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

 

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 exponentially greater with every G and demanded fine control over my body.

 

I caught a thrown protein shake. Ember smiled at me, keeping her fangs hidden like they embarrassed her. 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. I had to study Ember’s body with my energy sense and reverse engineer her natural body functions into techniques. If those techniques weren’t immediately useful to the point they were always active in some way, I would be even further behind.

 

Still, I glared at the runes embedded in Jason’s aura. Like he couldn’t do the same with seals if he wanted to. How long had he planned to use runes? How much of it was him, and how much was Emily.

 

“I think Emily will destroy my brother,” I said.

 

Ember nodded, and we left the house. No one had come for the armor or the soldiers, so I dragged the armor 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 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. The soldiers had been sent out with a thin veneer of protection.

 

This was either a false flag requiring retaliation or the new regime was cleaning house by sending undesirables to their deaths. In which case, more of the surviving undesirables should have come for us, but there weren’t even patrols around for 20 miles.

 

As a result, more belligerent mutants have moved into the territory. I could feel stronger mutants giving us attention. If not for the fence, we would have been attacked. While Jason and I were busy training, there was no one to devote time to the fence’s upkeep except a few AIs. While they could handle the soft seals, something would get through if something broke at an inopportune moment.

 

Why couldn’t Jason deny Emily and make her his woman? All he had to do was take control, and our lives could return to normal. There would be no need for torture our bodies weren’t ready for.

 

I grabbed two beers from our porch cooler and tossed Ember one. She snatched it deftly from the air and opened the tab. What choice would Emily have if Jason said no? He was the driving force behind this madness.

 

Then there was me supporting my brother because I loved him. I might have stopped us before we committed, but it's too late. I could see it in my brother’s eyes: determination and madness.

 

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

 

Ironically, the one bright spot in this situation was the vampire I saved.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t know,” I said.

 

Ember rolled her eyes and took a sip while watching me curiously.

 

“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 between my fingers 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 had already changed; they wouldn’t ever again accept Emily’s father as their grand inquisitor. What was my fool of a brother thinking?

 

I could answer that.

 

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. Our ancestors would roll in their graves on whatever battlefield that may be.

 

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 deep in our beginner study texts. She asked the question because she knew the answer and wanted me to say it and come to a realization.

 

Unfortunately, she had only scratched the surface of what seals could do.

 

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

 

Her voice filled with melancholy. “Runes are more complex than they appear. My mentor fell to a rune blade.” Ember whispered.  

 

Was that even true or 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 yank 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 and debuffs. Can you imagine going from your current strength to that of a baseline human?” I asked.

 

Father always said mastered concealment negated debuffs.

 

“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 elite infantry 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.

 

Ember crossed her arms and turned away from me. 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. Every time I fed her a strand of my energy, I saw a flash of her inner workings.

 

Her eyes shined with bloodlust, and her lips slowly parted, revealing fangs. Ember quickly regained control of her thirst and closed her lips before kissing 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.”

 

This was going to be a shitshow. Since Jason gained those runes, he pushed me harder every time we went in. I faced his strength and matched it with my control. Numbers were something I couldn’t ignore. He could grow stronger in power, but I had to be careful. He threw away his potential to control his aura to climb in raw power with abandon; at most, those runes of his controlled 70 to 85% of his aura. What would he do when he entered the ten thousand. 1500 to 3000 was a lot of aura uncontrolled.  

 

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