Return of the Runebound Professor

“Well,” Renewal said. “Didn’t see that one coming.”

“It’s the sandwiches,” Decras replied. “Ferdinand is putting something in the damn things. They’re rotting the woman’s brain out.”

Renewal rolled her eyes and leaned forward. The Cumulo she sat on was still doing its absolute best to eat her. That part was a bit difficult to get used to. Anything as comfortable as the cloud-chair couldn’t have possibly come without some kind of drawback.

“You know as well as I do they’re just normal sandwiches,” Renewal said. She sent a sidelong glance at the bowl of chocolate balanced on a stand between them. The urge to take another one was strong, but she’d been stuffing her face a bit too much recently.

I really need to spend a little more time training than I have been. It’s too easy to get distracted as of late. Then again, this is training. Of a sort. It’s research. With how much Noah has managed to squeeze out of his Runes, I feel like I might be getting close to a breakthrough myself by observing him.

Decras snorted and Renewal glanced at him.

“What?”

“I know what you’re thinking — and I highly doubt that you’re going to make much progress at all just sitting here and watching. Advancement takes training.”

“And training must be intentional,” Renewal countered. “Besides, I don’t see you going out and fighting either. You’ve been in here with me.”

That wasn’t particularly likely. Any real training wasn’t one that could be done whilst distracted, and Renewal knew that Decras had been watching the shimmering screen before them as much as she had.

Speaking of which…

She returned her attention to it. It was a bit hard to tell if Garina was a skilled teacher or if Noah just picked things up quickly. They’d only been fighting for a few mere hours, but the progress he’d already managed to wring from the session was nothing short of impressive.

Sure, it’s easier to advance when you’re at the beginning, but that was still something. The synchronization between his body and soul is already ridiculous for a Rank 5. Then again, I suppose Decras’ power has lent itself to that incredibly well.

Did Garina recognize how the rune worked so quickly and immediately realize the best way to train him? If she did…

“Garina is more than you let on, isn’t she?” Renewal asked, turning to give Decras a side eye.

“I am unsure as to what you are implying. She is one of the Apostles I have on this world. That is all.”

“Right,” Renewal said. “And the speed at which she recognized the methods of your rune, deduced where Noah was lacking in his abilities, and then immediately proceeded to figure out how to push him in the most effective manner… you want me to believe all of your Apostles have similar talents?”

“Do not mistake my followers for yours, Renewal. They are selective.”

Renewal didn’t even say anything. She just arched an eyebrow. Neither of them were particularly well connected with their followers. Her church may have been considerably larger and full of rather incompetent mages, but her strongest followers weren’t that far from matching the majority of the apostles in strength.

And when it came to intelligence… well, Renewal had seen more of Crone than she cared to. His mind was probably somewhere around the level where it would struggle to pose a significant challenge to a mildly intelligent bird.

Decras cleared his throat.

“Garina is… capable. More so than some of the others. As I said before, she was simply without direction for a long time. It made her difficult. Recent times have honed the power that she always had and given it a focus. She will likely grow to become one of the strongest of my followers on this world, bar the Prophet… should she manage to avoid being killed.”

“So you’re admitting that the reason she’s as strong as she is now is because of Ferdinand?” A grin flitted across Renewal’s lips. “He has been the reason she’s gotten more grounded. If it wasn’t for him, she definitely would have killed Noah when she realized what he was.”

Decras grunted. “Perhaps. Garina has always been insightful. She is simply… difficult to keep pointed in the proper direction. She tends to have very set views of what she believes the proper path is.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well, whatever it is, it certainly looks like she’s found an effective way to teach Noah,” Renewal said. “Then again, there does have to be something to be said for being able to kill the person you’re training. Hard to find a better teacher than death.”

“True enough,” Decras agreed with a small nod. “And perhaps it is time we began to seek its tutelage as well. Not in the manner that Noah does, but in our own. We have our own troubles to face. The Fallen do not have room for those who do not grow. We must train.”

As much as Renewal would have preferred to stay seated, snacking and watching the events on the screen play out before her, Decras was right. She’d already spent far too much time wasting away and doing nothing in her life.

“Let’s go, then,” Renewal said. She rose from the Cumulo and straightened her clothes out. “It’s been too long since I’ve had a good fight. And if we do this fast enough, maybe we’ll get back before we miss Noah doing anything too interesting.”

