=:= William =:=

William slowly came back to his senses. For a few moments he was dizzy, confused, then everything snapped into place. He was laying face-down on grass covered ground, somewhere dark. It was night time, and from the corners of his vision he could see a clear night sky and stars above. There were standing stones around him, like some kind of neolithic monument.

To his surprise, he seemed to be alive again. He was aware of his body, his breathing, his heartbeat. He could feel the ground beneath him, and the clothes on his body. He couldn't feel the headset on him, and he assumed his weapons had been taken as well.

He stayed motionless for now, trying not to reveal he was awake. William started taking stock of the situation.

His death had to have been an illusion, he reasoned. Something to scare him, to get him unbalanced so he'd lower his guard. He mentally berated himself, since it obviously worked, he'd let himself be captured.

He'd been out for at least a couple hours, for it to be this dark. He'd been taken somewhere. He wasn't sure if there were any neolithic monuments in Canada, but it could be fake, a recreation or something.

Christopher would likely know by now he'd been captured, since he'd definitely missed his check-in. William debated whether or not to try contacting the lead agent with magic. He wasn't thinking so much about being rescued, but it might help the cause for them to know where he'd been taken. If the cultists had another base of operations somewhere, the Brotherhood would need to know. That information would be useful.

He closed his eyes and focused, reciting the spell in his mind, as he tried to reach out to his superior. Nothing happened. He didn't feel any magic, he didn't feel the spell fail, there was just nothing.

William fought to keep his expression blank, to keep himself from frowning. It shouldn't matter where on Earth he was, that spell should have worked, should have let him contact his boss...

"Perhaps if you were still on Earth, it might have worked. But you are in My domain, and you will work no magic here."

His blood went cold at the sound of her voice. Full of authority, and thinly-veiled anger. He remained still for the moment, his mind scrambling to re-assess the situation.

"The situation William, is you are my prisoner. And the things I have found in your mind have been quite enlightening."

William frowned. She was obviously reading his thoughts, and he had to assume by now she knew everything he did. He had nothing left to lose.

He turned over and got to his feet, looking around. Sure enough he was in the centre of some kind of stone circle. It was the middle of night, and the main source of illumination was the moon, hanging full directly overhead. It seemed larger than usual tonight.

William did a double-take, looking up at it. The full moon was almost a week ago, it should have been waning gibbous now. Then he recalled her words. 'If he were still on Earth'...

He finally faced her. She looked different. The blood and bruising was gone without a trace, and she looked at least a decade older. The hair and clothes were the same, still jet black, still 'goth' style. She was sitting on a sort of 'throne', carved from the same kind of stone as the rest of the monument. She sat with her back straight and her shoulders set. Her posture almost looked regal.

"Where am I?" he demanded. "And who are you?"

The woman's lips curled into a cold smile that didn't come close to her eyes. "As I said, this is My domain. You don't deserve to know My name, but know this: I am a Goddess. And you are my prisoner William Laughlin. More than that, you belong to me."

William glanced around again, trying not to let her words get to him. "Whatever information you think you've got from me, won't help you. The Brotherhood will know I've been taken, they'll change their methods, relocate..."

"Oh I know." She was still smiling. "I was quite thorough William, when I probed the depths of your mind. I found so much useful information. And some other very interesting things as well." Her smile widened a little.

He just frowned at her, but kept quiet. He wasn't sure what she was referring to, but he wasn't going to let her trick him into revealing anything. It was always possible that she was bluffing, that she didn't get as much out of him as she thought.

"I don't need to trick you, William." She seemed to be gloating now, as she kept looking at him with that cold smile on her face. "You still have some hope, you think you have some chance of escape. Do you not remember seeing your body die? There is nothing for you on the mortal realm now."

William remembered it, but he pushed the memories aside as he tried to convince himself this was all an illusion. He had no way of knowing what was real and what wasn't. It was entirely possible none of this was real. He could be in the basement of the cultists' home, trapped in some sort of magic-induced nightmare.

