The cautions I've added are for the story as a whole. The ones for rape and violence are relevant to this part of the story.
Cassandra Jane Starshine led the six other women out of the woods into the waning light of a partly cloudy early winter afternoon.
She laughed quietly for a moment as she stepped through the few inches of snow lying on the ground at the edge of the woods. She had originally intended to drive around the nearly twelve square mile woods, but at the last moment, had decided not to and had informed the other women that they would be required to walk though the large stand of trees to reach their intended destination.
They had grumbled about it, one or two had even whined, mostly the youngest girl, Appolonia Johnson. If she had not needed at least six others who were strong in the magical arts to found the new home place, Appolonia would not be here. To say that Appolonia had tested as being far beyond the ability and knowledge of the next candidate would be an understatement, Appolonia's power almost matched her own.
The seven women spread out, looking to the west from the fringe of the trees.
Of course, it was Appolonia who first spotted the reason for their picking this place as the site for their new town. Just under two miles away from where they now stood, all seven women could feel a major nexus point. All of them could feel all seven ley lines in the nearby nexus.
"Holy Mother Moon," Jeannette Williamson muttered, "That has to be the strongest nexus I've ever seen."
Pavanna Stellari chuckled, a low, sweet sound in the still air. "Not for me, I've seen one with eight lines and another with nine."
Appolonia sighed, saying, "I've seen two others with seven lines, but this one is significantly stronger than either of those were."
Cassandra smiled, nodding in agreement as she spoke, "This is why we came here, and why we went through the woods, not around them."
"So that we could see the nexus point from a distance without being blinded to it by full daylight?" Cheyenne Pevaroski asked.
"That was part of it, yes. What night is this, though?" Cassandra gently admonished the others.
"The first night of the full moon following the winter solstice," came the reply from Tanisha Shavanelle, "So it's drawing in the moon's power."
"Correct," was the response from Cassandra. "But there is something else, there are two spirits that seem tied to the area. Going by what I am feeling, the first spirit is from one of the First Nations tribes that wandered these lands before they were all placed on the reservations. The second has the feeling of Coyote, which is rather odd, as that is much more common in the Southwest, not here. Strange, indeed."
"So you feel me, do you?" came the soft whisper as a tall, slender female shape appeared in front of the very astonished women.
Veronica Kingsland shook her head, this was way more than she had been expecting.
Cassandra actually giggled as she replied to the spirit, "I know I can see and feel you, I'm quite sure Appolonia there can as well," as she pointed to the girl, "Perhaps Cheyenne, and I believe Pavanna. As for the other three, if you hadn't appeared, I doubt they would have known."
"They will learn to see and feel me as time passes, I am sure," was the spirit's return comment. "This land has been quiet for too long. I sense no harm in your hearts. In fact, all seven of you have come here seeking a place where all women and children can be safe from harm. I commend you for this desire. The land here is fruitful, the lake to the north has fish aplenty and the forest to the east provides many things."
Cassandra stood there for a moment, thinking, then asked the spirit, "Are you tied to the nexus itself?"
"Not specifically," the spirit answered, "but the power it holds, especially on a night such as this one, calls me."
The surprises weren't finished yet, it seemed, as the shape of a large coyote appeared a few feet in front of the women. "Before you ask," he said, "Yes, I am Coyote. Yes, I am usually seen in the far Southwest, but others believe in me, and places like this one draw me to them."
"You have no issue with why we came here, then? I would guess that you know what has happened to bring us here as well," Tanisha stated.
Both spirits stated that they had no issue with the women wishing to form a new community around the nexus. The female spirit informed the women that the First Nations peoples that had lived here before had called her Selena, First Daughter of the Moon.
"Well, actually, Selena is probably the closest to what any of you could understand, as my true name is very, very difficult to pronounce."
"We greet thee, Selena and Coyote, and give thee both thanks for allowing us to be here. May the light of the Moon guide us in our endeavours," came the formal response from the women of the coven, speaking as if they were one voice. It had happened a few times before now.
