Abaddon Summer

Chapter Two

AN: Something that comes up quite suddenly here and in the next book are the varying ages of students. Nillon is seventeen and about to enter the fourth year, Naena is eighteen and going into the second year. Theon began school at thirteen and war mages have entered the school as young as seven in centuries past. Amos doesn't care about the age of the student, with the Bard entering in his forties. The average age of Naena's peers in her year is fourteen, but like so many other things, no one really talks about or points it out. I think the main push for ages coming out is Theon realizing that the boy he helped raise (Graydon) is now a man himself.

Nillon spent his weeks in the Lugh library surrounded by books on Hellgates morning, noon, and night. The first week he spent holed up in the library, not even taking meals. The second, they made him take his meals with everyone else, though he hadn't been eating before, so he hadn't been bothering anyone.

He crossed paths with Maeno a few times.

Arm in arm with Pao as Feon slunk along behind, once.

As soon as he passed Feon the first time, he fled to his table and slapped down a placard so anyone passing by wouldn't see him there. The Seven libraries often had visitors, but the private collections—like the one he was working in—had few. They still employed the placards, though. It wasn't always about privacy so much as the ability to be left alone long enough to string a thought together.

He kept his head down for three more weeks before they assigned him a research partner, who he then had to explain everything he had read to. Said to call him Oli, kept his head down, didn't say much. Left as soon as their work was done and ate with family or friends.

Once his explanation was done, they pulled him from Hellgates and put him on anchors, which were points that could be stretched into the real world and strengthened by the presence of Sentinels.

A term Nillon recognized from Jasor.

As soon as that came out of his mouth, he found himself in a private meeting with the Lords.

"But that's all I know," he protested.

"Once more," Lord Pan barked. "What is a Sentinel?"

"I just know what he told me," Nillon protested again, this time more desperately, "That... that they serve and will let Hell view through their eyes, but no one's ever mentioned anything about it before. If it was a secret history, why would he wait so long to tell me? It's not real. It can't be real. Right?"

"The mark of an anchor," Kaulu said. "Explain."

"A catastrophic failure in the fabric between realities," Nillon said. "Marked by the pinpoint drops of liquid magic, positioned by faults across the lands, drawn clearly on any map. The mage estates are built on top of the largest faults."

"Knitting them back together," Veles said as he read from Nillon's report.

"Yes," Nillon said slowly. "It was in the books. I didn't think—"

"You aren't in trouble, boy, stop trying to piss yourself," Lord Pan muttered. "We know about the fractures. We know the purpose of the estates and what work they have wrought for centuries. What we are interested in—"

"Is why anchors still appear," Nillon finished for Lord Pan as those blue-grey eyes focused on him. "Because of Sentinels. Oh, because of a secret history that you don't teach a child because they tell everyone everything."

"Exactly," Lugh said. "But, as you've mentioned, you don't just drop that on someone. There are years of work leading up to it. Jasor didn't make a mistake in telling you, Nillon. He knew you'd come into our possession or go outlaw."