Return of the Runebound Professor
Chapter 705: Tasty

Noah was relieved when, several hours later, he felt a wave of shimmering energy wash over him like an electric blanket. The Transport Cannon was still standing. And, if it could reach him, then Arbitage wasn’t a giant pile of screaming stones.

That meant the world hadn’t functionally ended. Noah had no idea as to what the extent of the damage was yet, but Garina hadn’t returned after the fight. That probably didn’t bode well. Even though there was a very good chance that she’d just decided not to pop back because she had other things to do, Noah still had no way to know what was going on while their whole group was functionally stranded in the Scorched Acres.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait any longer.

The world broke apart around Noah as he found his body dematerialized and yanked into the sky to hurtle through the clouds like a burning comet back in the direction of Arbitage, the others not far behind him.

His feet slammed down on the floor of the Transport Cannon just a short while later.

An odd feeling greeted him even as his body materialized. It was a prickling sensation, like warm needles pressing into his body from every direction. The feeling wasn’t exactly uncomfortable as it was odd — but it sent him on guard instantly.

He drew on his runes before the light had even faded from his eyes. Noah had no idea what he would find waiting for him. No idea if someone had tried to take advantage of the chaos to attack Tim, or if the Inquisitors had somehow decided that this was his fault.

Fuyin had known where he was, after all. She’d been called back before him. Even though Noah didn’t take her for the type to be dumb enough to attribute this whole thing to him for no reason, he wasn’t going to be betting anyone’s lives on it.

But there was nobody waiting in ambush when Noah’s domain swept over the room and his vision returned to him. Tim stood by the control panel of the Transport Cannon, lines of stress creasing his already wrinkled face.

The only other people in the room were Edda and Torrick, who both sat off to the side of the room with worry on their young features.

A relieved sigh slipped from Noah’s lips. The sensation covering his body didn’t show any signs of fading, but it slipped into the back of his mind as he pulled his attention away from it.

“Thank god. It didn’t hit Arbitage.”

“If by it you mean the massive tentacle, then you would be mistaken,” Tim said. The old man sounded exhausted. “I am relieved to see that you are all okay, but uneasy to find that it seems we were both attacked by the same creature. I was beginning to fear the worst, but I didn’t want to re-activate the cannon. I do not know if Arbitage is any safer than anywhere else right now. I take it the same happened to you?”

“Not just us. That was the Night’s Shadow, and it likely struck more places across the Empire.” Moxie strode out from the arrival area, adjusting her clothes and glancing around the room in the same scan that Noah had just done moments before. “Are there significant losses? Are you injured in any way? How bad was the attack?”

“That depends,” Tim said. He wiped his brow with the back of a hand and blew out a long sigh. Relief washed over his features as he watched all the others piling into the room after Noah and Moxie. “If that question is weighted by how bad things could have been, then it wasn’t bad at all. Arbitage as a whole appears largely undamaged. I haven’t left the tower. But I heard the fight — and I saw some of the outcome.”

Tim gestured out the window. Noah moved to get a better look out of it, and his features went as pale as a sheet.

“Shit,” Noah breathed.

The Transport Cannon wasn’t the tallest building in Arbitage, but it was certainly a tall one. It gave them a pretty good look over a large portion of the centermost portions of the massive city.

An entire corner of it was stone.

The center of Arbitage, where the school itself was located, didn’t seem to be harmed. But a few miles away, the city was a graveyard of singing rock. Towers of it loomed in the sky and cut through the clouds, holes riddling their length.

Noah couldn’t even see where it ended. Hundreds of buildings, who knew how many people — all had been swallowed by the Night’s Shadow’s presence. A pit tightened in his stomach and grew so dense that it seemed like it would transform into a black hole.

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How many people did Father kill?

Noah felt sick. He had no delusions about who he was as a person. Noah was no saint. By many standards, he wasn’t even halfway good. But senseless slaughter like this… it served absolutely no purpose. Father couldn’t have gotten any benefit from waking the Night’s Shadow. He’d just done it for the sake of trying his new weapon out.

The scale of the damage to Arbitage was difficult to comprehend. So many homes had been destroyed. So many families would never reunite. And they hadn’t even been killed. The Night’s Shadow didn’t have such a mercy within it.

Everything still remained, warped into a wretched, agonized knot of what once had been. The pain of being within the Night’s Shadow’s presence for even a few mere moments still seared Noah’s soul like razor-hot barbed wire.

