Return of the Runebound Professor

Silvertide led Noah, Lee, and Moxie out of the advanced track meeting at a brisk pace. He made a beeline for the transport cannon, moving surprisingly fast for a man that relied on a cane to walk.

They reached it just minutes later and ascended to the top. The control room was more packed than Noah had ever seen it. Brayden and Neir stood by the control panel and Tim hovered behind the controls, his face creased in concentration as he adjusted them.

Dozens of other Enforcers that Noah didn’t recognize milled around the room, readying their gear and speaking in hushed, professional tones. Godrick was among them — Noah hadn’t been looking for him during the meeting, but it looked like the large man would be joining the mission.

“There are a lot more people here than I thought there would be,” Moxie said as they cut over to join Brayden and Neir.

“Wizen is a major threat, but not everybody here will be attempting to breach his sanctum,” Silvertide said. “We need to make sure he doesn’t send people back into Arbitage while we’re trying to attack him. About half of these Enforcers will be ensuring Wizen can’t open our portal back up or counterattack.”

“Is it easier to open a portal when there’s been space magic used in an area?” Noah asked.

“Yes,” Brayden answered for Silvertide, turning to give them a nod of greeting. “Considerably easier. Space Magic is its own greatest weakness. The more of it someone else uses in an area, the easier it is for other people to do the same.”

Interesting. It’s not like using Space Magic leaves behind more space to work with… does it have something to do with how Space Runes are hard to use naturally? Maybe using them weakens whatever limit is restricting them normally.

“Are we expecting Wizen to try to counterattack?” Moxie asked with a concerned frown. “Is he actually strong enough to divert his forces like that?”

“It’s hard to say. Wizen is difficult to predict,” Neir said with a shake of his head. “We can’t say what he’s going to do or how he’ll react. It’s best to take precautions regardless. What I want to know is why we’re inviting Rank 3 — wait. Weren’t you Rank 3?”

Moxie shrugged in response. “People don’t stay at the same rank forever, Enforcer Neir. Circumstances changed.”

Neir’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Both of you reached Rank 4 within just weeks of each other. It can’t be the Torrins… do you have a noble family sponsoring you?”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant to the task at hand,” Brayden said gruffly. “They’re both capable mages, and we need backup. Enforcers can’t do everything on their own. Vermil has dealt with Father and Gentil, one of Wizen’s men. He’s more than capable of holding his own, as are the rest of his group.”

“True enough. At the bare minimum, more bodies wouldn’t go awry.” Neir let out an explosive breath and shook his head. “How long until the cannon is ready?”

“I’m expecting an hour at the minimum.” Godrick stepped through the crowd, squeezing his large body between the other mages with a grimace. He adjusted his coat and sent a look over to Tim. “Wizen knows what he’s doing. His spatial defenses are incredible from what I’ve been told. I’ll be honest, I’m surprised it’s moving this fast at all. That old man knows his way about a transport cannon better than anyone I’ve ever met. If he wasn’t navigating where we were going, I don’t know if we’d be able to get within a league of Wizen.”

A flush of pride washed through Noah even though he had absolutely nothing to do with any of Tim’s accomplishments. It was just nice to hear someone actually acknowledging Tim’s talents.

Almost as if Tim could tell that they were speaking about him, he straightened up and gave a nod to an Enforcer that Noah didn’t recognize. They exchanged a few brief words before the Enforcer broke away.

Tim spotted Noah in the crowd and he pushed away from the desk, hurrying to join them. Lines of worry creased his weathered face.

“You’re going to be going after Wizen?” Tim asked, raising his voice to be heard over the dull roar of conversation filling the room.

“Yes. I promised Brayden I’d back him up,” Noah said. “Don’t worry. I can handle myself, Tim.”

“I have no doubt of that,” Tim said. “And you’re in good company. Just be careful. That woman that attacked the tower was powerful, and if she was just one of the people working for Wizen, I shudder to think what he’s capable of.”

