She smiled and hugged her book closer, nearly skipping with excitement as she spoke.
“It’s all very exciting for me as a scholar,” she continued. “I always wanted to learn more about Ink Mages, and the suppression of the knowledge about them always seemed suspicious to me. To find myself actually traveling with an Ink Mage, well, it’s almost too good to be true!”
She said the last words with almost a squeal, and I had to laugh.
“So, how do we learn more about what I might be able to do?” I asked.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Amelia said, her voice a bit lower this time. Her shoulders drooped slightly, upset that she couldn’t tell me more.
“Does your book contain information about this subject?” I asked.
“This?” Amelia held the book in front of her as we kept walking. “No. This is just a basic encyclopedia of spells, monsters, items and potions, that kind of thing. It’s basically a handbook for beginner Mages, nothing special. I brought it with me for my research.”
We had grown pretty relaxed in each other’s company, and we had been through some challenging moments together now. Time for a direct question.
“Amelia, what is this research you keep mentioning? I think it’s time you ought to tell me what you were doing out here in the first place.”
She looked at me for a moment, considering, then gave a small smile.
“Ok, you’re right. Well, I was on my way to the mines. There were reports of trouble in the lands around, of villages attacked and people killed with strange elemental blasts. The Librarians thought it may just be some rogue magic users, some bandits or something. When word came to Astros, there was debate over what to do. The Arcanists thought it wasn’t worth looking into. The Arcanists like to keep a hands-off approach to what goes on in the north—so long as the supply of Beast Cores keeps flowing south to Astros from the mines, the Arcanists want to have as little to do with things as possible. On the surface, the Librarians were forced to agree with the Arcanists, since the latter hold all the power in Astros. But my mentor, a remarkable Librarian of good heart, thought the Arcanists were hiding something. So he tasked me with finding out what was happening in the north.”
“What about the King himself? His Court is in Astros. Does he not have a say in matters?”
She gave me a look. “The King does what the Arcanists advise. Like I said, they hold the real power in Astros. Anyway, my mentor sent me out from the library on a fact-finding mission. I had to go alone, for fear of what would happen should the Arcanists discover that the Librarians were looking a little too closely into their machinations in the north. The further north I got, the more I started to suspect that there had been a breakout from the Beast Mines. People said monsters had got free and were interbreeding with the local wildlife, creating dangerous Beasts in the forests.”
“Well, we’ve seen evidence of that for ourselves now.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Amelia continued, her tone thoughtful. “I have to look into this further to see how it might have happened and what we can do about it.”
What could we do about anything? We were two escaped slaves, many days’ journey from our homes. I didn’t know anyone this far north except for a few Elemental Sensitive folks from Aranor who’d been taken to the mines before me, and I doubted they could help us at all.
I lifted a branch in our path so Amelia could walk past it. I couldn’t help noticing the way she walked, her hips swaying with each step. It wasn’t the walk of a promiscuous tavern wench but the steady sway of someone who was obviously of noble lineage. What in all the gods’ names was she doing out here? She’d given me an answer, but I felt like it wasn’t the whole story.
“Next time, may I suggest that you don’t ask a caravan of slavers for directions?” I chuckled as I let down the branch and came alongside her again.
Amelia rolled her eyes. “Yes, perhaps that wasn’t the smartest idea I’ve had lately.”
“I’m glad you did it,” I said. “Well, glad that we both got away from them. If you hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have tried so hard to escape. I never would have discovered that I’m an Ink Mage.”
Amelia smiled at me. “I’m glad this happened too. I didn’t see much hope for the future, but now, I find myself walking through the forest with a genuine Ink Mage! It’s wonderful, and it was worth a bit of danger.”
“I really want to know more about my abilities. Are you sure you don’t remember anything else about how the power of an Ink Mage works?”
“I’ve read more books than I can remember. Maybe there’s something in all those pages that I’ve forgotten about. If you tell me some things about your experience, it might jog my memory.”
“I’ll answer any questions you have if it means learning more about this.” I held up my tattoo, which had ceased glowing.
“Let’s start with that. What can you tell me about that tattoo? Where did you get it?”
“I drew it myself,” I said.
“Really?” Amelia looked incredulous.
“Yeah, why? Is it not well drawn?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean that. It looks amazing, not like a homemade tattoo at all. Look at the shading, the subtlety of the coloring, and how sharp the edges are.” She took my arm and ran her fingers over the tattoo. “It’s so perfectly drawn. Where did you get the design?”
“I just got it from an ordinary looking wand. A friend from Aranor had it.” That friend had been Jacques, a worldly man who’d taught me much. He liked to call himself the ‘Rogue of Aranor’, and the title certainly fit. He
