The square had filled up gradually as word spread through town. Not everyone came; some were working, some didn't care, some were too tired or too nervous to leave their homes. But enough had shown up that the space felt fuller than any of the boys had expected. Maybe a few hundred people, spread across the open area in front of the Civic centre. Some sat in the chairs available while others stood in clusters, dotted about in front of the stage Mike had set up earlier. The evening light was starting to soften, casting long shadows across the war memorial.

  The stage Mike had built was simple but effective. A few wooden pallets stacked and reinforced, a mic on a stand powered by the generator they'd seen earlier. Behind it, positioned carefully so the crowd wouldn't be in the line of fire, was an old gym dummy from the fitness centre. No one seemed to notice it yet.

  The boys stood to the side of the stage, out of sight of most of the crowd. Lee could feel his stomach doing loops, anxiety about speaking in front of such a large crowd at the forefront of his mind. Paul looked calm, arms folded while Ste watched the crowd gather. Parmo kept bouncing on his heels with nervous energy. Liam stood at Lee's side.

  "Try not to worry dude. It's a lot of people but you'll be fine. People are going to be shocked over magic being real more than worrying about you stumbling over your words or anything like that. To these people, you're the guy who got magic to work first. They are going to see that when they look at you, not some bumbling idiot who doesn't know what he's doing, regardless of how much you think that's the case. It's not by the way. You're good man. You got this."

  Lee looked at his friend. "Cheers man, I appreciate it. I know its daft to worry about something like public speaking when there's bigger things to worry about. I'll sort it out." He smiled and nodded his head. Liam was right, he could do this.

  Mike stepped up to the mic. A few people noticed. Conversations started to tail off.

  "Right then," Mike said, his voice carrying across the square without needing to shout. "I know you all got word about magic being real. Figured we should talk about it properly rather than have speculation run wild."

  A ripple of nervous laughter moved through the crowd.

  "This morning, five of our lot went out to figure magic out. They noticed a message at the bottom of their status screen after they woke up, it was at the bottom of the bit about the adaptation being complete. What they discovered is, well its significant, to say the least. Magic is real. I know a lot of weird stuff has happened to us recently but this might be the strangest thing yet and it's something everyone here might be capable of." He paused, letting that sink in. "I'm going to let them explain what happened and what they've figured out."

  He gestured toward the stage.

  The boys walked out. Lee felt every eye on them instantly. His hands went clammy. He kept his eyes forward, looking over peoples heads rather than at them directly.Paul stepped up to the mic first, his posture was relaxed and his voice was steady.

  "Right. We spoke to Mike about this first thing this morning then headed outside the barricade on Murray Street," Paul said simply. "We wanted to try to figure out if magic was something we could do. We started with the idea of just trying whatever we came up with and then talking it out. See if anyone felt anything. Basically we tried to come up with stuff we had seen in games and tv shows. You know? Harry Potter shit. We tried different things, each of us trying to figure out how it worked differently. Nothing clicked." He pointed toward Lee. "Then Lee got it."

  Lee felt the crowd's attention swing toward him. He nodded, trying to look more confident than he felt.

  "Yeah," Lee said, stepping closer to the mic. His voice sounded too quiet. He cleared his throat. "I was just... thinking about every magic thing I could remember watching or reading. I went over books, films, different video game systems in my head. Just trying different things out mentally. My idea was to think of as many different things as possible while thinking about how those powers would feel to cast? You know what I mean? I think the thing that did it for me was thinking about that scene from Star Wars, where the Emperor fires lightning from his hands and he's all like 'UNLIMITED POWER'?"

  He looked at the faces in the crowd, some were nodding their heads, a grin on their faces. Others looked at him like he was a weirdo. He tried to focus on those who got what he was saying. Standing up here in front of everyone was hard. What do they know? He went back to his explanation.

  "And then something clicked. It wasn't just about knowing what I wanted. It was about what I thought the spell should actually look and feel like. I later realised it was also the emotion I was feeling when I managed to get it to work the first time. There's a bit in the magic tab about what you did to get it to work. Apparently being curious and excited played a part in it. So anyway, I visualized it, lightning, shooting from my fingers. And it happened."

  He held up his hand, and without thinking too hard about it, electricity danced between his fingertips. Not a huge display, just enough to prove the point. The crowd went completely silent.

  Ste stepped forward, giving Lee an out to step back.

  "What we realized," Ste said, "is that magic responds to intent, knowledge, and emotion all at once. It's not about learning spells from a book. It's about what you actually want to do, how you think about it, and how you feel when you're casting."

