Going back in time wasn’t exactly new for Sabrina. She’d deliberately done it before, fixing the timeline and then messing with it some in order to save the lives of everyone on Earth. So maybe she’d been most concerned with her family and friends, but she’d saved everyone back then. No one would ever know the pain of being drained of their blood or turned into plant zombies to help harvest what few living creatures were left.
This was a completely different story now though. Ancient Vallo was nothing like anything she had experienced before. She’d read and heard a bit about it at school, but actually seeing and experiencing it was very different. There was so much to see and do and many others to try and help out in the forest where she’d found a place to stay with Dan and Claire. The one constant about the expansive forest seemed to be that it was always going to be somewhat dangerous. There were some familiar creatures and others that had been long extinct, but it at least gave Sabrina something to do.
And she needed something to do.
Being away from Nick like she was felt wrong.
Being away from Hell felt bad too. That lack of connection left her a bit cold and she worried about what it could mean. But at least she wasn’t alone.
She was heading through one of the smaller villages, looking to see what was currently causing problems for those who lived there when she felt familiar magic and headed toward that instead. It wasn’t too hard for her to find Regina. “Are you looking for ways to make money too?”
Living in the past hadn’t been as much of a hardship for Regina as it was for others who were more used to modern conveniences and technology. Having lived a good chunk of her life in Misthaven, even among luxury, Regina adapted well to being sent into Vallo’s ancient past. It gave her a chance to put on dresses that were more in place in a time like this than it had been appropriate for modern Vallo.
Of course, she didn’t leave it at the drab fashion choices of the more common people. Fitted and colourful purple dresses were the look, though she did without jewelry for now. No need to draw too much attention to herself. Just enough to get noticed and make connections, not enough for anyone that might be a problem to come looking for her where she and Henry were staying for now.
She had been staying at a small inn with her son, as they tracked down more and more people from modern day Vallo, and had already linked up with Thurvishar and a few others. She could feel the magic of some of the others, but the rest of them were too far or still in the future to be felt.
Though, as she perused a stall of fruits, she felt a familiar magic approaching her. She was smiling when she turned to see Sabrina approaching. “Sabrina. I’ve...come to an arrangement with a local farmer. I keep his crops happy and protected and he’s been paying me a stipend for now. How are you faring?”
“I’m good. I arrived with Dan and Claire so we’re at an inn a few towns over?” Sabrina didn’t know how to describe the little places with a handful of people living in them. It was a far cry from her own hometown back in her world. “And I’m doing random magic tasks for locals. It seems to work pretty well for getting money or food.”
Finding the Beketh coven and getting in with them again had been her biggest task though because they had traded in chocolate and that at least seemed to help Claire feel a little better. “The magic feels different here now. So does the forest.” A bit newer than present day Vallo where it felt older and more established. “But I guess that makes sense considering the state of things.”
She wondered how old the planet they were on actually was but wasn’t sure how they’d figure that out. It probaby didn’t matter anyway. “Are you on your own?”
“Henry’s around. He’s doing some exploring and we’ll meet up later, but we’ve found some others along our way. Thurvishar, Bonnie and her family,” Regina explained, as she picked through the fruits she was considering buying. Eventually, she had a small selection that she added to the basket she had in her hands, after paying the vendor.
Gesturing for Sabrina to lead the way, she asked, “Do we think this is a Vallo thing, a Beltane thing, or someone creating this situation for us?” Sabrina had more of a tendency to search out the other magic users and have a theory going before most others, Regina wouldn’t doubt she had some idea about what was happening.
“I’m not sure its Vallo exactly but still somehow Vallo’s fault.” Like the snowglobe. That hadn’t been caused by anyone--at least not that they could figure out. It was just another twist on what Vallo could accomplish. “It doesn’t quite feel like its Vallo though? Not like what Wanda did either.” There had been a certain sense of chaos to the magic that had caused the changes in their wardrobe and food for a day. She didn’t sense chaos with this one.
“The local covens are as lost as we are, though I’ve been hearing some murmurs, nothing that I can get a feel for though.” Not when she had Nick being weird in their messages to each other, constantly telling her to be safe and to try and not do things. It felt like he wasn’t trusting her which partly made her want to throw herself headfirst into something and prove that she could take care of herself. She was trying to listen to her more rational side that she shouldn’t run headfirst into anything. “Have you heard anything?”
