Finally, it was decided that a group of 1000 colonists would gather all necessary supplies and head south, clearing a path through the First River Forest. They finished their trek in early 224, and it took a year to set things up enough to call their new home a village. They named it Tonad.

Among the settlers were two spirit-talkers, and a church was among the first buildings established in Tonad. It was decided to start a tradition, that anytime a new village was founded, two spirit-talkers would go along.

When things were running smoothly and everyone was well settled in, a delegation was sent back to First Village to report the success. They returned to Tonad a few months later with new supplies to sell and/or trade, as well as several new colonists. There would in the coming years be trading parties going between the two villages at least once a year, but little other contact.

"Hey, Jess," he said, "I've just had a thought."

"What's that?"

"God can do many things that humans cannot, and so can spirits."

"This is just occurring to you?"

"No, see. Think- how can they do these things? God created the Universe with certain natural, scientific laws in place. You would think anything he was capable of doing would work within those laws, wouldn't you?"

"Perhaps."

"So, what sort of laws govern these powers, these superhuman powers? Things that seem like... what's the word?"

They thought for a few minutes. They were both, as most people now were, followers of religion. (There was of course only one religion in the Land, so that's all they called it.) Religion dictated that any words that would ever need to exist were in humanity's collective unconscious from the beginning of time, and that as soon as the concepts they represented were conceived, whoever conceived them would be able to think of the word. And when that person told the word to others, they would understand what was meant automatically. It had begun, apparently, with the word 'religion'- at least, that was the first documented case. But it was generally supposed that it had happened without anyone noticing or paying much attention to the phenomenon, any number of times before that. It had certainly happened several times since then, and Murray and Jess were trying to think of a new word now.

"Ah, I have it," said Murray. "Magic. They do things that seem like magic."

"Of course, yes, that's it. Magic."

"Now, here's my point. We have access to the same natural laws that God and spirits do. And that word, magic, come to think of it, seems to me it applies to things humans could do, too, if only they knew how."

"You're right. My God, do you think we could figure out how to do some of those things? Would it be... sacrilegious even to try?"

"Perhaps we should talk to a spirit-talker about that," suggested Murray.

And they did.

"Magic, you say? Hmmm. Interesting. I don't know. I'll try to talk to some of my spirits about that. Come back another time, and perhaps I'll have something to tell you."

Over the next week, the spirit-talker, Sol, talked to spirits he knew, most of whom were followers of Lucifer. There was in the Land's religion no real distinction between spirits of God and of Lucifer. People took anything any spirit said at face value, as none of them ever bothered to contradict anything another spirit had said.

Every spirit he talked to told him it would be acceptable if human beings wished to study magic. Sol told this to Murray and Jess, and to anyone who came to talk with him over the next few months. He also talked with First Village's other spirit-talkers about magic.

In late summer, Murray, Jess, and Sol organized a group of villagers who wished to become magicians, and they set off to settle a new village for themselves. They went first to Tonad, and talked with villagers there, including a number of spirit-talkers, one of whom joined the settlers. Others from Tonad also joined them, and they headed west.

They cleared out an area of forest on the coast of First Land, and began building Sorret in January of 271, and finished in the middle of the year. When everything was in place, magical studies began, sometimes with the help of spirits. Progress was slow at first, but after a few years, the villagers of Sorret could do a few simple bits of magic. As the years and generations went on, more and more was learned, and Sorreters became more and more powerful in their magic...

All contents of this site © David A. Ward