Chapter 1: Welcome to Kalyug
Kailas Aneurin was lost. He was lost physically, mentally, spiritually. He'd failed as a magician, that much was clear. Magic had failed him, or he'd failed magic- it wasn't clear which was the case, and any way, it didn't matter. A normal life didn't typically involve so much trauma, let alone a magician's. And yet, that past decade and a bit had been almost a litany of suffering. Bereavements, multiple. A job where he'd had to deal with violent, disturbing cases, where he'd legitimately been in danger at times. Multiple diagnoses. Disability, genetic and acquired. Sports that he'd worked a lifetime to get decent at suddenly inaccessible due to medical problems. chronic pain, and surgeries yet to come.
And all this in the middle of political upheaval, rising disinformation, environmental collapse, and strange new technologies. The world felt out of joint, wrong, not what it was meant to be, like a guitar played out of tune, so far away from the sunlit joys of his childhood as to be another world. Perhaps, he thought, he should abandon magic. Commit to a philosophy of acceptance, like Stoicism or Buddhism, live a quiet, peaceful life, devote himself to doing good and hope for better in the next life, whatever that might entail. It was too late for magic, after all. The editing of probability was not enough to undo the damage suffered, or to allow him to feel free when his injuries made him feel so utterly trapped and helpless. He knew miracles were possible- they were documented, after all- but they happened when they happened, it seemed. They were for other people, not him. The happy child he had been was lost, far away in some other world and other time, and he, Kailas, in his early thirties, was a different man altogether. The hour was far too late for magic.
The grimoires on his shelf seemed to call to him. Would it be so terrible to give it one last shot? A waste of time, he thought. But then, what about the times it HAD worked? What about the owl experiment, where he'd dissolved the mental image of an owl around himself and owl images had shown up for days after? What about The Incident, and that THING, that Mind, that Intelligence, that had held him so safe in his despair and made him feel utterly and eternally safe? And after all, what IF time wasn't linear?
Kailas decided to perform one last act of magic. Only, this would not be a single act. This would be a magical campaign, a weaving together of past, present (or presence?) and future, evocation, meditation- and yes, the aforementioned philosophies, because who knew if it would work or not, and everyone needed a backup plan- especially the hurting.
It was late, but he opened his computer and wrote. He slept well that night, and in the morning, he was met with a glorious sunrise, and spotted a beautify flower he hadn't noticed before. It was gorgeous. He was filled with a new sense of possibility, and just a touch of wonder. It was time to begin. He would call on Raziel first.
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