Disclaimer: Don't own Sweep. Um ... what else is there to say? The song belongs to Evanescence and the quote belongs to Ambrose Redmoon. Does anyone else think the name sounds witchy? Anyway, read and review or you will be sporked to death! Mwahaha (this is not an empty threat, by the way).

Summary: Morgan attempts to decipher what she saw in the Akashic Records while the council plots revenge against Hunter and Alexis.

Part XVIII: Judgment

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

Morgan

I don't think any of us slept much that night. Robbie and Bree, looking shaken, had excused themselves to bed almost immediately after Sky told the others what we had seen when we traveled through the astral plane. I was still angry with Hunter even though my rage had ebbed slightly since returning from the cemetery; I snuck into our lodge room when he was asleep, grabbed my pajamas out of my suitcase, and took a room a couple down from Bree and Robbie's. The queen-sized bed felt huge, empty without him next to me, but every time I thought about him, my mind flashed back to what he had said to me before.

No one in their right mind would trust a child of Ciaran MacEwan!

And the rage returned. I sighed and tried to calm myself down enough to sleep, but I couldn't. Images of my visions kept tugging at the corners of my mind. The monster in the cemetery. Hunter yelling. Mike, the young teenager who didn't deserve to be dragged into our messed up lives. Killian, who hadn't returned from Antrim yet. Was he okay? Was I okay? Why was I getting those dreams? What did what we had seen in the book mean? We had seen the entire history of the Diobhail clan, spirits in the astral realm. What were they doing here? Why was I seeing them?

A sleepless night, coupled with the fact that I was still feeling slightly disoriented from our little adventure into the spirit plane, made for one monster headache the next morning. I took an Advil with breakfast; even though Sky offered to make me an herb tea to help with the migraine, I declined. The next time I touched one of those herb teas would be too soon for comfort.

Hunter plodded down the stairs to breakfast in an overlarge Manchester United jersey, yawning. When he saw me, he looked away. Bree watched us with interest, but when I glared at her, she looked back at her oatmeal quickly.

"Did you have another dream with the Diobhail in it last night, Morgan?" Hunter asked after a long, highly uncomfortable pause. I looked at Sky in incredulity. She looked conveniently innocent.

"What? I had to tell him; he might have known something."

"Do you know something?" I asked Hunter, unable to help the edge that was obvious in my voice.

He sighed. "Not especially. It's nothing I've ever heard of before, but ... I suppose Kennet would know." He bit his lip. "Well, if I was allowed to contact him. It's best not to push when it comes to the council."

"By all means," Sky agreed. "They're pissed off at us, so we should stay away. But ... that leaves us in a stalemate, doesn't it?"

"Don't you have books about this?" Robbie asked. "Books about ... astral planes, stuff like that?"

Sky shook her head. "Not with me, no. In New York, yes, we have plenty, but not here."

"Is there any way to find a book like that in town?" Bree asked curiously. "I mean, I remember the music festival. Most of the people there were witches, right?"

"And council-involved," Hunter said with a groan. "They will have been warned to stay away from us. I bet the council probably made up some sham story about us being mentally unstable or something."

"So we've hit a dead end ..." Raven said with a sigh.

"It would appear so," Hunter said quietly. "We don't know what the Diobhail are up to, how they got here, what they want ... I suppose we could try to contact them, but ..."

"Oh, right," Sky said sarcastically. "I really got that they want to be our friends, considering what that one was doing in the cemetery."

Hunter looked chastised. No one spoke for a moment before the kitchen door burst open and my brother Killian walked in, looking unshaven and unkempt but smiling broadly.

"Hello, all!" he said cheerfully. "What are we up to this lovely morning?"

We just stared at him. He looked slightly put off.

"What?"

Please, please forgive me
But I won't be home again
Maybe someday you'll have woken up
And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one
Isn't something missing?

