Chapter 1

Characters appearing in the first two chapters:

Leila

Homeless girl, 5'-4" tall, 115 pounds, 34D-22-34, 18 years old, long lustrous black hair, gray eyes, terribly cute, huge Talent

Thomas Patrick O'Connell

Professor of Magic, 5'-10" tall, 160 pounds, 28 years old, auburn hair, green eyes, quite handsome

I was staying in Boston for Samhain this year. I wanted to see how the Boston Council was celebrating it now. Samhain occurs at the same time as Halloween, but is a much older Celtic celebration. It marks the end of the season of Light and the beginning of the Dark season where the days are shorter and the nights are longer. It also marks the Celtic New Year which begins on the first of November. It is believed to be a time when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest and communication with those departed is possible. It is a holiday celebrated with much partying and merriment. Unfortunately, I missed it. I met Leila instead!

Who am I, and why am I telling this story you may be asking. An introduction is in order. I am Thomas Patrick O'Connell, and I am currently a visiting Professor at Boston University. I teach the Magic PhD program there, but I am not the Head of the Department of Magic.

The Masters and PhD program of the Department of Magic comes under the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. The position of Head of the Department is currently filled by a New Englander. He is a Master Level Sorcerer not a Senior Master as I am. He made Master Level by the skin of his teeth since he has basically a 'strong Third Level' Talent, and the testers for the Boston Magic Council, where he tested, aren't as rigorous as those from the Otherworld are.

He cannot, therefore, teach the PhD course because he isn't qualified and is unable to perform the spells required. I was hired to teach the PhD course, but there are few students in their PhD program, and I wound up teaching a lot of the Master Level classes. It really galled many in the school's administration to have to hire a Southerner, and an O'Connell at that, to run their PhD program for them. You see, I don't live here in cold Boston or anywhere in New England. I still live with my Parents at their house in the O'Connell Realm and transfer here on the days that I teach.

Why, you may be wondering, would I continue to live with my Parents in the O'Connell Realm while teaching in Boston? Allow me to acquaint you with a few facts about the world of 2098.

First and foremost the glaciers are back! That's right! Glaciers, as in Ice Age in size and numbers of glaciers. At this time, they already cover a large portion of Canada, and there are also a growing number of glaciers in the various mountains of New England and out west here in North America.

"What happened to Global Warming?" you may ask.

That was nothing more than a ploy developed by communists, socialists, and far left radicals that was pushed by certain politicians in various countries for financial gain, and to redistribute the wealth of western countries. They quickly changed their tune to 'Climate Change' when the cold weather started showing up, and their pitiful excuses wouldn't hold water even with their believers. It was pretty apparent by 2030 that there wasn't then and never had been any significant 'Global Warming'.

"But what about all of the computer models that showed it?" you ask.

You can make a computer produce any results you want by asking it the right questions. When real scientists started looking at the actual historic data, it was evident as far back as 2013 what was happening. At least it was evident to everyone but the radicals.

The start of an Ice Age and the return of the glaciers have brought about a lot of changes. There are changes in the weather patterns all over the world. The monsoons in the Pacific and those that covered much of India and Southeast Asia have been greatly reduced. This caused a sharp decline in agricultural production in those areas.

Parts of Africa and the Sahara Desert now receive significantly more rain and food production there is on the rise. Here in North America, winters start earlier and last longer, giving a shorter and dryer growing season. Winters are colder, snow falls are deeper, and storms more frequent.

All of this has led to many changes in our society. Houses are now much better insulated. Water is more expensive, so is fuel – natural gas and petroleum products. Coal is back in style as a heat source.

"What about the carbon footprint of coal and the dirty atmosphere that it creates?" you ask.

It seems that a part of the severity of the current Ice Age and the glacier problem in this Reality is a result of the reduced input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It keeps things warm. Without it, or because there was less of it thanks to the Global Warming scare, the atmosphere grew cooler and winters longer and colder.

Wind power is as dead as the many thousands of birds that the turbines killed over the years. The winter winds and the sudden storms of summer, which spring up with little or no notice, beat the giant windmills to death. Nuclear power plants and solar power are taking their place, but only in stable southern latitudes that aren't expected to be subject to the glaciers unless this is a much worse Ice Age than the scientists expect. If it is, mankind will be reduced to such an extent that electricity wouldn't be of any use to him anyway.

