Moxie stared at the green scroll before her like it was made of solid gold. She raised her gaze to Noah. “You didn’t answer the question. Do you–”
“Evergreen’s scroll,” Noah said with a chuckle. “She was so careless as to lose it. Unfortunate for her. Fortunate for me. There are a bunch of plant based Runes on there. I bet a lot of them would be useful to you, right? Like the Bleeding Forest or Thorned Vine Swarm – both of those were Rank 3s.”
Moxie swallowed. Desire and fear played together in her eyes. “I – I can’t. Even if I dared to take one of these, do you know how much they’re worth?”
“Don’t care,” Noah replied. “Never cared much about money. And it’s not like I can actually sell them. People can tell where the Runes are from, and if I go around selling these as a Linwick, someone’s probably going to suspect something’s up, right?”
Moxie gave him a slow nod. “Yeah, that’s true. It’s difficult to tell the origin of Runes, but there are talented mages that can scan your Runes when you use them and figure out where they originate. But, if they’re on a piece of paper, it’s easier. Selling them would probably be hard if you didn’t go through official channels or have someone that trusts you to sell to.”
“So…”
Moxie bit her lower lip. “I would have to give up one of my other Runes, but some of these are definitely better than mine. They aren’t exactly in line with what I was planning to do, though.”
“I can fix that as well.”
Moxie’s eye twitched. “What, can you just magically transform Runes into exactly what you want them to be?”
“Something like that, just with a lot more effort.”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
Stay dead, I guess.
Moxie saw Noah pause and let out a huff. “Don’t even answer that. I take it back. Let me focus on this for a few moments. I thought you’d gotten the biggest stuff out of the way and were just hamming it up. Can I really have one of these?”
“As many as you want. They’re useless to me,” Noah replied. He paused and tilted his head to the side. “Okay, not useless. But I’d rather they get used now than sit around doing nothing. I should warn you that I’m not going to be too useful on Rank 3 Runes unless you’re willing to lose a lot of progress. Not yet, at least.”
“You… that’s how you’re doing it? You can’t control Rank 3 Runes because you’re Rank 2, right? Then that means you’re somehow breaking Runes down into their smaller components?”
Wow, she put that together really quickly. I thought it would have taken at least a bit more information to put the puzzle together.
Noah nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m not even going to ask how,” Moxie said, looking back down at the scroll. She lasted about a second before she looked back up at him. “Okay. I’m going to ask how. Can I do it too?”
“No,” Noah replied with a shake of his head. “It’s something only I can do, I’m afraid.”
“Might be better that way,” Moxie said with a relieved sigh. “Now I really will just leave it there. I think I’ve got a pretty good guess as to what’s letting you do it if you’re the only one that can – and you need to be absolutely sure nobody ever finds out. That’s the kind of thing people kill for.”
“You’re the first person I’ve told.”
Moxie paused. “Not even Lee?”
“She knows other things that I haven’t gotten around to telling you yet, but not this. I’m going to tell her when she and the kids get back. She’s earned that much.”
Moxie gave Noah a small smile. “Thank you for trusting me. I swear I won’t let you down. Can I really–”
“Just take the damn Rune you’re looking at,” Noah said with a laugh. “You can swap it out for one of the Runes you currently have. It’ll be useful to me in the long run.”
Moxie nodded. She pressed her hand to an open spot in the paper – there weren’t many, but there was still enough to fit an extra Rune or two. Moxie closed her eyes and slipped into her mindspace.
Noah waited, watching her curiously as she Imbued a Rune. Unlike his students, Moxie clearly had a lot of experience with moving Runes around. She Imbued a Rune within a few seconds, then only took a little while longer to draw in one of the Runes from the scroll.
Moxie opened her eyes and handed the scroll back to Noah. A quick glance revealed that Moxie had taken the Bleeding Forest rune, and she’d placed a Writhing Vine Rune in its place – it was also a Rank 3 Rune, but Noah could tell it was quite full by the amount of energy coming off it.
“Want more?” Noah asked.
