Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Forty-Seven

Months passed. Maeno learned the ins and outs of being a shield. He was given small tasks, disrupting the work of alumni studying in the library and stealing small objects. They were testing him, he knew, so he fumbled on the stealing and tried ever so hard not to laugh as the afLugh fellow gave him advice that would get him caught. When questioned about how he ate on the streets when he could barely steal, he simply said each part of the group had a job and left it at that.

They certainly didn't go asking Naena to corroborate his story, which was likely one of the few blessings of them being taken on by different families.

He studied hard and expanded his knowledge but still snuck out occasionally to feed the animal. Slipping past the Seven wasn't difficult. All they did, really, was patrol the walls and border of the school. They weren't there to keep anyone in. They were there to keep students from slipping off campus without signing out first.

One didn't want to be signed out while feeding the animal. Too many implications.

But sneaking between the patrols was simple enough.

With spring came heavy rains, sometimes without warning. It might be bright and sunny in the morning but pouring down rain by afternoon.

On that occasion, he entered Amos with an aching right hand, a throb spreading from his wrist over the extent of the arm. His elbow throbbed, which he was learning meant something, but he wasn't sure what, not yet. The ink was nowhere near the elbow, but the magic had worked its way in there.

During those months, Naena not only caught up in her second-year classes but excelled in them. Basically, she showed everyone up. She helped Maeno with several items and told him how to get on the librarians' good side, propelling his own research forward. He already knew the answer, had the outline written up, and worked with Nendan on his opening statement. Nendan undid a few of Maeno's suggestions, warning him to leave errors to be corrected.

Students weren't forbidden from asking for help, but it was frowned upon for a sword to help their shield edit their work.

Unfortunately, Nendan chose the topic for Maeno. Destruction magic in the arch magehood.

So boring.

Arch mages didn't even work with destruction, which was a topic apart from what a war mage could do and tended to involve just the literal destruction of anything. Arch mages believed in balance. They worked in neither destruction nor creation, instead displacing things. Time, space, other mages.

They didn't do destruction.

But the plus side of the research project was that after doing all the research, he could end with just that.

Because research wasn't just about what new facts one could bring about, it was also about recognizing that one had wasted their time. Except Maeno knew going in, he was wasting his time, and it was a stupid topic. Nendan wanted Maeno to put in two years of work for absolutely nothing.

His frustration had led to him heading into the city to feed the animal. To take his frustrations out on a body that didn't deserve it but, well, what happened to them didn't really matter.

Kaulu had taken complete control of the campus. They suffered no broken rules. Four public beatings with a chain they called Command took place the first week. Maeno thought he understood the dark humour in that, but it was disturbing that no other family stepped in. Guards in the city might use a whip or a little bat to beat on a body, but a metal chain? The healers were only allowed to mend broken bone. Flesh had to be left to heal.

For himself, he feared calling them on anything least they determine that his magic was no longer hygiene magic.

The student whispered about what that meant. Hygiene magic.