April 11, 2026
Hello,
Continuing my examination of the themes in our stories—and my efforts to think beyond what happens next—this week I’ve been reflecting on Loftiest Intelligence and the book I’m working on now, Strangest Intelligence.
I have to be honest. Thinking in this style is hard for me. In my first ten drafts, I kept wandering back to plot. What follows is a severely pruned version where I've attempted to stick only with theme.
I don’t know how Aidan does it. He can talk about ideas for hours. I prefer the concrete.
When Aidan and I sit down to plot, we almost never stay with the question of what happens next. We drift. Inevitably. Into everything else.
Music. Politics. Movies. History. Books. Physics. Social media. Hiking trails. Skiing.
(Never sports—despite his father’s best attempts.)
What always pulls us off course is nuance.
Aidan is relentlessly interested in the space where certainty breaks down. Nothing, for him, is ever fully good or fully corrupt. He’s drawn to moral ambiguity—not as an aesthetic, but as a way of being honest about how the world actually works.
That sensibility has shaped how we think about power in these stories.
Dark-magic is feared, regulated, and labeled dangerous—not because it is inherently evil, but because it is efficient. It works quickly. It strips away distance between desire and outcome. And when people cling to it, when they mistake control for mastery, it destroys them.
The figures who fall to it are not villains in the traditional sense. They are tragic. They are people who failed to let go.
Ellie’s attraction to dark-magic isn’t about corruption. It’s about clarity. There’s a purity to it—an honesty. It doesn’t pretend that power is gentle.
She also realizes that the sanctioned magics—healing, elemental, and builder—can be just as destructive. There is simply less danger to the wielder. Which explains why they meet with institutional approval.
And that, I think, is the theme we keep circling whether we intend to or not:
Power is never safe simply because it is called good.
And danger doesn’t become safe just because it is regulated.
Happy reading.
Warm regards,
Paula Baker (and Aidan Davies)
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