The television show "Charmed," including the characters of Piper Halliwell, Phoebe Halliwell, Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt, and Cole Turner, is copyrighted by Spelling Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group, Inc. The character of Dr. Charles Eppes is copyrighted by someone who owns the television show "Numb3rs," which I would know if the networks didn't mutilate the closing credits of television shows.
Cole took one step and threw the fireball, but the second in which the door blew up had been enough prep time for the Seer, and she deflected it. It smashed into the whatnot, leaving only a scorch mark where the skull and a globe had been. Then the Seer saw Piper raising her hands and dodged physically, and a terrarium blew up, showering everyone with glass.
Phoebe grabbed Stone and pulled him under the table. Glass clattered on the floor around them, along with a wand, belladonna leaves, and the whole contents of a bag of sea salt.
Paige cast the contents of the box on the floor. Piper aimed for the Seer again, and this time got her. The Seer exploded in whirling ashes. Paige called "Crystals! Circle!" The Charmed Ones' quartz crystals leaped to Paige's hands and back to the floor around the whirling ashes, and by the time the ashes had reconstituted as the Seer, a cage of white light had closed over her head.
Everyone took a breath.
"Now what?" Cole said, his expression indicating that he had many ideas.
"Now we keep her neutralized until we can send you both back," Piper said.
"Professor Stone," the Seer said in her most dulcet tones, "you know I can deliver what I promised."
"Paige," Phoebe called from under the table, "come orb him – "
Stone's hand shot out from under the table, grabbed the wand, and pointed it as he shouted "Avis!"
One of the crystals turned into a white bird, and the cage disappeared.
Cole immediately shot an energy ball at the Seer. She deflected it back at him, and he flew across the garage. She turned and made a sweeping gesture with her arm at Paige and Piper, and they were thrown too, just missing Stone as he ran into the house.
But suddenly Phoebe was on the Seer's back, one arm around her throat, gouging at her face with the athame. The Seer screamed, her own athame magically appeared in her hand, and she slashed backward. Phoebe dropped off of her back and the Seer turned, a bloody chunk of her cheek dangling below her chin, and aimed her athame at the bleeding woman on the floor.
Then the athame exploded. "Hah! That won't reconstitute," Piper said.
"Oh, gross," Paige said, extending her hand. "Flesh."
The dangling slice of cheek disappeared from the Seer's face and reappeared in Paige's hand. The Seer shot a fireball at Paige, Paige orbed out, the fireball vaporized half a rack of swords and daggers, and Piper blew up the Seer again as Paige reappeared.
"Paige!" Piper cried as the ashes whirled. "Find a fifth crystal! Cole, go get that weasel and shimmer him out of here!"
"Crystal!" Paige shouted without thinking. From cabinets, from counters, from bowls of salt, from the floor, dozens of them flung themselves at her, forcing her to duck and cover as she was pelted with a rain of rocks.
Cole charged into the house, gave a cry of pain, and fell back into the garage, an acrid smell coming with him. Piper recognized the smell; it was a potion she'd used on demons herself. In small amounts it wouldn't kill, but in large amounts – Stone came after Cole, still waving the flask of green liquid in one hand, something white in his other hand. Piper froze him, but by that time the Seer had reconstituted. She took one quick step, grabbed the frozen man, and vanished with him.
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A conga line, Paige had laughed as she made a paste of magical herbs – and then, seeing the look on Cole's face, had absented herself to scry for Stone in the attic, using his keyring looped over the crystal point. The rest of them stayed in the kitchen: Cole sat on a stool while Phoebe, sitting in front of him on a chair, applied the paste to the potion burns on his chest, arm, and shoulder, murmuring an incantation; behind her, Piper stood, applying good old-fashioned ice and pressure to the scalp wound the Seer had given Phoebe; behind Piper Leo stood, applying liniment to Piper's arms and lower back.
"There are times when I wish I were a whitelighter again," Leo said.
"Really, honey?" Piper asked. "What times would those be?"
She glanced back over her should with a wry grin, which he returned. "Anyway, at least we have a piece of the Seer's flesh for the vanquishing potion. That was great work, Pheebs."
"We can't vanquish her in this reality," Leo repeated.
