Return of the Runebound Professor

Wine pooled on the desk before Father. It seeped into the papers, ruining them, but he made no attempt to save any of his documents. Janice stood frozen in place, unaccustomed to the expression on Father’s face.

It was shock.

“Impossible. He was not anywhere strong enough to deal with Evergreen,” Father said, speaking far slower than he normally did as if words were suddenly evading him.

Janice picked up the goblet and righted it before taking a handkerchief from her belt and trying to dab up some of the spilled wine. The small piece of cloth quickly grew soaked, doing little to rescue anything on the desk.

“We don’t have confirmed reports that Evergreen is dead yet,” Janice said. “Just that there was a scuffle at her house and she hasn’t been seen since.”

“She would not have allowed rumors like this to spread if she were still alive,” Father replied, dismissing Janice with a firm shake of his head. His features returned to his normal empty, expressionless mask. “Evergreen is almost certainly dead. Rinella as well.”

“But… that would imply that Vermil somehow managed to kill not only Evergreen, but Rinella as well. I thought we ruled out the possibility of him being an Archdemon,” Janice protested. She wrung her handkerchief out and tried to dab up more of the wine. “He barely managed to defeat Dayton. There’s no way he could take out Evergreen.”

“You were the one to deliver the information, Janice.”

“It is not my place to analyze what I learn, Father. I simply deliver it to you.”

“It is your place to deliver me objective information, but there are times when I value your opinion as well. What do you believe?”

Janice swallowed. “I don’t know how, Father, but I believe that Vermil likely did kill Evergreen. I wasn’t here when he visited you, but you said he was desperate. He should have begged for your help to save Moxie’s life.”

“He practically did. Not the actions of a demon, are they? Imagine that. A demon debasing themselves for the sake of a mortal.”

“Whatever he is, he killed two of the strongest members of the Torrin household, Father. And, as far as I can tell, he killed them purely because they threatened Moxie. He didn’t care about the power. That kind of dedication is dangerous. I fear we may need to reconsider some of our moves.”

“That… may be a possibility. I have repeatedly made miscalculations when it comes to Vermil.” Father fell silent for nearly a minute. He paid no attention to Janice’s attempts to continue cleaning the table. “Tell me, Janice. How do you think Evergreen fell?”

Janice set her soaked handkerchief down and started searching around the room for a better cloth to wipe things off with. “I am unsure, Father. Our information was incredibly limited. The Torrins did a good job of locking down the city, and I wasn’t there myself. Everything is secondhand.”

“Guess, Janice.”

“Perhaps he had a powerful artifact, or he simply wore her down through repeated attacks?” Janice knelt beside a chest and rifled through it.

Father pressed his lips together. “Poor guesses. Is that truly the best you can do?”

Giving up on finding a usable rag, Janice pulled off her overshirt and used it to collect as much of the remaining wine as possible. It was impossible to tell if he actually appreciated her efforts or not, but she continued nonetheless.

“Perhaps he managed to distract Evergreen and physically removed her shields? She was a Rank 6 mage. That should have been enough to stop any magic that he could ever throw unless Vermil is considerably more powerful than we originally thought.”

Father shook his head. “You have much to learn, Janice. There were two casualties. Rinella and Evergreen, both dead. Vermil found a way to pit them against each other.”

“Rinella would never be able to defeat Evergreen, though. Even if she came together with the other Torrin branch leaders, Evergreen would have come out ahead. There’s no way they could move without Evergreen finding out via her spies.”

“Which is why Vermil didn’t bring all of them. He brought one. If he was able to distract or weaken Evergreen, Rinella may have gotten a lucky blow. Evergreen is powerful, but Rinella was a high-level Rank 5. That is I suspect what happened.”

“I don’t mean to argue with you, Father, but Vermil… didn’t strike me as the manipulative type. He defeated Dayton by repeatedly throwing himself against the fool until Dayton wet his pants and ran. He has employed little strategy beyond bluffing in the dealings we’ve had with him.”

Father gestured for Janice to continue speaking. “And what of his personality? You spoke with him when he was here.”

Janice paused for a moment. “He was… odd. There was no doubt in my mind that he genuinely cared for both his students and Moxie. He seemed to care for the female version of himself as well – Lee, I believe. Despite that, there was a coldness to him. He is a killer.”

“Like me, then?”

Janice shook her head. “No, Father. Not like you.”

“How so?”

“I think, in some ways, I fear him more than you. You are logical, Father. I know that, so long as I serve your interests, you will act in accordance to how you have. Vermil feels like he would treat me as a friend – and genuinely mean it – right up until he ripped my throat out for standing in his path.”

