I stepped back and looked away, giving the two women a moment together. When I looked back, Mistress Blossom was admiring Veronica in the new garment. The fine leather neatly contained Veronica’s breasts. It came down to just above her navel and rose enough to shield her modesty while still showing her chest off to good effect.
“No straps round the back, you see,” explained the Mistress. Veronica turned to show off the tattoo, and I saw that the leather chestpiece was secured round the neck and round the shoulders but did not cover the tattoo at all.
Veronica sat upright and looked around at the expectant faces.
“I like this,” she said, gesturing to the leather on her chest. “It’s very soft against my skin. How’s the tattoo? Does it look good? It felt marvelous when it was completed, and there’s no pain at all now. I wish I could look at it properly. Is there any way for me to see it?”
Jacques chuckled. “Bit of a problem, that is.”
“I have something that might help,” the Mistress said, walking over to the table at the end of the room. She came back with two mirrors, one larger than the other. I’d seen mirrors in Aranor before, but they were expensive and uncommon. Katlyn had always wanted one but had never been able to afford it.
“Those are quite rare, aren’t they?” I asked.
“They are,” Mistress Blossom confirmed. “But I had to acquire the best of items to equip my cellar.”
“What are they good for?” Jacques snorted. Evidently, they were beneath his attention as a thief.
“Mirrors can be really priceless in the value they offer,” the Mistress explained. “I use them before going out to attend to my customers, to ensure my appearance is the best it can be. One can’t overestimate the importance of such things. Plenty of my patrons stay longer and buy more beer because they like what they see. It might not seem like these things are related, but you would be surprised.”
Jacques did indeed look surprised, and he nodded thoughtfully as if this was a new idea for him.
“In addition,” the Mistress continued as she brought the mirrors over, “these can be used to observe your form when you’re fighting, and ... when you’re doing other things.”
Jacques chuckled at this, and Amelia shuffled her feet. She still wasn’t quite used to Mistress Blossom’s forward manner.
“Here you are, dear.” The Mistress handed the small mirror to Veronica. “William, could you hold this large mirror behind Veronica, so she can see?”
I quickly worked out what she meant, holding the large mirror a little lower but still providing a line of sight over Veronica’s shoulder. Veronica held the small mirror up so that it caught the reflection of the large mirror, allowing her to see the spread of the tattoo across her back.
She reached one hand behind her and ran her fingers over the design, where she could reach it. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. She put her hand on mine and looked at me. “Thank you, William. This means a lot to me.”
She shivered, suddenly, and reached down to pick her tunic up from the bench where it had lain. Pulling it over her head and down to cover her new leather chest piece, she turned to me and asked, “Would you help me with the straps?”
I moved behind her to do up the ties, covering most of the tattoo with the fabric of the tunic.
“Well then,” I said once I was done, “do you want to try your new tattoo out?”
“Of course,” Veronica said. “What do I need to do?”
“This could be a little trickier in your case,” I said. “You don’t have the experience that Mistress Blossom has with manipulating Mana. But don’t worry; we’ll work it out.”
Veronica held her chin up and sat straight, expectantly, with her hands folded in her lap.
“To begin with,” I said, “you will need to take a strand of Mana away from your pool.”
“I can sense my Mana pool,” Veronica said. “I’ve always had to sense it to know what the level was before casting a spell. But I’ve never tried pulling some of it away.”
“It’s really quite simple,” Amelia said. “I’m surprised you weren’t taught that during your training in Astros.”
Veronica grimaced slightly at the mention of the training. The memory was obviously a bit of a sore point. “I was always told that couldn’t be done. The training was overseen by the Arcanists, and they always checked up on our training and gave lectures about what we could and couldn’t do. I was told I had to rely on my items drawing on my pool for me. That’s what items were for, they told us. Now it makes me wonder what I even bought items for. You can probably draw tattoos that do all these things for me. Did I waste all that money?”
“I’m sure they can still be used for something,” I said. “I doubt that I can replicate all the effects your items provide. Besides, we might be able to find a way for your items and the tattoos to work together.”
Veronica frowned, still a bit skeptical.
“Magical weapons and clothing existed even when Ink Mages were still around,” Amelia reminded us. “Vector Mages and Ink Mages are not mutually exclusive. They both have a purpose. William is able to make us into Rune Sorcerers with his Ink Mage powers. We just have to rediscover where rune use and vector use overlap.”
Veronica nodded. “I look forward to that; I want to become more powerful. I don’t want to feel powerless ever again when people are in danger.”
“And together we can achieve that,” I said. “First, you need to be able to manipulate your Mana.”
“You said that was simple, Amelia,” Veronica said. “How do I learn to do it?”
“It’s a difficult action to describe,” Amelia said. “It’s a bit like walking; it would be
