Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 511: Old

Noah stood on the roof of a building at the edge of camp, the purple and red light of the Damned Plains dancing across the rooftops around him like they were a bed of shimmering gravel in an aquarium.

Yoru sat before him, her legs dangling over the edge of the roof as she looked down on the camp. If she noticed him — and he suspected that she did — she made no move to acknowledge his presence.

Violet had given Noah a rundown of the conversation the two demons had. It wasn’t what he’d been hoping to hear, but expecting much different would have just been lying to himself. The two demons’ personalities couldn’t have possibly been more different.

One was a demon that had grown up on the streets with nothing but her family, starving and clawing her way to survival. Victory was a foreign concept when the only thing they could afford to focus on was surviving to the next day.

The other was someone who knew only victory, but possessed nothing beyond it.

Future sight, huh? Or some variant of it. I find it difficult to believe something like that exists in this world. How can you see the future if it hasn’t been made yet? The implications of that are kind of unsettling.

But power does not a child unmake. You can be immensely strong and still be a child mentally. Understanding doesn’t always come with strength, no matter how much people think it does. Dying to monsters in the Scorched Acres hundreds of times showed me how to fight. The only way to truly understand is to experience. I condensed years of experience into such a short period of time… but I don’t know if something like that is possible for emotion.

Yoru is strong. Stronger than I am if you’re only counting the raw strength of our runes — but she has no life experience. A demon who embodies controlling the future… it seems like she’s been controlled by her own Runes for so long that she hasn’t ever gotten a chance to live. In a lot of ways, that still makes her a child.

Noah blew out a small sigh. It was a strange concept to feel bad for Yoru. The demon was almost undoubtedly trying to manipulate him. That was the conclusion Violet had come to. She’d only returned to the camp because she saw some sort of benefit from doing so.

And yet, he still felt pity. Yoru was so completely inexperienced with living that she didn’t even have the basis to feel uncomfortable admitting that she was scared of something.

He shifted, preparing to hop down from his roof and join Yoru. Someone else moved before he could. A small hand reached over the edge of the roof and clasped the stone lip. Aylin pulled himself over with a grunt.

“Yoru,” Aylin said.

“Aylin. You will—”

“Hold on. Turn it off, would you?” Aylin asked as scooted back over to the edge of the building and swung his legs over it. He leaned back on his hands and turned to the other demon. “Your future sight, that is.”

“It is off. I have not tilted my head.”

A small smile tugged at Aylin’s lips and he let out a chuckle. “As if someone as strong as you would have such a damn obvious tell. You don’t need to tilt your head to use your magic. Maybe you just like doing it, but you don’t need to. But you knew I’d say that, didn’t you?”

“It was highly probable,” Yoru admitted.

“Well, turn it off.”

“What makes you believe I would ever turn it off? You spoke with Violet.” Yoru’s words were a statement, not a question. “Perhaps I simply lied to her as well.”

“I don’t think you did.” Aylin gave her a half-shrug. “Dunno. No way for me to know for sure, but I want you to do it anyway.”

“Why?”

“Here’s a better question. Why would you ask ‘why’ if you already know my answer?”

“Because I do not know your answer until I ask the question,” Yoru replied. “And you have avoided answering it again. You guard this answer closely.”

“Just trying to learn how your power works,” Aylin said, his smile growing slightly. “And I think that helps. I approached the conversation with a determination that I wouldn’t tell you why I’m here today. That means your magic has a limit — or you choose to give it a limit. I suppose it also means you can’t actually read my mind or otherwise influence me. You just… what, take really good guesses as to what people will do?”

“That is a rudimentary way to view it, but not entirely incorrect. You did not come here purely just to learn my powers.”

“You’re right, though that was a bit of it. I like knowing things. But the reason I’m here is to talk to you. So turn the magic off.”

Yoru studied Aylin in silence for several seconds. Then she inclined her head slightly. “It is off. I will not keep it this way for long. State the purpose for which you came quickly.”

“My sister’s a bit of a handful, isn’t she?” Aylin asked, looking out over the camp. “She’s always been overprotective. Reaching Rank 3 only made that even stronger. I hope you won’t hold it against her. She’s lost a lot, and she doesn’t want to lose more.”

“I do not hold grudges. There is no purpose for them.”

“Of course you don’t,” Aylin said with a wry smile. “You wouldn’t have a reason to, would you? You know what people are going to do before they do. It’s hard for someone to wrong you when you know everything they’re doing. It’s just another step in your plans or something like that, right?”

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Yoru nodded. “Yes.”

“Then if you don’t mind saying, what are your plans?”

“To become powerful.”

“Right. A power like yours… I don’t know what Rank you are, but something tells me you’re far from weak.”

“There is always more power. There are always those stronger. Knowing the weights of the future does not mean controlling them.”

“Logically,” Aylin agreed. “But… what’s your goal? Why do you want to get stronger?”

“Because there are others stronger than me.”

“You want to fight them?”

“No. I wish to be able to remove myself from any control they have over me.”

“That’s it?” Aylin leaned back a little farther and drummed his heels against the wall of the building beneath him. “Kind of an empty goal. It’s not even exciting. You don’t want to rule the Damned Plains because you’re a sadist or something. You just want to not get killed.”

“Survival is the most paramount of all aspects in existence. So long as you live, you may accomplish all else you desire.”

“Am I talking to you?” Aylin yanked a page from Yoru’s book and let his head tilt to the side as he turned to face her. “Or am I talking to your rune? Because, to me, it doesn’t sound like you’ve got any desires at all. You just want to exist.”

