Chapter 18:The Source of All Problems
A/N: Wow, this took me forever! At least it's finally going somewhere, and I know where that is! This is the chapter where they get the Grimoire, although it's not as easy as it seemed (woo!) Enjoy the chapter, and I do not own Charmed. If you want (or if you are Carmen, cause you said you would) then read my story Life Sucks. It's a teen Charmed story, and it'll be updated fairly soon.
"Where are they again?" My cousin asked me for the umpteenth time. She was referring to the Charmed Ones, although of course they didn't know yet that they were called that. I simply shrugged my shoulders. Grams hadn't been exactly forthcoming on the details. She had just whisked them off somewhere. For that I was grateful. This would be difficult enough to explain as it was.
"Maybe we should concentrate on finding the Grimoire", Aidan suggested half heartedly. He was pacing behind the podium, where the Book of Shadows was opened to the page dedicated to the sources evil book. It wasn't as informative as I had hoped. It was only a measly little page about the most evil book of all time. The page I remembered was much longer. I figured my mother or one of my aunts had added that.
"Let's read the page about the Grimoir again, so we know what we're dealing with", Melinda suggested. We had read that page so many times that I knew it off by heart. I shook my head. I hated that my cousin and my sort of boyfriend were turning to me as their leader. Why not Melinda? She's the smartest. Or Aidan? He's the oldest. No, I was the one they had appointed leader and I had no idea what to do.
I glanced around the attic, hoping for a solution to magically appear from its walls. The fact that we were in the same attic as always was comforting in a way. The attic was where we went when we had a problem, demonic or not. The attic was where we solved those problems.
Aidan sat down, and I took to retracing his steps, back and forth, across the attic floor. There was no way around it. The source was who we needed to be facing. There was no way around it; we couldn't stay here forever. I was scared, honestly terrified, and that didn't happen very often. That's why I didn't share how I felt with Aidan and Melinda. They wanted me to lead. Leaders had to be strong.
I had never faced the source before. My mother and my aunts had, three times in fact. My mom told me the stories; stories I loved to hear over and over. The story of each vanquish of the source symbolized for me the fact that good really can triumph over evil. That didn't change the fact that I had no idea what to do. I knew how they had vanquished the source, but I wasn't sure if we could do the same.
There was another more important reason I was afraid to face the source. Well, two actually, none of which I wanted Melinda or Aidan to be reminded of. The first was that it was because of the source that my aunt Prue had died long before I was ever born. I had met her, of course, but the source cost my mother a sister, and I knew she never forgot that. The other reason was that my father had once been the source.
When I though about it, which I had been doing a lot lately, I could rule the underworld to, if I really wanted. I had the power, and I had the lineage. That was something I really didn't like to think about, but sometimes I couldn't help it. Deep inside me, in a place that I hoped never to explore, I possessed a power equal to that of the source. It would make perfect sense for the source to be hurt by his equal. Unfortunately, my power was equally as evil in its origins.
I didn't share that little tidbit with my cousins just yet. I didn't want to worry them, of course, but I was more concerned about myself. The last time I had embraced my demonic nature, I had nearly become consumed by it. That was not an experience I wanted to relive. Instead of thinking of it anymore, I concentrated on my next big problem. We didn't really know how to find the source. However, I knew someone who did.
We had let my father go. There wasn't really anything else we could do with him. Vanquishing him was obviously out of the question. Before he shimmered off, I made him tell us how to summon him. Before we did so though, we had to decide what we were going to do. It was time someone else did the thinking around here.
"I'm going to summon Belthazor and force him to tell us where the source is", I said to Aidan and Melinda, "but first we need to agree upon what we are doing."
"Calling upon our ancestors is definitely the best bet", Melinda said authoritatively. I loved to hear her talk like that. It was how she usually was; very take charge and in control. I was usually the one along for the ride. I was glad that things were back to the way they were supposed to be. "Of course, in the past there'll be less people to call on…but I'm sure if Aidan calls on his ancestors to…it'll be fine."
Aidan managed a week smile. He had been looking a little off for a while now. I realized that it was because he wasn't used to battling serious threats like this. He was a witch, and a powerful one at that, but demons never targeted him the way they constantly target us. We were the daughters of Charmed Ones, both of us with more power then we knew what to do with. We were used to stuff like this, but he wasn't, and it was freaking him out.
Honestly, I was a little freaked out too. But I let none of that show. Melinda's newly inspired optimism was infectious, so that made me feel a little better. Somehow, when Melinda said everything would be fine, it made it true. I could do the same for Aidan. "It'll be better than fine", I said, managing a smile, "we're going home!"
I managed a smile, even though I wasn't sure that I believed what I just said. I stepped into the center of the attic, and spread my arms wide. I had to concentrate, hear nothing but my thoughts, and feel nothing but my magic. I called out to my father's energy, just as he told me to. I then repeated the chant he had told me using my telepathic power. He had told me the pull of my thoughts would be much more powerful than that of my voice.
Blood of my blood, magic of my magic, I call upon the ancient power, to bring you to me: here and now.
A swirl of dark mystical energies appeared right in front of where I stood. It was very different from my father's usual shimmering. He was there, just as he said he would be. He growled, of course keeping up his menacing air. "What is it you want?" he demanded, "I don't have all day!" Melinda and Aidan visibly tensed. I could tell they were afraid of him, and honestly, so was I a little.