Boston, located in New England as it is, is now significantly colder than it used to be. It is also more crowded, since many of those Canadians displaced by the glaciers have moved south to New England and other northern states. Taxes have also been increased substantially to defray the costs associated with the longer, colder and snowier winters.

Naturally with all of these changes the environmentalists screamed and hollered. Fortunately, the various affected species weren't paying attention to the environmentalists. They were doing their best to either adapt or move to areas where they could survive. It was finally pointed out rather forcefully to the environmentalists that this was Nature at work, and that the species they were so concerned about would either adapt or die out to be replaced later by more adaptable species.

All of the water that was accumulating in the various glaciers had to come from somewhere. It was coming from the oceans of the world. Sea levels had consequently dropped and were already several feet lower and were expected to drop even further as the Glacial Period continued. North America wasn't the only place where there were glaciers growing. There were the northern countries in Europe and Asia like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Siberia. New Zealand was having problems with their glaciers as were parts of southern Africa, and some of southern Australia and South America.

Of course, all of this ice and pure water presented new opportunities for entrepreneurs. There were people drilling into glaciers everywhere to remove cubic miles of ice and melt it back into useable water. This worked well during the summer time, but came to a halt during the now harsh winters for a lack of an inexpensive way to melt the ice. There were talks of creating giant mirrors in orbit to reflect sunlight to locations where they could melt the ice for water year round, but this hadn't been accomplished yet.

The area around Statesboro, Georgia is still relatively warm although the winters there have grown colder in the last sixty years, and that is why I remain there in the O'Connell Realm. But enough of these inconsequential matters. Allow me to tell you about how I met Leila.

I left my office in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences building at 705 Commonwealth Ave. just after 5:00 PM on the 31st (Halloween) after correcting test papers. It was just a-half hour before sunset on a rather cold and blustering October day. I intended to have dinner near here in the Allston area before transferring to the area near the 'Burren' on Elm Street in Somerville to see how the Irish there were celebrating the holiday. Were they celebrating Halloween, Samhain, or perhaps a combination of the two?

Since it was so close to sunset, I transferred past Commonwealth Avenue and the Turnpike, and began walking along the streets in Allston looking for someplace to dine that I hadn't tried previously. I passed several places before really noticing that there were a number of homeless people out in the area panhandling. I was so intent on observing what they were doing that I practically walked right into the young woman without seeing her.

"Please, sir. Would you have any spare change?" she asked in a quiet voice. I was startled and came to an abrupt halt. The young woman in front of me now appeared to be about 5'-4" tall discounting the fuzzy hat that she was wearing. Her long black hair was gathered on the right side of her face covering her right eye. She had on a long woolen coat that came down to well below her knees. It was faded and had seen better days. She also had a scarf that emerged from the front of the coat and hid a part of her lower face. She appeared to be very soft spoken, and certainly didn't appear to be much over eighteen years old, although from what I could see of her, she was very cute.

"Why do you need money?" I asked.

"To buy food, sir," she answered, but didn't look directly at me.

"I won't give you any money to buy drugs with," I told her. "Are you homeless?" I demanded after that.

"I need to buy food!" she answered in a voice rising to near hysteria.

"Are you homeless?" I repeated staring at her and reached out with my Magic senses to receive the shock of my life. She had the Talent, and not just some minor Talent, but a huge as yet untrained Talent.

"Yes," she finally answered in a very quiet voice. "For a few days now." I was still recovering from my discovery and wasn't sure what to do, but I needed to do something for her.

"I won't give you any money!" I informed her, and watched her face fall. "However, I will buy you food if you will dine with me." Her face brightened instantly, and I could feel her renewed hope.

"Where would you like to go for dinner?" I asked, as if she were someone whom I had known for some time.

"I ... I don't know. I haven't eaten up here before. This area is too expensive," she told me. I looked around to see just where I was and spotted a sign over a cafe that I recognized. I had never eaten there before but had overheard a number of students discuss its merits. Most had found the food satisfactory.