Old Grudges
Bailey unexpectedly cast the ancient book she was reading halfway across the library table, startling Derya. The tri-ling rarely lost her temper, but she'd been a little touchy for days.
"What did poor Ardulous do that you should disrespect him so?" she asked.
"He, like every other practitioner of magic, had no idea that Merlath's enchantment would not hold. And as for our family books, they contain only what we already know. Merlath needed one more ingredient. He still maintained that the spell was based on blood magic, but if it were, then it should have worked. Unfortunately, many had theories, and with no way to test them..."
"We are stuck," Derya finished the sentence. "Which we would not be if the oracle lived."
"There's no point in doing this if we can't either find Merlath or the original spell book."
"Merlath hasn't been seen in hundreds of years, and I accidentally destroyed the book."