Line #49 Literature/Uprooted


1	[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Uprooted.jpeg]]
2
3	->''"Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful."''
4
5	Agnieszka lives at the edge of the Wood, which as the quote above suggests is not the safest place. Her village, and others at the edge of the Wood, are protected by The Dragon, a wizard who -- every ten years -- picks a girl to serve him for the next ten years. They're sent back with money for their dowries, but none ever stay in the villages after.
6
7	This year, everyone is sure Agnieszka's best friend Kasia is going to be picked. However, considering that Agnieszka is the CharacterNarrator... [[ForegoneConclusion you can see where this is going.]]
8
9	The book is written by Creator/NaomiNovik, who is more famous for the long-running ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series. Unlike that, this book is a standalone.
10
11	Creator/EllenDeGeneres has purchased the rights to produce a feature-film adaptation. Naomi Novik has since written and published a CreatorDrivenSuccessor, ''Literature/SpinningSilver'' which does not share a setting but does share theme and tone with ''Uprooted'', this time tackling ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}.''
12	----
13	!!This book provides examples of:
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15	* TheAce: Kasia is introduced as one, seemingly to prove a counterpart for the clumsy Agnieszka, because she's the prettiest, bravest, nicest girl in the whole village.
16	* AchievementsInIgnorance: This seems to be Agnieszka's hallmark. She uses a healing spell that the Dragon had long deemed useless to save him, does magic the way that "feels right" to great result, rescues Kasia from the Wood despite the supposed impossibility of doing so -- and in the process reveals many facts about magic and the Wood that hadn't been known because all efforts were focused on containment.
17	* AlchemyIsMagic: Potion-brewing requires magical talent, expensive components, and lots of time, but is invaluable for creating powerful magical effects in a storable, accessible form. Agnieszka's first brush with alchemy is a bottle of mist that leaves her TakenForGranite; the infamous Fire Heart potion takes a master wizard ten years to brew but is a FantasticNuke in a bottle.
18	* AlphaBitch: Primarily the young noblewoman who attaches herself to Agnieszka in the capital to mock her in the guise of friendship, but everyone else in her social group too. Agnieszka ends up feeling sorry for her -- she's horrible, but she was raised that way and lives surrounded by people who turn on her the instant someone comes up with an interesting humiliation.
19	* AmbiguousSituation: Whatever happened between Queen Hanna and Prince Vasily of Rosya. At the beginning of the story, it's believed that the two ran off together willingly only to be captured by the Wood and held there. [[spoiler:Later, after "Queen Hanna" is rescued, she claims Vasily actually kidnapped her and dragged her there unwillingly. However, by that point "Queen Hanna" is just an EmptyShell being possessed by the Wood-queen, who is the only one that would benefit from a war between Polnya and Rosya, making the claim suspect. In the end, the truth is never revealed; the only thing for certain is that both Hanna and Vasily were likely corrupted by the Beastiare before their disappearance, so whatever did happen between them was likely conducted while they were not in their right minds]].
20	* AndIMustScream: People who are put into heart-trees are fully aware and in horrific torment every moment of their imprisonment.
21	* AndThenWhat: When the Falcon arrives at Sarkan's keep accompanied by Prince Marek and a small troop of horsemen in response to rumors of someone being rescued from the nearby EnchantedForest, the first thing out of his mouth to the Dragon is an insincerely regretful accusation of him losing his senses out in the hinterlands. The Dragon promptly cuts the Falcon off by noting how ill prepared he seems for the eventuality he is hinting at:
22	-->'''The Dragon''': ''[Rising from his chair and [[TheSlowWalk stalking forward]] as [[CastingAShadow thickening shadows]] fill the chamber]'' If [[TheArchMage I]] had [[TheCorruption fallen to the Wood]], what did you imagine you would do, here in [[MageTower my tower]]?
23	* TheArchmage: It's pointed out that while Sarkan isn't the oldest or most skilled wizard, he is naturally talented to a degree that it would make him a terror to fight. There's a reason he's trusted to hold back the Wood by himself.
24	* ArrangedMarriage: [[spoiler:Marek tries to force a betrothal on Agnieszka and make her his queen, due to her recent heroic exploits and power as a witch. The marriage will both cement his hold on the throne and chain her, the most powerful deterrent against the Wood next to the Dragon, by his side. It doesn't take, however, due to Agnieszka fleeing the capital with Kasia and the royal children after the deaths of their parents, forcing Marek to declare her a traitor and hunt them down]].
25	* AttemptedRape: Prince Marek casually attempts to violate Agnieszka under the assumption he's cuckolding the Dragon. She notes that she might not have been unwilling if he'd ''asked''. Instead, she used the PimpedOutDress spell to block him and then beat him half to death with a metal tray.
26	* AwfulTruth: One effect of ''The Summoning'' is to reveal all the secret, shameful feelings and desires of anyone casting it or having it cast on them.
27	** Agnieszka and Kasia both get to see the hidden jealousies, resentments, and fleeting hatred against each other, but their love is stronger.
28	** The same thing happens later between Krystyna and Jerzy when she uses ''The Summoning'' to cleanse him of the corruption.
29	** Although not aimed directly at him, ''The Summoning'' also reveals to the Dragon Kasia and Agniezka's--and by extension, all the valley girls'--terror of being raped by him. He had known that the nobility falsely suspected him of doing such a thing, but never realized that the villagers also believed it nor how much they reviled him for abducting their daughters. This results in a pretty significant attitude shift and a subsequent promise to never take another girl.
30	* BadassNormal:
31	** Marek and his guards display the negative aspects of this, being too cocky and on a mission that arguably shouldn’t be undertaken. They're excellent soldiers but have no personal defense against the supernatural corruption of the Wood.
32	** Baron Vladimir and his soldiers defeat a supernatural threat that the Dragon was summoned to help with before he arrives (although admittedly it's a diversion) and later resolutely help fight [[spoiler:Marek and his misled army]].
33	* BedsheetLadder: A variant. Agnieszka ties together all of her fancy ''vanastalem'' dresses to climb down from the tower when she sees Dvernik's distress beacon is burning.