“Was this… something to do with you?” Tim asked quietly.

“No,” Noah replied. “For once, no. Why do you think it would have to do with me?”

Tim coughed into his fist and shook his head. “My apologies. It felt like a safe guess. Most other catastrophic events that I have borne witness to seem to originate from you, so I suspected this one would be the same.”

“Are you really telling me that not one thing went wrong before I showed up?”

“Yes,” Tim said.

Noah grimaced.

Well, shit.

“But it was a dreadfully boring life,” Tim added, somewhat unhelpfully. “Not that I think catastrophes are interesting. They’re bad. Very bad. But, well, you know. I’m not trying to say you’re a catastrophe. It’s just that they seem to follow you around. A lot.”

Noah pinched his nose between two fingers. “I know, Tim. I’m sorry. This one wasn’t me, though.”

…at least, I don’t think it was. There’s no way Father would have woken that monster up and sent it destroying the kingdom specifically just so it would also catch me in the crossfire. I don’t think he actually gave that much of a shit about me.

“Shit,” Emily breathed as she came up alongside Noah and Moxie. She tugged nervously at her hair. “Arbitage is going to see this as an act of war, aren’t they?”

“Most likely,” Moxie said grimly. “I don’t think we’ll be worrying about any exams in the near future. I wouldn’t imagine much teaching will happen from the other teachers either. Everyone’s going to be going into damage control mode. A Bastion hasn’t taken damage this bad since the Long Night.”

“What does that mean?” Alexandra asked. “Not that I don’t feel for everyone who was affected by this… but how does it change anything for us? The noble houses are probably all going to panic and point even more fingers at each other… especially after all the stuff we did to make them think there were traitors in the empire. But isn’t that what we wanted? It’s a thousand times worse than the plan was, but now they won’t be after Isabel.”

“I think it’s worse than that,” Yulin said nervously. “With a monster like that revealing itself, no holds are going to remain. Everyone will be out for themselves.”

“Forget noble houses fighting each other. They’ll be fighting themselves — and everyone else as well,” Todd muttered, thoughts flashing through his eyes like shooting stars. “We’re probably standing on the brink of collapse. The entire Empire is a tinderbox primed for flame. If that flame hasn’t started, then it’s going to the moment the first person snaps. This is way beyond what we wanted.”

“I think I’m with Todd,” James said as he exchanged a glance with Eline. “Revin talked about strategies like this before.”

“He calls this a strategy?” Aylin asked, aghast. “What kind of strategy is this? It’s just going to be a bunch of people turning against each other in fear and fighting to carve any scrap of power they can for themselves.”

“If a hierarchy exists on fear and you completely rip that fear apart, then everything comes tumbling down,” James said. “The noble houses operate by being so powerful that all things go through them. Progress on new runes, safe areas and protection from monsters, the Bastions — they control it all. And they control it because they respect each other. The Noble houses avoid fights because that’s what keeps them all in power. If any two fight, then a third would descend and clean up the scraps. That’s why the Linwicks and the Torrins stopped fighting. But now…”

“If people think that it doesn’t matter, then there’s no reason to worry about the resulting consequences of their actions,” Eline said with a grim nod. “The noble houses could dissolve. They don’t provide the safety they promised. And if they dissolve, there are only individuals or small, scattered groups. Groups that can no longer hold each other in check.”

“I don’t like this,” Yoru muttered. “It makes me feel deeply uneasy. There is too much unknown. Too many variables that I cannot see. Even a few would be too much. This is overwhelming.”

Noah couldn’t help but agree. It seemed that Revin might have seen some of this coming. There was even a chance that Revin was somehow involved. Noah wouldn’t have put that past him. He wouldn’t have put anything past the madman.

But blaming things on Revin would change nothing. What had happened had happened. And, for the time being, Noah’s responsibility was making sure everyone he cared about made it through the building storm alive.

His eyes were drawn back to the window, where the distant stone pillars moaned as wind dragged its slender fingers through the holes riddling them.

The warm, prickling sensation swirling into his body only grew stronger with every passing second as if it were carried by the howling gales outside. Deep within Noah, even though his runes were still inaccessible to him, he felt Unstable Pandemonium shudder. An odd flavor tingled against his tongue.

Chaos was in the air, and he could taste it.