Chapter 13: The Big Magic
NEXT MORNING – KENNEDY’S OFFICE – 8:40 AM
KENNEDY’S POV
I wired the money into St. Mary’s account at Barclays about 3 hours ago and just got the confirmation of receipt. Excellent, I think as I gulp down another mug of coffee. Vi should be calling later on with an estimate of how long it’s going to take Austin and his team to copy the diaries. He needs to do a good job, but we need them here, fast.
Getting up to refill my mug, I hear Nicky in the kitchen, no doubt perfecting her crepes. Andrew decided she needed to broaden her horizons in the kitchen, so has been introducing her to the world of cooking. The latest foray is crepes and she’s obsessed with finding new and different fillings and toppings.
I’m really glad she’s taken to it. It gives her a much needed outlet that she can rely on when she needs it. Being in the kitchen soothes her and gives her a break from the weight surrounding her. The visions have been coming more frequently, ever since Emma was attacked, and I know it’s been hard for her. Will and Dawn have been spending more time with her, sorting out the writing on the pyramid. So far they have only three words “Anunnaki” “stop” “slayers”, not exactly words to warm the heart. So that and Faith’s recent ups and downs had the poor kid pretty down in the dumps.
Wandering into the kitchen, I refill my mug then take a seat between Buffy and Emma, “Morning.”
“Hey Ken,” Buffy smiles, “I’m filling Em in on the haps after she left last night.”
I nod then tilt my head over to Nicky and raise my eyebrows, “So Nick, what’s the special this morning?” Nicky is at the stove expertly swirling the sauté pan. I swear it’s amazing how thin she gets them.
“Duce de leche!” she exclaims.
Emma looks up from her coffee, “Sweet milk?”
Nicky turns around, “Yeah, you guys are gonna love it with crepes. You slow boil it to make it thick like caramel. Sophia taught me.”
I notice Emma look back down into her coffee mug and chuckle. She looks tired. “I’m gonna crash, guys, the hospital was a zoo last night.”
“But what about your crepes?” Nicky’s face falls.
Emma almost physically deflates, “I’m sorry, Nick, I’m just really tired. How about you put them in the fridge for me and I’ll have them later?”
“Ok,” then she mumbles, “I liked it better when you worked days.”
Em gives her a weak smile, “It’s just a couple of months.”
“I know,” she says dejectedly.
Jesus, I don’t know who I feel worse for right now. Almost from the second Faith brought Nicky and Martin back to this dimension, her and Emma have hit off. Over the years they’ve spent almost all their free time together, so Em pulling the night shift has been a real strain on both of them. They have a bond few “real” sisters do, hell, I can barely be in the same room as my half-sister. Maybe it’s because they both lost so much so young they truly understand each other like no one else can. Even though they have 15 years between them, they seem to always be on the same wavelength, like they’re in tune to each other.
Moving over to Nicky, Em places her hands on her shoulders and kisses the top of her forehead, “I’ll see you this afternoon, ok?”
“Ok,” Nick gives her a little smile.
Emma returns it then jumps when her phone rings. Digging it out of her pocket, she looks at the screen then her smile widens. She flips it open, “Hey,” she grabs her jacket then turns back to us and mouths ‘see you later’. We all nod then she walks out talking, “No, not yet, I was just going up. Nicky says you gave her a cooking class…”
Turning to Buffy, I take in her broad smile as she watches Emma leave. Briefly, I wonder if I’m missing something then shrug and grab her mug along with mine as I get up, “Can I get you another?”
“Sure, thanks Ken,” she watches me as I pour, “Is Will still freaking out?”
My Will, I shake my head and sigh, “Yeah, she was hyperventilating earlier this morning.”
“She always gets herself all wound up and nervous then is flawless when it comes down to actually doing it,” Buffy smiles as I put our mugs down then start to set the table.
