Rael saw Raizel sitting at the picnic table Tao brought from the lab and set up outside instead of in the island's lab and landed next to it, glad to avoid having to talk about what happened in front of the humans and Miss Seira in the main base. Regis was still a child. "The humans I was assigned to train… One of those humans asked about contracts!"

"It is not wrong to want a contract." The Noblesse sipped his tea, giving Rael a moment to consider that. "You are also Frankenstein's child."

What?

Raizel frowned with concern and Rael realized that his eyes were too wide and wild and he was crouched as if to jump away instead of behaving with proper noble composure. He quickly straightened himself. He didn't want to be undignified in front of Cadis Etrama di Raizel!

That elegant face relaxed, seeing that Rael was alright. "He did not want a contract for power. He wished for a contract with me because he was alone for too long."

"Is he going to try to make me do that with humans?" Because Rael couldn't have a contract with the Noblesse or any noble, so that left them if he was made needing a contract like that human needed one.

'Seira cannot give you what you want' – was this what the Noblesse had meant? Was it because she wasn't a human, instead of because no noble would ever stay with Rael? His parent left him for eternal sleep, his brother for duty and training, Seira had stopped associating with him as soon as he made it clear that he wished to be around her. But Frankenstein had waited loyally for his Master, longer than Rael had been alive.

Were all humans as loyal as Frankenstein? Even enhanced humans wished to stay in Cadis Etrama di Raizel's house, to serve as his knights.

Humans might get power from a contract, and the Union proved that at least some of them were power-hungry – even if Regis' friend M-21 and the others hadn't chosen to surrender their humanity for power – but they were taking a risk by remaining near nobles. It would be… Well, it would have been easy for Seira or even Regis to make them go against who they were, before Frankenstein gave them the power to say no. How much more danger must a contract pose to a human's will? But Shinwoo seemed happy to be with Seira, even if it meant his soul no longer belonged to him alone.

But Cadis Etrama di Raizel was frowning at him, and Rael realized he'd just asked if Frankenstein might force him to barter some of his soul away against his will and how could he imply the Noblesse's bonded might do that!

It felt as though everything he did was always wrong… Frankenstein's lessons helped, but…

"Humans need someone to be by their side," the Noblesse told him, once he saw Rael's look of contrition. Rael was very grateful the Noblesse didn't comment on his inelegance. "Especially as children." When Rael was a child only a little over three hundred years ago. "Guard Grandia when he is near: he is displeased with his friend for your sake as well."

Angry with Ragar? Because of Rael? Yes, because Ragar made Rael without asking, such an inelegant child, but… for leaving Rael alone?

"Takeo thought he had a younger sister to protect. The Union lied." And the Noblesse was not pleased. "He is still an older brother whose younger sibling is not here with him, and you are a younger brother." When Rajak was not here, Rajak had his duties. "Frankenstein hoped that you and Takeo would bond."

"Make a contract?" With Takeo? With an enhanced human? No, Takeo wasn't scum, wasn't one of the traitors to humanity. He was fast, for a human, and trying his best to fight like a Kertia despite his favored weapon.

"There are other types of bond," the Noblesse told him. "Shinwoo and Ikhan have invited me to 'male bonding.'"

"Other types of bond…" Yes, like the bond Regis and Seira shared, as siblings in all but blood. Or perhaps their parents had exchanged blood to make them: Regis had the build of a Loyard, and Seira had the stubbornness of a Landegre.

"The Previous Lord forbade contracts with humans because without power, they could not stand against their bonded, if a noble wished to trespass on their will. Frankenstein has done his best to protect Takeo's will. If you wish to make a contract, it would not be an offense against power."

"I would still need the Lord's permission." He wasn't going to go against her authority again. He didn't want to be confined or sent to eternal sleep, not now. When his brother… When his brother needed him. When he would help the Kertia.

The Noblesse nodded.

A contract… perhaps not with that human, even if something about him reminded Rael of Father, but if he didn't want to be by Rael's side that wasn't what Rael wanted. There were more humans, so many of them. Surely, surely one of them? There were so many of them that at least one of them might wish to stay by Rael's side?

"Do you wish to see?" the Noblesse asked.

See what? But, "Whatever you think is wise, sir."

The Noblesse nodded and reached out a hand, touching the tips of three fingers to Rael's forehead.

An energetic shining blue-white whirl of tentacles, many of them wrapped tight around three dull red orbs but countless others reaching out to touch everything around them, checking on everyone.

"Tao," came the Noblesse's voice laden with affection, and

A solid mass of a more vibrant red, the color of fresh blood, not whirling around in a frenzy or touching other people but standing there watching, not serene but pawing at the ground in aggressiveness, ready to charge at anything that threatened but regally ignoring the tendrils and tentacles of blue-white light that clung to it.

