Blocks of pink, green and blue shone out, the colours falling across Gabriel's face as Henry listened to him. The pair were huddled around a small metal table at the side of the shop, each nursing a glass of an electric green liquid Gabriel claimed to be tea. It didn't taste like any tea Henry had ever tried.

“There is the universe, made of 5% matter and energy Humans can measure and 95% stuff science can’t explain, we call the energy part of that magus,” Gabriel said.

“With you so far.”

“Magus can interact with matter in untraditional ways, it can do funny stuff with some elements to create certain effects, like the distraction field from earlier. The distraction field is just one of results of the five magus infused elements. Magus also interacts with living tissue, creating a new species from homo sapien that we call alternate, or altur sapien if you like your Latin. We have five types of alternate, each with different abilities. I'm not gonna try to teach you them now, because you'll get a headache and we still have a long night ahead of us.”

“What kind of abilities?”

“Take the Physicalist power, some people have this and don't even know. Look at Usain Bolt - mid level physicalist and has no idea, how does he think he can move so quick? Stephen Hawking, high-level Mentalist, although I heard he does understand magus, guessing he'd have to keep quiet about it.”

“Steven Hawking is a-” Henry said, but Gabriel interrupted him.

“Take a look at this,” Gabriel said, taking a napkin off the table and a pen from his pocket. On the napkin he drew a five pointed star, a pentagram. “You recognise it? Well, take each point and you find a fundamental alternate power. Myths and symbols aren't made without reason, they tend to describe real phenomena that are best kept secret.”

“What sort of powers are we talking about?”

“We aren't talking magic tricks, more a manipulation of the fundamental elements that make up the world. Some types of alternates can move objects with their mind, manipulate fire, or electricity, gain inhuman strength or speed, read your thoughts, or even heal wounds. The list goes on and on.”

“Why was the battle outside not more... Harry Potter style?”

“Why did they use guns? Because in most alternates, their magus is quite weak and they can cause far more harm with a gun than their own powers. Anyway, alternates are a bit trickier to understand than powers, we each have three elements to our magus. Think of it as pick and mix, although we call them gifts. We represent that with a triskele,” he said drawing the new shape. “First, we have a power; then a charm, like being able to see alternates like you can; and last, we remember.”

“Remember?”

“Alternates pass down genetic memories, to differing extents. Guessing you have had some flashbacks which feel pretty familiar, yet you can't explain why? Alternates get these to varying degrees, from total recall of previous lives to weird déjà vu moments. Five different levels five in fact.”

“What a shock, five types,” Henry said, one eyebrow cocked.

“Exactly, not so hard after all?”

“I’m still with you aren't I?”

“Go back 800 years and we discovered someone with all five abilities. Using the blood of this poor bastard, they fixed the interbreeding problem between two different types of Alternate. It used to be only two identical types of alternates, or an alternate and a human, could reproduce. That was, until science got involved and managed to resolve the problem using fifth-blood. When Alternates on adjacent sides of the pentagram bred after being treated with the blood,” he said pointing to the crudely drawn star on the napkin. “their children became a sort of hybrid, combining two powers, represented by the inner corners of the pentagram. Great, everyone thought, but there were some side effects. Anyway, long and the short of it means you have another five types of alternate to remember.