Return of the Runebound Professor

“So fear is the best way to stop a fight before it starts?” Aylin asked, his eyes fixed intently on Vrith. “That makes a lot of sense. It’s why you focus on attacking quickly and utilizing shadow-related runes. If your targets couldn’t see what was attacking them, they’d make things up and be more scared than they would be if they knew who they were up against — ah! That’s the feeling you eat, isn’t it? Fear?”

Vrith groaned from where she sat slumped against the throne beside him, her head cradled in her hands. “Please stop. You are literally sucking me dry. How is your damn mental force so powerful? Didn’t Spider literally just make you a Rank 3? You shouldn’t be able to take energy from me like this!”

“Sorry,” Aylin said with a wince. He’d asked his last question about thirty-five seconds ago, but this one had just slipped out before he’d managed to stop it. The more he spoke to Vrith, the more he wanted to know.

He wanted to know how she worked. How she fought — how she thought. And not just about her. He wanted to know everything. Every scrap of information just felt like it added to the growing avalanche of desire.

The world had been so small before. So constrained. But in just a few minutes, Vrith had taken those boundaries and ripped them free to show the horizon beyond. Unfortunately for her, Aylin had taken more than a few mistaken nibbles out of her soul in the process.

In his defense, he hadn’t meant to. It just happened. Not every question drew energy, but the more exited and invested he got, the harder it was to avoid draining Vrith even further.

“Do you want something to eat?” Aylin offered meekly. He didn’t need someone to tell him that constantly snacking on someone else’s energy was not considered polite by any stretch of the imagination.

She was a lot more patient than he’d expected, though the threat of Spider hanging over both of their heads had definitely helped stay her hand.

Vrith let out a garbled groan. “Please. I’m too tired to stand at this point. Someone needs to teach you how to speak to others without sucking down all their energy by peppering them with stupid questions.”

“If you ask me one more thing, I might keel over and die,” Vrith said. “That was not an exaggeration. Please. I am quite literally begging you. Don’t ask me anything. Just get food. I can’t consume energy from you, so we have to do this the old fashioned way.”

Aylin sheepishly hopped off the chair and hurried out of the tent. His new gang — they didn’t have a name yet, but he’d get to that soon enough if Spider hadn’t chosen one already — had already distributed a fair amount of it.

Fortunately, they’d kept more than enough for everyone here, pushing it all into a few different storage tents. Aylin approached the closest one, exchanging a nod with the demon on guard before stepping inside.

It was a strange feeling to walk into a tent and find it completely stuffed to the brim with meats and cheeses and breads. There was enough to feed him, Violet, Torick, and Edda for months. Maybe more, if they ate carefully.

Aylin shook his head. He scooped up a large loaf of bread and a palm-sized wheel of cheese. That already felt like too much. But, after a second of hesitation, he grabbed a long strip of jerky as well before striding back out and to the leader’s tent.

“I got some food,” Aylin said once he’d returned to Vrith’s side. He crouched beside her. Vrith opened her mouth.

She actually wants me to feed her? A bit weird, but sure. I suppose it’s kind of my fault she’s this exhausted.

“Wh—” Vrith started, only to get a loaf of bread stuffed into her mouth. She let out a muffled grunt of surprise, but no demon’s instincts would ever let them waste energy, especially when they were as worn out as Vrith was. She bit down, chewing wearily before swallowing.

A tiny amount of energy visibly returned to her body as her posture straightened slightly and her lips parted once more, only for Aylin to stick the bread straight back in. They stared at each other for a second.

Then Vrith’s shoulders slumped.

That’s odd. She should be getting more energy from eating, but she somehow looks even more tired. That doesn’t make sense.

Aylin nearly asked her what was going on before he caught himself. That would be asking another question. He wasn’t very confident he’d be able to avoid accidentally stealing more energy from her in the process.

Thus, the only option left to him was to continue feeding Vrith. Her eyes bored into his, but she let him feed her the rest of the bread without saying anything. Aylin broke a piece of cheese off as soon as the bread was finished.

Vrith’s eyes flicked to it as she finished chewing the bread. One of them twitched. Then she let out a sigh and opened her mouth, letting Aylin put the piece in. They made it all the way through the rest of the cheese and half the jerky before the tent flaps parted behind them.

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The streets whispered to Aylin’s ears.

He glanced over his shoulder, his hand halfway to Vrith’s mouth with a piece of jerky between his fingers, as Robon stepped into the tent. The large demon froze in place. Vrith muttered a curse under her breath as her cheeks brightened, only to get another piece of jerky stuffed between her lips while she wasn’t watching.

Robon nearly choked on his own saliva. He coughed into his remaining fist and quickly averted his gaze. “Forgive me, streetlord. I didn’t realize you were busy.”

“I’m not,” Aylin said. “Vrith just asked me to feed her because I ripped a bit too much energy out of her on accident.”

The back of Vrith’s head made an audible thunk as she smacked it against the side of the chair. Aylin fed her another piece of jerky. She hadn’t spoken yet, so she clearly still needed to recover more energy.

