by Dante King
These pages didn’t look particularly old. I supposed a basic spellbook was probably not that rare in Astros, where Amelia had brought it from. They would be creating new copies fairly regularly. Still, the illustrations were quite beautiful. They hadn’t spared effort on those.
Amelia flipped past pages filled with pictures of monsters, pages filled with weapon designs, and pages filled only with writing, presumably recounting lore and instructing Mages in techniques.
I didn’t know much about reading, myself, but I had been taught to recognize the letters. Perhaps Amelia would be able to help me learn to read better at some point.
“Here are the Fire spells,” Amelia said.
“Right. It would make sense to look for another Fire spell, since this ink comes from a fire Beast.”
“Not only that,” Amelia added. “You may be able to build on the spell you currently have. My theory is that your tattoo mirrors the spell runes on enchanted items. If that’s the case, you should be able to add some augmentations to your current tattoo and change the way the spell works.”
I leaned forward. “You mean I can add more symbols like this spear?” I pointed at the tattoo on my arm. “I guess that would require less ink than a completely new tattoo as well.”
Amelia nodded. “Have a look through these pages and see if there’s something that catches your eye.”
She turned the pages slowly for me as I held onto the opened Beast Core in my left hand.
“What does this knife symbol do?” I asked as I pointed at a drawing inside the book.
“That represents a piercing spell. It reduces the enemy’s resistance to fire.”
“That would have helped against the bear we faced earlier.”
“Indeed, it would have,” Amelia said. “Be careful though; I suspect anything you add onto this tattoo will make it cost more Mana. You expended a lot of your Mana back there, and you almost passed out. If you add too many augmentations, you might find you only have sufficient Mana to cast the spell a single time—or possibly not at all!”
“That makes sense,” I said. “I don’t always have to use the whole tattoo though, do I?”
“What do you mean?” Amelia asked.
“Well, earlier I was able to use the flame symbol in the middle of my tattoo to set things on fire, but the spear was only activated when I cast fireballs at range.”
“Incredible,” Amelia breathed. “You might be right. We’ll have to experiment with it. It’s possible that you could activate only certain parts of the spell. That would make it much more versatile and preserve far more Mana.”
“What does this symbol do?” I pointed at the opposite page, near the top. The symbol depicted there was like a gust of wind.
“That increases the strength of the fire,” Amelia explained. “It will make the fire do far more damage, but it will definitely increase how much Mana you need to spend.”
“And how about that one at the bottom of the page?” I nodded in that direction. Three small spears were crossed, pointing up.
“That symbol is known as a multiplier for projectile spells. This one is actually common to some of the other elements as well. It splits up the projectile and multiplies it, casting several smaller versions.”
I grinned. “I want to try that one.”
Amelia smiled and shifted from where she sat, holding the book in her lap to face me. “How did you make the tattoo last time?”
“I drew the shape of the rune into my skin, then applied the Beast Core fluid. As I said, my memory of the process is a little hazy.”
“Did you just use a regular knife?”
“I did then,” I replied, “but this time, I’ll use this dagger, since you seem to think that it’s an ancient Ink Mage tattooing device.”
“It certainly seems like it might be. Let’s give it a try.”
I held up the beautifully made dagger and looked closely at the tip. It would make sense to clean the end of it before cutting into my skin with it, and I figured the fire Core fluid wouldn’t be damaged by a flame, so I concentrated my mana into a small, focused blue flame and swept it across the tip of the blade a couple times.
Then, I gripped the dagger part way down the blade, so only the tip was sticking out. That allowed me to control the point as if I were using a pen. I laid my left arm down against my left knee to hold it steady, holding the Core in my left hand like an inkwell.
“Where should I start the rune? Above or below the other ones?” I asked.
Amelia paused. She pressed her fingers to her temples, obviously thinking. “I’m not quite sure how this works. There are no instructions for Ink Mages. I don’t even know how to make sure that your Mana will recognize the different parts of the tattoo.”
So, there were no instructions. I knew there wouldn’t be, but how was I supposed to work it out then?
“When I cast the fireball, I felt like I was in control,” I mused. “I pushed my Mana into each part of the tattoo.”
“I see,” Amelia said. “Maybe the placement doesn’t matter then.”
“I would assume it still helps to make sure one symbol is close to the other, otherwise I will have to push the Mana around a long way.”
“Yes, that would make sense. Try putting the new rune just a little behind the other one then.” Amelia leaned in to watch as I raised the dagger point above my skin.
I positioned it just half an inch behind the base of my original tattoo, further away from my hand. I pressed the dagger’s point against my skin, pushing it inward. I pushed just a little harder, and the point broke the skin. A drop of blood welled up, then dripped down my arm. Where the tip of the dagger had broken the skin, the orange fluid sat in a bright little dot.
Amelia drew in a sharp breath. “You’re bleeding.”
I chuckled as I began to repeat the process, neatly puncturing the skin again and again, building up a colored line forming the side of one of the spears. “That’s the idea,” I said. “See how this dagger leaves a little dot of color every time I do it?”
“The color is very bright, isn’t it? And see how it spreads under the skin?”
