Bonnyville.

At first glance, a town not unlike one from a fairytale. Perfect example of a world where magic thrives alongside industrial progress. A place where nobody bats an eye when something strange happens and no one looks twice when a dwarf goes by.

Humanity, living side by side with creatures that never disappeared from the world and thus, no one has a need to judge anyone for their differences anymore. It became easier to not think much about things and admit that there was no place for judgement in society.

There was just too much of the incomprehensible and too many races and creatures that, except a few that cared about it, there was just about nobody who could've made a sense of it all. The fear of the unknown almost faded from the world because of that. It was impossible for it to survive face to face with this new age. Someone might still hesitate in front of something new but most of the time, it ends with a shrug of the shoulders, maybe a mention to friends.

Despite it all, it was magic that had to change, to keep pace with the progress happening around it. Most of the spells vanished from the world all together. There was no need for them and what remained became just a few uninteresting tricks, in which usefulness was sought. Few of the more primitive creatures still kept magic for survival, which wasn't necessary for the more intelligent.

It wasn't like anybody missed it. That was just the modern life. The world kept spinning even without magic.

Although, some things couldn't be beaten even with technological progress. Magical cores of some beings couldn't be erased so easily. Those were the ones that became the victims of the progress.

While the world evolved and changed, they stayed shackled to the way of life they were given. They couldn't adapt to the new world and the new world for sure wasn't adapted to them. Progress didn't wait for anyone and those who couldn't keep up had to become mere pages in the books about the past.

Year after year, races disappeared from the passage of time, but there was no one who would stop and take a while to take it in. Their disappearance was but a speck in comparison to all the things that took up the attention of the more adaptable. It didn't cloud the shine of the modern age.

Why would it? The ones who went extinct this way didn't have a place in this world anyway. They couldn't do anything valuable for society. They couldn't work the normal way and thus weren't adding to the economy. No wonder that the only beings who were aware of the negative aspect of the progress were those who studied this problem.

One could get mad at this society and judge it as something rotten, but the truth was, the disappearance of magic was an inevitable consequence of evolution. No one saw the world as their ancestors, because not even thoughts could stay the same. Some things just weren't possible anymore, however tragic it could be for some.

Joel was very much aware of this problem. For a long time, it stayed hidden even to him behind the picture of a perfect world where everything is possible. Who was he kidding? He knew it wasn't perfect but one could wish. That didn't stop his whole life from crumbling down like a castle from cards. Because of that, he was forced to face the harsh reality of the ones like him.

It was just about two months since he was sentenced to death. Sure, that sounded a little dramatic and maybe even scary, but he went through all the stages of grief pretty early on and now the thought didn't spur on any emotions in him. Every day was just another step into nothingness but he didn't think about it. A month earlier he might've blamed everything around for the unfairness of it and maybe broke some things but he didn't have the need to do so anymore. He realised he couldn't do anything about it anyway so there was no need for him to be miserable too. He refused to spend his last days like that. Not that they were great.

Strange how quickly everything changed, even though it wasn't quick at all. Everything was crumbling for years, he was just refusing to see it. Just the breaking point happened so fast.

He used to be happy and he led a comfortable life. Mostly. For twenty whole years. At least he kept telling himself that. The damn magic saw it differently. He could curse his heritage, and he did for some time, he cursed it from the depth of his heart, but in the end, it opened his eyes, although it did so in the worst way possible. In the end, he could only curse the person who did this to him, the one who put him on the street.

Magical diseases were vile. There was no cure for them and they were basically forgotten. Joel knew that even if his condition had been generally known, it wouldn't help him anyway.

It was kind of funny actually, in a twisted way. His core layed in homecare and in bringing wealth, but now he's on the streets without a coin to his name. Just because he stopped being useful. He wasn't stupid. He didn't blame himself for it. Joel was always more of a realist and it wasn't hard for him to accept clear facts.

That's why he didn't give himself any fake hope that there was a chance for him to survive. It wasn't like he wanted to die but he knew it was an inescapable situation. No one would let a homeless person into their house just because he'd say it could save his life.

To admit that his existence wasn't possible was a big blow at the start but he came to accept even that.

Some beings just weren't destined to survive the modern age.

He was aware of that even before that damn van.

Translating is harder than I thought it'd be. It's so time consuming. I might be way over my head with this but I wanted to do this for a while so here is Joel.