Twelve Months to Midnight

Choe’s spell was perfect . It’s a big claim, but the spell really was almost flawless. There are scholars of magic today who still argue there has never been a more well-put-together and reliable incantation. As tricky and unpredictable as magic is, it’s rare to find one that fulfils the exact purpose of its design on the first cast. Choe lived for about sixty years before he held his seminar. The attendants were diverse and came from just about every corner of the globe. In addition to the government bureaucrats and their sons, some attendees were millionaires who had bought one of the few tickets he had auctioned off over the early internet. Though most were wizards that Choe had met over his long lifetime who had collected enough favours from him to cash them in for a seat in the hotel ballroom. He spent the first day talking them through the thought processes that had informed the creation of the spell. He spoke about the different magical traditions that had influenced him and ho...

After reaching the West, Choe kept a pretty low profile. He rode out World War 2 in Canada, occasionally offering the Allied governments expert advice on the magical capabilities of Japan and other Pacific States. He dropped off the grid for a few decades after the war and showed up again in Australia in the 1960s, looking as young as he ever did. That’s when he went public and told the world about his breakthrough. It took some convincing, but it was hard to argue with results. He had the physique of a twenty-two year-old and the passport of a pensioner. His intention was to sell the secret to his eternal youth to interested parties, so they could replicate the spell for themselves, but he vastly underestimated the interest of the parties in question. In the two years after his announcement, he survived four kidnapping attempts and three attempted assassinations; the third one only due to his prodigious healing abilities. It got so bad, he had to go back into hiding. Fifteen years lat...