Return of the Runebound Professor

Isabel, the rest of Noah’s students, and all of the professors in the clearing sat in a circle with seven demons — eight, if she counted Lee. She was in the process of doing a remarkable job at keeping her eye from twitching as the everyone listed off their names and an interesting fact about themselves.

“My name is Sticky,” the small demon clutching the key in both of her hands like it was a sword said, peering out from beneath her hair shyly. “I died once, but I got better.”

You can’t be serious. Another Noah?

“You have to give us more than that. Give me details!” Jalen exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. He seemed to be the only one in the circle who was actually enjoying the exercise. Aside from him, all the other professors had been pretty caught up over the fact that they were sitting in a group of apparently friendly demons. Noah’s reassurances that nobody was going to be killing anyone managed to placate them, but there was definitely more than a little unease.

Isabel and the rest of the humans had started the ‘sharing circle’ — as Noah referred to it — though Jalen had taken nearly half of their time talking about how bored he’d been for the past few weeks.

“I’m a new kind of demon,” Sticky said.

“You’re a what now?” Silvertide asked, leaning forward. “A new kind? What does that mean?”

“Next person!” Noah said, clapping his hands together. “Don’t put too much stress on Sticky, please. She’s just been through a lot. Aylin, you’re up.”

“I’m Aylin. If I figure anything new out from you, I might accidentally take a bite out of your runic energy,” the boy sitting beside Sticky said. “I’m honored to meet Spider’s other minions.”

“Students,” Noah corrected. “Not minions.”

“How do you take bites out of—” Todd started, lifting his hand and revealing a band on his hand. Then he winced and let out a slew of curses. “Shit! That hurt! What was that?”

“Sorry,” Aylin said. “I was wondering how you summoned fire to use this early in the ranks. You use those metal bands, huh?”

“What—”

Todd clapped a hand over Isabel’s mouth before she could finish the question. Then he just shook his head.

“I’m working on it,” Aylin said sheepishly. “I will try not to eat you on accident.”

“Is it my turn?” the muscular girl beside Aylin asked.

“Yes,” Noah said. “No threats, please. Everyone here is a dear friend of mine.”

“My name is Violet. I am a Hoard Demon in Spider’s merciful employ. Because he views you as his own, so long as you do not threaten those I care about, I will protect you all with my life.”

Well, that’s not coming on strong at all. I… guess she’s got her head on right, at least? I can respect wanting to protect your friends. But —

“I am Vrith.” The catlike demon crossed her arms in front of her chest and said nothing else.

Noah squinted at her. “Fun fact, Virth. You need a fun fact. It’s integral to the process.”

“Not to be detrimental, but what exactly is the process here?” James asked wearily. “Because I’m not certain I’m seeing the point of this.”

“Bonding.” Noah crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Bonding through shared trauma. Now, Vrith. Fun fact. On with it.”

“I don’t have a fun fact.”

“Everyone has a fun fact. You just aren’t trying hard enough. I’m sure I could come up with a few. What about how Aylin feeds—”

“I have a fun fact!” Vrith said, bolting upright like she’d sat on an anthill. “I — uh, I don’t like being seen. I like hiding. That’s my fun fact.”

Isabel didn’t miss the flicker of a grin that danced across Noah’s lips. An involuntary shudder ran down her back. It looked like the Damned Plains hadn’t left him completely without their mark.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m Edda,” the tiny female small demon beside Vrith said, waving to everyone. “And this is Torick. My fun fact is that Torick is scared.”

“Hey!” Torick yelped, his eyes darting around the clearing. He was most definitely scared. “I — I’m not scared! I’m just… constipated.”

“Constipated?” Edda asked. “What’s that?”

“Dunno,” Torick admitted. “I heard Golon say it a while ago.”

Noah cleared his throat. “Torick and Edda are with Violet and Aylin. The four of them are siblings, but only Violet and Aylin can fight. No training for the kids. They’re too young right now.”

“No such thing as too young,” Jalen said. He winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth, then hurriedly amended himself. “For training. Too young for training. Oh, damn it. I give up. Does anyone want to play darts?”

“Sit down,” Noah said, pointing at Jalen as he started to rise. “We’ll play later, but only if you finish letting everyone introduce themselves.”

Jalen sat back down.

