Chapter 270: Passive

Chapter 270: Passive

Noah remembered little of the trip back to their room or the rest of the day. It was a vague blur of pain and agony as what felt like rusty razors tore into his mind. He vaguely recalled collapsing at some point on the walk back, but even that was a blur.

Colors and thoughts melted together into a kaleidoscope. Seconds felt like hours and he repeatedly reached for the comforting energy from the Fragment of Renewal, only to find vast emptiness waiting for him.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

The Rune was spent. It stubbornly refused to give him even the slightest reprieve from the pain.

Time ground on, though Noah was barely aware of it. All he could do was repeatedly grasp at straws in his mindspace, begging the Fragment of Renewal to grant him relief from the pain.

And, finally, it did. As soon as the first flickers of energy responded to Noah’s mental grasp, he nearly sobbed in relief. The cool rivers of power slithered through his body and wound into his ravaged, shattered mindscape.

Precious peace nipped at the pain. The Rune worked agonizingly slow, taking its time with the repairs. If anything, that almost made the pain worse. Noah’s brain had practically shut itself off in the pain, but as he healed, his thoughts returned.

But the Fragment of Renewal did its job. His ragged breathing slowed and control of his body returned. Noah became aware of something soft against his back and a cool, wet presence on his face.

Groaning, Noah reached up, removing the damp towel that had been laid across his eyes and forehead. He sat up, blinking furiously as light assaulted his unadjusted eyes. His entire body still throbbed something fierce, but the pain was receding with every passing second.

A chair scraped back, hitting the back of the bed with a thud.

“Vermil!” Moxie stumbled in her haste to enter Noah’s field of vision, nearly tripping before she caught herself.

“I’m fine,” Noah said. His words came out thick and gummy, like he hadn’t spoken for weeks. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and blinked furiously.

They were in a small, plain room with a single bed and a desk. A window at the far end overlooked a courtyard below them, and the walls were plain gray stone.

“What happened?” Noah asked.

“Evergreen is dead.”

A laugh nearly slipped out of Noah’s mouth before he caught himself. Moxie had referred to him as Vermil rather than Noah. He glanced around the room suspiciously.

Are we being watched?

“We’re fine,” Moxie said. “Just force of habit. Lee’s watching over the room to make sure nobody goes snooping around. We can speak normally.”

Noah breathed a relieved sigh and nodded. “It... it worked, then?”

“Yeah.” Moxie only spoke a single word, but it carried with it years of pent up fear and frustration, all finally put to rest. “It’s been nearly a week since Evergreen died. The entire city of Blancwood has been in lockdown – and that includes us.”

“What happened after I went down?”

“Not much concerning us. The captain of the guard Idan launched a massive investigation into corruption. A good number of people fled the city, some of them fairly high up in the Torrin family. I’ve been through more than enough interrogations for a lifetime, but there wasn’t a whole lot I can say. After all, I’m only a Rank 3.”

Noah snorted. “You mean there was actually some sort of rebellion planned?”

Moxie was still for a few moments before she finally nodded. “Yeah. I guess. It’s honestly a little hard to process everything right now.”

They both fell silent for several minutes. The Fragment of Renewal continued its work in Noah’s body, removing the last vestiges of the pain. He could still feel it knitting together some of the holes in his mindspace, but his body was back to where it needed to be.

Noah superstitiously checked on his violin tattoo, but it was still there.

“By the way, what happened at the end of the fight?” Moxie asked. “I thought everything was over when Azel went down so early and your song got interrupted. How did you manage to salvage it?”

“I changed the song,” Noah replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s the whole benefit of using music for Formations. It’s all in flux until everything is complete. If I’d used a magic circle, it would have collapsed.”

“I did gather that much, but I’ve never seen the magic that you used.” Moxie chewed her lower lip, her brow furrowing. “Well, I have. But not from you.”

“It was the cat. Turns out, death’s door hanging askew is a great way to help you connect those last few threads.”

Moxie squinted at Noah. “You put the cat in the Formation?”

He chuckled. “No. I don’t know why yet, but the cat was telling me the Fragment of Renewal’s powers. Its passive is Rot. That’s what I swapped Sunder out for. Sunder had no chance of cutting through both Evergreen and her defenses, and I was kind of already using it. I already had Sunder as part of the Formation to try and cut through Evergreen’s domain so the main Rune could reach her, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough on its own.”

“And the whole... body-stitching thing was Sunder?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know it could do that either. I guess it does make sense, though. We got lucky. Everything could have gone wrong in so many different ways.”

“Yeah. What matters is it didn’t, though. You gave Rinella the opportunity we needed. That was a damn well timed revelation, though.” Moxie paused, then narrowed her eyes and flicked Noah in the nose.

He yelped in surprise. “What was that for?”

“Preemptive measures. You are not going to go around intentionally getting yourself a hair’s width away from death just to figure out new things about your Runes.”

“What? I’d never do something like that.” Noah cleared his throat.

Besides, it wasn’t my impending death that pushed me so hard. It was yours.

“Right,” Moxie drawled. “Either way, we aren’t going anywhere for a few more days. Lee has to be bored out of her mind, but we need to follow Idan’s orders for just a little longer, and that means staying here for the time being.”

“I can think of worse punishments.”

“As can I, but I can also think of ways to improve the situation. How’s your recovery going?”

“Decent enough. Why?”

Moxie placed a hand on Noah’s arm, tapping his tattoo. “Your performance got interrupted right at the end. I know your violin can control its volume, so how about an encore?”

Noah smiled and summoned the violin to his hands. “I think that can be arranged.”