02 - The Last Day of Magic

December, 1775

Knox's expedition arrived at Fort George after 3 days of hard travel over the post roads and hunting trails through New York's back-country.  Nicholas Fisher and Charlotte Rose shared a single horse for the trek and after 30 hours in the saddle together they were relieved to be through with the journey.  The fort was small and the bunk house was crowded so Knox, Fischer, and Rose were all assigned a single room with a captured British lieutenant.

The lieutenant was a handsome young man by the name of John Andre.  Knox and the magician got along with the prisoner of war just fine but it was Charlotte who took the lieutenant the most.  Not only was Andre handsome but he was a man of the arts - versed in poetry, theater, music, and drawing.  The two were immediately attracted to one another.

That evening Knox laid out his plan for the first stage of the expedition.  Just a few miles north up Lake George lay Fort Ticonderoga and the cannons that Knox sought.  Knox planned to row a small fleet of boats up Lake George, disassemble the cannons, load cannons onto the boats and float the cargo back down the lake to Fort George.  He needed the lake to remain unfrozen throughout this process; that's where Nicholas Fisher's talents were required.  Temperatures were falling and winter was setting in and the magician needed to make sure that the lake didn't freeze.


With the task set before him Nicholas wasted no time in starting to shape the weather.  He concocted a magic act in which he could perhaps create a large source of heat with which he could hold back the frost.  At the same time the show of magic would impress the crew and make it easier for him to generate a pool of belief for future practical magic as the expedition wore on.  Fisher enlisted Knox and the doting lieutenant into his troupe for the trick.

The soldiers in the fort had constructed a large bonfire from fresh cut logs.  The logs were still too green to burn but Nicholas knew that he could set them ablaze.  The troupe used a cask of alcohol to guide a trail of flame that danced alongside Charlotte out of the mess hall and down to the bonfire. Andre accompanied the trick with a rousing performance on the violin.  Nicholas channeled the magic out of the growing anticipation from the crew and soldiers. As Charlotte and the trail of flame approached the bonfire Nicholas pushed the built up energy through Charlotte.  Charlotte took the energy and directed it into flames and the bonfire exploded in wave of supernatural flame.


The trick proved to be more spectacle than substance in the end.  The next day there was little heat for Nicholas to change the weather with.  He spent the next two days tirelessly working alone - holding back the frost with traditional practical magic techniques.  Meanwhile, Knox traveled up the lake with his crew. Charlotte and John Andre spent the days together in the comforts of the fort and each others company.

The retrieval of the cannon was a success in the end.  Knox returned to Fort George and began making preparations to get the cannon loaded onto sleds which could be dragged over land by teams of oxen.  However, in order to move out, the weather would need to change again.  This time Knox required snow. Again the magician would be called upon.