See, Willow and Dawn decided the best way to do the Slayer spell was to break it up. So the first phase is to stop all newborns from becoming Slayers at birth, “magically marking” them instead. That way we can begin the process of keeping tabs on the girls, notifying them and their families when they turn 14 then testing them right before they turn 18. We haven’t figured out what to do if a current Slayer doesn’t “pass” the profile. It’s been helpful that no one has actually failed it yet. But then, not many have taken it, just us and the staffs at the other SC’s. We’re rolling out full scale testing next week.
Buffy wanted to start as soon as Will and Dawn thought they had the spell completely down. She wanted no mistakes, no chance for mix-ups and absolutely no room for errors. Today Will and Emma do the first part of the spell and she’s a nervous wreck.
“I think she’ll be absolutely fantastic,” Nicky pipes up as she finishes the stack of crepes and brings the plate over to the table, “She’s amazingly powerful, sometimes it rolls off her in waves. It’s weird, sometimes it feels like Em, her magic, you know?” She scrunches up her face, “I wonder how that can be?”
Buffy and I exchange a glance. Man there is still so much we haven’t told her about us. But then, she’s still so young, I guess Buff and Faith will have a real sit-down with her when she’s older.
“It’s complicated, Nicky,” Buffy pats her hand then points to the spread before us, “Ok, what do we do? Put it inside or pour it on top?”
Nicky, completely forgetting about her comment regarding Emma and Will’s magic concentrates on the food in front of us, “Well, you can do anything you want, but I think the best thing in the world is to spread the duce de leche on the crepe then put in the sliced bananas and kiwi, then roll it up.”
We take her advice and damn, the kid is right. This is very nearly the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
ANDREW & DAWN’S OFFICE – 12:30 PM
WILLOW’S POV
I’m so not ready. I’m so not ready. I’m so not ready. I’m so not ready. I’m so not ready.
“So Will, you ready?” Dawn looks at me expectantly.
Pushing everything else out of my mind, I lean forward placing my head in my hands, “No, but I will be once Emma’s up.”
“You think she’s up to it?” Andrew asks me, “I mean I passed her on the stairs this morning and she looked totally wiped.”
Faith took that moment to come in, “She’ll be fine, just needs to sleep a little, recharge the batteries.”
“How about you?” he asks looking up at her, “Are you ready for the big mojo?”
She sits down next to me placing her hand on my back, rubbing lightly, soothing me. Funny, I remember a time when I never would have used the words ‘Faith’ and ‘soothing’ in the same sentence.
Faith laughs, snapping me out of my thoughts, “I was born ready Andy boy. Besides,” she sits back placing her hands behind her head, “I’m just the back up generator here. I’m leaving the real witchy-ness to the pros of the household.”
Yeah, uh huh, that’s us, the pros… me and Emma. I know if Nicky was older she’d be in on this too, but Buffy and Faith wouldn’t allow it. I understand completely, she hasn’t had time to harness her power like Emma has. Emma’s spent at least one month a year in Devon since she was 16. And over the years the Coven has taught her not only how to channel her magicks for healing and telekinesis, but how to project her empathic gifts. If Nicky is even half as skilled as Emma, the two of them will be almost unstoppable together.
So it’s me and Em, arguably the two strongest witches on the continent. So can someone tell me why the hell I am so scared? Goddess, maybe because this is a big fucking spell, so much bigger than when I did the first one. My spell activated over 18,000 slayers then, plus the unborn destined to become Slayers. According to Andrew’s calculations, there are about 1,000 Slayers born every year. So there are about 40,000 now, plus the unborn whose fate I will be changing again, thank the Gods Emma is doing this with me.
It’s not that I’m scared I’ll lose control of the magicks; I haven’t lost it since that morning all those ears ago. I think I’m more afraid we’ll do something to mess it all up. I know it’s an irrational fear; we researched it thoroughly with the help of the Coven, but it’s healthy to question yourself right? And Faith is here for back up in case, well, just in case something goes wrong.
“Hello… Willow… are you with us?” Andrew is looking at me with raised eyebrows.
Blushing madly, I chuckle to myself, “Yeah, sorry, spacing.”
“Do you want to go over it again?” he asks.
