Return of the Runebound Professor

Moxie convinced Noah to wait until Lee showed up for the full explanation of what had happened, keeping the students from sharing too much and only heightening his distress.

He was pacing back and forth in a line like a trapped tiger when Lee appeared with a flash of blue at the base in the transport cannon’s tube a few minutes later – but the Lee appeared wasn’t the one that Noah recognized.

It wasn’t an external change. Sure, Lee’s eyes were slightly sunken and an aura of exhaustion wrapped her like a heavy cloak, but she still looked like Lee. That was where the resemblance ended.

Noah’s domain prickled as it washed over Lee, swirling around her body but failing to grow close to it. He couldn’t quite put into words what the sensation was, but it almost felt like an air of hunger and desire encircled her entire body.

She reached Rank 4. Did it change her that badly? I remember how worried she was about it. If I need to, I’ll rip the Rune right back apart.

“Lee!” Noah exclaimed, taking a step toward her. She flinched back and Noah froze in place, his features creasing with concern. “What happened, Lee?”

“Don’t get close to me,” Lee said. “I – I’m different. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but it will be.”

“Bah,” Noah said. “We’ll see about that. You aren’t injured, right?”

“Only small cuts,” Lee said with a shake of her head. “But–”

“That’s all that matters,” Noah said, crushing the information his domain was sending him. He didn’t care if Lee didn’t feel the same as she used to. As long as Lee’s mind was intact and she was who she wanted to be, he refused to see her any differently.

And, if her Runes were going to stand in their way, then they’d find a way to shatter them and reform everything until Lee was safe.

“Maybe I should take the kids and let you talk privately with Lee,” Moxie said. “I think she needs someone who will understand her situation a little more, and an audience is going to make it harder for her to speak.”

“Hold on,” Noah said with a frown. “Are you sure it’s safe considering what just happened? How do we know there aren’t more?”

Moxie considered his question for a moment, then shrugged. “We can’t live in terror permanently, and Brayden said it was only the one. I trust him. Silvertide also said he handled Wizen’s clones, so we should be fine.”

Noah drummed his fingers against his thigh, but Moxie had a point. The threats should have been handled – for the time being, at least. He couldn’t follow everyone around permanently, and Arbitage was still technically a neutral ground.

Lee and I should be the only ones at risk of any attacks from normal people, and Wizen has been sent packing for the time being.

“You’re right. Can you stay at the room after you’re done, though? I know how you felt when Jalen kidnapped me, and I can’t say it’s a particularly enjoyable feeling. I was really damn worried.”

Emily made a gagging noise. “Could you do this somewhere you don’t have company? It’s gross.”

“I was worried about you too,” Noah told Emily.

She snapped her mouth closed and looked to the side while Alexandra laughed.

“Just not as much as Moxie, huh?”

Noah blinked in surprise, then chuckled. Alexandra wasn’t the type to make jokes often, and he was pleased to see that she was relaxing at least a little, even if it was in the face of nearly getting killed.

“Let’s go,” Moxie said, rolling her eyes. She herded Alexandra and Emily onto the elevator and it rattled down, leaving Lee and Noah alone in the top floor of the transport cannon. It struck Noah that Tim was still nowhere to be seen.

“Not to delay our conversation, but do you know where Tim is?” Noah asked.

“He should be fine,” Lee said, chewing her lower lip and staring at her hands. “Brayden said that Tim was the one that found him. He’s probably at the Office or something. I don’t smell any blood or fear in the area – none other than yours, at least.”

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“Then this should be pretty private, at least for the time being,” Noah said, stepping closer to Lee despite her warning. He put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “I won’t force you to say anything, but I’m not going to sit around while you clearly suffer. What happened while you were out, Lee?”

She didn’t respond immediately. For several seconds, she waged an internal battle within herself. It played out on her features in a mix of emotions that finally ended in her shoulders slumping.

“A Rank 5 Inquisitor showed up. He didn’t seem to know which of us was a demon, so he must have been following our group as a whole. The weird scent I smelled while we were at the party was him.”

“Shit. He might have been tracking me or Azel, then,” Noah said.

Lee shrugged. “Maybe. Either way, he wanted to test us. Moxie attacked him, but he had a really strong domain with his blood magic that made it impossible to move while we were in it. He was going to kill Moxie. I was strong enough to reach Rank 4, and it was the only way I’d be able to move inside his domain.”

