Once Noah finished his song, it didn’t take the demons long to start brainstorming as to what their patterns might be. Their ideas were certainly… interesting. It would probably take them a while to get to any ideas that would actually work.
And someone really needs to tell Edda that there’s more to life than eating. I wasn’t joking about not needing a second Lee. It’s not like I can blame her, though. She grew up surviving on scraps. Anyone would love food in her position.
Noah watched over the demons for around thirty more minutes, providing advice and suggestions in an attempt to steer them all in the right direction. Many of their pattern ideas were either straight up insane or just far too impractical to be realistic.
It was probably hard for them to reconcile power coming with something simple when they’d grown up in the Damned Plains, where there was so much focus on posturing and showing how deadly you were.
He waited around to make sure none of them would go against his warnings and try to start a pattern with magic. That wasn’t particularly likely, of course. Pulling something like that off would have made them a prodigy.
And if Noah wasn’t paying attention with his domain at the ready to snuff said magic out, it also would have made them dead.
He fortunately had no prodigy idiots. None of the demons tried to manifest their pattern and had instead all managed to get into a heated debate about what kind of pattern would be the most powerful.
Noah took that opportunity to catch Moxie’s eye from where she was overseeing the other students. He gave her a slight nod and they both broke away from their groups to meet in the middle.
“Going well?” Moxie asked.
“As well as one could expect. They’re going to need to re-screw their heads on a bit,” Noah said with a small chuckle. “They’re still mentally stuck in the Damned Plains. But they’ll get there soon enough. What about you?”
“I’ve basically just been practicing alongside everyone,” Moxie admitted. “But they’ve been careful. You know what’s kind of interesting, though? I think Alexandra’s pattern has gotten stronger. Like, a lot stronger.”
“Really? I would have thought that carving her runes out—”
“Yeah, me too. But no. I can definitely feel that its stronger. Even when she doesn’t use her own magic in it, the pattern has innate power to it. Almost like…”
“A rune,” Noah finished, his eyes going slightly wide.
“How’d you guess? Did you already know?”
“Patterns and Runes aren’t really all that different if you zoom out far enough. Runes are just patterns made to hold a specific type of magic. Patterns shouldn’t be any different when you get good enough at them.”
“Your music can do that too?” Moxie asked.
“I kind of skipped the beginning step with my music. I had a lot of practice back on Earth, so I understood the pattern well long before I came here,” Noah admitted as he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. “I went right to wrapping my magic with it, but there’s definitely magical energy in the pattern of my songs.”
Moxie studied him silently for a few seconds before answering. “What about in a fight or something? Have you ever tried using your pattern without putting magic into it?”
He paused for a moment to think about that question. Ironically enough, even though he was teaching his students to do it, Noah realized that he hadn’t. He’d used his pattern in fights before, but generally for the purpose of making a Formation.
For some reason he’d never really considered just using a normal music pattern in a fight when a Formation wasn’t involved. Now that he thought about it, there was absolutely no reason that wouldn’t work.
How did that never come to me? I can definitely picture a few ways that would actually be pretty damn effective, even if just as a distraction.
Noah coughed into his fist. “That… might work pretty well, actually. I somehow never thought about it.”
Moxie let out a snort and rolled her eyes. “And here I was wondering if something was secretly wrong with the idea or it would somehow be too dangerous to pursue. Then again, I should have known. I don’t think danger means the same thing to you as it does to the rest of us.” ⱤÃΝ𝘖βĚṣ
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“Hey. I’m a recovering addict. I haven’t killed myself in ages.”
“Your idea of ages and mine are vastly different, and very much in the wrong way. Shouldn’t time mean way more to me than it does to you?”
Noah waved his hand in the air before him. “Semantics. I am not a patient man.”
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“That bit is well established.” Moxie shook her head, hiding a smile, and nodded to the students behind her. “Well, have at them. I’ll make sure the demons don’t do anything too stupid in the meantime.”
“Thanks,” Noah said. He and Moxie continued along their paths, swapping groups.
He didn’t say anything when he arrived. Everyone was deep in focus on their different patterns and he didn’t want to distract anyone yet. It was also a great opportunity to see how far they’d come since he’d last had a chance to review their progress.
And far they had come.
All of them were infusing their patterns with magic. And, even as Noah let his domain wash over everyone, he could tell that they were stable. The fluctuations in power were steady. They were in control.
He couldn’t keep a proud smile from crossing his lips as he looked over his students. It wasn’t even accurate to say they were just in control. Emily stood in a sea of shimmering frosty mist, her features peaceful despite the immense concentration that maintaining her control over the pattern must have taken.
