Chapter 156: One For The Road
Moshui poked at Kir with the back of a tattoo needle."Hmm... I thought for sure that would work. Or explode."
"What?!" Kir balked. He’d spent the last however-long-past-midnight letting Moshui poke and prod at his demonic tattoo, under the vague agreement that she would exchange his feathers for gold at the end of her "initial tests".
So far, Kir had counted twenty or so such tests, and Moshui wasn’t slowing down except to write notes and comment on him like he was a lab rat.
"Subject appears distressed..." she scratched at her notepad. "Has not exploded..."
Kir was already cursing his luck for having brought out this side of his tattoo artist. He was about to open his mouth to set a time limit when she stood up, cracking joints all over as she stretched. "Well! I can safely say there is probably no killing spell integrated into your tattoo. Also, I think I can replicate it."
"It took that long to figure it out?" Kir asked, cracking his own neck as he pushed off the working cot with his palms and moved to sit up.
"Oh, I knew both of those hours ago after I was done checking what happened to the storage tattoos. But then I had to double-check and I wanted to see if the physical side of it would ruin the whole thing if I stabbed it-"
"You stabbed it?" Kir instinctively reached up to touch the back of his neck. There was no obvious wound, and he couldn’t recall which instance of prodding-based pain might have been when she stabbed him.
"Only a little. It’s a resilient work of magic, but I can see some ways it can be improved, so... same time next week? I’ll trade out for those feathers now."
"Hold on, I didn’t agree to ’improving’ it."
"Yeah, but, don’t you want something to protect your hearing? I think I can work in a basic circle near it to reduce your sensitivity when something overwhelming comes along." The way her eyes glinted, Kir doubted that was the only thing she’d come up with.