Let's start this off properly...

Magic is real.

Well, not that sleight-of-hand bullshit, of course. A four-year-old with a good eye can catch most stage 'magicians' tricks. Real magic, though, is more elusive. As it was put to me, you're not going to find the average real magician setting up in a storefront in the big city; it's a good deal more underground, like through this guy that a friend of a friend's brother's girlfriend's knows.

But then, I've never exactly been average in any sense of the word. That's why I've got a little shop set up. It might be in the worst part of town (that's the only way I can afford the rent, and even that's scraping the bottom of the barrel most months), but it's mine. And maybe one day I'll turn a profit there and not at the midnight till eight a.m. grocery bagging that pays the rent. If Howie could see me now... Well, he'd probably tear me a new one then congratulate me on my ingenuity. I've always been a forward thinker.

So that's the set-up. Yes, magic is real. Maybe you can even turn a profit on it. Forget all the bullshit out there. This isn't Barely Legal Teenaged Sorcerers Gone Wild 3 or anything -- and I'm damn sure no Harry Potter.

I'm Duo Maxwell of Maxwell's Magical Services... and this is where the story starts.