Halliwell Manor has been empty for several years. The layer of dust that has accumulated on the furniture is unpleasantly thick. There are cobwebs in every corner, waiting to spring themselves on an unsuspecting visitor. The rooms smell musty, like a waterlogged library. Though the garden shows signs of maintenance, the interior is oppressively lifeless. Without people to fill it, the house has become a shadow of its former self. Underneath all of that, the place is the same as the sisters remember. Halliwell Manor looks like home.
It feels like they went away into a parallel reality and then came back. Except for the stillness of the place.
The first thing Fernanda does is open the nearest window. And sets up about doing that for the rest of the house. Just the rustle of the leaves makes the place so much more.. itself.
Okay, that was.... a weird coincidence, but you don't waste a chance like this.
She clears her throat, raises her hand in an overly dramatic gesture and then recites the Dominus Trinus.
"Hear now the words of the witches.
The secrets we hid in the night.
The oldest of gods are invoked here.
The great work of magic is sought.
In this night and in this hour.
We call upon the Ancient Power.
Bring your powers to we sisters three!
We want the power. Give us the power."
"If you read the book, yeah. I'm going to try to keep this short so that one," he points at Fernanda, "doesn't kill me. You're all witches, which means you have a few basic powers that all witches have, and at least one unique power. Telekinesis, in her case," he says, nodding at Beatrix.
"I'm not the mysterious mentor figure the Elders are going to send to talk to you. That's your whitelighter, who's supposed to protect you and guide you. You're witches because your mother was, and the line goes back a few centuries. Oh, and you're supposed to fight to protect the magical world and uninitiated innocents. I think that's all the major points."
"Elders are just more powerful, more annoying whitelighters. Whitelighters think of themselves as angels, which makes sense, I guess, since they're fighting demons, but it's pretty arrogant if you ask me. Not that anyone did. Your whitelighter should show up in the next couple of weeks, pretending to be human until it's 'time'. I'll be sticking around until I'm sure whoever you get doesn't screw everything up."
He sighs.
"Fine, no point arguing about priorities. Simple explanation: I'm a Halliwell from an alternate universe that doesn't exist anymore. I'm pretty sure you had different grandparents, so at most we have a common ancestor way back. Moving on. Your active powers will be triggered by emotions. Looks like anger for the telekinetic. And only one of us actually gave a name here."
"There was another timeline. I stopped some bad things from happening, and did that by erasing my own birth. My mom was supposed to be one of the Charmed Ones, but instead you are. I'm working with what I've got. If you guys have the powers I'm used to, it'll be molecular immobilization and premonition. First one you can think of as freezing time, I don't think it makes physical sense. Second one is just visions of the future, especially demonic and warlock attacks."
"Powers are usually triggered by emotions. It looks like Beatrix got the telekinesis standby, anger. The immobilization went with fear, especially a surprised sort of panic, and the premonition was mostly tied to wanting to help innocents. 'Innocents' is what we call the mortals who don't know about the magical world and are threatened by it."
"You can improve over time. Prue and Piper - that's telekinesis and immobilization- learned to use them on demons pretty early on. It's easy to direct your anger and fear at the things trying to kill you and hurt everyone. Phoebe had more trouble getting her premonition to work. If you want to practice your powers we can do that, but first thing is figuring out which of your friends secretly wants to kill you."
"So whitelighters are a lot like the popular image of angels, and the elders are their leading council. Sometimes, the elders will send dead people back for a while. While they're dead, they can do things like help you with the book. Reincarnation works like most religions that have it say it does. You're reborn, but you forget your past life. They can turn out pretty different."
"Is this really what you want to do before learning basic skills? Only witches reincarnate, some witches are Christian but a lot who grow up in it pick up Wicca, they come back as long as the Elders want them to which means I've never seen it happen because I'm not as popular with them as my parents were. Back to the book, please?"
"So let's see what you found."
He takes a look at the book.
"Okay, good. We'll learn to brew this potion as soon as possible. Hopefully each of you is good at one of them. Fold down the corner of the page so we can get back to it, and start looking for spells. They'll be pretty obvious. They're the only pages that rhyme."
"Another thing to keep in mind. Good and Evil aren't about- anything people do, they're abstract, real parts of the universe. Some things, like demons and warlocks, and Evil, and some things, like whitelighters and witches, are Good. I'm not sure if anyone created the rule, I don't know how the metaphysical forces of good work. Just avoid using magic to achieve your goals unless there's someone you're specifically trying to save. Your active powers count to this too, but not as much, since they're yours."
"That one is just a guess. Piper had a warlock who'd been posing as her boyfriend for months who tried to kill her as soon as she got her powers. Warlocks usually go after witches because they can steal powers, so if someone realized you were the Charmed Ones, they might be willing to wait for them to come in. Any boyfriends you got that you don't trust with your life?"
"Warlocks are hard to detect until they strike. The athame is a big hint. And I didn't mean there's a chance he isn't a warlock- they have a specific look if they belong to warlocks. You won't see any practitioners with this kind unless they've studied and copied one, which is just as creepy. I meant he might not be trying to kill all of you. I've met some friendly warlocks."
