Swan Tower

Hmmm. I think your point is valid in general . . . but not so much in this context. For starters, the basic cosmological assumption of Changeling is that magic = joy and wonder and being alive, and the loss of magic = the world becoming flat and dreary and fundamentally poorer. So to know the world is all around you, and not to be able to see it, is pretty much like being Tantalus. Furthermore, for Nicholas it was a painful reminder that the Merriman legacy had come down to him -- but he himself lacked the knowledge and talent and understanding to do what he needed to. His ancestors could see that world, could do wonderful things in it, but he couldn't. And so it was an ominous sign that he was probably going to fail.