“I have desires. I will not reveal them to you.”

“Yeah, and I’ve got a girlfriend a few street blocks down,” Aylin said.

Noah’s tremorsense rippled as he felt a figure move at its edges. He glanced over to a building to his left, only to find Vrith crouched in a shadow, having just twitched in surprise and entered his range in the process.

“Why does that matter?” Yoru asked.

Aylin let out a sigh. “I was lying.”

“I could not tell. My rune is not active as per your request.”

“You’re actually helpless without your magic, aren’t you?” Aylin asked. “That was sarcasm. Really obvious sarcasm.”

“You are helpless to walk without your legs. Why can you not walk on your arms as well? It is because the legs serve the same purpose.”

Aylin pushed back from the edge of the building and placed his hands onto the roof. He kicked his legs up into a wobbly handstand. He took a few wobbly hand-steps forward before falling over with a grunt.

Yoru stared at him. Her expression was unreadable with the mask blocking it, but Noah wished it wasn’t.

“Actually, I can.” Aylin grinned up at her. “Good to know you weren’t lying about the whole not using your magic right now bit.”

“That is beside the point.”

“No, it isn’t.” the Knowledge Demon sat up and crossed his legs beneath him. He braced his palms against his knees. “This is what I came here to talk to you about, Yoru. I want to understand you, because I want to understand everything. Violet wants to protect because she’s never had anything but our family, and she’s terrified of losing that. She’s also just as terrified of gaining something new that she doesn’t understand. It’s easy to protect what you know. But something new? That’s a different story. It’s so much easier to just keep things as they are. So I understand Violet as well. But you — I don’t understand you.”

“I survive. That is all there is to understand.”

“Then you have even less than I did before Spider found me,” Aylin said. “Because Violet, Torrick, Edda, and I survived. That was all we did. It was all we could afford to do. But you’ve got so much power. You can do anything you want, and yet you choose to have even less than we do. At least we have each other. What do you have?”

“Power.”

“Do you?” Aylin asked. “Or does power have you? Power is only useful when it has a purpose.”

Yoru didn’t respond for several seconds. Then she turned to finally look at Aylin. “Is there a purpose to this discussion?”

“For you? Maybe not. But it helps me understand you better.” Aylin gave her a small shrug. He rose to his feet and brushed himself off. “I’ll tell Violet to get off your back, but I’m not giving her a different tent. You’ll be a learning experience for her. She has to learn to adapt — and to keep her powers from controlling her.”

“You aren’t scared that I will bring her to harm?”

“Harm? No. Everything I’ve learned about you shows that your only concern is staying on Spider’s good side, and hurting Violet will ensure that doesn’t happen. I understand you now.” He walked over to the edge of the building, then paused. “But, if there’s more to you than just your magic, I’d be happy to talk again. I’m always eager to learn more.”

With that, Aylin dropped off the edge of the roof. He hit the ground below with a distant thud and strode off toward the center of camp. Vrith slipped into a shadow to follow after him, and Yoru remained exactly where she sat.

Knowledge Demons are scary.

Noah finally emerged from his hiding spot and dropped down to the roof behind Yoru. She spun toward him, leaping to her feet, then froze as she spotted who it was.

“Didn’t have your magic active yet?” Noah asked, mildly surprised. “I thought you’d have turned it back on the moment he left.”

“I was thinking,” Yoru said, letting her hands lower.

“I usually leave that to the professionals,” Noah said. “Tends to hurt my head when I do it too much.”

“It does hurt,” Yoru agreed without even a hint of sarcasm. “I do not like it.”

“Then don’t do too much at once. Nobody changes in a blink of an eye. I do agree with Aylin that power has to come for a reason. There’s no use to being the strongest being in existence if you don’t have something to use all that might for.”

Yoru’s neck craned back as she looked up to his eyes. “What do you use your power for?”

“It’s changed. At first… much like you, if I’m being honest. I just wanted to survive,” Noah admitted. “But now? I don’t know if I can give you a singular answer. I use it for a lot of things. I’m no philosopher. If you’re asking to try and copy me, it won’t work. You’re going to have to figure out what you want yourself. Desires are personal.”

“How am I meant to do that?” A note of anger entered Yoru’s voice. “I can get anything I want with my powers, but this is not tangible. How do you know what you want?”

“By failing,” Noah replied. “I’ve learned a hell of a lot more from that than I have from anything else. I’m not telling you to turn your powers off and sprint into certain death, but it never hurts to take a closer look at yourself.”

“Is that what you do?”

“Now? Oh hell no. I got more than enough time to think about myself,” Noah shuddered. “I’m going to go think about someone I like more. I promised Moxie I’d be back soon. Find Aylin if you need advice — and be careful with that power of yours. It’s definitely strong, but I know what it feels like to be trapped on a path.”

“I do not understand. Someone was able to trap you?”

“It was a long time ago,” Noah said with a wry smile. He headed over to the edge of the building and checked the ground below to make sure nobody was standing beneath them. “But while I was trapped, you might be stuck even harder than I was. It’s a lot easier to break out of a prison when the bars aren’t of your own making.”

Then he jumped, using a small burst of wind to catch himself before he hit the ground. Noah hadn’t lied about Moxie waiting for him, and as much as he wanted to help Yoru adapt, he really didn’t get enough time alone with her.

And though he wouldn’t admit it, he was also a real sucker for dramatic exits.