"I don't think I'm a danger to the timeline. They're kind of the only source on big, world-shaking stuff I can trust, but they also personally hate me and I can't talk to them, so I'll never find out. I think we should probably just move on and try a spell. Is there something wrong with the truth spell?"
"This set haven't met me, and even the set I knew in this time didn't care- I'm originally from the future. Of an alternate timeline. Which I changed to stop the world from being taken over by an evil magical dictator, and now my family never existed. It's kind of a touchy subject, so let's just focus on you saving the world."
"At any rate..." Felicia clears her throat and the others follow suit.
"For those who want the truth revealed,
Opened hearts and secrets unsealed,
From now until it's now again,
After which the memory ends.
Those who now are in this house,
Will hear the truth from other's mouths."
"Personal gain is a load of crap the Elders served up expecting us to deal with it. If you're not using magic to help save people, it's personal gain. In this case you should be okay, because you cast the spell to find out if your own lives are in danger, and that's not personal gain because you being dead hurts the magical world."
Spells! Spells that vanquish this demon, that demon, this warlock, that demon...there are entries on specific enemies they might face, specific witches that might be ally or adversary, on whitelighters, on previous members of the family...the book does not cooperate with simple turning of pages, but rather opens to pages based on a mysterious wind.
She can't. It passes moment to moment like a series of photographs, the movement only an illusion of the technology.
She sees a familiar face crossing the street.
He looks at the house, spotting someone in the window. He doesn't spot the car that comes at him from the side.
"Let's begin."
As he says this, his accent, which was rather generically American, is replaced by something a bit more British. It's quite unsurprising if you know the history of the Marks family, but you may not. The family originated in England, though they spent some time in Salem, which was where they first encountered the Halliwells...
He places his hand on the book.
"Ahem. I actually need a Halliwell to flip to the proper page, if you'd like to read the vows before we begin, but you could also merely repeat after me."
"Here, before witnesses, Felicia and Rex have sworn their vows to each other. With this cord, I bind them to these vows."
In a mysterious flourish, the eldest scion of the (American branch of) the Marks line presents the aforementioned cord, tying Felicia and Rex's hands together."
Theo lists them.
Ravo, the Grimlock, who enjoys killing good witches a bit too much to stop, but he might be convinced not to turn on Theo if he doesn't interfere with his hobby.
Bartok, the Noxon demon, is brave but stupid, and his temper is famous even among Noxon. He would turn to Good for love, but he'll turn Theo in otherwise.
Dawad, the Executioner demon, hunts anyone his masters tell him to. As long as he has someone to kill (or "vanquish"), he'll play nice. They could use him.
"There are other demons, but they won't notice anything my masters don't."
“Cupids are- I don’t actually know how they pick ‘em, come to think of it, but they’re humans who die young and are raised to carry around a ring which they use to make destined pairs fall in love. Don’t ask me about destiny; I’ve given up trying to get a straight answer on that.”
"No, I just need to run through the list."
Theo raises a hand, causing a bolt of lightning to travel through the room, stopping short of doing any damage. After that success, he transforms into a wolf instantly, and transforms back.
"I'm not going to check the venom here, but that looks like everything except blinking."
At their blank looks, he adds, "Blinking is what warlocks call our teleportation. We'll need to figure out another way to get there."
The Book contains pages and pages of demons, warlocks, spirits, and assorted other horrifying monsters. They are interspersed with recipies for potions, instructions for spells, techniques for scrying, and descriptions of powers.
There are also several entries on families, clans, and secret organizations.
Finally, Felicia finds a page titled "Hell". It describes, in broad strokes, the hierarchy of hell (with The Source of All Evil and the Triad at the top, and warlocks and vampires at the bottom), several important locations, and some historically important residents and factions. There is very little information about how to get there.
"There's not much to say about him. He's quiet. He doesn't usually know how to assert himself. He was from the second batch. Most of them didn't survive the blood transfusions, and those that did have it pretty rough. It's some kind of disease, but it changes the way they act. They get violent. Their faces change shape. There are these bumps and ridges...I'm not sure I can do it justice until you've seen it."
"Liam is pretty basic. Standard super-strength, plus a temper. I'm not sure I've seen the limits of what Hayden can do, but assume that on top of super strength, she can summon terrifying bone monsters as minions. Korbrant turns invisible. Dawad isn't even superpowered. His teeth are sharper than the average human's."
Extremely unusual supplies. Felicia picks some potions from the book of shadows (to contact the dead, to find lost witches and to request a sign or vision), which sound generically useful and sets up getting ingredient supplies. Some stuff is a matter of being sure that they have the right herbs in their kitchen or visiting a flower shop.
But "fresh blood from the left hand" means that Fernanda and Trix go to the pharmacy figure out which medical supplies. They probably are going to need a great deal many, but Fernanda will probe more on the capabilities of magical healing first.
For now, Fernanda decides that a blood draw kit is more versatile than a diabetic lancet, and she is going to purchase that.
She also grabs some condoms while she is at it.