Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah woke up to a very strange feeling — one that he hadn’t felt since he’d been a child. He was being carried. Confusion slipped through his muddled mind. That didn’t make any sense. As far as he could recall, he’d been sitting against Moxie’s bed.

His eyes opened the rest of the way to find the ground bouncing below him. He was definitely getting carried.

“What the hell?” Noah muttered, blinking the rest of his befuddlement away. The motion stopped and he felt himself getting lowered back to the ground.

“Gods, talk about timing,” Moxie said as she set him down and took a step back, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Are you okay?”

The rest of Noah’s awareness returned. “Damn, you’re stronger than I thought.”

“Answer the question,” Moxie said, prodding Noah in the stomach. Despite the stern expression on her face, there was a flicker of worry behind her eyes. “Are you okay? You didn’t do something stupid, did you?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Noah said, raising his hands. He shook his head, trying to get his bearings. They were standing on a path somewhere in Arbitage, which was most definitely not where he recalled getting to work. Moonlight shimmered above them. “Is… there a reason you carried me out of the room? And did I mention you were strong?”

Moxie rolled her eyes. “Did you forget that we had a meeting with the Enforcers tonight? Silvertide showed up to pick us up and you were completely passed out. I didn’t want to interrupt your work so I just picked you up and took you with me. I figured we didn’t want to miss this.”

“Whoops,” Noah said. “I may have taken a bit longer than I’d planned.”

“It’s fine. You woke up before we made it. So, as usual, you somehow managed to have pretty decent timing.”

Noah glanced over his shoulder. They were alone on the street. “Where’s Silvertide?”

“Just a bit ahead of us. The meeting building is right down the street. I’ve just been waiting out here with you in hopes that you’d wake up. It would have been really awkward if I had to show up lugging your unconscious body with me.”

Noah rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I appreciate the carry. Sorry about that. I got a bit caught up making a Rune.”

“Anytime.” Moxie started to nod, then froze. “Wait. Making?”

He flashed her a grin. “I’ll show you later. And when you say anytime, does that mean you’ll carry me back too?”

“Who are you, Lee?” Moxie asked with an exasperated laugh. “Get moving, dummy. We’re already late.”

“I believe the word is fashionable,” Noah corrected. “But I don’t really know where to go. You’re going to have to lead me.”

“Oh,” Moxie said. “Right.”

She sent one last look at him before shaking her head and walking down the street. Noah fell in alongside her and the two of them walked over to a nearby building. The door had been left open a crack.

They headed inside and down a short hallway that ended at another door. It was Noah’s turn to push the door open. He fully expected to find some form of fancy tunnel system that led into a deep underground meeting hall.

Instead, what he found was a small room full of soft couches and a table laden with pastries. Several people sat around it while sipping cups of tea. There were a number of people that he recognized within it.

Brayden stood against one of the walls, his arms crossed and a weary expression on his face. He gave a slight nod of greeting that Noah returned. Slouched on a large chair beside him was Silvertide. Noah made eye contact with the old soldier, who looked from him to Moxie and waggled his eyebrows.

I’m not even embarrassed. Getting carried is great. I can see why Lee likes it so much.

“Ah. The wayward professor has deigned to join us,” Neir said. It had been some time since Noah had last spoken to the bald Enforcer, but his sharp expression had burned itself into his mind. He hadn’t forgotten just how close he’d come to getting discovered after killing the Hellreaver.

“Sorry,” Noah said. “I fell asleep.”

“Remind me why we’ve decided to invite this one?” Neir asked.

“Because he was there for the fight,” Godrick said. He was on a couch facing away from Noah, so while he couldn’t see the man, he recognized his voice — and his senses didn’t miss his complete lack of a heartbeat.

“Sit, please,” Silvertide said. “We’ve been waiting for you and Moxie to show up. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t have minded you taking a bit longer. I was quite enjoying my dinner.”

“That’s because you got it for free, you stingy old bastard,” Godrick said with a bark of laughter.

“I’m not stingy. I’m efficient at distributing my money.” Silvertide took a long sip from his cup as if to prove his point.

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Noah and Moxie worked their way around the room to an empty couch and lowered themselves into it in unison. There were a total of five people in the room other than them, and he knew all of them but a middle-aged woman with ruby red hair sitting beside Godrick.

“Is this everyone?” Noah asked.

I could have sworn there were more people that showed up right after Brayden and I finished our fight against Barb.

“No. The other Enforcers are either doing their normal duties or following leads as to Wizen’s location,” Neir said. “Now that you’re here, we can get started. Tell us everything you know about Wizen.”

That wasn’t difficult. Noah had no reason to hide any of the information he had on the man, and he really didn’t know much in the first place. The only thing he had to keep secret was his detection method for Wizen’s puppets, which really wasn’t all that novel in the first place, and anything pertaining to his own abilities or his students’ wellbeing.

Noah went over everything he knew about Wizen, starting from when the man had taken over Evergreen’s puppet during the exam. He considered leaving that particular bit out, but as far as he was aware, they hadn’t actually done anything wrong considering Evergreen hadn’t actually been in control of the puppet.

