Well. It's a big field. What you outsiders don't know is that the asylum is contained within this field - but it's protected by a magic-proof forcefield. It doesn't prevent you from walking across this field, but instead of the asylum, what you can see is a shack. Yes, a shack. In the middle of the field. If you go into this shack, it'll be nice and empty. Oddly though, magic doesn't work once you cross a certain part of the field. That would be where the forcefield marks the boundary of the illusion.

::Paige orbs in with Julie, Prue and last and above all least, Patience.::

"Okay. I guess... there's a hut over there, maybe they're in there."

"What the hell they'd be doing in a hut..."

::Julie walks over to the old shack, she knocks.::

"Hello?"

::She comes in and looks around to find a big empty nothing, she peeks out through the window.::

"There's no one here."

::Prue takes a hold of the handle and yanks the door open.::

"Let's see."

::She walks in and finds nothing of remote interest.::

"It's empty."

::Walking back outside, she looks at Paige.::

"Maybe she really is buried here."

"That's not funny."

::Paige sighs, looking irritated. All the same, she looks around for any disturbed soil.::

::Julie walks around the shack looking for any signs of life at all.::

"You sure this is the right field?"

"I think so... I... I took us to the place on the map."

(Didn't I?)

::With a sigh, she attempts to communicate with her girlfriend.::

(Azura? Can you hear me?)

::Julie knocks on the side of the shack.::

"San Francisco is really a strange place. A huge field and a shack with nothing in it."

"Yeah, actually, is this striking anyone as odd? Where the hell are we? The outskirts? This place must belong to someone, maybe we can ask them if they know anything."

"We could do that, if we knew who owned it and where they were."

::Julie kneels then runs her fingers over the grass.::

"I mean, Paige orbed us to the right place... and there's no one here... something's not right."

::Prue frowns and looks around.::

"Scrying doesn't lie. If it's not gonna be correct, it doesn't work. So we're definitely in the right place. Which means she is here... but..."

::She turns and looks around.::

"This makes no sense."

"Well, let's think. If I can't sense her, but we're told she's here, and there's no sign of there being any... underground lairs... then that means magic is at work. So what if she is here, but we just can't see her?"

::This hits a nerve with Prue. She'd been on the brink of coming to that conclusion herself, but Paige beat her to it. She grits her teeth for a second, then turns and looks at her sister with something of a smile.::

"Just what I was about to say. It makes sense. Invisibility spells aren't impossible, and I guess it wouldn't be hard to cloak her from your sensing power either. Maybe they just didn't think to cast a spell against scrying."

::Julie <_<'s cos she mentiones a spell, then Patience did and now there's Prue saying no one did.::

"Can we cast a spell now? What are the chances it would work? Seems they're really trying to keep them away from us."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Though I guess it's worth a try. Paige?"

"Uh...

Powers above
Help me see
What is right in front of me."

::Is the spell Paige casts to find Azura.::

[Where you're standing is magic-proofed. Shamezorz. So nothing happens.]

"So... any other ideas?"

::Paige looks put off at the lack of result for her spell and walks away from the shack, thinking. She crosses the boundary so her magic will work again and sighs.::

"Book of Shadows?"

"Do we all go or should a couple of us stay around and investigate to see if we can find anything?"

"I don't see the point in hanging around but you're welcome to if you want."

"No, let's go."

::Julie takes Patience's hand, then Paige's.::

"Prue?"

"I'm gonna have a look around. See if I can find anyone. I'll call or make my own way back."

"Well okay. Keep in touch."

::Paige orbs Julie and Patience back to the manor attic.::

::Prue pokes around for about 0.435 seconds before attempting to shimmer across the field. It doesn't work. She grimaces, pissed off, and walks a little, crossing the boundary back into where magic works.::

(I will master this bitch.)

::She tries again. She shimmers out, then reappears a second later in a different place in the field. With a smirk, she bites her lip and shimmers to the cliffs.::

::Val walks in, going to the shed. She opens the door.::

"What?"

::Nothing. No Josie. Or anything for that matter.::

"That makes no sense! Magic!"

::With a sigh, Val wanders around the field more, trying to find anything that might help her.::

::Val stops, now back in the shack where she started.::

"What the hell?!"

(But...)

::With a sigh, Val goes to get up. She looks tired and she's still able to walk to CW, yawning.::

::Paige attempts to orb into the shack thingy with her passengers.::

[Eat my dust. Paige and co find themselves orb-blasted allllllll the way to the perimeter of the anti-magic field. Painfully. Because you manage to orb in properly as soon as you're out of the field - about ten feet in the air.]

::After much screaming and landing and thwacking and rolling and accidentally kicking Patience in the face, Paige sits up and looks at Julie, then the aforementioned.::

"Well I definitely did not mean to do that."

::Julie looks at Patience.::

"Are you okay?"

::She riases her eyebrows, and is sure Pat's okay cos she's strong as a rock. Then she looks at Paige.::

"What now?"

"Hold on."

::Paige puts her arm out and lets her hand slowly dissipate into a cloud of orbs. The rest of her body remains solid. Slowly, she walks towards the shack, her hand held out.::

[You start to feel a resistance, then your hand cannot go any further, even though your body can.]

::Paige steps backwards so her hand isn't left behind anymore, and gently feels the air, pressing against the barrier and watching how it doesn't let her magic go past.::

(So no magic can be used inside this...)

::She walks to the side, alongside the wall, and keeps going for a few seconds. Sweeping her hand upwards, she notices the concave shape of the barrier.::

"I think it's a dome over something inside that we can't see."

::Julie observes curiously.::

"How do we... fix it?"

"I'm not aiming to fix it just now - the last thing we need is members of the public stumbling across this if it's something demonic. Which, given the circumstances, it probably is. We need to infiltrate it and essentially become ourselves the same sort of substance as this."

::Paige frowns, in thought.::

"A spell should do it."

(I hope.)

"Hadn't thought about that. Not that a shack in the middle of nowhere San Francisco isn't already suspicious..."

"We're on the outskirts of the city."

::Paige reply.::

"Look."

::She points behind Julie. The city's over thataway.::

"It's pretty remote out here, but you never know who could be walking by."

"True... but wait, if we get where they are and our magic doesn't work, how do we get out?"