It first started at the furthest reaches of the known world, far from the mana rich deposits and ley lines on top of which most of the civilized world resides. Then came the spirits, demons and mindless beasts imbued of magic that slowly began to disappear, die or revert to some non-magical form. Gods began to lose their power as the mighty dragons lost their fire, then their flight and eventually their very lives. It was when it hit the academies, temples, monasteries and palaces of magic, when some of the most complex magics stopped working and new magic could no longer be created that earnest effort was put in to investigate the cause. Unfortunately, the cause was never discovered, but the scholars frantically studying the problem began to see a pattern. Magic was disappearing in a manner and at a rate that seemed to lead to a point in time and space - a small village in the back country of the most powerful magical kingdom in the world that was founded on top of the largest mana deposit. The seers determined that a child would be born the exact moment all magic disappeared before their powers were lost.

The world was consumed with war and deprivation as the balance of power shifted. The different kingdoms and races frantically fought to to preserve themselves and their way of life as the immense benefits and luxuries that magic provided them slowly disappeared. Gods who had lost their power but retained their titles were especially ruthless and cruel in their pursuits, desperately hoping to hold onto power they inherently possessed as a divine right. As the last of the magics dissipated in the world, the Gods, rulers, and any who still held power converged on the village, awaiting the child of prophecy to be born, hoping and fearing that this child would be the sole source of magic and therefore the most powerful being in existence. It was fear that prevented any harm from visiting the child or its parents. Fear of losing the last hope for magic to return or fear from what devastation a child with all the magic in the world would cause. When the child was born, Gods and mortals who were now one in the same, bent the knee as the last vestiges of magic disappeared. It was terror that compelled them, terror at this unknown new world ushered in by the first child born to world with no magic - a child born to Rea that went by the name Reason.

I’m an investigative journalist with a strange skill. I can see people’s “kill count.” I’ve had this skill as far back I can remember, never understood what it meant until much later in my life. That’s probably because for most of my life the “kill count” on almost everyone I met was a big fat zero, even those who claimed to have killed before, for example sheriff Higgins who claimed to have killed at least a dozen skinnies when he was in the army and five perps when he was a street cop. No one really pressed him on his claims since he “doesn’t like talking about it, because it gives him PTSD.” It was in high school when I saw my first non-zero number. We visited the county courthouse and jail for one of my social studies classes, and that’s where I met the Blue Basin killer for the first time. They didn’t know who he was back then, he was picked up for shoplifting and causing a scene outside the local Walmart, but when I saw him and the number 12 on his head, I instantly knew what he was and at the same time what those numbers meant. I guess it was at that point when my career in investigative journalism began.

I’ve met, interviewed and investigated many people with non-zero numbers, even helped solve a few crimes, but solving crimes was not what motivated me to do what I do, I was just fascinated with the stories. I’ve interviewed dictators with some of the highest counts I’ve ever seen calmly talk about their deeds like it’s another day at the office. One of my more haunting stories was with a cashier lady who oddly had a count of two. She had a terrible life of abuse and two dead ex husbands from mysterious circumstances, which were both ruled as accidents. After hearing and verifying most of her stories, I decided not to pursue it any further. It also gave me some insights to how this skill works. For example, your kill count goes up only if you had the intent to kill as well. So accidents, even if negligent, such as drunk drivers who cause a fatal accident won’t raise the kill count. Self defense on the other hand does raise the count. So from a criminal liability perspective, the kill count isn’t that useful.

One of the more interesting stories I pursued was with a couple I met when I decided to shift gears from serial kills and war criminals to those who killed with intention and purpose, but not of their own volition, or quite simply soldiers. The husband, Sergeant Olson, was a decorated war hero who was campaigning on behalf of a veterans relief organization, normally I wouldn’t be interested in any veterans who had a zero count, but the way he talked and the things he described suggested that he absolutely was in the thick of the fight, so his zero count intrigued me, and I asked him for an interview, to which he begrudgingly agreed. The next surprise came when I got to his house and met his wife, who had a kill count of 200. Immediately the interview got far more interesting, I instantly shifted my questions which focused on the war, and focused on their relationship instead.

They met during the war. Sergeant Olson worked as a medic, and he received his decorations for immense number of lives he saved. He said that regardless of how bad the fighting got, he refused to draw his weapon, he also treated anyone he came across on the battlefield, friend or foe and it didn’t take long for the enemy to notice this. On several occasions, the enemy soldiers simply ignored him rather than shoot him, which allowed him to save even more lives. After one particularly fierce battle, Olson was severely injured by an artillery shell, which he seemed to heavily imply came from the friendly side, and was evacuated to the combat service hospital where his now wife, Natalie worked. She worked in the intensive care unit where the most severely injured and for the most part, the most hopeless cases resided. When I heard this, it all clicked. Natalie became the Angel of Death, or mercy depending on your perspective and had put down many of the worst cases. It was one of the most fascinating interviews that I never published, the story of a battle hardened warrior that didn’t take a single life and a healer that took so many. It’s an interesting look at the complexity of life, and easily the best part of having my skill.