Return of the Runebound Professor

Brayden snored away, completely oblivious to the expression on Noah’s face. He splayed out across the floor, managing to take up nearly half of the ground in the room. Noah slowly stood, careful to avoid bothering Brayden – not that he suspected he could, even if he started dancing aggressively on his face.

Vermil was trying to summon a demon. Were they going to make it somehow influence this election for their father, or did they have motives beyond that? It really sounds like Vermil was either meant to fake his death or possibly die to bring the demon into this world. I’m still not sure on which Brayden actually meant – but that could be why my soul ended up seeking his body.

I bet Vermil was in that forest because he was trying to summon the demon, then. It’s pretty secluded and there isn’t much of anything in the area. Other teachers seem to only go there for the exams – but why not choose somewhere even farther away?

Noah walked up to his door and reached for the handle. He needed some air to think, and there wasn’t going to be any rest getting accomplished with Bradley shaking the room with every breath. His hand paused as it touched the metal.

What if Vermil succeeded?

The back of Noah's spine prickled. When he’d first heard the word demon, his mind had instantly gone to the monster that had attacked Renewal at the Waters of Life – but that hardly made any sense.

There was no way that Vermil, no matter what his true goals or motivation was, could have been strong enough to summon a monster like that. It was much more likely he’d tried to summon something comparatively powerful.

And, if he had, but Noah had killed him upon arrival before he could do anything else, then the demon could still be strolling around in the Scorched Acres. Noah’s jaw tightened and he pulled the door open, throwing a glance back at Bradley.

Or worse, it could be in Arbitage.

He stepped out of the door, coming face to face with Lee.

“Well?” Lee asked. “Did it work?”

“It answered some questions,” Noah replied softly. “And added many others. Let’s walk.”

Lee’s features stilled. She nodded, following Noah out of the T building. They headed out into the garden, following the thinning dirt path through the multicolored foliage. It was empty, aside from the gentle rustle of leaves and crunch of dry foliage beneath their feet.

“You’re not a Skinwalker,” Noah said.

Lee jerked her head up to look at Noah. “What?”

“Am I wrong?”

It was several moments before Lee responded. “No.”

“Why’d you lie?”

“Because it’s easier for you to assume than it is for me to correct it. You thought I was a Skinwalker from the day we first met, so there was no reason to try to change your mind. It would have just made things harder.”

“What are you, then?”

Lee’s shoulders slumped. “A demon. Lesser, to be exact.”

Noah stopped beside a bush covered with beautiful red flowers. “What was the point of pretending to be a Skinwalker? I don’t get it. You could have just told me. I wouldn’t have–”

I wouldn’t have even known the difference. Can’t say that.

“I wouldn’t have cared,” Noah finished. “But you hid information from me. You already knew the answers to half the questions I was asking Brayden, didn’t you?”

Lee sat down next to the bush, hugging her knees to her chest. “Yes. I did.”

Noah stretched his hands out. “Why? What’s the point of all the secrecy?”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like?” Lee asked, looking up at him. “Sitting around in one of the Damned Plains for years on end, desperately fighting tooth and nail to survive with absolutely nobody to talk to? No friends. No enemies. Just hunger. You can’t do anything but survive.”

I might have a better idea than you think.

Noah remained silent. It was clear that Lee’s question was rhetorical.

“I got a chance to finally get to the human world. To survive without having to rip the chance at life from the jaws of someone else. Of course I took it! And of course I lied about it. What do you think would happen if someone found out what I am? Straight back to the Damned Plains with me. I can’t beat a high Ranked mage if they come after me, and then I’ll be sent to rot for a few hundred more years if I’m lucky.”

Leaves cracked as Lee crushed the dirt by her sides in her hands, squeezing it tightly. Noah squatted beside her.

“You thought I would banish you?”

A smirk played across Lee’s face. “Come on. You aren’t Vermil. I’ve been playing along, but you were asking Brayden questions about things that Vermil literally already did. I watched him do them.”

Noah’s back stiffened. Another one of his secrets, out.

“And only a powerful mage would be able to crush someone’s soul,” Lee continued. “Not to mention you come back to life after you die. I don’t know of anyone who could do that other than some Archdemons at the peak of their power – and certainly not with the casual disregard that you do it with. On top of that, I can tell that you aren’t a Demon. You don’t smell like one. Someone like you wouldn’t be likely to tolerate having a demon around.”

“Then why even make contact with me in the first place?” Noah asked softly. “You copied my body and approached Todd, all the while fearing I would try to kill you?”

