Wrong magic

Everyone changes, as lth noted, everything changes.

Mountains become islands, lth had said. Plains become forests.

Jodah froze on the stairs, and suddenly he realized where he had gone wrong with his ancestor’s spell. He had envisioned the land as it was now, not over two centuries before. Once Mairsil’s tower had been out among the cranberry bogs, his grandmother had said. Then they had drained the bottom land and turned it into fields.

Mountains become islands. Plains become forests.

Swamps become plains.

Jodah smiled deeply. That was the error, of course he was pulling the mana of the land as it was now, assuming that it had not changed. That change makes the mana in the first place, lth had said. He was using the wrong type of mana. That was why the spell would not accept the hot, brilliant light of his white mana and why he burned himself with that light.

***

The Gathering Dark, Chapter 16