Chapter Forty-six

*Piper*

As the smoke column rises up around Piper and her sister, Aaron throws his sword toward Phoebe, who scoffs. The smoke covers them both and when it vanishes, Piper finds herself standing in what she realizes is part of Urtakodishzyinotto, though not a part she’s ever been in. 

The trees look the same, but there’s a disturbance surrounding them, the air rippling like waves of heat rising from a road in summer, which she recognized as the effect of a cloaking spell. Even if Milo and Aaron had wandered across this place, they would never have seen it, though Milo would probably have detected the magic in the air.

Phoebe starts laughing, a cruel and dark thing that rises from her stomach and causes goosebumps to erupt up Piper's arm.

“Did you see the look on that fool’s face when he turned to us after seeing his pathetic love dead?” asks Phoebe. She grips Piper’s arm to keep herself from falling over. When the laughter subsides, Phoebe stands tall, tears in her eyes, smiling at her sister. “What’s wrong?”

“Milo was my friend,” says Piper. “I know we did what we had to, but it still hurts.”

“Don’t worry, sister,” says Phoebe, her face twisting into what she clearly believes is a sympathetic look, though it looks more like a triumphant leer to Piper. “You still have me.”

When Phoebe wraps her arms around her sister, Piper tries not to cringe. She had long come to terms with stopping her sister, but seeing what Phoebe did to that little girl made her repugnant in her eyes.

Phoebe breaks away from her sister and tilts her head for her to follow. Only when she turns does Piper see the house sitting in the middle of the clearing. It’s a large manor, pink in color with a dark roof. The front double doors, made of dark wood, are set with stained glass. She knows that just beyond the doors, she’ll find a foyer with a living room to the right, a dining room leading to a kitchen just beyond it, a sunroom off to the right, and a staircase on the left that leads to the floors above. 

It’s her childhood home. A house passed down from her ancestors. Halliwell Manor.

“You brought our old house here?” Piper asks, a note of wonder in her voice. "How?"

"There are many things I'll tell you, sister, but there are some things that must remain a secret for the moment. I have a powerful…benefactor, someone who is dedicated to our cause."

"Okay…" Piper said slowly as they walked through the front door. 

Walking over the threshold, Piper felt like she was stepping back in time. Before she and Phoebe had moved to a village called Corinth, they lived in this house with their parents. After they were murdered, neither sister could bear to live in it anymore. Every table, every carpet, every painting was exactly the same. Piper assumed Phoebe had used magic to clean the place as it was spotless. 

"Why don't you head up to your room and relax for a bit," Phoebe suggested. 

Piper nodded and, almost automatically, her feet began climbing the stairs, heading toward the bedroom she'd slept in as a child. Once she was finally behind the closed door, she held out her hand and slowly turned on the spot, incanting, making sure to break any spell that would allow Piper to spy on her as well as casting a spell to protect the room. Then, she let out a sigh. 

She had already gotten so far, but she still had so much to do. Laying on her bed, she tried to look sad, though she knew Milo was perfectly alright. Despite the spell she’d cast to conceal herself, there was always a chance Phoebe could still spy on her. She needed to play this perfectly. Milo and Aaron were counting on her.

And she will never let them down.

*Two Weeks Ago*

After returning from Sandalia, there was nothing Piper wanted to do more than climb into her own bed and sleep, but she knew she couldn't. Aaron, Milo, Riley, Gavin, and Piper entered the castle and though Aaron wanted to get started catching up on the duties he missed while away, she and Milo had other plans. 

"No, really, guys," he said as they pulled him into the room he shared with Milo, Queen Elaine in tow.

"Do it, Piper," said Milo, ignoring Aaron. He was gently picking at the edge of the cuff on his wrist, a habit he'd gotten into since the day they'd left Sandalia. Piper thought he didn't even realize he was doing it. She spun on the spot, casting a spell to conceal them from prying eyes and ears.

"I think the first thing we should do is work on this cuff," said Aaron, noticing Milo fidgeting with it.

"Well, that's not really—" Piper began, but was cut off by Aaron. 

"Isn't there anything you can do? What if you enchanted a blade to cut through it?"

"Aaron, we don't need—" Milo began, but was cut off by Aaron. 

"I'm just guessing here. I obviously don't really know much about magic."

