The Use of Magic, by Elizabeth Kay

One of the main issues with magic is that it has to have rules, otherwise every problem can be solved with no effort and the plot has gone up in a cloud of smoke – probably very pretty smoke, with a few bangs and flashes and an intoxicating smell, but it’s removed every obstacle the hero faces. It takes time to explain these rules, though. Don’t do it all in one chunk, because info dumps are really boring. Drip feed it. In the world of The Divide, magic is real and science is a myth. Felix is from our world, and Betony is a sort of elf. Starting with a fairly trivial demonstration can be a good way of introducing the concept.

 “Can you do magic?”

    “Not much,” Betony confessed. “I hate school.”

“Isn’t there anything you can show me?”

“I come from a family of herbalists, and that’s what I’m meant to become when I grow up. It’s really boring. I can cure bruises.”

“I’ve got one on my knee,” said Felix, remembering.

“Oh, right,” said Betony. She glanced round the glade. Then she spotted a plant with little yellow flowers, and she went over and picked it. After that she took a candle out of her rucksack, and lit it with a wave of her hand.

Felix leaned across and blew it out.

Betony scowled at him. “Why did you do that?”

“Because what you just did is impossible in my world. Do it again.”

Betony lit the candle again, then she crushed the leaves and held them above it, muttering something. After that she put the green mush on Felix’s knee, and five minutes later the bruise had completely gone.

“Wow,” said Felix, “that’s really useful.”

It’s also important to try and be original with your definition of the basic mechanism of magic, and make it seem logical. This was the device I used, in Back to theDivide:

 “Hardly anyone understands the principles behind magic,” scoffed Betony. “It’s too difficult.”

“I understand the basics,” said Ironclaw, and he started to explain, emphasising the importance of something he called a twisty-strip. It wasn’t until he said that it had only one side and one edge that Felix realised he was talking about the Möbius strip, a curious mathematical figure with all sorts of intriguing properties he’d once seen demonstrated at school. He’d been presented with it as a thin ribbon of paper, joined together at the ends, but with one half-twist in it.

Perhaps, thought Felix, that’s what magic is – physics with a different twist to it. My world just hasn’t discovered the twist.

Many books describe white magic and black magic, or give magic a dark side. This is a common phenomenon, and once again having some sort of an explanation for this is useful and makes the whole idea more believable. This was my take on it, in Jinx on the  Divide:

 “No!” shouted Betony suddenly. “Don’t touch it! It’s a jinx box.”

Felix withdrew his hand. “What’s a jinx box?”

“All I know about them is that they were originally a mistake,” said Betony. “They were created centuries ago, to store information, but they changed things. They were incredibly malicious, so they were all destroyed. Then – quite recently – K'Faddle found a way of removing the malice. They made their inconsistency and contrariness the selling point, and sold thousdands of them. Thornbeak called it a triumph of marketing.”

“Oh, hang on a minute,” said Felix, opening his rucksack. “That Owner’s Guide… there were advertisements for other K’Faddle products in the back. Here.” He spread the book out on the wall, and he and Betony read the following:

 Special Offer!

 The K’Faddle Jinx Box is a must! Amaze your friends, entertain your offspring, humiliate your teachers… The K’Faddle Jinx Box comes in three different designs – Invisible, Subtle, or Lurid. It has been manufactured to the very highest standards, and bewitched by a certified sorcerer.

The Invisible design comes with its own Here-I-am case, so that you can find it. A favourite with japegrins, as it can be used as the basis for innumerable practical jokes!!!

The Lurid design is for fashion freaks, who want to be one flap ahead. It’ll get you loved, get you hated, get you barred from Squeak & Squawk clubs.

The Subtle design suits the discerning buyer, who is looking for a sound investment. We expect this model of The K’Faddle Jinx Box to become a collector’s item.

 You can store all sorts of information in a K’Faddle Jinx Box  – but what comes out won’t always be quite the same as what went in!!!

 “That one must be the Subtle design,” said Betony, glancing at the box sitting on the wall. “The collector’s item. You only see the colours and designs you like best. Unless… No. Surely not.”

“What?”

“Well… if it’s been here for ages…”

“It might be one of the old ones?”

“No,” said Betony. “No, they were all destroyed. I’m sure they were.”

Hm, thought Felix. Once something bad’s been created, it’s very hard to make sure it gets destroyed. Unexploded bombs and land mines are always turning up in my world. But all he said was, “I wonder what’s stored in it?”

“I’m not sure I want to know.”

“Whatever it is, it’s only words,” said Felix, thinking – at least it won’t be nuclear waste, or toxic chemicals.

“What do you mean, only words?” said Betony. “Words are the most powerful magic of all. They create pictures inside your head – how amazing is that?”

And a final quote from Arthur C.Clarke, which is always worth remembering:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.