I felt a wave of empathy from Cris and Rafe, but with Rafe’s emotion there was something underlying it. It was suspicion. What had I done for him to be suspicious of me? I forced my head up and I found Rafe had rolled onto his side and was staring at me. Our eyes met.
“Let me see your side,” Rafe said softly.
I clutched at my blouse and pulled it up high enough for him to see the pale bare skin of my belly.
His fingers reached out and gently stroked my flesh from my pants to my bra.
“What’s wrong?” Cris asked.
“Tess burned the tattoo on her at the same time I burned mine. Want to tell me why you did that, Tess?”
I looked at him while shocked thoughts raced through my mind.
His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t realize what you were doing?”
“Well, no, I wasn’t trying to burn a tattoo. I was following you just like last time. God, is that why it hurt so much?”
“I believe you’ve hit the nail on the head there. You weren’t ready to get that tat. I hope you haven’t accidentally done something that will hurt you later,” Rafe said.
“Hurt me? How would having a new tat hurt me?”
“You’re supposed to learn control as you prepare to create a tat. Remember my story of how long it took me to control a lightning strike?”
“Sure, I remember, what’s that got to do with a force blast?”
“Same thing. You have to be able to control where it goes and how much energy you’re putting into it. You don’t aim the blast with a finger or a hand, but with your mind.”
“But you’re always pointing a fist or your palm at your target,” I argued.
“That’s me showing off. It really wows the bad guys when you point at them and then hit them with a force blast that knocks them into next week. Why do you think I have the tattoo on my belly if it needed my hand to aim it? I would have put it on my forearm or fist if that were the case.”
“Okay, I’ll need practice before I start using it,” I said, and then the thought struck me. “But this is great news, Boss. Now I can get my tats faster and be a bigger help when we fight.”
Rafe frowned and I could feel his concern.
“What now?” I moaned. “Don’t you want me to be able to help? You have to admit you’re fighting more and more and if Rowle is out there you’ll need me.”
He shook his head sadly. “It’s not that I wouldn’t appreciate the extra firepower on my side. It’s that we’ve always learned our spells and earned our tats. I told you I didn’t like that remembrance spell for learning and now here you’ve burned another tat that I don’t think you’re ready for.”
Cris had been silent up until now, but she spoke up, “Rafe, I think Tess is right. You need her as strong as she can be if you too are going to keep fighting. So she learns faster, isn’t that a good thing for both of you?”
“Cris, love,” Rafe said, rolling onto his back so he could see both of us. “I know you mean well, but you know so little about the Wanderers and how we train. Simply having the tats isn’t enough. You have to learn how to use them or you could end up causing more harm than good. We’ve been training the same way for millennia, this way has proven itself to work. Now Tess is wanting to shortcut that method. Just because its change, doesn’t mean that its progress.”
“But it doesn’t mean that it isn’t either,” I argued.
Rafe frowned. “You two should not be ganging up on me. You are my apprentice, not Cris’s and Cris, you, while smart, charming, and intelligent are not a Wanderer. I’m the mentor. It’s my decision how things work. This isn’t a democracy.”
“Boss, I’m not saying I won’t do as you ask. You are the boss, except maybe while we’re in the bedroom. I’m just saying that you should consider and not just dismiss this out of hand. Give it some thought; train me to use the force blast. If I don’t learn at the level you expect then I won’t bring it up again.”
“But,” Cris added. “If she meets your expectations, then you will let her add tats faster.”
Rafe looked from Cris to me and then back. “Why is this so important to you, Cris?”
She leaned forward and cupped his cheeks in her palms. “Because, you duffus, you’re important to me. You both are. I would fight with you if I thought I could help, but since I can’t, I want you to be as strong as you can be.”
She released him and gazed at me. There were tears in her eyes.
“I don’t think I could stand it if one of you were killed,” she added and then wiped at her eyes with her blouse sleeve.
I took one of her hands at the same time that Rafe gathered her other one in his larger fist. We sat that way for several minutes, our emotions flowing together, as each of us tried to comfort the others. Eventually, Rafe reached for his grimoire.
“What’s next?” I asked, trying to hide my excitement of getting yet another tat.
“Healing, which you already have so try to avoid ‘accidentally’ burning this one again,” Rafe said with more humor in his emotions than I thought appropriate.
“I’ll do my best,” I said and then winked at him.
He grinned and held the book above his head as he found the correct page. It was an early page, as it was in my own grimoire. Rafe read over the spell, studying the tat’s pattern, and then he spoke
