Ink Mage 1

by Dante King

  After she’d finished, I stepped out onto a patch of smooth sand on the bank and leaned down to hold out a hand to Amelia. As she rose out of the stream, the water poured off her body. She looked like a goddess. Every curve gleamed in the moonlight.

  The air was almost still this night, and my body felt warm after being submerged in the cool water. We walked back over to the fire, taking turns to dry our hair and bodies on the sheepskin blanket as we went. Once I had built up the fire again, Amelia and I stood and gazed into each other’s eyes. Her eyes were a bright ice-blue. Staring into them was like looking into a deep well; I couldn’t fathom their depths.

  Her full lips were parted, the tip of her tongue just showing between her sparkling white teeth. I reached out my hand and stroked her cheek with my palm. She raised her hand, laying her fingers over mine.

  “The prophecy said I would need companions on this adventure,” I said. “I couldn’t imagine a better companion than you.”

  “And I couldn’t imagine anywhere I’d rather be,” Amelia said, and stepped forward.

  She brushed her lips against mine. I moved my hand to her back and pulled her body to me. Our lips met, and our tongues entwined. I breathed in her scent, fresh from the water of the stream. The taste of her tongue against mine was sweet.

  Amelia’s hard nipples pressed against my chest. Her flesh was warm against mine. As she pressed herself against me, I felt myself growing hard. Amelia reached her hand down while we kissed and seized my stiffening cock. I groaned as pleasure flooded my body.

  Amelia broke off kissing me and brought her face away from mine.

  She gasped as she looked down. “Wow, it’s quite large.”

  She knelt against the sand and gazed at my manhood admiringly. My pulse quickened as she took it in her right hand, while with her left hand she cupped my jewels. I watched her chest rise and fall more quickly as the sight of me magnified her arousal. As my cock grew rock solid, she kissed it gently, as though it were some kind of precious gift.

  Her eyes met mine as she placed her lips around it and took it into her mouth. As she started to move her mouth up and down, she let out a soft moan, and my manhood grew increasingly hard.

  She continued to work up and down, her lips making a slick sound against my hard flesh.

  I withdrew my cock and brought Amelia to her feet. Her lips glistened, and there was an intensity in her eyes.

  “Your turn.” I gestured to where her white cloak lay on the ground next to us. She lay on the soft wool, her pale flesh gleaming.

  I knelt over her and stroked the soft skin of her stomach as I worked lower and took her nipples between my lips, one after the other. A moan escaped her lips. I worked my way lower, past the full round shape of her breasts, down to her navel. My hands stroked her thighs, and she parted her legs.

  I moved downward and kissed the fine skin above her neatly trimmed pubic area. She shuddered in response, and I went a little lower.

  The sight of her glistening sex ignited a hunger within me.

  As I tickled her slickness with my tongue, I massaged the region around her opening with my fingers. Her entrance was already wet and relaxed. I began to gently insert my fingers and stimulate the walls of her sex as my tongue continued to rub her clitoris back and forth.

  Amelia’s moans were growing louder at this point. “Yes, more. I want you inside of me, William.”

  She shuffled to the side and put a hand on my chest, pushing me onto my back against the soft wool of the sheep skin. I lay there as she lifted her right leg and brought it over my waist.

  She straddled me, one hand on my chest, the other reaching down between her legs to guide me inside of her. With a moan, she pressed down, and I placed my hands on her full hips as she enveloped me. She finally managed to bring my member fully inside her, as her pelvis met mine. She rose up and down, getting faster, her flesh slapping against me. Her breasts bounced up and down in time with her torso.

  I held her waist with my hands, and we looked into each other’s eyes. Amelia’s forehead glistened, and she bit her lip as she panted with the exertion.

  Her tight walls squeezed against my cock, which throbbed with each motion. I could feel myself climaxing as my balls clenched.

  Amelia’s breathing quickened, and I guessed she was on the verge too. I thrust against her, and we cried out together.

