Prologue: The Nature of Magic
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Date: Classified
Author: Classified
Entry Type: Case Study
Subject: Magic
Magic. The simple word conjures up fantasies from our childhood. Images of knights battling evil sorcerers within dragon guarded castles or fairies fluttering through a meadow lush brightly colored wild flowers; from the moment we're born till the day we die, magic fascinates us. However, as we grow, we lose sight of what our childhood ideas of magic were. It becomes the simple slight-of-hand tricks or elaborate illusions of the gifted con artists that dare to call themselves 'magicians' when they are little more then performers playing on hidden desires. Magic, what was once a thing of greatness and wonder, now becomes a cheap source of entertainment. We cease to wonder, cease to see what we once could not tear our eyes from; and slowly, the light of youthful imagination grows dim and dies.
Yet, amid all this, true magic still exists; when the need is greatest, it can be tapped into. People refer to these brief moments, when the boundary between what is possible and what is not is shattered, as miracles. Everyone has some talent for magic, even if they don't know it, for most people this talent never comes to the surface; they go their whole life without ever knowing of their gift. But for some, who are not exceptional by any other standards, magic comes as naturally as breathing. These one in a million individuals are not the strongest, fastest, most attractive, smartest, or even the most imaginative of their kind; there is literally no measurable reason for them to have to have been given this power. It is not genetic, so bloodlines are impossible; evolution is also unlikely as some lower animals have demonstrated a limited aptitude for it. Scientific speaking, this ability doesn't exist!
There is, however, one explanation that everyone else chooses to ignore; that a higher power grants these unique individuals their gifts. What this higher power may be is a matter of whatever religion one happens to be a member of, but the implications are the same irregardless. What follows are events in the lives of three beings who were gifted with magic, and of friendships that not only transcend boundaries; they shatter them.