I knocked on Mike's door five times before he opened it, his headphones pulled halfway off his ears. He pushed the pause button on his CD player.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Just ... checking on you," I said, smiling. I paused. "Um, listen, there's something you probably ought to know ..."

I recounted the story of what I had seen in the cemetery and what Sky, Alexis, and I had discovered last night. He listened with rapt attention, his eyes widening when I mentioned what we had read in the astral book, and sank down on his bed when I was finished speaking.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned. He didn't look too well.

"Yeah," he said, an unnaturally light tone to his voice that instantly betrayed his lie.

"You know it's useless to lie to a witch, right?" I asked, a teasing smile playing across my face.

He sighed. "I just ... it's so weird, you know? One day you think you're just a normal guy, and the next you're learning about witches and magick and rune shields and scrying and now demons? What else is there I haven't learned about?"

"A lot," I admitted. "There's a lot I haven't learned about, either. I know how frustrating and scary it is, but ... it starts to make sense after a while." I paused. "Of course, there's very little that could make the concept of ethereal monsters make sense, but ..." I shrugged. "Got to take the bad with the good, I guess."

"I guess ..." he said after a moment. He continued to look down, and I quirked my head to the side.

"What else is bothering you?"

He didn't say anything, but I guessed that he was judging how to phrase his answer.

"And don't say it's nothing, because I'll know if you're lying."

He sighed. "I ... I heard you and Hunter talking last night."

I paused. Oh. That was bad. I bit my lip nervously and ran a hand through my hair, trying to figure out an appropriate response. 'Oh, we weren't talking about you.' Right, that wouldn't work. He had been mentioned by name.

"Mike ... Hunter is ... an interesting person," I said slowly. "A complex person, if you will. He ... he's met a lot of people in his life, and not all of them have proved trustworthy." I recalled how uneasy he had been around me when we had first met and I was still with Cal. The night that Selene had first introduced Hunter and Sky to us, I had felt waves of discomfort coming off of him. Of course, he had been surrounded by people that he knew for a fact were dark witches, so ... "It makes him wary around strangers." Wait, was I making excuses for him?

"Doesn't matter," Mike said after a moment. "I've been getting that reaction from practically everyone I've met through Killian. 'What's his name?' 'Mike MacEwan.' 'Oh, he must be a dark witch. Let's shun him, everyone!'"

I sighed; this was nothing I hadn't heard before, and yet I felt sympathetic. After I had discovered that Ciaran was my father, I had felt the same way.

"It really sucks, doesn't it?" I asked quietly, sitting down on the bed next to him. "People hearing the word 'Woodbane' and judging us before they even know us ... it's hard at first. Unfortunately, you'll get used to it."

"If Hunter has anything to do with it, I won't get that chance," Mike said.

"Mike, his opinion of you doesn't matter," I said firmly. "He might not trust you, but you're my brother and I trust you. That's what matters." I raised my eyebrows. "Do you trust me?"

"This is the first time I've ever ..." He seemed close to completing his sentence before he looked down. "I want to believe you."

He must have been through so much before I met him, I thought dismally.

"Do you?" I asked quietly.

He looked at me. "I think so."

You won't cry for my absence, I know
You forgot me long ago
Am I that unimportant?
Am I so insignificant?
Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?

"So what are we looking for, again?" Bree asked, wrapping her jacket tighter around herself and shivering as a particularly cold gust of wind slapped our faces. "And where is summer? It's July! Why is it so cold here?"

I smiled. "We're looking for a library, one, and two, I guess they do weather differently here in Ireland."

"Why can't we just ask someone where the library is?" Robbie asked, rubbing his hands together for warmth.

"Because, Robbie, in case you haven't noticed, everyone we've tried to approach has either made up some excuse or turned around and gone the opposite way." Bree sounded disdainful. "I don't get the feeling that they want to talk to us."

"They must know that all of us are in cahoots with Hunter," I sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't think we can expect very much help from anyone."

