The Circle of Magic (Spoilers all books incl City of Dragons)

[Farseer]

It sounds like it could be something worth looking deeper into. There is the reference I made in the Mythical Creatures thread regarding "dangerous sorcerers spell-locked in caves of gems" - does the cave simply have gems in it or is it the gems themselves that form a part of the spell? All very interesting!

I came back here to this thread for an altogether other reason but just had a bit of a lightbulb moment after reading this ^ old post of mine...

From the foreshadowing from the text (I think it was from a chapter-beginning passage written by Fitz), I have long thought that we will one day soon discover these “dangerous sorcerers spell-locked in caves of gems” within the RotE and their link to the end of the Elderlings and dragons. Suddenly though, I find that my whole definition of “sorcerer” has been turned on its head!

In Chapter One of City of Dragons, where we discover that the Duke of Chalced’s throne is situated in the centre of a circle of five black stones, it says: “It was said that beneath each stone there was a square pit into which the sorcerous enemies of ancient Chalced had been confined to die.”

Of course, we know those five “black standing stones” with “their evil magic vanquished” and “the ancient runes on them obscured and defaced” to actually be Skill Pillars and those “sorcerous enemies” of Chalced to be the Skilled Ones and/or Elderlings of old.

This use of the word “sorcerous” can then shed light on the identity of the “dangerous sorcerers spell-locked in caves of gems” as written of by Fitz. They must be Elderlings and/or Skilled Ones...surely?

As to the gems, it fits any or all of the jewel-face description of Sa, the scaling of an Elderling/dragon or the wondrous gems eg flame gems that the Elderlings of old possessed...and likely more besides. “Caves of gems” would even fit a warren-like location as simple as Trehaug, with its Elderling memories and treasures, if not a specific cave used to trap and hold Elderlings.

The main point I wanted to make though…these sorcerers I’ve been waiting for, I may well have known about for many, many books!

On a tangent but just a further thought on those five Skill Pillars that have been toppled and are thus now laying flat, “flush to the grey flagged floor” and facing "the five corners of the known world"…it puts a chilling spin and truth to the warning Fitz gave to Fool or his other fears about going through a Skill Pillar and being caught under/in the ground. You know more than you think you do, dear Fitzy!

Will be back soon re why I came here in the first place...