Shape of Things to come

Shape of Things to Come

Part 3:Seeds of Time

Chapter 25

‘All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts'
...William Shakespeare. As You Like It

At the Halliwell enclave, the witches, for the sake of the children tried to be ‘normal’, to act as if nothing had happened, a circumstance not made any easier because worryingly there was no contact with magic. Leo did not return and there was no news about Mark, or even fallout from the loss of Caleb. All communication with ‘up there’ vanished.

When she went back to ‘next door’, Paige had intended to have along talk with the three girls but before she could, Leslie insisted that the three sisters looked after her and finally convinced her, reluctantly, to go to bed. As she got ready for bed the three of them stayed in the parlour talking for a long time into the night and heard a certain clanking of glasses.

Paige heard Charlie, a little giggly say, “So that thing that materialised was the scary demon Briareos. Didn’t look that scary.”

Fern half sniffed, half cried. “It killed Mary. Had her shaken to death, just to trap the Charmed Ones.”

“Did you remember when Cole took on that firm that had gangster connections a couple of years ago” Leslie told them. “Its boss was a little fat fellow who looked like everyone’s favourite uncle.”

Then Paige heard glasses clink again. She considered joining them but her whitelighter guiding instincts made Paige realise it was too soon.

Finally, a less than happy and tipsy Fern took herself off to bed, followed by Charlie as Leslie answered a late call from a coven member who was also her third cousin. The witch told them she had been trying to call their whitelighter Caleb because some demons were hanging around close to their house and he was not answering. Leslie regretfully explained to the witch that Caleb was no more.

After a few seconds silence, the witch asked Leslie. “Then he won’t come will he? Hmm. Need to think if that is a good think or a bad thing.” Leaving Leslie to reflect that Caleb’s tragedy seemed to be that he had done his best and not achieved anything.

Paige finally tried to sleep but had a very bad night worrying about Mark and to a much lesser extent, the shakiness of her magic. She half-hoped some other whitelighter would appear in a cloud of orbs to explain Mark was healed but all magic contact remained ominously silent. After trying to sleep for several hours, Paige gave up. She got out of bed, dressed hurriedly, then orbed intending to get as far into ‘up there’ as she possibly could. Paige mused that the colloquial ‘up there’ for describing the realms and dimensions of the near afterlife was a very real description. Other than-some sub realms and alternate dimensions, such as the fairy and elf kingdoms, most magic places she knew were literally up wind of the earthen realms.

However, moving ‘upwind’ through the eddies and currents turned out to be impossible. Every way Paige knew and a few she had never tried previously were blocked. The paths and eddies all came to abrupt ends or turned on themselves, leaving her vulnerable and concerned. She finally came out on the Rim, the dark place of nothingness between the Good and Evil realms, sometimes used by creatures of magic Good and Evil as a meeting place.

The nothingness of the Rim gave Paige a few moments to consider how the pathways through the spirit winds affected her magic. Paige understood that the spirit winds which separated the realms and dimensions of the magic universe, were the path used by Good, Evil and all creatures in between, to move within that universe. Magic creatures that could dematerialise used eddies, wind streams and sometimes if they had the power, great gusts of almost tornado strength. These paths could take magic creatures, theoretically at least, to the edges of the magic universe but they would need to be very powerful to negotiate the winds, and mortal and semi-mortals were effectively barred from anything not connected to the earthen realms. For semi-mortal creatures like Paige, the winds were an enigma and their very real resistance to her limited magic made her constantly aware of those limitations. Leo was very clever about using the winds and he had given both her and Mark some excellent advice about how to move through different eddies and streams but Paige still knew her magic severely limited how far she could travel because, she suspected, she was strongly weighed down by her mortality.

Paige did not have much time to reflect. Alone in the nothingness of the Rim contemplating the vagaries of the spirit winds, a tracker demon suddenly confronted her. It must have recognised her tooing and frowing through the spirit winds. These days single tracker demons were of little concern to Paige and sighing with relief that her powers seemed to be working she disposed of the demon and orbed home. However, her use of an orb power attracted more sniffer demons as she fled into the spirit winds and even though she was alone in the swirling eddy she followed, Paige felt overwhelmed by danger lurking close. She recalled that Melinda had felt the same thing last night.

