But there might be ancient magics trapped underground as well, sparking competing interests with Cod’s potential discoveries in this standalone adventure.
As prospective farmers struggled to clear forests for rice fields in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Malaya, their efforts might have been accompanied by mystical incantations like this invocation against Iblis, the Devil in Islamic tradition.
—
H.M.A. Leow,
JSTOR Daily,
24 Apr. 2026
Where ancient midwives had summoned divine assistance by uttering incantations, medieval maternity caregivers called upon saintly mothers by reciting rhythmical charms.
In the dying days of the Russian Empire, highborn ladies would willingly cut the dirty fingernails of the peasant Grigori Rasputin and then sew the clippings onto their dresses like sacred talismans.
—
Gerard DeGroot,
Air Mail,
25 Apr. 2026
Lemann, like the talkative older ladies of her youth, clutches the motifs of her past like talismans.
These days, many people who love the North Rim speak of it as a lost world, a kingdom whose enchantments have gone up in smoke and whose luster will never be the same.
—
New York Times,
New York Times,
16 Mar. 2026
Bagehot and other upholders of depoliticizing enchantments could not have imagined a scenario in which Andrew, once second in line for the throne, and Larry Summers, a former Ivy League president hailed as one of America’s leading public intellectuals, are caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
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