Pekhov Alexey – Trap for the spirit

Circumstances force the heroes to reconsider their attitude to everything they were taught. The world turns out to be much more complex than is commonly believed. And the work of the exorcist, it turns out, is not so much to expel or subjugate the spirit. After all, spirits, especially powerful ones, have intelligence, and one can and should negotiate with them. The main character himself came to this point, purely intuitively. But the rest of the spellcasters, it turns out, have long since stopped communicating with spirits. They achieved respect and even admiration from the common people. Gained political influence. But at the same time, they forgot how to coexist with spirits - not to subjugate, but to cooperate. And suddenly it turned out that those miracles that real spellcasters were capable of remained in the past - in legends and fairy tales. And the current ones have become the personification of the fact that “to be and to appear are two different things”

The friends' carefree journey across the country in search of their teacher is over. Fate scattered the heroes in different directions, and then everyone decided for themselves whether to submit to circumstances or try to defy everything. And the young exorcist, expelled from the order and miraculously surviving after meeting with the teacher, decides to finally achieve the truth. And in this search he manages to go as high as possible.

The life of ordinary people from the last book will be replaced by the luxurious chambers of the highest aristocrats. And if commoners live simply and practically, then the life of rulers is subject to a huge number of customs. Moreover, these customs are in many ways completely meaningless and their only purpose is to show how much free time you have. So the aristocrats and their associates walk around in multi-layered clothes, in which it is difficult to engage in anything other than mental activity. And the higher your position, the more meaningless conventions fill your life. The kings of the Middle Ages, more familiar to us, also spent their time in idleness and dressed in magnificent clothes. But it was in China and Japan that this was elevated to the rank of absolute. Standing at the top of the pyramid - the Emperor - had unlimited power, and at the same time was subject to an infinite number of traditions in everyday life. And the author does a good job of showing how meaningless these customs remain.

The hero strives to be listened to. And in one moment he rises from the very bottom to the top - he becomes a court magician, to whom a powerful ruler and even an empress listens. But a high position remains only a way to achieve what you want - to save a friend and protect the country from a possible war with powerful spellcasters, whom no one takes seriously. All luxury and conventions pass by the hero, leaving only a fleeting annoyance about the time wasted on them. In fact, the hero lives in another world - the world of spirits. And that is what makes him a true spellcaster, not a gold badge or a high position in the hierarchy of a long-degenerate order of spellcasters.

The plot becomes more intense. Now ordinary people find themselves involved in the confrontation between spellcasters, and they have nothing to oppose to an army, a mobile army consisting of spellcasters and the spirits subordinate to them. And those spellcasters who are supposed to protect the common people refuse to the last to believe that everything is serious. And they die in confrontation with stronger and more ruthless opponents. After all, their abilities are only a shadow of their former greatness. And those few truly powerful spellcasters who remained have long since retired.

The hero begins to communicate on equal terms with powerful spirits and increasingly understands that the spellcasters have taken the wrong path. And despite his youth, he is doing everything to change this. Moreover, he has an incentive - saving a friend who remained in the hands of renegade spellcasters

The carefree time is over - the time of high politics and real war has begun

The life of the highest aristocracy in all its meaninglessness and splendor

The world of spirits turns out to be more complex than young spellcasters were taught.