“I’m not sure I’m ready to be watched,” Amelia said. “At least not until I’ve had more practice.”
“Watch? Practice?” Veronica threw her hands into the air as both Amelia and I burst into laughter. “You two are insufferable at times, truly.”
“We’ve known each other barely a day,” I said. “That’s hardly enough time to draw any conclusions.”
Veronica just glared at me and looked away, but she looked back when I drew my foster-father’s finely pointed dagger.
“That’s an interesting item,” she said curiously. I held it out to her. She didn’t take it but peered at it closely. “It’s very old. Where did you get it?”
“It was a gift,” I said. “Amelia and I think it’s custom made for the creation of tattoos. It holds Beast Core ink in this hollow tip, like an ink well, and the fine point seems made for the task of drawing tattoos. Personally, I’m beginning to suspect that it might have come down to us from the days when Ink Mages were more common in the Kingdom.”
“Fascinating,” said Veronica, and keen interest glinted in her eyes. “You say it was a gift?”
“From my foster-father.”
“And where did he get it?”
I shrugged. “I’m afraid I have no idea. I asked him a few times, but he always dodged the question. He’s… he’s dead now, so I guess I’ll never get to find out.”
Veronica had shown us a tough front up until now, but at the sudden emotion in my voice her expression softened, and she reached out and placed a hand on my arm. There was genuine empathy in her voice when she spoke. “Sorry, William. I understand how it feels to lose someone.”
“Thanks, Veronica,” I said, meeting her eyes. “I understand your curiosity. The past of this dagger is a mystery I would very much like to know more about. For now, though, we just have to work out which runes will be best for our purposes. Amelia, let’s look in your book.”
Amelia sat cross legged with her book open in her lap. She had been watching my conversation with Veronica, but at my words she began leafing through the sections with the Cold and Fire runes.
“We still only have a small amount of ink,” she said as she turned the pages. “We have three small Cold Cores and one Fire Core, not counting the Lightning Core from the drake we killed. So you should be able to add some modifications to your existing tattoos, but you won’t really be able to add any completely new tattoos. There aren’t a lot of modification runes in my book, but there should be something useful in here.”
“Hard knowing what to choose,” I said.
“What sort of combat abilities do you want to acquire?” Amelia asked as she flicked through the book.
She was focusing on the Fire and Cold sections, since those were the affinities we had.
I looked out at Brightwater again. The houses were densely packed, the streets narrow and winding. I had a bad feeling about using anything too over-the-top with my Fire affinity. That could end pretty badly.
“What are we likely to face in the town?” I asked Veronica.
She frowned at me, but her eyes showed her curiosity. “Thieves, merchants who are a little too touchy-feely, maybe a drunk swordsman who thinks it’s a good idea for a midnight duel. The biggest threat will probably be other Mages. Brightwater is far away from the civilizing influence of Astros. People are more lawless here. It’s possible we might run into mercenaries or outlaw Mages looking to steal from us.”
“So, we’ll want to be ready to defend against magical attacks as well as physical ones,” I said. “I’ll want some kind of spell that’s contained and easily controlled.”
“There’s not much fitting that description,” said Amelia. “There aren’t a lot of small-scale spells in here. I can see runes for amplifying the heat of Fire spells, increasing their duration, or area of effect.”
“That wouldn’t do at all,” Veronica put in. “Governor Arnold wouldn’t be too pleased if you burned his town to the ground.”
“Thanks for the tip,” I said with a smile.
Amelia laughed. “The spells in this book are mostly aimed at aspiring Arcanists. I don’t think they are typically too worried about collateral damage. They usually have well-trained soldiers with them to take care of common enemies.”
“You could always learn to use your current spells better,” Veronica suggested. “Mages don’t often get item upgrades, so we have to make do with what we have. Better and more precise use of mana can quite easily increase a spell’s potency.”
“I can tightly control a small amount of fire magic—I’ve done it when lighting campfires or burning my ropes to escape from the slavers. The problem is, when I hold a fireball in my hand, it goes through my Mana really quickly. And if I try to summon fire in its raw form, it’s also expensive, and difficult to control. If only there were a way for me to manipulate it on my fingers, like a potter molds clay.”
“How great is your control of the flames?” Veronica asked. “Can you manipulate them with finer control?”
I shrugged. “Let’s see, shall we?”
I got to my feet again and both my companions did the same. The eyes of both women were on me as I summoned my Mana and went through the usual procedure of pushing it into the Fire rune near my wrist. Then, instead of pushing it from there into either of the spear runes, I simply let the mana gather in the center of the base rune.
I pushed the Mana out onto my left hand. Warmth built up on my palm. Then flames burst into life on the edge of my fingers.
The flames were small and frail, like those of burnt out candles. I pushed more Mana into my arm, and the flames picked up. When I pushed a big burst outward, fire burst out in five jets, ten feet long. They were so long that they almost seemed like fiery
