"They... they took your magic?" Daphne gasped. She shuddered, imagining what it would feel like to have one of her favorite parts of herself ripped out of her. Looking in the blank, downturned eyes of the witches in the cell, she had a pretty good idea of what it was like.

Sabine stepped up to the bars. "Don't worry, Mrs. Elder, we're going to get you out of there."

Rhode nodded. "You saved us once. Now it's our turn."

She smiled weakly. "You girls shouldn't have come back. It's too dangerous..."

"Don't be silly, mama," Daphne whispered. "Of course we came back. We're going home." She looked the bars up and down. They looked like old, grungy metal, but there seemed to be some sort of a glimmer about them. Even though this cell seemed to have been designed to hold weak, disoriented, de-magicked witches, it was still enchanted..

A gentle hand caught her arm. Her mother pulled Daphne close to the cell and kissed her hand. "Honey, it's okay. Just get out while you can."

"I'm not going to leave you. Not again." Tears were beginning to fall. She barely noticed.

Her mother stroked her face and smiled; Daphne could feel her fingertips trembling. Her mother never trembled. "It was so brave of you to come here. Oh, my baby, when did you get so brave?"

"Mom, stop," Daphne said, pushing away from the bars. "What are they going to do to you?" she whispered.

"Don't worry about that," she whispered back. "No matter what they do to me, I'll always love you."

"I love you, mama," she said.

"If you love me, then you'll leave now." Laurel smiled, even though tears were beginning to well in her rich brown eyes. "Daphne, all a mother wants is to keep her baby safe from harm. I'm not going to be able to protect you anymore... but I hope I taught you enough so you can protect yourself. Be brave for me, honey. And go."

"No! I'm not leaving you again!" She clutched the bars and leaned her head against them.

Her mother kissed her forehead. "It's okay, honey. It's time to go. You need to--"

"Stand back, Mrs. Elder!"

Daphne whirled around just in time to see Rhode kick the bars as hard as she could. The bars rang like a bell but didn't budge. She took a step back, then kicked them again.

"Rhode, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Solving problems!" she grunted, punctuating her words with another kick. "Taking out frustrations!" Kick. "Saving your mom!" Kick.

Daphne sighed. "Rhode, the Coven enchanted these bars. I'm sure they're protected against kicks."

"Yeah, well, the Coven is a bunch of idiots. And these bars aren't protected against me. This is for the mortals!" She kicked the bars again. The dust raining from the ceiling caught on the tear tracks running down Daphne's face.

She blinked, and put a hand to her cheek. Dust. She looked up. The rock around the top of the bars was crumbling.

Sabine's face broke into a smile. "Rhode is right. They may protected against magic, but not against mortals. Come on!" She ran to the bars. Daphne followed. "The rest of you, too, come help us!"

But the prisoners just stared silently back.

"We need your help," Daphne said. "We can free you!"

"What's out there for us?" asked a man. "We're mortal. We don't have our powers. We've never lived in a world where we're not witches." The others in the group nodded.

"Mortal isn't such a bad thing to be!" Rhode grunted as she pulled with all her might at the bars. "At least you'll be free."

Daphne's mother stood. "She's right. We can sit here forever, or we can escape. I'm choosing to escape." She walked to the bars and started pulling at one. While many of the prisoners remained on the floor, several walked over and started tugging on the bars as well. Their faces were still miserable, but there was a spark of hope in their eyes.

The dust turned to rubble, which turned to pebbles, which turned to large stones. They pounded on Daphne's head and shoulders, but she stayed, shaking with all her might. Her breaths came in gasps from the effort of moving the heavy bars back and forth and the excitement of renewed hope.

As the last of the rocks came tumbling down. Rhode grinned furiously and kicked at the pile. "Suck it, witches! Mortals win this round." Daphne was too busy to celebrate with her; she was already pulling at the bars and rushing in towards her mother.

She took her in her arms silently and held her tightly as she could, pressing her face into her shoulder. After a few moments, she let go and smiled. "Let's get you out of here, mom."

"I don't think I've ever heard a better idea." Laurel tried to stand, but her legs trembled and she fell. Daphne caught her halfway down.

