Wiz kept quiet. He had enough trouble with Ebrion and his traditionalist friends already. Like all the traditionalists, Ebrion didn’t like Wiz. Unlike most of them he made no secret of his dislike beyond a certain cold civility. Worse, he was a theoretician, or the closest thing to a theoretician of magic this world had ever produced. Wiz’s success had thrown him into the shade in his own specialty and that made him dislike Wiz all the more.
“Magic is both organic and particular, Sparrow,” Ebrion went on as if lecturing an apprentice. “The best magic cannot be built up from bits and pieces like a jackdaw’s nest. It must be conceived of whole.”
“Wiz’s method seemed effective enough against the Dark League,” Bal-Simba said quietly.
“Lord, I have never denied that the Sparrow ranks among the Mighty, but sheer talent does not make his theories correct.”
He waved a hand dismissingly. “Oh, I will admit the trick of constructing a demon to recite his spells for him is useful—albeit it was not unknown to us before. But his notion of how magic works?” He shook his head.
“The compiler is a lot more than a spell-reciting demon,” Wiz interjected.
“So you have told us repeatedly. But at bottom that is all it does, is it not?”
“No, it’s a compiler written in a threaded interpreted language that . . .”
Ebrion touched his fingertips to his forehead, as if stricken with a sudden headache. “Please Sparrow, spare us one of your explanations. You have told us this ‘compiler’ demon recites the spells you create and that much, at least, is comprehensible.”
Wiz started to protest and then clamped his jaw. Ebrion wasn’t interested in explanations and he wasn’t any good at making them.
“Anyway, you’re wrong,” he said sullenly. “I don’t have any talent for magic. Any one of the Mighty can sense that.”
“We can all sense that you do not have our kind of talent. But you have shown us that you have enormous magical ability. What you have not shown us is that your system works. To do that you would have to teach others to make magic with it, by your own admission.”
“So I’m a lousy teacher,” Wiz said, nettled.
“For over a year you have dwelt here and tried to teach this marvelous system of yours. Have any of us mastered it? Has anyone but yourself learned it?”
“Programming takes time to learn. You didn’t learn magic overnight did you?”
“No, but with a few-months study I was able to perform certain useful spells. Your pupils work and work and can do little—and that poorly.”
“You’ve got to learn the basics and work up.”
“No Sparrow, this ‘general theory of magic’ of yours is an illusion. You must learn one spell at a time. You must practice every gesture, every word, understand every influence. One spell at a time, Sparrow.” He looked down at Wiz and smiled mockingly.
“That is how magic is made.”
Wiz ground his teeth. He remembered one of the first classes, back when he was still trying to teach wizards in groups. The lesson was to construct a simple apparition spell, the rough equivalent of the “hello world” program in the C computer language.
Of course, the point was no more making a form appear than the point in C program was to put the words “hello world” on a computer screen. It was to familiarize the magicians with the basic workings of the magic compiler. Slowly and carefully, Wiz led his class through the fundamentals of his program for constructing magic spells. Then he asked each of them to make the spell with the compiler.
With a disdainful flick of his wand, Ebrion had created a shape that was ten times as real as the shadowy blobby forms the other students were struggling to make through the program.
“That is how magic is made,” he said in a condescending tone as Wiz and the students stared at his result.
“The theory works,” Wiz ground out. “Or did I just imagine taking on the Dark League?”
“Once again, I have never denied you were powerful,” Ebrion said, as if repeating a simple lesson to a very slow pupil. “You attacked them with the completely alien magic of your world and overwhelmed them with spells they had never seen before. Thus you established your power. Surprise is ever an important weapon, Sparrow. As for the rest of your power, it would be a simple matter to put it to the test.”