Return of the Runebound Professor

After getting some food to Lee, Noah and Moxie sat down with her near the edge of the camp. Noah couldn’t keep himself annoyed for too long in face of the relief that Lee was awake again.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Noah demanded after Lee had finished devouring her third strip of jerky.

Lee’s cheeks reddened and she glanced to the side, suddenly finding the grass really interesting. “I… might have gotten a little ambitious. Sorry.”

“Please give me more to work with than that,” Noah said wearily. “Are you okay?”

After a short pause, Lee waggled a hand in the air. She took another bite of jerky, chewing for a few moments before speaking again. “I’m sure you already gathered that I ripped some Runes out of my soul to make room for the ones from the jaguar.”

“Yeah, and you proceeded to collapse right after.”

“I thought I could handle removing two. The Runes were both close to full and had enough pressure coming off them that I just couldn’t resist. It’s really difficult to get Runes like that, and I was hoping that if my soul had a little damage already, adding some more wouldn’t hurt.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not how it works at all. The more soul damage you have, the worse it is. Even if you would have been fine with a little, doubling it could do serious damage.”

“Yeah, I know. I just couldn’t help myself,” Lee admitted. She plucked at the grass by her feet. “I still think it was worth it. Filling Rank 3 Runes takes forever, and getting two Runes of this quality were worth the damage I took. I probably saved myself half a year of effort.”

Lee nodded. “I definitely took a good hit, but don’t forget what I am. Our bodies are more closely tied to our souls and Runes than humans are. I’ll recover faster than most humans would from soul damage. It’ll be annoying for a month or two, but nothing compared to how long it would have taken to properly fill both of those Runes. I’m sorry for putting so much burden on you, though. If I’d known I was going to pass out, I would have warned you.”

Noah shook his head and let out a sigh. “It’s fine, Lee. I did tell you to take the Runes. I forgot how dangerous it normally is to remove Runes from your soul.”

“Well, it was only that bad because of how closely my kind are tied to their Runes. I didn’t replace my lynchpin Rune,” Lee said. She grimaced. “If I had, I’d probably still be unconscious.”

“Was it worth it, at least?” Moxie asked.

“Well, I got carried around for a few days, so I’d say yes.”

“Not that.” Moxie rolled her eyes. “The Runes. You just ripped a part of your soul out for them. Were they worth the price?”

“Absolutely. Compared to the kluged together Runes I had before, these are incredible. I’m not sure what the combination was, so that might be a bit of a problem when I try to combine them and lack some understanding of how they work, but I can deal with that when I come to it. Do you know how difficult it is to get a Rune that lets you actually merge with your element rather than just control it?”

Moxie rocked back and let out a slow whistle. “I thought that might have been some effect unique to the jaguar. You can replicate it?”

“Umbral Body is really close to a perfect Rune, and the jaguar really knew what it was doing. The intent behind how this works must have been razor thin. It’s an incredible Rune,” Lee said, a smile flitting across her face. “I couldn’t have asked for a better Rune.”

“Well, I’m glad that it worked out in the end,” Noah said. “Do you know how your soul damage is going to affect you? Should we be making sure you stay out of fights?”

“I might be really low on energy for quite a while.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “When you say low on energy–”

“I probably won’t be able to walk all day.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you’ve got a personal aide to carry you around,” Moxie said, sending Noah a wry glance. “Will you be fine in fights, though?”

“As long as they don’t go on too long, I should be.”

Noah let out a huff. “Don’t make a habit of it. I’m not in the business of ferrying around lazy bums.”

“Hey! You dangled incredible Rank 3 Runes in front of my nose,” Lee protested, pointing an accusatory finger at Noah. “You couldn’t possibly expect me to have any self-control there.”

“You know what? Fair point,” Noah said. He stole a piece of jerky from Lee’s hands before she could eat it, then stuffed the whole thing into his mouth while she watched in horror. “Personal aide tax.”

Lee scrunched her nose. “Fine. Did anything else happen while I was out?”

“I got a stalker,” Noah said through a mouthful of jerky. He finished chewing and swallowed. “Professor from Arbitage and his student by the names of Revin and James. Revin has some form of stealth. He doesn’t seem to be a threat, but it’s hard to say.”

“Why does everyone have stealth now?” Lee complained. “That was my thing. I’m the sneaky one. Now both the jaguar and this new guy have it.”

“Well, the jaguar is dead now,” Moxie pointed out. She quickly realized her mistake and cleared her throat. “Though that doesn’t mean–”

“Good idea,” Lee said, her eyes lighting up. “We can just kill him.”

“No,” Noah said, holding a finger up. “We don’t kill random people, Lee. We’ve definitely gone over this before. You only kill them if they do something that threatens either us or our students.”

“So I just have to wait for him to look at someone wrong?”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be deliberately obtuse.”

Lee huffed. “Fine. I won’t kill him. Is he interesting at least?”

Noah and Moxie exchanged a glance.

“Interesting is certainly a word I’d use,” Noah said. “You’ll probably run into him at some point. I get the feeling he really enjoys talking about himself.”

