They were doing this outside instead of in the lab at the island. Tao didn't know why until he came back from showering to find that Seira had started building a fire, a big one. They couldn't have smoke on the lab ceiling or ashes everywhere. Someone, probably Frankenstein, had brought out tea things, a sleeping bag with a pillow and chairs for everyone. Oh, here came Boss now, carrying the coffin. He must have finished prying the other soul weapon loose from Dark Spear.
"Can I see it?" Tao asked, hovering as Frankenstein set down his burden.
Frankenstein glanced at Rai, who nodded. He carefully lifted up the lid.
The soul weapon that lay there on the padded velvet was, "A whip?" Tao asked, delighted. "It's perfect for me!" Tao would be able to use it like his cables without learning a whole new fighting style!
Rai looked blank for a second, before he seemed to realize that oh yes, types of weapons mattered. He shook his head, clearly regretting that he hadn't considered that. What if he'd given Tao a soul weapon he couldn't use for what he wanted?
"It works out well, doesn't it?" Frankenstein said, smirking down at the dark whip as he leaned the lid against the side of the coffin. "I wish I'd known there would be a bonfire before we left, I would have brought marshmallows."
Seira shook her head elegantly. Right, Tao wasn't supposed to eat.
"The fire can be built back up in the morning after we're done. Perhaps I should have Takeo bring some." Takeo, M-21 and Regis would be joining them at the end of the school week. "You will enjoy s'mores, Master. They're a sweet best made outside." Where there wouldn't be sticky hands and crumbs inside his house. Frankenstein looked back at Seira. "Have you remembered anything else that might be helpful?"
She shook her head, carefully poking the fire with a stick as she looked down at her cellphone. Tao wasn't surprised that a noble had never built a bonfire before and would need to google it. He had mixed feelings about fire. They were pretty, but their missions for the Union… fires meant death and destruction. A lot of it he helped cause.
Still pretty, though. He wanted to crouch down next to it with Seira and feed it twigs… Huh. "It's like nobles," he realized, throwing himself down on one of the blankets and propping his head up on his hands, tilting his head to look at it.
Seira and Raizel blinked at him: he glanced at Boss, who looked curious, waiting for him to go on. "Look around," Tao said, waving at the area beyond the firelight. "It's dark out there. Anything could be out there, it's not safe. And the fire is so shiny!" He grinned. "It's shiny, and pretty and powerful and it's not safe to get too close but you still want to, right? Even if it could burn you alive. It's dangerous but it's shiny and it's even more dangerous to not have a fire, right?" Nobles were scary, like fire was scary, but they were shiny and Tao wanted one.
The students at Ye Ran, all the people who watched the nobles and didn't try to touch (like Tao before he knew that was okay!). Don't stick your hand in the fire, you'll be burned, but it was good to be near one so you'd be warm and safe and they were shiny so you wanted to look at them.
His face fell when he realized that both the nobles were frowning slightly. "No?" he asked.
They both looked at the fire, Seira's frown deepening. Raizel shook his head elegantly. "Fire is part of humanity," the Noblesse told him. "Fire needs to consume other life in order to survive: it is bright and beautiful and fleeting. And noisy," he added after a moment's hesitation. "But noise is part of life." So fire was definitely more like humans.
Miss Seira looked at the fire thoughtfully, then opened the box of tea leaves, measured out enough for a pot and gave them to the fire.
The Noblesse nodded and leaned forward to contribute a sugar cube.
"The humans learned that herbs and mushrooms helped them do this," Seira said. "I do not know what those herbs were, but tea cannot hurt."
"Human traditions passed down several of them," Frankenstein said, intrigued. "But I'd rather not try to reverse-engineer appropriate dosages for an enhanced human." He looked far more interested in the fire than the idea of testing drugs that might enhance psychic abilities and access to noble powers on an enhanced human.