Moxie shook her head. “It’ll take a lot of energy to fill this new Rune up, and that was my worst Rune that wasn’t too ingrained into my soul. Replacing more would risk serious soul damage. If you’re still trying to give them out for free when I’ve got this one full, I might take you up on it. But, otherwise, I might just have to wait until you hit Rank 3. If you can fix my other Runes, I don’t want to push to Rank 4 with a less than ideal combination.”
“I thought as much,” Noah said with a chuckle. He rolled the scroll back up and slipped it into his bag. “To be honest, it’ll likely be the same for Lee. I’m well on my way to reaching Rank 3, but I’ve still got to finish getting my last few Runes and filling them up. I guess now is a great time to do that, since we’ve got to get prepared for the survival exam.”
Moxie scooted forward and swung her legs down from the bed, standing up and adjusting her uniform, smoothing out the crumples that she’d earned in her sleep. “That’s a good idea. With everything that’s happening, we need to make sure the students still pass the survival exam. We both have a duty.”
“About that,” Noah said, taking a pause before speaking again. “What’s up with Emily?”
Moxie’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“You’re being forced to do this, aren’t you? But you seem to care about her. Do you want to be a teacher or not?”
A grimace passed over Moxie’s face and she looked out the window, pulling her eyes away from Noah. “Emily isn’t responsible for what the rest of the Torrin family did. She’s not that much younger than me, but she’s got a good future. There’s no reason for me to interfere with that. I’ll just do the best I can to teach her and keep her safe.”
“I’m still a little confused on that bit. Why is she so much weaker than you if you’re both pretty close to the same age?”
“Well, I’m a few years older,” Moxie said. “But it’s because they don’t want to risk anyone from the main branch. I wasn’t the only person they had planned to raise as a guardian for Emily. They put me through rigorous classes and training – nothing like what a soldier does, as that takes a lot more time, but enough to keep her safe and advance quickly. Then, with slightly subpar runes, I was able to reach higher ranks faster. Add that with the constant tutelage and no free time…”
“That’s pretty screwed up. Did you even have a childhood?”
“I survived. What else could I do?”
Noah winced. “I guess that wasn’t a very polite question. Sorry. I guess you’ll just have to make up for that missed time, then. Maybe we can take the kids somewhere once the survival exam is over. Is there a break in schooling at some point? Between years.”
“Yes, there’s a two month break where students return to their families. It’ll be right after the survival exam.”
“Perfect,” Noah said with a grin. “Then we’ll have some fun then.”
“You’re assuming we survive that long. Do I have to remind you that both the Linwicks and the Torrins have reason to hate us, and there’s still a Rank 5 demon somewhere around the school that isn’t going to be as nice as you or Lee?”
“Those sound like problems that I’m going to ignore until something happens to make me address them,” Noah replied with a shrug. “I’ve got a lot of those. No point stressing over what you can’t control. I do wish I figured out what Father’s angle with the demon was, though.”
“Clarify?”
“I think Vermil’s dad – the guy that originally had him trying to summon a demon – ordered a hit on me. That’s why we got attacked. At least, I think it was him. I don’t know who else it could have been, and I have no proof either way.”
Moxie nodded thoughtfully. “Inquisitors are similar to soldiers, but they typically focus on fighting specific enemies that they’ve trained for – such as demons. They’re not easy to get a hold of, so whoever called them wasn’t a slouch.”
“So they were a good anti-demon plan. That does suck, as my main plan of going to the Linwick Estate was figuring out how to deal with the Rank 5 demon. I can’t really just call a bunch of Inquisitors here, they’ll go after Lee. And me.”
“And you?” Moxie raised an eyebrow.
“They seem to think I’m a demon.”
“So you say you’re a demon. The Inquisitors think you’re a demon. But…”
“I’m not,” Noah finished with a nod. “I’m glad you get it.”
Moxie shook her head and laughed. “Whatever you are, calling the Inquisitors is definitely a terrible idea. They aren’t known for taking half measures.”