After a bit more idle discussion with the two spirits, the seven women trudged across the snow-covered fields to their new home. By the time that they all were standing around the point directly above the nexus, the sun was halfway down to the horizon and clouds had rolled in overhead. The moon itself would not be rising for a few hours, so there was very little light other than that given off by the cloud-blocked sun.
The seven women were stunned by the power of the nexus. Even without the moon's effect, there was a huge amount of power available. They were all shaking their heads at it. Add in the possible effects of the moon itself, plus the two spirits' abilities, and it was utterly amazing.
They spent the next few hours making careful preparations for the spell that they intended to cast at moon rise. Pavanna, Cheyenne, Veronica and Tanisha walked out from the nexus for a distance of 1.5 miles, then used their powers to draw invisible lines extending 1.5 miles to either side of where they stood. These lines would create the borders of their new town, a square with each side being three miles in length.
Cassandra, Pavanna, Cheyenne, Veronica and Tanisha all had apps on their phones giving info about moonrise, moonset, and other things. Once the four women had 'set' the lines, they returned to the nexus point and rejoined the other three members of their coven.
The seven women stepped into their respective places around the nexus point just as the moon showed the faintest trace on the horizon. Cassandra began to chant, the others following along as the chant continued and the power coalesced around the group of women.
At the apex of the chant, in the seventh repeat of it, the power flared out to all sides, reaching to those lines the four had drawn earlier. The light given off by the power spreading out from where they stood could be seen by all of them, this was far stronger than they had ever done.
The light arced across the night sky, reaching the center point on each of the four sides, then to the corners of the square they had drawn. The light touched the ground all around the prospective town at once, sending another flare of light up into the night sky as the spell finished.
The first ward of protection had been laid. There was quite a lot of work still to be done, but between them, they would handle it.
The spell didn't stop there, though. It kept going into the ground, down to a depth of just over two hundred feet, where it hit bedrock.
Cassandra, or Cass as she asked people to call her, was a fairly strong type A personality housed in a body that was lush and curvy, notwithstanding the fact that she was barely 5'4" in her stocking feet. A page boy style shading from bright red through to silver was the cap on her beauty, many a man had approached her over the years to say that her hairstyle fit her usual businesswoman image to a T.
She was carrying a fair bit of extra weight nowadays, that was what happened when life got too busy to do things like exercise daily. That didn't stop males in many places from trying to chat her up when they saw her, even some that were only adults in the law's eyes, not her own.
Because she had known that they would be hiking through the woods and to the site itself, Cass had ordered the women to dress appropriately. She was clad, therefore, in a pair of comfortable well-worn faded jeans tucked into hiking boots and a men's flannel shirt tucked into a rather obvious feminine touch, the pale pink cable knit sweater one of her daughters had made for her for Christmas six years ago.
The final touch was a women's parka not quite fully zipped up and a toque that matched the sweater pulled down over her ears.
Her wideset grey eyes scanned the area around the nexus. It never hurt to be aware of your surroundings.
Pavanna was the closest to her in actual age, four years younger than Cass' 43, with a bit of silver in her waist length auburn locks and bright green eyes. It was usually kept it in a neatly tied pony tail, but occasionally she let it hang loose, drawing men like moths to flames.
Pavanna found that funny, as men held no attraction for her at all. In fact, she and Veronica Kingsland had been in a relationship that had lasted for over ten years so far. Pavanna's only major difference in style was the ear muffs, currently pulled back so she could hear people talk.
She was tall and slender, standing 5'11" in her stocking feet, with a career in business law behind her. She would take care of legal things here.
Veronica was 37 to Pavanna's 39 and slightly shorter; except for Veronica being ash blonde with blue eyes, the two women could have been sisters. What made it more interesting was that, when they met, Pavanna knew almost no English and Veronica spoke no Italian.
They say love will find a way to communicate and in the case of Pavanna and Veronica, it surely had. They spoke freely in either language now.
Veronica had been a dispatcher for the emergency services in a town about a thirty minute drive from the city of Philadelphia. She had usually worked twelve hour shifts, sometimes longer when a major incident of one kind or another would occur in that semi-rural town.
Cheyenne, 33, was the middle one age wise of the seven women. She was half First Nations through her mother, specifically Blackfoot, but her father had demanded she be raised in town like a 'normal' white girl, even though her ancestry was clear to all from the moment of birth.
