21. Conundrum

Buffy sat alone in the middle of the training room of the Magic Box. Only she knew it wasn't real. Nothing in this place was real except for her and Narya and Narya had left her for now to her thoughts. Buffy had spent was could have been hours or days going in circles with her copy to what seemed to be no avail.

At least that was until Narya had left her alone to her thoughts. Now she was stuck here and she knew she couldn't leave until she figured out what ever it was she was supposed understand or learn. Tanking a deep breath the focused her mind on the things Narya had said and decided to go over them one by one.

"Parallel lines always meet"

Buffy wasn't at all sure what to make of that. Parallel lines? If what she remembered from high school was correct then parallel lines were lines that never met. So in theory that meant the two lines would never cross.

So two lines would never cross. She didn't get it. Could that be any more vague?

Unless.

Unless Narya really was going with the whole Wise Asian Master bit.

Crap.

Now she had to be all philosophical.

So if two lines never cross and one line is supposed to be herself and the other Narya then that means that they were not going to come across each other. And if that was true then her origional destiny had been changed.

Which she already knew.

Which she still didn't understand at all by the way.

"That is the beginning of knowledge--the discovery of something we do not understand."

This little jem she understood a little better. It was simple. She knew she didn't know and that meant that she had knowledge.

But knowledge is knowing something.

Which makes no sense.

Unless.

Nah couldn't be it.

But its all she had

What if admitting that she didn't know everything meant that she had knowledge.

Seemed a little stupid but it was all she'd gotten

"The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice."

Narya had to be channeling Giles or her adar. It sounded just like what one of the two of them would say. Learning is a gift. Well yeah it is sort of. She read more now but it was only because there was no tv. And despite what Giles or her adar said she did like to learn. She just didn't like to learn from books. She was more of a 'do' kind of girl.

And if she followed the rest of the super annoying sentence then she was a learner. She had figured out she could learn anything if she had to. She could cook, camp, ride a horse, hunt for her own food, act like a lady and even learn a new language. So yeah she could learn.

So if she followed cryptic statement further then that meant that she had to be willing to learn.

Learn to use the Narya.

She had already said that she did.

Unless

Unless she had to learn most of it by doing it.

Which meant she was going to be stuck here a really long time.

But if that was true then the next cryptic lesson didn't make sense.

"There are weapons you cannot hold in your hands. You can only hold them in your mind."

So if she couldn't hold Narya in her hands to learn how to use her here then how in the hell was she supposed to get out of here?

Oh crap. Narya had said she was in her mind.

She was going to have to learn to use it mentally.

Which never went well.

Look at that whole aspect of the daemon thing.

She knew it. She was gonna be here a very long time.

At least before when she had to do deep meaningful vision learning or whatever things Giles had to do funny dances and shake a gourd.

And she got a cookie.

But she really didn't have time to sulk if she wanted out and she knew it.

Stupid vague ring. This was so not her thing.

"One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp with too much force is to be taken over by power, thus becoming its victim."

Ok so she sort of understood this one. She should approach using the power of the ring lightly otherwise she was going to lose control and end up dead. Buffy could relate to that. Look at what had happened to Willow after she had decided to use too much power. Darth Willow was not a pretty thing. She had tried to end the world. So Buffy could understand the whole idea of approaching with caution and not biting off more power than she control. After all she really didn't want to end up all veiny and black haired.

"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."

This one was far less easy. So she wasn't supposed to follow a road exactly to its end because it would lead her nowhere. The only thing she could come up with that was even close that sounded similar was "it isn't the destination thats important but the journey to get there." That she understood. So she wasn't supposed to follow the path exactly how the Valar set up.

Not a problem.

She'd never followed instructions well anyway.

The rest though didn't make much sense. If she climbed a mountain just enough to know it was a mountain then she could see above and below her and know it was a mountain so that part wasn't too hard.

But if she climbed the entire mountain then she couldn't see the mountain in front of her.

Which made sense in a really stupid sort of way.

Hello insane troll logic.

"Do not count what you have lost. Count only what you still have."

This one she got pretty well. It had to mean that she shouldn't focus on the past and what she gave up to be here but on what she had gained from coming. She'd lost one family (even if it was a very screwed up one) but now she had a new one and it was even bigger and just as good in its own way. She still missed her mom and Dawnie and it still hurt though.

"Life is borne of pain."

Understatement much?

The pain is not the friend.

But she understood what it meant. She'd told Dawn something almost the same just before she died the last time. You couldn't escape the pain. Couldn't run or hide. It would always find you because that's what it meant to be alive.

Didn't mean she had to like it though.

At least it was better than "Death is your gift."

"We go forward, we come back."

Buffy wasn't sure what what Narya meant by that. She had kept going forward for years now. Refusing to let herself give up on friends and family had been hard at first but she'd done it. She loved her life here. She had managed to find a way to have both her life as a slayer and just Buffy. She had found a family where being both was easy like her life had been before she became the Chosen One.

And then it hit her.

It always comes back to eventually.

She smiled.

Her two lives had balance here.

"There's no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves."

And she could keep the balance. Between Buffy and the slayer as long as she approached it day by day.

She smiled again and whispered to herself. "I just have to balance and learn day by day. I just have to be strong enough to do it."

Narya suddenly appeared before her and Buffy's head shot up to look into eyes that were full of pride.

"Not knowing what you said, you said it."

"Huh?" Buffy asked as the room began to dim around her.

"The training is nothing. The will is everything!" were the last words Buffy heard before everything went black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Old Forest February 26/ 26 Coire 2982 III Age

Gandalf sat with his pipe between his lips watching Buffy on the bed. It had been five and a half years of men since she had put on the Ring of Fire and and yet she still slept.

He closed his eyes and thought about the world outside that she had been absent from. Aragorn was still angry about her manner of departure and no word over the years. The children of Eldrond worried over her immensely. She shared a blood bond with them through Galadriel and yet they could not feel or track her, though they knew she was not dead. Elrond and Celeborn were both upset over her long absence and had made it clear that the Wilwarin of her people would wed none but a king.

And that was assuming that Buffy ever woke.

As if on cue Gandalf heard a sharp intake of breath from the bed. Opening his eyes he took in the sight before him. The red glow was gone and there lay Buffy with open eyes.

Groaning she turned her head to him and smiled faintly.

"Can I get some water Gandalf. It feels like I haven't had anything to drink in a week."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX