Toil & Trouble
^{A Story}
by Saless
Chapter 6 — Rogue

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."

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