Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 197:

“The better question,” Noah said, keeping his magic at the ready to call on in an instant if he needed it, “is who are you?”

Evergreen’s construct snorted. It pushed against the vines, trying to turn and get a look at him, but Moxie’s magic held strong. “I’d be more than willing to have a chat. If you managed to take out the construct, you’ve clearly got some degree of skill. Perhaps our goals might align.”

“I’m not opposed to finding out. Start talking,” Noah said.

“Uncover my eyes. I won’t be saying anything to a person I can’t even see. It’s basic respect to look your verbal opponent in the eye.”

Yeah, that’s not happening. If you want to see again, that probably means you didn’t catch what all of us looked like. If I’m lucky, you didn’t catch what any of us look like at all.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to be keeping things like this,” Noah said. “It shouldn’t impede our discussion, though. I have no love for the Torrin family. If you tell me who you are, then I’d love to show up in person and have a proper talk with you.”

Evergreen’s construct chuckled. “That’s an interesting offer. I refuse. I can give you a location, though. Neutral ground. We both show up and talk under our own power. How’s that sound?”

“Depends,” Noah replied, thinking furiously as he tried to figure out what the mystery presence’s goal actually was. He highly doubted it actually cared about him taking out Evergreen’s construct. “I’d be willing to talk if you tell me a bit about what’s going on with the exam.”

“Why would I do something like that? I’m not going to give you information for free, my dear friend. Now, if we were to meet in person, I could be persuaded to be much more benevolent.”

Moxie pressed her lips together, but remained quiet. Noah didn’t need to read her thoughts to know that they were thinking the same thing.

This person is bad news. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to meet them anywhere.

So far, it looked as if whoever had taken over Evergreen’s body didn’t know that there were other people in the room, so they’d probably covered her eyes in time. Either that or they were just pretending not to know that anyone else was there – but Noah wasn’t sure that would have served any purpose.

Damn it. I can’t actually press for specifics about the exam because it would reveal what students I’m interested in. But, if I take the angle of being interested in what happens to the Torrins rather than students in general…

“If the attacks on the Torrin family are just a distraction, then you must be after something else,” Noah said. “An artifact in the Torrin’s possession, maybe? I never viewed Evergreen as a very caring person, though. If you were planning to get her attention, then you’ll probably have to do quite a bit more than just throw a few worthless monsters around.”

Evergreen’s construct smiled. “Of course. Little Emily is doing a surprisingly decent job at holding out. I’ll have to send her my appreciation, but I have absolutely no plans of sharing anything more in this manner of communication. Are you quite certain that you won’t meet me somewhere?”

“Where would you want to meet?” Noah asked, stalling for time more than anything else.

“Let’s see – you’ve got to be in Arbitage. How about–”

There was a loud crack. Noah flinched back as Revin brought the staff down on Evergreen’s head, caving it in. Her entire body rippled like a pond that had a rock thrown into it. Then with a pop, the construct shattered into dozens of green, glowing shards that faded away into the air.

Noah stared at Revin in shock. “What are you doing?”

“Saving you from making a mistake,” Revin replied, lowering the staff.

“The hell does that mean? I wasn’t actually going to meet the person. I just wanted to keep them talking until they let something more useful slip.”

“Trust me. It was a bad idea,” Revin said.

“Do you know something that we don’t?” Moxie asked.

“I always know more than I let on.”

Noah and Moxie both squinted at Revin.

“Was that just an attempt to sound cool?” Noah asked suspiciously.

“Yes.” Revin flicked his hair back.

“You might be the biggest moron I’ve ever interacted with – but I think that might have been the right call. The less we spoke to whoever that was, the less chance to slip up.” Moxie combed her hands through her hair, then cursed. “Damn it. We haven’t made any progress at all. I still have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Did Evergreen ever even send out orders to test me, or was that a lie as well?”

“Should have asked the construct.” Revin scratched the side of his nose and yawned.

“I think we would have, had we gotten the chance,” Noah said, glaring at Revin. “Can you remake the construct? And will it come back with the same information?”

“Only one way to find out,” Revin studied the staff for a few seconds, then held it out before him and narrowed his eyes in concentration. Revin drew in a deep breath and ran his fingertips along the side of the gnarled wood, leaving a trail of growing green energy in his wake.

Magic swirled around the tip of the staff. A deep thrum washed through the room, vibrating Noah’s bones as it passed through him. Light gathered in the air before the staff, knitting itself into Evergreen’s form.

The light dimmed after a few seconds, leaving Evergreen standing in its place. She blinked once, then looked around the room in confusion. The emotion passed, replaced by the cold, largely expressionless look that Evergreen had been wearing before they’d disarmed her.

“Why do you have my staff?” Evergreen asked Revin. “And who are you?”

“Turns out the answer is that I can remake the construct, but it doesn’t keep its memories,” Revin declared.

“You just told it what you did,” Moxie said, grabbing Evergreen with her vines and yanking the construct back into the chair. “Now you’ll need to make a new one. I suppose this works, though. Can you do the mind-control bit again?”

Revin shrugged, then gripped the staff. Evergreen’s eyes glossed over mid-protest.

“What was the reason you came to Arbitage?” Moxie asked.

“To oversee your training of Emily and determine if you had failed in your duties,” Evergreen said.

“Great,” Moxie muttered. “Guess that part was real.”

