Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah, Moxie, and Aylin met Pirren at the edge of the market square. The Rank 5 snake demon stood in the shadow of an old, cobbled building, her hood pulled low over her face and the thick ropey strands from her crown just barely visible in the darkness within it.

Her back pressed to the wall and her shoulders hunched forward slightly, the unease clear in her posture as she shifted from foot to foot. Even though Noah couldn’t see her face, her back stiffened when she caught sight of them.

“It would be wise to keep our power concealed from here on out,” Moxie said under her breath, just barely loud enough for Noah to pick up. “We might be running into demons strong enough to actually detect it.”

Noah nodded in agreement. He’d already been keeping his domain largely repressed, but he pulled the last of it into himself. Demons didn’t have domains, but given how varied they were, he wouldn’t have been surprised if one of them had a way to detect it. Blowing their cover and revealing they weren’t actually demons was just about the dumbest thing they could do right now.

“I hope you come bearing good news,” Noah said as they came to a stop before Pirren.

“There’s an auction,” Pirren said. She let her head incline slightly. “It’s soon. I… wasn’t able to get in on my own. My standing wasn’t high enough to get a spot at such a short notice.”

Aylin’s head tilted to the side and his brow creased slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Noah didn’t miss the motion. He was pretty sure the boy would have said if Pirren had lied, but something about her words seemed like it may not have sat right.

“That’s disappointing. I really didn’t want to wait much longer,” Noah said as he blew a breath out. “When’s the next one we can get into? Or am I going to have to take more drastic measures?”

“Actually, it’s in a few hours. I couldn’t get in on my own, but I was able to get someone else to pull a string for me. We’ve got access to the upcoming auction.”

Noah’s hand brushed across his waist and along the top of his travel bag. It was strangely light. He’d left his gourd with Lee for the trip, and the missing weight felt odder than he would have expected. It was like he’d handed someone else his still-beating heart.

Now I know how Davy Jones felt. Poor dude. I think I’d take Lee over a jar of dirt, but only as long as she doesn’t get too hungry.

After waiting for a second to see if Aylin would say anything, Noah nodded. “Today would be great. Well done. You worked just as fast as I had hoped. Lead on, then. I’m looking forward to this.”

Pirren gave him a terse nod and turned, setting off down the street. Moxie and Noah exchanged a glance as they all fell in behind the demon. He could read the question on her lips as if she’d said it out loud.

She was asking, does she always act this suspicious?

Noah gave her a slight shrug in response. Pirren hadn’t been the most confident demon he’d ever met after he’d brushed her mask away to reveal the truth. He’d definitely put on a pretty good show during their meeting, so it was possible she was just scared of him.

Aylin’s reaction to her words made him suspect that it was possible there was more than that going on. Pirren was a demon, after all. She had to be looking for an angle that would help her salvage the situation. It would have been odd if she didn’t.

Pressing her for information here won’t do anything other than cause a scene. Pirren definitely doesn’t have any major allies, so she doesn’t pose a threat to us on her own. Whoever helped her out probably didn’t do it because of their friendship or kind-heartedness. It’s possible they found out I’m working through her and are trying to get closer to me, either to get rid of me or to get on my good side. Only one way to find out. We’ll just go with things as they are for now and then see where they lead. I’m confident we can bail out all the way up until we’re in the auction itself.

They walked through the streets of Treadon for quite some time, none of them saying a word. Gentle orange light turned ruddy and the temperature in the street steadily rose as the day finally started to fully dawn.

Streamers of red and purple smoke danced in the air far above them. Their colors reflected down on the streets like the seabed of an ocean beneath the sunrise, almost seeming to make the cobblestones shimmer and ripple.

It was surprisingly beautiful, and not something that Noah had expected to find in the Damned Plains — and certainly not in the slums of a city within the Damned Plains. Neither Pirren nor Aylin seemed particularly impressed with it. They’d probably seen it so many times that it had just become commonplace.

The walk finally came to an end before a ramshackle building after over half an hour of increasingly awkward silence. It was a single story, with a broken roof and crumbling walls. It didn’t look like anyone had lived in it in quite some time.

“This is the auction?” Noah asked doubtfully. “It looks more like somebody’s going to be waiting to sell me drugs.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Wasn’t everything about appearances here? I was expecting some grand entrance for all the demons going into the auction to show off before they walked in, like a red-carpet type of thing. Stop for a moment, do a little flexing on the poors, the whole shebang. The only people to flex on here are rats.

“Drugs?” Pirren’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know what that is. This isn’t the auction, though. It’s just a shortcut. The actual auction is closer to the center of Treadon.”

“A shortcut in the opposite direction of the actual auction?” Moxie tilted her head to the side.

Pirren cleared her throat and pulled her hood back, revealing her features as she scratched at the side of her neck beneath her chin. “I… would prefer not to be seen entering the auction. It would not go well for me, and it would probably negatively impact you as well. It would be much better to enter discreetly.”

