Return of the Runebound Professor

Revin slung his scythe back over his shoulder and sank into the shadow of the rock he stood beside, disappearing and leaving the grassy plain silent. Renewal struggled to keep a laugh from bursting out from her mouth.

“Decras?”

“What?” Decras asked irritably.

“Your Apostle kind of sucks. That was pathetic.”

“Don’t pretend like anyone from your church would be any better,” Decras said with a grunt. He stole a chocolate from the bowl before Renewal could stop him. “Damn it. I can’t tell if I like watching Revin or get fed up with his constant interference.”

“Don’t you think we should be at least a little bit concerned that our experiments have found each other?” Renewal asked, the smile fading from her face.

“Experiments? Don’t group that little thief in with Revin,” Decras said with a scoff. “He’s not an experiment. He just stole some Runes.”

“Right,” Renewal said dryly. “Well, whatever he is, he’s working together with Revin.”

“Doubt it. Revin doesn’t work together with anyone. Not anymore. The thief just managed to catch his attention for a little while. I wouldn’t concern yourself about it because that’s not going to last long.”

“You sound really certain of that,” Renewal observed, waving her hand and dismissing the image as she turned to face Decras. “What if it does?”

“Bah. It’ll be fine. What are you worried about?” Decras asked, leaning forward and bracing his arms against his knees. “Do you think they’re going to form a union or something?”

Renewal blinked. “A union? You think they’ll get married? They better not. Noah and Moxie go together too perfectly.”

“What? No.” Decras let out an exasperated sigh. “The mortals of some other planets have unions where they all get together to try and get more rights for themselves against their masters. Forget it. Either way, Revin is just mildly interested. Even if it was more, they’re mortals. We don’t have anything to fear.”

“I’m not sure fear would even be the right word,” Renewal said. “I’m not scared of Noah. Even if he managed to ascend to godhood, I don’t think he’d actually be a threat. More like an ally. His goals will align with ours.”

“Hold on,” Decras said, his eyes widening as he matched Renewal’s posture. “You think that he’s going to make it to godhood? Someone from that shitty little planet? They understand absolutely nothing, and there are millions of people with more potential than average.”

“He has our Runes.”

“The Apostles have had my runes for centuries. Fat load of good it’s done most of them.”

“That’s because you gave it,” Renewal said. “Noah took his, and he’s changed them. He’s changed yours too.”

“Just like Revin,” Decras muttered, his eyes narrowing. “Fine. Perhaps he makes it to godhood. Do you really think the first thing he did wouldn’t be to come after the rest of the power he’s taken? I say we kill him the instant he ascends.”

Renewal tilted her head to the side. “It’s hard to say. He’s certainly power hungry when the time comes, but his concern is more about his friends than it is about himself. I don’t think he’d go picking fights that they won’t all survive. A new god isn’t going to be able to defeat us.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re attached.”

“If you truly wanted to kill him, you’d have already done it yourself,” Renewal pointed out. She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow. “You’ve always skirted the rules, Decras. This wouldn’t have been any different. You were secretly happy when Revin showed up, weren’t you? You’re having just as much fun with this as I am, even if you’re too cocky to admit it.”

“Your head is full of delusion and pink fluff.”

“And yours wishes it was. Better to be honest and have fun than to keep being stuffy,” Renewal said. “Why do you think the other gods don’t even so much as say hi to you? They’d be friendlier if you stopped being such a dick.”

“I have no need for worthless people. The majority of the other gods in our area of the universe barely scraped their ways to godhood and care for nothing but telling each other how great they are.”

Renewal cleared her throat. Decras wasn’t exactly wrong. It was hard to believe how much more enjoyable his company was than that of the other gods, especially given how much of a prick he was.

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Renewal said. “But I still think that you could stay true to yourself without using fighting as your main excuse to see people.”

“Fighting is what makes us grow.”

“So is deep conversation.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Decras said through a yawn. “Turn the spell back on. Do you think Noah is doing anything interesting?”

Renewal flicked her hand and the image bloomed, shifting to Moxie’s room. Her eyes widened and she hurriedly waved it away, banishing the spell before it could even fully take form.

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“Maybe we can look at other people for now,” Renewal suggested, coughing into her fist.

“That might be a wise idea,” Decras said. “What about some of his students?”

“His students?” Renewal tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow as the embarrassment faded from her cheeks. “That’s the first time you’ve shown even the slightest amount of interest in them. Which one?”

“The crippled one,” Decras said. “She’s taken to the fundamentals of Runes better than most. In any normal circumstances, it wouldn’t even matter. She’d have no chance of making it past Rank 3 because of those Body Runes… but Noah changes things.”

“Aha! You used his name again!”

“Make up your mind on what you want me to do,” Decras snapped.

“I – ah. Well, I suppose that’s a fair request,” Renewal said with a frown. “Fine. Sorry. Let’s take a look at Alexandra, then. She’s got some spirit to her. I’m personally looking forward to how she deals with the members of that little club Noah’s group joined. There are some decent mages in there – for their Rank, at least.”

“I hope she kills them.”

“The solution to everything does not have to be killing.”

“I still hope she kills them.”

***

Alexandra lowered her sword and opened her eyes, letting the outside world slip back into awareness. The sun had traced through the sky overhead – it had been hours since she’d started practicing for the day.

