Tina comes to live with her grandmother to continue her magical education. But she'll learn as much from her new coworkers as she will from her teacher.
"Believe it or not, owning an occult shop does not make me rich." Charlotte, Tina's grandmother, replied. "You need to be able to pay your own way. Part of my agreement with your mother was that you would pay rent while you stay with me. Just like you would if you moved out to go to school. She wants you to get that experience at least, since you refuse to go to college."
"But if I'm working all day I won't have any time to study!" Tina complained.
"You will have time enough." she said. "Now help me with this spell."
"Should I be insulted that you're casting a spell to help me find a job?" Tina asked as she stepped closer to the ritual circle inscribed on the floor. This room had been used for years for Charlotte's magical work before she had the attic converted into her workroom. The circle took up most of the floor that wasn't covered by the bed, dresser, and desk.
Charlotte laughed, "I just want to get you settled quickly so we can get to work...and not listen to your whining if you have trouble finding a job!"
"Grandma!" Tina whined, and then laughed when she heard how she sounded. "Okay, what do you want me to do?"
Charlotte handed Tina a box of candles and instructed her to place them around the outside of the inner circle every six inches. As she did that, Charlotte set various objects down in the outer circle spaced evenly, except for one spot she left empty. When Tina had finished setting up the candles she took the half-full box and directed Tina to the empty spot in the outer circle. "Sit there and light the candles around the inner circle when I tell you to." she said, handing Tina a lighter.
"Don't you want me to help you finish setting up the spell?" Tina asked curiously.
"No, because you're part of the spell. Once I've set up the outer ring of candles I need you to light them, and then, when I tell you, to light the inner ring. You do remember how to light them properly, don't you?" Charlotte asked.
"Yes, grandmother." Tina replied, rolling her eyes. "That was one of the first things you taught me. It's easy!"
Charlotte shook her head in wonder, "It still amazes me that you can say that. I worked hard for months before I was able to light the candles properly, and then it took me weeks to do it again. I wasn't able to do it reliably for almost a year." As she spoke she placed the last candle and stepped outside the circle entirely with a nod towards Tina. Tina nodded back and reached out to light the candle nearest her on the outer ring of the circle. Once the lighter was lit she closed her eyes in concentration and carefully moved it to the wick of the candle. As soon as the wick caught all the other candles in the outer ring ignited simultaneously.
"Now what?" Tina asked.
"Now you sit there and clear your mind and light the inner ring when I tell you to." Charlotte replied. She knelt down carefully just outside the circle and closed her eyes. After several minutes Tina felt a light breeze stir the air in the circle. "Light the candles." Charlotte said. Tina did and watched in fascination as the spell took shape inside the inner ward. To the untrained eye there would have been nothing to watch except the occasional bit of light that would easily be dismissed as an odd reflection or optical illusion. To Tina's eyes there were many colored lights stirred by unseen breezes that did not extend beyond the inner circle. These were accompanied by sounds; a bell tinkling, an odd scraping sound, water running, and many others.
Finally, after nearly thirty minutes of this, the spell solidified into a stable form and Tina knew it was ready. At a nod from her grandmother she extinguished the nearest candle of the inner ring, thus extinguishing them all and bringing down the inner ward containing the spell. Immediately she could feel the pressure from the spell and the effort it was taking her grandmother to keep it intact. Slowly it moved around the outer circle, settling on each object in turn. Each time it changed slightly before moving on. Lastly it settled above Tina's head.
With a shaking hand Charlotte motioned for Tina to extinguish the outer ward and she did. The spell settled into Tina's body for a moment and then shot away, leaving a piece of itself within her. Charlotte sighed in relief. "That was more difficult than I anticipated." she said breathlessly.
Tina was about to ask why when she felt a pull from...somewhere...and found herself lying face down on the floor. "Ow. What was that?" Tina asked as she pulled herself up.
"What happened?" Charlotte asked. "Why did you fall?"
"Something pulled me off balance." Tina replied.
Charlotte frowned, "That sounds like it was the spell, but it's never caused a physical pull before. It's supposed to lead you where you need to be, not pull you there."
Charlotte frowned in thought. "My spells have been more powerful lately. I suppose it's possible. I may have to stop using such complex spells entirely at this rate."
Tina looked at her grandmother in surprise, "Why would you do that? Isn't your spells being more powerful a good thing?"
Charlotte smiled ruefully, "You would think so, wouldn't you? But I'm too old to handle it. That spell took a lot out of me, and it never did before. If my spells continue to get stronger as they have been and I try to use that kind of magic again in a month or two, it could get away from me."
"What would happen if it got away from you?" Tina asked.
Charlotte shrugged, "It's hard to say. I've never heard of this sort of thing happening before. It's like there's more energy available than there was before. It could backfire on me in some way, or produce a result very different from what I intended. What that could be, I don't know."
Tina looked worried as she said, "Does this mean I could learn all this stuff only to not be able to use it?"
"I doubt it." Charlotte replied with a shake of her head. "You're younger and more flexible, and you're stronger in magic than I am. But all of that's a subject for another day. This spell won't last forever, you know!"
"Oh, yeah. So, what happens now?" Tina asked.
"Simple. You follow the pull you should still be feeling, and I'll follow you. Once we find the place it's pulling you to we can see about getting you a job." Charlotte explained.
Tina nodded and they left. Once outside Tina let the spell guide her, which was easy as it was trying to physically pull her in that direction anyway. Before long they found themselves at the mall. Tina wasn't too surprised by this, until the spell pulled her to one of the larger anchor stores. "An electronics store? I don't know anything about electronics!" Tina said in surprise once she was sure of their destination.
"Let's circle the building to make sure the spell isn't trying to guide us to somewhere on the other side." Charlotte suggested. Tina nodded, but the pull remained constant towards the electronics store. "Well, there must be a reason for you to need to be here. Let's see if they have any openings."
Reluctantly, Tina followed her grandmother inside. Charlotte asked if they had any openings and gave Tina a significant look when she was told they had three. Tina groaned, but started filling out the application. To her surprise, she was hired on the spot. Must be desperate she thought. After that they returned to Charlotte's house. Somewhere along the line the spell had stopped pulling Tina, which made her much more comfortable. It was pretty late, so she said goodnight to her grandmother and crawled into bed.
"Well, now that that's done, why don't we go up to my workroom and get going on your education?" Charlotte said. Tina nodded and followed her up the stairs into the attic. Unlike in her bedroom, the ritual circle in the attic was much larger and lined in silver. Charlotte tested Tina to see how much she remembered of what she'd taught her granddaughter during summer vacations for the last six years. She was surprised how much Tina remembered, and how strong she was.
After correcting the few mistakes Tina had made, Charlotte began explaining the reasons behind some of the rituals involved in magic. Tina knew some of this, but she went into far greater detail than she ever had before. Then she gave Tina the journal of a witch from three hundred years ago to study. "I don't want you trying any of the spells in there yet." Charlotte cautioned. "I just want you to read it and get a different perspective on magic. But before you get started on that, let's get something to eat!"
Tina was eager to start reading the journal, but dropped it off in her room before joining her grandmother in the kitchen. After dinner she returned to her room and started reading the journal. She was fascinated by how differently the witch had approached magic to how her grandmother taught it. She would have asked her about it, but she'd already gone to bed. She was so enthralled with the journal that she took it to bed with her and fell asleep while reading it.
After breakfast she reluctantly put the journal down and went to see if her grandmother needed any help in the store. The store was very busy, so the rest of the morning went by quickly. Since she ate breakfast late, Tina covered for Charlotte so she could get lunch, and then had her own lunch when she got back. A flood of customers came in after that, keeping them both busy until closing.
"It's not always like that, is it?" Tina asked as she flipped the 'Open' sign over in the window.
"Thankfully, no. The business is welcome, but it's too much to deal with on a regular basis!" Charlotte replied tiredly.
"So what are we doing today?" Tina said.
"First I'm going to relax with a nice hot cup of coffee. Then we'll try one of the spells in that journal you're reading. I think it's beneficial to try several different ways of doing magic, so that you can find the way that works best for you." Charlotte said.
They went back to the kitchen and Tina continued her reading while Charlotte sipped her coffee. Afterward they went up to Charlotte's workroom to try a light spell. "This seems needlessly complicated." Tina noted as she read over the spell.
Charlotte nodded, "Many of the spells in that book are. But for some people, the more complex spells work better. I suspect that less disciplined minds need the structure to help them to focus their mind and magic in the right form."
"Are you implying that I'm undisciplined?" Tina asked with a smile.
Charlotte smiled back as she replied, "No more so than most teenagers. Actually, I doubt this method will work well for you, but the experience could be useful anyway."
"Okay, so what are we going to use as the focus?" Tina said.
"A crystal is best. I have some in a box over there." Charlotte said, pointing out a shelf on the far side of the circle.
"Why not just use a rock or something?" Tina asked while she walked to the shelf and opened the box.
"The light emanates from every molecule of the object. An object like a rock would block most of the light except for a thin outer layer. With a crystal or other transparent object you get much more light." Charlotte explained. "Don't forget a stand for the crystal while you're over there. There should be a few on the top shelf."
Tina retrieved a round crystal and a stand and brought them back to the circle. After reviewing the spell Charlotte directed her to retrieve several other objects and place them about the circle. With the crystal in the stand in the center of the inner circle and the other objects arrayed around it they set up candles around the outer circle and Tina lit them. "So we don't need an inner ward for this spell, right?" she asked, as they hadn't set up any candles around the inner circle as they had for the previous spell.
"No, that's not necessary for this spell." Charlotte replied. "Now sit down next to the circle and read the spell."
Tina did as directed. It was a long spell, written in Old English. It took her a few tries to get the pronunciation right. When she did, light built up inside the circle and funneled into the crystal. At the last syllable there was a flash and when their vision had cleared the crystal sat there glowing brightly. "How long will it glow like that?" Tina asked.
"This kind of spell usually only lasts for a few hours. With how strangely my spells have been acting lately, though, and how easily magic comes to you, I suspect it may last longer. Let's leave it here and get something to eat. It should still be glowing when we're done." Charlotte replied. Tina nodded and followed her grandmother to the kitchen and helped her make dinner. Afterward they returned to the workroom to find the crystal shining as brightly as before.
"So now what?" Tina asked.
Tina had to repeat herself before Charlotte replied. "Sorry, I was just wondering what this means. The light grows dimmer as the spell fades, but it hasn't dimmed at all yet. Clearly it's going to last longer than usual, but how long? I wish I knew why magic is behaving so differently now." Charlotte said thoughtfully.
"No, I don't think so. But enough of that. Let's get back to your education. You did a good job with that spell, so we'll try another. Put the crystal up on the shelf while I find the spell." Charlotte replied.
"Okay." Tina said, picking up the glowing crystal by its stand and putting it on the shelf as directed. She half expected the crystal to be hot, but she couldn't feel any heat coming off of it. She hesitantly tapped the crystal with one finger, but it was cool to the touch. "How does it generate light without heat?"
Charlotte smiled, "It's magic!" Tina shook her head at her grandmother's favorite answer to questions of magic and started putting the other objects used for the spell away. The next spell called for some of the same objects, so she ended up putting many right back again. The spell allowed Tina to see someplace she was familiar with, in this case her old room at her parent's house.
They continued to try out different spells from that and a few other journals over the course of the weekend. Tina was amazed at how differently some people had approached magic, and how much more complicated many of their spells were. Charlotte was amazed at how easily Tina handled these new spells; spells she had great difficulty with when she was first learning herself. Charlotte's store was closed on Sundays and Mondays, so they had all day Sunday to practice. Monday Charlotte would work on finding some more spells for Tina to try while she was at work.
Monday Tina went back for her second day at the electronics store. A woman by the name of Sarah was there this time, who had apparently been working there a while as a guy! And she'd been attacked by a former co-worker and that's why she wasn't there Friday. Tina didn't know what to think of her at first, after hearing some of the others talk about her. But Tiffany was busy with another new hire, so it was Sarah who continued Tina's training. By the end of the day Tina couldn't see how Sarah could have ever been anything but a girl.
Tiffany was acting strangely, watching Sarah whenever she was near with an odd expression. Sure seems to be a lot of odd things going on in this place. Tina thought as she was clocking out for the day.
When she got home Charlotte had several new spells for Tina to try. They were from much more recent journals. There were a lot of odd elements, but they were largely much simpler spells. Tina found them to be as easy to use as the others, if not easier. And their effects were far more pronounced than the journals made them sound. They were still fairly subtle magic, for the most part. "Aren't there any spells that are more...obvious?" Tina asked as they were eating dinner.
Charlotte shook her head, "Supposedly, magic was once much more powerful than it is now. In those days, the kind of magic you see in books and movies was supposed to be possible. Perhaps even commonplace. However, whether that is true or not, I've never heard of anyone being able to do any magic of that kind. I think it's for the best, though. Any magic you might be seen doing can easily be explained away as a simple trick or optical illusion. Can you imagine how people would react if they knew we could do real magic?"
Tina grimaced, "Yeah, I guess it's best for people not to know. But if magic is getting stronger, couldn't that be an issue eventually?"
"I suppose it's possible. I certainly hope not, for your sake. You're already much more skilled than anyone I've ever seen. You need to be careful to keep your abilities secret. I don't want anything to happen to you." Charlotte replied.
Tina smiled and hugged her grandmother. "Don't worry," she said, "I'll be careful." With that they washed up and tried a few more spells before bed.
The next day Tina was on her own at work, which was a bit frightening for her. Sarah was working with the new girl, Kris, so Tina went to Tiffany for help when she needed it. To her surprise, that wasn't often. Maybe this job won't be so bad after all. she thought.
Charlotte smiled, "I was wondering when you'd ask me about that. We don't have enough time to get into it now, but I have a theory I've been working on. You'll need this background to understand it and, hopefully, help me to develop it further. I'll explain it all to you Sunday, when we have a full day to work on it."
At work the next day Tina noticed that Tiffany was acting more normally towards Sarah, although she still watched her a lot. Her own work was getting easier as she went, but it was hard at times not to laugh at some of the questions people asked.
She and her grandmother continued to work on new spells after closing up her shop that night, and the next. Charlotte continued to be amazed at how easily Tina seemed to pick things up, and how much more effective her spells tended to be.
Tina's parents came up for Christmas day. It was just the four of them this year, which suited Tina just fine. Not being able to talk about magic amongst some of her relatives always annoyed her, especially when her grandmother was there.
"So how is Tina doing Charlotte?" Tina's mother asked after dinner.
Charlotte smiled, "She's doing wonderful Kristy! She's already far more advanced than I was at her age. She has a gift for magic like no one I've ever seen."
"I'm jealous!" Tina's father said, only half jokingly. He had no aptitude for magic at all, though he had the interest. Charlotte had been disappointed when her only child had no talent for magic, though she'd taught him what she could anyway. They were both very happy when Tina showed an interest.
No magical work was done that day. The next day was busy running the store. After closing they resumed their practice with different kinds of spells. Tina was a little frustrated with the seemingly needless complexity of some of them and hoped this mysterious theory of her grandmother's was something interesting, at least.
Charlotte woke Tina early Sunday morning. After breakfast they washed dishes and moved up to Charlotte's attic work room. "Well, I imagine you're curious about my theory, right?" Charlotte said once they were settled in chairs off to the side of the work area.
"Yeah. How is using needlessly complex spells going to help us?" Tina answered.
"Perspective, mostly. Some of the spells we've practiced have half a dozen versions or more. They each contain different elements and levels of complexity. And yet they all not only work, but have roughly the same effect. Why is that?" Charlotte said.
Tina frowned, "I hadn't really thought about it like that. Shouldn't differently structured spells have different results?"
"I've thought about this a lot for a long time. The biggest problem with working magic, other than the weak effects and the need to keep it a secret, is that there is no underlying structure that applies to everything. All our spells are handed down over time. Occasionally someone will rework a spell for whatever reason, but there's no understanding of why magic works the way it does." Charlotte replied.
"Isn't that why it's magic?" Tina asked, thinking that if it were understood it would be science.
"Not really. Even if it were understood in a scientific way, it still defies the laws of science as we know it. Perhaps a day will come when the two methods will meet somewhere in the middle and merge into one discipline. I find it unlikely, but you never know. In the meantime, I've been working on developing a more scientific approach to magic. If we can get a better understanding of why each spell works the way it does, we can develop new, better, and more powerful spells." Charlotte said.
"That sounds interesting, but how do we do it?" Tina asked curiously.
"I've thought long and hard on this. I believe that a form of meditation will make it possible. This method of meditation will allow you to hold multiple completed spell forms in your mind and compare them and their effects without actually casting them or needing any tools or rituals. I just discovered it in a translation of a very old text a couple of months ago. I haven't had much luck learning how to do it, though. I think you, with your natural aptitude, may be able to do it." Charlotte said excitedly.
"Me?" Tina squeaked.
"Yes, you. I know you're not that impressed with your abilities, which is good. Getting full of yourself is a good way to have an accident or get caught. Either one of which could get you killed. But you really are amazingly talented in magic. I believe you can do it." Charlotte replied.
"Okay." Tina said doubtfully, but with some excitement of her own.
The first half of the day was spent going over what Charlotte had done in her attempts to master the meditation technique. After lunch Tina made her first attempt and amazed herself by getting farther than her grandmother yet had on her first try. After several attempts she was finally able to settle fully into the necessary meditative trance. She began forming the spell forms in her mind that her grandmother had selected for her. They were all versions of the same spell, a luck spell.
Tina was able to begin to make connections between the various forms and the end result when she felt something at the edge of her awareness. She shifted her focus towards it, but it was elusive. She finally realized that someone else was doing magic relatively close by. Powerful magic. There were seemingly random spikes of magical energy, each one stronger than anything she'd ever felt before from her own spells. She couldn't get any sense of where it was or what kind of magic was being used. She was just about to reluctantly go back to her work when she felt a particularly large build up of energy and its sudden release.
