse. Noah’s brain had practically shut itself off in the pain, but as he healed, his thoughts returned.

But the Fragment of Renewal did its job. His ragged breathing slowed and control of his body returned. Noah became aware of something soft against his back and a cool, wet presence on his face.

Groaning, Noah reached up, removing the damp towel that had been laid across his eyes and forehead. He sat up, blinking furiously as light assaulted his unadjusted eyes. His entire body still throbbed something fierce, but the pain was receding with every passing second.

A chair scraped back, hitting the back of the bed with a thud.

“Vermil!” Moxie stumbled in her haste to enter Noah’s field of vision, nearly tripping before she caught herself.

“I’m fine,” Noah said. His words came out thick and gummy, like he hadn’t spoken for weeks. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and blinked furiously.

They were in a small, plain room with a single bed and a desk. A window at the far end overlooked a courtyard below them, and the walls were plain gray stone.

“What happened?” Noah asked.

“Evergreen is dead.”

A laugh nearly slipped out of Noah’s mouth before he caught himself. Moxie had referred to him as Vermil rather than Noah. He glanced around the room suspiciously.

Are we being watched?

“We’re fine,” Moxie said. “Just force of habit. Lee’s watching over the room to make sure nobody goes snooping around. We can speak normally.”

Noah breathed a relieved sigh and nodded. “It… it worked, then?”

“Yeah.” Moxie only spoke a single word, but it carried with it years of pent up fear and frustration, all finally put to rest. “It’s been nearly a week since Evergreen died. The entire city of Blancwood has been in lockdown – and that includes us.”

“What happened after I went down?”

“Not much concerning us. The captain of the guard Idan launched a massive investigation into corruption. A good number of people fled the city, some of them fairly high up in the Torrin family. I’ve been through more than enough interrogations for a lifetime, but there wasn’t a whole lot I can say. After all, I’m only a Rank 3.”

Noah snorted. “You mean there was actually some sort of rebellion planned?”

“Of course there was. Nobody wants to admit it, but when you rule a family as tightly as Evergreen did, it was inevitable. I was counting on it, and it wasn’t a hard guess. They’re taking pretty much all the flak the whole incident.”

“Why are we still here, then?”

“The city’s still in lockdown, but I imagine it’ll raise soon. There’s only so long the Torrins can hide from the rest of the world. A new family head will be chosen and things will resume as they were.”

Noah opened his mouth, then froze as a thought struck him. “Wait, is Emily–”

“No, of course not.” Moxie laughed and shook her head. “She’s nineteen, Noah. She’s nowhere ready to lead a family. I’m not entirely sure what the future will hold for her with Evergreen gone, but I don’t think she ever particularly wanted to lead the family, so I think everything will be fine there. The current head will be one of the family heads.”

“What about you?”

“As far as I know, nothing changes. I’ll continue the duties that I’ve been doing, but without Evergreen’s supervision – and without having to report on everything I do. I’m just another Torrin now.”

“You’re free, then. Your plan worked.” A huge grin crossed Noah’s features. “But… what about your Rune Oaths?”

“They weren’t to Evergreen. If they were, my Runes would have shattered at best. Evergreen was just the one I had to obey. The oaths still stand, but they’re basically functionless now.”

Moxie didn’t sound as excited about that as Noah would have expected. Instead, she seemed introspective – and more than a little confused.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Noah asked.

Moxie nodded. “Yes, it is. I’m just confused. I was pushing the boundaries of my Rune Oaths during that entire fight. I fully expected Evergreen to command me to stop fighting, which would have made me have to shatter my Runes to avoid the full backlash of the Oath. But… she never did.”

“Wait, you didn’t tell me that was part of your plan.”

Moxie sent Noah a flat stare. “Losing my Runes would have been a small price to pay for freedom. With your help, I could have always remade them. I fully expected to, if I’m being honest – and that’s what I can’t understand.”

