Rune to take down Bakuda

The seconds stretched impossibly long before my fingers wrapped around something round and hard, and I pulled out a quarter that I had prepared for tonight. It was smooth and featureless — pressed flat by Aífe’s raw strength — and carved into its surface was a series of runes that formed a spell of binding.

This was another part of the plan Lisa and I had worked out. There were plenty of ways I could have taken down Bakuda, if I was being honest, and if she really had killed Dad, then maybe…

But that wasn’t a step I wanted to take. So I needed something that could hold Bakuda without requiring me to switch heroes mid-fight and let the goons do as they pleased.

That was where Aífe and her runic magic came in. It didn’t need to be fancy, it didn’t need to last years, and it didn’t take hours, days, or weeks to make. Sure, it might’ve been better if I’d used a volcanic stone or a rock plucked from a clean, fresh water spring, but for a quick and dirty job, the five minutes to take a quarter, press it flat between my fingers, and carve a few symbols into it was good enough.