Seneca offers powerful insights into the art of living. He observed, It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much.
The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DaniDiNardo 
"Going off your own logic of hurting yourself on the way back down, I know you understand you'll come back down. What will you do once you hit the ground with broken limbs and wolves still waiting?"
Hmmm, Violet thought, the Headmaster made some good points. She'd realized that herself as soon as she said it, actually--she needed to remember not to think aloud.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DaniDiNardo "Before we get to any practice, I have another question for you. Listen carefully, I don't want you misunderstanding. Let's say you were being chased. You're being chased by a wild creature intent on making you its next meal. It gets you to the foot of a cliff with a dead end but even with the charm, it's too high for you to get to the ledge at the top. You have only two charms you can use. Alarte Ascendare, or Ascendio. Which do you use and why? I'm not asking what each spell does, I'm not asking for the difference. I'm asking what strategy you're trying to employ with whichever spell you choose to use."
Boy, neither of those were very good choices, actually--it was like that Lady or the Tiger story she'd read last year in New York with her father. She heard what some of the students were saying--some of them were using too many charms, the Headmaster said you only had two. Well, he said either, or--did that mean you could only use one charm, or either or both? She shook herself, she was getting too bogged down in details. Well, let's think--
Ascendio was wrong, it was just like the pack of wolves remark she'd made earlier--you'd come right back down, and even worse, since it was a dead end, the creature would be right there in the same spot beneath you. And
Alarte Ascendare--you could use that on the creature, but it would probably only shoot it up in the air about ten feet or so. That probably wouldn't hurt it much, and it might make it madder. But...you could use that little bit of time to run underneath it and escape from the dead end. It wasn't a good choice, but it seemed better than the other one.
"I agree with Ashley--of the two charms available, I'd use Alarte Ascendare and use the time the creature was in the air to escape from the dead end and run as fast as I could in the other direction. It's not a good choice, but I think it's better than the other one."