Cheyenne's mother, Stephanie, often called Songbird by tribal members for her sweet voice, had put up with her husband's desires and demands until Cheyenne was twelve. One night, in the wee hours, Steph woke to find Alan was not in the room and heard some sounds coming from their daughter's room just down the hall. She threw on a robe, then went to find out why the noises were coming from Cheyenne's room.
Steph opened the door to find that Alan had her daughter pinned to the headboard and was in the midst of what could only be rape. Steph grabbed the iron floor stand lamp that stood near Cheyenne's door, stepped into the room and used it to knock the bastard out cold.
Once that was done, Steph ran to retrieve her cell phone, dropping the stand lamp on the floor and partly over the bed itself. When she came back, she informed Cheyenne that she was calling the police and told her if he moved, she was to use the stand lamp to knock him out again.
Twenty minutes later, the bastard was in cuffs and being hauled out of the house on a charge of statutory rape of a minor child.
Steph put the house up for sale and moved back to the reservation, where life might be rough but you usually knew what was what. She spent the next several years teaching her daughter traditional ways and beliefs, ways that brought Cheyenne closer to Wiccan magic over time.
When Cheyenne had met the others in New York a few months before, she had a fair understanding of First Nations magics, specifically those that were shamanic in origin. Meeting the other women allowed her to see that there were other ways that complimented her beliefs.
Cheyenne typically dressed in buckskin, mostly dresses, but had worn heavy buckskin pants and a matching shirt and vest today. She almost always carried her shamanic tools with her, as she did today, as they were often useful in the preparation of spells the women would cast. The only item beyond her buckskins and her tools was the lightweight parka, the cold and winds out here didn't bother her much at all.
Her raven tresses fell to her hips, long and loose. She would only tie her hair back in a pony tail if it was absolutely necessary.
Like Pavanna and Veronica, Cheyenne was tall, standing 5'10" in her stocking feet. She was also quite fit, running five miles every morning.
Tanisha was the next youngest, having just turned 29 on the day after the winter solstice. Tanisha was a proud young black woman who had come out of the ghettos of New York and had managed to find work in one of the many financial oriented businesses in that city.
She was average height, just a hair under 5'6" tall with shoulder length straightened midnight hair that often seemed to appear blue in spots.
After about six months of working in the business, someone had said something about a particular stock that was beginning to lose its oomph on the public listings. She casually mentioned something about another stock and set off an argument that lasted the rest of the day. What made it interesting was that, early the next morning, she was informed that they were working on her idea and she was getting a pay raise.
That turned into her eventually having her own suite in the office as a new broker, with the powerhouse of the firm behind her.
She put her little insights to good work over the next eight years, amassing a fortune in the neighbourhood of seven billion dollars. At that point, she decided to retire and find other things to do with her life, which eventually led to her meeting one of the other women.
That meeting had been with Pavanna and not long afterward, Tanisha had met the rest of the group. That had happened two years ago.
It was her money that had led to the group's decision to make their own way and place out in the world, a place they could call home.
Jeannette Williamson was the next youngest, having met the early members of the group about a year before Tanisha found them.
Jeannette was a pretty young woman of not quite 26 years of age, 5'3" tall, slim but pretty enough that men followed her everywhere.
She came from a WASP family that claimed ancestry back to before the early pioneers had left for the new lands of America. In fact, she could, if called upon to prove it, show her ancestry going all the way back to the times of Brian Boru, an esteemed name in many Irish homes.
It wasn't truly clear, but one of the lines in her ancestry was marked as a broken line. When she asked the woman in her family who had put all of the information together over a period of about five years, she was told that that line marked an illegitimate child from the great Brian.
She had been interested in Celtic mythology for several years, as well as magic and had some rudimentary knowledge of the mystic arts.
Then she met the group, and in a few short visits, learned that what she knew of magic was just a tiny fragment out of the whole. Over the years since then, her knowledge had expanded to the point where she was the third most powerful member of their little coven.
The last member of the coven was also the youngest. Appolonia Elisabeth Johnson was two months shy of her 20th birthday.
