Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah, Moxie, and Lee got a few looks as they walked out of the arena. The min stone training arena had definitely caught some people’s attention, but nobody approached them on their way out and back toward the T building.

There was still quite some time before the advanced track meeting was due to start. That suited Noah quite nicely, as he had more than enough to do in the meantime including continuing to see if he could get his hands on a Space Rune.

The potential first step of that was walking alongside him, chewing on a strip of jerky she’d slipped from Moxie’s bag and eyeing up the local wildlife. Noah took a moment to make sure nobody was anywhere near them before he spoke.

“Lee, are all the runes you’ve got equally as bonded to your body as the other?” He asked. “Or do you have something similar to us with the extras after the first seven?”

Lee waggled a hand back and forth. “It depends on a few things, but that bit is similar for us and you. The runes we’ve got in our soul bond more closely to our bodies the more we use them. And, by being in one of the seven active slots, we’re basically permanently using them. Self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“So any spares… are they also bonded?”

“Eh. They’re in there more than a random one is for you, but I wouldn’t say they’re bonded. More like they’re jabbed in there. We could take them out with a lot less effort than it would take a human. Why?”

“I was going to ask if you had a spare Space Rune still. I’m thinking of getting into making a Rank 4 based off Space Runes, but they’re painfully expensive and I don’t want to keep taking things from Brayden.”

“Oh, sure. I’ve got some Rank 1 Space Runes sitting around waiting to give away.” Lee scrunched her nose and scratched the back of her neck. “But there’s a small problem. I don’t have any spare Runes.”

“I formed a Rank 4 Rune,” Lee reminded Noah. “All those extra Runes moved into my main slots. I’m not using them, but they’re a little bit stuck in there now. It might actually be a bit annoying when I get more runes. It’s harder for us to swap things between slots. Possible, just a bit harder. I’d need to have something to replace them if I wanted to shift anything out.”

Noah nearly slapped himself in the forehead. He’d somehow forgotten that the spare Runes Lee had wouldn’t just be sitting around in the shadows forever. That said, if they weren’t very bonded to Lee’s soul, it wouldn’t be that hard to pull them out with Sunder.

“You mind if I take one of them when we get back?” Noah asked. “I can use the Fragment of Renewal if it ends up hurting more than we expect.”

Lee shrugged in response. “Sure. You can take another look at my Rune when you do and let me know if everything looks correct.”

“Perfect,” Noah said. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They took a brief detour to the apothecary so Noah could buy several more Mind Meld potions – it seemed like he was spending the majority of his money on those nowadays – and then headed back to the T building.

Once they got to Moxie’s room, they wasted no time in downing one of the potions and sitting down against the bed. It wasn’t long before Noah and Lee were standing within her mind.

The first matter of business was checking Lee’s Rank 4 Rune. Noah still had absolutely no idea what it was or what it did. The weird mixture of a Demon Rune and a Master Rune had made it something entirely new to him.

Whatever Azel done to bind it still held. At least, it did for the time being. Noah spent nearly half their time double checking the restraints and studying the rune while Lee pointedly avoided looking at it.

“I think it’s fine,” Noah confirmed as he walked over to rejoin Lee. “No difference from last time. You’re safe.”

Lee breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I was worried something shifted. The bindings are still holding?”

He glanced over his shoulder. Even though he’d just spent fifteen minutes studying the magic holding the rune down, he took another moment to squint at it before nodding. “Yeah. Completely held down. Azel did a good job.”

“Yeah,” Lee agreed, a pensive look on her features. She shook her head, then held a hand out. The shadows that made up the ground before her twisted as a small purple rune pushed up from beneath them, strands of black clinging onto it like stretching cheese. “Here’s one of the Space Runes.”

“Damn, I thought you said it wouldn’t be too worked into you,” Noah said with a concerned frown. “This looks pretty bound, Lee.”

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“It’s not as bad as you’d think. It’s still weak,” Lee replied.

“Sure, but some of the runes I removed from you were just as connected as this one, and those were ones you were using,” Noah said. He waited to see if her soul would release the rune any further, but it kept a firm grip on it. “This is just a spare rune that slid into a slot.”

“I think it’s because I’m stronger now than I was then. My soul is more powerful, so its hold on anything in it is stronger as well. My main runes will probably get so worked into it at Rank 4 and 5 that I’ll barely even be able to pull them up.”

That was mildly concerning. It was easy to forget how different demons were from humans when Noah wasn’t actively thinking about it. Something didn’t quite sit right with him about it.

Lee has been talking about how demons and humans are just different, but it really seems like she’s getting some enormous drawbacks without benefits to make up for them. Demons bond to runes way harder than we do, making them part of their bodies. Sure, they get to be a lot physically stronger and faster because of it, but humans can do body imbuement to match a lot of that.