"Regis," Rael knew, and

Blue-white again, a central orb with thicker tentacles than Tao's radiating outward, the other ends reaching towards each of the lights around it, but not ensnaring them. The orb they revolved around watched, the way Regis did, but with a calm acceptance, not aggressive suspicion. Caring, but not intruding.

That was obvious, as was the next.

A large red orb with a ring of smaller, duller red orbs around it. It floated there serenely, radiating warmth and tolerating the blue-white light, smaller than Tao and Takeo's, that darted in and out of the protective circle of the soul weapon.

Part of Rael still bristled, because how dare that human approach so close to Seira. At least Shinwoo was trying to keep his tentacles to himself, after realizing that they were used to feed.

That was Sir Raizel's thought, approving but also with a sigh because it really wasn't necessary to restrain himself that much. Not that Sir Raizel would comment on someone else's behavior, or say they shouldn't try that hard not to harm others. Sir Raizel was too elegant.

As Rael watched, one of Tao's tentacles snared Shinwoo and let him go in the same motion. Wasn't that like Tao, always spying on everyone to see what they were up to.

Raizel looked at Frankenstein next – who else could it be? The human was surrounded by a host of lights glowing a purpleish black. Ultra-violet, that was what they called that color in the science classes Rael couldn't help overhearing from his perch on the school roof while he worked on assignments. Wasn't the color of a light determined by how fast it was vibrating, or something? If humans were blue-white to nobles' calmer, cooler red, then why were the souls of dead humans so energetic? They must be furious, obviously. Rael would be. They'd been killed by the Union like the Loyard and Landegre clans, of course they must be impatient to destroy it.

The tentacles that corralled those lights, keeping them from sneaking off and getting lost in the darkness were red-violet, a sort of light pinky-purple that didn't look like the nobles or the other humans. Frankenstein's tentacles weren't wildly circling like Tao's, or floating there still except when the others moved like Takeo, but moving slowly. Still, they were always where they needed to be to contain (protect) Dark Spear, after centuries of practice.

The orb in the center was larger than Takeo or Regis, similar to Miss Seira's, and around it, closer than the cloud of Dark Spear's souls ventured, was another orb the color of a noble. The edges were fuzzy, and looking at it bothered Rael. It almost seemed as though it would fall apart without Frankenstein's tentacles holding it together, keeping energy from escaping the same way he confined Dark Spear's souls.

Sir Raizel gently pulled his attention back to Frankenstein as the human realized he was being watched and pulsed with affection in a way that made Rael's toes curl even though it made him deeply uncomfortable, because that feeling like a brush of lips on his forehead was meant for Sir Raizel, not for him.

That steadfast, certain caring reminded him of his parent, he realized, and wanted to vanish before anyone called him childish or… He didn't know what.

Thankfully, Sir Raizel didn't seem to notice but acted as though everything was perfectly, pleasingly normal. Even if it was impossible for anything to be normal about Frankenstein, that terrifying human, no matter what Sir Gejutel said. Well, he supposed that Shinwoo had the gall to make a contract with Seira, or to want one even if actually making it had been a clumsy accident on his part – that human getting punched, when they were so weak his head might have come off, forget bleeding from his mouth. And M-21 and the others had dared to talk back to him even before they became Raizel's knights and were therefore obligated to act with pride or their disgrace would reflect on the Noblesse.

But that human with a smile like knives, deception so much a part of his very soul that he could make even a clan leader like Miss Seira mistake him for a noble. A taskmaster who kept Rael's workload at the point where he wanted to cut something to ribbons out of pure frustration deliberately, so Rael might slip and give Frankenstein an excuse to train him – even if Frankenstein never held back when he trained Rael. Everyone else always had – Rael was the youngest of his generation, the baby until Seira and Regis came along. Then it was assumed he would play with the babies even when he was past his age of majority – not left to take care of them by himself, of course. Who would give Rael responsibility like that, trust the baby with something as precious as two noble children?

He wanted someone to trust him the way the Noblesse had enough faith in Frankenstein to entrust his very soul to him and think nothing of it.

The way Shinwoo trusted Miss Seira, when a noble could trespass on a contractor's will, even if the idea that Miss Seira couldn't be trusted was insulting and ridiculous. If it weren't for the sheer gall of it he couldn't blame Shinwoo for taking such liberties with Miss Seira's aura. Rael would want to do the same if he were the human, he thought, and something about that thought bothered him. Or maybe the knowledge that he would, but Seira wouldn't permit it.

