Noah and Moxie managed to hold off any further discussion on his new rune until they made it back to her room. But the second they shut the door behind them, Moxie stared Noah down.

“Details. Give them to me.”

“It’s not flawless,” Noah said. “It’s not even perfect, though I don’t think it’s far. It was just about 15% full when I made it, so I was just a tad off the mark. That said, considering how little I understand of space as a whole, I think it turned out really damn well. I did basically make it from scratch.”

“How?” Moxie asked. She paced around the room, then stopped by the chair and grabbed onto it to keep herself from circling Noah like a hungry shark. “The last time you made a rune, you said it needed three different components. Latent power in the area, intent, and something that could kick everything into motion.”

“Right. The power came from a bunch of Space Runes I took from an area that Otto’s aid sent me to.” Noah set a hand on his grimoire. “This thing really came in handy. I got a ton of runes with it, and I’ve still got some left over. It grabbed them while I was fighting.”

“How sapient is it?” Moxie squinted at the grimoire. “I swear I’ve seen it look at me before.”

“More than it should be. It’s also taken a bit too much inspiration from Lee, if you ask me. Damn thing is permanently hungry. It’s fine. I think we’ve come to a pretty good deal. The book eats the Monster Runes I don’t care about and, in exchange, it gathers up and holds the other stuff for me without consuming it. It also doesn’t show pornographic drawings to random people I don’t know.” Noah’s hand tightened on the cover of the book with the last sentence and it creaked, fluttering its pages in protest.

“What’s that last bit about?”

“Stupid thing was playing a joke on me when Bird came by to take me over to the transport cannon. I think it was probably pissed I hadn’t fed it much recently, so it got back at me by popping out some drawings of a lady in dire need of clothing when I asked it for the Monster Rune.” Noah said. Moxie snorted and he threw his hands up. “Don’t laugh at it! Why are you encouraging it?”

“I was just thinking the universe seems determined to make sure nobody you don’t know will ever like you,” Moxie said. “Honestly, that’s probably good. Given the way we played things at the advanced track meeting, keeping people from figuring out everything you did was just a ploy is going to help us. It’s better to be judged than for everyone to know you’re a schemer and look deeper into your actions.”

“That’s probably a fair point,” Noah admitted with a huff. “But I think I’d like to control just how bad people’s view of me gets. I can do enough damage to my name without help.”

“Probably,” Moxie agreed. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “But we’ve gotten off track. You never answered my question. How’d you form the rune? This is groundbreaking research, Noah. If the noble families have it, they’ve kept it incredibly secret. Did you make more progress in finding a way to trigger the rune to form?”

“Nothing like that, unfortunately. It wasn’t actually all that different from the last time I did this back when I made the Fragment of Renewal.”

Moxie’s eyes narrowed. “You killed yourself? Seriously?”

“No! Not this time,” Noah said quickly. He decided not to mention that he’d strongly considered the aforementioned strategy. “Killing myself wouldn’t have had enough to do with space magic. I actually used one of my soul wounds instead. I—”

“How bad is it?”

“Not too bad. I got squished, but I didn’t get eaten,” Noah said. He coughed into his fist, then matched Moxie’s gaze. “Now who’s stopping me from answering your question?”

“I just get worried,” Moxie said with a sigh as she let her hands uncross and fall back to her sides. “And that isn’t going to work, because I care more about you than I do about the runes.”

That was a hard line to follow up on. Noah didn’t have any words that would come anywhere close to doing it justice. He stepped closer to Moxie and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest.

“I know. But I’m not going anywhere, Moxie.”

“I know that. It’s just that I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to fully be comfortable with you dying and coming back. What if you just… stay dead one of these times?”If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“I won’t,” Noah promised. “Even if Sunder wasn’t connected to the gourd, I’d come back. I’m too damn stubborn to stay dead. Anyone would be after what I’ve seen. There’s a reason we get our memories wiped at the end of the line. There is no force in this universe, no matter how powerful it is, that could keep me from you.”

“Do you have any idea how cheesy that sounds?” Moxie let out a muffled laugh against his chest. Her hands dug into his clothes as she pulled him closer to herself. “But, for some reason, I believe you anyway.”

“That’s because I am a very trustworthy man.”

“More like too damn stubborn to stay dead,” Moxie said as they released each other. “I won’t interrupt this time. Finish telling me what the hell you did.”

