Jalen set off shortly after his conversation with Noah, leaving him with a promise to get him access to the auction he wanted. Noah wasn’t too concerned about waiting — in a place like Arbitage, where every single noble family had representatives, there were bound to be constant auctions. Too many people had money to sling around and egos to pad.
Unless Noah was incredibly lucky, he was pretty sure that it would take at least a day or two before there was an auction that suited his needs. He wasn’t going to just settle for random common runes, and he couldn’t afford to go around selling his own runes unless there were people wealthy enough to actually afford them.
The thought of selling Demon Runes did prick Noah’s spine with distaste. He knew what the noble houses would do with those runes, and it probably wasn’t going to be pretty. They tested runes by forcing their lower-ranked mbers to take them on.
If a human took on a demon rune — well, he still wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but it would probably start to warp them as they grew stronger, just like how it did to demons. The rate at which it corrupted soone would be reduced since humans weren’t as susceptible to their runes as demons were, which was the only saving grace.
Noah highly doubted that anyone would be making it to Rank 5 with a Demon Rune that didn’t fit their combination. If he were a kinder man, he would have considered it for longer. But, with the way things were going, the noble houses were his enemies. He would not be showing them rcy or compassion.
He couldn’t afford to.
Not when the price could end up being the lives of his students.
“Professor?”
Noah blinked. It took him a mont to realize that soone was speaking to him. He’d been standing near the edge of the clearing a few feet away from the other professors, quietly observing all his students mingling and getting to know each other while he brooded under the shade of a large, ashy tree that had been cracked down the center.
Alexandra had sohow arrived at his side. His distraction had been so great that she’d managed to completely slip past his senses and domain. Leaves crunched beneath him as he shifted his weight and smiled.
“Yeah?”
“You looked… troubled.”
“I’m planning so minor war cris,” Noah said. “Not too happy about it, but such is life. We all have to do a little war cri now and then.”
Alexandra blinked. “War cri?”
Oh, God. No Geneva convention here. That’s… incredibly disturbing to think about, actually. Especially given what Runes are capable of. At least it ans I’m not going to be breaking any laws by selling a bunch of poisoned runes to the nobles.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a grown-up thing,” Noah said. “You’ll learn when you’re older.”
Alexandra squinted at him. “I’m… not that much younger than you, Professor.”
Noah chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Right. Don’t mind my blabbering. Was there sothing you wanted?”
She scrunched her nose and ducked away from Noah’s hand, though it did take her a mont longer to do it than soone who could move at her speed would have needed. “I… wanted to speak to you. Alone.”
“There isn’t really anyone here right now. Nobody’s paying attention. Sotis, the best place to hide is in plain sight. Leaving might actually draw more attention — but if this is sothing really private, we can put so distance between us and the others.”
“No, it’s probably fine. You’re right. It’s just…” Alexandra trailed off and hesitated for a second before continuing, her shoulders slumping as she kicked a dry stick by her feet. “I’m at my limit, Professor.”
“What do you an?”
“I’ve done everything I can to get stronger. And I have been improving. Especially with your Formation training. It’s done a lot for , but I feel the others catching up. They’re all getting so strong, but I’ll forever be a Rank 3. The gap closes every day, no matter how hard I try. I’ve done everything I can, even Bird’s weird techniques. I almost considered actually trying to fight naked—”
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“Please don’t.”
“—but I decided against it. I’m not that desperate yet,” Alexandra continued, the corner of her lip twitching up for an instant. It fell flat again a mont later and she shifted her gaze to the tree behind Noah. “I think I’m running out of options. Even Formations and patterns can only take so far. When the others hit Rank 4, I’ll still be the sa Alexandra. I’ll still be a Rank 3 that relies on her Body Runes to keep up… up until I can’t keep up anymore.”
That’s right. I never got a chance to fix Alexandra’s runes before I got pulled into the Damned Plains. She’s more than earned enough trust for to show her Sunder — to tell her the truth about who I am.
