Initial Overview Plot Summary
Our hero leads a fairly normal life. Then he discovers that he has
magic powers. He shows them off to his best friend, but his friend
thinks it's all an elaborate joke, so exacts his revenge.
Worried, Alf tells his parents who don't believe him, but then he
demonstrates. They're scared so advise him not to use his power. But
this is about the point where Alf really, really wants to because his
ex-best friend has gone around telling everyone that he's a psycho freak.
So Alf bides his time, then realises he can exact some revenge himself
discreetly. But he gets caught by the girl who lives across the street,
Jessica. A girl who says that he is a warlock and she should know since
she's a witch, and basically everyone in her family is. Her family is
very interested in meeting him since they'd always thought magic was
hereditary and couldn't discover a trace of it in his family tree.
So it appears as though he's a new breed of warlock. Magic in people
has been dying out in comparison to the whole boom in the world's
population in recent years. Witches and warlocks have always been
needed to maintain some sort of balance in nature and people. They
ferry souls from this life to the next, and ensure things like babies
being born healthily and that weather is right for plants to grow.
Science has advanced so that people don't need witches and warlocks as
much. In fact, nons (i.e. non-magical people) are becoming a force to
be reckoned with as they become more able to do what the non-nons have
always done.
The magical council is trying to think up ways for the non-nons to come
out to the nons, without any harmful sideaffects (i.e. witch burnings
and general prejudice) to show them that they're ruining the world. The
nons have grown so powerful that the witches and warlocks feel taht they
need to stop doing what they're doing in secret.
But this is where Alf comes in. he's developed magical powers despite
the fact that it's not in his genes. So the council, super-conservative
as they are, are thinking that maybe they don't have to come out because
their magical numbers are going to grow anyway. But now the the idea
has been planted, witches and warlocks of the less conservative variety
are tired of living a lie, and all want to come out. But that's
dangerous because you never know how people are going to react.
Alf comes up with the idea that instead of a massive coming out that
involved the high council and the leaders of the world's most populous
nations - who could put a political spin on their coming out and
completely ruin it - each person could come out to someone they trust.
Then once they got used to the idea, they could tell a few more people...
The obvious con to this idea is that it didn't work out for Alf and
Damien (the best friend). Damien who has meanwhile developed magical
powers of his own. And he wants nothing to do with the traditional
magic wielders. Instead he uses it to create money and do things for
his own gain.
So of course, there's a best friends cum rivals scene. The hero wins,
of course. Because that's what heroes do. There's an anti-climactic
battle, and they're back to being friends... though Damien wishes he
could just be normal again.
Rock, Jessica's cousin the bully, rushes up to the family declaring that
he's finally come into his magical inheritance. The family is pleased,
but don't see this as too strange because the magic is in his blood.
It's not unheard of for it to be a bit latent.
Meanwhile, the council people have seen what happens when someone not
raised as a magic person comes into their power - they can start using
it for less worldly purposes. This means that if this continues, they
might have a crisis even if they don't followe the political route.
Two magi-scientists turn up, wanting to examine Alf, and to a lesser
extent, Damien. It turns out that they're not as magical as they thought.
Over the years that Jessica's family has been living there, they've
always siphoned off any excess magic from illnesses into the land,
believing that it would just be absorbed and put to good use. Since
all three boys live nearby, over the years their bodies have been
lapping up the magic. it's unlikely to happen anywhere else in the
world since magic folk haven't lived anywehre else long enough and no
other family is likely to have that concentration of magic required...
at least, not for a few hundred years, and by then it's likely to be
everyone.
So the boys have to come to terms with the fact that they will
eventually lose their power - because it's just going to get used and
not replenished. But everyone nearby has to be warned. So their town
is the pilot for the rest of the world, it all goes okay and they live
happily ever after. The end.
posted by Cedric @ 11:05 pm
