Book of Shadows
"Is it true my Lord?" A young, fireball throwing demon asking, creeping closer and closer to the Lord in charge of his section. The 'Lord,' a young man by the name of Morian, sighed and turned to the young demon and then shook his head whilst rolling his eyes.
"Is what true, Damien, to which recent piece of devastating news are you referring?" Morian then crunched the knuckles on both of his hands whilst looking in to a small sphere, made from what seemed like water.
"There's more bad news, my Lord? All I've heard is that a Charmed One has had her powers increased beyond all understanding…that is all I've heard."
"Yes, well, you hear true, but there is more bad news. The famous Orb, which we have kept in our possession for what seems like eternity, the bane of my existence in this desolate cave, is no closer to being converted in to bad magic, and I am getting fed up of looking after it. I doubt you understand what I'm talking about, but this Underground Orb is fading, losing its colour. I fear that if we do not convert this magic and get it out of the Orb, we will lose the ability to use this magic, we may as well sign over our lives to the greater good." Morian spat out those last two words. There was a brief pause, where Morian began examining his hands.
Damien shook his head and almost whimpered as though he were upset about the tragic news. Then he suddenly began to scream horrifically while his body became swallowed up in a burning swirl of flames before this fire went out completely.
Morian sighed and shook his head.
"Such a shame, he was actually a good demon, did his work, could have relied on him for anything. Still, he knew the truth. He had to go." Morian then turned, his long black cloak swishing behind him. He was heading to check on the Orb again before going to his own Lord, the only person he trusted to keep a close eye on the Orb, a charming young demon by the name of Carlos, who had once been training as a witch, and was therefore gifted in knowing how to use good magic.
The plan was that if all else failed, if this white magic couldn't be converted to bad, then a witch/demon would have to take the magic instead and wreak his own form of havoc.
Carlos looked at Morian with a sorry expression.
"You can't keep killing you own men just to hide the truth." Carlos said. His voice was distinctly foreign, possibly Italian, but definitely European. It had a hint of passion and flare to it, and also seemed to give him power.
Morian bowed his head. "I know, but right now, the true may just make them angry, make them lose faith my Lord-"
"Faith! These men don't have faith, they have greed, all men are the same Morian, and they only ever work to please themselves. They have no faith."
"I have a plan, that can change these men. Make them work as a team."
"I'm listening."
It was that Morian told Carlos of his plan of having him use the magic, as it would combine with the power of being a demon and a witch. Something more powerful than the Charmed Ones would expect, that was for sure. Then Carlos would be able to enter back in to the 'normal' world, possibly even offer to assist the Charmed Ones in controlling their news powers. Then influence them, change their wills. Make them evil.
Morian smiled at his plan but Carlos shook his head.
"It's not good my friend. Once I turned evil I could no longer go near good magic. I think it would be wise for you to forget your plan. I wouldn't work."
"How can you be sure, my Lord?"
"I was once good remember? Years ago…I was good. There are things I remember. Once before, I learnt about using good and bad magic at the same time. Once good, bad magic becomes harder to do, once bad, good magic becomes almost impossible."
"Almost," Morian said, almost whispering, "But not." He then gave an evil smirk. Carlos shook his head.
"True. But there is only one way I can know for sure if it can be done or not."
"How, my Lord, tell me how and it will be done."
"I need the Book of Shadows, then I will know."
"But how-"
Carlos, during this conversation had been slowly but surely making his way closer and closer to Morian and as he tried to ask his last question, Carlos put a long finger to Morian's lips to silence him.
"Shhh, someone is listening. I will tell you later."
Morian took a step back before bowing politely to Carlos and leaving the room without turning his back on Carlos. As soon as he had left the room his shimmered to another part of the Underworld to inform his new best man of a plan that was going to happen tonight. If they needed to venture to the real world, he would use this guy without a doubt. Of course he would have used Damien, but that was now not possible.
Two weeks had gone by and the sisters barely said a word to each other any more. They had managed to convince Leo that if he tried hard enough to push his thoughts in to their minds they would be able to hear him.
It may be useful for when we go to the Underworld, ya know? Paige had told Leo, If we have to suddenly change our plan of action, or if you see danger that we don't, you may have to tell us through thought, not sound, in case it alerts demons to us.
Leo nodded. He knew all this. It was strange living with people who only spoke through though. What was wrong with a good old-fashioned conversation? Also it was funny that now that Phoebe and Paige were practically Higher, all three sisters acted as though they were not only all-powerful, but also all-knowing. As though that had a plan for everything, a plan for every plan they had to change, and then a back up just in case.
