If you could buy a magic potion, what would it be?
Potions, hmm? Power in a bottle. A quick and simple fix for all of life's problems and dissatisfactions.
Not really.
The first and foremost magical lesson, dear friends, is this: There is always a cost. The greater the result desired, the greater the cost will be, and it must be borne by either the crafter of the spell or the end user. Indeed, much of the study and lore of magic involves ways to minimize the price demanded for the work, or to pay in smaller increments over time, but payment can never be avoided entirely. And no matter how scrupulous the crafter, the possibility of unwanted side effects remains. Possibly permanent side effects, for usually temporary gifts ...
Some might find what they want to be worth both the cost and the risk, and no blame to them. For myself, I have health, strength and a certain store of my own magic. I'm blessed with four children with their own strengths and gifts, and I've recently met someone else who has become very special to me. What could I want out of life that I'd need some magical elixir to claim?
Though there have been times, a very few, when I would have been tempted. If someone had offered me the means to keep my mother from the agony she suffered, to preserve Anraí's life and health for a while longer, or to save Máire from the bullets that ended her life ... but who would have offered? Who could have known? Not I.
Those moments in life when I most might have wanted a potion have always come on me unanticipated. No doubt I'll face such moments again, but better I face them with my own resources than search for some eldritch fix-all that doesn't exist.
Muse: Ruairí MacEibhir
Fandom: The Grey Horse
Word count: 297
Potions, hmm? Power in a bottle. A quick and simple fix for all of life's problems and dissatisfactions.
Not really.
The first and foremost magical lesson, dear friends, is this: There is always a cost. The greater the result desired, the greater the cost will be, and it must be borne by either the crafter of the spell or the end user. Indeed, much of the study and lore of magic involves ways to minimize the price demanded for the work, or to pay in smaller increments over time, but payment can never be avoided entirely. And no matter how scrupulous the crafter, the possibility of unwanted side effects remains. Possibly permanent side effects, for usually temporary gifts ...
Some might find what they want to be worth both the cost and the risk, and no blame to them. For myself, I have health, strength and a certain store of my own magic. I'm blessed with four children with their own strengths and gifts, and I've recently met someone else who has become very special to me. What could I want out of life that I'd need some magical elixir to claim?
Though there have been times, a very few, when I would have been tempted. If someone had offered me the means to keep my mother from the agony she suffered, to preserve Anraí's life and health for a while longer, or to save Máire from the bullets that ended her life ... but who would have offered? Who could have known? Not I.
Those moments in life when I most might have wanted a potion have always come on me unanticipated. No doubt I'll face such moments again, but better I face them with my own resources than search for some eldritch fix-all that doesn't exist.
Muse: Ruairí MacEibhir
Fandom: The Grey Horse
Word count: 297
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