Return of the Runebound Professor
Chapter 725: Witness

Noah’s mind spun into overdrive as he lunged for the two perfectly even halves of Tren’s corpse. The storm of footsteps were coming right at him and Fuyin. There were only seconds to act. Maybe not even that.

He didn’t have the magic for another fight. Sure, he had some untested power left in his Astral Ruin Rune — which was enough of a mouthful to think about that it gave him a second headache — but that wasn’t going to be enough to hold off what sounded to be an entire horde of Inquisitors.

Fighting wasn’t an option. Even Grim had his limits.

There was only one way out.

I have to get the key!

Noah shoved his hand into the first pocket he found, digging through it for anything that resembled the key that Fuyin had used in Moxie’s door. Tren had said it himself. He’d used a spare to get here. That meant it was somewhere here. It had to be—

Oh. Shit.

Our key was still stuck in a book and acting as a doorway when Tren shattered it. There’s no reason to believe his would be any different. He wouldn’t have wanted to cut off his way back to wherever he came from.

Noah’s hand clenched. There was nothing in the pocket. His other arm shot for Tren’s other side to feel through the pockets, but he already knew what he’d find before his fingers had even touched the blood-soaked cloth.

“Shit.” Noah’s blood ran cold and he shot back to his feet. The footsteps were just around the corner now. There were only instants left before they were found. He wasn’t worried about himself in the slightest — but Grim and Fuyin weren’t going to get out of this quite so easily.

What do I do?

Noah looked down at his hands. They were soaked through with Tren’s blood. That probably wasn’t going to help his case much. Then again, he wasn’t so sure it could have gotten any worse. The archives were gone. Tren was dead.

All that remained were him, Fuyin, and a greedy book.

It wasn’t going to be hard to connect the dots.

His eyes shot around the empty, scorched halls.

I need a plan. There has to be some way I can get out of this without killing myself. That solution isn’t going to work this time. I can’t afford to lose Grim. Losing Fuyin would be almost as bad. I don’t have enough allies to go throwing them away.

Come on. There has to be—

A heavily armored foot slammed down at the end of the hall. An Inquisitor ran into view, his large body covered in glistening golden plate armor trimmed with crimson metal. He carried a pair of slender blades that red glistened with imbued runes, and his face was covered by a helm.

There was no more time to plan.

The jig was up.

Half a dozen more men sprinted in after him, all bearing equally powerful-looking weapons. Even though Noah had pulled his domain in on itself to avoid detection, it only took one look at the group to tell they were powerful.

He’d have been surprised if a single one of them was below a Rank 4. Realistically, they were probably Rank 5s at the minimum. This was the first time he’d seen such a heavily armored inquisitor before. If anything, they looked more like soldiers.

For several seconds, the Inquisitors all stared in frozen disbelief and horror. Tren’s severed body probably would have been enough to give them pause already. The archives being completely and utterly missing had just taken things to an entirely new level.

Double shit. They’ve got a fucking honor guard or something for their archives. I suppose I can’t be surprised… but this is bad. Really bad.

Something tells me that taking on the Spider persona probably isn’t going to help me out here nearly as much as it did back in the Damned Plains.

“Incompetent. You’re late. What have you been doing?” Fuyin said, her cold voice slicing through the air like the morning frost.

Noah found himself joining the ranks of the confused as the attention of every single person in the room turned toward her as one.

“Late? You have a lot of nerve saying that,” the lead Inquisitor said, raising his swords. “What have you done to the archives, Inquisitor Fuyin? Why have you turned against your order?”

“Are you a fool?” Fuyin snapped. “Or do you simply enjoy dodging past rational thought? Out of every possible scenario you could have come up with, how is it that you believe I have betrayed the Inquisition?”

“We know everything, Fuyin. Tren already warned us weeks ago,” the Inquisitor said. His gaze shifted down to the corpse at their feet before snapping back up to Fuyin. The man took a step forward, his gauntlets grinding as they tightened around the hilts of his glowing swords. “You’ve been planning this a while. Watching his key to the archives. Tracking his movements.”

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“Is that what you think?” Fuyin’s features were completely unreadable. Her face, as always, looked like it had been carved from a block of solid ice. “Is that what Tren told you?”

“Playing dumb will get you nowhere, Inquisitor Fuyin. Is this the demon that seduced you?” Anger burned within the Inquisitor’s words. “How… disappointing. So much potential, completely wasted. This isn’t even an impressive one. He looks like a homeless vagrant. You disgust me, Fuyin.”

Right. I’m killing you first, prick. I’ve got more than enough magic to blow myself to kingdom come and take you with me, consequences be damned.

“You will stand down!” Fuyin thundered. “The only one who has any right to be disgusted here is me.”

Everyone stared at her. The claim was so brazenly incredulous that it forced the other Inquisitors into a moment of stunned disbelief. And in that moment where she still had their attention, she plunged ahead.

“Inquisitor Tren told you that I was a traitor… and you just believed it?” Fuyin continued. “Did you investigate him as well, Guardian? Because I did.”

