Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah’s eyes fluttered back open as the smell of ash and burnt wood greeted him. Something rough was pressed against his side and prickly dirt pressed against his cheek, doing its best to work its way into his mouth.

He was back in the Scorched Acres — and from the looks of things, he strongly suspected that he may have managed to fall over while he’d been in meditation. The face full of dirt and the rough bark beside him rather than at his back were strong indicators of that.

It took Noah a moment to remember what he’d been doing before he’d been in the Scorched Acres. His memories were a little fuzzy and he couldn’t quite put a finger on what had happened. He could vaguely recall —

Yoru!

Noah lurched, shoving himself away from the ground as his memories rushed back to him. The small demon laid on the dirt across from him. She was face down, but her chest rose and fell with faint breaths.

Relief passed over Noah. He pushed himself to his feet to walk over to Yoru, but the edge of his domain prickled. It pulled his attention up into the canopy of the burnt trees around him as he sensed a familiar presence.

Lee sat upon a large branch, her legs dangling over the edge as she watched over them. She pushed off and dropped to the ground to land a few feet away from Noah.

“You fell over,” Lee said, pointing to the dirt covering Noah’s face. “I didn’t want to move you in case it messed something up. I didn’t realize you were going to try to fix Yoru today.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Noah replied as he hurried over to Yoru and knelt beside her. He wasn’t exactly up to date on his first-aid courses. He pressed a hand to the side of Yoru’s neck to see if he could feel a heartbeat. It was there.

Oh, fuck.

Yoru’s arms were gone. Both of them had just completely evaporated, leaving nothing but the sleeves of her shirt behind. Her face was covered in blood — as was the ground beneath her and her shirt. The damage she’d taken in the soul realm had carried back over into the real world.

Noah’s hands tightened at his sides.

Oh, Yoru. Damn Moonlit Prophecy. It did this to her. If it had cooperated, I would have been able to get Yoru completely fixed up before the damage to her got this bad. That fucking rune just wouldn’t give up any power. It wasn’t satisfied taking away her chances at a normal life. It also took her arms.

Maybe I should have shattered it entirely and said screw the power.

The only consolation that came was that they had won. Moonlit Prophecy had failed to keep Yoru under its thumb. Even if it had cost her arms, the Fragment of Renewal had managed to knit Yoru’s soul back together to the point where she wasn’t actively dying anymore.

“Her arms,” Lee said sadly. “What happened?”

“Her Master Rune happened.” Noah wasn’t in much of a mood to explain it farther.

“Poor Yoru. She’s going to have to eat with her feet until we get her a new arm,” Lee said with a despondent look. “But why did you start with her? Wouldn’t Violet or Vrith have been safer?”

“I was planning on doing Violet,” Noah said, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head as he flopped down to sit beside Yoru. “But Yoru had other plans. She broke all her runes before I could get a chance to say anything and forced my hand.”

“That wasn’t very smart,” Lee said in a matter-of-fact tone.

That line would be quite funny if Yoru survived. It would be a lot less funny if she didn’t.

Noah wiped the dirt from his face and leaned back, taking a moment to let his pounding heart still. Adrenaline was still pumping through his veins like a runaway train. But, no matter how much he panicked or stressed about the results of his work, it would change nothing.

The Fragment of Renewal was at work. It wouldn’t fix her body, but it could repair her soul. Yoru had managed to replace all her runes. Her arms were gone, but her life had returned in their place.

All he could do now was wait.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cover of his Grimoire twitch. He snagged the strap connected to it and dragged it over to himself. He and the large book were going to need a heart-to-heart sooner rather than later. It had been making itself known pretty often as of late, and each time it did, Noah couldn’t help but feel like he was making contracts with a devil.

He pushed the thoughts away. The Grimoire would have to be addressed later. Now wasn’t the time. Even if it had been willing to speak with him at the moment, his head just wasn’t going to be in the game.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And when he was dealing with… whatever it was that lurked within the Grimoire’s pages, he was going to need to be at his best.

“Where are the others?” Noah asked. “And how long have we been out?”

“Mostly asleep. Alexandra was wandering around, but Moxie is distracting her,” Lee said. “She’s the one that noticed something was up with you and Yoru first. She woke me up to check on you. It hasn’t been that long since she did. Maybe two minutes?”

That fast? How’d Moxie even realize that quickly? Did the runes that Sievan gave her really help that much? Now I really want to know what they are.

Noah lifted his gaze to the sky. It was still deep into the night. The moon shone high overhead, glistening with silver light, and he couldn’t help but squint at it.

Prick.

