A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.

It must be hard for humans, forever floundering through inconvenient geography. Humans are always lost. It's a basic characteristic. It explains a lot about them.

All was black, gloomy and awful. There was no light at the end of the tunnel - or if there was, it was an oncoming train.

He moved in a way that suggested he was attempting the world speed record for the nonchalant walk.

He looked up at them, a scruffy Napoleon with his laces trailing, exiled to a rose-trellised Elba.

but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?

...and the funny thing was that people who weren't entirely certain they were right always argued much louder than other people, as if the main person they were trying to convince were themselves.