“He smells fine now,” Lee said, a worried frown creasing her brow as she sat back on her haunches. She and Moxie had arrived at the top of the Transport Cannon a short while ago to find Noah — somewhat predictably — passed out on the floor and surrounded by a crowd of worried demons. Lee scratched at her nose. “The smell is going away. It’s just Noah again. But… for a moment there, it wasn’t.”

“What was it?” Aylin asked. “I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was like someone else entirely was taking his place.”

“No. He definitely wasn’t getting replaced or anything. It was still Noah,” Lee said. “But he was different. Kind of like if he drank a whole bunch of orange juice and became citrus flavored. Just it was more of a twisty, squidgy smell than a citrusy one.”

“I’m not really sure what that’s meant to mean,” Moxie muttered. “How can a smell be squidgy? What am I supposed to take from that?”

“That he should probably eat more oranges?” Sticky asked.

“I don’t think that was it,” Vrith said. “That wasn’t just some small change, Lee. Not to argue with you. I would never. But… were I to, I would probably consider saying that his domain felt more erratic. That’s a fundamental change. One at the soul level.”

“Both of you are right,” Yoru said. Even though her eyes were covered by the mask blocking her face, it was clear she was staring at Noah. It was a second before she spoke again, confusion hanging from each word. “That was not some mere change. It was evolution. He was ascending.”

“Ascending? To what?” Violet asked in awe. “And why’d it stop?”

“And how do you know?” Aylin asked.

“What does ascending even mean?” Moxie added. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“His rune was gaining sentience,” Yoru said. “It grew powerful enough and fulfilled enough of its desired purpose to gain a will of its own.”

“You mean like your rune,” Lee said. Her eyes narrowed. “That’s bad. Very bad.”

“I do not believe every awakened rune is like Moonlit Prophecy.” Yoru hesitated for a moment. “Though I do not have any basis for that belief. I just know that even Moonlit Prophecy avoided other awakened runes. I believe it was harder to weigh their probabilities. I would presume that an awakened rune would do nothing more than seek to fulfill its purpose. Prophecy was simply made for control.”

“Then what was Spider’s?” Aylin wondered. He swallowed, then visibly restrained himself. “Maybe that isn’t for us to know. Whatever it is, he’s done now. We can trust him.”

“No, he isn’t,” Yoru said. “He didn’t finish. Did he, Lee?”

“I don’t think so,” Lee said hesitantly. “The smell is gone. He’s normal again. If anything changed in him, I’m pretty sure I would have noticed. Especially something that significant.”

“What, you mean he stopped his own rune from getting stronger?” Violet asked. “Why? Maybe he thought it was going to do the same thing to him that Yoru’s did to her?”

The book leaning against Noah shuddered. Then, before anyone could move, it flipped itself open. Lee flinched back as a sudden rancid scent assaulted her nostrils. It was like a dozen rotting eggs and rancid sweat and decomposing trash. The vile smell nearly knocked the wind straight from her lungs.

She let out a strangled gag and lurched back as ink spilled across the pages of the book in a patch of black. The darkness wove into the shape of a gangly hand ending in uncomfortably long, slender fingers.

A lumbering creature pulled itself free from the book, its back badly hunched just so its slender form could fold itself to fit within the Transport Cannon. A gaunt face featured sightless eye sockets that seemed to drink the room in like water.

Yoru took a step back. The other demons all reacted similarly, unease and fear rippling through the room in a spreading wave.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I don’t think we’re getting back to lunch anytime soon,” Yoru muttered.

Even through the horrid stench pouring from the monster, Lee could pick up traces of power. A flicker of recognition cut through her thoughts.

Wait. The grimoire? Why does he smell so different than the last time I saw him? It’s like he got a dozen times stronger and at least ten times stinker. What did he do, take a bath in a magic toilet?

“Grim,” Moxie said coldly. “What’s going on? Why is Noah unconscious? And why are you here?”

“He requested I inform you that he’s resting for a bit,” Grim replied, his features stretching into a ghastly smile. “He just finished up some fairly extensive repairs and modifications to his runes. It’ll take his magic some time to stitch everything back together. Perhaps a day.”