“Somehow, I imagine we’ll miss at least something. That fool can’t keep himself restrained for more than a few moments at a time. He moves fast, even for a human. For us… he’ll probably have managed to make a dozen new enemies by the time we return.”

“If he only makes a dozen, we can count ourselves lucky for not having missed too much.”

***

“Today’s class will be a little different from the normal one,” Garina said, crossing her arms before her and casting her gaze over the gathered students. They’d returned to Arbitage a few minutes ago.

Just about everyone had already gathered at the Transport Cannon by the time they got there. The only ones absent were Bird and Brayden, who had stayed back to keep an eye on Eline. None of them quite trusted her enough to bring her along to their classes quite yet.

Garina had wasted no time in having Tim ferry them off to the Scorched Acres so she could take care of her promise to Noah. She’d then gathered everybody before herself and launched right into the lesson.

“I am not Vermil,” Garina said. “As I am sure you can tell. But due to a special set of circumstances, I have agreed to teach this class for him. You may refer to me as Garina.”

Silvertide leaned over to Noah and nudged him in the side with his elbow. He kept his voice to a low whisper as he spoke, not taking his eyes off Garina once. “How did you manage to pull this off? Why is the Rank 7 that tried to murder you teaching your class?”

“It’s a long story,” Noah replied. Dull throbs of pain twanged through his mind with every word he spoke. “We’re friends. Kind of. She spent the last few hours beating the life out of me.”

Literally.

“You don’t seem very injured.”

“You’d be surprised,” Noah replied, turning his attention back to Garina. He wasn’t alone in that. Everyone stared at her intently. It wasn’t every day that a Rank 7 just up and decided to teach a class. The information she could impart was invaluable.

Even Noah couldn’t even begin to imagine how much she knew. Garina was from outside the empire. There were so many things that he still didn’t know. So much that she could teach them. Even a few scraps of her knowledge about runes could be enough to completely revolutionize the way they looked at magic.

“I don’t have all day, so we’re going to be keeping this condensed,” Garina said. “And I do not coddle. If you’re concerned with being injured, feel free to leave. Suddenly jumping ahead in difficulty can be dangerous, and not all paths to power must be fast. They must simply be yours.”

Not a single person budged.

“We aren’t about to turn down instruction from a Rank 7… so long as you’re not Vermil’s enemy anymore,” Isabel said.

Garina studied Isabel curiously for a moment. “And if I was?”

“Then I would happily still accept your tutelage. It’s not every day you run across a Rank 7.” Isabel didn’t even miss a beat in giving her answer.

Out of the corner of his eye, Noah saw Aylin’s features twitch.

Garina’s features creased in amusement. “You’re lying. You’d actually have left. Fascinating. Stupid, but fascinating.”

“Being hardheaded has gotten me pretty far in life,” Isabel said. “I’m not taking the stick out of my ass for you.”

Garina let out a burst of laughter. “A Rank 3, speaking to a Rank 7 like that? Is it stupidity that gives you your boldness? Or is it arrogance?”

“You said you were teaching the class. That means a certain level of respect between teacher and student. Someone as powerful as you would be degrading themselves beyond belief if you took offense to the words that I said. It would be below you. Why would a god care about the words of a mortal?”

“Well put,” Garina said, her features turning serious. “You are correct. Killing you would be below me. I will act as a teacher for the duration of this lesson alone. No more and no less.”

“Can you tell us everything you know about runes?” Todd asked immediately. “Start at the beginning, please. I’ll take notes. Talk fast. Really fast.”

“Cute,” Garina said. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it? The answers all spelled out for you to decipher. But no. I will not be doing that. It would upset far too much, and to be frank, it would not be worth my time. Any fool can cobble runes together when told exactly what to do. I will not be discussing runes this lesson.”

“What are we covering, then?” Violet asked. “Patterns? Do you also know them?”

“I would certainly hope I do,” Garina said, sending a sidelong glance at Noah. “Vermil is not the only one to have determined there is more to this universe than merely runes. My lesson will not be specifically about patterns. It will be about something adjacent to them. Tell me — by show of hands — if you can control the shape of your soul.”

Everyone was silent for several long moments. Nobody raised their hand.

“Nobody?” Garina asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

Garina’s gaze drifted slowly across the students, lingering on each of them for a moment before moving on. Then it landed on James.

“You,” Garina said, her eyes narrowing, “are lying.”

“Ah, shit,” James said.