The Spriggan Mirror. Lawrence Watt-Evans
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Название: The Spriggan Mirror
Автор: Lawrence Watt-Evans
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Ужасы и Мистика
isbn: 9781434437105
isbn:
“But suppose it wasn’t conditional.”
Dina sighed. “Let me think. Casting Javan’s Restorative on the victim should work.”
“Would the victim need to cooperate for that?”
“To the extent of being present and not interfering in the preparation, yes—though it might be possible to use his true name instead.” She frowned. “I wouldn’t want to try it that way, though; it’s a seventh- or eighth-order spell, and I don’t like improvising at that level. It can be put in a potion or talisman, though, and if the victim drinks the potion or invokes the talisman…”
“I don’t think that will work in this case, Dina. Are there any other countercharms?”
“I don’t know. A Spell of Reversal might do it. They say that works on almost anything.”
“Spell of Reversal? I don’t think I know that one.”
“That’s because the only difficult ingredient in the usual version is hair from a stillborn child; everything else is simple, basic stuff like candles and water and shiny stones that nobody would bother to pay your prices for. Besides, it must be tenth-order or worse; I can’t do it, and not many wizards can.”
“So how does it work?”
“It reverses a process or undoes a spell, so if you’re quick enough and a good enough wizard you can undo some of your worst mistakes. There are rumors it’s even been able to raise the dead if the timing’s just right. You can make a broken jar unbreak itself, a knife unrust, blood flow back into a wound, or a river run uphill. But it doesn’t reverse it permanently—after half an hour or so it wears off and the natural flow is restored. If you’ve reversed it back to before the process started you can try to prevent it happening again—put the jar somewhere safe, keep the knife dry, bandage the wound—but the natural order returns, and that river’s going to run downhill again, the wound is going to bleed, and you can’t stop it.”
“So how would that work on Lugwiler’s Haunting Phantasm?”
“I’m not sure it would—but if it did, and you used it quickly enough, you might be able to undo the spell, reverse the process to before the mirror was enchanted, and make it as if it was never cast. Or at least make the victim not have looked at the mirror, or whatever.”
Gresh nodded thoughtfully; that sounded like a stupendously useful spell. The ability to reverse anything? That could have a thousand applications.
Tenth-order, though—and it probably took hours to prepare…
“Can it be put in a potion or talisman?”
“Not a potion; you cast it on a process, not a person, so a potion wouldn’t work. Maybe it would work in a talisman or a powder; I don’t know.”
Gresh was about to ask who might know more when the doorbell jingled. He glanced over toward Twilfa, who was opening the door, and her expression prevented him from continuing the conversation. He rose.
“Tell your master that Kaligir of the New Quarter is here to see him,” said the new arrival, as he stepped across the threshold.
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