Arya: Protection runes (rewritten)

Arya felt startled, frightened, and scared as she walked through the corridors of the novices. Had it been a shadow demon? A real shadow demon? She couldn't believe it.

At the moment, she was completely defenseless as all her runes were gone and, she needed new ones. All she could think of was that she needed new runes and Elix, who had made the last ones.

He was an adept like herself and the same age as her. He didn't live in the same block as her, but he had his room not far away from hers. Elix was one of the few who knew what Arya was and, he was a true friend.

Once at his quarters, she knocked hard on his door. At first, there was no answer. But after waiting for a while, the door opened with a creak and, there stood Elix.

He was almost a head taller than her, his short hair neatly parted down the middle and, his strong features made him appear aristocratic.

Arya felt a sense of relief.

'I'm safe now, he's here.' she thought.

"I need new runes! Can you make them now? I'll make you more if you want." The words came out in one sweep without pause in a slightly trembling voice.

He looked at Arya with visible concern.

"Hi, Arya."

"Is everything okay?" He was worried about her and, you could hear it in his voice.

"There are shadow demons in the tower."

"What! ...That's... impossible. Why do you think that? There are nearly a hundred witches and wizards in the tower and hundreds of guardians."

Arya interrupted him.

"I killed one, or I think I killed one. You have to believe me! You have to..."

"Okay, okay, I believe you." He didn't sound convinced.

"It's just hard to believe. Have you talked to any Maga or any instructor or teacher?"

"No, but they would never believe me... there are no residues left. I burned it with blue fire... I don't know if it died or got away."

"You have to tell one of the teachers or a Maga even if they don't believe you."

"I know. But I have to get new runes first, right now, I'm defenseless."

"Hardly defenseless, you are a warlock but, I understand. Come in, Arya. We'll take care of it right away. Don't worry everything will be fine. Take a seat and relax."

His living space was larger than hers, with a hall, bedroom, living room, and bathroom. He had an adept's living space and, they were more like small apartments. She had only one room, the same type as novices and recruits. But that didn't bother her in the least.

They went into his living room and, Elix showed her to a chair at his dining table. The room was not very big but it could accommodate a dining table for four, a sofa, an armchair, a desk and, bookshelves. In one corner there was a fireplace that was lit. It crackled and, the room was warm and comfortable despite the storm outside.

"Where do you want the runes?"

"Two on each arm and three along the spine and two on each leg outside the thigh. "

The placement of the regular runes didn't matter except that they couldn't be drawn on the head or neck. There was no explanation for it. Some would say it interfered with the magical flow of raw mana.

It was a completely different story with the Chakra runes, which belonged to a completely different class of runes. They could only be drawn on the seven Chakra points, after which they sank into the wearer's body and became invisible. Those runes were at least ten times as powerful and, they increased the wearer's mana tenfold if he or she wore runes on all seven chakra points.

But they were really hard, to create and it was time-consuming. Sometimes it took several days to make one.

"And what runes would you like?" asked Elix.

There were thirteen different elements Fire, Wind, Water, Air, Spirit, Body, Mind, Ice, Wood, Thunder, Metal, Light, and Darkness, and, for each element, there were ten basic runes and hundreds of other special ones.

The simplest runes were found among Body and Mind. With those runes, you could enhance your own physique and senses, increase your own ability to heal yourself.

"I want three blue fire runes, two perception runes to enhance my senses, two to increase strength, speed, and agility, two self-healing runes, and two light runes for illusion."

Arya pulled off her dark brownish-red crop top to reveal a black lace, cross-back bra with spaghetti straps.

Which made Elix stop with a jerk, but he recovered the next moment with a small smirk on his face. She was a breathtaking beauty with her hourglass-sculpted fit body and lustrous light blonde hair.

"Do you like what you see?" Arya laughed.

"I always do sweetheart. Let's get started on the tattoos."

He tried to sound unmoved but failed.

Elix began to draw the first rune. No pencil or needle was needed to draw a rune. It was just one or more fingers charged with mana drawn across skin.

As Elix drew the first line of Yang mana, Arya's Yin began to nibble at her skin and, it looked as if Yin was trying to embrace Yang. And Arya groaned with pleasure as Elix created her new runes.

It took three and a half hours to create all ten runes. The sweat was pouring off Elix and Arya.

"Now it's your turn. What runes do you want and where." Arya said to Elix. Arya bit her lower lip lightly and smiled shyly.

"It's enough that you make five," Elix said. His voice was dark and husky.

"Do one on the middle of my back, one on each deltoid, and connect them each to a rune on my chest. Can you fix it as a serial connection?"

"Which runes are they?" Arya didn't feel so sure she could make serial connections.

"The one on her back you can make like a self-healing rune. The other two as air and fire. Air for pressure and fire rune for control fire energy. When the serial is activated, air pushes everything away from me and, I will immediately have control of fire energy fed with my Yang mana. It's like an offensive protective rune. I draw it on paper."

After a while, Elix had shown Arya how to draw the runes and connect them serially.

"I think I know how to do it now," Arya said.

"Let's give it a try, but start with the self-healing rune on my back."

Elix was wearing a linen shirt and black pants. And without hesitation, he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. Although he had a lean figure, he was packed with muscle. Arya nibbled unconsciously on her lower lip, and, had an approving smile on her face.

She put her hand on his massive chest and pulled it caressingly up over one shoulder and down his back.

Yin and Yang mana mixed and sparkled across his skin.

"I think I can do it," Arya said with hopefulness.

He was not unmoved by her brush but gasped.

"I know you can," Elix replied.