Sighing, I shake my head, “No, I got it; today we change the spell so that when Slayers are born they will be marked not given their power. We wait for a Slayer to be born and see if she appears as teal not blue on your Slayer map. If it’s successful we go to the next phase, taking away the powers of all the Slayers under 5 and magically marking them as well.” I can’t help but shake my head, “Goddess, I feel like we’re creating another council.”
“Don’t even think that, Red,” Faith sharply turns to me, “we won’t turn into them, I’d never allow it.”
Shit, how can I be such an ass? “Sorry, I didn’t mean - ”
“What council?” Nicky asks looking around the room for someone to answer her. When no one speaks up, she turns to Buffy, “Is it something bad?”
Buffy takes a deep breath, looks at Faith, then back to Nicky, “They were an organization that controlled the Slayer when there was only one. They…” she looks again at Faith and shakes her head, “They allowed themselves to become consumed by the power they had and were destroyed by the First.”
“Wow – that’s gotta be a record for the most information left out of - OWEE!” Andrew widens his eyes at Dawn while rubbing his side. She just glares at him, elbow poised for a repeat performance.
Nicky nods to herself, “I get it; it’s another ‘long story for when I’m older’ right?” She shakes her head pouting, “I’m never gonna be older.”
“Come on, Nick,” Faith gets up and leads her out of the office, “Let’s go for a ride, just us.”
“But - ”
“Come on,” Faith says again, giving her a steady push, “you’ll be grown up soon enough, no need to rush things.”
Once the door closes and the roar of the bike is heard, Buffy sits next to me and places a hand on my knee, “It’s not your fault Will; she’s still dealing with other stuff.”
“I know, I just didn’t think,” I put my face in my hands, “Sometimes I just remember what they did to you and I forget what they did to her. How different things could have been if only - ”
Buffy smiles at me then shakes her head, “Don’t, it’ll just make you crazy. Take it from someone who played that ‘if only’ game tons, ok?”
“How about I make lunch?” Andrew tries to get everyone off this topic, he’s probably right, relax, eat, then after Emma gets up; it’s head in the game and time for beaucoup d'mojo, pièce deux. We all follow him to the kitchen, where he begins to work his magic.
FRONT PORCH – 2:32 PM
BUFFY’S POV
The little boy from across the street saw me sitting out here and came over looking for Nicky. He’s a cutie that Steve. He’s probably the only kid her age she’s ever interacted with. I’m really glad they’re friends and he’s close by. His parents are pretty cool; they think we run some kind of all girls’ prep school. I guess, in a way, we kinda do. But back to Steve... I think he’s got an incy wincy crush on our Nicky. I smile as I lean back in my chair and put my feet on the railing. Come on, how can he resist a mini hot chick with superpowers? I laugh to myself as Faith and Nicky come down the street and pull into the driveway.
“Hey,” Nicky calls out as she jumps off the bike and runs up the steps.
I look at her curiously, “Hey yourself. Why do you still have your helmet on?”
Faith walks up the stairs behind her, “Hey, B, ya ready?” She leans on the post, one hand holding her helmet the other reaching out to Nicky, “Come on, show her.”
Nicky unfastens her chinstrap with flair then slowly removes her helmet in dramatic fashion. She shakes her head then looks up at me, “So, what do you think?” She’s just bursting.
“You cut your hair!” It was all one length just about to the shoulder, but now it’s short and layered, kinda wispy. “You look absolutely adorable!” I was about to say like a pixie but I think she met some pixies in another dimension and she said they weren’t too nice, so I stopped after adorable.
Faith smiles and takes her helmet as Nicky runs her hands through her new ‘do’, “She was scared you wouldn’t like it.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Nicky pouts, then rolls her eyes, “Ok, maybe just a little. I just wanted a short haircut, that’s all.”
I raise my eyebrows, “That looks just like Emma’s?”
“Yeah,” she says softly while staring at her sneakers, “you think she’ll be angry?”
Ruffling her hair, I shake my head and smile, “No, I think she’ll be flattered. And you know what else?”