34	* BeyondTheImpossible: Purging someone of the Wood's corruption is impossible. Fourth-hand infection can be treated, if it is done immediately, but anything more is impossible. If someone is taken into the Wood and stays there for a full day, then the greatest wizard of the age says they are as good as dead. [[spoiler:Agnieszka successfully rescues Kasia from a heart tree and succeeds in purging her of corruption. At this point, Marek and Solyna deconstruct this trope, as what is done once can be done again and as such is not impossible. However, there is still a limit. Kasia was attached to a heart tree for one to two days. Longer than a week is truly impossible, because there is nothing left of the victim to save.]]
35	* BelligerentSexualTension: The Dragon and Agnieszka get on each other's nerves in every possible way, but become close to each other in a way that neither of them is used to. [[spoiler:[[RelationshipUpgrade They resolve it]] in a PreClimaxClimax.]]
36	* BigBad: The Wood. Every single bad thing in the story [[spoiler:barring its own creation]] happens at its design.
37	* BigDamnHeroes: The Dragon has a couple of these moments, like saving Agnieszka and Kasia from Wood-corrupted wolves by teleporting into their village. Naturally, he's a rather badass wizard, so...
38	* BlackBugRoom: People fully corrupted by the Wood have their bodies used as {{Meat Puppet}}s while their minds are trapped in an unending nightmare of the forest. They can be rescued, but most are {{Mind Rape}}d into {{Empty Shell}}s by a week or so of captivity.
39	* BotanicalAbomination: The major antagonistic force of the novel is the intelligent forest that is so dangerous the greatest wizard of the age is stationed there to keep it in check. Numerous monsters lurk within it but the heart-trees themselves are always the main threat. [[spoiler:The ending really plays up the abomination angle with the trees themselves being twisted remnants of an otherwise peaceful tree people whose Queen is bent on quite justified revenge.]]
40	* BrokenPedestal: Agnieszka is in awe of Prince Marek from all the songs and tales of his bravery and benevolence... and then he tries to rape her, simply because he thinks it'll piss off the Dragon.
41	* BrutalHonesty: Alosha is very old, very experienced, and dispassionately blunt when talking to Agnieszka -- even when saying that she wanted Agnieszka's dearest friend executed to protect TheNeedsOfTheMany or telling Agnieszka that she accidentally started a war. She's never cruel or angry about it, so Agnieszka always takes her words to heart.
42	* CassandraTruth: When Agnieszka hears her village is under attack while The Dragon is away and goes to help, Borys and the others she encounters and asks for transportation initially don’t believe her claims of having learned magic and think she’s just trying to run away from the Dragon [[SkepticNoLonger until she gives them a demonstration]].
43	* CastFromStamina: Magic is tiring to use. At the beginning, casting one minor cantrip leaves Agnieszka too drained to walk, but she develops huge reserves of strength and learns to cast more efficiently as she trains. When she tries to cast when completely drained, she has a PowerStrainBlackout and is later warned that she could have killed herself.
44	* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler:After the deaths of his grandfather, father, and uncle, Stashek, the son of Crown Prince Sigmund, becomes ''de jure'' king of Polnya by virtue of being the last remaining male heir of the royal family (and thus the only [[ElectiveMonarchy candidate]] that would not set off a civil war)]].
45	* CoolSword: Alosha smiths magical weapons. Her killing blade not only can cut about anything, but the magic in it drinks the life of whoever's unlucky enough to be at the sharp end of it. She created it to [[spoiler: kill the Queen of the Wood. It almost works.]]
46	* ComingOfAgeStory: Agnieszka is forced to leave her childhood village and fantasies behind and faces challenges as a burgeoning adult and a witch, the latter of which she never even expected to become.
47	* TheCorruption: The Wood's magic is inherently corruptive, infiltrating anyone it touches and turning them into a vessel with which to bring even more beings under its sway. Even breathing the air under its branches is enough to twist someone into a malevolent monster, and immediate action is needed to purge them of the taint.
48	* CourtMage: Wizards are required to register in the royal court of Polya and are ''de facto'' nobility. Those who remain in court advise the king on magical matters and include an UltimateBlacksmith, a scholarly bishop, and a [[TheMedic healer]]. Best exemplified by the Falcon, who's a politically active socialite and constant companion to Prince Marek.
49	* CursedWithAwesome: Kasia is [[spoiler:turned into a living wood statue by the Wood]]. It gives her SuperToughness and [[SuperStrength Strength]], which proves very useful in her adventures with Agnieszka. It ruins her marriage prospects in Dvernik, but by the end of the book, she's [[spoiler:captain of the Royal Guard and has received marriage proposals from AmazonChaser nobles and the Falcon.]]
50	* DavidVersusGoliath: Marek does battle with [[spoiler:Kasia]] at one point. The question of who is David remains open even after the fact.
51	* DeadpanSnarker: The Dragon is far and away the snarkiest character in the book, mostly as he is SurroundedByIdiots a lot and hides behind a {{Jerkass}} facade.
52	* DeathWorld: The Wood is a small-scale version. Living ''near'' it is dangerous, and actually wandering into it without considerable magical protection means death [[FateWorseThanDeath at best]].
53	* DeadlyBook: The Bestiary changes people who read it too intently into the monsters it describes.
54	* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler: Sarkan the Dragon was entirely entangled in the shallow intrigues of the court until his meeting with, and the subsequent death of, the witch Raven. After, he realized what a threat the Wood truly was and took up the role of protector of the valley]].
55	* DefensiveFeintTrap: The Wood retaliates this way when it comes up against an unexpectedly strong foe (i.e. Agnieszka and the Dragon). [[spoiler:Despite the massive casualties of the expedition, it allows them to take what's left of Hanna's body and uses it to ravage Polnya's government.]]
56	* DidntThinkThisThrough:
57	** The Dragon knows the court all assume that he takes girls to his tower to bed them, and disregards them completely as fools. However, due to his isolationist tendencies and general [[NoSocialSkills social incompetence]], the Dragon is blown away to find out that the local villagers ''also'' think he's kidnapping girls to rape, and that girls born in time to be taken have their lives radically altered by the knowledge that someday they may be taken from their families to serve as sex slaves.
