29

Spike paced anxiously in Angel's office while he waited for Angel to finish a meeting he was in the middle of. Wesley had hurried to his office to gather up the materials he'd found. Spike hated leaving Lucy even for small periods of time, but if Wesley had found the answer to getting rid of Illyria then their time apart was well worth it.

He was so wound up that when Angel walked in Spike actually jumped and let out a yelp.

"Spike." Angel said, sounding surprised.

"Wesley found something." Spike informed Angel.

Angel looked hopeful and gave Spike's arm a comforting squeeze as he passed him and then took a seat at his desk. Wesley arrived a few minutes later, his arms filled with loose papers and old books. Fred walked in behind him, her arms similarly filled.

"So you've found something to help Lucy?" Angel asked.

Wesley dropped his burdens on a table and gave Spike a smile. "Yes I believe I've found the answer. Not just to helping her, but why this has happened in the first place."

"Well hurry up and get on with it will you!" Spike snapped.

Wesley nodded and pulled out a bunch of papers.

"It started when I discovered that both Jason Richards and Knox are from the same town in upstate New York. Obviously I realized that that must have been the connection right away, but for the longest time I honestly couldn't find out what else they had in common other than their birth places.

The only other connection I could find between the two was that while each attended elementary school they had the same fourth grade teacher. A man named Randolph Simmons.

I used the truth serum on Knox again and he admitted to me that Randolph Simmons was an Illyria worshipper. He didn't just worship her, he was the man who helped put the final steps into her sarcophagus disappearing from the Deeper Well. He was Illyria's Qwa'ha Xahn before Knox.

Knox admitted to me that Randolph Simmons taught Knox everything he knows about Illyria. Simmons died last year, but by using our connections here I was able to get my hands onto his journals and research materials. His journals indicate that Jason Richards was his apprentice, ten years later Knox would become his next apprentice.

Randolph Simmons taught Jason Richards Illyria's entire history. It seems that Simmons was quite skilled in dark magic, but that he never taught his apprentices that side of things because he was paranoid that they would betray him using magic." Wesley chuckled as he said this.

"Why's that funny?" Spike asked.

"Because Jason Richards did betray Randolph Simmons. Richards graduated from high school and moved to New York City to attend college. While he was there he continued to study under Simmons, this time by means of the internet.

From what I've been able to piece together, once Jason Richards became infatuated with Lucy, he broke off contact with Simmons and quit his worship of Illyria. He really was totally obsessed with Lucy, in his last letter to Simmons he claimed that he worshiped Lucy more than he'd ever worshiped Illyria.

According to Simmons' journal two months before he attacked Lucy and her brother Richards broke into his ex-mentor's home. He stole a book on dark magic and a satchel. In his journal Simmons' says that the satchel contained the lost essence of Illyria."

"The lost essence of Illyria?" Fred asked.

"Simmons' described it as a bag of blue powder. The dust was a small part of Illyria's demon body, the only part of her that wasn't sealed into her sarcophagus. It was passed down for generations to each of Illyria's Qwa'ha Xahns."

"The blue powder that he put into Lucy's eyes." Spike guessed.

Wesley nodded. "Yes. Jason Richards intended to use the book and the powder to perform a powerful binding spell between him and Lucy. The book he stole was a copy of the Talmin Ka, a twelfth century spell book. It does contain one extremely powerful binding spell, which calls for demon essence to complete the bond. I believe that Richards wanted to use Illyria's essence because she was such a powerful demon, he probably assumed it would make the bond stronger."

"But he must have messed the spell up. If Lucy had been bonded that strongly to him, there's no way she would have been able to shove a knife in his gut." Spike pointed out.

"Actually I don't believe he did mess the spell up. It's a relatively simple spell. He just used the wrong ingredient. The spell calls for the demon essence to enter the subject's body through the eyes. The eyes have always been considered the windows to the soul and by putting the essence into the eyes it infects the soul of the subject. The spell also calls for a sacrifice from the victim of the spell, a profound loss that opens up the subject to the bonding. I believe that is why Lucy lost her eye sight. Her vision was the sacrifice that opened her soul for the bonding ritual to be completed."

"That still doesn't explain why Lucy wasn't bonded to Richards." Angel pointed out.

"She bonded to Illyria didn't she?" Spike asked.

Wesley nodded and gave Spike an impressed nod.

"I believe so yes. Illyria's essence is more powerful than anything the creator of the spell had imagined. That kind of power was not meant to be used. The spell was supposed to bond the victim to the person performing the spell, but I think that it directly bonded Lucy to Illyria. It explains everything that has happened. Lucy didn't die when Illyria infected her, because their souls are bound together. It also explains why Lorne read so much when he read Lucy. He wasn't reading Lucy's past, he was reading Illyria's." Wesley explained.

"So if Illyria and Lucy are bonded together, then how can we get rid of Illyria? Won't that hurt Lucy?" Fred asked.

Wesley nodded. "Yes, separating their souls would most likely destroy both of them. But if we can break the bonding spell first, then we should be able to take Lucy to the Deeper Well and draw Illyria's essence back into her sarcophagus."

"Can we break the bonding spell?" Spike asked hopefully.

Wesley nodded, but did it reluctantly. "I think so. If the spell had worked the way it was supposed to then it would have been easy to reverse. A witch or a shaman would be able to do it in just a few hours, but with Illyria's powers I'm really not sure. We're going to need someone with an enormous amount of power to do a counter spell."

Angel and Spike exchanged a glance then.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Spike asked.

Angel nodded.

"Willow." Both vampires said simultaneously.