Minor spoilers ahead. If you want to be surprised when you read the story, look no further.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

As for the rest of you...

CHARACTER PROFILES

STEPHAN is an everyman. He leads a relatively normal (read boring) life, doing good work as a draftsman, going out to clubs every once in a while with TIM, though not often. He spends the majority of his time alone. He's tall, around 6'2", with a medium build, not real defined, but he spends enough time on the treadmill that he's healthy. He has brown hair cut short in a Caesar haircut, and a small star-shaped birthmark near his left eye. He's our reluctant hero, around 28 years old.

MICHAEL is the antithesis of STEPHAN, the flip side of the coin. Because their souls are linked, they look very similar, but have very different personalities. He has long wavy blond hair down to his shoulders, and a wicked glint in his eye. Like STEPHAN, he also has a star-shaped birthmark, but it is near MICHAEL's right eye. Same height as STEPHAN.

TIM is STEPHAN's best friend, has been since high school, and in the NOW of the story exudes a slick, confident personality. He looks to be around STEPHAN'S age, and has a penchant for expensive clothes. Like Regis on Millionaire. He is also a wizard who is at least a thousand years old, and most likely a lot older than that. In the THEN, he looks like a Merlin figure, wearing dark robes, and a hood that covers his eyes. His eyes, when we do see them, are watery and sad, and his beard is very gray. In the NOW, he stands erect at 5'11", but in the THEN hunches over slightly so that we cannot tell his true height.

BLUE is an elemental, sprung from the very wellspring that enables magick in our world. In every incarnation, she is extraordinarily beautiful, and around 5'6". Her true form is that of a lady made completely of water, semi-translucent. She first appears to MICHAEL in this fashion. Later in the THEN, and in STEPHAN's nightmare, she appears as a harlequin, with diamond checkered legs and a ropy hemp-like fringe about her neck and shoulders. Despite her best efforts, she finds herself falling in love with Michael, loving him even as she manipulates him. In the NOW, she looks to be in her early twenties, with raven black hair down past her shoulders and thin arched eyebrows that give her pale face an inquisitive look. Her eyes are the color of slate, sparkling with shine. Hubba hubba.

DANE is also an elemental, BLUE's brother, and his true form is that of a bald, muscular man engulfed in a constant green fire, kinda like the Human Torch. In the THEN, he appears as a harlequin, wearing a unitard that sheathes his entire body in fuliginous black, seeming to absorb light itself. At the fringes of his white painted face is an intricate tattooed stenciling, most likely the language of some ancient, long-dead race. In the NOW, he is a tall black man, with long dreadlocks that hang down to his waist. He has a swimmer's build and is in the background a lot. BLUE and DANE are the big manipulators in this story.

THE VOICE is the disembodied personification of magick, who only comes on-stage in the borstal plane. It is neither good, nor evil, though it is sad that its children, BLUE and DANE, have wreaked havoc in the human world. The magick itself is represented by an onyx-colored liquid, which is frozen over by a vast plain of ice.

Well, there you go. I believe that knowing the characters before reading the story will not give too much away, but rather enhance the reading experience. Believe me, there are plenty of surprises to go around.