58	** Agnieszka herself points out how foolish it was for her to send a letter to Dvernik about Kasia being cured with the only attempt at discretion being essentially "P.S. don't tell anyone", but she and the Dragon were too exhausted to consider how easily it would get out.
59	* DivideAndConquer: Polnya and Rosya would be much better off if they stopped fighting and combined their forces against their mutual enemy, the Wood... so the Wood does subtle things to keep the conflict fresh. [[spoiler:Having a Rosyan prince abduct Queen Hanna was the first move in its very long game.]]
60	* DontGoInTheWoods: Entering the Wood is a sure way to get killed or corrupted. Unfortunately for the people of the Valley, the Wood is eager to go to ''them''.
61	* TheDriver: Local horse breeder Borys (whose daughter is among the girls the Dragon passes over) often provides transportation for Agnieszka when she travels through the valley, with her coming to trust him and inquire about his family.
62	* DwindlingParty: [[spoiler:Most of those brought alone on the expedition to rescue Queen Hanna do not last long.]]
63	* DyingRace: [[spoiler:The wood-people. The queen married a human king in hopes of revitalizing her race through their half-human, half-treeperson children. This failed ''badly''.]]
64	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:By the end, the Wood has (directly or indirectly) killed nearly every member of Polnya's standing army, most of the royal family, and several other characters, [[MindRape tortured]] Kasia and transformed her body, threaded corruption through the capital city, and put everyone through plenty of pain and horror, but Agnieszka and Sarkan's efforts also finally pay off: the driving force behind the Wood's malice is [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence put to rest]] (though the corruption is still too deeply embedded in the land to be rid of in a day). Agnieszka finds her place in the world, Kasia can begin to search for hers, Polnya still has a good king, the rift between Polnya and Rosya is beginning to heal, Sarkan is finally ready to start learning [[NoSocialSkills how to people]], the valley's inhabitants can continue their lives without the Wood's shadow hanging over them, the heart-trees are being purified, and the Dragon will never need to take another girl from the valley.]]
65	* ElectiveMonarchy: Polnya. While the Crown Prince is first-in-line, he has to be confirmed by the Magnati through a vote before he can officially ascend the throne. If another candidate like, say, a younger brother, also desires the throne then he can campaign for it through subverting the Magnati and having the majority vote in his favor. [[spoiler:This is what Marek intended to do before his older brother was killed. After Marek himself is killed, his nephew Stashek is left the only remaining male heir, making whatever subsequent confirmation vote a mere formality by this point]].
66	* EnchantedForest: The Wood is a particularly malevolent version of the dark woods of legend and fairytales. It's dark, twisted and saturated with magic, actively hates humanity, and is home to dark and terrible things that it sends out against the outside world. At the end, [[spoiler:after the Wood-queen's influence is mostly removed, it returns to being a more peaceful and natural forest, although one still home to supernatural beings and pockets of dark magic]].
67	* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:The Queen of Polnya is a DoubleSubversion; she's catatonic after her rescue, comes awake to defend her son, and is finally exposed as a MeatPuppet of the Wood-queen. After twenty years in a heart-tree, there is nothing left of ''her'' to show corruption, allowing the spirit of the Wood to use her body without detection.]]
68	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Prince Marek tries to seduce and then rape Agnieszka in his first appearance, simply to try to insult the Dragon. This establishes him as someone who's superficially charming, but utterly self-centered and indifferent to other people's well-being.
69	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Prince Marek desperately wants to see his mother again... by any means necessary.
70	* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: The Wood spreads dozens of seeds of malice, which the wizards have to counter one at a time.
71	* ExactWords: [[spoiler:Everyone who looks can attest that there's no corruption in the Queen... because all that's left is her body, the Queen herself is long gone, eaten away by the heart-tree. Her body is being puppeted by the Wood, but in a way that the tests don't show.]]
72	* FakeMemories: The Dragon [[LaserGuidedAmnesia removes Marek's memory]] of [[AttemptedRape trying to rape]] Agnieszka and being beaten unconscious, but needs to replace it with something that won't motivate him to PullTheThread. To Agnieszka's annoyance, he gives Marek a memory of consensual, ''really bad'' sex.
73	* FantasticRacism: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] [[spoiler:as one of the root causes of the Wood's birth. Most of the humans from the tower's time didn't much care for their tree-people neighbors. As soon as the tower king died, his former subjects jumped on the chance to drive his wife's people to extinction.]]
74	* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Kasia]] explicitly refers to being taken by the Wood as this -- the victim suffers an endless, inescapable nightmare while their body is assimilated.
75	* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Polnya for Poland, Rosya for Russia. Namib for Namibia, judging by the name and Alosha's skin color. Alosha also mentions she has relatives in "Venezia", but that doesn't qualify as a "counterpart" because it's the actual Italian name for "Venice".
76	* FreudianExcuse: Marek is a very nasty individual, but he never got over his mother being lost to the Wood when he was a boy.
77	* GentlemanWizard: The Dragon is effectively a feudal lord over the Valley; while he's transparently indifferent to the villagers as people, he's completely dedicated to his responsibilities. It's later revealed that all listed wizards are ''de facto'' nobility by definition.
78	* GorgeousGarmentGeneration: The ''vanastalem'' spell creates opulent clothing and jewellery, although it can be purposely miscast to produce more common clothes instead. It becomes very useful.
79	* HarmfulToMinors: The royal children go through a major TraumaCongaLine with [[spoiler:their parents being killed and their uncle mounting a horrifically destructive campaign to "rescue" them from Agnieszka]].
80	* HarmonyVersusDiscipline: Agnieszka and the Dragon drive each other crazy at first because their magical techniques are polar opposites -- Agnieszka treats it as a living, changing thing and improvises most of her spells, while the Dragon treats it as a FantasticScience with rigorous empirical observation. They learn to combine their magic into a YinYangBomb.
81	* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: A spell that creates beautiful clothing may not seem very impressive, but it turns out it can be used to create {{Bedsheet Ladder}}s, impress people, generate wealth, and even protect against attempted rape. It can even [[spoiler: put "beauty" on someone's soul to heal emotional trauma.]]
82	* HeelRealization: Sarkan is horrified when using the ''Summoning'' on Kasia and conversing with Agnieszka afterwards reveal to him that the whole valley thinks he mercilessly rapes and abuses the girls he takes in his tower.
