Tilly provided the group with catalogues that took the form of recording crystals, allowing them to look through projections of the available magic tattoos.

“I’m going to take the burst healing rune,” Sophie said and was soon in the big chair in her undershirt as Tilly pricked needles into her arm.

“You want privacy for this?” Jason asked her.

“You’ve never seen a woman’s shoulder before? I feel sorry for that Cassandra girl, now.”

By the time the red rune Tilly drew onto Sophie’s arm was complete, the others had picked out their own tattoos. Belinda chose one that would allow her to ignore the delay before she could use an ability again. This would allow her to use her cooldown reduction power twice in a row, which would, in turn, let someone else use a powerful ability three times in quick succession. That tattoo was a small one printed on the back of the neck.

Clive took the same one, while Jason took one that made his afflictions slightly harder to resist. Jason’s was imprinted on his chest, right over his heart.

“You have an impressively broad repertoire,” Humphrey complimented Tilly. “The place I received my tattoo had a more restrictive selection.”

“Klimpsen does quality work,” Tilly said, not looking up from where she was putting needles into Jason’s chest. “He’s not what you’d call an innovator, though. He’s the guy you go to for reliability, rather than originality.”

Neil was originally going to take a tattoo that gave a general increase to his mana recovery speed, but had his mind changed by Tilly. She was able to do a burst mana-recovery tattoo, essentially a free mana potion, with a recharge time affected by his mana recovery rate. Given that Sophie and Clive both enhanced team mana recovery, he would be able to use the tattoo with enviable frequency.

Like Jason, Neil’s tattoo went on the chest, but when Neil took his shirt off, it got loud reactions from the team.

“Wow,” Belinda said.

“Yep,” Sophie agreed, both women tilting their heads as they ran their eyes over Neil’s muscular body.

“What?” Neil asked.

“Uh, we all thought you were fat,” Clive said.

“Wait, you really did think I was fat?”

“I didn’t,” Jason said, at which Neil wheeled on him.

“You’re the one responsible for this and you didn’t even think I was fat?”

“I’m not going to mock an actual fat guy,” Jason said. “That’s just punching down. Also, your tailor is the one responsible, not me.”

“Your outfits really aren’t flattering,” Humphrey agreed. “Is there padding in them?”

“No, there isn’t padding in them.”

“They drape very poorly,” Jason said. “You should try Gilbert’s in the trade hall back in Greenstone. He sadly doesn’t sell short pants or floral print, but if you want to look good, he’s your guy.”

“You go to Gilbert’s too?” Humphrey asked Jason.

“I do,” Jason said. “I think he makes you look better than me though. You’ve got those powerful shoulders.”

Once all the tattoos were done, they made arrangements to return the day after next for Jason’s crest. After all their shopping, they sky was growing dark and they returned to Hester’s house.

Hester’s extended family had gathered for her return, welcoming the team into their home for an evening of food and family. Jason quickly found his way to the kitchen, while everyone else gathered on an entertaining deck underground where colourful lights lit up the grotto as they watched the sun go down over the sea through a west-facing cave entrance that looked out along the coast.

Belinda retired early, in anticipation of using no less than sixteen awakening stones the next day, plus summoning at least one familiar. Late in the evening, Sophie spotted Jason in his conjured cloak, walking over the water in the grotto and out through the cave entrance. She quietly dropped over the railing, using her slow-fall power to alight on the surface of the water herself. She followed him out, where the ocean water was eerily still, the light of two moons shining down on it. The hood of Jason’s cloak was pushed back of his head, tilted back and looking at the night sky.

“Clive gave you a telling off, the other day,” he said, apparently sensing her in spite of her moving in silence. Her perception powers enhanced her ability to sense auras, yet she could barely sense his. Those same abilities had allowed her to sense Jason’s aura control as it become increasingly precise in the time they had known one another. She knew the dead friend she had never met had taught Jason the techniques he was passing onto her, fastidious practice seemingly his way of connecting with his absent mentor.

“I probably shouldn’t have hit you so much,” she said.

