Noah kept his promise.

At least, he kept it for about ten minutes.

Then he blew himself up.

Everything had been going pretty well – he’d just started by practicing the basics. Using song to create a Formation worked by basically trapping the magic within the song itself, and the most important part was making sure that the energy couldn’t escape too early. It had to circulate, growing in power until the Formation was completed.

Noah spent several minutes practicing purely just making those defensive notes, forming the container that he’d used to hold Sunder. But, unfortunately, the container had to be custom made for every different kind of Rune or purpose. There was no one-size fits all.

He’d already managed to form one that could hold Sunder, but the whole purpose of Formations was to allow him to do things that he couldn’t normally do, which meant he had to keep pushing.

As tempted as he was to try out the song he’d placed the Fragment of Renewal’s energy into, even he wasn’t quite that bold. Messing around with Master Runes while he was still learning was an act of desperation, and one he wouldn’t be testing his luck with any further until he understood Formations better.

Instead, he stuck Natural Disaster in. It was meant to be a pretty simple Formation – one that would form a drill of wind and drive into the ground beside him, digging for as deep as he could make it go.

The start of the song was simple enough – long, harmonious notes with sudden shifts in pacing that were meant to encapsulate the ever-changing feeling of wind. He was just starting to get into the song when he realized that something wasn’t quite right.

His skin was tingling. All the power that had been slowly trickling out of Natural Disaster and into the music wasn’t quite where it should have been. Instead of being contained within the notes, it was swirling around them.

Huh. Was the music not complex enough to contain the energy? Or did I just not visualize everything correctly?

Ah, wait. I’ve got it. I was too focused on the wind aspect. Even though I only want wind from Natural Disaster, the Rune still has all the other kinds of energy. I can’t just ignore that.

“Noah?” Moxie said, a note of concern on her voice. “You’re shimmering.”

“Yep. Don’t worry.” Noah adjusted his song, shifting into a more robust version that should have accounted for his mistake in intent and pulled the energy back together. “I’ve got it under–”

The Formation shattered. Noah’s eyes had just enough time to widen. The energy contained within the Formation was released with a roar in a swirling blast of jagged wind blades centered directly on top of him.

Noah’s soul was thrown from his body within a split second. The magic killed him so quickly that it actually took him a moment to realize that his hands were no longer playing a violin. He looked down at himself, then back at the ball of wind wind as it dissipated, leaving behind a fine bloody mist.

“Well, shit.”

Sunder wrapped around Noah’s neck. He didn’t resist it. A moment later, he jerked upright at Moxie and Lee’s feet, drawing in a sharp breath as a headache jabbed its icy fingers into his skull.

Lee dropped a change of clothes on top of his head.

“Thanks,” Noah said through a grimace. “That was unfortunate.”

Moxie just sighed. “I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. What went wrong? Your Formation didn’t do anything like that when it broke at Blancwood.”

“That’s because it didn’t actually break.” Noah wished he could call on the Fragment of Renewal, but no matter how useful its healing properties were – he couldn’t access them until after his powers came back.

“You’re telling me you died and the Formation didn’t break?”

“Yeah. It was much better constructed because I spent so much time preparing it,” Noah replied, rubbing the back of his neck. The headache wasn’t the worst he’d had, but it had been a while since he’d been subjected to one and he hadn’t missed the experience. “And I also understood Sunder really well. So, when I went down, I had a few seconds to try to pull everything back together because of how tightly the song held all the magic.”

“Why’d you screw up this time, then?” Lee asked, her eyes flicking to the small hole Noah had left behind.

“Probably a few reasons. I was a bit too rushed and I didn’t properly encapsulate all the energy are likely the main ones, though.”

“So you kind of just sucked at it. The music was good, though.”

“That’s one way to put it. And thanks.” Noah superstitiously glanced at the tattoo on his arm, but it was still there. “I guess I should probably be a little more intentional with my Formations. They’re more dangerous than normal magic.”

