Connections
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Connections are bonds between people or objects and can be emotional or physical or anything really as long as there is something connecting them, a relationship. By manipulating them, you can tie the circumstances from one thing to another in a variety of ways. By cutting them you can damage or even erase the relationship between the connecting points.
Practitioners can see connections through the Sight, one of its most basic applications;<ref>Reminder: your average practitioner will be able to look and see if something’s watching them, even if it’s a camera. - Interlude 10</ref> they might appear as ribbons, strings, patterns in the flow of spirits, or even something nonphysical like gut feelings.<ref name=":4">“Listen up, you two, here’s your first lesson in the field. I want
you to pay particular attention to all the weirdness going on around
us. Start with the immediate stuff, the connections between each of us,
things being carried back and forth. Over time, you’ll visualize it
into something like cords, strings, ribbons…”
“It’s more a feeling for me,” Nick said. “Physical. Everyone sees it differently.” - excerpt from Subordination 6.3</ref><ref name=":7">I switched to my other sight. “June Burlison.”
I could see the connection. Frail, spirits reacting between me and
the book, me and Rose, and between me and something out there in the
woods. Too general, indirect and fleeting to point the way to anything.
“June Burlison,” Rose said. I could see the same connections
forming. The connection passed to me, then out to the woods, like the
aftermath of lighting that darted between conductive targets.
Would this same strategy work for finding people? Objects? If I
wanted to find Laird, could I call out his name until I could make out
the connection? - excerpt from Damages 2.3</ref><ref name=":11">I did. I searched for the connection, but I couldn’t make out much.
The world was buried under a haze, and the wind was blowing in too many
directions at once.
“Trace your eyes along the paths that things run in parallel, the
straightest lines. Good place to start, and good places to avoid if you
think someone’s searching for you.”
I looked harder. The saturation and contrast seemed exaggerated, the world painted in a impasto style with coarse brush strokes, animated
with life and constant motion. I followed the areas where the strokes
and lines met, so I could see the flow of it, not stopping at a dead end
but naturally sweeping my eyes along the straighter paths where the
particles danced.
[...]
My eye traveled over the splash of minor spirits that danced around
it, seeking out the areas where they were traveling in the straightest
lines.
One, blocked by the house. I eyeballed it, figured out the
direction, found it on the other side of the house, faint, disappearing
into the woods and glades.
The Briar Girl, I thought. - excerpt from Damages 2.4</ref> Which connections are easier to make out varies between Practitioners.<ref>She sat at the end of the bench. Pamela seated herself beside Avery. [...] Her Sight was more farsighted than not, which was a pain, because she really would have liked to see and study the band that stretched between her and Pamela. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.7</ref>
Connections also tie people and things to the world, so if all the connections get severed then they fall into the cracks of Limbo, Chaos etc. People that have fewer connections are more vulnerable to certain magical hazards.[citation needed] Others will usually have far less connections then a human.<ref>It was tricky, sometimes. She could only carry so much. Miss had told her what she needed to know, before leaving. That being Lost made it hard to hold onto things. Many Others, with a big exception for those that were specifically about having stuff, had a hard time holding onto things. They had less connections, or connections meant for other things.
She probably wouldn’t hold onto the butter knife, or holding onto the knife would mean losing something she didn’t really care about or pay attention to, like her own personal dog tag.
Miss had had to use tricks to keep her stuff. If she didn’t come back, then maybe Snowdrop would take over the same position. Then she’d have to learn and use those same tricks, like juggling and lending things. Miss had made deals with Others who didn’t come into Kennet, giving them things with power, then taking them back when needed, or calling in favors, to keep people busy. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.x</ref>
Schools of Practice that deal heavily with connections include Enchanting, Binding and Sympathetic magic.
References
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