Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 129: Evergreen

Noah let his eyes close and sank into his mindspace. If there was anything messing with his emotions, it probably originated there. He spent several minutes pacing around it, examining every rune and searching the ground to see if there was any remaining damage or abnormality.

There was nothing. As far as Noah could tell, his soul was pristine and flawless once more. It was just pure, perfect darkness broken only by the light coming from the floating Runes around him.

“This makes no sense,” Noah said with a frown. “Did the shattering Rune somehow release energy that affected my emotions? That didn’t happen when I combined my other Runes – and that energy didn’t feel like it was associated with anger at all. It was peaceful.”

He sat down, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in thought. There had to be some reason for the anger. It had been so intense that it felt beyond something natural – but the memory of Contessa striking Moxie made his teeth grind in fury.

Was I just angry because I heard Moxie getting hurt?

Noah sat in contemplation for a while longer. It had been a long time since he’d last had to sit and analyze his feelings, and when he finished, he wasn’t particularly pleased to find that he hadn’t made any significant progress.

There was no doubt in his mind that he had been furious at Moxie’s abuse – but whether the anger was entirely natural or not, he had no idea. He wasn’t even sure why he was so mad about it.

Moxie can take care of herself. She doesn’t need me getting mad for her.

Noah let out a grunt and pushed himself back to his feet and started walking. Talking about things out loud and pacing in circles did always tend to help make things click better. “I can’t tell what the hell happened. Even when the kids were in danger I didn’t feel anger like this. It was different. Still deep fury, but a different sensation. It didn’t feel… hungry. Hungry is a good word.”

He fell silent for a little while, digging to see if he could find anything. He didn’t.

“Right. This is useless,” Noah said with a sigh. He mentally relaxed, reaching out to the energy that he’d tried to form a Rune from. It responded, filling his body with the sensation of cool, flowing water.

“It’s got something to do with the Rune, I’m pretty sure. What exactly, I have no idea. And it doesn’t look like I’m going to find out doing this. I shouldn’t just keep Moxie waiting, though. I’ve already spent a good bit of time sitting around. She might be wondering what’s going on.”

Noah let his eyes open, leaving his mindspace. He still sat in Moxie’s bed, but she wasn’t in the chair in front of him anymore. At some point, she’d moved to the bed and was lying near where he sat against the wall, her eyes closed and chest moving with slow breaths.

A quick glance out the window showed that Noah had spent a considerably longer time than he’d thought in meditation. The sun had already made steady progress through the sky – it had to have been at least a few hours.

One of Moxie’s legs had cut off Noah’s escape from the bed if he wanted to get out without waking her up. He hid a small chuckle. Evidently, she’d gotten fed up with having to sleep in the bushes.

He relaxed and shifted slightly to get a little more comfortable. If she was asleep, that meant he still had more time to fiddle with his Runes. He let his eyes close once more and sank back into his mindspace.

***

Several hours later, Noah had given the entirety of his mindspace a second check over. It found nothing new, but it did confirm without a doubt that it was entirely unharmed. His Runes were in good shape as well, so it wasn’t anything to do with them.

Noah resisted the urge to mess more with the strange energy surrounding his soul. He’d save it for when Moxie wasn’t lying right next to him. The last thing he wanted to do was mistakenly blow himself up.

But, Moxie’s presence did remind him of one thing. Now that his secret was out to her as well as the rest of his friends, there was little reason not to fix her Runes. He just had to make sure Evergreen didn’t have a way to force the information from Moxie first.

Moxie hasn’t actually told me what Runes she’s got. I suppose I should ask her when she wakes up, but I’d feel bad doing it now. She looked so peaceful, and the moment she gets back up, I’m going to drop another few bombshells on her.

Should I wait longer? That feels unfair, and none of us are in a particularly safe spot right now. We need to be at max strength to prepare for the worst case scenario.

His mind set, Noah opened his eyes. The light coming through the window had already dimmed, going from a bright white to a dimming orange as the sun set below the horizon. Noah went to lift a hand to rub his eyes but paused. Something was holding it down.

He glanced at his side. Moxie had rolled over in her sleep and had managed to snag onto his arm at some point, holding it to her side like a stuffed animal. Noah wasn’t sure how he’d missed that in his mindspace – he must have been too preoccupied with trying to figure out what was going on in his mind.

Noah didn’t want to move his hand at risk of waking her up, but she solved that issue for him. Moxie yawned, scrunching her nose and slowly letting her eyes open. She made eye contact with Noah.

“What?” Moxie asked. “You were hogging my bed when you didn’t even need it, and you weren’t responding.”

“I was in my mindspace. Thinking.”

“That must be rare,” Moxie said with a dry smile. She started to sit, then paused as she noticed his arm. She quickly released it and cleared her throat. “Uh… sorry. I think I thought your arm was a vine.”

“You hold your vines when you sleep? Like a stuffed animal? That’s cute.”

Moxie reddened. “Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen. You were the one that stole my bed.”

