The Morning After S5 Ep18

An enormous table of breakfast goodies stretched before Dawn, but she had no appetite. Almost as soon as Glory had figured out her secret she had ordered her minions to take her to a guest room and keep her there. That had been many hours ago.

Sometime after sunrise (Glory didn't seem to have any clocks in her home) she had been escorted from the guest room to a cozy, magnificently appointed dining room. A minion had seated her with the air of a high-end server (albeit one wearing a ratty brown robe) and food had begun to arrive.

One after another the minions had carried in plates of golden brown belgian waffles drowning in syrup, fluffy scrambled eggs, thick slices of french toast with whipped butter slowly melting over them, strips of crispy bacon, fresh red grapefruit halves sprinkled with sugar, and one toasted bagel with a dollop of cream cheese.

The only minion whose name she knew, Jinx, had squeezed a whole pitcher of fresh orange juice for her as the others came and went.

Dawn was beginning to think that they would keep bringing her different breakfasts forever until she did something.

A lady minion who had previously brought in the french toast reemerged with a new plate with an ornate silver cover. She walked briskly up to Dawn and placed the plate before her, dramatically removing the cover to reveal a tiny orange kitten.

"A kitten?" Dawn was surprised enough to ask. "Why are you bringing me a kitten?"

"What do you eat?" the minion demanded, apparently exasperated. "Isn't this all human food? Yet you don't eat it!"

"I'm not hungry,"

"The gracious, golden Glorificus ordered us to make sure you had a good breakfast. You must eat!"

"I'm not hungry,"

"A wilful teenager. How refreshingly original,"

"Please," Dawn switched tactics, "you don't have to do this,"

"Do what?"

"I don't believe that Glory wants to hurt me. If you let me go, maybe she'd even-"

Dawn was cut off by laughter from the lady minion and Jinx, whom she had almost forgotten was still in the room.

"Let you go?" the woman said, "Her captivating delectableness would gouge my eyes out and use my screams to lull herself to sleep that night,"

"Why would you wish to go?" Jinx asked, "You just said you don't believe yourself to be in any danger, and, by merely existing, you have brought such joy to the the most ambrosial, beguiling Glory,"

It seemed Jinx had gotten his toadying groove back.

It didn't make Dawn feel any better. Glory may not want to hurt her, she had had plenty of opportunity after all, but if she needed to, in order to accomplish whatever her goal with the Key was, all bets were off. Glory was definitely not the squeamish type.

Dawn picked up the kitten and walked away from the table, into an adjacent room, which turned out to be the parlor from last night, the very room where her big secret had been spilled.

At least being kidnapped in a mansion is a step up from caves and crypts. Usually by now she would be tied up in a dark room waiting for Buffy to charge in, not wandering through a mansion, escorted by minions, admiring the decoration.

Glory's home was warm and inviting, a catalog of luxury with a taste that was almost but not quite modern. Plush red furniture rested everywhere on thick soft carpet, warmly colored walls generously adorned with art and artefacts. The far wall of the parlor was taken up entirely by a single enormous painting. The piece caught Dawn's eye and drew her to it.

Four women, nude, encircled each other in the painting, their heads tilted away from one another with a different unreadable expression on each face, somewhere between relaxation and suffering. The artist was clean and precise, and the painting had a nonchalant elegance that was somehow as provocative as the nudity.

"Tamara de Lampicka," Glory said, having approached Dawn while she was fully absorbed by the painting. "I'm glad you like it. If she were still alive, I would have let her do my portrait. I think she would have really got me, you know?"

"Glory," Dawn said, turning around. Glory was wearing a light blue dress embroidered with a pattern of silver roses. Her hair seemed a shade lighter than it had last night, and the scent of flowers drifted off of her. She was accompanied by the tallest minion Dawn had ever seen, who was wearing a relatively clean red robe.

"Questions later, babe," Glory said. "First, we have to confirm that you actually are my Key, as you so boldly claimed. You had better not be lying to me, it is a great sin to lie to a god,"

"I never actually said I was the Key," Dawn said.

"You didn't have to say it, you clearly wanted me to think you're the Key," actually, the opposite was true, but Dawn didn't think there was much point in saying so to Glory. Glory took the kitten from Dawn and passed the wiggling bundle to another minion, who scuttled away with it.

"Luckily, Tall Guy over here," Glory gestured to the tall minion in the red robe, "and I have been hitting the books all night and we've come up with a way to verify your Keydentity,"

At that point Tall Guy handed something to Glory, who turned away from Dawn and back again to dramatically reveal a knife, flourishing the blade in Dawn's face.

Dawn gasped at the blade's sudden appearance but recovered in a moment to laughed mirthlessly at it.

"You could be a little more terrified," Glory was somewhat put-off by Dawn's reaction. "I am suggesting that I intend to hurt you. Waving a knife in your face, wicked god over here . . ."

"Oh, well I was startled, and, you are scary," Dawn said, "it's just, you know, if you wanted to hurt me you wouldn't exactly need a knife,"

"Well that's the nicest compliment I've heard in a long time," Glory laughed, "and you've seen the way they talk to me around here,"

"Glory, what are you going to do with me?" Dawn asked.

"First things first," Glory reached out and took Dawn's hand in her own, gently pulling her closer. Then she raised her knife again. "The key to the Key is blood,"