A small groan rose up from the ground. Noah’s eyes widened and he nearly jumped out of his own skin. Yoru’s face twitched. Her shut eyes tightened even further and her lips pressed thin.

She was awake.

After what had happened to Lee when she’d split her runes, Noah had fully expected Yoru to be out for days.

I’ve got half a mind to scold her for ten minutes straight for that idiotic stunt, but I should probably hold off until I actually make sure she’s not about to die.

“Yoru?” Noah asked. “Are you there?”

Yoru shifted. Then her entire body stiffened.

A pit formed in Noah’s stomach.

How am I supposed to tell her she has no arms?

“Where’s my mask?”

Noah blinked. That hadn’t been the question he’d been expecting. He’d honestly forgotten that Yoru had been wearing a mask. It felt like there were slightly more important things that were missing.

He wasn’t about to argue, though. It took him a moment to find the mask, half-buried under one of her shoulders. He pried it free and set it down gently on her face. She relaxed almost immediately.

I’m not sure why she wants her mask that badly, but if it makes her more comfortable, I’m not going to stand in her way.

“There,” Noah said. “Uh…”

“It’s tilted,” Yoru said. “Can you fix it?”

He fixed the mask.

“Thank you.”

There’s no way she hasn’t realized her arms are missing, right?

“Are… you okay?” Noah asked, the words feeling hollow even as they left their lips. Asking if she was okay after what had just happened almost felt like an insult.

“It was too painful to sleep, so I woke up.”

“You have no arms,” Lee informed Yoru with the tact of a barreling 18-wheeler truck.

Noah nearly slapped himself in the forehead. He immediately regretted not just bringing the injury up himself. There were definitely considerably more tactful ways to bring that particular fact up. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten who his company was, and Lee was nothing if not blunt.

“I am aware,” Yoru said.

Noah blinked. “You are?”

“Would you really not notice you were missing your arms when you woke up?”

“Probably not up until I tried to scratch my ass,” Noah admitted.

“Precisely.” Yoru twitched, then muttered something under her breath that Noah couldn’t catch. Her heels dug into the ground and she let out a grunt as she fought to sit up.

Noah put a hand on her back and helped her upright. He was at a complete loss for words — and for a moment, it seemed Yoru was as well.

“What do I do?” Yoru asked quietly.

“We can find a powerful healer. I’m sure there’s a potion—”

“Not my arms. Me. What do I do?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do, Yoru? Wasn’t that the whole point of this? You’ve got control again, right? Moonlit Prophecy isn’t—”

“It’s still there, but it doesn’t hold the strings anymore,” Yoru said. She hesitated for a moment longer. “I… I wish it did. I’m scared. I think I made a mistake.”

“You did not,” Noah said firmly. “And even if you did, that’s natural. People make mistakes. There’s no point to a life lived perfectly. That takes all the meaning out of it. The thing that makes somebody who they are is how they press through difficulties, not how they succeed.”

Yoru turned to look straight at him. Even though the mask was covering her features, he could feel her gaze boring into his.

“You’re very confident about that.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” Noah replied. “Life isn’t easy, Yoru, but at least now it’s yours to live. I can’t say I’m happy about the way you chose to go about this, but what’s done is done. Your life is yours again.”

“What should I do with it?”

Noah suppressed a sad laugh. “I’m not telling you that. It’s yours.”

“You should eat something tasty,” Lee suggested. “I’ll feed you.”

“That actually sounds—”

Noah’s senses screamed a warning.

They were too late.

There was a loud crack.

A wave of pressure slammed into Noah like a steel bar to the kidney. His eyes bulged and he was slammed face-first into the ground.

By the time his face had hit the dirt, he’d already instinctively called on Sunder. Power flooded into him, twisting through his body and turning his veins jet black. Noah drove a hand into the ground with a snarl, fighting desperately against the immense power.

“You think you can trick me? You think the Rules are a joke?” A sultry woman’s voice demanded, her words twisted with derision and raw power. Each of them slammed into his skull like a hammer blow. “Perhaps I’ll have to carve them into your skin to make sure you remember.”

Noah managed to pry his head up from the ground.

Standing above him was a woman with black hair and matching clothes, a spiked collar around her neck. Her teeth were pointed and her features so pale that she may well have been dead.

And then they both froze.

He knew this woman. It was the lady that Lee had gotten into an argument with while they’d been at a restaurant in Arbitage.

His brain scrabbled for her name for a moment, but someone else beat him to it.

“Garina?” Lee asked in a strained voice. “Is that you?”

Garina’s eyes went wide.

“Fish girl?”