Blogtober Prompt: Magic ink

*I have utilized this concept in stories before, but I’ll put another twist on it.*

So Ink writing prompt

The young man was over eighteen because my receptionist ensured that, but, hell, barely was. I frowned at him because if his request. I sympathized, of course, I sympathized but he didn’t get it. Not at all.

“I can’t do it,” I said shaking my head.

“Why not? I need you to. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need this to live a normal life.”

“It doesn’t work that way. What is your psychic ability anyway?”

He looked away. “I’m an empath and telepath level eight.”

Fuck. I shook my head. That had to be killing on him. All those thoughts pounding into him.

He turned back to me. “Yes, it is a curse. Please help me.”

I wasn’t offended he read my mind, he literally couldn’t stop himself.

I sighed.

“What you are asking for is not a temporary tat that causes some minor thing and fades as the magic is used up. What you are asking for is a curse. A permanent spell that feeds off of you to fuel itself, not a bad thing, by the way, we make energy as we live. The problem is curses are very frowned upon because they can only be undone by the artist that does it. If she or he dies or doesn’t feel like it or any other random reason the curse can never be removed. It is only for extreme circumstances.”

“This is extreme circumstances,” he said intensely.

I nodded “It is. I know it is. I have seen psychics high in strength destroy themselves with drugs and alcohol to just dull it. I know it hurts. But a permanent marker is for like getting the blind to see or the deaf to hear. All good things. They never would want it removed.”

“Neither would I.”

“But you would. Because basically repressing your psychic abilities will make you go insane. First, you will feel an intense lack and emptiness and that will make you feel profound relief. But it lasts forever, that hole or void. Anyway, slowly, but surely, it leads to insanity.”

He shook his head. “It won’t.”

I gave him a small smile of sympathy, “It always does and no one knows why. But it always does. I can do a temporary dulling to give you a break. I can do a dulling that makes you less sensitive and if you like those just come back and I’ll charge them up again. I’ll give you a permanent marker with a temp spell. Just come in for the recharge when you need a break or when you want the dulling to continue. Hell, I can give you both; one for the dulling and one to repress your abilities temporarily. And that is all I can do.”

The young man paused for a long moment with a scowl. Obviously thinking of his options. On the street an ink wizard would do it, but would they do it right? Not likely.

“I’ll do both. But charge the one that represses my ability first. I need to hear and feel nothing not from my own mind for once.”

“Okay, one thousand each. Recharges are just a hundred,” I said, which he should be fine with. Permanents were ranged from five to eight grand.

“I have the money. Let’s do it,” he said.

“Okay. I’ll do each arm with the marker sigil.”

He took his shirt off while I powered up the inks. Sigils were just black. Always. And you had to weave the spell as you inked. But beforehand you needed to put some raw power in the ink.

Then I got to it.