Return of the Runebound Professor

The rest of the day and night passed, surprisingly without incident. Noah remained seated in his tree, watching the moon trek through the sky. Monkeys hollered in the distance, their cries echoing through the barren forest and distorting with the wind.

None of them found him. Noah wasn’t sure if it was because they were intentionally avoiding his location after the slaughter, or if he’d just gotten lucky. Either way, the sun rose all the same the following morning.

The fog in his head had only just started to show signs of abating when an electric current danced across his skin, running down his spine and spreading throughout his body. Before Noah could even start to wonder what was causing the sensation, a sudden force jerked at the nape of his neck.

The world blurred and took on a vibrant shade of blue as he was shunted backward and sent hurtling through space. Noah instinctively tried to let out a startled gasp, but he couldn’t even do that. His entire body rebelled against him, and all he could do was sit and watch as the blue currents swirled past him.

With a violent thud, Noah slammed down inside a metal tube, sliding to the floor and landing with a grunt. He staggered as his feet hit cold ground and he braced himself against the wall, drawing in a deep breath. Tim raised a hand in greeting, but his smile fell away as he saw the state of Noah’s blood-covered clothing.

“By the gods, man,” Tim exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

Noah grimaced and pushed off the wall, shaking his head. The fog in his head still hadn’t completely left, and his mouth felt gummy as he spoke. “I’m uninjured.”

Tim’s expression relaxed, but his eyes remained incredulous. He shook his head in disbelief. “Looks like you went through quite a few healing potions with all the wounds you’re sporting.”

Noah grunted. “Yeah, something like that. Sorry. Forgot I was going to get yanked back this quickly.”

Tim waved his hand dismissively and gestured to the elevator in the center of the room. “Happens to all of us. It’s a bit sudden, and I don’t recall you coming by much before. Once you use the system a few more times, you should get used to it.”

“Good to know.” Noah stepped onto the small lift in the center of the room and Tim shut the grate behind him.

“You might want to rest for a little while,” Tim said. “You look like shit.”

Noah gave the man a small grin. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

Tim stepped back and the lift rattled down, chains lowering it into the open air. The metal trapdoor shut above Noah with a crash and he winced as the sound pierced his ears. It probably wasn’t all that loud, but with his head throbbing after his death, it was like a gunshot set off right beside his head.

The lift lowered Noah down to the stairwell and he stepped off, keeping his eyes low as he strode past the small line waiting to use the travel system and headed for his room. By the time he reached it, his head was almost back to the point where he could think properly.

Noah tried calling on his runes again to no avail. He sighed and stripped out of his ruined clothes, taking a shower and swapping into a new set of clothes before sitting down on his bed. Even though getting killed had technically cleaned off all the dirt he’d picked up fighting, his ruined clothes were filthy enough to warrant getting cleaned again.

Next time, I’m bringing a spare set. I wonder how much they cost, because I get the feeling I’m going to be running through the rest of my wardrobe pretty quickly.

Noah propped his pillow against the wall and leaned back on it, crossing his arms behind his chest. His head throbbed and he grimaced, massaging his temple. He’d yet to measure the exact amount of time it took him to recover from a death, but the pain was already starting to abate, so he suspected it wouldn’t be much longer. He closed his eyes and let himself relax, waiting until his magic returned.

***

Just a little over an hour later, the last of the fog lifted away. Noah felt the headache abate and opened his eyes again. He covered a yawn and sat upright, immediately sending for his runes. This time, nothing stood in his way and he slipped into his mental space without issue.

Seven runes shimmered to life in the darkness, floating patiently in a circle around him. Noah immediately looked to the new Vibration rune. It sat where one of his old Wind runes had been, shimmering with faint gray energy.

Noah took a step toward it and a faint resistance pushed back on him, as if he were striding into a soft wind. A grin stretched across his face. His efforts the previous day hadn’t been wasted. The other runes had all grown slightly stronger as well. It wasn’t a massive difference, but it was noticeable.

