Chapter 02: [Prologue Part 2] - "Avesta Papers"

It was in 1996 when the "Avesta Papers" were brought forth to the parliament in Sweden.

It was a collection of documents given anomalously to the intelligence agency located in the small Eastern European country. All that were known about the origins or source of the papers was that it had come shipped from the city of Avesta.

Thus the named "Avesta Papers."

The way it was delivered not being suspicious enough, the contents of the paper made it even more strange.

It discussed the existence of practitioners of miracles and mysteries, known as Magi. An underground society that were devoted to reaching something called "the Root." The way that the papers described it, "the Root" was the source of all of human knowledge from the past, present, and future. The papers went off into darker and more sinister topics. It discussed the fact that many of these Magi had no sense of morality, committing huge acts of terror and mass murder for particular magical experiments. It said that many of these Magi are from long standing families that have roots tied to the very founding's of countries. Using hypnotism and exerting indirect political pressure, Magi covered up their tracts and gained supplies using extortion, corruption, and plain old stealing. It outlined the details of how hypnotism worked and its symptoms.

The papers were scoffed at first, but when another package came in a few days later all was changed.

The second part of the "Avesta Papers" contained a list of names of people supposedly involved in a Magi family.

This part levied claims that these people were involved in the scandals in the previous part.

There were a total of 48 names on that list, with detailed descriptions about how each were involved in the other. The actual family of Magi, called the Woundworts, were far removed from society, living in a castle just outside of the city of Avesta on family land given to them by peerage around the year 1000 AD when they were graced by the King for distinguished services in war. The list included politicians, socialites, heads of industries, and many other famous and influential people.

The intelligence community decided to look into the issue that the paper brought forward. Using the trail of breadcrumbs that the paper had provided them, they expected it to be a conspiracy theory from a nut job of a citizen. Magic couldn't exist could it?

They were wrong.

The investigation stumbled across its first major discovery merely 72 hours in. A local magnate in charge of steel processing had recently donated a very large sum of money to a Swiss bank in the name of charity, and filed for tax breaks as a result. The money however, apparently went missing, the Swiss bank responding that the money was never wired to them. However, a large shipment of gold was taken from their deposits.

And the rabbit hole went much, much deeper.

The Woundworts had no tax history, no tax revenue, nor did they have any existing bank accounts. Their family had no identification, no pass port, no medical history, but they did not leave the country or their estate. They existed in name only, and were never seen or heard off.

Street camera's outside the estate observed a select few people were to enter for days at a time to come out just as abruptly as they entered.

And sometimes people never came out.

But there was not a single missing person's report filed.

When the camera footage was analyzed and the identities of those people discovered, to the horror of the investigators, the families of those identified were also missing.

And the investigations continued.

A string of murders tied to a politician who was involved in smuggling items into the country were uncovered and linked back to the Woundworts. The items went missing soon after, the politician found dead in a river. Thought to have gotten drunk and then attempted to swim. No further investigation at the time and the morgue was ordered to cremate the body. This lead to the uncovering of embezzlement of funds from a major corporation by the politicians' oldest son, who was a board of trustees' member of that company. His accomplices were bank officials who aided the Secretary of Treasury in the national government.

And the web went on and grew complicated.

Some people had lost their memories of incidents, displaying characteristic signs of hypnosis as described by the "Avesta Papers." Many of these ended up killing themselves when subjected to questioning.

But the credibility and evidence behind the secret documents get getting larger.

At some point, when the true scope was discovered and evidence gathered, a secret meeting of select parliament members not tied to the "Avesta Papers" and the prime minister were gathered and the results expunged.

To say they were shocked was to say the least. After hours of deliberation they had come to a conclusion: state secrets and power was being held by the Woundworts, and they had a precedence of using this influence for their own benefit. They did not act in the best interest of the country, and was to be captured and taken in for question.

In less than 8 hours a whole battalion of Sweden soldiers were gathered to storm the castle. The confrontation was not swift, but it was severe. The castle retaliated with inexplicable boundaries and attacks, but the battalion eventually made it through. The family and servants inside were not willing to be taken silently as well, and a battle broke out. In the end all 24 members of the family were killed, along with 53 servants. 10 were captured, but displayed signs of being hypnotized. They ending up committing suicide when tortured using unexplainable means.

The news was harrowing to Sweden, and they rigorously investigated the Avesta papers, searching for the writer. In less than a week the source was found and brought in for questioning.

The writer was Stephen Rosklide, a fellow Magi whose family was killed by Woundworts. He described that his main motive for revealing the Woundworts was for revenge, as well as disdain for Magi as a whole. He made it clear that he was doing it for his own goals.

Rosklide cemented the fact in the government's mind that Magi play at their won rules.

The government purged itself. Using Roskilde as a source, they gathered evidence and imprisoned all involved with the Woundwort incident.

12 politicians were captured and imprisoned under corruption charges, and treason.

152 citizens, including many CEOS and business men, imprisoned under charges of treason, tax evasion, and embezzlement.

30 more people were killed, or ended up being killed due to hypnotism.

A report was written by Sweden and brought to a secret gathering of the EU. They provided evidence and came forward with a method to detect and protect against hypnotism, developed in combination with Rosklide and modern science.

The EUs response was swift and brutal.

Using Rosklide's knowledge of the Magi world, more Magi were brought forward who provided information about those involved in governments all over Europe. Investigations continued for 2 years, before in 2000, an incident known as "the Inquisition" occurred,

Magi were captured or killed across the European Union. Scandles involving famous people came to light and ended in the purging of governments. The Clocktower was brought down by the MI5 in 2001, they were thought to have been relocated in other countries.

Inhuman experiments and murders came to light as the world realized that Magi were among them and in the shadows.

Magi and magic became an open secret. Governments denied their existence by never speaking of them, but the people soon grew to know. Some believe they exist, others think of them as urban legends. Some thought of them as cold blooded maniacs who would experiment on them, others thought of magic as something romantic.

All that was certain was that "they" weren't one of "them."

And in this world, the "magicless" and "mundane" decided that they would fight back.

In such a world, Shirou decided to venture into, as his father did before him.

I was writing the plot outline to this story when my friend gave the opinion that the setting was good but had no real context.

How can Science fight Magic if Magic is supposed to be secret.

"That's a good point." I said and I quickly wrote this while sitting in my Anatomy and Physiology II class.

The main idea I wanted to convey was that Magi are working in their own interest, and because of this the world discovered them when they slighted one of their own. It's not my best work but I wanted to set the scene and backstory. I also tried to make it sound as realistic as I could. I'll be back on full steam trying to get my outline done and work on the actual story.

Until next time!

-Soul-kun