Chapter 33: Of Men, Mages, and Magic
It was almost noon, and Anya was getting nervous. Buffy was supposed to arrive soon to meet these damn Watchers. As if they couldn’t have gone to her place instead. No, why would they make the effort of going there when they could appear here, make Anya close the store, and have a soulless and obnoxious vampire come over?
In her millennium as a demon, Anya had met quite a few vamps, and even granted a couple of wishes to feminine members of the species. Never had she been afraid of one. Since she’d become human again, she had started being wary, but, again, she had never been afraid of a specific vampire, just cautious about the community as a whole. But hearing Buffy when she first came back soulless to Sunnydale… seeing the looks she was throwing her… That had shaken her to her bones. She hadn’t been able to sleep that night. All she had been able to think about was Buffy’s comments about pregnant women. And now Buffy was coming to the store, and Spike wasn’t there to stop her from talking or biting – because, really, how could they be completely certain that his orders still held her? The others didn’t even seem to question it, though. All they saw was their friend; all they thought of was helping her. What Anya was thinking of, herself, was how to stay alive long enough to become a mother.
She was startled when the basement door opened violently and Buffy strode in. Apparently, the vamp wasn’t in a very good mood on this fine and sunny morning, either. But then, who would be cheery after a little trip through the sewers, and why in hell was Anya worrying about the sewers when Buffy was there and Xander wasn’t around to protect his wife? She let out a little sigh when Giles stepped up to meet his Slayer, talking to her in quiet tones as he ushered her to the back room where the big and mighty Watchers were waiting. As they passed by the counter, Anya unconsciously took a step back, putting a little more distance between Buffy and her. The vamp looked at her then, and a faint smirk appeared on her lips, but she said nothing and didn’t slow her step. Soon Watcher and Slayer had walked into the backroom, and Anya didn’t realize she had been staring at the spot where they had disappeared until Willow spoke to her from her seat at the research table.
“It will be over soon, Anya,” she said in a somewhat reassuring tone. “Our Buffy will be back, and until then we’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
Anya nodded, but she didn’t feel any better. At this point, she didn’t care anymore if they restored Buffy’s soul or staked her. She just wanted this nightmare to be over.
*****
Despite her apparent calm as she followed Giles into the training room, Buffy’s anger was ready to erupt. It had been too long, way too long, since she last saw her Sire, since she last touched her Mate. Too long since she had allowed the demon to come forward and sink her fangs in living – or unliving – flesh. The lack of results of her search was infuriating as much as it was despairing. And the welcome committee that greeted her in the training room just added to her ire.
Behind the door the Watcher was closing, there were not one, but two Slayers. She didn’t know the kid at Manon’s side, but the vibes were very clear. Why hadn’t Manon told her? Or the Watcher? She had thought she could, within limits, trust these two, but they hadn’t said another Slayer was in Sunnydale. Were they setting up a trap? If that was their plan, they would be in for a surprise. Two Slayers didn’t scare her any more than one did, but she hated when people thought she was stupid. Giles seemed to notice her tension and stopped her with a wary touch on her arm.
“Scowling at them isn’t really part of playing nice,” he whispered, his head tilting briefly toward the group of people by the other end of the room.
They were all standing, as if ready to battle, most of them fidgeting a little. From her vantage point, she could see that the nine older Watchers in the middle were all holding crosses, some already pointed in her direction, others clutched as talismans. In sharp contrast to that demeanor, they all looked calm, composed, sure of themselves. But they reeked of fear. A few steps to their left, three more Watchers stood nervously, holding crossbows which were pointed vaguely in her direction. On the right, the two Slayers and their designated Watchers, or at least Buffy assumed the man next to Andrea was the new Slayer’s. All four of them had stakes, but Manon ostentatiously tucked hers behind her belt before crossing her arms as Buffy’s eyes trailed over her. The vampire understood the message and gave her a light nod. The kid was there under duress. Strangely enough, Andrea’s hold on her stake was just as unthreatening.
Buffy eyes returned to Giles, and although she knew they must be filled with gold, he seemed untouched by her glare.
“You asked me to come here to talk ,” she hissed, not bothering with lowering her voice. “But they all look ready to dust me.”
Giles cast an irritated glance at the group, and there was a slight movement, crosses and crossbows now pointing to the floor.
“As long as you do not threaten them,” he said in a level voice, his eyes still on the others and not her, “they will not raise a finger against you. Of that, you have my word, and theirs.”
There was some foot shuffling, but no one contradicted him. Still cautious, Buffy advanced toward the group, stopping a few feet in front of them. She was surprised when Giles came to stand at her side and not with the others.
“Let’s get on with the show,” she said gruffly. “I have eternity in front of me, but it doesn’t mean I want to spend it with you.”
