There was still some time left before the Transport Cannon pulled Noah back, but his rune was pretty close to spent and he wasn’t sure killing more monkeys in the Scorched Acres would actually accomplish anything. He’d already gotten what he’d come here for — or, at least, a starting point for it. Noah finally knew what his rune’s purpose was.

    Though I don’t have the slightest clue what the full extent of its abilities are. If it can reduce things to their base form, does that work on other Runes as well? Hell, does it work on magic?

    It wasn’t like the monsters in the Scorched Acres would be able to help him much with that. The monkeys didn’t have any magic. He supposed it was possible there was a mutated one somewhere... or he could go looking for a Great Monster.

    I’m pretty sure the Hellreaver got replaced so Arbitage could keep using this area as a training ground. I can’t tell if it would be funny or downright stupid if I went and killed their replacement testing my rune out.

    Noah blew out a short breath of air and shook his head.@@@@

    Probably not worth the trouble. I’ll get a chance to test this thing out against magic soon enough. I’ve got way too many people that want to kill me for that to be avoidable for long.

    There were other things that could occupy his focus for the moment. He extended his hand to the side and, with a thought, summoned his violin. Sunlight shimmered off the whorls of gold running along the black wood.

    A small smile pulled across Noah’s lips as he set the violin against his chin and laid the bow upon its strings, playing a bright note for no purpose other than to hear it sing. His Formations weren’t going to work anymore — not now that he’d advanced to Rank 5.

    That’s fine. It just gives me an opportunity to keep perfecting my abilities. I’ve only got 1 rune to work with right now, but once I get it working in a way that supports Sunder and the Fragment of Renewal, I’ll have at least two Formations that are far more powerful than what they were before.

    He was pretty sure he was going to need them. Going up against Rank 6 mages when he was a Rank 5 was not going to be an easy task. Every single advantage he could get, he would need.

    And so Noah started to play, teasing faint flickers of power free from Unstable Pandemonium as his bow danced across the strings of the violin. He took care not to draw too much. The last thing he wanted to do was blow himself up right before class. That would have been painfully inconvenient.

    All he wanted to do was get to know his new rune’s pattern so he could begin working on how to integrate it into a proper Formation.

    He was still playing when the Transport Cannon’s power sent him hurtling back to Arbitage.

    ***

    “Well then,” Noah said, looking around the crowd gathered around him in the top room of the Transport Cannon. It wasn’t just the demons that had been sleeping there when Tim had sent him off. Isabel, Todd, and the rest of the students had all arrived — as had Moxie. Noah adjusted the lapel of his jacket. “It looks like you’re all eager to get started. Isn’t it a bit early?”

    “The sun rose thirty minutes ago,” Isabel said, holding back a laugh. “You’re late, professor.”

    “That may be my fault,” Tim said. “I had the cannon set to pull him back after three hours. I should have made that time shorter.”

    “Don’t try to cover for me,” Noah said through a chuckle. “I have a bit of a bad habit of being late. There’s no need to dally any further, though. We’ve all got a lot to get through today. I’ll be reviewing everyone’s progress on their Formations.”

    Aylin raised a hand. “I don’t have any progress on a Formation.”

    “Neither do I,” Sticky said. “What’s a Formation?”

    “It’s a very effective way to accidentally kill yourself while trying to control more power than you have any right to,” Vrith said. She hesitated for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Unless you have exceptional mastery over your Runes, that is.”

    “Not entirely true,” Noah said. “There’s more to it than most people think — but don’t worry. I’ll get into that once class has started. Tim... I don’t suppose you’d be able to send us anywhere with the Transport Cannon? I was originally planning to ask Jalen to send us somewhere, but...” r?A?o?ΕS

    “With pleasure,” Tim said. “Where to? The Scorched Acres?”

    Noah grimaced. “I’ve spent a bit too much time there as of late. I also left a lot of dead monkeys lying everywhere. Probably best not. We don’t need any distractions. Maybe the Windscorned Plateau?”

    “Easy enough,” Tim said. He interlaced his fingers and stretched his arms out before him before giving them all a grin. “Right then. Make a line, lads and lasses. We’re going to want to keep things moving.”

    ***

    A few minutes later, Tim had everyone deposited on the Windscorned Plateau with a promise to pull them back in six hours.

    Demons and humans alike milled about, looking around the jagged landscape of the plateau. Towering cliffs rose around them. Sheer flat walls of stone that led up to more areas just like the one they stood on. There weren’t any Fluffants on their landing area, which was fortunate. Noah didn’t feel like frying any of the violent elephant-shaped fluffballs at the moment.

    Plump blue flowers dotted with orange specks littered the ground all around them. A few of the demons were musing as to their edibility, a discussion which Noah was particularly interested in. More than a small part of him still wanted to try taking a bite out of the plushy-looking plants.

    If they didn’t want to get eaten, they shouldn’t be so plump.

    “Noah,” Moxie said, sliding up beside him. “You can’t eat the flowers.”

    “I — how did you know I was thinking that?”

    “You were looking at the damn thing like it was a five-course meal. When’s the last time you had proper food?”

    Noah hesitated for a moment before clearing his throat. “It might have been a while.”

    “We’re getting food when we get back. No eating the flowers.”

    “Yes, Ma’am.”

    Moxie rolled her eyes, then nodded to the mess of students. “How should we organize this? Want me to split off with the ones that already know what a pattern is so they can start practicing and you can review the basics with the demons?”

    “That would be very helpful.”