“I understand,” Jason said, keeping his gaze on the stars. “I know you were holding back and I wasn’t hurt. You should probably be looking for healthier expressions of freedom, though.”

“Am I free?” She asked.

“If you want to leave and never come back, just talk to Hester,” Jason said. “I told you that from the start.”

“I’ve come a long way since then,” Sophie said. “You’ve put a good amount of capital into making me an adventurer, both monetary and political.”

Jason turned his gaze from the sky to her, frowning.

“I’m tired of having this conversation. I’m tired of justifying myself, as if I’m somehow not good enough to have done something just because it was right. As far as I’m concerned I don’t have an indentured servant. I have a teammate who keeps talking about leaving. If you’re going to go, do us a favour and go now, because we’ll need to find new people.”

“Belinda and I aren’t going anywhere.”

“Good,” he said testily, “because I am done talking about this.”

Jason vanished into the shadow of his cloak, which drifted emptily before disappearing as well.

Sophie stared at the spot he had been standing.

“Good job, Wexler,” she admonished herself.

In the morning the team left without the guidance of Hester, leaving her to catch up with family. They had seen enough of he city to muddle through, having already visited the Mystic Quarter in which it was located. It wasn’t hard to get directions to the Magic Society campus and Belinda and Neil’s increasing proficiency with the floating discs compensated for the time they lost through lacking of a guide.

Clive took the lead at the Magic Society, his understanding of the Society’s workings getting them prompt consideration. They decided the order of the day would be to hire a ritual room and conduct all Belinda’s remaining awakening rituals. Afterwards, they would purchase the materials Jason and Belinda would need to summon familiars. Belinda already had one such power and, with sixteen powers to be awakened, had a good chance of getting more.

“A companion specialist would be interesting,” Humphrey said. “My sister’s abilities are like that. It would make for some interesting potential, on top of the familiars and summons we already have.”

“I think a support specialist is more likely,” Clive said, “based on the power’s we’ve seen so far. Only four powers in, though, it could be anything, really.”

“Either works for me,” Belinda said. “As long as I’m not in front of someone, swinging a great big sword.”

“We have Humphrey for that,” Jason said.

As they awakened Belinda’s powers one by one, her abilities fell broadly into three categories. As expected, her trap essence produced area control powers. One was an ability Clive had from the rune essence, called rune trap. Another conjured a dimensional-space pit trap under the feet of enemies, while the final two powers used magical tethers to affect enemies in different ways.

From the magic essence she gained abilities with effects predicated on the powers of others. She had a curse that caused enemy power use to lock them out from another of their abilities. An ability called power thief was a special ranged attack that would lock out an enemy’s power, giving Belinda the power to use instead. She had a spell that let her mimic spells recently used by allies, while her final ability was another summoned familiar, called an astral lantern.

“Lantern-type familiars are quite good,” Humphrey said. “Judging by my sister’s, at least.”

“They tend to be ranged attackers,” Clive said.

The adept essence started out well, with a perception power that let her see magic, like Clive. It got better with an aura that caused allied abilities to come off cooldown faster, followed by a power, usable once per day, that reset every cooldown a person had. It was the last adept ability to awaken where things started going off the rails, at least from Belinda’s perspective.

You have awakened the adept essence ability [Instant Adept]. You have awakened 5 of 5 adept essence abilities.You have awakened all adept essence abilities. Linked attribute [Speed] will advance in conjunction with lowest-rank adept essence ability.

Ability: [Instant Adept] (Adept)

Special ability.Cost: Very high mana.Cooldown: 6 hours.Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).Effect (iron): Gain a significant increase to the [Speed] attribute and temporary proficiency with acrobatics, small blades and ranged weapons. Your maximum stamina increases and you gain an ongoing stamina recovery effect.

“What kind of ability is this?” she asked as she read the power.

“I’ve seen these before,” Clive said. “They bestow a particular set of skills, much like a skill-book, but only temporarily. It lets you fill archetypal roles, not as well as a specialist, obviously, but if that’s what you need at the time then it’s very useful.”