Noah shifted his position and leaned back against the cool wall, trying to get more comfortable. The Fragment of Renewal’s power was rejuvenating his body, but he still felt grimy and stiff. “Do you think it was just a power thing? She could have been so arrogant that she didn’t think she had to resort to such methods.”

“It’s possible.” Moxie chewed her lip, then shook her head. “It hardly matters now. Evergreen is dead. Rinella is as well. The next head is probably going to end up being Magus Exal.”

“That a bad thing?”

Moxie shrugged. “I don’t know Exal very well. I barely even knew Rinella. I just knew she was the most hotheaded of the branch leaders. Either way, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve been too selfish.”

Noah blinked. “What? What in the world do you mean?”

“I’ve basically killed two of my family’s strongest supporters because I want to be free. The other noble houses aren’t going to overlook that.” Moxie looked down at her hands. “I’m not sure how much damage this is going to do to my family in the long run. It could be catastrophic.”

Noah let out a snort. Moxie looked at him in surprise.

“Maybe I’m being cold here, but none of them ever did anything for you,” Noah said, crossing his arms. “And nobody forced Rinella to do anything. She could have ignored Lee entirely, but she didn’t. This was inevitable. You just sped the process up a bit. Everyone has a right to be free, and that includes you.”

Moxie was still for a few moments before she finally nodded. “Yeah. I guess. It’s honestly a little hard to process everything right now.”

They both fell silent for several minutes. The Fragment of Renewal continued its work in Noah’s body, removing the last vestiges of the pain. He could still feel it knitting together some of the holes in his mindspace, but his body was back to where it needed to be.

Noah superstitiously checked on his violin tattoo, but it was still there.

“By the way, what happened at the end of the fight?” Moxie asked. “I thought everything was over when Azel went down so early and your song got interrupted. How did you manage to salvage it?”

“I changed the song,” Noah replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s the whole benefit of using music for Formations. It’s all in flux until everything is complete. If I’d used a magic circle, it would have collapsed.”

“I did gather that much, but I’ve never seen the magic that you used.” Moxie chewed her lower lip, her brow furrowing. “Well, I have. But not from you.”

“It was the cat. Turns out, death’s door hanging askew is a great way to help you connect those last few threads.”

Moxie squinted at Noah. “You put the cat in the Formation?”

He chuckled. “No. I don’t know why yet, but the cat was telling me the Fragment of Renewal’s powers. Its passive is Rot. That’s what I swapped Sunder out for. Sunder had no chance of cutting through both Evergreen and her defenses, and I was kind of already using it. I already had Sunder as part of the Formation to try and cut through Evergreen’s domain so the main Rune could reach her, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough on its own.”

“And the whole… body-stitching thing was Sunder?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know it could do that either. I guess it does make sense, though. We got lucky. Everything could have gone wrong in so many different ways.”

“Yeah. What matters is it didn’t, though. You gave Rinella the opportunity we needed. That was a damn well timed revelation, though.” Moxie paused, then narrowed her eyes and flicked Noah in the nose.

He yelped in surprise. “What was that for?”

“Preemptive measures. You are not going to go around intentionally getting yourself a hair’s width away from death just to figure out new things about your Runes.”

“What? I’d never do something like that.” Noah cleared his throat.

Besides, it wasn’t my impending death that pushed me so hard. It was yours.

“Right,” Moxie drawled. “Either way, we aren’t going anywhere for a few more days. Lee has to be bored out of her mind, but we need to follow Idan’s orders for just a little longer, and that means staying here for the time being.”

“I can think of worse punishments.”

“As can I, but I can also think of ways to improve the situation. How’s your recovery going?”

“Decent enough. Why?”

Moxie placed a hand on Noah’s arm, tapping his tattoo. “Your performance got interrupted right at the end. I know your violin can control its volume, so how about an encore?”

Noah smiled and summoned the violin to his hands. “I think that can be arranged.”

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