"What is it Tina?" Charlotte asked worriedly as Tina's eyes snapped open and she gasped in shock.
"Someone else was casting spells. Really powerful ones. The last one was huge!" Tina said.
Tina nodded, "Yeah."
"Either you're even more gifted than I thought, or there's someone else nearby who's still more advanced than you are. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing." Charlotte mused.
"I guess that depends on what they were using all that power for." Tina said.
Charlotte nodded, "Yes, there is that. Walk me through what you did. I'd like to see if I can sense it, too."
Tina nodded and guided her grandmother into the same meditative trance she'd been in, following soon after. She waited, but didn't sense any more magic. She decided to go back to what she'd been doing while she waited.
"Tina?" she heard her grandmother's voice distantly calling. She brought herself out of the trance and looked up at her grandmother sitting beside her.
"What?" she asked.
"Did you feel anything? I didn't." Charlotte said.
Tina shook her head, "No, I didn't feel anymore magic. I made some progress with the spell forms though. I think this idea of yours will work."
Charlotte smiled widely, "Excellent! We'll go over what you did and discovered after dinner."
"What time is it?" Tina asked in surprise.
"Almost six. Come on, you can help me." Charlotte replied. She helped Tina to her feet and they went down to the kitchen to get started on dinner. Tina turned on the TV in the kitchen on her way in. They'd just started eating when the news came on.
"Grandma, that's it!" Tina exclaimed, pointing at the TV.
"What?!" Charlotte asked, looking uncomprehendingly at the image on the screen.
"That's what I felt! Look!" Tina said excitedly. The screen showed a blasted area that looked like a bomb, or bombs, had gone off.
"That's impossible!" Charlotte said. "That must have been caused by explosives. Magic that powerful doesn't exist."
"I felt it grandma! That's what I was sensing. You said yourself that magic is getting stronger. Why couldn't that mean that there's magic strong enough out there to do that?! Besides, a ritual with a lot of people could conceivably generate that kind of power. You've told me before that anything's possible if you get enough people behind it." Tina said.
"You...might be right. In my day it would have taken every practitioner on the planet working together to generate that kind of power, if we even could! But now, with things changing as they are...it just might be possible with a relatively small group. Oh my." Charlotte said in shock.
"But...why?" Tina wondered.
Charlotte pondered that question for a while before answering, "I think...there are two possible reasons. Either they wanted to see what they could do for themselves, or they wanted to prove what they can do to someone else."
"What does that mean?" Tina said.
Charlotte shook her head, "I don't know. But there's no way for us to know who is involved or what they're trying to achieve right now. We should just go back to what we were doing. If you feel anything else like that, though, let me know right away."
"Okay." Tina said worriedly. They finished eating with one eye on the screen, but there was no new information.
After dinner Tina went back into the trance and made more progress with deciphering the spell forms. She felt that she was close to understanding why each of the spells worked to achieve the same effect, despite their very different approaches. Charlotte woke her from the trance at ten when she showed no signs of stopping on her own.
"I think we should always have someone on hand when we use this technique. Time seems to get away from us, otherwise." Charlotte said. Tina agreed readily when she realized how much time had passed in the seemingly short time she'd been working.
Despite the relaxing nature of the meditative trance she used to study the spell forms, Tina found she was exhausted. After saying goodnight to her grandmother she went to bed.
As Tina got ready for work in the morning she couldn't stop thinking about what she'd sensed while she was meditating. She was sure that surge of magic was responsible for what she'd seen on the news. She checked the news and online, but there was nothing new about it aside from a few bloggers wondering why they hadn't heard anything more on it.
Taking her grandmother's advice, she put that concern aside and went to work. Things were rather slow at work and she found herself thinking about the spell forms. I'll need to work on this some more, but I think Grandma's idea could really pay off. she thought. After lunch things picked up and she had to put those thoughts aside until the walk home. Then she started helping her grandmother with customers before closing up.
Tina was about to lock the front door when she noticed a couple of women about her own age were talking to her grandmother. They look upset, and so does Grandma. she thought as she walked over to see what was going on.
"...losing it. We're really worried about him." one of the women was saying as Tina walked up next to Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head wearily, "That's the problem with male practitioners, they are often unstable. Do you think he would listen to me?"
"I hope so. Could we bring him by here tomorrow?" the second woman asked hopefully.
Charlotte noticed Tina and nodded in her direction, "I'd like my granddaughter here when he does. If you could get him to come over around four thirty tomorrow, I'll see what we can do."
They nodded and thanked Charlotte, throwing questioning looks Tina's way. Then they said goodbye and left. "What was that about?" Tina asked.
"Those two are members of a witch's coven." Charlotte explained. "They came over to ask for my help."
"With what?" Tina asked.
"They said one of their members has been acting strangely. He's becoming extremely paranoid and seems to think that the other members are withholding information from him. This is one reason I'm almost glad your father never had any talent for magic." Charlotte replied.
Tina frowned, "Huh? What does Dad have to do with it?"
"For some reason, a lot of men don't handle magic well. They become paranoid, or power mad, and lose control. It sounds like their friend is going down that road. And they said he has a talent for magic, much like you do. So he could be dangerous." Charlotte said.
"So he's coming over here tomorrow?" Tina asked. Charlotte nodded and Tina said, "But why did you want me here for that?"
Charlotte shrugged, "It's just a hunch. I think you might be able to help. I hope so, anyway. With magic getting stronger and his talent for it, he could expose magic to the world if he gets too far out of hand."
Charlotte shook her head, "No, but I've heard of it happening before. Usually we'd let the authorities handle it and make him out to be crazy, which they often are. But if he's as talented as they say, we may have to do something different to keep magic a secret."
"Like what?" Tina asked worriedly.
"I don't know. Hopefully it won't be an issue." Charlotte replied.
They ate in silence after that. After cleaning up they returned to the attic and continued working on deciphering the spell forms. Although she only had a few hours to work on it, she managed to breeze through the spell forms she'd been studying and examine a few more.
"So what have you learned so far?" Charlotte asked after awakening Tina from her trance.
"I'm not sure. There's so much stuff in my head right now it's hard to make sense of it all. But I think I'm really starting to get a feel for how magic works." she replied dazedly.
"Then it sounds like it's time for you to get some rest. Go on to bed and we'll talk some more tomorrow." Charlotte said.
Images of spell forms danced around in her head all morning and it wasn't until lunch that Tina noticed that both Tiffany and Sarah seemed upset about something. That didn't distract her from the images in her head for long, though. Even on the walk home from work she found it hard to concentrate on anything else. After nearly getting run over while crossing the street she was finally able to focus and hurried back to help her grandmother close up her store for the day.
The only people in the store when she got there were her grandmother, the two women from the previous day, and a fidgety guy who kept glancing around him like he expected to be attacked at any moment. He didn't seem very pleased to be there.
"Tina, let me introduce you." Charlotte said when she saw her granddaughter enter. "This is Willow, Rose, and Nathaniel." Willow and Rose were both wearing t-shirts and jeans, but Nathaniel's clothes seemed to mostly be made up of straps, buckles and spikes. Over it all he wore a long trench coat with an overabundance of zippers, only some of which were probably practical. His boots had a four inch platform, his hair was short, black, and spiked like an anime character. And his makeup made him look like a vampire.
"Uh, hi." Tina said hesitantly. It wasn't so much his outfit that put her off, though it was more ostentatiously goth than anything she had ever seen before, but his manner. He somehow combined arrogant, skittish, paranoid and angry in his expression and seemed to never be completely still.
"Hi Tina. So you're studying with Charlotte?" Rose asked with a nervous glance towards Nathaniel.
Tina nodded, "Yeah. She's been teaching me since I was little."
"Cool. I wish I came from a magical family." Willow said wistfully.
"Then how did you learn?" Tina asked.
"The coven. I've been friends with Rose since junior high and she invited me into the coven. I don't know much yet, though." Willow explained.
"That's because they're holding out on us!" Nathaniel growled.
"I assure you that's not the case Nathaniel." Charlotte said. "Some covens do restrict what new members are allowed access to, but Kerry doesn't operate that way."
"Kerry?" Tina asked.
"She's the High Priestess of our coven." Rose replied. "And my aunt."
"Then why hasn't she told me how to make a talisman?" Nathaniel said angrily in reply to Charlotte's statement.
"What's a talisman?" Tina asked.
"I read about it in one of the old books. It lets you cast spells without a ritual circle, but they won't tell me how to make one!" Nathaniel said.
"We don't know!" Rose snapped. "How many times do we have to tell you? That book is in Latin! We're not sure if our translation is correct, and it doesn't say how to make one anyway."
Nathaniel turned to Charlotte, "You're supposed to be a big wig in the magical community, you must know?!"
Charlotte was shaking her head before he'd even finished speaking, "No, I don't. I've never seen the book you're talking about. I know that spells were cast without circles in the past, but I have no idea how."
"See?!" Nathaniel yelled to Willow. "The magical families are keeping us in the dark so they can have all the power to themselves!"
"Wait a minute, Grandma wouldn't lie to you!" Tina said.
"Shut up!" he said, slapping Tina aside as he stepped closer to Charlotte. "Now, tell me how to make a talisman!" he demanded.
Rose and Willow caught Tina before she could fall to the ground from the blow. Seeing Nathaniel advancing on her grandmother she stepped towards him. "Leave her alone!" she yelled, trying to redirect his attention.
He glanced her way and growled, reaching down to something sticking out of his odd outfit. It turned out to be the handle of a small dagger. Pulling it from the concealed sheath he turned on her. "Stay out of this, bitch!"
He stepped towards her, moving the dagger back and forth threateningly. Everyone else stepped back in surprise, but Tina was frozen in fear. She couldn't believe how quickly this situation had gotten out of control. Suddenly several symbols came together in her mind and she began tracing them out in the air in front of her without thinking. With each movement a line of pale blue light appeared, until the full spell form was drawn out in the air. As soon as it was complete it flashed and slammed into Nathaniel, knocking him to the ground.
"What...?" Tina mumbled as everything went dark.
"Uh, yeah. What happened?" she asked.
Charlotte smiled wryly, "I was hoping you could tell me."
"Ugh. My head hurts! Wait...did I...cast a spell?" Tina said, confused.
"Yes, yes you did. Without any tools of any kind, let alone a ritual circle. I'm afraid your actions have fully convinced Nathaniel that his coven is withholding information from him. But I'm more concerned with how you did that." Charlotte replied.
Tina held her hand on her aching head and closed her eyes to think. "I'm not sure. I've had all those symbols floating around in my head all day. When he came at me with that knife some of them suddenly came together and I just...reacted."
"By symbols I assume you mean the spell forms?" Charlotte asked.
Tina started to shake her head and stopped with a groan, "Ouch...no, the spell forms are made out of the symbols. It's kind of like how words are made up of letters, but also not. It's hard to explain."
"Well, we'll worry about that later. Let me get you something for that headache." Charlotte said. She left the room but returned a minute or two later with some pills and a glass of water. "Here, take these. Once your headache lets up you'll need to eat."
Tina took the pills gratefully. "Did I hit my head or something?" she asked as she handed back the glass.
Charlotte shook her head, "No. You overexerted yourself. I've done it a time or two, myself, so I recognize the symptoms. That's why you blacked out. Willow and Rose managed to keep you from hitting your head when you fell."
"What about Nathaniel?" Tina asked worriedly.
"He's fine. Your spell just knocked him down. He screamed at us afterward, but then he ran off. I think he's scared of me." Charlotte said.
"Scared of you? Why?" Tina asked.
"Probably because I taught you, and you managed to knock him down with a spell like that. Also, I have a bit of a reputation in the magical community. I've been running this store for a long time, after all." she replied.
By the time the painkillers took effect Tina's stomach was growling loudly. Charlotte helped her off of her bed and down to the kitchen.
"It'll just take a minute to heat up the plate I prepared for you while you were sleeping." Charlotte said. A few minutes later Tina was wolfing down her meal like she hadn't eaten in three days.
"Why was I so hungry?" Tina asked while Charlotte washed the dishes.
"When you overexert yourself magically, you don't just use up your magical energy reserves. You also burn off all of your physical energy. Really active practitioners often look emaciated if they're not careful. Now that you've eaten you'll probably get very sleepy soon and sleep right through the night." Charlotte said.
Tina yawned on cue, "That sounds nice." Charlotte barely managed to get her to bed before she passed out.
They didn't have a chance to talk before Tina had to leave for work in the morning. She felt refreshed and full of energy, so assumed she must have recovered from overexerting herself. The symbols that had danced in her head the previous day seemed to hang on the edge of her consciousness, but didn't intrude like they had the previous day.
Sarah wasn't at work that day, but Tina noticed that Tiffany had her hair done in a really striking way. It was snow white at the tips, and shaded to pitch black at the roots. It was so gradual and flawless that she had to ask who did it when she got a chance to talk to her at lunch. "Hey Tiffany, where did you get your hair done?! It's awesome!" she said.
Tiffany looked a little confused and said, "A friend did it." before rushing off.
Huh, that was weird. Tina thought.
The rest of the workday was uneventful and she returned home to help her grandmother close up her shop. While they were cooking dinner she asked, "Have you heard anything about Nathaniel?"
"Yes, I have. Rose called a little while ago and said that no one has seen him since yesterday. They're worried about him, but since none of them know where he lives there's not much any of us can do. I just hope he doesn't do something foolish." Charlotte replied worriedly.
They stuck to mundane matters after that until they'd finished cleaning up after dinner. "So, do you have any more insights into what happened yesterday?" Charlotte asked once they were settled in the living room.
Tina thought for a moment and nodded, "Yeah, I think I do. When I was studying the spell forms I noticed that they were all made up of these symbols. I was able to figure out what a few of them represented from how they were used in the different spells. When Nathaniel came at me I put some of those symbols together to form a new spell form. I'm still not sure how I cast it like that, or why the lines of the spell form appeared in the air."
"I don't know about the casting, but I'm not surprised about the spell form being visible. It always is when we cast our spells, after all. It's just that it is usually contained in the ritual circle. I also noticed that the spell form wasn't very clear. I think not having a ritual circle, or time, to help shape the spell resulted in it being less effective than it otherwise would have been. I suspect you could improve on that with practice, though." Charlotte said.
"You mean it could have been even more powerful?!" Tina exclaimed.
"Oh yes. Willow, Rose and I talked about it a bit before they left. We all felt the force of the spell, even though it wasn't directed at us. If it had been as sharply focused as your spells usually are, it might have blasted Nathaniel right through the wall!" Charlotte said.
"Wow!" Tina breathed, glad her spell hadn't been that focused. She could only assume that he would have been seriously injured if that had happened!
"So, what about these symbols. Could you draw one of them for me? One that you feel you have a good understanding of, perhaps?" Charlotte asked.
"Sure." Tina said. She started drawing one of the symbols she'd used in the spell she blasted Nathaniel with and then showed it to her grandmother. "This one basically means 'air'. From what I've seen so far it can be used in all sorts of different ways."
"Hmm..." Charlotte looked thoughtful as she looked at the drawing. "I think I've seen this somewhere before..." She set the drawing down and walked over to the bookcase she kept the older journals in. After looking through several she said, "Here it is!"
Tina hurried over to see what her grandmother had found and saw the same symbol written in the journal along with a few others that she'd seen and a few more she hadn't. "Does it say anything about them?" she asked.
Charlotte read for a moment and nodded, "Yes, it does. The writer didn't understand how to use them, but she describes them as the building blocks of magic as used in the distant past. She calls them glyphs."
"Looks like it." Charlotte agreed. "You're probably the first to do so for a thousand years or more, though."
"Wow! But if one spell knocked me out like that, how did they do it?" Tina said.
"Hmm..." Charlotte started looking through the book again. "Here!" she exclaimed, pointing out another group of glyphs. "The book says these glyphs are used to set boundaries to spells."
"Boundaries? What does that mean?" Tina asked.
"I think...it means that, without a boundary glyph, your spell has no limit on its duration or power. So it just drained power out of you until you ran out. If that is the case, you're lucky you didn't drain yourself to the point of death." Charlotte said somberly.
"Oh." Tina said softly. "I guess I need to do some more studying before I try to do that again."
Charlotte agreed heartily, so they went back to work on deciphering spell forms. This time Tina kept an eye out for boundary glyphs within the spell forms. She wouldn't even consider casting a spell like that again without setting a limit on it!
Tina went to bed exhausted that night, but happy that they were making such amazing progress.
The atmosphere at work the next day was strangely tense. Sarah was acting strangely, and Tiffany was watching her all the time. Tina could have sworn there was someone else there watching her, too, but she never spotted them. It was an odd feeling for her, almost like when she'd sensed magic being used while in the trance, though not as strong. She finally shrugged it off as her imagination and went on with her work.
After work was the usual routine, followed by more trance work. She'd managed to identify and define a couple of boundary glyphs by the end of the night, though she still wasn't entirely sure how to use them properly.
Tina was glad to see Friday finally arrive. With it being New Years Day, both stores were closed. She ended up spending half the day deciphering more glyphs before exhaustion finally forced her to take a break. At which point Charlotte decided to take a turn herself after asking Tina to wake her in a couple of hours.
When she did, Charlotte looked exhausted, as well. "You okay Grandma?" Tina asked.
Charlotte nodded tiredly, "Yes, it just takes a bit more out of me than it does you. Since you're doing so well deciphering the glyphs that make up spell forms, I decided to use my time experimenting with the glyphs themselves. It's a fascinating way to approach magic."
They were both so tired they took a nap before making dinner. While they were washing up afterward the phone rang and Charlotte answered it. Other than "hello", she said nothing and just listened with increasing worry. Finally, she said, "Thanks." before hanging up.
"What was that, Grandma?" Tina asked.
"A friend of mine. I've known her for a long time. She's a seer." Charlotte replied absently.
