Something about the way Renegade Nell handles the magic system... is just so. So Old Fantasy, I adore it. The good magic always comes upon the people who aren't looking for it -- like a benevolent gift from above. It is nature coded and full of light. Even Nell's fairy refuses to do anything immoral, though his morality adheres to a Higher Law than human law. Meanwhile, the evil magic is tightly controlled, full of symbols and ritual. It is found in dusty spellbooks and must be summoned and dominated, never befriended. It's as though the evil magic is the good magic stolen and twisted by greedy people who wanted it to play by their rules and be in their sway. It is full of whispers and lies, while the good magic is universally full of light and truth. At one point, truth is what it takes to break the hold of dark magic. Lies dwell in darkness, but truth lives among the light and the growing things. The good magic gives, the evil magic takes. The evil magic uses people up and leaves a shell; the good magic makes things new.
