Return of the Runebound Professor

Despite his miraculous return to the land of the living, Noah’s eyes didn’t open. Lee prodded at him for several minutes before Brayden pulled her away, still staring at Noah like he was an apparition.

“What’s going on?” Todd asked. “There aren’t any Runes that can do this.”

“Don’t care,” Brayden rumbled in response. He knelt beside Noah, gently raising one of his eyelids with a single finger. “He’s alive. Unconscious, though.”

“Should we wake him up?” Isabel asked.

“I think we should start by putting some clothes on him,” Brayden replied.

“He’s got spares in his bag,” Lee said, reaching over and pulling out a bundle of cloth. She tore it open with a finger and a pile of clothes fell out onto the ground. She grabbed a set and stuffed the rest into his bag.

Brayden’s brow furrowed and took the set of training clothes from Lee, pinching it between two fingers. He looked down at the extras all sticking out of the bag. “Why does he have so many sets of clothes? That seems a bit excessive.”

Isabel swallowed, wiping the tears from her face with the back of a sleeve. Her eyes flicked from the clothes to Noah and widened slightly. “This isn’t the first time this has happened.”

Lee froze, then sent Isabel a guilty look.

“That’s why you were saying he couldn’t die,” Isabel said. “You weren’t in denial. You literally don’t think he can die.”

Lee snatched the clothes back from Brayden, then started to tug them onto Noah’s limp body. “I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you definitely did,” Todd said, joining Isabel in frowning.

“Nope.”

“Lee–”

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” Lee managed to get Noah’s pants all the way up and slipped his arms into his shirt. “You must have been hearing things.”

“I was not,” Isabel insisted. “Come on. What’s going on, Lee? I thought he died! Were you just going to–”

“He did!” Lee snapped. She blinked, then shook her head. “He did die.”

“He doesn’t look very dead to me,” Brayden said.

Lee pointed at the corpse lying beside the dead Inquisitor. “How dead does that look to you?”

Brayden blanched. “What are you saying, then?”

“I’m saying that you didn’t see anything happen,” Lee said. She got Noah’s jacket on, then stood up and walked over to the body lying where Brayden had dropped it.

“It’s not just Vermil,” Isabel muttered. “They were hunting a demon. Vermil said there was one somewhere back in Arbitage – but it’s not there anymore, is it?”

“What are you talking about?” Todd asked, glancing from Isabel to Lee. The meaning of Isabel’s words suddenly struck him and he stiffened. “You? No. Both of you? You’re both demons? That’s why the prayer beads were working on you?”

Lee didn’t respond. She knelt, grabbing Noah’s body. Her jaw cracked. All the others stiffened as she opened her mouth impossibly wide, stuffing the entire corpse into her mouth in a single move. There was a series of loud crunches as she straightened and turned back to them.

“Can’t leave that lying around,” Lee said softly. “It could get him in trouble. Are you going to tell people?”

Todd and Isabel exchanged a glance. Then Isabel snorted. She doubled over in a bout of hysterical laughter, and all the others stared at her with a mixture of concern and worry.

“Isa?” Todd asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Isabel waved him away, still laughing. She wiped the mirth from her eyes, finally managing to compose herself after several seconds. “I don’t care what either of you are. I would have made a deal with any monster powerful enough to give me what I wanted if I thought I could, but I never imagined I actually had.”

Lee paused. “You… don’t care?”

“It’s a bit of a shock,” Todd admitted with a frown. “But I prefer the two of you to just about any other teacher we’ve ever had. I can see why you kept that particular secret hidden, though. That does make me wonder – when Vermil mentioned those clones…”

Lee cleared her throat. “Also me.”

“I knew there wasn’t a clone rune,” Todd muttered.

“So you were what Vermil was seeking this whole time?” Brayden asked, not sounding surprised as much as confused. “I was expecting something else, I guess.”

“Me?” Lee asked, taken aback by the completely lackluster responses from everyone else. Not a single one of them looked mad or scared. They were just curious. “No. Not really.”

“Then that must be what lets him come back,” Brayden said, a flicker of relief passing over his features. “He… will come back the same as he was before, right?”

“Yeah,” Lee replied, but it took her a few moments. “I think.”

“What do you mean you think?” Isabel asked. “He’s done this before, hasn’t he?”

“Not really,” Lee replied. “Not like this. He always came back immediately. This time it took him a long time, and he’s never returned unconscious. I don’t know if it’s my place to say any more.”

“What should we do, then?” Todd asked. “Something tells me he doesn’t actually have a healing potion in that gourd of his.”

“Take him back to Arbitage,” Brayden replied.

“What?” Isabel blinked. “But we’ve only just left the Linwick Estate. Wouldn’t it be a lot safer if–”

Brayden shook his head. He gently scooped Noah’s body up, cradling him in his arms like a child. “Trust me. There isn’t anywhere less safe for him right now than the Linwick Estate. We need to leave and group back up with Moxie.”

