Noah used the elements of Natural Disaster that remained within Unstable Pandemonium to pull the earth apart, creating deep crevices that he kicked the bodies of the dead inquisitors into. He kicked all the bloodied dirt from the fight into the pits before slamming them shut once more.
With any luck, that’ll make sure no more annoying Inquisitors show up looking for me. I’m really not trying to spend half of my waking hours dealing with these idiots. Why couldn’t more of them be like Fuyin?
Noah didn’t have any delusions that this would keep them off his tail forever. With the amount of attention he’d pulled in his direction with the whole Spider ruse, he had no doubt that the Inquisitors would be knocking at his door again soon. Maybe it would be for this, or maybe something else entirely.
It didn’t matter. He didn’t need to keep them off his back forever. It just had to be long enough for him to finish preparing his students and deal with the Nobles trying to steal Isabel’s Master Rune.
Once the majority of the evidence from the fight was gone, Noah leaned back against the trunk of a burnt tree and pursed his lips. He’d learned a whole lot more about patterns than he’d been expecting to today — and it was almost entirely because of Alexandra.
Even though she hadn’t had a chance to tell him exactly what she’d been doing, just being able to watch her absolutely incredible progress with Patterns had been like flicking a light switch on within his own mind.
The pages of the grimoire on his back fluttered. A shadow passed over him as something large arose behind him. Noah didn’t need to turn around to see what it was. He already knew.
“The Body Rune girl is something of a prodigy, is she not?” the abomination that lived within Noah’s grimoire asked.
“No,” Noah said after a moment of thought. “Not particularly.”
Noah smiled. “Oh, she’s incredible. Don’t get me wrong. But a prodigy would imply that it was some natural skill that gave Alexandra aid in her work. That wasn’t the case. It was all sheer work and perseverance. She’s been fighting to master patterns this whole time. Calling her a prodigy would be a disservice.”
The abomination hesitated for a moment. Then it laughed again. “A fair point. She is an interesting one. It will be curious to see if she is able to catch up with the other students. They have quite the lead on her now that her runes were cut apart.”
“It was necessary,” Noah said. “And I have complete faith that she’ll figure something out. Out of all my students, I don’t know if anyone else has the same self-motivation. Isabel and Todd both have goals they’re working toward, but Alexandra is… hounded, for lack of a better word. I don’t think she’s going to relent until she’s broken free of her past.”
“A motivated warrior.”
“Student,” Noah corrected. His eyes narrowed. “My students are not warriors. They can fight, but that does not make them warriors. Their only job is to learn and survive.”
“Such is the role of a warrior.”
“Maybe, but I don’t like the idea of you treating my students like they’re weapons. Especially when I still don’t know what the hell it is that you want.”
“Runes,” the abomination said. “Power. I have made that abundantly clear.”
“I got that part,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “But I’m also not dumb enough to believe that your goals are so simple-minded that they end purely with power. You want that strength for a reason.”
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“Power is a reward in its own. It is freedom. Control.”
“Right. And that’s why you keep calling me the Herald. I don’t recall earning that title.” Noah arched an eyebrow and finally turned around to face the abomination. “Or are you going to tell me that you just call all of your friends Herald?”
“No. You are the Herald.”
“The hell does that even mean?” Noah asked. “I’ve been meaning to find that out for a while, but there’s never been a good time. Is it some weird ass prophecy shit?”
The abomination started to laugh again. It was certainly in a jolly mood today — and now that Noah thought about it, he hadn’t gotten any energy from killing any of the Inquisitors. His eyes narrowed even further.
It stole the energy from their runes. Little bastard.
“There are no prophecies. There is no future set in stone. You can ask your Moonlight Demon that,” the abomination said through its laughter. “There are only probabilities and chances. Potentials for futures that may or may not come to pass. Guarantees cannot exist. They go against the laws of this universe.”
“Then why do you call me the Herald?”
“Because it is what you are.”
“I’m starting to think you just like being cryptic.”
“There is a certain amount of joy to be gleaned from your frustration. More than I care to admit verbally. Doing so would feel debasing. The incompetence of mortal minds may be the closest thing to a universal constant in existence. A herald is one who brings change, Vines.”
“I know the bloody definition of a herald,” Noah snapped. “The problem here is you are definitely capitalizing the damn word when you call me it.”
“That would be how a proper noun functions.”
“You little — wait. Why do you know what that is?”
“Much of me comes from you,” the abomination said with a rippling shrug that passed through its entire gangly body. Then its words changed. It took Noah a second to realize what it was. The abomination was speaking English. Not the translated language that he’d inherently learned from the scraps of Vermil’s soul, but actual English. “My understanding of language is included in that. Runes contain more than just power, Vermil. They contain impressions.”
“Oh, that is creepy. Are you telling me you’ve gotten… what, pieces of memories from every rune you’ve eaten?”
The abomination’s ghastly mouth split apart into a wide smile. “Are you really so surprised to learn that the patterns that make runes contain more than just pure energy?”
“At this point, I don’t think anything would surprise me,” Noah said, pursing his lips in displeasure. It was pretty clear that the abomination had absolutely no plans of giving him any information about whatever Herald meant. For whatever reason, it was keeping it to itself.
I also can’t keep thinking of this thing as an abomination. That might be what it is, but it takes way too damn long to think, much less say.
“Grim. Like grimoire, but just the first bit. That’s what I’m calling you from here on out. Can’t be bothered going with something longer. Espeically when you’re going to be a pain in the ass.”
“You are giving me a shorter name because I annoy you?”
“Correct,” Noah said. “I could be persuaded to add a few letters if you told me what it was you were on about, though.”
“Grim suits me fine.”
“Figured,” Noah said through a sigh. He shook his head and turned away from Grim. The monstrosity was unsettling to look at, even for him. “I’ve already wasted too much time on this, then. I’ve got what I came here to practice. I really need to get a chance to speak with Alexandra and get her full thoughts on Patterns. Maybe I could find a way to push this even further, not to mention teach all the other students to help them get up closer to Alexandra’s level on their patterns."
"All of your students? Including the demons?"
"Yes. Why? They might be new to patterns, but I’m sure they’ll be able to figure it out just as well as everyone else did.”
Grim let out a thoughtful noise. At least, Noah suspected that was what it was. It could be a bit hard to tell when dealing with horrifying corpse-creatures.
“We will see. I am most curious to see if the Moonlight Demon will be able to achieve any true progress. Living controlled by your own runes for so long… an interesting experiment.”
Noah’s lips thinned. He didn’t like the implications of that. Grim didn’t seem to feel too optimistic about Yoru’s chances of progressing very far with patterns. Noah honestly wasn’t sure how well she was taking the loss of her Master Rune. The demon was exceptionally good at hiding her thoughts.
But in the end, it didn’t matter. Noah wasn’t about to let anyone fall behind.
We’ll see indeed. I’m not going to stop until every single one of my students, no matter who they are, are all better at patterns than I am.