Now that Tim’s Runes were just about completely repaired, Noah headed back to the T building. It had been a little bit since he’d last had a chance to sit down and practice with his violin.

Between teaching the kids, the shitshow that Wizen had caused, and all the other responsibilities he’d landed himself with, there wasn’t as much time for freedom as there had been before.

He drew up to the door and went to push it open. Noah froze. His domain prickled. There was another mage with a domain on the other side of the door. His eyes narrowed and he drew on his Runes.

They knew a number of people that had domains, so there was no need to go in swinging, but precaution never hurt anybody. Noah pushed and the door swung open. He strode inside, Natural Disaster primed and at the ready, only to find that Moxie and Lee were the only ones inside.

Lee had perched herself on top of the desk and was chewing a strip of jerky while Moxie had a small flower growing from a seed cupped within her hands. They both looked over to him as he entered.

“Oh. You’re back,” Moxie said casually. “How’d it go with Tim?”

Noah stared at her. It took him a second longer to register that the domain didn’t belong to another mage. It was coming from Moxie.

“You are not going to play this cool,” Noah said, striding over to her. Moxie burst into laughter and the flower in her palms withered away as he lifted her off the bed and spun her around. “Did you seriously wait until I left to advance? How’d it go? Does your Rune need any reworking? I’ve already used the Fragment, but—”

“I’m fine, Noah,” Moxie said, putting a hand on his chest. “And it went really well. I didn’t exactly wait for you to leave, but the thought did strike me that it would be pretty funny if I ended up reaching Rank 4 before you got back.”

“Moxie was bouncing around waiting for you to return,” Lee put in as she stuffed the rest of the jerky into her mouth. “She only sat back down when I smelled you coming.”

“We agreed you were not going to mention that!” Moxie exclaimed. “I bribed you!”

“Oh, yeah.” Lee looked down at her now-empty hands. “I forgot once I ran out of food.”

“That’s a horrible excuse, and it doesn’t even work when you started ratting me out before you even finished eating.”

“I have a very advanced mind,” Lee said. She swallowed, then flashed them a toothy grin. “I think several steps ahead. Unfortunately for you, several steps ahead meant I’ve already finished your food in my mind by the time I spoke.”

Moxie blew out an exasperated breath and thunked her head against Noah’s chest. “Well, I got to feel cool for a moment.”

Noah pulled her into a hug and ruffled her hair. “You’re always cool. You didn’t say if the Rune needs to be modified, though. I still can’t really tell power from domains yet, so I can’t tell if yours is strong or not.”

“I don’t think I do, actually,” Moxie said. She moved to step back and Noah released her. Her brow furrowed in concentration for a moment and she shook her head. “I’ve drawn on its power several times, trying to use different components of it. The pressure doesn’t change.”

“Well damn,” Noah said, his grin growing even wider. “You managed a Flawless Rune on your literal first attempt? What’s the name of the rune you made?”

“Flowering Genesis,” Moxie replied, a touch of color entering her cheeks. “The name is a bit pretentious; I know.”

“It sounds cool,” Lee said.

“I’m with her,” Noah said, nodding to Lee. “What does it actually do? It’s a little abstract. Did you test to make sure the magic isn’t too high level for a Rank 4?”

“That’s what I’ve been doing. Well, kind of. I’ve been a tad distracted bouncing around, as Lee put it,” Moxie said with an exasperated huff. She reached into a pocket in her jacket and pulled out another seed.

Pinching the seed between two fingers, Moxie pursed her lips. Energy prickled against Noah’s domain. His domain and Moxie’s seemed roughly matched, so her magic functioned without impedance.

The seed cracked apart and a green sprig curled out from within it, quickly blooming into a flower. Noah watched it expectantly, but nothing else happened. He looked back to Moxie, who had a smug expression on her face.

“I think I might be missing something,” Noah said. “That’s a pretty flower, but I don’t see what you did with the Rank 4 that you wouldn’t have been able to do with a Rank 3.”

“I’ll give you a hint,” Moxie said.

The flower withered away. Noah’s brow creased, digging through his thoughts as he attempted to find what he was missing.

“You don’t have any death related runes in there, do you?” Noah asked.

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Moxie’s grin expanded as she shook her head. “None. I did take your advice in the life and death cycle of plants, but I have no idea where I’d even get a Death Rune — much less how one of those would be made. I don’t think it would be pleasant, and it certainly wouldn’t be easy to find.”

“Then the plant is dying because you’re cutting off power to it?” Noah guessed.

She gave him an encouraging nod, then gestured for him to keep going. Moxie was definitely enjoying this.

Why would a plant die after she stopped giving it power? All the other plants she’s worked with stay around afterward. I’ve assumed they just eat the magic she gives them and remain in their new state or something like that.

Her bed is proof of that. There’s no way Moxie is constantly wasting magical energy to keep it alive. Those plants are just… there. So why are these flowers just randomly dying the moment the magic fades?

“These new flowers are closer to a bolt of lightning than an actual flower, aren’t they?” Noah mused. “They’re so heavily reliant on magic that they can’t sustain themselves normally like a regular plant can — or maybe they aren’t a regular plant at all and are literally just pure magic?”