"Tell yourself whatever lies make you happy, William. You belong to me now, and here you will stay, until I have decided your fate."

He stared at her, "You can't keep me here indefinitely. And the longer you hold me, the better the chance of the Brotherhood finding me, and then finding you."

The woman just gave him another one of those ice cold smiles. "Good. I look forward to meeting the rest of them." A moment later she decided, "For now, I tire of your noise."

She made a little gesture with her hand, and William found he couldn't move or speak. He could feel something happening to him, something cold was moving up his legs. The only part of his body he could control was his eyes, and he strained to look downwards. What he saw filled him with horror.

He was encased in stone, up to his knees. It looked like another one of the standing stones from the circle, as if it were slowly, silently rising up out of the ground. It continued creeping upwards, inch by inch. He couldn't move, couldn't even cry out, as the panic threatened to consume him before the rock did. As it covered more and more of his body, all he could feel was the cold.

After it passed his mouth then nose, he couldn't breath. A moment later he couldn't see or hear either, and all he had left was the panic. He felt the coldness reach the top of his head as he was fully entombed in the stone, and then finally, his mind went as dark as the rest of his senses.

=:= Cindy =:=

"Just try to calm down Samantha, take a breath." Zoe said.

Cindy nodded, "Jess and Kara are fine, Sam. I just used the clairvoyance spell and checked, they're having dinner at a restaurant. They probably just turned their phones off for a bit."

Samantha was pacing and she looked almost frantic. She hadn't really explained what happened on the phone call with her dad, but whatever it was had her really upset.

As soon as she'd got over her initial shock Sam had tried to contact her sister. She called and texted, then she'd tried getting in touch with Kara too. Neither of them were answering though, and that had got Sam even more upset.

"Sam, do you want some wine or something? To help you relax a bit?" Zoe asked.

Their priestess shook her head, "No wine."

Cindy wondered about that. She'd noticed since she and Zoe came back from the UK, that Sam seemed to have quit drinking. She let it drop though, there were more important things going on now.

"Maybe I should just teleport to the restaurant, to warn Jess..." Samantha frowned, talking to herself.

"I don't think they're in immediate danger, Samantha." Cindy pointed out. "And getting you into a panic might be what those guys want. You're safest right here, like Nikki said."

Sam stopped in her tracks, staring at Cindy. "Nikki! She's with her parents now! If they got to my folks, they could do the same to hers! We have to warn her too..."

Cindy sighed, glancing at Zoe. She knew Sam was right, but she was pretty sure the Vessel and Goddess could take care of themselves.

Samantha meanwhile moved to the sofa and grabbed her phone. Now she was calling her wife. Her expression looked more and more anxious as the seconds ticked past. Finally she gulped, "Nikki's not answering either..."

Zoe sighed, "She's having dinner with her parents. Maybe she's put her phone on silent during the meal?"

Cindy watched as Sam closed her eyes. There was a faint tingle of magic, and Cindy suspected she was scrying for her wife.

"Oh no..." Sam whispered, looking even more upset. "I can't find her!"

Before either Zoe or Cindy could respond, there was a stronger buzz of magic in the air. Nikki appeared there in the living-room, a few paces away from where Samantha was panicking on the sofa.

As soon as the goth appeared, Sam jumped up and threw her arms around her wife, gasping "Nikki!"

Cindy realized with shock that Nicole had blood on her face, her dress, and in her hair. She didn't appear to be hurt though, so it might not have been hers.

Nicole hugged her back, "I'm ok Sam, it's ok. I'm all right."

"You're hurt!" Samantha continued holding Nikki tight. "We need to heal you..."

"I'm fine, Sam." Nicole replied, "The Goddess healed me. I just need to get cleaned up." She added, "Cindy, Zoe, could one of you open some wine? I need a drink."

