The cold steel of Sliv’s dagger bit into his palm as his grip tightened around it. His heart pounded like a runaway horse in his chest and his entire body shook with excitement and tension.

A few weeks ago, he’d thought that his life was over. His Runes hadn’t been strong enough to pass any of the final exams for the Linwick Guard. He’d lost in the majority of his fights. There had been nothing left. His future had been engulphed in flame, and all that remained was a short, brutal life of hunting monsters until one of them got the best of him.

And then, in the darkest moment of his life, there had been light. An extended hand and a thin-lipped smile had lifted him, giving one more chance. Another shot to prove himself. A target.

The target that was currently seated just on the other side of the window from him, blissfully unaware of his presence. Sliv’s fingers trembled with exertion from holding onto the side of the building – he’d spent more time than he cared to admit crawling along it and following his target, waiting for the moment to strike.

Just drive the blade into the back of his neck before he even realizes I’m here. He won’t even have time to activate his Shield, and I’ll be gone before anyone knows what happened.

Just one kill.

Sliv’s tongue ran along his lips. Excitement pumped through his veins as he envisioned the future that was just a single stab away from him. A cushy, easy post at the Linwick Estate. He’d never have to really work again.

Sliv caught a hold of himself before he got too distracted. He could celebrate once the target was done. The windows in Arbitage had some basic Imbuements that kept people like him from breaking them too easily, but his dagger was no simple tool.

A tiny flicker of energy passed from Sliv’s palm and into the pommel of the blade. It let out the faintest of hums as it activated. The hungry grin on Sliv’s features stretched as he thrust the dagger for the window.

There was a loud crack – but it wasn’t the window.

He was falling. Sliv’s mind spun, sputtering and failing as he saw the sky opening up above him and the building pull away. His mouth opened, trying to muster noise as he mentally scrambled to figure out what had happened.

A figure dropped from the air above him, their features obscured in the darkness. Sliv never got a chance to make anything about them out. His head hit the ground with a loud crunch, and then there was nothing.

***

Karina dropped to the dirt beside the would-be assassin, the hammer in her hands melting away and turning into a bracelet on her wrist. She glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone had seen her, but they were on the less-populated side of the building and there was nothing but foliage around her.

“Thank god he started with shitty assassins,” Karina muttered, straightening back up and brushing her hands off as she gathered her breath. The man hadn’t even noticed her coming. She had some basic stealth training, but nothing that would let her evade the notice of someone even slightly competent.

I need to get rid of this guy before –

“Whatcha doing?”

Karina spun, guilt played out across her face so clearly that it might as well have been written in blood. Lee stood across from her, leaning against a tree. Karina was certain that she’d seen the short girl in the room just a few seconds ago.

Her mouth worked, trying to come up with an explanation. “I, ah–”

“Another guy trying to kill Vermil?” Lee asked, walking up to the body and stretching her arms above her head. “I smelled him, but he seemed so weak that I didn’t even think it was worth doing anything. I didn’t think he’d try to stab the window. Why didn’t he just open it?”

Karian closed her mouth and swallowed. “He was an assassin. After Vermil. I told him. You heard. Jalen is going to send people after Vermil until he comes back to the Linwick Estate with me.”

“If they’re anything like this, I don’t think we’re going to have much trouble,” Lee said. She nudged the crumpled body on the ground at their feet. “Who’s Jalen?”

“The head of the Linwick Family.”

“Right. Why doesn’t he just come here?”

“I’m being honest when I told you that I can’t answer that. He wants Vermil to come to him, and he’s going to keep sending assassins until he does. I’d be willing to bet the next assassin will be a lot more capable than this one,” Karina said, throwing her hands up. “I just want to get out of here. I don’t want anything to do with this.”

“Does that mean you don’t want his body?”

“What? No. I meant the situation, not this exact spot in particular.” Karina pulled at her hair and groaned. “Though I need to get out of here too. I just killed someone on Arbitage grounds. That’s–”

Karina trailed off. Lee had picked up the assassin’s body and shoved the entire thing into her mouth. Loud cracks echoed from within her as she somehow pushed the whole man down her gullet, devouring him whole – clothes and all.Stolen story; please report.

“What in the Damned Plains?” Karina took a step back, her blood running cold. Lee turned to her and flashed her a wide grin – blood still covering her teeth.

“Vermil isn’t going back to the Linwick Estate. We aren’t scared of a bunch of useless assassins,” Lee said. “If Jalen wants to talk to any of us, then he can come here.”

Karina blinked, and Lee was gone. A trail of ice ran down her spine and she spun, tripping over her own feet and falling to her back. Lee had somehow moved behind her at such a speed that she hadn’t even noticed her arrival.

“We aren’t scared of you either,” Lee said, crouching beside Karina. “Thanks for catching my meal for me, though. And don’t tell anyone about this. It would go poorly.”

Lee disappeared once more. It was nearly a minute before Karina gathered the courage to sit up. Even though the sun was shining and the ground beneath her was warm, her entire body felt like it had been frozen in a block of ice.

By poorly, does she mean that she’d just eat me? I don’t think I’d even manage to get a word out before I was dead with the speed she was moving at. What kind of Runes gives someone that much power?

