CHAPTER TEN BRAVO: BUFFY
:Tuesday, 3rd October 2000:
I wasn't necromancer girl so no more answers to the many questions I still had. I bent down and closed the dead woman's eyes. I saw about her neck a pendant depicting a tree, a snake coiling around it in an embrace. Giles would have to see this. I'd asked her why these convent enchantresses had turned The Seed into a person. I could make a guess, I think. They didn't trust me to safeguard a mere object, no matter how vital. But a human with a soul? Someone with Willow's special personality? My memories and this girl, had been handcrafted to appeal to my protective instincts. God what sly bitches!
"Hello." I heard a child's voice from behind me. I turned and saw a little girl in a somewhat old-fashioned red dress. Sunday best. Her gaze was ancient, confident, full of playful malice. "A small heap of dust and another unfortunate barbecue fork incident." she remarked.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Don't be anile, Buffy Summers. Names have power. You may call me...whatever you like."
"I think Rhoda Penmark would suit you well." She had that prissy, psycho neatness.
Rhoda was amused, laughed. "Speaking of seeds, good or bad, what did the recently deceased have to say on the subject?" She dismissed my incipient reply with a commanding gesture. "That was a rhetorical question. I don't care what you know."
"Oh." I was nonplussed.
"A little information. Many factions desire The Seed, two in particular. You can deny it to them, and save this world, by simply destroying it."
"What's your motive?" I asked her suspiciously.
"I love trouble and hate chaos." she replied. What was that supposed to mean?
"And what's the cost? There are always strings."
"I've told you the price. Enjoy your agonizing, Slayer." She smiled spitefully.
Then Rhoda vanished in a burst of glaring, migraine-inducing whìte light.
She knew! Oh, Rhoda knew that Willow was The Seed. And could I? Would I? Kill Will?