I stood up to him however. When I spoke to him, I looked straight into his cold, cruel and merciless eyes. "I need you to tell us where the source is, and I need you to do it now. " He closed his eyes, and I could only assume that he was sensing the source. After a moment, he opened his eyes.
"I'll take you to him", he said. Melinda immediately grabbed my hand, but Aidan looked at me a little uncertainly. I nodded to him once, and he took my other hand. My father preformed some sort of arcane hand gesture. A moment later, we found ourselves in a dark, dank cave, a typical home for the source of all evil.
I motioned that we should be quiet, and we could hear chanting, in some sort of language that none of us understood. I wanted to rush out, but common sense told me to wait there, until the time was right. As it turned out, it didn't matter whether or not I had waited. The source saw everything, and somehow, he knew everything as well.
He walked around the rock behind which we were hiding, and he saw us there. It was horrible to look at him, yet none of us could look away. The source was almost completely covered in a billowing black robe. We could see two scaly white hands poking out, with claws more hideous than before, the kind that could rip you to shreds.
The worst thing was the face. Half of it was so grossly disfigured that you couldn't make out the individual features. My mother told me only upper level demons saw this, and everyone else saw nothing. I looked over at Melinda and Aidan, and they weren't looking up at it in disgust as I was. What was wrong with me!
I didn't have time to ponder what this might mean, because the source had most definitely found us. "What do we have here", he said in the most inhuman voice I had ever heard, "Three witches for me to kill, what fun!"
Melinda walked a small step closer to him and said, "We're not just any witches. We have more power then you could ever dream of." I found that both very brave and very stupid on her part. What struck me was how much she sounded like Aunt Piper when she said it.
The source, of course, didn't like this one bit. "I'LL SHOW YOU LITTLE BRATS POWER!" he roared. He flamed out, and reappeared behind us. We immediately spun around, and saw that his eyes had become flames.
Melinda and I quickly held hands. As we did so, I felt the already immense power within myself magnify. Aidan held onto Melinda's hand, lending his strong power to ours. The confidence and power within me strong, Melinda and I began to chant. As the fire blazed within the source's eyes, it blazed within our hearts.
" Patricia, Melinda, Astrid,
Brianna, Charlotte, Helena,
Laura and Grace!
Halliwell witches, stand strong beside us,
Vanquish this evil from time and space!"
A wall of mystical energies grew from us, and rushed towards the source. We repeated the spell again, and the wave of energies grew stronger. The source was now surrounded by fire, and he was screaming. We were about to repeat the spell a third time, which would finish it, when I realized something.
"Stop!" I yelled Melinda immediately let go of my hand as if it were on fire. The real fire surrounded the source subsided. He was still there, but I think we had wounded him. Aidan let go of Melinda's hand, looking bewildered. My cousin shot me a questioning look, as did Aidan. They were waiting for me to explain everything.
"If we vanquish the source now, the Charmed Ones will never vanquish the source. Who knows what that could change? Our time as we know it would be gone. None of us might ever have been born!" I said into their heads.
Melinda looked at me wide eyed, and blushing only slightly. "I should have known that", she thought, "So now what do we do?"
I didn't answer her. I knew what I needed to do now, but I wasn't about to let Melinda or Aidan in on it. I walked up to the source of all evil as he was straightening himself up and brushing the dust off his robes. "Give me the Grimoir", I said calmly. I couldn't believe I was speaking to him in such a civilized manor, as if I had asked a friend over for lunch.
"I will not be ordered around like that", he stated in a low tone.
I transformed to my full demonic shape for a split second. When I returned to normal, I did something I had never done before, but was sure I would be able to do. I made my eyes turn into a billowing flame, just as the source could do. "Give me the Grimoir!" I repeated. While my body was in its human form, my voice definitely was not.
I had no idea what this could accomplish, but I was shocked at what happened next. The source just flamed out. He was fleeing, and the source I knew from all the stories never fled. Just beyond where he had been chanting stood a large leather bound book. I moved closer, and saw it was the Grimoir. Melinda looked at it in awe. "That was a little too easy", he whispered. I shrugged off his suggestion, and picked up the book. It felt very strange to be holding it.
Aidan wrapped his arms around my waist, and I held my cousin's hand. "Take us home Melinda", I said. We were gone from the cave and back to the manor in a swirl of blue-white lights.
We orbed into the living room. I put it on the coffee table, no longer able to hold it. I could feel the evil radiating off it, just as I could feel the good radiating off the Book of Shadows. The Grimoir looked strangely out of place in the living room of the manor.
"Let's go upstairs, find something to change into, and then we can figure out what to do with that book", I said. Melinda and Aidan immediately took to my suggestion, and rushed up the stairs. I hesitated for a few seconds. I looked at the Grimoir, and I felt uneasy. I was sure that my uneasiness had nothing to do with the fact that it was an evil book. Aidan could be onto something, it was much to easy. I dismissed the thought and followed Melinda and Aidan up the stairs.
In fact, it was too easy. There was something seriously wrong with that book. When Patience was up the stairs and out of sight, the Grimoir began to glow a sinister red.
TBC…