"A seer?! You mean she sees the future?" Tina asked excitedly. She had never heard of that kind of magic before!
"Yes, sometimes. Her gift has become more reliable in the last few years. She calls me whenever she has a vision she thinks I should know about. Most of the time it doesn't make any sense to me until after whatever it is happens, if then." Charlotte said.
"Well? What did she say?" Tina prompted.
"Oh, yes. It was as cryptic as ever, but still disturbing. She said that 'An agent of law watches over the ascendant one. The awakening has begun.' The rest of the conversation was her interpretation of it." Charlotte said.
"So, what did she think it means?" Tina asked.
"I've told her a little of what we've accomplished so far, so she thinks it's talking about you as the 'ascendant one'. She also thinks the awakening is the rest of the world learning about magic. Basically she thinks that our experiments are going to result in the exposure of the magical community because of this 'agent of law'." Charlotte said worriedly.
"So some cop or something is watching us?!" Tina exclaimed.
Charlotte didn't seem to hear her at first, lost in her own thoughts. Then she came back to the present with a jolt and laughed, "No, I don't think so. A name like the 'ascendant one' is too grand for what we're doing. You are going to be really powerful by our standards, but not that powerful! There must be another explanation for it. It could be something that isn't going to happen for years, after all."
Tina sighed in relief, "Good, I don't think I like the sound of that 'ascendant one' stuff. What about the awakening part?"
"It probably refers to the increasing amount of magical energy that is available these days. Perhaps sometime in the future it will reach a point where it will be impossible to keep magic a secret. Still not a very positive interpretation, but it's something I've been worrying about anyway. After all, what you did the other day probably wouldn't have been possible twenty years ago." Charlotte said thoughtfully.
"So this is probably something that we don't have to worry about for a few years, right?" Tina said hopefully.
"Probably. It could even take decades. Let's not worry about that and concentrate on getting a handle on glyphs. I think we have our hands full enough with that." Charlotte said. Tina was only too happy to agree.
"Hi Tina. We need to talk to Charlotte. Something's happened." Rose said. Tina flipped the sign over and locked the door before leading them back to her grandmother.
"Grandma, Rose and Willow are back." she said as they approached the counter where she was locking up the register.
"Hello girls. Has something happened with Nathaniel?" Charlotte said.
"We don't know. We still haven't seen him. But someone attacked Kerry a couple of hours ago! Whoever did it beat her up pretty badly, and also burned her arms and hands. She's still unconscious, so we don't know what happened." Rose said.
"But you think it might have been Nathaniel, don't you?" Charlotte asked shrewdly.
Rose nodded, "Yeah, I think so. When he left the other day he was screaming about forcing Kerry to tell him the stuff she was holding back from him. It's a little too coincidental."
"Do you think we should call the police?" Willow asked.
"And tell them what? That a deranged magical practitioner may have assaulted her to gain access to magical secrets? We don't even know for sure if he did it. I think the only thing we can do now is wait for Kerry to wake up so she can tell us what happened. How bad are her injuries?" Charlotte replied.
"I don't know. I was hoping you'd come with me to see her?" Rose said hopefully.
"Of course. Is it alright if Tina comes along, as well?" Charlotte said.
"Sure." Rose replied. "Willow drove me here, there's room in her car for all of us." Tina locked up behind them as they left and they piled into Willow's Civic.
"So, how did you blast Nathaniel like that the other day, anyway?" Willow asked as she pulled onto the road.
"I'm still not entirely sure. I haven't tried to do it again, because it drained me so bad. It was as much instinct as anything." Tina said.
"You're being too modest, Tina. Tina has discovered a new, or perhaps more accurately old, way of doing magic. It's more dangerous without the controls of a ritual circle, but she has learned quite a lot in the last few days. I imagine she'll be ready to try again in a more controlled way very soon." Charlotte said with pride.
"Wow, cool! Can you teach me?" Willow exclaimed.
"I think it would be best to make sure I know what I'm doing before I try to teach anybody else." Tina said. "An uncontrolled spell like the one I used on Nathaniel could kill you if it drains you too far, right Grandma?"
Charlotte nodded, "Yes, it could. I think you're right, you shouldn't teach anybody else until you have a better handle on it."
Willow sighed, "Oh well, I guess I can wait."
The rest of the drive was made in silence. A few minutes later they arrived at the hospital and found out which room Kerry was in. Charlotte and Rose gasped when they saw her in the bed, covered in bruises and with her arms and hands wrapped in bandages.
"Hello Kerry, how are you feeling?" Charlotte asked when she saw her friend was awake.
Kerry smiled awkwardly, it looked like it hurt, "I've been better Charlotte. I guess I got lucky, though, no broken bones."
"That's good to hear." Charlotte said with some relief. Rose took a seat next to her bed and held her hand.
"Don't worry about me, Rose, I'll be fine. I'm more concerned about Nathaniel." Kerry said.
"So it was him?" Willow asked.
Kerry nodded, "Yes. He was still trying to get me to tell him how to make a talisman. I tried to tell him I don't know, but he wouldn't listen. And he kept raving about me having already taught some girl...Tina, I think?"
"That would be my granddaughter here. She used magic to protect herself from him the other day." Charlotte said.
"How did you do that?!" Kerry exclaimed.
"It's an old way of doing magic that Tina stumbled across. Tina's spell nearly killed her, so we're being very careful in our explorations of that kind of magic. Even so, Tina is making remarkable progress. I doubt I would be half as far along as she is if I'd found it on my own." Charlotte explained.
"It was your idea that led us to find the glyphs, though." Tina pointed out.
"Glyphs?" Willow asked eagerly.
Kerry looked thoughtful, "I think I've heard of those before...somewhere. What are they?"
"They're the building blocks of spell forms. Each one has a particular meaning or purpose. We've identified quite a few, but figuring out how to properly put them together is tricky." Tina explained when her grandmother looked to her.
"But you did it so quickly in the store?" Willow said.
Tina shrugged, "It was kind of...reflexive, I guess? Since it wiped me out so much, I've been leery of trying it again until I'm sure of how it works."
"So," Charlotte said, "what are we going to do about Nathaniel? I take it we still don't know where he lives?"
Kerry shook her head, "No, he keeps to himself. I think in the future we should make sure to know a bit more about our coven members. Not that there's much hope of talking him out of his assumptions. Especially if he saw you cast a spell with a talisman."
"Oh, I didn't have any talisman." Tina said in surprise. "I just wrote the spell form in the air, somehow."
"Once I'm out of here you two need to tell me more about this different way of doing magic." Kerry said in shock. "You cast a spell without a ritual circle or a talisman to focus the energy?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so." Tina said, uncomfortable with how impressed everyone seemed by it. It had nearly killed her, after all. That didn't seem so impressive to Tina. At least not in a good way.
"Can we call the police now?" Willow asked, bringing them all back to the subject at hand.
"Uh, that could be a problem." Kerry said with a shocked look, as if she'd just remembered something.
"How so?" Charlotte asked.
"Well, when Nathaniel came to my house he threatened me with that dagger of his at first." Kerry explained. "But he didn't want to kill me before he got the information he wanted, so he put it away and started punching and kicking me. When that didn't get him anywhere, he got really angry and said that, 'If you won't admit that you know how talisman's work, I'll show you!'. Then he pulled a rod made of wood out of his pocket and pointed it at me. It had all sorts of symbols carved into it, and when he focused on it they began to glow red. Then a jet of flame shot out at me!"
"Not exactly. I was barely conscious at the time, but I'm fairly certain he said something about the rod being an accident. I don't think it worked the way he intended. Maybe the flame is all it does, instead of allowing him to cast all sorts of spells without a circle, as he wanted. I'm not sure." Kerry said.
"Even so, this is bad! Nathaniel is unstable, at best. With a weapon like that in his possession, who knows what he'll do? If he uses it in public, or against a mundane, we may all be exposed!" Charlotte said worriedly.
"He might not." Tina said thoughtfully.
"Why do you say that?" Kerry asked.
"Well, he seems to be totally focused on learning how to make a talisman, right? A mundane couldn't teach him that. So it'll be practitioners that he goes after. Is there any chance we could set some kind of trap, maybe?" she replied.
"Hey, that's a great idea! Then Tina could blast him again!" Willow said enthusiastically.
"Uh, I'm not so sure about that, Willow." Tina said.
"I agree with Tina, we shouldn't count on that kind of magic just yet. A trap isn't a bad idea, but it's very dangerous. With that rod of his, he could seriously injure or kill whoever tries to trap him. Total surprise would be required, I think." Charlotte said.
"We would also need to know who he was going after next. I don't see how we could anticipate him like that." Kerry said.
"Well, wouldn't another member of your coven make the most sense? He knows them, after all. Unless he would go after Grandma!" Tina said, looking worriedly at Charlotte.
Charlotte chuckled, "I don't think I have to worry about that. He knows I taught you magic, so he'll assume that I'm more adept at magic than you are, and you blasted him once already. I think it's safe to assume that he'll stay far away from either of us. At least unless he gets truly desperate."
Kerry sighed, "And considering there are eighteen members in our coven, he has plenty of targets to choose from."
Willow looked disappointed, and then worried. "He wouldn't...come after me, would he?" she asked.
Kerry shook her head, "I doubt it. He knows you're new to magic. And from what Rose said about your visit to Charlotte's shop, it sounds like he feels some connection to you. He may assume that all newer members of the coven, or even all members who aren't from magical families, are being kept in the dark about certain magics like the talismans."
"Oh, okay." Willow said, relieved. Then she cast a worried glance at Rose, "But doesn't that mean that Rose would be a logical target for him? Maybe even his next target, considering she's your niece?"
"Oh, you may be right." Kerry replied worriedly.
"I'll stay with her all the time, just in case." Willow declared.
Rose smiled at Willow, "Thanks, but what could you do if he does? With that rod thing of his, he could kill us both with ease."
"Wait." Tina said, "Didn't you say the rod was an accident? He must have been trying to make a talisman, right? And a talisman is just a way of focusing the magic so you don't need a ritual circle? So, wouldn't the rod be powered by him?"
"Of course! Good thinking Tina!" Charlotte said. "That means it's limited to the amount of energy he has. If we could get him to use it too much, he would drain himself and pass out like you did."
"That's still very dangerous. I wish we could talk to the police on this, but he might hurt or kill one of them. Besides the harm he could do physically, he would certainly expose us all." Kerry mused.
"I think the best thing for us to do at this point is make sure all your coven members stay in pairs or larger groups at all times. Rose, you should be especially careful. Willow is right, you're a logical next target. Tell everyone to be very careful if they see him. Don't try to fight him if he attacks, just run! But if he wears himself out using that rod, take it and bring it to me or Kerry." Charlotte said.
"What about Tina's idea of setting a trap?" Willow asked.
Charlotte shook her head, "It's too dangerous without knowing more. It's possible that the rod is a fully functional talisman and Kerry misheard him. If so, he's a lot more dangerous. We also can't be sure who he'll attack next, even though Rose seems a logical choice. After all, he isn't acting very logically so far."
Willow sighed, "I guess you're right. I think Becky would be willing to help me keep an eye on Rose, so with the three of us I guess we should be okay."
They discussed who could pair up with whom for protection for a while longer, but Kerry was getting tired. Rose drove everyone back to Charlotte's shop and dropped her and Tina off there. "Be careful." Tina said as she got out of the car.
"We will. You should, too. He's probably not too happy with you right now." Rose cautioned.
"I will. Bye!" Tina replied. With that Rose and Willow drove off and Tina and Charlotte went back into the shop.
Both buried in their own thoughts, they went about getting something to eat in silence. It wasn't until they'd finished cleaning up that Charlotte broke it by saying, "Do you want me to walk you to work Monday?"
Tina thought about it for a moment and then shook her head, "No, I'll be okay. If you did that then you'd be alone on the walk back. I might be able to repeat what I did before, maybe even without knocking myself out, but you'd be more vulnerable. I'll work on developing some defensive spells tomorrow so I have something ready if he shows up."
"Be careful, you could still seriously hurt yourself. Glyphs are still new to both of us, after all." Charlotte warned.
Tina nodded, "I know. I'll only use them if I can't get away. And he probably won't come after me anyway. He's still got all those members of the coven to choose from. You're probably right that he'd go after them before he went after either of us."
They spent the rest of the night going over their notes on the glyphs they'd identified thus far, trying to find combinations that would produce defensive spells that hopefully wouldn't require too much power for Tina to use.
This spell included the glyph for fire, which was why it was only her second choice. She didn't want to hurt Nathaniel, after all, only defend herself from him. It proved to be almost as flawed. Once she'd gone through all the spells she and her grandmother came up with only one of them seemed very promising. It used a glyph she wasn't entirely sure of the purpose of, though, which was why it was one of her least favorite. But she was almost certain it wouldn't take too much power, and would block any spells Nathaniel tried to throw at her.
Charlotte woke her from her trance to get her to eat a late lunch. By then Tina was exhausted and Charlotte insisted she not do any more trance work for the rest of the day. When she pointed out that Tina would need her strength if Nathaniel did attack her, she reluctantly agreed.
After lunch they went over the spell forms they had devised and Tina explained as best she was able why they didn't work right. "Obviously, our understanding of how the glyphs work together is still far from complete. I would have sworn this air spell would have worked perfectly, but it turned out to be one of the worst ones of the group!" Charlotte said.
Tina nodded, "Yeah, I never would have thought that magic blocking spell would turn out to be the best of the bunch. I've only seen that glyph a couple of times in old journals and wasn't entirely sure how it worked. But it seemed to work perfectly in practice. Hopefully I won't need to use it, though."
"I don't think there's too much danger of that. At least not yet." Charlotte said. "I imagine Nathaniel will go looking for information from some of the other coven members before he even thinks about coming after you."
Charlotte had Tina watch her after dinner so she could do her own trance work. She was still far behind Tina in her ability to manipulate glyphs, but was making progress. Having to have someone else on hand to wake her limited how much she could accomplish, though, and her granddaughter's training was her primary concern.
Tina woke her earlier than planned, as she was exhausted and having difficult staying awake. Charlotte was similarly fatigued so they both went to bed early.
Tina found herself unusually busy at work on Monday, due to both Tiffany and Sarah being exhausted. She wondered what was going on with them, but learned during lunch that Sarah had been attacked after work on Thursday by John! He was one of the guys who were fired just before she started working there, because of the way he treated Sarah. Nobody seemed to know exactly what happened and Tiffany and Sarah weren't talking. The only thing anyone seemed to know for sure was that he attacked her, and that somebody hurt him pretty badly to stop him.
She assumed that had something to do with why they were so tired. She decided not to talk to Sarah about it so as not to upset her. She tried asking Tiffany, but she wouldn't say anything about it. Work kept her pretty busy after that. By the time she was off she'd all but forgotten about it, as she was exhausted herself.
She found her grandmother pouring over their glyph notes when she got home. "Hi Grandma, learn anything interesting?" she asked.
"Hi Tina. No, not especially. Working in trance seems to be the most effective way to study these glyphs." Charlotte replied.
"Yeah, it's too bad we can't keep track of the passage of time better when we're in that trance." Tina agreed.
The phone rang and Charlotte went to answer it. She frowned as she listened, said, "Alright, thanks for calling, and be careful." and hung up.
"What is it Grandma?" Tina asked worriedly.
"Nathaniel attacked Rose. Willow and her friend Becky managed to distract him though, and they all got away without injury. They're all rather frightened of what he might do next, as you can imagine." Charlotte replied.
"We should have set a trap!" Tina said.
"Maybe. Then again, maybe that call would have been to let us know one or more of them were injured or killed trying to trap him. He's extremely dangerous, you know." Charlotte admonished.
"Yeah, I know, but..." Tina said, trailing off as she got a strange, far away look in her eyes. "...what...?" she said softly, just before she passed out.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I don't know. We were talking and then you suddenly passed out! Although...I did feel something odd just before you fainted." Charlotte replied.
"Oh, yeah. I felt something, too. It was really weird. Like something broke, but then snapped back together again." Tina said dazedly.
Tina sat up carefully, but she felt fine. Not even particularly tired beyond what she'd expect from a busy work day. Charlotte watched her carefully the rest of the day, but she showed no further ill effects. Tina was frustrated with not being able to do any more work in trance, but Charlotte wouldn't allow it after what happened.
Charlotte decided it was a good time for them both to take a break from magical matters and just watch a movie. Afterward they went out for a late dinner and did a bit of shopping before calling it a day.
After a while it stopped and she was able to concentrate on her work. When she returned she helped her grandmother close up and told her about what she'd felt. "So, do you think I'm still sensing magic?" she asked.
Charlotte shook her head ruefully, "I don't know, Tina. You keep doing things I wouldn't imagine doing. This meditative trance seems to have unlocked even more potential in you than I thought you had. It's very possible that you are sensing magic. Perhaps that's what you sensed yesterday, when you passed out. Disturbing though that thought is."
Tina grimaced, "Yeah, if that was magic, it was really strong! But it didn't feel the same as what I felt in trance, or what I felt today. So maybe it was something else."
"Still worrisome, but there's nothing we can do about it at this point. Come on, let's get something to eat and we can go over the glyphs some more." Charlotte said.
Charlotte was still worried about Tina, so they went over what they'd learned about the glyphs and tried to figure out how they fit together best. They poured over the glyphs they at least thought they understood for hours before turning in.
"Of course! And the lights are all out. There's no reason to think the store is still open." Tina replied. She got up to see who it was, with Charlotte following curiously behind. As she approached the door it shook with several more heavy blows. "They're going to break the glass at this rate."
The windows all had curtains drawn, so they couldn't see who it was. Tina was already reaching for the lock when Charlotte pulled a curtain aside to look outside. "Wait!" she yelled, but the door was already unlocked. Before Tina could react it was flung open, knocking her to the ground.
