The Wyvern Street Irregulars

Soon enough they were all packed and wrapped and heading north across the back lawn. Beyond the back fence was the backyard of Roger's shop, a general store carrying the usual convenience-store merchandise but also a wide range of more practical goods. A gate in the west fence let them out into an alley that ran alongside the shop.

As it turned out, it was Roger's daughter Mary's night to run the shop. She was delighted, as always, to see them, especially the kids. She used to babysit them years ago when they lived in town, before they moved away to the Covenstead. She was particularly pleased to hear that they might soon be moving into town. "Maybe you can go to school with Jamie and Cathy!" She enthused. "Are you going to move them at the end of term or the end of the year?" She asked Marie.

"We haven't decided yet," Marie admitted. "This has all happened so fast. Probably at the end of term though I expect; the end of the school year is a long way away yet." She looked at the kids. "What would you two prefer?" She asked.

Jason and Megan both agreed that the end of the term would be quite long enough to wait; they looked forward eagerly to living in town again.

"I guess that is settled then," said Marny. "Maybe they can come into town for some weekends before that so Jamie and Cathy can brief them about the school."

Mary used an intercom to tell Roger he had visitors. "He says to go on up," she told them, so they all headed upstairs to greet the patriarch.

"Welcome, welcome!" He greeted them, waving them through into the diningroom, the only room set up to seat so many people. "Happy Halloween!"

"Marie and Marny are moving in," Maurice told him. "Jason and Megan will be, too, at the end of the school term."

"I bet Jamie and Cathy will like that!" said Roger. "Now maybe they'll stop threatening to run away to live at the Covenstead! Hey listen, before anyone else books you solid, you have to agree to come have Christmas dinner with us here, okay? In return I'll make sure Mary and the kids are free to celebrate Yule with you. Deal?"

"Deal!" Marie laughed. "You should come to Yule too though, okay?"

"Okay, okay, we'll all do Yule with you and we'll all do Christmas dinner here. How about you, Maurice, you booked yet?"

"I will if I can," said Maurice. But if game is afoot the Wizard and I might be anywhere by then. You know how it is with us."

Roger nodded seriously. "I know, I know. But I expect both of you to make it if you can."

Maurice smiled. "Thank you. We will if we can."

Roger looked at Susan and Robert. "How about you two? Too much to hope for?"

Susan nodded. "I'm afraid so. Big time of year at the Covenstead, we'll be very busy out there. But hey, you should come visit sometime. Take a bit of a vacation. We can take you for a ride in our sleigh. In fact you should come a couple of weeks before Christmas, we'll be your elves, you can be Santa and give gifts to the local kids!"

"Ho ho ho!" Roger laughed. "I might just do that."

"Oh and by the way, here's a little Halloween treat for you," said Maurice, handing Roger a large bottle wrapped in colourful Halloween-themed wrapping-paper, with an envelope attached. He winked. "The usual."

Roger eyed the package appreciatively, put it on a sideboard. "Thank you kindly, and the lads I'll be sharing it with down at the Legion will be thanking you too." He smiled.

"You'll find the Wizard's donation to the Legion is a bit larger than usual," Maurice told him. "Inflation, you know." He winked. "We are actually on our way to circumnavigate the neighborhood right now Roger, so I'm afraid we should be on our way. Say hi to the lads at the Legion for us."

"That I will, Maurice, that I will," Roger replied.

On their way back through the shop Mary pressed bags of candy on the kids. "The neighborhood kids are trick or treating tonight, you should have some too," she told them. "They're big batches so you can share them with any other kids you meet." Jason and Megan nodded solemnly.

Leaving the shop they headed to the right, the east, toward Agricola street. Maurice strode between the kids, left hand on Jason's right shoulder, right hand on Megan's left shoulder. "Megan, Jason, you know that the location of the apartment building is a secret?" They nodded. They knew. "Well here is what we tell people when we speak of where Wyvern Street is. We say that it is East of Oxford, South of the New Bridge, West of Agricola and North of the Old Bridge. If you ever need someone to give you a ride, or walk you home, or whatever, you can get them to bring you to Roger's shop. Then when they're gone you can go out the back way to get to the apartment building, okay?" Again they indicated assent. "Okay then. He released their shoulders, fished in his pocket a moment, and handed them each a few business-cards. "Here, these cards are from the taxi company you should use if you need to take a taxi. The taxi company is also the address we use for any mail or deliveries. Normally you should just get the taxi to bring you to the shop, okay? No need to mention Wyvern Street."