“It’s like the Core fluid was made to be tattoo ink,” I said with a nod.
We both lapsed into silence as I continued the slow, careful process of pricking the design into my skin. A sense of closeness surrounded us, and everything seemed very quiet.
After a little while, she said, “You seem to be very calm. Doesn’t it hurt?”
“A little,” I replied, doing my best to concentrate. “Not as much as getting my ass frozen by a wild boar.”
Amelia laughed. “No, I suppose it’s not so bad after everything you’ve been through today.”
I continued to work on the design. I formed the shaft of a spear, then a teardrop-like shape for the spearhead. Then, I drew a spear crossing the first one at an angle. I finished with a third spear, crossing the first two. I had to refill the hollow tip of the dagger several times during this process, and each time the fluid flowed up into the tip as if the dagger had been made for the purpose. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that was almost certainly the case.
The three spears were outlined in blood on the slightly angry red skin, and the orange Beast Core ink was glowing through the fine upper layer of my skin. Eventually, I put in the last few dots, finishing the final detail of the design.
As soon as I did so, I felt my Mana being pulled from my pool. Swift as flowing water, my Mana rushed to the spot in my arm where I’d drawn the spears, and the whole design suddenly glowed and flashed with a bright light, like a burst of flame. A pleasant sensation of heat rushed over me.
“Look!” cried Amelia. “The wounds are healing!”
She was right. To my amazement, the livid, inflamed skin over the tattoo was knitting itself together before my very eyes. After a moment, the glow of the tattoo subsided, and when I wiped the remaining blood from my arm, I marveled at the whole, undamaged flesh that was revealed
. The many punctures from the dagger were completely healed.
“Is this an Ink Mage power as well, then?” I wondered out loud.
“I guess it must be, at least when you are giving tattoos.”
I held up the newly formed tattoo and admired it.
“It looks amazing,” said Amelia, and it felt great to hear the admiration in her voice. I had to agree; it looked really cool. I took pride in anything I crafted, and a tattoo that would remain on my body for the rest of my life needed to be perfect. This one certainly was.
“I don’t want to speak too soon, but it looks like I don’t need an instruction manual,” I said.
Amelia leaned in to examine my work, letting her tunic hang open, showing her ample cleavage.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “The lines are perfectly drawn.” She touched the outline with her finger. She ran her warm fingers over the whole image. “I can barely feel where you cut the skin.” The touch of her skin on mine sent a shiver down my back.
“I’d like to be able to add some other colors,” I said. The tattoos were all completely orange. “But I guess we’ll have to wait until we get some other Beast Cores. I wonder what effect it would have adding other colors to it.”
“Well,” Amelia sat back and got that schoolteacher look on her face again. “Other colors would represent different elemental affinities. So, they wouldn’t be compatible with a Fire tattoo.”
“Couldn’t we combine other elements in the same spell?” I asked. “My Mana could still power the whole tattoo and cast a spell with different types of damage.”
Amelia paused and put her fingers to her temple again, thinking. “There are no spells like that in this book, but it might be possible. I’ll need to research further.”
I ran my fingers over the fresh tattoo thoughtfully. The healing was complete. There was no trace of a wound. “Let me know what you need for your research and we’ll go and find it.” I said. “I want to learn as much as I can about combining these tattoos.”
This new power of mine changed everything. This morning, I had been a simple country farmer, enslaved and on his way to the mines. Tonight, I found I was a powerful Ink Mage, and, as far as I knew, the only one in the world.
Unique and incredible power had been handed to me, and the consequences which came with that were huge. With this power, I could change the world. I had a responsibility to find out everything I could about what this power was, and what I could do with it. There could be no doubt that I had some great task to do now; it was my destiny.
From slave to Ink Mage, and all in the course of one day. On balance, it felt pretty damn good.
I got to my feet and stretched. Afternoon had turned to evening while we’d been working and now sunset was quickly approaching. The sun was almost at the horizon, and the tall trees were casting deep shadows across the little clearing.
Amelia stood as well, then gave me an intent look. “Well, go on. Aren’t you going to try out your new skill?”
I smiled broadly at her. “I guess I am!”
The excitement in Amelia’s face was infectious.
“I’m looking forward to this,” she said.
Chapter Four
Evening was deepening around us. I held up my arm again and looked at my new tattoo. It should give me the ability to use projectile fire magic.
Now it was time to test my new ability.
I scanned the clearing for something I could blast spells at. Over on one side of the clearing was a stack of boulders, three yards high, five yards wide, and covered in a thick growth of damp moss.
“That’ll do nicely,” I said as I turned to face the stack. It made a good target, because I didn’t want to take the chance of hitting any trees and starting a fire. That was a real danger using this spell in a forest.
“I’ll stay out of the way,” said Amelia, taking up a position behind me and off to my right.
I took a deep breath and centered myself, then drew some Mana down from my pool and focused it into my arm. This time, I guided it into the big flame in the middle of the original tattoo, then on, into the three spears behind it. The runes glowed warmly in the cool dimness of the clearing. Once these two elements of the rune were filled with Mana, I forced the magical energy out onto my hand.