“Which means we’re going to need a new way to kill the Rank 5 demon,” Noah concluded. “Then again, it’s been quite a while. Maybe it just left.”
Moxie gave him a flat stare. “Are you usually that lucky?”
Noah rubbed his chin. “Depends on your definition of luck.”
“Well, until you know for sure the demon is gone, I’d continue acting as if it’s an immediate threat. We’ll just focus on doing the survival training away from the school for as long as possible. The final location of the actual exam hasn’t been decided yet, so as long as it isn’t too close to Arbitage, it’ll probably be fine.”
“Sounds good to me. Do you know when they get back?” Noah asked.
“Tomorr–” Moxie cut herself off. “Wait, no. Today. I got distracted with everything that happened. Lee said she’d back sometime today, so it shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Noah hopped to his feet as well. “They… aren’t going to check my room, are they?”
“Lee probably will. Why?” Moxie asked. “We’ve been checking on it periodically to make sure it’s safe. Why?”
“There might be something in there,” Noah replied, clearing his throat.
“What?”
“A corpse.”
Moxie’s eye twitched. “I’m sorry? You killed someone?”
Before Noah could respond, the door clicked. Noah and Moxie both tensed, realizing they’d forgotten to lock it behind them. It swung open, revealing Lee’s irritated face.
“Vermil,” Lee said, striding inside and thrusting an accusatory finger in his face. “You have a problem. Are you capable of keeping yourself from doing something stupid for longer than a week at a time? You were bedridden when we left!”
“It was for a good cause,” Noah said. “I healed myself!”
Lee glanced at Moxie, clearly not wanting to say too much on accident.
“It’s fine,” Noah said. “She knows just about everything now.”
“About time,” Lee said with a huff. “Now she can scold you for leaving your corpses everywhere. Can’t you at least wait until I’m back? You nearly traumatized Isabel and Todd again! It’s a good thing I made them wait outside when I checked your room.”
“For leaving what?” Moxie demanded.
“Okay, now she knows everything.” Noah gave them a sheepish grin.
Moxie stared at the green scroll before her like it was made of solid gold. She raised her gaze to Noah. “You didn’t answer the question. Do you–”
“Evergreen’s scroll,” Noah said with a chuckle. “She was so careless as to lose it. Unfortunate for her. Fortunate for me. There are a bunch of plant based Runes on there. I bet a lot of them would be useful to you, right? Like the Bleeding Forest or Thorned Vine Swarm – both of those were Rank 3s.”
Moxie swallowed. Desire and fear played together in her eyes. “I – I can’t. Even if I dared to take one of these, do you know how much they’re worth?”
“Don’t care,” Noah replied. “Never cared much about money. And it’s not like I can actually sell them. People can tell where the Runes are from, and if I go around selling these as a Linwick, someone’s probably going to suspect something’s up, right?”
Moxie gave him a slow nod. “Yeah, that’s true. It’s difficult to tell the origin of Runes, but there are talented mages that can scan your Runes when you use them and figure out where they originate. But, if they’re on a piece of paper, it’s easier. Selling them would probably be hard if you didn’t go through official channels or have someone that trusts you to sell to.”
“So…”
Moxie bit her lower lip. “I would have to give up one of my other Runes, but some of these are definitely better than mine. They aren’t exactly in line with what I was planning to do, though.”
“I can fix that as well.”
Moxie’s eye twitched. “What, can you just magically transform Runes into exactly what you want them to be?”
“Something like that, just with a lot more effort.”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
Stay dead, I guess.
Moxie saw Noah pause and let out a huff. “Don’t even answer that. I take it back. Let me focus on this for a few moments. I thought you’d gotten the biggest stuff out of the way and were just hamming it up. Can I really have one of these?”
“As many as you want. They’re useless to me,” Noah replied. He paused and tilted his head to the side. “Okay, not useless. But I’d rather they get used now than sit around doing nothing. I should warn you that I’m not going to be too useful on Rank 3 Runes unless you’re willing to lose a lot of progress. Not yet, at least.”
