Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Maeno sat in the library with books surrounding him. He had spent days searching for anything about the strawman spell in the library. Magi Yole kept directing him back to the books on demonic possession. It seemed that even though students at the school knew how to use the strawman spell, no one could pin down exactly where it came from.

And him being the damned fool who lied to Naena about where he learned about the spell.

Nendan sat across from him and set a placard between them.

"What have you found?" Nendan asked.

"Nothing!" Maeno said desperately. "You?"

Nendan reached between them and placed a silver coin atop the placard. Maeno glanced at the coin once, decided it was too unique to steal and sell, then focused on his book again.

"Did you just eye my coin?" Nendan asked.

His last night out, he had seen a coin like that, only it was gold. Had the shape and detail, though and even then, Maeno had been curious about it. He knew better than to steal a coin like that from Nendan, but it made him think about who and where he could sell it to.

"It'll only be stolen as a trophy," Maeno muttered. "Force of habit. Saw a shiny thing. What have you found?"

"The strawman spell isn't a spell that you'll find in any book as it's been dictated student to student," Nendan said. "On paper, strawman doesn't exist. No one has ever taught it. No one's ever written it down. The only method of taking over another body is to possess it, which, as you no doubt know from the books sitting before you, can only be done by a demon."

"Then why didn't Magi Yole mention it?" Maeno asked. "He should have known."

"You don't use strawman in the library. Magi Yole will throw you out. Apparently, there's some sort of agreement between him and the Seven. We're to let it happen."

"We had to get it from somewhere."

"Oh, I'm not done yet."

"What, like you know more?" Maeno asked. "How much more is there?"

"The strawman spell first appeared in the journals of the Lugh family about seven hundred years ago. At that time, Amos was exploring Hell and demons. They appeared more often, so we allowed the school to research them to find out their weaknesses. The coven of the school, at that time, summoned a demon and kept it hostage to perform tests on it. They discovered what they thought was a way to kill the demon but instead separated its soul from its body. A demon is only contained so long as it has flesh and bone."

"And it bounced out."

"Exactly. Now, they kept the body to use tools on it and the like. The demon retook its body and then bounced out of the spell whenever it pleased and back in again. By the time the coven discovered what was going on, they also knew that they weren't capable of killing a demon. They waited until the demon came back and banished it back to Hell. Shortly after, the school began actively studying Hell magic which has now been mainly absorbed by necromancers who also have a history of controlling dead bodies."

"So, they may have learned from the strawman," Maeno said. "But now you've added another magic. Hell magic?"

"No, see, demons have magic," Nendan said. "And humans have magic. But they're not the same kind of magic, see. Demons can't use mage spells, and mages can't use demon spells. Hell magic is the use of mage magic in demon spells. Highly illegal and highly destructive."

Maeno stared at Nendan for a long time.

None of that made sense. If a mage couldn't use a demon spell, how could mage magic be used in a demon spell? He decided it was his education and made a grunting, almost dismissing sound. Then he figured hell magic explained how mages could even call a demon in the first place. It was the magic the club had used that night to keep Piffy in the circle and bind him to themselves.