"Aaron, honey, I think you should—” Queen Elaine began, but was cut off by Aaron.

"It's just that Milo having his magic back would be a huge bonus in our fight against Phoebe. If he can start practicing again…"

Instead of trying to speak over Aaron, Milo held up his cuffed arm, grabbed one side of the cuff and pulled. It came apart in two pieces, one balanced on his wrist and the other held between his fingers. 

"You did it!" said Aaron, his face lighting up with a smile before his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "How?"

"We took the cuff off in Sandalia," said Piper. "It took me thirty seconds. We left it on because we have an idea."

"Don't say 'we'," said Milo, "this is your plan."

"Fine," said Piper. "I left the cuff on Milo, but it no longer blocks his powers and he can remove it whenever he wants. I'm going to tell Phoebe I've switched sides. I'm going undercover and acting as her agent."

Silence met her words, but it didn't last long. 

"That's fucking crazy," said Aaron. 

"Language," Queen Elaine admonished, but didn't sound very serious. 

"Do you have a better plan, Aaron?" Piper asked. "We need to figure out what she's planning or we won't be able to stop her. And, we have to help your mother."

"Me?" asked Queen Elaine. "What does this have to do with me?"

"You haven't had a single vision since Zelda gave you whatever that medicine was and my sister was pulling the strings of the Red Hand. I think she gave Zelda a potion that's blocking your abilities. If I can figure out what it is, I can fix it."

Aaron's brow furrowed, his eyes staring off into the distance as he thought. 

"It's not a bad idea," he said. 

"I think it's a terrible idea," said Milo. "Piper, if she figures out what you're doing, she could kill you."

"I don't think she will," said Aaron. "She revealed herself in Sandalia only after Piper was attacked."

"Exactly what I said," said Piper. "Besides, if I'm able to cure the Queen, it won't matter if I don't figure out what Phoebe's up to. Queen Elaine will be able to see it."

"But how will you convince her you're on her side?" asked Elaine. 

"My sister will likely put me through tests. I'm not sure what kind, but they're sure to be horrible."

"Whatever she asks of you, you must do it," said Aaron. 

"Just one thing," said Milo, looking at Piper seriously. "Come back to us."

Piper fixed him with a hard stare and nodded.

*Two Days Ago*

"Finally," Piper said quietly as Aaron and Milo ducked into their tent. 

"Piper," said Aaron, sounding surprised, "we were just…" His voice trailed off, but his and Milo's ruffled hair made it obvious what they were doing. 

"Yeah, yeah," said Piper, waving her hand. "I don't care about that. Listen, I have to tell you something. I contacted Phoebe like she asked me to. She wants me to lead you into the woods she's staying in. Her magic will ensure we find ourselves at a cliff. And she…she wants me to throw Milo off it."

"I'd really prefer if you didn't," said Milo. 

"Seconded," agreed Aaron. 

"Well I'm obviously not going to throw you off a cliff, but we have to convince Phoebe, and I have a plan. I can animate a doll to look like you, then we enchant a ring to make you look like someone else."

"I can talk to Krayden," said Aaron. "We'll bring along a Southern Tribesman from Kr’fait and Milo can take his place."

"I don't know, Piper," said Milo. "This doesn't feel like a good idea."

"It'll work," said Piper, "trust me. I'll have the doll ready before we get to the woods."

"Alright," said Milo. "Just…when you get in with Phoebe, be careful. We don't know what she's capable of."

"You don't have to worry about me," Piper assured him. "I know exactly what she's capable of."

*Twenty Years Ago*

Piper stood, watching young Adelaide as she focused with all her might on a stone set on the table before her. Her brow, set below a sprawl of curly blonde hair, was slick with sweat. Her eyes were trained on the stone, her face scrunched up so hard, she almost looked like she was in pain. 

"I just can't do it!" said Adelaide, relaxing her features. 

"You're thinking about it too hard," Piper told her. "Magic is more about feeling, wanting something to happen. Just focus on the feeling you get when you incant. Try to conjure that feeling and think about what you want the rock to do."

Adelaide tried again, focusing with all her might. The rock shook, tapping gently against the wood as it slowly lifted an inch above the table. She groaned with the effort and the rock fell a moment later as relief mixes with consternation broke across her face. 