Aylin inclined his head just enough for Noah to catch the motion. She was telling the truth.

“Lead on, then,” Noah said. “I don’t particularly care how we get to the auction as long as we get there. I have no need to announce my presence. People will find out who we are soon enough.”

They followed Pirren into the building, where she heaved a large dust-covered stone off the top of an old metal trapdoor. She yanked it open, gently setting it back against the stone she’d just moved, then dropped down into an old passage beneath.

It stretched on as far as Noah could see. Open passageways stretched off from it. It wasn’t just a shortcut. It was an underground labyrinth. The air was stale and dry, but it seemed clean enough. Pirren set off at a brisk pace.

She moved a lot faster down here than she had in the city above. It was pretty easy to tell that this wasn’t the first time that Pirren had used this particular path.

Another hour passed. At least, Noah was fairly certain it was something around an hour. It was difficult to count time when he was beneath the ground. Eventually, Pirren turned down one of the side passages and they came to a stop at a circular stairwell that wound up toward the city above.

The dust around it was scuffed. Either Pirren had come through this way many times before, or she wasn’t the only one that knew about these passageways. Given how big they were, Noah got the feeling it was the latter.

Above them, he could just barely make out the sound of yelling and loud, energetic conversation. It could have been either a brawl or a party — or both. Noah wasn’t sure the Damned Plains knew the difference between the two.

“The way in is just up through here,” Pirren said as she started up the stairs and threw a look back at them over her shoulder. “The auction house is above us.”

“So what stops people from just coming in through here unannounced?” Moxie asked after a few minutes of climbing. The sound had gotten loud enough that she had to raise her voice slightly just to make sure they could hear her.

This is a far cry from that fancy auction we went to back in Arbitage. Feels more like a poorly contained riot.

Pirren came to a stop before a stone door and rapped on it. “This.”

A second passed, and Noah was just about to start wondering if nobody had heard Pirren over the cacophony when the grumble of stone-on-stone ground out and the door swung open to reveal a short demon with pointed yellow horns and thin lips. He wore a black, one-piece suit that made him look remarkably like a bowling ball.

Does every single culture just end up somehow developing suits? Or are they copying humans? I wonder if anyone’s ever studied suitology.

“Name?” the demon asked.

“Pirren.” Pirren’s voice was taut with displeasure.

The demon’s eyes glazed over for a second. Then his lip curled upward in a smirk and he stepped to the side. “Ah, yes. Of course. Wise choice of entrance. Who are the others?”

“Members of my party.”

“Is that so?” the demon asked, his lip curling even higher. “They were not announced. Nobody can enter the auction without being announced or without paying a concealment fee.”

Pirren’s jaw clenched. “A fee? That’s not part the rules. I—”

“Who are you to decide what the rules are? Lord Belkus does, and this is his building. I speak for him as one of his doormen. Identify yourselves or pay the entry fee. Your choice.”

“He’s lying,” Aylin whispered.

Noah hadn’t needed Aylin to tell him that, but he appreciated it, nonetheless. He took a step forward and prepared to put on his best Spider act. But, before Noah could say a word, the demon’s eyes widened.

He took a hurried step back and flicked his hand. “You may enter. You’re in booth 14.”

Noah blinked.

I didn’t even do anything yet.

He wasn’t about to question his fortune. Noah sent a glance back at Pirren and gave her a slight shrug. She swallowed before stepping past him and leading them up the stairs, leaving the demon at their backs.

Noah watched him as they left to make sure he didn’t try anything, but the demon’s attention was suddenly completely fixed on one of the walls. They soon left him behind and emerged into a long hallway riddled with doors numbered by metal carvings embossed into their stone surfaces above brass handles at their centers.

The group arrived before door 14 after just a short walk. Pirren swallowed as she put her hand on the door. She looked even more scared than Noah had expected her to.

Just how bad did that last auction she went to go?

Pirren’s features tightened. She let out a short breath and grit her teeth. Then she twisted the handle, pushing it open and revealing a small balcony overlooking a stage far below. Dozens of other balconies ringed the circular arena before them. Many had already been filled by other demons who did absolutely nothing to attempt to conceal their identities as they stood proudly, yelling a mixture of greetings, insults, and curses at each other.

Noah’s eyes were drawn to their balcony. It had a long table with six hefty metal chairs set up along it. And, sitting upon a soft blue cushion that had been placed upon one of the chairs with her knees drawn up to her chest, was a girl with long, silver hair. Her face was covered by a white mask with a single stylized eye painted with blue across its surface. There were no holes for her mouth or actual eyes. A line ran down the center of the mask from the eye and stopped at her chin.

She looked up as they entered and her head tilted to the side.

“Hello, Spider.” The girl’s words were spoken in the tone of a shy child, but each one seemed to hold the weight of a mountain. Even though she couldn’t have seen anything through her mask, she turned to look straight in Noah’s direction. “You’re much heavier than I expected.”

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