Jason and Megan examined the cards carefully under a streetlamp. The back of each one had been stamped and bore a short handwritten note signed by Maurice saying "Take this kid to Roger and Mary's shop please." Maurice smiled at them. "Each card is good for one free ride to the shop, just give it to the cab driver. Write down the company info when you get home though so you'll still have it even after you've used all the cards. Though chances are there'll be more such cards for you when those run out."

They put the cards away carefully, but as they started to walk east again a cat approached.

"Cats are a good weathervane for a neighborhood," Maurice told them. "If you notice that the cats on a street are scared instead of friendly, chances are it is not a friendly neighborhood." They all stopped to stroke the cat. Someone opened the front door of the nearest house.

"Maurice? Maurice! Hey!" A girl ran down the steps, approached. "Hi Maurice, hi whoever the rest of you are! I'm Julie, who are you?"

"Julie? Hey, Julie, its us, Jason and Megan!" Jason replied. "We've seen you at Mary's shop. Roger's shop," he explained. We're friends of Jamie and Cathy." They moved closer to the light so she could see them more clearly.

"Oh yeah! Cool! And you know Maurice! How come I hardly ever run into you?" Julie asked.

"We've been living out of town for years," Megan told her. "But we're moving back into town at Yule. Uh, Christmas. The end of the school term. Maybe we'll all be at the same school."

"I know what Yule is," Julie replied. "Mom let me go to a Yule circle last year with Mary, Jamie and Cathy. So, uh, these your folks?" She looked at the grownups questioningly.

"Oh yeah, this is Marie, our mom; Marny, our dad; Susan and Robert, friends of the family," Jason told her. "Mom and dad are staying in town, but Megan and I are only here for the day, Susan and Robert are taking us home later tonight. See you at Yule or before though, I hope!"

"I hope so too!" Julie enthused. "Oops, looks like Grimalkin wants in." She ran back up the steps, let the cat in. "Bright Blessings!" She waved, as she followed the cat and closed the door behind her.

"I doubt that changing schools in mid year is going to be a big pain for you two, eh?" Maurice asked the kids. "Seems you've already got a few friends in the area."

Megan wasn't so sure yet. Julie was probably a boy magnet, she figured. That could be a problem. Or it could be a good thing. Ah well, she'd find out eventually. She wondered how many of the kids they'd known years ago when they lived in town were still in the neighborhood.

Continuing eastward, it did not take them long to reach Agricola street. "West of Agricola," said Megan. "We probably go south now, right? So as to go deosil?"

"Makes sense," said Maurice. "Do you know which street goes to the Old Bridge?"

"North street," Megan replied. "Its the New Bridge part that I can't figure out."

Maurice smiled. "Yes, well, the north-west segment is kind of rough. The Windsor Park and Willow Park armed forces bases kind of take a chunk out of the north west. But Oxford turns into Strawberry hill, and Strawberry Hill runs into the 111, which crosses the bridge. Meanwhile though, Agricola becomes Highland Avenue, which stops at Leeds street across from the community college. Saying we're south of the New Bridge is deliberately poetic and vague. I suspect too that the Wizard might be setting up another building somewhere in that direction, so for practical purposes you might as well figure on Young Street as your boundary. Lets say the current building and its neighborhood is South Wyvern Street, and leave the part north of Young Street to the Wizard. Eh?"

Megan smiled. "Sounds good to me. What do you think, mom?"

Marie smiled too. "Sure, it sounds great. South Wyvern Street it is! Provided the Wizard approves, of course."

"Of course!" Megan agreed. "Maybe that whole bunch of military parks might be North Wyvern Street for all we know!" She added.

Maurice smiled. "Indeed it could." He nodded, looked serious. "But in case it is, lets not mention such ideas, eh?" He winked at Megan.

While talking they had been walking south on the west side of Agricola street. It did not take them long to reach North Street. Marie pointed out Gus's tavern. "Stompin' Tom used to play there when he was growing up, apparently," she announced. "We went there one saturday night years ago, back when we lived in town before, and he was playing there, unannounced, just for old times sake."

"Gus died recently," Maurice told them. "A lot of young folk have been playing there the last while though. I've met some amazing young folk there."

Marie smiled. "Thats good! We'll have to make a point of checking it out!"

They looked through the windows of the old Bank of Nova Scotia building on the northwest corner of the intersection, now a combination salon, cafe and gallery labeled FRED. "Wow, pretty upscale, isn't it?" Asked Marny. "Do you think it will last or is it a bit too ambitious for this area?"

