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Magic Desk

A magic desk or blotter or comm desk (many different names) is a flat area on which one uses a writing implement (equally enchanted) to write messages that appear on a given magic desk elsewhere. With an added spell to desks included in the enchantment, one can send a single message to as many desks as needed. This type of communication is most often used by the scribes, and its area can be as small as a credit card. You just need a surface on which to write, and a writing implement, both with spells put on to make them work together.

The message is eradicated with the brush of a feather or duster or carved piece of wood, which is enchanted to clear the surface for the next spell. In the early days, messages could arrive at the same time and superimpose themselves, but the addition of spells over the clearer makes it possible for the messages to wait and appear in order of arrival.

Some desks can be written upon by any sort of implement, but these are extremely expensive, and rare outside of royal communications chambers, admirals' comm rooms, and the Scribe Guild.

There are two disadvantages: one, the message cannot be stored or saved. It has to be either memorized, written down in an order book (which is the usual procedure, by Scribes whose job is just that) or transferred with another set of spells to another surface--in the case of small messages, the magic takes longer to perform than the fast writer can dash it down. The second disadvantage is interception: if a mage can find the magical 'key' binding the desk to its mate or mates, messages can thus be intercepted without the senders knowing. More elaborate magic can count recipient responses, but this, too, can be tampered with.

The world of magical espionage is thus fraught with uncertainty.

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Page last modified on January 31, 2008, at 06:32 AM