SFFSat – Elegance Versus Force
Continuing from last week, this excerpt comes from Island of Lost Forevers, the first book in the Mystic Island Trilogy. It does not directly follow last week’s snippet, but comes slightly later in the same sequence.
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On the sixth floor, Catilen’s path ran into a wall. Damian’s mage sight revealed a faint line of energy passing through the obstacle. He knelt and traced the wall, searching for seams that would indicate a hidden passage. Neither his fingers, nor his magic, exposed a door.
The wall might be an illusion, but his secondary senses failed to detect the presence of magic, despite several probes. Can Sentomoru change the layout of his home at will? It would require an absurd amount of power.
It didn’t matter; magic blocked his path and he didn’t have the energy to expend unraveling it. Since he couldn’t find a door, he’d just have to make one. With the arcane, elegance took a lot more effort than brute force.
Laying his palm against the smooth marble, Damian summoned his strength. Energy surged within him, flowing through the space beneath his flesh. He ignored the giddy rush that accompanied it, focusing the power through his fingertips. A large portion of the wall cracked beneath the magic onslaught. It crumbled, revealing a wide hallway and a startled woman’s bedroom.
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6 Replies to “SFFSat – Elegance Versus Force”
Lol, now he needs to use some of that elegance to deal with the startled woman, methinks.
I enjoyed the idea of using magic to enhance his physical strength and using that as a last resort. Not something you see played out often using magic. It was a nice setup to the last line.
Oops – he’s broken into the wrong room! Great description of the perils of using magic.
Last line made me chuckle. I do like the idea of rearranging one’s home at will, and the idea of quick and easy demolition work.
I like the phrase about elegance taking more effort that brute force – it gives a feel for the magic in Damian’s world in just a few words.