Maurice shrugged. "Hard to say. I'm not sure who is behind it. If it is a sign that the area is becoming gentrified the bank might end up wishing they hadn't moved out. I wonder what is going to be built on the southwest corner there, where Ten-Four Ward and the old Lebanese shop used to be? Were you still in town when the new Lebanese shop on the southeast corner opened or was that after your time?"

They turned right onto North street and headed west. "We moved out to the Covenstead a while after that opened," Marny replied. "It opened before Ten-Four Ward closed down, remember?"

Maurice nodded. "Of course. Yes, I remember that. You had actually picked out the area you wanted to set up a Covenstead in before the pimpmobile was decommissioned, right?"

Marny nodded, smiling at the memory of the pimpmobile. "Yeah. Wow, that was a long time ago now. Before the Old Mokka. We'd already left town by the time the Mokka Cafe came along."

"The Old Mokka is where we met Marie and Marny," said Susan. "Little Mysteries bookshop was new in those days, and Merlin's Pocket too."

"Merlin's Pocket?" Jason asked. "Whats Merlin's Pocket?"

"It didn't last very long," Susan told him. "Little Mysteries is pretty much the first Magick Shop to survive in Halifax. Before them there had been Magical Books and Letters, in the Turret building - the Khyber building now - along with Red Herring Books. The city just wasn't ready for a dedicated Magick Shop until the nineties it seems, and even then not two of them."

"Some of the people who do the Pagan radio shows on Dal Radio are going to open an aromatherapy business soon though," Maurice told them. They were at corner of North and Robie, waiting for the traffic-light to change.

"Hey, remember that house?" Marny asked Marie, pointing at the one on the southeast corner. "That day on the roof?"

Marie sighed. "Ah yes. It is nice to be back in town, isn't it? We've known so many people here over the years. She's still in town, you know. Got one of the nice little houses on Brunswick Street just north of Scotia Square. One of the little brick row-houses up on the embankment."

Marny raised his eyebrows. "Ah so! Thats great! Just around the corner from the Marquee. Have you kept track of anyone else from the Old Mokka period?"

"You know that One World Cafe is Kenova's don't you?" Asked Maurice. "And I think you'll recognise one of the bellydancers you're likely to see at one or another of the public Yule celebrations."

"We haven't visited One World yet," Marie admitted. "Its at West and Agricola, isn't it?"

"Thats right," Maurice confirmed. Been a succession of cafes there, hopefully One World will last a while. I've even seen some folk from Odin's Eye there occassionally."

"Odin's Eye!" Marny exclaimed. "Wow thats a blast from the past! Remember when Jeannie Robinson danced Stardance? And Spider read 'Serpent's Tooth'? Remember when we all marched over to the polling station to vote for Alexa? Some real continuity in this old town, eh? Its good to be back."

Maurice patted him on the back. "Yes, still a few of us old fogies around! That was before Spider and Jeannie moved out to the Valley, or maybe I should say North Mountain."

"Yeah!" Marie enthused. "Remember reading Stardance for the first time? What a trip!" All this while they'd been walking steadily. By now they were crossing Gladstone street.

"There are some doctors in this professional centre, you'll want a family physician. Unless you already have someone in mind there's a good chance someone here has room for a few more patients,", Maurice announced. "The Sobeys here is open twenty-four hours, except on Sundays. Nowadays there is a Superstore on Young near Robie, open fairly late. But when you need stuff in the middle of the night this Sobeys is worth knowing about. The Lawton's has a post office inside but the main post office on Almon and the Shoppers Drug Mart at Robie and Almon are closer. The Lawton's isn't 24-hour like the Sobeys so unless you prefer Lawtons to Shoppers for some reason you'll probably find the Shoppers more convenient."

Marie looked at him. "How likely are we to be needing things in the middle of the night, do you think?" She asked.

Maurice shrugged. "You'll be housemother. Its a large house. At least make sure whoever is on night call knows about it. Though the house is usually pretty well stocked."

Marny patted her on the back. "Chin up, stiff upper lip and all that!" He said. "We'll get a team together soon enough."

She looked thoughtful. "Hmm, yes, we have to think about that. Covens kind of lost their popularity in the city, didn't they? Maybe they're out of fashion nowadays. I don't remember exactly who decided to stay at Wyvern Street tonight, we might have some good prospects right there."

