Chapter 7: Fun

Chapter 7: Fun

Isabel opened her mouth, then closed it again. She exchanged a confused glance with Todd.

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked, a tiny amount of the defiance in her voice draining away.

“You know what a Rune does,” Noah said. “I gather everyone can tell me the definition that you just gave. But what is a Rune? We cannot truly utilize a tool until we understand exactly how it works.”

Take that. I might not know what the hell a Rune actually is, but I sure as hell do know that nearly nobody actually understands how things work at their basic level.

“I... don’t really know,” Todd admitted reluctantly.

“Neither do I,” Isabel said. “Does that matter?”

Noah grinned. “A good question, Isabel. Let’s talk about magic as a whole for a moment. What can magic do?”

“Anything,” Isabel replied.

Noah cocked an eyebrow. “Anything? There isn’t a single limit to it?”

Seriously?

“Well, it can’t bring back dead people,” Todd said. “At least, I’ve always heard that.”

“Fantastic,” Noah said, nodding. “So it cannot do anything. It has limits.”

And it most certainly can bring back dead people.

“I guess,” Isabel said. “So what?”

“Well, if something has a single limit, would you not think it has more?”

“Even if it does, how does that matter?”

“Because if you don’t know what you can’t do, then you don’t truly know what you can do,” Noah said. He tapped his chalk on the board to emphasize his point. “And the beginning of understanding stems from knowing the most basic building blocks of what you are working with. So, answer your own question – why does knowing what a Rune is matter?”

“So we know what we’re capable of,” Todd said slowly. “But nobody knows what Runes really are. You can’t be implying that you do.”

Good to know. Runes are still subjects of research.

“Anyone who says they know exactly how something works is either a liar or delusional. There is always something more to learn,” Noah said. He flipped his book open and picked a page at random, sketching the Rune from it onto the chalkboard.

When he turned back to his students, they were both leaning forward in their chairs, their eyes as wide as saucers.

“I – is that your Rune?” Isabel stammered. “You just... drew it?”

“It is a Rune,” Noah allowed carefully, trying to figure out what exactly he had just done. “And it was in my book.”

“You’re just letting us look at it? For free?” Todd asked, his mouth hanging askew.

“The job of a teacher is to inform his students, is it not?”

“Someone must have hit him on the head,” Isabel whispered, but the room was so quiet that Noah still heard her perfectly fine.

“No whispering in my class,” Noah said instinctively. He had no idea how long it had been since he’d last taught, but evidently some things had stuck around. “And yes, I was hit on the head.”

Isabel jerked back to her seat. “Sorry.”

There’s a little respect. That’s more like it.

“Now,” Noah said, tapping his Rune. “What is this?”

“A Lesser one fire Rune,” Todd said, still staring at it in awe.

Runes have ranks too? Noted.

“Ah, I see. So I can cast magic with this right now?”

“Of course you can’t,” Isabel said. “You just sketched it. You didn’t imbue it.”

“But you just told me it was a fire Rune, and a Rune is simply the ability to cast magic. If this cannot cast magic, then how is it a Rune?”

“You’re just nitpicking,” Todd said, shaking his head. “If you’d imbued it into the board, then you’d be binding it to yourself. That’s casting magic.”

“So Runes exist to imbue things.”

“That’s obviously not true. You can also cast magic through them,” Todd said, but some of the confidence in his voice had drained away.

“Ah. Imbuing and casting magic are different, then.”

“Well, yeah,” Todd said.Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

So I’ve got five Wind and two Ash. The Wind Runes aren’t very good, but the Ash ones seem to be. I wonder if I can upgrade or change the Wind Runes. God, there’s just so many things I need to find out. What if –

Noah staggered as a wave of force slammed into his chest and constricted around his heart. Primal fear welled up in his throat and his hands shot up to his throat as an invisible force tightened around it.

In the air above him, black lines infused with faint purple light slithered across the sky. They formed into one final Rune, hundreds of times larger than the other seven. The sheer force of its presence threatened to crush Noah beneath its weight, but he gritted his teeth and refused to let himself fall.

The Rune finished drawing itself, and its meaning slipped into Noah’s mind as he instinctively translated it.

Sunder.

A tremor ran down Noah’s spine, almost as if the Rune was glad that he’d recognized it. The overwhelming force pulled back, but the enormous Rune remained in the air above him. More than anything else, it reminded him of the monster that had attacked the Waters of Life and Renewal.

