Paths to Nowhere

Prologue

A great wheel stood there, unmoved since the beginning of time in its dark expanse of the universe. There it would stand forever and never turn. Waiting. Hearing. Watching. Whispers and messages from all across the universe culminated here, but no voice loud enough or light bright enough could stir it from its slumber.

That would all change soon enough. The wheel knew this all too well. It knew this since its subsequent birth with the universe. It knew this from the very moment the chaos of creation died down. It was not one to question, however. It knew this moment would come. It knew the desires of what would be its first visitor. It knew, especially, that there would be strife one way or the other. If it had acted on its own terms, perhaps much could have been avoided. It was a thought that ran across its conscience at every moment. But it had no purpose other than to serve, to deliver. It had no other purpose but to stand.

Listening, hearing, and waiting for the universe’s death.

Chapter 1 - Theft

“So, what’s the damage?”

The gruff rat stood behind the monitors, several guards down on the street putting up a barricade in front of the museum. Why in the hell was it always museums? Arthur missed the days when magic was just barely discovered by the mass populace; when people would just hold hostages or rob banks. Thinking about it, there were several good old days that he had kept in the back of his mind, when he was a young guard mage, getting sent out on top secret missions and getting to see so many exciting places. There was always something new for him in each and every single one of his former assignments, whether it be a new locale or even learning new forms of magic. Some of them were pretty harmless for the most part, just crazy “voodoo” or hacks at finding the cure to cancer (maybe that last one isn’t completely harmless). Indeed there were some that he took the time to learn himself. You had your standard control of the elements, made back in the day when humans became fascinated with the idea of a new renaissance of power.

Then you had entire evolutions of that basic form, going right down to learning how to control the makeup of single molecules at a time. While it didn’t sound like much at first, the applications were enormous, and humanity had boomed. There was nothing that it couldn’t discover now, leaving no stone unturned. Cures were found, problems were solved, and humanity advanced farther than it ever had in such a short time.

Nowadays it was a completely different story. It had only been sixty years, and the novelty of it had all but worn out, at least to Arthur. He used to be excited when a new form of magic was discovered through the basics, like how electricity could be controlled and morphed into an abundant, free energy source that delivered power to millions. Now the only thing that came to his mind was how quickly the novelty of it all would wear itself. There was nothing in this world that didn’t have some form of magic to it. Even simple things like a damn bag of chips had some new spell that would guarantee “satisfaction,” to put it lightly. It was almost enough to make Arthur regret his ability. If he didn’t choose a career path that didn’t involve protecting the people, he would have given up magic entirely.