“You’re getting closer,” Moxie said. “Do you give up?”

“Hold on,” Noah said, holding a hand up. His nose scrunched and he chewed his lower lip. The answer wasn’t coming to him. The plants were clearly different than her normal ones, but he just had no way to tell how. “Okay, okay. You win. What’s different about them?”

“These seeds are dead,” Moxie said. “And I don’t even need them. Take a look at this.”

She pressed her hand to the desk. A green sprout pushed out of the wood and bloomed into a red-petaled flower beside her hand in moments. Noah blinked, his confusion only growing.

“Okay. You’ve lost me. How are you making flowers without seeds? The first rule of magic at our rank is that we need something to start with. I’m far from a tree expert, but I don’t think flowers can sprout from wood.”

“That’s because Flowering Genesis isn’t trying to make plants sprout,” Moxie said. “It makes flowers from organic matter. Anything that has the potential to live or used to live — I can use it. I can control the kind of flower as well.”

“Wait. Anything?” Noah asked, his eyes widening. “Does that include currently living things?”

“As long as they don’t have a domain stronger than mine, yes. Lee brought in a squirrel and I may have done a quick test before she put it out of its misery. I don’t think it would work against someone with a domain that repressed my magic, but if I was stronger…” She trailed off and shrugged.

Noah swallowed. That was a terrifying prospect. He still vaguely remembered a rumor that had gone around back when he’d still been a child in school. Kids had said that eating a watermelon seed whole could cause it to sprout inside his stomach.

That had been fake, of course, but it looked like Moxie had managed to make that particular nightmare a potential reality for her opponents.

While he stared off into space and considered the ramifications of Moxie’s new abilities, she picked a book up off her desk and flipped through it, the smug satisfaction on her face only growing with every passing second. “And when I said I can control the flowers, I did mean it.”

She turned the book around so Noah could look at its pages. It was a treatise on poisonous plants. He looked back over to her.

“Has anyone ever told you how terrifying you could be before this? You’re going to end up in someone’s nightmares.”

“She can also make tasty flowers,” Lee added, hopping down from the desk. “We have an infinite food source.”

Noah sent a querying look to Moxie who let out a sigh. “Tasty is an exaggeration. I made a fluffy looking one and she ate it before I could stop her. I’m still not actually sure what it was meant to be. It definitely wasn’t edible. I’m still nowhere near actually making proper poison yet. The idea honestly just hit me right after I formed my Rank 4 Rune and I ran over to the library to grab this. I’m hoping I’ll figure it out soon.”

“Everything is edible. Your stomach is just cowardly,” Lee said. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned, and a flicker of sadness passed over her features. “But we’re all Rank 4 now, even if my rune sucks.”

“It doesn’t suck,” Noah said. Lee glanced away from him and he put his hands on her shoulders, gently pulling her face back to look at him. “Hey. Lee, look at me. The problem isn’t that your rune isn’t strong. The problem is that it’s too strong. You’re actively holding yourself back to avoid losing who you are. If you wanted to, you could become incredibly strong. That kind of sacrifice requires a lot more than just magical strength.”

“I know,” Lee muttered. “I don’t want to fall behind, but I still want to be me. Why is being a demon so unfair?”

“Because you can’t get power without giving something up,” Moxie said. “Demons are far stronger than humans of an equivalent rank, but no amount of power is worth becoming a monster. I’d take you over Azel any day.”

Lee gave them a small smile. “Thanks. I didn’t mean to take away from your achievement, Moxie. I’m really happy you reached Rank 4.”

Moxie scooped both Lee and Noah into a hug and squeezed them tightly. “There’s nothing wrong with having feelings, Lee. You can be happy about something and sad about something else at the same time. I’m never going to get mad at you for having emotions. I can’t imagine how you feel so I won’t pretend otherwise, but we’re both here to support you with anything we can.”

“Thanks,” Lee said, her voice muffled from being squeezed against Noah and Moxie.

“And we’ll find a way to make sure you can get your rune completely under control,” Noah promised. “Don’t worry. You won’t lose yourself and you won’t fall behind.”

Lee’s arms tightened around both of them and she nodded mutely. A second passed. Then her stomach grumbled.

They all burst into laughter and stepped back as Lee’s cheeks reddened. “My stomach heard what you said about having different emotions and decided it was hungry.”

“Let’s go get something to eat,” Noah said. He paused to swing by the closet and stuff several changes of clothes that he had hanging in it into his bag. “Maybe we can grab the students as well. It’ll be a good opportunity to sync up before the advanced track meeting tomorrow.”

Lee wiped her face with the back of a sleeve and then looked up at him with a flicker of excitement. Noah wasn’t sure how much of it was real and how much was her hiding her true feelings, but he didn’t press the matter.

“Are we going to eat a bunch more food at the meeting?” Lee asked. “That was fun.”

“We very well might.” Noah nodded. “The best thing we can do is be prepared — but we can worry about that after eating.”

“Everything is better after eating,” Lee said with a sage nod, and they filed out of the room in search of their students and a meal.

For better or for worse, the three of them were all finally Rank 4.