Tales from Lunar Ray

His name is Haman Konlen. But he is better known as Haman the Magician. And this is his story. Haman wasn’t always a washed-out drunkard who often gets beaten up by bunny ladies or called out by smart mouthed teenagers. He once lived a much higher, more prominent life as a royal magician. “What do you mean I can’t press charges against them!? They crushed me into the ground like I was a bag full of wet cement!”

The officer eyes the man and responds, “Well according to several eyewitnesses, you provoked the situation by giving a lady some unwanted attention. There’s nothing I can do in a case where she’s defending herself from your sleezy advances. However, I can charge you for sexual harassment.”

Haman leaves the jailhouse absolutely steaming. Not only was he embarrassed and assaulted but now an officer of the law threatens to put him away for such light misbehavior? Haman heads to the only place he can ever find solace in the dreary downfall of his own life and career, the local pub. At least in the Sleepy Dragon, his drink will keep him company as he drowns his sorrows away. On the way there, he starts to ponder about how he got into his current situation. A once world-renowned royal magician now down on his luck.

“My story begins when I was just a tot…” he would always say dramatically during an interview with journalists looking to make sense of his downfall, “My family didn’t really have much growing up…”

15 years ago…

Haman and his brother, Lucas, ran across the sidewalk dodging in and out of the foot traffic of the Movela Bizarre. They heard about a magic show going on among the street performance courtyard and so they wanted to get a seat in the show and watch the most famous magician at the time, Oscar the Outlandish.

“Step right up everybody, step right up! And prepare to be amazed!” Oscar shouts on a small platform as he addresses the crowd growing before him. There’s a mixture of children, full-grown adults, and even elderly people, all who are intrigued to watch the baffling acts of Oscar.

“Behold! A delicious, red apple!” the magician holds out an apple for the audience to see. He quickly takes a bite of it and chews before spitting out a black fog from his mouth. The audience backs away for a moment out of terror. But the fog quickly transforms into a bright pink mist that eventually solidifies into gliding strings of colorful clouds.

“Go ahead, children. Take a bite!” Oscar offers. The children in the front row fight for the floating clouds and each one of them starts taking bites out of the strange manifestation. Haman takes a bite and to his surprise tastes cotton candy. The stringy delicacy melts in his mouth immediately, lighting up his taste buds with flavors of both green apple and bubble gum.

“Child’s play, really. Now for something even the adults can enjoy! Willis!”

A massive behemoth of a man steps forward. He’s practically the size of a mountain. “With a simple wave of this curtain, this mountain of a man shall disappear before your very eyes and leave behind a surprise you will never forget!”

Oscar pulls out a long, purple-colored curtain made of a very fine silk. He says the magic word, “Alakazam!” and then throws the curtain over the man. The curtain falls lower than the man’s height and stops short of a much smaller figure hidden within the curtain. Oscar pulls the curtain away revealing a young lady not much older than Haman. She smiles and poses while the audience applause, taken aback and amazed by the trick.

Oscar then ends his show the same way he always ends it. He hands his hat to the closest audience member and says aloud, “This trick will benefit both you and me! That I can guarantee. The more money you drop into the hat, the larger the object I will pull back out of it.”

This really excites everybody, and they all start dropping coins and Aris and one or two even drop their everyday jewelry into it.By the time the hat went through the whole crowd, Oscar picks it back up and shakes it, listening to the jingling and rustling sound of the money inside. “Oooo. Quite the hefty haul. Looks like you guys just earned yourselves the big one.” Oscar reaches into his hat, somehow stuffing his entire arm down into it, as if searching for something. Then he starts pulling. Whatever it is he starts pulling on is clearly heavy because he struggles. He continues to pull and eventually a grey-colored object appears and starts moving around in every which direction. The object blows a tremendous trombone of noise before Oscar uses more effort to pull out…the head of an elephant. A live elephant at that! Nobody can access exactly how he did it, but Oscar manages to pull out a baby elephant to conclude his magic show. The crowd standing before him erupts in applause.