Tao totally got that, because it was cute! They were all gathered around a fire, so if fire was a human, that made it part of the gathering, and guests should be served tea! Not giving the fire tea would be rude and inelegant, especially since the fire was helping them – Seira had built it for the same reason she sent Tao to go shower and wash behind his ears, because the Loyard contractors who did most of these had figured out that washing up and having a big fire helped humans do this safely. Seira obviously had no idea why those things would make a difference, but the humans said they did and humans would know more about what worked for humans than nobles did.
"On that note," Frankenstein said, "is there anything else I should bring you, or should I leave you to it?"
"You aren't staying?" Tao asked, lifting his head up.
Frankenstein and Seira shook their heads. "Master needs to go with you, so I shouldn't be here for the same reason Takeo and M-21 can't be here," Boss explained. "Miss Seira didn't ask you to skip meals lightly: you needed to loosen your ties to the living world."
Food kept people alive. "Is that why the shower, too?" Tao wondered. "And why I needed to wear something I wouldn't normally wear." His fingers plucked at the vest M-21 had dug out of his closet: he hadn't seen M-21 wear anything like this outfit since Tao first came to the house, but in some old surveillance footage he'd studied while trying to figure out what M-21 was going in Korea for Crombel he was dressed kind of like this. Style was important to nobles, but comrades… Comrades and family did more than anything else to keep you alive, didn't they? That was why he couldn't lose the ones he'd found. No matter what.
Seira nodded.
Boss left after bowing to his Master. Since Miss Seira was here helping Tao and Boss' Master, Boss would be responsible for keeping watch over Shinwoo.
That meant it was just the three of them. And the stars up above, the trees in the darkness beyond the fire, and the fire. Tao's fingers itched for a keyboard, but the only cellphone here was Miss Seira's, and she had already put it away – she used to cook with fires back on Lukedonia, so she probably knew more about tending them than Tao did. In Tao's experience, fires just happened. He knew how they worked, sure, and had set some for distractions, but most of the fires he'd experienced were a natural consequence of DA-5 happening to people. It was probably just campfires Seira needed to read about: he doubted nobles did much camping.
His eyes went to the fire, and his fingers itched to fiddle with it the way he fiddled with electronics. Fire was what people had before electricity, huh. They even used it to make technology! And power it, too. He should help out Miss Seira, since she was doing this for him and she had the Loyard stuff to do too. Didn't they used to have contractors for this? He should be helping.
She looked at him and shook her head when she saw him scooting closer to the fire.
"But…" he started to protest.
"Helping others is also a reason we remain awake, and we cannot begin until you fall asleep."
Tao looked at the sleeping bag spread out next to the coffin. It looked as tidy as a bed made with military precision.
Would Raizel be sleeping too? Even if according to Boss sleeping at night like humans did wouldn't be long enough to help at all, Tao hoped that he would at least be resting instead of using up more of his life.
"You're sure this isn't going to use up any of his power?" Tao asked again, leaning towards Seira and whispering even though he knew that couldn't make any difference.
Seira shook her head. "I will handle it," she reassured him.
Curled up in his computer chair, Tao heard the sound of footsteps…
Wait, no, these were arms, not armrests. He opened his eyes and his feet were lowered to the floor: whoever was carrying him had the strength to help him stand up easily, without worrying much about center of balance.
Not Takeo.
Raizel continued walking, ignoring Tao's surprise. Tao hurried after him.
It was dark, and all the stars were red. There wasn't any ground, just space, so what were they walking on? He tapped his foot, hoping the surface he felt wouldn't stop being there because he didn't believe in it or something.
"Is this a dream?" he wondered, hurrying to catch up to Raizel.
The noble turned and put a finger to his lips, looking around them meaningfully.
"Oh, right," Tao whispered. "People are sleeping." He looked around, wondering why they were walking. The whip was right there when Raizel went to sleep, right? But what did he know about mythic journeys to speak to the souls of dead gods?
No, not dead gods. Sleeping gods. There was something about that…
Raizel stopped, and tapped his foot.
There was something arresting about the sound, the same as when Raizel lowered his teacup and everyone went silent because he was about to speak, or a judge hitting the podium with their gavel.
Tao looked around, not sure whose attention Raizel was trying to get. Wait: there was a star up ahead that shone a lot brighter than most of the others. The others were the color of red giants, or red dwarves: blood. This one burned white-hot, except for a red corona.