His grin faded away as he considered the Vibration rune. He didn’t know exactly how much power it would take to fill it to the point where it could be combined properly, but the light coming from the rune was so dim compared to the others that he suspected it probably wasn’t even one percent of the way to its max capacity.

Noah opened his eyes and the darkness fell away. He summoned the Vibration rune to his palm and studied it. The Wind rune had been easy enough to use, but the Ash rune still stubbornly refused to do just about anything.

He chewed his lower lip in thought, then touched a finger to his pillow. A faint tremble ran through it. Noah raised an eyebrow and drew on more of the rune’s power. The pillow flopped around as if someone were throttling it.

A few seconds later, the energy stored within the rune dried up. It vanished and the pillow ceased its motion, falling back to his bed and lying still.

“Not the most intimidating thing I’ve ever done, but at least it works,” Noah mused. “So if the Wind and Vibration runes both work perfectly, then I’ve got to be using the Ash rune wrong somehow.”

Noah called on the Ash energy and felt it rise up in response. He tried picturing a small cloud of ash rising up from his hand, but it once again stubbornly refused to respond. Noah pursed his lips and glanced around the room.

His eyes landed on a half-melted candle at the edge of his desk. He strode over to it, grabbing a firestarter beside it and lighting the candle. Noah took a paper from the pile of trash that Vermil had left behind and, after reading it to make sure it wasn’t important, set the paper over the flame.

The fire quickly took hold, burning a small hole and blackening the paper around it. The flame continued to spread and the hole expanded, its edges glowing cherry red as more of the paper was consumed. Noah let a little over a quarter of it burn away before he smothered the smoldering paper out with his palm.

The flame stung for a moment and gave in, fading away and leaving him with the brittle results of his experiment. Noah shook his hand off and crushed the edge of the paper, letting the soot crumble into a small pile on his desk.

Straightening his back, Noah pushed the candle out of the way and called on his Ash rune. He turned his attention to the pile on his desk. The ash shifted, swirling up into the air and forming into a swirling sphere.

A grin stretched across Noah’s face and he splayed his fingers out. The ash twisted between them like a snake, slithering down his palm and forming into a small bird. It fluttered around Noah’s head, then nosedived into the desk and exploded into a small puff of smokey ash.

“Aha,” Noah said, unable to hide his pleasure as he rubbed his hands together. He directed the ash back into a small pile, then organized it into several lines. It responded to his thoughts without delay, forming the exact image he pictured in his head. “So that’s how it works. I can’t create Ash, but I can control it.”

Noah flicked his fingers and the ash leapt from his desk, forming into a crescent moon and shooting into the candle. It pattered against the wax, failing to cut through it. Noah pulled the ash back into a pile and pursed his lips.

“So it’s still just ash, even when I’m controlling it,” Noah mused. “Why doesn’t it cut like the wind did?”

He put the ash through a few more tests, but as far as he could tell, it was just ash. Noah sat in thought for a few moments, trying to figure out why his Wind rune was able to cut and do real damage while what should have been a more powerful Ash rune almost felt lackluster. The answer struck him a few moments later and he grimaced at the realization.

It’s the amount of energy stored in them. That’s why Vermil kept a bunch of weak Wind runes around instead of using all the more powerful ones he had in his book. It was easier to just use the weak Wind runes and cast magic with them than building up to really using the powerful ones.

Noah rubbed his forehead, mentally thanking himself for not making the impulsive decision to get rid of all his Wind runes at once. If he had, there wouldn’t have been any way for him to reliably kill the monsters in the Scorched Acres.

“Well, at least I found out sooner rather than later,” Noah said to himself. He released his hold on his magic and snuffed the candle out. The sun was already well into the sky, and if he recalled correctly, he still had a class to teach today, and he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be too long until it started.

It would be nice to actually show up before it started this time around.