Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 767 (Patreon)

Even if Garina had believed that Noah was — somehow — well and truly dead, she didn’t think she could have spoken the words out loud. The on

Even if Garina had believed that Noah was — somehow — well and truly dead, she didn’t think she could have spoken the words out loud. The only reason he’d been in the fight against Father at all was because of her own failure. She’d needed to rely on her own apprentice, even if he was only that in name.

But even if she hadn’t… the look on Moxie’s face didn’t leave any room for anyone disagree with her. She wasn’t just saying that Noah would be back. She knew it. There was absolutely nothing to be gained from trying to take that from her.

“Noah is one tenacious bastard. He might have taken severe damage from the fight with Father, but he’ll find a way out,” Garina said, finding that she actually believed her words. “I didn’t feel much difference in the fragments of his soul. That should mean he’s still around. It just might be taking longer to reform than normal because of the extent of the damage his soul took. But if there’s anyone that knows what it’s like to kill him, it’s me. Moxie is right. He’s not gone.”

“We’ll have to have a talk about that,” Moxie said, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not much a fan of you, Garina. Now more than ever.”

“That… is understandable,” Garina said. Her fists clenched at her sides and she shook her head. “But there will be a time for that. It is my duty to Noah to get all of you out of here. This place isn’t safe.”

“What?” Isabel asked. “Why not?”

“Look behind you,” Garina replied grimly. “The Night’s Shadow is dead. The Empire is gone… except for you. This small group are, at least as far as I know, the only survivors from Arbalest. Do you have any idea how many people are going to have something to say about that? Some will be angry. Some will be sad. Some will be curious. The Apostles, the Church of Repose, The Obsidian Gate, the Horde of Man — them and every single faction that exists outside the Arbalest Empire. Everyone that exists on this side of Obisida. All of them are going to be looking for you. The only ones who saw the collapse of the Arbalest Empire from within.”

“Fuck,” Todd said, his face going white. “Again? Seriously?”

“Are they going to try to kill us?” Sticky asked. She swallowed heavily, keeping her grip on Torrick and Edda’s hands.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Brayden said. His hand rose to the hilt of the sword on his back.

“I’ve got some fight left in me still,” Silvertide agreed. “I don’t care where we are. Not a hair on any of your heads is getting touched in my presence.”

“My order is gone, but my duty remains,” Fuyin said, her eyes going narrow. “And Noah still owes me answers about everything. I will not permit harm to come to his vassals while I still draw breath.”

“Honorable,” Garina said dryly. “And entirely worthless. What can any of you do against a Rank 7? A Rank 8? You would be slaughtered. There wouldn’t even be a fight. You all need to understand this, and understand it now. The Arbalest Empire is nothing but memory, and the world is far, far bigger than you once thought.”

“She’s right,” Jalen said. “We need to get out of here. Now. All our power combined wouldn’t be enough to hold back some of what I’ve seen. Which begs the question… why are we still talking, Garina?”

Shame mingled with embarrassment on Garina’s features. “Because I don’t have enough power to do anything more yet. I’m recovering as quickly as I can. Practically every scrap of magical power I have is spent.”

“Shit,” Jalen said. “I’m no different. Do you think we’re far enough from everything else that we have time to recover? There’s no point trying to run with anything but magic. If anyone knows where we are, we’re already caught.”

Garina shook her head helplessly. “I don’t know. It’ll be at least a few minutes before I’ve got enough power to properly move us somewhere safe. We’ll need time to purge the traces of this fight from our souls.”

“Purge the traces?” Moxie asked with a frown. “What do you mean?”

“Your souls are like a record of everything you’ve done,” Garina replied. “You know how killing something draws its power into you? Well, to anyone sensitive enough, it does more than that. You get tiny imprints of the world around you seared into your existence constantly. That’s just living. But to anyone who knows what they’re doing, you lot might as well be a steak dinner.”

“They can smell the fight on us?” Lee asked, sniffing at her clothes.

“And the fact that you’re from Arbalest,” Garina said grimly. “The traces of that can be hidden, but not quickly. We all need to find somewhere to hide. It’s quite detectable. Especially when everyone is gathered so close together. Finding one shiny gold needle in a stack of hay is hard. But finding a few dozen? That’s easier. Not a lot easier, but easier.”

“Well said, Garina.” A cold, female voice cut through the air like a freezing knife.

A warning prickled against Garina’s exhausted senses, but it came far too late. She — and everyone else — spun toward the crimson red portal looming into being behind her. The back of Garina’s neck prickled as a woman emerged from within it, her arms crossed behind her back.

