Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 580: More

Noah remained with Lee in her soul and the two of them stood in silence as they watched her soul damage slowly stitch itself shut as the Fragment of Renewal worked its magic. She didn’t seem quite ready to return to the others yet, and he still had some energy in Empty Proliferation.

It would be quite a while before Lee’s soul was completely fixed. Days, at the minimum. There was a good chance she’d need another usage of the Fragment of Renewal to completely repair her.

But not every wound was healing. The soul damage that Lee had used to carve her own Fragment of Self at the bottom of her soul hadn’t altered in the slightest. White light leaked through the perfectly smooth lines and into the darkness of her soul. The Fragment of Renewal hadn’t even tried to touch them.

Worry twisted in Noah’s stomach and made throat clench. He hated seeing anyone he cared about in pain — and there was no chance that having gaping holes like these in her soul was going to be comfortable for Lee.

“It’s fine.” Lee’s voice broke through he silence. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Really?” Noah asked.

“No. I lied. It feels like I stubbed my toe a hundred thousand times all at once.”

“At least you’re being honest.” A small smile pulled at the corners of Noah’s lips. “And your soul? How does it feel? Intact?”

“Like I carved a rune into it,” Lee said. She looked down at the lines glowing by her feet, then back up to him. She lifted a hand to touch the horns protruding from her skull, running a finger along one of them. “Are you mad at me?”

“Because I lied.”

“Lying about not being hurt isn’t going to make me mad at you.”

“Not about that,” Lee said. She shook her head, then winced at the motion. Evidently, she was in a fair bit more pain than she was letting on. “About everything.”

“Everything? That feels like a bit of an exaggeration.” Noah crossed his legs beneath him and sat down. He couldn’t help but notice that the floor of Lee’s soul was no longer syrupy. It was cold and glossy, a sea of obsidian.

“I didn’t tell you that I knew what my emotion was.”

“You didn’t always know.”

“But I did for a while. I let you do a bunch of work for no reason. All because I was selfish.” Lee sat down beside Noah, but she kept her gaze firmly affixed on the distant cracks in her soul.

“It had a reason,” Noah said. “I did this for you, but it’ll help other demons everywhere.”

“It’ll help the ones that are willing to let go of their emotion. None of the strong ones will ever take you up on it. Most of the weaker ones won’t either. Why do you think Sievan said no? Demons become their emotions, Noah. We don’t want to lose that.”

“Then that’s their choice to make,” Noah said with a small shrug. “You found a way to make it work. You’re still you, aren’t you? Maybe they’ll do that as well.”

Lee turned to look at him. “Do you really not care that I tricked you?”

“Tricked is a strong word for it,” Noah said slowly. He mulled over Lee’s words. She wasn’t just looking for him to mindlessly promise he didn’t care about what she’d done. That would just be dismissive of her emotions. “I think everyone has ulterior motives at some points. I’d have preferred you to be honest with me, but you weren’t in an easy situation. I’m more just relieved that you’re okay.”

“Even though I’m not going to lose my demonic traits?”

“Did you think I was trying to find a cure for you because I wanted to purge you of the things that made you a demon?” Noah asked, blinking in surprise.

Lee didn’t respond. She turned her gaze away from him.

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“That couldn’t have been farther from my goal,” Noah said, grabbing Lee by the shoulders and gently twisting her so she was forced to meet his eyes again. “Lee, I don’t want to change you. None of us do. I’m not trying to go through the demon race and scrub them of what they are. I admittedly only tried to find a solution to their problem because of you, but that wasn’t because I was jumping at the chance to turn you into… I don’t know. A toned down version of yourself. I just wanted you safe. That’s it.”

Lee sniffled. “Really?”

“Really.”

The small demon sniffled again. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, then wiped that off on Noah’s sleeve.

“So you aren’t mad at me at all?” Lee almost sounded a little disappointed at that.

Does she… want me to be mad?

