Noah extended his senses to the grimoire pressed against his hand in the outside world, sending it a mental request for an Earth Rune. He knew he’d gotten a fair number of them from all the monsters he’d killed during vacation with Moxie and Lee, but he wanted to make sure the book hadn’t decided to eat any of them before he started cutting anything of Tim’s up.

Fortunately, the book responded, albeit reluctantly. Energy gathered at Noah’s palm and he traced his hand through the air, forming a Rank 2 True Earth Rune in the air before him. It only took a few moments for him to create the relatively simple Rune.

It was roughly half full, and though Noah couldn’t remember the exact amount the rune had been filled when he’d put it into the book, he was pretty sure it was less than what it had now – though not by much.

The book seemed to like taking the energy from the runes and distributing it amongst them. As to why, Noah still hadn’t managed to find out. The artifact was clearly far more than just a storage item.

Perhaps it just liked screwing with his runes, or maybe there was some purpose to what it did. For the moment, all that mattered is that he had the rune that Tim needed. Noah turned his attention to Tim’s existing runes.

Tim already had an earth-based rune that he’d pulled closer for Noah to work on while he’d been drawing the True Earth Rune. The mere sight of Tim’s rune made Noah grimace. There was no word to describe it but horrendous.

Shattered Craggy Earth – Rank 2

Part of Noah was surprised that the rune was even holding itself together. He wasn’t sure he’d seen such a poorly crafted rune before. Not all of Tim’s runes were this awful, though most weren’t much better, but this one seemed like a great spot to start the repairs to Tim’s soul.

After one more glance to make sure that Tim wasn’t watching, Noah called on Sunder. He didn’t want to wait around with an extra Rune in Tim’s soul for long. With how weak his runes were, there was a good chance his soul wouldn’t be able to safely contain an extra high-quality Rank 2 Rune without a lot of undue stress.

Noah carved his hand downward, and a streak of black light carved down the center of Tim’s pathetic rune. It shattered instantly, a tiny sputter of wispy energy rising up from its remains. Seven Rank 1 Runes flew out from it its sputtering remains.

The ground beneath Noah’s feet bucked and he stumbled as a thick white crack split through the grass just a short distance from him, pouring glowing light into Tim’s soul. Behind him, Tim let out a wheeze of pain and stumbled, falling to his knees.

Holy shit. His soul is so weak that even Sunder’s much more surgical removal still managed to damage it?

Noah hurriedly released Sunder and summoned the Fragment of Renewal. The crack in the ground was massive – far larger than anything Noah felt was remotely safe to let stick around.

Gentle pink smoke poured out of his palms, infusing itself into the crack. The damage started to knit itself immediately. To Noah’s relief, the weakness of Tim’s soul worked to his advantage instead of his detriment.

Because of how little soul there was to heal, the Fragment of Renewal worked at a remarkable speed. It knitted around the damage, pulling the grassy field back together and sealing over the white light in just a few seconds.

Now that the damage was averted, Noah turned to the seven Rank 1 Runes that had come out of the one he’d just destroyed. They were still part of Tim’s soul, but they were going to cause trouble if he left them floating around – Tim didn’t have a large enough soul to store too many extra runes.

Also, it might be wise to avoid letting him know exactly how I took his rune out. If he sees seven Rank 1s, he might be able to realize that I’m not just changing runes, but I’m splitting them apart.

Noah extended his senses to the seven rank 1 runes. They shuddered at his mental touch. Their connection to him felt weak and feeble. Noah paused, a thought striking his head. The remains of the Fragment of Renewal’s energy were still twisting within Tim’s mind, leaving him room to do a little extra work.

Cutting the original rune with Sunder must destabilize them. I think I can just…

Noah summoned the runes to him, then pressed his hand to the first one. He felt the grimoire warm against his touch in the real world. There was a soft pop, and the rune disappeared. The grimoire had eaten it through Noah.

Tim didn’t seem to be too pained by the theft, so Noah did the same to the rest of the Rank 1s. The grimoire sent Noah a warm, satisfied feeling of approval. Something told him that none of the Rank 1 runes had survived the trip out of Tim’s mind.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Whatever. I need to feed it anyway, and those weren’t particularly important.

Several small cracks formed in the grass from the removal of the already-destabilized runes, but the remaining energy from the Fragment of Renewal handled them before they could go anywhere.

“Tim,” Noah called. “You can turn around.”

Tim spun, his eyes going wide as he saw the Rank 2 Rune floating before Noah. His eyes darted around his mindspace, searching for any traces of his original rune, but they were gone.

“I – how?” Tim stammered.

“Worry about drawing this first,” Noah suggested, sending the Rank 2 Rune toward Tim. He tried to keep the smug grin from his face, but he wasn’t so sure he’d succeeded. The expression of delighted disbelief on Tim’s face was difficult to ignore.

