All the barriers are broken; the Outer and Inner Horizon dissolve before the racing fragments of the One, questing for human hosts. This is the last tide of Awakening. At last, on the broken Earth, everyone is a miracle worker.
The Awakened create wonders and destroy monuments. Cities are raised from the dust, then sundered in the birth pangs of power remembers. But the newly Awakened were all Asleep once; most of them remember the humility and compassion of mortal days. The last miracles are not born of fire and water: Progenitors heal shamans who bear wounds from their common war with Marauders; little gods repair Enlightened machines. At night, a red glow lights the world: the purifying fire of Telos' Red Star.
—"Judgement," Mage: The Ascension - Ascension
Whatever the Warlocks may wish, their magic, like all magic, is dead in the world - if it ever existed. Though... one does hear strange whispers of late: Glass candles that have been cold for a hundred years, now burning; ghost grass found far from the Lands of the Shadow; a khalasar led by a woman... with three heads. Traders' nonsense, most likely. But should the Warlocks' vaunted magic ever return... that would be a dangerous day for Qarth. I shall need to keep my eyes on them... indeed.
—Xaro Xhoan Daxos, History And Lore Of Westeros: The Warlocks
Mr Honeyfoot: Our question is why magic has fallen from its once-great state in our great nation. Our question is, sir, why is no more magic done in England?
Mr Norrell: I cannot help you with your question, sir, for I do not understand it. It is a wrong question, sir. Magic is not ended in England. I myself am quite a tolerable practical magician.
It wasn't as if all the incogs just opened their eyes and acknowledged it, but Monster caught more and more of them looking at the cryptos in their midst with a vague acknowledgement that this was unusual, that the sea serpent in their bathtub was more than just a "big snake" and the vampiric disembodied heads floating in their attic weren't just a "bat problem."
Things were changing. Magic was getting easier to remember. Even for cogs. It'd been at least a week since he'd needed to consult his dictionary. The runes just came to him when he needed them. The cognizant community was abuzz with the discovery that they had been labouring under their own haze - not as powerful or obvious as the haze on incogs, but still there and still dulling their senses. A fog unperceived anyone and everyone until it mysteriously lifted. Advanced theoretical thaumaturgists were still speculating about what caused the so-called New Enlightenment.
