With the experience he had under his belt, plus the assistance of his companions, he had rebuilt his skill set from the ground up, learning to express the three basic functions in more sophisticated ways.
What he was about to attempt was a technique that required the precise and nuanced application of all three functions at once. Firstly, he needed to blend projection and retraction, seemingly contrary effects, to merge his aura into the ambient magic. He had no illusions of matching the Mirror King’s achievements in this area, but that had been the inspiration for what he was attempting.
The other—and trickiest—aspect of what he was doing was an application of aura suppression. It needed to be delicate, complex and painstakingly precise, as it directly impacted the aura senses of others.
A person's aura senses were largely a function of their aura itself. Even normals could sense auras on some level if the auras were strong and directed enough. For most practical purposes, they were aura blind unless someone with aura control didn’t want them to be.
After a lengthy discussion with Vermillion on how vampires manipulated auras, Jason had been working on variations of aura suppression that manipulated the aura senses of others, rather than suppressing their whole aura. Vampires naturally excelled in this area, while Jason had not realised it was even possible. Farrah had never introduced him to it because essence users could usually only match what a vampire could manage at much higher rank. Jason’s absurdly ramped-up aura strength changed that.
He could not directly mimic the techniques of vampires or high-end essence users. Shade had techniques that outstripped both, to the point of being able to confuse digital recordings, but Jason could not match that either. Instead, he blended aspects from all three to develop a bespoke technique tailored to the unusual properties of his unique aura. This was the theme of all his new aura-control skills.
The goal of his current activity was to pass through a crowd of normals unnoticed. It was not, strictly speaking, invisibility. Rather, the idea was to prevent the perceptions of others from registering his presence. The crux of the process was enacting the technique while keeping the people he was enacting it upon from noticing. If they sensed his manipulations, the effect would be the exact opposite of the desired outcome.
With his current prowess, Jason was only willing to attempt it with normal people, who were effectively aura blind and had the least chance of sensing what he was doing. Even then, he was far from certain it would work. It would take considerably more practice before he could use it on even freshly minted iron-rankers like his family.
“Do I have to use the cloak?” he asked. “That seems like asking for trouble.”
“We’ll only know it’s working if you use the cloak,” Vermillion said. “Otherwise, they won’t know you anyway because you’ll just be some guy.”
Jason frowned but didn’t argue further as he got to his feet. He closed his eyes and extended his senses through his aura, feeling the people around him. Relaxing his body and soul, he let himself become one with his surroundings, his aura blending into the ambient magic. He could feel how inexpert he still was, but he sensed at least a basic level of success.
Next, he started oh-so-delicately affecting the auras around him. Like all applications of aura stealth, it was a deeply inefficient process that took a disproportional level of strength for his aura to operate unnoticed. With such precise work, even Jason's powerhouse aura was barely able to effectively impact the normal auras around him without it going awry. A month of practise was not enough to act with greater efficiency.
Jason's starlight cloak appeared around him, and he started walking through the shopping centre. Despite the Starlight Rider making his first public appearance in months, not a single person looked his way. On the contrary, their eyes seemed to slide off him, looking elsewhere without registering anything strange.
Shade, for his part, made sure that Jason showed up as no more than a blur on the shopping centre’s security cameras. Jason was not sure if he would ever be able to replicate such an ability.
Jason walked the full length of the shopping centre, then went up a level and came back the other way. As a final test, he dropped off the mezzanine and floated down to Farrah and Vermillion, still undetected. His cloak vanished as he sat back on the bench with the others.
“That was good,” Vermillion said. “A little too good, in fact.”
“Too good?”
Vermillion handed a wad of cash over to Farrah.
“I told you that aura control was his strongest skill,” she said.
“You bet on me getting in huge trouble with the Network?” Jason asked Vermillion.
“You don’t need to worry,” Vermillion said. “The Cabal will be happy to step in and cover for you.”
Erika and Ian were hosting the farewell barbecue for Jason’s departure. Emi, who normally clung to him like a limpet, was still angry about his leaving again. He could sense her watching him from her bedroom window. The backyard was packed full of friends and family, which made it a mixed bag both in terms of who knew about magic and who Jason wanted to avoid. It had been made very clear that there was to be no talk of magic, although Jason was not confident that would hold up. Once a few more beer kegs were emptied, he expected some slips, but everyone would be blotto by that point anyway.
As Greg and Jason waited their turn to get sausages from one of the grills, Greg leaned close and spoke in a low, conspiratorial voice.
“What’s going on with Farrah?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Jason asked.
“I’m pretty sure she got hotter. Like, getting some work done hotter, but didn’t disappear long enough to have work done, the way you did.”
“I didn’t have any work done,” Jason said.
“I’ve known you since we were fourteen, Jase. Hormones don’t shave half your chin off.”
Jason gave up trying to respond. After getting his sausage, he left Greg peering suspiciously in Farrah’s direction and made some more rounds of family members.
“G’day, Nanna,” he said to his paternal grandmother, grinning at the glare it earned him. “Sorry, Grandmother.”
“Save your common colloquialisms for your other grandmother,” she said. “She’s classless enough to like them.”
“She’s not a yob, Grandmother. She had Alzheimer’s.”
Yumi Asano raised her eyebrows at Jason, then glanced over at his other grandmother, chugging a beer.
“Okay,” he acknowledged. “She might be bit of a yob.”
“I don’t suppose you know anything about her miraculous recovery?” Yumi asked. “Medically, it doesn’t make any kind of sense.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a miracle,” Jason said. “Didn’t you hear what Great Aunt Marjory said?”
“I’d rather listen to the whine of the drill about to lobotomise me than that woman. The results would be essentially the same.”
Jason snorted a laugh, the corners of his grandmother’s lips turning up on her otherwise stern face.