I am writing about a mage and I’ve decided to make two classes of illusionists. Or rather, they both call themselves illustionists. One of them builds an illusion through instructions and essentially must act as an artist. They have to build into their magic all the aspects of the illusion. As her master taught her:
You are more likely to forget some detail. Silk behaves differently than cotton. If you are creating the illusion of wearing silk, you have to remember to make it behave like silk. Smell like silk. Feel like silk.
Me. I wrote this :-p
The second form of illusion is actually considered unethical, and she’s going to run into much later in the book – but it’s essentially telepathy. Like mind control. Not “control your actions” but rather “control your senses.” And my character is going to be very angry that her teacher made her learn the harder version. Until she understands the insidious danger of being in someone else’s mind.
I haven’t gotten there yet. I think when she finally confronts her teacher, he is going to explain that he refuses to use the second method unless it is to save a life. It becomes a tempting path to control others.
I also think that when she realizes the one (probably a fae) who taught her this second method has been using it on HER – it’s going to be something big. I want it to be unconformable. Something like he makes her more attracted to him than he really is – and the illusion isn’t just visual.
Dream by Day 