First Sage CH13: Blaspheme

I hobbled to the calendar and wrote our power levels for August 15th.

Atom PL 2393

Jason PL 3065

After Jason solved his control issue, he could focus squarely on power. He even talked about upping the gravity to 10x soon. The torture was exponential and took fine control.

I caught a thrown protein shake. Ember smiled at me, keeping her fangs hidden like they embarrassed me. Some of my tension fell from my shoulders.

Being behind wasn’t so bad. Jason tried to push me harder but didn’t understand that I was trying to overcome my limits. He threw some runes together and said Problem solved.

Like he couldn’t do the same with seals if he wanted to. How long had he planned to use runes?

“I think Emily is a bad influence on my brother,” I said.

Ember nodded, and we left the house. No one had come for the armor or the soldiers, so I dragged them inside. After tearing the power armor apart, I could only say they were already mostly stripped. While that would make customization easier, the power armor was barely functional. Energy shielding was a must in any battle involving energy people of culture.

A mage would have blasted them with lightning, and a cultivator would have punched them into mincemeat. While those were the two biggest cultures, there were many branches that could do something similar.

I grabbed two beers from our porch cooler and tossed Ember one. She snatched it deftly from the air and opened the tab.

“You know I can’t digest this. I’ll have to puke it up while you’re training.” Ember said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know,” I said.

Ember took a sip while watching me with curious eyes.

“Jason added runes to his aura and ruined himself. The longer he lets them sit in his aura, the harder it will be to return to the path.” I said.

“Does Jason want to return to this path?” Ember asked.

I gave Ember a look. “Whose side are you on?” I asked.

“My own royals are exiled, and I need a reliable source of blood,” Ember said.

I snorted and took a long drink. “I’m damn close to mastering concealment.” My aura roiled close to my skin with barely a flicker. The signs were there, and my control was coming along remarkably well. “Jason could have waited and gained full control over his aura.”

“Jason doesn’t care about control; he desires power and action,” Ember said.

“How do you know that? And wouldn’t control, go hand and hand with power?” I asked.

I melted the can in my hand into slag. Silvery liquid rolled down my hand but never touched my skin. That was control to be proud of.

“Did you sense it because I didn’t see any visible effects? That means I’m close to concealment mastery. Once that happens, a whole world of possibilities opens. Jason won’t have them. His aura is filled with runes.”

“Have you thought about telling him how you feel?” Ember asked.

I shook my head. Jason doesn’t care. He let Emily put Nordic runes in his aura and crippled himself. VHA wouldn’t ever accept Emily’s father as their grand inquisitor again. What was my fool of a brother thinking? He wasn’t; he sought the easy way to power, which worked out for him. The wounds covering my body were proof enough that Jason had successfully gamed our culture with part of another, and it pissed me off.

“Do you think he wants to become a mage?” I asked.

If he became a mage, then he would go away to college, learn magic, and abandon our culture. One culture could be left behind for another, or on rare occasions, multiculturalism could occur. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of taking up another culture and giving it equal importance to mine.

It could be done, but it shouldn’t be.

“No, he wants to marry that girl and save her family. Jason didn’t want to split his focus, so he sacrificed control for power. Are seals really so different from runes?” Ember asked.

For the question, I wanted to slap her upside the head. Ember knew better; her nose was covered in our beginner study texts. If she wanted to play games, then I would oblige her.

“Seals are to runes as modern quantum computers are to the ancient world’s computers. Their sophistications aren’t close.” I said.

“Runes are more complex than they appear. My mentor fell to a rune blade.” Ember whispered.

Was that even true, or a part of a backstory she invented for herself? I despised myself for questioning her motives, but government propaganda was a thing. This could have all been stages with computer-engineered images. Those thoughts only led to further madness. At some point, a man had to reach out and offer trust.

The question was, would Ember burn me for it.

“Rune blades are the height of runecraft. Wielding one is different from what Jason has done. Aren’t your relics related to those artifacts?”

A hard slap to my face was my reward for such crass words. Maybe I was bad with women.

“My relic was created from the flesh of an ascended being. It can not be compared to something crafted by mortal hands.” Ember said.

“Look who’s touchy about their culture now.” We lapsed in silence for a time. “Jason isn’t going to yang those runes out of his aura, is he?” I asked.

Ember shook her head in the negative.

“Would you throw away a rune blade?” Ember asked.

“I would never touch one to begin with. Why would I want a mage’s weapon? Few of them ever train their bodies, and most rely on buffs. Can you imagine going from your current strength to that of a baseline human?” I asked.

“Mages are known for inflicting such disabilities on us. I have suffered from their curses.” Ember said.

A runeblade was a despicable outlier that refused to play its role as a long-distance fighter. Rumor had it that richer territories unburdened by second and third reconstructions put us 100 years behind the rest of the United City States in technology and magic. Standard power armor wasn’t affordable thanks to a few tariffs on technology trade. So, the mages found a solution in buffing spells and runeblades. They were so popular they named their grunts after the weapon.

The Egypt Mississippi Mage College produced 200 runeblades every year.

Was that where Jason planned to go next? Did he want to learn runecraft from a fat old master who retired from vampire hunting? Would he impress them with his crippled aura?

I couldn’t let it go. I didn’t understand why I felt so furious. The idea of mutilating my aura made me sick. Jason might have gotten the same results from seals but instead used runes in a combination I didn’t understand. Emily looked smug; she must have had something to do with it.

“I’m surprised those nearsighted wand wavers managed to hit you,” I said.

No, it wasn’t a fair assessment of them, but I didn’t care.

I needed to work on my control training could wait until I had my concealment mastered. Father could unleash his full strength without detection or give false data. That was power; it was a control that runes would never give Jason.

“Multiculturalism is a mistake; why can’t he see that,” I said.

“He believes differently than you. Is that a problem?” Ember said.

“It shouldn’t bother me, but he looked smug and stabbed me through my barrier. He’s growing stronger and faster than me. If not for those runes, he would drown in his own power. They seem to protect him from cascading cell suicide, too.” I said.

“Are you envious?” Ember asked.

“No, I don’t want to soil my aura with runes. That would be disgusting.” I said.

Ember raised an immaculate eyebrow and leaned in close. “What are you going to do about it?” Ember asked.

I leaned in and pressed my cheek against her. The touch cooled my anger against her stone-cold flesh. She felt so soft that I took a chance and looped my arm around her back. Ember’s cool body soothed some of my anger. She practically radiated cold and sucked the heat from my body. She was cold even after feeding. Her skin was white like compacted snow or a latticework of crystals.

She tried to drain some of my energy, but I held it firm like she did her own. Her body sucked harder, teaching me another lesson. I could sense her almost easily. Ember was a little blank spot in the world, slowly drawing in energy, only noticeable by the absence she left behind.

Her eyes shined with bloodlust, and her lips slowly parted, revealing fangs. Ember quickly regained control of her and closed her lips before leaning in to kiss my throat. Her lips were soft and cold enough to freezer-burn skin. I pulled her in close and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Atom, it's time to go,” Jason called from the living room.

My anger was still there, but she managed to cool it somewhat. “I need to go; my brother will get angry if he goes without a training partner.”