The next morning, Noah and Moxie awoke to Lee sitting on top of them. Noah blinked the sleep out of his eyes, unentangling his limbs from Moxie as he squinted.

“Lee? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. You were warm,” Lee replied, sliding off. She raised her eyes to the window. “And it got really cold outside. Cold and white.”

Noah followed Lee’s gaze and his mouth dropped open. He scrambled out of bed, nearly tripping over his own feet as he ran over to get a better look. A plump layer of fluffy white snow blanketed everything in sight.

Lights poked out from beneath it, their glow muted in the early morning by the small flakes raining down everywhere. Moxie got out of bed and walked up to stand behind Noah.

“What is it?” Moxie asked.

“Snow!” Noah exclaimed, his words muffled and nose pressed into the cold glass. If it hadn’t been for Combustion heating his body, he probably would have started shivering. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen snow in person before.”

Moxie sent him a bemused glance. “Really?”

“I’ve seen pictures of it, but never this much. It looks so comfortable.”

“It doesn’t taste very good,” Lee supplied. “I tried eating some. It’s just water. And other things.”

Noah scrunched his nose, then laughed. He started pulling on his clothes, still not taking his eyes off the window. “I don’t need to know what the other things are. I’m not trying to spoil it for myself.”

“Whatever it is, it’s cold,” Lee said. She scrunched her nose. “And I am still hungry.”

“Well, we can go get some food, then. I’m feeling like something across campus. Something kind of far.”

Noah was pretty sure Moxie knew his only real goal was to walk through the snow, but she didn’t say anything. She just sent him an amused grin and pulled her cloak on, fastening it around her shoulders.

To Noah’s surprise, it was Lee that hesitated.

“Actually, there was something else I was hoping we could do first,” Lee said. She edged toward Noah’s bag, peering inside it. “Could… you help me fix my Runes today?”

Noah blinked. He’d been wondering when Lee would get around to it, but he’d started to think that she was going to hold off for much longer. “You’re ready to do it?”

“Yeah,” Lee said. “I don’t want to wait anymore, and I’ve already figured out all the changes I want to make. I think I know what I need as well. Also, there’s that Master Rune… If I can still have that, I’d like to start getting used to it.”

“Of course you can.” Noah picked his bag up and ruffled through it, pulling out the folder bearing the Catchpaper with Lee’s Runes on it. He had to admit that he was mildly surprised his grimoire hadn’t found a way to eat it yet, but small blessings were still blessings.

All the Runes were still where he’d left them. The Broken Enveloping Dark Master Rune, 2 Moonlit Shadow Runes, and 3 Light Runes. All of them were at Rank 4, aside from the Master Rune which was unranked.

Noah doubted the Light Runes would be of much use to Lee, but the rest of them had function. He held the paper out so Lee could inspect it.

“What are you thinking?”

“My Demon Runes are already good, but I’ll need to rebalance them a little bit. I want to modify the Umbral Body Runes I got from that cat monster. My Shift Runes need a little modification as well, but I think it should be pretty minimal. I think one Moonlit Shadow should be enough to fix everything.”

“Okay,” Noah said with a nod. “This shouldn’t be too much of a problem, then. To avoid putting extra stress on your body, I’ll take the Moonlit Shadow Rune in myself and chop it up inside my own soul. Then I can just feed you the Runes one by one and we won’t have to rush.”

“That works,” Lee said. “Do we still have a Mind Meld potion?”

“We do. I’ve been saving it,” Moxie said. She headed over to her desk and pulled a drawer open, revealing the small blue potion. Walking back over to them, she handed the potion to Lee.

“Is now a good time? Or should we do it later?” Lee asked.

Noah shrugged. “I’m already awake. The snow got me up fast, so I’m ready whenever you are. As long as you feel ready, we can go now. It’s not like I’m going to be doing much work. I’ll just be splitting some Runes apart for you. You’re the one that’s going to have to do everything else.”

Noah studied the paper, memorizing the Rank 4 Rune on it. After he was confident that everything had been firmly committed to memory, he closed his eyes and sank into his own soul, letting power gather at a fingertip.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Just a minute later, he’d succeeded. Drawing Runes into his soul had become a relatively simple task, so he’d managed to get it on the second try. Noah could feel his soul shifting at the new Rank 4 within it, but it didn’t have nearly as much power as Natural Disaster did, and the change was trivial in comparison to what he’d gained from going from Rank 3 to Rank 4.

The Rune didn’t get to enjoy its new home for long. No more than a few seconds after Noah ensured it had formed properly, he unleashed the power of Sunder upon it. With a loud crack, the Rune shattered and its components spewed out amid a wave of energy.

Glowing Moonlight – Rank 3

Glowing Moonlight – Rank 3

Glowing Moonlight – Rank 3

Shrouded Everlasting Night – Rank 3

Shrouded Everlasting Night – Rank 3

Shrouded Everlasting Night – Rank 3

Shrouded Everlasting Night – Rank 3

All the Runes were… average. Not great, not terrible. Either way, they were enough to work with. Noah drank in the excess energy, converting it into Natural Disaster. Unfortunately, the conversion between energy types was brutal.

