I shrugged. “Well, she could stop being so stuffy and simply let me draw a Lightning tattoo on her body. Then she might not need her vectors anymore.”
Amelia placed her hand on my leg. “You weren’t raised a noble. I’m not suggesting that our lives as nobles were worse than your life as a slave—how could they be?—but there are certain things that are perhaps more difficult. Like breaking free of our molds, for instance. We have been taught that the ways of the world are fixed. A peasant, no matter how hard he tries, cannot be made into someone of noble blood. In the same way, magic is fixed. Magic can only be performed through objects outside of the body. Legends of Ink Mages were always just that—legends.”
“You were taught the same thing about tattoos as she was,” I said as I held Amelia’s face in my hands. ”But you came around, didn’t you?”
“That’s because I’m special, William.” She planted a kiss on my lips. My hand reached up to slip inside her cloak and palm her breast. She let out a moan as I took her nipple between my two fingers.
I heard a cough and stopped kissing Amelia, but my hand was still firmly pressed against her breast. I turned my head to see Veronica standing a few feet away, getting an eyeful of our moment of pleasure.
Amelia quickly pushed my hand away and rubbed down her cloak to compose herself. “Veronica,” she said. “I didn’t see you there. Were you there long?”
“I heard everything,” she said as she came to stand over us. “What you said about me—being a noble, and all—it’s true. As hard as I’ve worked, it’s all meaningless if there’s someone out there who can cast spells without the use of vectors.”
“It’s not meaningless,” I said.
She looked away, as though fighting the truth of my words. “It breaks my entire view of the world. These things are fixed. They shouldn’t change.”
“It doesn’t have to be a negative thing,” I said. “You wouldn’t need to stop using your vectors. You could use them while also having a tattoo. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
“Possibly,” she said. For a moment, she seemed almost convinced, but then she shook her head. “But I’m not willing to do so just yet. Perhaps never. But I want to watch you more closely, see what you do. I might not be a scholar like Amelia, but I’m still curious about this Ink Mage business. Hopefully I haven’t offended you too much. Would you still be willing to let me watch you?”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m not offended in the slightest. You’re a noble—you can’t help yourself if you’re a little haughty at times.”
Veronica’s eyebrows stitched together, and her face dropped into a scowl.
“I’m only joking,” I said with a laugh. Amelia laughed along with me, and it was only a moment before Veronica joined us.
“Now,” I said, “Veronica, you hold the book open while I draw a new tattoo for Amelia. That way you’ll be helping us out and getting a good look at the process. You’ll see it’s not that bad.”
Veronica took the book in her hands, and Amelia stretched out her arm.
I held my dagger in my right hand, holding it in the air in front of me. I pushed Mana into my Fire rune and sent a small jet of flame spouting from my left forefinger, which I used to heat the blade of the knife. It had just been in my skin, so it was important to clean it again before using it to tattoo Amelia’s arm. Using fire to clean the blade was so much easier with this new rune and used so much less Mana.
I eased my knife into the Beast Core and drew out some ink, then gently pressed the dagger tip onto Amelia’s skin before I applied a little more pressure to break the surface. Her arm twitched slightly as a droplet of blood seeped out from the shallow wound.
“Take a couple of deep breaths,” I said. “I need you to be totally steady.”
“I’m fine.” Amelia looked into my eyes. Her ice-blue eyes were calm. “It was just a reflex. I know this is safe. Besides, the pain is worth it.”
I smiled. “It certainly is.”
I held the dagger up and made the next pin prick. I referred to the giant leather book sitting in Veronica’s lap. She had it sitting on an angle, the tops of her breasts poking out just over the top. That was a little distracting, but I managed to keep going.
I felt my mind easing into the relaxing trance state as I made the tiny pin pricks with the point of the knife until the design was fully marked out.
“How does that feel to you, Amelia?” I asked, just before I finished the design. “Do you feel any Mana flowing in your arm?”
“No, I don’t feel a thing,” Amelia replied.
“Strange,” I said. “I always feel my Mana flowing out to the pattern to accept the ink toward the end. It helps with spreading it. Let me try something.”
I had never done this before, but I had a feeling it might work. I pulled some Mana from the pool near my mind and pushed it into my left arm. This time I didn’t push it into one of the tattoos; I just held it in my left hand in its pure form. Then I held the tip of the dagger above the surface of Amelia’s skin.
A drop of the thick Beast Core ink hung at the sharp tip of the dagger. I moved my Mana-filled left hand toward it.
The result was impressive; the ink from the dagger was visibly drawn toward my Mana-soaked hand. It came like