“Well, I used the soul wound to — wait. You just said hell. There’s no hell in this world, is there? I’ve never heard anybody else say it.”

Moxie’s cheeks reddened. “You’ve said it so many times that I might have picked up on the habit. Could you just get on with it already, please?”

“Right, sorry. I used the soul wound that I already had and split it open even wider, then plunged my arms into it so I could use the collapsing mindspace as a catalyst to get the rune made.”

Moxie stared at Noah. Then she threw her hands up in exasperation. “Why do I even try? You seem determined to kill yourself. You literally ripped your own soul wound open and then stuck your consciousness into it?”

“Yeah. It worked! I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’ t have the Fragment of Renewal to heal myself.”

“That’s true,” Moxie said. “But gods, Noah. There has to be a way to do this that doesn’t involve nearly killing yourself every single time you do anything new. Screwing with soul damage is really dangerous, even for you. If the Fragment of Renewal didn’t heal you in time, you could just be… poof. Gone. It doesn’t matter if your body can come back if your soul can’t.”

“The thought did strike me,” Noah admitted. “But I was pretty sure the Fragment would be able to heal me in time. And it was, mind you.”

“Evidently. You wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t. I won’t harp on you about it any more. As stressful as it is, you know what you’re doing. Just… be careful.”

“I will be. As much as is possible, that is,” Noah said.

“I don’t think I’m going to get you to promise any more than that, so I’ll settle for it. This means you formed a Rank 4 Rune without using any constituent parts though, doesn’t it?”

“Well, technically the parts came from the space magic I gathered up to form it,” Noah said. “But yes. I’m thinking the same thing you are. What happens when I Sunder it?”

“You haven’t tried?”

“I did kind of pass out, and I’m also a little worried that Sundering the rune will just shatter it on the spot and leave nothing but energy.” Noah drummed his fingers against his thigh. “I think trying it now wouldn’t solve anything. I need to understand it better. The best way to do that would be using the rune as it is for a while, then breaking it apart and trying to reform it later.”

“That makes sense,” Moxie said. “Crumbling Space definitely sounds pretty intense. I can see why it might be a bit difficult to fully understand. Even the name isn’t really all that explanatory. I mean, I logically understand the words, but… what does the rune actually do?”

“I’ve got an idea, but I haven’t figured out exactly how it will end up playing out yet,” Noah admitted. “I was going to test that out now. I’ll head out and—”

“Don’t you even think about it.” Moxie moved to stand in front of the door. “I want to see.”

“What if I destroy your room on accident?”

“Just don’t point it at me. It’s a newly made Rank 4 Rune, so it’s not going to be able to do that much damage as long as you aren’t using all the power you’ve got in it. A little damage isn’t anything I can’t repair with some vines.”

Noah shrugged. It would save time and make it easier to test things without someone spotting him out if he didn’t have to go somewhere else. He wasn’t going to damage her room of his own volition, but if she was asking him to stay, then he certainly wouldn’t object.

“In that case, stay back,” Noah said. He moved to the far side of the room and drew on his newly made Rank 4 Rune. Tingling energy ran through his body and down his arms. He shuddered at the sensation. It was far from pleasant.

He limited the amount of power he was drawing to make sure he didn’t accidentally damage anything too badly, then focused his thoughts and let a small amount of the magic slip free from his palm.

Nothing happened. Noah’s brow furrowed. He’d definitely used up energy, but it just hadn’t accomplished anything. It almost seemed as if something was impeding the power from taking root in the real world, which meant there hadn’t been enough energy present to actually cause the space around him to shift.

Brayden did say that using space magic was really difficult because of how much power it needed to work. I guess that’s what I’m seeing here. I wonder why that is, though. The rune is just a rune. Is there some form of natural force that resists space magic?

Noah drew on Crumbling Space again, this time drawing nearly double the amount of energy. The tingles racing down his arm grew even stronger as he held his hand up, focusing the power into his palm, and released it.

Thin white cracks arced out in an area no larger than a dinner plate. They stretched out, just barely brushing across the wall beside him. The air around them shimmered and bent, and a faint sucking force pulled on Noah’s hand. He yanked it back an instant before the air soundlessly seemed to fold in on itself.

Both he and Moxie stared at the wall — or more accurately, the tiny chunk of it that was completely missing. The rune had just ripped it out, leaving no trace of it behind. It was as if it had never been there.