Dracul and the gang

"Of course magic exists," Dracul said testily. "It's all around you. You just don't see it, because you expect magic to be all hocus pocus and dancing around naked and talking forsoothly. Which is a fun way to do it, of course, but it's just the outward show.

"What do you think infinity is? To start with it was just a word that meant 'endlessness,' and was used to describe God a lot. Endlessly powerful, endlessly knowing, endlessly loving, endlessly beardy, all that. Then, for a while, it was used to describe space and time, because we thought they were endless. We know better now, of course; space and time both had beginnings and ends. Still not sure about God, but that's a side issue. Infinity, to most people, just means 'so big it makes my head hurt.' It's a hot water bottle for the brain against the cold and dark of actual reality. There is nothing in the known, observable universe that is actually infinite. Theoretically infinite, potentially infinite, yes, but in actual hard fact everything, sooner or later, runs up against limits. Your fractal leaf patterns get down to the size of a plant cell and can't go any smaller. Actual infinity doesn't exist. Like the square root of minus one, like pi, it only exists, can only exist, in people's heads.

"And yet, once the clever buggers got hold of it, they managed to create an entire branch of mathematics around infinity, and from those numbers they have derived practical, real world applications which make a difference to all of us.

"And. That. Is. Magic.

"There's absolutely no difference between calling into being a non-existent number to help you build a computer, and calling into being a non-existent kobold to direct you to buried treasure. Magic, as the old Beastie said, is causing change to occur in the universe by the power of one's will, and the tool for that job is the human imagination.

"Why do you think computers are so capricious and bloody-minded? Because they depend for their function on entities we created from our imaginations to cause change in the universe by the power of our wills. Try yelling 'Rumpelstiltskin!" at your laptop. It won't make any difference, of course, but you might feel better about it."

Dracul and the gang 2

Across the room, Allie too was laying down the law to a group of intense young people in politically adorned t-shirts.

"Of course there's a consperacy," she snapped. "There's always a bloody consperacy. You just don't recognise it. You expect it to be guys in stchipid black cloaks and hats scuttling into a coal cellar with secret handshakes and passwords and all that shite. Or grey men in a boardroom in the sky using euphemesms like 'eleminate' when they mean 'murder.' That's just movie clichés.

"People are always trynae do each other down. Not everyone, or not everyone all the time, but somebody somewhere at any geven moment. For every ediot like us there are three who are looking for advantage and don't care how they get it. So that's going on all the time, right? And sooner or later somebody gets good at it, and they get money and power, which makes them better at it, 'cause those are the tools. And they carry on doing it, 'cause it's what they do best. And then they start to move in the cercles where people like them move, and they make friends, well not friends as we know it, but people they know. And sooner or later one of their 'friends' asks a favour, and they do it, and then they ask a favour back, and the other guy does it, and pretty soon you have this tight little group of very rich, very powerful people, all doing favours for each other and getting favours back. All of them hating each other like poison, none of them trusting each other one ench, but bound together by this network of favours. You advertise your cosmetics in my paper, I'll prent an article that makes your fracking operation look good. That kind of theng.

"There's no master plan, no beg map on the wall with red lights, no overall goal...but it is a consperacy just the same. A seedy, shabby, ramshackle consperacy to get through the next day without losing it all. And that's the mess we're in. And don't ask me how to fight it, 'cause I've no sodding clue...but recognising it seems to me like a pretty good first step."

In a nearby corner, silent and unnoticed, Frankie got out his tiny notebook and wrote down:

CONSPERACY

Spero = I hope.

Consperacy = people who hope together?

Join the Consperacy!

He looked at it for a long time, before putting the notebook away and heaving himself to his feet. It was a nice idea...but if Allie thought he was making fun of her accent he would be a dead man, and he hadn't finished his novel yet.

He went to find a drink.