She wore the suit of a military general and a flat black cap sat askew on her flowing bed of silken white hair head to obscure the left half of her face in shadow.

Shit. Now is not the time, Kyyle. What do you think you’re doing, sending your apprentice here now? The Prophet of Repose is still present in the vicinity. Are you trying to get us all killed?

“Alice,” Garina growled, biting back the welling panic in her chest. Alice was a powerful Rank 6. Not as strong as her by any means — but with the amount of magic she had left to work with, she couldn’t afford a fight. Not while she needed to conserve everything she had to get everyone to safety. “The fight is over. If you were planning on participating in the fight, you should have shown up earlier. A lot earlier.”

“With Renewal’s puppet nearby? I don’t have a death wish,” Alice said, her lips curled into a smirk. Her gaze swept past Garina to scan over everyone. She didn’t seem to find what she was looking for, but her eyes lingered on Ferdinand for a moment longer than they needed to. “Well. Isn’t this interesting? An odd gathering of individuals indeed. What do you have here, Garina? Is this a member of Renewal’s Church? Standing awful close to you, isn’t he?”

If I strike fast, I can probably kill her before she realizes what’s happening. Alice is a powerful warrior, but she’s a few hundred years too early to go challenging me. But that amount of wasted magic… damn it. I won’t be able to move us out of here for even longer if I attack now. And using enough magic to kill Alice would draw attention from pretty much everyone I can’t afford to attract.

“Who is this?” Moxie asked, her voice cold. “A friend of yours?”

“No,” Garina replied. “A colleague.”

“That’s cold,” Alice said. Her smirk grew deeper. “Something wrong, Garina? You look nervous. Almost like you’ve been doing something you shouldn’t be. Did you want me to handle that Church member for you? It seems like you’re a little low on energy.”

Garina blurred, appearing between Alice and Ferdinand within an instant. Cold power crackled through her eyes as her drained runes rumbled to life.

“I’m not too drained to snap your neck like a twig, housecat,” Garina hissed. “Today is not the day to try me. The only thing keeping you alive—”

“Is the fact that you can’t afford to draw any attention to yourself right now,” Alice said with a wry smile. “I’m well aware, Garina. You’re hiding. I can feel how much you’ve retracted your soul. You know, of all the Apostles, I never thought you would be the one to defect first. I took you for the overly loyal type. But going for someone from the Church? That’s what I call a rebellious streak. Someone might be in trouble.”

“How old are you?” Jalen asked abruptly.

Alice blinked. “What?”

“How old are you?” Jalen repeated. “I’m trying to figure out how graphic I can get here. I’ve always been a sucker for a woman in a uniform, but I prefer to avoid cradle robbing.”

“I can see the naughty appeal of the shiny-headed guy, but who’s the raggedy beggar?” Alice asked in distaste.

“She’s older than you are,” Garina said flatly. “But probably not by much.”

“That’s the best news I’ve gotten all day.” Jalen’s grin grew wide. “Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is finding older women when you live in a little shithole of an empire? All the old ones are already dead or well on their way to it.

“This is who you associate yourself with?” Alice arched an eyebrow. “No matter. I’m here—”

Jalen vanished.

He appeared directly before Alice, his fist an inch away from her face — and her hand wrapped around it.

She’d stopped his punch a moment before it could connect. Her hand trembled slightly, and a look of surprise passed over her features.

“You’re stronger than you—”

A wave of Rune Force exploded out from Jalen.

Alice’s eyes widened, but it was too late to react. Jalen swept her legs out from beneath her. Alice hit the ground with a grunt.

A warped blade of undulating green energy materialized in Jalen’s hand. He pressed its tip up against her neck and arched an eyebrow. “You’re a Rank 6. Awful mouthy for someone weaker than me. You been slacking off?”

“You’re a Rank 7,” Alice realized. “What faction are you with?”

“The do-whatever-I-want faction,” Jalen replied, looking mildly disappointed that the fight had ended so quickly. “And it seems you’re part of the losing-fights-on-purpose one. That was pathetic. Something tells me you’re capable of more than this.”

Alice sent a wry smile up at him. An invisible force pushed Jalen’s sword to the side. He arched an eyebrow and held his hand out.

“So you do have manners,” Alice said. She reached up, taking Jalen’s hand —

The rest of her sentence was lost to a howl of wind as Jalen swung her through the air like a child flinging their toy in the midst of a tantrum. He slammed her into the dirt with a loud crunch.

Jalen then crouched beside Alice, his eyes burning, practically begging Alice to try to attack him.

