But if it isn't—
People were clumping around upstairs, but Nita hardly heard them. She sat down at one of the low tables and started reading the book in earnest. The first couple of pages were a foreword.
Wizardry is one of the most ancient and misunderstood of arts. Its public image for centuries has been one of a mysterious pursuit, practiced in occult surroundings, and usually used at the peril of one's soul. The modern wizard, who works with tools more advanced than bat's blood and beings more complex than medieval demons, knows how far from the truth that image is. Wizardry, though exciting and interesting, is not a glamorous business, especially these days, when a wizard must work quietly so as not to attract undue attention.
For those willing to assume the Art's responsibilities and do the work, though, wizardry has many rewards. The sight of a formerly twisted growing thing now growing straight, of a snarled motivation untangled, the satisfaction of hearing what a plant is thinking or a dog is saying, of talking to a stone or a star, is thought by most to be well worth the labor.
Not everyone is suited to be a wizard. Those without enough of the necessary personality traits will never see this manual for what it is. That you have found it at all says a great deal for your potential.
The reader is invited to examine the next few chapters and determine his/her wizardly potential in detail — to become familiar with the scope of the Art — and finally to decide whether to become a wizard.
Good luck!
SO
It's a joke, Nita thought. Really. And to her own amazement, she wouldn't herself — she was too fascinated. She turned to the next chapter.
PRELIMINARY DETERMINATIONS
An aptitude for wizardry requires more than just the desire to practice the art. There are certain inborn tendencies, and some acquired ones, that enable a person to become a wizard. This chapter will list some of the better documented of wizardly characteristics. Please bear in mind that it isn't necessary to possess all the qualities listed, or even most of them. Some of the greatest wizards have been lacking in the qualities possessed by almost all others and have still achieved startling competence levels.
Slowly at first, then more eagerly, Nita began working her way through the assessment chapter, pausing only to get a pencil and scrap paper from the checkout desk, so that she could make notes on her aptitude. She was brought up short by the footnote to one page— Where ratings are not assigned, as in rural areas, the area of greatest population density will usually produce the most wizards, due to the thinning of worldwalls with increased population concentration…
Nita stopped reading, amazed. "Thinning of worldwalls" — were they saying that there are other worlds, other dimensions, and that things could get through? Things, or people?
She sat there and wondered. All the old fairy tales about people falling down wells into magical countries, or slipping backward in time, or forward into it — did this mean that such things could actually happen? If you could actually go into other worlds, other places, and come back again…
Aww — who would believe anybody who came back and told a story like that? Even if they took pictures?
But who cares! she answered herself fiercely. If only it could be true….
She turned her attention back to the book and went on reading, though skeptically— the whole thing still felt like a game. But abruptly it stopped being a game, with one paragraph: Wizards love words. Most of them read a great deal, and indeed one strong sign of a potential wizard is the inability to get to sleep without reading something first. But their love for and fluency with words is what makes wizards a force to be reckoned with. Their ability to convince a piece of the world— a tree, say, or a stone — that it's not what it thinks it is, that it's something else, is the very heart of wizardry. Words skillfully used, the persuasive voice, the persuading mind, are the wizard's most basic tools. With them a wizard can stop a tidal wave, talk a tree out of growing or into it — freeze fire, burn rain — even slowdown the death of the Universe.
That last, of course, is the reason there are wizards. See the next chapter.
Nita stopped short. The universe was running down, all the energy in it was slowly being used up; she knew that from astronomy. "Entropy, " the process was called. But she'd never heard anyone talk about slowing it down before.
She shook her head in amazement and went on to the "correlation" section at the end of that chapter, where all the factors involved in the makeup of a potential wizard were listed. Nita found that she had a lot of them — enough to be a wizard, if she wanted to. In rising excitement she turned to the next chapter. "Theory and Implications of Wizardry, " its heading said. "History, Philosophy, and the Wizards' Oath. "
Fifty or sixty eons ago, when life brought itself about, it also brought about to accompany it many Powers and Potentialities to manage the business of creation. One of the greatest of these Powers held aloof for a long time, watching its companions work, not wishing to enter into Creation until it could contribute something unlike anything the other Powers had made, something completely new and original. Finally the Lone Power found what it was looking for. Others had invented planets, light, gravity, space. The Lone Power invented death, and bound it irrevocably into the worlds. Shortly thereafter the other Powers joined forces and cast the Lone One out.
Many versions of this story are related among the many worlds, assigning blame or praise to one party or another. However, none of the stories change the fact that entropy and its symptom, death, are here now. To attempt to halt or remove them is as futile as attempting to ignore them.
Therefore there are wizards — to handle them.
A wizard's business is to conserve energy — to keep it from being wasted. On the simplest level this includes such unmagical-looking actions as paying one's bills on time, turning off the lights when you go out, and supporting the people around you in getting their lives to work. It also includes a great deal more.
Because wizardly people tend to be good with language, they can also become skillful with the Speech, the magical tongue in which objects and living creatures can be described with more accuracy than in any human language. And what can be so accurately described can also be preserved — freed to become yet greater. A wizard can cause an inanimate object or animate creature to grow, or stop growing — to be what it is, or something else. a wizard, using the Speech, can cause death to slow down, or go somewhere else and come back later — just as the Lone Power caused it to come about in the first place. Creation, preservation, destruction, transformation — all are a matter of causing the fabric of being to do what you want it to. And the Speech is the key.
Nita stopped to think this over for a moment. It sounds like, if you know what something is, truly know, you don't have any trouble working with it. Like my telescope — if it acts up, I know every piece of it, and it only takes a second to get it working again. To have that kind of control over — over everything—live things, the world, even… She took a deep breath and looked back at the book, beginning to get an idea of what kind of power was implied there. The power conferred by use of the Speech has, of course, one insurmountable limitation: the existence of death itself. As one renowned Senior Wizard has remarked, "Entropy has us outnumbered. " No matter how much preserving we do, the Universe will eventually die. But it will last longer because of our efforts — and since no one knows for sure whether another Universe will be born from the ashes of this one, the effort seems worthwhile. No one should take the Wizards' Oath who is not committed to making wizardry a lifelong pursuit. The energy invested in a beginning wizard is too precious to be thrown away. Yet there are no penalties for withdrawal from the Art, except the knowledge that the Universe will die a little faster because of energy lost. On the other hand, there are no prizes for the service of Life — except life itself. The wizard gets the delight of working in a specialized area — magic — and gets a good look at the foundations of the Universe, the way things really work. It should be stated here that there are people who consider the latter more of a curse than a blessing. Such wizards usually lose their art. Magic does not live in the unwilling soul. Should you decide to go ahead and take the Oath, be warned that an ordeal of sorts will follow, a test of aptitude. If you pass, wizardry will ensue…. Yeah? Nita thought. And what if you don't pass?