Maurice coughed. "You might be right about Covens losing their popularity. Its an easy structure to abuse. It will be interesting to see what happens. You might recall that way back when you were living in town before there were occassional rumours claiming it wasn't that there were no covens around but that they were all forty-year-olds or older and didn't want anything to do with the younger generations. Who knows how many might be around if they keep strict secrecy?"

They crossed Windsor street. Megan and Jason, in the lead, noticed the Shunpiker office. "Hey, look, this is where Shunpiking is published," said Megan. "Alternative Media, hmm, maybe they publish other stuff too."

"Could be," said Marny. "We'll check that out for you if you like." He addressed Maurice again. "Maybe the old timer covens are around and maybe they're not," Marny replied. "Maybe they were never more than unfounded rumours. But if they are around but are super-secret we can't worry too much about them unless they choose to contact us. Remember that Revealed Covens of the Maritime Provinces document we put together at Ten-Four Ward? Trying to reconcile the Old Laws with the defacto openness that was already common by then? A copy of it is still online at Goddess Knotwork. Do you know whether that ever attracted any feelers from the hypothetical oldsters? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"I haven't heard much about it locally," Maurice replied. A few folks in the States picked up on it early on, but theres been no word from them that I know about. I suspect a lot more people are familiar with Dancing to the Melody than with the Revealed Covens bylaws. That is part of why the Wizard and I have focussed more on Cafe and Unarmed Forces types of tradition, with an eye toward the Ordo Templi Canadensis idea, than on Wiccans. There are at least a couple of promising young Wiccans around right now though. A lot of the most promising youngsters don't seem drawn to traditional Wicca. As I said, it will be interesting to see what happens."

"Maybe we should make time for a trip to the Wiccan Church of Canada in the not too distant future?" Marie suggested. "Weren't some people from there around in the Old Mokka era? Are they still here?"

"Its hard to tell," Maurice replied. "If they were involved they were a pretty closed mouthed lot. There was one chap I recall who was supposedly a Magus, at least he listed himself once upon a time as 9th degree, 2nd Sephira, which is what we tend to think of when we think of a Magus. He claimed to at least be aquainted with the Wiccan Church of Canada folk. Whether they even dream that such a grade is attainable by a living person I do not know. Even if they do, the fact that they do might be a closely guarded secret. It wouldn't do, after all, to have everyone and their dog running around thinking themselves Magi, would it? It was interesting though. If he really was a Magus it seems that Magi can be quite modest chaps. Not at all like like Uncle Aleister. I don't think many people knew this chap claimed to be one. Maybe he was just testing us to see how we would react to such a claim."

"Are you a Magus?" Jason asked. "Is the Wizard?"

"We don't even know how to figure that out, Jason," Maurice replied. "It does not seem very likely, but it is not really very clear quite what Magus actually means. Think of the Christmas story of the three wise men. Maybe they were the only three real Magi in the world back then, and Christ the next step, the step they had been waiting for and maybe hoping to achieve themselves some day. We don't really know. It seems like a real Magus would be pretty powerful. But maybe they'd also be too wise to interfere in most events of the world. Its an interesting idea to meditate about." He smiled. "But then again maybe there are lots of Magi in the world, many of whom may not even realise that they are Magi! By the way, that is Oxford School on the other side of the street. We're almost at Oxford street. That is probably the school that you'll be going to when you move into town. If they're not too full, of course. Maybe now would be a good time to see if those thermoses have kept our coffee and chocolate hot, eh?"

Marie was looking at the church on the north side of the street. "A huge stone church, nice!"

"Saint Theresa's," Maurice told her. "Catholic, although the sign out front never seems to actually come right out and say so."

"Hmm," Marie replied. "I've never really noticed whether Catholic churches tend to do that, like England not putting the name of the country on their stamps."

They crossed the street to get a closer look at the school and its grounds, even walked around to the Willow street side to see it from the south. "We'll look into the school situation during the week," Marie told Jason and Megan. "Maybe by next weekend we might have the game plan figured out. Don't get your hearts set too much on going to the same school as Jamie and Cathy right away, because we don't know yet whether there'll be space for two more students in the middle of the year. We'll try, though."

"Is it the sort of thing that it'd be okay to cast a spell for, mom?" Megan asked. "It wouldn't harm anyone, would it?"

"Lets get the information first," Marie suggested. "Who knows, there might be a better option that we haven't thought of yet. Maybe we can get you into a really good private school. Or maybe you can go back to homeschooling again. Theres no telling what resources we might have access to now that we're back in the city, and next term is quite a way into the future. I want to talk to Mary about it too. Meanwhile it looks like this bit of lawn could do with a quick bit of litterpicking doesn't it," she smiled.

