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The Inked Dagger

An Epic Fantasy Series by Callie Barbas
*First draft in progress*
Scroll down to read the teaser chapter

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Chapter 1

     Kor lifted the plant by its loose root ball and peered down into the pot that sat on the workbench. With her free hand she picked up a sparkling purple gemstone and centered it in the bottom of the pot before carefully placing the root-ball on top of it and filling in the sides with more dirt. Kor watered the pot and watched as the plant’s white flower petals began to give off a lavender glow. Kor quickly scribbled some notes down in her thick sketchbook and placed the pot along the shelf with the dozens of other specimens. 

     The soft collective glow from the shelves reflected eerily off the glass windows that surrounded Kor in her makeshift laboratory in the abandoned greenhouse. Kor’s workspace was not where she had learned how to first make ink but it worked for now. The process didn’t need a very large space and the multitude of abandoned plants that were decades old at this point shaded Kor’s work from the outside world. Kor hadn’t always worked alone either but now she planned and experimented by herself with nothing but an old leather bound journal to guide her. 

     In the darkness of the late hour, the few windows that were not shaded by ancient plants, reflected back the glow from the secret experiments.            Candles were carefully placed among the shelves and added a warm flickering light in contrast to the cool tones of the glowing plants. 

Kor gathered a mortar and pestle and placed them on the workbench. She reached up above the table and pulled down a bundle of dried flowers.        

     They were a soft blue and produced a small glow that seemed to lag for a moment in relation to their movement. 

     Kor cut the strings that were attaching them to the racks above. She picked off the petals and crushed them using the pestle. Kor then reached over to other side of the workbench and took a bottle with a thick golden liquid inside and mixed a small amount with the crushed petals. She leaned back away from the table as the combination produced a small puff of blue smoke. She quickly strained the mixture into a shallow dish.          She grabbed a quill pen and used the ink to write on a sealed envelope that had been sitting on the desk. 

     The drying ink shone brighter for a brief moment and then the entire envelope began to fade away. Kor stood back a bit as the table was slowly more and more visible through the envelope. The ink glowed brighter and      Kor clenched her fists in anticipation, but just before the envelope completely disappeared, the blue glow faltered and went out, knocking the envelope back into reality. 

     Kor reached out and picked up the envelope, snapping it back and forth a few times to check it’s solidity. Sighing, she tossed it back on the table and scribbled in her notebook before marking an “x” on the bottle of the golden liquid. 

     Kor cleaned up the workspace and eyed an empty bottle on the far side of the work bench. Its last drops of dark, oil-slick, blue liquid clinging to the bottom. Kor would need to go into the city to get more. Her experiments seemed to be inching closer and closer to success, but until she was able to create her own functioning magink she would have to keep returning to the city to purchase the unsavory alternative. 

     Blowing out the last candle, Kor snatched the envelope and her notebook before leaving the greenhouse for the night. 

Thank you for reading!

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