WHAT: Magic training and some chatter about things WHERE: The Sanctum WHEN: Today WARNINGS: Some vague spoilery talk of Multiverse of Madness STATUS: Complete
For over a year now, Prue had been training as Stephen’s apprentice in sorcery. The Eldritch magic of his world was a challenge for her, something new and different, requiring intense focus and study (two of her greatest strengths, thankfully), but it was so powerful. It buzzed under her skin when she accessed it - there was something dangerous, bordering on dark, in the way it felt, but she kept it well in check. The Charmed Ones had always leaned into a hint of darkness, and this was no different.
Working with Stephen had helped her improve on her Wiccan powers, too. Although her grasp on her astral projection power had been improving, working with Stephen to access the Astral Dimension had accelerated the work she’d done tenfold. She’d learned how to wield her powers outside of her physical body, and the flying perk that came along with it would have made Phoebe jealous.
She knew her training was far from over, though. There were no official Masters of the Mystic Arts here aside from Stephen himself, but she was well aware that he still put through her paces like he would any sorcerer back in his home world. She’d spent more hours in the Sanctum’s libraries than she could count and probably twice that time practicing and striving toward perfection.
However, her attention had admittedly been split lately. The arrival of a half-sister she hadn’t known existed in Vallo, who had been filling her in on four years of their sisters’ lives that she’d missed, on twenty-odd years of her life that she had missed and, back home, would never get to make up for - well, it was a lot to take in. And it wasn’t that she didn’t want to know or that she didn’t adore Paige already (because they were a lot alike, and Paige was a lot like their sisters, and there was no possible way she couldn’t love her so much), but it was all a lot.
She was still processing bit by bit. Paige had settled right in at the Manor - in Prue’s old room, the room that was hers in her time - and she was already getting along like gangbusters with Willa, and honestly, it wasn’t awkward. It felt like they’d found a piece of a puzzle she hadn’t realized was missing and it had slotted right into place. There were still pieces missing, with Phoebe and Piper and Leo gone, but Paige fit like she was always meant to be there.
Meanwhile, Prue was past due a training session with Stephen at the Sanctum. Paige’s arrival had come at an opportune moment - she kept Prue distracted during the same period Stephen and Wanda were freshly married and on their honeymoon. They’d been back a while, and Prue sensed that something was off, but she’d decided not to pull at that string. Their relationship was their own, and if either of them wanted to discuss it, she was there without question.
“So,” she asked, currently settled on the living room couch with a cup of tea in hand. “What are we working on today?”
It wasn’t every couple who needed to plan a second honeymoon, one meant for a little cabana on the beach where they could just smoke a lot of trippy substances, be naked, and forget the world existed, so soon after the first honeymoon - which had started off well enough but took a quick downhill turn the second day thanks to a shared look into their multiversal selves. They’d spent the rest of their time at the cottage hiding away from the world for a different reason - not because of the excessive consummation of marriage (though there had been a lot of that too, fueled by a different kind of emotion that he never thought he’d had to process on his honeymoon), but because everything hurt.
Because Wanda didn’t know how to deal with the damage she’d caused a universe away, or face anyone - and Stephen didn’t blame her for that; he’d had some trouble reconciling the fact that her fate was left ambiguous though she was very likely dead. He’d stayed with her until the dust and debris smothered them both and he had to return to his own body and cease the dreamwalking, but it was like even his other self knew to not let go until a crumbled temple severed the connection.
Then he woke up here and was left with the aftermath of it. They both were.
He tried to carry on because he had no other choice. There was time spent wallowing and then time for action - he was on ‘action’ now, getting back on schedule. He had a cup of alien chai tea, the spice something that didn’t make his stomach churn like a swamp on the ‘boil’ setting, and he was all set to shift his focus to Prue’s training session. “We’ll head into the Mirror Dimension,” he said. “Work on your Tao Mandalas - and Shield of the Seraphim. There’s a transfiguration aspect that will transform anything that comes in contact with the shield too, so we can practice.”