“Wait, you reached Rank 4 mid fight?” Noah asked, blinking in disbelief. He could still recall just how much effort and concentration it had taken to advance his Runes to Rank 4. Sure, the actual process hadn’t taken that long, but making sure that everything was set up and getting himself into the right place to do it had.

“Azel helped,” Lee said, a flicker of emotion that Noah couldn’t place passing through her eyes. It might have been sadness, or it might have been anger. It was gone so quickly that by the time he registered it, it was gone.

“To save himself? I know he was transferring large portions of himself to you, so I suppose that makes sense.”

Lee shrugged in a way that made Noah suspect she didn’t agree with his guess in the slightest, but she was just too tired to come up with a better answer. He didn’t press and just remained silent, waiting for her to start speaking again.

“I managed to reach Rank 4, and that made me strong enough to move. Azel wanted me to run,” Lee said. “But, if I ran, then Moxie would have died. I might have been able to save Alexandra and Emily, but not Moxie. She was in Rafael’s domain. So I attacked him.”

“You attacked a Rank 5? On your own?” Noah asked, unable to contain his surprise. He’d fought higher tiers himself, but Lee didn’t have any of the advantages that he had – and she’d been the one that had gotten attacked rather than the other way around.

“I had the boost from Ranking up. It’s stronger in demons than it is in humans because of how closely tied our bodies and souls are,” Lee explained. “But… that wasn’t it. When Azel realized I wasn’t running, he helped me. Filled me with magic that helped me resist the Inquisitor and hurt him.”

I suppose the aid of a Rank 5 demon, even a weakened one, would be enough to let her trade blows with a Rank 5 for a short time. But I still don’t see how she could have killed him – not unless Lee is much, much stronger than I thought she was.

“I was holding him off for a bit, but I started to lose,” Lee said. “So Azel gave me even more of his power. The Inquisitor got scared and used something called a Bloodline Curse on Moxie. I could tell it was really strong, and she couldn’t dodge, so I jumped in front of it. He thought it would kill me, so he used most of his energy.”

“It didn’t, though.”

“It didn’t.” Lee nodded. “And he wasn’t ready for me to attack again, so Azel and I killed him. But… the reason I lived through the Bloodline Curse was becase Azel took the hit for me.”

“Shit,” Noah muttered, trying to figure out what had been running through the demon’s head. Azel had saved Lee, and it had killed him. Nothing else would have caused their connection to snap the way it had.

Why would Azel do that for Lee, though? He could have retreated to my body.

“That… isn’t it, though,” Lee said softly. “My Demon Rune was too strong, and it nearly turned me into a real demon. Azel stopped it – temporarily, at least. It was the last thing he did before he died.”

If Noah had been confused before, now he was completely baffled. Whoever Lee was describing didn’t sound like Azel at all.

“Just like that? Why?” Noah asked.

Lee swallowed. “Before he died, he talked to me. I – he said he was my dad, Noah. And I think he was telling the truth.”

And, finally, the pieces clicked into place. Azel had known about Lee from the start. He’d always planned to leave Noah’s mind and enter hers.

I never thought Azel was the type to care about his offspring, though. I would have thought Lee would have just been another tool for him. What changed? Or did he play me from the start?

It only took one look at Lee’s face to tell Noah that now wasn’t the time to pry. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“It sounds like Azel made his choice clear, Lee. He wanted you to live – and it sounds we all owe him a thank you.”

“He’s dead,” Lee said, staring at her feet. “I’ll never get to find out anything that I wanted to. He’s just gone. It doesn’t make sense.”

“He’s not completely gone,” Noah said. “He gave you his Runes, Lee. I’ll be honest. I don’t know why he changed, and I didn’t like the person he used to be. But it sounds like he died as someone better than what he was.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lee said bitterly. “What good is it now? He’s dead.”

Noah let out a soft laugh. “Death is just the beginning, Lee. It’ll be millennia before the last traces of Azel are gone. We can still get you those answers.”

Lee blinked. “What? How?”

“I’ve seen the afterlife, and my goals have always been to get strong enough to never fear it again,” Noah said. “I’ll make it, and you will to. All of us will. Then we’ll find Azel and get your answers.”

“But… what about my Demon Rune? It’s going to consume me,” Lee said. “It’s only a matter of time if you don’t Sunder it. Azel said what he did wouldn’t hold forever.”

“Did you forget who I am?” Noah asked. “We’ll find a way to fix it. One way or another, we’ll all make it. You’ll see Azel again, and you aren’t going to lose yourself to your own Runes.”

“Promise?” Lee asked.

Noah held her gaze. “Yeah. I promise.”

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