Not enough. I feel like I’m so close, but I’m still not there. When I was fighting with Gero, I think I had it for a moment. But, no matter what I do while training, I just can’t recapture whatever it was that I did there.

Maybe I should go find Isabel and see if she wants to spar.

Alexandra sheathed her sword and headed out of the small dirt circle that had been serving as her training area. It was just a short walk back to her dormitory, where she quickly rinsed off before setting off to Isabel and Todd’s room.

She only made it down a single turn in the corridor before having to jump back, having nearly walked straight into Todd.

“Whoa,” Todd said. “Sorry. Didn’t see you there, Alexandra. I was just going to try and find you.”

“We must have had the same idea. Is Isabel busy? I was hoping to do some sparring with her.”

“She’s out training somewhere, actually,” Todd said. “She just headed out thirty minutes or so ago, so I don’t think she’s going to be back anytime soon.”

“Ah, damn it,” Alexandra said with a frown. “Maybe I should ask Vermil, then. I’ve been stuck on this for too long. I need to advance already.”

“That’s actually why I came looking for you,” Todd said. “You’ve been working on your pattern a lot, right?”

“Yeah,” Alexandra said with a nod. “I was making great progress at first, but it feels like I’ve hit a wall. No matter what I do, I don’t get better. It feels like I understand the pattern perfectly, but I logically know I don’t. I’m missing something and I don’t know what it is. What about you? Have you been having any luck with your pattern?”

“Some,” Todd said. “I’m honestly not sure if I’m headed down the right path with it. That’s why I was going to look for you. I’d ask the professor, but I don’t want to wait until next class.”

I suppose it can’t hurt. Maybe I’ll find what’s wrong if I have to explain it to someone else.

“I can try,” Alexandra said.

“Awesome! Thank you,” Todd said, turning and heading back down the hall toward his rooms with Alexandra at his side. He pulled a bracelet out of his pocket as they walked, running a thumb along the runes carved into its surface. “I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what my pattern is, you know?”

“Wait, you don’t know?” Alexandra asked, blinking in surprise as they reached the door and Todd pushed it open. “How can you practice if you don’t know your pattern?”

“Well, that’s the problem.” Todd waved Alexandra over to Isabel’s chair, then sat down in his own and rocked onto its back legs. “Your pattern is like a single thing, right?”

“I’m trying to embody the changing nature of wind.”

“Right. A single thing. I’m trying to improve my imbuing,” Todd said, nodding to the band in his hands. “But that can’t just be ‘embody fire’ or whatever. It needs to be a conceptual understanding. But how do you summarize understanding imbuements as a whole? I don’t want to just figure out how to make better fire imbuements or the like – I want to improve my imbuing overall – but I can’t just make my pattern being better.”

“That is a problem,” Alexandra admitted. “I didn’t really think about trying to expand a pattern to such a large concept. Are you certain it’s even possible?”

“I’m not sure. Vermil said it was promising, and he obviously knows what he’s talking about. The problem is that he doesn’t know imbuing that well. Of the group, I’m the one that knows it the best.”

Todd’s tone made it clear that he wasn’t bragging. He was just being completely honest. It felt a bit odd for a student to claim they were better than their teacher at anything, but everything about Vermil’s class was strange.

“Is it possible you’re too deep?” Alexandra asked after thinking for a few moments.

“Deep? What do you mean?”

“Well, the more you know about a subject, the further you enter it,” Alexandra said. She tapped the sword at her side. “Like swordsmanship, for example. It’s much more than just swinging a blade around. It’s the mindset, the footwork, everything around you.”

“Right, that makes sense. But what does that have to do with patterns or imbuing?”

“Have you ever focused so hard on a problem that you’ve been stuck on for ages, but then someone who knows absolutely nothing about it walks over and gives you the answer almost by accident?”

Todd’s brow furrowed and he gave her a slow nod. “Yeah. All the time, actually.”

“Maybe it’s that. You could be trying to get so deep into imbuements that you’re focusing on them instead of the pattern. Have you considered toning it back instead of pushing farther?”

Todd tapped his foot on the ground, chewing his lower lip. “Huh. That’s a really good idea, actually. Easier said than done, but it gives me something to work with. Damn. Now I feel stupid.”

“Having an outside perspective can help.”

“True,” Todd agreed. “Is that why you were looking for Isabel? Maybe I can help in her place.”

“I was going to try to spar with her.”

“Ah. Well, I can do that.”

Alexandra gave Todd a doubtful look. “You can use a sword?”

“Barely. I’m worse than she is. But why are you only fighting someone with a sword? Didn’t you say your pattern was wind? That has nothing to do with your sword. You’re just using it as the way to express the wind.”

Alexandra blinked. Then her eye twitched. Todd burst into laughter.

“You did the same shit you just told me about, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Alexandra muttered, but she couldn’t stay distracted for long with the building excitement. Todd was right, and now that she knew, it was so obvious that it was painful. She’d figured out how to embody wind with her sword, but her pattern had to be far more than just swordplay. “In that case, I’ll take you up on your offer. Can we spar hand to hand?”

“With pleasure,” Todd said with a grin. “Let’s go.”

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