83	* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Old Hanka, the only Dvernik villager to StandYourGround and fight the corrupted cattle, armed with just a broken rake, simply says she’s too sour to die when people try to compliment her afterwards.
84	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Agnieszka and Kasia. They've been best friends since children and have UndyingLoyalty towards each other.
85	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Dragon once tried to cure a Count of corruption because the Countess had seduced him and begged for his help, knowing that everyone else would want her husband killed. The Dragon tried, but ultimately failed, and the Count was executed. Agnieszka realises after hearing this story that she'd heard the song written about this, but song depicts the Dragon as an evil enchanter who stole the Count's heart, and the Countess as the brave hero who stole the heart back. She's genuinely upset upon realising how the story had been twisted.
86	* HoldTheLine: Kasia is forced to bar a narrow mountainside trail armed with a single sword against a column of mounted soldiers led by [[WarriorPrince Prince Marek]] and manipulated by the malevolent Wood. She is not in a great deal of danger ''herself'' as it is [[SuperToughness unlikely anything the soldiers have on hand can damage her]]; but despite her SuperStrength she does not actually weigh all that much[[note]](hardwood statue of a peasant girl rather than a peasant girl, but not enough mass for a roadblock)[[/note]], frankly [[UnskilledButStrong does not know what she is doing]], and is fully aware that if she is knocked off the cliff to one side or even forced back to a wider bit of the road where she can be bypassed before Agnieszka works out how to conjure herself and the children they are rescuing to safely then '''they''' (and in the long run much of the kingdom) are doomed.
87	* IHaveYourWife: Marek forces Dragon and Agnieszka to help his ill-advised mission to retrieve Queen Hanna from the Wood by threatening to have Kasia immediately executed if they don't.
88	* IJustWantToBeNormal: ''The Summoning'' reveals Kasia secretly resented her supposed fate of being taken by the Dragon and envied Agnieszka's loving family. Still, when the magician decides to ''not'' pick her, she's left floundering as she doesn't know how to be normal.
89	* ImmortalBreaker: The UltimateBlacksmith Alosha spends a century enchanting a sword to kill ''anything'', intending it to be used against the Wood. [[spoiler:When it stabs the Wood-queen, it devours her life force at a voracious rate, but she {{Body Surf}}s away before it can finish her off.]]
90	* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Wizards don't strictly live ''forever'', but they do live for centuries with their only apparent age being [[YoungFaceOldEyes in their eyes]]. Ballo lived in a monastery for forty years before he noticed he wasn't aging.
91	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Downplayed, but children are more likely to escape The Wood in Agnieszka's stories about its power, like her friend Trina whom The Dragon managed to heal, or a few children from Porosna whom The Raven [[BringNewsBack managed to teleport to the next town right before the village was swallowed]].
92	* InsufferableGenius: The Dragon is a tremendously powerful, experienced, and well-read wizard and he makes sure people know it. Most of his early relationship with Agnieszka consists of him berating her for her supposed stupidity, even though she's an InstantExpert by wizard standards.
93	* IntelligentForest: The Wood is a darkly intelligent force that's fully aware of itself and its surroundings; capable of patient, complex long-term plans; and motivated by active hatred for humanity. [[spoiler:This is [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]] in the end, it's shown that the wood isn't ''itself'' the intelligence but rather it's controlled by the will of the Wood-queen. Though individual heart-trees can be intelligent based on whether one of the [[PlantPerson wood people]] transformed into them or were planted in someone or had one [[{{Transflormation}} set into them]] later. Much of its ability derives from being fed by the Spindle, making it a magically potent watershed.]]
94	* IronLady: Alosha, a swordswoman and blacksmith who forges magic weapons for Polyna, and the most level-headed mage in the capital -- she is savvy to the political games but doesn't invest herself in them like the others. She's probably the most sensible person in the story, but also brutally pragmatic and she firmly believes that Kasia should have been killed long before now.
95	* ItCanThink: The [[SavageWolves wolf pack]] Agnieszka encounters on [[HerosFirstRescue her first return to Dvernik]] demonstrate far greater abstract thinking and tactical acumen than any canids have a right to. It also becomes clear as the story progresses how strongly this trope applies to The Wood itself.
96	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: The Dragon is introduced first as a cold-hearted lord over the Valley, then as an InsufferableGenius, and finally as a man with a [[TheChainsOfCommanding deep sense of responsibility]] for the Valley peoples, who comes to care sincerely for Agnieszka.
97	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:In his short-sighted scheming, Solya joins Marek's assault on Dragon's tower. It pits one half of Polnya's standing army against the other half and shatters the whole, with over 6,000 dead. It's pointed out that Solya's actions were entirely voluntary, not corruption, but he still limps back home to the capital with no punishment after briefly helping Agnieszka and Dragon in the aftermath.]]
98	* KillAllHumans: The Wood is implacably driven to kill, assimilate, or corrupt every human it can reach. [[spoiler: The humans sort of started it when they drove the Wood-queen mad with grief and hatred.]]
99	* KillItWithFire: The Wood and its creatures are highly resistant to most weapons, but can be destroyed by fire. The Dragon and the Valley people burn its border and SaltTheEarth every year to keep it back.
100	* LanguageOfMagic: Magic is worked through speaking various words and can be altered through mispronunciations. As an example, the first spell Agnieszka learns, when enunciated painstakingly clearly, will create or put you in a PimpedOutDress, but spoken hastily or slurred will put you in sensible clothes or even rags.
101	* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:The Wood-queen's people all [[{{Transflormation}} turned themselves into trees]] while she was entombed. She didn't take it well when she finally broke out and learned.]]
102	* LifeEnergy: [[spoiler:The Spindle seems to be overflowing with this, feeding everyone in the Valley and The Wood itself, it is the central point of the Dragon's studies.]]
103	* LimitedUseMagicalDevice: Alosha's greatest weapon against the Wood is a sword that will utterly consume the life of whatever it strikes, then disintegrate. [[spoiler:The Wood-queen's spirit escapes her MeatPuppet before the sword can finish killing her, forcing them to use a different strategy.]]
