It does mean that the magic user will have to be familiar with a series of rules like those in physics (the equivalent of the laws of the conservation of energy and motion and mass, celestial laws of the movement of planetary bodies, laws of gravitation and relativity and so on) and that he will ignore them at his own risk, and with guaranteed repercussions.

This doesn’t mean there are going to be long, complex formulae in mystic languages, or that only the Runes of Karthor will permit the magic-user to unlock the Seventh Seal, or bullshit of that sort. Working with magic will require the same precautions and the same effort as working with very old dynamite or a ticking bomb-and will have much the same mood. There will be no ‘winging it’ in this system. Third, let’s say that magic must follow specific, unbending, and unforgiving rules. With a bunch of people involved, the spells can be more powerful and last longer, and if the users are real assholes, they can focus the kickback effect on just one person among their number-a sort of human sacrifice that will be sacrificed only if the spell works (instead of to make it work, as in most magical systems). Next, let’s assume that magic works better when more people are involved-the concept of a magic Mafia comes to mind.

This won’t eliminate the use of magic-after all, if you know the punch is coming, you can brace for it, so magical spells will still hold some temptation as long as they hold the element of surprise. Let’s also assume that there’s a massive kickback effect for magic used, a sort of karmic boomerang that will slam the user with a force equal to that which the user applies. So let’s make our first assumption that magic requires major effort-that almost everything can be done more easily by mundane means. Therefore, magic needs to either be heavily regulated or else hard as hell to manage and control. However, I don’t want powerful magic available to everyone, and I would prefer for most people to have no magic whatsoever. This indicates the availability of powerful magic. Obviously, curses work-and they work for a long time, and they work well. The world itself is like all worlds, varied and full of surprises, but the nature of magic, like the nature of physics, needs to be known and invariable. I guess the primary concern here is the nature of magic in the world. THE SECRET TEXTS must tell the story of how Kait Galweigh, the inheritor of an old magical curse, becomes a champion standing against old magic revisited and new magic born. The underpinning of the Matrin stories is magic-the deadly fight of smaller and weaker opponents against the enormous forces that wield evil magic in this world.

The rules of magic