more info on ace’s UM from book 7.5 (spoilers ahead):
- ace describes it as “swapping magic”, not stealing it. it exchanges his and his opponents magic, though it’s still unclear what that means for his opponent (can they still use magic? is it like drawing a blank?)
- it doesn’t just work on others UMs but their spells in general
- to use it properly ace needs to know what spell the opponent is planning on using, and be familiar with the spell. this makes the spell a difficult one to master.
-if he guesses the spell type wrong, the spell fails. the spell also fails if the opponents magic isn’t “fully constructed yet”. trey says this might be something he can overcome with practice, as if he’s able to have the missing construction formula at the swap stage himself, it would work.
- he could use riddle’s so quickly and accurately likely because it was used on him so many times…
- epel describes it as a “tricky but fun magic”
- he’s practiced using jack, epel, and sebeks UMs, to varying results (turning into a “yeti-looking furball”, encasing deuce instead of epel with sleep kiss, and shocking himself with living bolt)
- certain spells he can’t swap with and make work properly like jack’s. this is because jack’s UM can only be used since his family descended from wolves, and it relys on that genetic information to awaken those traits. when ace used it he just “got really hairy”…so caveman ace?
- spells like sebeks which turn your body into material will likely require a lot more physical training, as he could understand the theory but his “body couldn’t keep up with it”.
- likely training to use this will mimic the training the original holder of the UM needed to master it, considering sebek struggled similarly with his spell when he first obtained it (and still does to a degree) only getting better with practice (not aces strong suit…)
all in all, not nearly as much of a ‘cheat code’ spell as some people were saying, but it has a BUNCH of potential. if ace can keep up what he said he was determined to do and start working on, it could become quite strong someday.