Zoe nodded "I'll get it." The catgirl moved to the fridge to pull out a bottle of white.

"What happened?" Cindy asked, feeling anxious now as well. Seeing the blood, having Nikki teleport home rather than returning with her car, it all spelled out something bad.

Sam and Nikki were still hugging as they stood there, but Nikki replied "Let me have a drink, then we have to talk."

A minute later Zoe handed Nicole a glass of wine.

"Thanks Zoe," Nikki finally let go of Sam and sat down on the sofa. Samantha sat down next to her, keeping an arm around the goth's shoulders.

Cindy got herself some soda and Zoe got some water, then they joined the other two in the living-room. Cindy sat in one of the large leather easy chairs, and Zoe perched on the arm of the chair, wrapping her tail around so it wound up resting on Cindy's shoulders.

Nikki then started telling them about the ambush on her drive home. "I guess that's the limit of the amulet's protection... It can stop a smaller bullet, like from a handgun. But the rifle bullet was just slowed down. Luckily it was slowed down enough that it didn't kill me, but I think I was lucky the Goddess was already awake or whatever, paying attention. She was able to heal me and get me out of there before the explosion."

All three of them listened quietly as Nikki described the attack. When the goth finished her wine, Zoe offered, "Another glass, Nikki?"

"Please and thank you." Nikki nodded, as the catgirl got up.

Zoe took the empty glass and headed back to the kitchen, asking "Would you like anything, Samantha?"

"Water please." Sam replied. Then she asked her wife, "Why were you coming back so soon? Something happened with your parents." It was more of a statement than a question.

Nikki nodded and sighed.

Zoe returned, handing the two coven leaders their drinks, then she sat on the arm of the chair next to Cindy again.

"Something happened to my parents," Nicole sighed. "It's like their memories were changed back to how things were originally. Before the Goddess changed reality for me. They remembered... They said it was like one night four years ago, Nick vanished and I took his place, and they'd only just now noticed. They think I killed him... I guess they think I brainwashed them or something so they wouldn't notice?"

Cindy was listening carefully to this. She knew there had to be some powerful or complicated magic involved, to undo the Goddess's work like that.

Samantha sighed, holding Nikki closer. "They got to my folks too, Nikki... My dad called. They knew Jessica wasn't their daughter, they thought Jess had done something to them and me. And when I refused to kick Jess out of our home, they accused me of working with her..."

Cindy glanced at Zoe. She didn't like where this was going. Zoe was just listening quietly, but leaned a little closer and put an arm around Cindy's shoulders.

Nicole sighed, "The Goddess said the Brotherhood probably wants to isolate us from our families. I don't know if this is just going to affect you and I because we're the coven leaders... But anyone who's family has been affected by a reality-change could be at risk."

"That puts Tanya and Becky at risk." Cindy said, frowning.

Nikki nodded, "And Brandi, and Ashley. Maria's girls should all be safe I think, same with Kara. Zoe, Cindy, neither of you had a reality change so you shouldn't be at risk of this stuff either."

Cindy just nodded, but she remained worried about her friends. Tanya and Becky were both out of town, but she knew it would be painful if their families rejected them. She had no family of her own so she wasn't worried about herself, and she knew Zoe's family had already rejected her, so there wasn't anything more they could do to her.

The four of them sat in silence for a few moments. Nikki was sipping her wine again, and leaning a little closer against Sam.

The quiet was eventually broken when Zoe spoke up, asking Nikki "What happened after the Goddess rescued you from the ambush?

Nicole had another sip of wine then replied "Arianrhod took over. There was just one of them there, but she caught him before he could escape." Nikki paused, then said "She wasn't subtle with him... Getting on Arianrhod's bad side seems like a very big mistake."

Cindy knew from personal experience what Dôn was like when She was angry. If Arianrhod was worse, then the guy was probably in a very bad place right now.

Nikki continued, "Arianrhod has him as her prisoner. I'm sure She's going to be learning all She can from him about the rest of the Brotherhood. We'll find out soon enough."

