“That was incredible,” I panted.
Amelia laughed and gave me a hand up.
“Come on,” I said. “Now that we’ve dealt with the threat of these slavers, let’s turn back for the road. The slavers’ wagons will have food and water, and maybe other gear we can use. We might as well take what we can from them.”
Amelia put her hand to her stomach. “That sounds like a good idea.”
I took a look at the bodies, but except for the short-bladed swords and sheaths they carried, there was nothing of value on any of them. We took a sword each and strapped them onto our belts. At least we would not go on with our adventure completely unarmed. Amelia picked up her book from the edge of the clearing, and I watched with interest as she carefully brushed stray bits of grass from the spine. I would have to ask her about that book once we got going.
We extracted a single Core from the bear before leaving the clearing, and Amelia slipped it into her leather pouch along with the others.
As we walked away from the scene of the battle, Amelia looked at my arm again. “Your tattoo is still glowing. It’s as if your magic is channeled directly through the tattoo. Almost as if the tattoo itself is acting as a vector.”
I held my arm up and looked. She was right. “Yeah, it does seem that way.” The flame and the spear both still had a faint yellow outline which was fading back into the skin.
“This is a rare form of magic. I didn’t believe this was possible before today.” Amelia murmured slowly.
“Didn’t believe what was possible?” I asked.
She stopped and turned to look at me, and her eyes were very wide. “William, I think you’re an Ink Mage.”
Chapter Three
We took our bearings and set off, back in the direction we had come. It was not that difficult—the slavers had made a mess as they had moved through the woods in pursuit of us. We had a fair walk before us. With the slavers gone, all we needed to do was work out how this magic power I’d discovered in myself worked. Maybe in the process I could find out a bit more about Amelia and her mission, too.
“So, what’s an Ink Mage?” I asked her as we walked through the shady forest in the direction of the road.
Amelia tucked her book under her left arm and pushed her curly blonde hair behind her ears with her right hand, then straightened her shoulders, as if she were getting ready to give a lecture.
I didn’t mind listening to a lecture from her. After all, I had a lot of questions. She took a deep breath, then began to speak.
“Ink Mages are legendary magic users. When I worked as an apprentice scholar in the library of Astros, I had some spare time when the Librarians didn’t have specific jobs for me. In that spare time, I read legends about the Ink Mages who used to fight in the Kingdom’s armies. They had great power. They were able to manipulate their Mana and cast spells using only the runes drawn on their skin.”
“That sounds like what I was able to do today.”
“Correct. Unlike ordinary Mages, they didn’t require special weapons or spellbooks to be able to cast spells. Instead, they used drawings on their skin as vectors. Descriptions in the old legends are not very detailed, but what I saw today, well, I think that what the legend describes as ’drawings on the skin’ may actually be tattoos of runes.”
“So, what happened to the Ink Mages?” I asked. “You said they are only legends now. Where did they go? Were they all killed?”
“I don’t know. The history books aren’t exactly clear about that.” Amelia furrowed her brow. “There was always tension between the ordinary Mages and the Ink Mages. Some of the regular Mages felt that the way Ink Mages manipulated their Mana went against their moral code.”
“I know. I’ve often heard that the Arcanists preach about how wicked tattoos are,” I said. “They say we are spoiling our bodies by adding markings that the gods didn’t put there.”
“Yes, well,” Amelia cleared her throat. “I may have read some books during my time in the library that I wasn’t really supposed to read.”
She paused, looking at me as if to see if I would disapprove. I did not.
“That sounds pretty brave,” I said. “I can’t imagine they would treat you kindly if they caught you doing that.”
Amelia reddened slightly, the flush making her pretty face even more attractive. “Yes, I suppose it was brave. I didn’t like the thought of the Librarians keeping books secret just to serve a corrupt group of Arcanists.”
“Neither do I. But what did you learn in these forbidden books you read?”
“I learned that tattoos were not always condemned. There was a time when tattoos were considered a mark of beauty and good taste. Royalty would wear them, even if they weren’t Ink Mages themselves.”
“When did that change?”
“Who knows? I couldn’t find out any more about their history. But there haven’t been any Ink Mages for a few centuries at least. The books I managed to read were very old.”
“So, what can an Ink Mage do that’s special? If I’m an Ink Mage, what does that mean I can do?”
“Well, this is where it gets interesting. Ink Mages can cast spells that they can draw on their skin, but I have to assume that they need an affinity for a particular element, like regular Mages do. Of course, I couldn’t learn much about this. No one describes the process in any detail.”
“I guess I have a fire affinity, then?”
“So it would seem. You have a Fire tattoo, and your instinct seems to be for Fire spells. But there’s more to it than just using tattoos. There was something else in the manuscripts—it seems that to be a true Ink
