Chapter 406: Chairs

Chapter 406: Chairs

As it turned out, Moxie hadnt really considered where they were going to eat either. The pair of them spent about twenty minutes trying to figure out somewhere to go get food before they both promptly gave up and decided it could be handled the following day.

There would be class tomorrow, so the most important thing to handle for the time was letting all the students know that it would be slightly delayed. There was a brief instant where Noah wondered if he was meant to feel marginally guilty for delaying class purely so he could go on a date with his girlfriend.

He dismissed that notion. There was no point to have power if you didnt abuse it. That was where all the fun came in. And it wasnt like the students would be alone. Lee was going to be bored while he and Moxie were out, which meant there were likely some stretching sessions with the students names written in blood on them.

Noah and Moxie didnt have any trouble letting everyone know about the delay. They didnt mention the reason, but chances were that the kids had figured it out considering that both of their teachers were both suddenly planning a delay at the exact same time.

After their brief stint around campus, they returned to their room. It was still relatively early in the evening. There were several hours left before night fell, which left them with two options. Either they could sit around and try to brainstorm where they were going to get food tomorrow, or they could do quite literally anything else.

If weve got a few hours with nothing happening, it feels like now might be a pretty good time for me to try and get some help with my pattern, Moxie said. Its kind of hard to encapsulate it with just motions. Do you think wed be able to use a Mind Meld potion so I can show you what Im doing in an area where I cant accidentally risk blowing anything up?

Thats a good idea, Noah said. He reached into his bag and frowned. Ive only got one left right now, though. Do you

Moxie pulled a blue vial out of her own bag. Have one.

Nice. Good thinking.

He set his bag down and sat down on her bed, moving over to the back to make room for Moxie. She followed suit, but followed after him and wasted all the space hed left. Moxie scooted up until her back was pressed to his chest and her hair was tickling his nose.

Ready? Moxie asked, popping the seal off the potion.

Noahs reply was lost in a cough as her hair got into his mouth. She snickered and drank her half of the potion before handing it over her shoulder to him. He craned his neck back to free himself from the prison of red hair for just long enough to remove the second seal and pour the potion down his throat.

He set the vial down and wrapped his arms around Moxie, holding her as a familiar buzzing enveloped his mind. A blanket of darkness rushed up and swallowed him whole, and then he was flying.

A few moments later, Noah found himself standing in the forest of Moxies soul. He shook off the last effects of the potion as the vines beneath him twisted up into a chair and pushed themselves into his legs, forcing him to sit.

Moxie stepped out from behind him, a twisting knot of vines in her hands. She held it up, then paused as a thought struck her.

Wait. We can shape our souls pretty much how we want to as long as we dont go against anything core to us, but theres no way the pattern could somehow damage me from within, is there? Moxie asked.

I dont think so, Noah said slowly. He wasnt quite so certain that hed bet on it. Magic had some odd effects, but he couldnt recall ever getting soul damage from anything other than death or splitting runes. You should be fine. If worse comes to worst, Ill just use the Fragment of Renewal to patch you up. Realistically, any soul damage you take is actually safer than normal damage. I can only heal the former.

Good point. In that case, Im going to start. My pattern is growth, right?

Are you asking me or telling me? Noah asked, trying to keep the teacher from entering his voice and failing miserably. Moxies eyes narrowed and a vine coiled at Noahs elbow, poking at his side threateningly.

Dont make me waste the potion tickling you. Vines are really good at it, Moxie warned. And I have enough money to blow on another potion.

What are you

Noah pulled her back down to sit in his lap. Okay. Now you can talk.

Youre so cheesy, Moxie said as she leaned back into him. She made absolutely no moves to get up. There are a few problems. The first is that I dont know whatll happen if I try to make a pattern with magic plants. Will it have a chance to blow up?

It should actually be pretty safe, Noah said. Your runes can only do a single thing at once, and you can only use one rune at a time. For once, thats actually useful. If youre using your magic to make plants, the pattern will literally only be a pattern.

Well, shit. Moxie said with an embarrassed laugh. Im an idiot. I didnt think about that. Maybe Im spending too much time around you.

If that was true, you would have tried it and ended up blowing yourself up somehow anyway.

Oh, yeah. That probably would have been more likely. So I can try to make a pattern with the plants and it should be fine.

Yeah. You might want to be careful with your Master Rune, though. If you end up letting magic slip out of that and into the pattern youve got the same issue. Granted, you dont have it Imbued into your soul so I dont think that should be possible, but be aware of it.

Okay. That leads me to the second question. Lets say I manage to get the pattern out of the plants growth logically means I have to keep getting bigger. Does that mean Id have to keep an enormous number of vines all in the exact same shape and continue to constantly add more of them if I want to keep the pattern going?

Depends on your view of growth, probably, Noah said after a few seconds of thought. But that seems possible. Maybe you could try to add a second half to the pattern?

A second half?

Yeah. Something to temper the growth, like a cycle. Cycles are patterns. A while ago you told me that you like flowers. Could you try to go for the whole life cycle of the flower as your pattern rather than just the part where it gets bigger?

Like from where it sprouts as a seed to where it dies?

Exactly. I dont really know if that fits what you were thinking, but its got growth in it. It would let you have a pattern that has some elements of what you wanted without having to worry about it getting out of hand.

You think that would work? Just a flower?

I mean, simple isnt bad. Flowers are nice and I can already think of some pretty nasty combinations you could do with a full life cycle if you can really find a way to boil that down into a pattern and eventually a Formation.

Me too, Moxie said. Her voice drifted away as she lost herself in her thoughts for a second. She twisted so that she was sitting sideways in Noahs lap. Well, damn it. Im going to need to completely change the way I think about this. I think itll go a lot faster this time around though.

Well, youve got like twenty-five minutes left in the potion.

Yeah, but Ive got other plans for those now. You should have stayed in your chair. Moxie flashed Noah a grin.

It didnt take him long to decide that he most certainly did not regret stealing her chair.