There was no answer, and Karina wasn’t about to track Lee down to ask her. It didn’t make any real difference to her situation one way or another. Bringing another party into the mix would only make things worse – her only hope was to somehow convince Vermil to meet with Jalen before the assassins ended up coming after her instead of him.

***

Power stormed within Noah’s mindspace. Four Rank 2 True Sand Runes and Three Rank 2 True Wind Runes floated before him, all full and waiting for combination. It had taken a little work to convince his grimoire to release the Runes, but he’d worked out that it was willing to cooperate so long as he provided it with enough Runes to consume at other times. Since he’d completely stuffed it full over the vacation, he had more than enough leeway to work with.

His plan for combining everything into a Rank 3 Sandstorm Rune was pretty much the exact same one he’d had when he’d made the Rank 2 Sandstorm Rune. The ratios already worked, and the intent was identical to what it had been before.

Noah drew in a deep breath and pulled the Runes together. They pressed against each other, the pressure building in his soul as the Runes struggled against his will – but he was relentless.

Power churned through his body and soul, lighting up his mindspace as the Runes merged into a single point. Waves of pressure beat against him, threating to push him back, but his other Runes pressed, aiding his efforts.

Noah squeezed his eyes shut a moment before a flash nearly blinded him. The pressure whooshed past his body, stabilizing itself. He peeked out at the newly formed Rune as it floated over to sit across from Natural Disaster.

Sandstorm

It was ten percent full, and there was no modifying word for it. The Rune was simple – it was focused. Even though it had been exactly as Noah had been planning, he couldn’t keep the grin from crossing his lips. He called on the power of the Rune without waiting, testing out the pressure it put out.

To Noah’s delight, there was no change. The Rank 3 Rune’s power was perfectly steady, even as he drew more and more from within it. Noah released the power and let out a laugh.

Sure, it worked for Moxie, but there was still a small part of me that thought it wouldn’t do the same for me for some reason. Also, this is interesting. I thought one-word names were reserved for Master Runes, but it looks like you can achieve them just by having the right intent and combination. That means that the length of the name really does just indicates the Rune’s focus, and having a shorter name means having a better Rune. What the hell are Master Runes, then? Sandstorm doesn’t feel like one.

The answer to that didn’t come, but Noah was too pleased to ruminate over it for long. He had more work to do.

Whelp. That’s one down, six to go. I should take care of the easiest ones first.

Noah drew Runes from within his grimoire like a starving man devouring a feast. His Water based disaster came next, and it only took him a minute to copy his exact strategy for Sandstorm to create a Tsunami Rune, made up of four Water and three Vibration Runes.

He’d considered going with Monsoon instead, but now that he was remaking his work, having both Monsoon and Cyclone felt like it was a little redundant. It was better to really spread himself out and focus on each individual element as much as possible while maintaining his disaster focus.

After Tsunami came Cyclone. He formed it even faster than the previous ones due to his increased experience with wind, and it turned out exactly how he’d wanted it to. Cyclone was followed up by Earthquake, which was a mixture of four Earth and three Vibration Runes.

One of his goals in the creation of his re-designed Rank 3 Runes was to increase the amount of Vibration present in them. Now that he could actually justify spending effort on music, Vibration would be invaluable. Tsunami and Earthquake were both good spots for it, and the third would be in his remade Lightning Rune. He hadn’t worked out exactly how he’d do it yet, but he was certain it was possible.

Unfortunately, Noah didn’t quite have enough of the Rank 2 Vibration Runes left over to make the Rank 3, but he was confident he’d be able to buy them soon enough.

He finally let his hands lower, looking out over the four new Runes that floated in his mindspace. Sandstorm, Tsunami, Cyclone, and Earthquake. His final three would be fire, ice, and the lightning-vibration combination.

“Not too far from Rank 4,” Noah mused to himself. “After I buy the Runes for the last few and get them made, I can just go hunting for a little while and Rank up shortly afterward.”

His entire soul pulsated with energy. He could feel it expanding to accommodate the pressure of his new Runes. Noah’s fingers twitched involuntarily as his body absorbed some of the excess power.

It felt odd to have made four Rank 3 Runes in the span of minutes – almost as if he hadn’t earned them, even though he’d already put in all the work over the vacation and was now just reaping the rewards.

Noah’s smile faded as a thought struck him.

This is what nobles do, minus the part where I actually earned all the Runes myself. They can just feed people fully filled Runes and force them up to really high Ranks. Time and money basically aren’t constraints to them.

The only thing really holding them back is functional combinations. It doesn’t matter how fast you can reach Rank 5 if you can’t get past it and can’t use your Runes properly. Maybe Isabel and Todd were actually the lucky ones.

Noah took one last look at his Runes. He wasn’t Rank 4 yet, but he couldn’t help but feel proud. It would have been a little awkward if he’d come back to Arbitage no stronger than when he’d left – his Formations notwithstanding, as he couldn’t exactly show those off in public.

As soon as class is over tomorrow, I’m going to look into finding out where we can buy a bunch of Runes for Lee, the kids, and myself. Maybe I’ll register myself as a Rank 3 as well. As funny as it would be to show up and jump straight from Rank 2 to Rank 4, I think that might cause a few issues.

That’s all a problem for tomorrow, though.

For now, I’m going to brag to Lee and Moxie.