"Mama!" Daphne cried as her mother collapsed onto her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm not hurt," she mumbled. "I just feel... hollow. Like someone took out my lungs."

"It's okay, mom..." Daphne replied, but she noticed none of the other freed prisoners were moving either. "Guys, come in and help me," she said to her friends, who climbed through the tilted bars to help the other prisoners

"Come on, let's get you up," said Sabine kindly. She reached out a hand to a still, skinny young man.

His head snapped up faster than Daphne would have expected, given his state. "Leave me here," he hissed at Sabine. "Get out! Why are you trying to rescue us now? There's nothing left."

"There's... there's a lot left," Sabine replied, visibly shaken.

"There is nothing. I am nothing," he said, starting to rock back and forth. "Just let me die," he begged. "Please, let me die."

"I..." Sabine trailed off. "Daphne, what do we do?"

"I know what to do," said Rhode gruffly. She took the man by the shoulders and shook him once. "Hey, man, snap out of it. You're not dead yet, and we're not leaving you, so get up or I'll drag you out of here. And that goes for all of you," she said with a meaningful look at the other prisoners.

Surprisingly, it worked. Clutching at the walls and at each other, the captives slowly stared to rise. "Rhode, how did you do that?" asked Sabine.

"Tough love is good as long as it's not so tough it hurts," she replied. "Now come on, get moving! We don't know when someone's gonna come check on you, so we need to be fast. We have a portal waiting for us."

As the prisoners shuffled out, Laurel clutched Daphne's arm. "When did you meet these girls? They're quite something."

"I know they are," said Daphne proudly. Something struck her mind. "Mama, why did you never let me meet mortals before?"

Her mother's smile fell. "Same reasons all parents are overprotective. I didn't want you to get hurt like I did. I can see now your friends will protect you instead."

As if her mother's words foretold the future, Sabine ran up to Daphne and pushed her and her mother down just as a beam of light flew over their heads. "Get down!" she yelled to the others. A witch with sparsely embroidered robes stood in the hallway, looking shocked to see a group of prisoners roaming loose.

Before he could raise his wand to perform another spell, Rhode and Daphne had run up to him, Daphne holding her wand and Rhode holding a broken stone from the rubble aloft. "Drop it," Daphne commanded, and the witch did. "Are you alone?"

The witch just glared at her until Rhode held up her rock threateningly. Apparently never having been threatened to be bashed in the face with a non-magical stone before but predicting it would not be pleasant, the guard answered, "Of course. Why would they send any valuable witches down here for a bunch of newly-minted mortals?"

"Hey! Be nice!" Daphne yelled, sticking her wand closer to his face. To her dismay, he did not look as scared as he did of Rhode's rock. "Thanks for the info, anyway," she muttered, casting a quick sleep spell and letting the man droop to the floor. "Coven must still be in session."

"Can't be for much longer," Sabine worried.

"But they don't have to be. Look!" Daphne pointed at the familiar, watery light of a portal on the walls and floor. "We're here! Let's go!"

But the prisoners hesitated.

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked. "Mom?"

She hesitated before answering. "I'm frightened," she said at last. "It's a new world for me."

It was Sabine who answered. "That's right. You're mortal now, like it or not, but mortal isn't such a bad thing to be." Rhode flashed a smile at her "Besides, mortals have a leg-up on witches when it comes to hunting monsters. I don't know if you like the idea of cleaning up the Coven's mistakes..."

"But we've been doing it for a while now anyway," her mother finished. "It may take some getting used to, but I've known mortals before. I loved one. And I'm sure I can grow to love being one. At least, I'd like to find out." And with that, she stepped through the portal.

The witches followed her, some looking fearful, some looking hopeful. Daphne, Rhode, and Sabine were last to leave.

"You know, I always dreamed about coming here. Being asked to join the Coven," Daphne said, looking around at the carved walls. "I wanted to be a powerful witch who could help people and expand our knowledge."

"Daph, you already do that," said Sabine gently.

"Yeah, and we do it with you, so you're welcome," Rhode chimed in.

"Thank you," Daphne laughed. "No, really, thank you." And grabbing each friend's hand in one of hers, Daphne closed her eyes and stepped through the portal.