All that remained was to decide what tattoo we wanted to give her.
“I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing,” Veronica said, her eyes shining as she looked at me. “I have the spell runes on my ring, skirt, and sword, but they are custom-designed for those vectors. We’ll need something different. What sort of tattoo do you think I could get?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, taking her hands in mine. I was taking a bit of a risk by holding her hand, but she didn’t shy away. “We’ll make sure it’s a special one, for you.”
The Mistress and Jacques stood near the stairs, watching the conversation between Amelia, Veronica, and I.
“I hate to have to say this,” said Amelia. “But it turns out any Lightning Rune you choose will be a special one.”
“What do you mean?” I turned my head to look at Amelia.
“Well,” she said, “Lightning Runes are the most intricate ones out there, and therefore the items which use them are the most expensive. That’s one of the reasons Lightning Mages are less common than the Mages who start out with other affinities. It’s harder to gain entry, even when you have the affinity.”
“That’s true,” said Veronica. “I did have to pay a lot for my starting equipment, and the test to gain entry to the training was difficult.”
“I don’t see how any of this affects the tattooing process,” I asked. “Can’t we just take a rune from your spellbook?”
“The thing is, there are no Lightning Runes in my book,” Amelia said reluctantly, pointing to the book sitting on the bench next to her. She shrugged her shoulders, helplessly. “My book is just basic elemental runes and foundational principles. Lightning magic is much more advanced and complex; even a basic rune would be in a level 2 book.”
Veronica squeezed my hands harder. “Does that mean you can’t give me a tattoo?”
I looked her in the eyes. Tears stood there. “I wouldn’t want to attempt it without a proper design.” I turned to Amelia. “You’re certain there’s nothing we can do?”
“Veronica has a Lightning affinity, and you have a Lightning Beast Core, but without the design, you can’t do anything. I’m sorry.” Amelia gave Veronica a sympathetic look.
Veronica blinked several times and took a few deep breaths. “I understand. It’s just that, after seeing how confidently you and Amelia went into battle, without even needing weapons, I just... I wanted to be more like you.”
“Surely there’s something you can do,” Mistress Blossom said, coming forward with a look of concern. She looked around at us, but nobody could find anything to say.
“Oh, hell,” Jacques burst out as I was trying to think of something to say. He put his hand to his trousers pocket and fiddled with the button for a moment, before pulling out a crinkled sheet of parchment.
“I was going to sell this for beer money,” he said. “But it seems like you need it more than I do.” He handed the sheet to Veronica and me.
I took the sheet of parchment, uncrumpled it, and glanced over what was written. Even though I couldn’t read the words that were written there, I could see that most of the page was covered with a drawing of a symbol. It looked a lot like a Lightning Rune.
Veronica wiped at her eyes. “What is it, Jacques?” she asked.
Jacques shuffled his feet and glanced at Amelia. “Well, you know how I mentioned I spent some time poaching books from the Royal Library?”
“Yes, I remember that,” Amelia said in a slightly frosty tone.
“Let’s just say I worked out that selling the individual pages could make me more than selling a whole book all at once. And this is the last page left for me to sell.”
“You bastard!” Amelia exclaimed and raised a fist. “You defiled a book like that?”
Jacques looked at me, petrified. I shrugged. He may have been my friend, but that didn’t mean I was going to defend him from Amelia for theft and destruction of property.
Amelia landed a punch on Jacques’ arm.
“Ow!” he cried, rubbing his arm. “There’s no need to go all warrior librarian on me; the deed’s already done.”
“Hmph,” Amelia sighed. “I suppose you’re right. It’s not like we can return the page to the book; as you said, you’ve already sold the rest. This must have been a very advanced spellbook. I guess you’ll have to live with the guilt of destroying such a valuable work of arcane literature.”
“A fitting punishment,” Jacques said with a mock frown. “How will I live with myself?”
Amelia didn’t seem to catch his sarcasm; she simply nodded her head distractedly, as though she was pleased Jacques had seen the error of his ways. “What’s on the parchment, William?” she asked. “Oh wait, do you need me to read it?”
I held it out toward her. “There are some words, but it’s mostly just a picture, and I think it’s a Lightning Rune.”
Amelia came closer and took the sheet from me, holding it near the light from one of the candelabra to get a closer look. “Yes, that does look like a Lightning Rune.”
“Oh, Jacques, thank you,” Veronica said. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“Can you use the rune for Veronica?” Mistress Blossom asked as I handed the sheet to Amelia.
“I do hope so,” I said, looking at Veronica. “It would be such a shame if you couldn’t get a tattoo.”
Amelia studied the page for a moment, mouthing words to herself as she read. She looked around at everyone with a smile. “This will work. The design is a basic Lightning Rune. It’s like the flame or the snowflake runes you have, William. It will allow Veronica to generate lightning, but it doesn’t modify the casting in any way. This is the perfect choice for your first tattoo, Veronica.”
Amelia handed the page back to me. I looked at Veronica. She was beaming.
“Oh, thank you, William,” Veronica said. Then her face changed, and