Moxie treated him to an eye roll. “I’m thrilled you’ve come to that conclusion. Are you planning to do that again tonight?”

“Nah. I can’t use my magic again for a while, so I’ll probably just do some theory work. Even though I don’t have them yet, I think making a Formation for my upcoming Rank 4 Natural Disaster Rune is a good idea.”

“Why?” Moxie flicked her fingers and some vines wound out from the ground, stitching over the hole that Noah had put in their camp. She laid down beside their fire, leaning her head against her pack – Noah spotted the head of the stuffed animal he’d given her poking out of its top.Stolen story; please report.

“Partially for practice, and partially because I can tell Formations will let me punch even farther above my weight. If I can master them, I can have more than one trump card. Right now, I rely too much on Sunder – and the Fragment of Renewal, although I’ve only used it once. I need a more reliable way to fight that doesn’t screw me if I miss.”

“You mean like shredding you to bits when you miss a few too many notes?”

Noah scrunched his nose. “Come on. It’s practice. There’s no way to get better than to fail. I can just afford to fail a little harder than everyone else.”

“Well, at least nobody can say your abilities are wasted on you,” Moxie said. She put her hands behind her head and yawned. “But if you’re done killing yourself for the night, I’m going to get some rest. Tomorrow, we should arrive at Whiterock. Take first watch?”

“Sure.”

“I’m going to go see if I can find more things to eat,” Lee said. “I’ll take second watch when I get back.”

“Sounds good,” Noah said, pushing himself to his feet. Lee jogged off into the darkness, fading from sight the instant she was just a step away from the firelight. She was definitely putting those shadow-based Runes to use.

He was looking forward to getting his hands on the artifact Karina had promised them. Once they had it, he could start gathering as many Runes as he wanted. The endless possibilities called to him like a siren song.

All we have to do is actually get the damn thing. I imagine we’ll probably have to fight our way through some crap to get our hands on it, but that just means more Runes for the taking. This should be fun.

***

They reached Whiterock at midday. The mountain wasn’t quite as tall as Noah had pictured it, though that explained why it had taken them so long to actually catch sight of it. It was more like a very, very tall hill.

Its top was covered with snow, which was likely what had caused its name. The area all around the mountain was mostly a brownish gray clay covered by a smattering of shrubs and a few isolated, barren trees that stood in defiance of their surroundings.

The village that they were searching for was, in contrast to the mountain, actually a little larger than Noah had expected. It was still far from an actual city, but it was getting there. A small wall of jagged stones ran around it, and stone houses had been stacked up on top of each other in clustered formations.

Noah landed the flying sword beside the village and they all got off. He and Moxie studied the village closer while Lee got dressed. A cold breeze passed by them, making them all shiver. Moxie pulled her cloak tighter around herself.

“Those are some interesting buildings,” Noah said once the wind relented. “Kind of nice, actually. It looks unique.”

“Doesn’t seem very comfortable to live in, though,” Moxie said. “And it doesn’t look like they’re very used to visitors. We’ve got a few people looking at us.”

“Maybe they’re just happy to see us,” Lee said. “Do you think they’ve got anything interesting to eat?”

Noah rolled his eyes. “One track mind. I suppose we might as well find out. No point standing around out here. Maybe we can grab something while we look for Karina.”

They set off toward the village. Whatever interest the villagers had in them must have faded quickly, because in the few minutes it took them to set foot at the edge of the stone ring, everyone had already lost interest and had gone back to going about their days.

There weren’t any guards, so the trio just walked between the stones to enter the village. As soon as they were in, Lee turned her nose to the air, taking the lead of the party. Noah and Moxie fell in behind her – it wasn’t like they knew where Karina was, so there wasn’t any harm in getting something to eat first.

