The outline was not jelling.
Finally concluded they don't work. The magical system requires too much patience and advanced planning. It is a nice limit for a magical system, to prevent its doing everything, but not in this case. I think they need a quicker sort of magic. Because while a magical system should be defined enough so that the readers know it's not a deus ex machina, it also needs to be powerful enough to do stuff. Even if it just works on the sensawunda stuff, it needs to work.
Which means -- sigh -- I'm back to knowing that there's a theft, a false accusation, and a labyrinth. An exoneration, occuring in two stages and involving at least two boys. And little more. . . .
grouse.
One hopes that clearing the stage of clutter will help fix the issue.
