The night was far too long to fully sleep through. By Noah’s estimate, the day-night cycle was something around two and a half times longer than the one back in the mortal plane. He woke nestled in a bed of soft vines with Moxie laying on top of him.

Her hair somehow still smelled like strawberries, which was a mystery. It wasn’t like they had any fancy soaps in the Damned Plains, nor had they had a chance to take a proper bath yet — an issue he was going to need to rectify soon.

Does she normally just smell like this? Or does she have some secret?

Lee murmured from a bed beside them. Noah glanced over, the dim light from the moon filtering in through the crack in the tent flap just enough to see by. Lee gnawed on the side of a thick vine in her sleep and judging by the large bites taken out of the bed all around her, it wasn’t the first one to fall victim.

It was an odd feeling to wake up in the middle of the night feeling completely rested. Noah’s body told him that it was time to go back to bed, but his head told him that he’d gotten all the sleep he needed and there was too much to do to sit around for much longer.

Moxie stirred. Her hands dug into his jacket and she yawned, her eyes fluttering open. She peered up at him and scrunched her nose.

“What time is it?”

“Night,” Noah replied, somewhat unhelpfully. “I think it’s been about six or seven hours, but I can’t be certain.”

Moxie pushed herself up, pushing Noah back into the bed in the process. She brushed the hair out of her face and grinned down at him before shifting to the side so he could sit as well. The smile faded and she blew out an annoyed breath.

“We had some visitors last night.”

“We did? What happened? Nobody woke me up.”

“I had ulterior motives. They’re dead now,” Moxie said with a shrug. “Just a few Rank 3 Demon assassins with pretty bad Runes. Lee and I handled everything before they got anywhere near Aylin.”

“Oh?” The last vestiges of weariness slipped away and Noah blinked fully awake. “Did you get any information from them?”

“They were assassins for hire, but not very good ones. Just random hitmen. Some giant demon contracted them and paid a ridiculous amount of money for them to kill Aylin. Sounds like we got the attention of someone with a bit of influence.”

“Perfect. Things are falling into place, then. They’re aware of my presence. While Aylin continues bringing the streetlords together, I can start moving to enter whatever their higher society is here. I’ve still got my eyes set on an auction. It’ll be a bit before we get the attention of anyone really strong, but we need to get stronger before we start rubbing elbows with any of them.”

“We may get more attention than we want if we keep expanding at this rate. Might be better to move faster than slower,” Moxie suggested. She swung her legs out of bed and rose to her feet. She yawned and stretched her arms over her head before shaking her head and combing her hair back with her fingers. “I’ve been doing a lot of work practicing my pattern inside my mind. I think it’s getting closer to the point where I can use it in a fight. I want to get a good hold of it before I start really figuring out what other runes I invest in.”

“Probably a good idea,” Noah said with a nod. There was more than a little risk involved in imbuing a pattern with magic — but Moxie wasn’t one of his students. She had far more experience and training than they did, and she knew her limits. “I haven’t had a chance to test Crumbling Space as much as I’d like to, but I’ve been learning. I’m going to try to make some more Rank 4 Runes while I continue perfecting it, then rework everything at the end.”

“That’s probably the best way to do it as long as the rune is actually functional and close enough to your final goal,” Moxie agreed. She lowered her voice and squinted at Noah. “But only you could say you’re going to make Runes in that tone and actually mean make them from scratch instead of combining them normally. Do you already know what you’re making next?”This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“I’ve got an idea, and I’ve got a lot of the runes I’ll need as well,” Noah said. He got out of bed and stood up beside Moxie. They both paused as Lee muttered something under her breath through a mouthful of foliage.

She was still somehow asleep but that hadn’t stopped her from eating over half of her bed. Her head and shoulders hung over its side as she chewed on a stray vine. She was a small nudge away from falling on her head.

Noah scooped her out of her bed and carried her over to Moxie’s, gently setting her down in its middle. Lee let out a satisfied murmur and rolled over, clutching Moxie’s pillow to her chest and immediately starting to nibble on it.

“Menace,” Moxie muttered, unable to suppress a small laugh. She shook her head and looked back to Noah. “What’s your next Rune? Another space one?”