“Just whispers and talk about the Outlanders that have shown up,” Regina admitted. “You know I don’t have the best record for playing nice with others, especially other witches, so I have been steering clear and trying to keep Henry from getting into too much trouble.” The young man had a tendency to want to help everyone he came across. And there were plenty of people that needed that, in the past.
“All I can tell, really, is that some sort of time manipulation is at play. Which, given when we are, was obvious. But it’s nothing like I’ve felt before.” It didn’t feel like Thurvishar’s lighthouse at all, so she doubted the time dilation of that place had anything to do with what was happening now. “We should try to arrange a meeting of the Outlanders soon though.”
“Hopefully he hasn’t gotten into too much trouble.” Sabrina didn’t really know Henry. They didn’t attend the same schools or really hang in the same social circles, but she knew what it was like to have a parent like Regina. Her Aunt Zelda and the ‘Evil Queen’ were similar in a lot of ways.
“I’ve felt that too, but an actual meeting for everyone would probably be a good idea.” They needed to get home, back to present day Vallo and away from this weirdness. “I worry if we’re going to accidentally mess something up or...were we always meant to be here? Like are we supposed to do something in this place all along?” That was the problem with time magic. It always led to a headache for what ifs.
“And who is to say we don’t splinter off into a whole new reality from the one we just came from, if we stick around here? If we start thinking too hard about this, we’ll end up going crazy,” Regina pointed out, because every kind of magic seemed to have its own set of rules. They had to figure out which set they were playing with right now, before they started to worry. “Can you put up some kind of call to the others? They’ll respond to you better than they would me.”
Sabrina didn’t like that idea at all. If they split into a completely different reality would that mean she wouldn’t go back to where Nick and Ambrose and her dad were? Or that Claire wouldn’t go back to Allison? Because that wasn’t allowed to happen. “I could try? Though it might come better from like Bonnie?”
Regina could, honestly, be fine so long as she had Henry with her wherever they ended up. It would be a whole other story, if they hadn’t come to the past together. May their future reality hopping adventures be together. “You’re right, I just hate the idea of putting much responsibility on her when she’s dealing with being in the past with babies. But Bonnie has the best connection with all of Vallo, past and present. We can talk to her about it.” Offering Sabrina an apple from her basket, she asked, “How is Claire doing with all of this? I’m guessing her mother didn’t come back with you all?”
Sabrina had learned that some people were weird about a seventeen year old planning things or trying to get people to come together. She didn’t understand the hangups on that but knew some things worked better coming from an adult in Vallo. She shook her head as she accepted the apple. “No, Allison is still in the present. Claire’s alright. She misses her mom and is glad Dan and I are with her but its hard for her. Chocolate seems to help.”
It had been a long time since Regina had seen Sabrina as just another teenager. She may have only been older than Henry by a year or two, but she had seen too much, done too much for Regina not to treat her as an adult. It’s why she was fully comfortable making plans like this with the young witch. “I’ll see what I can do about tracking down some chocolate for you then. So the game plan is speak to Bonnie, get some chocolate, and then get out of here, yes?”
“I already know where to get chocolate from. Beketh coven is here and they still have the best chocolate.” And her darker set of powers were still something they were drawn to which had come in handy. “So just part one and three of the plan. We need to all talk and see if maybe we can put all of the pieces together into an actual idea or two.”
Sabrina was certain every magic user that had showed up was feeling some different things, learning different tidbits from the covens, but no one probably had the full picture. They wouldn’t get that until they started talking to one another.
It was useful to know witches that had connections with the rest of the covens, so that Regina didn’t have to create those bonds herself. She was content to support the younger witches she chose to surround herself with instead. “I can send both you and Bonnie a message through the journals and see what we can come up with then.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for it. Hopefully we get out soon. I am over sleeping on a straw bed.” It was awful and Sabrina was tired of pulling straw out of her hair every morning. Why couldn’t they have feather mattresses? Though at least they weren’t sleeping on the ground.
“Yeah, it’s easier to sleep on the ground as far as I’m concerned.” It didn’t help that hay and straw reminded her too much of her times with Daniel and how they used to meet up in the stables. “You’ll be alright? I should probably track down Henry and see if he’s been getting up to any trouble.”
“I’ll be fine.” Sabrina wasn’t going to purposefully go looking for trouble. She’d now promised Roz as much as was reluctant to reneg on that one. “Hopefully Henry hasn’t gotten into too much trouble already.” It was kind of easy to get into some in the past though.
“He never really goes looking for it...but has a habit of finding it.” Regina gave Sabrina a pointed look at that. “Goodbye, dear.”