“How long do you have?” Moxie asked, glancing over Noah’s shoulder at the door as she took his hand again. “Are you going to be able to stay?”
Noah superstitiously followed her gaze before his eyes returned to her face. “I… don’t think I came on a timer. I didn’t damage any runes to get here. All the imbuements protecting the rooms and the like should be completely untouched.”
“Seriously?” Moxie asked, staring at Noah in disbelief. “You passed by all of Aqua Terra’s restrictions without even touching them? That’s uncharacteristically cautious of you.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say cautious.” Noah cleared his throat sheepishly. “It’s more that things just kind of fell into place that way. The magic I’m using doesn’t really trigger any other kinds of magic. At least I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. Slightly experimental stuff. I’m still working on it. But the short of it is that I don’t think I ever crossed a boundary as far as Aqua Terra is aware. I just appeared here.”
“Definitely not Spatial magic,” Moxie said with a shake of her head. “You’d have slammed your face into the wall if you tried that. I saw someone attempt it in the registry area. No clue why. But I still remember the crunch. Aqua Terra has some very powerful anti-magic going on.”
Huh. Good thing Brayden hasn’t tried to teleport indoors anywhere. Good to know. I don’t think they told us about that particular safety feature at any point.
“I’ll tell you all about it when I get the chance,” Noah said. “Once this whole tournament is over. Or once I figure my soul out. Whichever of the two comes first. It’ll probably be the tournament.”
Moxie blew out an amused huff. “Yeah. I probably should have expected that.”
“Probably,” Noah agreed. “But I don’t have to leave. Not yet, at least. I’m pretty sure the badges will work wherever we are. There’s a good chance it’ll send me back to my room, though. So we’ve got until the next fight. It doesn’t look like either of us got called up for the first one, so we have at least some time to talk.”
Moxie smiled. “Yeah. After you get called up, though… you should stay at your room. We don’t want to push our luck. I can’t say how happy I am to see you again. The last thing we need is to somehow piss off the entirety of the Coral Empire by flaunting your ability to surpass their defensive arrays.”
Noah frowned slightly. But Moxie was right. This was already a huge risk. The fact it had worked out so well was a blessing. He probably couldn’t try to ask for much more. Spending the whole tournament in Moxie’s room was just begging for something to go wrong.
“Yeah,” Noah said with a small sigh. “Once I get summoned, I’ll head back. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find everyone else the same way I found you. They won’t have Grim.”
“You’re already doing what you can,” Moxie replied. “And doing a pretty good job of it, I might add. I heard about your shenanigans during the banquet.”
“You did?” Noah asked, blinking. “It worked?”
“It did. I didn’t get a chance to track you down, but I knew you were here,” Moxie said. She grinned. “There’s only one person that crazy. And word will spread to the others as well. We’ll find them all. We just have to get far enough in the tournament. But I have to ask… why did it take so long to track me down? Were you not using your new magic before?”
Noah tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Well, the tournament has been going for over a day, and I’ve been in Aqua Terra for longer,” Moxie said. “How did you suddenly happen to pick up on Grim calling to you?”
That was… a good question. Noah’s brow creased. He’d been using the Beyond a decent bit since he’d arrived at Aqua Terra. But despite that, before today, he hadn’t heard Grim once. He’d only picked up on the grimoire’s call after he’d directly sent the Beyond into Aqua Terra’s invisible anti-domain miasma. And that had only happened because he’d seen a random white crack in the air.
Did… the Beyond do that? On its own? Did it hear Grim? Or did it somehow understand my desires?
Noah wasn’t sure if any of those possibilities being correct would be a good thing. He much preferred the Beyond as a tool. The smarter it potentially was, the more concerning having it riddling his soul became. It was unfortunate that there wasn’t much that could be done about it now. They were stuck together.
I sure hope this isn’t what the Lead Researcher went through before everything went belly up.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Just the right place at the right time, I guess,” Noah said. “Things just happened to work out.”
Moxie’s eyes narrowed. It was pretty easy to tell that she wasn’t buying his excuse. Noah would have been more than happy to tell her most of the situation if the risk wasn’t so high. Even if he’d managed to slip into her room unnoticed, there was no promise that Aqua Terra didn’t have some way to spy on them.
He didn’t need anyone figuring out that he had access to the Beyond.
“Right,” Moxie drawled. She let out a small huff that turned to a laugh. “Fair enough. Well, you might as well sit down so we can watch the tournament until we’re out of time. I’m not wasting what little we do have. Even if we have to watch ourselves.”
They turned.
And, standing between them and the table, was a man clad entirely in tattered robes. The ridiculously huge sword strapped to his back was completely wrapped in bandages, leaving not so much as a single speck of the weapon’s true surface visible.