104	* LivingDistantAncestor: Alosha nonchalantly mentions that her fellow wizard Ragostok is one of her 67 great-great-grandchildren, but she [[OlderThanTheyLook looks no older than him]] and has no particular familiar affection for him.
105	* LivingForeverIsNoBigDeal: The near immortality of wizards is a question that troubles Agnieszka throughout the book. She hates the thought of watching her child nieces and nephews grow old and die, and ''their'' children, on and on. [[spoiler:When she begins cleansing the Wood, she eventually decides she'll probably allow herself to become a tree when she has enough of life. Until then she has many adventures to do.]]
106	* LooseLips: Agnieszka writes to Kasia's mother Wensa [[spoiler:to say that Kasia has been successfully purified of the Wood]] and adds a postscript not to tell anyone. But the letter is read by a neighbor who is looking after Wensa. And ''she'' tells everyone. This leads to Marek riding up to the tower and using the information as leverage on Agnieszka and the Dragon.
107	* MageTower: The tower that Dragon lives in. It's powerfully magical and is built on the ruins of an older tower from the {{Precursors}}.
108	* MagicalBarefooter: Agnieszka stops wearing shoes when she fully settles into her role as Witch of the Valley. It helps that her nature-based magic makes it entirely safe for her to go barefoot in any terrain.
109	* MagicMusic: Sort of. Agnieszka often sings her spells to folk melodies.
110	* MagicPotion: Potion-brewing requires magical talent, expensive components, and lots of time, but is invaluable for creating powerful magical effects in a storable, accessible form. Agnieszka's first brush with the practice is a bottle of mist that leaves her TakenForGranite; the infamous Fire Heart potion takes a master wizard ten years to brew but is a FantasticNuke in a bottle.
111	* MeatPuppet: The fate of the Wood's victims. [[spoiler:Assuming the Wood doesn't use them to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild shore up]] [[AndIMustScream a heart-tree instead]]]].
112	* MauveShirt:
113	** Marek brings thirty elite soldiers with him into the Wood, and several of them are given names or show personality. [[spoiler:Two of them survive, and they're not the ones Agnieszka met.]]
114	** Alluded to later when fighting breaks out at the tower. Agnieszka half wants to talk to all of the soldiers, knowing that each one has an individual story that brought them into the uniform, but she feels like it would be self-indulgent.
115	* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:Dragon has about a century on Agnieszka, but she dismisses this as an excuse. As they're wizard and witch, being left a widow isn't a concern.]]
116	* MayflyDecemberRomance: Implied for any mage that falls for a non-mage but explicit in the case of Alosha, widowed for 160 years and having about sixty-seven great-great grandchildren she keeps track of.
117	-->''"I've had lovers now and then, mostly soldiers. But once you've grown old enough, they're like flowers; you know the bloom will fade even as you put them in the glass."''
118	* MeaningfulName: The Dragon's name is eventually revealed to be Sarkan; ''sárkány'' is Hungarian for, appropriately enough, 'dragon'.
119	* MeaningfulRename: At the end of their royal examination, most newly confirmed witches and wizards acquire a "wizard name" -- the Dragon, the Splendid, the Willow, etc. -- in a brief magical ceremony. It's considered significant that [[spoiler:the protagonist's ceremony feels "off" to her, and she remains known as "Agnieszka of Dvernik"]].
120	* TheMedic: The Willow is the foremost healer in Polya, with both HealingHands and decades or centuries of medical knowledge to draw on.
121	* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: The setting has a lot of [[Myth/SlavicMythology Polish mythology]] in its construction; [[Literature/BabaYaga Baba Jaga]] is mentioned several times.
122	* MedievalUniversalLiteracy: Polnya is an aversion. The Valley's high literacy rate is described as an anomaly caused by the Dragon's patronage of book salesmen: he makes their journey to the remote location worthwhile, but they sell extra stock to the Valley towns while they're there.
123	* MercyKill: In the backstory, when he came to the Valley, [[spoiler:the Dragon gave one to the Raven after a heart-tree was planted her chest, then replaced her as lord of the Valley out of duty to her memory.]]
124	* MerlinAndNimue: The Dragon and Agnieszka, who start out as (unwilling) teacher and student, later become partners of more-or-less equal standing as the latter grows in skill with magic, [[spoiler:and eventually become lovers]].
125	* MuggleInMageCustody: The Dragon is a [[BenevolentMageRuler wizard and feudal lord]] whose only "tax" on his subjects is to take a local girl every ten years to serve him. The locals assume the worst; the truth is [[spoiler:he has no ill intentions, and the girls usually just use their pay to move to a nicer city afterwards]]. Zig-zagged when The Dragon recognizes Agnieszka as an untrained sorceress during the selection ceremony and grabs her rather than the expected candidate... [[PoorCommunicationKills without bothering to clue her in for several weeks afterwards]].
126	* MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Some mages make use of mathematically precise incantations while the spells of others are organic affairs that rarely are the exact same thing twice in a row. When they work together the effects can prove far greater than the sum of the parts (Agnieszka describes it as a river driving a waterwheel) but teaching one another or learning from the wrong spellbooks are an exercise in frustration.
127	* MyGreatestFailure: The Dragon's is [[spoiler:his failed attempt to cleanse Countess Ludmilla's husband of the Wood]]. Not only did he fail to do it, his obsession with it caused another great mage, the Raven, to die in failed defense of a village and have a heart-tree planted in her. After that he voluntarily took over the tower and the fight with he Wood.
128	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Agnieszka and the Dragon are essentially blackmailed into helping Prince Marek save his mother, Hanna, from a heart-tree; she's been [[AndIMustScream trapped in there for 20 years.]] [[spoiler:There's actually nothing left of Hanna in her body, and bringing her back to the capital allows the Wood to get a foothold in the castle and wreak all kinds of havoc.]]
129	* NoodleIncident: Linaya refuses to talk about what happened the last time her people remembered violence, only that it was so awful that [[spoiler:they consider extinction a better option]]. Considering the circumstances of [[spoiler:the Wood's creation,]] though, we can muster a guess.
130	* NoSocialSkills: The Dragon is devoted to the welfare of the people on his lands, moreso than most nobles would be of peasants, but he doesn't care for them outside of their physical needs. He's also shocked when he learns that everyone assumes he's using the girls he takes as {{Sex Slave}}s because of his isolation from society. He also resorts to indignation and verbal abuse to disguise any discomfort or awkwardness he might be feeling.
