Introduction Preview

There are five known types of magic that make up the pentagram, a mathematical symbol (not a symbol for satanic rituals, contrary to popular belief). The five known magics are Elemental, Mechanical, Organic, Illusion and Sacrificial (better known as Blood Magic).

My name is “Scribe”. Obviously that’s not my real name. I’m a natural-born magician. The son of two mothers. Also, the son of two races. My birth mother, Grace, “Mamma,” is a black woman. She is headstrong and acts on intuition. It’s served her well more times than not. Mamma is Head Archivist at the Library of Equations, where all magical spells are documented and cataloged. Even those that fail.

The Library of Equations is where Mamma met Mom… Olivia, a white woman.

Mom is the twin of my biological father, Oscar. Oscar died before I was born but not before he arranged to provide his DNA to help Moms have a child. Me. It was a beautiful thing Uncle Oscar did for Moms.

Biologically speaking, I belong to both Mamma and Mom. I want to take this time to acknowledge the irony that we live in a universe of amazing medical and magical innovations—yet we can’t find a cure for cancer? That sucks.

At the age of two, I exhibited my first use of magic: levitating toy blocks to build a pyramid. After that, Mamma started teaching me equations. She used her access to the Library to build a curriculum to teach me and develop my natural gifts. Magic comes easy to some, easier for others. If you have two natural-born magician parents like Mamma and Uncle Oscar, magic is like a sixth sense. For magicians with just one magical parent, it takes a little more effort. Imagine having to listen for a specific sound in a compilation of sounds or identifying a particular ingredient used in your favorite meal. It’s nearly impossible for a person with no magical parents to have magic. Nearly. It is theorized that certain mental illnesses and learning disabilities are just manifestations of magic in those who don’t understand magic. For example, the working theory is that schizophrenia is a person’s subconscious accessing Illusion Magic that, unfortunately, only the afflicted person can see or hear. Dyslexia is thought to be a person’s attempt to access magical equations in the universe subconsciously, woven in written texts.

Again, these are only theories. Unfortunately, there is not enough interest or resources to prove or disprove them. I like to think that magic is accessible to everyone—like gravity, air, or love. You just have to understand it to develop it. For most, understanding magic can be as simple as accepting that it is real.

Magic IS real—so real that it was hidden away after the death of the world’s greatest magician. Before his death, magic was present, displayed, and even chronicled. Does a talking serpent sound familiar? How about a man who can split a sea? Or change a staff into a snake? How about a man who can turn water into wine and heal the sick, blind, and crippled? How about a man who can walk on water and even raise himself from the dead? These were not miracles. They were equations—some of the most complex equations ever solved. Equations that have been lost to time… or rather lost to man.

Mamma took me to the Library of Equations once when I was about twelve years old. Typically, children are not allowed in the Library. Especially children who had magic. I suppose she showed me the Library in an effort to groom me as her replacement at some point. Careers in magic are generational. And with this one being of such high importance, I suspect she wanted me to get used to seeing the space. She showed me where she worked and told me all about the different departments and what they did. But the one detail I could never forget—the one detail that, at least to me, stood out like a sore thumb, was a single, unmarked door. No key lock on the knob. No pad for a key card. No combination lock. Not even a name plate next to the door to tell you what’s on the other side. That’s where they keep all the biggest equations. The mother lode. Hiding in plain sight. I’ll go back one day. I don’t want the equations. I don’t have some grand design to be the greatest magician in the world or anything. I just want to know if I was right about the door.

But I digress.

What else is real? Sourcerors are real. Think of them as the old guard—old-money people who think magic should only be accessible to the “worthy,” people just like them. They are called sourcerors because somehow they have access to Source Magic. Source Magic is not another type of magic but rather a culmination of ALL magic, even the “undiscovered” magic. They are the gatekeepers. They basically decide what magic is out in the world and what magic is withheld. Sourcerors belong to a group called the Society of Sourcerors, or S.O.S.

Not all sourcerors are old-money elitists. Mage Damon Lenoir has been a friend to my moms since I first exhibited magic. He has been a mentor to me and my best mate Socket (also not his real name) for the past 10 years. He’s even covered for us a few times to keep us out of trouble. Socket is an elemental magician specializing in the manifestation and manipulation of lightning.

Magic is in the world and is known to be in the world, even by those who don’t practice. It’s the thing you know exists but never actively see, kind of like how you know people participate in real-life role playing games and that there are entire communities around the world who participate in this way of life. But if you don’t want to be a part of that community, chances are you’ll never see them (or rather never recognize them) in the world. The same is true of magic and magicians. Unless you seek it out, chances are you can go your entire life without experiencing magic—which is, if you ask me,  a shame.

