“The Golden Horn of Griffo is finely wrought,” Zenodotus said, tracing his finger along the curve of Telemach’s treasure. “And the magic is in its making alone. Do you understand? There is no sorcery here—none that I can detect.” Moffat’s Zenodotus voice is not what I expected. Instead of a rich, dramatic wizard’s rumble, it’s clipped and clinical. It’s the voice of a corporate magic consultant. Fernwen’s eyes widened at that. Hadn’t they just braved a swamp of horrors to reclaim this enchanted trumpet? And now the First Wizard claimed it carried no real power at all? “Magic is not the only
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If I had to guess Moffat decoded the Manutius’s book and found that there was nothing there; that's why he took his codex vitae back and published it as the third volume of the Dragonsong Chronicles. He knew that the order was founded on, at best, an hilarious exaggeration and, at worst, a lie.
It also seems pretty likely that Corvina also decoded the book, and that's why he insisted Clay put a stop the Great Decoding. He knew there was nothing to find, and he knew that would be a crushing emotional blow to Penumbra, a true believer.