“Yeah. I think I’m going to take a page out of Brayden’s book. Crumbling Space is powerful, but more mobility would be really useful. I want something that lets me teleport.”

“Not a simple rune.”

“When you’re making them yourself, are any?”

Moxie rolled her eyes and raised her hands in surrender. “Point to you. What kind of disaster lets you teleport, though?”

“I’ve got the beginnings of an idea, but nothing too solid yet,” Noah admitted. He rubbed the back of his neck and chewed the insides of his cheeks. “I don’t want to jinx anything yet. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“That’s just cold. Not even a hint?” Moxie peered at him with wide, innocent eyes that couldn’t have possibly been faker. Noah’s defenses crumbled instantly.

“I was thinking Spatial Storm or the like,” Noah said. “That scope might be a bit too wide, though. It sounds more like a Rank 5 Rune, so probably something like a controlled Spatial Storm. I haven’t figured out the wording yet.”

A smug smile crossed Moxie’s lips. Something told Noah she was more interested in just getting him to share his plans than she was in what they actually were.

“What new runes do you need for that? I thought you got a lot of space related runes already.”

“I’m not sure yet. The storm part needs some different runes,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “I haven’t figured that part out yet. I was going to kind of play it by ear while I gathered some more runes. Once I weasel my way into an auction I’ll be able to see what kind of stuff is up for sale down here. Until then, I’ll just get all the runes I can — and not just for myself. I’ve been using my reserves up at a pretty alarming rate.”

“You’re going hunting for runes, then?”

Noah nodded. “It shouldn’t be too hard. Lee already showed us what to do. You want to come?”

Moxie glanced over to Lee. She hesitated for a second. “As much as I’d like to, I really shouldn’t. We’ve got too much attention on the camp right now. We don’t know if someone will try something while you’re gone.”

“Egh. You’re probably right. I’ll try not to take too long, then. As long as I use my flying sword this shouldn’t take more than a few hours. I’m just going to grab a bunch of runes and then come back. Do you think you could try to figure out who hired the assassins while I’m gone?”

“I’ll see what I can do, but no promises. I don’t think we’ve got much of an information pipeline with the gang as it is right now,” Moxie said, not sounding particularly confident. She gave him a half-shouldered shrug. “Just don’t be gone too long. You’ve got a lot of dominos set up to fall.”

“Yeah. It’ll be three hours or so.” Noah grabbed his grimoire and slung it over his shoulder before holding out his gourd. “Can you hold onto this for me?”

She took it carefully, her features growing serious. “Yeah. I’ll keep it safe. Try not to need it, though.”

“I’ll do my best,” Noah promised. He scooped up his flying sword and took a step toward the exit of the tent, but Moxie caught his arm. Glancing back at her, Noah blinked. “What is it?”

Moxie stared at him primly. She gently set the gourd on the remains of Lee’s bed before crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow. Noah stared at her for a second before he realized what she was waiting for.

He leaned in and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pressing his lips to hers.

“No,” Lee murmured in her sleep, turning over. “Don’t eat Moxie yet, Noah. I — I want to taste her hair first.”

It took everything Noah had to avoid bursting into laughter. He and Moxie pulled apart. The bright red tinging Moxie’s cheeks told him she was having a similar issue.

“Good luck with that. It’s entirely your fault, by the way,” Noah said with a snicker.

Moxie flicked him in the chest. “Get out of here, idiot. I’ll see you soon.”

Noah nodded. He wrapped his face with the desert scarf before turning and striding out of the tent. He tossed his flying sword to the ground and stepped onto it. Flying into Treadon might have been ill advised, but he had a persona to keep now — and guards weren’t going to be bothered about someone leaving the city.

The sword hummed to life and Noah shot off, lifting into the sky and zipping away from the massive walking city. He craned his neck back to watch the huge turtle as he flew away from it. The enormous monster had still yet to take a single step since they’d arrived, but it looked closer to touching the ground than it had been when they’d arrived.

Noah turned away from the city and looked to the Wastes. He had some runes to speed through harvesting — and then the real fun would begin.