“You… that’s how you’re doing it? You can’t control Rank 3 Runes because you’re Rank 2, right? Then that means you’re somehow breaking Runes down into their smaller components?”
Wow, she put that together really quickly. I thought it would have taken at least a bit more information to put the puzzle together.
Noah nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m not even going to ask how,” Moxie said, looking back down at the scroll. She lasted about a second before she looked back up at him. “Okay. I’m going to ask how. Can I do it too?”
“No,” Noah replied with a shake of his head. “It’s something only I can do, I’m afraid.”
“Might be better that way,” Moxie said with a relieved sigh. “Now I really will just leave it there. I think I’ve got a pretty good guess as to what’s letting you do it if you’re the only one that can – and you need to be absolutely sure nobody ever finds out. That’s the kind of thing people kill for.”
“You’re the first person I’ve told.”
Moxie paused. “Not even Lee?”
“She knows other things that I haven’t gotten around to telling you yet, but not this. I’m going to tell her when she and the kids get back. She’s earned that much.”
Moxie gave Noah a small smile. “Thank you for trusting me. I swear I won’t let you down. Can I really–”
“Just take the damn Rune you’re looking at,” Noah said with a laugh. “You can swap it out for one of the Runes you currently have. It’ll be useful to me in the long run.”
Moxie nodded. She pressed her hand to an open spot in the paper – there weren’t many, but there was still enough to fit an extra Rune or two. Moxie closed her eyes and slipped into her mindspace.
Noah waited, watching her curiously as she Imbued a Rune. Unlike his students, Moxie clearly had a lot of experience with moving Runes around. She Imbued a Rune within a few seconds, then only took a little while longer to draw in one of the Runes from the scroll.
Moxie opened her eyes and handed the scroll back to Noah. A quick glance revealed that Moxie had taken the Bleeding Forest rune, and she’d placed a Writhing Vine Rune in its place – it was also a Rank 3 Rune, but Noah could tell it was quite full by the amount of energy coming off it.
“Want more?” Noah asked.
Moxie shook her head. “It’ll take a lot of energy to fill this new Rune up, and that was my worst Rune that wasn’t too ingrained into my soul. Replacing more would risk serious soul damage. If you’re still trying to give them out for free when I’ve got this one full, I might take you up on it. But, otherwise, I might just have to wait until you hit Rank 3. If you can fix my other Runes, I don’t want to push to Rank 4 with a less than ideal combination.”
“I thought as much,” Noah said with a chuckle. He rolled the scroll back up and slipped it into his bag. “To be honest, it’ll likely be the same for Lee. I’m well on my way to reaching Rank 3, but I’ve still got to finish getting my last few Runes and filling them up. I guess now is a great time to do that, since we’ve got to get prepared for the survival exam.”
Moxie scooted forward and swung her legs down from the bed, standing up and adjusting her uniform, smoothing out the crumples that she’d earned in her sleep. “That’s a good idea. With everything that’s happening, we need to make sure the students still pass the survival exam. We both have a duty.”
“About that,” Noah said, taking a pause before speaking again. “What’s up with Emily?”
Moxie’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“You’re being forced to do this, aren’t you? But you seem to care about her. Do you want to be a teacher or not?”
A grimace passed over Moxie’s face and she looked out the window, pulling her eyes away from Noah. “Emily isn’t responsible for what the rest of the Torrin family did. She’s not that much younger than me, but she’s got a good future. There’s no reason for me to interfere with that. I’ll just do the best I can to teach her and keep her safe.”
“I’m still a little confused on that bit. Why is she so much weaker than you if you’re both pretty close to the same age?”
“Well, I’m a few years older,” Moxie said. “But it’s because they don’t want to risk anyone from the main branch. I wasn’t the only person they had planned to raise as a guardian for Emily. They put me through rigorous classes and training – nothing like what a soldier does, as that takes a lot more time, but enough to keep her safe and advance quickly. Then, with slightly subpar runes, I was able to reach higher ranks faster. Add that with the constant tutelage and no free time…”
“That’s pretty screwed up. Did you even have a childhood?”
