The adventurer’s bar was a far cry from what Kir rembered as he stepped into the mostly-empty lounge.
Instead of skilled warriors and mages of all stripes, the place was a ghost town hosting so unsavory-looking individuals and the bartender, who kept a more wary eye on the place from his station.
His wary eyes quickly sized up Kir and Noir; the forr dressed in a hooded cloak to better hide his features.
"I might be a bit," Kir warned Noir. "Want to co with?"
They’d co here mostly because it was closeby to the midwife who was examining Sam. Most of their ti had spent wandering between one point in the city and another as they were sent on dead-end searches. They must have visited a dozen midwife hos, whose tenants had either already left the city or were too busy to see them, before finding one a four-block walk from the bar.
"I, ah, have a thing about permanent marks on flesh..." Noir rubbed the back of his head. "But you go ahead. I’ll just get a drink and..." he looked around and swallowed "...hopefully live to tell you about it."
Kir gave him a reassuring touch on the shoulder and headed upstairs.
Hopefully, Moshui would be happy to see him. He ascended the stairs to find that her old door had been replaced with sothing quite beefier: An iron door with enchantnts for hardness, repulsion, and sothing to do with sound, according to Kir’s manasight.
A series of signs in various Aytherian languages declared: "RING THE BELL!"
Kir looked until he saw the small drawstring and tugged it. From the other side a bell chid, and a few stumbling sounds later, a panel slid open and Moshui looked out. Then up so she could see his face.
"Oh hey! It’s you! Ripples and storage, right?"
"Err... my na is Kir. I was hoping you’d be willing to help out again," he said quietly. "I have more feathers to pay with..."
"Oooh... yeah... Now I rember your na... So... I, ah, need a good reason to let you in? I dunno, all the guys are saying you killed a bunch of guys and I don’t really wanna get mixed up in anything criminal... I an, I also almost got robbed once because your blond friend told people I had angel feathers for catalysts so..."
Kir flinched. He hadn’t expected Kordia to leak that sort of thing, but she’d been riding pretty high after growing two more tails that it made sense... "Look, I’m sorry about Kordia. As far as those rumors, the people I killed were Syndicate, and they were trying to kill first..."
"Oh! That makes it much better!" Moshui’s voice rose and Kir tilted his head.
"Does it?" He asked.
"No. So unless you’ve got sothing I can really, really use, I’d rather not bother with the trouble..." She started sliding the panel shut.
Having already offered her angel feathers, there was only one thing he could think of off that bat. "I have a demonic magic tattoo I could-"
The door was unlatched and open before he finished his sentence. "Co on in Kal! Just be quick so I don’t have to re-arm the door."
Kir hurried inside and the door was slamd shut and latched. "Glad you follow instructions because I’ve lost a couple of custors to concussions thanks to the new door... also this seige thing everyone says is happening."
Moshui hopped into her chair and looked at Kir expectantly.
He took a second to look around the studio, noting that the walls were significantly enchanted with so very similar spells as the door. His normal sight told him that the wards were sohow invisible, though they clearly showed up to mana sight.
"Um... don’t you want to know what I want?"
"No." She answered imdiately. "Demon tat first."
Kir sighed and started removing his hooded cloak and shirt as he approached the table.
As he reached to steady himself against the table before lying down, Moshui grabbed his arm. "What did you do to the tattoos I gave you?!"
"They got moved-"
"Moved?! You don’t just move a fucking magic tattoo like a bit of makeup!"
Kir opened and closed his mouth. That’s not how makeup works... "The demon who gave a tattoo said he could consolidate my storage ones. So I let him!"
Moshui’s eyes lit up, and she turned away to patter about her desk until she could co back with paper and a quill. "Tell everything!!"
Kir finished getting onto the cot. "Well... these demons ambushed and-"
"Skip to the tattoo bits! How did they get moved?"
"Well he used a magic t-"
"Was it a magic tool? What did it look like? How did it work? Do they have it in purple?"
For the next hour or so, Moshui was all questions. Kir did his best to answer but so of the details she wanted seed too granular for him to recall, or beyond his knowledge of spellform inscriptions, seals, and wards.
"Did he use any gating diums?"
"Gating what?" Kir responded, his voice a bit tired.
"Like gold or zinc wire."
Kir flinched at the thought, rembering that slavers used copper wire for their seals.