Nathaniel stormed into the room. Glancing around he spotted Charlotte and pulled something out of his jacket. "You know how to make a talisman. Tell me! I saw Tina use one against me before, so don't try to tell me you don't know how like the others!" he screamed.
"Why do you want me to tell you? You seem to have managed just fine on your own?" Charlotte replied, glancing worriedly at the wooden rod he was holding. It wasn't pointed at her or Tina, yet, but it looked an awful lot like the rod Kerry described.
He scoffed, "This? An accident! I can't make another like it, and it only does one thing! I want a real talisman! Now talk!"
Charlotte held her hands up defensively, knowing he wasn't going to like, or accept, what she had to say, "I don't know. Tina didn't use a talisman; she used glyphs. And she nearly killed herself doing that! Neither of us know how to make a talisman."
He gripped the rod tightly and pointed it at Charlotte. The symbols inscribed on it began to glow as he growled, "You WILL talk, or else!"
I sure hope this works! Tina thought as she traced out the spell she and her grandmother had devised in the air. Nathaniel was totally focused on Charlotte and seemed to have forgotten she was there. Just as the rod was glowing too brightly too look at she completed the spell. It glowed more brightly for a moment and then flew into Nathaniel. There appeared to be no physical force behind it, but he was so startled he fell back.
"What was that?!" he screeched in surprise. Getting back to his feet he turned the rod on Tina. "I was going to get rid of you, anyway!"
"Uh, is something supposed to be happening?" Tina asked after a moment of staring at the rod in Nathaniel's hands. The symbols were no longer glowing and Nathaniel looked confused.
"What did you do?" he said softly in shock, staring at the rod. Then, turning to look angrily at Tina, he screamed, "What did you DO?!"
"Huh, I didn't expect that." Tina said. She had thought the spell would block the rod, not disable it. Assuming the effect was permanent.
"I think you had better leave, Nathaniel. Unless you want Tina to blast you again?" Charlotte said. He looked surprised, as if he'd completely forgotten what happened the last time he was there. But after seeing her disable his flawed talisman so easily, his anger turned to fear. He hesitated a moment, then fled.
"Uh, Grandma, I couldn't really blast him again without knocking myself out you know." Tina said once he was out of sight.
Charlotte smiled, "I know, dear, but he doesn't know that! Here, let me help you up." She held her hand out and helped Tina to her feet, and then closed and locked the door. "I think I'd better call Kerry and tell her what happened."
"What exactly did happen?" Tina asked.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I just thought it would block spells, like a shield or something. That definitely wasn't a shield!" Tina agreed.
Charlotte went to the phone and Tina, feeling much hungrier after casting the spell, decided to finish her meal. By the time she was done Charlotte was just coming back into the kitchen.
"Looks like Nathaniel was busy today." Charlotte said as she grabbed her plate and put it in the microwave. "Kerry said he attacked two members of her coven before coming over here. One of them got burned a little on her arm, but that was the worst of it, thankfully. We're both hoping that your spell destroyed that rod permanently. He'll still be dangerous without it, but not nearly as dangerous as he was with it!"
"But what if he makes another one?" Tina asked worriedly.
Charlotte shook her head, "He said he didn't know how. It's possible he might manage to figure it out, but I doubt it. He's not thinking clearly enough for that."
"I hope you're right." Tina said.
After cleaning up they returned to work. "How are you feeling, Tina?" Charlotte asked.
"Fine, why?" Tina replied.
"Well, I thought you'd like to do some trance work today, but I wanted to make sure casting that spell didn't take too much out of you." Charlotte said.
Tina shrugged, "I was hungrier afterward, but that's it. I'm fine."
With some reluctance, Charlotte agreed to let Tina work in trance again. She woke her after only a couple of hours. "How are you feeling now?" she asked.
Tina rolled her eyes, "I'm fine, Grandma!"
"I'm sorry if I seem overprotective, but the work we're doing hasn't been done for centuries. Maybe even millenia!" Charlotte said.
Sighing, Tina nodded, "I know. I'm being careful, really! We must have done a good job with that spell, because it really didn't take much out of me at all. And a couple hours of trance work isn't that much. But I'll stop for tonight if it'll make you feel better."
"Thank you." Charlotte said gratefully.
"So, what do you want to do?" Tina asked.
"Well..." Charlotte said hesitantly. "Your parents and I are a little worried that your entire life is revolving around magic. Don't you have any friends?"
"I should have known!" Tina sighed. "Grandma, it's kind of hard to have friends when I can't talk to them about the most important part of my life. I tried in high school, but they could never understand why I wanted to spend so much time alone. They seemed to think I owed them all this time that I just didn't have!"
Charlotte nodded, "I know. I've dealt with the same problem all my life. That's a big part of the reason I started my store, in fact."
"What do you mean?" Tina asked.
"What better way to meet people who would understand my passion for magic than by opening a magic store?" Charlotte replied.
Tina gaped at her grandmother a moment before saying, "That's why you opened the store?!"
Charlotte nodded, "That, and my love of magic, yes. That's how I met Kerry, among others."
"Huh, I just assumed you opened the store because it was a way of making a living with magic, more or less. But that doesn't do me any good, I'm at work all day." Tina said thoughtfully.
"True, but you could go to one of Kerry's coven meetings. They're always at night anyway." Charlotte said.
"I'm not a witch; I don't believe in that stuff!" Tina protested.
"I know, but at least there you can talk about magic all you want without people thinking you're crazy." Charlotte said.
"I'll think about it." Tina said grudgingly.
"That's all I'm asking. Why don't we call it a night, alright?" Charlotte suggested.
"Okay." Tina agreed.
What she saw caused her to drop bonelessly into the nearest chair as she stared in shock at the man-shaped flame attacking some firefighters. "What is that?!" she said softly.
Charlotte shook her head, "It's impossible! I've read descriptions of things like this, but one hasn't been seen on Earth for millenia!"
"What are you talking about?" Tina asked without taking her eyes from the TV screen.
"A fire elemental. That's what it looks like. But it has to be a hoax! No one knows how to summon elementals anymore! Let alone has the power!" Charlotte replied.
As she spoke the image went dark. The reporters went on about how they couldn't see anything, but even they were blocked by the darkness. "What happened?" Tina asked.
"I have no idea!" Charlotte said. A few moments later the picture returned, but there was no sign of the living flame anymore. The cameras panned to show the damage to the street and the fire engine that had been torched by the creature. They also interviewed a few firefighters, but they all said 'no comment'.
The entire recording was replayed a few times, but no new information was forthcoming. "That was weird." Tina said. "Do you think it was for real?"
Charlotte shook her head, "I don't see how it could be. Even if there's somebody else out there with as much talent for magic as you, they couldn't do that without detailed instructions. Which don't exist anywhere. There just isn't that much magical knowledge left in the world, and there hasn't been enough power available to do something like that for so long that such knowledge wasn't a priority to preserve."
Tina had to hurry and get ready for work. She barely made it in time, but lots of people were late. At lunch everyone stayed in to talk. "Did you two see the news this morning?" Tina asked Sarah and Tiffany, who were seated opposite her at the table.
Before they could say anything Kris walked in and said, "I did! Do you think it's some kind of publicity stunt or something? It must have been CG, right?"
"No way!" a guy Tina hadn't ever heard talk before said. "My dad's a fireman and he saw that thing with his own eyes!"
"Besides, would they have blanked out the coverage if it were fake?" Tina said, remembering the darkness obscuring the image shortly after she got to the TV.
"Oh please!" Kris whined, "Fire doesn't act like that! It had to be fake!"
Tina couldn't help but say, "Maybe it's magic?"
The response was about what she expected. Kris snorted and the other guy said, "There's no such thing as magic. But it was a really good trick! I think it had to be a holograph."
"But what about the firetruck? It caught on fire, didn't it?" Tina said.
He dismissed that with a wave, "It was probably rigged."
Tina shut her mouth after that, but she was surprised that Sarah and Tiffany never did say anything about it.
"What's up?" she asked as she approached the group. There were five other people there she'd never met before.
"Hi Tina, we were just talking about this morning's events." Kerry said.
A middle aged woman pointed accusingly at Tina, "This is all your fault! You need to stop what you're doing immediately!"
"What are you talking about?!" Tina said.
"Tina, this is Beatrice, the seer I told you about the other day. Beatrice, calm down. Our experiments have nothing to do with what happened this morning. It was probably just a hoax, anyway." Charlotte said.
Beatrice looked like she was about to make an angry retort when suddenly every eye in the shop turned in the same direction. Tina found herself looking towards the west wall of the shop. She felt a...presence, for lack of a better word. It was there for only a minute or so, and then everything was back to normal. "What was that?" Willow exclaimed.
"Are you alright Charlotte?" Kerry asked. Charlotte looked unsteady on her feet, but her eyes were fixed on the wall.
Tina slowly turned back to the others and started to say something before passing out. Two of the others managed to catch her before she could fall. "What's wrong with her?" Rose asked.
Kerry helped Charlotte to a seat and said, "Whatever it is, it's affecting Charlotte as well."
Beatrice knelt down next to Tina and touched a hand to her forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if listening to something. Then she stood up and shook her head, "I guess I owe you an apology when you wake up."
"What did you see Beatrice?" the only man in the room asked.
"More than I can assimilate right now, Trent. But enough to know that Tina isn't the one from my vision. I think whoever we just sensed may be." Beatrice replied tiredly.
"That was a person?" Willow said. "Why did I feel it, too? I'm not very good at magic."
"It is strange. I've never sensed another practitioner like that before. I can't even locate someone with a spell, and I've been practicing magic for years." Kerry said thoughtfully.
Charlotte shook her head and looked up at the others, "Tina and I have sensed magic like that before."
"Charlotte! Are you alright?" Kerry said.
Charlotte nodded, "Yes, I'm alright. It was just a bit overwhelming. Our experiments seem to have caused Tina and I to become more sensitive to magical energies. Tina feels it more intensely than I. I'm assuming that's why she passed out."
"So that was someone doing magic that we all felt?" a woman standing apart from the rest asked.
"I'm not sure. It felt different than what I've felt before, but there was definitely someone very powerful involved." Charlotte said.
"This day just keeps getting weirder." a young girl who appeared to be only twelve or thirteen years old said. "Does this mean the fire guy was for real?"
"I didn't think so, but now I'm not so certain. Would someone help me get my granddaughter to her bed? It looks like she'll be out for a while." Charlotte said.
"I'll help!" Willow said, hurrying over to help Charlotte pick Tina up off the floor. Rose went ahead of them to open doors and pull back the covers on Tina's bed. Once she was settled there they all returned to the store after gathering up some chairs from the kitchen.
"So what does this all mean?" Trent asked.
"Perhaps it's a sign from God?" the woman standing away from the others said.
"You think everything is a sign from God, Clarice!" the young girl said in exasperation.
"There's far too much going on lately. It has to be connected somehow. Even the glyphs you and Tina have been working with." an elderly woman said as she gratefully took a seat.
Charlotte frowned, "I don't see how our work could be connected to everything else."
"I'm not sure how, or if, it is either. But something larger is going on than these isolated events." she replied.
"It's the Awakening, like I told you!" Beatrice said.
"Even you don't really know what your vision means, Beatrice. Don't get too excited." Charlotte said.
"Shouldn't we wait for Tina to recover to continue this discussion? It involves her at least as much as the rest of us." a woman who had stayed silent until then asked.
The elderly woman nodded, "Yes, I think you're right. She should be here for this."
The others agreed and they moved to the kitchen to have something to drink. They talked about normal, everyday things while they waited for Tina to wake. After half an hour Charlotte asked Willow to check on her.
"Sure!" she agreed, jumping to her feet and running up the stairs. When she got to Tina's room she found her still asleep. Worried she might be in worse shape than Charlotte thought, she sat on the edge of the bed and checked Tina's pulse. As soon as her fingers touched Tina's neck she started to wake.
"...Willow?" Tina said, confused.
"Hi Tina, are you feeling OK? You've been out for a while." Willow said.
"What happened?" Tina asked.
"I don't know. We all sensed something, and then Charlotte kind of spaced out for a while and you passed out. How do you feel now?" Willow said.
Tina sat up and noticed she was in her bed, but still dressed. "I'm fine. Is Grandma alright?" she asked.
Willow nodded, "Yeah, she's fine. She just kind of zoned out for a minute or two and then she was fine. They're all waiting for you downstairs, if you feel up to it?"
"Sure, let's go." Tina agreed. Willow helped her up and they headed downstairs. They found the others sitting around the table, talking.
"Tina! How are you feeling?" Charlotte asked worriedly.
"Hi Grandma, I'm fine. What about you; Willow said you were affected, too?" Tina said.
"Not as much as you. I'm fine. Do you have any idea what it was that we all felt?" Charlotte replied.
Tina shrugged as she took a seat next to her grandmother, "I don't know who she is or where, but someone really powerful!"
"She? Where did you get that it was a woman?" Beatrice asked.
"Couldn't you tell? That was definitely a female presence I felt!" Tina said.
"Could you tell anything else about her?" Charlotte asked.
Tina shook her head, "No, her presence was really overwhelming. I'm just glad I wasn't standing next to her when I sensed her, or I might have gotten really messed up!"
Charlotte nodded, "Yes, I wouldn't want to see what would happen, either. Did I introduce the others before you blacked out?" Tina shook her head. "Okay. Well, you obviously know Willow, Rose, and Kerry. And I think Beatrice introduced herself rather forcefully already." Charlotte glanced meaningfully at Beatrice who sighed and nodded.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that. After you passed out I got another vision from touching you and saw that I had misinterpreted my previous vision. Whatever is going on, isn't being caused by you. I think the person we all felt was the one I saw in my vision." Beatrice said.
"Right, so this gentleman over here is Trent. He's sort of a magical historian." Charlotte continued.
Trent nodded, "Hello Tina. I don't use magic myself, but I collect information on people who have over the years. Many of the journals your grandmother has here were borrowed or copied from my collection."
Charlotte nodded and pointed to the older woman sitting next to her, "And this is Esmeralda, but everyone just calls her Esme. She's a practitioner like us, but she's mostly self-taught."
"Hello Tina. Don't let your grandmother fool you, I know almost as much about magic as she does. I just didn't have the advantage of being part of a magical family like you two." Esme said.
"Over here is Clarice. She's a priest and represents a small group who practice magic within the various religious institutions in the area." Charlotte continued. Clarice just nodded.
"And I'm Stephanie!" the young girl added happily. "I'm not a practitioner or witch or anything like that. I just have a weird knack for magic."
"What she means," Charlotte said, "is that she can somehow channel magical energy through her body. When she does she is stronger, faster, and tougher than normal. No one has been able to figure out how she does it."
"Cool." Tina and Willow said at the same time.
"So, now that the introductions are taken care of, what are we going to do?" Beatrice demanded.
"Um, is this some kind of magical council or something?" Tina asked.
Kelly laughed, "Not really. We all met through your grandmother and her shop. We've gotten together a couple of times for situations like Nathaniel and this fire elemental, or whatever it was. But that's all. At the rate things are going we might need to make it a more regular event, though."
"I think that would be a good idea." Esme agreed.
"Uh, not to be insulting or anything, but why is Stephanie here?" Tina asked hesitantly.
Stephanie pouted but Trent spoke up before she could complain, "She's here because her abilities are, to the best of our knowledge, unique. And because she's my daughter."
"And because I'm awesome!" Stephanie said, glaring at Tina.
"Hey, I'm not arguing with that! I just thought it seemed like everyone here is representing some group or has some other specific purpose and I didn't see where you fit in. Although I guess Rose, Willow, and myself are kind of extraneous, too." Tina said. That seemed to mollify Stephanie.
"Actually, you're presence here is very important. You're the first person to use glyphs in untold centuries, if not millenia. And your talent for magic, and sensitivity to it, are greater than anyone else we know of." Trent said.
"And Willow and Rose are here to make sure Nathaniel doesn't attack me again." Kelly added. "So there aren't any extraneous people here."
"Okay, but what exactly are we meeting for?" Tina asked.
"To discuss recent events, try to find a solution to the Nathaniel problem, figure out where that elemental, if it was one, came from, discuss Beatrice's vision, and now this woman we all sensed. Did I miss anything?" Esme said.
"Well, there have been several times recently that I've sensed magic being used. The first time was shortly before we saw the news coverage of the damage done out in the hills." Tina said.
"That was done with magic?!" Esme exclaimed.
Tina shrugged, "I think so. It's awfully coincidental, otherwise."
"I have to agree with Tiffany, as unlikely as it seems. And it doesn't seem so unlikely anymore, after seeing that fire elemental in the news and feeling that woman's presence earlier. Not to mention Nathaniel's flawed talisman." Charlotte said.
"I told you, it's the Awakening! It's not some far off event, it's happening now! How else do you explain Stephanie's powers? Or Tina's?" Beatrice said.
"I can't argue that it's happening, but that doesn't mean that magic will be revealed to the world tomorrow. It has been getting stronger for decades." Charlotte said.
"Maybe we should concentrate on something we can actually do something about?" Trent suggested. "Like Nathaniel? We have no information worth mentioning on any of these other events."
"Trent is correct. We must reign in Nathaniel before he hurts anyone else, or exposes us." Clarice agreed.
"I'd love to, but I don't even know where he lives or works! He disappeared after Tina destroyed his talisman. Maybe he won't cause any more problems?" Kerry said hopefully.
"Somehow I doubt that." Rose said.
None of them could come up with any better plans than simply keeping an eye out for him and telling the rest if he was seen. After a few more minutes of discussion they agreed to meet again on Saturday. Clarice left soon after, with Beatrice and Esme following shortly after. Stephanie was eager to help by beating up Nathaniel if they could find him, so Trent took her home.
"Why don't we have another cup of tea before you go Kerry?" Charlotte suggested. Kerry agreed and the two of them went back into the kitchen, leaving Tina with Rose and Willow.
"Did my grandmother ask you guys to talk to me or something?" Tina asked suspiciously.
