Return of the Runebound Professor

The next few minutes were a blur. Aylin’s blood pounded in his ears so hard that he could barely even hear himself think. He vaguely remembered Spider leading him and Violet past the other demons and into Golon’s tent.

He was pretty sure he passed out at some point, because when his brain finally started working properly, he found himself seated beside Violet in a throne so massive that it had room enough for both of them. The tent around them was completely empty.

Granted, calling a large stone chair with bones littered across the ground at its feet a throne was a bit of stretch, but a throne was made by the one sitting upon it, not its material. This had been the spot where Golon had ruled. Where he had made Aylin’s life agony for years, for absolutely no reason beyond that he could.

And now Golon was dead. Aylin sat on his throne, and he would have traded almost anything he had to be literally anywhere else. Violet’s hand found his on the cold stone and she clasped it, her face several shades paler than normal and her eyes locked straight ahead. Her shoulders were stiff and jaw set.

Aylin couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Violet this scared. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this scared. Golon’s death had somehow made things even worse for them.

Despite everything, an amused thought flickered through his mind and his lips moved before he could stop them.

“I bet you wish you stayed back now, don’t you?”

Violet snorted. “And miss this? No way. I’m having the time of my life.”

The intensity that their hands clenched each other told Aylin that Violet most certainly was not having the time of her life. But, even though Violet was just as powerless as he was, her presence somehow made the terror a flicker more bearable.

Both of them flinched as the tent flap opened. Spider stepped inside, followed by another demon. Her face was wrapped in the same way his was and she carried a huge leather box on her back.

As the tent flap fluttered closed behind them, the ground at their feet twisted. Shadows warped and a third demon rose up from within them. She couldn’t have been much taller than Aylin. One of her two red horns was broken off at the base and there was a mischievous grin on her face.

There are three of them. Are they all that strong? I don’t know if there are any gods listening, but if there are, please save me.

“You’ve scared them half to death,” the taller female demon said, a note of irritation in her voice. “Are you trying to give the poor children a heart attack?”

“They’ll be dealing with a lot scarier things than me pretty soon,” Spider replied. “And they’re doing great. Just look at them.”

The tiniest corner of Aylin’s mouth quirked up as he attempted to give them a nervous smile. Spider had assigned him to be the streetlord. If he couldn’t look the part, it wouldn’t just look bad on him.

It would reflect on Spider — and demons as powerful as he were not well known to be the forgiving or understanding types.

“See?” Spider asked. “He’s thrilled.”

“They’re just hungry,” the short demon said. She reached into spider’s bag and pulled out two strips of jerky. She eyed them, then fell through the floor. Aylin nearly leapt into the air and screamed as she shot up from the ground directly before the throne. The demon thrust the jerky toward him and Violet. “Here! Eat up!”

Semi-external magic, but on the border of actual external magic. She’s probably as strong as Spider.

Aylin didn’t dare refuse. He and Violet both followed her orders, and he had to admit that the food was welcome. It probably would have tasted less like ash if he wasn’t so focused on survival.

“Better?” the demon asked.

Aylin and Violet give her a stiff nod.

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“See?”

“You’re both idiots,” the female demon said. “You’re lucky I like you.”

The short demon vanished back into the shadows and reappeared beside Spider as he and the female demon drew up to stand a few paces away from the throne. Spider raised a hand and Aylin stiffened. If it wasn’t for Violet’s hand wrapped around his, he suspected he might have dove for cover.

“Relax,” Spider said. “I didn’t bring you all the way here just to kill you. That would be kind of pointless, don’t you think?”

Aylin and Violet just stared at him. Spider blew out a sigh and tapped his foot on the ground.

“I command you to speak with complete honesty, and I swear that I will not get mad at you for anything you say. Frankly, do you really think you’d be able to offend me? Why would I care about your opinion or get offended by you making a mistake?”

That… was a good point. Spider was so much more powerful than Golon that he couldn’t even comprehend it. To Spider, he and Violet were probably little more than bugs. To Aylin’s surprise, that actually did help.

A god didn’t care what a bug thought of it. There was absolutely nothing he held the power to do that could ever threaten Spider. As long as they didn’t fail to obey his orders, Spider would be expending more effort killing them than not.

