Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 9: Not for free

“You can’t be serious, Vermil. The Linwick family has fallen farther than I thought if this is what you’re resorting to. Do you really think Arbitage is just going to give out Rune combinations for free to a Rank 1?”

Noah’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms, registering distaste in the woman’s voice instantly. Whoever Moxie was, she didn’t like him.

“Using Linwick resources for something as unimportant as this would be a waste,” Noah said, throwing on his best poker face. “Why would I need their time when I have all the references I need here?”

Moxie blinked, caught off guard for a moment. She recovered quickly, leaning against the counter and raising an eyebrow and smirking.

“That’s a new take from you. Still stupid, but I guess even you’re not stupid enough to keep banging your head against wall for too long. I don’t think you’re going to have any luck finding useful combinations in the library when you’re at your Rank, but who knows. Maybe you’ll find a new way to blow girl’s skirts up.”

Good god, I hate this dude. Would it have been that difficult to be semi-decent? No wonder everyone hates me. What am I even supposed to say to that?

“An old hobby in poor taste,” Noah said. “I am seeking better pastimes.”

For the second time, Moxie blinked. She squinted at Noah, then glanced at some of the other teachers in the area almost as if checking to make sure they’d heard the same thing. She rolled her eyes and pushed away from the counter.

“Nobody’s stupid enough to buy that, baby Linwick. You’re a disgrace to your family.”

She strode away. Noah cleared his throat and shot a glance at the librarian. “So… about those books?”

“Right here, sir,” the librarian said, extending his hand. Energy sparked between his fingertips and gathered into a small point before his palm. It expanded, forming into a spinning disk of green and yellow light. He reached into it, then pulled out two thin volumes and placed them on the desk before Noah. “I’m afraid this is all you have access to at your current Rank.”

“Thank you,” Noah said, picking the books up with an appreciative nod. He tucked them under his arm. “How long do I have to return them?”

“You may keep them until someone requests for their return,” the librarian replied. “Those particular copies are not in high demand. I suspect you will be quite all right.”

Noah thanked him again and headed out of the library, doing his best to ignore the gazes piercing into his back from the other teachers.

Was that the person that tried to kill me? Why do I have so many blasted enemies? And I seriously need to find some information about the Linwicks.

***

The trip back to his room went smoothly, and Noah spent the next day hunched over the books. To his mild annoyance, Moxie had been right. The information they had in them really was scarce.

If he’d been literally anyone else, Noah suspected they would have been entirely useless. However, to him, the miniscule amounts of information within their pages was like water in a desert.

Even though the books were quite short, Noah went through them several times each, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything important. By the time he finally peeled his eyes away and looked out the window, evening had fallen.

Soft, bluish purple light washed over the buildings outside and illuminated the plants in a ghostly glow. Noah blinked several times, then rubbed his eyes and rocked back in his chair. He grabbed the paper he’d been taking notes on and pulled it closer.

His quill scratched against the paper as he modified them with what he’d learned.

1. Runes both store and let you cast magic.
2. People can have seven Runes. Once they’re all filled with energy, you can try to combine them. The resulting combined Rune has the strength of all the other ones, so combining crappy Runes gets a crappy evolved one. Failing to combine Runes is bad. Don’t fail.
   1. Ways to fail: Impossible combination, insufficient strength, rodents (?), lack of willpower.
3. Once you combine your Runes, you go to the next Rank and can form Runes of that Rank without having to start over from the previous one. Unknown as to how many total Ranks there are.
4. There are definitely variations in the Runes. Runes are ranked low and high quality. There are significant differences between ranks in basically every aspect.
5. The actual combinations for Runes that work are closely guarded. People will probably get angry at me if I go around asking them about them.
6. You can voluntarily release Runes, but you don’t get all the energy you spent on them back.

Noah set his quill down and studied the fruits of his labor. It wasn’t really that much of an improvement on what he’d known already, but it was still vital. At least he knew he could get rid of the low level wind Runes and replace them with something stronger.

Okay. The to-do list grows ever longer. In the short term, I need to focus on just getting strong enough to keep myself alive and figuring out who the hell the Linwicks are. I don’t think I’m going to have as much trouble with the class as I feared, but the other professors are an entirely different issue.

Noah stood up and started pacing around the room. For some reason, walking in circles seemed to help the mental juices flow better. Part of Noah wished that Vermil had at least a few friends that he could have plied with questions, but the other part was thankful that nobody seemed to care about him in the slightest.

A yawn slipped out of his mouth.

Time for step one of my master plan: sleep.

Noah rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and wandered into the bathroom. Mercifully, Vermil actually had a toothbrush and a stone tub of paste beside it that Noah hoped was toothpaste.

He brushed his teeth and headed over to the closet, rifling through it. It was full of the exact same outfit, over and over. Noah rubbed his chin.

“Well, at least he was consistent.” Noah pulled his jacket off and draped it over a wooden hanger in the closet.

