Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Eighteen

Four days Naena remained in the infirmary. In that time, the students were too busy talking about what happened to her to realize that anything had changed among the Seven. Rumours swirled around Brimstone and the deaths there, but no one spoke about what happened.

Everyone knew, though.

The Seven intervened. Lugh's heir rattled the walls of the university with his call to battle. Hushed rumours about how he should have been a pussy swirled across campus. These rumours were squashed, though even Theon had difficulty tracing who ended the rumours.

However, the students knew that Naena had nothing to do with it because she remained in the infirmary. Theories began swirling, none of them even close to the truth.

When Naena left the infirmary, she reported immediately to Theon's office.

Late afternoon, classes almost finished. She appeared clutching a sealed folio and a letter, also sealed.

"Luren ordered me here," she said to the floor between them.

Theon granted her entrance into his study and took both the letter and folio from her. Once they were both settled at his desk, Theon broke the seal and read the letter out loud rather than keep it a secret.

"I have included a standardized report, but given the nature of the girl, I think it may be better if you hold onto her file for me. I think I can now understand your hesitance to accept a healer's touch. If our language is too particular, do seek me out, and I might explain. But the end of the report and the file both say the same. No magic use for seven days and physical re-introduction."

Theon closed the letter and set it to the side, not bothering to read the report. Instead, he turned his attention to the actual medical file.

He broke the seal on the folio and opened it, looking over the first page filled with neat, tightly packed writing which wound its way around healing diagrams and sketches made by Luren's own hand. Healing magic mingled with the ink, flooding Theon's senses as he saw what Luren meant with his cryptic wording.

Shuddering, Theon closed the folio.

He wanted to slide it across to Naena and have her look it over, knowing she would appreciate it a great deal more than he ever could. The descriptions were of a body practically pulled apart. Of course, it caught his attention.

But the letter spoke clearly, and so Theon slipped the seal back over the folio and resealed it.

Naena's mouth opened.

"No magic," he said, keeping focused on the seal as it re-solidified. "For seven days. You will take this letter to your sword and deliver it to him. Seven have methods of temporarily removing magic. Once your forge is complete, he could simply order you, and you would instinctively obey. I suggest submitting to the spell as your instinctive magic could—Naena, look at me, not the floor. Your instinctive magic is completely uncontrolled. With the liquid magic and the rest, this makes you a danger to yourself."

"Seven have magic?" she asked the desk before her eyes flickered up to his and back down again.

"They use your magic to launch the spell," Theon said. "I said they have methods."

"Which then open them to mages using magic on them," Naena said.

"It's an old magic, works best with instinctive magic users," Theon said. "They use your magic but are not responsible for triggering it. You are."

She sighed, reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a little book, which she set on the desk and slid toward Theon.

"I want to try something."