"No, but I can take it back with me," Cole said. "My Charmed Ones know how to make the potion, they've just never had the chance to get her flesh. Ow."
"Sorry," Phoebe said. "And hey, maybe I feel like screwing with the space-time continuum, anyway. Ow."
"Sorry," Piper said.
"OK, that should do it," Phoebe said to Cole, but her hand lingered on his chest. "Don't put on a shirt for about an hour. The herbs need a chance to sink in and work."
"Oh, is that why?" Cole said in a ribald tone, and they smiled at each other.
"What do you suppose is taking Paige so long?" Piper asked, giving Leo a quick kiss and beginning to put away the herbs. "It shouldn't be this hard to find a mere sorcerer."
"The Seer will keep him cloaked for as long as it suits her purposes," Cole said. "Which means it's going to take some really fancy magic to find him, or – "
Paige orbed into the kitchen. "Got 'im," she said.
"And you know what that means," Cole said.
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They did, but they went anyway. The Seer might possibly still be there.
She wasn't, but there was something else wrong in the pleasant little neighborhood park: the horrible stench of burned skin.
"Oh my God," Piper whispered. They separated a little from each other, looking. "What on Earth – "
"Fireball," Cole said.
"He said he had an amulet that would protect him against fire!" Phoebe said.
"Not strong enough. I saw something like it about 75 years ago. The amulet keeps the person from simply disappearing into a scorch mark, but doesn't keep him from burning."
Paige gave a choked cry and they rushed to the line of bushes where she stood.
The fireball had caught Stone in the stomach, and they looked away from that fast. His hands, feet, and face were seared, but whole enough that they could recognize him. And, unbelievably, he was still alive.
A thin thread of sound was coming from his throat. Phoebe wanted to assume it was just a death rattle, but his one good eye was fixed on her insistently, so she quelled her nausea and knelt beside him.
"Genius. Brain," Stone whispered, and died.
Phoebe stood and turned away, trying to breathe fresh air, trying not to run away.
"Seems like an odd time to get sarcastic," said Paige, trying to sound tough and failing.
"Maybe he meant himself," Cole said. "I'm such a genius brain, but I still didn't get that a demon would kill me rather than risk my helping the Charmed Ones."
Piper appeared to be wrestling with a bush. With some effort she broke off a fairly long twig and knelt by Stone's outstretched, clenched right hand. "It looks like there's something – "
"Do you think he told her – whatever it was?" Paige asked Cole.
"Sure. Or he'd still be alive. Who knows what she promised him in exchange. But this is what she delivered."
Piper was prying Stone's fist open as gently as it could be done. There was something there, a fragment of paper in his palm. The rest of it, of course, must have been burned to ash. With only a twitch at the corners of her eyes she pulled the piece of paper up and, as Phoebe turned back, read, "Demi."
"Demi?"
"D-E-M-I."
"What's on the other side?"
"A line."
"OK, demi," Paige said with some of her normal vigor. "Demi Moore. Deming, New Mexico. Dimension! No, that's D-I – "
"Epidemic," said Cole. "Pandemic. Demise."
"Endemic," said Piper. "Demitasse. DeMille."
"Academic," said Phoebe. "Oh, my God, that's it. Cole, remember what he said, back at his house? Dimensional portals exist, some right under people's noses – some right over them. Just now he said 'Genius brain.' A genius' brain is a portal!"
There was a moment's silence; then Cole said, "I don't know, Phoebe," at the same moment that Paige began, "But what has that got to do with – "
"Wait," said Piper, "wait, wait. I've heard weirder things."
"Well, of course you have – " Cole said.
"Geniuses, their brains, they make jumps. Connections," Piper said. "A normal person thinks, like, a, b, c, d, e. A really smart person thinks abcde. But a genius thinks a, red. I mean, I'm sure they work damn hard for their insights. But the fact remains, other people don't get them even with hard work. Somehow geniuses connect one thing to another without slogging through the intermediate steps for 10 years."
"Like a space warp," Paige said. "I mean, if those existed."
"Who knows, maybe they could. And maybe on some submicroscopic, subatomic, sub-something level, there's a dimensional portal in a genius' brain, and that's what makes him a genius."
"What has that got to do with 'academic'?" Paige asked Phoebe.