“I survived. What else could I do?”
Noah winced. “I guess that wasn’t a very polite question. Sorry. I guess you’ll just have to make up for that missed time, then. Maybe we can take the kids somewhere once the survival exam is over. Is there a break in schooling at some point? Between years.”
“Yes, there’s a two month break where students return to their families. It’ll be right after the survival exam.”
“Perfect,” Noah said with a grin. “Then we’ll have some fun then.”
“You’re assuming we survive that long. Do I have to remind you that both the Linwicks and the Torrins have reason to hate us, and there’s still a Rank 5 demon somewhere around the school that isn’t going to be as nice as you or Lee?”
“Those sound like problems that I’m going to ignore until something happens to make me address them,” Noah replied with a shrug. “I’ve got a lot of those. No point stressing over what you can’t control. I do wish I figured out what Father’s angle with the demon was, though.”
“Clarify?”
“I think Vermil’s dad – the guy that originally had him trying to summon a demon – ordered a hit on me. That’s why we got attacked. At least, I think it was him. I don’t know who else it could have been, and I have no proof either way.”
Moxie nodded thoughtfully. “Inquisitors are similar to soldiers, but they typically focus on fighting specific enemies that they’ve trained for – such as demons. They’re not easy to get a hold of, so whoever called them wasn’t a slouch.”
“So they were a good anti-demon plan. That does suck, as my main plan of going to the Linwick Estate was figuring out how to deal with the Rank 5 demon. I can’t really just call a bunch of Inquisitors here, they’ll go after Lee. And me.”
“And you?” Moxie raised an eyebrow.
“They seem to think I’m a demon.”
“So you say you’re a demon. The Inquisitors think you’re a demon. But…”
“I’m not,” Noah finished with a nod. “I’m glad you get it.”
Moxie shook her head and laughed. “Whatever you are, calling the Inquisitors is definitely a terrible idea. They aren’t known for taking half measures.”
“Which means we’re going to need a new way to kill the Rank 5 demon,” Noah concluded. “Then again, it’s been quite a while. Maybe it just left.”
Moxie gave him a flat stare. “Are you usually that lucky?”
Noah rubbed his chin. “Depends on your definition of luck.”
“Well, until you know for sure the demon is gone, I’d continue acting as if it’s an immediate threat. We’ll just focus on doing the survival training away from the school for as long as possible. The final location of the actual exam hasn’t been decided yet, so as long as it isn’t too close to Arbitage, it’ll probably be fine.”
“Sounds good to me. Do you know when they get back?” Noah asked.
“Tomorr–” Moxie cut herself off. “Wait, no. Today. I got distracted with everything that happened. Lee said she’d back sometime today, so it shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Noah hopped to his feet as well. “They… aren’t going to check my room, are they?”
“Lee probably will. Why?” Moxie asked. “We’ve been checking on it periodically to make sure it’s safe. Why?”
“There might be something in there,” Noah replied, clearing his throat.
“What?”
“A corpse.”
Moxie’s eye twitched. “I’m sorry? You killed someone?”
Before Noah could respond, the door clicked. Noah and Moxie both tensed, realizing they’d forgotten to lock it behind them. It swung open, revealing Lee’s irritated face.
“Vermil,” Lee said, striding inside and thrusting an accusatory finger in his face. “You have a problem. Are you capable of keeping yourself from doing something stupid for longer than a week at a time? You were bedridden when we left!”
“It was for a good cause,” Noah said. “I healed myself!”
Lee glanced at Moxie, clearly not wanting to say too much on accident.
“It’s fine,” Noah said. “She knows just about everything now.”
“About time,” Lee said with a huff. “Now she can scold you for leaving your corpses everywhere. Can’t you at least wait until I’m back? You nearly traumatized Isabel and Todd again! It’s a good thing I made them wait outside when I checked your room.”
“For leaving what?” Moxie demanded.
“Okay, now she knows everything.” Noah gave them a sheepish grin.
