Return of the Runebound Professor

The rest of dinner passed by quickly. Brayden had clearly paid far more than the inn had expected, because the waitress came around with an individual key for each of them. It didn’t take long before everyone had gone up a thin set of stairs at the back of the tavern to retire to their rooms for the night.

Noah was pleased to find that, while plain, the bed in his room was more than comfortable – and it was certainly an improvement over the ground. Before going to bed, he spent an hour on Body Imbuement. He was leaning heavily toward testing out Combustion, but the Master Rune just didn’t seem to work the same way others did. Even though he could tell it had an energy capacity, when Noah tried to Imbue it, the Rune stubbornly resisted. He didn’t want to risk pulling too much of its power and end up mistakenly permanently Imbuing himself when he still didn’t know if they would stick around through death, so Noah ended up spending more of his time fiddling with the Master Rune than actually Imbuing it. Eventually, when it started to get really late, he headed to bed.

The night passed in a flash and, before he knew it, the sun was crawling through the lone window in the room.

By the time Noah rolled out of bed and headed down the stairwell back into the tavern below, several others were already there. Brayden stood beside a table, next to Lee and Moxie who were sat at it. He’d opted not to even bother using a table as a chair.

“Morning,” Noah said, walking up to join them. “Are we setting off?”

“Soon,” Brayden replied. “I want to restock. I typically travel alone, so I’m running out of supplies at a rate faster than what I’d prefer. The innkeeper is already out getting what I asked for, so I’m just going to hang around a little.”

“Good opportunity to explore the town,” Moxie offered. “It’s been a while since I’ve been outside of Arbitage in any capacity other than work. There might be something interesting.”

“In this little rundown hole?” Brayden cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged. “Help yourself, Torrin.”

I’ve never actually gotten a chance to do anything outside of Arbitage other than kill monsters. I’d love to see what a normal town is like.

“I’ll check it out as well,” Noah said. “Lee, you coming?”

“Nah. Sounds like a lot of effort,” Lee replied, covering a yawn and draping her arms over the back of her chair. “I’ll stay here and sleep.”

Brayden just nodded. He still looked a little more absentminded than Noah recalled him being when they’d first met, as if he were lost within his own head.

“I’ll keep an eye on everyone else. Don’t wander off for too long. We leave in an hour,” Brayden warned.

Moxie and Noah both nodded. Moxie rose from the table and pushed her chair in before heading out of the tavern, Noah on her heels. The town looked a lot more welcoming in the daylight, though it was much more tightly packed than he’d grown used to after spending months in Arbitage.

“Where are we headed?” Noah asked. “Is there a market square or something?”

“There should be a street of merchants somewhere,” Moxie replied. “This town is pretty small, so I’m not sure how big the market will be, but you never know where you’ll find a hidden gem.”

They strolled through the city streets, moving at a brisk but comfortable pace. Several passersby made a double take when they spotted Moxie’s uniform, but nobody bothered them. If anything, people made extra effort to avoid getting in their path.

Unless Moxie herself has been here before and has a reputation, then Arbitage has quite the reputation. Or is it just the Rank on her uniform that has the reputation?

Noah drank in the sights of the town as they walked. The majority of the traffic around them – as little as it was – was on foot, though there were a few people walking around with hand-drawn carts.

The town itself strongly resembled what he would have imagined a medieval one would have looked like, though it didn’t smell nearly as bad as he would have expected.

It didn’t take him and Moxie long to locate the market area. It was only a street behind where their tavern had been, and already had inviting smells rising from within it. Several multicolored cloths crisscrossed through the air above it, providing shade to the variety of wooden carts that had been arranged along the street. Not all the carts had anyone sitting at them, but all of them had their wares laid out.

Trusting people. Probably a pretty tightly knit community then, if they’re trusting the other merchants to watch over their stuff.

Noah let his gaze roam over the carts. It reminded him of a farmer’s market more than anything else. There were dozens of fruits that he didn’t recognize – along with quite a few that he did.

The carts bore everything from basic weaponry and utensils to small paintings on pieces of wood. He half expected the merchants to start calling out to them as they passed, but nobody addressed him or Moxie.

Are they uncomfortable?

Noah opened his mouth to voice his thoughts when something caught his eye. He grabbed Moxie by the sleeve, staring at a table piled high with papers – each one bearing a Rune.

Holy shit.

“Moxie,” Noah breathed. “Look at that. He’s got hundreds of Runes just sitting around.”

The merchant, a bearded man with a barrel chest, noticed the interest in Noah’s eyes and grinned. He grabbed a sheaf of papers and waved them around encouragingly.

“Ten gold per rune,” the man said. “A good deal. One you won’t find anywhere else.”

Noah walked over to the stand, his brow furrowed. Moxie had said that the Runes cost hundreds of gold, but the merchant was selling them for what was essentially a pittance – granted, not one he currently had the funds for.

He picked up one of the papers, then shuffled through a pile. He pulled out a Rank 1 Greater Fire Rune and pursed his lips. It wasn’t a secret that there was a lot of variation in Runes, even of ones that had the same type, but it looked pretty different to the Fire Rune he’d had Todd replace in his book.

Moxie grabbed Noah by the arm and pulled him away from the stand like a lost child. The merchant rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.

“What?” Noah asked. “Did you see those Runes?”

