A Real Life Guide to Magic. Pt. 2

Who Are The Bookholders?

The Bookholders (‘Holders’), are those Human people (more on this later) chosen to receive The Guide when it appears in our dimensional space.

At this time it is unknown how these seemingly unrelated people are selected for possession of the book.

The Organization has expended vast resources attempting to define a pattern, any pattern, that would tie together the disparate individuals who have used The Guide in the past.

They have failed utterly. Even with the advent of computer science after WWII, no attempts to discover a link or predict the next appearance of The Guide have been successful. The selection of the Holders appears on every level to be completely random.

Therefore the Holders have been old, young, male, female, rich, poor, intelligent, stupid, fat, thin, bald, dark, light and everything in between. There is no defining characteristic that is useful from one Holder to the next in predicting the movement of The Guide.

We can describe some common characteristics of Holders that are a consequence of having possession of The Guide (We do not observe these in person because it has been nearly impossible to track a current Holder while they are actually in possession of The Guide. We can only record their experiences after).

The most obvious of these characteristics is that Holders become immune to mundane harm for the duration of their time with the book.

Car accidents, falls, drowning, fire, chainsaws, bludgeoning, bullets and other usually fatal occurrences will have no effect on the Holder while the book is in their possession.

By ‘in their possession’ it is meant that the book has appeared for them. It is not necessary for the book to be physically in their hands or on their person.

It seems that The Guide, or the power behind The Guide, does not wish the Holders to come to any harm while they have the book.

Another ability bestowed upon Holders is the ability to see or recognize supernatural beings and objects (I describe these ‘other’ supernatural forces later). This ability remains (to varying degrees) with many Holders after they lose possession of The Guide.

All Holders report vivid dreams, ranging from the odd and wondrous, to nightmarish and physically painful.

Most Holders report learning the history of The Guide and its true purpose, although that is the extent of their knowledge. After the book is gone they cannot say what that purpose or history actually is, but they are certain they learned it all the same.

The Organization forced many former Holders to undergo ‘memory regression’ and other techniques (some of them surgically invasive), attempting to wring the knowledge out of them. It does no good. They simply will not or cannot describe this knowledge they have.

As a researcher, and one deeply involved with this project, I can understand the desire to get the answers that seem so close at any cost, but what was done to some of these people was, frankly, barbaric.

While in possession of The Guide, it is literally a matter of life and death that Holders take precautions to prevent discovery by organizations such as our own after they are left powerless.

The more enterprising and intelligent Holders somehow manage to hide themselves. This is good for them, as there are interested parties that would not think twice about vivisecting them to find any small clue leading to the procurement of The Guide.

Unfortunately, this is bad for us. In order to prevent what I believe could be complete annihilation it is imperative that I speak to these ‘Power Holders’ and learn what they know. But the same methods they use to hide from the various institutions that would harm them also foil my best efforts to locate them.

Some of the work I had seen while I still had access showed the Organization was getting closer to a method of finding these clever former Holders. If our Organization was close, others could be as well.

There is only one other group that can match our our resources. If we were close, they might be closer still. Though I suspect if they had solved the problem we would see a marked shift in the balance of power between our forces.

On the Physical Appearance Of The Guide

What we refer to as The Guide always appears as a large, black or brown-ish, hide-bound hardcover book. It invariably has some iteration of the words ‘A Real-Life Guide to Magic’ as the title, appearing on the front and spine of the book.

The book is large and thick enough that most will need two hands to carry it. Although reports indicate that the apparent physical size of the book woefully under-represents the information contained within.

What we know about its materials is that it feels like an old (possibly antique) book, although most think of it as some kind of gag gift when they see it.

It cannot be harmed by mundane physical damage, as evidenced by its survival of several wars and deliberate attempts of some to destroy it.

The words on and in The Guide are legible to every Holder (people who are able to use The Guide are referred to as ‘Bookholders’, ‘Holders’ for short), although some reported seeing a different, unreadable language from time to time.

While others can see the book itself, they cannot see the words in or on the book. To them it appears to be completely blank.

We believe the language to be the language of the original beings that created the book. They were believed to have been Human, more or less. Their civilization would have been dust ages (perhaps even eons?) ago. Aside from The Guide, very few remnants exist from this lost age.

The language is usually referred to as ‘The First Language’, or sometimes (among the more excitable) ‘Runes of Power’. There is some debate as to whether this was a spoken language or only for formulas (spells) of magic.