131	* NothingIsScarier: For most of the book, the Wood's portrayal as a terrifying and alien force is emphasized by how little is know about it -- why it hates humanity so much, what lies within its borders and what happens to the people dragged into its shade are all terrifying unknowns.
132	* TheNotLoveInterest: Kasia fills this role for Agnieszka -- they're childhood friends, and a large fraction of the book's plot is about Agnieszka trying to rescue her, first from the Wood, and then from the laws which say that her life is forfeit because she was taken by the Wood.
133	* OddFriendship: Agnieszka and Kasia -- the girl who is sure never to be chosen and the girl everyone knows ''will'' be chosen -- are as close as sisters and love each other as much.
134	* OlderThanTheyLook: [[WizardsLiveLonger Wizards live for centuries]] and show no signs of aging for most of their lives. At 150 years old, the Dragon looks like a man of twenty, except for a disconcerting timelessness in his eyes.
135	* OppositesAttract: The Dragon enjoys being a ManOfWealthAndTaste who practices FunctionalMagic and has NoSocialSkills whatsoever, while Agnieszka is ThePigPen wielding WildMagic and much more amiable. They butt heads a lot before finally acknowledging their feelings.
136	* ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler:Kasia more-or-less becomes this to the royal children after their parents are killed, being their primary protector and caretaker after they and Agnieszka flee Kralia. Ultimately, she decides to stay with them in the end and becomes the Captain of their Royal Guard]].
137	* ParentsAsPeople: Kasia's mother Wensa. As it became clear from a young age that Kasia was the most likely future pick for the Dragon, Wensa sent Kasia on exhausting walks to other villages to become an expert baker, seamstress, etc, set her to frightening tasks to make her brave, and was careful not to love her because she'd be taken away. This makes things rather brittle when Kasia is ''not'' picked, but Wensa is still distraught and goes to the tower to beg Agnieszka's help when Kasia is taken. [[spoiler:At the end, Kasia stays with the royal children, and her strained relationship with Wensa is a major reason why.]]
138	* ThePigpen: Agnieszka. No matter how careful she is, her hair and clothes will ''always'' get snagged on branches, and she will ''always'' get mud or flour or some other kind of smudge on her clothing. She rates her time limit for neatness as twenty minutes. [[spoiler:It's because of her magic. Everything around her wants to touch her, especially nature things.]]
139	* PimpedOutDress: Dragon uses magic to put Agnieszka in one of these every day because he finds her usual messy, homespun appearance offensive, until she finds the pre-existing wardrobe and learns how to use the spell to make more comfortable dresses.
140	* PlanBResolution: [[spoiler:When the [[ItOnlyWorksOnce single]] [[LimitedUseMagicalDevice use]] CoolSword fails to destroy the Wood-queen due to her spirit abandoning her MeatPuppet at the last moment, the heroes are forced to go into the Wood in a last-ditch attempt to defeat her]].
141	* PlantPerson:
142	** After being rescued from the Wood, [[spoiler:Kasia and the queen of Polnya]] remain outwardly human but are internally transformed into women of living wood.
143	** [[spoiler:The Wood-queen's people were humanoids made of living wood who could take root to {{metamorphos\|is}}e into trees.]]
144	* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Agnieszka rips off her dress when the corruption from her trip into the Woods is revealed by a spell. Once it's gone Dragon makes a cloak for her, but she's really more concerned about Kasia than being naked.
145	* PoorCommunicationKills: At no point during the initial several weeks of insults, chores, and strength-draining mystic rituals did the Dragon tell Agnieszka anything that could be construed as "You are an untrained magician and I am instructing you." Therefore, when she belatedly finds a note from one of her predecessors detailing what to expect (hint: not what she has been dealing with) she comes within moments of trying to assassinate him the next morning.
146	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The heart-trees' corruption comes from [[spoiler:the fear and pain of the humans trapped inside them]].
147	* ThePowerOfLove: Used alongside powerful magic to purify people of the Wood's corruption. Kasia and Jerzy are [[BlackBugRoom trapped within their own minds]] by the corruption, but break free by reaching out to someone for whom they feel strong, mutual love.
148	* PowerStrainBlackout: Using magic when their reserves of power are completely drained knocks the wizard unconscious if they're lucky or kills them if they're not.
149	* {{Precursors}}: The civilization that built the tower. The building is about all that's left of them, as they were conquered by the Wood long ago. [[spoiler:Speculation that they created it proves to be somewhat true.]]
150	* PrinceCharmless: Marek is the very physical and outward image of a noble prince, slaying hydras and whatnot and desperate to rescue his mother from the Wood. However, Agnieszka quickly learns that in practice he's a ''very'' unpleasant person, FreudianExcuse not withstanding.
151	* PrincelingRivalry: Marek isn't too fond of his older brother Sigmund, who Marek describes as a "damned politician". Sigmund himself comes off as the more level-headed of the pair. [[spoiler:Marek does show some feeling when Sigmund is killed in battle, however, saying that he didn't want to become heir like ''this''.]]
152	* PuppyLove: At the end of the novel, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Crown Prince Stashek has agreed to marry the daughter of the Archduke of Vasha. Not because of the threat of her father starting a rebellion, but because she can spit all the way across a garden plot.]]
153	* PureIsNotGood: [[spoiler:Hanna passes every test to detect corruption because she's been consumed body and soul by the Wood, leaving nothing of ''her'' to corrupt.]]
154	* PyrrhicVictory: The nature of the Wood is such that you basically can't score anything like a clean win over it. Even if you get what you want in the end, you ''will'' have suffered to get it, and there's a fairly strong chance that the Wood has already planned and launched its next move, quite often using your victory as part of it.
155	* RagsToRiches: Being discovered as a mage practically guarantees a career and functionally at least middling noble rank, even if you literally started in the gutter, like [[spoiler:Dragon himself]]. Alosha's mother was a slave who [[DeathByChildbirth died in childbirth]], and Agnieszka is a woodcutter's daughter, albeit not actually destitute.
