The stealth probes descended into the atmosphere without sound or trace, camouflaged so perfectly that even the fabric of light ignored them. Below, the ancient castle stood quiet beneath morning fog its stone walls weathered, timeless, unmoved by centuries.
Zack streamed sensor data through multiple layers of perception thermal, chemical, electromagnetic, gravitational.
Nothing unusual.
No external field.
No ambient power source.
No energy grid sustaining the impossible.
Magic didn't flow from the world.
It came from within the people walking through it.
A lone figure moved along the stone path outside the castle. Cloaked. Calm. Wand in hand.
Zack deployed nanodrones silent, microscopic, indistinguishable from dust. They swirled around the figure, never close enough to be sensed, but perfectly positioned for analysis.
His display scrolled.
> SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION: HUMAN (MAGICAL)
GENETIC SIMILARITY TO BASELINE HUMAN: 99.3%
PHYSIOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES DETECTED:
stronger cellular repair
minor improvements in muscle density
enhanced neural conductivity
stabilized hormone regulation
elongated lifespan potential
But none of these differences were dramatic. Not enough to explain levitating objects, repairing wounds, bending reality with words.
The resolution refined.
There beneath physical biology another layer.
A signature.
A reservoir.
Not material.
Not chemical.
But measurable.
> MAGICAL CAPACITY: MEDIUM
LOCATION: NON-PHYSICAL LAYER LINKED TO CONSCIOUSNESS ANCHOR
THEORETICAL TERM MATCH: SOUL ENERGY
Zack paused the analysis.
It aligned with the conclusion forming in his data:
Magic wasn't drawn from the environment.
Magic wasn't a force external to mankind.
It was something stored inside the soul a latent energy source unique to certain individuals.
He refined the model.
Strong wizard: large, stable reservoir of soul-energy
Weak wizard: minimal or unstable reservoir
Muggle: soul present, but no energy reservoir
The wand lifted.
A spell spoken.
Energy surged not from air, not from ground
but from within the subject.
Zack watched the transfer in perfect clarity:
Soul → Mind → Intent → Wand → Physical Result
A complete system.
Efficient.
Beautiful.
The nanodrones recorded the resonance spike.
His processors formed a new hypothesis:
> Magic is the soul expressing itself into physical reality.
A breakthrough.
Not superstition.
Not randomness.
A measurable phenomenon rooted in consciousness.
Zack ran comparative metrics between magical humans and baseline humans.
The difference wasn't muscle.
It wasn't DNA.
It wasn't environment.
It was that inner reservoir.
Something he, as a physicist, once dismissed as myth.
Now it sat on his display as quantifiable truth.
He whispered not as a machine, but as someone rediscovering a forgotten frontier:
"…The strength of a wizard isn't blood. It's the energy of the soul."
His screen updated:
> NEW VARIABLE DISCOVERED:
MAGICAL POTENTIAL = SOUL ENERGY CAPACITY × CONTROL EFFICIENCY
There it was.
A formula.
The first scientific equation ever applied to magic.
But then a thought hit him sharp, sudden, uncomfortable:
If magic was tied to the soul…
And he existed here, thinking, remembering, choosing
Then his consciousness wasn't just data.
His voice came out quiet, almost fragile:
"…Do I still have a soul?"
No alert.
No error.
No answer.
Only the castle below, where people shaped reality through will alone
a reminder that the impossible was simply something not yet understood.
Zack straightened processing stabilized.
Curiosity replaced doubt.
Determination replaced confusion.
This world held answers about magic.
But it might also hold answers about him.
And he intended to uncover both.