Harnessing Magic

Chapter 1

“If we work harder. We can achieve our goal! Let’s control that magic!” The patrolman at our school preached to an auditorium of bored, uninterested teenagers.

Annie nudged me and smiled, whispering, “How hot is that patrolman?”

I rolled my eyes, “I guess so, but are you listening to his speech? It’s riveting stuff” I smiled sarcastically.

“He doesn’t need to talk. Just sit and look pretty.” She giggled jokingly, but I knew if anyone could land a good-looking older man, Annie would be the one.

Fifteen more minutes of the M-men telling us how important finding the magic would be for our cause in the war effort and they finally released us from school for the weekend. Everyone groaned thankful for it to be over. We’d only heard their speeches the first Friday of every month since we were five. At this point I wasn’t sure if their tactic of bombarding us with boring assemblies about the importance of magic really made anyone care any more about the ‘cause’ as the leaders dubbed it. No one really fought in the war anymore anyways. Leaders simply got together and argued about events that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago and vowed to wipe out the others if they got their hands on the magic first.

Magic used to rule our world. It’s remnants can be seen all over, from the sparkle that lines the leaves on the trees to the energy flowing from the flutter of a bird’s wings, and it just happens to be the most beautiful phenomenon people can see in their lives. Maybe that’s why the darkness in the world is so frustrating or why our leaders ferociously seek a way to bring the magic back. The issue is, no one knows where it went or how to get it back. Nearly a thousand years of research and experiments with no success isolating the magic in the world and harnessing it have left people with no more desire for it. My abuela told me our people didn’t even deserve magic and that’s why it’s gone.

Every child is taught the legend of magic. The details are manipulated depending on where in the world you reside, but the story remains basically the same. I remember my first-grade teacher, Mr. Applebaum telling us the story as we sat on the rainbow carpet. He said, almost thousands of years ago our world thrived because of magic and I mean we had everything and anything a person could imagine. It powered all civilizations and had a presence in every aspect of life. However, as time went on, the stronger sorcerers began to contend for power, each one of them wanting more. Manipulating the magic became a high priority as everyone wanted to harness the most. This created ripples in the world which split with every major magical event.

Eventually, the most powerful of sorcerers collided causing a catastrophic event. It was so big, no one could ever find the bodies, but the 50ft crater that remained signaled the start of the darkness. Civilization never experienced a world without magic, but we found a way to press on, a fire to find the magic again burning inside everyone. Now that fire is slowly dying out and what little endures is kept alive only by our leaders.

To hear my parents talk about the situation makes it seem like some truly believe we can get the magic back again and some don’t. My parents don’t even really talk about it, but instead they argue.

“Joshua when are you going to get it through your thick skull that we aren’t intended to possess magic. Not after what we did to it… to our world. It’s disgusting.” My mom stirred a glass of wine around in her hand, an irritated look on such a beautiful ageless face.

My father would never back down from stating his opinion, even if we had heard it over and over, “I’m not sure why you keep saying we? Were WE there Saundra? Did WE cause this?” He looked like he was waiting for her to say yes or no. Which she didn’t.

She continued her rant, “I’m just saying, billions of dollars every year get spent….no no not spent, wasted on this research and where are we?”

He shook his head, “Look outside, tell me you don’t see the shooting stars tracing glowing lines across the sky. Tell me you can’t feel the tingle in the breeze from the magic that’s still there. And we aren’t supposed to have magic? Oh c’mon you know that’s hooey.”

“Ya been watching too much of that propaganda they spew all over the television. Forget magic, can we just make sure our people have enough food and water? And the rolling blackouts because we need the power for the research effort. It’s almost criminal.” I’m not sure who’s side I agree with, I honestly just wish the arguing and fighting from everyone would stop.

My father stood, finishing his glass of wine and heading to the kitchen, “well when magic comes back to us, I don’t want to see you first in line to get some.” He smirked, his dark face was full of kindness, even when arguing.

He began washing the dishes, as I finished clearing the table from the tasty dinner my older brother Miles helped prepare. My mom wrapped her arms around my dad’s powerful upper body. He twisted around to grab her by the waist and lift her into a warm embrace, their lips locking and then gracefully letting her back down.

I adored that my parents could disagree and still have so much love for each other. It was refreshing after hearing about the world’s leaders' constant bickering with one another.