InkBorn

It was a stifling hot night in Velmora City.  The lady Malora had been walking home when she started to feel someone following her.

She hears footsteps.

She changes streets.

The footsteps change streets.

She stops.

They stop.

Then she sees the lights of the Inn of Infinite Sorrow.

Malora started to rush through the streets, her heart pounding in her chest.  She could feel the sweat start to enter her eyes.

She looked around and was in the alley near where the Inn of Infinite Sorrow was.  If she could make it to the inn she would be safe.

She could see the lights of the Inn of Infinite Sorrow, heard the music and could see guards entering the building.

She tried to scream as she was grabbed from behind.  Her mouth was covered to prevent it and a cloth was shoved in so she was unable to remove it quickly.  She tasted a bitter taste from the cloth which was rough. It tasted very irony and as it entered her she felt a tiredness that was not natural.

Two big hands wrapped around her neck squeezing.  Her eyes bulged as air was being deprived from her lungs.  Black started encroaching around her eyes and she began to feel the black out. 

The lady collapsed.  The man stood over her and slid on one black glove after another.  The two middle fingers were missing.  The cruelty of the death was but a small fraction of the pain to come.

He drew a small knife and on her forehead he carved into the skin now starting to lose elasticity a five pointed star.

——

Bez has spent weeks travelling to the town of Velmora.  It was the first stop on his travels.  It has been less than 3 months since his master Jarkayn died.  This was his pilgrimage to take his possession to his family.

It was of great honour to be the apprentice that was chosen to take back the possessions to the family. He was carrying a silver ring engraved with intricate lines.  He had the tattooing needles and the special inks.  These would be delivered to the daughter as she would take over as the Master of the Ink.

Bez entered the town with most of his ink covered up.  He wasn’t as powerful as his Master but he had spent years trying to hone his special skills.  He had always been told to not show what he could do.  The InkBound were not always trusted as they did look like criminals with all the ink that they carried on them.

Approaching the town his other senses said that this place has some issues that were serious.  He stepped through and was walking towards an inn to be able to get some sleep. 

Bez had long strides so it didn’t take him long to get close to the Inn.  Always keep your eyes scanning all over the place as you couldn’t be ambushed if you were always on the lookout and didn’t trust the environment.

As his eyes panned across the horizon he saw down the alley legs sticking out from behind a large bin.  Bez rushed down there and saw a body his eyes saw the five pointed star and he saw something glistening in that carving but he didn’t have time to think about this now.

Bez took his two fingers and felt for a pulse on the neck.  There was no pulse and he could feel a coolness to the body and that it was stuck in the death freeze.

Bez knew death he had seen this many times before he went to be trained.  He looked at the symbol and slowly reached for it as he needed to feel physically what his magical senses showed him.

“Step away from the woman.”

Bez froze and then quickly snatched his hand back away from the corpse.  He stood up slowly and his sleeve slipped down showing the dark silvery ink that was around his one wrist.  There were 4 guards that he had no idea where they came from.

One saw the tattoos he glared at and looked partially frightened as well as partially angry.  “Inkborn”

The head man growled loudly “On your knees criminal”

Bez being a man who believed in following the laws, as well as having a healthy fear of the guards and judiciary.

The youngest looking guard walked up to him.  Bez was shocked as it was a female with her hair bound up under the guard helmet.  She grabbed his bag and opened it.

“Sir.  He has ink and needles.  This matches the other …..”

The leader cut her off quickly so she wouldn’t reveal anything about these cases.  “Enough.  Put him in the chains and shackles and we will transport him to the cells”

He turned away and the guards roughly grabbed him and put the chains and shackles on him.  Bez didn’t struggle; he allowed himself to be arrested.  He knew he was innocent and wouldn’t stoop to their level.

——-

Bez was pushed into a cell and a man that looked more like a pencil pusher walked in.  He was looking at the backpack.  “For the record what is your name InkBorn”

He said the last part almost as a curse.  People didn’t trust InkBorn but what had been happening here that they hated him personally.

