Return of the Runebound Professor

As it turned out, Axil wasn’t actually qualified to promise much of anything that Sievan owned. Even with the threat of being forced to witness what was apparently the most hideous object in existence, she could do nothing but attempt to get him an audience. That was no surprise to Noah.

There was no way a demon as powerful as Sievan would be sending someone actually powerful to retrieve a broken Master Rune. A soul only had so much room in it. Even with the growth that came through advancement, he really doubted that an immensely powerful demon would want to use anything less than the best Runes they could find.

It was far more likely Sievan was just collecting the runes. His name and a threat were probably more than enough to retrieve everything he’d ever previously needed. Axil had just been the closest to their area. The most convenient option for retrieval.

Someone like that wouldn’t have bargaining power. They couldn’t promise anything — and Noah had almost been counting on it. While he’d have been more than happy to agree to a trade for a more worthwhile rune for himself, Lee, or Moxie, he was equally pleased to get an introduction to someone else who could help them.

And that was exactly what Axil offered, straining in her chair and desperately doing everything in her power to get away from Noah’s book.

“I’ll introduce you to Zath,” Axil swore, her eyes screwed so tightly shut that Noah feared her face was going to freeze that way. She jerked against the restraings holding her to no avail. “He will be able to speak on behalf of Lord Sievan. You can come to an arrangement with him.”

“And what stops him from just deciding to try the same shit you did?” Moxie asked, tilting her head to the side. “Are we going to have to fight every single person in your organization?”

“Lord Sievan told me to use any means necessary to acquire the rune he seeks. Zath will not interfere. Just let me go. I do not wish to be in the presence of that… thing any longer.”

This is a really strong reaction for what should amount to little more than a really ugly stitched-together corpse. I’m definitely not complaining, but seriously? I’d suspect Axil was faking this if it wasn’t so disadvantageous for her to do so. If she just spoke to us normally and offered to play ball the first time around, it would have saved her a bunch of time and humiliation.

Works for me. I’d rather trade with Sievan’s underlings than fight them. If it gets me some leverage, maybe I could use that to find out where Wizen is or to get some other advantage over him. We definitely can’t take him out as we are now, and every step in the right direction is valuable.

That was the whole point of this whole Spider shtick. This wasn’t how I planned on taking it, but I’ve always loved improv.

“Acceptable,” Noah said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest “And where are we going to find Zath? I hope you don’t expect us to just let you go free. I haven’t earned a reputation as a particularly magnanimous man.”

“I will call to him. For something of this level of importance, he will arrive. Personally.”

Eh. Can’t ask for more than that. Perfect.

“Then I believe we have ourselves a deal,” Noah said.

“I want to keep the axe,” Lee said.

“Don’t you already have an axe?” Noah frowned. For that matter, he hadn’t seen Lee’s axe in quite some time. “What did you do with it?”

She gave him a sheepish grin. “I left it behind on accident.”

Noah blew out a breath and shook his head. “Don’t lose your toys, Lee. Axil, we’re keeping the axe. I trust you don’t mind? It’s a bit too big for you now anyway.”

Axil cracked an eye open and stared despondently at the huge weapon. “It was crafted from metal mined deep within the Black Reaches. It will not allow another to wield it. I bound it to my soul.”

“I don’t think you can wield it much yourself,” Noah pointed out.

“I will eventually consume enough energy to rebuild myself to my proper size,” Axil said. Her gaze caught on the book and she stiffened. Her features scrunched and she turned her head away. “Is this truly relevant?”

Lee hoisted the axe. She gave it a test swing, which was somewhat concerning given that they were all inside the tent with her, then tilted her head to the side. “It seems to work pretty fine to me.”

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Axil’s gaze snapped to Lee. She stared at the other demon in befuddlement. “You… swung my axe?”

Lee swung the axe again.

“Careful!” Moxie warned, stepping away from Lee. “I am not trying to get chopped in half. Don’t swing sharp things in the tent. You could—”

The momentum of Lee’s swing carried the blade around into the tarp behind her, slicing clean through it. She skidded to a halt, then cleared her throat and moved to stand in front of the newly made flap.

“Oops.”

“How are you doing that?” Axil asked. She glanced back at the book and swallowed, then forced herself to look away from it. “You shouldn’t be able to swing that. It’s mine.”

“Does that mean I can have it?”

Axil’s lips thinned. Her fingers flexed. The axe rattled in Lee’s grip — but it didn’t so much as budge. They both stood still for a moment. Axil’s eye twitched.