  As my seed poured out into Amelia, my vision exploded with light. My whole body pulsed with energy and pleasure washed over me in waves as I was emptied.

  A cold chill rushed over my skin as I was hurled into another reality.

  I saw before me a vast realm of ice. Immense stalagmites rose out of a wasteland, towering above me. The ice melded into walls of blue, gleaming in the pale light. At the top of this tower of ice stood a woman, clad in white fur, with a diadem of silver atop her fair brow.

  She gazed imperiously out over the ice at the army of mighty creatures gathered before her. Thousands of Beasts and monsters paid her homage. Giant bears, mammoths, trolls, and all manner of other creatures were assembled.

  The ice queen beckoned, and the animals roared. They stampeded toward the horizon, following her command.

  Then the vision faded.

  Amelia knelt over me, a look of concern on her face. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, pushing myself upright, sitting facing her. “I feel great.”

  “You were out for about a minute there.”

  “I had some sort of vision,” I said. “I saw a vast realm of ice, and a queen commanding an army of ice monsters. And all this happened just as we both climaxed.”

  Amelia’s mouth dropped, and she pointed to one side of me. “What’s that?” she asked.

  I glanced down. There was a flickering blue light shining from somewhere.

  “It’s your Cold tattoo!” she said. “It’s shining with light, and look, it’s completely healed!”

  Amazed, I sat up and raised my arm. As I did so, I felt my Mana stir powerfully, running to and from between my pool and the newly healed tattoo. The blue light suddenly flashed out brightly, then died away again. Experimentally, I flexed my hand, pushing some Mana through the Cold tattoo and onto my hand. There was a crackling sound, and a thin coating of frost formed around my fingers.

  “You used Cold magic,” she whispered. “But… you didn’t have the affinity, and now you do? How. . . how is that possible?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “I have the cold affinity already. Is it possible that I helped you unlock it?”

  “Maybe it is. I remember having a vision a bit like this when I first slept with Katlyn, but I’d assumed it was because we were both already drunk. When we both came, I saw a lake of fire, filled with exploding geysers of magma. A woman with fierce red eyes commanded an army of dragons and other infernal creatures. And my body was flooded with heat.”

  Amelia put her hand to her lips. “I remember reading that Ink Mages could access all the elements. That’s why I thought you would have been able to cast Cold spells before. Perhaps you need to unlock them first.”

  “I guess that would explain why I can now use both Fire and Cold tattoos. But how do I unlock the other elements then?”

  Amelia smiled conspiratorially. “You’re just going to have to find women to sleep with who have affinities with the other elements.”

  We both laughed.

  “That sounds like an exciting way of unlocking my powers,” I said. “But are you sure you don’t have a problem with that?”

  Amelia looked serious again. “You’re an Ink Mage. Your mission is to unlock your elemental affinities so that you can face the darkness that will threaten the Kingdom. The prophecy said you must find faithful companions, not just one. I couldn’t possibly keep you for myself. Besides, I don’t mind sharing.”

  I reached over and gave her a hug. We were reclining on her fur cloak, basking in the heat of the fire.

  “Well, I guess we wi
ll have to keep an eye out for women with elemental affinities as we travel to the mines.” I laughed. “This will be quite the adventure. I’m glad to have you by my side for it.”

  Amelia traced her finger against my tattoo again. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  She laid her head against my chest, and I wrapped the cloak around us.

  Tomorrow morning, we would begin our quest.

  Chapter Seven

  I woke slowly. Birdsong filled the air, and the early sun streamed through the canopy onto my face. Amelia lay with her head nestled into my chest. I lay quietly for a moment, thinking over all had happened; the battle with the slavers, the fight with the Beasts, the tattooing, the prophesy, and then our wonderful sex last night which had somehow awakened a Cold affinity in me.

  “Ink Mage,” I muttered to myself. This destiny might bring me danger in future, but for now, it felt pretty good.