It would be good to get away to the familiar dimension too. He always felt it, and heard it, in a sense - the way starsong would drift through the veil between the real world and its mirror that sat directly over it, that soft clinking and glittering he noted in the back of his mind like a crystal chandelier. He smiled a bit, trying to summon a shred of his patented snark - it probably didn’t work very well. “I’ll throw things at you.”
“I’ll make sure to block them,” Prue agreed with a chuckle. It wasn’t Stephen’s usual level of snark, but she recognized the attempt. Whatever was on his mind, he was clearly trying his hardest to brush it aside and compartmentalize. She knew the signs when she saw them; she was the same way, especially when things were hard.
She polished off the last of her tea - they’d been here a little while already - and set the cup aside. She’d remember to pick it up on her way home, but for now, it would be fine. She turned to Stephen, brows raised expectantly. “Ready when you are.”
There was a whoosh sound, kind of an otherworldly humming, and the circular portal sparked into view - Stephen was fast with summoning those portals using the sling ring, and he’d noticed he’d gotten especially quick on the draw after that download of new information. But he opened the portal behind Prue, where they sat on the couch, and he set down his own teacup after slipping the sling ring back onto his belt. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he nodded - the Mirror Dimension beckoned, so he stepped through the portal with Prue and let it shrink and close behind him.
It was an open landscape of geometry - what Vallo’s city streets would look like if everything happened to be composed of fractals and odd shapes, curves and patterns. Roads disappeared at will of those training or fighting, skyscrapers twisted up, up, up and then split, waves rippled across surfaces and could knock someone off their feet - it truly was one of the best spots for honing magic, and practicing the more dangerous spells. “The transfiguration spell is one of my favorites,” he said. “The Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, which is also one of my favorite names - first I’ll call up the shield.”
The ones that they had been working on were gigantic - strong, powerful shields that were composed of various geometric shapes, twisting and glittering in glowing citrine which was the typical shade of Eldritch magic. It covered Stephen entirely as he stood with his hands outstretched. “Now, toss something at me - a brick or a building, either one,” he instructed. “The bigger the better though.”
The Mirror Dimension never ceased to amaze Prue. She knew there were other planes of existence, of course, just outside of mortals’ reach, but this was new to her. So much of what she’d learned from Stephen was new to her, but she was absorbing it all eagerly. It was funny to think that, before her powers were unbound, she’d wanted absolutely nothing to do with magic. She’d been angry at Phoebe for releasing their powers and forcing a magical destiny onto them when all she’d wanted was a normal, human life.
Now, she couldn’t imagine being without it. Magic was in her blood, down to the cells. She was as much a part of her as her eye color (icy blue just like her dad’s) or her stubbornness, her pride (inflated, maybe, but not unearned, if she did say so herself). Maybe part of her bordering-on-obsessive interest was making up for lost time - knowing now that she’d had her powers as a kid and had them taken from her, memory washed of them ever existing, due to circumstances out of her hands.
The infusion of Eldritch magic into her natural Wiccan magic had sparked something inside her. She wasn’t Stephen’s level of skilled and didn’t expect to be for some time, but she was a powerhouse in her own right. Her telekinesis had grown by leaps and bounds and years before she expected. The Mirror Dimension in particular was a blessing in that way. She could cause whatever destruction she wanted - intentionally or unintentionally - until she got it right, all without worrying it was affecting anyone else.
This was their usual routine. Stephen demonstrated what he wanted from her, and after she’d gotten a grasp on it, they switched places.
“One building, coming up.” It was a smaller building she clocked to her left - one story, solid, maybe something like a post office in the real world. She reached out with both hands, telekinetically yanking it from its spot and flinging it toward Stephen to make contact with the shield. She was curious to see The Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth (what a name, she’d certainly heard Stephen use it in lieu of an expletive plenty of times) at work.
