'if you were asking , you 'd have accepted my answer as the decisive end to an argument between a man who is actually versed in the laws of magic enough to know what he 's talking about and a bark-necked imbecile who 's driven to desperation by his conflicts with a mule-eared savage to attempt to threaten the former man , who also has enough left in him to incinerate the latter man with a few harsh words and a flex of practised fingers , skinny they may be . '