  Today, we would decide on the next stage of our journey. Amelia had said that before she was waylaid by slavers, she had been traveling to Brightwater, a town which was near here, and intimately connected with the trade in Beast Cores from the northern mines. Picking up that journey seemed like a good way forward for us.

  We were naked, wrapped in Amelia’s white fur cloak. I slipped out of Amelia’s sleepy embrace and stirred up the embers of the fire, adding sticks and blowing on the embers until I was rewarded with a crackle of flame.

  “Good morning,” said a sleepy voice from behind me. Amelia had awakened and was sitting up, wrapped in her cloak, her blonde curls tousled about her head. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.

  “Good morning,” I replied. She looked up at me admiringly as I stood, and as I bent to pick up my clothes from where I’d dropped them the night before, she gave a small laugh.

  “It’s a pity you have to get dressed again,” she said. “I like you just the way you are!”

  I laughed and went over to her, crouching and kissing her on the lips before getting dressed. She stood, too, and got dressed quickly. This morning, she seemed shy of her nakedness in a way she had not been the night before. I didn’t question that; I just turned my back to give her some privacy while she dressed.

  After we’d been to the river to drink and to wash our faces and hands, we sat by the fire in the morning sun and ate dried meat and dried apples again, along with the fruity travel bread of the trollmen. There had been supplies for six trollmen in the sack, so there was more than enough for me and Amelia.

  “So,” I said as we were finishing up, “I’ve been thinking about our next step. You said you were on your way to the town called Brightwater?”

  She nodded, then swallowed a mouthful of food before she spoke. “That’s right. Brightwater is the nearest big town to the northern mountain range where the Beast mines are. Almost all the trade to and from the mines travels through Brightwater, and nearly everyone and everything there has some connection to the monster mining industry. It seemed like the logical place to start investigating the outbreak.”

  “Makes sense to me,” I said, “but how do we know how far we are from the town?”

  “Of course, with all that’s happened I’ve not had a chance to show you this yet. Look.”

  Flipping to the end of her big spellbook, she pulled forth a sheet of parchment which had been hidden between the pages and held it out for me to look at. It was a simple map. I could see a mountain range at the top, a big forested area in the middle with a road running through it, and at the bottom, many small symbols which would be towns, and two bigger ones. I couldn’t read the words that were written on the map, but I recognized the layout of the Kingdom. Amelia pointed to a symbol depicting a town. It sat near the edge of the mountain range and was marked with a small word. There was what looked like a big body of water beside it.

  “That’s Brightwater there, next to the lake which the town is named for,” Amelia said. “By my reckoning, we are on the road about here. See that bend in the road?”

  I nodded. “That looks like the spot we passed just before our escape.”

  “Which means that we are not far from Brightwater. All we need to do is get on the road and head north. We can be in Brightwater in a day or two at most.”

  “Let’s do that,” I said. “We can rest there, and maybe you can get more information about your quest. It makes sense to head there without delay.”

  We packed enough supplies to last us a couple of days into a carry sack, which I slung over my shoulder. Amelia had her fur cloak now, and her spellbook, and we both had the ugly, practical shortswords we’d taken from the slavers after our fight the day before. I had a Cold tattoo and a Fire tattoo, and apparently, I could use them both. Amelia also had a fully functioning Cold tattoo, fulfilling her dream of being a spellcaster.

  All in all, it was a much better situation than we had been in yesterday.

  Satisfied, we kicked sand over the remains of our fire and struck out for the road.

  The road we trekked along was fairly well worn. We both wanted to put some distance between ourselves and the wagons as quickly as we could. So far, we had not seen any traffic on the road, but the body of Boris still lay in the bloody wagon, and we wanted to be well on our way before anybody found it and started asking questions.

  We walked in silence for a little while, reveling in the freshness of the morning. The clean smell of the forest filled the air. The tall trees and thick ferns came right up to the side of the road.

  Eventually, I broke the silence. “Although we might be hemmed in by trees on this road, I’ve never felt freer.”