If you knew half of it, you’d do a whole lot more than just shudder.

“Are all the preparations for the cannon complete?” Godrick asked. A doubtful frown passed over his features. “It hasn’t been long.”

“I don’t need long,” Tim said. “The space in the caverns is warped, but I was able to find a pathway through. The more I fiddle with it, the more Wizen will be able to locate that something is penetrating his defenses. Right now, unless he’s just waiting for us to make a move, it doesn’t seem like he knows. All that remains is for the Space Mages to gather enough energy to power the cannon enough to send everyone over at once.”

“How long will that be?” Brayden asked.

“About forty-five minutes from what I was just told. The cannon is already locked in position. There’s nothing else I can do, even if I want to,” Tim said. “Don’t forget this is a one-way trip. I won’t be able to pull you back.”

“Wait, what?” Noah asked. “That’s news to me. Why not?”

“We’re going outside of the Transport Cannon’s effective range,” Neir answered for Tim. “It doesn’t have enough power to pull us back at that range. We’re already supercharging for a one-way trip, and the cannon uses more energy summoning people back than it does sending them out.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Ah. Fair enough. How are we getting back, then? If it’s this far, I really don’t relish flying back on a sword.”

“Once we’ve dealt with Wizen, the spatial distortion will fall and we should be able to use the same principle that is currently working against us to make the return easier,” Godrick said. “The reduced space resistance around his area will allow us to gather at the top of his sanctum and Tim will re-activate the cannon once it gets enough power, pulling us back.”

“Assuming we win, that is,” Neir added with a grim laugh. “Of the Enforcers that went to investigate Wizen, only a quarter of them were able to get us any word. The others have gone missing. He’s either killed or captured multiple Rank 5 Mages.”

“He hasn’t been hit in a full-on attack yet,” Godrick said, crossing his arms. “He is a Rank 6, but we have Rank 6s of our own. Don’t start sowing doubt before we even arrive at the location.”

Neir held his hands up to signal surrender. Noah glanced around the room. The tension was definitely high. The Enforcers were stressed. Whatever they’d dug up about Wizen had given them a lot of pause, but leaving him with the artifact just didn’t seem to be an option.

Brayden moved closer to Noah, leaning down and lowering his voice so people couldn’t overhear him. “Sorry for dragging you into this, Vermil.”

“It’s fine,” Noah replied with a shake of his head. “Wizen and I weren’t on good terms. As much as I’d love to let you do all the work, I’ve got some chickens in the coop as well. We can’t leave him with that key.”

Speaking of which, we need to get it back in the cannon — with better defenses this time around — so Tim can keep doing what he loves.

And Tim… I don’t know how long this is going to take. God forbid something goes really wrong, I’d feel like shit if I actually just left him with one un-repaired rune.

“Remind me how long we have before things get started?” Noah asked.

“A bit more than half an hour,” Godrick said. “Do you have something you need to collect? I would hurry up if you do.”

Noah shook his head. He dug through his bag, then located his last Mind Meld potion. He pulled it out and nodded to Tim. “Come on. That’s enough time.”

Tim’s eyes widened. “Here?”

Noah had already popped the cork off the potion. Godrick tilted his head to the side in confusion but said nothing.

“Nothing says I won’t get myself killed doing this,” Noah said, thinking quickly. There were too many people around him to even bother hiding that he was taking the potion — but that didn’t mean he had to give away what they’d be doing with it. “Now is the only time you’re going to get. I need someone that knows what I do to handle my affairs if something goes wrong.”

“What kind of affairs would you even have?” Neir asked.

Noah ignored him and held the potion out to Tim. The old man swallowed, then took the vial from his hands and downed half of it. He returned it and sat down as Noah did the same.

“I’ll be back in half an hour. Drag my body through the portal if you need to,” Noah said, a familiar buzzing enveloping him.

Then he was gone, sucked into Tim’s soul.

