THE MOMENT
"A ... photo... copier..?" Magus Smythe did his best to keep a straight face as he asked the question. He'd given the talk hundreds of times to all kinds of audiences, and there was always at least one person who thought they solved magic. The blonde student had brought a portable copy machine to prove a point, and he was setting it up as Magus Smythe started his explanation.
"Yeah," the student grinned eagerly. "It can make perfect duplicates of the incantation. When I heard you were coming, I thought you'd appreciate learning about modern technology," he added.
"That's... not possible...," the Magus shook his head as he put on aconcerned expression. He wasn't going to play it up too much, but they seemed like good kids so far. He felt like a little levity would go a long way to keeping them engaged.
"Draw up a spell and I'll prove it," the student said.
"Okay," he nodded and leaned on his desk to sketch out a simple spell with a triangle connected to a rounded rectangle in an awkward 3D shape with uneven sides. "As a wizard, it's important to keep learning and stay open to new ideas." He finished it and delivered it to the blonde student.
"What's your name?" he asked before offering the sheet.
"Arnold," he answered and accepted the sheet.
"Arnold, if this works, you'll be changing the world," Smythe said. Arnold took the sheet and put it face down on the machine, closed the lid, then pressed the button. It whirred as a beam of bright light roamed from left to right under the lid. Then, within a few moments, a copy rolled out from beneath it.
"Here you go, instant magic. No fuss, no muss," Arnold replied.
"Hmmm," the magus studied it closely, and even flipped it over to look at the blank backside before focusing on the front again. Then, he took a step back, raised his arm with the sheet, and nothing happened.
"No such luck, I guess you're not quite ready to change the world yet," the Magus smiled.
"Are you sure you're doing right?" Arnold asked with as much respectful doubt as he could muster.
"I believe so...,"the Magus nodded and withdrew the original from the machine. Then, he held it up, and it exploded in a shower of colorful sparks. "Works just fine," he added as he suddenly had everyone's attention for the first time. Even the students who distracted themselves with their phones looked up for a moment at the hissing sparks.
"Are you sure your 'photocopier' is doing it right?" The Magus asked Arnold with a smile.
"It looks just like the original!" Arnold nodded. He was sure the design was flawless.
"Well, that would be important if the magic came from the image. But, that's not how magic works," he smiled.
"Magic is a process, this image...," he took time to draw another spell as he explained it. Then, he held it up to show the class a square and circle entangled with lines. "...is a result of that process. But, creating a copy of this is just creating an instant copy without the process."
"Huh?" Arnold wasn't sure he got it, and about half of the rest of the students still looked confused too.
"The act of concentrating, physically drawing the lines, and pouring your intent into them, that's how magic works. Different shapes, but I put the same intention into them," he said. The paper exploded in another shower of sparks.
"It's like how people say, 'It's the Journey, not the destination'. That applies to magic too."