In a beautiful brick office building surrounded by various gardens kept in perfect care, in a conference room at a long oak table, sat a strange looking group of four people.

The first was a woman in her mid twenties who was dressed rather casually to be in an office. She wore dark jeans, a black hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and converse sneakers. Her hair was pulled back in a horse-tail. The strangest part about her ensemble was the magnificent sword that hung from her belt. She sat with her arms crossed, her eyes glinted with courage and curiosity.

The second was a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties dressed in slacks, a button up shirt, and a tie. He had dark skin, curly black hair, and sympathetic eyes. He was tapping his fingers on the table in front of him thoughtfully. Many books and scrolls were piled next to his seat.

The third was a man in his twenties with short cropped blond hair and soft blue eyes. He had a very thoughtful, complacent look about him. He was dressed in khaki pants and a blue polo shirt. He was whispering something to the woman who smiled. He was the type of man who always smiled an infectious even when things were down.

The forth and last person in the group entered the room alone and closed the door quietly behind him. He had a gentle smile on his face and was slightly more dressed up than the other three. He wore a grayish suit and black shoes. His brown hair was combed and gelled. He was not stunningly handsome nor unpleasing to look at. He his looks were simple but everyone in the room had become silent upon his entrance and all eyes had turned to him. Wisdom showed in his face and kindness and love were in his eyes. He walked to the head of the table and took time to look into the face of each of his companions and smiled at them. He set down a file folder of papers and sat. "Let's get started." He said, opening the file folder.

"What is it this time?" The woman asked, her voice calm and slightly tired.

"There have been a few complications with an Abdal in North America it appears." The man with blond hair (Raphael) said, peering over at the papers in the open folder.

The man sitting next to the many scrolls and books bit his thumb nail, thinking and said, "Complications generally imply that the Abdal found out what they were. Why hasn't her power just been absorbed into the universe?"

"A very good question Gabe! Anyone have any ideas? Michael?"

"Actually," She said, "I do have some ideas. If I do recall correctly, we have a lot invested in this girl. A certain prophecy I do believe."

"Exactly right," The Man at the head of the table replied. "This is an open ended prophecy that was given to this girl because of the amount of innocence she was able to retain into adolescence. She knows where she stands and it looks like for the most part she won't fall into temptation. It seems though, our lovely friend Lucifer has made sure she knows what she is, counting on Us to do what We always do with Abdals who have discovered their secret-"

"If he wasn't my brother-" Michael fingered the hilt of her sword.

"That's enough Mike!" He said. "We can't let this prophecy go. It is connected with others that are to be put into place in the future. Whichever choice she makes, whichever side she chooses to fight for will control what future prophecies will be fulfilled. Only, now we can't use her as a vessel for this prophecy. We need to transfer it to someone else. Actually she has to do it, We just have to help her a little."

"Lord," Gabriel asked, "Why did you ask us about this? I am certain You could have come to a wise decision Yourself." He suddenly remembered his manners and bowed his head. "I meant no disrespect by that."

"I know you didn't." He smiled warmly at Gabriel. "But to answer your question, I asked you all here because I trust you and sometimes it is best to think things over by talking about them. Also, I need someone to find an Abdal specialist near the girl that can go to her and tell her of the predicament, but neither she nor the wizards we send to her can know about the prophecy."

Gabriel began to look through his scrolls, "The closest specialists to the girl are in New York City. A 'Juanita Callahan' and 'Christopher Rodriguez'.

"I'll go speak with them. I used to know them." Michael said.

He laughed. "Oh yes! You were a parrot for a time."

"That was because my Lord asked it of me." She bowed her head to hide a smile.

Raphael spoke. "Might I do anything Lord?"

He shook his head. "Not at this second, but I may need you to speak with the girl, but you see, We cannot affect her decision on who she picks ourselves. She must do it on her own. We can only hope she makes a wise choice." He gathered His things, closed the folder.

"You know," Said a smooth voice from the back of the room, "It won't be that easy. I have influences all over that pathetic little world." He added the next bit very spitefully. "With all due respect (which isn't much), I will make whoever the girl chooses fall." Clad all in white and looking very angelic was the beautifully handsome Lone Power.

"Lucifer!" Michael began to rise, hand on her sword. Raphael reached out to stop her.

"Michael! Sit!" He demanded. "He has every right to be in here as long as he is polite."

"Near as polite as he can be at least," Gabriel added.

"That was a little uncalled for." Lucifer said cooly.

"Let me apologize for him," Michael said, "My lack of manners can be contagious."

"Always a pleasure to see you all, but I suppose now that I've said my part, I should be going." Before he walked out the door, the Lone Power turned back around and made one final statement: "I have ears and eyes in many places on Earth and they have given me a very good hunch on who the girl will pick to be the successor of this... 'Wizard's Legacy'. You should all tread carefully for now, I still have a few rather nasty tricks up my sleeves." With that he left the conference room and closed the door loudly.

Wizards manuals in book forms were hard to come by in modern times. Often in more recent years, the knowledge a Wizard needs is planted into their mind where they do best to either remember it or right it down in a notebook. Jeff came from a long line of Wizards. His manual had been passed on to him by his grandfather. Beatrice wasn't sure where her manual came from. Her father had given it to her on her twelfth birthday, thinking it was a novel (It appeared this way to most non-wizards). Many European Wizards had been functioning without manuals and only their knowledge for centuries, but for some reason their seemed to be more manuals in book form in the United States. Wizards in Japan had designed a computer program to simulate a manual, though it was not widely used.

