Caravaggio St Jerome

Caravaggio St JeromeCaravaggio NarcissusCaravaggio Madonna di Loreto
They're sort of-reflections of us," said Esk. "You can't beat your reflections, they'll always be as strong as you are. That's why they draw nearer to you when you start using magic. And they don't get tired. They feed off magic, so you can't distant stick-figures.
"I wonder if this is what they mean by sourcery?" said Simon.
I don't know. It might be."
"I'd really like to work this out," said Simon again, turning the staff over and over in his hands. "We could set up some experiments, you know, into deliberately not using magic. We could carefully beat them with magic. No, the thing is . . . well, not using magic because you can't, that's no use at all. But not using magic because you can, that really upsets them. They hate the idea. If people stopped using magic they'd die." The Things ahead of them fell over each other in their haste to back away. Simon looked at the staff, then at Esk, then at the Things, then back at the staff. "This needs a lot of thinking about," he said uncertainly. "I'd really like to work this out." "I expect you'll do it very well." "Because you're saying that the real power is when you go right through magic and out the other side." "It works, though, doesn't it?" They were alone on the cold plain now. The Things were