Of all the power that had come from the Rune, Noah barely filled Natural Disaster by five percent.

Huh. Does it get harder to convert energy the more powerful a Rune gets? I suppose that makes sense, but it’s going to be a huge pain in the ass. I guess I can’ t just completely brute force my way through the ranks.

It was still five percent that he hadn’t had before, though. Noah returned his attention to the real world and looked to Lee.

“I’m ready, Lee. Whenever you are, go ahead and drink the potion.”

Lee’s brow set and she nodded. Digging a finger into the seal of the potion, Lee popped it off. She crossed her legs and sat down, leaning against the bed. After one last look at Noah, she tipped it back and poured half the liquid into her mouth.

Noah took the potion from Lee and pulled out the second seal, pouring the rest of it into his own mouth. He sat down beside her as a familiar buzzing sensation enveloped him, setting the piece of Catchpaper down between them. They both put their hands on it. No more than a few seconds later, the world turned black.

Lee’s soul was exactly how Noah remembered it. A dark, shadowy expanse reminiscent of his own, but with strands of darkness stretching out in every direction and clinging to her Runes like a ball of messy yarn.

As soon as he arrived, Noah did a quick check for Azel. It had been a while since the demon had shown himself, but that only made Noah more suspicious. But, to Noah’s surprise, the only people in Lee’s soul were the two of them.

“What’s wrong?” Lee asked.

“I was checking for Azel. I half expected him to be here.”

“Oh. He won’t be,” Lee said with complete confidence. “He wants me to do this.”

“He wants – wait. Have you been speaking with him?”

“Yeah,” Lee said. “He’s been bugging me a lot recently, but he hasn’t done anything bad. He just wants me to get stronger. I’m sure he’s got a motive, but I don’t know what it is and I don’t think it’s an issue yet.”

Lovely. That explains where the firey asshole has been these last few weeks. It doesn’t seem like Lee is too bothered by him. Maybe he’s started to mellow out a bit.

“Well, let me know if he ever starts bothering you too much,” Noah said. “We’ll find a way to make him stop.”

“Okay. For now, I just want to fix my Runes.”

Her sudden determination to improve made Noah hesitate for a moment. If Azel had been speaking with her a lot, there was a pretty good chance he’d influenced Lee into pushing forward. But, on the other hand, improvement was important.

If he’d just motivated Lee, Azel had technically done her a favor. But, somehow, Noah suspected that there was more to it than that. He studied her for a few seconds, then inclined his head. When it came down to it, he trusted Lee.

“What Rune do we start with?” Lee asked. “The Master Rune?”

“Nah. We’ll leave that alone for now.” Noah shook his head. “I’ve got the pieces of the Moonlit Shadow Rune waiting for you in my soul, so we’ll start by fixing up your normal Runes.”

“Okay.”

Noah told Lee all the Runes that had come from Moonlit Shadow, then waited for a minute as she thought about them.

“I’ll start with my Demon Runes actually,” Lee said. She held a hand out and one of her Demon Runes pulled closer to them, the strands of darkness stretching as they tried to keep it bound in place. It smoldered with faint purplish-red intensity, still completely unreadable to Noah. “I’ve got some Space Runes left that I can use to patch it, but I’ll need you to Sunder this so I can use them.”

“Remember I can only use Renewal’s power once,” Noah warned. “So don’t push yourself too hard. I don’t want you collapsing on me. We can always come back and fix everything up later if we need to.”

Lee nodded, but Noah could tell by the look in her eyes that she had absolutely no plans of holding back. He didn’t blame her. If he’d been in her shoes, he would have done the same. Even though it was only a minor delay, Noah understood impatience more than anyone else.

He flexed his fingers and called on Sunder. His veins turned jet black as power pumped through his body, rearing to be used. He didn’t relish the pain he was about to cause Lee, but it was the way things were – and he wouldn’t hold her back. If there was ever a way that he could find to Sunder Lee’s Runes without hurting her, he’d figure out how to do it in a heartbeat. But, at the moment, there wasn’t.

“Just let me know when you’re ready to begin.”

“Yeah,” Lee said. She swallowed, then set her jaw. “Let’s make an order on what we work on to save time. I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to speak after we get started. After we do all three Smoldering Warps, let’s do the Umbral Body Runes and finish with the Shift Runes. I’ll just point to the Runes I need you to Sunder. Does that work?”

“It does.”

Lee pulled her first Demon Rune closer to Noah. He gave it one last look, then extended a hand and laid his palm against its crackling surface. Energy poured out of his hand and into the Rune.

A line of black energy streaked across the air, splitting the Rune straight in half with a loud, shattering crash. Energy poured out and Lee gritted her teeth, staggering forward and pulling a Space Rune from the reaches of her mind closer.

She got to work, racing against the clock before the pain or exhaustion took over. Noah had never realized quite how infuriating it was to sit back and hope that his friends would succeed, but there was nothing else he could do.

Nothing but watch. Nothing but wait until the next time she needed Sunder’s power.