Ask Luna #12

From: Claud

When are the audiobooks coming???

No idea.  

From: Nepene

Heya Luna. I have a few questions if you don’t mind.

First, you’ve shown us a few ways that normals can gain magical powers. They can use imbued items (with some negative consequences), harvest humans or magical creatures (evil), be bitten by vampires (dead, also evil) or be cursed by a witch (rare, many side effects). I was wondering if there were any other ways for normals to gain magical powers you’d heard about? Any magical creatures or rituals that can empower humans?

Second, you’ve also talked a fair bit about rituals and various general spells like tracking spells that a lot of people can use. I was wondering, are those universal spells? People seem to be using rituals that I wouldn’t expect to fit in with their type. 

And third, a more moralistic question. I understand that the directors are likely more interested in mages than humans, but would you say the power mages have over society in general has been good or bad for humans in general? From what you’ve heard.

Thank you for any answers.

Huh, those are interesting ones.  

You’ve covered most of the ways I know of normals/sensitives gaining magic:  take it, be given it, or get hold of an item/creature that can use it for you.  There are stories of normal humans training their way up to adept or mage status but most mages claim that anyone who does that must have been a latent mage anyway.  It’s possible to bind a spell onto someone so that it runs off their own energy, too, but you obviously know about that already.

Ritual magic can do stuff outside a mage’s speciality, yeah – the tradeoff is that it takes a lot more time and usually needs a bunch of focuses.  General spells are a little different – they’re ones that have been worked out and simplified over the years so that a lot of different types of mages can use them.  

For your last question . . . well, depends who you ask, doesn’t it?  Most mages would probably say good.  If you’re asking me personally, I’d say bad.  Not VERY bad, not ‘oppressive dictatorship’ bad, just a lot of small things that add up.  You have this small group of people who have so much power over the rest of humanity, and it’s really easy for them to abuse it.  From what Alex says I think mages used to protect people a lot more than they do now, so maybe it’s changed.

From: Jemma

Hi there. This question is short & may seem pointless. But it will make a difference, so please, could you tell me how old Alex is?

He’s 30.  

. . . ‘it will make a difference’?  What exactly are you thinking of doing?

From: Bill

Hi Luna,

I don’t know if this has been asked or covered. But how do Mages recognise each other as mages. If there is a method of doing that. Like reading Aura’s ,feeling magical energy or something like that.  Also a slightly related question how do you tell the difference between an adapt and a mage right away. Since there have been times where Alex does just identify a group of people as Adepts without much interaction. Though i guess that can be explained by his precognitive abilities. 

They can’t, and you don’t.  It’s like trying to pick up radio waves from a radio that’s turned off.  If someone isn’t actually using magic there’s no way of knowing if they can do it (and with some magic types even that isn’t much of a guarantee).  There are a lot of mages who are really careful not to let anyone know that they’re a mage until it suits them. 

But just because you can’t cast a spell and magically know the answer doesn’t mean you can’t figure it out some other way.  I mean, most mages have spent their whole lives knowing they’re more powerful than 99.9% of everyone they’ll ever meet.  Leaves a bit of a mark on their personality, trust me.  After you’ve been around magical society a while, you start to get a pretty good sense just from looking at someone of what they’re likely to be. 

From: Bill

Hi Luna,

Not a terribly serious question, but so far in your experiences in the magical community and being apprenticed to Alex, what has been your favourite type of magic to witness?

The spells you get from light magic (as in light mages, not Light mages) can be really beautiful – I’ve seen a couple of demonstration shows and they were amazing.  Fire magic is pretty fun to watch too, as long as you don’t get too close.  

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One Response to Ask Luna #12

  1. Jane says:

    Several of my friends (all Dresden devotees) and I have been searching for a series like this one – well crafted storytelling set in a world with fresh ideas and characters along the vein of magic. I am truly enjoying Fated and plan to spread the word. There a quite a few folks I know who would love this series. I do have a couple of friends who prefer to listen to audiobook versions. Are there audiobooks of this series? If not, does Alex see audiobooks in one of his futures?

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