"I'm sure there are bits of magic I could live without," Evangeline agreed. "So much is for the sake of convenience. I'm sure it's made me lazy in ways I haven't even considered." Because, of course, why get up to get something on the other side of the room when a simple summoning spell would do? And that was only one example.

"And I wonder," she continued, "if wizardkind's time and inventiveness wouldn't be better served focusing on more complex problems, if we weren't trying to solve problems that already have non-magical solutions." Well, she said she "wondered," but having said it, it felt very true, and embarrassingly obvious now.

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