Author notes: Sorry for the long wait on this. I hope you will enjoy this chapter
I made a slight change to the background of the story's Earth to make a better use of the obvious inspiration of the Kineticist class from the Occult Adventures. I therefore admitted that a certain cartoon aired in the beginning of the nineties.
As a small disclaimer addendum, the decision taken by the people who developed the Great Wheel cosmology to omit some things in relation with the real Earth gave me some headaches. I finally decided that, in this story, the Planescape cosmology represented the truth. This has drastic consequences regarding the foundations of Earth's religions. As this is something I will have to talk about at various points of this story, I want to say that this is a work of fiction that should not be taken too seriously.
NB: this contains definite spoilers for the scenario 'The Mazes' of the Well of Worlds book for Planescape.
Thanks to Narsil for betaing this chapter
Buffy looked at her small notebook, remembering the surprised gaze of Bhima when she had started to jot down the briefing's information. To be totally fair, this was not something she would have done in Sunnydale. There was however a fundamental difference between her situation then and the one she had now. It was a little thing called choice and probably her true motivation for joining the Free League.
Back in Sunnydale… well, she had to admit that she had been able to do some good, saving lives night after night. She now knew that the main reason why she had resented the whole Slayer thing was because it had been forced on her. Merrick, her first Watcher, had been all about destiny and how it was an honor to be chosen, as if her own wants were irrelevant. Kendra, the Council-raised Slayer who got Called after she died for a short while when she faced the Master, sure bought that line and tried to convince her to do the same.
It doesn't matter anymore. I'm free. But I promise one thing… I will become a blood here in the Planes. I will master magic and find a way to break that barmy cycle. No more Slayers. No more broken dreams.
She looked at the streets of Sigil. In this place, magic and demons were just a part of life. This was maybe the solution. Tear the veil apart, force Earth's people to see the things under the bed and deal with them. Sure, things would be worse at first but in only a century she was sure…
Only a century? Ouch! Major elven thinking attack here. Okay, let's get back on topic.
She looked again at her notes. From what Bhima had told them, the entry to the Maze was near an inn called the Roaring Balor. Like all of Sigil's portals, it needed a key to activate. A portal key could be anything: item, action, something to say. As in Sigil any door or arch could be a portal if it pleased the Lady of Pain, you really had to pay attention if you didn't want to end up in a faraway place. Knowing where portals lay and led, as well as what key they used was a very important business in Sigil.
In this case, Bhima had provided them with the right item: a gold-plated rose. More importantly, they knew that the key to the exit portal of the maze was one of the dishes Timlin was receiving for his meals and how to find that portal inside the maze. He had also hinted that they weren't alone looking for that sword which meant they were in kind of a hurry.
Sune was not a happy goddess these days. Things really weren't going her way lately and this whole Earth Adventure was becoming a lot less fun than she had initially thought.
First, there had been Mystra forcing her to apologize for Adon, which meant revising her dogma. In the end, it was just a minor thing compared to what had followed. No, things had really started to go downhill when she met Athena for the first time. When she told the Greek goddess why she was on board, the Olympian had looked at her with pity. Irritation, jealousy, this she knew how to deal with. But pity, for her? Nope, just couldn't happen. Against the laws of the multiverse.
When Sune asked why, Athena had Gond set up media connections for her and told her to see how it really was. She discovered how much the system had been tainted by Pride and Greed. It wasn't even the question of style over substance. It was about girls dreaming to fit into a model they had no hope of reaching and not caring how much they spent for it and how much it would endanger their health. It was about art created not for the joy of giving beauty to the world but tailored to maximize profit when it was sold. It was about Beauty being reduced to a marketable good.
She had quickly understood that if she claimed the system for herself, it would corrupt her. Sure, she wasn't the nicest of people and she knew a lot about vanity but… not like this. She refused to become a hollow, greedy thing. She had seen first-hand what that kind of corruption could do and her friend Sharess had needed a lot of loving care to recover from her near fall to the dark side.
Yes, I have to be honest with myself. Apologizing for Adon was necessary, just as being here was. Earth showed me where my current dogma can lead: into the darkness. In a way, I have to thank the Baatezu for leaving such a deep mark on this world.
This left her with two solutions. She could pack up, go back to Toril wiser than she had been… no. She imagined all too well how her old enemy Talos would spin that, how the God of Destruction would tell everyone that she ran back home like a scared little girl.
As there is no way I will give him that pleasure… then it will be my duty to destroy this system and replace it with something healthier.
Her thoughts came back to her present matter: Cordelia Chase, her prospective Chosen One. Here too there were complications and she needed to take things slowly. She had observed her over the weekend, with a little help from Mystra so that she could see through Joyleen's silver fire-laced wards without the archmage sensing anything. She had seen the divide in that group called the Scoobies, with most of it deciding to stick with the Netherese half-elf while the Watcher and Cordelia's boyfriend stayed apart.
Her eyes fell back on the screen in front of her and the cartoon playing on it. She remembered why she was watching it. It was because of the fantasy Cordelia had in her dreams Saturday night, as she slept in Joyleen's house, safe from the Hellmouth's influence. In that fantasy, she had been courted by a man who wasn't her boyfriend. Sune understood very well why she had it. Cordelia had been quite unhappy with Xander Harris after that meeting.
"I don't see Cordelia having much of a religious calling. I could force things, grant her oracular visions or the like but… not the kind of relationship I want with her. No, I will have to be subtle and make her come to me."
She looked again at the screen. The man in Cordelia's fantasy was here again. She knew the archetype well as it had so many romantic possibilities. The exiled prince on a quest to find back his honor, the young lad who discovered that what he had held for true was not right and became a better man – and king – as a result. The drawings managed to make him quite dashing, actually having the burn scar around one of his eyes, the mark of disgrace his father branded him with, make him even more interesting.
"I wonder how many girls had a crush on you, Prince Zuko, when they saw your tale… Cordelia sure did."
An idea started to form inside her mind as she thought about the elemental magic that was a central part of the tale. While she was not officially a fire goddess, the element played an important part in her liturgy because of her nickname and as a symbol of passion in some human cultures. From what she had seen, that latter point was the case on Earth as well.
They know Fire so well. It's an old friend to them. They had no magic and it is Fire that helped them to rise. Fickle and dangerous yes… but beautiful too as they prove so often through their fireworks.
Maybe she had a chance there. Their new pantheon was still lacking in nature deities and while they were trying to get more people onboard from Toril, there still were many domains up for grabs… like Fire.
"I can do it," she said decidedly. "If I have to change, it will be in a way I have chosen…"
"Your holiness," said a female voice coming from the intercom on her desk. "I am sorry to interrupt, but you asked me to remind you about the 2 PM meeting."
"Thank you, Maria. I will be on my way shortly."
