Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah wasn’t quite sure exactly what had happened during the last few minutes. When he’d stepped out of his tent to find Zath and tell him that he was done with his preparation, Zath had already been ready for him.

It seemed the huge demon had finished his conversation with… whatever it was that he had been speaking to some time ago. The very instant Noah emerged from the tent, Zath had snapped his fingers and a portal had begun to trace itself into the air, sending sparks of purple light arcing off it.

Zath had then herded them all straight into it with no room for argument. As much as Noah didn’t want Moxie and Lee tagging along with him to meet the Archdemon, Zath refused to accept any counterarguments.

Unfortunately, going directly against the Rank 7 was functionally impossible. All of Noah’s strength depended on Zath actually playing along and wanting something from him. Straight up opposing him was still beyond what he was capable of doing if he wanted everyone else to leave the camp in one piece.

Noah had no idea why Zath had suddenly decided that Lee and Moxie had to come along as well. The demon refused to explain. He’d just pointed at the fully formed portal and waited, his armored foot clanking away as he tapped it on the ground.

And that was how Noah, along with Lee and Moxie, found themselves stepping into Sievan’s domain.

A cool chill gripped Noah’s shoulders as soon as he emerged from the portal — and he froze in place. An endless sea of darkness stretched out around him. A familiar, almost comforting, darkness. It was the very same as the shadow that made up his own soul.

But this was not a soul.

Beneath his feet was a cracked obsidian platform, its edges trimmed with plain gold. Noah’s domain prickled as it brushed across what could only have been described as a sea of imbuements.

Everything around him was positively awash with magic. It felt like trying to breath through a lungful of honey. A thick silence ruled over the air to such a degree that Noah could hear his own heartbeat. His footstep echoed through the room like a gunshot.

Moxie and Lee had both entered before him. They stood locked in place, frozen in the same shock that Noah felt, but something was wrong.

They were barely moving. It looked like someone had locked the two of them in time and slowed their speed down by a thousandfold.

What the hell is this? What’s going on?

It was then that Noah realized they were far from alone in the room. The immensity of the silent darkness had drawn his attention away from the man floating in the air, wreathed in a crackling storm of red energy and obsidian shards.

Wizen.

His mouth was open in a cry of fury, hands thrust forward. Electrical power crawled from his fingertips, moving so slowly that it might as well have been frozen in place. A small demon girl sat on the ground behind him, her wide eyes half-lidded in exhaustion. She was similarly unmoving, locked in time and space.

What the fuck? Wizen is here?

Noah nearly leapt out of his own skin in surprise. He ripped power from his runes and prepared for a fight.

“Hello, Spider. I’m glad to see you were able to make it. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” A gentle voice cut through the air.

Noah spun toward its source.

Standing before him was a plain man in a plain gray suit, a mop of brown hair on his head and hands crossed behind his back. And his eyes — his eyes were pure white, as flat and empty as the void.

The breath caught in Noah’s chest as he met the man’s gaze.

There was something there, lurking deep within it.

Something he had never seen in anything other than a mirror.

It was more than familiarity.

It was understanding.

“Sievan,” Noah said, knowing without a doubt who stood before him. “You’ve been to the Line.”

“I would daresay that all of us have been to the line, Spider.” A smile crossed over Sievan’s features. “It’s just that nobody else is unfortunate enough to recall the experience.”

Noah swallowed. He tried to find words, but his thoughts failed him and nothing came forth. He could do nothing but stare. Before him was more than a Demon Lord. It was someone who actually knew what came beyond life.

Someone who had remembered it.

Just like he had.

“Why did you call me here?” Noah asked, finally finding his voice once again. “This isn’t about a Broken Master Rune.”

“No,” Sievan agreed. “It is not.”

The Demon Lord lifted his hands. Smoke twisted up from the ground and formed into a pair of wispy chairs. A table formed between them, and all three pieces of furniture solidified into obsidian an instant later. Sievan stepped around a chair and lowered himself into it without a word.

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Over his shoulder, Wizen’s magic crawled through the air in a slow-moving march to nothing.

Noah pulled his gaze away from Wizen and approached the table. He sat down across from Sievan, the cold obsidian biting uncomfortably into his back.

“How did you know?” Noah asked, his mind still spinning in disbelief.

“As like many things in life, equal parts coincidence and intention. The Woven man made little effort to hide his power when he arrived in my domain. A power whose source I am very familiar with,” Sievan replied, interlacing his hands on the table before him. “That heightened my attention — and when you passed from this world but failed to enter the next, I felt the very same power in you as well — unless I am mistaken?”

Noah’s stomach tightened. Wizen had recognized Sunder back in the mortal realm, but this confirmed it. He wasn’t the only one with a piece of Decras’ power. Wizen had it as well — and if Sievan recognized that strength, then there was a possibility that Noah knew exactly where the Lord of Death’s power came from.

He glanced up at Wizen. If Sievan had the power to slow time like this… the demon wasn’t just powerful.

For all intents and purposes, he was a god.

Noah was surprised to find that information didn’t scare him. It actually set him at ease. For one of the first times since arriving at Arbitage, he didn’t have to hide who he was. He didn’t have to hide his powers.

There was simply no point.

“You are not,” Noah said. “I wield Sunder.”

Sievan’s expression was unreadable. He drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly as he turned his gaze toward the darkness above them.

