It, or he, or whatever you wanted to call the being always referred to itself as The Magus. For obvious reasons, the scifi and fantasy nerds loved this. Within days of The Magus’ arrival, the fanfiction websites – along with other, less appropriate places – were filled with stories and art featuring this strange creature.
He said he had come to us in order to save us. Whenever he was pressed on what that meant, he became evasive and non-committal. He said he couldnt give any details. Or wouldnt. People speculated that he came from the future, that he represented a world for humanity in some vast and chaotic future. He is definitely humanoid, bipedal, arms, legs and head where theyre meant to be, but to call him human? For a start, he stands a little over seven feet tall. He has said, although I dont think he meant to, that he was slightly below average for where hes from. His skin is a sickly white, and most of his body is covered in an armour that he also refuses to explain. His eyes shine, literally shine, and the sockets for his eyes are encrusted with a red substance that he assures us is not blood.
In one hand he carries a staff that he says is traditionally cut from a tree that doesnt exist. How did he get it then, you might ask? Too bad, it is yet another thing he refuses to explain.
But its what is in his other hand that most people find fascinating about him. It makes them all overlook the other stuff. Its what makes him admired and respected and listened to when he should be treated with suspicion. At least for now.
In his other hand are two little glowing lights. He says this is his magic, and it is almost gone. He treats these glowing lights like animals. Like a symbiotic species, and for all we know that might be the correct assumption to make, because he just refuses to say any more about it. Aggravating, I know.
He says that he is here to save us. But he also said that he is here to save his magic. People think those two statements are unrelated. I think they are extremely related.
The TV had The Interview on loop all day. It was almost nauseating. The interview itself, such as it was, was only 15 minutes long. Someone had timed it too, by the way. Eight minutes and 45 seconds of the interviewer talking, four minutes of silence and two minutes and 15 seconds of The Magus speaking. All of which was abject refusal to elaborate on what he was doing here. How it became known as The Interview? I have no idea. I assume it was because the interviewer is some famous journalist known for hard hitting questions and refusing to accept substandard answers. That reputation didnt do much good here.
People much smarter than I have speculated on things for better reasons than I could ever think of. Im not a psychologist, at least, not really. Im not an anthropologist, historian or any other expert in any field that might help us understand The Magus.
The issue that I have is that everyone wants to talk about the magic, the little glowing balls of light that are always in his open right hand. But no one wants to explain them. No one wants to examine them – not that The Magus would let us, he did let slip that touching them would kill us dead – but Im beginning to wonder. He hasnt shown off this magic. He hasnt ‘used’ the glowing lights to do anything. He just says theyre magic and we just believe him. Ive seen a video that shows some random person making a one to one replica of The Magus’ armour, complete with staff and little glowing lights.
I tried reaching out to the creator to ask about his process, but I never got a reply. The video was also deleted pretty soon after. No one remembers it either. Someone said I got baited by CGI stuff. Which, sure, its possible, but that doesnt explain any of the other stuff, you know?
But, back to The Interview. Theres this part that is cut. Its become a bit of a meme, you know? Theres a question about the magic posed by the interviewer, he says:
“Is there any way we can do any sort of tests on your magic? Just so that we can say, for sure, that those things are what you say they are?”
Theres a cut right after he finishes speaking. Its subtle, and most people miss it while theyre watching. It took one of those YouTube video effects guys to see it. They did a frame by frame of the footage and its almost perfect, but theres four pixels that give it away. Now, I dont know anything about these things, so I have to take their word for it, but as soon as their findings were released, there was a massive scandal within the broadcast network that organised and ran the interview. People lost their jobs. The reputation of the interviewer was called into question. And, for once, suspicion was placed upon The Magus. After the revelation of the cut was uploaded and people realised what it meant, The Magus disappeared. Its been eight months and no one has seen him at all.
Ive been following the breadcrumbs. Theyre there, Im absolutely sure of it. My friends, family, coworkers, they all think Im losing my mind, but theres no way any of this is accidental.
