Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah returned to his room at a brisk pace, still all too aware of the eyes trailing him on the way back. Instead of heading inside, he made a detour and stopped at Moxie’s door, rapping several times to get her attention. He waited for a few minutes, but there was no response.

She must be out doing something. Damn.

Giving up, Noah headed back to his own room. When he opened the door, Lee was already sitting on his bed, reading one of the books he’d borrowed from the library. She looked up as Noah closed the door behind him.

“Made yourself comfortable, I see,” Noah said.

Lee set the book aside and set up. “It’s nice. Much nicer than the forest. You humans are lucky.”

“In many ways,” Noah agreed. “Have you noticed anything strange happening on campus? I just got back and I’m suddenly getting a bunch of people staring at me.”

Lee rubbed the back of her head and furrowed her brow in thought. “I’ve kind of been avoiding interacting too closely with anyone. I don’t know enough about Arbitage to blend in properly if anyone digs too deep.”

“Probably for the best.” Noah pulled his chair out and sat down with a frown. He set the leather wrapped pipe and Flashgrass down on his desk, then leaned his chin on his palm, drumming his fingers on his cheek.

“Do you think we’re in danger?” Lee asked. “If the entire school comes down on us, we won’t be able to get away.”

“Not immediate danger,” Noah replied. “Nobody actually approached me. How long have you been in this room?”

“Most of the day.”

“Did anyone knock?”

“No.”

“Then it’s very unlikely we’re in direct danger. Someone would have tried to come find me if that was the case. Perhaps Isabel and Todd’s performance on the exam was significant enough to garner attention, or it’s something to do with Edward. I’m not sure. Moxie wasn’t home so I couldn’t ask her.”

“She’s teaching right now. She and Emily went somewhere.”

Noah glanced over at Lee. “You saw?”

“I watched them leave out the window. I thought about following them, but it’s much more fun to just lounge around in the shade.”

“Ah.” Noah turned his attention back to the desk. Chances were that this was probably somehow the fault of Magus Allen or Edward. Allen had been pretty furious after the loss, but Noah had imagined he would have tried to keep things as down low as possible, not start spreading rumors around.

He pulled the pipe out of its wrapping and sat it on the table. The best solution would be to ask Todd and Isabel what happened during their class tomorrow. Until then, he had a pipe to figure out how to light properly.

Noah plucked two strands of Flashgrass out of the bag and concentrated on vibrating them against each other. Once more, they went up in a single puff of smoke and left no fire behind. Noah’s eyes narrowed and he leaned in closer, preparing to start testing.

***

The rest of the day flitted by. He’d already taken huge steps in getting finer control over his Vibration Rune, but the grass stubbornly refused to let him get away with anything other than perfection. It insisted on either falling apart or failing to properly catch fire.

Using a Fire Rune of some sort would have made everything significantly easier. It was more tempting than Noah cared to admit, but because he still wasn’t sure on the exact combination he wanted to settle on when he combined his runes, he was hesitant to sacrifice something that could still be useful for a Fire Rune – especially if he didn’t end up even keeping Ash.

There was also the matter of needing to get a new Greater Fire Rune, as his current one had burned away when he’d let Todd learn it. He’d have to pull Todd aside at some point and ask him to redraw the Rune once Todd learned how to Imbue things.

Noah worked well into the night trying to perfect his vibrating grass technique, but he didn’t manage to make any real headway before the night crept up on him.

The day had been successful enough that Noah wasn’t too perturbed about his setback. He was confident that, even if he couldn’t get it yet, he could eventually get the grass to alight without actually needing to spend a Rune slot on something new. The fine control training was useful anyway.

Lee slipped out of the room at some point, but Noah didn’t even notice. He was too focused on his own work. He tested his magic well into the night before finally heading to bed.

When the next day dawned, Noah headed out early to his classroom. Ignoring all the gazes didn’t mean that he’d solved the problem, and he didn’t want to run into anyone before he could figure out what was happening. The added benefit of avoiding anyone noticing where he was headed – even if anyone searching for him could probably figure it out pretty easily – was also nice.