"You do realise that even though this thoughts stuff is great, it may not work in the Underworld," Leo said. All three sisters looked at him and then looked at each other. They were having a conversation with each other and Leo couldn't hear them because they weren't including him. He sighed and Piper looked at him and gave him a wink.
Just shop talk honey, nothing much.
"This isn't shop talk if it's about what's going to happen down there, you need to tell me everything. What you're thinking, what you're planning. You may think you've sorted every last detail but you may not have."
"Hun-ee," Piper said in a soft voice that also had a hint of anger in it.
Yes?
"If we get in to any sort of trouble, if anything doesn't go quite to plan. If there's something a little bit dodgy then you and Paige can orb Phoebes and me outta there, ok? I'm not going to risk anything, we need to be as quick as possible, so really, the sooner we're out of there the better."
Leo nodded and then looked at Phoebe and Paige.
So we're ready?
Phoebe nodded and held up two potion bottles. One that could be used to protect her and Paige should something bad happen and the other to use on the Orb, so as the good magic could be temporarily transported to the elders. Paige held up a piece of paper that had the spell written on it that would remove the magic from the Orb and in to the bottle. Piper then smiled at Leo.
"See, all ok!" Piper then looked to her sisters then shouted "Grams!" at the top of her voice. Their grandma appeared very quickly after being summoned and in seeing her grandchildren, her angry face soon softened and she lost her transparency and became a solid figure. She pulled Piper, Paige and Phoebe toward her and gave them a hug.
"I feel I must congratulate you Piper on your Higher Calling, I must say I'm impressed." Grams turned to Phoebe and Paige. "I have to tell you two though, soon you'll be feeling the power growing in you too." Phoebe and Paige turned and smiled at each other.
"Cool." Phoebe said, still smiling.
"Grams, I need to ask you a favour."
"Let me guess, baby-sit?"
Piper felt herself blush.
"Could you?"
Grams rolled her eyes and sighed.
"No doubt saving the world again so I suppose I can. Don't be too long though, understand?"
Piper nodded,
"Thank you!" She then lent forward and gave her grandma a kiss. She then looked to Paige and Leo and nodded. Leo took hold of Piper's arm and Paige Phoebe's, and then in a swirl of blue orbs they had disappeared in to the Underworld.
Grams looked to her great-grandsons and smiled proudly. They were both sleeping and though the temptation to wake them up and play with them was strong, because she knew she wouldn't often see them, only keep an eye on them from above, she knew she shouldn't. This was there time to sleep, they would be dreaming, and who was she to disturb the dreams of such small people?
She sighed contently and stroked Wyatt's hair and then gave both Chris and Wyatt and kiss on the forehead. They stirred only slightly before curling up in to even tighter balls. Probably as their dreams became more intense, fighting dragons or racing cars, the usual fantasy dreams of young boys.
She shut the door slowly and walked out and started to tidy the place up a bit for the girls who had apparently been too busy to tidy up the Manor. It was of course her old house and though she didn't really have any say over what went on in the house any more she still liked to see it neat and tidy. Starting downstairs she washed up mugs, plates and cutlery that hadn't been cleaned since the tea the sisters had eaten earlier. So much for Higher living…the state of this place…looks like a bomb's hit it!
Suddenly there was a loud crash coming from upstairs. The boys…! Grams ran up the stairs as fast as she could but being dead had its disadvantages. She no longer had that energetic body she used to…this was of course years ago, but still she wished she could run that little bit faster. Reaching her grandsons' room she was relieved to see that they were both asleep, still dreaming their dreams.
Shutting the door again very quickly she looked up the next flight of stairs; the ones leading to the attic and she shook her head in realisation. No! She then forced her fragile body up the stairs and swung open the attic door but she was too late.
A young man was reaching out for the Book of Shadows; he was chanting something, a spell that she didn't recognise. As he finished his last rhyming couplet the Book shot out from its permanent position on its stand and in to his arms. Desperately out of breath Grams tried to leap forward on to the man to pull the Book from his grip and in to the hands of good…
Wait…something doesn't make sense. How could evil have the Book of Shadows?
The man moved quickly out of the way of Grams, resulting in her flying to the other side of the room and in to a heap on the floor, laying unconscious.
"Nice try old lady," said the man in a foreign accent. He then laughed and clicked his fingers, causing two men to emerge. One was Morian, the other an unknown lower level demon. Carlos then nodded and the three of them shimmered back to the Underworld, taking the Book of Shadows with them.
A/N: ok thank you people for reviewing, very cool of you and it means a lot to me. Of course if more people were to review…cheeky smile …I wouldn't mind at all. Thought I'd leave you on a bit of a cliff-hanger, I love doing it, it seems to give me power evil grin