How many are out there, O Circle?
Do they know our crimes?
Have we known all along?
Miranda put down the volume. The passage must have been written a century ago, at least. She shuddered despite herself. Are you here, Stephen? Can you tell me about this?
It was all so familiar. The Far Corners unwizards had tried to feed her their legends: There was a time when magic was free, not controlled by a chosen few. It will be so again. It must be.
"But that way lies danger," she said aloud, repeating Jemuel.
Does it? spoke the spirit. What kind of danger, Miranda?
"You talk a good game, you who would set the magic free," she said. "But consider it. Breaking the locks on spells the Circle has set, opening up the magic language, and what would you get? Marauded villages, sunken navies...."
Cured sick, fed people....
"All of which the wizards can do."
But should they? You sound like Jemuel. I know you better than that. I brought you here for a reason.
"You brought..." Miranda stared at the wall of books. She felt silly, like a child, talking to one of her fellow castaway imaginary friends. "No. I refuse to believe that."
Believe what you like, Miranda. What you've always wanted. Open it. Break the chains on the magic, the chains on the spells.
"Why don't you?"
I no longer have that ability. Not like this. But you can help me, Miranda. I have made preparations. Let me show you the way.
"It can't be done. Open the magic? Even if I wanted to, even if you wanted to, that's a hell of a spell."
I have made preparations.
"Go find someone else, Stephen."
The wind erupted in the library, papers exploding on the desk. Something invisible hit the bookshelf and dislodged a pile of books. The spirit screamed, Find someone else! Years! Years I spent deriving the spells to be cast! Fellow wizards died to provide me with the parts I needed! In life I tied myself to the fabric that runs through the spells of the Circle. But I was not able to finish my work. There is no one else! You have the training! You have the want! You... have... the... need!
Miranda looked down at the table. "It's too much, Stephen."
One spell you must cast! One only! One out of two, your choice!
"I will hear no more!" Miranda cried, and with that, she stormed out of the library and out of the house. I didn't ask for this.
Miranda sat by the duck pond and watched the creatures there.
Dervish could have been a wizard. Ridiculous.