Appolonia, like Pavanna, Veronica and Cheyenne, was quite tall, an even 6' in height with long, flowing dark chestnut coloured hair and very pale blue eyes that brought ice to mind. She had a ready smile and a great willingness to learn, which helped her out within the coven.
Her family was mixed Greek and Celtic, mostly Greek, but she had apparently thrown back to a Celtic great-grandmother on her mom's side.
Like everyone in the group except for Cheyenne, she was wearing heavy jeans and a flannel shirt inside a heavy parka.
She was still a neophyte in the knowledge of magic, but the raw power she could use or add to a spell was on the level of 'what the fuck?'.
Cassandra's abilities in magic almost perfectly matched her business acumen, being mostly in the realm of organizing and running everything.
Tanisha's abilities were very much in the natural realm, primarily to do with plants, but she also had a fair knowledge of genetics. She put that to use once they had brought the seven vehicles to the new town and they had set up personal tents to give them a sense of privacy.
Tanisha wanted something that would be protective of the townsfolk, and that would be able to recognize people as townsfolk or not. This had been something she had been experimenting on at home in a large and well maintained laboratory, and she had had some success.
The biggest success was a plant that she called Lupus carnivora shavanella, a plant that often reached heights of nearly four metres or about thirteen feet. What made this plant type of particular interest was that units in close proximity would grow together and establish a hive mind. That oddity gave the combined specimens a very high intelligence and she had taught them to understand English, Spanish and Italian.
If the plants were within twenty feet or six metres of each other, they would extend their roots to connect to other ones nearby, allowing the plants on both sides of a narrow street, per se, to operate as if they were one being. The second oddity, and the one that gave the plants part of their name, was that each floret, when open, resembled the open jaw of a wolf with sharp teeth that were quite capable of rending something. The plants were carnivorous, but could be kept quiescent with miniscule doses of magic at regular intervals that Tanisha organized.
Each of the women would give a tiny amount of magic occasionally to the plants, which each combined plant learned to accept over time.
The project had been developing for the last six months in Tanisha's labs and was now ready to be used to defend the new town. At intervals of about one half of a mile from the center point of each side of the town, entry gates were placed, with wide paths leading into the town. On each side of those paths, Tanisha planted a combined specimen, then added to each one until it ran along the whole first block.
Each block in the town was about three hundred feet long, so imagine these plants extending along and under each first block into the town.
One of the precautions Tanisha had set into the plants capabilities was that they could only grow where they were set. Except for the plants on either side of the blocks leading into the town, the plants were unable to extend into other areas, so they would not overrun the entire town.
Cheyenne's abilities in the normal realm were in the construction field, she had worked for several years as a drywaller and brick and stone layer. She had also spent some time making natural wood walls, and this was what she chose to use as her primary building style here.
The wooded area to the east had a variety of good, solid trees that would be useful to her, but there were other wooded areas within ten miles of the new town; as long as they didn't go crazy, and ensured that they replanted anything they cut, there would be a good supply for many years to come. There was also a large area to the west of the lake that looked like a natural quarry, specifically sandstone and marble.
Both of those types of stone were sometimes used in making buildings. The sandstone would make lovely tiling for the rooftops, while the marble could be used as wall reinforcement and also as flooring. The marble in the quarry site appeared to be off white, almost silver in colour.
She talked to the other women to get some idea of what each one wanted for their home to be and started to make plans.
Once they had settled in overnight, Pavanna got down to business, specifically the legal things like incorporating their new town, drawing up what could become the town charter, and removing legal obstructions that might arise through the state or federal governments.
The town's site was in the backlands of the old state of Colorado, in what used to be the United States of America. Within ten years of the end of World War II, the US and Canada came to an agreement and became one nation, henceforth known as the United Realms of Canica.
Many people nowadays often called the whole nation, which stretched from the North Pole all the way to the border with Mexico, Greater Canica. Different major regions, like what had been Canada in former times, were identified by individual names tied to the whole. For instance, what had been Canada was now Upper Canica, what had been the states roughly above the Mason-Dixon line was Central Canica and the area between that and the border with Mexico was known as Lower Canica. The population of the new land was nearly 375 million now.