Raizel reached out towards it, calling the light towards his hand the way he'd trapped the Tenth Elder's blast. His ringed hand pressed against the sphere and light burst out of it, flowing around them.
When Tao opened his eyes they were in darkness again, except for some red lights. Fewer, though. And closer. And some of them were moving. And there as a shape that blocked out the lights behind it, moving along with the moving lights. The shape… like a big fish, swimming around them? There were fish with lights deep underwater, right? They used the light to lure their prey, and this one was more than big enough to munch Tao.
Well. If this had something to do with the soul weapon, that might be a clan leader?
It wasn't exactly surprising that even a not-dead clan leader could eat him. Munch munch!
Not-dead. Huh. There was a word for that: undead? Were soul weapons like ghosts? If Takeo and the others were here Tao would have asked that aloud, but Raizel was in the middle of something and Tao wanted to observe all this.
A noble that looked middle-aged appeared slowly, reluctantly. He stared at them with dead red eyes for a moment before seeming to remember his manners and bowing. "Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel."
"Roctis Kravei," Raizel greeted the noble.
"I… do not sense Ignes' soul." The noble closed his eyes, hair lightening to grey as Tao watched.
"The soul weapons are born of the will to protect. Ignes did not wish to protect you."
This was a Union Elder, one of the people who betrayed Raizel, and there was still regret in his eyes, Tao saw. He was just too nice.
"Yes," the noble said bleakly, hanging his head. "She never cared that her experiments also put me in danger if she was discovered. I knew what she was, but… I had to protect my child."
"I do not know the feelings of a parent," Raizel said. "However… I do know that protecting your child is not the only duty of a parent."
"…You are right," Roctis admitted. "I had forgotten the obvious. Without honor, without respect for the sanctity of her will and the wills of others, Ignes' madness was inevitable. I knew… I feared that I could not guide her to honor, and that meant all I could do was keep her alive as long as possible." He bowed his head. "I gave up everything for her," he said, sounding tired. "My honor, the clan that trusted me…"
"How could you teach her to value honor when you discarded your own? How could you protect her when you turned away from your duty to protect?"
"…I submit to your judgment, Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel, the True Noblesse."
"Your sin will be paid with your soul. Ignes Kravei is not the only child you have failed." Raizel turned to face Tao, gesturing for him to come forward. "This child is Tao. His name and selfhood were stolen from him to turn him into a servant of your Bonded."
Tao blinked, but oh right, the Twelfth Elder.
"You are responsible for his suffering." Raizel was frowning, as though making Tao sad was some horrible crime.
The noble opened his mouth, then sighed, tired. "Yes."
"You must protect this child so he may find happiness."
"I do not deserve this chance." The noble shook his head, but did his hair look a little darker? Hard to tell in this weird light.
Wait, wait, wait, what. A Union Elder was caring about Tao's happiness now? Tao rubbed at an ear, staring. He knew that the world was different around Raizel and Boss, but whoa.
Raizel gave Roctis a stern look. "You do not have the right to refuse." Obviously not. "This is the payment for your sin. Your awareness that you are unworthy… that too is part of the price extracted from your soul." He looked up. "Souls of Cetus: will you share Roctis' fate?"
"He has regained his will to protect. We shall take part in it."
Roctis raised his head. "Regained?" he asked, but answered his own question. "I knew that Ignes would die if she continued down this path, and I did not try to find a way to save her. She was my daughter, and yet part of me… Part of me thought it was for the best, that she should die. What kind of parent thinks that about their own child? I turned away from those thoughts, and convinced myself that nothing mattered to me but her."
Tao wanted to ask why couldn't he have figured all this stuff out before Boss had to go kill him? Before he betrayed Raizel and took him away from Boss, before Tao was experimented on? And Tao was one of the… Tao was the luckiest one, except for Takeo! He opened his mouth to demand an answer, but then he thought about Crombel. All the people in the Union who were Elders, who served it, and didn't even have that much of a reason.
