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When she got back to her grandmother's shop she found it full of people, including Kerry, Rose and Willow. Shortly after she arrived the only people who looked like they were actually shopping left and Charlotte asked her to flip the sign around.

"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.

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To Be Continued…

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