Magic is leaving. For generations, it has been slowly been replaced by gadgets and gismos, cords and wires and wireless and cordless. For years, it has been fading. Even those who once believed do not believe. So it is in Orthyer.

Where has it gone? The old folk ask. The ones who remember a time when they were children, when seeing was believing, not scepticism, and believing most certainly didn't need seeing.

The dragons have left us long ago. The phoenix are no longer. Extinct, for they feed on the belief of others. But where, where or where, has the magic gone?

There is one town, that still does believe, deep down in the mountains. There, magic is still as common as dirt, yet treated like gold. So it once was everywhere, the old folk say. So it is there, cut off from the rest of the world.

Though no one else believes in magic, the really, super, second-nature natural, word has got out that this is where the children with purple eyes are sent. In the rest of the land, those who have purple eyes have an aura of bad luck. Inexplicable. Most take it for an Urban legend, until their own children's eyes turn purple.

Children are the only ones who can find the place, and getting there is half the adventure. The only ones who can fit through the endless caves and tunnels, rockslides and climbs. Here, they know not of gadgets and gismos, cords and wires and wireless and cordless that rule the rest of them. Here, magic rules.

There is one school, deep in the heart of the city, yet impossible to find by those without purple eyes, that teaches those who come the extent of their powers. School of Gifts, it is called. It is here that the final destination of all that come. The school for purple eyes.

I have lived here all my life, a native to the city. My parents died, searching for a way out of the city, driven mad by the supernatural, that which is more natural then breathing. Both purple-eyed, came to this city when they were nine. I guess memories never leave.

I do not miss them. I never knew them. I always took Gifts of Magic for granted. Until, of course, I went where there is none, where it is an advantage and where it truly isn't there at all. Why did I leave my beautiful city? I thought through endless nights. But I never forgot my quest. Now, in this telling, I will complete it.