Desperate to look away from Miss Seira and her bonded, his eyes darted to Tao, to Frankenstein and Raizel, to Takeo.

Would Takeo become his bonded if he asked? Of course he should agree, Rael had a soul weapon, the human should be honored. It wasn't as though Rael would ever trespass on someone's will, he thought, ignoring his reaction to Seira refusing him. Rael would never force Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel to have to sentence him to eternal sleep, the Noblesse was not well and it would be inelegant.

Takeo needed more training – more power so he didn't fall in battle, and a contract would give him that, and a weapon more elegant than those guns, what was Takeo, an Elenor? If Takeo could use Grandia… An image came to him then, a man with long hair in a ponytail fighting with knifes and surpassing elegance, and the hair flickered from purple to blond, dark clothing a suit or a clan leader's uniform and Rael thought of Miss Seira, how her hair flowed behind her, her centered certainty that things would be just so, more solid than bedrock, more certain than eternal sleep.

And somehow he knew that the Noblesse saw and approved, judged Rael's soul and found it acceptable as few ever had.

Seira didn't want Rael to protect her, but Takeo would permit it – wasn't that the point of RK, for them to protect each other? Takeo might… Takeo would honor Rael's will to protect, even if they didn't Bond, the way he smiled to see Rael stand at Cadis Etrama di Raizel's side, ready to protect him if he had the chance. Being allowed to protect him, being entrusted with the Noblesse by Frankenstein was an honor.

Protecting the school was practice for protecting Lukedonia with his brother, so it wasn't a complete waste of his time. He remembered Takeo standing watch on the other end of the roof, sometimes turning and giving him a smile and a nod when he felt Rael watching him. Rael always turned away after that, but it wasn't bad. To be protecting alongside someone, even if Takeo wasn't the brother he wished to help.

"It's a good feeling, isn't it?" Takeo had said once while they were training. "To watch over people. I'm glad that Frankenstein asked us to protect the school."

Rael couldn't help but nod.

Seira sat on a rock at the edge of the training area, still considering the three different colors of RK mask Tao brought for her consideration as an open-palm strike from Frankenstein sent Shinwoo skidding across the field.

"Can't I just…" Shinwoo wondered.

"An enemy won't be obviously telegraphing their strike the way I am. And you already know how to capitalize on an over-extended limb, Shinwoo. You know the importance of a solid stance."

"Maybe that's the problem, Boss," Tao said. "We started out with enhanced strength – well, as far back as we remember. We had to learn what happened if we hit something. Shinwoo knows what happens if something hits him and he can't brace himself." Say, because the ground crumbled under his feet if he tried to dig in his heels.

"Hm." Frankenstein nodded. "And your powers are more biokinetic than telekinetic. The energy field around your bodies will nullify a certain amount of momentum. Shinwoo's powers are preventing injury, at least."

"But my body knows what would happen if I'm hit with that a little too well," Shinwoo said mournfully. "So I go flying."

"If it's mind over matter, perhaps a mental approach?" Takeo asked.

"Meditation? Not so good with that," Shinwoo said.

"That does seem like the place to start," Frankenstein agreed. "Is there some way that you can visualize action without reaction?"

Shinwoo didn't look all that hopeful. "I've seen you guys ignore physics a lot," he said.

"But a lot of what you've been trained to do only works because of your understanding of how force and momentum affect the human body, and now you need to ignore all that." Frankenstein nodded. "Don't worry, Shinwoo, we knew that you would have a great deal to unlearn."

"A lot of it should just be doing it over and over until it sinks in, right?" Shinwoo nodded. "That, I can do!"

"Doing it over and over correctly, Shinwoo." Skidding across the ground would just remind Shinwoo that being hit like that meant skidding across the ground. "Perhaps picture your powers as a force field, deflecting the blow?" Frankenstein smiled. "Or perhaps Seira should teach you how to use force fields. You shouldn't have anything to unlearn there."

"Force fields… Cool," Shinwoo agreed, looking thoughtful. He'd seen Seira call them up to protect bystanders from the fight and Shinwoo's powers – how responsible of him to want a power that could be used to protect.

Frankenstein didn't want to be too much like a noble, but their traditional – or rather, their engineered culture – had a lot of things he found admirable. The Will to Protect, for one thing. There were a few things that humans could benefit from stealing from nobles – only fair, when nobles copied so much from humans. Clothing, for a start.

"I'll leave you to it then, Miss Seira," he said, because she would know more about creating force fields with noble powers than he did – he'd observed nobles making force fields trying to protect themselves from him, but that was different from doing it their way himself.

This would be a good opportunity to find Tao and Regis and discuss their punishment.