Samantha sighed, "We need to warn the others, about what they've done to our families."

"Right." Nicole glanced around, then cursed. "Crap. My purse, my phone, all my ID were in the car."

"I'll do it." Samantha finally let go of her wife, and set down her half-empty water glass. She grabbed her phone and started tapping out a group message, to everyone in the coven.

After sending it off, she asked "Do you think we should bring everyone here? Would they be safer? I could close the wellness centre and between there and the spare room here, we could probably find space for everyone..."

Nicole considered. "I think that's premature... It's an option though, we'll keep in mind. Right now, we know from what Cindy learned in Wales, they target the priestess and vessel first, and that seems like what they're doing. The rest of the coven should be safe as long as the two of us are still alive."

Cindy nodded, "I hope so... Tanya and Becky are kind of isolated, being so far away from the rest of us. Especially Becky. Tanya at least has Brandi with her."

"I know Cindy." Nikki said. "I'm worried about them too, but you know how much it would disrupt their lives to drag everyone back here."

Zoe agreed, "It would mess up their classes and everything, pulling them out of college like that. And maybe they're safer where they are? Being a long way from the coven and all..."

"Right." Cindy sighed.

Samantha said, "I've sent the warning to everyone. We'll keep in touch with them all too, just to make sure."

After a few moments, Cindy got to her feet. "I'm going to get back to work on the defensive protections again." She'd been taking another break this evening, but now the threat was a lot closer and she felt like she shouldn't be wasting time.

=:= Ashley =:=

Ashley hit the snooze button on her alarm and rolled over, hoping to get back to sleep again. She'd been pulled from a really nice dream, and was hoping she could catch it again before it faded.

She was just starting to drift off when her alarm jolted her awake once more. With a frustrated sigh, she sat up and turned it off. It was almost six-thirty now, she must have hit snooze a few more times than she'd thought. She sighed as she realized she wouldn't have time for breakfast after all.

With a yawn, Ashley wondered if Maria would let them take a break from the magic training for the weekend. The way they'd been going at it all week was burning her out. She'd even forgotten about the assignment she had due today at school, and her folks would kill her if she started flunking.

Sadie reminded her about it when they were texting last night after dinner, and after that she'd shut off her phone and scrambled to get it done. She stayed up half the night working on that instead of sleeping, and she knew she'd probably get a lousy grade on it anyways. She was positive Mr. Persad would be able to tell she'd rushed it at the last minute.

At least today was Friday. Tomorrow she could sleep in, and wouldn't have to worry about school and assignments again till Monday.

Finally, Ashley dragged herself out of bed and got started on her usual morning routine. Trudge across the hall into the bathroom, use the toilet, hop in the shower.

While she was in the shower she started mentally putting together her outfit for today. It felt like a skirt and blouse kind of day, she decided.

After the shower and towelling off, it took her some time with the hair dryer, but at long last she was finished in the washroom. She kept a towel wrapped around herself as she returned to her bedroom. By the time she was fully dressed and had her make-up all done, it was almost half past eight.

Ashley finally grabbed her backpack, made she sure had her books and everything for school, then headed downstairs. She dropped her backpack next to the front door and made her way into the kitchen.

She was a little surprised to see her dad hadn't left for work yet. Both her parents were sitting at the kitchen table.

"Morning mom, morning dad," she smiled at them both as she grabbed a glass then headed for the fridge to get some orange juice.

Neither of her parents responded as she poured her juice. After taking a sip, Ashley frowned. She turned to look at them, asking "Mom? Dad? What's up?"

Her parents were both staring at her, and they had a look of shock and confusion on their faces. Between them on the table was a piece of paper and an envelope, probably some mail or something that they'd just opened.

Ashley stepped toward to the table, meaning to have a seat with her folks. She only got one step closer before she stopped in her tracks. She could feel magic. She stepped back and the feeling was gone. Her heart was starting to race a little as she asked again, "Mom, dad, are you two ok?"

