Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 855: Old Friend

For some reason, Noah’s words of comfort didn’t quite seem to work. Perhaps it was the gossamer black silk covering his features, or maybe it was the blood covering him and dripping from his hydrophobic clothes. That or it was the headless corpse lying at his feet.

All four Imbuers stared at Noah and the remains of what had once been their employer. Their eyes were wide with a mixture of disbelief and fear. It was several long seconds before any of them even dared to draw in a breath.

Then the oldest of the Imbuers, a young man probably around Vermil’s age before Noah had confiscated his body, swallowed. His eyes were colder than the others —the gaze of a man hardened by bitter experience. He’d seen a few things. Things that nobody really deserved to see.

“We’re pleased to enter your service, sir.”

He’d only missed a few beats at most. That was an uneasily fast recovery to watching someone’s skull get deconstructed into sheer nothingness.

Even for someone used to hardship, that’s a pretty cold response. Not that anyone is going to lose sleep over Clarke… but I wonder if this is how that prick got his hands on their debt in the first place. Did he kill the person that was holding their debt before?

Noah considered explaining himself for a moment, then realized it would take more time than just dealing with the problem at the source. “Where’s the proof of your debt?”

The young man pointed at Clarke’s body. “He’s got it in his—”

Noah’s foot fell on the dead man’s back. There was a crackle of energy as he drew on Unraveling Disruption. Then cracks of oily magic cut out from beneath his heel. There was no magic left to protect the corpse, and it only took moments for every last trace of it other than the pool of blood on the ground to be wiped away from existence.

The confusion in the Imbuers’ eyes grew. If anything, they looked even more uncomfortable and scared than they had a moment ago. That, in turn, made Noah himself even more confused. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Why are they looking at me like that? I just freed them from their debt. I did free them, right? Surely you don’t have to somehow turn it in or some other shit.

Sure, he wasn’t fishing around for a bunch of people to start worshipping him like a hero, but he’d expected slightly more relief or general happiness at the prospect of no longer being forced to work in an Imbuing sweatshop.

“Relax,” Noah said. “I’m not here for you. I was just killing that guy.”

The Imbuers stared at him. It really didn’t seem like he was making anything much better.

“Please don’t kill us. We won’t tell anyone,” their leader said, clearly resisting the urge to turn on his heel and run for his life. “I swear it. We’ll be quiet. And we’re useful! Whatever you need, we can make it. We could be of help. If you need to kill other people — if you need a dagger that draws energy from their deaths? Whatever you want!”

“What?” Noah’s eye twitched. “No. I’m not here to kill you. I just destroyed your contracts. That means you can leave, does it not? Or are they somehow still enforced?”

“I can promise none of us will try to run,” their leader said. “We don’t have a death wish. You have nothing at all to worry about from us. Nothing at all.”

Noah repressed the urge to sigh. This was not how he’d pictured this going in the slightest. A part of that was definitely because his mind was only half here. The rest of it was off trying to figure out how he’d explain to Lee what he’d been up to… and he only had a few more minutes before he’d have to head back and regroup with her.

“Okay,” Noah said, holding his hands up. “Look. I don’t have much time for this, so we’ll keep it short. We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I’m not here to murder you, nor do I give a shit about trying to force you to work for me. Also, I’m not a serial killer. I just wanted to kill that guy in particular. So that’s it. We’re done. Finished. I’m not going to murder you. I’m not going to murder anyone. Well, other than the guy I already murdered. But he had it coming. And it’s just him. Nobody else.”

The Imbuers did what they seemed to do best. Namely, they stared at him.

“You’re… just freeing us?” their leader asked hesitantly. “Just like that?”

Finally.

“Yes,” Noah said. “Just like that. No trick. I’m telling you that the killing thing really isn’t part of the normal plan. I’m a very pacifistic individual whenever I’m allowed to be. So yes. That’s it. No tricks. You’re free to leave. Hell, please do. Don’t stick around. Go make a new life for yourselves with those Imbuing skills of yours. I—”

The door opened behind Noah.

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“Hey, Clarke,” a man called, stepping into the room. His foot landed on the pool of Clarke’s blood with a wet splatter. “I’m…”

Then he trailed off, staring down at his stained boot. He froze for a brief instant. Then his eyes snapped up to Noah, fear and anger igniting within across his scarred features as he made to either attack or run.

Neither of them got a chance to figure out which one it was.

Noah’s hand snapped up. He grabbed the man by the throat, unleashing Unraveling Disruption out from his palm. The other man barely even had a moment to react. He let out something along the lines of a rodent’s whimper.

Then he popped. Arcs of Unraveling Disruption’s power carved through the man’s body. Noah made sure to use enough power to eat every single part of the man away. He didn’t even spare a single drop of blood.