“I see,” Noah said. “Well—”
“No,” Alexandra said with a firm shake of her head. “I don’t know if you do. I’m stuck like this, Professor. And I can tell the others see it too. They keep hedging around the topic of getting stronger when I’m around. I want you to tell them to stop tiptoeing around . It won’t do anything if I’m the one to say it, but I know my lot in life. I dealt my own cards. I hate people acting like I’m so sick, injured fool that needs to be coddled. I know what my future holds, but I don’t want to have to deal with it before it’s already arrived.”
She ca to , not to ask for a solution, but to ask to make the others stop feeling bad for her?
Oh, Alexandra. I don’t think they were feeling bad for you at all. They just didn’t want to talk about what I can do before I returned — or hell, if I returned. They didn’t have a way to know for certain. Giving her hope would have been cruel.
Noah put a hand on Alexandra’s shoulder and gave her a small smile. “I understand what you’re asking.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“Nope.”
Alexandra blinked.
“What? Why?”
“Because there’s only one person who can see fate, and it isn’t you. Relax your mind and brace yourself. I’m going to show you sothing.”
Noah only waited long enough for Alexandra to nod her understanding. He then glanced over at Moxie, catching her eye and jerking his chin to the girl beside him. Understanding flickered in her eyes and she gave him a thumbs-up.
Then Noah activated Empty Proliferation.
Alexandra drew in a sharp breath.
The world fell away.
***
Noah stood upon a rocky plateau, a gentle wind blowing through his hair. It howled as it slipped through rocks, jagged like teeth, that rose up in a circle around the plateau around him. The sky stretched out in all directions around him, wispy white clouds curling past his feet and moisture prickling against his skin.
Alexandra’s soul was the peak of a massive mountain.
It took him a mont to figure out where her runes were. Carved within the rocks jutting up along the platforms edges were dim runic patterns, so weak that their glow was little more than a flicker from a candle held before the sun.
Noah’s eyes went wide.
Six out of seven of Alexandra’s Runes were imbued completely into her soul. They were so deeply shed with her body that he could barely even make out what their patterns were ant to be.
It’s almost like a demon.
“Bad, isn’t it?” Alexandra asked, walking up to join Noah with a weak smile. “I didn’t know you could do this.”
“Picked it up in the Damned Plains, along with a few other party tricks,” Noah said absently. He studied Alexandra’s soul intently for several long monts. “I didn’t realize so many of your runes were Body Runes. I thought it was just a few.”
“Do you think you can get a body as resilient as mine with just one or two Body Runes?”
“Never tried using them before, so I can’t say. That’s fine. You’re strong, and you aren’t a demon. This will be painful, but you’ll survive.”
“I — what?”
Noah turned to fully face Alexandra. Her runes could wait for a mont longer. It was well past ti that he brought her fully into the fold.
“I have sothing I’d like to share with you.”
“A technique from the Damned Plains to get past my runes?” A hint of hope entered Alexandra’s voice.
“Not exactly. More like a little information about . Information that could get all of us killed in very brutal ways. One of the greatest secrets I have.”
“Why would you want to tell sothing like that?” Alexandra asked in horror. “You don’t need—”
“I do, actually. It’s sothing that I’ve already told Isabel, Todd, and Emily. It’s sothing that I’d like to tell you as well, if you’ll let . It’s been killing them to keep this from you, but if you let tell you why, I think it’ll make sense.”
A frown pulled across Alexandra’s lips. Then, slowly, she inclined her head. “If you think it’s that important that I know, then that’s fine.”
“Lovely. I’ll keep things brief, then.” Noah clasped his hands behind his back. “I’m not Professor Vermil.”
There was a long pause.
Then Alexandra blinked, taken aback.
“What?”
“Vermil is dead,” Noah said. “You never t him. He died months ago, and I’m the one that killed him. I took his body from him when I arrived in this world. My real na is Noah Vines, I’m thousands upon thousands of years old, and I can fix your runes. All of them.”
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