“I — I understand,” Aylin said, forcing his numb lips to move. “But we’re going to die anyway.”

“What? Why?”

“We aren’t strong enough to be streetlords,” Violet said as she found her own voice. “The moment you leave, we’ll both be killed. Even if the terror you instilled into the demons here is enough to hold Golon’s men back, it won’t hold back others. They haven’t seen what we have.”

“The other streetlords aren’t that much stronger than Golon, are they?” Spider asked, tilting his head to the side.

“They’re mostly around the same strength, I’d think. If they were stronger, they’d have taken his territory,” Aylin said. “But we aren’t like Golon.”

“That’s a good thing, because I’d have killed you already if you were,” Spider said. “Oh, by the way, I had some demons go retrieve your two friends. They’ll be safe. I just didn’t want to leave them alone. That’s how some idiot finds them and kills them, starting a whole problem I really don’t want to deal with right now.”

“You… aren’t going to kill them?” Aylin asked hesitantly, not entirely sure what Spider was talking about.

“Why would I kill children?” Spider asked. “No. They’ll be fine. I’m more concerned with the two of you.”

“Even if you somehow killed every single streetlord, someone would eventually show up to challenge Aylin when you left,” Violet said. “Being streetlord without power is just a death sentence.”

“Well, logically. I’m well aware of that.”

“So… you do plan to kill us?” Aylin asked. He was somewhat surprised to find that he actually had the boldness to speak the words, but it was too late to take them back.

“No. I already said that would be a waste. After all the effort I went through to get you two here, why would I do that?” Spider held a hand out and the female demon took the huge block of leather off her back.

Aylin’s eyes widened as Spider split the block open, and they widened even further as he saw what was inside of it.

Paper.

It had to be. He’d never seen paper, but it looked exactly like what he’d heard. Crinkly and thin, far lighter than vellum. And it just wasn’t just a single sheet. The box was no box. It was a book, and the book was completely stuffed full.

He couldn’t even begin to comprehend how expensive it was. Enough to feed everyone on the streets for years and then some, most likely. Violet’s hand gripped his own even tighter as she came to the same realization.

Spider wasn’t just a random powerful demon. There was only one explanation as to how he’d just be strolling the Damned Plains with a literal treasure horde. Spider was from the upper echelons.

Does he work for an Archdemon? Is he an Archdemon himself? Why would someone like that ever care about us?

“You know, I just realized I really don’t know anything about how this works,” Spider said, his face wrappings creasing as he straightened back up and looked away from the enormous book. “What kind of demons are you lot? Not hunger, I hope.”

“What… kind?” Aylin asked, blinking. “I’m not sure I understand your question. Do you mean what our Demon Rune is?”

Spider nodded. “Yes, that — and also what emotion do you consume.”

Aylin almost laughed, but it didn’t sound like Spider was joking. “I’m not strong enough to consume emotion yet. Neither is Violet. We wouldn’t be on the streets if we could. Right now, we can only process pure energy from eating food. I’ve got one Demon Rune. So does Violet.”

“Just a single Demon Rune? Nothing else? No name?”

“Yes. We’re only Rank 1,” Violet said, shifting uncomfortably. “That’s why we stand no chance as streetlords. They’re just Demon Runes. Plain ones. We can’t reach Rank 2 unless we get stronger or richer, and we can’t do that because we don’t have anything to build off.”

“Nasty cycle,” Spider said with a small nod. “Well, that’s simple enough. At least you don’t have bad runes.”

“Simple?” Violet asked, a flicker of irritation entering her words. Even in their situation, Aylin couldn’t help but feel the same.

They’d both fought tooth and nail to rip every dreg of life they could from the Damned Plains, and it hadn’t netted them so much as a single rune. Getting stronger wasn’t a luxury they could afford when even making it through the next day came at a steep cost.

“Quite,” Spider said. He ruffled through his bag, then blew out a breath. “Only have one of these left. I really should have bought more. I hope there are some apothecaries in the area.”

Before Violet or Aylin could ask what the demon was talking about, he reached into his bag and pulled out a vial full of glistening blue liquid. His eyes crinkled in a smile as he popped a wax seal off its top and held it out to Aylin.

“Drink.”

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