She looked at the machine and then at her office. She could not deny that the architecture was beautiful, reminding her a bit of what the elves did. Had it not been hidden by many layers of illusion, telescopes aimed at the Moon may have seen an ensemble of delicate-looking geodesic domes within which could often be glimpsed lush vegetation. It was just the top of the structure, though, as the Lunar Castle extended far underground, in a maze of passages and halls that the Dwarves would surely have approved.
Not too shabby for a rush job we willed into existence… well, we had to host those the Powers That Be abandoned somewhere.
Athena had masterfully used their feelings of abandonment and convinced most of them to work for the new administration. They had knowledge of Earth they needed and they knew how to work in the technological environment Gond had created in the castle.
Well… having a secretary is definitely something new but Maria is a real boon in helping me to keep up with the new ways. And with the way Athena makes everything feel like a military campaign… I mean, strategy meetings? Objectives and Operations?
She got up, she knew what this meeting was about and it was not one she could afford to miss, particularly not when she had something to ask herself.
Mystra was looking over the Council Room they had set up and nodded approvingly. Its main feature was a big, ring-like table at the center, with the space in the middle being mostly used by an illusion projector. The seats were all identical and each place had the same terminal hooked into the castle's information machines.
Of course, she knew that there would be a pecking order despite that uniformity. Looking at how far away from her the others sat would be an interesting experience. The really nasty politicking would probably come later, though. For now, they had too much to do.
All the members of the initial group were here, as well as three new people. Lathander was talking with one of them, a matronly woman that Mystra easily recognized: Chauntea, goddess of nature and agriculture, sometimes called the Grain Mother. She was happy to see her here.
The second one was a stranger being, or a pair of beings depending on how you considered her/him. A pair of Siamese twins, one man and one woman, linked by the shoulders and the head, floating in an egg of force. While she didn't know which representation she/he had used, this had to be Janus' new appearance, after the last of the Powers That Be decided she/he would abide by Gaia's rule concerning returning Earth gods.
That left the last one, who was currently sitting on the table and talking with Loki and Athena. Under normal sight, she looked pretty normal, a pale girl in black clothes with a silver ankh on a necklace around her neck. That latter point was a little disturbing for the Goddess of Magic as the person in front of her was definitely not Mulhorandi or Egyptian.
"I see that everybody's here," she said as Sune entered the room. "So let's start."
They all took places around the table, Janus removing a chair using telekinesis and floating in the freed spot.
"Welcome to our new members, Chauntea, Hel and Janus," she continued. "Just to get that out of the way, I am afraid that I am still a little unclear with Earth's culture and that I didn't know Hel and Janus had such representations."
"Technically, we don't," replied Janus in a strange double voice, the move of her/his double body just as disturbingly symmetrical. "The appearance I am using is the one of a fictional ruler called Janus-Jana, a name I will use for myself from now on. My concept is currently in a state of transition and this is something we will have to address."
Sune barely hid her smile. This would make her own request a lot easier.
"As for me," said the black-clad girl, "I know that, given how Daddy looks, some here expected to see me in green spandex and with a helmet that looks designed to catch the signals of dead quasars. To them… thanks, but no thanks. I met Janus-Jana when seeing Gaia and she/he gave me that idea, because my own concept is just as much in transition. Gaia agreed to it because what Mystra offered me is going far beyond the role the Aesir had for me. My current appearance fits what I am becoming."
"Yes… I offered you to be Death, without restrictions on which kind of death," replied Mystra.
She remembered what Loki had told her about his daughter: "Give her what Odin and the others never gave her and you will have an ally for the eons to come. Give her genuine respect." To be fair, her first impression of the girl had not been what she had expected. Her own experience with death deities had mostly concerned monsters like Cyric or the old Myrkul. Hel gave off an entirely different vibe. Grim and gloomy? Definitely. But a monster? She didn't think so.
"And I am very grateful for that," replied Hel. "Now that's done, I would like us to discuss as quickly as possible some things regarding my domain."
"What did you discover?" asked Athena who was also taking the minutes using recording spells.
"You know that Earth functioned as a closed circuit for all matters of the soul. Our problem is that the system is falling apart and if we don't want souls to start falling into oblivion, we need to act quickly."
"Indeed," added Janus-Jana. "I can keep things stable for a while by ensuring the transitions of reincarnation but this is not a durable solution."
"What are our options?" asked Lathander.
"First, we can try to repair the current system to keep the general reincarnation option. The main advantage would be that we could keep the energy of Earth's souls for ourselves but I have several reasons against it. First, there is the matter of the Weave. From what I observed, you are basing your creation here on Toril's Weave."
"The problem being that I am duplicating the ways of Toril here as far as magic is concerned… including how Resurrection spells are supposed to work and that's incompatible with a reincarnation-based system. What else?" asked back Mystra.
"Diplomacy," replied Loki. "Our position here is strong with Gaia backing us but some deities may decide to attack our interests on other worlds."
"Like the Mulhorandi pantheon ordering their priests to go on a holy war against ours on Toril," replied Gond. "Can we plug Earth back into the general circuit?"
"That would be my choice, but I have a condition of my own," replied Hel. "That 'funny' little system you have on Toril with the Wall of the Faithless. If it's in, I'm out."
Mystra knew what she was talking about of course. On Toril, those who did not believe in an existing deity or did not have faith at all ended as bricks in the walls around the city at the heart of what was now Cyric's domain after their death. She looked at the faces of her fellow deities. The Torilians were probably too used to it, too used to believe it was a necessary evil, that the faithless had to be punished. After all, there were enough gods there for each to find something suitable, right?
But I don't like it and I'm not alone. Who is the most uncomfortable… Sune, amusingly enough, she thought as she studied the faces and auras of her peers.
"What are your reasons, Hel?" she asked.
"One is purely pragmatic. We do that on Earth and we crash the system. Whatever we returnees may think, this is a new world and we will have to work to gain converts. The terror method that goes with that wall is not something we want, particularly if we want the mortals to think we are better than what they already have."
"Aren't faithless of that religion Lathander told me about supposed to end in Baator?" asked Chauntea.
"Supposed only," replied Janus-Jana. "Reincarnation was the lot of most souls. The Baatezu were only able to get those who sold themselves. Of course, they wanted more and they were starting to obtain it. There are many movements we will need to consider, including what Mystra's Chosen One will create. Netheril is known on many planes for having… a certain mindset."
"I see the point," replied Mystra. "Hel, what are your non-pragmatic reasons?"
"Because, despite what some people – and I use the term loosely – in Asgard think about me… or how some Christian scholars pasted their own values on the old sagas, I am fair. Beggar or king, all are equal before me. I'm even willing to be nicer given the love I'm receiving here. So, punishing mortals because they weren't good little sheep? No fuckin' way!"
"That's my girl," said Loki, smirking.
