Work Text:
Charmed || Phole || Charmed || The High Warlocks of San Francisco || Charmed || Phole || Charmed
Title: The High Warlocks of San Francisco – The Lost Heirs of Edom
Fandom: Charmed
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Constance M. Burge. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: m/f, fluff, fix-it, Shadowhunters setting
Main Pairing: Cole/Phoebe
Side Pairings: Andy/Prue, Leo/Piper
Charmed Characters: Phoebe Halliwell, Cole Turner, Prudence 'Prue' Halliwell, Andy Trudeau, Piper Halliwell, Leo Wyatt
Summary: Writer's Month Prompts: pain + lost heir. After Penny Halliwell, the High Warlock of San Francisco, dies, there is a power vacuum. Until the lost Halliwell heirs receive their powers.
The High Warlocks of San Francisco
The Lost Heirs of Edom
Cole Turner was a powerful warlock. He'd also made a name for himself in the mundie world, as the DA of San Francisco. When it came to cities in the US one wanted to live as a warlock, San Francisco ranked pretty darn high. For generations, this city had been protected by a High Warlock of the Warren bloodline, one of the most powerful legacy warlock lines.
A warlock or witch was born from the union of a normal human and a demon. Usually, those directly born from such a union were the most powerful. But there were some exceptions, some long-lasting bloodlines that had gained strength throughout the generations. And the Warren bloodline was one of them. Where most warlocks had physical warlock-marks, the Warren witches had special magical abilities as their marks – additionally to the powers any warlock or witch possessed, they had unique magical abilities that set them apart from others.
With this kind of power and long-standing respectable legacy, the Warren bloodline carried weight and San Francisco was always known to be a safe place for warlocks, thanks to their protection.
That was, until Penelope Halliwell died. Her only daughter had already died years ago and she had taken the title of High Warlock back from her daughter, until the day she also died. Leaving San Francisco with a power vacuum that many lunged at. Cole knew he himself would be a suited fit for the position, being a strong warlock with over a century of life-experience.
Cole didn't want the position though. He had a hunch. Something just seemed off. Because Penelope's daughter had had three daughters of her own and while witch blood occasionally tethered out in legacies, it would be too much of a coincident that none of the three sisters carried their family's legacy. Something was off about that.
His hunch paid off when, shortly after Penelope's funeral, the three sisters started displaying magical abilities. It seemed their mother and grandmother had meant to give them as normal a life as possible, shielding them from the Shadow World until it was absolutely necessary for them to get involved. With all those who came before them passed, they were direly needed.
At first, Cole just observed their progress from a distance. He had no reason to get involved with the Halliwells, after all. Never before had he had any kind of ties to them, so why would he now? Until he got thrown head-first into a case involving them.
It was impossible not to fall for Phoebe Halliwell. She was so sweet, funny, had such a big heart. A heart so big it even filled Cole with so much love. And she was also incredibly powerful. Power and compassion were such an enchanting combination.
The biggest obstacle was Phoebe's oldest sister Prue, who seemed more than suspicious of him. At least at first. When the two of them had to team up in a literal ghost town to save Phoebe's life, she finally seemed to understand that Cole loved Phoebe. Loved her with his whole heart.
/break\
Losing Penny had been incredibly painful. Phoebe, she always had a different relationship to the pain of loss than her older sisters. Prue remembered their mother very clearly, Piper remembered her vaguely, but for Phoebe, it had been too long ago. She'd been too little when Patty died.
This. This was different. Their grandma had raised them, losing her hurt so much. It helped that she got her sisters back. For the first time in far too long did Prue, Piper and Phoebe truly reconnect. Moving back in together brought them closer, but what truly united them had been the discovery of their magic. Warren witches. Descended from demon-blood.
Beyond that, their family had been the protectors of San Francisco. So-called High Warlocks. The leader of the local warlocks, protector of their community and of the innocents. A job the three sisters took over with pride. They had powers and they could use them for good.
"Sh, we have to be quiet," Phoebe giggled a little as she caressed Cole's cheek gently.
"We could have gone to my place. Where there aren't half a dozen people."
The fond spark in Cole's eyes betrayed his words though. Phoebe knew, as much as Prue and Cole had edged on at first, Cole loved Phoebe's family. He hadn't had a family of his own in over a century, his father had died when he was still very young and his mother had been a demon of Edom, so she was out of the picture. The close bond between Phoebe and her sisters was something he admired and she was glad that he found his place in her family too.
"It's not that many people..." Phoebe trailed off as she did a mental head-count. "Leo and you don't count, you're only part-time over for... sleep-overs."
"We're both over more often than not," countered Cole with a soft smile.
He took her hand and kissed it, kissed up her arm. Well, he was right. The longer they stayed together, the more often Cole stayed over. He was honestly practically living here. And the same went for Leo Wyatt. But Leo had his own obligations toward the Clave too.