“Maybe I’ll get a little angry at you later, once we’re all back on the mortal plane and we’ve verified that you’re completely healthy. And no more secrets from here on out, okay? Not from me or Moxie.”

A small smile pulled at the corners of Lee’s lips and she wiped her nose off straight on his shoulder, skipping the middleman entirely. She didn’t bring her head away from his shoulder but instead leaned into him, her eyes slowly drifting shut.

“Noah?”

“Yeah?”

“Does that mean I can’t keep older secrets too?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I told you that I was eating squirrels, but they were actually humans that were trying to kill you.”

Noah nearly choked on his own saliva. “I — what?”

“Also, when I went to Vroth’s camp, he was a big asshole. I killed him and made Vrith think it was an accident so she would agree to become the Streetlord instead,” Lee said, the words spilling from her mouth like a fountain that had finally had an old blockage removed. “I also let some demons from the camp I was supposed to kill live because they smelled nice. I’m sorry.”

“I—”

“I also stole a bunch of snacks from your bag. I do it all the time. Moxie’s bag too. And your spicy water. It’s kind of gross, but the bottles are crunchy.”

Noah couldn’t help himself. He burst into laughter.

“It’s fine, Lee. You don’t ever have to apologize for being you.”

Lee turned her head to bury her face in his shoulder. Her tears soaked into his sleeve and her body shook with sobs of relief and exhaustion.

“I want to go back to Isabel and Todd and everyone else,” Lee said. “I love them. And you. And Moxie.”

A small smile crossed over Noah’s face and he wrapped his arm around Lee’s shoulders. There was nothing left to be said.

I guess Lee finally figured out—

“And food,” Lee said, her voice muffled against his robes. “I still love food. But not as much as you and Moxie.”

Eh. Baby steps.

***

Decras’ consciousness stared down at Lee. The disbelief he felt was something that had not been matched in — he couldn’t remember how long. Not even Revin had managed something like this.

It was more than a feat.

It was impossible.

And yet, sitting in the center of the obsidian platform with two new horns jutting from her head and tears streaking down her cheeks, was an impossibility. Her soul was stabilizing. Decras could still feel the immense damage that had been done to it.

The damage was enough that any demon of her rank should have been dead — but Lee was not dead. As a matter of fact, she was stronger than she’d ever been. The girl had ripped enough power from Decras and the fragmented mess of runes within her soul to form a Rank 4 Fragment of Self.

At some point, Decras realized that Sievan was looking at him. There was a small, satisfied smile on the demon’s features. It struck Decras that the expression looked oddly… correct on Sievan. Decras couldn’t remember the last time Sievan had smiled.

He’d always been so serious. So driven to achieve the pinnacle, pushed by Decras’ own power to seek something that could never be his. At least, that was what Decras had thought.

Now it seemed that he had been wrong on all fronts. Perhaps there really was a path forward for Sievan. For every demon.

And that path hadn’t come from him.

Decras looked up to the small pocket of void surrounding Sievan’s lair. It was empty and dark. It was familiar, but somehow, it felt different to his eyes. But it was not the darkness of the void that had changed. It was the same as it had always been.

The one that had changed was Decras.

And, in the minuscule spot that Lee had taken a bite out of his powers, something shifted. Power bloomed where there had been none. But this was not the same kind of power that had been there before.

How fascinating.

It seems I have been proven wrong. Not by another god. By mortals. Perhaps there have been scales over my eyes. For many years, I have looked to the heavens in search of enlightenment in my path.

There were many types of power in the universe, but in the end, Runes were merely patterns. The greater one’s understanding of a pattern was, the more powerful it became. That was a universal law, even once a Divine Rune had been formed.

But enlightenment did not come easy. There were very few things that Decras had not experienced in this portion of the universe.

But today, he witnessed something new.

Today, his Divine Rune had advanced.

Renewal is going to be insufferable about this, but I do not think I can bring myself to care.

What fascinating creatures these mortals are. It seems I still have more to learn.