Perfect. Stephen was ready with the shield, an orange-gold glow that he held aloft with his hands - it expanded and rippled outward, symbols spinning, and then as the building made contact all of a sudden there was another burst of color when the building exploded into a whole bunch of butterflies with bright, fluttering wings. Bright blue to be exact - shimmering turquoise, like a mountain lake that reflected the sky.
They flapped and fluttered some more, nothing of the building remained - but the butterflies soared up and up and up, until they were scattered and gone. And Stephen lowered the shield.
“Doesn’t have to be blue butterflies, but I think it makes for an interesting sight,” he chuckled. That particular butterfly effect was just his calling card, that’s all. “When you try it, it could be anything. Let me go through the spell with you and you tell me when you’re ready for a go at it.”
Prue would get it quickly and then he’d throw something at her - they’d practice a few times, while she got the hang of it.
The blue butterflies were a sight - very pretty and showy, and she couldn’t help but grin as they soared away. She wasn't sure what she’d come up with at the moment, but she’d get there once she put some work into the mechanical side of the spell, she’d figure it out. She’d been practicing transfiguration spells up until this point, but this particular one was new to her. But she was nothing if not a quick study.
“Very pretty,” she complimented him, an edge of teasing in her voice. “Alright, let’s give it a try.” She pulled up the shield without any trouble - she’d had plenty of practice with that part already - and drew her hands out to expand the shimmery, fiery-orange lines of Eldritch magic. She examined the familiar shapes before her and turned to Stephen expectantly.
“One building, coming up,” Stephen repeated her words from before - his arms were extended, his hands, and he was able to manipulate his surroundings to warp the structures enough, to twist them, to fold things in half and no one in the real world was the wiser; it was what Kaecilius did during their fight so long ago, with the Ancient One still there, and Stephen hadn’t known a damn thing about what he was doing. So much of his training had been being tossed to wolves, or waters swimming with sharks out for blood - and he had to go fast if he wanted to survive.
None of that was like that now with Prue, of course - he went at her pace because there weren’t exactly any life-or-death scenarios that required her to master a butterfly transfiguration right away; Stephen considered that a good thing.
Maybe not a building yet but a telephone pole was a good place to start - he lifted it with a flex of telekinetic magic, what looked like purple hands gripping the sleek metal, and he twisted it into a knot before flinging it at Prue with incredible speed. Up to her to block it, or turn it into something so it didn’t hit her - but he was sure that she could.
Prue was fairly sure she could have handled an actual building, but she appreciated Stephen starting with something a bit smaller for her. At least if the shield wasn’t effective, she had telekinesis to back her up, and she’d rather take her chances last-minute against a knotted telephone pole than a building - even a smaller one like she’d tossed at him.
But she was a devoted student. She worked hard at this, not just with Stephen but at home, or during her free time at work. She pored over books, put the spells into practice, never went a day without practicing. She was ready, tightened her grip, and as soon as the pole made contact with the sparks of magic, it turned into a pile of white flower petals, bursting into the air and fluttering quickly to the ground at her feet.
Her expression instantly turned proud, bordering on smug.She tended to get a little full of herself when she accomplished a goal, but she was open for his review. “Not bad, right?”
“Nice,” Stephen grinned, observing the petals as they rained back down; kind of reminded him of cherry blossoms, that time of year, or a shower of snow. “Should have tried this earlier when we needed someone to throw flower petals at us after the wedding.” Much better than rice, anyway - that was sort of an environmental hazard that the ‘save the mountain’ people would have gotten all up in arms about, so. They’d just gone with bubbles instead - magical ones, that were a whole penumbra of colors and iridescent like stars.
The streets curled again, ribbons of asphalt, and he used another flex of magic and power and controlling his surroundings to lift a smaller building this time. It was empty, of course, since there was no one else in the Mirror Dimension - they just had fun geometric shapes and patterns to play with during their learning experiences. “Think fast,” he warned, but barely - and then heave. He tossed the new structure at Prue to keep her on her toes.
He was confident in her ability to keep up, however. The adrenaline rush felt good too - he needed something to really get his blood pumping in ways that didn’t have to do with processing the complete and utter bullshit memory dump he just received.
