"This is amazing." You can't help but grin. "Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. I didn't know that magic could even do things like this! Can you tell me more about how it works?"
"Indeed." Josephine gives you a slight smile. "You will have much to learn. You should make every effort to focus yourself so that you can be more effective in your endeavors. Now, let us begin."
She raises a slender hand to gesture to the forest around you. "The magic in this part of the forest has certain distinctive qualities. Some magic is attuned more to humans, and therefore it is easier to absorb into oneself to enhance one's personal power. Other magic—such as the type that infuses this region—is attuned more to forces outside of humanity. A person who is endowed with other magic can channel it and control it. Given the proper discipline, of course," she adds with a hint of satisfaction. Discipline that she has and nobody else does, is what she means. "But the magic itself mainly exists outside of any person, and the effects of that magic are primarily on fundamental forces. In this case, the force is time.
"Yet time is not precisely intangible. Through this type of magic, time can be taken from one source and infused into another. And through this type of magic, time can be frozen. That is what I have done here." Josephine glances around the clearing, a different kind of satisfaction on her face: not just smugness at having an exclusive ability, but pride in something that she has built.
"I have created a conduit of time magic that runs from Camp Cedarcrest through the forest. It powers the barrier that surrounds the Timeless Circle. It must be refreshed periodically in order to maintain the barrier, which means removing time from where it resides.
"Objects are infused with time, to be certain." If you were going to raise that objection—you remember the way that Samira's old bracelet was made to look like new again—Josephine waves it away before you can. "But they do not experience time as people do. And therefore the most effective source of time magic is human beings. Taking a small amount of time out of a large number of humans ensures that no single one is depleted."
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