M a g i c ‘ s n o t r e a l

The day is hot. No one is bothered to go anywhere or do anything, we lounge around on couches all day, playing games and sleeping.

"Its so hot," Matthew whinges.

"Cause I'm in here," I joke.

"Totally," Lucas mutters. "Want me to turn the aircon up?"

We all murmur agreement so he drags himself off of his couch and presses a few buttons to make the room colder.

"Ahhh. That's better," Matthew sighs. We all lean back into the pillows, finding the cold places, and close our eyes.

We sit around for a while, then Lucas rouses us by asking if anyone wants anything cold.

"We've got ice cream," he says, and everyone is alert, glad for something to fill our by now hungry stomachs.

"Why don't we do something?" I suggest after we've eaten and been refreshed. "We've been sitting around for half the day. Literally."

"That's what holidays are for," Casper says.

"Yeah, so we've done that for six hours, now let's do something else.���

"No, we're saving energy for the all-nighter tonight."

"I don't think you'll manage. C'mon guys," I turn to the others.

"She's right," Lucas says.

"How come you always side with her now Lucas?" Mia asks.

"I don't. But I don't feel like sitting around all day."

"Fine then. You two go do something. Alone," Mia says.

My eyes flicker quickly to Lucas. "Fine. Why not," he says.

"Show me where you hid yesterday," I grin. He looks at me. "Let's go."

As we walk out of the room, we exaggerate our every touch to annoy Mia and Casper, then walk side by side as Lucas takes us through his manor.

We walk comfortably in silence, and I look at the manor more closely than I normally would.

"Why are there suits of armor?" I ask, paying attention to them for the first time. They are standing upright every five metres or so, with scabbards and real swords at their sides.

"This is an old house. They were probably used back during wars or whatever. You've seen them before, why are you only just paying attention to them now?"

"Dunno, never thought about them much before."

I examine the painting on the walls, old philosophers frowning down at us, young women dressed finely in clothes, young men smiling at them flirtingly. All the banners have some kind of crest on them, most I don't recognise. On closer inspection, I find that some of them are the school's motto and crest, and each of the separate houses. Serendipity with its sphinx, Fortune with its unicorn, Zemblanity with its dragon and Fate with its griffin. Others I don't recognise, crests of old houses who used to live here. I notice five main ones though, they stand out and are the most colourful and are very detailed - a black cat curled around a vial filled with a purple liquid, a lion standing over a thick sword, a jay perched on a small green branch, a furry rabbit crouching down, and finally a black dragon guarding a crown. There are words on each one, but I can't make them out because they are written in an old language, in a strange font.

Lucas suddenly stops and opens a door that I wouldn't have noticed if he didn't point it out.

"Through here."

"Did you hide in here?" I ask.

"No, a bit further," he takes us through the room and into a door on the side, closes the door behind us then sits down on one of the chairs.

It is a small room, nothing in it except for chairs. A lot of chairs.

"Huh. Strange room," I say.

"Yep."

"Why all the chairs?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. Like I said earlier, this house is old, really old, so it has been used for a lot of weird things. I think this room was used as some kind of a holding place for people, I don't know if you saw out there but through another door was a courtroom, so instead of waiting outside, people would sit here and wait. The doors are soundproof so they couldn't hear what was going on."

"Oh."

We sit quietly, then I ask, "Didn't you get bored, waiting here?"

"Nah, not really. I had a lot to think about."

"Such as?"

He winks at me. "Guess."

"Yeah, I dunno if I want to guess anymore."

"Nothing bad," he chuckles.

I lean back on my chair, and then sit back up.

"This is like, the most uncomfortable chair I have ever sat on," I say.

"Uh-huh."

We head back to the others, and they are still lying down, but now they are stuffing themselves with junk.

"Back so soon?" Mia joshed.

"Yeah, miss us?"

"Nope," Matthew says.

"How was it?" Casper asks, a glint in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Lucas asks.

"The… date."

Lucas blinks. "That was not a date."

"You realise we only walked around the house," I say.

"What did you talk about?"

"The house," I shoot back.

"Ugh. You guys are so boring."

