Has anyone told you about it yet? The building on Albion Street? As a mage, you should feel the importance of a building like Children's Court. It's not a long story and I'm sure I could finish it on our way to the meeting.
First off, Children's Court has always existed. Don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. It may not have always looked like that, but it's always been. Only about fifty years or so did the brick and mortar facade appear. And when I say appear, I mean appear. One day its just an odd patch of green in an urbanizing landscape, the next it's this huge building covering a city block. And the ordinary people just accepted it, believed that it was always there, but they just never took the time to notice it. And the best part - none of it's even real. Real to the sight, the touch and all the other senses, but it's still just an illusion. Trust me. No brick walls. No concrete pillars. No steel gates. Still the same grassy clearing surrounded by a perfect circle of trees that it was back when this entire area was woodlands. No, you can't go in to confirm that. It's a tomb now, after all.
What's it like inside? Think back to that perfect day as a child. The perfect weather, not too hot or too cold. The breeze on your skin. Perhaps a pool or a lake next to a grassy field. Perfect down to just the right amount of clouds in the sky. And now imagine you had all the time in the world to play, the day and your youth never ending. That's Children's Court. It's Neverland, though by comparison, Neverland would be your neighbor's backyard with its leaky inflatable pool, cat feces in the sandbox, and broken glass in the corner where the drunkard throws his empty bottles.
But back to the story. As I said before, Children's Court has always existed. Close to two centuries ago, when people began to settle in the area, a group of kids found the clearing. Eventually they grew up and another group of kids claimed it. Then they grew up and another group came in. And this is the cycle Children's Court followed, constantly being passed on and never belonging to one group for more than one summer.
And this cycle carried on up until about fifty years ago or so, when one of those groups came back. Magi. Yes, it is strange that magi, even as young children, would wander into an enchantment but they had. And they remembered. They remembered that the same magic that gave Children's Court its Neverland qualities also amplified their own abilities. But why'd they come back? Some say they were just a bunch of adults who were looking to go back to the way things were. My guess? Power, plain and simple. When you're a kid, teeming, overflowing with that kind of raw power, power that dictates fates and shapes worlds, and then you grow up and that ability starts to fade, trust me, you want it back. And it would've been interesting to see what they would have done with it, you know, if not for the war.
Names? Well, hold on a second. You're going to want proof of this. I got a picture here and if you look close enough next to the bottom step, carved into the brick. Lord of Red. Zero King. Sisters Fox and Wolf. Grey's Talon.
They started to amass a following. Some kids from the city, but mostly other adults who couldn't, or just didn't want to, function in society. People who just didn't want to accept that you can't go back. They corrupted Children's Court with their addictions, fetishes, perversions, and vices.
Then came the war. The Circle took notice and decided to deal with what they considered a threat to the magical society. They sent in a task force of Hunters to deal with what they thought were just a couple of eight year olds running amok in Children's Court. Yeah, they were wiped out in one night. Six in body bags and the seventh in a dozen glass mason jars. But that's what you get for going up against children, after all. Kids, they don't yet know pain or loss or even death. They're unafraid and always ready for a game. The Circle spent the next ten years amassing casualties while trying to kill almost a dozen children. Children's Court took no fatal losses.
Who won? No one. Stalemate. Turns out kids will eventually get bored and when you've been winning the same game for a decade, it's time to find a new game. One day Children's Court just stopped its offensive and instead set up a barrier to stop anyone else from coming in. The Circle set up their own barrier to stop anyone from coming out and thus the Tomb of Children's Court was established. No one's sure how long either barrier will hold but I know one thing for certain, whatever game they're playing in there, they better finish fast. Nothing last forever, after all. Not even Neverland. It's a rule. There's a price for everything and the currency of Children's Court is years, one year of your life for one year in Children's Court. Imagine, eight years old forever, until you run out of years to pay with. And those founding members of the new Children's Court I told you about, they were in their twenties when they took control, and, after spending fifty years trapped inside, I'm not sure how many more years they've got left. If they've got a new game, you can be sure it's almost time to play again.