Let’s start from the start. And assume that everything is as The Magus suggests. I know thats still a unfounded assumption, but just hear me out.
The Magus appears out of nowhere. He claims to be a saviour for humanity. He makes no representation of where hes from, and if you frequent certain forums, when he is from. He claims to have magic, but never uses it. He says that it has finite uses and he only has two things left. Whether that means two uses, or if its some other measurement is not explained.
Then there was The Interview, a waste of time. It told us nothing about anything, yet its held up as some big deal. They wanted us to watch it, they wanted us to find the cut. The scandal afterwards is just theatre. None of the announced firings were actually people who worked for the network. If you dig deep enough, if you dont just accept the face value explanation, you find more and more inexplicable things.
Now The Magus has disappeared. No one knows where or why.
What if this is what is meant to happen? Hes a saviour, hes come to help us. Which means he knows that something bad is coming and is here to mitigate it, or remove it. Something. Which means that time travel is possible, however unlikely. The lack of explanation for anything is so we dont alter the timeline that he is expecting. If this so-called magic is something we discover, scientifically, at some point between now and when he leaves to come back, then he cant help us with that. He cant tell us anything. That, to me, makes sense.
The interviewer asks about the magic, and The Magus proves it. He shows the magic to the people present in that room. They cut it for some reason and everyone who witnessed it was, I dont know, bribed? Silenced? Something, for sure.
The question becomes, then, is this still part of the timeline he knows? Or have we changed it somehow. Is he hiding because he needs to figure out what happens next?
Or … has he already played his part? Has he saved us? Has some little event within the time hes been here been enough to start a snowball effect that prevents whatever it was he was saving us from? I want to find out.
But I want to find out something else, as well. I want to find out about how he was going to save his magic. We dont have anything like that here. We can have little balls of light; LEDs are pretty ubiquitous these days. But we cant make them hover and move like his do. So, again, assuming everything he said was correct, how does he coming here, and how do we, knowing now what we do, help in any way with saving his magic, whatever that means?
Thats my question. Thats my goal. To find this Magus and ask him. Thats where I lose everyone. They ask me how Im going to get him to tell me, some random person, what he refuses to tell anyone else. But no one has asked him. Not really. Its like they come close, but at the last minute veer off course. They miss the actual question by asking something close to it, but ultimately not. I will ask him. Ive spent the last 18 months, ever since he started talking about his magic, working on the right way to ask the question. I just have to find him. Fortunately, I know exactly where to start looking: I know where he arrived.
It is nearly time. I can feel it. Soon, the truth will be revealed to them all. They will understand. They may not like it, but that is immaterial. These people with their short, pointless lives. They dont understand. How could they? They needed someone like me from the start. A guide. A North Star, as they say, to show them the correct direction to go. Look at them, out there. Wasting what has been given to them. Using their resources poorly. Misunderstanding their place.
In fairness, and I use that word loosely, they were forgotten about. They did not have the experiences they should have had. They did not have me. But that has been fixed now. It is only a matter of time before they are ready for my return and they will champion it. I will become the saviour that I have primed them to expect. At least they had that, in a sense, in their mythology. Many of them were already most of the way there. Ready for someone to save them. They may have still had that primitive idea of an afterlife, but no matter. They will accept me when I show them what my magic can do. All I need now is one little push.
The creature is approaching. The one who saw through everything. His tiny little mind is not ready. But it is ready enough. He will be my threat. He will be my sacrifice. The others will believe me. They will demonise one of their own and raise me up. They will be saved and then it will be time.
He stands within the door to my vessel. He looks directly at me. He is unarmed, but I can fix that. He came here to kill me. But instead he adds to me.
The Magus appeared on TV almost a year after disappearing. He explained that a terrorist attacked him. Claiming he was a fraud. The Magus said he was almost killed and had to defend himself. The video footage taken from his vessel, the first he had spoken of it, showed exactly what he said had happened and not a single video effects expert could show otherwise.
The Magus had been attacked and had been forced to defend himself and, as always, the ignored the magic. They ignored the three little glowing lights that floated in his open right hand.