The new president had been a surprise upset, an Independent who had taken Canica by storm and won in a massive landslide election. Wonder of wonders, the voting in that election had been the highest seen in either former land since the elections that combined the two lands.
The new president-elect, who would take office in a few short weeks, was named Vanessa Redbird. She was a First Nations woman who had been raised in Alberta and had run on a platform of "If you earn the trust of the people, they will stand by you through anything".
Well, she had done that in her own way, having served in the Army for over twenty years, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant Colonel. From the time that she had received her first command, she had put that credo to use, building the trust of her units on a daily basis.
That trust had come back to her when she announced her candidacy for the presidency. She had no idea just how much she meant to the people she led in battle for almost 20 years. The soldiers talked to their families, they talked to their friends and the surprise win happened.
Pavanna hooked up her laptop, using a tiny bit of magic to connect to the nearest set of cell towers, then contacted a friend. This friend had served under Miss Redbird, earning six medals in the process, and was quite happy to pass on Pavanna's message to the president-elect.
The message was regarding the new town and the hopes that former military people might come here to serve as police, medics, etc. That message also went out to about a dozen other people with a great deal of power in the new land. Hopefully, each of them would help.
Once she had formatted the incorporation document and the charter, and had the necessary signatures for them, she sent them off to the state capitol in Denver, asking for a quick response so she could continue to legally establish the new community and obtain necessary rights.
As there were no towns of any size in the area, she figured that she would have a reply from the governor's staff within 48 hours.
Once she had done what she could to start the ball rolling, she wandered over to offer herself as a workhorse for Cheyenne.
Jeannette had only recently finished a master's degree in psychology and another in social work. She had been in the process of looking around for work when Tanisha had suggested they use her money to establish a new town somewhere, where women and kids would be safe.
When they had set up the plan for the new town, Jeannette said that she would put her degrees to good use there. She would establish a combo clinic/office either in the hospital that would be built, or close to it, where she would treat clients that needed either of her skill sets.
She spent some time talking to Cheyenne, asking for an area just off what would be the town common for her clinic and office. While discussing it with Cheyenne, Pavanna joined them, suggesting that she could do some grunt work to get the building projects going.
Cheyenne had decided to mark an area three hundred feet on each side around the nexus as a large open park for the new town. This idea had been enthusiastically supported by the other six women, and markers had already been set around the prospective town common.
Appolonia, once she had graduated from high school, had stunned her family by taking a one year course at a community college that would allow her to apply to the police academy. She had recently graduated from the academy and had worked on the beat in New York for the last three months. She found Cheyenne, Jeannette and Pavanna all talking at the eastern edge of what would become the town common.
"Heya, girls, right now, I'm on my own for keeping the peace here, not that it's a problem with just the seven of us. But that will change, and I doubt it will take very long at all before we're going to need several more people to help me to do that job as the town grows. Pavanna, you seem to have lots of contacts with either government folks or military people, can you send the word out that we need folks for this?"
Pavanna giggled, walked over to a nearby tree and picked up an expensive backpack, then pulled out a laptop. "I did that already, Appolonia." The words were hardly out of her mouth before the system was powering up and she sat down on a nearby stump and started typing. "If you're wondering what I'm doing now, I'm sending an addendum to my earlier message to several important people across the country."
Appolonia, Jeannette and Cheyenne looked on in astonishment. Appolonia was the first to ask, "How are you able to use that here?"
Pavanna giggled again, looked up at the three other women and replied, "Oh, I tapped into the cell towers about thirty miles thataway." She pointed off to the southeast, then went back to her typing on the functional laptop in a place where there was no physical power supply.
The three women shook their heads, then Jeannette and Appolonia wandered off together, chatting about their respective fields of work.
As the two girls wandered off, Veronica approached from the other direction, having come from the vehicles the seven had brought here.
"Hi, Pavanna, Cheyenne, what's up?" she enquired as she stopped a few paces away from them and looked around her.
Pavanna had apparently finished whatever she was doing on the laptop as she closed it, put it in the backpack and set it down against the tree.