“My name is Bez.”

“I am investigator Palson.  Now why did you kill that lady?”

Bez was shocked, surely they couldn’t be pinning this on him.  He had just arrived today and they could tell that he had been travelling.  Did this investigator not know about criminal investigation?  That body was at least 24 hours dead.

Bez stammered “I just came into town today.”


He looked back “Likely story.  We know the ways of the InkBorn here.  They can do more than they claim and have ways to destroy others without being that close to the victim.  I was young when the last InkBorn of Velmora was put to death.

This shocked Bez as the InkBorn weren’t inherently evil.  They were protectors of their magics and many were protectors of the town as they knew how to use protective wards in the form of tattoos or designs in the magical ink.

“Soon enough we will have another hanging.  You can’t kill multiple people and get away with it in my town. “

The investigator turned and walked away leaving Bez to be in the cell.  Foolish they were, as they should have known the powers they possessed.  He tapped into his magic and opened the extra sensory hearing.  He listened in on what had happened.

—-

35 years ago there were murders very similar, members from the lower castes of the city had been strangled and left in alleys with a unique star carved into the forehead. 

There was a huge issue and they finally got off their asses and called in a specialist in the designs.  Jarkayn was his name and he immediately could see something was wrong.

Jarkayn had found the truth by sheer willpower and not giving up.  He managed to find the murderer was the town’s last InkBorn.  Jarkayn had hid his true nature as he knew that they would never take him seriously.

When the InkBorn was caught he tried to fight against the guards.  It ended with the InkBorn using his powers and ending up killing one member of the guard.  The name was Feladde and it was not without great pain that they hanged him in the town centre.

After Feladde was executed there was no more ritualistic murders so everyone assumed that he was caught.

Now the murders were happening again and it was the exact same rituals.  Could they have got it wrong?

Bez knew this case and had been hearing about it all during his training.  Jarkayn had spent years researching how Feladde could have gone bad.  He found that the evidence had been manufactured and that an innocent InkBorn had been executed. 

He thought could history be repeating itself now with Bez being accused of this crime?

He heard footsteps again and saw a guard going through his bags.  They took the ink and other tattooing tools away with them.

——

Bez laid on the bed though his feet were hanging off the end as obviously the bed was made for smaller people and he definitely was overly tall.

He slept fitfully, having weird dreams about being hanged.  The bed was horrible as well which may have caused some of his issues.

He spent 3 days locked in the cell with very little to eat and just water to drink.  The food was bread and it was stale and very tasteless.  He wasn’t feeling well because of this and his energy level was low.

The investigator walked in and looked at Bez “We have found that you are new to the town.  We have to let you go but we want you out of town by the end of day tomorrow.  You aren’t welcome and if you stay we will classify you as an intruder.”

He nodded and grabbed his stuff.  He quickly went to the Inn where he had a nice meal before he got to work.


——

The room was fairly spacious as Bez had paid for the premier suite.  He laid on the huge bed and began to meditate.  He opened up his magical senses and sent the power out.

He used one of his tattoos and it allowed him to use all the senses touch, sight, smell and hearing.  He sent it out to the evidence area of the guard.

He needed to see what that residue was that was left in the wound.  He saw the body laying in a stasis spell and he viewed the residue in the star wound.  He saw a silver shimmer, this was a telltale sign that this was a magical residue.

He then felt the substance it felt a little oily with grit in it.  The oiliness was normal for the Ink that they used.  The Silver residue was powerful and the taste was very perfumey.  This definitely was something that wasn’t quite what his mind said they should use.  The taste was not generally the standard from what his master used. 

Bez had read a lot about the special inks that all of the masters used.  It was hard to believe that someone would demean their calling and warp the process that all InkBorn was to use.

He was going through what he could remember.  This specific item is banned by InkBorn; it is called Silver Ash Ink.

This substance was very dangerous and had the effect that it could over time seep into the inked persons vein.  This would corrupt whatever special tattoos the person had and would drive them insane and eventually kill them.