As she talked, her eyes roamed over the oldest Watchers in front of her – the High Council, Giles had called them. As he had explained to her that morning, it was a woman who spoke for them, the woman taking a step – a small step – toward Buffy now. Was it Mary? No, Maryan.
“Miss Summers, we are glad you agreed to meet us. Now if you will, we are going to do that little truth spell as I am sure Mr. Giles told you we would.”
Slowly, Buffy nodded, and her lips curled up slightly.
“Do your spell, I have nothing to hide,” she said with a shrug. “But I want you under the same charm, Maryan. Just to make sure honesty goes both ways.”
The woman flinched as Buffy said her name, but recovered quickly and gestured for one of the crossbow holders to come forward. The incantation was done in less than a minute, and immediately repeated on Maryan.
“The first question is easy, Miss Summers,” the woman said calmly, though she was slightly shaking. “Did you ever kill a human being?”
For a moment there was absolutely quiet expectancy, and then an almost tangible feeling of collective relief when the answer came.
“No.”
Smirking very slightly, she added: ”What about you?”
“God, of course not!” Maryan replied, outraged.
It took her only a second to regain her calm and ask the next question.
“Do you want to kill human beings?”
A few days ago, the answer would have been different, and probably would have put an end to this questioning. But now, all she wanted was to find her Sire, nothing more. There was the same relief when, again, she said no. But immediately widening eyes as she completed her answer.
“But whoever took Spike is dead, whether they are human or not.”
Maryan ran her tongue over her lips nervously.
“I understand your distress,” she said slowly. “But we cannot allow you to kill.”
“And how will you stop me?” Buffy said quietly. “Will you send these children after me? If you do, you won’t be able to say you never killed anyone anymore. Because you will kill them as surely as I will.”
Her eyes never left Maryan, but she saw movement on the side, where the Slayers stood.
“I will not fight Buffy”, Manon’s voice rose suddenly, breaking the deafening silence.
A little surprised, the vampire watched the red-haired Slayer drop her stake to the floor and move over to stand next to Giles, now facing the Council members instead of protecting them.
“She is afraid,” the other Slayer stated, contempt clear in her voice. “I am not. I will do my duty.”
Buffy rolled her eyes at the declaration, but before she could comment Andrea had stepped forward, coming to stand to the side, between Buffy and Maryan. The older woman seemed irritated by both Manon’s words and what Andrea said next.
“Manon is not afraid,” she said with a light frown at her charge. “If anything, I wish she was. But that’s not the problem. Our problem right now is that Buffy might kill a human, if it’s indeed a human who kidnapped Spike. But we don’t know that. And judging by the power of their hiding spell, it could easily be that it’s a demon behind all this.”
“But we don’t know that either,” Maryan interjected. “We can’t help her find them if it means she would kill humans. We cannot be her accomplices.”
There was a murmur of assent behind the woman. Andrea ignored it, and turned instead to Buffy.
“What about this,” she suggested. “We find where Spike is held, we get him back and deal with his captors appropriately, but without your presence.”
Buffy gritted her teeth as she thought over the offer. Her revenge would be pulled out of her hands, true, but Spike would be back then, so did it matter that much?
“Alright,” she agreed reluctantly.
Andrea let out a little sigh and turned back toward Maryan with a bright smile. The older woman nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving Buffy as she gauged her.
“The terms are acceptable,” she said blankly. “We return your Sire to you, if he is alive…”
“He is!” Buffy snapped.
“… and you cooperate as to the return of your soul,” Maryan finished, her voice wavering a little.
“What if you can’t do it?” Buffy asked, much as she had asked Giles before. “Will you try to stake me if my soul is gone for good?”
“If you could stop yourself from killing…”
“Could you stop yourself from breathing?”
Buffy was mildly startled by Giles sudden intervention, but it was nothing compared to Maryan’s and the rest of the Watchers’ shock.
“It is not Buffy’s fault if her soul is gone,” the man said calmly as the vampire arched an eyebrow at him. “And it is not her fault if her nature is to feed off humans. What is her doing, however, is the prevention of several apocalypses. If her soul cannot be returned, we have no right to take her life. She belongs to the Powers That Be, or however you want to call a supreme being, and only they can decide her fate.”
Smiling very slightly, Buffy faced the group of Watchers again.
“I’m not asking for your permission to feed,” she said coldly. “I’m not asking either that you promise not to kill me. The deal is this. If I cross paths with a Slayer as I feed, she’s free to try to kill me and I am free to defend myself, like any other vamp. But you don’t deliberately hunt Spike and me down, and we return the favor and don’t come after any of you. Do we have an agreement?”