Oh, that would have been pretty. Prue would have to remember that for their first anniversary, now that the wedding itself had passed. It had been beautiful in its own right - magical, some might say; unsurprising, given the amount of magical people participating.
But, yes, anyway - back to work. She definitely took a step back when a building suddenly came flying at her, but she held strong and stretched her hands, enlarging the shield to take the brunt of the weight and size coming in her direction. There was a moment this time where she wasn’t sure it would work, where it seemed to rest on the shield for just a second too long - then it happened.
Another burst upward, white petals (even more of them) exploding above them and raining down around them. “Alright, well, I guess it’s petals,” she noted. It really was a pretty sight.
Apparently. Stephen squinted at another shower of virginal flower-snow and it was definitely pleasing to the eye - so were his butterflies, and he liked those. Everyone just had a different calling card, he supposed. A different magical signature - he’d been training with Prue for awhile, basically ever since she’d arrived in Vallo (and later he would apparently get to train her daughter Gracie as well which was a wild thought - provided Vallo didn’t hiccup him away and kept him on this timeline) so it was fulfilling seeing her learn and grow.
“You good to keep going?” he asked, Cloak lifting him off the ground so he hovered there in a weightless sort of way without feet touching down - sometimes he preferred to float. It was soothing, and he found himself doing that whenever he read a book or sipped tea as well. His meditation pose. “I’ll toss a few more things at you and try to toss a few back - then when you’ve had enough, just let me know.”
He had his sling ring so they wouldn’t be stuck here. That would just be awkward.
“Bring it on,” Prue agreed. She’d gone through levels of rigorous training learning this magic, and she was very well prepared for more. She could take a few buildings tossed at her, and there was something satisfying about it. Not necessarily the buildings, but the learning, the adjusting - spending time with Stephen, even if they weren’t doing much in the way of chatting.
But, speaking of that -
“And, not to pressure you, but if there is anything you feel like getting off your chest, you know I’m here.” She wanted to extend the offer, but the smile that followed the words was a reassurance that there was no obligation. She just wanted him to know she was willing to let him vent. She had sisters - it came with the job.
Stephen grunted as he hefted a bus and threw it, prepared to also watch it explode in a shower of petals - he zipped around too, Cloak lifting him and fluttering at his sides. The collar slapped at his cheeks a little, as if encouraging him - and yes, Stephen knew that he was lucky to have such good friends. People he could count on. Opening up was just difficult, was the thing - especially since he carried a lot of baggage from that other universe.
His baggage and the baggage of his variants - his other selves who were caught in this maelstrom of making bad decisions due to obsession or whatever else. Pride. A constant state of lone wolf-ism. Take your pick, really - and while toward the end of everything he’d shown he wasn’t exactly like ‘the other Stephen’s,’ it felt like such an arduous journey to get there.
After a bit more Mirror Dimension punishment (or training, yes, we’ll call it that - basically throwing a lot of shit around and breaking what they couldn’t break in the real world), he finally relented. “Let’s head back and I’ll find us some post-training carbs,” he offered. Pie. They always had a lot of pie, thanks to Wanda - and for the wedding it had been cake, she’d practiced muchly. Was successful too, of course, because their cake was everything Stephen had wanted and more. “...it’s a long story. Dreaming of what happened at home and all - and it wasn’t good news, let’s just say.”
After that workout session, Prue wasn’t going to argue with post-training carbs, especially if it was pie. Wanda made the best pies - something she wouldn’t dare say to Piper if she were ever to turn up here in Vallo, but it was true. They’d done good work, made good progress, and she wasn’t going to say no to a break.
“Oh no,” she grimaced, reaching out to take his arm while the portal opened before him. “Again? Didn’t you just have one recently?” No wonder he had a little disturbed. One of the few pluses of being dead back home meant Prue was spared memory updates - although now she had an external update in the form of Paige, but it wasn’t quite the same. She hadn’t been there and couldn’t remember anything. Things had just happened since she died, and it was actually nice to know her sisters had found Paige and gotten through so much without her.