Somewhere around 11 o'clock a.m. on that fateful Sunday, Beatrice Childs left her partner's home and walked the six blocks to Nathanael's house with the intent of getting her manual back as well as to have a little 'chat' with him. Jeff had been sure to warn her not to let anything slip when she spoke to him. He doubted the Powers would be up to finding another Wizard to replace this new Abdal. Briskly, Beatrice knocked on the front door of Nathanael's house. His mother answered the door.

"Hi, Bee!" She said, smiling warmly. "Come on in. Nate's still asleep but I've been meaning to get him up... Unless you want to go wake him?"

The young girl grinned wickedly. "Have any water balloons?"

His mother smiled. "No, but you can let the dogs loose on him if you want." With that, Beatrice trotted down the stairs into the basement. She quietly entered the room and stood at the foot of Nathanael's bed, just to gaze upon the world's newest Abdal for a moment. She smiled, feeling giddy for no reason at all. He was a handsome boy, tall (he stood six feet and two inches high), short cropped brown hair that was so dark brown most thought it was black unless a bright light source shined directly through his hair, he was more pale than most boys his age but not in a ghostly way, the way he was built showed his Cherokee heritage, he wasn't a full blooded Cherokee but you could tell he had some Native American blood in him. He had a very stubborn jaw and beautiful gray eyes that sparkled when he was happy. She loved him dearly.

Quietly, she went over to the edge of his bed and crawled under the covers with him. She kissed him softly but he didn't stir. She sighed, grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently, and kissed him one more time. "Nate, wake up. It's past eleven and you're just being lazy." She could have taken her manual and left (it was sitting in plain site on Nathanael's computer desk) but their talk probably couldn't wait. "Nate, please get up."

"Only if you kiss me again." He hadn't opened his eyes.

She kissed him.

He opened his eyes and acted surprised. "Oh, hello Bee! How long have you been there?"

Beatrice rolled her eyes and got out of his bed. Nathanael tossed his blankets aside and sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Beatrice turned around, her arms crossed. "How's wizardly life treating you?"

He was suddenly awake, staring at his girlfriend. "How'd you know?"

She came to sit down next to him. Maybe I shouldn't have surprised him like that. "I'm a Wizard too."

He laughed dryly. "You have no idea how much that explains. I saw you disappear once and thought I was hallucinating."

She smiled a little. "So, have you tried to do anything yet?"

"I talked to my dogs and cats yesterday for a little while. Oh! And I fixed my computer when it was frozen just by talking to it."

She nodded. "Cool. I'll have to teach you some other stuff."

He hugged her around the shoulders. "I'd like that."

She took a deep breath. "I suppose this is a good time to tell you I got kicked out of my house for being a Wizard." Nathanael looked a little shocked but she didn't let him interrupt. "Despite the fact that we serve The One, my mom caught me doing a spell and decided I was a demon child who worshipped Satan and threw me out of the house."

He spoke very quickly, almost too fast for for his mind to absorb everything. "Wait... Well... Where have you been sleeping at night? Do you need a place to stay? I'm sure we could talk to my parents. If-"

Beatrice interrupted him. "Don't worry, I've been staying with Jeff. He's a Wizard too, we work together a lot and his family knows about wizardry. I'm going to warn you though, make a point to tell your parents about what you are. It will save a lot of trouble in the future." She touched his hand. "Sorry, I shouldn't have shocked you so soon after you woke up."

He shook his head. "Don't apologize, you apologize too much."

"So do you."

"I know." Nathanael smiled to himself as he thought of a memory of Jeff. When the two had started dating Beatrice's father had never given him a 'man to man' talk, Jeff had once. He wondered if wizardry is what had made him so scared of Jeff at the time. Nathanael towered over him and he had never intimidated him before. He wondered if Wizards were allowed to do things like that to help their own causes. "Will you help me explain wizardry to my parents when the time comes?"

"Of course." She put her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I guess it's my duty to tell you all the responsibilities that come with wizardry. Don't waste first of all, Wizards fight to slow entropy and a lot of that is by not wasting and by conserving energy as much as possible. (It's sort of a running joke among Wizards, but we're supposed to support public transportation). The Powers are usually more lenient with Wizards who have school or other responsibilities but be ready to go on errantry (Wizards' business) at a moment's notice. I can't think of anything else to tell you right now, I guess you'll learn along the way..." Beatrice was fairly happy that Nathanael had become a Wizard. He was smart but he also had a but of an inferiority complex so he would never suspect himself of being an Abdal. "Want to learn something today?"

He nodded and grinned.

Beatrice stood and retrieved her favorite wand (One made of copper wire, electrical wire, and a quartz crystal) from her claudication. "Lesson one: Local Short Transits." She smiled. "In lament terms; We're going to teleport to the top of the tallest building in the city. You're not afraid of heights are you?"

Jeff sat in his backyard with his wife. His two children were inside playing video games. He sighed happily, glad that the trials of this morning were through and he could spend the rest of the day with his family. It was too late to go paint-balling, but a quiet relaxing day was good too. Just as long as he could be with his family he was happy. He'd barbecue some steaks for dinner and he and his wife could watch a movie together once the kids went to sleep. He'd go back to work on Monday free of his stress and rested. He looked at his wife through the corner of his eye. She was admiring Jeff's garden. It was very colorful in its full bloom. The large horse-chestnut tree cast cool shade over the two. He whispered 'I love you.' to his wife. She whispered it back. This was perfect...

In the back of his mind he felt something come to his attention. No, not this. He thought. Not now. He waved his hand as his manual appeared and opened to the page with his listing in it. He was on assignment. "I'm sorry Anne." His peaceful Sunday was gone.