“It says ranged weapons,” Jason said. “It might be good. Get yourself a good magic bow, fire some arrows down range and then escape with those acrobatic skills it mentions.”

“I suppose that isn’t too bad,” Belinda said grudgingly before they moved onto the next power.

By that stage, she only had two powers from the charlatan essence left to awaken, which had already produced two unusual powers. Beside myself was a power that rendered her invisible while an illusion mimicked her nearby. Unexpected allies was a power that used illusions to make allies look like enemies, but the allies could see through it. The spell then randomly switch-teleported all the allies and enemies in the area with each other.

“It has to be better than that stupid learning archery power,” Belinda said as Clive completed the ritual.

You have awakened the charlatan essence ability [Counterfeit Combatant]. You have awakened 4 of 5 charlatan essence abilities.

Ability: [Counterfeit Combatant] (Charlatan)

Special ability (shape-change).Cost: Very high mana.Cooldown: 6 hours.Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).Effect (iron): Gain a significant increase to the [Power] attribute and temporary proficiency with armour and melee weaponry. Your physique enlarges, your maximum stamina increases and you gain an ongoing stamina recovery effect.

“Oh, gods damn it.”

“It does bring some versatility to the team,” Humphrey offered.

“I don’t want versatility! The team’s already thick with versatility! I want to stand at the back, being all clever and disruptive. What’s clever about braining some guy with a scimitar?”

“It doesn’t have to be clever,” Humphrey said. “It just has to be useful.”

“You think putting me up the front to hit people will be useful?”

“It’ll be unexpected,” Jason offered. “Who expects a small, adorable person to whack them upside the head with a big hammer?”

“I think I understand the specific dimensional space you awakened now,” Clive said. “As you’ll no doubt recall, it’s unique nuance was the ability to directly equip or unequip gear. Given your new abilities to take on specific roles, that now becomes very useful.”

“Are you telling me that my next ability might be another one of these idiotic powers to hit people with weapons, like a thug?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Clive said. “You already have powers to turn you into a fast attacker and a strong attacker.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to turn into a healer,” Neil said. “The ability to have another in a pinch would be amazing.”

“That’s true,” Belinda acknowledged, calming down. Clive conducted her final ritual of awakening.

You have awakened the charlatan essence ability [Specious Sorcerer]. You have awakened 5 of 5 charlatan essence abilities.You have awakened all charlatan essence abilities. Linked attribute [Recovery] will advance in conjunction with lowest-rank adept essence ability.

Ability: [Specious Sorcerer] (Charlatan)

Special ability.Cost: Very high mana.Cooldown: 6 hours.Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).Effect (iron): Gain a significant increase to the [Spirit] attribute and the ability to use magical tools. Your maximum mana increases and you gain an ongoing mana recovery effect.

Belinda groaned.

“Is it just me,” she asked, “or are these ability names becoming more shady as we go along?”

“These abilities may seem underwhelming now,” Clive said, “but remember this is only the beginning. Power like these usually offer up extra powers to use while they are active. Your adept power will most likely give utility abilities, while the strength and magic based ones will probably give you special attacks and spells, respectively. You could even consider them to be a means to get more abilities than everyone else.”

“Yeah?” Belinda asked thoughtfully. “I do like the idea of having more things.”

“That’s everyone’s powers complete,” Humphrey said. “Summoning familiars aside, we’re ready to get down to the real work.”

“The real work?” Neil asked.

“Training,” Jason said, Humphrey nodding his agreement.

“Between us, we have an adventurer and a half worth of abilities to learn. The next few weeks will be strategising, testing, training and then doing it all over again. We won’t just be learning how to use our powers but how to use them as a team. It’s going to take weeks, maybe months to get where we need to be.”

“Months?” Sophie asked.

“It won’t be as tedious as he makes it sounds,” Jason said. “We should all be ready to work hard, though.”

“I had an idea to inspire us a little,” Humphrey said. “There’s a public mirage area in this city. I asked Hester to reserve us a viewing room for this evening. I think seeing what the best of a large city like this can do will show you how far we have to go. If I have anything to say about it, we’ll become better than anyone we see tonight.”