Finally her mother spoke. Still staring at her, mom asked nervously "Gord? Is that really you?"

The glass of juice nearly slipped from her fingers, as Ashley felt her stomach twist and her blood turned to ice. It was almost hard to breath, and she took another step backwards, putting her glass on the counter as her hands shook a little.

She didn't understand what was happening, her parents shouldn't even know her deadname. The Goddess had changed reality so she'd been born a girl. In the seven months since she'd received her miracle, her parents hadn't questioned or even noticed anything had changed.

Mom and dad were both still staring at her, with that look of confusion and shock.

She gulped, staring back at her parents. "I'm... My name is Ashley..."

"How did this happen?" mom asked nervously.

Sounding somewhere between angry and worried, dad demanded "What did you do to yourself?!"

Her breathing was coming in quick shallow gasps now and her hands were still shaking. Ashley gulped again and replied softly "I... I found a way to be my true self. This... This is the real me..."

"You were going to wait till you were eighteen," dad stated. "That's what we agreed to. How did you even do this?"

Ashley shook her head "I can't say... And...I never agreed to wait. That was... You decided. You didn't ask."

"Gord, this isn't possible," mom said, frowning. "What you've done to yourself is impossible!"

"My name is Ashley, mom." She tried to sound confident but her voice was wavering and she was feeling lightheaded now. "Please call me Ashley."

Dad was frowning now too. "Does this have anything to do with that Watson girl you've been spending so much time with?"

Ashley shook her head. "No! Sadie and me... We didn't become girlfriends till after..."

"Girlfriends?" Mom's voice sounded mocking when she said the word. "Gordon you could have found a girlfriend without doing all this to yourself!"

Dad stood up and said, "This isn't natural. None of this is."

Ashley blinked away the tears that had started forming. She had no idea what had happened to her parents but it was like one of her worst nightmares was coming true. She glanced down at herself, almost afraid to see her old body was back. She silently thanked the Goddess that she was still herself.

"I...I've got to go. I have to get to school!" She turned and fled, running for the front door.

"Hey!" her dad shouted after her.

Ashley grabbed her backpack and flung the door open, then dashed outside and kept running. She didn't know what her parents would do, but she was afraid to stay and find out. She had to talk to Sadie and Maria, she had to tell Maria what happened.

She made it about half-way to school before her legs and feet were too sore and tired to keep going and her lungs were protesting. She slumped against a tree on someone's front lawn, panting and gasping for air. She was still in shock, but that's when it hit her. Those guys the coven warned everyone about, they had to have done something to her parents.

Ashley hadn't really taken it that seriously, nothing had happened and it was almost two weeks since the warning.

Now she was in a panic, as she realized they could be watching her, they could have been waiting for her to flee the house. The shock from her parents' questions and the exhaustion from running combined with the new fear that gripped her. She slumped to the ground, still leaning against the tree. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled to get her phone out of her backpack.

It was still turned off from last night, and she frantically pushed the power button over and over as she silently begged it to wake up quicker. By the time the screen came to life, she couldn't see straight and her hands were shaking too badly to try to text, so she opened the phone app and jabbed at Sadie's picture in her favourites list.

Several long seconds later she finally heard her girlfriend's voice through the speaker, "Hey Ashley, what's up? Are you coming to school?"

Ashley sobbed "Sadie help! I need help!" She was having trouble breathing again, and her hands were shaking enough that it was getting hard just holding the phone.

She heard her girlfriend's voice, shouting away from the phone "Maria! Ashley's in trouble!"

Curling up more at the base of the tree, Ashley clutched at her phone and tried to talk, but her breaths were too shallow now, coming in short quick gasps. Her vision was blurring more from tears.

Ashley felt a strong buzz of magic in the air around her. She closed her eyes tight, as everything started to fade.