“What?”
Laughing, I shake my head again, “It looks great Nick.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I confirm solemnly. “Oh, and Steve was looking for you. He wanted to know if you wanted to go over to his house and go swimming.”
Her eyes go wide, “Ohhh, can I?” She glances from me to Faith, then back to me.
Smiling at her, I look at Faith who silently agrees, “Ok”.
“Awesome!” Nicky breaks for the door.
Faith calls her, “Nick, only a couple of hours.” Taking in her pleading look, Faith continues, “You know we have important stuff to do later and I want you home when it’s all going down, ok?”
“I understand,” she opens the door, “I’ll be back before 5:00, I promise,” then she goes inside.
Looking up at Faith pursing her lips, I slide my hand down her arm, “Come and sit with me.”
“K,” she sighs as she sits down, putting the helmets down in front of her. “I wish she had time to just be a kid, B.”
Taking her hand, I nod, “I know, babe, so do I.”
REC ROOM– 5:35 PM
FAITH’S POV
Watching Red and Emma draw a large circle on the floor with multi-colored sand, I realize how much I don’t know about witchcraft. Seeing the two of them prepare, set up and now begin the spell, I realize how far into the mystic realms we are venturing. I never thought about the Spell like that before, don’t know why, I guess I should have. Maybe it’s because I was at the seal with Buffy and the potentials in Sunnydale. Ken saw this then and is watching with clear awe on her face. I look up to see B smiling at me. Smiling back, I wink then return my gaze to Emma.
She’s a map of concentration: eyes half closed holding Willow’s hands across the candles they have with them in the circle. You can make out a thin sheen of sweat start to cover their faces, then together, they start to chant the Spell:
“Oh valde dea ubertas quod ortus audite nostrum dico.”
Oh great goddess of fertility and birth hear our call.
“Oh valde dea pugna commodo audite nos quoque.”
Oh great goddess of the hunt please hear us too.
“Subsisto vox advehoTrucidos in a vestigium notus ut tantum nos.”
Stay the power of the Slayers to come into a mark known to only us.
“Permissum suus munia exsisto suscipio procul vicis suus 6570th dies.”
Let her gifts be received at the time of her 6570th day.
“Temerarius nostrum placitum pro bonus Trucido quod bonus totus populus.”
Heed our plea for the good of the Slayer and the good of all peoples.
“Permissum is exsisto sic, iam.”
Let this be so, now.
A white light bursts from them, surrounding them then steadily swirling into a circle, blowing out the candles and sweeping up the dust from the floor. As they repeat the chant, the light and the dust intermingle creating a blinding flash. We can’t even see them anymore through the glare. I hear them chanting though and their voices seem to be getting stronger and stronger as they repeat it.
The white light flashes to all the colors I could ever name, and some I couldn’t. The swirling wind created from the almost living beams becomes more powerful and you can see Emma and Red are struggling to remain upright. There is at once a loud crack like thunder as the light rises to hover above them on the ceiling. We are all transfixed.
Breathing heavily, Willow and Emma open their eyes then once more say:
“Permissum is exsisto sic, iam.”
Let this be so, now.
The hovering light starts to shimmer, then glow bright white again. It starts its slow circles once more then picks up speed. When the motion becomes so fast I can hardly tell it’s even moving, it arcs, forming two ends, one of each slams into Em and Red then disappears. They both fall to the floor.
Buffy, Ken and I just stand there, frozen in place. After about a minute, we hear Andrew and Dawn on the intercom from their office, “It worked! It worked! We have a teal light in Prague!!”
Ken goes to Red as B and I kneel down next to Emma.
“You ok?” I put her head in my lap.
She looks up at me and Buffy, “That was fucking incredible.”
“Yeah, you got that right,” I laugh as I help her up and bring her to one of the couches. “Why don’t you rest up a little, ok?”
Emma nods then looks over to Red, “We rock Will.”
“Damn straight we do,” Willow manages to reply, then she closes her eyes.