Though Adelaide looked disappointed, Piper smiled. 

"That was really good," she told Adelaide. 

"I can barely do it. I'm an advocate. I should be—"

"Stop with that," came a voice near the door. Piper turned to see her twin sister, Phoebe, standing in the doorframe. She walked in and crouched next to Adelaide. "Having power and using it are two different things. You could hand me a sword right now and I would be worthless. It's about practice, discipline, and perseverance."

Adelaide looked at them both and nodded. 

"We'll try again tomorrow," said Piper. Adelaide looked at the rock momentarily, the look on her face suggesting the rock had offended her in some way, then left. 

"You're so good with the children," Piper said to her sister.

"Not sure you could call her a child. Adelaide is sixteen now." 

"I know she's the oldest, but I can't help seeing her as that little girl that wandered into our village years ago."

Phoebe smiled at her sister. "I know."

"You're worried about something." Though Phoebe's face was impassive, Piper had always been able to sense when something was wrong with her twin. 

"It's just the rumors. Another traveling merchant said soldiers of Midoor are rounding up practitioners. Most of them are being exiled from the country, but apparently some soldiers are just killing them."

"They're just rumors, sister," said Piper, trying to console her sister. "Why would they be targeting us? We've done nothing wrong."

"I don't know. I still think we should consider moving the village. If the rumors are true, if they end up coming here—”

"Piper!" a voice from outside screamed from outside, cutting off Phoebe's words.

Alarmed, Piper and her sister rushed outside to see what was happening. 

"What is it?" Phoebe asked, running up to the girl who'd called out, a twelve-year-old named Byrnia. 

"It's Adelaide," said Brynia. "Come quick, over here!"

Without another word, Phoebe ran after Byrnia, her sister on her heels. The people of their village stopped and stared as they ran, young and old, man and woman, to watch as the two most powerful witches ran off after a child. 

They had lived in a village called Corinth. The village itself was founded by orphaned magical practitioners. Though many generations had been born there, they still took in any orphan who showed magical potential. Every person they ran by had magical ability in some capacity. Officially, Corinth had a mayor of sorts, but Piper and Phoebe were unofficially in charge. 

The sisters followed Byrnia to a spot outside the village with rocks balanced into pillars all around. At the base of one of the pillars, Adelaide was trapped under a large boulder that appeared to have fallen from the top. 

"What happened?" asked Phoebe, running forward. She fell to her knees and grabbed Adelaide's hand. 

"I was trying…to lift the boulder…and it fell on me…" said Adelaide between heaving breaths. 

"Are you hurt?" asked Phoebe. 

"No…I don't think so…just…trapped."

"Together, sister, we aren't powerful enough to do it alone," said Piper, holding out her hand. Phoebe grabbed it and stood next to her sister, both of them facing the stone. Together, they incanted, their unoccupied hands held out. Slowly, the boulder lifted from Adelaide and was moved away from her. The sisters set it down gently a safe distance from Adelaide. 

"What were you thinking?" asked Piper. Adelaide, who had pushed herself into a sitting position, looked up at Piper with tears in her eyes. 

"I just want to be better," said Adelaide, holding her stomach. 

"That's not how you do it," Piper snapped. 

"Piper!" admonished Phoebe. She gave her sister a hard look and crouched down next to Adelaide. "Addie, listen. You have to progress at a safe rate. Start with a rock, then move up. If you're sure you're alright, run along home and rest up. You'll get more training from Piper tomorrow."

When Adelaide and Brynia had run off, Phoebe gave a serious look to her sister, her eyebrows knitted together in concern. 

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, but Piper held her ground. 

"She's too eager. She's going to seriously hurt herself one day."

"And you think being harsh with her is going to help?"

"I just…I care about her," Piper said dejectedly.

Phoebe's face softened. "Do you remember what Mother used to say? You catch more flies with sugar than you will with salt."

"You're right," said Piper. "You're always right."

"And I'll never let you forget it."

 

A month later, the soldiers descended on Corinth without warning. On the day of the invasion, Piper was shaken away by her sister just as dawn was breaking. 

"Sister, sister, the soldiers are attacking us," she said as Piper's eyes opened a crack. 

"What do you mean?" she asked, still half asleep. 

"The rumors were true, the King outlawed magic! They're attacking the village, we have to go!"