There used to be schools of magic but those were closed down across the globe in the late 1600s. Too many magicians were being burned at the stake by people claiming they were witches. The Society of Sourcerors thought it best not to give the people a centralized target on which to focus their hate and fear—even though magicians and witches aren’t the same thing. It would be like burning a ginger person alive for being accused of not having a soul. That’s something you can’t even prove or disprove. The accusation alone would be enough. No trial, no jury. Chalk another genocide up to bigotry and ignorance. 

But now we live in a world of free information. After the World High Court ruled in 2056 that the distribution of misinformation was illegal and punishable by life imprisonment, the Infonet got a lot cleaner. I’ve seen screen holograms of some of the insane illogical claims people would publish. It’s even crazier that other people believed. Misinformation still exists, but it’s presented as “theories” for the conspiracy theory nuts to feed on. A misinformation campaign can usually be identified by a legal disclaimer camouflaged in 4 point type somewhere at the bottom. Magical misinformation carries a more severe punishment and is enforced by the S.O.S.

Any equation you want to solve can probably be found on the new Infonet. The Internet was renamed and rebranded after the data purge of 2066. For the most part magic IS math. Say the number 5 represents the solution for teleportation. How many ways can you get to 5? 1+4. 2+3. 6-1. The methods are numerous. But the trick is not just teleporting. The key is teleporting to where you want. That’s where the equation becomes unique to each magician: coordinates on a sphere, woven into a time-space division, on an exponential level. It sounds simple. It is not.

There are several clusters of magicians that hang out together. As a rule, we don’t practice magic in public. There are still quite a lot of people who don’t understand magicians or magic. So when they see magic, or see a magician performing actual magic, the response can be very unpredictable. So, while it’s risky to perform magic in public, sometimes it’s also necessary.

Most magicians focus on solving a few big equations every year. This builds up our suite of tricks for common use. The more advanced magician also works on one huge equation to solve every year. Most magicians tackle the Top Five before the age of 15: fire, water, wind, teleportation to a secret place and teleportation to a group place. Individual preferences start to emerge between the ages of 15 and 20. Invisibility, animal transformation, language transparency, and lie detecting are just a few of the ones I’ve seen among my friends. I’m in my early twenties now. I mastered the Top Five before I was eight, and before I was 15 had a pretty healthy bag of tricks at my disposal. My friends think I’m on the same skill level as them. But I’m only keeping it from them to protect them.

So now you know the essentials of the world I live in, which pretty much catches you up to where I am now: hanging out with my friends at a local pub for our weekly Wednesday night trivia.

Our trivia team, “Rabbits In A Hat,” is made up of my magician friend group. Socket, as I mentioned, is my best mate since grade school. “Tierce” is a fiery red-headed elemental magician. “Wilde” is a dark complexioned girl who is an organic magician. Socket and I met Tierce and Wilde together a few years ago. They are very close and clearly best friends.

We use aliases because identity theft has become the next level of black market currency. Identities of young people like us are more valuable because there is less of a data profile history, making it more easily defrauded. So aliases are the best way for magicians to protect themselves. In fact, Tierce and Wilde haven’t even told us their last names yet, and we’ve known them for years.

Later tonight, we’ll meet our youngest member who we agreed to take on as a protégé. Clover is a non-binary prodigy. They will arrive via a teleportation spell from Ireland where magic and magicians are still illegal. They are coming to us as a refugee and is sponsored by Mage Lenoir on behalf of the Society of Sourcerors. This is a huge deal for the Society as they rarely get officially involved in international magical matters. One of Clover’s Top Ten is shape-shifting. I’m quite looking forward to meeting them.

Socket is a bit of a train wreck right now. This is his first outing since his little brother Damien went missing about a month ago. But Damien is like a little brother to us all. We were crushed to discover he was missing. We all searched for him for weeks. Their father was solving a time equation for his anniversary to their mom. He wanted to do something a little nostalgic, but he never told us exactly what or the exact equation he was working on. Damien was helping his dad with the equation, mostly just being present and offering moral support, sense an equation can really only be solved by the person casting the equation. Damien went into the kitchen to get them some refreshments, ten minutes later Damien still hadn’t come back from the kitchen. When Socket’s dad went to find Damien, he was nowhere to be found. The front door was still locked from the inside and there were no signs of forced entry. Everyone has been looking for Damien. My moms, Mage Lenoir, Tierce and Wilde. We are all devastated. But as crushed as we are, none of it compares to what Damien’s mother is going through.

Tonight is an attempt to get Socket integrated back into society—or at least get out of his apartment. But we also want him here to greet Clover when they arrive.

Clover has decided to maintain their alias for now, electing to withhold revealing their real name until they feel they can trust us. Given the circumstances, I completely understand.

As my name implies, I have cast an equation to document, in real-time the events that follow. The transcription is being performed in a grimoire held in my family’s magical lab.