Because Leo was not just a handsome handyman, he was also some half-angelic guardian being. A Shadowhunter. He'd first been sent by the Clave to investigate the Halliwells, check out the new High Warlocks and see if this was a sound concept. After all, usually there was only one High Warlock. Not three, sharing the responsibility and title equally among themselves.
And then the Shadowhunter had gone and fallen in love with a warlock. A bit of a complicated and nearly forbidden relationship, it turned out. Because Shadowhunters had angelic blood and warlocks had demon blood and there were centuries of prejudices between them. But Leo and Piper? They loved each other so fiercely and deeply, even defying societal standards.
And yet Phoebe was the one who had to fight their older sister for her approval! Okay, so, she understood Prue's skepticism, to a certain extend. Cole was much older than them all and Phoebe would always be Prue's youngest sister, the baby of the family... the screw-up. Yes, Phoebe knew that even subconsciously, Prue was wary of Phoebe's decisions. Particularly the romantic ones. Which Phoebe understood, because she was skeptical of them too. She'd made not so stellar decisions in the past. But not Cole. Cole was different. Cole was... everything.
"C'mon. Let's check and see if there is breakfast somewhere in this house."
Cole made a small noise, probably having hoped to spend some more alone time in bed with Phoebe. But she'd worked up an appetite and she could hear the noises outside her bedroom. Both got changed and made their way downstairs. The first they encountered was Leo in the living room, sitting at the table and applying runes to his blade. It was nice, the way Piper and Leo were a battle-couple. Though Leo was a healer by trade, every Shadowhunter also knew how to fight.
"Good morning," Cole greeted him with a lopsided grin.
Yes, he acted like the full house bothered him, but it really didn't and Phoebe knew that very, very well. Their slowly growing family was good and Phoebe loved having them all under the same roof.
"Morning," Leo looked less happy and more exhausted.
"You okay?" Phoebe asked him with a concerned look on her face.
Finally putting the blade down, Leo got up to follow the couple toward the kitchen. "Yes. Just... There's a new Shadowhunter at the Institute. Completely untrained. Apparently orphaned, she'd grown up adopted by mundies, but she's been running into more Shadow World elements lately and she caught our attention. It's exhausting, having to train a fully grown Shadowhunter."
"New Shadowhunter, untrained?" Cole frowned. "That rarely bodes well for our kind."
"I'm keeping an eye on her," Leo assured him. "But there's a lot of things to be caught up on."
"Good morning, I see the scent of pancakes has woken the entire family."
"Morning, Andy," Phoebe grinned and pecked her brother-in-law on the cheek.
He grunted his reply and looked around. "Now where did I put the-"
Before he could finish his sentence did what he was looking for find its way into his hand, by getting a little telekinetic push from his wife. Prue grinned into her coffee, watching her husband man the kitchen and make breakfast for the lot of them. The only one who wasn't part of the Shadow World, Prue's childhood sweetheart was merely a mundie yet he still got himself involved in all of this for the sake of his love for Prue. And it had nearly cost him his life before, but even that didn't drive him away. No, instead, he had finally proposed to her.
"What's her name?" Phoebe asked when they all sat down. "That new Shadowhunter, I mean."
"Paige. Paige Matthews," Leo carried some of the plates with piled pancakes to the table. "I'm sure I'll bring her by at one point, after she got her basic training in."
After putting the plates down, he sat next to Piper. Piper offered him a soft smile and reached out to trace the runes on his underarm, before Leo leaned in to kiss her softly. Cole and Phoebe were touching by the ankles, teasingly running their feet along each other's legs.
"Do you think you can come with me to the station after breakfast?" Andy asked Cole.
"Mh?" Cole quickly swallowed the pancake in his mouth. "Sure. You caught a break on the case?"
Ah, it was so nice, the connections they had made. As High Warlocks, they were expected to have connections. But Phoebe was pretty sure no other High Warlock was as well-connected as them, between Piper dating a high-ranking Shadowhunter from the San Francisco Institute, Phoebe dating the local DA who was also an old warlock with many connections he was happy to share with them, and Prue, dating a detective. Most of the attacks they investigated brought them into the lime light with the local police, so it paid off to get intel from Andy and his partner Darryl.
"No business talk during meals," Piper glared at both men. "Only food and good conversation. All the grimy, dark stuff can wait until after we finished eating."
"Sorry," Cole and Andy chorused quickly.
Andy had always been Prue's big What If, the one who got away. And Phoebe was glad that the two of them had reconnected. No longer a What If, but an Is. He knew the Halliwell sisters better than anyone, he'd grown up with them all. He was worthy of being a Halliwell. Phoebe's eyes shifted, away from Prue and Andy, and landed on Cole, who was in the middle of an animated not-work-related conversation with Leo. They hadn't been together all that long yet and she knew she was getting ahead of herself here, but deep down, she knew he was the one. Her one. And she knew he would also make an excellent Halliwell, he already fit into their family just right.
Losing granny had been a pain unlike any other, but this loss had also brought Phoebe her sisters back and had opened their family to new members.
~*~ The End ~*~