“We might want to keep the questions short,” Noah said, watching Evergreen carefully. “I’m not sure if she’ll end up getting possessed again.”

“That’s fine.” Moxie shook her head and turned away. “I’ve got no more questions for her. I think it’s pretty clear what happened, though. Evergreen sent a clone to check up on how things were going, just like Contessa thought. It got intercepted at some point and someone somehow screwed with it to make it do what they wanted, but I suspect we broke that connection when Revin killed the construct. I don’t think the person is going to show back up, but do we even have any other things we want to ask?”

“Can you share what Rune combinations you have?” Noah asked.

Evergreen’s clone stared at him blankly.

“Figures,” Noah said with a sigh. “Do you know who I am?”

“Vermil Linwick.”

“Did I give you anything?”

“No.”

“The memory loss goes back before she arrived at Arbitage, then. Works for me.”

Noah grabbed the scroll he’d given Evergreen and tucked it back into his own bag. If she wasn’t going to remember it, then he wasn’t going to give her the scroll. There was no point wasting perfectly good Runes.

“Right. Revin, can you–”

The staff fell with a crunch. Revin was all too eager to club Evergreen in the head, clone or not. Noah wasn’t sure if he should laugh or shake his head.

“I guess we should probably bring her back now so she can actually watch the exam to get the proof that Moxie hasn’t failed in her duties,” Noah said, pressing his lips together in displeasure. “I wish we could have gotten more information, though. Once Evergreen is remade, we’ll have to make sure to avoid saying anything important.”

Moxie nodded. “Revin, you should probably leave as soon as you make her again.”

“Probably for the best,” Revin agreed. “I really don’t want to spend more time around the old woman than I have to. I’ll be watching James win the bet from elsewhere. We’ll talk again.”

He used the staff to create Evergreen’s clone once again, then set it down on the ground behind her. Revin turned into a pillar of shadow and sank into the ground, slipping out from under the door and vanishing just as Evergreen’s eyes snapped open.

She looked around in confusion, then spotted the staff on the floor and grabbed it, looking from Noah to Moxie with a guarded expression.

“You okay, Magus Evergreen?” Noah asked. “You were staring off into space for a few moments.”

Evergreen shook her head. “I’m perfectly fine. I don’t need a Linwick asking after my health. What are you doing in my room?”

“You invited me to watch the exam with you and Magus Moxie,” Noah replied. He pointed up to the cube, where Emily and the others were currently fighting their way through a swarm of Root Fiends.

The other screen showed Eline sitting at the base of a tree, hugging a bag of tokens to her chest. She’d easily gathered more than ten, so she’d more than passed the exam so long as she didn’t get killed or lose the tokens before it ended.

“I – right. Of course.” Evergreen’s brow furrowed and she sat back in her chair. The construct did a great job of hiding its thoughts, but Noah could see her trying to figure out where things had left off. If the construct had been human, Noah suspected it would have probably wondered more about the missing time.

Instead, Evergreen just looked up to the screen and fell silent. Noah and Moxie exchanged a glance before doing the same. None of them had been paying much attention to the events of the exam as of late, but it looked like not much had changed.

There were only a few days left before it was over, and none of the team had gotten a Token. Noah had also yet to see any signs of Karina, but there was nothing he could do other than watch how things unfolded.

Once this thing is over –

Something prodded Noah in the leg. He suppressed a swear and glanced down. A tendril of shadow slithered back into the ground before a small booklet popped out of the ground, bouncing against Noah’s shin.

He glanced at Evergreen, but she wasn’t paying him any attention. Noah knelt down and grabbed the book, flipping it over to look at the cover.

Formations for Morons, by Revin the All-Seeing

Noah nearly let a laugh slip out but caught himself at the last second. Revin, despite his absolutely insane personality, seemed like a pretty decent person. He slipped the book into his jacket and prepared to settle in and watch the exam.

No sooner than he had started to relax did a furious knock echo through the room. Noah jumped to his feet.

“That’s probably Lee,” Noah said quickly as he walked over to get the door. “She went out to get some food.”

He pulled the door open. Sure enough, Lee stood on the other side, in her normal form. She opened her mouth and Noah quickly clapped a hand over it. He shifted his body to the side and nodded to Evergreen.

Lee’s eyes widened and she nodded her understanding. Noah released her and ruffled her hair, just in case Evergreen had noticed his sudden motion. He didn’t need the construct to get suspicious of anything again. Getting the staff away from her would likely prove to be difficult.

“Get your food?” Noah asked, closing the door behind her.

“Yep,” Lee replied with a cheerful grin. “How’s Isabel’s group doing?”

“Same as they have been,” Noah said, shaking his head and heading back over to his chair together with Lee. They both sat down and looked up at the screen, each doing their best to not look too suspicious.

When Noah was certain that Evergreen wasn’t watching, he glanced at Lee and arched an eyebrow. She gave him a thumbs up.

Well, we’ve got an excuse if she ends up dead for good. Otherwise, that’ll be what we use to pretend she got mind controlled or something. It could help shift the blame for her missing memories if or when anyone comes digging for that.

Noah leaned back, turning his attention to the cube and chewing his lower lip in thought.

If someone’s sending a bunch of extra monsters after the kids, how are they going to pass the exam? They’re going to need to figure out some way to get through the horde and locate four token bearing enemies. Things are looking pretty bad if nothing changes in the next few days. I guess all I can do is wait and see, though. A lot can change in a few days.