Return of the Runebound Chapter - 850

Noah’s eyes snapped open as the ground fell out from beneath him. His heart lurched. He drew in a sharp breath, jerking upright in his bed — except his bed was nowhere to be found. The ground flipped to take the place of the ceiling and then spun back into its proper place a moment before his feet hit cold stone.

Confusion assaulted his thoughts. He nearly tripped over his own feet as his still half-asleep body struggled to figure out what was happening. But before he could fall, something deep within his consciousness roared to life.

He caught himself instinctively. His gaze lifted as his runes rumbled, their power already flowing through him as he cast his domain out. Hazy beams of moonlight filtered through the thick clouds dust filtering through the air in the dark room around him.

The fuck? Where am I? What happened? The Inn — Lee?

None of it remained.

There was only the murky dust-filled darkness. And, worse, Noah’s domain was still completely useless. He couldn’t feel anything at all around him. At least that meant he was still somewhere within Aqua Terra. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of his understanding as to the situation.

The shadows surrounding him weren’t natural. It was too dark. Too absolute. That much Noah was certain of. The amount of light that had managed to filter through the crystalline glass window overhead was far less than it should have been. And, even without access to his domain, he could feel someone’s gaze boring into him from.

Noah also couldn’t help but notice that his mask was on. He was pretty sure he’d removed it before he’d gone to sleep. It should have been in his pocket. But he should have been in his bed, so it seemed that things weren’t quite following the natural order of what should have been.

“Seriously?” Noah asked, irritation bubbling out through his confusion. “On my first night of good sleep in god knows how long? Could you not have knocked tomorrow morning?”

The shadows shifted. Something moved within them. Something far too large to be human. He caught a flicker of what might have been considered the upper body of a woman as it passed by a murky strand of moonlight, but it was gone as fast it had appeared.

A raspy laugh echoed from the darkness. It was the kind of laugh that Noah might have expected from an elderly woman running a family restaurant. Raspy and dry, yet surprisingly full of life.

“I prefer the night,” the elderly woman’s voice said. “The darkness makes it far easier to be who you truly are.”

Be that as it may, the darkness is also when people are trying to get some damn rest.

“Great,” Noah said. “Why am I here? How did you even get me here? There’s no way I was sleeping that heavily.”

The woman’s laugh filled the darkness again. “You’ve got one of my badges. Did you really think it would be so easy to walk off with it?”

Noah paused for a moment.

Then he sighed.

You know what? I totally should have seen this coming.

Goddamn it.

“Where’s my companion?”

“Untouched,” the old woman replied. “And to be candid, we have no way to bring anyone other than you here in the first place. The only one I hold any sway over is the one holding my badge… and it does not seem like your companion has one.”

Lee’s presumably safe, then. Sounds like they don’t even know anything about the room. I probably shouldn’t have given that away. Shit. I’ll have to keep my guard up.

“Good to know,” Noah said through a sigh. “Then would you care to explain why I’m here?”

“Are you implying that you don’t know?” the old woman asked.

Fishing for information, are we?

“Why would I?” Noah asked.

“Do you not remember the faces of those who you have killed?”

I should really try to make some moves of my own. Figure out what the hell is going on. But to be honest… I don’t think I have it in me right now. If I were a little less tired, I’d be willing to play this game a bit longer.

Unfortunately, I’m not. I can’t be bothered with this.

“Generally speaking? Not really,” Noah admitted honestly. “You tend to lose track after a while. And if you’ll excuse me for cutting to the chase… I take it you’re with the shady guy in the alleyway?”

“A safe assumption.”

“I’m not going to apologize for killing him. If anything, he had it coming,” Noah said through a yawn. “Anyone searching for assassins by picking out random people from a crowd can’t be all that surprised when things don’t work out.”

“No. They can’t,” the old woman agreed. This time, her voice came from the other side of the room. “But that isn’t the reason you’re here. I don’t care about the severed thread. It was never meant to remain uncut.”

Noah blinked. “If you’ve got no problem with that, then I don’t see why I’m here. Did you want a signature or something?”

