The Third Rule: "Magic is seeing."

I closed up the bar, shivered in my coat, and turned around to face Knave. "Alright," I said. "Teach me."

"I can't just teach you," he said, as he cleaned the blood off of his knife. I was half afraid that he would stab me with it, but instead, he slipped it into his pocket. "Magic taught is useless. The only magic you can learn is that which you teach yourself."

"And how can I teach myself something that I don't know?" I asked.

"You have to see first," he said.

"See what?"

"The world!" He turned with a flourish and started walking. "The real world! Not that tiny little worldview you have, but the world that lives underneath your perceptions, the world that lives on the thin line between hope and despair, between life and death. Magic is seeing, so you must first see before you do."

I followed him. "And how do I see?" I asked.

He turned and grinned. "Let's go," he said.

I followed him, going on a byzantine path, through alleyways and parking lots, until finally we reached a park. It was dark and the trees looked foreboding, most of their leaves having already fallen off and made a bed of red and yellow on the ground.

"Look," he said and pointed at one of the trees.

"What?" I said. "It's a tree."

"Look closer," he said.

I looked at the tree and squinted. It was a tree. It looked like a tree. Tall, with thin branches, the bark looking quite black at night, and a large white spot near the top and was that a face?

As I watched, I realized that the tree wasn't a tree. I didn't know how I had thought it was a tree in the first place, but now I knew it could never have been a tree.

It was a man. A tall man wearing a business suit. His face was blank and white as the moon.

"And now you see," Knave whispered into my ear. "Let's go."

As we left, I looked back and saw the tall man was still standing there, looking right at us. Right at me.