Chapter 126: Rumors

Noah glanced down at his corpse, which was lying in a pool of blood on the floor of his shower. The clothes were well and truly soaked, but it wasn’t like he’d had the energy to take them off before. They were an acceptable casualty, but he still needed to do something about the corpse.

Lee wasn’t there because she’d taken the kids off to practice survival skills. Noah had known that he relied on her a lot for body cleanup, but he didn’t realize quite just how useful she was until he stood there staring at the corpse with no easy to way to get rid of it in sight.

Noah couldn’t deny he was tempted to try forming the Rune a second time, but he wasn’t that stupid. He was missing something. Everything had felt like it would work when the Rune was forming, and he had absolutely no idea what had triggered its failure. It was worth further investigation, but until he had something else to work with, he’d just be pushing his luck. Noah looked back at his corpse.

“I suppose I’ll just have to make sure nobody comes in here for the time being,” Noah decided with a sigh. He padded over to his belongings and pulled out a change of clothes, slipping into them before slinging his bag and gourd back over his shoulder.

Every movement felt smooth. Noah couldn’t get over how much better his body felt after his attempt at creating a Rune. He resisted the urge to let out a giggle.

A goddamn giggle. Am I a little kid that just got a letter from his secret admirer? Damn. This feels too good, though. Everything is just so… fresh.

Noah shook his head before he let himself sink too deeply into self-satisfaction. There was far too much to accomplish now that he could move around properly again. He walked into his room proper and scanned it for the first time.

Noah pursed his lips, trying to see if anything was out of place. It looked pretty much just like he’d left it. There wasn’t anything shifted or moved around that immediately caught his eye. Noah reached into his bag and pulled out the bottle Father had given him, setting it on his desk.

No point carrying around what is almost certainly poison. The chances of it somehow getting into something or on someone that I don’t want it to are way too high. I’ll just leave it here for now.

Noah gave one last glance, not finding anything, before heading out the door. He locked his room behind him before returning to Moxie’s. She still wasn’t back, which wasn’t a surprise – it hadn’t been that long since she’d left.

I really need to do something to thank both Moxie and Lee. I think the answer is clear. Lee has seen just about everything about my powers, and she’s already put herself at risk more times than I can count helping me. It’s time to fix her Runes. Things are getting too dangerous to not get her stronger, and it’s the same for Moxie. They’re giving me a lot and I’m not giving enough back in return. This will even the scores. But, that said, Moxie’s basically told me that she isn’t in full control of what she’s allowed to do. Someone might need to be taken care of before I can reveal any amount of Sunder’s abilities to her.

But first, I’m going to need to figure out exactly what they actually want their Runes to be. Moxie said she was going to be busy until tomorrow morning.

Noah looked out the window. The sun was down, but it wasn’t very close to rising again. There had to be at least a few hours before sunrise. He scrunched his nose and sat down on her bed, pulling out Evergreen’s scroll and unfurling it along the bed.

There were a lot of Runes in it that he was pretty sure would be perfect for Moxie. It probably wasn’t the best idea to tell her that he had Evergreen’s scroll, though. The knowledge could get her into trouble.

Maybe I’ll get Lee to remove one of the Runes and put it onto a piece of paper so she’s got plausible deniability. I can’t wait to see Moxie’s expression when she shows up tomorrow to see me sitting up right, not a care in the world.

As much as Noah hated waiting, that particular thought was enough to get him motivated. He grinned to himself, rolling the scroll back up and returning it to his bag before positioning himself on the bed to wait.

Not wanting to just completely waste the time, Noah spent the next few hours brainstorming what he’d do with the Broken Gale Rune. It wasn’t going to be of any use to him in its current form, and he did have a few other Runes to fiddle with.

I don’t want her to walk in on me while I’m fiddling with Runes, so I’ll save it for a bit later. I’m not in any rush to fix the Gale Rune, but I need to get it useful before I go hunting again or any energy that goes into it will be wasted.

Just like that, several hours passed. Noah continued to send glances out the window as the sun poked over the horizon and breached the buildings of Arbitage to shine onto his back. It continued to inch upward, but there was no sign of Moxie.

At first, Noah didn’t think much of it. But as the time continued to wear on, he started to frown. His memories of the brief stint in bed weren’t the clearest, but he vividly remembered her showing up pretty much at the same time every day. She hadn’t been late once from what he could recall.

Noah rose from the bed and poked his head out of the door. There was no sign of Moxie. Something didn’t sit right with him.

She said something about not being able to come by today. There must have been something happening, and she did seem a bit nervous about it. Or maybe she just overslept?

But I don’t even know where she’d be sleeping. I’ve taken her bed, and she wasn’t in my room. Somewhere with –

Oh. The gardens?

Noah stepped out, closing the door behind him and striding down the hall. He wasn’t sure how that particular thought hadn’t come to him earlier, but if there was anywhere that Moxie would just be hanging out to pass the time, it would be the gardens.

