“Okay, should I sit or lie down?”
“I’d lie down. You want to be comfortable. In fact,” I said noticing how rough the dirt was beneath us. Stones and twigs covered the area, and I could feel them through the seat of my pants. “You lie prone, and I’ll levitate you so you won’t have any more distractions than necessary.”
Tess unzipped her jacket and shrugged out of it. Setting it to the side, she removed her blouse, folded it, and laid it on top of the jacket. She wore a black, sports-bra that covered more than a bikini top would have.
I triggered my levitation tat and felt it grown warm on my right thigh. As Tess stretched out in front of me, I eased her up until she floated a foot above the dirt. She folded her arms together beneath her chin and, turning to face me, rested her head on her forearms.
She met my gaze, and I could see that she had no doubt, no fear of failure. Through our mesh, I could feel her excitement at being able to take her first step toward becoming a Wanderer.
I smiled and placed my left hand on her bare shoulder. “That’s good. You are ready for this. You can start whenever you want. Just focus on making as thin a line as you can and concentrate on keeping it in your dermis layer.”
“Got it,” Tess said.
I moved my grimoire to where it was directly beneath her head, and she turned to read the pattern. Raising my right hand, I placed my index finger on a spot about three inches above her waistline and a couple inches to the right of her spine. “Start here.”
My vision split until I could see through her eyes and mine. At the same time, she was looking at her lower back through my eyes and the grimoire page through her own eyes. I felt her concentrate, gathering her focus, and her flesh beneath my fingertip grew warm.
Through our meshing, I could feel Tess gathering energy and focusing it on the spot beneath my index finger.
She gave a sudden gasp of pain as her focus burned a single point beneath her skin. I felt the same pain, but since we were sharing everything through the mesh, neither of us felt it as intensely as it would have been. For a moment, I thought she might drop her focus, but her resolve stiffened, and the little glow beneath her skin began to move.
Watching through my eyes, Tess moved the hot point of her focus into the runes that formed the shield spell. I moved my hand from the right side of her back, dragging my fingertips softly across her skin, and stopped all movement when my fingers were resting on the left side of her spine. Her skin felt warm beneath my touch, and sweat began to bead up on her back as she concentrated on maintaining her focus against the pain.
Burning a tat is not something that you can do in a second or even a minute. If you could hold the entire pattern in your mind’s eye, I guess you could burn the pattern all at once. I’d never been able to do a tattoo that quickly and Walt had never implied it was even possible, but I guess if you could focus well enough.
Over the next twenty minutes, Tess gradually burned the curving line of runes across her lower back. Sweat had pooled along her spine and dripped from her face onto my grimoire. I wasn’t worried about my book. It was spelled to protect it from accidental damage. Her hair was matting against the right side of her face, but she didn’t move to brush it out of her way.
Our meshing had the usual effect of titillating our libidos, but we’d gotten used to the feelings of performing magic together while meshed and our nightly slaking of our lust had made it easier for Tess to train over long hours without ripping my clothes off.
The tip of the burning line stopped, and with a deep sigh, Tess dropped her concentration. I moved my index finger to the tattoo that was already fading from sight beneath her skin. Feeling the pattern burned into her flesh, I studied it and nodded to myself. “Good job, Tess. You’ve done your first tattoo.”
She turned to face me, sweat dripping off the tip of her nose, and then tried to stand up. I changed my focus, levitated her upright, and then set her boots gently on the ground.
I gazed up into her eyes and smiled at the lust I saw in her features. Tess held out her hands, and I took them in mine. She pulled me to my feet and then she wrapped her arms around me and raised her lips to mine. We kissed passionately.
When she broke the kiss, she smiled again. “Now, how do I activate it?”
I grinned. “Haven’t you felt me activate mine enough to know?”
She pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side. She stepped back out of my arms and faced the trees at the far side of the clearing. A moment later, a shield popped into existence between the shimmer of our circle and where we stood.
“There you go,” I said. “Easy peasy.”
“Yeah, it is, but you can shape your shield into all manner of shapes. How do you do that?”
“That’s the next lesson. It’s just a matter of focusing on what shape and placement you want the shield to have. You may have a little trouble concentrating on shapes while maintaining your focus on the tat, but with practice, I’m sure you’ll have the hang of it in a few days.”
“And releasing the shield?” Tess asked.
“As easy as wishing it away. You can also strengthen it by pouring more energy into the tattoo, which you already have practice doing. If you lose your concentration on putting the shield somewhere else, it will automatically reform into a hemisphere over