The old woman burst into laughter. “Not quite yet. We’ll have to see how you perform in the tournament before such a discussion. I must simply request that you spend a short while here. I’ll send you back to where you were before the sun rises.”

“That doesn’t sound like a particularly appealing deal. I’ve been looking forward to a good night of rest for a while,” Noah said. The annoyance swirling in his chest built. He’d finally gotten a chance to sleep in a nice, comfy bed. There was no way he was letting that get stolen from him.

The presence that had stirred upon his arrival in the dark room started to build in the back of Noah’s mind. Thoughts twisted through his own — all of them borne from within himself, and yet none of them his.

 “An inconvenience for which I apologize for,” the woman replied. Her voice was on the other side of the room once again. Noah hadn’t even noticed her move. “I prefer to stay out of the way. Consider this a minor inconvenience in return for the ability to participate in the tournament without strings.”

“Except I already paid that fee by wasting the time killing the guy who had the badge. The one whose you specified didn’t matter.”

The woman chuckled again. “A fair argument. I don’t have an answer to that. You will have to inconvenience yourself, I am afraid. Perhaps you will take solace in knowing that you are not the only one. There will be others.”

 Noah’s eyes narrowed. From what he could understand, he wasn’t the only one that had offed one of this woman’s allies to take the black badges. She seemed to be implying that she was more than happy to let him walk off with the badge — which presumably somehow let her summon him at will while he was carrying it — but he had absolutely zero plans of just sticking around to meet the rest of the people she was calling over.

And waiting around like this is way too convenient of a way for someone to learn about me. I don’t have any way to know that she’s telling the truth. I’m definitely not just going to take it at face value.

The annoyance swirling in his stomach intensified.

Something at the back of his head shifted. A flicker of gold passed through his vision. The corners of his lips twitched behind his mask.

“I’ll pass,” Noah said. “But no hard feelings. You seem polite enough. Mind if I bow out and just stay out of your way?”

“You are not permitted to leave,” the woman replied. “Do not bother attempting it. This room is Imbued. You will only waste your efforts and wear on my patience.”

“Right,” Noah drawled. “What was your name? I don’t think I caught it.”

“You may refer to me as the Mistress.”

Oh, hell no.

“You got a different one?” Noah asked. “Cultural differences. You know. Can’t use that one without things getting weird.”

“No,” the woman replied flatly.

“Bummer,” Noah said. “Well, that’s unfortunate. I’m not using that. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I don’t suppose you want to give a quick monologue? Fill me in on what the purpose of all this is? I’m sure you’ve got some kind of grand plans for the tournament or the like.”

“The tournament? No. I will not be interfering with you or any of the others here. Not unless you stand in my path… and I can assure you, that is not something that can be done by accident. You have earned your entry to Heaven’s Path.”

“How magnanimous of you,” Noah said. “And am I wrong in assuming the way you called me here was because I was holding onto your badge?”

“You are not. It is not an ability I abuse lightly. But some things must be personally confirmed. Do not fear. Such a thing will not happen again. It is likely we will never meet again after tonight. There is no animosity between us. But if you perform admirably… then you may think of this ordeal as an initiation. No worthwhile job is easy to get.”

Right. Stuff the badge somewhere so she just can’t yoink me out of my sleep. Good to know. I think that just about wraps this up.

“I never said I was looking for a job. Best of luck with your recruitment efforts, though,” Noah replied as his eyelid twitched. The presence in the back of his mind swirled and bubbled. Every second he spent out of bed was making him more and more annoyed. His voice darkened. “Good talk. I’ll hold you to that promise about not interfering. Don’t summon me again.”

“Don’t,” the Mistress warned. She genuinely sounded slightly concerned for him. “You will only hurt yourself. There is no—”

The shimmer of gold at the corner of his vision flared. It spooled up, unfurling beneath him as he took a step forward.

His foot never met the ground. Silence fell over the dark, dust-filled room. The Mistress shifted, a fragment of moonlight illuminating her for the briefest moment. Then the clouds blotted out the sky once more.

“What?” she whispered.

But there was no answer.

Noah was gone.