Father studied Janice for several seconds, then grunted. “I will not take offense to that. Your analysis of Vermil is apt. Well done. He is a conundrum. Vermil seems to completely disregard the sanctity of life right up until it affects one of his chosen few. He is a hypocrite.”

“I’ve never heard of a hypocrite demon. They always serve their emotion with single-minded devotion.”

Father nodded slowly. “Yes, they do. Vermil is no demon, but I am at a loss for who he is. He is too erratic. There are too many shifting variables around him. There is one thing I know, though. Vermil was not the one to come up with this plan to kill Evergreen.”

Janice blinked in surprise. “He wasn’t?”

“If he had, half of Blancwood would be in flames. You saw what happened in Dawnforge. That was Vermil. Brute force. Same with Dayton. This was surgical, precise.”

Janice watched Father silently. She’d known him for more than long enough to know when she was meant to speak, and when he was simply talking and she was only along for the ride.

Father flicked his fingers and the wine soaking into Janice’s shirt squeezed out of it, running along the floor and vanishing into tiny holes at the bottom of the wall. He handed the shirt back to Janice, ignoring the shocked expression on her face.

“Tell me about Moxie, Janice.”

***

Revin howled with laughter, slapping his hand against the wooden table in mirth. He nearly sent the plate of eggs flying off the table in front of him, but Eline managed to grab it a second before it hit the ground.

“Whoopsie,” Revin said, taking the plate back from Eline as she glared daggers at him. “Thanks, kid. That could have been a mess.”

Eline looked down at the pile of shattered plates at Revin’s feet, her right eye twitching. “There’s already a mess, Revin.”

“Master Revin to you. I am your teacher,” Revin corrected, rocking back in his chair. “You look irritable today, Eline. Do you happen to have clairvoyance?”

“I – what? No. What are you on about?”

“I thought you might have heard the news before I shared it. That would have been annoying.” Revin took a spoonful of eggs and popped it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “How are you feeling?”

“Feeling about what?” Eline demanded. “What are you on about?”

“The news, of course.”

Eline drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her fingers twitched at her sides, and Revin hid a smile. She’d gotten a lot better at controlling her temper over the past few weeks. Granted, he’d set up camp next to a small horde of vampiric rat monsters and had taken to siccing them on her whenever she lost her temper, but the improvement was probably just a coincidence.

“What news?” Eline ground out.

“Oh, you didn’t hear? Rinella died,” Revin said, taking another bite of the eggs. “These are quite good. Have you been practicing?”

Eline was so surprised by the news that her eye forgot to twitch in annoyance. “Rinella died? No way. Was it a Linwick attack or something? Are we at war?”

“Oh, no. Nothing of the sort. Idan killed her.”

“Idan? The captain of the guard? Why?”

Revin shrugged. He took another bite of his eggs, chewing for just long enough to start ticking off Eline before he continued. “Whole bunch of reasons, probably. I’d suspect the main one would be that she killed Evergreen.”

Eline instinctively started to nod, then froze in place. “What?”

“Oh yes, she’s dead too. It was quite the fight,” Revin said. “Interesting, isn’t it? I didn’t think she’d be kicking the bucket anytime soon, the old hag.”

“You’re lying.” Eline took a step back. “Evergreen is one of the strongest mages in the Arbalest Empire. There’s no way she died.”

“I’d take you to see her body, but I’m banned from Blancwood.”

Eline didn’t even blink at that statement. Even just a few weeks with Revin had been more than enough to teach her not to ask questions that she didn’t absolutely need an answer to.

“I don’t believe you.” Eline crossed her arms.

“Fine with me. We’ve got training in three hours. Do what you want until then.”

“Wait, that’s it? You aren’t going to tell me more?”

“Nah. Maybe I’ll say something if you land a blow on me.”

Eline opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. She spun and stormed out of the room, likely to plan a way that she could draw blood from Revin. He wasn’t particularly concerned. Eline had a long ways to go before she would get anywhere near touching him – but he was fine with that. At least some of the Torrin influence had been washed away. By the end of summer, there was a good chance Eline would actually be something of a decent human being.

And she’ll be quite the chef at that. Convenient overlap there.

James had been entertaining, but the boy had started to make his own way in the world. Revin couldn’t haunt him forever – it got stale after a while. Eline was a great replacement.

Revin picked up the plate of eggs and popped it into his mouth – plate and all. He bit down, a flash of jagged teeth shimmering between his lips as the ceramic shattered and he swallowed, running his tongue along his lips and letting out an amused chuckle.

This is going to cause so much chaos. I can already taste it.

The expression on Evergreen’s face was still etched into Revin’s mind. The entire fight had been fantastic, but the ending – he wouldn’t be forgetting it anytime soon, even if it was just the opening act of a play that he hoped would run for quite some time.

Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Well done, Noah.

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