“I was stuck in the Scorched Acres with no way to leave. Vermil’s summoning bound anything that passed through it to his will, and he demanded that the summoned demon not leave the boundaries of the placed it arrived in without permission.”

Noah’s eyes widened. The wording of Lee’s Rune Oath ran back through his head.

“Original owner of this body,” Noah murmured. He didn’t bother trying to reach for his magic. If Lee was going to try to attack him, then he doubted he’d be able to stop her in time. He’d seen how fast she was – and they both knew how little the attack would actually accomplish. “Sly. You never made a Rune Oath with me at all, did you? Everything you did was just to get out of the Scorched Acres.”

A smile flickered across Lee’s face. “I still needed your permission to get out of the Scorched Acres. Vermil’s contract didn’t have any clauses saying that it had to be his soul speaking. He just said himself, and his body was the one that signed it. Nitpicky, but enough to make a loophole.”

“If that’s the case, why did you stick around?” Noah asked.

“Because I was lonely!” Noah shifted back in surprise as Lee sent him a bitter, watery glare. “I wasn’t planning on sticking around, but I got to Arbitage and realized that I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know what I was going to do, despite having waited for this for most of my life. So I figured I’d see what you were up to, as I wanted to see why you stole Vermil’s body. Then I got to meet your students. You spent time with me and you trusted me enough to let me teach them. They were fun. I was starting to get attached.”

She shrugged helplessly, then looked away to wipe her face with the back of her sleeve. “And now it doesn’t matter. You killed the Hellreaver and that idiot from your family showed up. Now it’s ruined.”

Noah sat, crossing his legs. He wasn’t sure exactly what the proper way to comfort a crying demon was, but he figured it probably wasn’t all that different from a human. He put a hand on Lee’s shoulder and she stiffened.

“Why does it have to be over?”

“What?” Lee sniffled. “You mean because I could kill you? As if that would change anything. Sure, I’m out of the Scorched Acres, but it’ll only be a matter of time before you or someone else hunts me down.”

“And why would I do that? Well, assuming you don’t kill me. I do prefer not dying.”

“Because you know what I am.”

“And you know what I am. Kind of,” Noah said with a shrug. “I might be missing some context here, but I’m not exactly sure why I should care about you being a demon rather than a Skinwalker. I could just be biased here, but I’m pretty sure that Skinwalkers are the ones that make it a habit of wearing people’s corpses – even if you’ve picked up on their hobby.”

Lee let out a snort of laughter, then wiped her nose and stared at Noah with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“You haven’t really given me a reason to doubt you. I don’t have a lot of allies here, especially ones that know anything about me,” Noah said. “I don’t appreciate getting lied to, but I can’t pretend like I’m not doing the same, so it would be hypocritical of me to be angry.”

“So you aren’t going to try to banish me?”

“I’d banish that little prick Edward over you if I could.”

Lee laughed again. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m well aware. I might understand your situation more than you’d think,” Noah said with a slight smile. “If you don’t give us any reason to be enemies, I don’t see why we need to be. Really, now we’re just on even ground. You know some of my secrets, and I know some of yours.”

“Does this mean you’ll tell me who you really are?” Lee asked.

Noah snorted. “No. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

Lee scrunched her nose. Noah rose to his feet and held his hand out. Lee studied it for a moment, then slowly reached out to let Noah pull her back to her feet.

“This means you aren’t bound by that oath at all, right?” Noah asked.

Lee glanced to the side. “I’m not. I specified Vermil’s original body to avoid fulfilling yours, but your command to leave the Scorched Acres still affected my original contract since it was still technically part of him speaking. Do you want me to–”

“No. You’ve gone this far without betraying my trust. I’ll extend the same to you.”

“You’re going to trust a demon?”

“You’ve been trusting a body-stealing idiot.”

“Okay, that’s a good point.”

They walked in silence for a minute, heading deeper into the garden, both equally lost in their own thoughts.

“I’ve still got one question,” Noah said. “Why did Vermil try to summon you? What did he want you to do about this election thing?”

“Oh. He wasn’t trying to summon me.”

“What?” Noah stopped walking and Lee looked over her shoulder at him.

“He was trying to summon a different demon. I just managed to slip through the opening in the process. It’s passing through the portal that starts the binding process, you know.”

“Lee,” Noah said, his voice taut. “What happened with the other demon?”

“I’m not sure. I ran away as soon as I arrived, but it was pretty powerful,” Lee replied. “As soon as I saw it start to arrive, I hid to make sure it wouldn’t kill me.”

Goddamn it.