  He waited for that to register.

  "And then something happened that made it even simpler. A new tab appeared in everyone's UI. It's labelled as Magic on the tab. It catalogues spells you've cast and gives details about the spell you're looking at. And more importantly, once a spell is in there, you don't need to do the whole visualization thing again. You just think the spell and its name with intent to cast, and it happens. Instantly."

  Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Someone called out, "So once you've done it once you can just do it permanently? Anytime?"

  "Yeah," Ste confirmed. "Once you've figured out how to cast it the first time, it's locked in. Quick access after that. We're going to do some more investigation into whether or not there is any kind of limit on how often you can cast, if we have some kind of mana bar. That sort of thing. We'll pass on anything we find to Mike."

  Parmo stepped up as someone pulled the gym dummy forward. The crowd only just now noticing it. A few people shifted, realising what was about to happen.

  "I'm going to show you," Parmo said. He pulled up his Magic tab, thought about casting Snowburst at the dummy, then he raised his hand.

  A burst of slushy ice erupted from his hands, hitting the dummy dead centre. The impact left a crystalline coating across its surface, frost clearly coating the dummy. It was undeniably real.

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  "YES!" He shouted. "That's the first time that worked without me soaking myself."

  The crowd were once again shocked. Some looked nervous, others looked excited. Someone said "Fuck" under their breath while their grin got wider.

  Liam walked to the mic while people were still processing.

  "So yeah. Magic is real," he said, his voice cutting through the noise. "And it's not all that difficult once you get your head round how it all works. But I need to be clear about something; it's also dangerous. Not to the person casting, as far as we can tell. But to others if someone isn't careful or isn't thinking straight."

  He let that settle.

  "That's why Mike's going to be putting safeguards in place. Anyone who wants to try learning magic needs to talk to him first. He's going to help set up a safe practice space away from the main town where people can experiment without the risk of hurting others. And we're going to need experienced people, anyone who was in the military, the navy, emergency services; to think about helping with combat and general fitness training. We don't know what's out there, and we might need to be able to defend ourselves. There could be nothing and we are stuck on an island somewhere in the Pacific just waiting to be found, but it's still worth learning a bit about self defence and general fitness."

  Mike stepped up then, nodding agreement.

  "Well said. So yeah, that's the plan," Mike said. "We're not trying to keep magic secret or gatekeep it. We want everyone to have the chance to learn if they want to. But we're doing it carefully. The five of them have agreed to keep pushing their own understanding so they can figure out what else is possible. But they're not going to be teaching. That's going to slow down what they discover, and in the days ahead, that knowledge might be crucial. So once people learn to cast a bit of magic, I'm going to be looking for anyone who picks it up easily to help others learn. We all stand a better chance of making it day by day, if we work together."

  He looked out at the crowd.

  "Now, before we go further, we need to check something. Everyone here, please pull up your inventory."

  There was a moment of confusion, then people started accessing their UIs. Hands were raised, screens glowing faintly in the evening light.

  "Look for an item named starter item or magic seed," Mike continued. "Just... check if you have one."

  For a moment, nothing. Then slowly, hands started going up. More and more. Someone called out, "I have one!" Another person, "Yeah, I've got it!"

  The boys could see the realization spreading through the crowd. It wasn't just them. Everyone had this. Everyone could potentially do this.

  Lee felt something shift in the room. The nervousness on peoples faces was still there, but more and more, the look of hope and excitement was replacing it.

  Ste took that opening. "We think that seed is what unlocks the ability to cast magic. We had one, and after we figured out how to cast, it disappeared from our inventory. We think it's tied to magical potential. And if everyone has one..."

  "Then everyone can learn," Liam finished quietly.

  Mike raised his hands. "I know this is a lot so please, if you have any questions we can try to answer some."

  Hands shot up immediately.

  A woman near the front: "Can magic hurt us? Like, if we do it wrong?"

  Lee answered this one. "As far as we can tell no. I showed you all the lightning spell I have earlier. If my hand being coated in electricity doesn't hurt me I don't see why other magic would."

  An older man in the back: "How long does it take to learn? Days? Weeks?"

  Paul shrugged. "Honest answer? We don't know. It took us a few hours to figure out the first one. But we might be faster learners or just lucky. Could be different for everyone."

  Someone else: "You said other types of magic. Like what?"