Mystra remembered the story Loki told her, how Hel had been exiled in the Lower Planes because of her prophesized role in Ragnarok… and she once again wondered why the Norse pantheon seemed so eager to actually give their destined enemies reasons to hate them. Sure, there was a prophecy but she knew first hand that the problem with those was not their content but the entities interested in their fulfillment. Maybe it was why Loki and Hel were so eager to join her. A new pantheon, with new rules. Away from the influence of the Norns.
"What will happen to… unaligned souls then?" she asked.
"Standard system. They go to the Outer Plane that fits their morality the best. I will just set up a sub-domain in the Outlands to do the triage."
"That's a lot of souls," said Lathander.
"It's not really a problem, each plane being infinite and all that. Regarding the question you're probably going to ask next, letting the souls free is not really posing a risk of creating new gods."
"Why?" asked Chauntea.
"I can reply to this," said Janus-Jana. "First, the faith of the people on Earth is currently too… unfocused. Many people are actually members of a faith in name only, because of the social aspects that go with it. Among those who really believe, there are too many variations and the whole effort will fail to do anything coherent enough to generate a new entity in the Outer Planes. True, some Celestials like the Archons may be interested in offering guidance, but being accepted by the mortals on Earth will require a lot of work due to… let's call it dogmatic differences.
"Second, while mortal faith alone can create a lesser deity, the largest groups we are talking about believe in an overgod and those have other rules than we mere deities do. None of the existing ones would dare to breach into Gaia's domain and the only known way for one of them to appear is for a new universe to be created. Also, Gaia, like Ao, is not powering anybody, being more preoccupied with things on a cosmic scale. So, in short, even if some of their priests manage to have magic, they will be similar to what is sometimes called a 'philosophy priest'."
Mystra could only nod at that. She had already made some verifications on the matter while in New York. As she visited one of the temples they called churches, she had analyzed the blessings on various items and in the water. There was faith all right but the blessings all had fatal flaws the priests were completely unaware of. She was in fact sure that the rituals to create them had been deliberately sabotaged, probably by the Baatezu. She still needed some experiments to verify exactly what the flaws were doing but she guessed it was something like having them fail against devils.
"There is a third point that you have to take into account," added Athena. "The situation here is different from the one of Toril because Gaia did not set up the same rules as Ao. There, you merely inherited your charge and the Weave is still mostly as it was designed and maintained by your predecessors. Here on Earth, you destroyed the corrupted system and replaced it with your own creation while working under Gaia's mandate. This makes you the Empress of Heaven and therefore in a position to say 'no' to a lot of things."
Unless Gaia overrules me… but unless I really mess up, that's unlikely if her previous behavior is any indication, thought Mystra. "So we will go with Hel's plan. As a corollary, we will start to send signs of our presence on Earth. It is time to get that show on the road… yes, Sune?"
"Then we have another matter to address, the ones of our own portfolios," replied the Goddess of Beauty. "As Hel and Janus-Jana said, we are evolving, in part because this new world offers us challenges we never considered. Athena helped me realize that I needed more than my usual domains if I was to… keep my sanity. I therefore beseech her Heavenly Majesty to grant this lowly deity the dominion over Fire."
The young Goddess of Magic barely managed not to make an outlandish face. The problem was not the words Sune had used. The problem was that they were devoid of any teasing. She wasn't sure what had happened to the Goddess of Beauty over the weekend but it had been enough to make the elder deity swallow her pride.
"Mystra, if I may," said Chauntea. "I do not often agree with Sune, but I have to support this request. We have to attribute the elemental domains as quickly as possible or it is Talos that we could see arriving here. Also, I think that Sune will be… more agreeable than some other Fire gods we know."
Mystra nodded. The Torilian god of destruction was no friend of hers either. As for Kossuth, the god of Fire… the simple fact he was popular in the land of Thay did not reassure her. Yet, they needed balance and her pantheon was leaning on the side of good currently. Maybe there was a solution, she thought as her eyes fell on Hel.
"With you for Earth, Chauntea, that leaves Water and Air. Loki, isn't one of your sons still bound in Midgard's oceans?"
Loki knew what she meant of course. If you knew what to look for, the network of sea currents circling the planet had a very big magical signature.
"I can talk to him," he replied, "but it will not be an easy sell."
"I may have a solution to that," said Janus-Jana. "There is another sea deity slumbering in the depths, one that may complement the Jörmungandr's primordial nature by giving it a gentler counterpart. She also happens to be draconic in nature which will make some things easier."
"My brother having a girlfriend… now that's an interesting concept," said Hel, smirking. "Who is she?"
"Her dragon name translates as Princess Luminous Jewel but she often uses the one the Japanese gave her: Otohime. She is one of the few greater kami who stayed on Earth," replied Janus-Jana. "This could also be the occasion to extend a friendly hand toward their pantheon."
"If I may, we could offer the Moon portfolio to her if needed," said Sune as she thought about the Ocean Spirit's companion in Zuko's story. "The natural logic being that on this world it is the alliance of the Moon and the Ocean that creates tides."
"Hmm… interesting and it fits well with an idea I had for Air," said Hel. "As some of you know, a few of us Lower Planar deities have an informal alliance to help each other in case the war between the Baatezu and the Tanar'ri comes knocking at our doors. One of those is a thunder god and one of the few I would call a friend."
"Which means not Thor," said Sune with a smirk.
"Definitely not. Even if I didn't strongly dislike him, Thor has too many bad memories of the cross-dressing incident to agree to Gaia's appearance clause, which would make approaching him a wasted effort. My friend on the other hand has a sense of humor and I know he will find looking like a certain French actor funny."
"That and with him probably being a kami… Raijin, also known as Raiden, right?" asked back Athena.
"Yes."
"Agreed," said Mystra. "I want all of you to come up with plans for sending signs and recruiting prophets on Earth. Hel, I will give you an invitation letter for Raiden but your main priority is the afterlife. Janus-Jana will help you with the transition. Loki, Sune, you two work on Otohime and Jörmungandr but I will probably need to be here to unbind him without causing a catastrophe. Sune, I agree to give you the Fire Domain and you can offer the Moon to Otohime… I will have Azuth contact Amaterasu so that we can work out an agreement between our pantheons. Chauntea, for now you have to settle in and get the measure of this new world. We will all help if you need it. For the others, you already have enough on your respective plates for now. We will see later about filling in more positions but I want us secure first. Is there anything else at the moment?"
"One question," asked Gond. "How blatant can we be with the signs?"
"As Hel pointed out, we want the mortals to trust us, not to run screaming about an outer planar invasion. So, limit the damage, but other than that, we have to make them feel that magic is back… this reminds me that, when I was visiting a magic shop in New York a few hours ago, I felt that some of the mortals wearing an upright pentagram as holy symbol were already almost attuned to me. I know this may look underhanded but there are probably worshipers of dead gods or of philosophies that won't need much to come to us."
"I concur," said Lathander. "After all, Inti was a good friend and I suppose he wouldn't mind if I looked out for his people in his stead."