Cheyenne replied, "I've been making decisions on what we need to build our homes and a few important places as well. It seems there is a rather large quarry not far from that lake to the north, the quarry has both sandstone and marble, both of which are useful building materials. I was figuring that it would make sense to have most of the walls and framework be hardwoods, specifically maple, cherry, oak, and hickory.
"While we walked through that woods area yesterday afternoon, I noted that all of those trees were present in reasonably decent amounts, as were birch and beech, American chestnut, dogwood, ash, aspen, poplar, walnut and willow in somewhat smaller quantities.
"The first four I named are ones more commonly used in construction, but the other types can be used to make furniture and other things.
"Now, do either of you have any knowledge of the various tree types. What I mean is can you recognize each type without a guidebook?"
Pavanna and Veronica were silent for a moment, then Pavanna remembered something and that low, sweet chuckle erupted from her.
"Not a problem, Cheyenne, my father worked for over twenty years for the forestry department in upper New York State after his first job working in a sawmill went under because the owners were idiots and had lost the business by making bad investments for several years. I can remember daddy leading me around, showing me various trees and drilling me on each type until I knew them by heart," she giggled.
"I'll take Veronica with me, I have four high end chainsaws that were gifts from daddy over the years, we can use those to cut the trees."
"Excellent," Cheyenne grinned, "I'm going to need at least thirty adult oak trees, preferably not ancient ones, I noticed one or two big ones while we walked through the woods. Hmmm... at least thirty full grown maple, perhaps twenty cherry, same amount for hickory, ten each of walnut and chestnut. That should be enough to get the base for several buildings up, plus some walls. If we need more, we can get it later."
"Okay, we'll get on that, Cheyenne," Pavanna responded. "Good thing our main vehicle is a big pickup truck with a long bed, huh?"
Veronica nodded, then giggled, "Yeah, it is, but even still, it's going to take a few loads to bring all of those back here, I'm figuring we'll have to cut the trees into ten foot lengths at best, then load them. I doubt we would be allowed to haul full length trees using just the pickup."
"Not only would that be very unlikely, it would be too risky, full length trees would pull the back end down a lot, making it very hard to drive."
Cheyenne nodded and smiled as the two women wandered off in the direction of the parked vehicles. The real work would start soon.
Cheyenne was looking around, still smiling, when Cassandra walked up to her, carrying what looked like a large travel mug in one hand.
"Oooooh, you got one of the camp stoves out and brewed some coffee by the smell. Dammit, woman, why didn't you bring me some?"
"I wasn't thinking about it, honestly," Cass replied, "I'm just wandering around, feeling the place out, ya know? I knew there were some big nexuses around the country, but it wasn't until Appolonia joined us a little while back that I found this one. Damn, it's a monster!"
Cheyenne giggled, "Yeah, I remember Appolonia last night mentioning it was the biggest seven line nexus she had ever seen."
Cass nodded, "Yep, the only ones that I know of that are bigger are in the UK or Europe, except for one deep in the Australian Outback."
"Wait!" Cheyenne gasped, "You're saying we found one of the biggest nexuses anywhere and it went undiscovered all this time?"
Cass nodded, then shrugged, saying, "It's weird, but it almost feels like we were meant to find it and build a community here."
Cheyenne agreed, then grumbled, "What I need now is someone that can extract and then bring the sandstone and marble here."
Cass laughed, a bright, high almost tinkling sound that caused Cheyenne to giggle reflexively. "Give it time, Cheyenne, give it time."
Ten days had passed since the coven had cast the spell that set the first layer of protection over the new town.
Cheyenne, with help from Pavanna and Veronica, had set up the basic frames for several houses around the central square. The houses would be forty feet wide, sitting on lots slightly more than sixty feet across, the differences would be due to what people desired.
For the most part, the houses were quite similar at this point, with this one being a bit longer, that one slightly wider at the back because the owner, Appolonia, wanted a small private room attached there for her gun collection, which rivalled that of some big game hunters.
Pavanne and Veronica had brought back quite a few truckloads of various types of trees, all having been cut into ten foot lengths. The two women had then set up a set of braces that could be clamped around the logs, then proceeded to saw each log in half lengthwise.