They were out of the way, almost completely empty from what he’d seen, and full of plants. If that didn’t have Moxie’s name written all over it, Noah wasn’t sure what would.

He set a brisk pace from the T building, quickly reaching the gardens and stepping into the tight path surrounded by tall, multicolored walls of plants. Noah listened intently as he walked, trying to see if he could pick up any signs of Moxie.

As Noah continued deeper into the large gardens, something caught his attention. In the distance, he could just barely hear the sounds of conversation. He slowed, making sure he wasn’t making too much noise with his steps, and continued toward it.

The mazelike paths of the garden didn’t help his speed. After getting lost twice, he gave up and shoved through one of the sharp hedge walls, ignoring the thorns as they cut into his skin and pulled at his clothing. While he did his best to avoid shaking it too much, it still rustled a little. He tugged himself free on the other side, repressing a curse and brushing some leaves out of his hair.

“…No, I didn’t.”

Noah froze.

That’s Moxie speaking.

The bushes had been blocking the noise much better than he’d thought, and judging by the proximity of Moxie’s voice, he was just around the bend from her and whoever she was speaking with.

He waited several moments to see if anyone had heard him.

“Then what are you doing?” another woman’s voice demanded. It didn’t sound like either she or Moxie had heard Noah’s less than stealthy arrival.

“What I’ve been ordered to,” Moxie replied curtly.

I wonder if this is something I should be overhearing. I feel like I’m intruding a bit – but Moxie doesn’t seem very happy. That means she’s probably talking to an asshole, so I don’t have to feel bad about screwing them over. Logic is great when you twist it in your favor.

“You were ordered to find a way to infiltrate the Linwick Estate using that incompetent fool of a professor you told us about,” the other woman spat.

Noah’s skin prickled.

What?

“Everything was prepared,” the woman continued. “We let that Dayton steal one of Evergreen’s scrolls – a fairly good one, mind you – just to make sure he would get strong enough to reach Rank 5. All you had to do was leverage the idiot’s trust of you and get inside the Estate to monitor the situation. Was that so difficult?”

“I told you already,” Moxie said, steel in her voice. “He isn’t of any use to us. I told Magus Evergreen this as well.”

You were talking about me to your family? Well, I do suppose there had to be some reason you were tolerating me at the start, but how far does that go? I thought we were becoming friends. Especially as of late.

“And you received your orders. They were to drop Emily off with one of the Main Branch members and go to the Linwick Estate regardless. Evergreen is confident that the connection would have been enough.”

“Magus Evergreen was wrong,” Moxie said. “There’s absolutely nothing interesting about him. I originally thought there was some leverage we could use, but I already reported that I was incorrect. His family doesn’t care about him. He has no real strength or competence. The only people that like him are his students.”

“Then why did you maintain contact?”

It took Moxie an instant longer to respond.

“To ensure that my new suspicions were correct. They were. I’m telling you now. Turn your attention elsewhere.”

Is Moxie trying to cover for me now? Is she selling me out or not? Actually, from what it sounds like, she tried to sell me out before but changed her mind at some point. Moxie…

A loud slap echoed through the garden hedges.

“You forget your place in this family,” the other woman snapped. “You hold no worth. You exist only to execute Evergreen’s orders and ensure Emily is protected. That is it. You do not have opinions. We do not care about what you think. Evergreen thinks. I think. You are a tool. You report. You act. Do you understand?”

Even if the words themselves hadn’t been as rude as they were, the tone in the woman’s voice was so toxic that a wave of anger rolled down Noah’s spine. Noah expected to hear a loud crash as Moxie crushed whoever she was talking to into a fine paste with her plants.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Moxie said. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care about your apologies. Just do your damn job. Because of your incompetence, Dayton has run off and a large portion of his family has been taken in by Father. Do you understand how bad it will be if he gets taken into the main branch, you stupid creature? Evergreen will blame me!”

Another slap rang out through the clearing. Noah’s brow tightened in anger. His lips pressed thin and his hands clenched at his sides. Logically, the smartest move would have been to walk away and never let either of them know what he’d overheard until he had another plan.

All Noah could envision was the last week. All the time and effort Moxie had spent taking care of him. And even before that – all the information she’d given him, the advice and warnings. Whatever she’d originally been planning, there was no doubt in Noah’s mind she was trying to cover for him.

Any proper plans would have required some patience to execute in a precise, well thought out manner.

Unfortunately, Noah was never the most patient person. Something deep in his soul unfurled, a furious hunger burning within it and urging him forward.

He stepped around the edge of the hedges, his eyes as cold as ice. He pulled his pipe put, sliding a small tuft of Flashgrass into it.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important,” Noah said, placing the pipe in his mouth. “If you’re going to talk about someone, it’s not polite to do it behind their back.”