Willow looked down and fidgeted but Rose nodded, "Yes, she did. She said you didn't have any friends and asked us to spend time with you. I hope you're not mad at us, or her?"
Tina sighed, "Not really, I guess. It's just kind of annoying. My parents did the same thing before. At least you guys know about magic, so it's not as awkward."
Rose nodded, "I know what you mean. Most people look down on Wiccans and Witchcraft, so it was always better to keep my mouth shut about it at school. Willow is the only one I ever told about it."
"I guess I was lucky, in a way, not to grow up with magic." Willow said quietly.
"How did you two meet, anyway?" Tina asked curiously. They seemed very different to her, with Rose being more serious, and from a magical family, while Willow was a relative newcomer to magic but almost childlike in her enthusiasm.
"We had some of the same classes in seventh grade and just got to know each other. We've been friends ever since. I finally told Willow about magic last year and she's been soaking up everything she can ever since." Rose replied.
"I love magic!" Willow added.
"Me too. Dad told me lots about magic, but he's no good at it. So when I expressed an interest my parents started sending me to Grandma's during the summer to learn, or she'd come over to stay with us. I think I was six when we started doing that." Tina said.
"How does your mother feel about magic?" Rose asked curiously.
Tina shrugged, "It was all a big surprise to her. She thought all the stuff Dad told me was just stories he learned from Grandma, at first. When Dad told Grandma how interested I was in it, she came over and tested me to see if I'd be any good at it. When I was, Grandma gave Mom some demonstrations and she and Dad told her all about it. She was reluctant at first, but I was so insistent she caved in."
They continued to talk, comparing their childhoods and interests. They all shared an interest in magic, but Tina realized she was rather one dimensional compared to Rose and Willow. Especially Willow, since she'd spent most of her life without magic. They exchanged cell phone numbers when Kerry came out and said it was time to go.
"So, what do you think about Rose and Willow?" Charlotte asked after they'd left.
"Grandma, please don't do that again." Tina said sternly.
Charlotte looked sad as she asked, "Was your talk so bad then?"
Tina held the expression for a moment longer before breaking out in a grin, "No, it wasn't. They're great. I think it's funny, though, that Willow is the one who is most devoted to magic."
"So you're not mad at me?" Charlotte asked hopefully.
Sighing, Tina shook her head, "No, not really. I guess it isn't so bad when the people I'm getting pushed together with actually know about magic and like it."
"Good. I promise I won't make a habit of it, but I was worried about you not having any friends. Magic is as much my life as it is yours, but even I have friends. Life can get pretty lonely without them." Charlotte said.
"Well, it's getting pretty late and I have work tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed now. Good night." Tina said.
When she got back to her grandmother's shop she went straight to work. There were an unusually large number of customers. As she was helping her grandmother close up Beatrice came in. "Hi Charlotte, Tina. Can we talk?" she said in greeting.
Charlotte nodded and flipped the 'Open' sign around before leading her back to the kitchen. "What's wrong Beatrice?" she asked, as Beatrice seemed troubled.
Beatrice sighed and said, "It's about a friend of mine. She's a psychic. She helped the police find a boy that was kidnapped yesterday. They thought she was involved, at first, because she led them to him so easily. That was eventually cleared up, but the person who did so was an FBI agent. He asked her to call him if she had any more visions like that one."
"An FBI agent, huh? That's a little awkward, but it shouldn't be a problem. He obviously believes in her ability, but I doubt he's going to cause her any problems if he hasn't already. What's the problem?" Charlotte said.
"When she was telling me about it she showed me the card. When I touched it I got a vision. It was one of my more straightforward ones, and forked." Beatrice replied.
"Forked?" Tina repeated in confusion.
"That's what Beatrice always says about a vision that has multiple outcomes. The future isn't set, after all. Her visions can be avoided, or helped to happen, if you can figure them out. But sometimes she gets visions that show her two possible outcomes." Charlotte explained.
Beatrice nodded, "Yes, and one of the outcomes is pretty grim. In my vision, Nathaniel goes after Willow."
"Willow?!" Tina exclaimed in shock.
"Yes." Beatrice said, "And in the first fork, Willow dies."
Charlotte smiled at her granddaughter and said, "Relax Tina, Beatrice said there was another fork. What happens in the other fork Beatrice?"
"In the other fork, Nathaniel...disappears. I'm not sure what that means, but Willow is fine." Beatrice said, much to Tina's relief.
"So, what do we have to do to make sure the second fork happens?" Tina asked.
"That's the part that worries me." Beatrice replied. "We have to talk to this FBI agent. Apparently he knows someone who can help."
Charlotte frowned, "I see. That would pretty well expose magic to this agent. Could you tell if he would tell anyone about us?"
Beatrice shook her head, "No, the vision was focused on Willow and Nathaniel. But there's more. This person the agent knows...I think it's the one we sensed yesterday. The Ascendant One."
Tina grimaced, "I guess that makes sense, you said an agent of law was watching over the Ascendant One, so it would make sense that he'd know how to contact her. If you're right, then maybe you were also right about the Awakening happening sooner rather than later."
"Let's not jump to conclusions." Charlotte cautioned. "Beatrice, do you have that card with you by any chance?"
Beatrice nodded and retrieved it from her purse. "Yes, I thought you might want to see it. My friend didn't really want to be involved, so she was happy to hand it over. Here you go." She handed the card to Charlotte.
"I'm inclined to call him, but this could affect us all. I suggest we discuss this tomorrow when we all get together again. We have that much time, don't we Beatrice? Your visions usually don't take place for at least a few days." Charlotte said.
Beatrice closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded, "Yes, that's safe. I can't be sure, but it feels like the attack will take place on Monday or Tuesday. If we've made contact before then, Willow should be fine."
"Are you sure we can't just call now?" Tina asked worriedly.
"I'd like to," Charlotte said with a sigh, "but so long as Beatrice feels it's safe, I really think we should run this by the others. And since we're meeting tomorrow anyway..."
Tina nodded, "Okay, I guess that makes sense. Is it alright if I call Willow and warn her, though? Or will that mess things up?"
Charlotte turned to Beatrice, who shook her head, "No, that shouldn't be a problem. I got the distinct impression from my vision that Willow knew he was coming. Why she's undefended in both versions I don't understand, but she is. It shouldn't hurt anything to call her."
With that Tina went to grab her cell and dialed Willow. "Hello?" Willow's voice asked a moment later.
"Hi Willow, it's Tina. Beatrice is here, and she had a vision about Nathaniel attacking you. I wanted to warn you. She seems to think that, if we do what she saw in her vision, you'll be fine, but I wanted to warn you anyway." Tina said.
"Oh...wow. But why would he come after me? He knows I'm a newbie." Willow said in surprise.
"Beatrice doesn't know. Can you make sure you stick with Rose or something until we've found him? Beatrice says it won't make any difference, but it doesn't hurt to try." Tina replied.
"Wait, you sound really worried. Did she say what happens to me in her vision?" Willow asked worriedly.
"Uh, yeah. If we don't contact this agent in her vision, then he...well..." Tina couldn't quite get the words out.
"He kills me, doesn't he?" Willow said weakly. There was a long silence, and then Willow said, "Is it alright if I come over? I'm feeling kind of freaked out right now."
"Uh, maybe I should come to you. You shouldn't be wandering around alone right now. Especially at night." Tina replied worriedly.
"Don't worry about that, I'll have Rose drive me over. She'll insist anyway, since I'm staying at her place right now." Willow said.
"Oh?" Tina asked.
"Yeah, I insisted, so that she wouldn't be alone in case Nathaniel came after her. I guess it's just as well I did." Willow said.
"Okay, come on over, then. But be careful, both of you." Tina said. Willow agreed and hung up. Putting her phone away, Tina rejoined Charlotte and Beatrice in the kitchen.
"Willow and Rose are going to come over here. Willow was feeling freaked out after I told her. I hope that's okay?" Tina asked.
Charlotte nodded, "That's fine. They can stay the night, if they want. They'd only have to come back tomorrow, anyway."
"I don't feel that it will change anything for the worse." Beatrice added a moment later.
"You are sure about this second fork, aren't you?" Tina asked worriedly.
Beatrice nodded, "Yes, I'm quite sure. Like everyone else, my visions have been getting stronger lately. In my case, it means I can see and feel things more clearly than before. This is the clearest vision of them all. I think perhaps because it involves the Ascendant One. Her power might be bringing things into better focus than they otherwise would be."
"What exactly is this 'Ascendant One' supposed to be, anyway?" Tina asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine. All I know for sure is that she's powerful and that an agent of law is watching her for some reason. And she's female, but that's not from my vision, it's from you. And her appearance is tied to the rise of magic, though I don't think it's the cause. I think she just appears around the same time as magic is growing stronger." Beatrice replied.
"Well, I just hope she's a good person who will want to help Willow." Tina said.
"My vision strongly implies she will, so she can't be all bad." Beatrice said. "Would you like me to stay to talk to Willow?"
"Yeah, that would be nice." Tina said. The conversation turned to what happened to her friend until Willow and Rose arrived about fifteen minutes later. Rose looked worried, and Willow was drooping like her namesake.
"Hi guys. How are you feeling, Willow?" Tina asked worriedly on seeing the state Willow was in.
Willow smiled halfheartedly, "I've been better." She stepped over and hugged Tina tightly, surprising her. She hesitantly hugged her back.
"Maybe I shouldn't have told you." Tina said once Willow pulled away with suspiciously moist looking eyes.
Willow shook her head vigorously, "No, I'm glad you did. If this had been dropped on me tomorrow it would have been worse. At least this way I'll have a chance to get used to it before everyone starts talking about it."
"You sound like you're expecting to die. We're not going to let that happen Willow." Charlotte said. "We know what we need to do to prevent it. I would make the call now, if it didn't affect so many other people. But if the others refuse without giving a very good reason, I'll make the call anyway. Your life is more important than our secrets."
Willow smiled weakly, "Thanks Charlotte. I didn't mean to sound like I was giving up. I just thought it was better to know what was coming."
"And don't worry, if somehow they manage to convince Grandma to not make that call, I'll just handcuff myself to you so that when Nathaniel comes for you I can roast his ass!" Tina said angrily.
Tina shrugged, "I don't, really, but that doesn't mean I couldn't do it. It just means I might hurt myself in the process."
Willow hugged Tina again, "Thanks Tina! It's great to have friends like you and Rose watching out for me. I'm sure everything will be fine."
"Is there anything you wanted to know about my vision before I go?" Beatrice asked.
"Well, are you sure that making that call will keep Willow safe?" Rose asked.
"Yes, that's about the most certain part of this whole thing. I wish all my visions were so helpful!" Beatrice said.
"What about Nathaniel?" Willow asked curiously. "What happens to him?"
Beatrice shrugged, "That's the odd part. In the first fork, he dies shortly after you. In the second, he just disappears. I don't know what that means."
"Wait, you didn't mention that before. Do you know how he dies in the first fork? Maybe that will give us a clue as to what happens to him in the second." Charlotte said.
"Sorry, I don't know. All I see in the first fork is Nathaniel killing Willow and then being burned to a crisp. I don't see how it happens." Beatrice replied.
"Uh, I think that's pretty clear from what Tina said a minute ago." Rose pointed out.
"Would you really do that, Tina?" Willow asked.
Tina shrugged, "I don't know. If I was defending one of you, I would do whatever I could to stop him. I'm not sure how I'd react after the fact. And I'm really not sure how well the fire spell we made would work. It's a real power hog, so I don't dare cast it for real."
That comment led to an explanation of the trance Tina and Charlotte used to practice spells safely. Beatrice, feeling lost in the discussion, said her goodbyes. Willow soaked up Tina's explanation in wonder. "Wow, that's so cool! Could you...teach me?" Willow said.
Tina agreed, grateful to keep the discussion away from the grim possibilities of Beatrice's vision. Rose was also interested in learning, so Tina spent the rest of the night teaching them.
At noon Charlotte closed the store for the meeting and people started trickling in. Once everyone was there they took seats around the kitchen table and Beatrice told everyone about her latest vision.
"So, have you made the call yet?" Trent asked.
Charlotte shook her head, "We were waiting to discuss it all with you. Making that call could cause us all some problems, after all. If someone has a better idea to keep Willow safe...?"
Esme glanced at the others before saying, "I think everyone agrees that we should make the call. This man is already aware of magic in at least one form and hasn't caused any problems. If we make sure he understands the need to keep things quiet, I don't think he'll cause any problems now."
The others nodded their agreement. "Okay, so that settles that. Is there anything else we need to talk about?" Kerry asked. They talked more on recent magical events, but nothing was decided. Beatrice made the call to the agent and left the card with Charlotte. Soon they were leaving by ones and twos until only Rose, Willow, Tina and Charlotte remained. Charlotte reopened the store while Rose and Willow continued their lessons with Tina.
A little while later Charlotte asked for some help in the shop, so Tina went to help her while Rose and Willow practiced meditating.
Tina was just finishing restocking some shelves when she saw a man in a black suit enter. He was looking around the shop so Tina walked up and said, "Hi, how can I help you?"
"My name is Marvin Garner. Someone asked me to come here and talk to Charlotte?" he said.
"Okay, she's over there at the register." she said, pointing out her grandmother. He thanked her and walked over to Charlotte, so she went back to what she was doing.
A few minutes later she remembered the call and wondered if he was the agent in Beatrice's vision. There were no other customers in the shop at that point, so she wandered over to the register where he was talking to her grandmother. "...know it's someone you know, because you've been watching her." she was saying as Tina approached.
Charlotte looked over the man's shoulder at Tina and the man turned to follow her gaze. "Tina, this is Agent Garner." she said, and then looked back at the man, "Tina's my granddaughter."
"Hi." Tina said shyly, feeling a little intimidated now that she knew who he was.
"Hello Tina." he said and turned back to her grandmother, "I think I know who you mean, but how is she supposed to prevent Nathaniel from killing someone?" Tina decided to hang back rather than get involved in the conversation. A moment later she heard the bell on the door ring, so she went to see if the new customer needed any help.
A short while later he left, nodding to Tina on his way out. Tina sighed in relief, she was feeling tense the entire time he was there. Once she was done with what she was doing she hurried over to her grandmother. "So, how did it go?" she asked.
"I think it went well. He seems to understand the need for secrecy, and he agreed to talk to the woman we needed him to contact. I have a feeling he's going to want more information than we really want to give in the future, though." Charlotte replied.
"So long as Willow is safe, I'm happy." Tina replied in relief.
"There is more, though. Mr. Garner is the head of a new division of the FBI. He's in charge of investigating paranormal phenomenon. So, sooner or later, he'll come back for one reason or another. I'm sure he picked up on the fact that I know a lot of people in the magical community. I do run a magic shop, after all. I don't think he suspects you of being magical, though. Maybe not even me, though that's probably hoping for too much." Charlotte said.
"Wouldn't he have come here eventually, anyway, then?" Tina asked.
"You might be right about that." Charlotte agreed thoughtfully. "At any rate, this woman should be coming here soon. Today, I hope."
"I wonder what she's like..." Tina said.
"I don't now, but why don't you tell your friends about this? I'm sure they're as interested as you, if not more." Charlotte suggested.
"Sure." Tina agreed and went looking for her new friends. It's odd to have friends again. she thought. How long has it been...?
"I think so, but she's been like that for a while." Rose said.
"Don't worry about it. Time gets away from you in trance. Grandma insists on being present whenever I do any trance work because of it. But if you're really worried, wake her up. I've got some news, anyway." Tina said.
"Okay." Rose agreed. She stepped over to the bed where Willow was sitting and shook her. Almost immediately Willow started blinking and looking around in confusion.
"Why did you wake me up so soon?" she asked.
"It's been an hour." Rose said.
"Oh." Willow said in surprise.
"It's always like that. I should warn you, though, it can really tire you out if you do it too long. That's why Grandma insists on being present to wake me up when I do it, and vice verse." Tina said.
"Oh, hi Tina! Is the shop closed already?" Willow said.
Tina shook her head, "No, but the agent was just here." That got both of their attention. "He agreed to talk to the woman who is supposed to help you, so she'll be coming here. Maybe today."
"What was he like?" Rose asked.
"Kind of intimidating, but Grandma says he understood the need for secrecy, so hopefully he won't cause any problems there. But she also found out that he's the head of some FBI paranormal investigation division or something. So we'll probably be seeing more of him in the future." Tina said.
"Great." Rose drawled. "Just what we need. At least he did contact that woman, though. I wonder what she's like, and how she can help?"
"I was just wondering the same thing." Tina said.
"Well, Beatrice's vision had her helping me, so she must be nice." Willow said hopefully.
"I hope so." Rose said.
"So how are you doing with the meditation, anyway?" Tina asked.
"Willow managed to hold the trance state; I haven't gotten there yet." Rose said.
"It was so cool, too!" Willow enthused. "I was able to perform rituals without actually doing anything! I just envisioned the circle and everything and it happened, but only in the trance. I can get so much more practice in this way!"
Tina smiled, "Yeah, it is pretty cool. I didn't even realize it worked with rituals, though. I've only used it for deciphering glyphs and trying to make spells out of them."
"That must be difficult; working with symbols nobody has used for thousands of years." Rose said.
"Kind of. There are lots of clues in the old journals, though. That helped a lot. We've figured out at least a basic understanding of most of the glyphs we've found so far. It's making spells out of them that's really rough." Tina said.
"Could you teach me glyphs?" Willow asked hopefully.
"I don't think I should right now." Tina said apologetically. "They're really dangerous and I've only begun to understand how they work together."
"Oh." Willow said sadly, "I guess that makes sense. I guess I've still got a lot to learn about regular magic yet, anyway."
"I guess I could tell you a little about them." Tina said thoughtfully.
A smile lit up Willow's face, "Yay! Thanks Tina!"