Although most Holders lose their ability to understand or even see the runes after they lose possession of the book, there are a few who retain knowledge and even a little power after The Guide is gone (see index 531.b.02: ‘Josh’).

Those Holders are highly sought after, but it can be difficult to find them, as the more intelligent Holders take precautions against being found while they still have use of the magic.

The ones who fail to do so inevitably come to regret it.

What Is The Purpose Of The Guide?

The Guide has undoubtedly been appearing, disappearing, and reappearing since the beginning of recorded history. But only since the advent of modern science brought about by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century has serious effort has been made to understand, capture, and control the book.

Since we can’t know why the various Holders are chosen, and the history of the book appears inaccessible, locked away in the minds of former Holders, we must instead look to what effect The Guide has, and try to divine some clues to it’s ultimate purpose.

The steps of any incident involving The Guide appear to be as follows:

1. Guide appears to a random person with no warning signs, fanfare, etc. This person then becomes the Holder. At this point the Holder gains immunity from mundane harm, and the ability to see and understand the First Runes.

2. The Holder then uses the magic contained in the book, usually for some form of personal gain. The effects of this can range from almost unnoticeable, to calamitous.

3. After a variable amount of time The Guide then disappears, and the Holder loses immunity from injury, as well as the ability to see the Runes.

The question must be asked of all three of these points: why?

Why does The Guide appear at all, and why to the specific Holders, at that specific time?

Why are disparate people, some of low mentality, and some of frightening intellect, given the opportunity to disrupt reality - sometimes on a very large scale?

Why does The Guide disappear when it does? Sometimes the Holder had fulfilled their desires, but oftentimes former Holders report the disappearance of the book before they had completed their tasks.

In the time of Newton, there was a great leap forward in our understanding of the physical world, and yet it was also the time for alchemists and other practitioners that we would now regard as ‘fringe’.

But back then, alchemists and true scientists in the know about The Guide traveled the same circles and exchanged ideas.

The alchemists put forth that the book was the lost tome of a powerful practitioner of magic. He had somehow ‘captured’ all of the magic available for Human use in a powerful book.

He had sent the book away at the time of it’s creation, likely to keep it from the hands of his enemies. Unfortunately, in trying to call it home, he miscalculated. Now it would only appear to his descendants, each of whom the book recognized as its master due to bonds of blood.

In this one instance, it is my belief that the alchemists actually got something right, just not the obvious.

Much data was collected in the following centuries. Pages were described, personal accounts of Holders were taken, and dreams were deciphered.

While we still cannot answer the ‘why’s’ of questions one and two, the data collected gives us what I feel to be a highly accurate answer to number three - why The Guide disappears.

It is generally accepted now that the length of time The Guide stays with any one Holder is directly proportionate to the amount of magic used. In other words, the more magic used, the faster The Guide ‘goes away’.

Postulated theories for this behavior were many, but eventually were ground down to two, with one now holding acceptance from a majority of those in the know about The Guide.

Theory #1:

The Guide expends energy (magic) to remove itself from whatever dimensional plane it exists in by default in order to appear here in our world. This is presumed to be an attempt to return to its master’s hands, answering some final call made by that now long-deceased sorcerer.

It appears to descendants of the original creator’s bloodline, mistakenly believing them to be its creator.

The Guide also expends energy to keep itself here with the Holder for long periods of time. But without the knowledge and/or ability to counter the original accident or event that dislodged the book from our reality, the activities of the Holders draw on this magic. Larger feats take more energy, and the book loses its ability to remain on this plane of existence.

This was the prevailing theory for hundreds of years. It is now mostly deprecated for a variety of reasons. Though some well respected (and feared) in the field still hold to this view.

Theory #2:

The Guide collects (magical) energy, constantly accumulating it until it can hold no more. Only at this point does it appear to a Holder, who is a randomly chosen Human.

The Holder goes on to use the book and depletes the store of magic, thus ‘re-setting’ The Guide, whereupon it returns to wherever it goes to and begins collecting magic anew. The cycle continues when it has absorbed enough magic and it becomes ‘full’.

Due to advances in science as well as more and more reports from former Holders, Theory #2 is now the prevailing theory.

Therefore the generally accepted purpose of the book appears to be to collect magical energy, thus keeping it from the use of others. It then appears to a person of it’s own choosing, who uses the store of energy on whatever they see fit - which in the vast majority of cases is something completely trivial and without lasting effect.

Although once again, even if we accept Theory #2, it begs the question why? And of almost equal importance…who has done this?

At long last, I believe I have the answers to these questions, described at length in later documents.