Tao had helped kill all those people on DA-5's missions just to save his own skin. He couldn't really point fingers here.
Raizel ignored Roctis, still addressing the red lights around them and the big fish that swum through the probably-not-air around them. "Will you honor Tao's will to protect, and dwell within his soul with care?"
This time, the voice that spoke wasn't all blended together, but came from the lights all around them. "It is not suitable for a Noblesse to ask such things. If we are granted permission to protest your decisions, then we do not deserve this insult. Asking if we still honor the will to protect, and implying we might not take care not to harm a child?"
That sounded like grumpy noble-speak for, 'It is a free child, of course I want it, why the hell are you asking? Seriously, why is a Noblesse asking, you should be ordering us, I'm going back to sleep, wake me up when the universe starts making sense again, meaning never.'
Okay, he was embellishing the impression he got a lot but Tao smiled: he liked grumpy nobles! One of the souls in Cetus might be a Union Elder, but if he got one like Regis' Grandpa out of it too, that wasn't bad. Was this one like Roctis' Grandma? It'd be easy to be a way better descendant than a Union Elder and Ignes! He could totally be the favorite!
The second voice to speak was more subdued, and came from the direction of the fish instead of all the lights. "This child's soul is already wounded. I failed to give Roctis the strength to live with honor. I fear I will bring misfortune upon this child as well."
Surprise, and Tao saw Roctis staring across at the fish with shock.
It could have been a trick of the weird light, but maybe Raizel smiled just a little, there and gone.
Tao held the fishbowl – it was a ball of light again, but to him it was always going to be the fishbowl – as he followed after Raizel. "Not that I'm complaining, but is there another reason I'm getting a soul weapon?"
Raizel looked at him, sighed, caved. "I am told that nobles are ancient as humans count time, but when Frankenstein came to Lukedonia, the youngest nobles were of the fourth generation. Children are loved." The 'but' was unspoken, but all the clearer in worried red eyes for the silence, as though Raizel was afraid to even talk about the possibility of failing a kid, it was so scary.
"So nobles just haven't been around long enough to figure out parenting skills?" Tao asked, then winced. "Are humans the only species with parenting skills?" With trial and error, you'd need to wait for the kids to grow up to see how they turned out, before you could try to learn from it and do another iteration. If you thought about it, the nobles hadn't had time to learn what messed kids up so they could not do that.
The Noblesse nodded sadly. "Muzaka loved Ashleen as the Previous Lord loved Raskreia, but…" he gave that little sigh, the one that was 'This is absolutely outrageous and terrible but I have to watch this train wreck because Frankenstein is my Bonded and so I'm responsible for this stuff he pulls.' Except he was talking about someone besides the Boss? Huh, they really were friends. "I did not wish to speak ill of Muzaka to Frankenstein, but my friend should not have been responsible for a child. Sharing your soul with another… can help." Raizel glanced at him questioningly. It was unusual for him to show that kind of hesitance and worry, but this whole thing was his idea. Was he afraid his bright idea hadn't helped Tao?
"Pets are great for mental health!" Tao held up the fishbowl and smiled. "It's not what you guys have, but… wait a minute." Boss had said that he thought it might not be a bad idea to find some way for Tao to have a mental connection that wasn't as intense as a contract. Tao wasn't going to get all obsessive and dedicated to a bunch of sleeping fishies, and he knew that was part of what Boss was worried about, that he'd dedicate himself to a little brother like Ikhan or a contractor or something instead of learning to live for himself, after the Union tried to take that away from him, make him think he didn't matter. "So this is instead of a contract with you or Boss?"
A nod. "I may not be able to give you the power to protect yourself," Raizel said sadly. "If bearing the soul of another grants humans happiness, then you deserve one that will not be taken from you."
When Raizel died. "Don't worry, a soul weapon is a great consolation prize!" He could see that the Noblesse was relieved, so he rambled on to change the subject. "If you can wake up nobles like that, can you wake them up all the way? Out of eternal sleep?"
