Noah felt like he was digging through sludge. Perhaps calling the life’s work of a family head nothing more than sludge was a bit disrespectful. That probably went doubly so when the runes in question came from none other than the head of the 2nd strongest family in the kingdom.

Maybe she had stronger mages working for her. That’s always possible. It seems like a lot of the families use their head as more of a figure and public influencer than the most powerful person in the entire group.

I suppose that makes sense. Something tells me that the most powerful mages in the kingdom are going to have better things to do with their time than running around and playing a fancy political game with the other families.

Noah grimaced. His thoughts were drifting again. They slithered through his mind like dolphins through water. They obscured his true desires, as if someone were pouring a bucket of dolphins into his soul to hide the dolphins he actually wanted to—

You know what? I think the dolphin analogy stopped working a little while ago.

Noah let out a sharp breath to steady himself.

It didn’t work. His very being was something like a giant bucket of bouncing rubber balls racing down a street. He could already feel his attention drifting to something else. Even remembering that he was inside his own mindspace was becoming difficult.

Noah pressed his palms to his temple and let out a pained groan. Something was pounding at the inside of his skull. Not quite a headache. Something else. Perhaps it was the thousands of different shifting thoughts all trying to occur simultaneously and refracting off each other.

Runes. Cutting out the runes. That’s what I’m here for.

The thought was smothered mere moments after it struggled its way to surface. That particular dolphin was really going to need to take some steroids if it wanted to compete with the sea of squirming—

Damn it. Come on. Oh, wait. Did I fix everyone’s runes? I think I did. What about Moxie’s? I think I’ve got a few for her, actually. Lee too.

That makes me hungry, now that I think about it. When’s the last time I had a good meal? We should go get something. Hold on. Didn’t Lee want to start cooking? We should—

Noah clapped the sides of his cheeks, hoping the sharp pain would rip through his growing confusion. It wasn’t just difficult to function.

It was chaos.

And then words cut through the noise, each one falling like a millstone.

“You called?”

Noah turned.

Grim stood behind him, the abomination’s dark looming body casting a long shadow. His elongated fingers drummed impatiently at his sides as sightless eye sockets stared in the direction of the new runes that Noah had claimed from Biya.

“Ah, yes. I was just saying…” Noah paused. Then he frowned. “What was I saying?”

“The runes,” Grim said. “You were going to give them to me.”

“Mm. Was that the case?”

“Yes,” Grim said. “Your soul is expanding at too rapid of a rate. You aren’t prepared for this. Not with the trash you’ve collected so far. Let me take it off your hands.”

Noah’s brow furrowed as a moment of clarity alighted on his shoulders. “What are the chances that I get any of them back once you’re done? I’m not trying to feed you something like this. It’s too important.”

“That’s what focuses you? Greedy bastard,” Grim said. “I’ll only take a few. From Exal rather than Biya. His are worse. We don’t have time to bargain right now. You need to remove this from your soul before it develops too much further.”

“Why?” Noah asked. “Balloons deflate when you take the air out of them. They don’t pop.”

“What are you — oh, forget it,” Grim growled. He grabbed Noah by the shoulders with his spindly fingers and gave him a powerful shake. “Snap out of it. Remove the runes from your soul. Now. If you don’t, all the rewards you’ve reaped will become nothing more than an anchor weighing your potential down.”

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

“Relax,” Noah said, waving Grim’s hands away from himself and calling the runes floating around his soul to heel. “That’s why I came here, you know. I even called you for the same reason. To collect the runes.”

Of the runes in his soul, one stood out more than all the others. Among Biya’s runes was a cracked, pulsating mass of stitched power. The lines didn’t look like they went together at all. They were smooth in parts and jagged in others, without any seeming rhyme or reason to the pattern.

Any pattern within the rune felt like it should have been more of a coincidence than intentional creation — and yet, there was a pattern all the same. Borne from all the manners of magic fighting for supremacy over each other within the mass came a powerful, fluctuating aura.

The pressure from the rune couldn’t have been less stable. But, despite the evident weaknesses, the rune was considerably more powerful than every single one of Biya’s donations.

“Stop staring and do it!” Grim snapped.

“Hold on,” Noah said. “I don’t want you using all of them.”