Sky had suggested that Robbie, Bree, and I go into town to look for somewhere, anywhere, that might have books on astral projection and residents of the lower planes. So far, our luck was minimal. We hadn't even found a townsperson willing to talk to us long enough to answer any inquiries as to where a library or magick store could be found.

"It's too bad the lodge didn't have a phone book," Robbie sighed. "That would have really been useful."

I snorted. "You think?"

Then I saw it: a small shop nestled between a grocery store and a pub with a small sign hanging off the wall. It read "The Witch's Circle Magick Shop."

"Bingo."

When we stepped into the darkened interior of the shop, I was met by the strong smell of spicy cinnamon and ginger incense. The layout of the shop was somewhat similar to Practical Magick's back in New York; while it was smaller, the entire back wall was covered with bookcases holding books of shapes, sizes, lengths, and colors. A display of multicolored candles was set up right next to the door, and I picked up one labeled "ocean scent" and inhaled. It smelled heavenly. Bree and Robbie, I saw, were examining a huge tub filled with different polished crystals and gemstones.

"Come on, guys," I whispered. "Let's get to the back."

It was oddly quiet in the shop. I even checked the sign on the door to make sure that it said Open, because I couldn't see a shopkeeper anywhere. Maybe the store had a back room like Practical Magick did, but I couldn't see a door.

When we approached the numerous book shelves, Bree whistled.

"Wow. This place has a better selection than even Practical Magick."

"Better never let Alyce hear you say that," I grinned. She was right, though. I had never seen such a wide range of topics and found myself wondering how all of the books that I could see could fit on the shelves.

"Alternative healing, astrology ..." I paused. "Wait, where's astral travel?"

"Look under Magick and Divination," Robbie said, kneeling down to look at books on the bottom shelf of a bookcase to my right. "There are tons of them here. They're mostly for beginners, though ..."

Bree and I both squatted down to join him. He, unfortunately, was right; most of the books on astral travel and out-of-body experiences were how-to guides for beginners. One book, worn and peeling, caught my eye, though.

"Well, what about this one?" I pulled it out and examined its leather cover, on which were embossed the words Existence and Reality on the Astral Plane.

"Is that name an oxymoron?" Robbie wondered as he and Bree looked over my shoulder.

I ignored him and opened to the table of contents, scrolling past 'Myths and Legends' and stopping at 'Creatures of the Astral Plane.'

"My friends, I say we've hit pay dirt."

"Quit making stupid puns," Bree said. "Open to that page and see what it says."

"I can feel the love in this room," I said sarcastically. I opened to page 54 and flipped through a couple pages. On the left side of the two-page spread there was what looked like a wood carving drawing of some kind of creature or animal, and the description for what it was and a little bit of information was on the right side. I stopped on page 71.

"That's it."

Bree and Robbie leaned in closer for a better look.

"Eww ... really? It's ugly."

"Bree, we have an ethereal monster on the loose," Robbie said in disbelief. "How can his outer appearance be your main concern?"

"Are you sure that's it?" she asked me, her voice low.

I just nodded, still staring, transfixed, at the drawing. It definitely depicted the creature that I had seen in the cemetery, but there was something different about it. Its hair was longer, its eyes bigger and more bulging, its general size larger.

"It's bigger than the one I saw," I whispered.

"Maybe the one you saw was a teen who missed puberty," Bree suggested unhelpfully. Robbie and I both glared at her. "No one can see the humor. No one but Bree."

"Bree needs to see reality," I said firmly, standing up while still holding the book.

"What else does it say?" Robbie asked, taking the book and perusing the page with writing on it.

I sighed. "Nothing we hadn't learned last night, just different phrasing. Basically, stuff along the lines of, 'if you invade their territory, they'll kill you.' Still, I'd like to buy it. Having a concrete copy of what we saw would be useful."

"But where's the shopkeeper?" Robbie asked, looking around.

"Right here."