Moxie blew out a slow breath. It was hard to tell if it was one of relief or annoyance. She sent a suspicious look in Grim’s direction. “What happened with his task? How did it go? Is—”

“Dead,” Grim said. His smile grew. “And their runes harvested. Both the Torrin and Herron houses are now without their leaders… and their runes are belong to us.”

“They what now?” Tim asked.

Grim shook his head. “Never mind. I spent too much time chewing on the parts of Noah’s soul that he fed me along with his imbued runes. Too many stupid memories that have no meaning in this place to anyone but him. It doesn’t matter. Noah will be fine.”

“Of course he will,” Aylin said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “He’s Spider.”

Lee pinched her nose shut. At this point, she wasn’t so much worried about Noah as she was about herself. At this rate, her nose was going to fry itself. She’d have gotten better air breathing beneath a pile of manure.

“Why do you smell like death?” Lee asked. “I don’t like you.”

Grim turned to look at her. Then, for some reason, he laughed. Something rippled within the creature. It was closer to a shifting domain than it was to a physical change — not that Grim actually had a domain.

It was change of scent. Like something, dozens upon dozens of somethings, were all bundled up and squeezed into a paste within Grim. The slender creature’s body was practically bulging with minced up existences. But as quickly as they had appeared, they vanished, swallowed once again by Grim’s vile stench.

“My manner of creation was far from an enjoyable one,” Grim said. “Your senses are keen. Most of your kind find me distasteful. It is only natural. Self-preservation, really. But I cannot help my presence. And if I could, I would not. I am what I am.”'

“Have you considered being someone else?” Lee asked. “I think you should.”

Grim let out a raspy laugh. “Never. I am already too much.”

“So why are you doing all… this?” Moxie asked, gesturing vaguely to Grim. “Because, last I recall, you tend to stay inside your book. What made you step outside and actually face us while we spoke? I had assumed that manifesting yourself took a ridiculous amount of energy.”

“It does,” Grim replied. “Energy that I once did not have to spare. But, as amusing as it is to finally have the energy to waste words like this, I did not manifest myself here for no reason. There is another thing that Noah requested I do.”

“What is it?” Lee asked quickly, her voice nasally because of her fingers pinching her nose shut. “I’m definitely interested because I want to know what it is and not because I’d really like if you stopped stinking the room up. It’s really bad. Just in case you were wondering. Like you’ve got a few dozen dead things tied to you.”

“I was not wondering,” Grim said. He reached back to grab his own body — or perhaps it was his house. Lee wasn’t exactly sure what the grimoire was to Grim. She wasn’t so sure she cared.

I wonder if I can convince Noah to throw the whole grimoire away. I don’t like this thing. Nothing good ever smells this bad. Well, other than cheese.

“Are you cheese?” Lee asked. It never hurt to ask, after all.

“What?” Vrith asked, staring at Lee in confusion.

“No, it’s a good question,” Yoru said.

Grim ignored all of them. He brought the grimoire around to thunk it down on the ground before the small gathering of demons and humans. Then, with a single long finger, he tapped the opened pages before him.

Lines twisted across their surface to form into runes. But not just a few. There were dozens of them. Before any of them could say anything, Grim flipped the page to reveal even more of them.

Every square inch of the paper was completely covered. There were hundreds of runes, all squeezed into the book like tightly packed sardines.

“We had a rather bountiful harvest,” Grim said, slamming the book shut. “And I’ve eaten well enough to not bother complaining too much about a waste like this. Noah carved up some of the runes we got for usage while he rested.”

“What kind of usage, exactly?” Moxie asked, staring at the literal horde of magical energy within the book.

Grim was, if nothing else, greedy. If he was willing to share this much… Lee couldn’t even begin to imagine just how many runes Noah had gotten his hands on.

“I mean Magus Moxie should gather her children,” Grim said with a smile. “All of them. I have some weapons to distribute among them. It should be interesting to see what they manage to come up with.”