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"There is Deeper Magic at work here, ods ht The Deeper Magic I forgot about that"

The Deeper Magic always see, or needed to close a plot hole

"I do not think you understand, od may not He who co He beco, hands on hips The horizon to the east was a solid band of orange now The stars were going out

"What’s that? What does he beco, and he followed

"Fillory has need of gods, and kings, and queens, and those it has But it has need of a hero too And it has need of the Seven Keys"

"Fillory doesn’t ask for "

With a lued ahead and surmounted a rocky dome that turned out to be the top of the hill From there He turned His head and looked down at Quentin with His strange, peanut-shaped eyes Supposedly sheep evolved that way so they could see wolves co out of the corners of their eyes Better peripheral vision But the effect was disconcerting

"That’s a big ask"

"Fillory asks for what it needs Do you, Quentin? What do you need? What do you ask for?"

The question stopped hiation froood question What did he want? He’d wanted to get back to Fillory, and he’d done that He thought he’d wanted to go back to Castle Whitespire, but noasn’t so sure The terror of al Fillory had been extreme, but he’d found his way back Noanted to find the keys He wanted to finish the quest He wanted his life to be exciting and i And he wanted toto help Julia, if he only knehat to do

"I guess it’s like what You said," Quentin said "I want to be a hero"

E sun

"Then you will have your chance," He said

Quentin scraside Hi to ask Ember about it, about the sun, and what it was, and what happened out there at the rim of the world, or whether Fillory even had a rim But when he turned to ask Hione

Just when things were getting interesting He turned slowly, in a full circle, but there was no sign of Hione Quentin al in the divine presence, even when the divinity was E at the top of the island, and then ju back down the hill to the beach He couldn’t wait to tell the others what had happened, though the whole thing already felt like a drealed up with sheets and pillows and dawn light through closed curtains, the kind you only remembered by chance hours later, for a few seconds, when you were going to sleep again at the end of the day He wondered if anyone else was up yet Maybe he could still go back to bed

He should have noticed that soed, but he’d been distracted on the way up He’d been practically running, and plus he’d been talking to a god And he’d never been an especially assiduous observer of flora and fauna He wouldn’t have noticed a spectacular beech tree or an unusual elm because he didn’t knohat the difference between thean to wonder if he was co down a different way than he’d come up, because it all seemed a little rockier than he rerass wasn’t quite what it had been He didn’t let it worry him too much, because if it worried him too much he would have to climb back up the hill and find a neay down, and that was the kind of thing he wanted to avoid And besides, he was keeping the rising sun on his right hand, and that’s how navigation works, right? If things really rong he could go all the way down to the beach and cut along the coast No way he couldback to the beach in tih, although he tried to for as long as he could, was that the shadows of things weren’t getting shorter any sun They were getting longer Which would have e of the sky was soer a sunrise, but a sunset instead

And it wouldside of the island But that was i was that he didn’t even realize that somebody had hit him with a sword till after it had happened

All he knew at first was that suddenly he’d lost his balance, and his left arht hiht hand on the cold turf There was aoatee The two of theether somehow They were connected by a short broad-bladed sword that was stuck in Quentin’s collarbone, and theto wrench it out