It didn't take long to pick the green area clean of litter, with everyone pitching in. That done, they headed northward on the east side of Oxford street. "We've almost never walked along this part of Oxford," Marie commented. "From Quinpool southward, yes. But I can't think of anything that would have prompted us to come along this part of the street."

Marny shrugged. "We'll know the whole of South Wyvern Street before spring," he predicted. "And by next fall we'll have mapped where all the chestnut trees are. Real chestnuts, not horse chestnuts. I always wanted to do that but somehow we never got around to it. In fact it would be nice to map out what all the trees are along all the streets within the South Wyvern Street boundaries."

"Have you noticed how common Nightshade is in the city?" Susan asked. "Why is that, I wonder? I wouldn't've thought it the kind of thing city folk would like to have growing everywhere."

"Lots of burdock too," said Robert. "I guess city folk like their weeds to be real weeds, or something."

"Burrs are fun!" Jason smirked. "Nothing quite like them for throwing in people's hair." No-one rose to the bait; they all seemingly chose to believe he was joking.

"Do you think the Wizard would let me write a book about all this, Maurice," Marny asked. "A new beginning like this seems like a perfect start for a novel."

Maurice smiled. "Are we that obvious? You should talk to the Wizard about the details but basically we were kind of hoping you might want to do something like that. The Wizard even came up with a working title: 'The Wyvern Street Irregulars'. I do believe he even has a potential publisher in mind. Someone who specialises in novels based in Halifax. How fictitious were you thinking of though? Something that might even be set in the same Halifax that is haunted by Vampires from Bedford?"

"No, no," Marny demurred. "Nothing in the fantasy or science fiction genre at all. I was actually hoping that real life might be quite interesting enough without waxing fantastical. Truth is stranger than fiction, supposedly. So it'd be nice to keep it realistic. But a certain amount of fiction, or at least secrecy and privacy, will be necessary anyway, so I don't mind writing with an 'occult fiction' kind of genre in mind. Think of Dion Fortune's 'Adventures of Doctor Taverner', for example. Although I kind of hope we don't experience anything quite as intense as the cases Doctor Taverner encountered. A lot might depend on what the publisher is looking for, but on the other hand considering the work we'll probably be doing I might find it simpler and easier to write reference books or textbooks or factual accounts of actual events than to wax too far-fetched in attempting to make a work of fiction."

"Good, good," Maurice replied. "Things seem to be falling together quite well so far. If publishers give us too much trouble maybe we can create a Wyvern Street Press and publish stuff ourselves. No sense letting market forces distort your artistic sensibilities too much, eh?"

"Hey, don't get me wrong, vampire fiction is fun, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at it if the local vampire rulers don't mind a collaborator encroaching on their turf. But I would like to chronicle the adventure we seem to be embarking upon, and I'd like to do that as true to life as possible, true enough in fact that I would have to publish it as fiction if only to be able to pretend that it is not quite exactly true and to avoid clarifying precisely which details have been changed and for what reasons."

"Exactly!" Maurice agreed. "That is precisely why the Wizard wanted something that would pass as fiction. Maybe the term speculative fiction might be applicable. At least he hoped that it might be a useful form in which to publish various speculations, along with examples of the kinds of experiences and teachings that might lead to such speculations. Like you said, truth can sometimes seem, at least potentially, stranger than at least some fiction. I'm glad to see that you're in tune with the gameplan!"

"Oh heck," Marny retorted. "We're so used to things being in tune, for so many years now, that things seem wrong when they're not full of synchronicity and coincidence. We start to worry if we haven't been having amazing runs of coincidence for a while. Right, gang?" Nods all around.

"That was a lot of what attracted us to Marie and Marny," Robert said. "There was a lot of that going around at the Old Mokka, and they gave us a copy of the Dunns' 'Echoes of the Melody' Spiritual Warrior's Handbook, which is what they were working with at the time. We've been seeing synchronicity in action ever since."

"The Old Mokka was a powerful period for a lot of folk, from a lot of different traditions," said Maurice. "But the New Mokka was a very productive period too, I think. It will be interesting to see how things go with One World Cafe."

"Very interesting!" Marny enthused. "I am almost more interested in how that works out than in what might happen among the Wiccans. I found various people and experiences we met through the Library Lawn and the Old Mokka fascinating. I'm sure this move into town is going to be an amazing adventure! Heck, it has already been an amazing adventure!"