When they had a fair supply ready, the three women working together would lift each log into place on strong brackets bolted into the studs.The logs were set so that each one would fit into place with only the slightest of gaps showing which could be easily sealed.
They carried, placed and cut new half logs when needed, stopping occasionally for breaks or to grab a drink from a canteen. Cheyenne's watch showed the time to be 11:19 AM; they had, in the three hours they had been working today, covered most of one side wall of a house.
If they could maintain the pace, all seven houses that were being built, plus the combined clinic/office, would be ready in a few weeks.
Cheyenne nodded, smiling as she waved to Pavanna and Veronica, then returned to the work that needed to be done.
Pavanna had received over five dozen responses to her requests for emergency workers, primarily police, fire and medical. She had spent most of her evenings wading through new messages, talking to people she knew in various areas of the country who knew someone who knew someone else that knew the person that she was inquiring about. In most cases, the information that she heard was very positive.
Over 90% of those who had contacted her had said they could start within two weeks, or perhaps a month.
What interested Pavanna quite a bit was that some of these people had access to magic in one way or another.
Three of them, all living in the the borough of Queens in New York City, had formed a small coven of their own, one with true magic.
Pavanna had sent replies to most of the people who had contacted her, saying she and the others would see them when they arrived.
What interested Pavanna even more were the messages from people with strong magical ability. Some of these messages were along the line of 'I felt a call of sorts on the night of the last full moon, I am ready to come to where you are, just give me the word'. She did.
In the early afternoon of the eleventh day after the first layer protection spell had been laid, the first newcomer arrived.
All seven women could feel the raw ability of the newcomer. What surprised them was that he was male, not female as they had expected.
He walked to one of the gates at the outer edge of the town, looked inside along the passage and noticed the plants with a soft chuckle.
That was when Tanisha and Cassandra came walking down that same path and faced him from the other side of the gate.
The man, rugged looking and well built, appeared to be in his mid-forties, but with that level of power, age could be slowed fairly easily.
He raised large, long fingered hands and quietly stated, "You have no reason to fear me, I've come to help you if you are agreeable."
Cass looked behind her briefly, noticing Jeanette approaching along the same path. Jeanette was smiling broadly.
Jeanette was soon beside the two other women and softly whispered in Cass' ear, "He is a good man, very protective of women without being invasive." Cass nodded as Jeanette stepped back, then shrugged, opened the gate and bade him to enter.
He nodded and followed them along that passage, then another and yet another, slowly heading for the center of the town.
Cass led them into the central area of the park, just a short distance from the nexus itself.
The man stopped in shock just behind the women, the sheer power of the nexus in front of him was well beyond amazing.
"By the Goddess," he whispered, "I've discovered three new nexuses in the last seven years, but they are like trickles compared to a flood!"
Perhaps Selena was listening. The seven women had felt her presence flitting around the town from time to time. A very brief moment had passed from his uttering those words when she appeared before them, looking right at him as she said, "I felt your call, O shaman."
He looked up at her, startled beyond belief. That had been a barely whispered prayer, and she had heard it?
Her physical appearance reminded him of First Nations women who spent a lot of time out under the sun. "I was not calling anyone. If anything, that was a brief prayer uttered in shock when I saw the size of this nexus. You called me shaman. I admit that I am one."
Selena smiled at the small group. "By your own powers, Tanisha, you know he means this place no harm, or he would not have stepped more than a few feet inside that gate without being attacked by the plants you created. He is a shaman as I said, and a rather good one."
He put his hands up in front of him again, showing they were empty. "My name is Ross Hymmel. Friends call me Red Wing."
Cass nodded, Selena had chastised them all without being cruel about it, and spread her hands to either side. "Be welcome here, Red Wing."
Red Wing, as they chose to call him, threw himself into the work beside Cheyenne, Pavanna and Veronica. By late afternoon on the thirteenth day after the full moon, they were finishing the roof on the first house, lines of overlapping sandstone tile running down all four sides.
As the second to last tile was being placed, all eight people inside the town felt the approach of a person, perhaps more than one.
Redwing followed the three women, who were joined by the others as they approached a gate on the eastern side of the town.