“We already discussed this. You are deteriorating. Remove the runes. Now. There isn’t any—”

“You can have one,” Noah said. “From Exal. His are weaker.”

“Fine,” Grim snarled. “Do it! Break your rune first. Then remove Biya’s afterward.”

Sunder lowered. The enormous Master Rune drifted down to float just above Noah as he extended his left hand toward it.

His fingertip brushed across the Master Rune.

The runes around him shuddered. Black lines shot down Noah’s veins. They worked their way through his arm as Sunder pumped him full of its magic. And, without letting any more dolphins wiggle themselves into or out of the way, Noah reached out and brushed his hand across Crumbling Apocalypse.

A black line slashed down through the uneven rune.

It shattered.

A wave of pressure slammed into his face and blew his hair back. Noah’s throat clenched like a freezing hand had wrapped around it. He let out a pained wheeze and staggered back as seven Rank 5 Runes floated up from within the sparkling remains of the combination.

The ground at his feet rippled. Darkness shifted and warped around Noah, a pool of still water disturbed by a thrown stone. His skull pulsed. Heat built at the base of his neck and his tongue prickled.

For a moment, he could have sworn that he tasted bitter and spicy and sweet all at the same time. There might have also been the flavor of essence of dolphin — though he wasn’t quite sure about that last one.

And then, heralded by a pounding headache, clarity clawed its way back into prominence.

Noah let out a groan and pinched the bridge of his nose. Thoughts reorganized themselves into the right spots within his mind as the new Rank 5 runes settled into their proper places.

“What the hell was all of that?” Noah asked.

“How much do you recall?” Grim almost sounded relieved. “You should continue moving quickly. Leaving sub-par Rank 6 runes in your soul will be detrimental in the long run. They can take support away from your Keystone.”

“Enough to remember you tried to scam me out of a “few” Rank 6 Runes,” Noah said, a small grin pulling across his lips even in spite of the pain. “And enough to know I bargained you down to one.”

Grim paused. “That was a conscious decision?”

“I wasn’t insane. Just… distracted.” Noah waved his hand at the other runes in his soul. “Help me with these. You’re right about one thing. I don’t want garbage cluttering my mindspace. And, while we’re at it, why don’t you tell me what the hell just happened? None of what I just felt was part of the side effects I’m aware of corresponding to expanding your soul. You know more than you’re letting on.”

Grim inclined his head. “I do.”

“Then?” Noah gestured impatiently. “Out with it. Along with the reason you’re still keeping me in the damn dark.”

“Very well,” Grim said. “The reason is simple. Knowledge is influence. Were you aware of something, then it would shift your path. Even a subconscious adjustment would be enough to alter what could be. The greatest benefit of this Empire is the complete lack of guidance. A carved stone can never be whole again. Only an untouched one can truly discover a new path.”

“That’s a lot of words to say you wanted to see what would happen when I screwed something up.”

“It is,” Grim agreed with a grating laugh. “That does not make it any less true.”

“Does that mean you’re going to keep avoiding telling me what the hell happened?”

“There is no need. What has happened has happened.”

“Then?” Noah arched an eyebrow. “Out with it.”

“To give a simple answer would be an injustice, but I suspect it is one you would tolerate,” Grim said. “I will do my best to make this as distastefully plain and direct as possible.”

***

“Did you see that?” Renewal asked, staring at Noah’s body through the shimmering image, unable to peel her eyes away for long enough to even glance in Decras’ direction. She could barely even believe her own senses.

“I did,” Decras said. For once, the Fallen god sounded just as surprised as she felt.

“Can you squeeze into his soul again?” Renewal asked. “I need to see. I have to.”

“No,” Decras replied. “Not at this point. Not without alerting him, at least. Sunder continues to deviate further and further away from something that truly belongs to me. And we don’t need to see within his soul, Renewal. That sensation is not one that can be faked. I know it as well as you.”

Renewal finally managed to peel her gaze from the image of Noah to turn toward Decras. “But… doesn’t that mean—”

“Yes,” Decras said. An excited smile crossed his face. “It does. There’s no mistaking it. What we just saw…”

***

“…was something I have seen Sievan try and fail to accomplish,” Grim said. “That was the first stage of ascending to godhood.”