Which one of the three companions did the rune mage charge at? Aemoten, I presume? With how he and Etakar have been moving, the companions should be with roughly a hundred and twenty degree angles between them, and my characters are/were keeping at least half a dozen meters of distance, so it may make some difference in this case with what I would post.
(Oeh... And you'd probably need to post as Olan, too.)

 - I myself have been a somewhat fleeting presence lately, though it probably has not been all too noticeable. Have had some business to do, and atop of that there was the yearly summer solstice and national holiday combination in between (was good time, though it rained sporadically on the night of fires; we dragged out all the old planks and some logs from the shed and, with the aid of half a bottle of some no longer identifiable concoction of various flammable liquids*, made a four-meter-tall fire anyway ... I hope at least the midsummerday was nice?). 

*Nothing toxic that should not be burned, mind. Just a mix of various fluids manufactured specifically to be burnt or lighted fires with and some stale plant oil poured together into one bottle after it was discovered that I have a notable number of almost-empty bottles. 

Haven't been sleeping too well recently, either, though in my case it has more to do with the holidays, other people, work and at least in one case, plain *forgetting* to go to sleep. It doesn't help that my natural day-night cycle is between twenty six and twenty eight hours long and the time I sleep constantly keeps shifting if I leave it to its own devices. ...Apparently it is normal for humans to have internal clocks which function on more than 24-hour days. The brain is also supposed to constantly adjust it according to the Sun ... which at my latitude would mean approximately one and a half hours of sleep at this time of year, and about eighteen during the darkest time of the winter; atop of that I switched to sleeping in the downstairs guest room when the 35-degree weather first hit, and unlike my usual bedroom/cabinet with its big wide east-facing windows, the downstairs has no windows whatsoever.
I actually had intended to have Aemoten do something more than speak a few words, but as it was decided that I was far too tired to be writing anything at all midway through and just concluded the post where I was at, promptly falling asleep right after.

On a more ligthearted note, I will probably be more free now own, starting from today (till I end up doing who-knows-what again). 
Yeah... So many things I would want to do. It isn't that I do not enjoy - and want to enjoy - the "simple things in life", too, it is more so that I either do not get the chance to do so *properly* all that often, or have to do so at the cost of something else, or... Eh. I think you will get the point. Also, half of the time I don't even know what I am trying to accomplish in the longer run or whether there is some specific aim to what I do, I simply ... do things. 
(What is ultimately detrimental research? Many things end up having unexpected uses in the end...)

And hey, my hands occasionally make a kind of snapping sound, too... Or, well, my right wrist does make a very audible sound when I flick it up in a specific way (has always done, unrelated to any injury my right hand has sustained), the rest not really unless I am actually intentionally cracking them. Haven't really had anyone randomly comment on it, except for once by a person who later became a friend of mine, and he just happily went "Me too!", and demonstrated the fact. (Then again, the motion is fairly specific, so it doesn't really occur all that frequently unless my hands got tired I was trying to get that out.) - It actually is harmless in my case; my father and his father are kind of similar. ...That would be rather unfortunate if my hands got disabled given the ungodly amount of rapid precise work I do with my hands; the most recent time my right hand was injured was quite enough of a nuisance. Your description sounds rather nasty compared to those of most people who have said they have problems with their hands...
(I quite like the option to take calls over the 'net as opposed to writing messages, simply because I get my hands free, and to an extent also because it is easier to pick up the tone.)

As for the numbers... 8 for Aemoten, 12 for Etakar. 
"Will have significance later on," eh? There are very few to no things which could be determined in this way without it inevitably coming to conflict with personal will, natural progression and/or apparent or hidden parts of character concept(s) - which is why I am generally opposed to anything chance-based (excluding cases where an unresolvable dispute comes into play or I have signed up for that specifically). There is no such thing as chance, there are only coincidences. 
(Er... Let's leave various quantum theories out here.)

Hmm... And now I wonder whether death-rebirth cycle in Reniam could actually be supported as far as the world goes. 
 
@Merc: Congrats!