The magic rushed around him, tempting him to draw it in from everywhere... but to let it in any other way was to flirt with injury and tempt harm. He ignored it; it had to come through the rope. The stone sat still in its place. Slowly, it gave, an agonizing slowness as the magic crept into the stone, to reach the void that was calling to it, to reach the heart, the stone warming in his grasp, both from his own heat and that of the magic trying to force its way through with—