A loud knock rang out on the door. Noah froze midway through pulling his shirt off. He slowly turned toward it, not making a noise.

Maybe they’ll think I’m asleep.

The handle clicked and the lock wiggled, turning over. Noah silently slipped up to the door and grabbed the lock, twisting it back shut. The door rattled, and there was a short pause. He grabbed the lock as it started to turn again, keeping it from opening.

Someone shook the door, then let out an annoyed curse. A burst of force slammed into the lock, twisting it out of Noah’s grip. Noah dove to the side as the door slammed open. He rolled to the side and tried to jump up, but he hit his head on the edge of the windowsill.

Noah let out a slew of curses and doubled over. He looked up through squinted eyes as someone stepped into his room – and stepped right onto the pile of papers near the door. They lost their footing and went down with a loud crash.

Several seconds passed as Noah stared at the bottom half of the intruder. He straightened and stepped around the door to get a better look.

“Oh, shit,” Noah muttered. A woman in her early forties laid on the ground, a pool of blood expanding around her head where it had stuck the ground. She wore teacher robes, but he didn’t recognize her – not that he would have recognized most people. Noah nudged her leg with his foot. She didn’t budge.

“Uh… you okay there?” Noah asked hesitantly. There was no response. He knelt and pressed his head to her heart. There was no beat. Noah ran his hands through his hair and suppressed a groan. “Shit. Seriously? How incompetent can you possibly be?”

Loud thuds echoed from the end of the hall. Noah bolted upright, but it was too late to try to hide or move the body.

Shit, shit, shit. They’re going to think that I –

Moxie dashed down the hall, a shimmering green blade floating in the air before her. Her eyes flicked down to the corpse below Noah, then back up to him. They locked eyes for a moment.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Noah said weakly. He rose to his feet, lifting his hands into the air in surrender.

“You killed it,” Moxie said, letting the sword lower slightly. “I’ll be damned.”

“It was an accident! It’s not my fault!”

“What are you talking about?” Moxie let out a snort of laughter and grabbed her sword. The green light flickered out and it folded inward on itself, vanishing. Moxie strode up to stand beside him and knelt beside the corpse, pressing the back of her hand to its neck. “Did you decide to try and take up comedy as well?”

Noah let out an awkward laugh.

What the hell is going on?

“Still, I’m impressed you actually managed to kill it,” Moxie muttered under her breath. “Have you been training or something?”

“I don’t suppose you could explain what happened here?” Noah asked, ignoring her question. “Who is this?”

Moxie stared at Noah like he was an idiot. “Are you an idiot?”

“Just hypothetically, let’s assume that I am. Just for the time being, mind you.”

“It’s a Skinwalker,” Moxie said, like that was the most logical answer in the world. She saw the blank stare on Noah’s face and rolled her eyes. “You didn’t read the warning that got sent out, did you?”

Noah glanced at the pile of papers in the corner of the room. Now that Moxie mentioned it, he did vaguely recall seeing something about that, but when it was mixed in with all the other garbage that Vermil had stored, it was pretty difficult to realize what was actually relevant.

“Ah. Right.”

“How did you know to kill it if you didn’t even realize this was a Skinwalker?” Moxie demanded.

“Well, it kind of slipped and killed itself,” Noah said, stepping back so Moxie could see the pile of strewn papers on the ground. She blinked heavily, then rubbed her forehead.

“Ah. You’re lucky the stupid thing was already terrified.”

“I suppose I am,” Noah said. He rose to his feet, then looked back at his door. A small frown crossed his lips. A key jutted out of it. He pulled it out and held it up. “How’d a Skinwalker get this?”

Moxie looked to the side and her cheeks flashed with embarrassment. “It might have gotten a slight jump on me.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “It tricked you and got inside your room, didn’t it?”

“I had it under control! It was a very convincing Skinwalker, but I figured out what was going on,” Moxie snapped, grabbing the key from Noah’s hand.

“It nearly killed me.”

“It was already wounded. If a crippled Skinwalker killed you, you’d have deserved it,” Moxie said sharply. She nudged the corpse with a foot, then pointed a finger at it. A beam of purple light leapt forth, swallowing the body.

It vanished along with the blood, leaving the floor completely bare. Noah tried not to look too impressed with the display of magic, but he was pretty sure a flicker of surprise crossed his face before he could stop it.

“If it was a Skinwalker, doesn’t that mean it stole someone’s body?” Noah asked.

Moxie looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Yes. It wasn’t someone that had any powerful Runes, though. Probably a maid.”

Noah’s face fell. “Was there any way she could have lived?”

“No. She was already dead,” Moxie said flatly. “How do you not know this? Skinwalkers can only take over the bodies of people who have died. Do you even recall a single thing you learned in school?”

Noah didn’t respond. They stood in silence for a moment. Moxie cleared her throat.

“Maybe we could keep this between us,” Moxie suggested, glancing over her shoulder at the empty hall behind them.

Noah tilted his head to the side. Then a tiny grin flickered across his lips.

“Not for free.”

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