"Come now, Marny," Maurice objected. "Surely a lot of amazing things have been happening out at the Covenstead all these years? Don't make everyone regret going back there!"

"Well yes, of course." Marny admitted. "I suspect things are going to be hopping there too, with Marie and I out of the way. A lot of people will probably be putting out feelers and sending scouts and so on to see what Debbie and John are going to do with the place. I think this coming year is going to be an amazing year for all of us. Every year has been amazing though for many years now. But still."

Maurice smiled. "I know what you mean. Life never ceases to amaze me. At least since I started working with the Wizard. It is pretty normal for magickal folk to feel that way though isn't it? I don't think it is anything peculiar to our own way of working or anything. Just something that happens to anyone who pursues almost any spiritual path sincerely."

"I tend to think so," said Marie. "I've always had the impression that it is the spiritual side of things, rather than the so called magick, that does it. But some folk don't really distinguish the two."

"You often tell us not to cast spells though mom," Jason said. "Thats because we're supposed to trust the God and Goddess."

"Thats right," said Marie. "Not everyone agrees with that though. We still run into folk now and then whose main interest in Wicca is the idea of casting spells."

"Is that what someone is doing somewhere around the Covenstead?" Megan asked. "Casting spells that they shouldn't be casting?"

Marie looked at her. "We don't know. The Wizard has gone with Susan and John though, maybe he'll look into that."

"The Wizard went to the Covenstead?" Jason asked. "Is he going to stay a while?"

"Maybe," said Marie. "That probably depends what he finds. He'll probably spend some time with you though if thats what you're thinking. He always does, doesn't he?"

"Great!" Said Jason. "He hasn't been out in months, we've got lots of stuff to show him! Plus we still have Samhain to celebrate! Cool!"

Marie smiled. Here in town most of the public Samhain celebrations had been scheduled for the weekend, but at the Covenstead they'd be celebrating tuesday night, the last day of October. "Thats true," she said. "He'll probably at least stay long enough for that!"

"We'll be doing something too, Marie," Maurice told her. "Everyone in the building will get together tuesday night. Mary too I expect. Maybe even Roger. You might want to"

"Oh good," Marie replied. "We always prefer to celebrate on the actual night when possible." She turned to Marny. "Janet and Scott stayed over?" She asked.

"I think so," he replied. "Maurice?"

"Yes," Maurice answered. "They're staying at least until tursday, maybe longer. I think they're hoping to move in long term."

"Aha," said Marie. "It looks like our team is already starting to form. Good."

"I made a list of people you should call," said Susan. "I put it on the desk in your apartment, under the phone. We weren't sure who would be staying in town, but a number of people wanted to be kept informed. Hey, look, theres another hairstylist and another hair salon. Thats what, four now on this street? Are all the barbers in the neighborhood on this street?"

Oxford was mostly residential, but not totally. They had seen a few businesses of various kinds; even one corner that had two corner-stores opposite one-another. Like most streets in Halifax, it was lined with trees. Although they had mentioned weeds, they hadn't actually seen many on this street; the nightshade and burrs had been mostly on the way to Agricola and in places along Agricola itself. Oxford was actually the most upscale of all the streets they'd walked along so far. Most of the front yars of the houses were well kept.

"Don't forget that FRED place," said Robert. Its a salon as well as a cafe."

"Oh yeah," Susan replied. "I'd forgotten them already. A lot more upscale than this lot. These look like they've probably been here longer though. Are you going to try out that FRED place, Marie?"

Marie shrugged. "Maybe. I hadn't thought about it. I haven't been to a salon in ages."

"Maybe next time we're in town," Susan suggested.

Marie shrugged again. "Maybe. I'll ask around about them, maybe someone we know has already tried them."

They turned east onto Young street. This part, west of Windsor, was also residential. More so than Oxford in fact. They knew it would more than make up for it once they passed Windsor though.

"I thought Young was a heavy traffic area?" said Jason.

"Wait until we reach Windsor," Maurice told him. "There is no straight through across Windsor; traffic heading west has to turn left or right, traffic heading east like we are has to turn right at Windsor. The main commercial area, including the Superstore, is between Windsor and Robie. This part is pretty much the same as any of the other residential streets between Oxford and Windsor."

"Windsor is the Queen's family," said Megan. "There is a Charles street somewhere off of Windsor too, isn't there?"

Maurice smiled. "Charles street is a couple of blocks south of North street. Westward it ends at Saint Matthias street. According to the Christian Bible Matthias was the first new Apostle after Jesus was crucified. Eastward it ends at Gottingen."