"Not that I know of... what would that do, anyway?"
"Hm? Oh. It would interface with your gate, naturally. Ah, I guess I’ll just take a look when I see it. Did the glowy-thing you’ve got going with your chest start before or after the tattoo?"
"Before..." Kir said. It felt like the fifth or sixth thing he’d answered about his internals being slowly converted into mana crystal, and those questions had co in no particular order just like most of the things Moshui wanted to know.
"Oh, silly , I guess he wouldn’t have needed a gating dium since your gate was pretty much completely open when we first t. Hmm..."
"Can I just show you the tattoo now?" Kir asked.
"Yes! Let’s do this!" Moshui said, giddy with excitent as she briefly moved back to her desk to fetch a pair of enchanted glasses with a variety of lenses and so paper that seed slightly magical and also very-much like waxpaper. After donning her glasses, she reached over to a shelf and pulled up a tiny vial of so clear substance which glowed with a hint of magic.
"What’s that for?" Kir asked.
"For copying it, of course. Demon tattoos are so rare... and the only one I got to see was pretty much a kill switch for the guy it was on. You get those on spies." She walked up to him. "Go on, turn around."
Kir complied.
"Fascinating..." There was a tiny click as she poked so lenses into place using the butt of the vial. "Oho... nonlingual scripting... That’s only possible if... Hmm... I see... Oh this is good... very, very good... Oh, but that can’t happen now..."
"Can I ask what it is you’re seeing?" Kir asked.
"Oh. You an you don’t know?"
"I’m not exactly flexible enough to see the back of my own neck," Kir said. "I just want to make sure it only does what I know it’s already doing."
"Oh yeah, you can certainly say that. Permanently." she said, pulling the cork out of the vial with her teeth. "I’m going to copy it now," she mumbled around the cork as she slapped the paper onto Kir’s neck and poured the contents of the vial onto it. "Hold still for about an hour."
Kir sighed, but did his best not to move. "What do you an ’permanently’? Aren’t all tattoos permanent?" A very powerful scent hit his nostrils and it was all he could do to resist coughing as he got used to it.
"You’re kidding, right? Without a gating dium, this thing is pretty much part of you now. You’ve pretty much got a conjunction of magic, mind, and flesh right at your gate node. The place where all three et naturally. I an, you’d normally need to be at least an archmage just to handle that kind of throughput, and there’s a reason master inkers use three separate tattoos for the sort of thing you’ve got all in one. And they’d use a dium to make sure it can be burned out if needed."
"Is it common to put wires in people’s flesh?" Kir asked.
"Mostly for slaves and the really, really powerful tattoos that need so kind of safety. Oh! I should copy the storage tattoo. It looks like there were so modifications..." She started humming as she fetched more paper and another vial. In short order, she’d slapped it between his shoulder blades and poured the fluid on it.
"Have you ever... you know, for slaves..."
"Hell no. I make enough to avoid sinking that low," she answered, much to Kir’s relief.
"What is that stuff you’re using to copy the tattoos?" Kir asked next. The sll was like she’d doused him in far too much cologne.
"Just so unjolibee waxpaper and dreadloper musk. You don’t plan on going into the woods soon? I think with the Heavenswar season there might be an early rut going on..." She poked at the newly laid waxpaper for a mont. "Nevermind, who am I kidding? "There’s an army of demons out there."
Did she already forget that Kir had pretty much... No, never mind. Respect her craft and thank the stars she doesn’t care for politics.
About a quarter of the way through the hour, Noir rang the bell and was brought in.
"Hey Kir, I’m going to check on Sam. Do you want us to wait for you or...?"
"I can take care of myself," Kir said.
"Before you go, do you happen to have any interesting tattoos mister?" Moshui asked.
"Nope. Not at all," Noir said flatly.
"Oh. Well, safe journey to you!" Moshui said happily. "I think your friend Krill here is about to help revolutionize magic tattoo inscription!"
Noir covered his mouth, smothering a laugh behind his hand.
Kir flushed a bit red. "My na is Kir!"
"That’s what I said, right?" Moshui tilted her head. "Keep holding still."
"See you later, Krill," Noir teased.
Kir groaned.
Moshui wasn’t done with him yet though. She ushered Noir out the door and flipped the sign above the slot to CLOSED, before locking and barring it.
"Ready to get weird?" she grinned like a mad scientist.
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