The past wasn’t exactly awful, but Sabrina was beyond happy that it was going to be a temporary endeavor. Bathing in a lake or stream wasn’t too bad and wearing dried flowers to keep the stench at bay wasn’t completely awful, but the clothes were scratchy, the beds were horrible, and she was so tired of waking up with straw in her hair. It helped to have Dan, Claire, Roz and her aunt around. Even if the room they had gotten was getting a little cramped with all of them staying inside of it.
But she missed Nick.
She was worried about him and Sabrina couldn’t quite figure out why she was as concerned as she was. Ambrose was back there with him and they checked in with one another multiple times a day.
Though maybe that was part of her worry--him wanting her to check in as much as she was. They hadn’t done that with one another when they were in Vallo. And maybe being separated by time and not able to actually see one another was harder than being separated by school hours and the like...but she couldn’t quite shake her worry.
Hopefully this distance wouldn’t last much longer and she could figure out what was going on in his head. Until then it was best to keep occupied. “Want to see if the Geliara coven could use any help today?” she asked Roz, hoping her bestie would be up for some exploring.
In terms of places to end up, this wasn’t nearly as bad as Dark Vallo in terms of life threatening situations and monsters. But it still wasn’t great. She missed her bed, she missed hot running water, she missed Phoebe and her job. She was also pretty sure she was going to develop back problems if they were forced to sleep on straw beds for much longer.
She was tucked away in a corner, practicing spells that she had been working on in school. Nothing too chaotic or big, just small things that could be contained to infront of her and not draw attention. There was one particular spell she was having trouble with, and her frustration was growing. But, saved by Sabrina.
Looking up, Roz sighed in relief for the potential distraction. “Yes.” she said firmly, getting to her feet. “Yes I do.” Though the coven members weren’t the people they knew at the time they were supposed to be, and Geliara wasn’t quite at the same status, she enjoyed interacting with them in this time too. “Save me from dragging homework back in time with me.”
Sabrina wasn’t surprised that Roz was attempting to do homework. For one, magic homework was usually fun to do and easy enough to work on in the weirdest places since it was practicing spells or wording a lot. No lugging around paper or pencils or a laptop. And her friend had always been pretty studious. They both had been back at Baxter High.
“At least we don’t have to come up with excuses for them when we miss out on school because of whatever weird crap Vallo decides to pull.” Unlike back home when she had needed to come up with reasons. Though Ms. Wardwell--no, it had been Lilith in disguise then, who had helped smooth things over as she’d guided her down the path her false father had wanted her to take. The amount of manipulation she’d experienced since her birthday made Sabrina dizzy whenever she thought back on it.
“Do you want to do the teleporting?”
“I will try to do the teleporting.” Roz agreed with a nod. It hadn’t been the most reliable. They’d been forced to find each other the old fashioned way, on foot. Which proved to be a pain in the butt when you also didn’t have a map or any kind. Yes, it could have been worse, but would it have killed Vallo to let their powers work normally?
Hopefully it worked. Roz placed her hand on Sabrina’s shoulders, and focused on where she wanted to take them. “Lacunae magicae.” This spell, at least, was now incredibly familiar to her. To her relief and surprise, she felt the world around them vanish, and seconds later deposit them both close to where the Geliara coven was currently making their home at this time. Nice. If only she had faith it would continue to work as it was meant to.
“At the very least it’s going to be interesting to tell the Geliara Coven in our time that we actually do have experience working with their ancestors.”
Sabrina still couldn’t figure out why teleporting seemed to come and go. The rest of her magic worked just fine and she had a feeling making teleporting finicky was Vallo’s way of not making their experience overly easy. She hadn’t tried creating anything out of nothing there though either and had a feeling it might not work either. Not that she really wanted to try when it seemed stuff from Hell was what she could create the easiest.
“I wonder if they already know that we have? Like if there’s documentation of us having come here in their oral history or whatever.” Or by coming here were they altering something or was this always destined to happen. She really hated time magic. It was such a convoluted mess.
She held back from actually joining up with the coven right away, pondering if she wanted to bring up her question or not, but Sabrina wanted to know she wasn’t reading into things. Literally. “Does Nick seem off to you? When you write to him?”
The idea that they could come back to their own time and the teachers would have just known where they were was not something she had considered. “That would be a little unnerving.” She was growing comfortable existing in magic, but there were just some things that were still an adjustment.
Roz stopped moving and looked to Sabrina when she didn’t keep moving forward. She waited though, recognizing the look of organizing thoughts and trying to decide what to say.
She wasn't overly surprised about the question, relieved actually, because she wasn’t sure if she was reading into things, or if Nick was being weird. If someone else was asking, that confirmed it.