As soon as his body took form beside Tim, he shook off the fading potion’s effects and gave the old man a sharp nod. “Let’s move quickly. Bring your last Rune over.”

Plans rarely go exactly how you want them to. I don’t know when we’ll get back to Arbitage, but I don’t want to leave Tim without a way forward.

Tim gave him a sharp nod. They both knew that now wasn’t the time to hesitate. Every second was of the essence. He held his hand out and a broken Fire Rune floated over to him — the last of his old runes.

They’d already replaced and healed his Keystone Rune in one of the previous sessions, so Noah had high hopes that this one wouldn’t go too poorly. Tim’s soul looked far better than it ever had. The cracks had completely faded and it was spacious for a Rank 2 Mage, with more than enough room to hold a little extra if he needed it.

“Are you ready?” Noah asked. “And what do you want for your last Rune?”

“Yes. And a Wind would go fantastic.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

Tim turned around, averting his gaze so he wouldn’t see exactly what Noah did to break and repair his runes.

Noah got to work.

***

Half an hour later, Noah’s eyes opened in the Transport Cannon once more. The conversation had grown considerably louder, but nobody had left yet. He sat up and Tim rose beside him.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Noah rose to his feet and held his hand out, helping Tim up as well.

“You’ll follow through if I don’t come back, right?” Noah asked.

“Of course I will,” Tim said. He swallowed, then inclined his head slightly lower than he’d needed to for a simple nod of understanding. “You can count on it.”

Noah pulled his grimoire around and whispered into it, then found an old piece of Catchpaper in his travel bag. He really didn’t have much need for them anymore, but it would come in handy today.

Energy crackled against his palm as the Grimoire provided him with the rune he’d asked for and Noah quickly traced it into the paper, folding it over once he was done. None of the other mages in the room were paying him enough attention to care what it was.

He handed the folded paper over to Tim.

“What’s this?” Tim asked, blinking in surprise.

“Something that I think will go a long way with you,” Noah replied. “Put it to good—”

“We’re connected!” A mage yelled. “All Enforcers, prepare for the cannon to activate!”

Tim stuffed the paper into his pocket. “Thank you, Vermil. Stay safe.”

“You too,” Noah said.

Tim hurried into the crowd. All around them, the Enforcers started gathering into ranks. Lee and Moxie moved to stand directly beside him, and Silvertide took up the position to Moxie’s right.

“I have to say, your choice of pre-battle distraction is not what mine would be,” Silvertide said with a wry smile. “You seem more relaxed than I’d expect someone to be when they’ve never entered a major battle before. Are you prepared? We’ll be up against mages, not monsters.”

“They might be mind-controlled, right?”

“It’s possible,” Silvertide said with a troubled frown. “But we won’t have room for mercy until Wizen falls. This is not a battle we can take lightly. If it makes you feel better, it is unlikely that Wizen has many people controlled actively. That would take an immense amount of magical power that I doubt even he has. I doubt he would waste so much when he has far better ways to fight us off.”

“Then we’ll be up against people that chose to stand in our way,” Noah said, setting his jaw. “In which case, they die all the same as monsters do. All that matters is stopping Wizen and getting out alive.”

“Spoken like a true Soldier.”

“Prepare yourselves,” Godrick’s voice echoed through the room. A loud hum filled the air as energy prickled against Noah’s skin. “The transport cannon is activating! We don’t know what we’re up against, but your goal is to stop Wizen at any costs. Destroy or remove the key from his possession. Collateral damage is irrelevant. Do not engage Wizen directly unless you have no choice.”

Not exactly a rousing speech, but certainly to the point.

The roar of the energy grew louder. Purple sparks flashed all around the group of Enforcers and, out of the corner of his eye, Noah spotted Tim on the lift as it rattled down, bringing him out of the range of the Transport Cannon’s magic.

Then there was a brilliant flash. The world disappeared in screaming purple light, and they were all gone.

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