Noah set up in the classroom, practicing his control over the Vibration Rune once more. He kept at it until he heard footsteps announce Todd and Isabel’s arrival down the hall. Now somewhat peeved at his lack of success, Noah put the grass away as his students entered the room.

“You’re early,” Todd observed. He glanced around the room. “Where’s Lee?”

“She’ll show up at some point. I’m sure Moxie and Emily will too,” Noah replied as Todd and Isabel took their seats. “Did the two of you happen to pick up on any rumors going around?”

“Which ones?” Isabel asked. “There are a lot.”

Noah frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Literally everyone gossips,” Todd said. “Do you mean about you? Man, you made Allen look like an idiot and he lost a challenge against a Rank One teacher. The only Rank One teacher. Everyone’s laughing at him.”

That… isn’t as bad as I was worried it might be.

“That’s it?”

“Essentially,” Isabel said. “Some of our friends were curious about how we did so well, but when we told them we just trained against the monsters, that pretty much ended most of the interest. We wouldn’t be the first ones too poor to be able to afford Shields that try to get stronger by fighting a ton of monsters. It usually ends up in people dying, and that’s not interesting until it happens.”

Noah’s frown deepened. “Ah. Well, that isn’t going to be the case with us.”

Isabel and Todd both gave Noah a flat stare.

“What?”

“It probably will,” Isabel said. “I mean, you made a really good point, and we’ve clearly got a much better chance at this with your help since you’re insane and can show us the moves the monsters make, but that won’t last forever. Eventually one of us will slip up and you won’t react fast enough.”

Noah blinked. “Wait. You’re expecting to get killed?”

“Expecting isn’t the right word. I don’t want to die.” Todd crossed his arms. “On that first day, sure, I was really excited. But we spoke after it, you know. I don’t want to just waste away with a bunch of Lesser Runes and never progress. This is the best chance I’ve gotten, and it’s the same for Isabel. Might as well take it, you know? And hey, if I survive, I’ll be strong. Maybe I’ll be able to become a soldier.”

“You feel the same?” Noah asked.

Isabel shrugged. “I was already blacklisted from the noble houses. It’s not like I’m getting other options. Most merchants won’t even sell to me anyway.”

Okay, now I really want to know what happened there. The urge to avoid prying too deeply into my students lives is going to drive me insane. Now isn’t the time, though. Not yet.

“I see,” Noah said with a frown. As much as he hated to admit it, they had a point. No matter how confident he was at fighting the monsters, it really did only take one mistake. Isabel and Todd had a single healing potion each, and they likely couldn’t afford more. Death had lost so much of its meaning to Noah that he’d let his attitude toward it stretch farther than he’d thought.

I need to find a way to protect them better. I’ve been letting my willingness to throw my own lives away seep into them.

“For now, that won’t be a concern as we’ll be training with Lee,” Noah said. “Nobody is going to die from that.”

Probably.

“Sure,” Isabel said. “But don’t start giving up on us now. You can’t dangle a chance to change our lives in front of us and then pull it away because you don’t want us to get killed. The school can replace us. They don’t care that much. We aren’t part of noble houses. Either you help us or we do it on our own.”

“Yeah, we’ll steal your strategy,” Todd said with a grin. “But probably do it worse.”

“I’m not giving up on anyone.” Noah pressed his hands against the podium and leaned forward. “Perish the thought. I’m just going to figure out a way to do things that is maybe just a little less suicidal.”

“Not sure how you’re going to do that,” Isabel said.

“Don’t worry about it for now. We’ve got other things to focus on.”

“Like me,” Lee said, dropping from the ceiling and landing on a table behind Todd. All three of them flinched, and Noah nearly had a blade of wind formed in his hand by the time he stopped himself. He quickly let the magic drain away, relieved that nobody had noticed it.

Lee hopped down from the table and yawned. “Did everyone do their stretches this morning?”

Oops.

“We’ll find out,” Lee said, slipping past Todd to walk up beside Noah. “Magus Moxie and Emily are heading over, they’ll join us a little later. I ran into them on the way over here. For now, there’s no point wasting good time. Outside, everyone. It’s time to get to work.”

“Why’d you come through the ceiling?” Todd asked, staring at Lee as they all followed her out of the building. “The door is perfectly good, you know.”

“It’s not nearly as fun.”