"Good. If that's all… then let's get to work."
As the deities left the meeting room, Sune homed on Chauntea. It was rather evident that the Grain Mother was here at Lathander's request and still taking her marks.
Well, she is not one of my usual allies but for what I have in mind, she is the one I need.
"Chauntea dear," she said with a megawatt smile, "I wanted to talk to you about a wonderful legend they tell to kids on Earth these days, one that can inspire us. It is called Avatar and I am sure you will love one of the heroes. She's a very brave maiden called Toph…"
"Hem… Neti?" asked Buffy as they waited for Morgan to return from seeing a contact of hers.
"Yes?"
"Is taking notes during a mission briefing that unusual?"
The priestess smiled gently, remembering the surprised gaze Bhima had for the elven girl and Morgan's arched eyebrow while the former gave them indications regarding the Maze and its entry and exit points. Buffy had been jotting notes in a small notebook during most of the briefing.
"As the descendent of a long line of scribes, most of them also priests of Thoth, I find it commendable. Bhima would probably have been less surprised if you had been dressed in wizard robes instead of… with your chain shirt, longsword and sylvan elf garb some people will think you're a ranger."
"Got it… for a lot of people around here, writing equals bookworm."
"It varies… Morgan is more of the kind that 'they can't steal – at least not easily – what's only in your memory'."
"I used… a lot of expressions from Earth," she said with a little smile. "From what I studied about language spells, they can crack replacement codes like a letter for another, but fail against cultural metaphors because they cannot impart knowledge about what is referenced to the user, like a cited character's background."
Doubt anyone ever heard of Indiana Jones here… given that we're heading to a potentially trapped place to retrieve an artifact before others do…
"Very good… one of my relatives uses a similar trick. It makes his 'secret' letters completely incomprehensible if you're not an expert on Thebestys' yearly chess tournaments."
Buffy smiled. She was not used to be complimented on her smarts. She knew she had them, but before the Slayer, she had seriously downplayed that aspect of herself, preferring to stick to her image of the valley girl/cheerleader/mall princess. After the Slayer started to demolish her life… she had still stuck to what little was left of it, both as a tactical advantage against her enemies, be they vampires or a high school principal, and as a tentative way to keep at least a little of her old life.
But now… I have no old life to cling to. Only a new one where I'm free to be what I want.
"I got it," said Morgan as she exited from an alley of the Bazaar.
"I sense a but," said Neti.
"I wasn't the first one. Some Fated asked similar questions very recently."
Morgan had been seeing a scholar, a graybeard in Sigil's cant, to find a drawing of Lightbringer after Buffy, remembering a scene from the last Indiana Jones movie, had pointed out that it could very well be hidden among other swords.
Seems like we're not alone on this…
"Then we have to hurry," said Buffy. "Which direction is the Hive?"
"This way," said Morgan as they walked just slow enough to not gather too much attention to them.
"As I can see you will soon ask, Buff, the Fated are in charge of the Halls of Records, which means among other things the taxes," said Neti.
"I suppose we – I mean us Indeps – don't like them very much?"
"On and off rather. They believe everything must be earned. Many Free Leaguers like them for their self-reliance… personally I think that the nickname of Heartless is appropriate for most of them. They see their self-interest before all."
Reminds me of that book Dad gave me when I went to visit him, after the Master. What was the title? Atlas something by a woman called Rand.
They walked quickly and soon found themselves back in the neat alleys of the Clerk's Ward. She still took in some sights, like the rather majestic tower complex of the Civic Festhall which doubled as the headquarters of the Society of Sensation, Neti's and Viviane's faction.
She wore a little smirk as she remembered what Neti had explained to her about the Sensates. For many people, they were a bunch of hedonists and thrill-seekers that would be right at home in the shallowest part of California. A lot of people who joined were actually convinced of that but they were not true Sensates. Sensates were empiricists. They believed that you could only understand the Multiverse if you experienced it through all senses. So, they tried things, a lot.
They wiggled through the back alleys to avoid the district of the Hall of Records. Soon, the buildings started to become shoddier. In some places, they seemed to barely even hold together. Then, they started to walk along a place where the buildings were not only shoddier, they were ruins. It was as if some battle happened there in the past, wrecked everything and no one bothered to rebuild.
"That's the Slags," said Morgan, "the shittiest part of the Hive… let's just say that you don't want to go there unless you have a very good reason."
"What happened?"
"The chant says that the Blood War – the Baatezu-Tanar'ri conflict for Evil Supremacy – spilled over in Sigil in that place. Now… many evil things live there so goody-two-shoes like us are not really welcome."
Another neighborhood of the Hive soon replaced the desolation of the Slags. Morgan explained that it was New Tyr, a place where people from a Prime world called Athas had gathered. The place felt harsh to Buffy, with some kind of feeling that reminded her of a trek she did in the Valley of Death, back in California. Another 'generic slums' district followed as they kept to the shadows, taking great care not to bring themselves to the attention of the local criminals. They finally reached the landmark they were looking for: The Roaring Balor Inn.
"Willow, can you stay for a minute?" asked the teacher.
"Of course, Ms. Stansfield," replied the teen.
The witch had a good idea of what this was about. What happened to her during those last days… it was showing, among other things because she had decided to make it show. No softer side of Sears for her this morning, but a full gothic regalia that allowed her to express how dead the mousy little bookworm was. It also complimented far better her new 'tan', the ethereal pallor that was maybe a reflection of her wintry magic.
And, thank grandfather, I'm a redhead. I bet that without his influence, it would be something like blue or platinum blonde now, just to put the final icicle on the Snow Queen look.
"Willow… I heard from the secretary that your address has changed and… is there something you want to talk about?" he asked.
"Well… I suppose it will be known soon enough. My parents are divorcing," she replied on a flat tone, deciding it was better to tell her homeroom teacher a part of the truth.
"Oh… poor dear! Is that…"
"Why I am dressed like this? It played a role but I mostly decided to stop being meek," she added while her fingers played on the silver raven head pommel of her frilly black umbrella.
She felt a jolt of empathic support coming from the item. Even if she was very glad to be rid of Tasha, she could not deny that she had taught her many useful things… like how to teach any familiar of hers to transform into an inanimate object. Ragna had however refused to 'become some bauble' and said that Willow instead needed a staff. Cordelia's fashion sense had come to her rescue by telling her that an umbrella would fit perfectly with her new goth princess image. Ragna had agreed to the compromise and made some unsurprising final touches to the item, in the form of old Norse carvings and runes on the silver pommel and ash staff of the umbrella.
"Well…"
"Please do not worry. My mom and I are getting professional help to deal with the problems it's causing."
Yep… you can't get more professional than an immortal archmage when you have magic-related problems… she added, making sure the smirk forming in her mind wouldn't reach her lips.