"Tao…"

Tao froze when he heard Boss' voice behind him in the small lab/command center of the island. "Hey, Boss. I'll get back to training soon, I promise."

"I'm sure you will." Had better. "But I'm here to talk to you and Regis about leaving Rael out of the family activity you planned."

Oh crap. He should have known Boss wouldn't just forget about it because Tao managed to improvise with the cake. Good enough to fool Rael, but not Boss.

"Ah, well, Rael had a lot to do with getting supplies, and…"

"He's a Kertia, Tao." That was the entire reason he was tasked with doing so much by himself so quickly in the first place – having others help would just slow him down. Or at least, that was an excuse to not have to do too much with Rael – Rael even liked it that way, not having to deal with the enhanced humans too much. "He was already doing the shopping, you should at least have given him the chance to participate in your game." Yeah, it would have been a lot easier for Rael to pick some stuff up than for the rest of them. "As for you, Regis, wouldn't you have played this game with Rael on Lukedonia? There can't be many nobles close to your age."

Regis winced. He'd followed Boss into the room – so Boss had gone to collect him, then met up with Tao in here, where they wouldn't be overheard. Yeah, Boss was intending to give them a proper dressing-down. "Not since Seira reached her majority."

"Which is seventeen years out of your one hundred ninety-nine." Boss frowned at them. "Don't give me excuses when you already know you did something wrong. It doesn't help your case. Do you know why what you did was wrong?"

"We shouldn't have left out Rael, or set him up to lose the game, Boss?" That was what Regis did – or maybe by not getting to pick out things for people, he'd actually saved Rael from losing too badly because Rael hadn't gotten to pick up bad choices and display how badly he knew all of them? Or would Tao making excuses for Regis go just as bad as Tao trying to make excuses for himself.

"You left him out because you dislike him. Why was leaving him out wrong?"

"We don't like him because he's trying to hog Miss Seira and because he's… Oh," Tao realized. "He tried to push everyone else down so he can feel better about himself. Just like in the Union. Except here he doesn't have to do that to survive." So why was he doing that? He didn't have any excuse for looking down on everyone, it didn't help him at all.

"He's reminding you of the arrogance in the Union." Boss nodded. "Hopefully understanding why you react so badly to him will help you in future. So tell me, Tao: why is he acting that way?"

"He had a family," like the one Tao and the others had here, "And his Dad left him because the Lord said so." If Boss went away because he left and took Boss with him, how would Tao feel? "And his brother was busy training and Rael was afraid to train with him in case his brother found out about Grandia." Rael could have just trained so that his reflex was to not use Grandia… except then Regis and Seira's parents didn't come back, so like Rajak Rael would have trained so he had a chance to defend the clan, right? So if he was training to fight clan leaders with Grandia, what would have happened if he found himself training against Rajak, a clan leader?

He would have pulled Grandia and then Rajak would have known. Rajak had known and hadn't cared, but Rael hadn't known that. He might have thought he'd lose the only family he had left – but then he'd been willing to throw Rajak and the rest of the Kertia away by joining Seira's clan, right? It didn't make any sense, Tao thought, and then remembered that he was designed to figure things out.

Did that mean he didn't want to figure this out? Didn't want to understand Rael?

"He lost his parent – in a different way from you, Regis, but the wound is the same – and that's why he reacted that way when you and Seira lost your parents. His parent chose to follow the Lord into eternal sleep, despite the cost to Rael, who hadn't even reached his majority. Just like you and Seira hadn't when your parents chose to enter eternal sleep so the lives of humans would be spared."Boss looked Regis in the eye. "I will be speaking with Gejutel."

Regis swallowed, then squared his shoulders, clearly ashamed but determined to take it like a man. Boy. Noble.

"Your allowance will be cut off for the next month. As for you, Tao."

Regis' punishment was the money he received from Lukedonia to pay for his expenses in the human world?

Tao's salary!

"Until now, you've been paid on a weekly basis."

One week? Two? How much was he losing?!

"You'll be receiving your salary on a monthly basis from now on."

Tao paled. That meant no salary for a month! And then he'd get a larger amount, but if he got that much money at once there was no way he wouldn't spend it all at once! Then there'd be no salary for a month again. And again!

"This will hopefully teach you a valuable lesson about budgeting and impulse control."

There was no way to get Boss to change his mind now. Tao knew how he was about training.

"I don't mind if you two pursue other sources of income as long as it doesn't interfere with your work at the school, your training or your participation in family events." So no missing dinner. Boss quickly added, "Nothing illegal or that would draw attention to us."

"Yes, Boss," Tao said. Darn. Well, he could still do some programming for people, but what about Regis?

