In one form or another, it was one of the first implements created by ancient people to give voice to the mysteries that words cannot encompass, but … - Charles de Lint

The lonesome dark.
That's what Jack called a night like this. When you were distanced from everything and everybody. Out on your own and there was nobody to care if you were happy or sad. If you lived or died.
The lonesome dark hadn't existed in the old days. That was something people invented. Like time. Parcel up the days, parcel up the seasons. Add a minute here, a day there when it doesn't quite fit. Trim the square peg so that you could slide it into the round hole. In the old days the night was as open as the day. It wasn't a better place to hide because there was nothing to hide from. You weren't outside because there was no in.

That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.

A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what’s real and what’s not and most of us have been going along with it ever since.