Three fireballs appeared, equidistant, crackling away on my palm. They were smaller than the single fireball I’d cast previously, just as Amelia had said they would be.
“It’s working!” I heard Amelia breathe.
She sounded impressed, but I was wondering if there would be a way to upgrade their size. I’d need an augmentation on the existing tattoo before that, or perhaps more Mana could do the trick. For now, this single cast was using a big chunk of my Mana.
“Here goes,” I said.
I drew my hand back and hurled the three fireballs. They flashed blindingly bright in the fading light as they flew forward with a woosh. As they rushed toward the boulders, they started to spread out. All three burst against the piles of stones ten yards away, but one almost missed the boulders altogether. I hadn’t expected them to fan out like that. Now that I’d seen them in action, it made sense that they would grow further apart as they traveled through the air.
I looked at my tattoo on my arm, and the three spears were glowing.
“You did it!” Amelia exclaimed.
Her eyes were shining at me when I looked at her.
“This will be amazing for fighting mobs of monsters if we get attacked by more than one,” I said. “I’ll have to practice my accuracy though because I almost missed the boulder completely with the right-most fireball.”
“I can hardly believe that worked,” Amelia said.
“I’m a bit dumbfounded myself,” I said. “I managed to draw a new tattoo. This is huge.”
“I wonder how many more tattoos you can wear,” Amelia said.
I grinned. “As many as I can fit on my body. I’ll make sure of that.”
I looked at the rocks again. The fireballs had each left a black scorch mark against the stone, but they hadn’t damaged it beyond that.
“It would be a good idea to get used to casting that spell,” Amelia said.
“I can throw a few more,” I said as I turned to face the boulders.
“You have enough Mana?”
“I can already feel it regenerating. It’s almost full again.”
I repeated the procedure of drawing Mana through the flame tattoo and then into the three spears. I summoned the fireballs on my hand again. This time, I didn’t hesitate before I flung them toward the rocks. They whizzed through the air and exploded against the rock face.
“They’re much closer together,” I observed. “It seems like they fly closer together if I cast more quickly. This is brilliant.”
I tried once more, waiting just a couple of seconds with the fireballs in my hand. They spread out, but not as far as the first time.
“I can control how far they spread by timing my cast.”
“That’s amazing,” Amelia said. “You’re learning so much about how to use your Mana so quickly. Normally it takes weeks for Mages to get to this point. I don’t have any personal experience, but I’ve read about apprentice Mages getting all hot and bothered when they can only cast a single spell per day.”
“Well, I need to be even faster. We are likely to face more monsters in these woods, and who knows who else might come for us once they figure out what I can do. If I’m the only Ink Mage in the world, it’s up to me to find out what that means and what I can do. That starts by not getting killed by monsters in my first few days of freedom! I want to get us back to the road, get some supplies from the wagons, and then make our way to somewhere where we can think about the implications of this new power. Yeah, I’m going to need to learn more and faster than any apprentice at Astros.”
“You’re right,” Amelia said. “Let’s see if there’s anything else we can use in my book at the moment.”
She turned to
the book again, which she’d laid on the ground behind us while I’d been casting. After turning the pages for a moment, she stopped at a page with symbols etched in cold blue on the parchment. These were Cold spells: icicle symbols, frost blasts, and snowflake symbols of different shapes and sizes.
Amelia looked at this thoughtfully, then reached into her pouch and pulled out a couple of blue Beast Cores. There were the ones we’d taken from the boar we’d fought, the one that had blasted me with frost. “We have these two cold Cores left over from the boar you killed,” she said. “I wonder if you can cast Cold spells as well as Fire spells. Generally, Mages have only one Elemental Affinity and can only cast spells within that affinity— fire, ice, lightning, nature, and wind. But I recall reading that Ink Mages can cast spells from more than one element. If you really are an Ink Mage, perhaps you can do that too?”
“Let’s find out,” I said, sitting down beside her. “What’s the best design for a Cold spell?”
“They’re all here,” Amelia said, indicating the open chapter in the book, “but it’s getting a bit dark to see them properly.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’ll get a fire going.”
I gathered some branches off the ground and broke them into smaller lengths. Normally, I would need some tinder to strike a spark into, as well as kindling and lighter sticks to carefully build the fire up from a small flame. This time, I had a feeling I wouldn’t need any of that.
I considered using a fireball to light the fire, but I remembered what a mess it had made of a trollman’s torso earlier. I didn’t want to blow up the stack of wood in our faces. Instead, I collected a few small sticks and held them on my hand to light them on fire. I pushed my Mana into the Fire rune on my tattoo, then into the palm of my hand, heating up the leaves and twigs gently, just as I’d heated the ropes to escape earlier.
Within a few seconds, smoke began pouring out, then a bright flame licked up around the twigs. This heat was enough to burn me, and I quickly laid the burning kindling into the hollow I’d made in the mossy ground. That was interesting—I couldn’t be burned by my own spells, but I could still be burned by fires which I’d started. Good to know. I’d need to be careful not to be complacent around fire.