"Yes, sir," Regis said.

"Good," Boss said "If you two behave, then I don't think that I'll need to tell Gejutel why I'm cutting off your allowance, Regis," he added and left.

Tao and Ikhan were working together to teach Regis about technology, but he wasn't on a level where he could make money that way. So how was Regis going to pay for going out gaming with his friends, or his share of the snacks when they got together? There was no way he'd let Ikhan or Miss Seira pay for him.

Oh no! Tao was going to be training with Cetus – he'd run out of shirts!

That was it! "Regis," he said, "Can you make clothes for me?"

"Of course," Regis said, giving him one of those funny looks. Why did Tao need clothing? Was he planning something with the clothes he already had?

"I'll pay you," Tao said. "Once I write a few programs." He didn't want to do too many, or it would take time away from observing the school, and watching people on patrol. And enjoying tea time and time with his friends and Ikhan. But maybe he and Ikhan could work together, he'd show Ikhan how to make some money?

"You don't need to, not for that." Not for something so easy. "Would selling jewelry count as drawing attention to us?" Regis asked. "I suppose I could ask Rael to take it with him the next time he goes to another city."

"Selling jewelry? Right, you can conjure that up too?"

Regis nodded. "It's how the Central Order Knights buy things in the human world. Humans don't like it if you conjure money, so my parent decided that we should sell gold and gems instead."

Nobles could conjure up metals, not just organic compounds… so what about uranium? Plutonium? "Is making gold more tiring than making clothing?" Tao asked.

Regis just shook his head, because why would it be?

"Is there an upper limit on the amount you can conjure up?"

"The clan used to purify springs and rivers so the humans had clean drinking water and didn't just get dirtier the more they washed themselves," Regis said, wincing at the idea. Yeah, not being able to get clean had to be a really creepy concept for nobles. "That can be tiring."

How big were rivers? Big, but maybe not the whole river? That was transforming matter, maybe? Or replacing what was there with the new conjured matter, the way there'd be air touching M-21's chest and then suddenly, clothing!

A nuclear weapon would be smaller than a river. And nobles' passive powers would protect them from the effects of radiation, Tao was pretty sure. Nuclear winter wouldn't affect nobles when they didn't need to eat. Not that the nobles would decide to get rid of humanity. Not the good ones anyway. The Union could do the same thing, Tao was sure, just make governments give them the bombs, but then where would they get victims if all the unenhanced humans were dead?

Hadn't Boss said something about how it wouldn't be good if the nobles weren't bound by Lukedonia's laws anymore, and the survivors started fighting seriously and figuring out what they could do with their power? Regis wouldn't need a nuclear weapon to destroy a city, but the regular nobles were less powerful, right? They maybe might have trouble conjuring up the amount of potential energy in radioactive materials, when Regis could only manage so many of those powerful attacks against Krans? Regis was a pureblood – whatever that meant when nobles only had one parent, so how could bloodlines even mix – even if he was a kid?

Boss probably knew the answers to all this, and he had said that Tao could ask questions, but… Tao didn't want to ask these. He didn't want it confirmed that Ikhan and the others were so fragile, so vulnerable, it was so easy for anyone to just kill them like they didn't matter.

The way Tao didn't matter, not to the Union. The way the person Tao used to be didn't matter, just what they could get out of using him up.

Well, Tao mattered now. He had a soul weapon, he'd make himself matter to them, make them see what it was like to have someone just come along and destroy all you built like it wasn't worth anything. And it wasn't, not when it came from sacrificing people whose lives were infinitely more valuable than anything the Union might ever accomplish.

Human souls have tentacles the better to hug/assimilate you with is something I've had in mind for awhile.

Rael wants someone he loves as much as Frankenstein loves Raizel (very passionate person). Couldn't make his parent stay, couldn't… he wants someone he'd kill for, and that was part of why he was happy to try to kill children (Regis) 'for Seira.'(Rajak also got the fanatic tendencies from Franken – protect Lukedonia/the Lord.)

This is healthier than Rael's fixation on Seira because this is Rael understanding his own needs and trying to fulfill them, or thinking about how to do so, instead of projecting onto Seira and trying to tell her that he knew best about what she needed. Especially because Rael's never going to get closure on his Ignes issues in canon now because Ignes' arc was aborted, I can't see Rael's thing for Seira ever being healthy.

Adult nobles are very self-reliant, so Rael's emotional needs are WTF and it'd be insulting to even discuss them, especially since I think the clan leaders are focused on Not Being Children because of the traitors' claims. When Rael's so close to their age, he probably was the child of their generation but if he's a child, what are they?