Abaddon's Gift

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Bo sat in Hellfire's club room with books and notes spread before him.

After talking with Maeno, he had realized his mistake.

The fishing net spell wouldn't work if Maeno didn't have magic of his own to create and maintain the threads. Mages had magic in and around them at all times. The use of another mage's magic was frowned upon, but it was a known trick to make oneself stronger.

They all did it without thinking, but commoners weren't told about the trick. Regular people thought one had to be a mage to use magic.

Maeno knew how to find magic, he had used spells in the past, but magic in a moment was different than collecting on purpose.

Let alone keeping ahold of that magic until he needed it.

"What are you working on?" Nillon asked.

Bo jumped in his place and looked up. His face heated up as he met Nillon's eyes.

"It's stupid," he said.

"It might seem stupid, but you should still share," Nillon said.

"I was just looking at a way to collect and hold the magic of others," he responded. "See, spell mages are typically brilliant with magic because they have to make do with less magic."

"You want to expand the magehood," Nillon said as he pulled out a chair and sat. "I mean, we all do it, right? There's been a struggle to see and feel the magic of others for centuries. A lot of people have tried and failed."

"I know," Bo said with a sigh.

"But they also wrote about it," Nillon said. "So you know what won't work."

"True, that saved me some work, though it's disheartening."

"If you can figure this out, it would revolutionize not only the magehood but the entirety of our magic system," Nillon said. "There'd be no more guessing who attacked you because you'd be able to track their magic back to them."

"What do you mean?" Bo asked.

He could already 'see' magic, if he focused on it, or if it were brilliantly coloured.

"Well, the first step to collecting magic is knowing it's there," Nillon said. "I'd think the next step would be able to physically grab the magic."

Bo shuffled through his papers until he found a clean sheet.

"How do you physically grab magic?" he asked.

"Dunno, Maeno might know, though."

"He doesn't," Bo said. "Wyver would have told me as much. The magehood is more work together and less competitive than yours."

Nillon grunted, pulling one of Bo's books toward him. He opened the book and glanced over the title, then began to flip through the pages.

"How do you eat a dragon?" Nillon asked suddenly.

"Uh..." Bo said, trailing off as he tried to decide if Nillon was joking or asking in all seriousness.

"One bite at a time. So, let's stop thinking about the whole. First thing's first, you have to be able to see magic."

"Not really," he countered. "A blind man can weave without seeing the wool. Sure, someone else would have to tell him the colours, but in this case, the colours would be the style of magic. He would learn the different feelings of various magics."

Nillon made a startled little sound.

"Then, we just need to know how to handle magic," he said. "Intuitive mages do it without thinking. Is that a book on fishing with magic?"