Wyatt lay the scrying down on the table with a sigh.
"It's useless, Chris," he told his nervously pacing younger brother. "I can't find her, not in San Francisco, not in America, not anywhere on earth…" Chris spun the globe angrily.
"Stupid Earth," he muttered under his breath, before raising his voice and saying, "Okay, well…what about under it?"
Wyatt arched an eyebrow. "Underworld?" Chris nodded, but Wyatt shook his head. "It makes sense, given that Ardariaen is a demon and all, but you know as well as I do we can't scry for or sense somebody when they're taken to the Underworld. It's just not possible."
Chris growled angrily and spun the globe again, hard. The force of the spin made the globe fly off the table. Wyatt flicked a hand at it, and it froze just before it hit the floor. He shot Chris an annoyed look, then walked over and grabbed the globe, setting it down carefully.
"Look, I know you're upset about Eryn, Chris, but could you not destroy the world?"
"There has got to be a way to find her," Chris said, ignoring him. The younger Halliwell turned and walked over to where they had left Eryn's Book. Wyatt sighed.
"Chris…" he began.
"There's lots of stuff in here we've never seen before," Chris told him, flipping through the pages. "So maybe there could be a way to scry for her, or a spell to find her, or…"
Wyatt walked over and gently pulled the Book out of Chris' hands. He set it down on the table beside the sofa, then sat down beside Chris.
"Chris," he said firmly. "Quit blaming yourself for what happened. It's not your fault."
Chris reached over and picked up the Book again. "I never said it was," he told him defensively.
"You don't have to. You do anyway. Look, Eryn made her decision. We tried to stop her, but it was what she wanted to do." Chris shook his head.
"No, it couldn't have been. No one wants to die…" He slammed the Book shut, hard, his annoyance getting the better of him. "There has got to be some way to find her," he said softly, looking up at Wyatt. His older brother sighed, then shrugged and nodded.
"Keep looking, Chris. Maybe there is something in there. I mean, we didn't even go through the whole thing. And you're right, there is plenty of stuff in there we've never seen before." He got to his feet and stepped away, then he turned back. He laughed. "Hell, maybe there's even a map of the Underworld in there…"
Suddenly, the Book opened, its pages rippling as if in a high wind. Chris jumped at the sharp snap from the Book as it opened, then relaxed as he saw the pages flicking over. He saw this happening all the time, with his and Wyatt's own Book…spirits from their ancestral line lending a helping hand, helping them to find a particular spell or potion that would help them to vanquish a demon or save an innocent. Now, he realized, some ancestor of Eryn's - perhaps her mother, perhaps the matriarch of the line - was helping them, making their search for whatever could help Eryn just that little bit easier.
After half a minute, the pages stopped turning. Chris waited a second, in case they started up again - hey, even spirits missed pages! - but when they remained motionless he leaned forward, looking at the page the spirit had indicated.
And stared.
"Wyatt," he said, his voice choked. This was unbelievable. There was no way this was real…and yet there it was, right in front of him. Wyatt arched an eyebrow at him.
"What's up?" he asked, stepping over and looking at the page curiously. There was a large title, written in a gothic hand that had written quite a few headings in the Book - the ink was fairly new, so Wyatt guessed it was Eryn's - and beneath it was a large rectangle of folded parchment, held in place by a leather strap. He tried to read the title, then sighed. "Chris, I can't read the damn page upside
down…could you…" He broke off as his younger brother held up the Book, right way up so he could read it. He read the title, then stared at Chris.
"No way."
"I know."
"It can't be."
"It is."
"No," Wyatt said, shaking his head, "No, it can't be. I mean, we've seen some pretty weird stuff before, hell, a lot of improbable stuff, too, but this is impossible. No one has ever been able to map the Underworld, and I mean ever."
"No one good," Chris argued. "How do we know maps of the Underworld aren't commonplace Down There?"
"We don't, but how the Hell would anybody not a demon be able to get their hands on one?" Wyatt asked sharply. Chris looked at him.
"Uh, Wy, Eryn's part demon. Remember?" Wyatt nodded reluctantly. Chris smirked in triumph, then began to slide the parchment carefully out from the restraining strap. Wyatt stopped him.
"Uh, Chris, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm…taking a look at the map," he told him slowly, as if he was talking to a five-year-old. Wyatt rolled his eyes.
"Chris, what happened last time you took a look at a map?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. Chris frowned slightly.
"I drew a pretty good map of Germany and a got a B in geography…your point being?" he replied. Wyatt sighed.
"I meant a magical map, Chris."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Wyatt…"
"What happened?"