She exchanged a few more pleasantries and walked through the halls. It was her last period and… usually it meant going to the library but would she dare to intrude into Giles' domain today? With what happened last Friday during the meeting?
Maybe I should, if even to…
She was interrupted in her musing by an unwelcome sight in front of her. Harmony Kendall and a few of the other popular girls. She remembered being afraid of them, avoiding them. True, she had never really believed what they said about being better than her. She knew the value of her smarts and skills, particularly in a world where computers were becoming so important. Still, she had hated them, all of this hate coalescing into the person of Cordelia Chase. But then Buffy arrived and Willow had been forced to reevaluate her priorities. Suddenly, things like staying alive and preventing the planet from ending up toast made it to the top of the list. Even her image of Cordelia had changed. As the rich girl got involved with the supernatural, Willow had discovered that the School Queen was far more complex… and human than the caricature she had made of her.
"So, Rosenberg, you decided to assume your loserness?" asked Harmony.
Willow had thought that the caricature, her personal, high school Moby Dick had just transferred from Cordelia to Harmony… but no. She stopped and really looked at the blonde, trying to see beyond the fashion sense she could guess Harmony had sheepishly copied from Cordy as part of her attempt to the School Queen throne. She had expected to see something vile, a tight ball of envy and greed, something that would comfort her in her hate, something she wouldn't feel bad crushing under her heel… She felt another jolt, an icy fire coming from the divine blood in her veins, resonating with Ragna's wisdom. Yes, she saw it now. She had a choice, one that was important both for her own soul's health and for this girl's future.
"You know, Harmony," she said with a sigh, feeling herself incapable of donning her infamous resolve face, "I had all of these barbs prepared to verbally destroy you, but I realized I could not lower myself to do that. I realized that, in the end, you are just a child unaware of the realities of the world. So I will give you a blessing. You will find it harsh at first but I think you will come to appreciate it."
She snapped her fingers, feeling her magic align itself with Ragna's to form a spell. It was the first one she had learnt under Joyleen's tutelage. According to her professor, curses were a staple of witchcraft and had many more possibilities than just inducing weakness. In this case, Willow was using the general curse framework to 'bless' Harmony in a very specific way.
"Done! You are now immune to the Sunnydale Syndrome. You will discover soon enough what it means… welcome to the real world, Harmony," she finished, leaving the dumbfounded socialites with a slightly sadistic laugh. As she turned the corner, she saw that most of them thought she had just snapped and she could read words like psycho on some lips… but not on Harmony's. The curse was already acting, leaving the blond girl with a sense of wrongness.
Thanks for helping with the script, Ragna, she thought in the direction of her familiar. But…
Was it cruel of you to do it? Yes, it was. Was it evil of you to do so? No, it wasn't. Sometimes… well, if my mother had not kicked me out of the family nest, I would never have learnt to fly.
I think I see… and that's why I warned her. She will come to me… and then I will see if she asks me to remove the curse, to help her to return to her ignorance or if… and then it will be my responsibility to guide her.
You understand. You're going to see Giles?
Yes.
Her feet easily followed the familiar path leading to the library. Giles wasn't here yet but it didn't matter. She reached the center of the room and looked down, focusing her senses. Yes, it was here. She started to study it as best as she could, given all the solid matter between it and her. Not that she was in any hurry to get nearer but she knew this particular phenomenon was something they would have to address sooner or later.
"Hi, Mr. Giles." said Willow, still looking at the ground as she heard his familiar stride.
"Hello, Willow. What can I do for you?"
"I can feel it you know… I mean the Hellmouth. It's like a festering wound on the Earth itself… and I think it's getting worse."
"What do you mean?"
"I remember how it felt when we were fighting the Master. Of course, I had no idea what I was feeling then, I just thought it was general ickiness. But I still remember it. I remember my sanity slipping as we faced that thing with too many tentacles. It's different now."
"It may simply be because now you are a trained witch."
"No, that's not it and I'm still an apprentice. What I know now just allows me to feel it without the Hellmouth being open. But it doesn't feel the same. It's like… you know, when you see light coming from under a door and it changes because things are moving behind. That's how it's different. It's something we will have to take care of but, I didn't come for that today."
"Then why did you come?"
"To say I am sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing, that the rules didn't concern me. My stupidity destroyed my family and I was lucky Mrs. Summers stopped everything in time. Had she not been here… or just a non-magical human… Ira would be dead and my Mom and I… well, damned is the word, I think."
Ira, not Dad or Father… a wound I understand all too well, thought Giles, remembering his own relationship with his father.
"While I am glad to hear it…"
"You don't trust Mrs. Summers and as I am her apprentice, you don't trust me either."
"The situation is difficult, Willow. Back in the Roman Era… Joyleen killed a lot of Watchers."
"I know why," she replied, the temperature around her suddenly plummeting with her tone. "She told me the Watchers killed her daughter Umbra… but that was then."
The cold retreated as she calmed. As he studied her face, another difference hit him. Until last week, Willow had, despite being involved with the supernatural, managed to keep some of her teenage innocence. It was all gone now and the training she was now receiving at Joyce's hand would do nothing to change that, quite the contrary in fact. If there was one thing he was certain about the 'new' Joyce Summers, it was that she was very… professional about magic.
"Your powers have grown."
"Yes… I have an affinity with Winter, something about having a Jotunn among my ancestors on my mother's side."
The day before, all the people present when she called Ragna had agreed to keep the fact she was descended from Loki a secret for now. They had also agreed to use that half-truth in case she had to say something about her magic's evolution. She saw Giles start to clean his glasses, probably concerned by the inhuman blood in her veins.
"I cannot promise things will go back to what they once were, Willow."
"I know. Xander is not talking to me. Since last summer, his world has fallen apart. First Buffy, then me and Mrs. Summers. We're changing, evolving and he doesn't know how to cope with that. I want him to come to us but I don't have the right to force the issue. Can you… can you just tell him I will be here to talk if he wants to?"
"Yes, I will… Willow, I honestly don't know what the Council is going to do," he added, having reached a decision about the loyalty he owed to the people who fought and bled with him, here in Sunnydale. "You can tell Joyce that things are chaotic in London. There is something huge in the works… Willow, what Joyce said about the gods coming back. Is it happening now?"
She took an instant to think about her reply. There were things that Mrs. Summers did not want shared with the Watchers and as an apprentice she had to protect her mistress' secrets. She reached a decision. She needed to do what she could to repair the trust between Giles and them and this bit of info was not very sensitive. She would just need to talk with Joyce about this conversation afterwards.
"Yes, it's happening, but it's not all the old pantheons, just a group of some Earth gods and a few from Mrs. Summers' world. She said that her patron Mystra reached an agreement with Gaia so that their group replaced the Powers That Be."
Giles was about to say something when he remembered one of the Whistler's remarks last Friday. The Balance Demon had said something like he wasn't on duty and probably wouldn't be anymore.
"I suppose they will not be content to continue with the status quo."