156	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The Dragon is excellent at these and Agnieszka gets a lot of them when she first comes to the castle, especially thanks to her resentful attitude towards him.
157	* RedBaron: Wizards are rare, famous, and politically powerful, and each takes a unique title in the ceremony in which they're formally recognized. Non-wizards use the title while fellow wizards use its translation in the LanguageOfMagic like a proper name: when Agnieszka settles into her role as a witch, her narration starts referring to "The Dragon" as "Sarkan" instead. {{Defied\|Trope}} by Agnieszka, who refuses a title and continues to use her birth name.
158	* RedShirt: {{Justified\|Trope}} during the expedition to [[spoiler:rescue Queen Hanna]]. The wizards don't have enough magic to cast protection spells on every member of the party, so they prioritize themselves and Prince Marek. Everyone else gets a single mildly enchanted scarf. [[DwindlingParty It goes about as well as the Dragon expects.]]
159	* RefusedByTheCall: Kasia was ''obviously'' the one girl the Dragon would take away and was raised to face this destiny with all the skills and grace needed. Then she learns she's ''not'' actually special when the Dragon picks her best friend instead.
160	* TheResenter: Agnieszka towards The Dragon, as she's always assumed he would one day take her best friend from her. [[DidntSeeThatComing She is rather surprised when that doesn't happen the way she imagined.]]
161	* RewatchBonus: The beginning of the book reads rather differently when one is aware that the Dragon is a fundamentally shy man with outright negative [[NoSocialSkills interpersonal skills]] who recognizes Agnieszka as a budding witch who has to be properly trained and more importantly taken away from the Wood immediately.
162	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Marek, a war hero, and Sigmund, a responsible and politically-minded man who will go into battle at need. Alosha says that she lives in Polyna because their monarchy is this sort -- they are, by and large, competent rulers who care about their country.
163	* SavageWolves: The first of the Wood's creatures to be depicted are a pack of immense, vicious wolves sent out into the Valley, with unnaturally bulky bodies and maws bristling with fangs. Agnieszka notes that they have been seen before and that, unlike natural wolves who will prey on livestock but avoid humans, they are savagely aggressive active predators of human beings.
164	* SafetyInIndifference: Alosha explains that after you've lived long enough, you learn not to love people. Also, Dragon, who has ''some'' commitment issues, and Wensa, because for seventeen years she thought her daughter will be taken from her.
165	* ScoobyDooHoax: Among Marek's achievements are going to slay a dragon and finding it was just some peasants pretending there was a dragon taking their sheep so they wouldn’t have to give them to their lord.
166	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Most of what the humans know from the fall of the tower kingdom comes from a pair of lesser wizards who fled right before it fell.
167	* ShockAndAwe: Agnieszka tinkers with a rain-summoning spell to call lightning from the sky. It's AwesomeButImpractical, packing a huge punch even against [[SuperToughness super-tough]] denizens of the Wood but leaving her dazed, battered, and temporarily deaf.
168	* SlayingMantis: The monsters native to the Wood include immense mantises, which normally never leave the forest and instead act as internal guardians. They're much stronger and more dangerous than its more common beasts, and [[spoiler:after the source of the corruption is cleansed they're implied to remain hostile]].
169	* SmugSnake: Solya, the Falcon, is an accomplished wizard and skilled in court politics, but he's too wrapped up in them and his envy of Dragon's greater skill to be clearsighted about the Wood's threat. Instead he swanks around trying to outmaneuver him and Agnieszka [[spoiler:with disastrous results]].
170	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Toyed with. Beautiful girls born in October are subject to the Dragon's attention. Everyone assumes that the graceful and talented Kasia is going to be next, and that assumption shaped a lot of her upbringing.
171	* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Zig-zagged with wizards. Non-wizards use their names like titles ("The Dragon"), but fellow wizards use their direct translations in the LanguageOfMagic ("Sarkan").
172	* StableTimeLoop: Possibly. [[spoiler:During the ending a young girl asks Agnieszka if she is Baba Jaga, having just seen Agnieszka repair damage done by the Wood. Given the real Baba Jaga showed up a few decades ago at a royal christening and declared that she had "fallen through time" Agnieszka seriously considers the possibility. If so, she would be the eventual author of the books that she first learned magic from.]]
173	* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:The Wood was created by a tree-person who married a mortal king, then was betrayed and entombed by his followers on his death. When she escaped and found that her people had turned themselves fully into trees to avoid extinction, she got sad... then a pair of hapless woodcutters came along, and she got ''mad''.]]
174	* SuccessionCrisis: [[spoiler:By the end of the book, the Polnyan Royal Family is reduced to two children under the age of ten. Seeing as there will be no point in destroying the Wood if the entire kingdom falls into civil war and destroys itself afterward, Kasia decides to guard them on their way to safety while Agnieszka and Sarkan make a last-ditch attempt to destroy the Wood]].
175	* SwordAndSorcerer: [[spoiler:Agnieszka and Kasia eventually develop this dynamic after the former saves the latter from the Wood and purges the corruption from her body, giving her SuperStrength and a degree of invulnerability in the process. Kasia later takes advantage of her new body to fight off enemies and guard Agnieszka's back while she's casting spells in battle, to the point of eventually wielding a sword to do so]].
176	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: [[spoiler:Agnieszka offers to help the Wood-queen let go of her rage, become a tree like the rest of her ancient kin, and join them in their eternal dream. She accepts on the spot.]]
177	* TakenForGranite: Dragon has a potion whose fumes transform the inhaler into stone, leaving them in suspended animation with no sense of time. Agnieszka accidentally gets caught by it in her first days at the tower. She later uses it on [[spoiler:Jerzy]] to freeze the progression of the Wood's corruption until he can be healed.
178	* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler:Agnieszka and the Dragon get together as their shared workings and her actions create greater intimacy between them.]]
179	* TechnicianPerformerTeamUp: [[TheArchmage The Dragon]] is a terrible magic teacher to Agnieszka at first because his magic is highly technical and rules-based, whereas hers is intuitive and improvisational. However, when they learn to [[AbilityMixing combine their powers]], with his structure supporting her adaptability, they can create magic that's much greater than the sum of its parts.
