Abaddon Summer

Chapter One

AN:  These summer chapters are a chance to see the characters outside of school as they interact with their world. It's also a chance for some characters to say goodbye or hello as is the case of our first fellow. The next chapter is written but won't be uploaded for a week or so, as I'm on vacation starting in just a few more hours. Read, review, and enjoy.

Selifer stepped into Arcdon's study with his second-year reading list in hand. The letter was bent and worn in the corners. He smiled as the necromancer looked up. The mage appeared ponderous, taking Selifer in over the rim of a pair of silver framed reading glasses. With a happy little sound, Selifer settled himself into the seat across from Arcdon.

"I was beginning to fear I'd lost you," Arcdon muttered, his voice thick with age.

"I... I think I was lost," Selifer said. He hesitated a second as he tried to put the puzzle pieces back together. "The healers say... they think something might be wrong with me. I... another student was talking about a female mage?"

"Yes, Naena, a Salord bastard," Arcdon grumbled as he began lifting and moving papers. "I hadn't expected you to answer my summons, and I am wholly unprepared."

"So, I am missing things," Selifer said. "I don't remember anything that happened my first year, but I do remember the curriculum. It's changed a lot from what you told me about before first year. That's for sure."

"Can you adapt to the changes?"

"Oh, yes," Selifer said with a smile. "I like adapting to changes. But... is a female mage something we adapt to?"

"If the Seven are not worried, it simply tells us this was expected," Arcdon said. "If anything, the girl's presence is maintained because she is a weapon or key to their larger—" he hesitated and sighed. "I envy your generation even as I pity the inability to be what we were before. In my time—"

"Seventy percent of mages died before their fourth year, with only about ten percent of those who lived returning for their magehoods," Selifer filled in, bored already. "I know. Father was clear with me. But he never mentioned a female mage."

"It is not something one might expect or prepare for," Arcdon said. "Even if one took into account the presence of crossborn mages—"

"They're born every three generations, give or take," Selifer countered. "Crossborn mages know before the band appears that something is different about them, but the Seven are very careful about clipping the crossborn or even driving them to suicide. The magic resilience in a crossborn speaks of a balance that must be wrought for magic to continue existing in the form in which the Seven have given it. The presence of a female mage is simply the world accepting this type of magic and smoothing out what it sees to be aberrations in the magic. In this case, the lack of representation in a group that makes up approximately sixty-five percent of the population—due to the higher mortality rate of the male of the species. Magic is trying to find the balance. And whether we're ready for it or not? That balance is coming."

Arcdon waited patiently for Selifer to finish, unlike many other staff members who would cut him off or talk over him. No, Arcdon was one of the nicer ones who always wanted to hear what Selifer had to say.

"And that is why I called you, dear boy," Arcdon said with a small smile. "That mind of yours holds... so much more than you first let on."

"The problem is, she's not the fulcrum," Selifer said.

"She's not?"

"Naena is an aberration in herself," Selifer added. "The Hell magic Mander managed binds the child in obedience to the father, but you can't just escape that. Instead of breaking the spell, Jasor would have been forced to flip it on its head. Mander's spell says the son must obey the father, but now it says that the father must obey the daughter. He twisted it so far out to try to break it, assuming that the spell wouldn't create the exact requirement for it to continue existing. Except Hell magic is nothing if resilient and pliable. It bent but didn't so much as tear."