    “I’ll make sure they don’t do anything too crazy. I’ve barely managed to get any real work in on my own pattern, so I don’t think I’m in a good spot to tell them anything about theirs.”

    “Hold on,” Violet said. “Is that even possible? Creating a rune? I thought they just came into existence.”

    “It’s cuz he’s a god,” Torrick said.

    Aylin elbowed him in the shoulder and sent him a pointed glance. “He’s not a god up here, remember?”

    Torrick’s eyes lit up in understanding. “Oh, right. He’s a teacher.”

    Aylin gave him an approving nod.

    Noah repressed a sigh. The stronger demons definitely hadn’t missed what he’d said. Vrith was staring in awe and he could feel Yoru’s gaze burning into him.

    I am not helping my reputation at all. Oh well.

    “I skipped a few things. We don’t have time for all of that today, and I don’t want to split your focus. The three elements to creating a rune are the magical energy, an inciting event, and intention. We’re focusing on the last one. Intention. Understanding. A desire for your rune to accomplish some purpose. We all know that well, right?”

    “It’s what you need when you combine your runes,” Aylin said.

    “Precisely,” Noah agreed. “And that isn’t where it ends. I think you would agree more than anyone else that understanding is the most important aspect of any power. It applies to more than just combining runes. So tell me — from the information you have, what is a Formation?”

    “A pattern,” Edda said through a mouthful of... something. Noah wasn’t sure exactly what the small demon had managed to get her hands on, but he was pretty sure she’d be fine. Demons had hardy stomachs.

    “Good. A pattern. A specific type of pattern. Would you say that you understand patterns well?”

    Everyone shook their heads.

    “So that is where we must start. Not with fancy Formations, but with how patterns interact with magic at a base level,” Noah continued. “And you will be surprised to find that there is a great amount of power that can be found through merely finding a pattern. My human students have already put a great amount of effort into this technique.”

    “Is that what they’re doing now?” Aylin asked, looking over to Moxie’s group. All the students around her were either deep in meditation or practicing.

    “It is,” Noah confirmed. “Though they have taken it to the next stage and have inserted magic into it. You will get there — but first, you must determine what pattern speaks to you the most. Anything can be a pattern. For me, it is music. For Isabel, it is a landslide. Alexandra’s is the wind. Moxie’s is life and death itself.”

    “Can we even do that?” Violet asked. “I mean... we can’t use external magic.”

    “It’s a common belief that demons are unable to access external magic until they reach a certain rank.”

    “Commonly believed? I think that’s just how it works,” Violet said. “We’re too closely tied to our runes. They’re embedded too deep into our souls, which makes it easy for us to empower our bodies but much harder to push it externally.”

    “Perhaps. We will see if that holds true after the modifications Sticky allowed us to all do.”

    Sticky reddened and looked away. She hadn’t been speaking much, but from the rapt attention in her eyes, Noah was pretty sure it was just because she was completely focused on every word he said.

    “So we can use external magic?” Torrick asked in awe.

    “I still need to modify your runes — but even if I had already done it, the answer is no. Not because you can’t, but because I will not allow you to,” Noah said simply. “Your initial pattern must be completely devoid of magic. These are dangerous. If you let magic flow through them, you could end up killing yourself. That goes for all of you. Even the stronger ones.”

    He made it a point to look at Yoru with that. The Rank 6 demon was hundreds of years old and had been one of the strongest ones in the Damned Plains before he’d taken Sunder to her. She probably wasn’t the type to love strict instructions — but Yoru just gave him a curt nod of understanding.

    “How do we do it?” Vrith asked. “Pattern feels like such a... general thing. Couldn’t anything be a pattern if you really try hard enough?”

    “Yep. This isn’t something where there’s only one right answer. You need to think on what fits you the best. It does not matter what I or anyone else chooses or thinks. For me, that thing was music. The patterns within music are what I find easiest to understand. That probably won’t be the case for you. This isn’t something you have to do alone. Feel free to speak to each other. Hell, go bother my other students and see how they figured things out.”

    “How do we know if we’ve done it correctly?” Sticky asked. “What if we mess up?”

    “You can’t,” Noah said with a shrug. “It’s a pattern. Not magic. At least, not yet. All you’re doing is finding something that you feel fits you. And if you can’t think of anything, just look around. There are patterns in everything from the nature to the way we speak.”

    “Can my pattern be eating?” Edda asked.

    You’ve spent too much time around Lee. I really don’t need another living vacuum cleaner wandering around.

    “I think you should probably try to look a bit deeper into yourself. Your pattern should be something that you can truly connect with. It shouldn’t just be something you enjoy doing, but something you can see yourself embodying,” Noah suggested, trying to be as polite as possible.

    Edda and Torrick were still just kids. So was Sticky, though she was definitely a little more developed in the head than the other two. Staring death in the face tended to do that to you.

    “Is there a pattern in understanding?” Aylin asked.

    “That’s for you to determine. If you can find one — then yes. If you can’t, then no. This is completely personal. As I said, there’s no right way to do it.”

    “Could you show us your pattern?” Sticky asked.

    A small grin tugged at the corners of Noah’s lips. “I’ve never said no to a show. I suppose that would probably be a good way to give an example of what works for me, so why not?”

    He extended his hands and his violin shimmered to life within one, the bow taking form in the other. Noah set the violin against his chin and let the bow rest against its strings.

    And, for what must have been the first time in history, a group of demons ranging from children to a Demon Lord sat and listened in silent awe to a song played by a human older than the lot of them combined.