Chapter Eleven: Names and Ornaments

"SoRupert Giles isn't really your name? It's actually your, what? Faerie nickname?" Staring at Xander in exasperation, Buffy rolled her eyes. "That was pretty much his point, yeah. He couldn't use his real name here."

"Giles?" Everyone turned to look at Willow. "What is your real name? I mean, it's pretty strange to call you Giles now that we know what it means. So would you tell us your Faerie name? That is, if you trust us"

Giles smiled softly at the young witch, and then turned his head to direct the expression at all of them. "Of course I trust you, Willow Well, perhaps not Spike"

"Oi, come on, mate! I helped get you out of there! Don't that deserve something?"

"Ahem, yes, quite." One could almost hear the eye-roll in his voice. "I will tell you only if I have your oath, William, not to use my name in any way against me." The tone of his voice lowered in threat. "Or I shall use yours similarly. And I know a great many spells for true-names that you would not like cast on you."

Spike actually looked intimidated for a tiny second before grinning and flicking ash off his cigarette. The action belied the seriousness of his next words. "You have my oath, on my love for my Dark Princess, that I will not harm you through your name." The Scoobies all looked at each other, confused, but Ethan had a tinge of respect in his eyes and Giles nodded in acknowledgement.

"You've heard me called something quite close to it before, but my true name is Ri'par." He waited for them to grasp the significance of what he had just spoken.

"Ripper? You mean Ethan's been going around calling you by your real name all this time? You let Ethan know but you never told us you even had another name?!" Buffy was righteously indignant and Ethan resisted the urge to put her in her place, preferably via several painful curses. Giles, or Ri'par, apparently knew of this desire and kept his hand tight in Ethan's, preventing the Chaos Magician from doing anything but sit by the Faerie's side. That didn't stop him from speaking though.

"Ripper's my friend, little girl"

"Your friend?" Buffy scoffed. "That's why he keeps kicking the crap out of you, right?"

Ethan glared and Giles just shook his head sadly. "Don't judge what you can't understand, Slayer. You only just found out what Ripper is. Hasn't it occurred to you that, as with all things Fae, his past is not what it appears to be?"

"Ethan, enough. Buffy, please, do not be angry. Ethan's entirely correct. You don't understand me or my relationship with Ethan. I've only told you a very small part of our past."

"And why is that? Don't you trust me Giles?"

Ri'par's voice grew hard. "I am your Watcher! That does not mean you are entitled to know every detail of my life! There are things in your life that you have kept from me. I don't push you to reveal them nor do I try to prevent you from having privacy in the first place. If something bears upon your Calling, then yes, it is important. If private details will affect the fight, then they should be shared. As I am sharing now. Do not presume to think that I am yours, that every detail of my life belongs to you. I am nobody's slave, nor will I be!"

The rest of the room was eerily silent as the echoes of Giles' voice faded. Buffy looked dumbstruck, almost as if she might cry. "II'm sorry Giles. Of course you deserve your privacy. I justI don't like the idea that I never really knew you."

Giles closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. He held his arms out to his young charge and, after a brief pause, Buffy sat heavily on the bed and hugged the older man.

"You do know me, Buffy. I didn't tell you the details of my life and I kept what I am hidden from you, but that doesn't change the fact that you know me. This is who I am. Rupert Giles, Watcher, who looks for every answer inside a musty old book and cares for his Slayer very deeply."

Buffy sniffed as she looked up into her Watcher's eyes. The eyes whose shape had altered and were placed in a subtly different face but, she could see as she stared at them, they were still the same eyes she had known, trusted, and looked up to for all these years. Then she drew back away from the bed and the comfort of Giles' arms. Forcing a smile, she looked brightly around the room. "So what's this band thing that vamp is looking for?"

Giles sighed. "The sulon kin'de. The band of shielding.' It's not actually a unique object, but one of several Faerie amulets. They all have quite powerful magics set into them to protect the bearer from harm. The kind of protection differs as does the shape the object is in. This particular one is a metal armband, quite like a bracelet, that wards against all physical harm. That isn't to say you can't strike the bearer at all, it's just that the strike will have no physical effect."

Spike nodded, "What we figured, mate. Hell of a thing for a vampire to get a hold of. He'll be practically invincible."

Xander frowned and then tentatively raised his hand. Eyes dancing with amusement, Giles called on him as a teacher would a student. "Yes, Xander? You have something to say?"

"A question really. I just wondered if, I meanwould this thing protect a vampire from the sun? I mean, stakes and getting your head cut off, that's physical, but the sunit doesn't have to touch the vamp to kill it, right?"

"You've been paying more attention to research than I thought." Giles' voice was rich with pride and Xander basked in it. "Yes, a vampire wearing the band would still be vulnerable to sunlight, which will be helpful if we fail to keep it safe."

"J-just how do we do that? K-keep it safe I mean?" Willow glowed as her shy girlfriend spoke up.

Blushing slightly, Giles looked down in embarrassment. "Well, we've established that I'm the young lordling of the prophecy, which means I'm the key to keeping it safe. I hadn't realized anyone would be looking for it, really"

Buffy nodded, "Okay, so where'd you hide it?" With a sharp look she added, "You did hide it, right? It's not just hanging around somewhere here?"

"It'swell, it is here and no, I didn't deliberately hide it. Though it's certainly someplace the vampire will never think to look"

Xander shook his head with impatience. "Well, out with it, Watcher Guy! How can we protect it if we don't know where it is?"

Then Ethan chimed in, "Yes, Ripper, you really should quit stalling."

Giles smiled, a secretive quirk of the lips, as he turned to Ethan with an eyebrow raised. "Ethan, haven't you guessed yet? You're usually much quicker than this. It's an armband, it's here, but not hidden, and it protects the bearer from physical harm." He left it at that and just stared at the other man expectantly.

Eyes going wide, Ethan stared at Ripper, unaware that all other eyes were on himself. Then he put a hand to his left sleeve and pulled it up to his shoulder, revealing an intricately-worked metal armband decorated with carved leaves and runes. Giles smirked, "Took you long enough."