"...Where did you get that done?" I ask.
"Ha!" she exclaims with a victorious smile. "See? You can't do anything to me! I've got protection!"
"You don't even know what this is, you idiot!" I yell at her.
I approach her, grab her wrist, and look at her stomach from up close, but her friend freaks out.
"Hey! Let her go, you crazy witch! Don't touch us!" she yells.
"I wouldn't be touching her if you didn't play with witchcraft yourselves, you idiots!" I shout back. "Answer me! Where did you get this?!"
The one whose wrist I'm holding just keeps complaining and trying to free herself from my grip, but she's too drunk to do anything for real. Liam steps up next to me, just as concerned. Her friend, probably not as intoxicated, is getting whiter and whiter, realizing I'm dead serious.
"I-I don't know," she mumbles. "She said a lot of our friends just got the same thing... I-it's popular..."
"What do you mean, they got it too? From where?"
"Is this dangerous?" she asks, starting to tear up. "I didn't think that was real! Is it dangerous? She won't die, will she?"
"You idiots got stuff tattooed and you didn't know what it was?" growls Liam.
"I just thought it was a joke! Like those stupid challenges we always do..."
She keeps trying to explain herself, but she doesn't seem to know much more, and her friend just keeps trying to free herself from my grasp. I let her go, and she swears, but it's more a weird mumbling than anything very insulting. Her friend grabs her arm.
"I-is it dangerous?"
"I'm not sure," I answer. "How many people have this tattooed? Who started it?"
"I don't know! I think it came from some post on the university blog... No one took it seriously, but because there's... I mean, since you're a real witch, it just became the next cool thing to do..."
"You idiots got tattoos for a challenge?" frowns Liam.
"Not all are real tattoos! Most are just temporary ones... but... I-I think since some people did it for real, it became like the next step to get it... a-and since it is pretty..."
Moon Goddess, I just want to gather those people and smack some sense into them. How many of them have this on them now? And most importantly, who the hell cast that spell on the humans? Why? I have a really, really bad feeling the more I think about this...
"Mara?" asks Liam.
"I don't know what this is," I admit. "That's a symbol I've never seen before. I... I think it's a new spell, made by someone else. It would be the only reason I can't recognize it, if it's... custom. I recognize some bits, but... it's too complex."
The more I stare, the less I like this. This isn't just some random spell the next idiot could come up with from a book about witches or some internet research. This one is so complex, even for me, it would take hours to come up with that sort of thing...
"Hold her," I suddenly decide.
Her friend hesitates, but Liam goes to grab the girl's wrists, and he's stronger when it comes to holding her where she is.
"W-what are you doing?"
"I'm going to take this off her. Unless you want your friend to keep showing off this spell not knowing what it is or what it'll do to her?"
"N-no..."
"Then help us hold her."
She nods, a bit hesitant, and tries to calm her friend down while I light up my fire very carefully.
"H-hey! You're not seriously going to burn her, are you?"