Maryan blinked several times, her eyes moving from Buffy to Giles, then to Manon, Chloe, and back to Buffy. Finally, she turned a rigid back to the vampire and approached her fellow High Council members. There was a brief, heated, discussion, in low voices that Buffy would have had no trouble understanding if she had cared to. Instead, she was too busy trying to figure out whether she was making a mistake by playing this game. Was losing her vengeance and recovering her soul too high a price to pay for Spike? Of course not. And it wasn’t even sure she’d get her soul back. But that didn’t mean she was happy about it all. If only she hadn’t needed their help…
After a few minutes, Maryan turned back to her, stepping closer. She was even paler than before, and sweat beaded her forehead. She looked as if she was about to sell her soul, Buffy thought, slightly amused.
“We have an agreement”, her dry voice enunciated as the woman held out a shaking hand toward Buffy.
*****
Half an hour later, the same eighteen people were still in the training room, and Buffy was bored senseless. But at least she was comfortable, while most of the others weren’t. As soon as the talks were over, the annoying part had started, namely the summoning of some Mage who was supposed to discover why she had lost her soul and how to restore it. Having a suspicion that it would take some time, Buffy had settled herself on the only piece of furniture in the room, the couch. After a while, she had been amused when Manon hesitantly asked if she could sit there too, and even more when Giles settled on her other side. It was as if they were making a statement to the other persons present in the room, claiming vehemently but without a word that they trusted her, as if that hadn’t been made clear so far.
And finally…
The lights flickered in the room, there was a loud sound, like thunder, and a tall figure appeared where there had been nothing before. Giles immediately got to his feet and went to meet the Mage, beating Maryan as she approached him too.
Buffy didn’t pay much attention to whatever was said then, but she did hear something about a price, and saw a little bundle move from a shaky hand to a blue one and disappear into the folds of the Mage’s robes. He walked toward her then, serpentine eyes the only part of him not covered by cloth, and Buffy was once again amused by the kid, who leaped away from the couch before anyone could ask her to. Buffy herself did not move, and simply observed the man – creature ? – who was now in front of her, just as he observed her back. He leaned toward her, and she tried to move away, only to find that she was paralyzed by his stare. A cold, dark blue hand was pressed to her forehead for a couple of seconds, and a very unpleasant feeling ran through Buffy, as if she was being examined from the inside. Before she could protest, the hand lifted from her skin, before being pressed to her again, this time to the top of her chest, fingers grazing her collarbone, and the unpleasant feeling returned, only ten times stronger. It seemed like the contact lasted hours, but somehow she knew it hadn’t been more than a few seconds before the Mage took a step back, giving her a nod before he returned to Giles and the other Watchers.
As she watched him retreat, Buffy realized two things. She was panting heavily, and she was in game face. She hadn’t noticed either until the Mage let go of her. Frowning at his back, she listened intently, this time, to what he was saying to the humans.
“I cannot return her soul,” he said immediately. “But I can tell you how it can be done.”
He made a gesture with his hand, and a shimmering appeared in the air in front of him, slowly forming an image of the globe. Another flourish, and the image changed, as if zooming. Continents and oceans disappeared, until all that was left was the image of England, with a pulsating glow at the very south. Again, a flourish, and another zoom, straight on the light. Slowly, as if viewing the earth from a landing plane, the fields, roads, and buildings grew larger and larger. Soon, the glow was in the middle of a garden, then over a rooftop, then the image went through the roof to reveal a cozy British interior, and, on a wooden table, among other knickknacks, a seemingly glass ball that glowed softly.
“This is where her soul is,” the Mage said finally. “A spell was done to take it from her, and so that it wouldn’t be returned to her, the soul was trapped in this orb, and the orb made indestructible. Have the willing vampire simply touch it, and her soul will return to her.”
“Willing?” a Watcher repeated as he cast a worried glance at Buffy.
“Willing,” the Mage confirmed. “She has to really want it. That is the way. You paid the price, I answered your request. You don’t need me to complete the restoration.”
“But where is this house?” Giles asked him, frowning. “We need an exact location, or we could be searching in vain for years. At least the name of a town.”
Buffy only saw the Mage’s back, but she could hear his smile when he said:
“The answer is closer to you than you think.”
Again, the lights flickered, but this time there was no sound as the Mage disappeared.
For a few seconds, as the Watchers sent each other consternated glances, there was not a sound in the room. And then a feeble voice rose.
“Seaford.”
The word was pronounced by a suddenly very pale Andrea. All eyes turned to her, and she continued, her tone completely inexpressive.
“The address is 29 Park Road, in Seaford.”
“Andrea?” Giles questioned, very softly.
“I grew up in that house”, she finished, her voice now nothing but a whisper.
It was suddenly too much, and Buffy burst out laughing, startling everybody.
“Wait a minute,” she said between two giggles. “You mean that a Watcher took my soul and I’ll only get it back if I really want it?”
No one answered her, and for a little while she just kept laughing. Then the thought came to her that, if he had heard it, Spike would have found this hilarious too. That sobered her immediately. The question of her soul had an answer, but she didn’t care about that. What she cared about was finding Spike. It was time for the Council to fulfill its promises.