Abaddon's Call

Chapter Twenty

Even though his workroom was buried in the Seven area of the main building, Kal was up with the sun. He made up his bed, removed his dirtied clothing, and returned to his search for Jurin Hall.

Trild said he was too obsessed with finding the one-handed man, so he had stopped their visits to the city unless they had a job. His sword understood Kal wanted to find the man, but Kal couldn't even say why he needed to, only that it must be done.

Kaulu suggested having Kal find Jurin Hall, then using what he learned searching for it to find the man.

He knew it was a matter of feeling his way to the workroom. He knew the room was down by wandering the upper floors, but it took a few days to locate an entrance. Finding his way into the basement, he moved between the hallways. When he met a cold mist that felt like death, he turned around and headed back the way he had come.

Down that hallway was not a place for him to wander into.

Jurin Hall resided in the southwest corner of the basement, somewhere below or near the magi ruins. Kal could feel the magi power seeping into the basement.

The hall contained magics that even Theon didn't know about, but Kal couldn't tell anyone that part. There were spells in the walls which Theon had reactivated after centuries of slumber. The spells syphoned off Theon's magic and destruction to contain the magi well and keep it from spreading while winding a thread between the well and the library. Theon's magic had completed another thread but hadn't started another.

But after completing a thread, the war mage's magic should have then begun another thread.

The well was being threaded into the library to keep the library in magic. If the library was compromised, it would collapse into the well.

Kaulu didn't know what that really meant, only the mechanisms as they were explained to him.

War mages had played an important role in intergenerational magic without ever realizing it.

It had fallen on Kal to find access to the hall, claim it for Kaulu, and allow Kaulu into the hall to check on the spells. The hallway leading to it was rarely clean, and he had to bring his own light because the lights in the basement had been removed from their fixtures.

Students were not encouraged to enter the basement.

The door was simple, old, and arched. It fit cleanly into the doorframe and let nothing from within escape despite looking like it hadn't seen a good day in a few centuries.

When Kal stepped into the hall, he immediately recognized it. Trild had prepared him with some accounts of previous war mages. He had been given two possibilities.

The first was the wafting rejection resulting in a fight or generalized destruction. The resulting fight would flare the spells to life. If that happened, there was a chance Kaulu wouldn't need to enter the hall at all.

The second was cautious welcoming, hesitant and unassured.

Kal felt hesitance for just a second. Then it was as if the magic of the hall gave in and enveloped him. Something from the accounts confirmed it for him, not Trild's actual words. He felt comforted in his own flesh. After a moment, he understood the weight of needing to leash his magic carefully was lifted.

The comfort was replaced with a giddy little joy as he realized he could practice things he had been wanting to practice. Things that he didn't trust in the workroom on the ground floor.

Jurin Hall had been built for war mages because some quirk in their magic could get through workroom walls. Kal had to be very careful what he did in that workroom, but not in Jurin Hall.