Thursday, May 31, 2012

Question about magic in Pierce's books

I just started listening to Beka Cooper: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce. They're looking for someone/something (I'm being as non-specific as possible here) and I have a question: they've got mages who can do fantastic things, why can't those mages just scry to see where this person/thing is?

I'm sure there is a reason why the mages can't but I haven't heard a particular rule of magic in the books as to why they can't. Though obviously it would mess up the plot for the novel.

Maybe one of my readers has been a more attentive reader than I have and can explain it to me.

EDIT 7/28/2012: I may have an answer here.

3 comments:

Carrie said...

Has scrying ever been done in one of the Tortall books? I vaguely remember Numair using magic to find Daine once...but I can't remember the details. Maybe since the Beka series predates the others, scrying hasn't been developed yet? Not sure. :/

Dancing With Fey said...

Yes scrying is in the other books. For example, Alanna has a lovely scrying mirror with roses on the back of it. Totally not her style, but her eldest son gave it to her and she has to admit that it's good for scrying. Rather amusing. :)

...and I just remembered that yes, there is in fact scrying done in this book. So scrying definitely is around in this book. But obviously with limitations that haven't been explained.

Dancing With Fey said...

...and the scrying in this book isn't to find who they're looking for, it's for other purposes.

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