Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 561: Wizen

Noah fought to keep the strain from showing on his face. The golden light glistening at his feet reflected of his feet and faded into the infinite void that stretched out all around them. The world was silent and still.

His energy was depleting, the power within Empty Proliferation rapidly approaching its limits. He couldn’t keep himself and Wizen in the space between their minds for much longer. There were minutes at most left before he lost control and they returned to the afterlife. That couldn’t happen. Not yet. The only way Noah could stand against Wizen was with Empty Proliferation keeping the other mage at bay.

The disbelief that had warped Wizen’s features slowly shifted to realization. His expression changed as he looked upon Noah in a new light, connections forming within his mind. More pieces of his body peeled away, revealing pulsating gray energy beneath his skin. Wizen barely even seemed to notice.

“You have walked the Line,” Wizen breathed. “You survived the line. I knew it was possible. Who helped you?”

“Nobody,” Noah replied.

Not intentionally, at least.

“Impossible. You are not powerful enough to—” Wizen’s words ground to a halt and his jaw clenched. He let out a hiss and his hands tightened at his sides. “No matter. I do not care. Hear me now. I have absolutely no care for you or the mortal plane. I only have a single desire in this life, and I will stop at nothing to achieve it. I cannot spare the magic to fight you. Release this prison, and I will give you the key.”

Noah opened his mouth to reply, but the words died at his lips.

What?

“I will have no need for it after this,” Wizen replied. “Quickly, now. Our time is thinner than hair. Once I have completed my task, the key will be yours. There will be sufficient strength left within it to open a path back to the Mortal Plane within it. I promise this.”

“…why?” Noah asked, so stunned that his mask fell for a moment. “I really wasn’t expecting you to actually say yes. You aren’t actually planning to just waltz back to Arbitage and pretend you didn’t do anything wrong, are you? You’re a fucking monster. You mind-controlled people. You killed people.”

“I have done a great many things, and I would do a great many worse ones, all to arrive in this point in space. This point in time,” Wizen replied, grabbing the key attached to his palm by gray threads. He ripped it free. Magic crackled around him and Wizen staggered, letting out a snarl. “My real body mirrors my actions here. I will not give you the Key until my work is done, but you will have it. But I will not allow a single spare second to slip by. Either we both get what we want, or the Goddess of Reincarnation ensures neither of us do.”

Noah hesitated for a second longer, but Endless Proliferation was so low on energy that he really didn’t have much choice. His actual plan — as barely formed as it was — had mostly been hoping that Renewal would show up and kill Wizen before she killed him, giving him a chance to grab the key and hopefully slip out while she was scolding his soul for being naughty — or doing whatever it was that a Goddess of Reincarnation did.

This option seemed like it had a slightly higher chance to actually succeed. The idea of working with Wizen had never occurred to Noah, and he wasn’t so sure he liked the sound of it, but if it landed him the key, he got what he needed. At the end of the day, if he could save Moxie and Lee, nothing else mattered. Nobody else mattered.

It’s the right move. But…

Something in Noah’s stomach twisted.

Empty Proliferation gave out.

His magic winked out. The melded Mindscape collapsed.

With a roar, the true afterlife reformed all around Noah and Wizen. Twisting paths of gold carved through infinity on their path toward the Waters of Life. Countless souls populated their surface, locked in the endless trudge through the great beyond.

Wizen spun toward the line below them.

“Wait!” Noah barked, his words carving through the void like a hot knife. He shot forward grabbed Wizen by the shoulder, spinning the mage around. “I know the line better than you, Wizen. Better than anyone. Even Sievan. I can accomplish far more than you. If you want to succeed, you’ll need my help. Why are you here?” Noah asked. “The real reason, not some lie or whatever you might have told other people. Is it really—”

“I have never lied about my purpose. There was no need to. My daughter is in that line,” Wizen said, his hands clenching at his sides. He batted Noah’s hand off his shoulder. “She was stolen from me. Stolen from life. There is nothing in this world that will keep me from righting that wrong. I will rip the world asunder a thousand times over to bring her back. Now step back. I will abide by our deal, and you will not interfere any longer. I have not the magic to waste on you.”

Wizen lifted a hand into the air. Large chunks of his fingers had peeled back and holes grew across the surface his palm. He clenched his fingers and red energy peeled away from his body, crackling into a vibrating disk.

The disk shifted. Its surface grew smooth and glossy like a still lake. It folded in on itself until it was the size of a marble, and a dim thread lit in the dark void. It stretched off through infinity, running parallel to the line.

“She waits,” Wizen breathed, his gaze lifting to follow the red line into the distance. “Still, she walks the afterlife. I was certain of it. I am coming, Bella.”

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Noah’s stomach clenched again. Going along with Wizen was the easiest way to get away with this. Even if Renewal showed up, Wizen would draw her attention and he’d have a chance to nab the Key and make a run for it.

It should have been easy. All he had to do was stand to the side and let it happen. Wizen seemed like he had a plan. He clearly had a way to find his daughter. Noah just had to do nothing.

His hands tightened at his sides.

Fuck. I can’t. Out of everything I could stand back and watch… this might be the one thing I can’t allow.

“You can’t do this,” Noah said.

“Idiot,” Wizen growled. His free hand turned toward Noah, but he hesitated. Wizen obviously needed every single scrap of power he had to pull this off. He couldn’t afford to waste any, an advantage Noah fully planned to abuse. Wizen’s teeth clenched. “You still seek to stand in—”

“Shut up,” Noah said. “Time is of the essence. You were right about that. Do you know what you seek?”

