The Ropemaker The Supernatural Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"While you've been wondering about things, has it ever crossed your mind to wonder where all the magic is coming from? It comes out of us, that's where. We've all got a bit of it, right? All of our lives it kind of settles into us, like dust, and then it comes out again when we die. Some of us find how to take it and use it, and they're the ones who become magicians, but most of us don't even notice it's there." (9.78)

We get hints early on that magic can be seen blowing around like dust clouds in the Empire, but there's not supposed to be any in Goloroth. Right? Wrong… kind of. It turns out those magical eddies swirl out of people when they die and settle into other people, who then accumulate power and become big-time magicians.

Quote #5

"Astonishing." he said. I sense nothing at all of its presence. "I do not know how you do this—it is something I have never before encountered. Give it back to me now. Thank you." (11.148)

Tilja touches Faheel's magic ring and just feels a big humming sound, but nothing else. Faheel's gobsmacked—he's never seen anything of the sort. Tilja's powers are so unusual that not even the greatest magician in recent history has heard of them. She's one unique heroine, that's for sure.

Quote #6

"There are different kinds of magic. Almost all human magic is made magic, made like a clay pot or a wooden chair. The wood and clay are not chair and pot until the carpenter and potter make them so. The air is full of wild magic, gusting around, so that a magician can gather it into himself or herself and give it shape and purpose. That is made magic. Your power appears to be to unmake that making. It is as if you could put your hand on a chair and return it to the tree from which was shaped. If you put your hand on a tree it would not change. It is itself already." (13.35)

Faheel explains to Tilja just what kind of magic she's been dealing with. She can unmake made magic, but her powers don't extend to natural magics. Finally, Til gets a diagnostic—someone tells her exactly what she can do. Faheel has become her teacher, not just a distant magician she is searching for; these two have pretty officially bonded with each other.