Lee shrugged. She found herself out of jerky to eat and send Moxie a pitiful look. Moxie sighed and handed Lee over half of her own food, which Lee proceeded to scarf down.

“Thanks. Being unconscious makes you hungry.”

“I’m pretty sure everything makes you hungry,” Noah said. “Your metabolism is something else.”

“Monsters are just cooler than humans.”

That scratched a question that Noah had nearly forgotten about. He straightened slightly. “You just reminded me of something. Do you recognize this Rune?”

Noah dug through his belongings, then pulled out the drawing he’d made of the Snake’s Rune that he’d copied down without actually Imbuing. Lee glanced at it and tilted her head to the side. “Yeah. It says Serpentine Scales. Why?”

“I can’t read it,” Noah said. He looked to Moxie. “Can you?”

Moxie shook her head, leaning closer to study it. She let out a soft grunt and looked up to Noah. “I’ve never seen a Rune like that before. Where’d you get it?”

“From a snake,” Noah said. He lowered his voice so it was just a whisper, then leaned closer to Moxie and Lee to whisper into their ears. “The same way I got the Runes out of the jaguar, and the same way I can fiddle with both of your Runes once I hit Rank 3.”

Moxie’s eyes widened slightly as Noah pulled back. “I have to admit that I was wondering how you’d managed that. Did you try absorbing it?”

Noah shook his head. “I was too concerned it would screw my soul up somehow.”

“Smart,” Moxie said. “It does beget the question of why Lee can read it, though. It’s not like all monsters are the same.”

They both looked to Lee, who shrugged in response. “I’ve got no clue. It just looks like a normal Rune to me. Didn’t you learn to read?”

“Not really,” Noah said under his breath.

I kind of just stole Vermil’s reading comprehension abilities.

“Of course I did,” Moxie said, sending another look at the snake’s Rune. “But this isn’t in any language I speak. It’s not Runic.”

“Sure it is.”

“I don’t think this is going to go anywhere,” Noah said, closing his book and putting it back into his bag. “Lee, I’d like to do some experiments. You mentioned a few Runes when we first met that were unique to your, ah, kind. Could you draw one of them?”

Lee shrugged and took a sheet of paper out of Noah’s bag, rooting around until she found the quill and ink vial. She set them on the grass, pressing it down to smooth out her working surface, and started to draw.

A few minutes later, she flipped the paper around to present an unintelligible mess of squiggles. Moxie leaned over to peer at it, then scrunched her nose.

“Well, that’s useless.”

“Quite,” Noah agreed. Lee lowered the paper with a frown.

“What? It’s perfectly legible.”

“Not to us,” Noah said, chewing his lower lip. “Odd. I really want to know what would happen if I tried to add a Rune that I can’t read into my soul. Would it give me the attributes of a monster?”

“More like you’ll explode,” Moxie said, crossing her arms. She paused for a moment. “Would you survive your soul exploding?”

“I can’t imagine I would. But what if it was just my body?”

Moxie opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap. “Maybe we should put a pin in that. It would be a huge pain if you actually managed to properly kill yourself and stayed dead.”

It’s such a pleasure to have friends that really care. Killing myself is totally fine as long as I don’t stay dead, though. It’s how I’ve solved just about every problem I’ve had since getting here.

Noah and Moxie let Lee finish her dinner without bothering her too much more, only speaking to fill her in on the rest of what she’d missed and where they were currently headed. Despite Lee’s enthusiasm, it quickly became apparent that her energy was just as low as she’d warned.

Lee’s eyelids started to droop just a few minutes after she’d finished eating, and she nearly flopped flat on her face before Moxie caught her by the shoulder. Lee let out a massive yawn, revealing a row of surprisingly sharp teeth before shaking her head like a dog.

“I might need to get some sleep,” Lee said, rubbing her eyes. “Could you–”

Lee flopped forward onto the grass and promptly started to snore. Noah and Moxie glanced at each other.

“Did she snore before?” Moxie asked.

“No,” Noah replied, glaring at Lee. “Nor does she snore now. Not if she wants to get carried back to the tent, at least.”

Lee suddenly stopped snoring.

“You could tell she was faking it?” Moxie mouthed.

Noah just shrugged.

It was a pretty safe bet. Little brat.

“I’ll go put her to bed,” Noah said, pushing himself to his feet with a grunt. He slung Lee over his shoulder, taking care not to shake her around too heavily. “After that, I think I’ll investigate the Red Barrens and get a better look at the monsters we’re up against. Will you be okay?”

Moxie nodded. “I’ll set up some protection around the camp just in case. Don’t be gone too long if you can avoid it.”

“Will do,” Noah promised, turning and heading over to one of Isabel’s stone tents. Todd caught his eye, then grinned as he looked from Noah to Lee.

Noah just shook his head and ducked inside. He laid Lee down on the ground, then took his belongings off and set them by her side before heading back out.

It was time to get to hunting. And, after that, he was going to take some time to actually get a Rune out of Dayton’s grimoire. Rank 3 was sitting just around the corner for him, and he didn’t plan to make it wait too long.

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