“I thought you didn’t like Moxie because she’s a Torrin,” Isabel said. “And why isn’t the Linwick Estate safe?”

“That isn’t your concern right now,” Brayden said. “And I don’t, but Vermil trusted her, and I don’t know how long I’ll have.”

“Have until what?” Todd asked.

Brayden didn’t respond. He just jerked his chin in the direction they’d been heading before the Inquisitors had interrupted them and set back off down the road. Lee grabbed Noah’s belongings and, after exchanging one last glance with the two students, the rest of them followed after him.

***

Noah floated in a sea of darkness. There was only one thing he knew for sure – he wasn’t dead. He knew what the afterlife was like, and this wasn’t it. There weren’t any lines of people or glowing pathways leading into the great beyond.

All that surrounded him was nothingness. He didn’t know how long he laid there, suspended, before the urge to do literally anything finally struck him. The entire world felt like it was muted and distant, but Noah willed himself upright.

At least, he thought it was upright. It felt upright. There was no way to know for sure, as there was no reference with which to tell up from down or left from right. Noah lifted a hand, but he couldn’t see it.

That probably shouldn’t have been much of a surprise either, but he still blinked. Or rather, he felt like he blinked. It wasn’t like he could tell.

“Hello?” Noah asked.

His words vanished into the darkness, but they came with the small mercy of actually letting him hear anything other than the endless silence surrounding him. Noah raised a hand to his face, running it down the beginnings of the stubble on his chin.

Wherever I am, I haven’t had a chance to shave in a while.

The thought made a snort of amusement slip out. He rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh, stretching his arms out. Noah couldn’t quite remember what had happened or how he’d arrived in this realm of emptiness.

Snippets of memory danced through his mind like images trying to chase after each other and reform a full movie. A flash of the Linwick Estate, Father’s placid features, Isabel and Todd’s training, Lee chowing down on a butterfly.

The images flowed faster the longer he concentrated on him. Noah’s brow furrowed. Another memory struck him.

A man in a robe, carrying beads that rang with agonizing pain.

He drew in a sharp breath, trying to pull back, but the dam had been broken and the memories flowed faster still. Every single trace of the fight replayed itself in his mind in excruciating detail, going right up until he was shunted out of his body.

“What happened?” Noah muttered to himself. A flash of panic shot through him. “Wait. There was another Inquisitor.”

He turned, trying to find literally anything that could help him, but the infinite black provided no more information than it had before. Noah reached for his Runes, but nothing met him. Attempts to sink into his mental space proved equally futile, even though there wasn’t any fog in his mind.

“What the hell? Where am I?”

There was, somewhat predictably, no response.

There wouldn’t be one for quite some time.

Noah was no stranger to waiting. It was one of the things he hated most. And, unfortunately, it was precisely the only thing he currently found himself capable of doing. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t move from his suspended position in the air. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t call on his Runes.

All he could do was wait.

And so, he did.

Time certainly passed, Noah was certain of that. By his best guess, it was somewhere between a few days and a week or two, though he lost count and drifted off several times, forcing him to guess how much he’d missed.

But, as the time dragged on, something finally changed. A tiny pinprick of white appeared at the edge of the darkness. It took Noah more time than he would have cared to admit to notice it. He must have been staring in its direction in a vague trance for hours before a tiny portion of his brain finally kicked back into gear.

Noah willed himself toward the light and he flew across the darkness, arriving before it. He squinted, but he couldn’t see anything through the mote. It was just brilliant white. Noah reached up toward it, seeing his hand for the first time since he’d arrived in the dark.

He pressed against the white. The darkness resisted him, but Noah dug deeper into the tiny crack, trying to pull it wider. A little more light spilled out as Noah managed to dig the hole open a little more.

Noah dug and tore at the hole, suddenly filled with desperation. He kicked and ripped, slamming his entire body against the darkness in an attempt to pull more of the light in. Slowly, the hole grew larger.

He still couldn’t see anything but pure, unadulterated white behind it, but Noah was past caring. His efforts managed to force the crack wide enough for him to fit both hands into. Noah grabbed it by the edges, letting out a roar as he pulled with all his might.

Every single muscle that he could bring to bear tensed as he pulled. The hole started to widen. Light washed down over Noah, forcing him to squint. A line carved through the darkness above him, tearing in line with the hole as he pulled harder and harder.

He was almost through. He just needed a little more. Noah called on the dredges of his strength, pulling every last bit of effort he had left to give, and yanked. The sound like a ripping curtain tore through the empty dark.

Brilliant white light washed down on Noah, completely bathing him in its embrace and banishing every last trace of the shadow. He drew in a startled, gasping breath as the world dropped out from beneath him.

Noah’s eyes snapped open and he bolted into a seated position, propping himself up with his arms as his heart thundered in his chest. A headache gripped the edges of his temples and his entire body felt like it was made out of dead wood – but he was awake once more.

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