“Never buy Runes from a random market vendor,” Moxie said, shaking her head.

“I was about to ask about that. Just how much variation can there be in a Rune?” Noah asked. “The one I saw on that paper looked pretty different from the Fire Rune I have. Like, really significantly different. Almost like a completely different Rune.”

“Because it’s a bad forgery,” Moxie said. “How do you think the noble houses have kept the prices on Runes so high? Even if there’s a chance of them burning up when you learn them, it wouldn’t be that difficult to mass produce a Rune as long as you’ve got enough monsters to kill and time to waste. Runes don’t regulate themselves.”

Noah opened his mouth, then let it close. His lips pressed thin as he realized what Moxie was implying. “They flooded the market with fake Runes?”

“Not just them, to be fair. A lot of people will skimp on the energy they need to Imbue from their Rune, leaving you with a pretty picture that doesn’t have enough energy to actually let you learn it. The Noble houses haven’t helped, though. Unapproved vendors aren't allowed to sell Runes in major cities, so they have to sell next to them, in places like this. They consistently pump fake versions of Runes into the market to make sure that the only people you can safely buy from are their own vendors.”

“That’s pretty damn dark,” Noah said, glancing over his shoulder at the merchant. “So he was knowingly trying to scam us?”

Moxie shrugged. “Maybe. Most of the people selling Runes aren’t the ones using them, especially if they’re in small towns like this. He probably just picked up his stock from someone else who got it from someone else. There’s always the chance you get a good Rune in the pile from someone who legitimately Imbued it, but it’s just gambling. A lot of people try anyway, but I don't think it’s worth the money.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Noah said, pursing his lips. “Thanks for the warning. While we’re on the topic, do you know why the noble houses are so dead set on keeping Runes restricted? I obviously understand the whole power thing, but this almost seems like a step beyond that.”

Moxie let out a heavy sigh. She paused by a cart selling fruit pies, nearly causing Noah to bowl in to her. Moxie dug a few silver coins out of her pocket and bought two pies from the vendor, then headed over to a bench in a gap between the carts.

She sat down and Noah took the spot beside her.

“Lots of reasons,” Moxie finally said before taking a bite out of the pie. She chewed for a moments before speaking again. “Power is the biggest one, but fear plays a big part into it as well. The Arbalest Empire is isolated, and we like it that way.”

“Elaborate?” Noah asked.

Moxie took another bite out of her pie. “The Headmaster is a Rank 6. He’s the most powerful mage I know of. The leaders of most noble houses are around Rank 5 or 6, and I don’t know anyone that’s a higher rank. Not locally, at least.”

Empire means there’s an emperor or empress, doesn’t it? What about them?

“There’s no Emperor,” Moxie said, reading Noah’s features like a book. “Not anymore. I’m not going to give you an entire history lesson, you lazy bum. Go read a book about this.”

Noah grimaced. “What about an abridged version?”

“The Arbalest Empire was the site of an enormous war a while ago, before I was born. A bunch of mages got killed in the fight – that’s kind of how wars work – but the casualties were too high for either side, and they still had other enemies. They agreed to stay out of the area, giving the weaker mages a chance to grow in strength without getting crushed just by being a bit too close to a Rank 7’s Runes or something.”

“I see,” Noah said slowly. “But what does that have to do with not wanting people to learn Runes? Are they worried that somebody will reach Rank 7 and start blowing stuff up?”

Moxie snorted. “No. They’re worried that someone else will reach Rank 7. Every family is desperately trying to figure out how to hit the highest Ranks possible, but combinations get incredibly complicated once you get that high up. But, if enough people get a chance to fiddle around, eventually someone will get it right. They don’t want that risk. Either way, there haven’t been reports of a Rank 7 since the Arbalest Empire was established.”

“Why not just combine a bunch of the same kind of rune if they’re that set on getting someone to Rank 7?”

“Have you ever seen what happens to someone that only has a single type of Rune?”

“Nope.”

“It’s not pretty,” Moxie said. “Especially not at the higher Ranks. Runic power needs balance. Runes of different types exert their pressure on each other, but Runes of the same type don’t. Too much of one type without anything to hold it back and your body won’t survive the experience.”

Ah. Like how my other Runes pushed back on Sunder and let me use its power. So if they’d all been mini Sunder Runes, I wouldn’t have been able to resist it at all? That’s concerning, but it does explain a lot.

Moxie stuffed the rest of the pie into her mouth, then took a bite out of the next one. She wiped her mouth and let out a short laugh.

“I say all that, but I bet there have been Rank 7s in recent years. My guess is that nobody wants to admit it, but the Rank 7s usually get out of here as soon as they can. When you’re that powerful, why bother being beholden to a bunch of idiots? Just do what you want and leave.”

“I’d imagine that there’s also the fear of what would happen if a bunch of powerful people started popping up in here, right?” Noah guessed. “I mean, if the strong folk are still out there, and they see new strong ones in the Empire, what’s to stop them from coming back in?”

“That as well,” Moxie agreed. She polished off the rest of her pie and brushed her hands off. “Well, decent little market, but nothing really caught my eye. Unless you want to waste some coin gambling on Runes, I’m done here.”

“Not today,” Noah said with a chuckle. “Thanks for the history lesson. Let’s go meet back up with Brayden and the others.”