“Fair.” Noah grinned and raised his hands in surrender. “Consider it forgotten. Did you do any more processing?”

“Not nearly enough,” Moxie replied with a huff. She sat up and scooted against the wall to sit next to Noah. “If any of the Torrins knew what I was doing, they might actually die of shock. Lee’s a demon. You might as well be one, even if you say you aren’t. Am I an idiot?”

“Being an idiot is a lot more fun than being right all the time.”

“Coming from you, that’s not very reassuring.”

“Now I’m hurt,” Noah said with a mock frown. “I’ll have you know my idiocy has carried me pretty damn far. It’s a deadly weapon.”

“That bit about Dayton wasn’t a joke, then?” Moxie asked. “That was actually you?”

Noah nodded. “He was pretty stupid, but he was terrified of Evergreen. I found out and was able to use that to manipulate him into running away. Sorry about that. I didn’t realize you had plans.”

Moxie looked away from him, her shoulders stiffening. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. I was reporting on you to Evergreen and Contessa. When you first started talking to me again, I still hated Vermil. I thought it was a great opportunity, and you were different enough that spending time with you didn’t feel like ripping nails.”

“I can’t blame you. It sounded like you stopped as well, so I’m not bitter about it. You still helped me, even if you had less savory motives for doing it. I’m not going to hold that against you – especially considering your situation.”

Moxie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want your pity, Ver – Noah. I appreciate your help and friendship, but I’ve made it this far on my own. Much farther than I should have been able to. Don’t treat me like a child.”

“So we are friends?”

“That’s what you got out of that? You really are an idiot.”

“Thank you.”

Moxie let out an exasperated huff. “Well, that’s the only apology you’re getting from me about this. It sounds like you’ve got way more secrets than I did, anyway. Did any of them happen to involve sacrificing me somehow?”

“Nope. Purely information at the start.”

“So what else did you say you had that you were hiding? I think I’d rather just find the rest of it out rather than constantly have to reconsider how I view you.”

Noah scratched at his chin. “That depends. If I give you important information, can Evergreen force it out of you? I don’t want to put you in danger, and the other secrets are dangerous. Really dangerous. To both of us.”

Moxie pursed her lips, then shook her head. “No. She won’t swear a Rune Oath with me. She doesn’t want to risk all the damage she’d take if I died, and because I’m expendable in her eyes, the chances of my death are pretty high. Evergreen hasn’t made me swear a Rune Oath to a liaison either, because she knows I’ve got nowhere to turn and don’t know enough to actually do any damage to the family. I understand if you don’t want to say more, though. After I basically sold you out–”

“You sold Vermil out,” Noah corrected. “And you stopped long before you did harm. I trust you.”

Moxie’s cheeks reddened again and she looked away. Noah took a moment to study her.

If I tell her about Sunder, it’s the same as trusting her with not just one of my lives, but all of them. Moxie’s been trying to cover for me for a while, though. Even if she did sell Vermil out, she didn’t sell Noah out.

“You’re sure you want to know?” Noah asked. “You can’t unlearn this.”

Moxie didn’t respond immediately. She took several seconds to think before finally giving him a small nod.

“Yes. If you’re willing to tell me.”

“Then I need to ask another question. Are your Runes all perfect?”

Moxie blinked, then burst into laughter. “You think my family would give me only perfect Rune combinations and risk me getting stronger than any of their proper precious main branch members? I’m employed by the main branch, just like Contessa. That’s a far cry from truly being part of it, even if Emily doesn’t realize exactly what that means. No. I did manage to get three perfect Rank 2 Runes, but the other four were just good. As for my Rank 3 Runes, none of them are perfect.”

Noah nodded slowly. “I can fix them.”

“What?”

“Your runes,” Noah replied. “If you give me enough time and Runes to work with, I can make every single one of them perfect.”

Moxie started to laugh. “That’s a good one. You sound so serious that I almost believed it. Unless you mean you’re going to pull all my Runes out and cripple me with soul damage, nobody can fix Runes after they’ve formed. If you could, you’d have every noble house knocking on your door, either trying to kidnap you or make you marry their daughters. As many as needed to get you tied to them.”

Noah just arched an eyebrow. Moxie’s laughter faltered. Then her smile vanished.

“You’re serious.”

“Deadly.”

“And you’re sure you aren’t delusional?”

“Quite.”

“Damned Plains,” Moxie breathed. “Do you have any idea how serious this is? You have to. That’s why you didn’t say it. You have the potential to reach Rank 7 – no. Rank 9. If you can ensure every Rune you have is perfect, you can make the ideal combination. You’re completely sure about this?”

“Absolutely,” Noah replied. “And that’s not it. I also have this.”

He reached into his bag, pulling out Evergreen’s scroll and handing it to Moxie. She took the scroll and started to unfurl it, then froze as she spotted the first rune. Moxie swallowed heavily.

“Do you know what this is, Noah?”

Noah grinned. “Want some new Runes?”