Noah’s heart dropped through his chest.
He and Moxie leapt back as one. Power from Noah’s runes flooded through him, rising to the ready at his fingertips before his feet had even hit the ground.
This crazy bastard again. The one calling himself the Executioner. What is he doing here?
“Shit,” Moxie snarled. “Who are—”
The Executioner vanished.
And then he was directly before them. The rags covering his body barely even seemed to recognize the fact that he’d moved. Noah certainly hadn’t felt any sign of magic on his domain — but that was probably because his domain wasn’t exactly working.
“Be careful,” Noah warned. “He’s strong. I’ve fought him before. He’s got some weird ass magic. I don’t know what it is.”
“You can’t be serious,” Moxie said. “Is this because—”
“Damn if I know,” Noah replied, but the sinking feeling in his chest told him that it absolutely was. The Executioner had somehow managed to track him down. The man worked for the Prophet. He didn’t know how, and there was no time to wonder about it. No matter how strong he was… Noah couldn’t let him report back to Vivian.
Oh well. What’s a little bit more murder after everything we’ve done? I’ve figured out how to kill unkillable beings before. This guy can’t be too different.
The Executioner’s gaze bore into Noah from beneath his tattered robes. He didn’t utter so much as a word for a long second. He simply stared.
Then his head tilted to the side.
“You are not Og.”
“What?” Moxie’s brow furrowed.
Noah felt equally as confused. Og didn’t have anything to do with this at all. He certainly hadn’t been anywhere nearby. It didn’t even seem like the Executioner recognized him.
Is that insulting? I’m insulted.
The Executioner looked to Moxie.
“You are not Og. Where is the demon?”
“No,” Moxie said slowly. She glanced to Noah for a moment. Noah could practically see the idea spark within her eyes. Then she looked back to the Executioner. “I am not. Are you with Aqua Terra?”
“I serve the Prophet. Where is the demon?” the Executioner asked.
“You missed him,” Moxie said flatly. “You’re late.”
“He popped up out of nowhere,” Noah lied, catching onto Moixe’s angle. “Tried to attack me when my guard was down. But he missed. Couldn’t finish the job and ran like a coward. Went right back through the portal he used to get here. He must have been hoping for revenge from the banquet.”
The Executioner was silent for a second longer.
Then he vanished.
Noah and Moxie glanced at each other.
They didn’t say a word for several long seconds.
“What… the fuck?” Moxie asked.
Noah just shook his head. “I don’t have the faintest idea. I… wait.”
A thought struck him. It was a terrible, hilarious thought. But it was the only one that could possibly make sense.
Has… Aqua Terra been able to track my usage of the Beyond this entire time? And they’ve somehow decided that Og is the one that was using it rather than me?
That would certainly explain why the Executioner was here.
But it didn’t spell good news. It meant they’d been hunting for someone using the Beyond long before Noah had used it to come visit Moxie.
Fuck. And I can’t say any of this. We can’t sense the Executioner at all. He could still be here somewhere.
Noah swallowed.
“What?” Moxie asked.
“Nothing,” Noah replied, sending Moxie a pointed look.
She nodded immediately. He didn’t have to say anything else.
“Right. Nothing,” Moxie agreed. She shook her head and looked out the window toward the arenas below. The announcer was prattling on about something again. The first round must have somehow already ended. Noah had missed the entire explanation of what exactly would be happening within it.
“I suppose I should be used to this, huh?” Moxie asked, turning back to Noah with a wry smile. “I almost forgot.”
“Probably,” Noah agreed with a laugh. “Sorry.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Moxie said. “I’ve just accepted that it’s part of the package at this point. I—”
A shimmer of green lit the room.
Noah looked down, his heart sinking.
No.
His badge was shining.
“Damn it,” Moxie said. “Seriously?”
“Fuck,” Noah said, pinching the bridge of his nose through his mask. “So blasted fast. How unlucky could I possibly—”
“Shut up,” Moxie said, grabbing Noah by the waist and pulling him close. She pulled his mask back with her free hand. Then, before he could say anything else, she pressed her lips to his.
Noah’s eyes went wide. Then he leaned back into it, pulling Moxie as tight to his chest as they could.
It was only a second later when she pulled away. Far too soon.
“Go,” Moxie said. “We’re out of time.”
“I know. But I wish—”
“It doesn’t matter. Just win. You’re not allowed to do anything else,” Moxie said. She took a step back. Then she grinned and reached up, pulling his mask back down over his face. “I love you, Noah.”
“I love you too, Moxie,” Noah said.
Then he pressed his thumb into the shining black badge.