Chapter 53

Three Months After Dunthir

“He has fourteen months left on his contract and you have him sitting in a hanger applying runes to ships?” Admiral Shiel asked his commander in charge of the integration project. The project designed to get every ship outfitted with the runes that proved to be so useful after the battle of Dunthir.

The admiral watched as the man in question worked to direct his team with the inscription process, while he himself worked on the finer rune details.

“What would you have me do? He has no access to his power, even now. By all accounts he is a burnout, meaning he can no longer be in an officer position. Worse he can’t fly without at least one officer at the helm, meaning he and his crew are grounded for the foreseeable future. The only good thing about this is that he is still in the RDT division, so rather than having him unceremoniously kicked out of the service we can put him and his crew to work here, inscribing the runes he used to graduate. Then we can let him retire with dignity.” Commander Snyder replied, the commander who had been placed in charge of handling the man. His primary task so far had been blocking the fallout left from the war. This was quickly moving into a full-time job for the Commander as demands to speak to the reclusive former officer came in constantly.

“What of his crew? Do they show any resentment?” The admiral asked.

“Towards Vita?”

“Yes, I’m sure that since the fallout and negative PR that is now being called the slaughter of Dunthir, some has fallen back on him, with obvious extra backlash on his crew?”

Shaking his head Commander Snyder didn’t see this to be the case. “No, I don’t think that is happening to the crew. At least if it is, no one is saying anything.”

“Has Vita had any backlash?”

Bowing his head, the Commander answered “unfortunately. A few citizens who are angry with the fact that revenge couldn’t happen have yelled at him.”

“What is the citizen’s rationale?”

“The rationale is simple, many had friends or family in Dunthir, family that was slaughtered and left unavenged. It doesn’t help that he defends Nayali at every step of the way.” The Commander said, looking to the exotic beauty who stayed by Lykan’s side throughout the entire process handing different materials to him at key moments.

“Whatever happens we cannot let any harm come to that woman. An attack on her would be the same as an attack on Ajimal, and while we are at a forced peace now. There is no way to say that attacking her wouldn’t be enough to break the Gods’ formed treaty.” The Admiral said, a note of concern filling his voice.

“Yes, we have heightened the number of guards around the base. We have also restricted the number of times Mr. Vita can leave the post, as we cannot ensure his safety in the neighboring city.” Commander Snyder admitted.

Shaking his head, the Admiral felt disgusted with what was happening. “He’s a goddamn war hero, and here he is being treated like a prisoner.”

Commander Snyder opened his mouth to speak, but in the end couldn’t. What the admiral said was true. The man singlehandedly stopped the war, forcing the gods to bind both sides of the conflict. In the end there were only three problems, one that an entire city of Sidherthans were slaughtered. The second thing was that the war ended without any major casualties to the Azani invaders, even the soldiers that were lost in the initial invasion were light. Then the third and possibly worst thing was Officer Vita was hurt so badly in the attack that he lost his ability to channel energies. This inability to channel energies made it so he could no longer be an officer in the military.

The admiral watched on in silence as the once talented officer worked diligently writing new runes to the various ships that had been brought in. Such a talented youth wasted by the throes of war, the admiral thought to himself. Finally, after a few minutes of staring he shook his head and moved on with the inspection of the progress being made. So far Vita’s crew had managed to apply the runes successfully to one ship every three days.

“There is one question I have, how is he still able to write runes?” The Admiral asked.

Hearing the question Commander Snyder looked at the Admiral for a second not wanting to belittle the intelligence of the Admiral. But after a second it was clear that the Admiral clearly didn’t have a clue, so he spoke. “Well, see anyone can write runes and infuse them with Power. Even the lowliest grunt who never does anything to improve their Power attribute still has a Power of one and is therefore able to infuse a rune with energy.” Commander Snyder said, hoping that explanation would be enough.

“I know that, but how is it that his meridians are broken, but he can still use mana?” The Admiral asked, something not quite making sense about what he was seeing.

Hearing this again, Commander Snyder took in a half breath trying to find the best way to speak to his superior officer without having his words come across as rude. “Sir. When creating runes, the flow of energy bypasses the meridians, going to the mind first. Then out to the dominant hand. This bypassing of the meridians is what makes the process so anyone can be a rune scribe. It also makes the process entirely cumbersome and draining for most people, as the flow requires perfect mental control and focus, while also flowing counter to how most people are taught to utilize their natural energies. Fortunately, Mr. Vita is a savant when it comes to energy control and focus.”

Hearing that the Admiral nodded his head in understanding for a bit. Then an idea came to him, “isn’t that close to what the Cerusian’s supposedly do?”

Hearing this, the Commander looked at the Admiral wondering how he had gotten so far in life without knowing these basics. “Yes and no. While it is similar in theory to what the Cerusians do, that is channeling energy through the mind. The type of energy being used, and the end results are vastly different. Though there are historians who believe that the art of rune forging came about by people trying to mimic the processes of the Cerusians. The result being that after extensive testings, it was concluded that people with mana could not perform or re-create Cerusian magics. Also, the hybrid variation of magic that came from trying to merge the two was the art of rune writing.”

These were the introductory theories that were given to all rune writes when they were assigned to this section of RDT. While the Admiral and Mr. Vita had never been exposed to the rune working coursework, Mr. Vita picked up the concepts of the skills rather easily. Teaching himself how to channel his energy backwards within his first few days of being assigned to RDT.

The two stood in silence for a moment, watching the crew below get through another set of runes.

“How is he at handling the runes? Any signs of him being over-exhausted?” The Admiral asked.

“Mr. Vita is like a never-ending stream of energy. He can channel energy from sunup to sundown without any strain on his source, or on his mind.” Commander Snyder said.

Hearing that the Admiral just nodded. “Well, he can stay here until his meridians heal. I want him to make regular check-ins with the doctors to see his progress. The minute he regains his channels, the minute he will be reinstated as an officer. Until then, keep him here doing what he is doing.”

Commander Snyder wanted to object, saying that Mr. Vita’s injuries were far too devastating to recover from easily. But soon found the orders given were more than fair. So long as Mr. Vita stayed as he was, Commander Snyder would have an invaluable resource available to him.

“Yes sir.” Commander Snyder said.

Nodding to himself the Admiral left the area to go tour the rest of the facility. With the abrupt turn, and movement Commander Snyder followed the Admiral knowing that he would have to show off the rest of the facility to the Admiral.