I thought it seemed a bit foolish going into the underground cellar of a woman we’d only just met, but Jacques had indicated that he already knew the cellar, and he hadn’t hesitated to go inside, so I assumed it would be safe for us as well. I let Amelia and Veronica follow Jacques. I took up the rear, with Mistress Blossom behind me. As we descended the stairway, I heard a rumble as the door closed behind us, sealing up the wall again.
After we reached the bottom of the steps, we waited as Mistress Blossom lit candles in sconces around the room.
“Oh, fiddlesticks,” she said. “The candle went out; I’ll have to light it from the sconce again.”
“I can help out with that,” I said, producing a low flame on my finger.
The Mistress laughed. “Why, of course you can.”
There was enough light for me to see that there were many sconces in the walls. I went around the walls and lit the fat, stubby, white candles.
As I went around the wide room lighting the candles, I inspected what was there. As the candlelight brightened, it cast flickering shadows over all the equipment around the sides of the room, which was about twenty yards by ten yards. Not a huge room, but pretty large for an underground cellar.
Several benches and low tables lined the walls. Two of the tables featured elaborate candelabra. I went over to light the candles in the candelabra. Weapons, armor, and other gear lay on the tables, or hung on the walls above them. I flicked my thumb against the edge of an axe on one of the tables. Totally blunt.
Other assorted equipment lay on other tables at one end of the room. I couldn’t say from this distance exactly what it was, but it looked a bit flimsy to be armor. I noticed some lewd artwork on the walls in the spaces between the weapons as well.
“What’s this room for?” Amelia asked.
“Judging by the weapons and armor,” I replied, “I would say it was for training. The weapons aren’t sharp, and some of them are made of wood.”
“You have a good eye, William,” Mistress Blossom said. “Welcome to my training chamber.”
Up against one of the walls were a series of wooden frames that looked like they would be used for vaulting over or holding one’s weight on. There were some dummies and other targets with arrows sticking out as well. The room wasn’t large, but 20 yards would still be long enough to practice short range accuracy.
Veronica walked over to the table at the end with the other equipment. There were all sorts of leather items there. There were a few pieces that might have served for rudimentary armor, but most looked more ornamental than practical.
Veronica held up a whip and used it to gesture at some of the other items on the table. “And what is all this equipment for? It doesn’t look like it’s used for fight training.”
“But my dear, I never said this room was just for fight training. It’s just possible that we train in other skills down here as well.”
“I see.” Veronica raised an eyebrow. “Skills like the ones depicted in this artwork?”
Now that Veronica pointed them out, I noticed that the paintings were all of Mistress Blossom herself. Some of the positions she was holding in the paintings didn’t seem anatomically possible.
“I have some ... diverse interests. Now, if you don’t appreciate the decor in my cellar, you can always leave, but I for one, am eager to see some tattoos being drawn.”
“On the contrary,” Jacques cut in. “The decor here is splendid, Mistress Blossom. It really is a very charming room.”
Charming wasn’t quite the word I would have chosen, but for all that it wasn’t unpleasant. The erotic art on the walls was pretty sexy, and the thought of what this buxom, attractive mistress got up to in this room was making me hard. I glanced at the women and realized that there was a similar look in both of their faces as they looked at the leather gear and other toys which lay around the room. Jacques stood back a way, his arms crossed over his chest and a knowing look on his face
“It certainly is a pleasant space. I like the decor very much,” I said, and Veronica and Amelia murmured their agreement.
“Well thank you,” the Mistress replied. “It took a lot of effort.”
“I can see that,” I said. “Now, I’m going to be drawing a tattoo for you. Let’s get set up.”
“Of course,” the Mistress said. She bustled over to the table where Veronica had been inspecting her leather equipment. The wooden table had a couple of drawers just below the tabletop. Mistress Blossom rummaged around inside one of the drawers before making a small exclamation of triumph.
She turned around with a small wooden box in her hand. “Here they are!”
She flipped open the lid for us all to see. Inside were two small Nature Cores, slightly larger than the Cold and Fire Cores I’d handled previously. They were dark green, the color of summer leaves in full bloom.
I felt the familiar tugging sensation in my mind and in my Mana pool, as all my Mana was attracted to these potent Cores. When I reached out a hand to touch them, Mana surged along my arm and into my fingers. As I touched the hard, slick outer shell of one of the Cores, the surface of the Core glowed. A flash of light went through the liquid inside, luminescent like the glow of fireflies behind a pane of green glass.
Amelia and Veronica gasped as they saw it, and the Mistress’ grip on the wooden box shook slightly as she clutched it in awe.
“Well I’ll be,” Jacques said. “That’s some