A man, perhaps thirty to thirty-five years old, short pale blond hair, ice blue eyes, not quite six feet tall, stood next to a rather beautiful woman. The woman was a few inches shorter, with golden blonde hair falling to mid-back and grey eyes. The last person in the small group was a young girl, perhaps twelve years of age, looking like a smaller version of her mother with her father's pale hair and eyes.
As soon as the group had stepped out through the gate, he smiled and spoke, "I'm Vance Paulson, this is my wife Sandy and my daughter Joy." He showed that he was holding a folder, which he passed over to Pavanna as he continued speaking, "I'm a firefighter from a town outside of Detroit, they were looking to downsize, so I gave them notice and quit. Sandy is a licensed EMT with a second degree in nursing."
Sandy had had one arm wrapped behind his back as he spoke, now she let go and stepped away slightly. "That's not the whole of it, though; I have some ability in the use of magic, although I am not very powerful. Joy actually has better control of magic than I do."
The coven members all nodded, each of them could feel the power coming from the woman and the girl.
Sandy continued speaking a moment later, "I felt the call on the full moon, so did Joy here. Like my husband, I handed in notice that I was leaving the day after that amazing display of power. We packed up everything, all that we have is in that big truck behind my car."
The seven coven members withdrew from the others for a moment, discussing it. From what each of them could sense, some better than others, these people were exactly what they claimed to be, thus there was no reason to deny them a place in the new town.
The women returned a few minutes later, with Cass waving to the new people to enter the town. "I bid you welcome to our Haven."
After that, new people would arrive two or three times a day. Each time, they would be greeted by the original seven women, sometimes with Red Wing standing back to watch them. A quick chat would be held near a gate, then the new folks would be welcomed into the town.
As more and more people arrived, work on the first houses progressed much faster thanks to having more people available for the work.
At the sunset of the twenty-second day after the full moon, the seven original houses had been completed except for electrical work and plumbing, which would be done as soon as someone with those skills arrived. The clinic/office was nearly halfway to being finished.
Once again, the women felt one or more people approaching a gate, this one near the north-west corner of the town.
They arrived by the gate barely five minutes later, just in time to see what looked like a girl come running through the open gate. Cassandra, Appolonia and Tanisha all swore afterward that the gate had been shut until just before the girl reached it, then ran inside.
That was when things turned ugly. A man ran in just behind her, then several feet up the path, before the plants closed in over him.
One of the plants actually nipped him, taking a small chunk from his right upper arm, before Tanisha said something to calm them.
The man stood there terrified of the plants, all of them looking down at him intently as if pondering if he should be their dinner.
The girl ran right up to Cass, then lunged at her, which immediately caused Cass to wrap her in a hug. The girl started crying.
It took several minutes to calm the girl down. From time to time, she would turn around and glare at the male standing under the plants.
Finally, she was calm enough to speak, stuttering now and then, "He... he... was going to kill me... be... because I want to be a girl!"
Well, you can bet that raised a ruckus. Several men who had recently arrived were quite ready to rip the guy to shreds then and there.
Somehow, the plants sensed the anger of the people over one they thought belonged here and they bent down closer to him, mouths open.
The girl continued speaking, "He was going to take me up to the quarry... up there..." she pointed to the north, "And throw me into it."
Cass turned, facing the man, then spoke quietly enough that only the people close by could hear her, "He intended to kill you?"
The girl nodded, saying, "Yes, ma'am. I managed to use my small ability in magic to make him take a wrong turn that brought us here."
The answer from the girl caused a glow of power to rise from the six other members of the coven, they wanted his blood!
A few minutes passed before they managed to calm down again and release the power to flow back to the nexus.
At that point, Tanisha shook her head and strode forward, coming to a stop just in front of the terrified man cowering under the plants, all of which seemed to be ready to snap down on him. "You came into this place intending harm to one who only wished to be her true self. You have felt the bite of my plants, they've had a taste of you. Leave now and never return, for if you do, they will eat you until only bones remain."
He looked at her, saw the slight glow in her eyes that could also be seen in faint flickers around her hands and shuddered with fear. He slowly backed away, watching the plants as he retreated step by step, then passed through the gate and sped off toward his parked car.