After the show, Haman and Lucas approach the magician just outside his trailer and start bombarding him with questions about his magic show. He just laughs it off and replies, “A good magician never gives away his secret.” Eventually, Lucas grew bored and went home but Haman stuck around. He asks Oscar, “Sir, can I ask you one final question?”

“Yes, what is it, young apprentice?”

Haman feels a small sense of pride being called the magicians apprentice, “When you performed the trick with the apple, how did you change it into cotton candy.”

Oscar stares at Haman, thinking to himself for a second before responding, “That, my boy, is a good question. Not just because there’s a trick to it, but because that is the trick you took as the most astonishing. Tell me, young man. Do you believe in magic? Real magic?”

Haman stares at Oscar in wonder, “Umm, is there a such thing as real magic?”

The magician looks around before speaking in a much lower tone, “There’s a continent on the other side of the world where magic runs rampant and plentiful. They say anybody can become a true mage when they spend enough time in that part of the world.”

“Are you from there, Mr. Oscar?” Haman asks.

“Heaven’s no! But I’ll let you in on a little secret. The objects I’ve used in my magic shows have been enchanted with magic. But it also helps to learn the basics of magic as well.”

“Can you teach me?” Haman asks, with a pleading look in his eyes.

“Looks like I’ve finally found my true apprentice,” the magician says with a smile, tousling Haman’s hair.

The young girl who assisted Oscar on the stage overhears all of this and becomes outraged. Melina Nordis has been assisting the older magician for several years now and he never once revealed his secrets to her.

And so, the rise of Haman began. He became an apprentice under Oscar’s wing, and they traveled around the world together performing shows for kings and queens and nobles alike. And of course, Melina was always there. To assist, never to perform. Eventually, Haman decided to become his own performance act and Oscar was all for it. Melina remained with Oscar and Haman went on to become the next big thing in performance magic. However, everything came to a head when Oscar passed on.

Haman and Melina were the only two individuals enlisted by his last will and testimony. “Melina Nordis, I leave you with my trailer and majority share of my bank account. Haman Konlen, I entrust you with my most prized magical possessions as well as a portion of my bank account. I pray that both of you will work together and honor my legacy by becoming the top magic show act in the world. Goodwill and goodbye.”

“Melina, this is our chance!” Haman says excitedly while turning to her. She ignores him, a look of anger painted across her face as she storms out of the room. However, that wasn’t their last encounter. Their very last encounter was unforgettable…Haman is still haunted by that night and feels nothing but regret and shame.

Melina asked Haman to meet her at the fanciest restaurant in the City of Crystals. He waits within the establishment feeling nervous as he looks around at all the fancily dressed people and wait staff. You must have the fortune of a king to eat in a place like this. “Haman.”

Melina’s greeting catches him off guard but not as much as the outfit she is wearing. A rather revealing piece that sweeps at the floor and sparkles brighter than the rest of the entire city, which really says something considering which city they’re in.

“So, what’s this about?” he asks her nervously.

“Oh, just relax, Haman. I wanted to celebrate today.”

“Really? What are we celebrating?” he asks while taking a sip out of his water.

“The day you hand over your portion of the fortune to me.”

He spits out his water and says, “Excuse me? And why in the hell would I do something like that?”

“You may have won over Oscar’s magical items. But I have my own ways of making things disappear, even people?”

He raises an eyebrow in confusion. He can’t tell what exactly she’s getting at.

“When was the last time you heard from your brother?”

That question haunts Haman. It has haunted Haman everyday ever since. He gave it all up, for the sake of his brother. He feels sick to the stomach just thinking about it. His brother turned out to be fine. In fact, he was married to Melina, but they decided to keep their lives private from the outside world.

Melina’s trickery not only drove his career into the ground, but she also turned his own brother against him so that he wouldn’t find reason to help him.

“The witch!” Haman shouts while slamming an empty glass into the ground and it shatters. The bartender glares at him. Seconds later, Haman is thrown out of the bar and into the mud outside as it starts to rain. Haman lays there and stares up into the sky. He’s in the most magical part of the world and yet there’s nothing he can do to regain the level of power and status he once held as a well known magician.