"Most nobles went into eternal sleep because it was their wish. They would not appreciate being ordered awake," Raizel told him. "And the Second Lord wished for nobles to experience consequences for their actions. It is not possible for a noble who has entered eternal sleep to return to the waking world unless the way is open."
"Soooo… every full moon, then?"
He shook his head. "More than simply the moon must be in the proper places."
Wait. Wait wait wait. All these nobles were sleeping, not dead, and could return when the stars were aligned?
So… did humanity really have the nobles as outnumbered as it seemed like they did? If nobles could just come back and humans didn't unless Dark Spear counted?
When Tao stopped Raizel kept walking, and he stared at the Noblesse's back, mind working furiously. Thinking about how Raizel could make people, even Tao, totally overlook him, and judging from what Regis said that was SOP. Nobles hid themselves, or not even hid, just talked to humans without humans freaking out, by making humans think they weren't important… because otherwise humans could sense that something that powerful was kind of important, and if like someone from Cerberus was right there and had already seen you then you'd better be able to give them a reason not to squish you.
The Union thought that Lukedonia was really weak right now because half the clan leaders left and the other half were centuries-old, ancient by human standards. They got overconfident enough that even though taking on Lukedonia was the entire reason they'd allied in the first place, they stopped thinking it mattered?
Tao tilted his head to the side. "You guys want humans to underestimate nobles?" According to Union tactics, you wanted, needed to appear even if you couldn't be as strong as possible, but there were other tactics than just that. Like, if you weren't powerful enough to take someone on, then you could survive by making it clear you weren't a threat? Was that what humans did, until now humans were a threat? Or were they? Was that what they were supposed to think?
Raizel turned. "It is necessary to have faith in ourselves, to have the strength to claim responsibility for our actions. Humans must learn to believe in yourselves, or else you will continue to," was there a bit of hesitation before, "die young."
"But if you're there, and you're so strong, then… why bother. But if you're not that tough, and maybe we could be stronger than you if we try…" An arms race, Tao's Union-trained mind supplied. Humans attacking them would force nobles to get serious, humans had the numbers to take losses as long as noble culture still ruled out slaughtering civilians. Humans would come back, angry over the people who died in the war: if the Previous Lord thought like the Union, thought that making the nobles stronger was important and it didn't matter who died, that was how Tao would… would have set it up. When he was with the Union.
But they were better than that. Knew there were better things than the ability to kill. Raizel was the Avatar of Power, and he still thought strength wasn't going to save you.
He could feel the souls. Not just the ball of light in his hands, but sleeping presences in the back of his mind. A reminder that he wasn't alone, that he mattered.
After DA-5 was destroyed, Tao accepted M-21's invitation to stay because why not? Even if they had to bail, there was a chance to get M-21 who was a lot stronger than he should have been and had survived leaving the Union, at least for awhile. He might have advice, experience Tao could use.
Except that meant he'd chosen to stay in the same house as a scientist and even if leaving came with the risk of being hauled back to the Union's scientists too, there wasn't anywhere without the danger of labs unless he wanted to just die, the house should still have felt less safe than the alternatives. Here there were people who knew what he looked like, it would be harder to be safely anonymous.
But these guys were powerful, and Tao was able to acquire Regis and now Seira for RK. He knew he didn't have the power to fight the Union, but Boss and the nobles… when he'd thought Boss was a noble. He should have been scared of nobles, and he was of Raizel kind of because he didn't talk much and Tao couldn't get a read on him – then there was how the other 'nobles' reacted to him – but something in him wanted to be near them. The way Boss stayed in Raizel's house?
"It would be really easy for nobles to take over humans and just do what you wanted…" From what Tao had been looking up about religion, a lot of people would be happy about it.
"It is not that humans are weak. It is very easy for a clan leader to use their power to abuse the members of their clan," Raizel said sadly.
Like Roctis abandoning the Kravei? If that was even all he'd done. When a clan was like family, so of course they would have trusted him if he seemed to be a nice guy until then? So how nobles and humans living together was going to be okay wasn't actually a new problem for the nobles: keeping the strong from abusing weaker people who loved and trusted them was a big problem and a lot of Raizel's job. So if they figured out a better way to do it, then Raizel wouldn't have to die, huh, and that mattered to the Previous Lord.
