A Magician's Legacy

Chapter 1: A Rainy Night of Light

It was the year 1999, in Napa, California. It was a cloudy night in the city, filled by only darkness and solitary lampposts.  The Napa Valley Opera House was about to have an opening performance from a legendary opera singer named-wait, no no no not that guy, I mean this guy: A failing, English magician named Frederick Despell, who is of advanced years and failing reputation. He wore a simple magician attire, he had tagged black hair with strands of white. However, behind his ragged appearance lies a kind, but lonely man. Frederick attempted to start off his performance by pulling a dove out of his cloak, to no reaction at all. Next, he attempted to guess the card an audience member he picked was holding, only to guess it wrong. Finally he tried to pull a tied handkerchief knot from one of his sleeves, but his dove accidently got its leg caught on the knot and flew away with it.

By now, the audience was fed up with the terrible magic tricks, and tried to get him off stage by booing and throwing food at him. Frederick was forced to run backstage to avoid the barrage of food thrown at him. However, when he retreated backstage, he came face to face with the manager of the opera house. He was clearly angry. "I thought you said you could perform actual magic", said the manager angrily as he marched up and grabbed Frederick's neck tie . "I'm sorry, sir, " said Frederick, "but I can't, you see I...''.

"Enough" said the manager as he lets go of the tie and shoves him. "Look, you are clearly not skilled at all to perform in my opera house, I am afraid I am going to fire you already". Frederick was shocked. "Fire me?, no, please, you can't do this. I need this job", and it's only my first day here. Just give me a chance". The manager seemed fed up. " I needed an actual magician who could do real magic, and you clearly are not one of them, this was a mistake, I am gonna apologize to the audience. He snapped his fingers and said, "Frank, you get this bozo out of here". A muscular security guard appeared and picked up Frederick with his bulky arms.

               "Wait no please!", said Frederick to the manager as he gets carried off by Frank. After reaching the exit to the opera house, Frank forcefully throws Frederick out on the street. He face planted on the sidewalk and stood up weakly, as Frank shuts the doors on him. "Well, you could have at least given me a chance to get my suitcase, before throwing me out like a ragdoll", yelled Frederick, but as he turned away from the exit, his suitcase came flying out of a window, next to the exit and hit him on the head, knocking him on the ground again. Cards, ribbon knots, and doves went flying all over the sidewalk. Frederick stood up weakly again and took a deep sigh before proceeding to pick his things.

                 "Why do I think it was a good idea to still use my terrible fake magic tricks? Maybe I should have used real magic after all, but I can't risk someone getting hurt because of how dangerous my real magic is", he thought to himself as he picked up his things and threw them into his suitcase. And just when he thought his bad luck ended, it started to rain as he closed his suitcase and picked it up. "Oh great, " said Frederick, "I don't even have an umbrella". Frederick had no choice but to try and look for a place to stay for the night, and began his walk while being miserably drenched by rain. Now I know what you've been thinking, if this story is about me trying to be the world's greatest magician, then why are we focusing on an old, failing magician, instead of me starting to achieve my dream. Well that's because he is very important to this story, you will see very soon enough on how he is.

                    Anyways, Frederick was on his way to find a hotel somewhere nearby, when he walked past a dark alleyway a few blocks from the opera house and heard a noise coming from the alley. Confused, he turned around and faced the entrance to the alley, and heard it again. "Was that crying I just heard" ? Frederick thought curiously,". He then looked around the street, to see if he was alone before proceeding to enter the alley to check the noise out. "Hello, is anyone there?", he said as he proceeded deeper. He then saw in the distance a single lamp post. The crying became louder as he approached the single operational lamp.

                    He noticed a box covered by an umbrella, right at the base of the lamp and approached carefully. Inside was a baby girl, dressed in pink crying while wrapped in a bundle of blankets. The baby had black hair and brown eyes. She was a beautiful American girl. Frederick was shocked, "A..A baby?!". The baby then proceeded to cry even louder, and Frederick didn't know what to do at first, so he tried to do the most logical thing: He dropped his suitcase and picked up the umbrella and the baby and tried to calm her down. "There, there it's okay", he said softly as he rocked the baby around only for it to suddenly stop crying. "Well that was strangely easy, he said, feeling relieved.

                      "What's your name, little one?" he asked fondly to the girl as he looked around the box for a name tag or something, only to find nothing. "You don't have a name, do you, " he said. How about... he said as he set his eyes around for a good inspiration for a name, his eyes ending at the single lit lamp overhead "How about Lucinda?, he said, as he grabbed the girl who was extending her hands and smiling at him. He chuckled and explained "It means light, because you my dear just lit up my world when it was in its darkest moments". Now you finally get it, the girl is me and the magician we've been focusing on was my master, and this is the moment when my story truly began.