Jina had all the bedside manner of a bag of angry bees, and her poor victim was crying by the time it was through. I felt bad for the flirtatious girl, who'd come in hoping to get a tattoo and was leaving in incredible pain.

“You could have numbed her,” I pointed out after Sina found her way out.

“I could have,” she agreed. “But as it stands she learned a valuable lesson, and I think you might have too.”

“And what would that be? Not to piss you off?” I guessed.

“Not to irritate those more powerful than you. You need to remember that, because I am far more forgiving than my grandfather is, though admittedly easier to anger.”

I looked at the tool she'd been using. This wasn't the modern world, and they didn't have something like a tattoo gun, instead it was simpler, and not in a good way. There was also magic involved though, I'd seen that much. Jina had something going on as she moved along, something that got the ink locked in faster, and I doubted it would leak or fade greatly with time. Sadly that sort of thing wasn't my wheelhouse.

“Why tell me that though? To scare me? I've already seen Atal in action and I assure you I've no desire to anger him, or you for that matter. It seems that neither of you would have a problem killing me if I did anything to warrant it.” I was unsure here as well. “Or is it that your grandfather wants this done, and done right?”

“The latter, and something for you to understand for later. If he's calling upon you now, others will in the future. Keep that in mind while you consider what you do.” There was a sigh in there at the end. Perhaps she didn't hate me, if she was trying to get me to learn this without hurting me, then again.

“I'll keep it in mind.”

“Good, any questions on the other materials we've covered here? If so please ask them now.”

For a moment or two I moved around the room, checking to make sure I'd not missed anything. Ingredient by ingredient I looked, one after another to make sure I'd followed her lessons. None of these seemed useful in the least, well not to me anyway. I was frowning until I came upon a small crystal rock that I'd not seen before. It was elongated, and not carved in any way I could see.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What's this do?” I asked, pointing. There were things in here I wasn't willing to touch.

“Oh, that's just a curiosity. If enough power goes through a small enough space it sometimes forms those. Grandfather gave me that one, it came out of a beast of some kind.” She seemed to disregard it.

“Does it do anything?” I asked.

“Not anything useful. All it does it move a bit of the energy from one side to another.”

At my blank look she rolled her eyes and came over to me. “Watch.”

My teacher picked up the stone and began focusing. I could see her aura focus around her finger, which she then poked to one side of the stone. The bit I saw next was difficult to describe, as it happened in both the magical sight that magic users had as well as a physical one. The mana traveled through the stone along a path that branched and came back together, like those weird shapes lightning made. Where it met at the end a small bit of aura and light poured out, barely enough to see, but it was there.

“Do they break easily?” I asked, eyes never leaving what I was seeing now, it was perfect.

“No, but like I said, they're pretty hard to find. This one came out of a truly massive beast. It had a horn that shot beams of burning light. You'll not be able to find a source of them around here or anywhere else.” I could sense her frowning at me even though I didn't look. “They don't work in any potion or tattoo either, I've tried.”

It was the conductor I'd been looking for, and it might, just might have an output as well. It was perfect, completely perfect. How to make one though, how to create such a thing? She'd said you only found them in places where a lot of magic was in a very small area, and perhaps that was the answer. I didn't know yet, but I knew that I would have to find out.

“I need to look into this,” I said quietly.

“You can't have it, this one is mine.” There was a tinge of childish greed in that that made me blink. As I looked up at Jina I saw her frowning.

“Um, I meant the item in general, not this specific one. If others are found though, I'd like to see them,” I said, trying to waylay any issue.

“Ah, I see. If any others are found I'll keep that in mind, but they don't come up often at all.” Her hands were tight around the little stone, and I wondered if there was more there that I'd missed. She'd said it was a gift, maybe she had some emotional connection.

After a few more awkward minutes I left, quite tired, but with a new route that might one day lead me to greatness. Perhaps not today, but one day I could see that stone and what it did becoming something more.

Unfortunately I was waylaid on my way out by one of the advisors I'd met just a few days before. He'd not shared his name, and I'd not cared, but he smiled as he saw me and approached.

“Hello again, I was hoping you'd come up with some new weapons. Those stone throwers are going down well with everyone, but they're kind of limited,” he said.

“Sorry, not at the moment. Was there some important need?”

There was a complicated look on his face as he formed his words. “Yes and no. Nothing at the moment, but whispers from the West. I'm sending some of the guards out to look around, make sure things are well. That said I don't think we'll have any problems.”

“Are you looking for something to use close or far?” I asked, weapons really weren't what I knew much about, but if he had some idea of what he wanted maybe I could think of something. Then again there were only so many ways you could cut, stab, or bludgeon someone to death and they were pretty obvious most of the time.

“Close,” he answered.

“Right, I'll think about it, see if anything comes to mind.” Honestly I was far more interested in trying to make magic crystals though.