"If we do not treat humans with honor, then we will not treat ourselves with honor," said the Noblesse.
The Union would have wondered 'so what?' but so everything, Tao knew now. What was the household but people being nice to each other? Being nice and protecting people was everything good, everything worth having. That was why he was Raizel's Knight. That was why he was even more determined to be Raizel's Knight after finding out that he wasn't all-powerful. He didn't want to cling to the most powerful person, he wanted to protect someone sick who would grow weak if Tao didn't do something.
And that was why Tao had a family, and a house, and a soul weapon, and a Boss and a Raizel, and a job, and…
If nobles weren't perfect, then humans could protect them. Protecting someone was much better than chasing after them. That was something he'd learned here, and he wasn't the only one who felt that way. There were reasons nobles thought the will-to-protect was important, and Tao bet they'd make much more sense after a few centuries, once he got to experience more of it.
"Sneaky," he said admiringly.
The Union tried to tell Tao he didn't matter, but Raizel mattered. Raizel needed to be protected, so if he needed Tao, then Tao mattered. And if he protected Raizel, if Raizel lived longer because of him… then he'd be really happy.
It might be instinct to just stand there and admire nobles, but protecting someone was much better so Tao would definitely do that instead… He yawned, and blinked at himself.
Sort of like being tired, but… was this what unmodified humans felt when they got tired?
"We must not stay here," Raizel said, and stepped closer. Tao nodded permission for Raizel to pick him up, raising his hand to cover another yawn.
Sleeping people all around them, so it was safe and comfy here and Tao kind of wanted to go to sleep with everyone else. He wrapped some of his cables around Raizel, and normally he would have quickly said that he was just doing it to make it less awkward to carry him but Raizel didn't act like he was surprised or Tao had taken a liberty.
"Mine," Tao thought, pleased. He could have tried harder to stay awake, maybe verified that summoning a soul weapon would improve his mental defenses, but he had someone to carry him when he needed it and he just wanted to enjoy that. And that was ok. Helping him would even make Raizel happy.
He had the best family.
So was it greedy of him to want even more? Well, Boss wanted them to decide their own goals and dream big, right?
When pre-humans 'domesticated' fire, it meant we could make meat safe to eat and crack a lot more calories out of root vegetables, and our brains became thirty percent larger very fast because we could now afford to build and fuel those systems. That might have been when pre-humans went from just one of many species with enough under the hood for a contract to having enough of a psyche/psychic signature that we could grab noble attention.
Nobles and fires are both very good things to have at your campground – ditto water sources, which would appear shiny from a distance. All three of those things are also dangerous – we're not the only predator that liked to stake out water sources. If you live at a house with a pool, you need to teach any small children to swim because they will get in there.
The novelization's version of how people react to Rai until he suppresses his aura is interesting reading (and explains why Frankenstein didn't sense him coming).
Tao latching on to Ikhan vs. Shark approaching him with 'I kill the civilians because I don't like Takeo, but I like you,' when he knows he needs allies… Tao is like Frankenstein, even if he wasn't 'alone' for anywhere near as long.
But they both have that human need for a safe place, and someone who cares, and nobles are a source of that. Tao's already prone to completely changing around his behavior to survive/get people to approve of him – approval is a very real need, even if he's no longer in the Union and won't be disposed of if he irritates people.
Frankenstein and Rai were both lonely and felt unwanted, so they want to make sure Tao doesn't feel alone anymore. They wanted Tao to know that he didn't need to dedicate himself to one person, that there were lots of people in the world who would care for him, and this may have backfired amusingly because Tao wants all of the hugs. See canon 'you will be assimilated into RK~'
The etymology of noble is 'well-known,' and there's the comparison of the nobles to Suyi. Wondering if the human obsession with celebrities/'the beautiful people' is also a sublimation of old instincts re. nobles in the Noblesse 'verse – acting started as religious rituals. It's basically certain that the nobles have fan clubs, at least the school even if they may not have spread outside of it. Yet.