How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I imagined the orchard, tried to feel like I had that day, then I switched the image in my mind to a plate of griddle cakes, steaming, the odor of maple syrup and sweet butter and the sound of the batter on the hot skillet and the way the air began to leave the dough the moment they were lad on a plate, like a sigh. I stepped forward and touched the gem believing that I would see magic, not the griddle cakes—magic. (32.18)
When Hahp finally figures out the key to making whatever he wants appear out of the gem in the academy, it's because he focuses on the feeling of magic. He has to perfectly imagine whatever he wants to make, but he also needs to hold the belief in magic in his mind to make it work. So it's kinda like magic only exists when it's believed in—like fairies in Peter Pan, almost.
Quote #8
The Founder was the only one who saw any value in magic, the only one brave enough to risk death to study it and turn it back into the astounding force for good it had once been. He was the only one who believed it was possible, and he had pursued it through hardships that would have stopped anyone else. (32.24)
This Founder fellow in Hahp's history book sure sounds like a swell guy. Of course, we know that it's actually talking about Somiss, so we're not really big fans. We will agree, though, that trying to bring magic back to a world without it was probably really tough. Since magic seems to work best when it's believed in, how would you even get started if very few people believed in magic anymore?
Quote #9
I looked up from the book. It was hard to imagine a world without magic.
My father bought magic for everything. No Malek ship had been caught in a storm. He paid for good weather and he paid to have water run through the pipes in our house; he paid for the streams and fountains in Malek Park, for the ponies to fly and a thousand other things. Everyone did, unless they were too poor. (54.4-5)
To a rich kid like Hahp, magic is just a part of everyday existence. Or using it is, anyway—only wizards know how to manipulate magic and create new things with it. But if you think about how magic has become a commodity—something only well-off folks can afford—that's not how Franklin had wanted to bring magic back into the world. Which we think is a bummer.