“Yes, oh my god. I thought I was reading into it or something.” He had been short with her, in a way that she almost thought Nick was talking to Harvey instead of her. “He seemed really agitated about something. He was really short with me, if you can be short while basically passing notes. He was really concerned about your safety. Not normal levels of concern, but why hadn’t I found you already? Am I at least going to try to keep you from saving the world? Why weren’t you coming into the city? Why are we in the forest when it’s dangerous? Nevermind that we live in the forest back in the other time.”
Roz got it, Sabrina put herself in really dangerous situations, and Roz was all for her bestie just being a teenager for once. But nothing overly dangerous had even started happening, other than arriving. “I know he misses you, he’s probably frustrated he can’t get here. But it’s like there was something else going on that he wouldn’t talk about.”
Relief swept through Sabrina over hearing that Roz was experiencing the same things when she talked to Nick. She’d been driving herself crazy trying to figure out if she was just reading into things. But no, this definitely confirmed that she hadn’t been.
“He’s never been like this before. Like yes, I do crazy things and sometimes he’ll try to get me not to do them, but more often than not he just has back.” He’d always been the one standing beside her when she attempted her more crazier stunts or nearly attempted them. “I thought it was just him being there and us being here at first too. Like he was just worried because he couldn’t be here to have my back but...with everything you’re saying and how he kept saying that it doesn’t all fall on my shoulders? And like I haven’t even done anything big!”
Okay, that wasn’t exactly true. “I saved a sheep from a snake monster. But I didn’t know there was going to be a snake monster and I got out of that just fine.” Maybe she just needed to lie to him if she wrote to him again and pretend she’d just hung out inside all day doing nothing at all.
Her head nodded in agreement with Sabrina’s words, they were following her thought process exactly. “Yeah, those were my thoughts too. He was always there with you. And I get it, he’s not here and it’s probably driving him insane. But you’re not alone here.” He was dating Sabrina, yes, he loved her. But Sabrina had also been Roz’s best friend since they were kids. It wasn’t like Roz wouldn’t do whatever she could to help Sabrina out. She just wasn’t always capable of doing the things Sabrina did, or even the things Nick could do.
Roz's shoulder slumped slightly as she sigh, slightly exasperated. “Sabrina.” she said not knowing if she should laugh or try to lecture her friend. “A sheep?” She fought a snake monster to save a sheep. “Brina, do be a favor while we’re here. If you’re going to run off to save people and animal kind, please take someone with you? If only so Nick doesn’t come for me through the journals and whenever we get home.” Also because it was better to have someone with her just in case.
Sabrina just couldn’t see Nick being this bent out of shape over not being there with them...but then again apparently Lucifer was going a bit insane too if what she’d read on the network was right. So maybe it was just not being able to be there to help them out but that reasoning still felt off to her. Ugh. “I was on my way back to Dan and Claire when I stumbled upon the whole sheep thing!” she protested. She hadn’t gone looking for a task to do at that point. She’d already had her bread from helping to put a protection circle around another farm. It had just sort of happened. “They didn’t mention the snake monster, just that the sheep had accidentally headed into the cave and that they needed help.”
But okay, Sabrina sighed. “But yeah, I can make sure I’m with someone else from now on.” She didn’t want to intentionally drive Nick crazy or to exasperate Roz.
“I am very confident you don’t even need to look for trouble. It will inevitably find you somehow.” Maybe it had something to do with Hell, or her lineage, or it was just luck, good or bad.
Roz smiled, trying to offer some sort of comfort, “It’s going to be okay. You find trouble because you want to help people. That’s not a bad thing. Just take backup even if you probably don’t need it, just in case. And Nick…” well, this probably wasn't going to get much better while they were here. “It really is hard to tell if I’m reading the tone wrong, or reading more into it. There is something off, maybe it is being separated. You’d walk through Hell for each other, but this time that’s not an option.”
It was true, trouble did just have a way of finding her. Though less so in Vallo without Lilith or the Terrors manipulating everything. She couldn’t do anything about how Nick was feeling though except to try and stay out of trouble. Sabrina wasn’t about to stop helping people, but maybe she could try to focus on the easier tasks like putting up wards and not deal with threats to livestock going forward. At least until they were back home.
“You’re probably right.” Sabrina let out another sigh before nodding toward the coven. “Ready to go see what we can learn and do?”
Hopefully the situation got better. Maybe the next time she spoke to Nick it wouldn’t be quite as weird. “Yes.” she nodded, now looking toward the Geliara coven location. Who needed class when you could just be put to work by the Coven? At least she was still learning while being useful. “Here’s hoping they have enough work for us that it makes us so tired we don’t even notice the straw beds tonight.”
Sabrina snorted at that, thankful that Roz hated the stupid straw as much as she did. Staying in bed for a full day once they got back just to enjoy the comfort of her mattress was going to be a thing. “We’ll manifest for that to be so.”