“The same thing I always have. The return of my daughter—”

“The torture of your daughter. Do you know what the line did to me? Millenia upon millennia of agony seared into my brain. Thousands of years of hell. Everything since has been nothing but a blip in my mind. A flicker of existence in a sea of emptiness.”

“She has not been dead that long,” Wizen said, but there was an instant of hesitation before his response. “Four hundred and seven years.”

“Ah, yes,” Noah spat. “Four hundred and seven years. Even if time flows at the same rate here as it does in our world, I am certain that four hundred and seven years of desolation will leave her mind unscarred. She will thank you for forcing her to endure another life, her memories of what comes beyond haunting her every living moment.”

“I — no. This cannot — she will recover. Humans are resilient,” Wizen said. Panic lit behind his eyes. “She will be fine.”

“You take her chances of reincarnation and replace them with a wretched, warped existence,” Noah said. “And what of Renewal? Do you think the Goddess of Reincarnation will look kindly upon what you do? Your desire to bring her back will do nothing but grant her a few short years of suffering before she returns to where she was, all too painfully aware of what she will have to endure again.”

Wizen flinched back with every word. Power stormed around him and twisted into the empty void, seeking release. Noah’s gaze was unflinching as it bored into Wizen’s eyes.

I can’t let another person like me exist. I died hundreds of times before I reconnected with my mortality, and I was only able to because of my students. Because of Isabel. Because of Todd. Because of Moxie and Lee. They tied me back to this world, but still the Line lurks. I’ll never be rid of it. Not as long as I live.

I will not let that fate happen to someone else.

“Look down,” Noah said. “Look at the line, Wizen. It is silent. There is nothing. Nobody. You can’t speak to the other souls. It is utter loneliness in the crowd. All you can do is walk. It rips your being to pieces, so that when the time finally arrives for rebirth, you accept it with open arms. You would steal that from you daughter.”

Wizen looked down, and Noah followed his gaze. He’d been avoiding looking directly at the line for as long as possible, but the movement was almost instinctive.

Both of them froze.

Standing near the end of the line was a familiar soul. Though she was translucent and her form muted by the other souls surrounding her, there was no mistaking the small figure.

It was Sticky.

“Why is she here?” Wizen whispered. He spun toward Noah, his voice turning to a roar that was swallowed by the void all the same. “Why is she here?”

“She died,” Noah said. “She wasted the power Sievan used to keep her alive so she could open that door to Sievan’s room for you.”

Wizen’s arm trembled. His eyes flicked from the strand of red energy running from the marble in his hand down to Sticky.

“She wasn’t meant to,” Wizen said. Pain knitted through his words and his jaw clenched. “She was going to find a way.”

“We did.” Noah’s fists tightened at his sides. “I believe I have a way to fix the demons, but she didn’t live long enough for me to use it.”

A distant shimmer of pearlescent light grabbed Noah’s attention. It was so far that he could barely make it out, but a pink glow was washing across the horizon.

Wizen’s head jerked up toward it.

“She comes,” Wizen said. “The Goddess of Reincarnation has sensed our intrusion.”

“If anything, I’m surprised it took this long,” Noah said. “Give this up, Wizen. Don’t do this to your daughter. Give me the key.”

“Tell me something,” Wizen said, his voice going distant. “You processed the line? As you walk through it? You could not interact, but you knew what was present?”

“Yes,” Noah replied. “Every last second.”

Wizen looked back down at the figures below them, locked in their endless march. Something in his expression shifted.

The pink light in the distance grew brighter. Noah couldn’t tell how fast it was approaching. It was impossible to gauge distance in the void. The light simply was.

“I see,” Wizen said simply. “You will wait here.”

Noah blinked. “What? Do you not see the light? Our time is—”

“Not yet up. You will wait. My task is not complete.”

Wizen flung the Key toward Noah.

Noah lunged, grabbing it from the air before it could sail past him and into the void. He spun back toward Wizen in shock, but the other mage wasn’t watching him anymore.

Wizen was looking down at the line. He extended both of his palms toward it, his fingers digging into the air like claws. Gray strands peeled away from his entire body and flooded the air around him like he were the herald of an eldritch god.

Glistening blue energy burst free from within his body as it split apart. It burned like a flame in the night, growing so bright that Noah was forced to squint.

“This is my final binding.” Wizen’s words were quiet, but the immense power they held threatened to shatter the darkness around him. He clapped his hands together, then ripped them apart.

A sea of grey exploded outward, tearing free from his body and driving into the line. Wizen’s own body unraveled in the process, pieces of him vanishing and transforming into the gray strands. His legs and torso crumbled away.

“I am coming, Bella. You will not be alone for much longer — but there is one more thing I must do first.” Wizen’s lips pulled back in a smirk. He clapped his hands together one final time, and then they too vanished into the sea of gray. The energy crawled up his neck and cracks reached across his face. Wizen looked down onto the huge bridge that his magic had formed between himself and the line. For an instant, a faint smile crossed over his expression. “Bear me witness. Twice now, your father steals from the gods.”

The pink light on the horizon grew brighter still, casting the afterlife in a faint hue, but Wizen didn’t so much as glance in its direction. He simply looked down at the line. Any expression his face might have retained was blocked from Noah’s sight, visible to only the souls below him.

“Weave.”