Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

YA Fantasy

Published in 1992 by Simon Pulse

Book 1 of The Immortals Series

Example of a "middling" magic system

Daine has always had a connection with animals. When she is hired as the assistant horsemistress of the Queen's Riders, she meets the great mage Numair and learns that that her connection to animals is actually wild magic. With Numair's help, she learns to use her magic to communicate with, control and heal animals. When dangerous immortals are released from the Divine Realms, these newfound abilities make her invaluable to the protection of the realm.

Things to Emulate

Magic plays an important role in all of Tamora Pierce's books. It affects how characters interact with the world and is often an integral part of a character's identity, impacting their relationships, jobs and position in society. This is especially true of The Immortals Series and The Circle Books which both feature soft magic systems as integral parts of their worldbuilding.

Wild Magic is the first book where Pierce starts to build a comprehensive magic system. The groundwork she does throughout The Immortals creates a direct line to the development of the ambient magic that is the basis of The Circle Books. While neither magic system can be considered hard magic, Pierce gives both wild magic and ambient magic enough structure that when the climax arrives it doesn't feel like a cheat when the protagonist uses magic to bring the narrative to its resolution. A large part of why this works is because the magic is analogous to a physical ability. Some people are born fast or strong and in Pierce's world, some are born with magic. Like physical abilities, training strengthens them and endurance is something that needs to be built up over time. Using magic also takes a physical toll on the user.

It took Daine six days to learn how to deliberately call the nearest pony without using words. Numair then had her summon a pony further away but still within sight, until she could do that. Next she had to call an animal from inside the barracks or stables, where she couldn't see it ... She worked hard. Each task took less time to master. ...

Slowly they all got used to their work. [Daine] saw it in the trainees before noticing it in herself, as their bodies hardened and the hard routine became habit. (Chapter 5, Wild Magic)

By making the comparison between physical skills and wild magic, Pierce doesn't need to give a detailed explanation of how magic works for the reader to understand the important components: how it works and its cost. We all understand how physical abilities work, so this comparison gives us an intuitive sense of how magic works, even if we don't understand the mechanisms behind it.

Daine's magic is revealed in stages, laying the groundwork for how it works before it is defined as magic. It starts simply, showing how quickly Onua's dog, Tahoi, takes to Daine.

"Careful—he's a one-woman dog—" Onua shut up. Tahoi's plumed tail had begun to wave. The wary guardian of her stock turned into an eager-to-please pup that licked Daine's hand, then stood to sniff her face. "He's supposed to be a guard dog ... Not a dog who believes every human's his friend."

"Don't blame him." Daine looked up at Onua apologetically ... "Animals just take to me, is all." (Chapter 1: Girl with a Pony)

While it doesn't feel particularly magical, this short section establishes Daine has something special when it comes to dealing with animals. For people familiar with Pierce's previous work, and foreshadowed by the book's title, this is the first indication of magic.

This is followed by a more explicit example of Daine's connection with animals and gives the first hints of how her magic works.

Daine worked on the ponies one by one, talking, pleading, cajoling. Repeatedly she explained why she wanted them to follow Onua, without making a fuss. One after another the ponies listened as she appealed to their better natures. ...

Onua had explained things to ponies and horses for twenty-eight years without the success this thirteen-year-old was having. How does she do it? the K'mir wondered, fascinated. They're ponies, by all the gods. They're wonderfully clever animals, but they don't think, not the way people do. (Chapter 1: Girl with a Pony)

A central part of Danie's magic is her ability to speak with animals. While it is never explained how this is possible, Daine talks to animals the same way that she would talk to humans. Even though magic is the basis for this ability, the conversational nature means that the animals can be brought in to aid the plot and solve problems since it doesn't really feel like magic. It's simply one character asking another for help.

Wild magic is the second type of magic to be introduced into the Tortall universe. The first, the Gift, was established in the Song of the Lioness Quartet. In Wild Magic, it is made clear early on that whatever Daine's abilities with animals, it is distinct from the Gift, a much more ambiguous and multi-purpose form of magic.

The dog showed her an image in his mind: Onua, seated with her legs crossed, hands resting on her knees, eyes closed. To that picture he added Numair, doing the same thing. A shimmering, pearly light gleamed around them, rippling over their faces.

"What's that?" Daine asked him. "That light, there?"

Magic, Cloud said. Your dam had it, and some of the others back home. Not so bright as these two—more like a glitter. But it's magic, all right. ...