"Geez, Wy, give it a rest…"
"You ended up in ancient Mesoamerica, that's what happened! Excuse me if I'm a little cautious this time around about letting my little brother read a magickal map, especially when he nearly got his head chopped off and his heart ripped out as a sacrifice last time!"
"That ended up working out okay, remember? I didn't screw up the timeline or anything..."
Wyatt shrugged. "I don't care. I'm the oldest, and while Dad's out of the house, what I say goes. I'm looking at the map first." Chris growled at him, and Wyatt arched an eyebrow. "Got something to say?" He asked him, but Chris shook his head.
"No, King Wyatt," he grumbled, sitting back in the sofa as Wyatt took the Book from him. Wyatt shot him a dirty look, then shrugged.
"There's another good point. If I got sucked through some weird portal and lost my powers, I'd still be able to summon Excalibur, whereas you'd just be sitting in some alternate reality or time, twiddling your thumbs, waiting for me and Dad to come rescue you..."
"I would not twiddle my thumbs!" Chris yelled at him angrily. Wyatt held up a placating hand, but Chris kept ranting, babbling on about how he would be just fine in an alternate reality. Wyatt sighed - his brother tended to babble when he was annoyed, and it could be a real pain in the ass - then recited a variation of a spell he remembered his great-Grams telling him had worked on his own mother when she was a little girl.
"May this teen,
Quick as you please,
Stop his snit
and quickly FREEZE."
There was silence. Wyatt glanced over at his younger brother. Chris was frozen in place, his mouth open in mid-rant, his hand half-raised as if he was going to TK something…probably into Wyatt. Wyatt grinned, then walked over to the table and unfolded the map. He put it down on the table and studied it carefully. Then frowned.
It looked just like a normal map of the world…continents, seas, countries and landmarks all marked in a neat hand. Then he noticed that the map he was looking at was a cover for the map beneath. He flipped the parchment up and over, revealing the map beneath, and his eyebrows arched as he saw it.
It was amazingly detailed: demonic lairs, abyss', volcanic pits, cess pools, mouths of purgatory…all this and more were drawn in, with tiny labels denoting exact co-ordinates of the features of the map. Wyatt whistled softly.
"Neat," he murmured, looking it over admiringly. A particular - familiar - marking caught his eye, and he bent down for a closer look. "Nexus…" He read the co-ordinates, then flipped the cover map back over. He laughed out loud as he saw what was directly above where the Nexus was labelled in. "San Francisco…so the map on top is a reference map, telling someone where the demonic landmark they're looking at on the other map is in the world." He touched the dot for San Francisco, and stared as details from the other map leached through the normal map. He grinned. "Quick reference."
"And, anyway, you're just a…" Chris suddenly said from behind him. Wyatt turned around as Chris stopped talking and looked around for him. He arched an eyebrow as his younger brother's startled gaze found him.
"You froze me," Chris accused, slowly getting to his feet. Wyatt shrugged.
"Yeah. It was the only way to get you to stop babbling." Before Chris could start up again, Wyatt TK'd the scrying crystal over to his younger brother. Chris snatched it out of the air and shot Wyatt a confused look.
"What's this for?" he asked, holding it up. Wyatt grinned.
"Wanna scry for Eryn?" he replied, tapping the map behind him. Chris' eyes lit up, and he walked over to the table. He frowned slightly at the normal map, then Wyatt flipped it over to reveal the demonic map beneath and he grinned.
"Awesome," he murmured, running his fingers lightly over its surface. Wyatt let him absorb it for a couple of moments, then nudged him.
"Come on, get scrying. I wanna find Eryn and get back here in time to vanquish Ardariaen before dinner."
Chris snorted, then held the scrying crystal over the map and let it spin. "I just hope it doesn't take…" he began, then stopped as the crystal dropped heavily to a point on the map. "…too long." He arched an eyebrow at his brother, then stooped to take a closer look at the point where it had stopped. He stared at it in amazement, then looked at Wyatt with an annoyed look on his face. "We didn't even have to bother scrying!" he exclaimed, pointing at the mark on the map. Wyatt looked at it.
It was labelled "Ardariaen's Lair".
"Okay, we're both idiots," he said, ruefully. Chris glowered at him.
"Oh, don't even try to pin this on me, too. I was the frozen one who wasn't allowed to look at the map, remember? And you were the one who had to scry for the Lake Como Water Demons to find they were at Lake Como, last year!"
Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, fine. It's all my fault! You happy?" Chris nodded, mollified. "So can we get ready to go save Eryn now? Or do you want to blame me for more stuff?" Wyatt demanded. Chris shook his head.
"I'll mix up some potions, you get some spells." He rolled his shoulders slightly. "Then we go get her."