I wonder if that’s the reason I keep getting new bodies when I die.

Noah swallowed. He peeled his eyes away from the massive Rune above him. A few tiny specks of light at the edges of the darkness around him caught his eye. Noah mentally willed himself toward them.

Small portions of what he assumed to be his mind had chipped and broken away, revealing an empty white void. A faint buzzing noise filled Noah’s mind as he grew closer. He stopped, squinting at the strange scene. They filled him with a sense of wrongness, like something that should have been there was missing.

As he watched, a single speck of darkness reappeared at the edge of one of the white chips, sealing over a miniscule portion of it. He let out a faint sigh. Whatever the damage was, it was healing – just very, very slowly.

Noah peeled his eyes away. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, and it would be awkward if he was zoned out through the rest of class. The darkness faded, and he opened his eyes to find himself standing in the classroom once again. His students both stared at him with rapt attention.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I got caught up,” Noah said, gathering himself and straightening his lapel. “How did your experiences go?”

“It just felt like looking at my Runes,” Isabel said, glancing at Todd. He nodded.

“Yeah. But you – ah, never mind,” Todd muttered.

“That’s quite all right. Please continue to ponder on your Runes in your free time before next class,” Noah said, slipping back into his teacher voice. “Now, one last question for today. While we’re on the topic of Runes, let’s discuss why having good ones is so important. We can only have seven per level, yes?”

Both students nodded.

“So, what happens when we go up to the next Rank?” Noah asked, watching their expressions carefully to make sure he’d read the situation correctly. When neither of them looked overly confused, he gave himself a mental pat on the back.

“You combine all seven of your Runes into a single one,” Todd said slowly, choosing each word with care. “Or you try to, I guess. If you succeed, you get to become the next Rank and can start making Runes of that Rank from scratch. That’s how you go from general Runes like Fire or Wind to specialized ones.”

“But if the combination doesn’t work, your Runes can shatter,” Isabel added. “Then you’ll be permanently crippled until you can fix them, which can take years. It’s why combinations that actually work are guarded so closely.”

I see.

“So, let’s summarize what we know,” Noah said. “Runes are kind of like buckets. The energy we fill them with is like water. Lesser Runes are smaller buckets than Great ones. When we get all seven buckets full, we can merge them into one better bucket. Sound about right?”

Isabel and Todd both nodded slowly.

“So,” Noah asked. “Is that everything runes are?”

Both Isabel and Todd narrowed their eyes and didn’t respond.

“Good,” Noah said with a grin. He raised a finger. “We don’t need to answer that yet. We’ve had a great discussion so far, and I don’t want to overload anybody. Let’s call class here for today. When we reconvene, we’ll resume our discussion.”

Todd and Isabel both blinked. Isabel squinted at Noah like he’d grown an ear from his forehead.

“Okay,” she said, drawing the word out. “Just how hard did you get injured? You’re nothing like what you were.”

Noah cleared his throat. “That’s hardly relevant. I think I quite like myself right now.”

“Yeah, me too,” Todd said under his breath. “You almost seem respectable.”

Noah shot him a sharp glare, and Todd just shrugged in response. Todd and Isabel rose from their desks and headed toward the door.

“Oh, one last thing,” Noah said before they left. They both turned back to him. “When’s our next class? I can’t remember.”

Isabel let out a snort of laughter. “Are you sure you aren’t a Skinwalker that killed Vermil and stole his body?”

Noah cleared his throat. “I got checked by Richard when I got back to campus. You can speak with him if you’re worried.”

“As if a Skinwalker would spend time teaching class. They can barely string a sentence together,” Todd said, rolling his eyes.

“Class is in 2 days, at the same time as today,” Isabel said with a shake of her head. “And I think I will be doing that.”

“Right. Thanks,” Noah said. “See you then. On time. Don’t be late. I won’t be either.”

She studied Noah for a moment, then gave him a small nod. She and Todd left the room. Noah waited for several seconds, then leaned on the podium and ran a hand through his hair as he mentally reviewed everything he’d learned.

There’s so much to consider. So many options. I need to know more.

A grin stretched across Noah’s lips and he rubbed his hands together despite himself.

Oh man, I’m excited. Magic, huh? This is going to be fun.