“It betrayed me? You shouldn’t be able to — oh, fine. Just take it. It will be so long before I can use it again that I might as well make a new one. Just… let me out of here.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Noah said. “Just go ahead and introduce us to Zath and you’ll be welcome to go on your merry way.”

Axil blew out a defeated breath, but one more glance in the direction of the book was all it took for her to nod her understanding. Moxie’s vines slackened their grip on her, and she used the opportunity to squeeze into them even farther, as if trying to sink in and escape the presence of Noah’s grimoire.

Light filtered into the tent from the front flap. Noah looked over to it. Annoyance flickered over his features. It froze as he spotted Aylin standing on the other side, Vrith beside him.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but this is urgent,” Aylin said, his face pale. “We just picked up word from our network that Commander Zorin is on the move. He’s not even trying to hide it. He’s coming here, Spider.”

The tone of Aylin’s voice made it clear that this was probably a big deal. Unfortunately, Noah had no blasted idea who Zorin was — but that didn’t make it hard to guess. If there was someone with the title of Commander living in Treadon, it was pretty easy to guess who they worked for.

“Belkus’ man?”

“His strongest man,” Aylin said, swallowing.

Shit. My magic is still gone. I can’t take a fight right now.

“Well then, I suppose we’ll have to see what he wants,” Noah said, not letting any of his panic show on his features. That would just make the situation even worse. Filling the camp with terrified demons was the last thing he wanted to do, and it would completely ruin his persona. His mind spun. He wasn’t completely out of cards yet. People almost certainly would have spread word of his fight with Axil by now. That could be used to his advantage.

“You’re going to fight him?” Aylin asked, his eyes widening.

“I suppose we’ll find out,” Noah said. “Moxie, Lee, keep an eye on Axil, would you?”

And get the hell out of here if things go wrong.

Moxie’s lips thinned. She knew what he was doing, and she wasn’t pleased about it. But, with Noah’s magic missing, it was the smartest move. They weren’t going to be able to swing a fight against someone far more powerful than him. Getting as many people to safety was far more important.

“Let me out first,” Axil begged.

“No,” Moxie said. “You’ve still got to take us to Zath. We’ll let you out once this has been dealt with.”

“Sorry, Axil. It shouldn’t take too long. Let’s go,” Noah said to Aylin. “It would be a shame to be caught off guard when our guest arrives. And Vrith, would you grab Yoru for me?”

The two demons nodded. Vrith shot off while Aylin led Noah out of the tent.

While I can’t beat anybody in a magical fight right now, there’s more one way to win a battle — and magic kneels before the throne of pure, unadulterated bullshit.

***

Axil’s mouth was as dry as parchment. She watched Spider leave the tent out of the corner of her eye. The vines binding her infuriatingly weak body had relaxed, but they still held her fast.

Her eyes darted from Moxie to Lee to the dirt. They danced in an attempt to escape, but it was futile. There was no escape from the warped, destroyed canvas that swam in the center of the room.

There was no escape from the being that rose from it, its gaunt form composed of sickly, warped death energy, somewhere between rot and shadow. No escape from the ice-cold fingers that gripped her face. No escape from the sickness that dripped from its undulating flesh and rolled down her skin.

Nobody else could see it. They couldn’t see the slender form that was forced to bend in on itself and scrunch to avoid tearing through the top of the tent. They couldn’t see the empty, sunken eye sockets. Couldn’t see the mouth that floated in the darkness that was its visage, the crooked, too-wide teeth that twisted into a smile.

“Very good,” the Abomination whispered, its words squirming like worms burrowing into her ears. It turned her head to the side, then pulled its hand away, leaving a trail of slime on her cheek. “I’m glad we could come to an agreement, observant one. I would have been most displeased if you had said anything.”

Axil swallowed. She said nothing.

“Keep silent, Servant of Death.” The Abomination’s smile grew wider, splitting its face like a weeping scar. “And remember. I can give you the true-death far faster than you can speak.”

The vile creature sank back, slithering into the pages of the book and vanishing from sight, but not from mind. Axil could still feel its vile, paradoxical gaze burning into her skull. The warped hatred and power that twisted within the creature was so immense that it threatened to choke the breath from her lungs.

Axil didn’t know what could have created such a monstrosity. She didn’t know what horrible monster could have trapped it within the book before her. In her years of life, she’d never witnessed such a thing.

She couldn’t tell how powerful the monster truly was. In her current form, she had no way to fight it even if she’d wanted to. There was absolutely nothing she could do but remain silent and pretend that it was the book alone that had ripped the visceral reaction from her. That it was the book which she feared, not the harbinger of sickly hell trapped within its pages.

And that was exactly what she did.

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