Of course, books of magic developed a certain…personality, derived from all that power in the

Of course, books of magic developed a certain…personality, derived from all that power in their pages. That’s why it was unwise to go into the Library without a stick. And now Ponder had helped build an engine for studying magic. Wizards had always known that the act of observation changed the thing that was observed, and sometimes forgot that it also changed the observer, too.

He was beginning to suspect that Hex was redesigning itself.

And he’d just said “Thank you.” To a thing that looked like it had been made by a glassblower with hiccups.

He looked at the spell it had produced, hastily wrote it down and hurried out.

Hex clicked to itself in the now empty room. The thing that went “parp” went parp. The Unreal Time Clock ticked sideways.

There was a rattle in the output slot.

“Dont mention it. ++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start.”