Expulsion
Drop It!
“If I had a copper for every first year who thought it would be amusing to knock the quill out of their instructor’s hand, I would retire. It is always the same look as well. Surprise first, then regret, then the realization that they have just made their own lives considerably more difficult.”
Expulsion is a spell built on precision rather than force. It does not batter a target or overwhelm them with raw power. Instead, it identifies a single point of control and disrupts it with exact timing, applying just enough pressure to break a grip that, only a moment before, seemed secure.
The effect is immediate and contained. There is no outward surge or visible blast, only a focused burst that meets the object in a creature’s hand and severs the connection between the two. To the one holding it, the sensation is strange. Their strength does not fail in any traditional sense. Their grip simply ceases to matter for a fraction of a second. Fingers close on empty space as the object is no longer where it should be.
The object does not fall passively. It is carried away with intention, moving along a path defined by the caster. The motion is clean and controlled, as though guided rather than thrown. A weapon might slide across the ground just far enough to deny an immediate recovery. A wand might be pushed aside at the exact moment it would have been raised. The distance is modest, but the disruption is absolute in that instant.
What makes the spell effective is not the displacement itself, but the interruption it creates. Combat, spellcasting, and even simple actions rely on continuity. A hand reaches, grips, and acts without pause. Expulsion breaks that chain. It introduces a moment where intention and execution no longer align, where the target must react instead of act. That brief shift is often enough to change the flow of an encounter.
The spell does not treat all grips equally. A creature holding an object with both hands presents a more stable point of control. Their posture, balance, and focus reinforce the connection, making it harder to disrupt cleanly. In those cases, the spell must contend with more than just strength. It meets a form of resistance that is deliberate and grounded, and sometimes that resistance holds.
There is a clear boundary that the magic does not cross. Anything secured, strapped, or fixed in place remains unaffected. A sheathed weapon stays sheathed. A shield bound to the arm does not shift. The spell recognizes the difference between something held in the moment and something made part of the body’s equipment. It does not undo preparation or bypass the effort taken to keep something in place.
Those who use Expulsion effectively tend to focus less on what they are removing and more on when they remove it. The value lies in identifying the exact moment where the loss of control carries the greatest consequence. A strike interrupted before it lands. A spell halted before it forms. A tool knocked free at the point where it is most needed.
The result is rarely dramatic on its own. There is no spectacle to it, no lingering effect that draws attention. What remains is the aftermath, a creature forced to adjust, to recover, to act from a position that is no longer stable. The spell does its work in a single, precise instant, and leaves everything else to unfold from there.
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