Somehow, that wasn’t the most impressive thing that Isabel had seen all day.

“I’m the last one,” the demon wearing the mask said. “Right?”

“Do you really need to ask that?” Noah tilted his head to the side. “Or are you just being polite?”

“I am… temporarily taking up your advice,” the masked demon replied. “We will see how long I allow for it. It makes me feel naked.”

“Effective for fighting,” Bird said under her breath.

Todd choked on his own saliva and Isabel coughed into her fist.

“My name is Yoru.” The demoness paused for a second. “My name is Yoku.”

They all waited for a few moments.

“Interesting fact?” Noah reminded her.

“That was my interesting fact. I have two names. Yoru and Yoku. I made one of them specifically so a particular idiot commander would mix it up.”

“Which one is your real name?” Todd asked.

The masked demoness thought for a moment. Her head twitched as if she wanted to tilt it to the side, but she prevented herself from finishing the motion. “I do not know.”

There was a long, awkward pause.

“I think I like Yoru,” Noah said. “But we can call you whatever you’d prefer.”

“Yoru would be nice.”

And then it was done. Everyone sat in the circle quietly for a few more long seconds. None of them spoke. Even if Isabel had wanted to, she had absolutely no idea what she should say.

There were so many emotions twisting in her chest that she couldn’t make one from the other. She had no idea what she’d been expecting, but this was somehow the most Noah way that their professor could have returned.

Finally, it was Yulin that broke the silence. The girl, who had been sitting in near complete silence the entire time, seemingly lost in contemplation of life, cleared her throat.

“Is… this how your class always is?”

“No,” Emily said.

“Pretty much,” James said.

“Somewhat,” Alexandra added.

“Depends on the day,” Todd said. “It’s a little less deadly than normal today. Jalen isn’t throwing darts at us.”

“Jalen throws darts at you?” Noah asked, blinking in surprise. “Just how much did I miss?”

“A lot of fun, mostly,” Jalen said despondently. A smile stretched across his face and he rose to his feet. “But something tells me you’re going to make up for that soon enough. I really want to see how you’re going to manage to slip a classroom full of demons into Arbitage grounds.”

“I’ve got a few ideas,” Noah said, a small grin pulling at the corner of his lips. “But that’s definitely going to be a little problematic. I’m hoping they don’t mind camping out for a little while until we can find a way to do more proper lodgings.”

“Spending time in the mortal plane is like a dream come true,” Aylin said, looking around the Scorched Acres with wonder scrawled across his features. “There’s so much wood here. I’m rich. I could stay here for a year.”

“It won’t have to be anything that extreme,” Noah said with a chuckle. “Just for long enough until I can figure out how to smuggle some demons into school grounds.”

Yulin sent a sidelong glance at Alexandra. “He’s always like this?”

“Oh, usually much worse,” Alexandra replied absentmindedly. Her gaze was affixed on the demons, the curiosity in her expression undisguised. “I think he’s in a good mood today — but more importantly, are any of you willing to exchange sparring tips? I’ve only fought one demon before. I bet there’s a lot I could learn from you.”

“Predict all of your opponents moves perfectly and you’ll never lose,” Yoru advised.

“Run away,” Sticky put in.

“Let Spider kill them for you,” Aylin suggested.

“Or Lee,” Vrith muttered.

Noah clapped his hands together, a small smile on his face. He gestured for everyone to stand up. “We don’t have to remain in a circle forever, guys. Get to know each other — other than you, Aylin. Just talk about yourself. No asking him questions until he figures out how to get a handle on that magic.”

“I’m working on it,” Aylin said, his cheeks reddening.

“I know you are,” Noah said. “And I’m sure you will. Many of the people here will be able to help as well. We’re taking a bit of a risk doing this, but I’m not leaving any of you behind. Everyone is to treat each other as an equal. We can all learn a lot from each other. Keep any sparring to a minimum today until we can make sure everything is safe. I don’t want anyone getting hurt, okay?”

At that, every demon and human student in the clearing nodded. They rose to their feet, hesitantly at first, and the very beginnings of awkward conversation started up amongst them.

Noah broke away to catch up with the other professors while the students continued their conversation. That conversation grew just a little less uncomfortable with every passing word.

Demons and humans couldn’t have possibly been more different from each other, but as it turned out, they had more than a few things in common as well.