"No. Whether we like it or not, Earth is under new management."
Buffy thanked once again Morgan's knowledge of the ins and outs of the city of Sigil. Without her, she doubted she would have found the tavern called the Roaring Balor. Of course, there was the problem of the neighborhood. The Hive was definitely not the best part of the city and then there was the fact the tavern they were looking for was a demon bar.
At first, she had expected to see some kind of variant on Willy's Alibi Room, some kind of quiet, muted down place where everyone looked out for himself. The goat-headed demon that had just been thrown through one of the windows reminded her that she had forgotten a few variables in her hypothesis. One was that demons didn't have to hide in Sigil. The second was that the Watcher definition of a demon differed a lot from the planar one. Tanar'ri were definitely a rowdier bunch than Sunnydale's regulars.
"My, my," said a sultry voice. "What do we have here… a rakshasa-spawn and, oh rarity, a planar elf out of Arvandor. Tell me little girl, did this lovely tiger lure you out of paradise, promising you forbidden pleasures?"
The owner of that voice was standing in the tavern's doorway. She was a stunningly beautiful redhead in a diaphanous dress that left little to the imagination, an image that had probably reduced many men to drooling masses of lust. Buffy was even feeling herself rubbing her legs together uncomfortably. She wanted those perfect lips to kiss her. The fact she was another woman or that she had bat wings and a tail was completely irrelevant. After all it wouldn't be the first time she was taken by a fiend… That thought acted like a cold shower. It triggered memories she had tried to bury, the ones of her captivity and the too many times she had been forced.
"Sorry but not interested," she replied on the icier tone she could manage.
"Hmm… I see. Some cad took by force what you refused him and this ruined the pleasures of the flesh for you. Are you sure you do not want me to help you forget that dreadful experience?" replied the succubus, coming nearer.
Buffy started to sweat and she gritted her teeth. She observed Morgan from the corner of her eye. Her friend was on alert but not ostensibly so. Buffy suddenly understood two things. The situation was definitely not the same as the one in Acheron and it wasn't because a succubus was a Tanar'ri and not a Baatezu. First, it was obvious that Morgan was observing her, wanting to see how well she could endure contact with a lower planar entity. Second, she was in Sigil and not in one of the Lower Planes. This was a neutral place.
"No, thanks," replied the young elf.
"As you wish… maybe we'll meet again, little sunshine," said the succubus, walking back inside the tavern.
She quickly followed Morgan into the alley they had been looking for, Neti already hiding at the end of it.
Yes… Neti's a priestess of a Celestial Power which means an aura of goodness the demons can feel. Another reason I'm glad to not have gone Sorceress. Depending on how much 'grandfather's' influence would have shown, it would have been the demon magnet all over again.
As they reached the door they were looking for, the priestess took out the key Bhima had given them. Key was one of those words that had a different sense for planars as they considered it in regards to how most portals functioned. Activating a portal required you to do something. It could be as varied a holding a certain item, saying a code word or hopping up and down on your left leg. For planars, that something, whatever it was, was called a key. In their particular case, it was holding a gold-plated rose.
The faint shimmering in the corner of her eye soon became a distorted curtain of the kind she was becoming familiar with. They quickly stepped through as the rose disintegrated.
"Out of curiosity," said Buffy as she took in the gray stone walls of the maze on the other side of the gate, "how did I do?"
"Needs a little more training but you're not a wreck and that says a lot, given what you went through," replied Morgan.
"If I have one piece of advice to give," said Neti, "do not even consider it. Succubae may not be of the 'kill and maim' kind of demon but in many ways they're worse."
"Yes," said Morgan. "There is one rather blatant exception but… maybe you could actually meet her and she could help you more than we can with what happened in Acheron."
"She's a good demon?" asked Buffy.
"Fall-From-Grace is a fellow Sensate," said Neti. "Well, it is true that she is definitely not a typical succubus. I think it may be good for you to meet her and I can guarantee there is no danger for you. She's living in Sigil and running a place called the Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts in the Clerk's Ward."
"The Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts?" asked Buffy who found the description rather… unusual.
"Not really a place for me," replied Morgan, "but maybe you'll like it. The hosts and hostesses offer things like intelligent conversation, fine music and so on."
"Okay… back on the job. You think we can map it?" she asked while pointing at the maze's walls with a nod.
"Maybe but it would take too long," said Neti. "Moreover… I wouldn't be surprised if dimensions were a bit… wonky here."
Buffy was crouching near a corpse. They had wandered for what she thought to be three hours in the maze, trying to make some sense of the ways the various passages connected. One thing she had understood after a while was that the maze was something like the surface of a mini-planet. If you went in one direction long enough, you just came back to your origin point. The only way to get in and out were the portals the Lady had set.
They had a good idea of where to find the way out now. The dark that Bhima had explained them had given them a starting point and directions from there. Said starting point was currently not too far away. It was a courtyard with a statue of the Lady of Pain. Their little problem was that knowing where the portal was solved only half of the equation. They also needed its key, in this case one of the plates that appeared periodically with food for Vartus Timlin.
It wasn't the only thing they had found. There were six corpses in the passage they were currently in. None of them corresponded to Timlin according to the drawing Morgan's contact provided them. Moreover, their uniforms were very easy to identify.
"Looks like the Hardheads found someone more stubborn than them," said Morgan.
Buffy nodded, observing the wounds. Sword strikes, all of them delivered with great strength and yet…
"Morgan, you see that cut, as if someone tried to aim for the breastplate's weak point, nearly missed and corrected using brute force?"
"Yes and that's interesting. If I were to guess, I would say that our ex-factol didn't train seriously these last decades. All the old reflexes, but rusty," replied the tiefling.
"The problem being that the more berks like these he meets, the better he will get."
"Then we will have to be subtle," said Neti.
"Hmm… Neti, would the Lady put him back here if he found the key and the portal?"
"No, that's part of the system. There is no 'doing your time' with the Mazes. Either you're canny enough to figure how to get out or you die there. Note that if you leave, staying away from Sigil is still a sensible idea."
"You're thinking about offering him a deal?" asked Morgan.
"It's at least an option we can consider… Neti, I see that this spear is magical, something like a basic quality enchantment. Do you agree?"
"Yes. They have a few potions too, let's see."
They quickly proceeded to take what valuables they had. Buffy was telling herself they didn't need it anymore and that those healing potions could very well save her life later. It was becoming easier though, just like not hearing the little voice telling her she should be horrified of that development was becoming easier. In fact, she was welcoming that change. She had chosen to become an adventurer and she needed to play by their rules, rules that had little to do with what she was raised to consider civilized.
"I have a question regarding the Harmonium," said Buffy a little later, as they were sitting in an easily defensible small room to eat a little bit. "You said that they 'wanted everyone to think like them'… how far would they go for that?"
