Their relationship must be all claws and blades: law and custom gave him a thousand types of power over {her}, while she had only the one, pointed firmly at his heart.

Even the most ill-formed words, set to paper, are a great blessing.

This is the simplest of spells, and foundation to all others. Magic seeks to better understand, and eventually to build on, the connection between minds and bodies. Even to calm a storm, you treat the wind and rain as if they were alive and corporeal. That is why blood is part of the spell, along with words and symbols.

If magic violates the fundamental laws of nature, they clearly weren't all that fundamental.