"Gottingen is where the Blue Moon is, right?" Jason asked.

"Right," Maurice affirmed. "Where Club NRG used to be, and before that the Bike Shop cafe."

"Its not like the Mokka was," said Marie. "No all-ages section. So we won't be able to take you there."

Megan pouted. "We can go to One World Cafe though, right?"

Marie smiled. "Right. They have internet there too. Maybe we can rustle up some laptops for you."

"I'm sure we can," said Maurice. "Not fancy mind you, but servicable enough to get by with anyway."

"Why exactly are we moving back to the city, really?" Megan asked.

"Thats a good question," Marny replied. "Basically the Wizard wants us to. We don't really know what he has in mind but it was time for a change and this is the change that has come along."

"We need someone to take over the running of the building," said Maurice. "In case we have to go away for a while or something. Maybe we shouldn't be so sure that you'll be moving, actually; but we wanted someone from the Covenstead to take the front apartment and it just happens to be Marie and Marny; it could as easily have been Debbie and John. Would you rather not move?"

Megan shook her head. "No, I want to move. Although it would've been more fun to move in the summer instead of winter. I just wondered why all of a sudden all this is happening."

"We are all wondering that," said Marie. "Maybe it is just a change that was due, or maybe the Wizard will find something. He went back to the Covenstead because I'd been getting weird readings, basically. I kept thinking something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Maybe it was simply that it was time for this. Maybe something is actually wrong somewhere. We don't know yet."

"Something about the new kid a school?" Asked Megan.

"Why do you say that?" Marie replied.

"I don't know," Megan admitted. "It just came to me. He doesn't seem to like us. None of us, not just Jason and I."

"He thinks Pagans are stupid," said Jason.

"He doesn't bother you though does he? You haven't mentioned him to us before." Marie asked.

"Heck no," said Jason. "He doesn't have anything to do with any of the known Pagan kids at all."

Marie caught Susan's eye. Yes, Susan would check it out. Maurice gave Susan a little nod too, which she returned. She would be mentioning this to the Wizard when she got back to the Covenstead.

Meanwhile Robert distracted the kids. "Did you invite everyone you wanted to invite to come over after school on tuesday?"

"Yeah, they have to ask their parents and all of course," Jason told him. "They'll tell us tommorrow whether they can make it or not."

"I feel spooky now," said Megan. "What happened? Its been such a great walk and now all of a sudden I feel spooked."

"Lets ground and centre then," said Marie. They halted on the streetcorner. "We are in the north of our huge circle. Sense the Archangels out there around it. Send out your aura to feel around the whole area. Do you sense anything to get spooked about?"

"No." Said Megan. "No, wait. What about the new boy's parents? They know we're talking about him."

Marie looked at Maurice. Maurice looked carefully at Megan. "You're sure?" Maurice asked Megan.

"Uh, no." Megan replied. "I don't know who it was. Didn't you sense someone though?"

They all exchanged looks. Then "Maybe we're not as sensitive as you, Megan," Maurice told her. "We've never met the lad, either. We'll phone the Wizard when we get back indoors."

They crossed the street, walking faster now. Soon they were crossing Windsor. "See what I meant about this intersection?" Maurice asked Jason. "This island in the middle diverts traffic to keep the residential section quieter."

Jason nodded. "Is that why someone could sense us? Because we were on such a quiet street?" He asked.

"We don't know that someone did sense us," said Maurice. "Megan might have sensed them without them sensing her." He looked at Megan.

Megan thought about it. "I suppose," she said. I don't really know that anyone did overhear us, I just kind of felt something nasty."

Maurice smiled. "We are kind of in the middle of a divination," he told her. "We are under protection. It seems kind of unlikely that we'd be detected, the idea really was for us to learn things, not to go broadcasting anything to anyone else."

Megan smiled at him. "I think you're right," she affirmed. "I feel all warm and cosy now."

"If it was someone out near the Covenstead or the school or something," said Robert, "lets remember too that the Wizard is headed that way, in fact he might be reaching the Covenstead right about now. If they were going to sense anything. isn't it more likely they'd sense him approaching them?"

Maurice looped around that with his mind, shielding so that their instinctive reaching out toward the Wizard wouldn't broadcast. "Okay, people, lets keep our thoughts inside our little part of the city for a while, shall we?" He suggested. "I really don't know whether the Wizard would have gone in stealthily or broadcasting a warning to all nastiness to keep out of his way. I think though he was just being open, allowing any impressions that wanted to come his way to reach him. Lets keep our thoughts close until we get inside and phone the Covenstead. We'll finish the circuit though. It is tempting to shortcut but we should probably finish walking the entire perimeter." He looked questioningly at Marie. After all, his look reminded her, this was her turf now.