Noah studied the buildings as they followed Lee deeper into the village. They really were quite unique – they were all made by the same technique. It looked like someone had dropped clusters of boulders around, then carved their insides out. There weren’t any seams or sharp angles in anything.

Ladders and bridges connected the various spherical rooms, and Noah wasn’t quite sure if each cluster was a single house with a bunch of rooms or multiple individual houses. They did vary significantly in size, but their shape was always the same.

Lee stopped at the front of a building made of a single, large boulder. It was roughly the size of a normal house, but with entryways carved every few feet along it. The warm glow of a fire flickered within and several stone tables were distributed throughout a waiting area. All the chairs were made from matching stone, though there were fur pillows on them to make the seating experience more comfortable.

A woman stood behind a counter by the fire with her back to them, turning a rotisserie chicken rotating on a spit. She was clad in a warm fur cloak and armor, and two swords hung at her sides. It only took one look to tell that they weren’t just for decoration.

Clearly not a stranger to fighting.

“Can I eat that?” Lee asked, pointing at the chicken.

“Depends on if you’ve got coin,” the woman replied as she turned around, a corner of her mouth turning up in amusement. She paused as she spotted them, then frowned. “Gods, girl. You’re thin as a twig. What’s your name?”

“Lee.”

“Nice to meet you,” Noah said. “I’m–”

“I’m Claire,” the woman said, cutting Noah off and holding up a finger. She poked the chicken with a bare hand, then carved off a leg and handed it to Lee. “Get some meat on your bones. Goodness. Are they starving you to death?”

Lee took the food eagerly. “Thanks!”

“How much?” Moxie asked, reaching into her bag.

“Shush. I’m watching her eat. It’s a bit hot, though. You might have to give it a second to cool down.”

Right. Lovely. We found a weird one.

Lee threw the whole chicken leg into her mouth and bit down, shattering the bone with a crunch. She chewed and swallowed, licking her lips. “Spicy. Can I have more?”

“Well, I’ll be. Haven’t seen someone do that before.” Claire finally turned her eyes away from Lee, looking to Noah. “You can speak now. Didn’t mean to be rude, but I hate getting interrupted when I’m feeding someone. It’s a sacred act.”

“Right, fair enough. How much do we owe you for that?”

Lee started rooting around in Moxie’s bag.

“On the house. You look like travelers, and Gods know we don’t get enough of those,” Claire said. She chuckled as Lee found a strip of jerky. “Lass reminds me of my granddaughter. Always hungry.”

“We are,” Noah said. “And she is. Could we get some food as well? Also, we’re looking for another traveler. Would you know where they might be?”

“Probably the guest houses. They’re at the edge of town closest to the mountain. We don’t have an inn because there aren’t nearly enough people that come through.” Claire cut a piece of chicken off for Noah and handed it to him.

He took it, then cleared his throat and glanced at Moxie. “Two, please. One for her as well.”

“There’s another one of you?” Claire turned, then blinked in apparent surprise. “Oh! So there is. And what a lovely cloak. Sorry, lass. Let’s get some food in you as well. Why don’t the three of you find a table? I’ll whip something more up for you if you’ve got any interesting news. It gets dreadfully boring here.”

She handed Moxie a piece of chicken and the three of them sat down while Claire scurried about behind her counter. Noah was pleasantly surprised to find that the chairs were actually quite comfortable. He took a bite of the chicken she’d made and his eyes lit up. It wasn’t just good. It was fantastic.

Within just a minute or so, she’d procured a large brick of clay from near the edge of the fire and brought it over to their table, plonking it down in the center of the stone. Before any of them could say anything, Claire brought the hilt of her sword down on the top of the clay, cracking it and revealing a beautifully seasoned piece of meat. A tantalizing scent of spice and honey wafted up from the dish and Noah’s stomach rumbled.

Claire then grabbed a chair and sat down beside them, rubbing her hands together. “I changed my mind. Eat first. We can chat after.”

None of them were about to argue with that, so they dug in without reservation.