you can't execute someone with real magical powers, they'd turn you into a frog or something long before you could execute them. No, they're not real wizards or witches, it's just cheaper than getting a divorce."
"Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that. So, if you're a real wizard, with real magical powers, everyone else will be scared of you, because you might turn them into a frog?"
"Yeess!"
"Ah, one slight flaw in the plan, if you don't mind me pointing it out."
"What flaw Marlon?"
"Well, it might have escaped my notice, but over the last fifteen years I have never shown any sign of having magical powers."
"Marlon, there is no such thing as magic, at least not very often, your uncle Roger had the power. The art of magic is illusion, what you believe is real is real. You must learn the tricks that Uncle Roger has left you, if people believe you have real magical powers, then you will have magical power. Then you will be safe and live to be a hundred."
"Um, er, gran?"
"Yes?"
"I know I'm being a bore, but, er, Uncle Roger vanished when he was about thirty, how come he isn't going to be here until he's a hundred?"
"Marlon, you silly boy, Roger isn't dead, he really did have magical powers, he's out there somewhere. Let me tell you what happened, you might learn something."
"Roger was given all this magic equipment by an old wandering gypsy. The gypsy told Roger that the equipment had belonged to Merlin the Magician, he was on the entertainment committee at Camelot Castle many years ago. The gypsy didn't know what to do with it, so he sold it cheap to Roger, he spent ten years in this room learning how to use the equipment. He employed a beautiful French princess, Fifi La More she was called, as his assistant."
"Why didn't he use his wife to assist him, gran?"
"Your auntie Blodwyn was too big to fit into some of the equipment. Now don't interrupt!"
"Sorry gran."
"Roger and Fifi were devoted to learning the art of illusion and refused to perform in public until the act was perfect. Sometimes they would be down here days at a time, they were always at it. Blodwyn became suspicious and accused Roger of being unfaithful, they had terrible rows and Blodwyn threatened to call her father, Simon the Sadist, to sort him out. Roger, apparently trying to diffuse the situation, claimed to have perfected the art of magic. He invited Blodwyn and her parents to bring all their friends to the first of Rogers' magic shows where they were to perform some of their greatest tricks. Roger sawed Fifi in half and then put her together again, he made some things appear from nowhere, like the pigeon that came out of his hat, sometimes people would disappear only to reappear somewhere else. It was a marvellous show, the guests were amazed by every trick."
"Go on gran."
"Well, Roger had only shown them illusions, because the guests believed the magic was real, it was real. Unknown to anyone,
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