Outside a small lecture hall at the nearby university, the notice board looks clean to most people. A few people, though, can see the announcement sign, dated and timed for now, saying, "A Practical Study of the Dangers of Untrained Magical Use, Doctoral Thesis Defense, by Kimberley Bennet".
At the front of the room, Kim is speaking. "I would like to begin by thanking my wife, Rebecca, and my sister, Katie. The two of you have helped in more ways than you will ever know. I would also like to thank the rest of our combined families, who have provided unending support, allowing us to continue our schooling and raise little Jimmy. Not even magic could turn those into simple undertakings.
"Now, the reason we are here is that so much of magical teaching is done with the student severely restricted in what they can do. And these restrictions are not removed until training is very nearly complete.
"When discussing this with others, most people focus on the danger of what a half-trained witch or warlock can do. But I believe the danger is much less than is generally supposed.
"So, to demonstrate this, I have created a pocket universe for experimentation. This dimension actually only contains one planet, but that planet models, as far as possible, our planet. It even appears to be a complete universe to those on the planet.
"What is more, this planet, though created magically, has no magic inherent in it. To provide a kick-start, as it were, I have created a wishing stone that I will place there with a teenager. To make sure this person can't destroy the entire experiment in one shot, I gave it a limited range, but nearly absolute power within that range. In fact, the only limitation is that it cannot undo anything it has already done. The theory, here, is that this magical equivalent of WMD will show whether the concern is overblown.
"I should note, too, that this experiment could be repeated, either with the same stone, or with a similar implement, although there is no plan to do so at this time.
"Now, let me relate some of what we have seen..."
