"OK, I can't believe I'm sitting in Cassie's dining room!" Demarco whispered to Etta, looking around at the painting, hardwood walls and antique furniture of the old house.
"You are such a fangirl," Etta chuckled softly.
"I know," Demarco smiled. "Hey what was that thing Gwen said... about light in a dark wood and a prince?"
"The Light illuminates the Dark Wood," Etta repeated.
"Yeah, what's that about?" Demarco asked.
"Well... Lux," Etta said pointedly.
"Gwen is a Seer," Cassie put in, smiling as Demarco looked abashed at having been overheard. "She can glimpse Moments of the future."
"That's amazing," Demarco said, awed.
"Mostly annoying, honestly," Cassie replied, smiling at her wife. "Gwen speaks in riddles at the best of times, and her prophecies are even worse."
"That's what you guys meant when you said they knew we were coming," Demarco said, "but... wait... if you knew what was happening in Moonwood Mill..."
"I didn't," Gwen said sadly. "I can't See anything in Moonwood Mill right now."
"Father," Etta said, her tone making it a curse.
"Yes," Gwen smiled sadly. "He's gotten better at hiding himself and his plans from my Sight. I've had hints... enough to know that he'd come to you, Etta... and enough to know that you would all come here... but I can't see more than that."
"Which is a good thing," Cassie added.
"It is?" Jake looked confused.
"So she insists," Gwen replied.
"The Moments Gwen sees are inevitable," Cassie said. "Once she Sees a thing, it will happen... and she doesn't decide the future. She just foretells it. That's why she couches everything in annoying metaphors and symbolism... the vaguer the prophecy, the more leeway we have in dealing with it. Faust hiding himself entirely from her Sight means that nothing he is doing is certain. There is no predetermined outcome. This future is entirely ours to create."
"OK," Demarco nodded. "I like that. Free will, right?"
"It's a rarer thing than you imagine," Cassie smiled.
"Alright," Jake said. "So, we've got a chance... or at least no insurmountable prophecies that say we don't. We've got two werewolves and two powerful witches... or maybe three?"
"No," Etta said softly.
"Could you?" Demarco's eyes widened. "Could you give Etta her magic back?"
"Yes," Gwen breathed.
"No!" Etta repeated, loudly. "You can't. I won't. Please, no."
"Why?" Cassie asked gently.
"My magic, my Father's magic... it's dangerous," Etta said shakily.
"Like Black Magic?" Demarco said. "Is that a thing? Is magic, like, evil?"
"Is being a werewolf evil?" Cassie replied. "Magic is a force of nature, like wind or rain or fire. Like the Wolf in you, it isn't good or evil... but it is powerful and it is wild. It's always easier to destroy than to create, easier to hurt than to heal."
"I won't," Etta repeated. "Please don't ask me. I'm sorry."
"It's OK," Jake nodded. "I get it. We work with what we have. Two werewolves, two powerful witches and an ex-witch. We can do this," he added confidently.
"Yeah, but Faust has us outnumbered. He's got the Wildfangs under his spell," Demarco pointed out, "and, by now, probably the Collective too."
"Not the Collective," Etta said. "He'll be stretched thin holding onto the Wildfangs. He won't be able to control the Collective elders too... and he wouldn't try. Not if he's after warriors."
"You've clearly never seen Lily fight," Jake put in.
"Doesn't matter," Etta replied. "Even under Compulsion, he'd be hard pressed to make her fight for him."
"Compulsion?" Gwen asked.
"He'll be using a Grigorian Compulsion spell. It's like a classic Fabian Mesmerism," Etta said, "but with elements of vampiric Dark Energy thrown in. It allows him bend their will more by drawing on darker, even self-destructive impulses."
Demarco exchanged a look with Jake as the conversation moved into esoteric discussions of magical theory. It was clear that, whatever she had lost, Etta still had a firm grasp on the principles and theories behind Faust's dark magic, which was apparently different from Cassie and Gwen's magic.
From what little Demarco could follow, it seemed that Faust's spell had tapped into Rory's frustration with the Collective, enhanced by months of Kiril's subtle manipulations, to drive her into violence, and then pulled on the bonds of the pack to drag her and Lou along. Still, they seemed to think the spell could be broken, provided Faust wasn't actively reinforcing it.
"Could you use the power in the Moonwood against him?" Etta asked.
Gwen's only reply was a quizzical smile.
"I've felt it," Etta said. "Even cut off, I could feel the ancient magic all around me in those woods. That's what he's really after, isn't it?"
"Probably," Cassie said. "To really use it ourselves, we'd need..."
"Need? Need what?" Demarco said after her pause had gone on longer than she could stand.
"A key to that magic," Gwen said. "The Moonwood Wand."
"Miranda's wand," Etta breathed, eyes wide.
"Beth and I found it for her," Jake said. "In the old ruins, under the Moonwood."
"She said once her magic was moon magic," Etta said. "But why didn't he have me take it years ago when we... you know..."
"Stolen magic," Gwen said.
"Of course," Etta nodded, as if it made sense.
Demarco actually growled in frustrated confusion.
"Stolen magic is weak," Etta explained. "Magic won is strong. Magic freely given is strongest of all. If Father had stolen the wand when we... well, it wouldn't have been much more than any other wand to him. But if his allies on the Dark Court had... well, killed her... they would have won the wand and then could have freely given it to Father."
"I think it would be best to keep Miranda and the Moonwood Wand out of this fight," Cassie said after a moment. "Better not to risk Faust getting his hands on the wand."
"There is another key to the magic of the Moonwood," Gwen said. "Its protector. The lord of the Moonwood."
"Kristopher," Etta said.
"Yeah, that was something else I needed to talk to you about," Jake said. "No one knows where my dad is."
"I do," Gwen said.
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Author's Note: There will a second chapter this week, posting on Friday 12/1
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