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Tina found Willow in a trance in her room, with Rose watching her worriedly. "Is everything alright?" Tina asked.

"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.

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To Be Continued…

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