Escaping the creatures following her, she left the spirit winds in the nexus where the Manor was located. This was relatively easy because for the protection of the children the nexus was blocked to keep Evil creatures away, some magic coming from Cole and some from the witches. Had she left the spirit winds in any other place, Paige was very aware she would have been in big trouble.

On arriving safely back home Paige, wisely decided that fighting the spirit winds was not useful or practical and she needed to concentrate on problems closer to home. Today was the day after the night before and Paige had no doubts that her worrying Big Sister would be in full panic mode about the consequences. Piper had two children who could orb and by now she would have realised there was a real risk in the spirit winds. Piper was not an orbing creature and did not experience merging her aura with the spirit winds, so she did not always understand how they worked. All she understood was that the winds were dangerous.

Paige was just in time. She walked into the Manor kitchen to discover Piper dressed ready to go into P3, having quite an argument with both boys about riding their bikes to school while Mandy and Melinda stood close by with disgusted expressions.

“It’s just a ten-minute bike ride” Paige interrupted Piper in full flight.

“Leo isn’t home yet.” Piper snapped at her “Until we know what’s going on with whitelighters I want the kids under supervision.”

“Okay” decided Paige “How about I drive everyone to school?” she asked casually “You look like you’re ready for work.”

“I want to be around for the girls and in case we hear something about Mark.” Paige explained carefully.

Piper, remembering her sister was hurting too, almost immediately agreed. To Paige’s relief.

Paige drove off for the school run with four very grumpy youngsters who all immediately switched on phones and ignored her. When she was safely away from the Manor, she pulled over into a quiet street and switched off the car.

“We need to talk” Paige told the youngsters who responded with various levels of grumbling “Phones off” she ordered.

With their reluctant attention, Paige began to carefully explained about the problems of orbing.

“Your mother doesn’t orb” Paige told her patiently “So she can’t tell you about the problems. You were right Lindie, about being followed in the spirit winds” Paige told Melinda, to her surprise. “They can’t get you in the winds but coming out is a problem. A real problem. Trackers and sniffers can follow the eddies you use and be waiting or have their friends waiting.” She smiled slightly “So if you have to dematerialise for any reason, you need to go home where there are blockers everywhere. Which is what I have to do,” she added.

“I only ever orb on the spot” muttered Wyatt “I don’t travel. Just when the guys at school ...get a bit of a pain.”

“I’ll look after him” Patsy promised. “Only I don’t really materialise yet.”

“I was about your age when I did it under pressure” Paige told him “You too Mandy.”

“With this family’s luck today will be the day you start” Paige smiled and Mandy nodded, perhaps hopefully.

“Also” Paige continued. “If you’re forced into using powers, dematerialise and come straight home.”

“Mom gave the usual lecture about not using powers” Melinda interrupted resentfully.

Paige took a deep breath “Piper has a lot more say in how she uses her powers. She has to call on them” she explained “So she doesn’t always understand how much orb powers are part of you, how they can control you, how you can’t control them every time.”

“What if I see a darklighter?” Melinda asked, a little excited at being part of real magic.

“Orb and come home” Paige ordered her. “Don’t come out of the orb until you get home. Also, I think whitelighters are off the radar, so not so easy to call someone for help if you get hurt. Only me around. So call ME if there’s a problem.”

“But then you have to orb” Patsy remarked curiously. “What about getting Dad?”

“She’s trying to protect you” Paige agreed. “So the best thing is to try and do what she says. But” Paige insisted firmly “If you have to use magic, I’m trying to protect you too, so do as I say… Clear. Both of us love you pack of hooligans. Don’t know why. But we want you around.”

“Isn’t doing what you and mom both say when it’s the opposite an awful grown-up thing?” asked Melinda her voice snaky.

Both boys sniggered at Melinda who hit Patsy on the head and pinched Wyatt. “I am, they’re not” she giggled.

After Paige returned home, she found she had missed both Leslie and Fern who had gone to work. She had a long talk with Charlie who was in a state of confusion about magic and fear, emotions with which Paige was very familiar. Paige gently suggested that Charlie needed to keep up a pretense of normal which included going to classes, having lunch with her friends and going to her part time job.