I think that all three of us nearly jumped out of our skin ... literally. We whirled around to see Brighde Lachlan, the woman that Hunter and I had met who had invited us to the music festival about a week and a half ago. She smiled when she saw me.

"Oh, Morgan. It's a pleasure to see you again."

I was pleasantly surprised that she a) remembered me and b) was actually being nice to me. I remembered that Hunter said she worked for the council. "Yeah. I didn't know this was your shop."

"I don't own it myself," she said. "My brother-in-law is the proprietor, but I work here when I'm not on duty at the council building." She motioned the book. "That's a wonderful book. A lot of insight."

I nodded. "Yeah, it-it is. I was thinking of buying it."

"Well, they're already on sale for seven Euros, but I think we can cut you some slack," she said generously.

I looked briefly into my wallet; we all had to trade our money in for Euros when we arrived in Ireland.

"I only have six with me," I said with a frown.

"That's fine," Brighde said with a warm smile. "Come over to the register."

As she rang up my purchase, I smiled widely at Bree and Robbie but lowered my voice. "See? Not all council people are evil."

"How do you know her?" Bree asked curiously.

"I met her through Hunter," I said. "He helped her when her coven was having dark magick issues."

"Will that be all?" Brighde asked as she handed me the book in a paper bag with a receipt.

"Yes," I said gratefully. "It's nice to know this shop is here, though. We'll probably be back later."

She smiled at us as we left the shop. "Merry meet."

"Merry part," we responded.

"And merry meet again," she said cordially.

Even though I'd be sacrificed
You won't try for me, not now
Though I'd die to know you love me
I'm all alone
Isn't someone missing me?

"You told me to call if any of them showed up."

"Ah, yes, Mrs. Lachlan. Which ones?

"The Rowlands girl and two others."

"Not Rody?"

"No."

"What did they purchase?"

"A book about astral travel."

"Good ... can we assume that they don't know?"

"As far as I could tell."

"Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Lachlan."

"You're welcome. ... And you'll lift the curse on Moonrise? As we agreed?"

"Of course. The council sticks to its word."

"... Thank you."

Please, please forgive me
But I won't be home again
I know what you do to yourself
Shudder deep and cry out
Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?

Neither Hunter nor Sky was at the lodge when Bree, Robbie, and I got back. Raven and Alexis were playing some German card game that Alexis had learned from a nurse at the hospital, and Bree and Robbie looked through the astral projection book while I watched.

"Okay ... because I played a Jack, I'll change it to ... spades."

"You just had to do that, didn't you? I don't have any spades."

"Tough luck."

"It says here that astral spirits are generally not as threatening on the astral plane but can be deadly if they manifest on the physical plane," Bree said, peering at the book.

"One would figure it'd be the opposite way around, but then, I never did understand physics," Robbie said with a shake of his head.

"That still doesn't explain what they're doing here," I said, unable to help grinning as Raven exacted revenge for the spades by making Alexis draw six cards.

"So ein Pech," Alexis said unhappily.

"What now?"

"Bad luck."

We whiled away the rest of the day lounging around and wondering where Hunter and Sky had disappeared to. I tried messaging both of them several times, but I never got a reply. To say that I was worried would be an understatement. True, I was still furious at Hunter, but that didn't mean that I wanted him to go off and somehow get himself killed.

Finally, we got tired of waiting for them to show up and headed to the Italian bakery on Main Street for dinner; at night, they served entrees as well as took specialty orders. We ordered an authentic Italian pizza—or as close to one as we could get in the British Isles—and were about to order another one when Hunter and Sky walked into the bakery.

"What's this?" Bree asked in mock condescension. "You abandon us for the whole day and now you're trying to sneak pizza without us?"

"We were going to bring something back to the lodge," Sky said defensively. She reached for a piece of pizza, but Bree slapped her hand away.

"Over my dead body."

Hunter and Sky pulled up chairs around the table after both ordering some pasta thing from the Italian guy at the counter.