“I… see,” Robon said, sounding like he didn’t see at all. A small tremor of fear ran through his voice. That was response the action that any rational demon would have had at seeing the former urchin turned streetlord stuffing food into the mouth of one of the most dangerous demons in the area without so much as a flicker of worry. “I have reports with regard to Spider’s orders. Is now a good time?”

“For anything to do with Spider? It always is,” Aylin said. “What happened?”

“Three gangs have responded so far. One has completely surrendered and will be reporting to our camp tomorrow. The second said that they want to see Spider themselves before they give in, and the third wanted to speak with you directly. They’re sending a representative.”

“Who? How strong?” Aylin asked.

“Rekeba, the second of the Silent Silvertooth,” Robon said through a grimace. “She’s a Rank 3, and there are rumors their streetlord is actually halfway through Rank 3. They’re a powerful gang. I’m not sure if it’s lucky or not that they’ve responded to Spider’s threat so quickly.”

“Is she coming alone?”

“Unlikely. Representatives usually come with protection if they aren’t coming to issue a direct challenge. I’d expect three or four others with her.”

The back of Aylin’s neck prickled and his arms tensed.

I have to deal with another one so quickly after Vrith? I don’t suppose I’ve gotten lucky enough for Lee to handle everything for me this time. Although… this isn’t the same. I’ve got Vrith on my side now. I can — I have to — handle this.

“Thank you for letting me know. How long until they arrive?”

“An hour, I suspect.”

Aylin nodded and rose to his feet. “I’ll get ready. Make sure the camp is prepared to greet them. Politely, that is.”

Robon inclined his head and hurriedly left the tent. Aylin glanced down at Vrith. She still hadn’t said anything. That was worrying.

How much energy do Rank 3 Demons need if all that food didn’t fix her? And more importantly, how much energy did I take?

“Can I open my mouth now?” Vrith asked warily. “Or are you going to stick more food into it?”

Aylin blinked. “What? You asked me to feed you.”

“I told you to bring me food,” Vrith said, running a hand along the back of her scalp and letting out a long-suffering sigh. Then she paused for a second. “Though I can’t deny it was nice getting fed. Vroth had a servant feed him once or twice. I never had the chance. It makes you feel… important.”

“How long have you had enough energy to do things normally?” Aylin asked, narrowing his eyes. “Were you just letting me feed you that whole time?”

“In my defense, you didn’t give me much choice.” Vrith snickered at the expression on his face.

Aylin paused as a thought struck him. “Does that mean I can keep asking you a bunch of questions if I get you more food?”

“Are you checking if you can bribe me into getting drained repeatedly in exchange for getting fed?” Vrith’s smirk fell away.

“Yes, I think that would be accurate.”

“I could just have a different subordinate do it,” Vrith pointed out. “I refuse to believe that Spider’s plans for bringing my gang under you included turning me into a magical battery.”

“You probably could, but I’m pretty sure you got embarrassed when Robon saw us,” Aylin pointed out. “And I’m the one that controls the food supplies.”

Vrith stared at him. “You’re threatening to limit my food?”

“No, that would be awful. I’m offering more of it,” Aylin corrected. “We definitely have enough. Golon was hoarding it. I don’t need nearly as much as he did, so it’s my prerogative as to how it’s used as long as everyone in the gang gets some. I can choose to give you extra.”

That made her hesitate. Vrith lifted a finger, then let it lower as she chewed her lower lip. “I cannot believe I am considering this. If Vroth was alive, he’d strangle me on the spot for being so stupid.”

“He didn’t sound like a very good brother from what little you’ve told me of him,” Aylin said, scratching the back of his neck. “It didn’t seem like he ever considered what you wanted. You were just his servant, not his equal.”

“You have a vested interest in getting me to say yes.” Vrith paused for a moment and glanced at the entrance of the tent, looking over Aylin’s head. “Don’t you feel embarrassment at all? You’re a streetlord. Feeding someone is beneath you.”

“Why? I fed my siblings all the time, and they did the same for me. It’s just a way to show you care,” Aylin said with a frown. “We didn’t constantly do it, but it’s not like we had all that much food in the first place.”

They fell silent for a few seconds. Then Vrith’s cheeks colored. “Fine. Deal — but within reason. I’m not giving you literally all of my energy. You need to learn how to ask questions you’re interested in without draining people of every scrap of energy they’ve got.”

“So you’ll keep teaching me?”

“Yes,” Vrith said through a sigh.

“Great.” Aylin grinned. “In that case, we should start with anything you know about Rekeba and the Silent Silvertooth. I think I’ve got an idea as to how to deal with them, but I need to know a lot more before it has a chance of working.”

“Oh?” Vrith tilted her head to the side. “An idea? Already?”

“It’s based on what I’ve seen Spider and his group do. I’m not nearly as strong as they are, but with your help… it could work.” Aylin threw a glance over his shoulder, but his ears and tongue already told him everything he needed to know. The tent was empty and nobody was there to overhear them. His eyes narrowed and his features darkened.

“I’m going to break her, but I’ll need your help to do it.”

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