Tina couldn't help but smile at Willow's reaction. She went on to explain the different kinds of glyphs they'd discovered thus far. She was just beginning to explain barrier glyphs when Charlotte stuck her head in, "Girls, I think you'd better come down."
"I guess she's here." Tina said as they followed Charlotte down to the kitchen. There were five people sitting at the table. Some of them seemed familiar to Tina, but two definitely were!
"Tina? What are you doing here?!" Tiffany exclaimed as she shot to her feet.
"Tiffany? And Sarah? I live here. What are you doing here?!" Tina asked in surprise upon seeing her two coworkers.
"You know these two, Tina?" Charlotte asked curiously.
"Yeah, I work with them." Tina said.
"I guess this explains your comment about magic the other day, huh?" Tiffany said. Tina blushed remembering her embarrassment when she suggested the fire elemental, if that's what it was, was magic.
Charlotte looked curiously at Tina, but she was looking at Sarah. There was something odd about her, but she couldn't quite place what it was. "Sarah, are you the one that FBI guy was talking about?" she asked, not entirely sure why she was focusing on Sarah when it could have been any of the others. Except for the guy, of course, since they knew it was a woman.
"Uh, yeah, I guess I am. But he didn't even know why you needed to talk to me. What's going on?" Sarah asked. Tina was a little surprised that Sarah, of all people, was the person they needed. But at the same time it felt right, somehow.
"Why don't we all take a seat and I'll explain." Charlotte suggested. They all sat back down and she continued, "I don't know how much you know, but there is a loose community here of people who know real magic of one type or another. A seer friend of mine had a vision. She saw Willow here," Charlotte pointed at Willow, "being killed by a man named Nathaniel."
"What does that have to do with Sarah?" the only guy in the group asked.
"I'm getting to that." Charlotte replied. "This was a forked vision, meaning there were two possible outcomes. On the one hand, Willow died. On the other, she lived. In order to bring about the second outcome, we needed to get the help of the person being watched by Agent Garner. We didn't know who he was until he talked to a friend of the seer yesterday, though."
"But why was the FBI guy watching you, Sarah?" Tina asked. She thought it amazing that there should be someone else who studied magic in the same store as her, but she couldn't imagine why else she would be there.
Sarah looked worried for a moment and then stammered, "Um, he kind of found out that...I have, uh, magical powers?"
"Cool! So you're a practitioner, too?!" Tina exclaimed.
"Huh? Practitioner? What do you mean?" Sarah asked, obviously confused.
"I don't think she's quite the same as us, Tina. If she were, she wouldn't be any better able to handle the situation than we are. She must have some kind of specialized ability that can help us." Charlotte said.
"What exactly do you need from Sarah?" the woman sitting really close to Sarah asked. Tina thought she remembered hearing that Sarah had a girlfriend, so was guessing this was it.
Charlotte shrugged, "We don't really know. Nathaniel is a rogue witch, or warlock if you like. He is paranoid and convinced that his coven has been conspiring to keep information from him. Willow is a member of the same coven, as is Rose." she pointed to Rose, "We know that the attack will most likely take place on Monday or Tuesday. And we know that Willow will be alone at the time. Beyond that we're as much in the dark as you."
"That's not entirely true." Rose pointed out. "We also know that in the first fork, Nathaniel is burned to a crisp. We're presuming by Tina, she's the only one of us with the ability to do that magically."
"So you're a pyrokinetic?" the woman sitting next to the man asked.
"Huh?" Tina asked, confused.
"A pyrokinetic would be someone who can control flames with their mind. And no, she isn't. She's just a bit more adept with magic, especially magic cast on the fly, than the rest of us." Charlotte said, giving a warning glance to Rose.
"Why is this Nathaniel so convinced that his coven is holding out on him?" Tiffany asked.
"It's an unfortunate problem I've encountered before. Male practitioners often become unstable. Paranoia is common among them, and can easily lead to worse things. In Nathaniel's case, he's convinced that we're all withholding information on the crafting of a type of magical focus called a talisman. He managed to create a flawed version on accident, but Tina broke it." Charlotte said.
"I still don't understand what you expect Sarah to do." the second woman said.
"Save Willow. Somehow." Tina said hopefully.
"I will if I can, but I don't know what I can do." Sarah said.
"Yeah, if Willow is alone when this happens, then it doesn't make any sense." the guy said.
"I was thinking that, if we knew exactly what your powers are, we might figure out how they fit into the vision." Charlotte said.
"Um, I have this magical blast thing that I do." she said hesitantly.
"Yeah, I guess." Sarah agreed.
"Well, that does fit, somewhat. If you were with Willow when she was attacked you could blast Nathaniel. But she's alone in the vision, so that still doesn't quite fit. There has to be more to this." Charlotte said.
"Did you use this blast on John?" Tina asked worriedly.
"...no." Sarah said quietly.
Sarah's, girlfriend?, put her arm around her and said, "Her blast is unlikely to kill someone, if that's what you're thinking."
Tina nodded, "Okay. I just wondered because the police don't seem to have gotten anywhere finding out who killed him." Tina said. That statement required an explanation for Rose, Willow and Charlotte. Tina had forgotten that they didn't know about the stuff that had gone on at work before she started there. She explained about how John had attacked Sarah and been killed.
"I think we've got the problem solved." the second woman said, startling Tina. She turned to look at her, but stopped when she saw Willow standing among the others. But when she turned back Willow was still there next to her.
"Willow?" Tina said, looking back at the second Willow.
"No, I'm Sarah. We were thinking I could switch places with Willow." Sarah said, still looking, and sounding, exactly like Willow.
"You're a shape shifter?!" Charlotte exclaimed. "I thought they were long extinct!"
"Um, not exactly." Sarah said, reverting to her normal appearance. "I've never done anything quite like this before."
"What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"This is a new use of an old ability for her. When she first discovered it she could only change a person's gender." the second woman explained.
"Oh, is that how you changed?" Tina asked in awe.
"Something like that." Sarah said. "I might be able to use it to change Willow to look like me. Then we can switch places until Nathaniel is caught."
"Why switch places? We could just keep Willow here until you find Nathaniel." Rose said.
"Yeah, I guess that would work, too." Sarah said.
Charlotte shook her head, "I don't think that's a good idea. How does Nathaniel find Willow in the first place? If he's watching this shop and sees two Willows, then we're in trouble. It's safer if you two switch places. Besides, if Sarah suddenly disappears for a day or two after meeting us, it will look suspicious. Do you think Willow can handle going to work in your place for a day or two?"
"Well, Tiffany and Tina will be there, so I guess that could work." Sarah said.
"Are you okay with that Willow?" Tina asked.
Willow nodded, "Sure, no problem!"
"Are you sure you can handle Nathaniel?" Rose asked doubtfully.
Sarah shrugged, "Should be able to. Mike's been teaching me to defend myself, and I've got my blast power. And it doesn't sound like Nathaniel has any magical weapons to work with anymore, so I should be okay."
"When are we going to do this?" Charlotte asked. "Do you have anything going on tomorrow that would be disrupted by switching places, either of you?"
Willow shrugged, "I don't have anything going on. Sarah?"
"Uh, actually, I kind of do." Sarah said awkwardly.
"What do you mean Sarah?" her girlfriend asked.
"Taking you to the airport?" Sarah replied.
"Oh, yeah." she said. "If you two switch before that then we wouldn't see each other again until after this is over."
"We should do this before Monday, so how about after her flight leaves?" Charlotte suggested.
"I guess so. But what would I need to do as Willow?" Sarah said.
Rose snorted, "Not much! Willow isn't working right now, or going to school. She seems to think she can make a living with magic."
"Hey, I can! I just haven't figured out how to do it yet!" Willow protested.
Rose rolled her eyes and looked at Sarah, "Don't worry, she spends all her time with me. You'll have an easier time than Willow will."
"Okay, so where should we make the switch? We don't want to tip off Nathaniel." Sarah's friend said.
"I suppose it should be somewhere public, where we can meet up without seeming to meet up." her other friend suggested.
"When's your flight again?" Sarah asked her girlfriend.
"Three." she said.
"Pizza?" Sarah said hopefully.
The guy groaned, "I should have known!"
"What?" Tina said.
"Sarah loves pizza. She never gets tired of it." he explained.
"That could work. If we go to the same pizza place at about the same time, you two can just 'happen' to go to the bathroom at the same time and make your switch." Charlotte said thoughtfully.
"So...five?" Sarah said happily.
"Okay, five o'clock it is." Charlotte agreed after glancing at the others and receiving no argument.
"Okay, we'll see you then." Tiffany said. Sarah and her friends all stood and walked back into the shop with Charlotte.
"So, I guess we have a plan. Don't worry Willow, Tiffany and I will help you at work." Tina said.
Willow smiled, "I know, I'm not worried! I just hope Sarah knows what she's doing."
"We're doing what the vision said we needed to do to keep you safe, so I'm sure she does." Rose said.
"Yeah, somehow I feel that Sarah can take care of herself. I'm sure they were holding back on what she can do. And I wouldn't be surprised to find out one or more of her friends are magical, too." Tina said.
"Why would they hold back? We're all magical here?" Willow asked curiously.
"For the same reason Grandma was holding back on what I can do." Tina answered with a look at Rose.
Rose blushed and looked down, "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."
"That's okay. They might find out later, anyway." Tina said, not feeling particularly worried about it. She couldn't call Sarah and Tiffany friends, exactly, but she trusted them.
"Did you see that one girl's hair?!" Willow said. "That was awesome! I should have asked her who did it."
"That was Tiffany. I was amazed when I first saw it, too. I asked her then and she just said a friend did it." Tina replied.
"Maybe Sarah did it with her cool shape shifting thing?" Willow said.
"She just said that she had never done anything like that before." Charlotte pointed out as she walked in the room. "I think it's safe to say she didn't change Tiffany's hair."
"Oh yeah, good point. So, Tina, you were telling us about barrier glyphs, right?" Willow said.
"I'll leave you three to it, I'm going to get started on dinner." Charlotte said. The three of them went back up to Tina's room and she continued explaining how glyphs work. She was talking animatedly about some new spells she was trying to put together when Charlotte came up and told them dinner was ready.
They talked about glyphs more during dinner and her grandmother cautioned Tina not to try and teach anyone actual glyphs until they'd gotten a better handle on their use, themselves.
After dinner Tina started explaining what Sarah did at the store. They all had a good laugh at some of the silly questions people came up with.
Charlotte didn't want anyone too tired to keep up their end of the charade, so she asked Tina and the others not to do anymore trance work until Nathaniel was dealt with. They ended up watching a movie before calling it a night early. Willow was almost asleep on her feet as Rose helped her to bed.
"I know she seems so upbeat all the time, but she just gets worse when she's nervous or scared. She tires herself out a lot when that happens." Rose explained to Tina. "Please keep an eye on her, okay? She's not as carefree as she pretends."
Tina nodded, "Of course! I kind of wondered about that. I'd be a nervous wreck, at best, if someone told me I might die in the next couple of days."
"Exactly. It's the way she copes. She didn't use to be so bubbly all the time, but she's been coping a lot lately." Rose said sadly.
"What do you mean?" Tina asked worriedly.
"I'm not sure what the problem is, but something has been bothering her. Before the death vision, that is. Obviously that's stressing her out. But she's been a little better since we met you." Rose replied.
"Why would that make a difference?" Tina asked, confused.
"I don't know. Maybe it's because she didn't have any other friends but me? Or maybe it's because you seem to love magic as much as she does?" Rose said.
"You don't?" Tina asked.
"Not the way Willow does. Magic is part of my religion. It's not an end to itself for me. Willow is different, like you. She loves magic for itself. I don't think she really believes in the religious side of things." Rose explained.
Rose shrugged, "Because of me, I suppose. Like I said, she doesn't have any other friends but me. I'm not sure why, she's such a friendly person."
"Huh, weird." Tina said. She finished helping Rose get Willow settled before going to bed herself. She was still wondering what was going on with Willow as she fell asleep.
Tina groaned, "What time is it?"
"Time to get up and eat breakfast!" Willow replied with a grin. Then she bounced off the bed and out of the room as quickly as she'd arrived.
After dragging herself out of bed Tina remembered her conversation with Rose the previous night. I guess this is her being nervous? Weird. Throwing on a t-shirt and some jeans she went down to join the others for breakfast. She was surprised to find Willow cooking and her grandmother sat at the table with Rose.
"She cooks?" Tina said.
"I'm not completely useless!" Willow replied, though she still sounded almost manically cheerful.
Rose rolled her eyes, "You're lucky, I've been awake for an hour already because of the Energizer Bunny over there. But yeah, she's actually a pretty good cook. Her mom runs a catering business."
"Yep!" Willow agreed as she brought a pan full of scrambled eggs with bits of bacon and cheese mixed in to the table, "She taught me lots."
They ate in silence with occasional glances at Willow, who was almost bouncing in her chair. She nearly vibrated with energy and Tina worried that she'd wear herself out before their meeting with Sarah and her friends.
Charlotte apparently had the same concern, as she asked Willow to help her with the dishes and sent Tina and Rose to continue their magic lesson. Neither could concentrate much on magic with their worries for their friend and the switch they'd be making in the afternoon.
"Has she ever been this bad?" Tina finally asked, giving up the pretense of telling Rose about her work with glyphs.
Rose sighed and shook her head, "No, never. But can you blame her?"
"No, I guess not." Tina said. "I can't imagine how I'd be feeling in her shoes."
"We need to find some way to get her mind off all this until we meet up with Sarah at the pizza place." Rose said.
"I could use a distraction myself, but what?" Tina asked.
Rose sighed, "I don't know."
They sat quietly for a time, both wondering how they would distract Willow for several hours. Willow ended up finding the distraction herself, as they found out when she came into the room carrying a deck of playing cards. "Want to play?" she asked, still buzzing with nervous energy.
Tina didn't know many card games but Rose and Willow did. The few games they played took hours as they taught Tina the games as they went. Charlotte came up with sandwiches for lunch, which helped to fill the time further.
Still, the games got old and they were all getting bored. Tina thought about suggesting a walk, but realized it was too dangerous with Nathaniel out there somewhere.
"Do you have any hobbies, other than magic?" Rose asked Tina suddenly.
"Magic isn't a hobby." Tina snapped. She immediately regretted it, though, realizing the tension was getting to her. "Sorry, but magic is really important to me. I guess you could say it's my calling."
Rose nodded, "Sure, I can understand that. So, do you have any hobbies, then?"
Tina thought for a long moment. Shaking her head she said, "No, I guess not. I'm kind of one dimensional that way."
Willow nodded, "Yeah, I'm kind of like that, too. I guess cooking is the closest thing to a hobby I have. Well, I used to like to tinker with mechanical things, but I was never very good at it."
"What about you Rose?" Tina asked.
She had to stop and think about that. "Well," she started, "there's magic, of course. I guess compared to you two it is just a hobby for me, but that's just part of my religion. I also help my aunt teach newer members of the Coven, but that's still part of my religion, I guess. Besides, I'm going to be a teacher anyway. I can't really think of anything that you could call a hobby."
"So that's what you're going to school for, to be a teacher?" Tina asked. Rose nodded. "What about you Willow?"
She blushed, "Well, I haven't really given much thought to college. Other than magic there's nothing I'm really interested in."
Tina nodded, "Yeah, I'm like that, too. I hope you are able to find a way to make a living at it. I suppose if nothing else you could open a store like Grandma's."
Willow nodded, "Yeah, I've thought about that. But first I need to learn more about magic, I think. Fortunately I can get away without going to school or working right now thanks to my parents' guilty..." she trailed off, obviously saying more than she wanted to.
"Guilty? What were you going to say?" Rose asked, looking very interested.
Willow shrugged and bounced up onto her feet. "Nothing! I was just saying my parents are giving me some leeway. Hey, is it dinner time yet?"
Rose and Tina exchanged glances, both having noticed the sudden increase in energy Willow was exhibiting. They were both wondering what Willow was hiding and Tina was surprised to see that Rose was as in the dark as she was.
Before they could say anything Willow bounded out the door, presumably to see if it was time to leave yet. Tina glanced at her watch and saw it was getting close to the time they were supposed to meet. "I guess we'll have to ask about that one later." she said, showing Rose the time.
Rose frowned, "And just when I thought we were finally going to get something out of that girl!" She sounded frustrated, making Tina think that she had been aware Willow was hiding something, just not what it was.
They hurried down after Willow, finding her in the kitchen talking to Charlotte.
"Shouldn't we be going now?" Willow was asking, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
Charlotte looked at her oddly but nodded, "Yes, it is about time." Seeing Rose and Tina coming down the stairs she grabbed her purse, "Good timing girls, grab your coats." Willow didn't bother. Tina guessed she was burning so much energy she would have no trouble staying warm.
The drive over was tense and silent. Tina hoped this situation would be resolved quickly.
They ordered and took a seat, wondering when Sarah and the others would arrive. It wasn't until after their pizza arrived that they saw them walk in. Willow was watching them a little too closely, so Tina jabbed her with her elbow. Willow looked away sheepishly.
The pizza was long gone by the time Sarah finally got up and walked towards the bathroom. Rose gave Willow a push and she bounced out of her seat to follow. "I sure hope this works." Tina said.
"Not here, but I'm sure it will." Charlotte said.
It wasn't long before Sarah and Willow re-emerged from the bathroom. It was immediately apparent the switch had taken place. Sarah was clearly trying to act like Willow, but couldn't match the frenetic energy Willow had been showing. For her part, Willow-as-Sarah wasn't doing much better at controlling herself.
When Sarah arrived at the table she sat and stared down at the pizza pan uncomfortably.
"You've eaten, I hope?" Charlotte asked.
She nodded, "Yep." She did a halfway decent job of copying Willow's exuberance this time.
Charlotte smiled, "Good. I guess we should be going."
There was an awkward silence as they got up and walked out to Charlotte's car. The silence continued through the drive back to the store until they were all seated in the kitchen.