Piper finally awoke and rushed out of the house she shared with her sister. She saw bodies almost immediately. Men and women she knew. She wouldn't allow herself to look at the smallest bodies, the bodies of children, to see if she could identify them. 

They rushed past body after body until they found the group of soldiers attacking the villagers. 

"We have to work together," said Phoebe. 

She and Piper were a collective, meaning they shared their magic equally. They were much stronger than a general coven, and could use each other's power without permission, but it could greatly weaken the other person, so they never used each other's powers if they could avoid it. 

They clasped hands and incanted, their other hands pressed together. When they pulled them apart, a great fireball formed between them. They threw it into the center of the soldiers and it exploded with enough force to vibrate the very air, blasting the soldiers back. 

Through their efforts, they were able to get the majority of their village hunkered down in what was effectively the Town Hall. Most of them were children, whose parents had sacrificed themselves to protect them. 

The soldiers outside demanded they open the doors, but the sisters refused. 

"We have to do something," said Piper, looking to her sister. Phoebe had been quiet for some time. 

"We have no choice," she said, almost to herself. 

Adelaide walked up to Phoebe and grabbed her hand. 

"We'll do whatever we have to to stop them," she said to Phoebe. 

"I'm glad to hear that," Phoebe said. "Because stopping this attack isn't enough. We have to take the fight to the king himself. He's destroying our people. We'll destroy his. Are you all ready to sacrifice yourselves for our people?"

Everyone cheered, ready for battle. Even the children. What was Phoebe thinking, calling the children to arms?

Phoebe started waving her hands in the air and incanting. Piper realized, far too late, what Phoebe was doing. She could feel Phoebe tap into their collective, stealing some of Piper's own power to achieve what she desired. She wanted to stop her, but found sheer horror holding her in place. 

Everyone in the room, all the men, all the women, and all the children, became rigid, their heads tilted back, their mouths agape. The air around them became thinner and thinner. At the end of her prolonged incantation, Phoebe clapped her hands above her head. The magic was sucked from everyone in the room, except Piper, whose eyes looked to Adelaide. 

The young witch who'd come so far stared at Piper as her magic, her life force, was sucked from her by Phoebe, who absorbed it. Adelaide, along with everyone in the room, fell to the ground, dead, as Piper felt their magic strengthen her and Phoebe's collective. 

Phoebe walked from the room, not looking back at her sister. The soldiers screamed moments after Phoebe walked outside. Piper waited several minutes, trying to brace herself for what she would find beyond the doors. 

Outside, Phoebe stood among a pile of dead soldiers, covered in blood. Piper looked at each soldier, each of their faces twisted in anguish, each of them in a new way. The least horrific of which was a woman who appeared to have been turned inside out.

"How could you do this?" Piper asked, her voice barely a whisper. "This is…this is…"

"I did what I had to," said Phoebe, turning to her sister, tears cutting tracks through the blood on her face. "If I hadn't, the soldiers would have killed us all. I can't lose you."

"After this, sister? You've already lost me. You just murdered the entire village."

"I needed that power. I needed it to destroy this land."

"How can you justify this? What you just did is the darkest of magic, Phoebe."

Phoebe turned away from her sister again, looking to the colors seeping across the sky. "Sometimes acts of darkness must be committed in pursuit of the greater good."

"You're right," said Piper, hoping to lower her sister's guard. When her shoulders relaxed, Piper braced herself. "You're always right."

Without warning, Piper grabbed Phoebe's hair, twisting it in her fist and incanting at the same time. The only way to remove herself from the collective with Phoebe was to physically damage her in some way. Phoebe screamed as Piper tore herself from their collective, ripping Phoebe's hair free from where she gripped it and dividing their power in two. Phoebe's hair was now cursed; it could never grow beyond its current point, not even with magic.

"How dare—" Phoebe got out before Piper incanted, sending her sister flying backward with a blast of magical power. Then she ran, Phoebe's hair clutched in her fist. 

She felt tainted, filled with magic stolen from people she knew, people she'd raised and trained, people she loved. 

Piper moved to a town near Crown City and began petitioning the King to undo his decision to legalize magic. Without it, she could never stand against her sister. But from the moment Phoebe had killed everyone in Corinth, Piper knew she could never again align herself with her twin sister.