"So where did you guys go all day?" I asked curiously. "Was investigating afoot?"

"Actually, yes," Hunter said calmly. "We went back to that house in old Ballynigel. The destroyed one that I told you about?"

"I thought you said there was nothing mysterious about it."

Hunter bit his lip. "Yeah. I just wanted to check it out some more." With that, he hurried over to the counter to pick up his and Sky's pasta bowls.

"Okay ... what did you really do?" I asked Sky.

"We went to the house," she said truthfully. "Really."

"I'm going to interrupt to comment on the wonders of this pizza," Bree said. "Just wanted to let you know."

Sky looked resolute. "Okay, give me a piece of that." With that, she ripped a corner off of Raven's pizza. "Mm, this is good."

Raven looked offended. "Hey! Get your own!"

"You guys have serious problems with sharing," Hunter said simply.

"So you didn't discover anything new at the house?" I asked, feeling semi-disappointed. We really were stuck.

Sky just shook her head. I looked down at my plate, suddenly not feeling very hungry.

"I'm going back to the lodge," I said quietly, standing up.

Even though I'd be sacrificed
You won't try for me, not now
Though I'd die to know you love me
I'm all alone
Isn't someone missing me?

The night passed in a strange haze of dreamless sleep, and I woke up the next morning feeling strangely neutral. Not refreshed, not tired, just ... neutral. Considering the pain that I was sometimes in when I woke up, though, I was willing to take whatever I could get.

I was brushing my hair in the bathroom and feeling depressed about our lack of success in the knowledge department when I heard a knock on my door, followed by five others in quick succession. I opened the door to reveal Bree and Raven standing in the hallway, both looking very worried.

"Morgan, have you seen Hunter and Sky?" Bree asked anxiously.

I shook my head. "No, I haven't even been downstairs yet." I paused. "Why? What's wrong?"

"They're gone," Raven said fearfully. "So is Alexis. We can't find them anywhere."

I furrowed my eyebrows and followed them downstairs to join the Sky-Hunter-Alexis search party. We met Robbie coming up the main staircase; he looked just as worried as Bree and Raven.

"They're not in any of the downstairs rooms. Alexis's is empty, but her stuff is still there."

"Sky's is in our room, too," Raven said.

I bit my lip. "Well, where would they go that they wouldn't tell us? Did you check the kitchen?"

"Right," Bree said sarcastically. "We forgot the most obvious place. ... Actually, we did skip it. Let's go now."

I glared at her and, upon walking into the kitchen, immediately spotted a piece of paper lying on the counter in plain sight.

"Um, did you read the note?"

"What note?"

My eyes widened as I scanned it. "This one."

I handed it to Bree. She looked at the signature curiously.

"It's from Sky." Robbie took it and read it aloud with Bree and Raven looking over his shoulder.

"Something is wrong with Alexis," he read. "Hunter and I are taking her back to Antrim. We don't know what it is, but we'll send Morgan a message when we hear something."

"I thought they said she was fine," I said, stunned. "They gave her a clean bill of health before she left the hospital in the first place. And she's been taking her enzyme supplements just like she was supposed to."

Raven cleared her throat. "Is it possible that this isn't something to do with her ataxia? I mean, what if someone did this to her? Like, put a spell on her?"

"Who would do that?" Robbie asked, surprised. "I mean, it's a pretty big violation of the Wiccan Rede if it really is a spell."

"The council wouldn't have a problem with that," I whispered. "Those hypocrites. Remember what they did to her mom? If they can get her away from us, they can steal her away when she's back at the hospital."

"I say we go to Antrim," Bree said. "They said they would message you, Morgan, but that could take hours. We should be there for Alexis."

"And how would we get there?" I asked. "They must have taken the council car."

"So what do we do?"

"... Nothing. There's nothing we can do."

And if I bleed, I'll bleed
Knowing you don't care
And if I sleep just to dream of you
And wake without you there
Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?