  Ste fielded this. "We've got lightning, fire, ice, force, and control magic between us. But we're just five people. Earth magic seems likely, it'll be useful for farming and construction maybe. Water magic probably exists. Healing magic? We don't know, but it's possible. There's probably stuff we haven't even thought of yet. The magic we got was kind of based on what we were imagining at the time we managed to cast it. I imagine someone like a doctor who knows a lot about healing and how the body works is going to have an easier time of getting healing magic to work than the five of us."

  A younger voice: "You mentioned earth magic for farming? Like, to help crops grow?"

  That got nods from several people. Paul nodded. "Yeah exactly. That's the kind of thinking we need. Magic isn't just about fighting. It's about solving problems we've got. Eventually we might face food shortages. We're ok for now with the fishing we've got going on and the stuff we managed to get into storage. We haven't really started farming yet though. If magic can help with that, then that's huge. You've got to think, some of the tech that doesn't work any more, maybe we can find a work around for it with magic."

  More questions came. How long until people could try? (Soon, once the space is ready.) Can people combine spells? (Don't know, but we'll test it.) Does magic get stronger? (We think so, but haven't tested extensively.) Is there a limit? (Probably, but we don't know where.)

  The boys answered what they knew, speculated carefully on what they didn't, and were honest about what they had no idea about. The crowd seemed to appreciate that—not being treated like they were stupid, not being told everything would be fine, but being told the truth as the boys understood it.

  As the questions started to slow down, Mike stepped forward again.

  "This is just the beginning," he said. "We're going to learn more as we go. But what matters right now is this. We have something new that could be the x-factor we've been missing to really get our feet under us and thrive. It's something that could help us survive or at the very least make surviving easier. We're going to figure it out together, carefully, with everyone's safety in mind. That's the deal."

  He paused.

  "That's it for tonight. But thank you for coming. Keep thinking about this. If you want to learn magic, tell me. If you've got military experience or you're knowledgeable about fitness routines, anything like that really then let me know. Finally, if you see anything weird, hear anything concerning, let someone know. We're in this together."

  People started to disperse slowly. Some people had looks of excitement or anxiety on their faces while others looked thoughtful. But a lot of them looked like they were leaving with hope rather than fear.

  The boys stood to the side of the stage as the crowd thinned.

  "That went better than I thought," Parmo said quietly.

  "Yeah," Liam agreed. "I was kind of expecting people to act like we were taking the piss or to get all scared and act like we had a gun to their head or something."

  "That could still happen. We've got to be careful with it. If we manage to get a load of different spells people might start treating us like a threat. We have to make sure we tell Mike everything we learn and offer to pass it onto whoever ends up teaching people. That way it's not like we're the only ones with power and aren't seen as a cause for concern," Ste said, but there was no worry behind his words. More of a heads up than anything.

  Mike made his way over once most of the crowd had cleared.

  "You lot did good," he said. "People needed to hear it from you, the people who actually did it. Made it real for a lot of them. It wouldn't have been believable without proof for a lot of the folks round here."

  Paul nodded. "So we going back to the town border tomorrow then? Get a bit more practice in?"

  "Yeah that works for me. You're going to be our go-to guys on this sort of thing. Let me know what you figure out, I'll pass it about to the guys and girls who pick it all up fastest," Mike said. "Keep pushing, figure out as much as you can. But I need you to take something with you." He gestured toward a corner where a few items had been set up. "Weapons. Bats, machetes, whatever you feel comfortable with. It's just stuff we rounded up while moving food and stuff about for storage. We don't know what's out there in the wilds. I don't want you caught off guard."

  Lee felt a chill run through him at that. Right. They'd talked about wildlife being a potential threat, but it hadn't felt real until Mike was handing them actual weapons.

  The boys nodded and made their way over to grab what felt right. Lee picked up a bat. It felt familiar, something easy to use. Paul grabbed a machete while Ste took a hunting knife. Parmo hesitated, then grabbed a bat as well with Liam picking up a long metal bar, something with a bit more reach.

  They gathered back together, weapons in hand or being stored in their inventories.

  "Go home," Mike said. "Get some rest. Tomorrow, get yourselves back out there bright and early. And stay sharp."

  "We will," Lee said, and meant it.

  The five of them headed back through town toward their flat, the reality of what they'd started fully sinking in. They'd told the town magic was real. The town believed them. And now the clock was ticking on figuring out as much as they could before things got more complicated.

  By the time they reached the flat, the weight of the day had fully settled on them. But there was something else too—a sense that they'd crossed a line. There was no going back now.