The lead Inquisitor hesitated for a flicker of a second. “Are you trying to imply that the traitor here was—”

“Tren,” Fuyin said. “Yes. It was. But by the time I’d realized that, it was too late. I had to act, but I couldn’t go to the Inquisition myself. He was already suspicious of me. I didn’t know who he’d gone to or what lies he’d already spread. What — did he tell you I was fraternizing with demons? Allying with them? Because that’s exactly what I’d have said to set the stage to eliminate the person who had caught onto me when I was doing those very things.”

An instant of silence hung in the room. It was clear that she’d, at least partially, hit the mark. The Inquisitors hesitated.

Noah damn near ruined the entire thing by breaking out in laughter. Fuyin actually had a really good argument. If he’d been in Tren’s place and had been trying to frame her for something, everything she’d described was exactly what he would have done.

“How can we believe that? This story is impossible. If it were true, then there’s absolutely no way you ever could have defeated Tren,” the Guardian said with a shake of his head — but Noah didn’t miss that his swords had lowered slightly. “He was a Rank above you, not to mention the gap in experience.”

“A gap that I bridged,” Fuyin snapped. She thrust a finger in Noah’s direction. “With him. Not a demon, you fool. Someone who knows them well. A professor from Arbitage who has had dealings with someone enemies to both the Inquisition and Demonkind. Spider.”

“The demon that was claiming he was some new manner of demon superior to the old?” the Guardian’s gaze focused on Noah. “You expect us to trust a monster like that?”

“Obviously not,” Fuyin said. “But this is not him. This is Professor Vermil. He may not be our ally — but he shares an enemy. And I had no resources left to turn to. Tren had me cut off. If I’d attempted to reach out to anyone else, he would have killed me. I did what I could. The greater cause must always take priority over the individual… and Vermil is no demon. He is a human. A Formation Master at that. That is the reason we were able to defeat Tren.”

The suspicion in the Guardian’s eyes started to give as his confusion built. “And the archives? How do you explain that?"

“Look around you,” Fuyin commanded. “What do you see, Guardians?”

“Scorch marks,” one of the other armored men muttered. “Fire… and at such an intensity that it could have easily damaged the archives, even through the imbuements.”

“Are you implying that Tren destroyed the archives?” the lead Guardian asked. “I don’t believe that. The scorch marks are only in this area. The books have not all been burned. They have gone missing.”

“That’s because Tren destroyed them,” Fuyin replied. “He did it after I arrived in the archives—”

“And for what purpose did you do that?” the Guardian pressed. “If all is as you claim, then what were you doing sneaking into the archives? You could have sought out another Rank 6 Inquisitor and avoided suspicion by not stealing one of Tren’s keys.”

“Because I was trying to stop all of this,” Fuyin ground out, throwing her hands into the air beside her. “I didn’t know how deep the corruption within the Inquisition went. I couldn’t seek help because I didn’t know who else might have been lost… so I went to check myself. But that was Tren’s goal.”

“You mean he was waiting for you?” one of the other Guardians asked — and this time, there was a hint of something else in his voice. Anger. Not toward Fuyin, but Tren. The tides of the conversation were shifting.

“Tren found his scapegoat in me, and I played right into his hands. I managed to get a few moments to do some research. And do you know what I found? Tren wasn’t the only traitor in his family. He wasn’t even the first,” Fuyin said, her voice going dangerously cold. “How was this never mentioned to me? It should have been relevant.”

A second of silence dragged by. For a moment, Noah feared that Grim had bullshitted the entire story about Tren’s parents and not a word of it had been true.

Then the lead Guardian let out a curse.

“Shit,” the man snarled. He let his swords lower completely. “Forgive me, Inquisitor Fuyin. I don’t know how I didn’t see this sooner. Tren played us. He told us not to inform other members of the Inquisition of what was happening for the very same reason you just said. He said there was corruption. Demonic influence.”

“There was,” Fuyin said grimly. “It was him. You can’t blame yourself for being fooled. Tren must have been allied with an incredibly powerful demon to perform a manipulation at this scale. We must report this to the council immediately.”

“The archives…” the Guardian said, his voice taut with grief. “So much knowledge. So much power. Lost. To the demons, no less. Damn it all. You are correct. I will offer you appropriate apologies later, Inquisitor Fuyin. We must report this to the council with absolute haste. But I must ask, before any further actions are taken… you had a chance to look at the archives before Tren destroyed them. You may very well have been the last Inquisitor to do so. Were there other traitors, Fuyin?”

Something passed through Fuyin’s eyes. But, before Noah could figure out what it was, she slowly shook her head.

“No. It was only Tren. I didn’t find evidence of any other traitors within the Inquisition.”

“I see.” The Guardian gave them a grim nod. His eyes flicked to Noah for an instant. “I apologize for my insult. It seems your aid to Fuyin is the only reason that Tren didn’t completely manage to pull his deceit over the eyes of the Inquisition today.”

“Forget about it.”Noah shook his head, barely able to believe his luck. Fuyin had actually managed to pull it off. She’d completely scammed them. Noah couldn’t have been prouder. He ran a hand through his singed hair. “But I do really have to be getting—”

“We must go the council at once,” the Guardian said, cutting Noah off. “Fuyin obviously didn’t have time to review all of the archives before Tren destroyed them. Gods above, there could be a demon somewhere within the very heart of the Inquisition. The council must receive a recounting of what happened here from the only two that were present to witness it.”

Goddamn it.