For Phoebe the shattering events of the demon fight seemed a long way from her actual reality because the next day was totally uneventful, a little to her disappointment. This was despite all her apprehension and annoyance both about confronting Cole over his knowledge of the risk to Power of Three and needing to face hostile powers at work,

She was thwarted from her plans to confront Cole for not warning her about the danger to the Power of Three, because he only returned as she was almost dressed for work.

“You got rid of the bodies?” Phoebe asked tersely and he nodded. “I hate being that disrespectful to the dead” she said.

Cole however, was once a demon “They weren’t being very respectful to the living” he answered.

Phoebe tried to take her chance. “You knew the Power of Three was in danger” Phoebe snapped at Cole her hands on her hips “and you let us walk into it.”

He sighed as she glared up at him but he had had enough time to prepare for it. “Do you really want this argument now? Because I don’t. I warned you to be careful” Cole pushed. “You still went after the girls. And what’s more you would have gone after them if I had said ‘hey that demon is after Power of Three’.”

“We would have gone after them” she admitted reluctantly, swallowing hard. “But it still is shitty you didn’t. Anything else you haven’t told me?” she demanded.

Phoebe swallowed hard. “We would have gone after them” she admitted reluctantly “But it still is shitty you didn’t. Anything else you haven’t told me?” she demanded.

Dreading dealing with the Powers that Be, Phoebe apprehensively went to work at the university. The university was buzzing at the news of another fight on campus, so despite Phoebe’s fears, no-one paid attention to day-to-day issues, including whether she was interpreting dogma correctly. Her lecture was on theoretical practices of writing a psychology thesis. It was a topic that not even the most die-hard disrupter could attack her because aside from psychology academics it was incomprehensible, and HR was still in too much disruption from the first attack to take up any battles with her anyway.

So much for the power of premonition, she told herself wryly, as the Head of School animatedly discussed gossip about what happened in the latest riot, as if she had not threatened Phoebe’s career only a few weeks ago.

Just like Phoebe, Piper’s day did not go as planned either. However, unlike Phoebe her day, heralded momentous change in her life. After Piper apprehensively sent her children to school with Paige, her only sensible choice was to go to P3 and deal with the issues of her business, as it was apparent that Leo was not returning that morning. Not that her attendance at P3 was urgent or necessary. Piper was very proud of the club into which she had put a considerable part of her soul, but if pushed she would admit that Reggie who had been the manager for fifteen years was an important part of P3’s success. Only recently he had organised some excellent publicity by ensuring P3 was included in a local television program entitled ‘Old Institutions in San Francisco that are New Again’ and P3’s status was soaring. These days many people came not only for the bands but to relive a little of their youth, whilst a large number of younger clients found its soul captivating and enjoyed its atmosphere. Certainly, P3 was never short of clients and often had queues waiting.

Except as soon as she arrived at P3, Piper was forced to consider P3 without her. Reggie despite his previous late night at the club was waiting for her, with a well thought out plan. He had a friend, he said who had been working in the club industry for more than ten years after starting as a bouncer in one of the rougher night clubs down on the bay. This friend had gradually worked his way up to assist manager in one of the least sordid clubs down there. His friend, Reggie said, was looking to move away from the seedier side and he had some fabulous ideas on P3 that would build on its reputation, not change it. What Reggie had wanted to talk about that morning was the possibility of bringing in his friend as the floor manager. Or Reggie a little gingerly proposed that he himself could become a partner or even take over the lease in the club and his friend could work for him. Only he explained his friend’s ideas did not have a place for the piano bar function of P3.

Given all the things that had been going on in Piper’s life, she thought she reacted well. She remained silent as Reggie threw his well-rehearsed arguments at her. Finally, not particularly enthusiastically but not completely damning she said she would talk it over with her family.

Reggie, used to dealing with the Halliwell family, nodded, and pleasantly murmured let me know, as soon as you can which Piper had agreed to do. Piper had a strong suspicion that Reggie immediately called Cole after speaking to her as a courtesy and would be making every effort to talk him into the deal, even though he also knew that Cole respected Piper and would not try and talk her into something she did not want to do.