Marie nodded. "Lets all remember that Halifax is a major NATO port with world-class nuclear-bomb-proof psychic shields," she reminded them. "So its not as if we are in any danger. But lets close the perimeter of our little area anyway, maybe with a particular focus on preventing snooping."

They hurried eastward along Young Street, looking around at the businesses they were passing but not commenting about any of them. They put their energy into strengthening their protections instead. As they came abreast of the Esso station on the corner of Robie street a man approached them from the direction of the convenience store. "Yo!" He called. "Hows it going Maurice?"

Evidently this was one of the street people they'd been expected to encounter. "So far so good," Maurice told him. "I think we all have some change for you tonight. These are friends of mine, you might be seeing them around. I don't want anyone bothering them, okay?"

The man looked them all over as they each handed him a looney or few. The Wizard liked to stay on good terms with the local street-people and wanted them to do so too. "No problem, man, he said. "Don't you worry none, ain't no-one gonna harm you around here."

They continued on their way, crossed Robie, continued east past the side of Robie Foods restaurant. "He'll try to hit you up for change every time he sees you," Maurice told them, "but he's pretty harmless. Except maybe to himself, depending on what he really spends that on. He's not really what I'd call a friend though, more a kind of aquaintance. I think of of him more as a kind of business aquaintance than as a charity case." He looked at Marie. "He probably already has a caseworker, he probably wouldn't appreciate another," he warned her. She nodded. She knew the type.

The rest of their journey was uneventful. Soon they were back indoors, outdoor gear stashed away, coffee brewed, and phone call made. They convened in the west study.

"The circle is still cast in the temple," Marie told them. "Marny, Maurice and I will take down the circle, you lot help yourselves to coffee and snacks. You'll all be going back to the Covenstead as planned, we're to give you some stuff though so don't leave yet." She, Marny and Maurice headed into the temple and closed the door behind them.

Susan handed out sandwiches. "The Wizard probably wants to talk to you himself," she told Megan. "He would've said to leave you two in town if he thought it wasn't safe to come out there."

Megan nodded. "The van is safe, the Covenstead is safe, I'm just a bit worried about going to school tomorrow."

"That will be up to Debbie and John and the Wizard," Susan told her. "If they say go, you're going. You might not be going alone though; someone might want to talk to some of the teachers or something. Its not really very likely that the new kid is some kind of horror like in the movies though, you know that, right? Even if he is playing around with some kind of nastiness he is surely a minor dabbler compared to the Wizard or even Debbie and John."

Megan smiled. "Well yeah, of course. I'm not worried about him. I don't know why I got spooked though. Maybe its nothing."

"Maybe, maybe not," Susan replied. "Don't let your imagination run wild. Whatever it was, we'll deal with it. Here, have some more hot chocolate." She topped up Megan's mug.

"Imagination is powerful," said Robert. "Most times imagination is all it is. Most people would think we're silly to be worrying at all. A lot of people would probably say the Wizard and Maurice are a bad influence on us, because they take such things seriously. Simply refusing to believe it could be anything but imagination is most people's defense, and it can be a very powerful defense. But in our tradition we like to train our imaginations. We can mount just as strong a defense by using trained imagination as a skeptic can by refusing to believe in imaginary things. Am I making any sense?"

"Of course!" Said Jason. "If we wanted to we could imagine the new boy is an antichrist, then use our trained imaginations to defend outselves even against an antichrist's dark side of the force! We have the God and Goddess on our side, even an antichrist couldn't beat them!"

"Exactly!" Susan agreed. "I think you've got the basic idea." She smiled.

The temple door opened. "Okay, all done in there," said Marie. Marny and Maurice were right behind her. "This box is what the Wizard wanted us to send along with you. Phone us in the morning to keep us in the loop, will you?" She handed the box to Robert.

"Will do!" Said Susan. "Lets go, gang!" A round of hugs later Susan, Robert, Megan and Jason were on their way home to the Covenstead.

"Wow, busy day!" Marie said after they'd left. She turned to Marny. "Lets stoke up the fire and sit a while." Then to Maurice. "Now maybe you can tell us about something you expected to show up 'somewhere, why not here?'" She poured herself some hot chocolate.