“And so Decras reminds me of my failure once more,” Sievan breathed, letting his gaze fall back to Noah. “Will you tell me of how you came about taking Sunder into your possession? I will not force you if you do not wish to speak, but the story would mean a great deal to me.”

There was desire in Sievan’s empty eyes, but not desire for power. He didn’t care about the rune. He cared about what it represented.

Noah told him.

The story was a long one.

Frozen lightning coiled behind Sievan like a dragon crawling across the sky as Noah spoke. His words vanished into the silent maw of the darkness surrounding them as he told Sievan of the Line. He told the ancient demon about Renewal and Decras, and about his arrival in the mortal world. Noah told Sievan about Arbitage. About Moxie and Lee. He told him about the students still waiting for him, and about Wizen.

Noah said almost everything — but not everything. He didn’t share the details of his research on Runes or Formations. It wasn’t pertinent to the story, and those were secrets that Noah felt no reason to give up.

Sievan did not say a single word until Noah finished telling his story. The demon barely even so much as twitched from his spot in the chair. His features were an unreadable mask, his eyes as flat and empty as an icy ocean on a still night.

“I see,” Sievan said quietly. “We are not as alike as I believed.”

Noah blinked. “What?”

“You walked the Line for eons. I have only witnessed it, and that alone was difficult to handle,” Sievan said. “I cannot comprehend recalling every step upon that endless path. It would break me.”

“But you’ve been there,” Noah said. “And the gods? They didn’t…”

“The gods are bound by rules. They cannot interfere so long as we do not,” Sievan said, his gaze drifting from Noah. “And Decras would not interfere with me. Not again.”

“It sounds like you know him.”

“You could say that.” Sievan let out a small laugh. The smile slipped away from his features as he turned to look at the small demon girl sitting on the ground behind Wizen. “Tell me, Noah. What do you see when you look at her?”

Noah turned to follow Sievan’s gaze. “A girl, I suppose.”

“I see failure.”

“That seems a bit harsh. She’s barely a kid. What did she do?”

“Not hers,” Sievan said. “Our race’s. Mine. Demons are a flawed, broken people. We are controlled by the runes within us. We are the runes within us. They are broken, and thus, we are too. The harder we reach for perfection, the more that we rip ourselves apart from within until nothing but the rune remains.”

Noah’s mouth nearly fell open. In a single line, Sievan had told him exactly what was wrong with Lee.

Holy shit. That makes so much sense. That’s why demons get consumed by the feeling their runes represent. Their body and soul are so closely linked that they literally are their own runes. The rune takes over the body, making it more like the rune, until they lose themselves.

“And the girl? Why is she a failure?” Noah asked, desperate for more information. If Sievan had more information, perhaps there was a way to save —

“She is broken,” Sievan said. “A living example of what is broken in my race. She possesses no runes. A demon without runes is nothing. It grows harder to keep her alive with every passing day. Her body consumes the magic that comes into contact with it, but no rune can take purchase in her soul. She has tried to delay the end by injecting magical energy into her own heart, but that does nothing but lessen the stress on her body. Her soul still crumbles.”

Noah looked back to the girl.

“Aren’t you in control of death? Just bring her back.”

“I have nothing to bind to her with. Runes are the tether between soul and body, and she does not have anything I can call upon.” Sievan shook his head. “I did not mention her predicament to ask for advice, Noah. You told me your story. I tell you mine.”

“I don’t know if I follow.”

“My race is cursed. You search for a solution that cannot be found, because demons are broken. I, with all the powers of 7 perfected Rank 8 Runes, could not save a mere girl. And you believe you have a chance to save Lee?”

“Yes.” Noah’s eyes narrowed. Sievan wasn’t giving him a solution. The demon was trying to make him give up — and that would never happen. “I’m not going to abandon my friend. Just because someone stronger than me couldn’t pull something off doesn’t mean you thought about every option.”

“Well said,” Sievan said. His smile returned to his face as he rose to his feet. The obsidian chair beneath him disintegrated into smoke. Noah hurried to stand before the table and his own chair followed suit. Sievan looked up to Wizen, then blew out a sigh. “I cannot slow time for much longer. We will soon rejoin the others. I am pleased that you were more amiable than the Woven Man.”

Noah glanced up at Wizen, who was still wreathed in a cloak of roaring magic. “That really wasn’t too difficult to pull off.”

“No,” Sievan agreed with a small smile. “It was not. I enjoyed our conversation, Noah. I am glad we got to have it before the end.”

“The end? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

“Few do,” Sievan said. He turned back to Wizen. “But I have come to realize that I cannot ascend as I am now. I, like every other demon, am flawed. I cannot reach the next rank, and even as powerful as I am, my life is not eternal. The dying girl on the ground is no different than I.”

“You’re dying?” Noah asked, blinking in surprise. The Lord of Death dying almost felt ironic.

“I am falling apart at the seams. I fear I never truly lived,” Sievan replied with a smile. “But it struck me that I have not tried everything. There is one last thing that I can do to attempt to gain true control over my runes and become more than my shackles.”

“And what is that?” Noah asked, but from the way that Sievan was looking at Wizen, he suspected he already knew the answer.

“I am going to die. I would appreciate your assistance in the matter.”

Sievan swept his hands downward, and time snapped back into motion.

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