The Magick

Let me tell you a story

There is a pool high in the mountains, fed from a stream that comes out of the cliff face
and then vanishes back into the crevice in the rocks
No one knows its source
nor where it goes later
for there is no river that comes from this side of the mountains, no lakes that might be fed from this stream, no way to meet the river in the valley, either

But the family that lives high in the mountains knows of the stream
and of its magick
and when one comes of age, one may, if one chooses, go there of a night and bathe in it
and it is said that the magick of the stream will make you what you are meant to be
but the results are not, please understand, what you WISH to be
monsters have been birthed from this pool
the pain, they say, is indescribable
but they do try to describe it
flesh and bone being rend and rewritten
reshaped

Sometimes it is a little thing
a few bones around the eyes, perhaps, which signals much greater changes within
most often the body emerges greatly changed
and occaisonally they do not survive

The people of the high mountains say it is better to be changed greatly on the outside, because when the pool changes your body, the YOU that remains is untouched
when the body remains, the mind, spirit and soul can be corrupted, and no one knows what changes have been wrought within

But then, the advent of SCIENCE!

Man's need to understand all things
Man's need to control all things
and tamper with things that should be not tampered with



Picture, if you will, a village in a valley
and halfway up the mountain, a few shops and homes
the hill people
there are always hill people

this valley opens to the ocean in the.... whether it is east or south or west is of no consequence, but the ocean fog rolls in some mornings, and during spawning season seals and sea lions come up river to feast on the fish
up on the cliffs is a house on stilts, a shop of curios
they have gems and talismans... but most famously they have taxidermy
and some of the creatures seem to be horribly mutilated things, afloat in vinegar and formaldehyde

things that might have been human, once

This shop is failing
many of the businesses are
And then one of the boys comes to school with a new pet
let's call him Cooper, that is his name, after all,
and he brings with him a sea lion
            --- go ahead and pet it, it's quite docile---
completely tame
such a thing should not be tamed
cannot
but he has done it
And his friends gather round in excitement, and children he doesn't know gather round in excitement, and popular children gather round in excitement
and the teachers whisper amongst themselves

The source of his new powers is revealed to be the pills that his grandfather manufactures, the owner of the curio shoppe halfway up the mountain
Pills that allow you to change yourself
anything about yourself

Cooper has made himself so that all animals will obey him

There is a girl who does not wish to be as she is anymore, not a girl, exactly, very nearly a woman, and she goes to the old man and they talk, and he tells her that to be unafraid, to be brave, and confident, and all the things she wishes, she must change 2/3 of her internal self
and he gives her the pills to do so

Suddenly the Curio Shoppe on the mountain is doing a very brisk trade indeed
but strange things happen all across the village
for this is not the magick of old, that formed you into truer virtue
this is weilded by man, and man is unweildy

Strange things are happening
Electric devices cease to function
Time moves in jumps, or lulls to a standstill
People are seized by powerful and often wildly innapropriate desires
a woman might seduce her sisters fiance
and then tear out his hearts and devour it
and it has all gone too far

one night there is a burglary
The little curio shoppe on the hill is broken into
and all the pills, and all the makings of the pills
are taken
the strangeness of the town dies down, slowly
things return to very nearly normal

But then it becomes stranger by tenfold, and all overnight

a young couple had stolen the pills, and, not knowing how to destroy the magick within, had flushed them away
which in of itself had not been a bad idea
save that the wastewater fed to the ocean
and it had begun to rain

The young couple went to the old man and asked him what to do
they confessed their theft and begged for his help
he laughed and wept, and nodded solemnly
for recall, the source of this magic, the stream in the high mountains?
They must offer something to it
as it was meant to be

and the lovers run there
but others, who like this new power, and do not wish it gone, want to stop them
the lovers strip their clothes and wade into the water
the rain is pouring down and already they can feel it
their skin warps and crawls
they cannot stand to have the other look at them
they cannot stand to be apart
so instead they stand
back to back
and their flesh warps and crawls
and their bones warp and crawl
and maybe it takes hours and maybe only minutes

there are no young lovers anymore

there is only a new god
a god of balance
and of love
and of middle grounds
a perfect androgyne of man and woman mixed
a god with beard and breasts and four arms
and no matter where you stand this god is facing you
perhaps because they have two faces
or perhaps it is the magick and science mixed, and like the atom on gold leaf, the face will be wherever you observe it

The pool never formed monsters
only gods
strange gods
and now, the first god it has forged in millenia
the most powerful
will bring peace to the valley again.