——-

Her heart was racing, her pulse pounding someone was near her.  Her hair had been in a bun and now it was coming loose, one strand going over her face.  She was sweating and she could taste the saltiness as she licked the sweat off of her upper lip.

She tried to scream as she watched the shadowman step near bit her breath caught in her throat as a rag was shoved into her mouth.

He held her head to the side slightly and with a lot of force he dug his fingers into the neck putting so much pressure that she passed out. 

The creature grinned evilly and as he let her fall to the ground.  He slid a vial of a silvery substance, opened it and ripped the vial into her mouth.  He then brought out a serrated black knife and carved into her forehead a five pointed star. 

He then slid on the glove missing two of its fingers.  He brought his hand up to his mouth and made a sign that was meant to place fear.  He slid the knife back into his scabbard and walked casually away from the scene of the latest crime.

—–

Bez was interrupted from his meditation as the silver ring was beginning to feel hot and humming.  He took it out from where it was hidden.

He looked at the ring and suddenly the engravings were changing and words appeared. 

“Feladde was innocent.”

It then swirled more and the specialness of the ring became even more.  The inscription changed and it darkened to black.

IF THE STAR RETURNS, TRUST NO ONE IN VELMORA.

He was like the star that wasn’t good.  Then it changed one more time this time showing a bright sunshine and sent out special words

FIND MY DAUGHTER.

Bez was sure this was why there was a pilgrimage.  He felt it to his very core and he would have to fight his way through to do this.

——

The power has returned, the star of destruction was active.  Corvina felt the pain of what was to come.  She was an InkBorn like her daddy before her and back through the centuries.

She felt the darkman surrounding his victims and draining the life from their bodies and stealing their souls.

This hasn’t happened since she was a child and they had killed an InkBorn believing he was the guilty person.  Her empathy was strong as Jarkayn had foreseen, the day had come. Her powers could be one of the few things that would keep the darkness at bay.

She had been tasked with staying close by Velmora City, her empathy was the biggest advantage she had.  Over the years she had managed to get glimpses of every mind there.

This time she felt something different and the taste was of an InkBorn who used her fathers special ink.  It could only be a handful of people that would dare to come here. 

——

Bez left early the next morning before light touched any part of the town.  He was moving closer to where he knew his Master’s daughter lived.

After walking 15 minutes he came to a home that had a huge amount of property.  He looked at the ring and said “Welcome to Silverrook Manor”

He walked to the door “Enter” he heard before he even had the chance to knock.

Bez entered the house and saw a huge mirrored hall. This was not what he had expected even though he had seen this design before.

A lady stepped out wearing a long flowing dress that was the deepest of reds.  “You have come here for what purpose?”

He stepped forward and bowed like the gentleman he was trained to be.  “Lady.  I have come here on behalf of Jarkayn.  I have a special delivery for his family.”

She laughed but it wasn’t a laugh for fun but more of mocking.  “You have come to my home to deliver a gift from a dead man”

He looked up “I didn’t realize the news had reached this far.  I was here to provide that information.”

She smiled “One cannot hide that information for long from me.  I am Corvina, the daughter of Jarkayn.  What have you brought and what news of this plague that has struck Velmora City?”

Bez recounted the act of finding the dead body and being accused of murder.  He the. grabbed the tools and the ring and handed them over to Corvina.

She looked at them.  “My father was a wise man Bez.  He chose well.”

“Excuse me Ma’am but what are you referring to”

She smiled genuinely.  She added the tattooing equipment to her desk and looked at the silver ring.  It shined brightly in her hand and nodded “This is for you Agent Bez. “

He was shocked as to what she meant.  Agent that was not a title for any InkBorn.  “My father had a secret group of people who went around the world and helped to maintain the peace.  After Feladde was executed it was the job of the agent to protect our interest.  You are the first of the agents in nearly 30 years.  You are now with us.  Welcome to the family.”