Also, Evergreen is dead. Hard to be pissed when you’re rotting six feet under.

The story didn’t take long. He did choose to skip over the fight with Will, as he didn’t particularly want to go about explaining why he’d attacked the man in the first place. Noah told the Enforcers the information Father had given him about Wizen and went back over the fights that Silvertide and Brayden had been present for.

Everyone remained silent for a few seconds as they took in everything he’d said.

“It all lines up with what we know. If only we’d known sooner,” Neir said, irritation clear in his tone.

“Vermil would have been a complete idiot to tell us any of this earlier,” Silvertide said. “We would have been suspicious of him. And, considering Vermil is not an Enforcer, his first duty is to his students, not us.”

Neir pressed his lips thin but said nothing more.

“The more important matter is where we should take things from here. We still don’t know where Wizen is or what his actual goals are,” Godrick said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back, tapping a foot against the ground. “This does confirm that Wizen was targeting the Torrins specifically for that artifact, though. He wasn’t just going for a random powerful weapon.”

“A key to the Damned Plains isn’t going to make it any easier to actually contract or bind a demon,” the red-haired Enforcer said. “I don’t see what benefit Wizen is going to get from it’s normal purpose, which means he must be trying to make a weapon with it.”

“Seems like a lot of hassle,” Brayden said. “Wizen is capable. We know this. Why would he need a weapon like that?”

“Not for any good reason, I’d imagine,” Godrick said. “That’s why it’s so important we find him sooner rather than later. We already have people following the trails his magic left behind. He can’t hide forever. Even if he’s done with Arbitage, we can’t afford to leave that artifact in his hands. It’s too dangerous.”

“Not to mention how bad everything will look on Arbitage if people find out what happened,” Neir said through a weary sigh. He massaged the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “Who amongst us is actually able to go hunting for him other than me?”

The only person that raised their hand was the red-haired Enforcer. Neir didn’t look very surprised at that.

“Most of us have duties at the school,” Godrick said. “But this is far from the first time we’ve dealt with a situation like this. We’ll keep an eye out and help with research and preparation. You and Hayley can join the others in trying to track Wizen down, and we’ll all back you up when you locate him.”

“If we locate him,” the red-haired Enforcer who Noah presumed to be Hayley said. “We don’t have much lead on his location. Vermil, you said you had a student that had been captured by Wizen at some point. Would she—”

“No,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “She has no idea. I’ll press again to find out, but if she knew, she wouldn’t be keeping it to herself. She’s got more reason to want him dead than anyone else here.”

His eyes drifted to meet those of everyone in the room, practically daring someone to challenge him on that. Alexandra hadn’t been in his class long, but she’d more than earned her spot in it and he wasn’t about to let the Enforcers start trying to interrogate her.

“We’ll leave it to you to see if she knows anything,” Godrick said. “We’re not going to try to force answers from a student. Just keep an eye out. That goes for everyone, not just Vermil. Now, let’s talk strategy.”

***

The rest of the meeting was unbearably boring. Noah nearly fell asleep twice, but Moxie prodded him awake both times. He then had to return the favor, much to her chagrin. The Enforcers might have been powerful, but they liked the sound of their voices far too much.

When the meeting finally ended, Noah could have wept tears of relief. Everyone headed out into the street and started to split off in their separate ways.

They’re going to have to pay me if they want me to suffer through another one of those wastes of time again.

“We should meet sometime tomorrow. Do you mind if I swing by your class?” Brayden asked, breaking Noah from his internal complaints.

“Huh? Yeah. Feel free. I can always use another instructor,” Noah said with a nod. “And we haven’t had a chance to catch up properly.”

“No. We haven’t,” Brayden agreed. “A lot has happened, but work comes first. Also, I’m exhausted. Those meetings have a way of draining me like nothing else.”

“Tell me about it,” Noah said with a laugh. “Until tomorrow, then.”

“Tomorrow,” Brayden agreed. He raised a hand, then strode off in the opposite direction while Noah and Moxie set a course for the T building.

As soon as they were out of sight and earshot of the others, Moxie grabbed Noah’s shoulders and spun him toward her.

“Whoa. What is it?” Noah asked.

“What is it? Are you kidding?” Moxie hissed, practically shaking him. “I just wasted hours fidgeting in that boring ass meeting waiting to hear about that new damn rune of yours. Tell me already! What is it?”

“Don’t you think we should get back first?” Noah asked, a grin playing across his lips. “Patience is a vir—”

“Noah, I just suffered for hours. I am out of patience. I don’t need to see the damn thing yet, but if you don’t tell me what you made, I am going to do unspeakable things to you,” Moxie hissed, leaning in close. “And you are not going to enjoy most of them.”

“Fine, fine.” He leaned in closer to whisper into her ear. “I might be patting my own back a bit here, but I think it’s a rather unique idea.”

“You are within poking distance, and I am in a poking mood. What is the damn thing?”

Noah chuckled, but decided answering Moxie was probably the best move for the prolonged wellbeing of his sides.

“A Rank 4 called Crumbling Space.”

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