"What's sure," said Morgan, "is that they have a tendency to be… overzealous when scragging people. Sure, the Guvners see right through it and void the case, but… there are rumors that some in the Harmonium are going further, that some of the arrested people never wind up in the Prison but are shipped to camps, somewhere, or 'killed when resisting arrest'. We Indeps are a choice target for them."
Buffy winced when she heard the word camp. For a girl from Earth, particularly one whose best friend was Jewish, it was not alarm bells ringing, but air strike sirens.
"There is no proof factol Sarin or the other high-ups of the Harmonium condone this," said Neti, "but given their structure… Most of the people in the Harmonium are just people who think an orderly society where everyone knows his place and working for the common good is the way to go. It is true that their settlements are peaceful, crime-free…"
"As long as you obey without question," cut in Morgan. "As an Indep, I have nothing against people wanting that kind of security. They can do what they want on their worlds, I just won't ever visit. I draw the line when these people start to think their system should be… forced upon others that just want to live another way."
The tiefling girl got up.
"Buffy, do you have the time?"
"Yes," she said, concentrating to activate a prestidigitation trick, "almost eight PM… or rather After Peak to use the local time."
One thing she found particularly depressing about Sigil was that even when it wasn't raining or simply overcast, there was no sun, just a variation of the ambient light dividing the day in roughly twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness. Noon was called Peak and corresponded to the moment the bleak light was the brightest, while Antipeak, or midnight, was the darkest moment.
I definitely prefer Sylvania even if the shopping is probably better here… speaking of shopping: I will need to spend a little on equipment… and find a way to balance my fighter training and magic. Maybe there are elven traditions I can look at for that.
"Another thing as we are speaking of time. That things with the Expansionists happened centuries ago. You think Timlin is undead?"
"It's possible but I think it's both simpler and more perverse. I wouldn't be surprised if her Serenity added something like 'you don't age while in here' to the Maze," replied Neti.
"Then let's try to find him."
Buffy was doing her best to breathe as lightly as possible while she watched Morgan move with calculated slowness. In the room they had found, a man was sleeping on a cot. A sword matching the drawing they had procured was near his side.
The way they were acting was a compromise. They knew that there was at least one other group searching the Maze for Timlin. While Buffy and her teammates had agreed that they could theoretically discuss with the ex-factol, there was no guarantee he would agree to give his sword in exchange of information. Given the reputation of the Expansionists, he was just as likely to try to obtain what he needed from them by force.
Well… I suppose Inspector Stein would be delighted to know I am taking part in a theft, even if the man we're stealing from is a convicted criminal.
She remembered some of her own problems with the law back on Earth. Sure the Sunnydale police had shown a rare level of stupidity – one that Mandor had found suspect when she told him her story – but they were still cops and some of them really didn't like her. Later, when she was a prisoner, the Baatezu had tried to break and remold her in their image. The last straw had probably been the fight with the bandits on the way to Sylvania. After that, she had started to ask herself a lot of questions. Her decision to take that job, to do what was in the end mercenary work was a proof of how much she had changed.
Pike it, to quote Morgan. It's just like Mandor told me. This is not modern-day America. Here, a girl has to look after herself if she doesn't want to end up in the dead-book or sold to fiends as a slave. I'm an Indep and I will live up to the League's ideals. The only rules I will follow are the ones I choose for myself.
She returned her attention to the job. Morgan was moving as silently as a ghost, taking the sword by its scabbard and moving back to their hall. As they had decided Finally, Buffy closed the door behind them and stuck a paper in a stone crack. It contained instructions to find the portal. Like this, Timlin had a chance. They went away, still silent, in the direction of the courtyard.
Buffy pushed delicately on the iron-bound wooden door of the courtyard. Timlin's room was still near and they did not want to wake him up. It was then that she noticed that someone was looking at her, from the other side of the door.
"I see that you have the sword," said a female voice. "Surrender it gently and no one will be harmed."
She entered the room, taking in the… competition. They were six which seemed to be some kind of standard size for many planewalking parties. The leader was probably the woman, a large tiefling woman with patches of black scales thrown in a haphazard manner. She was wearing full chainmail and her hands were resting on a two-handed warhammer. The five others just screamed minions to the former Slayer but Buffy knew better than to dismiss them. Even a minion could get lucky.
Faction insignia… woman with a bizarre headdress, that's the Fated, she thought as Morgan and Neti deployed on both sides of her, letting her assume the leader position.
"And why should we? We obtained it first… I guess that means we earned it?" she asked with a little smile.
"Yes," replied the Fated, "but now I am offering that you earn your survival by giving the sword to us. You're outnumbered."
True… but irrelevant. Your numbers are not sufficient to offset our other advantages. Time to see if I've still got the touch…
"And now… we're hitting a blind? Sorry, I'm still getting the hang of your speakage. We all want the sword and none of us wants to end in the dead-book… unless you have a secret death wish of course. So… how about you let us pass and we don't hurt you and your minions? Seems like a fair deal to me."
Perfect… one of the minions just felt very insulted at my use of that word.
She moved slightly to place herself ideally and noticed that Neti had closed the door behind them. She now knew exactly how the tiefling was moving and she had pinpointed the defects in her armor. It was time to see if she had judged the others correctly.
"Seems like one of your minions is foaming at the mouth… you're sure they had their rabies shots?"
She smirked as her 'grenade' just blew up. The man she had just pointed was charging at her, screaming insults in something that sounded Scandinavian to her. She easily dodged him, her own sword leaving its scabbard as she danced around him, going for the woman that had always been her target. The tiefling fighter lifted her hammer to counter her but, slowly, too slowly. Greenish blood started to color the links of her chainmail as Buffy slashed at her right leg.
She saw Morgan move, slashing at the minions on her way. Just like her, they weren't her objective and the fighter understood it when the tiger girl somersaulted around another of them to arrive at her enemy's back. Of course, this left the problems of the minions but the Fated leader was no rookie and she immediately had a look at the third Storm Rider on the scene.
"Kill the spellslinger!" she yelled at her men while she barely parried an attack from Morgan.
The Fated turned to face Neti who was holding a blue lotus petal in front of her mouth. The priestess blew on it, exhaling a cone of cerulean vapors while making sure not to include her teammates in the zone of her spell. The effects were immediate as several of her victims started to feel nauseous and could barely concentrate enough to move.
Buffy whirled between her enemies, coordinating her move with Morgan so that they could continue tag-teaming the leader while still presenting an immediate menace to the two remaining valid minions charging Neti. While they both knew that the priestess could handle them herself, it was simply a matter of expediting the battle as quickly as possible. For now, they were mostly working on the leader, each of them opening opportunities for the other and keeping their common adversary off-balance.