"So, it's okay to talk now, right?" Tina asked.
Her grandmother nodded, "Yes, we should be alright in here. But remember to use the right name."
Tina nodded, "Okay. How are you doing Willow?"
It took Sarah a moment to remember she was supposed to be Willow, "Uh, fine, thanks!" Her efforts at copying Willow's enthusiasm were weak at best.
"This is going to be awkward, isn't it?" Rose said, looking away from Sarah.
"Sorry, this is just really weird." Rose said, looking back at Sarah apologetically.
"That's okay, it's weird for me, too." Sarah said, looking down at the table.
"Perhaps it would be best if you continued your lessons with Rose and Willow?" Charlotte suggested, looking at Tina.
Tina looked surprised, "Are you sure?"
Charlotte nodded, "Yes. We need to continue as if nothing were different. And perhaps Willow will have some new insights into glyphs."
"Glyphs?" Sarah asked.
"It's a new way to do magic Grandma introduced me to. We've been working on developing it more since we don't really know how to use it all that well yet. Come on, I'll tell you all about them." Tina said, standing and beckoning for Sarah to follow her. Rose fell in behind them as they walked up the stairs to Tina's room. "I'm kind of surprised Grandma wants me to tell you about glyphs, I wasn't even sure you knew how to do magic like we do." she said once they were all seated on Tina's bed.
Sarah shrugged, "A friend of mine seems to think I could learn, and should, so that works for me."
"Cool." Tina said, and began explaining what they'd discovered about glyphs. That led to a discussion about the trance state she used to practice the glyphs. Tina noticed Sarah was nodding off after a while, so Rose helped her to a guest room.
Tina got ready for bed herself. It's weird to be having fun explaining things to Sarah while she looks like that, but still be missing Willow at the same time. she thought as she drifted off to sleep.
Willow came down a few minutes later.
"Good morning Willow. I hope you slept well?" Charlotte said when she saw her.
"Uh, yeah, I did." Willow said awkwardly.
"Have a seat, breakfast will be done shortly." Charlotte said.
Willow sat, but didn't look at anybody, just kept her eyes glued to the table.
"Uh, what would you like to do today Willow?" Rose finally asked.
Willow shrugged, "I don't know."
"We could go to the mall, you always like that." Rose said, forgetting for a moment that Willow was really Sarah. Willow shrugged.
An uncomfortable silence descended, broken only when Charlotte brought breakfast to the table. Willow picked at her pancakes.
Once she was finished eating Tina rinsed her plate and got ready to go to work. She looked at Willow sitting there at the table, obviously uncomfortable, and wished she knew her better so she would have some idea how to get her to relax.
"Be careful today Willow. I'll see you later." she said, waving as she walked out the door. Willow waved back weakly.
Tina was glad Willow didn't have a job to go to, since Sarah was obviously having a hard time. Anybody who knew Willow at all well would know something was up. She only hoped that Nathaniel didn't know her too well. Though if he was as unstable as her grandmother suggested, it might not matter.
At work she noticed that Tiffany hovered over Sarah for a while, but was surprised with how well she actually handled herself. In a way it wasn't surprising, knowing how friendly Willow tended to be. She also managed to keep her excess energy in check fairly well. It seemed clear that Willow was having an easier time being Sarah, at least as far as her job, than Sarah was in being Willow.
At lunch she did ask a few questions, but not that many. Tina exchanged surprised looks with Tiffany, which Sarah obviously caught, saying, "What, you thought this would be really hard for me? I'm pretty good at talking to people, most of the time. And I'm real comfortable with computers and electronics and stuff. This isn't that bad."
Tina shook her head, "You're full of surprises. I wonder how Sa...I mean, Willow is doing."
"How did she seem this morning?" Tiffany asked.
"Tense. Withdrawn. Or maybe just nervous. I don't know her that well." Tina replied.
"I meant to warn you, she's really depressed over her fiance going back to Harvard. She's also had a rough time lately in general. We're all worried about her. She's a lot stronger when Erica is here. If you could keep an eye on her, and ask Rose to do so as well, I'd really appreciate it." Tiffany said.
"Sure, I'll call Rose right now." Tina said. She stepped out to make the call. Rose was at the mall, so it took a moment for her to find a quiet place so they could talk. She quickly filled Rose in on what Tiffany had told her and let her get back to her shopping.
After the call she went back to the break room, "I told Rose. She promised to keep an eye on her, but she's got a doctor's appointment right now. She should be back with Willow in an hour or so."
"Thanks, I'll feel better knowing somebody's watching out for her. She's kind of fragile." Tiffany said.
They got back to work after that. However, it wasn't long after that Tina felt a burst of magical energy nearby. It was powerful, but nothing like some of the other things she'd felt recently. A moment later Tiffany suddenly ran off. Sarah started to follow, but quickly lost sight of her. She hurried over to Tina.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I felt magic being used nearby. I think Willow nailed Nathaniel. She must have a way to contact Tiffany, I guess. Or maybe she can sense magic, too. But without knowing where it came from I think we should stay put. We're short handed now, anyway. If they need our help they'll call us." Tina said, hoping she was right.
Tina was distracted and thankful it wasn't a busy workday. Thankfully Rose called after a seemingly interminable time and told her that they were all safely back at her grandmother's. She hurried to ask her boss if she and 'Sarah' could leave early, telling him that a friend of theirs had been hurt. A couple of late shift people had already arrived, so they were able to get out early.
"What's up?" Sarah asked anxiously after Tina told her they were going home.
"Rose called. She said everyone's safely back at Grandma's, so it sounds like everything went okay. But let's hurry up and get back there." Tina said.
Sarah nodded and followed her out. They ended up running most of the way back.
As they breathlessly walked into the kitchen they overheard some girl saying, "It's not fair. I've been looking for magic all my life and it just falls in your lap!"
"I know how you feel." Sarah said. "I'm really envious of Sarah, myself. Can you change me back now Sarah?"
Tina stepped around her to look at Sarah. "Are you alright?" she asked.
Sarah nodded weakly, "Yeah, I'm fine. Here, let me touch Willow so I can change her back." Tina stood back and Sarah tapped Willow's outstretched hand, changing her back instantly.
"Well, we lucked out." Charlotte said, walking up behind Tina. "Everybody is available to come over tomorrow night. I was afraid it would be a week or more."
"I suppose we should come back tomorrow, then?" Jill asked.
"Well, only Sarah really needs to be here." Charlotte replied.
"Can I come with her?" Tiffany asked.
"If you want, I suppose. We try to keep the meetings as small as we reasonably can, though." Charlotte said.
They all sat, who weren't already, and looked at each other uncomfortably. Charlotte cleared her throat, "Are you still open to talking now, as I suggested before?"
"I suppose so." Jill said, glancing at Natalie.
"Willow, why don't you take Natalie here up to the guest room. She can sleep here tonight." Charlotte suggested.
Natalie grumbled at being left out but followed Willow upstairs.
"So, how long have you guys been doing magic, anyway?" Tina asked.
Mike thought about it a moment and said, "About a month, maybe a little more. That about right?" He looked to the others, who nodded.
"A month?!" Charlotte exclaimed.
Mike shrugged, "Yeah. We're still getting used to the idea. To be honest, we didn't know there were other people out there with magical abilities until a few days ago."
"Wow, you must have felt really isolated." Rose said.
"Like what?" Tina asked.
"We made a few mistakes early on and attracted some attention. We were focused on trying to seem normal." Jill said.
Charlotte nodded, "Yes, the fear of all of us in the magical community is to attract attention. Well, most. Do any of the rest of you have magical ability besides Sarah and Jill?"
"Jill?!" Tina exclaimed. "I didn't know Jill was magical, too!"
Jill shrugged, "I'm an empath. I can sense people's emotions."
"Wow, that's so cool!" Willow exclaimed as she walked back into the room. "Oh, and Natalie's taking a nap." she said to Charlotte.
She nodded, turning to Sarah and the others and said, "You all have some kind of magical ability, don't you?"
Mike nodded, "Sure. I'm the shape shifter. I've never done stuff like Sarah did, I wonder if I could?, but I can take animal forms."
"So shape shifters really aren't extinct!" Charlotte said thoughtfully.
Mike shrugged, "It's not like it's hereditary or anything. Came as much of a surprise to me as anyone else."
Tina turned to Tiffany, "What about you?"
"Shadows." Tiffany replied, pulling them in briefly and releasing them again.
"Cool!" Willow said.
"What about Erica?" Rose asked.
"She's just immune to magic." Jill said.
Charlotte gaped, "Do you... have any idea... what a big deal it is to be immune to magic?!"
Sarah looked confused, "What's the big deal?"
"What's the big deal?! In the old days when magic was stronger people like Erica were used as weapons against powerful magic users! In fact, it would probably be a good idea to not tell anyone else about her immunity." Charlotte said.
Sarah looked shocked and nodded numbly. Tina noticed something odd going on with her and her friends, but she couldn't put her finger on what.
"So... does that mean Erica can't do magic?" Willow asked.
"I assume so." Sarah replied.
"Oh, man, that sucks!!" she said.
Sarah shrugged, "I don't think she feels like she's missing anything, really."
"Um, I wasn't totally honest about my abilities before." Jill said suddenly.
Charlotte frowned, "In what way?"
"Well, I'm also telepathic and telekinetic." she said.
"Whoa! You guys got all the good stuff!" Willow said in awe. Tina, Rose and Charlotte could only nod in agreement.
Charlotte shook off her surprise and asked, "How is it that you five have all suddenly shown such powerful magical abilities?"
"Sarah kind of started it all off. We all developed our abilities slowly after she started using hers." Jill said.
Charlotte frowned, then nodded, "I suppose that makes sense. Being aware that magic exists, and being in close proximity to active magic, could have both a psychological as well as a metaphysical effect."
"Huh?" Willow said.
"Most people don't believe in magic until confronted with irrefutable evidence." Charlotte explained. "Once faced with that evidence, any dormant magical ability they might have would slowly awaken now that their disbelief was no longer suppressing it. Also, being in the presence of active magic, especially if it's used on you, could have a synergistic effect." At Willow's baffled look she said, "Basically you'd get a jump start to your magical abilities."
"Oh, okay. So why am I so bad at it, though?" she asked.
"You're not bad at it!" Tina protested.
"Yeah I am! I've learned a lot from Rose and her aunt, as well as from you. But I still have to work really hard to get even the simplest spell to work." Willow said.
"Maybe you're just trying too hard to use magic the same way everyone else you know does?" Jill said.
"What other way is there?" Willow asked in confusion.
Charlotte looked thoughtful as Willow turned to her, "There is sense in what she says. After all, look at Tina. She's very good at ritual magic, but she has also picked up glyphs remarkably well. I doubt anyone else I know could have cast that spell that she did without killing themselves. If at all. Perhaps Willow has yet another approach to magic that we are either not recognizing or just aren't familiar with. There is a lot of information that has been lost over time. Perhaps you should talk to Trent. His library might have something in it that could help."
"Really?!" Willow said hopefully.
"I can't promise anything, but it's possible. You'll need to be at the meeting tomorrow anyway, since you were involved in all of this, so you can ask him about it then." she replied.
"Okay, thanks!" Willow said happily.
"Who else is going to be at this meeting?" Tiffany asked.
"There will be Trent, whom I just mentioned. He's a sort of magical historian. He doesn't practice magic, but he knows as much about it as anybody. Possibly more. Beatrice, who is the seer who had the vision about Nathaniel, Willow and Sarah. Clarice, who is a healer and priest. You should probably be careful around her, Sarah. She has some very strong, and often very old fashioned, opinions." Charlotte said.
"Great." Sarah grumbled.
"She's not a bad person, but she can be difficult. Also at the meeting will be Rose's aunt, Kerry. She's the leader of the local coven, and a skilled practitioner in her own right. Esme will also be there. She's the eldest of us, and self taught. She's quite remarkable that way. Then there's Trent's daughter, Stephanie. She usually comes with her father. She has an extraordinarily high opinion of him, and herself. But she's a teenager, so don't hold that against her. She is also an unusual person like the five of you, in that she can augment her physical abilities with magic." Charlotte said.
"So she's super strong?" Mike asked.
Charlotte shrugged, "I don't know the extent of her abilities. But she can definitely make herself stronger, faster and tougher when she wants to. The only other person who might be there is Rose. She sometimes comes to the meetings with her aunt, since she's being groomed to take her place when Kerry retires, though that's a long way off yet."
"I would like to be there, but I need to get my stuff packed for school." Rose said, glancing apologetically at Willow.
"Oh yeah, that's right. You're leaving." Willow said sadly.
"I'm going out of state for school." Rose explained to Sarah and the others, though this was the first Tina had heard about it, too. "Classes start in a couple of weeks so I need to get packed and moved out there."
"You won't be alone when she leaves, you know." Tina said, placing her hand on Willow's shoulder, wishing she could cheer her up. It was odd to see Willow looking so down, though now that she thought about it she'd calmed considerably since learning that Nathaniel was taken care of. Still, she was more subdued than she thought was usual.
Willow smiled sadly, "Thanks Tina."
"I suppose these others are going to want to know about us and our abilities?" Sarah said.
Charlotte nodded, "I'm quite sure. You will be the main focus, because of Beatrice's vision, but they will want to know about all of you. I could try to leave you out, but it could be difficult. Beatrice is a seer, after all. She tends to have insights into things you might not want known."
"Then when we tell them about Erica we can just tell them she heals rapidly, since you thought the immunity was something we should keep to ourselves." Sarah said.
Charlotte looked confused, "You mean to tell me that Erica is immune to magic, but she also heals rapidly?! How is that possible?"
Mike shrugged, "I don't know exactly how it works, but it saved her life when that agent shot her."
Charlotte blinked in surprise while Rose, Tina and Willow all gasped, "Shot her?!"
"One of the agents working for Marvin Garner was a little out of control and accidentally shot Erica. Marvin said he is dealing with him, though." Jill said.
"And you trust him?!" Rose exclaimed.
"Telepath." Jill reminded her, tapping the side of her head.
"Oh, yeah. I guess you would know." she said, though she still looked doubtful.
"You haven't been, you know, reading our minds, have you?" Tina asked weakly.
Jill shook her head, "No, I try to stay out of people's heads when I can. At first I was picking up everything, but I've gotten a lot better control since then."
"That's good, but perhaps we should stick with the empathy at the meeting. I doubt anybody but Clarice would have a problem with your abilities, but she probably would." Charlotte said thoughtfully.
"She's starting to sound like a real pain." Mike said.
"How would a teenage girl be able to keep her in line?" Mike asked.
Charlotte smiled, "You haven't met her yet. Trust me, she's good at it. Besides, Clarice has odd ideas about magic. To her, the only good way to use magic is through prayer, or through natural ability. She tends to consider practitioners like myself to be unnatural. But those with natural magical abilities that appear spontaneously are, to her, chosen by God. So she tends to listen more closely to someone like Stephanie than most adults would."
"Why do you all even put up with her? She must consider most of you to be unnatural?" Jill said.
"True enough. Trent and Beatrice are the only other ones she has any respect for, since Beatrice's ability is also natural, and Trent doesn't use magic himself. She has a little more tolerance for Kerry and Rose because magic is part of their religion, even though she considers that religion to be false. But Clarice represents all the magical members of the local religious organizations. So we're stuck with her." Charlotte said.
"Are there a lot of magical people in the local churches?" Tiffany asked.
Charlotte nodded, "There are. Or, at least, more than among the general population. Some religious organizations, particularly the Catholic church, have retained some magical knowledge. Only a small number of them know about magic, though. Most of the religious community wouldn't want anything to do with magic and would be very upset to know there was a subset of their own organizations that practice it."
Sarah looked worriedly at Jill, who said, "It sounds like we don't want any of them knowing about magic if we can help it."
"Definitely. Witchcraft, as most of them would call it, is still considered evil by most religions. Christian ones, anyway. Some of the eastern religions are more open minded." Charlotte said.
"So, what all can you guys do, anyway?" Mike asked.
"That's a complicated question." Charlotte said. "For the most part, magic is rather limited. Until recently even the simplest of spells took a great deal of effort. Even now we are extremely limited in what we can do. Mostly we use magic for minor divinations, what you might call blessings which basically grant good luck for a short time, and minor enchantments. Combat magics, like Sarah use, are mostly lost to us. However," she looked at Tina at this point, "we are slowly regaining what we lost. Tina has managed to cast a combat spell, using the glyphs I believe she told Sarah about."
Mike looked at Sarah in surprise, "Really? Can you use them?"
Sarah shrugged, "I don't know, she just told me they exist. She didn't show them to me or cast any spells."
Charlotte frowned as she watched this exchange, "Why do you seem to assume that Sarah would be able to learn glyphs? Tina is the first to even use glyphs in centuries, if not millenia."
"I have a knack for copying magical effects." Sarah replied, shocking her friends, and everyone else in the room.
Tina noticed Sarah's eyes flick toward her friends, and theirs do the same, but none of them spoke. She suddenly snapped her fingers, drawing everyone's attention to her. Realizing she was now the center of attention she blushed and said, "You guys have been having telepathic conversations all along, haven't you?"
"Yeah, we tend to do that a lot anymore." Mike admitted.
"Isn't that difficult to keep up with for you?" Rose asked, looking at Jill.
Before she could reply Charlotte said, "Ah, now it makes sense! Shapeshifting isn't Sarah's power at all, her power mimicry is. She copied that power from Mike, and Jill's telepathy. Between the two of them it would be easy to keep a telepathic conversation going."
"But doesn't Mike just change into animals?" Rose said.
"Sure, but it makes sense that Sarah would use it differently. She wanted to be a girl after all, so naturally she'd learn to swap genders first." Tina said thoughtfully.
She looked up to see that Sarah was looking down at the floor and seemed rather down. When she glanced at her friends she found them all glaring at her. "What?" Tina asked.