"Cloud? Do I have the light inside?"

No, the mare replied. The light's only for humans. You may look human, but you aren't. You're of the People: the folk of claw and fur, wing and scale.

"Impossible," the girl said flatly. "Look at me. I'm pink, my fur's patchy, I walk on two legs. I'm human, human all over."

On the outside, the pony insisted. On the inside you're People. ...

Cloud was joking, of course. She was human. Ma would have told her if she weren't. (Chapter 3: Spidrens and Meditation)

As the story progresses, the reader is given clues about how wild magic works. It starts with the reader learning how Daine perceives the world through her magic, although how it works remains unclear.

"Well animals—I think of 'em in colors, sometimes." [Daine] tapped the side of her head. "To me, bears feel brown, only this one had red and black lights. Very sick, he was. I get the monsters as colors too, but they're gold with black and green lights in them. I never feel any real creature as gold." (Chapter 5: Wild Magic)

Following this passage is the introduction of the idea of wild magic. Chapter 5 lays the groundwork for what wild magic is. It gives Daine a connection with animals, allowing her to communicate with them and bend them to her will. It also gives her a basis of trust with the animals. They see her as one of them. This chapter also establishes her ability to heal animals.

Many of these things were foreshadowed in the previous chapters. Dozens of birds that were killed by Stormwings miraculously fly away, causing Daine to faint. Her conversations with animals, particularly with her pony, Cloud, slowly creep into the narrative, so subtly that the reader never questions that this might be a sign of magic until the possibility of magic is put forward. This sleight of hand is aided by Daine's continued instance that she has no magic; that her mother was disappointed that she didn't.

Once wild magic has been introduced, Pierce gives the reader some details:

Something between them shifted, and [Daine] knew she looked into herself. At her center, deep inside, welled a spring of copper fire.

She called, and a slender thread rose from it to her. She caught it, opened her eyes, and threw it out to the owl.

"You don't need the hand motion," Numair said. "In magic, the thought is the deed." (Chapter 5: Wild Magic)

This brief section gives a very basic explanation of how wild magic works. While the explanation never becomes much more detailed, the next chapter covers a series of experiments and lessons that establish exactly what Daine's magic can and cannot do. Importantly, it also establishes the physical toll that using wild magic takes on her. The reader might not know all the ins and outs of how wild magic operates, but they know that if Daine uses too much, she will have headaches and eventually collapse from exhaustion, possibly needing to sleep for days. This establishment of limits is an important part of what makes wild magic work as a narrative problem solver. Without consequences, it is too easy for magic to become a deux ex machina, which lowers the stakes and removes the tension from the narrative, making everything feel manufactured and contrived.

While wild magic is never explained fully enough to be considered hard magic, there are sections where Pierce goes into fairly elaborate detail about how Daine uses her magic. Much of this still feels loosely defined, but there is a vocabulary associated with the magic that can be used to describe how it is used. This is what pushes it into "middling" magic.

"You'll go deep, but into your patient instead of yourself. You need to see her bones from the inside ... What you must do on your own is apply your magic to the break and will it to heal. You need to burn out any infection, Make sure the muscles, veins, and nerves knit together, not just the bone ... The strength of your desire is what will complete the task. You must want this to work more than anything, and keep on wanting it, no matter how weary you become. That's the hard part—maintaining the concentration to finish."

The magic came swiftly into her hold. Numair guided her into the copper-laced animal in her lap and to the broken limb. Gently he shaped the grip of her mind around the injury and showed her the extra-bright strand of copper fire from the deepest part of her magic. She grabbed it and brought it to bear on the shattered bone.

It was hard work. She was tired; her head began to ache. It required patience. For a while it seemed nothing was happening. Once she almost gave up, but she remembered the otter's wholehearted trust and the promise to heal her ... Daine hung on.

At last she saw movement. Tiny bone spurs grew across the break, slowly at first, then quicker. Marrow formed, building itself inside the protection of the spurs. Bruising in the muscles around the break began to vanish.

She got sleepy. Her back cramped almost unbearably. Nuh-uh, she thought fiercely. No quitting—not ever ... She did not allow herself to think of anything else until marrow, bone, nerve, vein, and muscles were whole and healthy.

When she opened her eyes, she was cocooned in blankets and fiercely hungry. (Chapter 7: Buzzard Rocks)

With passages like the above, Pierce gives enough information about the mechanics, and most importantly the cost, of wild magic for it to be an integral part of moving the plot forward without it feeling like a cheat.