Tim hurried to comply. He placed a hand on the Rune, then started tracing it with his other. It took him a lot longer than it would have taken Noah, but Noah had more experience drawing Runes than most people.

Tim managed to get the Rank 2 Rune secured in his soul after about two minutes of work. His hand dropped in relief, his eyes sparkling as the new rune drifted back through the air, joining the rotation of the other six.

“I can’t believe it,” Tim muttered, swallowing heavily as he turned to watch the rune’s slow flight through the air. “I never thought…” He trailed off, not even able to finish his sentence. Shaking his head, Tim looked back to Noah. “Thank you. I don’t know why you did this, but I never thought I’d have such a nice rune. I’ll cherish it. With this, I may actually have a chance of pushing to Rank 3.”

“What, with the rest of what you’ve got here?” Noah’s eyes widened as he gestured to the other runes around them. “We still need to get you six more, Tim. One good one isn’t going to do you any good. Even if you managed to cobble this into a Rank 3, it would be terrible.”

“You can fix my other runes?” Tim asked, his mouth hanging agape. “All of them?”

“Well, yes. Why would I just fix one and leave it at that?”

“I just didn’t think…”

“Don’t think,” Noah suggested with a grin. “The less you think about what I’m doing here, the better it will be for the both of us. The best way you can thank me is to completely forget that I’m the one that helped you at all. Just think of this as the universe paying you back for your kindness.”

Tim chewed his lower lip, clearly uncomfortable with all the help Noah was giving him. It wasn’t like he could refuse – Noah wasn’t just offering him power. The stronger runes would expand his lifespan and open up countless opportunities. New runes were quite literally a new lease on life.

Finally, Tim nodded. “I don’t know if I can forget it completely, but I can assure you that not a word of anything that happened here will ever so much as grace my thoughts. It will be banished to the deepest recesses of my memory and I will die twice before I speak of it.”

“Or live once,” Noah offered. “I’m not doing all this shit so you can get yourself killed.”

Tim let out a laugh. “I think I can do that, Professor Vermil. Are you…”

“Going to do the rest now?” Noah finished. “No. I’d like to, but your soul is really fragile. It wouldn’t be able to handle more modifications today. We’ll have to come back to it tomorrow, or on whatever day you’ve got some time.”

“I’d make time in the middle of the night if that was what it took,” Tim said with a bark of laughter. “Whenever you can slot me in will be perfect. It’s not like I have a very busy schedule. It’s just me and the transport cannon.”

“Tomorrow, then,” Noah said. He’d have to get another Mind Meld Potion, as he was keeping the extra one he’d bought for Lee in case her Rune became too problematic and he had to Sunder it for her safety. “We’ve got a little more time before the potion wears off, so you might as well get used to your new Rune.”

Tim didn’t need to be told twice. Energy curled around his hands as he called on the True Earth Rune, and Noah couldn’t help but smile as he watched the old man play with the magic like a child that had just gotten a new toy.

It’s strange how much a Rank 2 Rune has changed for me. There would have been a time when getting one would have been an enormous change. Now, I can harvest them at will with almost no effort.

I hope Tim’s future combinations are much better once I get him all fixed up. It would be a shame if he ends up having a bad Rank 3 combination. I’ll talk to him a bit about combination theory after I replace all his runes so he can avoid that.

If Noah was honest with himself, Tim’s situation sat poorly with him. The man was clearly hard working – he basically never left the transport cannon and always kept it running. An attitude like that should have served him well in school.

He was failed. His teachers should have ensured that he had the tools to succeed, but they didn’t because he wasn’t a noble. And, because he wasn’t a noble, he wasn’t able to get good runes either. Compound that with no guidance on combinations and it’s no wonder he got stuck at Rank 2.

How many other people are like this? It’s such an enormous waste. The noble houses are literally crippling everyone by suppressing information and runes just for the sake of keeping their power.

Noah wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do about it. Squaring up against every noble house sounded like a great way to get his students killed. And, if Noah was honest with himself, he didn’t properly care about anyone other than the people close to him.

I’m not putting any of their lives at risk for someone I don’t know. It’s just not worth it. But, one day, it would be nice to find a way to help everyone that deserves it. Just… not at the cost of anyone’s safety.

Noah sat as Tim tested his new Rune, waiting out the rest of the Mind Meld potion’s time until he felt a buzz building in the back of his head.

“That’s time,” Noah said, rising to his feet. “As more of your runes get repaired, we should be able to fix them faster. I’d say this should only take two or three more sessions.”

“Thank you,” Tim said. “I’ll make time whenever you’re ready, but don’t feel pressured. I’m sure you’re a busy man.”

Noah nodded, and the buzzing intensified. His soul slipped out of Tim’s and into a sea of darkness as it shot back toward its proper body.