I roll my eyes. "Too bad."

We relax for the rest of the day, and we go back to the mattress room for the night. Everyone quickly falls asleep, but I can't. The room I found is in my mind again, and I'm wondering, there was something different about this courtroom, different from the one in town. I sneak out of the room, surprised that I actually managed it. I go through the halls again, try to find my way, and somehow, by sheer luck, I find the room I hid in yesterday.

I go down through the steps, and emerge in the room. I go over to the bookshelf and pick up the biggest one. I blow the dust off of the spine and cover, and the title is

'A History of Magic'

Magic? Magic's not real. Duh.

I take the book anyway, and walk over to the other side of the room to test my weight against one of the armchairs. It holds, so I sit down and open the book.

'Before you start, you need to know something. Magics ARE real, but they don't show themselves much in society, instead of creating worldwide havoc they opted to keep themselves hidden, which makes sense. However, if you open this book, you will unlock all of their secrets, everything you could ever know. This book could break you. Your friends could be hiding their secrets from you, your family, their thoughts. Read at your own risk.'

I pause for a moment, but then I decide to read further. Magic's not real. The author's just lying. Right?

'Long ago, further back than you can imagine, there was magic. The magical world was known by all, and humans didn't fear it. Instead, they learnt from the magics and were taught how to get along with them. Everything was in harmony. However, one day, the king's brother became jealous. Aldrich, his brother, was such a good ruler. He was wise, powerful, and everyone loved him. He, Lucifer, was the forgotten brother. The one viewed as someone who was a danger to life. He plotted for many days, and when the time was finally right, he took action. Gathering all his supporters, which surprisingly was a solid amount, he overthrew the king and sent him down into the dark Pit of Despair where they kept the worse criminals. It was pitch black down there, and everyone there stumbled around as long as they lived, doomed to an eternity in darkness. So the king had no way out. The king's wife, Angelica, was heartbroken, as if someone did manage to get out, their minds were broken, driven mad. So she died from grief, and Lucifer threw her body down the pit. Finally, their children, Aviania and Alexa. Alexa, the younger one, grew to love her uncle, and she joined the dark side with him, willing to do anything if only it meant she could rule, at least for a while. People would remember her name. Aviania however, protected her people, and sent all humans back to Earth. Arcadia, the magical world, was closed, the portal broken, and humans lost all contact with the magics. However, a few of them remained on Earth. No one knows what happened on Arcadia, but on Earth, the magical families evolved, hiding their powers because humans had learned to fear it. The Cyfrins, the Agnis, the Kismets, the Shruti and the Orions were the main five. All magics have immortality, and some kind of magic, however, the Kismets specialised in Healing, and the plants and magics that came with it. The Agnis were the animal ones, being able to speak with them better than any other family. The Shruti were the potions ones, being able to make any potion ever. The Orions were the war ones, being able to defend and attack however they wanted. Finally, The Cyfrins were all of these mixed together, the most magical ones, being able to do anything and everything they wanted. These were arguably the most powerful.'

Cyfrins? But… Cyfrin Manor. The name of the Cyphers' house.

What?

I was so confused, did they just copy the name cause they liked it or for some other reason.

And I couldn't just ask them about it, confront them about their family in their own home. No, I have to keep this to myself.

I had closed the book, so I reopened it to another page.

'The Devil's Demon is tattooed into every single one of Lucifer's followers. It marks them as different from others, and it is there so they can distinguish followers from non-followers.'

I look down and there is a picture of the Demon. It is tattooed into a follower's right upper-arm. It looks like a cross between a serpent and a dragon, long fangs, spikes adorning its back, a scaly belly. Two twisting ragged horns on its head, slanted eyes, flaring nostrils. It has two wings, and no legs. I stare for a while longer, horrified by what I'm seeing. I close the book when I can no longer look at it, and rush to put it away as if having the tattoo was contagious.

I stand there for a while, scared out of my wits, but then I snap myself back into reality. For a second at least, because my thoughts keep drifting back to the photo and what I'd read. I think back to one of the most famous questions in our little town's game.

Magic is real. True or False?

...false.

Isn't it?