This was so different from Sunnydale… had Willow or Xander been in Neti's situation, she would probably have started to panic. Also the idea of tag-teaming an adversary was not something she would have done easily. Even when she fought alongside Angel or Kendra, things never worked very well. She realized now that then, she had been fighting beside them, not with them. The Storm Riders worked differently. They may on average lean on the Chaos side of things but they were also canny planewalkers which also meant a healthy dose of pragmatism. Viviane and Mandor regularly organized team building exercises where they often ended fighting the wizard's illusions in what Buffy had called 'Pure Danger Room Tradition'… which had led her to give a slightly embarrassed explanation about comic books to her new friends.
Finally, the tiefling fighter fell, her leg tendons severed by Morgan's strike while Buffy ran her own blade under the woman's chin. Losing no time, the young elf turned around to slash the back of one of the minions. It ended quickly after that as they dispatched the goons one by one. As the battle died, Buffy looked at the corpses, testing her own conscience.
Nope… it was regrettable, but it was just business. It could very well have been us lying dead on the floor. Plus, they're Fated so they understand that kind of thing very well… Vae Victis, woe to the vanquished.
She activated her magical sight to see what they could have that may be of interest. As they finished looting them, she smiled as she saw something appear on the Lady's statue pedestal: a plain-looking dish holding some food.
"Neti… you're the historian here. What kind of power is Lightbringer supposed to have?"
Buffy was frowning. While looting the Fated squad, she had taken a look at the ancient sword and something did not feel right.
"According to legends… the sword actually fought for him."
"Funny. The aura of the sword looks weak. Can enchantments decay?"
"Some… but I don't think so."
"I have the trigger," said Morgan as she manipulated a section of wall in a small dead end. "So…"
Buffy made a zipping gesture on her mouth while the wall started to roll to the side, revealing a room with a portal… and another six-man team.
Symbol… some kind of legless dragon.
She tumbled forward to dodge a volley of crossbow bolts and barely managed to keep her footing on the greasy patch that had suddenly materialized under her feet.
Okay… wizard here.
"Mercykillers…" said Morgan, jumping past the grease area while Neti said something in Ancient Egyptian from the backline.
Suddenly, one goon that looked slightly dazed attacked his comrade while another babbled incoherently. Buffy remembered reading something about that spell in a book about the school of Enchantment. It literally sowed confusion in the area of effect.
"Morgan, I'll take down the goons, you get rid of the wizard!"
Our luck is that he won't fireball us while we have the sword.
Buffy quickly incanted to summon a force shield while the priestess continued to call on her most powerful spells. She could only giggle when rainbow-colored, ricocheting blasts of energy filled the room, looking really like a magical girl attack. The chaotic energy was harmless to them given their own inclinations, but it impacted the very lawful Mercykillers rather harshly.
One babbling, one barely standing… time to give a little… drat.
The wizard had obviously reevaluated the menace they represented as giant strands of spider web filled the room. Morgan was still moving toward him, but had to sneak through the webs to prevent ending up stuck. Buffy was little better. She gritted her teeth as a glob of acid splashed on her torso and started to burn.
She concentrated, calling on her innate powers. Lightning flared in an aura around her, burning the strands that held her. The acid was still burning but that was minor. She was a little more singed, but the tradeoff was worth it as Neti unleashed one of her healing waves. It was time to see if she managed to go on the offensive magically speaking. Sure, her spells weren't very strong yet but… conjured snow coalesced in her hand while she put herself in position for a baseball pitch. She threw the ball, the spell accelerating it far beyond what any human could hope to reach.
She gave a small sigh of relief as the ball managed to hit her target, going through a small opening in the web and the wizard staggered for an instant. That proved to be fatal to him as it was just the moment Morgan chose to appear behind him and make quick work of the Mercykiller.
"Time to get out of here," said Neti while she dispelled the magical web.
"Yes, I need a bath," said Buffy, "but first… Morgan?"
"Some more things for Mandor to analyze on that wizard…"
"So… here is Lightbringer," said Bhima. "It is certainly a nice-looking sword."
"Bhima," said Morgan, "to be honest it feels… disappointing."
"It doesn't really matter, Morgan. My client paid to have Vartus Timlin's sword, which you retrieved. Its actual powers are of no concern."
"I suppose you won't tell us who asked to retrieve the sword?" asked Buffy.
"Effectively, I won't. Protecting my client is part of my job. However… as the sword is not as magical as expected, it should lessen your issues about its misuse. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
Buffy looked as Bhima left. On one hand, she had been well paid for a relatively small job. Still…
Well, something to wonder about later probably. I have more pressing matters to address for now.
Cordelia was going through her afternoon exercise routine. This was something she had started to do after Buffy's disappearance. She didn't have the cheerleading practice sessions since she quit the team anyway so it served just as well to keep her in shape. However, it served another purpose now too: keeping her alive. Oh, she had no illusions about her capability to best a vampire in hand-to-hand combat. She was no Slayer and she didn't have any crazy magic powers like Willow or Mrs. Summers. Still, if she was fast enough to dodge a few times, it could give her enough time to flee. So she had dug back in her memories, remembered the martial art classes she had taken as a kid, classes that later helped her to become a damn good cheerleader. Katas and routines were in the end not that dissimilar…
Perfect, thought Sune who was standing in the corner of the room, invisible to the mortal's sense.
Athena had visited barely an hour before in her office to tell her about a very ugly person called Kakistos. Sune had then known that she had to rush her plans a little bit. She had made a deal with the goddess of war. Athena had granted her some knowledge that would normally be pretty alien to her, on the condition that the newly minted Fire Goddess would actually train to 'pay off her debt'. Sune had decided to agree because she knew herself too well. She would probably have found many reasons to delay things and this was a needed part of her evolution. Now that she saw the grace in Cordelia's movements… she didn't regret anything and she was coming to think that the training would be somewhat agreeable.
"Remember, my little spark. Remember your prince," she whispered directly to the girl's soul as her hair became literal fire.
Cordelia's moves suddenly started to change. No more basic karate but a far different style an expert would have recognized as Northern Shaolin. Aggressive, expanding and extravagant… like Fire. Little did the human notice the currents of hot air following the dance of her movements.
Good… the pressure of battle will do the rest, thought the goddess as she disappeared, transporting herself back to the Lunar Castle.
After a while, the teenage girl finished her routine. She wondered what had possessed her… she smiled. She remembered why she had taken martial arts in the first place. At the time she had been a big Avatar fan at the time and she had spent quite some time trying to duplicate the moves of the show's heroes. She made a few more moves, appreciating how natural it felt to her, how fitting to her own fiery personality.
"A pity firebenders aren't… hmm, maybe something to ask Joyleen about. But for tonight, shower and then Bronze. I need to hammer back some sense in the big doofus' head and I know he will be there."
Author notes:
- Janus' new appearance is based on the Imperoratriz of the Incal series by Moebius and Jodorowsky.
- The gas cone spell used by Neti uses a tobacco leaf in Pathfinder rules. I changed it to blue lotus as it fit better for an Egyptian priestess.