Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Fifteen

Maeno slapped a book in front of Nendan and jabbed his finger at the page. After hearing about the spell affecting Naena, something had nagged at the back of his mind. He felt as if he forgot something, so he did what he did best.

Did some research.

"Look, I don't have the time," Nendan said.

"A binding spell only works so long as it's active."

"What?" Nendan asked.

"Naena! Bad magic?"

"We're still on that?" Nendan asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yes! We're still on that!" Maeno protested.

Nendan sighed as he sat back and settled his hands somewhere just below his ribcage. He moved as if he had the belly of his father.

"Fine," Nendan sighed out. "I've got a name war with Nurdon going on."

"What?" Maeno demanded.

"And I still have to help select three shields for my line."

"That's just a you problem, not an us problem."

"But, sure, let me go chasing after one little thing that you can't even fix."

Maeno bit his bottom lip as he jabbed a finger at Nendan. The Lugh heir sighed overly dramatically and pretended to die in his seat. After a few seconds, he lifted his head and looked at Maeno, who had maintained the position of before without moving.

"Fine," Nendan said. "Bindings only work so long as they exist. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. If you have a permanent band, it's a binding spell."

"Someone tried to bind her magic."

"Why would you come to that conclusion?"

"Death is a curse, so if you don't kill her, you bind her, and if you take away her magic Naena, well, she's just as dangerous, but they'd view her as defenceless."

"All right, I see that little jump you made to get there," Nendan said.

"Could we drop all the nonsense?"

Nendan sighed loudly and long.

"Fine," the heir groaned.

"Binding spell—"

"Yes, that part is new, I didn't know that," Nendan said. "But that suggests that—"

"That Brimstone still has the spell active and is guarding it," Maeno countered.

"Right, so we're about to do something because mister fancy-pants insists," Nendan said as he stood and very carefully pushed his chair in. He ignored protest from Maeno, who insisted he did not need fancy pants. "I need you to do something for me, and it's going to sound strange."

"If it helps Naena, then fine, what is it?" Maeno asked.

"I need you to create chaos," Nendan said. "Break things, unleash random magic, trip people, whatever. Just create chaos."

"Uh, wut?" Maeno asked, aware that he only said about half of the word as Nendan walked away.

He followed. He couldn't say why he followed when he could have stayed behind, but he still followed, a finger held up in the air as the pair of them left the library and took a sudden strange turn.

Nendan led him to an area where Maeno had never wandered because it was considered Brimstone territory.

"Yes or no," Nendan demanded. "I need to know now."