Return of the Runebound Professor

Someone knocked on Moxie’s door, and Noah sent Moxie a smug look.

“Told you they’d show up,” Noah said.

“I never doubted it,” Moxie said through a yawn. “But they really didn’t waste a second. I thought they’d at least wait a day. This seems a little more sudden than I would have expected.”

“Maybe they work fast,” Noah said. He pulled his jacket on and adjusted the badge that Lee had returned to him after he’d gotten back the previous night. Once he was certain he looked as presentable as possible, he walked over to the door and pulled it open.

Ulya stood on the other side, and it looked like she hadn’t slept a wink. There were dark bags under her eyes and she looked like a strong breeze would probably push her over. Noah blinked. He definitely hadn’t gone that hard on her.

“Ulya. I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon,” Noah lied. “Or were you looking for Moxie?”

“I was looking for you.” Ulya’s eyes flicked past Noah, taking in the room. Something flickered over her expression – it was hard to tell exactly what the emotion was, but it could have been either discomfort or disgust. Either way, it definitely wasn’t the reaction that Noah had been expecting.

“Why’s that? Are there more tests or something?” Noah asked innocently. “Also, are you okay? It looks like you had a rough night.”

“You have absolutely no idea,” Ulya said. “I was going to ask why there are two random women in your room, but I’ve realized that I no longer actually care. They said I could find you here. We need to talk.”

“Alone,” Ulya said.

“I trust Moxie completely,” Noah said, shaking his head. “Unless you’ve got a really good reason as to why you can’t say something in her presence, I don’t see a reason to exclude her. Anything with relation to the advanced track is going to affect her as well.”

Ulya’s lips pressed thin and her fingers twitched at her sides. The emotion passed across her features again, and this time Noah realized that it wasn’t discomfort or disgust – it was fear. And, not of him, but of Moxie.

The hell?

“It won’t take long. I need to speak with you first,” Ulya insisted. She shifted her weight and glanced over her shoulders, then shook her head. “I need to confirm something.”

Is she assuming that the fake mage that supposedly taught me didn’t teach Moxie? That can’t be it. I specified he taught both of us, and she definitely heard it. What’s going on here?

“It’s fine. I’ll go to the bathroom,” Moxie said, stepping through the bathroom door and poking her head out. “Just knock on the door when you’re done.”

She closed it behind her, and Noah stepped to the side so Ulya could enter the room. Ulya hesitated for a second, then stepped inside. She tensed as Noah closed the door behind her, only increasing his confusion even further.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked. “Something feels off.”

Ulya drew a dagger from her side, but in a slow motion that made it clear she wasn’t about to try to run him through. Even still, Noah nearly blasted her with a wave of power from Natural Disaster.

“You know, if you’re going to pull a dagger on someone, they’ll assume you’re going to use it,” Noah said dryly.

“I need to test something,” Ulya said. She swallowed, then waved the tip of the dagger. “I need to cut you.”

“That is an incredibly concerting statement, and not one that I’m inclined to let happen.”

Did she somehow lose it last night? This barely feels like the woman I spoke with yesterday or the one that tested me a little bit ago.

“It’s just a small incision. There’s… something going around campus,” Ulya said lamely, but Noah didn’t miss the fact that she’d yet to remove her eyes from him. She was watching him warily – ready to burst into motion if he made a move.

What move she was waiting for, Noah wasn’t quite sure of. After all, she’d come to him, not other way around.

She didn’t hear of my old shitty reputation and think I’m going to be a creep, did she? But, if that was the case, why would she just be asking to stab me? Just to prove she can? That doesn’t make sense.

“I’ll do it to myself if you let me cut you first?” Ulya offered.

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“Now it just sounds like you’re trying to get me to join some creepy pact,” Noah said. “Why don’t you tell me the reason you need to cut me in the first place? Saying something is going around isn’t really that explanatory.”

“I suppose I’ve already said enough, so it’s not like it would matter one way or another,” Ulya said, more to herself than to Noah. Her gaze refocused on him. “There’s a puppet user going around and stealing bodies. That’s all I’m saying until you let me test you.”

A what now? Oh, screw it. The worst she can do is stab me.

“Fine,” Noah said. “Go ahead.”

“Turn around,” Ulya said.

“The hell are you doing with the dagger? Sticking it up my ass?”

“I didn’t say bend over,” Ulya snapped. “Just pull your hair away from the back of your neck and don’t make any sudden moves.”

Can’t say this is how I saw I’d be starting the morning. I know Moxie is probably listening in. I wonder what she’s thinking. At least my gourd is hidden. It would be awkward if she ran me through and I popped out right in front of her, naked as the day I was born.

Noah turned around and, in a slow motion, pulled his hair out of the way. He felt Ulya press the steel of her dagger against the back of his neck with just enough pressure to draw a thin line across it.