“No,” Jalen said. “I don’t. And if you threaten anyone here again, I’m going to use your corpse as my new dartboard.”

Alice coughed. She squinted up at Jalen. And then something really odd happened.

A smile crossed her face.

Not the normal smirk or the cruel grin that she was prone to sporting, but a genuine smile.

“What did you say your name was?” she asked.

“Jalen.”

“Jalen,” Alice repeated, turning his name over in her mouth like it was a fine wine. “Are you one of Garina’s?”

“I belong to nobody,” Jalen replied with a snort.

Garina felt magic prickle in the air behind her. Noah’s group were calling on their magic. Frost gathered at Fuyin’s fingertips and spatial energy gathered around both Tim and Brayden. Bird was halfway through stripping herself again, and armor was forming over Isabel and Todd.

Silvertide and Tyler had lowered into matching fighting stances, and all the demons were bristling. Yoru was the only one that didn’t seem like she was preparing much of anything at all. And, for anyone that knew Yoru, that meant she had already finished her preparations.   

But from all the Rank 6s, there was a single Rank 5 that somehow stood out more than the others.

The power pouring out from Moxie was disproportionate for her Rank. There was something ancient within it, something that reminded Garina of her very limited interactions with the Lord of Death.

Garina had briefly felt this power when they’d been preparing to fight Father. She hadn’t had time to acknowledge it at the time. But now it was impossible to miss. And, even though Moxie was on her side, Garina’s hair stood on end. Whatever Rune Moxie was using was not one to be taken lightly.

“Mm,” Alice said. She rose to her feet, brushing herself off without even glancing down at her clothes. The woman didn’t seem very concerned. It was for good reason. There were almost no Rank 6s more powerful than Alice. And, as big as of a bastard as Kyyle was, he was one of the most competent warriors in the Apostles. Alice could hold her own against enemies far more powerful than the ones here. Her gaze lingered on Jalen for a moment longer before flicking to Moxie. “You. Why do you remind me of Garina’s apprentice?”

“I think she smells Noah on you,” Lee whispered.

“Something is wrong,” Aylin muttered. “Her words don’t taste right.”

“Stop this talk about smelling and tasting things,” Alice said, her eyes narrowing. “Or did you all forget that you’re on a time limit? It won’t be long before someone finds you. It certainly won’t be difficult. Your souls reek of Arbalest.”

“Now whose talking about smelling things?” Lee grumbled under her breath.

“Why do you care?” Garina asked suspiciously. “Why are you here, Alice?”

“As I was saying before Jalen decided to relocate my skull into the ground, you should be happy to see me,” Alice said. “I’m here to help you.”

“Why would we believe that?” Garina sent Alice a flat stare. “I know you enough to know you don’t just help people.”

“I’ll leave that to you to figure out. Unfortunately, I don’t think you have much of a choice,” Alice said with a wry smile. “In a few seconds, the ward around us is going to drop. You’ll have nothing keeping everyone off your scent. Even a stronger one wouldn’t work for long. When you’re all together, it’s practically impossible to miss.”

She put a ward up? When did Alice become competent at magic like that? Her powers have never been that subtle. What have I missed?

“What are you saying?” Garina asked. “Just spit it out.”

“I’m saying I’m here to get some of Noah’s little pawns out of here,” Alice replied. She adjusted the lapel of her jacket. “I want that little bastard in my debt, and I don’t think there’s a better way to do that than this.”

“Some?” Moxie asked. Her lips thinned. “Are you saying—”

“I can’t hide all of your presences at once,” Alice said flatly. “I’ve got limits, and I can’t have every major faction coming to my door in search of their little test subjects. I’m only taking half of you. The rest can rot for all I care. Noah can’t complain. Half is still better than none.”

Garina’s domain tingled.

She spun as a golden ripple passed through the air. A faint chime rang out and the form of a heavily armored woman materialized on the other side of the group.

“Alice,” Carmen said, her words measured and cold. “What do you think you’re doing? Stealing my prey out from under me? You really don’t have any restraints, do you?”

“Who, me? I’m just leaving with my prize.” Alice jerked her chin in the direction of the increasingly confused crowd. “Unless you want to risk fighting here and getting all of us spotted.”

Carmen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not letting this opportunity go to waste. It’s not every day I can get Garina’s disciple in my debt, and I still owe him for trouncing me so hard at our last meeting. I’ll be taking half of his students. And if you try to stop me, I’ll remind you which of us is the stronger mage.”

Garina stared at the two disciples in befuddlement.

Are they both trying to… help us? With the exact same plan, so they can get a favor from Noah at some point in the future?

What in the Damned Plains is going on?