Long Spells

Spells do not all execute instantly. Unless cast through a mirror, a big enough spell limits execution to a certain amount of circles per second. It may even run forever, provided its caster remains alive, the spell does not blunder, and it never runs out of circles to execute.

To cast a spell capable of running long, a free spell slot is required, even if the spell completes within one twentieth of a second.

Without an empty spell slot, no spells can be cast except through a mirror. Spell slots may be viewed from the caster's inventory.

Spell slots have the following states:

• inactive (collapsed)
• inactive and blundered (red)
• active and okay (green)
• active and at maximum executions per second (orange)
• active but waiting (white)

Patterns that execute spell fragments create sub-spells within their current spell. A spell may not have a sub-spell more than 255 spells deep, and will blunder if such a thing is attempted.

If a so-called forking pattern is effectively the final pattern in the current spell, this limit is ignored .