Clarke’s compatriot quite literally evaporated into thin air. A faint trickle of power entered Noah’s soul, but he barely even noticed it. Whatever kind of mage the man had been… well, he hadn’t been a particularly powerful one.

Noah was left with his hand still stretched out, his eye twitching slightly behind his mask. He stood there for a long moment before he slowly looking back to the four Imbuers.

Nobody said a word.

Then Noah lowered his hand.

“Okay,” Noah said. “Aside from the two guys I murdered. Does Clarke have any other people that are going to barge in here? Anyone I should be concerned about?”

“There’s Brent,” the lead Imbuer said stiffly. “His spotter.”

“That wasn’t Brent?”

“No. That was Joe. Just a guy that worked with Clarke. He is — was — a Rank 4. And I don’t think there’s anyone here at all that someone like you needs to be worried about.”

Rank 4 checks out. Probably some really suboptimal runes at that.

He supposed that made some degree of sense. Someone like this could have held a pretty good spot back in Arbalest. But in the greater Obsidia, a shitty Rank 4 was nothing more than a grunt for a what was functionally second-rate scam call center that went around kidnapping its employees.

“Right,” Noah said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where was I?”

“You don’t normally go around killing people?” the lead Imbuer offered weakly.

“Ah. Yes. That,” Noah said. He adjusted his lapel. “Not normally. It just happens sometimes. Well, not compulsively. But — oh, fuck it. I’m distracted. I’m going to leave now. Please do the same. I’m going to be annoyed if I killed two people only for the third asshole to come back and somehow get you into another contract. That can’t happen, can it?”

It was a moment before he got his answer.

“No. You destroyed the contracts. But—”

“Great! Goodbye,” Noah said. “Best of luck in your future.”

Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the building before some other idiot could pop up. If he killed anyone else, he was pretty sure Lee was going to have an aneurism at missing out on all the fun.

***

“Tea?” Yoru asked, holding a cup out to Seleth.

The two of them sat around a little round table on the patio seating of a rather fancy restaurant. A platter of assorted pastries had been placed on the white cloth-covered table between them, along with several different teas and an assortment of jams.

Seleth took it gingerly. “Thank you. I… why did you order tea? Or food? You can’t drink it without taking off your mask.”

“Do you need to be able to enjoy something yourself to do it for others?” Yoru asked.

“I… no. I suppose not. But why would you do this for me?”

“I didn’t,” Yoru replied without missing so much as a beat. “It’s for my friend. But you can have some too.”

“Oh.” Seleth looked down at the tea. Then she shrugged and took a sip. “Wow. This is good.”

“I know,” Yoru said. “He’ll have good taste.”

“Your friend?” Seleth didn’t question the tense of Yoru’s sentence.

“Yes,” Yoru replied. “We have a few minutes until he should get here.”

Seleth took another sip of her tea. Then she set the dainty cup down on the table. “You remember how you said you wanted me to ask more questions?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask two more?”

“You just asked one.”

“I know,” Seleth replied, the corner of her lip twitching in faint amusement. “The business with the Brent guy. What happened to the Imbuers he freed? Was the whole point to get them into his debt?”

Yoru shook her head. “No. It is incredibly unlikely that they ever cross paths again. They are simply free to do as they will. I did not search much deeper than that. Their lives are their own, after all.”

“What? But I thought—”

“That I only helped people it if it helped my own goals?”

Seleth nodded.

“And you aren’t wrong,” Yoru said. “I am no saint. But the more you play with probabilities, the more convoluted of a web you weave — and the more you have to watch it to make sure nothing goes wrong. It is exhausting. The only thing I wish from those Imbuers is a life well lived… and a few well-placed rumors.”

“I’m not sure I follow. How does that help you?”

“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?” Yoru asked. She paused at the sound of a faint jingle that came from within the restaurant. The waiter standing at the edge of the patio turned to check on the newcomer. Yoru tapped a finger on the table. “There we go. My friend is here. Relax. He will not be pleased if you act stiffly.”

The waiter stepped back into view, his head turned back as he spoke to someone behind him.

“Yes, sir. I’m certain. Your party is already waiting for you.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” the voice of an elderly man replied, a note of confusion in his voice. “I don’t have a…”

An old man stepped out from within the restaurant interior, trailing off as his gaze landed on Yoru and Seleth. A white beard framed his features, but streaks of gray that hadn’t been there before had started to wind through it like the roots of a tree, as if he were aging in reverse. His eyes were brilliant purple, shimmering with an energy of a man a quarter his age.

“Yoru?” the old man breathed, as if he didn’t even dare to believe his own eyes. “Is that you?”

“Hello, Tim,” Yoru replied. “It’s been a while.”