Charlotte shook her head, "Tina, you really shouldn't have said that. You basically just outed Sarah as a transsexual. In the wrong circles that could have gotten her hurt, badly. That's not the kind of secret you tell anyone without the person's permission."
"Oh... sorry Sarah." Tina said, staring at the floor.
Sarah sighed, "It's okay Tina, you didn't mean any harm. At least it happened here, instead of in a big group like that meeting tomorrow."
"A good point. This is another instance of something that Clarice would likely have a problem with. Others might, as well. I think we need to all agree to keep this to ourselves." Charlotte said, looking pointedly at Tina.
Tina glanced up and noticed the look, returning her gaze to the floor, "I won't say anything about it ever again, I promise!"
"So, you used to be a guy?" Rose said, confused.
"She was always a girl, no matter what she looked like." Jill said defensively.
Rose shrugged, "I don't understand, but I won't say anything."
Charlotte nodded and looked at Willow questioningly. Willow scowled, "Don't look at me like that! I'd never out anybody!"
Charlotte held her hands up placatingly, "That's good, I just wanted to make sure." Willow grumbled but nodded. Tina wondered what that was about, adding it to the list of mysteries surrounding Willow. Maybe I can get her to talk when she's alone. Rose leaving will give me the opportunity. Tina thought.
"About these glyphs," Jill said, obviously trying to change the subject, "what exactly are they?"
"That's hard to say, exactly." Charlotte said. "They are symbols that represent various magical effects, basically. Why they have power is unclear. Perhaps they are an integral part of magic. Or perhaps some ancient sorcerers worked together to connect these effects with the glyphs. No one knows. In fact, to my knowledge we are the only ones to even know of the existence of glyphs. Certainly I have never heard the slightest mention of them from anyone else."
"So it's some kind of magical language?" Jill asked.
"Not exactly." Charlotte said.
"Actually, that's kind of close." Tina said, liking the comparison. Charlotte frowned at her but she continued anyway, "Only it's more like a programming language. Each glyph is like a bit of code. They don't do much on their own, but if you put them together they make up a program, like a spell. We're still working out how they go together, though."
"I guess you can't teach Sarah if you don't know yet yourself, then." Mike said.
"No, but she's welcome to help me figure them out. Her powers might be helpful." Tina said thoughtfully.
"Tina, what did I say about teaching anyone glyphs before you've worked them out for yourself?" Charlotte scolded.
"I wouldn't be teaching her, we'd be learning together. Progress has been really slow, getting some help should speed things up a bit. I promise to be careful." Tina said.
Charlotte frowned but nodded reluctantly, "Alright, but be sure you are!"
"Can I help, too?" Willow asked hopefully.
Charlotte sighed and shook her head, "I suppose so. Perhaps this will help you find your own way of doing magic."
Mike shook his head ruefully, "It's kind of weird. After all this time getting used to our powers, we find out there are others out there with magical abilities. But it doesn't sound like there's a whole lot you can do with them. At least not yet."
Tina shrugged, "Yeah, it's kind of annoying sometimes. There are lots of things we can do, but mostly really subtle effects. But that's changing. Especially with glyphs. Once we get a handle on them there's no telling what we'll be able to do."
"Would you be willing to teach me this ritual magic you talked about, too?" Sarah asked.
"I would rather Tina not be distracted from the glyphs anymore than she already has been." Charlotte said. "But I could help you with the ritual magic. I'm not sure why you're interested, though. You're own powers are already well beyond what I can do."
Sarah shrugged, "Maybe, but they're also limited. I can do certain things pretty well, but that's it. If I learned your way of doing magic I would have a lot more options."
Mike yawned, "Maybe we should be going. It's getting late."
"Sure, that would be nice. How about on the weekend?" Jill suggested.
Charlotte nodded, "My shop is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so Sunday would probably be best."
"Alright, we'll be back on Sunday then. Except for Tiffany and Sarah. I guess they'll be here tomorrow night." Mike said.
"Yes, the meeting will likely start around seven." Charlotte said.
As they all stood Willow ran over and hugged Sarah, "Thanks for saving me Sarah!"
"Uh, sure, but you weren't in any danger." Sarah said.
"I would have been, if not for you. I'm looking forward to working with you on the glyphs, that should be cool!" she said.
"Uh, sure." Sarah said. After a round of goodbyes they left.
"Well, that was interesting." Rose said after a long silence.
"Yeah. Can you believe all the cool powers they have?!" Willow said.
"It's quite incredible. If I hadn't seen Sarah transform herself and Willow so effortlessly I wouldn't have believed it." Charlotte said.
Willow's stomach started growling so she volunteered to cook dinner. Rose went up to pack up her and Willow's things, since they'd be going home now that the Nathaniel situation was resolved. Tina was surprised at how much she was dreading them leaving.
"Are you alright Tina?" Charlotte asked her as she sat watching television.
Tina shrugged, "I guess. I've just gotten used to having them around."
"It's unfortunate that Rose will be moving away so soon after you met, but at least Willow will still be around. And she'll be working with you and Sarah on occasion with the glyphs, so you know you'll be seeing her." Charlotte said.
Tina nodded, "Yeah, that's true." That reminded her that she was hoping to find out something about Willow's secrets. Whatever it was Tina figured it explained at least some of the reason why she was always so manic.
Charlotte sat next to her and hugged her, "I'm glad to see you making friends in the magical community. It's so much easier dealing with people you don't have to keep secrets from. Although," she continued with a laugh, "I am a bit surprised that you are closest to the person who has the least experience with magic."
"Closest? What do you mean?" Tina asked in confusion.
"You obviously get along best with Willow. Hadn't you noticed?" Charlotte replied.
Tina shrugged, "I guess. We do have the same kind of interest in magic, I suppose. I'm not into religion like Rose."
Charlotte nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, I suppose it's like Esme and Kerry. With Kerry any conversation about magic inevitably turns to religion eventually. Whereas Esme sees no connection between the two and keeps her religious views, if she even has any, strictly to herself. That makes talking to her a little easier for me."
"What's going to happen to Natalie, anyway?" Tina asked.
"She'll be fine, I'm sure. The only thing I'm worried about is Clarice." Charlotte said.
"How do you think she'll react?" Tina said.
Charlotte shrugged, "It's hard to say for sure, but I suspect she'll want to punish Natalie. She might also have an issue with her sudden sex change. Although considering the results it might not be as bad as if she learned of Sarah."
"I won't say anything, I promised." Tina said.
Charlotte squeezed her shoulders, "I know. I'm sorry if I seemed harsh. It's just..."
"What Grandma?" Tina asked, surprised at her hesitation.
Charlotte sighed, "I once knew a transgender woman like Sarah, though she obviously lacked the ability to magically transform herself. She didn't look as much like a woman as she would have liked, and it caused her a lot of problems. Right up until she was beaten to death."
Tina gasped, "No!"
Charlotte nodded sadly, "So you can see why I feel rather strongly about it. Sarah has the advantage of being able to be what transgender people call 'stealth'. She can live as a normal woman and most people will never know that she was ever anything else. Plus she can protect herself with her magic. But most transgender women have it much harder. Even with her advantages she still seems very fragile. She's lucky to have such good friends."
Tina nodded, stunned by what her grandmother had just told her. She looked down for a moment in thought and then asked, "Are there a lot of, what did you call it?, transgender people around?"
Charlotte shook her head ruefully, "You've never even heard of transgender people before?"
Tina shook her head, "No, are they that common then?"
"No, not really. But they've been more and more visible in the news and on television lately. I would say I'm surprised that you know so little about them, but you have lived a sheltered existence. Too sheltered, perhaps." Charlotte said.
"So why are people so violent towards them?" Tina asked.
"They're different, visibly so. Some feel threatened by them, though I can't understand why. Knowing you were completely ignorant of transgender people makes me very proud about how you handled knowing about Sarah, other than outing her. Most people don't treat transgender people very well." Charlotte said.
Tina shrugged, "It was kind of weird at first, but it's not like she looks or acts like a guy or anything."
Charlotte nodded, "True. You really have lived too sheltered a life, though. I admire your dedication to your craft, but there is more to life than magic. I hope you'll spend more time with Sarah and Willow than just when you're working on glyphs."
Tina shrugged, wondering when she'd have time. Between work and studying glyphs her time was pretty well filled.
Nothing more was said until Willow came in and told them dinner was about ready. Tina went up to tell Rose, whom she found had just finished packing. She helped Rose carry their bags down to the kitchen and then grabbed a plate.
After dinner Charlotte insisted they not talk about magic and just relax. They ended up playing cards again for a while, though Charlotte bowed out after the first game.
"So," Tina said after her grandmother had gone to bed, "are you looking forward to college Rose?"
Rose shrugged, "Not as such, I suppose. I'm looking forward to teaching, though, and I have to go to college for that. I'm not looking forward to being so far away, but on the other hand I'll be on my own for the first time. That should be interesting."
Tina noticed Willow was being unusually quiet and looked over to see her staring blindly at the cards in her hand. "You okay?" she asked.
Willow didn't react until Rose put her hand on Willow's shoulder. Then she jumped and looked up in surprise. "What?" she asked, looking worried.
"You were kind of spaced out there. Are you alright?" Tina asked.
She smiled unconvincingly, "Sure, I'm fine."
"I'm sorry to be leaving you alone like this." Rose said sadly.
Willow shook off her mood, "It's fine! Besides, I can bug Tina if I get lonely!"
Tina exchanged worried glances with Rose and decided to leave it alone for the moment. Rose seemed to agree, so they went back to their game and let the subject drop.
Though she acted like there had never been anything wrong, Willow's energy levels shot up after that. Before long she was yawning and having trouble keeping her eyes open. Rose helped her to bed, but glanced significantly back at Tina just before going around the corner. Tina nodded back and waited for Rose to return.
A few minutes later Rose returned, shaking her head and sighing, "That girl! There's something bothering her, but she won't talk about it!"
"Yeah, I figured." Tina agreed. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Maybe. I think she's feeling a little adrift with me leaving, but with you here that's not as much of an issue as it could be. I think her parents figure into it somehow, but I still haven't figured that one out." Rose said.
"What's their problem?" Tina asked.
Rose shook her head, "I don't know. I've only met them a couple of times. The first time they seemed okay, but the second time they were really frosty towards me. They weren't too friendly with Willow, either. They never gave any hint as to why they were acting that way though. When I asked Willow about it she just said that they were 'being weird'."
"Huh. Wonder what that means." Tina mused.
"That's why I wanted to talk to you. I haven't had any luck with her, but she seems to have really connected with you. I was hoping you'd be willing to try and figure out what is going on with her while I'm gone." Rose said.
"What makes you think I'll have any better luck?!" Tina asked in surprise.
"Well, okay, I'll try. But I don't see how I'm going to do any better than you. You've known her for a lot longer than I have." Tina said.
"That might be helpful, really. Different perspective. Just, please do your best okay?" Rose asked.
"Of course. I don't know what I can do, but I already intended to try." Tina said.
Rose sighed in relief, "Thanks. I'll feel better knowing you're keeping an eye on her while I'm gone."
Tina nodded and watched as Rose went off to bed. She couldn't figure out why Rose thought she had some kind of special rapport with Willow, but she shrugged that off and went to bed herself.
She wasn't sure if Sarah would come to work or not, but saw her there as usual. She asked her how she was before getting to work, but she assured her she was fine. Tina wasn't sure she believed it, but let it go.
When she got home she was sad to find out Rose and Willow had already left. She was surprised how quickly she'd become attached to them.
Charlotte sent her to grab a bite to eat, then had her fill in for her so she could do the same. They were both back in the shop when Willow came in. Charlotte sent her through to the living room and told Tina to join her.
"So, what have you been up to today?" Tina asked once they were seated on the couch.
Willow shrugged, "Not much, mostly helping Rose pack. She's taking just about everything she owns with her! Her parents are springing for an apartment, though, so she has room. She's really looking forward to living on her own, I think, but she tries to hide it."
Tina nodded, "Yeah, I can see why she'd like to live on her own. I think that would be cool, too, but it's not an option for me right now. I just have too much to do learning magic to deal with it, even if I did make enough."
"Yeah, I'd love to get away from my parents." Willow said wistfully.
"Do they get on your case a lot?" Tina asked, trying to be casual though she figured this was as good an opportunity as she was going to get to find out what was bugging her.
"Not exactly." Willow said, then shook herself, "It's just a little stifling living with the 'rents, you know?"
Tina sighed, seeing that Willow's guard was up. Before she could try again Natalie walked in wearing a different, though equally Goth, outfit. "Where did you get that?" Tina asked.
"Willow helped me find my car." Natalie replied, taking a seat in the corner.
"How did you find it?" Tina asked, turning to Willow.
Willow blushed, "Well, I used a spell. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did! I almost lost the path a few times, but we managed to find it."
Tina smiled and hugged her, "See, you are good at magic!"
Willow shook her head, "Not really. Charlotte told me about the spell you used to find your job, so that's what gave me the idea. But it didn't work nearly as well for me as it did you. I barely felt the direction of it at all and I had to keep touching stuff to find it again when I lost it."
"Touching stuff?" Tina said.
"Yeah, it was weird. She'd get all lost and confused, then touch a street sign or something and suddenly know the way again." Natalie said.
Willow shrugged, "I don't understand it, but it worked."
Before Tina could ask anymore about that Sarah and Tiffany walked in. Tina and Willow greeted them while Natalie glared at Sarah.
Tiffany asked, "So what happens at these meetings, anyway?"
Willow shrugged and looked at Tina. "Well," Tina said, "I don't know if there's any standard way they go. I've only been at a couple of them myself. I don't think they're all that organized."
There was an awkward silence after that, punctuated by the ringing of the doorbell. Trent and Stephanie came in and Charlotte suggested they leave introductions until everyone had arrived. Trent was relaxed about it, but Stephanie stared at all the new faces in open curiosity.
Others trickled in for a while. Finally Charlotte came back with Esme, the last one to arrive. "Okay, that's everyone. Please make yourselves comfortable." she said.
"I thought you said you'd caught Nathaniel?" Esme asked.
"We did, Esme, but let's start with introductions." Charlotte replied. She went around the room introducing everyone.
"So, where's Nathaniel?" Kerry asked, looking oddly at Natalie.
"You're looking at her." Charlotte replied, smiling at the look of surprise on her face.
"What are you talking about?!" Clarice demanded. "I don't see Nathaniel here!"
"Nathaniel attacked Sarah as expected, but she panicked a bit and transformed him. She's going by Natalie now." Charlotte explained.
"That's impossible!" Kerry gasped.
"I wish." Natalie grumbled.
"I don't know what kind of game you are playing, young lady, but hand over the real Nathaniel immediately!" Clarice demanded, glaring at Sarah.
"Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Charlotte suggested, turning to Sarah.
"Uh, are you sure that's a good idea? People tend to get kind of... grumpy, when I do that." Sarah said, glancing at Natalie.
"I'm volunteering, Sarah. Please?" Charlotte said, stepping over and holding her hand out towards Sarah.
Sarah uncertainly reached out and tapped her hand. Tina and almost everyone in the room gasped at the sudden transformation, including Charlotte. "I see..." Charlotte began to say, obviously surprised by the sound of her voice, "what you meant."
"This is some kind of trick, an illusion!" Clarice insisted.
"I can assure you, it is no trick or illusion." Charlotte said.
"That's for sure." Natalie added morosely.
"Are you all satisfied yet?" Charlotte asked.
Clarice was the only one who shook her head 'no'. She stood and walked up to Sarah. "Transform me, if you can, and I might believe it." she demanded.
Sarah glanced at Charlotte, who nodded, and reluctantly reached out and touched Clarice's hand. She was instantly transformed into a man who was nearly bursting through the seams of her clothes.
Clarice gasped in shock, staring down at her new form and running her hands up and down it in awe. "It's true." she breathed.
"Now that we're all satisfied, I think you can change us back." Charlotte suggested.
"Sure." Sarah agreed, tapping each of their outstretched hands. They both sighed in relief at being returned to their original forms.
"I apologize for doubting you." Clarice said with a slight bow of the head to Sarah. She returned to her seat, as did Charlotte.
"So, you all accept that Natalie was Nathaniel now?" Charlotte asked. Everyone nodded, "Okay, then now we need to determine what to do with her."
"Obviously we must determine some sort of appropriate punishment for her actions." Clarice said.
"You don't understand. Nathaniel was driven mad by his extensive use of magic. Natalie has only fragments of memory from the time she began learning magic. She is also completely stable, if a bit 'grumpy'." Charlotte said. Natalie snorted at that, but said nothing.
Esme nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, I've seen nothing of the unstable young man that had been described to me in young Natalie. She is obviously not happy about her transformation, but does not appear to be a danger. So long as she either remains female or returns to male without doing any magic, I don't see any reason to punish her further. The loss of her gender or magic should be quite sufficient for anyone."
"I have to have magic in my life. If that means staying a girl, I'll deal." Natalie said.
Kerry seemed surprised, "Really? You never struck me as the feminine type. Are you sure you can deal with being a woman for the rest of your life?"
Natalie shrugged, "I'm not, the feminine type, that is. But magic is a part of me. It's more important to me than my gender. I'm not happy about being a girl, but I'm even less happy thinking about a life without magic."
"I suppose this explains why Nathaniel vanished in my vision. He ceased to exist and was replaced with Natalie. Who, it appears, is no threat to Willow." Beatrice said thoughtfully.
"I never had any interest in hurting anybody. I just want to do magic." Natalie said.
"What about your family, friends?" Trent asked.
She snorted, "What family? What friends? My father ran out on me when I was six. My mother drank herself to death a few years later. I got passed from one aunt or uncle to the next and none of them wanted me there. As soon as I turned eighteen I was kicked out. I haven't seen any of them in a couple of years and they have no interest in seeing me. What friends I had all bailed on me and I don't blame them."