Phoebe pointed at the scrap of paper. "Stone went to the lecture I was supposed to go to tonight. 'Math, Space, and Time.' He brought the program in with him when Cole and I went to see him. It was presented by the San Francisco Academic Union."
"Who was the lecturer?" Piper asked.
"Dr. Charles Eppes. CalSci."
"Is he a genius?"
"Leonard says he's brilliant. I don't know if that means certified genius or not."
"Could be the genius is one of the people attending the lecture," Cole said.
"In any case, the Seer knows the consequences to the magical realm if mortals get positive proof of its existence," Piper said. "She won't make a move on anybody in a room full of people. That buys us some time."
Paige made a negative sound, looking at her watch. "It's 9:50. It's probably over by now."
"Maybe not," Phoebe said. "Stone said he left at the beginning of the question period. If that runs long – "
Piper had her cell phone open. It was answered on the first ring. "Leo, Google Dr. Charles Eppes of CalSci – spelling?"
"E-P-P-E-S," Phoebe said.
"E-P-P-E-S," Piper repeated. "Find out everything you can in two minutes. Paige will orb in to pick it up. The rest of us are going to the, what is it, Phoebe, the Amberleigh Hotel?"
Phoebe was frowning, but nodded.
"Paige will bring the information to us there. – Yeah, if you can get a picture, that'd be great. Thanks. See you soon."
"You're sure it's Eppes she'll be after?" Cole asked as Piper put the phone away.
"Heck, no. But the four of us can't protect an entire room full of people. Especially since probably half of them have already left."
"If Stone brought the program to show the Seer," Paige said, "it would make sense that he was specifically pointing out that speaker. Otherwise he could have just said, you know, go where a bunch of smart people are."
"OK." Piper took hold of Cole's arm. "Take us where a bunch of smart people are."
"Whoa," Phoebe said. "Cole can't wear a shirt yet, and my hair is still caked with blood. If we stroll into the lobby of the Amberleigh we'll be escorted right back out. Let's all go back to the Manor. You two pick up the information, get to the Amberleigh, and grab Eppes. Once he's at the Manor, we can all protect him."
"I'm dying to know how we're going to do this," Paige said.
"Me too," Piper admitted. "OK, Phoebe, sounds like a plan."
"What about – " Phoebe indicated the corpse. "When someone finds that here, it'll be weeks before anyone lets their kids play here again. And the police will be all tied up trying to find a murderer they'll never find."
Cole scrutinized the body more closely than the rest of them could bear to. "Looks like the amulet might have melted. Stand back."
He dropped a small fireball, and Professor Stone and his obsession were nothing more than a scorch mark on the grass.
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Paige and Piper orbed into the ladies' room of the Amberleigh hotel lobby. They had just taken time for Paige to snatch the information out of the printer and Piper to say "Thanks again," before they'd left. Paige's left hand held Piper's arm; the right held the two sheets of paper.
Piper looked out the door to make sure no one was just about to walk in. "OK, what about him?"
"He's the youngest," Paige said, her gaze running down the paper.
"The youngest what?"
"Name it. The youngest ever to publish a major mathematical paper by a single author. The youngest ever named to a professorship at CalSci. The youngest ever to win – a couple of different prizes. If the Seer's not after him, she's missing a bet."
"What does he look like?"
Paige showed her the picture. "Cute guy, bad hair day."
Piper nodded, and they went into the lobby.
The Amberleigh Hotel was elegant, large but not elephantine, and busy enough that there were quite a few people in the lobby at almost 10:00 at night – two desk clerks in dark suits, one of them checking in an Asian woman with a rolling attaché case and a laptop; a white-haired lady waiting for the elevator; a couple of businessmen talking in muted tones as they walked into the dark, wood-framed entrance to the bar; a plainclothes security type looking incredibly casual as he lounged on a sofa. Piper blessed her sister for being foresighted: all the wrong kinds of attention would have been attracted by shirtless Cole and bloody Phoebe. Although that would make a great title for a pirate movie, she thought.
Paige had found the board where the day's events were listed. "8:00, Academic Union, Barbary Room," she read.
It looked like the meeting rooms were down a hall off one side of the lobby, so the two got down there as fast as they could without outright running. The Barbary Room was at the head of the hallway. Piper and Paige stopped in the doorway.