The great magicians of Grand Motholam were sufficiently supple that they perceived the limits of human understanding, and spent most of their efforts dealing with practical problems, searching for abstract principles only when all else failed. For this reason, magic retains its distinctly human flavor, even though the activating agents are never human. A casual glance into one of the basic catalogues emphasizes this human orientation; the nomenclature has a quaint and archaic flavor. Looking into (for instance) Chapter Four of Killiclaw's Primer of Practical Magic, Interpersonal Effectuations, one notices, indited in bright purple ink, such terminology as:

• Xarfaggio's Physical Malepsy
  
• Arnhoult's Sequestrious Digitalia
  
• Lutar Brassnose's Twelve-fold Bounty
  
• The Spell of Forlorn Encystment
  
• Tinkler's Old-fashioned Froust
  
• Clambard's Rein of Long Nerves
  
• The Green and Purple Postponement of Joy
  
• Panguire's Triumphs of Discomfort
  
• Lugwiler's Dismal Itch
  
• Khulip's Nasal Enhancement
  
• Radl's Pervasion of the Incorrect Chord
  

A spell in essence corresponds to a code, or set of instructions, inserted into the sensorium of an entity which is able and not unwilling to alter the environment in accordance with the message conveyed by the spell. These entities are not necessarily 'intelligent,' nor even 'sentient,' and their conduct, from the tyro's point of view, is unpredictable, capricious and dangerous.

The most pliable and cooperative of these creatures range from the lowly and frail elementals, through the sandestins. More fractious entities are known by the Temuchin as 'daihak,' which include 'demons' and 'gods.' A magician's power derives from the abilities of the entities he is able to control. Every magician of consequence employs one or more sandestins. A few arch-magicians of Grand Moth-olam dared to employ the force of the lesser daihaks. To recite or even to list the names of these magicians is to evoke wonder and awe. Their names tingle with power. Some of Grand Motholam's most notable and dramatic were:

• Phandaal the Great
  
• Amberlin I
  
• Amberlin II
  
• Dibarcas Maior (who studied under Phandaal)
  
• Arch-Mage Mael Lei Laio (he lived in a palace carved from
  
• a single moon-stone) The Vapurials
  
• The Green and Purple College Zinqzin the Encyclopaedist Kyrol of Porphyrhyncos Calanctus the Calm Llorio the Sorceress
  
• The magicians of the 21st Aeon were, in comparison, a disparate and uncertain group, lacking both grandeur and consistency.

1 The Murthe

1

One cool morning toward the middle of the 21st Aeon, Rhialto sat at breakfast in the east cupola of his manse Falu. On this particular morning the old sun rose behind a curtain of frosty haze, to cast a wan and poignant light across Low Meadow.

For reasons Rhialto could not define, he lacked appetite for his breakfast and gave only desultory attention to a dish of watercress, stewed persimmon and sausage in favor of strong tea and a rusk. Then, despite a dozen tasks awaiting him in his work-room, he sat back in his chair, to gaze absently across the meadow toward Were Woods.

In this mood of abstraction, his perceptions remained strangely sensitive. An insect settled upon the leaf of a nearby aspen tree; Rhialto took careful note of the angle at which it crooked its legs and the myriad red glints in its bulging eyes. Interesting and significant, thought Rhialto.