The circle sparked into existence, the interior of the Sanctum looming ahead. Where they could actually sit and have a talk - such artistry of the place too, a place Stephen was the guardian of and he took his responsibility seriously; dark mahogany paneling, comfortable clusters of sofas and chairs, artwork on the walls, bookshelves chock full of tomes (some of which actually glowed - it was a similar sight in the library). When they got there and the portal closed behind them, he got busy conjuring.
A flex of Eldritch magic later, and one of the side tables had two slices of chocolate cream pie (suitable for Stephen’s particular digestive system) and cups of coffee - it was dark as the sky at midnight and smelling of cinnamon and caramel; one of his favorites, actually, and if he was going to pick something over tea it’d probably be this. “Basically the whole adventure at home was a lesson in what happens when you’re twisted by dark magic,” he explained. “Messing with a book that contains spells transcribed by something called the First Demon, well - it doesn’t end on a positive note for anyone.”
“The First Demon,” Prue repeated. She was searching her mind as she settled into her seat, trying to remember if she’d read anything about that topic specifically in the Sanctum’s libraries, but nothing came to mind. “I’m guessing you don’t mean Lilith, but that’s the only reference I can come up with. Either way, sounds like a hellish book.”
A quick little smile flickered across her lips. Okay, that may have been a slightly inappropriate joke, but she wanted to keep the mood a little bit light for Stephen’s sake. She’d known just from his general demeanor that this whole thing had gotten him pretty down.
“No. Chthon,” Stephen chuckled, though he might have preferred Lilith. Or actually he would have preferred if Wanda didn’t get caught in the steely grip of the Darkhold’s thrall at all but we couldn’t always get what we wanted. There were many beds made and now they would have to lie in them. “Carved his magic into a temple, the walls and the floors, and then those spells were transcribed into a book called the Darkhold. There were two versions of me who were felled by it. They ended up dead. And Wanda...”
Stephen blinked, picking up his coffee cup and trying not to let shaky hands affect him too much so as to allow for spillage - and usually the tremors weren’t bad, but whenever he thought of the Darkhold temple falling, crumbling, dust and debris and Wanda caught in the rubble he had several bolts of anxiety shoot through him. “...things didn’t fare well, let’s just say. But we’ll be okay. We’re here and that’s what matters.”
He didn’t need to go into excessive detail and probably couldn’t right now anyway. Instead, he’d rather focus on what was good and actually healthy for him. Things he could control, rather than what he couldn’t.
So, a book that could, broadly speaking, turn you evil. That was great. In their world, they had the Source’s Grimoire as their big Book of Evil, but that was new information she’d just gotten from Paige. She hadn’t been aware of it when she was alive, but apparently, it had become a problem after that - along with Cole becoming the Source (she knew he was bad news) and dragging Phoebe even deeper into his mess.
“Here makes all the difference in the world,” she agreed, picking up a fork to cut off a piece of that delectable cake; she couldn’t resist the wafting scent of chocolate and cinnamon. Right now, this was about Stephen, and she wasn’t going to ask for more, but she was glad he felt he could talk to her at all. “We’ve gotten all sorts of chances we never would have at home here. I’m pretty fond of it myself.”
“Exactly,” Stephen breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they were here, yes (he was always glad for that) for also grateful that he didn’t have to creak open that box where all the not-so-old demons resided. The wounds were fresh and the scabs hadn’t healed yet - he planned to process things as best he could, really work through it all, but he also wanted to do it on his own terms.
He could definitely talk to Prue though - she was one of the people he trusted with his life, here in Vallo. She’d been an ally basically since she arrived and that had grown into something of a deep friendship that he was thankful for.
“I mean, eye-rolling situations aside, it's not so bad here. I’ll just try to remember that next time killer tomatoes start rolling down the street.” Hey, it could happen. It probably would happen, and he’d be ready. Like always.