She does not approve: this is not her way, the way of her people, their purpose. There is a beaten path, not for lack of attempt or imagination, but for understanding the nuances of linking man's mind and thousands of living tongues, and this webbed interconnection of quartz pieces, speaking to each other. Better not to improve on matters of subtlety, when the boy has not yet spent even a year apprenticed to a magician.

But he has his sketches, and for now, the incantation will hold. She provides a single revision, noting where the underlying runes might be called on differently, or the spell components might be tightened to render the magic — efficient, lessening the toll on the caster. To the initial plan, she adds only this, an additional pulse to tell those who receive the emergency message if the sender is dead or alive.

You never know, after all, in these lands.