Noah hadn’t been physically present, but he’d seen just what the mist let her do. It basically acted as a pseudo-domain, letting her feel and attack people at lightning-fast speeds with tiny fragments of ice. Her grasp of the pattern was extensive.
And she wasn’t alone. Isabel’s sword carved through the air, each strike bearing the weight of a building landslide. Her eyes were closed in concentration as her sword moved in conjunction with her body — and while she’d positioned herself far away enough from the others to avoid accidentally getting too close with her blade, not once did she actually near them. Her instinctive understanding of her surroundings was perfect.
And Alexandra… well, Noah could see what Moxie had meant. His domain prickled when it washed over her. Her sword sang as it danced through the air around her like a hummingbird. The weapon was moving so fast that Noah could practically make out an afterimage in its wake. There was magic within the pattern itself, but it was more than just that.
He stared in awe for several long moments as he tried to process the information that his domain was feeding him. The magic didn’t seem to be coming from Alexandra herself. It was literally being born from her movements. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Alexandra was powering her pattern from the environment rather than her own reserves.
Holy shit. I’ve never seen that before. Every kind of magic I’ve worked with requires it to come from the source. Being able to just pull magic from the world around you… that’s insane. I never even thought it was a possibility. I wonder if removing her runes somehow let her grow closer to the pattern she was working on? I’ll have to grill her after she’s done practicing. Don’t want to interrupt.
Most of the other students all demonstrated a respectable level of mastery over their abilities. Not quite to Alexandra’s level, but they were all doing spectacularly. At least, he was pretty sure they were.
Noah knew James’ pattern was working when it took him three glances to actually figure out where the boy lay, arms crossed behind his back in apparent sleep. His pattern of nothingness had made him so hard to detect that even Noah’s domain had nearly missed his presence.
It was a bit hard to get a good read on Todd and Lee. Todd was focused in on working on imbuing something. Noah knew precious little about Imbuements — but he’d also seen Todd make a literal gun with them.
Pretty sure he’s on the right path. I should try to find someone to help him more on the Imbuement side of things, though. I’m not suitable to keep teaching him in that path. I can only help with combat and general pattern theory.
Heh, pattern theory. That makes it sound way fancier than it actually is. I’m definitely naming it that.
As for Lee… well, it was always a little difficult to tell what Lee was thinking about. She sat cross-legged, her hands braced against her knees and her brow scrunched in intense concentration.
Noah’s domain picked up on something within her. He couldn’t tell quite what it was, but it was there. It probably warranted a conversation to figure out just what kind of pattern she was focusing on now that she’d formed her Rune of Self.
And then, standing in the center of the group and with a mixture of awe, fear, and confusion on her face, was Yulin.
Ah, shit. She definitely should have been with the demons to get the summary of patterns.
“What is all this?” Yulin asked. Her gaze lingered on Alexandra. “What kind of magic is this?”
“Patterns. I should have given you a summary of them together with the demons. The short form is that patterns exist in everything, and you can harness them to access magic in a different way. I can get more in-depth later. Until then, you can just stick around and watch. And no telling anyone else about this. Big secret.”
“Yeah,” Yulin muttered. “I can’t see why. I don’t get any of this.”
“The patterns?”
“No,” Yulin said. “You. You’re supposed to be one of the worst professors from the Linwick family. The rumors said you were a pervert that got sent to Arbitage to keep you out of your family’s hair. But that doesn’t match up at all. How could someone like that be… you?”
“It all started with grand larceny.”
Yulin stared at him. “What?”
“Never mind,” Noah said, shaking his head with a chuckle. “Maybe you’ll find out one day. Until then, your only job is to practice. I’m a teacher. That’s it.”
“Right.” The tone of Yulin’s voice made it abundantly clear that she was far from convinced. “Just a teacher.”
“Oh hey, Vermil is here,” James said, nearly making Noah jump. He’d somehow forgotten about the boy in the time since he’d last spotted him. That nothingness pattern of his was surprisingly effective.
Todd glanced up and a grin split his lips. “Oh, hell yeah. Is it teachin’ time?”
“Don’t call it that,” Noah said. “It sounds dumb.”
Emily’s white mist faded and her eyes drifted open, focusing on him. One by one, all of the students let their patterns drop safely and all turned to face him.
“I think it’s teachin’ time,” Isabel confirmed.
She was aware of her surroundings acutely enough to pick up on Todd’s joke even while practicing? Well done.
“We are not calling it that,” Noah said, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “But I have to say — I’m quite proud of all of you. You’ve made quite a bit of progress since my little trip.”
“Does that mean we can get to the next stage?” Alexandra asked eagrely.
A smile pulled across Noah’s lips and he nodded.
“Yes. I think it’s time that we move onto Formations.”