Em sits up then rests her head back on the couch as she catches her breath, “You up for doing the next step or do you wanna wait? I seriously think I have more energy now then when we started.”
“I say we do it now.” Will nods as she replies.
Ken smirks as she walks over to the intercom, “Andrew? Dawn?”
“Yeah?” they answer in unison.
She shakes her head, “The witches want to go for broke, so prepare for phase 2.”
“Cool,” Andrew drawls out. Man, I can almost see him wringing his hands.
So they start again with the candles and sand. And again there are lights, there is wind and there is Latin:
“Oh valde dea pugna commodo audite nos.”
Oh great goddess of the hunt please hear us.
“Subsisto vox Trucidos quisnam ago sub 1825 dies in a vestigium notus ut tantum nos.”
Stay the power of the Slayers who live under 1825 days into a mark known to only us.
“Permissum suus munia exsisto suscipio procul vicis of suus 6570th dies.”
Let her gifts be received at the time of her 6570th day.
“Temerarius nostrum placitum pro bonus Trucido quod bonus totus populus.”
Heed our plea for the good of the Slayer and the good of all peoples.
“Permissum is exsisto sic, iam.”
Let this be so, now.
This time the magic blast at the end knocks them both out. We get them settled on the couches to sleep off the magic induced high then go up to see the map. Andrew and Dawn are sitting back in their chairs staring at it and the 5,000+ twinkling teal lights that joined the other colors Willow had spelled years ago.
Buffy looks around at all of us as a huge grin spreads across her face, “They really did babe,” she takes my hand, “there’s a rightness I feel and I can’t explain why, but it’s there.”
“I know, I feel it too,” I squeeze her hand. Maybe this is the start of us finally getting some control. I would never say it out loud, but I pray to the Gods it is.
NICKY’S ROOM– 6:18 PM
NICKY’S POV
Everyone is all hyped up and concentrating on the spell so I’ve been trying to keep out of the way. I’m upstairs in my room reading as everyone else is doing the big spell. Faith originally wanted me to stay with Clem, but then she and Buffy talked some, and then they told me so stay at the house
So I’m lying here reading “Vampires & Slayers: The Myths Destroyed” when I’m nearly knocked off my bed by the force of the magic swirling in the house. Willow and Emma are generating so much power, I feel like I’m in the same room with them. Good God, I thought the first blast was intense, but they must be doing the second spell now because the power is so strong I’m panting, gasping for air.
Then, suddenly, it recedes, like how a fog lifts. It takes me a second to realize I hear a phone ringing. Getting up, I follow the sound until I realize it’s Emma’s, so I go into her room. Picking up her cell from her desk I see from the screen it’s Sophia, so I answer, “Hi Sophia, it’s Nicky.”
She sharply inhales, “What is going on? Is Emma ok?”
“They’re doing the spell and,” I close my eyes and feel for Emma and Willow. Smiling, I open my eyes, “they’re both fine, just wiped out. They’re sleeping now.” Suddenly realizing this is kinda weird, her calling to see if Em’s ok... “Why did you think something was wrong with Emma?”
Sophia is silent for a moment, “I, I don’t know, I just felt her. It was so strong, it’s like a part of her touched me. I guess I was feeling her magic.”
“Wow, that’s really cool, and you’re not even an Empath!” Then I wonder how can she do that if she’s not?
I hear her laugh, “Yeah, scary when you don’t know what’s going on, but kinda cool too I guess. Look, I have to go back to work. Can you tell Emma I called?”
“Sure, she’ll probably need to sleep for a while though. But I’ll let her know when she wakes up.” I’m about to say goodbye, when I remember this morning, “Oh, and everyone loved the crepes with duce de leche! They want it every morning now.”
She laughs again, “I’m glad, it’s always been a crowd pleaser. I have to run, but I’ll see you soon ok?”
“Really?” I miss Sophia.
I hear her sigh, “Well, maybe not too soon, let me see what I can do?”
“Ok, bye,” I hang up then go back to my room and my reading.