Sure, demons also get to feed off emotions rather than food, but that doesn’t seem like a huge boon either. Lee also can’t project her abilities beyond her body very much, which is apparently a common issue through most demons since their magic is so tied to their body.

They might be immensely powerful when they do get strong, but doesn’t this mean that everything is harder for them overall? It almost feels unfair.

There wasn’t going to be an answer he could find here. Telling his concerns to Lee wasn’t going to make her feel any better. And, in the end, all that mattered was the end result, not how hard it was to get there. Even if things were more difficult for Lee, he could just keep cutting apart her runes with Sunder and fixing her soul with the Fragment of Renewal.

“Right,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “Sorry about that. Got lost in thought. You ready to get this done? I’m going to cut the rune out. I’m definitely using the Fragment after this. I don’t want to risk hurting you.”

“Okay,” Lee replied. “I’m ready. It won’t be as bad as you’re thinking. My soul might be holding on stronger, but it’s also more powerful so the relative loss shouldn’t be all that bad.”

She didn’t sound completely convinced of her own words. It wasn’t like they had any way to find out the extent of the damage removing the rune would do beforehand. There was nothing to do now but act.

Noah drew on Sunder and his veins blackened as power coursed through them. The familiar, icy river of power that was his Master Rune churned through his body and gathered in his fingertips.

He extended his hand and brushed it across the strands holding the Rank 1 Space Rune down. The magic ripped free of his body and poured out through his palm. It sank into Lee’s soul and a line of black carved through the air.

The shadowy strands severed instantly and the rune peeled away from Lee’s soul, fluttering in her soul space. Noah pressed his hand to it and closed his eyes, drawing its pattern within his own mind.

It only took a second. The rune, Space or not, was just a Rank 1. Power poured back through his palm and into his body as he absorbed it. Lee had managed to fill the rune a fair amount just by holding onto it and it seemed like it was just a few decent fights away from being completely full.

Noah didn’t waste time investigating it any further. He spun to Lee, already calling on the Fragment of Renewal. Her face was distressed, lips pressed thin, shoulders hunched. Despite the obvious discomfort, she didn’t look much worse for the wear.

He didn’t take any chances. Gentle pink smoke poured out of his hands and swirled around Lee. It sank into her soul and she blew out a breath, her shoulders relaxing as she gave him a nod.

“Thank you. That wasn’t too bad. You didn’t have to use the Fragment.”

“I’m not taking the risk, and you shouldn’t have to suffer for me,” Noah replied without missing a beat. “You were doing me a favor anyway. The only other thing I need the Fragment for right now is healing Tim, and he’s got so much attention on him right now that I’ll have to wait a day or two to do that anyway.”

Lee nodded. “Okay. I’m not going to complain. The Fragment of Renewal feels warm and fuzzy. I like it.”

“Don’t get too used to it,” Noah said with a laugh. “Thanks for the rune, Lee. I appreciate it.”

“It was a gift to me, so I can’t even take much credit for it.” Lee scratched the back of her head. “But no problem. Do you know what kind of Rune you’re going to try to make with it?”

“Not yet,” Noah admitted. “I have some strong ideas, but I’m going to really need to study just what a space rune is. I want to make something disaster related, but it can’t be so specific that it won’t’ combine well with Natural Disaster.”

Lee flopped down to the ground, crossing her legs beneath her and planting her chin in a palm. There were still a few minutes before the potion’s effects wore off, so Noah sat beside her.

“What kind of disasters are space related?” Lee asked.

“Probably something like black hole or some form of spatial rift?” Noah guessed. “That’s the hard part. Figuring those out enough to fully comprehend them won’t be easy.”

“Can’t you just randomly combine things until you stumble into the right path?”

“I wouldn’t quite go as far as to say randomly combine, but I can definitely test a lot of different options until one works,” Noah said with a nod. He drummed his fingers on his knee, his brow furrowing. “The thing is, that would be really expensive and time consuming. I want to keep growing. With the people we’ll eventually be up against, I can’t risk falling behind.”

“Yeah. I get that,” Lee said. Her head twitched as she stopped herself from looking back at the Master-Demon Rune hybrid floating behind them. “Well, I’ll happily take any space-related runes you buy and don’t need.”

Noah let out a snort of laughter. “How generous of you. I’ll make sure to send them your way.”

Lee gave him an unabashed grin. “No problem. Now let’s start brainstorming some space Runes you could make for Rank 2. What about devouring stomach?”

“That doesn’t seem quite up my alley.”

“No? Well, we’ve got time until the potion ends. I’m sure we can come up with one. How about infinite void?”

“That… seems a bit excessive for a Rank 2.”

“Infinite void in the stomach?”

“I think you’re just hungry.”

“Yeah,” Lee agreed. “I am.”

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