  Amelia turned her head to look at me in astonishment. “This is the first day you’ve ever been free, isn’t it?”

  “It is. I’ve never once woken up free to decide whatever I wanted to do that day. Even though my foster-father treated me well, he was technically still my owner.”

  “I’m so happy for you.” Amelia smiled. “Freedom is something really worth fighting for.”

  She went on to explain many things which I could do with my newfound freedom, such as attending theatrical plays, visiting museums and art galleries, or listening to musicians in grand halls. Those things didn’t sound all that appealing to me, but I enjoyed hearing Amelia describe them in vivid detail.

  We had shared an incredible bond the night before, and I found myself simply enjoying the way the wind blew her blonde hair or how her ice-blue eyes brightened when she spoke of the pleasantries of the capital. For me, the freedom to enjoy her company was reason enough to fight for freedom. Not to mention the fact that, had I never broken our bonds and escaped the slave caravan, I wouldn’t have discovered my hidden talent.

  I was an Ink Mage.

  I could draw runes on my flesh with ink from Beast Cores, and those tattoos would allow me to cast spells. I currently possessed a Fire affinity, which meant I could draw tattoos of Fire spells, along with modifying attributes, such as the one which made my fireball spell produce multiple projectiles.

  Using the ink from a Cold monster’s Beast Core, I had drawn a Cold tattoo onto Amelia’s skin. She had been capable of casting that same spell, which meant she had a Cold affinity. I had also drawn a Cold tattoo onto my own skin, but I hadn’t been able to activate the tattoo. From this, I had gathered that I didn’t possess a Cold affinity.

  Until last night.

  Something had changed when I’d made love with Amelia. The vision I’d had of a powerful ice goddess in a frozen wasteland had coincided with my sexual climax. After that moment, I had somehow acquired a Cold affinity. My Cold tattoo, marking the flesh of my right arm, was now active. I simply needed to fill it with Mana and I could cast its corresponding spell.

  I was eager to test my new affinity, so while I walked with Amelia toward Brightwater town, I kept my eyes peeled for an appropriate location to do so.

  We had been walking for a couple of hours when we came to a spot where the road dipped and forded a little stream. The water bubbled across the shallow stony bed of th
e ford.

  “Wait,” I said as Amelia was about to step into the water.

  She froze. “What’s the matter? It doesn’t look that deep.”

  “It’s not. But I want to try something.” I crouched down and put my hand on the water.

  Taking a breath, I focused on my Mana pool and channeled my Mana into the snowflake tattoo on my right arm. The tattoo began to glow a light blue. I intentionally didn’t activate the spear component of the tattoo as I pushed the Mana out onto my palm to form a ball of ice, just as I had formed balls of fire yesterday. By not activating the spear in my tattoo, I hoped it would just produce more ice rather than a projectile since the spear was the modifying symbol that made spells into projectiles.

  As I pushed out ice onto my palm, the water on the surface of the stream around my hand started to freeze. I focused harder as I channeled more Mana out through my tattoo, and the patch of ice grew.

  “You’re using the spell in an interesting way,” Amelia commented. “You’re only activating a portion of the tattoo. Do you think I could try it?”

  “Go for it,” I said, my hands still outstretched over the stream.

  Amelia knelt beside me and also put her hand on the water. We both pushed our Mana through our Cold tattoos and then out into our hands. The patch of ice grew swiftly with our combined efforts, but the water was moving swiftly, and even together we could not freeze it completely.

  “I was hoping we could freeze the whole stream so we could just walk across,” I said as I got to my feet, a little disappointed. “Looks like we’ll have to get our feet wet.”

  I stepped to a stone about halfway across and grinned as I reached out a hand to Amelia.

  “That was still rather spectacular,” she said as she crossed.

  “It was amazing,” I said as we both reached the other side. “I wonder what we might be capable of with a little more practice?”

  “There are many things I don’t know about our abilities,” Amelia said as we continued walking. “My knowledge of the elements is purely theoretical.”