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It wasn’tuntil the sun dipped into the horizon that Revna opened one of the windows and waved to Kolfinna, careful not to stick any part of herself outside. “Why don’t you both come inside and have some dinner? I’m sure you’re starving.”

“I want to keep working,” Kolfinna murmured, stifling a yawn.

“Kolfinna, it’ll be days before you finish,” she said. “Come inside and rest. You’ve been at it for hours.”

“I’m almost done.”

Revna froze. “What?”

“I’m almost done,” Kolfinna said, just as another rune vanished at her fingertips. She tried to pull more mana from within her, but it felt like touching raindrops instead of a full pond. “I have maybe a hundred left? Maybe less.”

“Are you sure you got them all?”

“Not all, but most, yes.”Most of the runes were gone and she could see the pale-yellow wood of the house.

“But …” Revna opened her mouth and closed it, like a gaping fish. “That shouldn’t be possible at your current level. Are you sure you’ve never used rune magic?”

Kolfinna had nothing to base her progress on, so hearing that brought a smile to her face. Was she actually, maybe,goodat this?

“Yes, this is my first time,” Kolfinna answered, careful to hide the undercurrents of excitement in her voice, “but … it’s not hard, per se. It’s just very tedious and it gets monotonous.”

Revna snapped her fingers. “I didn’t think about it before, but it’s been centuries since anyone has fortified the runes. They’ve likely lost a significant amount of their power … Let this be a lesson to you,” she said, her voice quickening in giddiness. “Runes must always have a power source. You can write runes and leave them there and they’ll stay up for decades because your mana is inside it, but once you’re dead, it weakens. And as time goes on, it weakens more and more. Unless they’re runes with souls and the dead mingled in, like with items … they can’t last forever. It doesn’t make sense that a newcomer like you would be able to break centuries’ worth of runes just because you’re slightly gifted. Isn’t this great news? And, I suppose, you must be one ofthosetypes.”

“Those types?”Kolfinna lowered her hand from the wall.

“Yes, usually there are two types of rune users. Those that are good at breaking runes, and those that are good at making runes. The latter is favored in society more than the former. Seeing as how you could only write ‘cold’ on the spoon, I suppose your rune making abilities are abysmal. But that’s good that you’re able to break them.”

Kolfinna’s smile faltered; was she supposed to feel happy hearing that? “Um, yeah, thanks.”

Blár, who had been lying on the ground with his arms behind his head, stretched his arms out as he sat upright. Sand coated his cloak and hair. “Are we almost done?”

“We?” Kolfinna raised an eyebrow. “I don’t recall you helping.”

“I offered conversation.” He jumped to his feet and dusted the sand off his pants. “How is your mana doing? You’ve been working for a few hours now, so I imagine you’re drained.”

She wanted to refute him and say her mana was perfectly fine and that she could finish breaking all the runes, but she could barely feel the mana inside her. “Unfortunately,” she said, “I think I’ve exhausted a lot of my mana.”

“You can work on it tomorrow,” Revna said. “Come inside and eat. Come on.”

Kolfinna hesitated even as her arms felt heavy and her eyes drooped. Sheneededto finish tonight. Eyfura and the rest of the party needed her help; she couldn’t waste time here. But she was running on fumes. Maybe an hour or two would help rejuvenate her mana?

“Eat and rest, and you can start again,” Revna insisted, as if reading her mind.

“All right … But only for a bit.”

20

After a two-hour breakthat helped Kolfinna replenish some mana, Kolfinna set to work on the rest of the runes. She felt like a stick in the mud as she tried to garner the willpower and strength to shatter the runes. Blár was sprawled on the ground again with his arms crossed beneath his head. Two swords sat beside him; swords that Revna had given them to defeat the dreki when the time came.

She tried concentrating on the rune at hand, but her mind drifted to Blár, and then to the swords, and then to the sky—as if the dreki would swoop down and gobble her up.

“What’s wrong?” Blár asked, startling her from her reverie.

“I don’t know.” She betrayed a glance at the window, hoping Revna wasn’t eavesdropping. She wrung her aching hands together—they were sore from opening and closing her fist to grasp the runes, which she later realized she didn’t need to do and only needed to touch them with her mana to break them. The joints popped with every twist and her knuckles cracked when she distractedly pulled her fingers. “I think I might’ve gone overboard earlier, and now I’m just burned out. It’s hard to focus.”

Blár considered that for a moment. “Then let’s just go. We have weapons. Someone else can save her dusty ass.”