She let out a relieved sigh and Noah heard her step back. “Okay. You’re fine. You can turn around.”

Noah moved to face her as Ulya returned the dagger to her side. She edged toward the desk chair and sent Noah a questioning look. When he nodded in response, she flopped into it.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” Noah asked.

“Your teacher showed up yesterday,” Ulya said through a grimace. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “He kicked Will around a bit before telling us to watch what we were doing before dipping again. I need to know if he’s still around.”

“He did?” Noah blinked, but the surprise wasn’t even entirely false. This wasn’t at all how he’d pictured this conversation to go, but for the time being, he stuck to his original plan. “Is Will okay? I didn’t realize he was doing anything like that. He can be a bit impulsive, so I hope he didn’t go over the line. I don’t have a lot of contact with him, so he kind of does as he pleases. What did he share? Not too much, I hope.”

The best play is to really lean into the semi-crazed person that half these powerful mages seem to be. It gives more credibility to any bullshit I need to spin in the future.

“About you? Not much. Just that he taught you, and that he would be displeased if we treated you unfairly.” Ulya’s eyes tracked Noah’s expression carefully as she spoke. “But Will is not okay.”

“Shit, I’m sorry to hear that,” Noah said, hiding his bafflement. He’d barely roughed Will up – he’d gotten hit harder in sparring matches with Lee than what he’d done to him.

A ploy to make me feel bad, maybe?

“Me too,” Ulya said. “Will is dead.”

Noah nearly choked. “What? How? Are you saying my teacher killed him?”

Seeing the genuine surprise in his expression, Ulya relaxed further. “No. Will was apparently replaced by a plant mage’s puppet. After your teacher left, I noticed plants coming out of Will’s neck. He tried to kill me – nearly did.”

This is not at all how I thought this was going to go. Will was a construct? Does that mean he was a construct when he came after Moxie? The guy I attacked clearly knew what had happened, so it had to be the same one.

“You’re shitting me,” Noah said. “Have you told Arbitage yet? This sounds like something pretty serious, and way over my pay grade. Why have you come to me? You can’t suspect my teacher is somehow related to this plant guy, do you?”

“Hardly,” Ulya said with a snort. “If anything, your teacher is the only reason I lived. If I hadn’t noticed the plants, I never would have been on guard. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have attacked me at all. It’s a moot point now. And the Enforcers have been alerted already, but your teacher is clearly a fairly powerful mage. We wanted to see if he’d be willing to help us.”

Noah didn’t respond immediately. He was too busy processing all the information Ulya had just given him. She looked far too sincere to be lying – and that meant that there probably really was a plant mage that had been puppeting Will’s body.

And, if that was true, they’d sent Will after Moxie. They were related somehow – he couldn’t afford to sit this one out, even if he wanted to. Anyone that came after them once was liable to try it again, especially since Noah had absolutely no idea what their goals were.

“It’s not easy to get in contact with him, but if it’s interesting enough, it’s possible,” Noah allowed. “I can try. Is the way to test everyone just cutting the back of their necks?”

“I don’t know,” Ulya admitted. “Will wasn’t bleeding – he just had the plants, and the back of his neck is where I saw them first. It’s a bet more than anything, but it’s all I’ve got to go off.”

“Well, if the entirety of Arbitage is looking for him, I’m sure we’ll root the guy out soon enough, even without my teacher’s help.”

Ulya shook her head. “Unlikely. Do you have any idea how many serious threats arise in Arbitage and are snuffed out without being revealed to the general public? This is one of the Four Bastions, Vermil. Arbitage doesn’t want people to think things go wrong, and they’ll cover everything up all the way until it’s too big to be concealed.”

“You’re saying we’re on our own?” Noah asked in disbelief.

“Not on our own. The Enforcers will be on it,” Ulya said. “That includes a few members from the advanced track. My job was to test you to confirm that you hadn’t somehow been replaced and then try to see if your teacher would be willing to lend us aid. A mage that can make a puppet as strong as Will is going to be a menace. Gero thinks he might be midway through Rank 6.”

“Shit,” Noah said, and he genuinely meant it. This wasn’t the first time they’d dealt with clones, and this wasn’t the first person that had been interested in Moxie in particular. The pieces were pulling together in a way he didn’t like in the slightest.

During the Survival Exam, Evergreen’s clone had been controlled by someone that they’d never determined the identity of – but Revin had warned them off pursuing him any further. And then there had been Gentil’s master. He’d been interested in connecting with Moxie, but he’d never said why and they’d never found out.

I could just be pulling together unrelated assholes, but somehow I doubt it. I think the shit we’ve stirred is finally coming up to the surface.

Wizen is making a move.

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