To him this room was not a high-school lads bedroom in an old farmhouse on a dirt road in the backwoods, but a secluded and mysterious lair of an apprentice sorcerer about to step into the realm of a true mystic.
-- Horace Cross (chapter 1)

Importance: Horace's narrative in 'White Sorcery' follows his extensive research on magic and demonology. This passage is a lead-up to the summoning ritual Horace performs, with the aim to garner power from a demon and transform himself a bird. The third-person limited narration alludes to Horace's troubled life without providing details, enhancing the mystery and suspense surrounding his actions. Horace had isolated himself from the real world, and his passions for fantasy and the pursuit of knowledge had become an obsession with the occult. Horace imagines himself as a sorcerer able to escape his 'backwoods' town of Tims Creek. Horace believes he is 'about to step into the realm of...