At first glance, it looked distressingly mundane. Weren't magic circles supposed to have strange letters and runes that made your eyes hurt when you looked at them? Denizen would even have settled for a standard kind of ambient glow.
This was just... a circle. It wasn't even a proper one—one of the edges was slightly squashed as if it had been drawn freehand. You wouldn't see a sorcerer in a book drawing freehand, Denizen mused, though now that he thought about it, he couldn't imagine one using compasses either. Then again, just because it looked simple didn't mean it wasn't incredibly dangerous. That was the other thing fantasy books said about magic circles—they were supposed to take your hand off if you messed with them.
This was just... a circle. It wasn't even a proper one—one of the edges was slightly squashed as if it had been drawn freehand. You wouldn't see a sorcerer in a book drawing freehand, Denizen mused, though now that he thought about it, he couldn't imagine one using compasses either. Then again, just because it looked simple didn't mean it wasn't incredibly dangerous. That was the other thing fantasy books said about magic circles—they were supposed to take your hand off if you messed with them.
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
A magic circle.
It looked an extremely thorough job. Whoever had chalked it was clearly very aware that its purpose was to divide the universe into two bits, the inside and the outside.
It looked an extremely thorough job. Whoever had chalked it was clearly very aware that its purpose was to divide the universe into two bits, the inside and the outside.
— Eric
