“Well, I didn’t know you gave it to him,” I said. “Where did you get the knife from? And why did you give it to him?”
“I brought it with me from the Sunlands. As to how I acquired it, that story is too long to be told today.”
As interested as I was in the tale of how Jacques had come to own the dagger, I was more interested in what made the dagger special. We had to find Katlyn, and that would mean encountering trouble. Any additional edge we might gain by learning some of this unique item’s additional capabilities would serve us well.
“So, what’s so special about the dagger?” I asked Jacques. “Beyond the fact that it’s well suited to making Ink Mage tattoos, of course.”
“The dagger is an elemental blade.” Jacques leaned back, as if he’d said everything necessary.
“And? What does that mean? I don’t know what an elemental blade is.”
“Whoa, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Jacques held up his hands as if to ward off an attack from me.
I smiled and opened my mouth to contradict him, but Jacques stopped me. “I know, I know, you got up with two naked women in your bed, I don’t think there is a wrong side of the bed to be on.”
“Well, mostly naked. Amelia did have some clothing on.” I chuckled. Jacques did have a way of putting everyone in a good mood, even if it came, more often than not, from his untrustworthy charm.
“Well, go on,” I said. “What does an elemental blade do?”
“I don’t understand these things in the kind of detail Amelia does, I’m afraid. I’m no scholar. You’ll have to ask her later if she can explain the precise workings better than I can, but here is what I can tell you. The dagger can directly channel your elements.”
“So, it’s like a Mage’s vector weapon?”
“Not at all. A Mage’s weapon has runes on it, like the ones you’ve tattooed on yourself. This dagger can be augmented into new shapes with elemental magic.”
“What does that look like?” I asked.
“You’ll have to try it out for yourself and see. If my understanding is correct, it should enhance and change the shape of the dagger.”
“Well, I’ve tried putting my fire onto other weapons before. I guess it couldn’t be too different from that.”
“You normally put the fire straight out through your hand, yes?”
I nodded.
“That would make the blade hot,” Jacques said. “When I acquired this dagger, I was told something about treating it as an extension of my body. That meant nothing to me, having no magic of my own, but perhaps it’s something you can try?”
I looked at the dagger and considered it. I knew of nothing in principle that would stop me from doing such a thing. I’d never thought about trying to channel Mana into the dagger, but then, until recently I’d never thought about trying to channel Mana through my tattoos.
As I stared at the dagger, I thought about it as part of me. I couldn’t feel anything different, but I would have to see if I could put Mana into it. I considered channeling fire. That didn’t seem like a great idea in a tavern built of wood. If it worked, I had no idea how much fire it would produce. For all I knew, this little dagger could become a blazing inferno if I didn’t know how to control the process of channeling elemental energy through it.
I held the dagger in my right hand, as close as possible to my Cold tattoo. At first, I tried pushing Mana straight into my tattoo, but when the runes lit up, my hand started to produce ice.
“It’s not working,” I said. “My Mana is trying to cast a spell, not manipulate the shape of the dagger.”
“Why use a tattoo?” Jacques asked.
“Right,” I said. “I should try to channel the element without using my tattoo. I’ll give it a shot.”
This time, when I took my Mana, I pushed it through my hand and directly into the dagger, rather than into the tattoo. Mana flowed out into the shaft of the dagger. A dark shadow appeared, an extension of the dagger, about a foot longer than the blade itself. I moved the knife back and forth a couple of times. The shadow was a part of the blade. I passed my fingers through it. There was nothing there. The shadow flowed over my hands but did nothing.
“That’s part of it done,” I said. “But it’s not infused with an element. And it doesn’t seem to work if I channel through my tattoo. I wonder. . . is there a way to channel my elemental affinities without a tattoo or a spell?”
Jacques furrowed his brow. “I do recall the person I obtained the knife from mentioning something about that. The dagger should be able to use affinities without the need for runes.”
“Then there has to be some way to make this work,” I said.
I tried a third time, but when I gathered my Mana, I thought of the Cold element, and the beautiful Ice Queen I’d seen in my vision. A chill raced down my spine, and I knew for certain that my Mana was now imbued with the Cold element. I pushed harder and then, with a sudden relief, broke through the resistance.
I smiled and concentrated, pulling Mana out into my right arm again and channeling it all into the dagger. Unlike before, the resistance was lower, as I became familiar with the sensation.
A crackling sound broke the silence of the room. I saw the silvery reflection of the dagger growing dim as it was coated in frost. Ice cracked and split and grew its way over the dagger until it was the same size as the shadow blade had been before, about a foot longer than the original blade, and the handle was much larger too. Unlike the