180	* TheresNoPlaceLikeHome: As revealed by Alosha, [[spoiler:everyone who lives in the valley near the Wood has been effectively bound there because they drink the magical water of the Spindle. As a result, they don't want to leave the valley, even though the danger of the Wood is ever-present. All the girls the Dragon takes never return home because after ten years in his tower, the magic of the Spindle isn't in them anymore, so they can leave and stay gone.]]
181	* TheyCallHimSword: Alosha's name means "The Sword" in the LanguageOfMagic, and she's an UltimateBlacksmith and [[MasterSwordsman Master Swordswoman]] with well over a century of experience.
182	* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:The Wood-queen is the [[LastOfHisKind last of her kind]], betrayed by humanity and alone in her pain, unable either to die or to follow her kin into eternal slumber. When Agnieszka offers to help her [[{{Transflormation}} become a tree]] and finally rejoin her people in dreams, she immediately accepts.]]
183	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Gawky, [[ThePigPen constantly unkempt]] Agnieszka running about in her brothers' castoffs and beautiful, multi-talented Kasia learning to serve a great noble were best friends since they could walk. [[spoiler:Gets flipped in the end, when Agnieszka becomes a powerful witch and Kasia an inhumanly strong warrior, whose character archetypes are usually the reverse]].
184	* TooImportantToWalk: Agnieszka has no idea what palace staff mean when they say "chair", other than something to sit in. Then she sees nobles getting out of a carrier-box. Not just one but many of them. They were moving from one part of the royal castle to another, and they don't have bad legs that make walking difficult. She thinks this is ridiculous.
185	-->'''Agnieszka''': Do none of you ever ''walk''?
186	* TomeOfEldritchLore: The Bestiare. Anyone who reads it is instantly corrupted and permanently transformed into a monster.
187	* TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: Only those born with the gift of magic (like Agnieszka) can cast spells. There are a lot of spells out there to learn, and casting them gets easier with practice. It's still possible to use your gift in small ways without spells, even if you don't know that you ''have'' a gift, but you're not going to get very far. Hence the king's law that everyone with the gift must be trained.
188	* {{Tsundere}}: The Dragon. He's just as bad at admitting that he likes someone as he is at admitting that he has feelings other than irritation.
189	* UltimateBlacksmith: Alosha "the Sword" forges magical blades and arrows for Polya's elite troops, but her magnum opus is a sword that she's spent a century enchanting to be able to kill ''anything'' it strikes.
190	* UndyingLoyalty: Agnieszka and Kasia have this towards each other, and that doesn't change even after the former is taken by the Dragon. [[spoiler:Even learning of each other's mutual jealousies through ''The Summoning'' doesn't break their bond; if anything, it's stronger than ever, with the two willing to follow each other to hell and back after that. The only reason Kasia doesn't follow Agnieszka and Sarkan in their journey to destroy the Wood-queen is because she is needed to guard the royal children instead, which is an equally important task for the kingdom's stability]].
191	* UnreliableExpositor: After she is rescued from the Wood, [[spoiler:Queen Hanna]] claims she didn't flee by choice but was instead [[spoiler:kidnapped and dragged there by Prince Vasily of Rosya. Considering TheReveal that "Queen Hanna" is just an EmptyShell that the Wood-queen is using as a MeatPuppet, it makes her claim suspect, especially since it throws Polnya back into conflict with Rosya, which only benefits the Wood. Ultimately, the truth is never revealed; the only thing the characters are certain of is that Vasily and most likely Hanna as well were already corrupted by the time they made it to the Wood, thanks to exposure to the Bestiare]].
192	* UnskilledButStrong: [[spoiler:Kasia]] knows nothing about sword usage beyond "swing sharp part at enemy." Her strength and invulnerability means that is enough to make her nearly unstoppable in battle.
193	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A pair of innocent woodcutters [[spoiler:who tried cutting down the heart-tree of one of the Wood-queen's people. The queen's rage would not die for centuries.]]
194	%%* VerbedTitle
195	* WarriorPrince: Marek is widely-known as a great hero for his battles against the Wood's creatures.
196	* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Prince Sigmund is introduced as a sensible, responsible man who would be well-suited to take the throne after his father is murdered. After the scene where he's introduced, the next we hear of him is that he's been killed in a Rosyan ambush.]]
197	* WeHaveReserves: Marek throws 6000 soldiers into an assault on the tower, driven by [[spoiler:the Wood-queen's]] manipulation and his own impregnable ego.
198	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
199	** The Wizard Ragostok is last seen in the attack on Sarkan's tower. Perhaps he was killed by the Wood-queen's attack, but he is never mentioned again.
200	** The soldiers who survive the mission to rescue the Queen also vanish afterwards. It is unclear if they remain in the army (where they might die in the final act) or take Marek's promised reward and retire.
201	* WildMagic: The form of magic that Agnieszka generally uses, in contrast with the much more ritualistic, rigid magic that the other wizards use. She intuitively tweaks her SpellConstruction according to whatever feels right in the moment, to Sarkan's great irritation as he tries to study her magic empirically.
202	* WizardsLiveLonger: Those born with the gift of magic live for centuries and [[OlderThanTheyLook show almost no signs of aging]] for most of their lives. This applies whether or not they use their powers; Bello was identified as a wizard, to his own surprise, when he worked in a monastery for forty years and didn't age a day.
203	* XanatosSpeedChess: The Wood is ''excellent'' at this, able to convert setbacks into advantages with terrifying ease. Its plots are likened to seeds -- it sows thousands of them, some of which might lie dormant for decades, and nurtures them as they take root.
204	* YinYangBomb: Sarkan's mathematically precise magic and Agnieszka's intuitive WildMagic are {{Mutually Exclusive\|Magic}} to each other, but they can join their powers to produce effects far beyond either of them, like Luthe's Summoning. Agnieszka describes it as his magic creating a scaffold for hers to grow on, or being driven by hers like a waterwheel by a river.
205	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The women who leave the Dragon's tower never return home to stay. It could be the ten-year isolation with an immortal wizard of high nobility. [[spoiler:It's also because after ten years, the magic they've absorbed from drinking in the Spindle's watershed has gone, and they can realize how unwise it is to live near the inhuman corruption that wants to kill everyone.]]

Context Literature / Uprooted