Chapter 8:
He was roaming through the house and had been doing so for what seemed like hours. He could remember going back to sleep after his discovery about the eyes and how happy he had been that he had remembered something. It was a shame that while he had indeed remembered something, the greatest part of the dream had been forgotten but maybe that was how it was supposed to be.
Upon reentering this strange dreamworld he had decided not to follow his other self and Dawn to the Chinese mountains, choosing instead to explore the house. He didn't know how much he would remember of it but any info about the layout of this complex building was useful.
He had been walking for a long time when he once again encountered her. Like before she spoke to him despite the fact that that shouldn't have been possible. "Why did you not go with the other Xander?"
This time he decided to answer her. "There was no need to and I thought it might be more useful to explore the house."
She nodded thoughtfully at that. "That was a wise decision, even though I had not foreseen it. Tell me, is the other you capable of convincing Dawn of the danger she is in?"
That was a confusing question, surely she must have known by now that he hadn't been able to do so but he answered her anyway. "No, she refuses to believe there is any danger in the knife."
"I had thought that was the case but it would not have mattered anyway. She would not have been able to do away with the knife without risking what little sanity she has left. Something more intensive must be done in order to save her, something that I can not do without risk to both her and myself." She looked pensive for a moment, before she continued. "But we do not have any other choice. Tomorrow you will bring her to me and then we will discuss the solution to this problem."
He opened his mouth to ask a question, although he didn't know which one when she interrupted him. "No, the questions you wish to ask will have to wait for the morning as well. Now go back to your body."
. . . .
"So did it work?"
The two of them were having breakfast when Dawn asked him this and for a moment Xander didn't know what she meant. "What? Oh yeah, I don't think that I actually remembered everything but I did most."
"That's great!" The girl looked extremely pleased that her suggestion had helped.
"I guess so."
"You guess so? Yesterday you were so anxious to know what happened and now you act as if you couldn't care less. Was whatever happened in your dream that bad?"
He almost laughed at that, no, it hadn't exactly been very bad but he was disturbed by the fact that Torala had been able to talk to him in his dream. Unfortunately he couldn't share that with his friend since she would want to know what they had talked about and that wasn't something he could tell her. "No, not really, but they were very strange."
"They? You had more then one dream?"
Mentally cursing his traitorous mouth he answered her. "Yes, I woke up after the first one and when I fell asleep again I had another."
"Wow, so what were they about?" She sounded really eager to hear about his dreams and when he looked at her he noticed she was staring at him with a disconcertingly hungry look on her face.
"Like I said, they were weird. It's like I was reliving the entire day but not really. It was more like I was looking at whatever was happening to me and was able to pay attention to other things."
"Huh, that is weird. So what kind of things did you see?"
How to answer this in a way she wouldn't get angry at him again? He took a moment to collect his thoughts while pretending to pay attention to the wonderful tasting food. "The thing that woke me up was about Torala." Taking another bite he tried to gauge her reaction to that news. He still wasn't sure how far the mental conditioning thing the sorceress had done on Dawn went and he had no intention of taking any risks there. But he didn't really notice anything strange in her eager face so he asked her a question. "Have you ever seen her eyes?"
"Her eyes? This is about her eyes? I've never noticed anything weird about them."
The strong denial was not what he had expected but he wasn't sure whether it was because of the mindcleansing or the cursed knife. But, he thought, it didn't really matter if the sorceress found out about the eye thing since he planned on asking her about it anyway. "That's right, you've never noticed anything weird about them. In fact I'm pretty sure you've never noticed anything about them at all."
As she gave him a confused look he decided to just go on. "You can't tell me what color they are, can you?" Dawn frowned at that and he waited while she was clearly trying to remember that information. When she gave up with a slightly disgruntled look on her face he explained the reason to her. "Torala never looks directly at you. I didn't notice it either, until the dream, but she keeps her eyes almost closed all the time and usually looks slightly to the left of whoever she is speaking to."
"Really? But I think I would've noticed something like that if it happened."
"Would you? It was only because I was really paying attention to her that I saw it and even then it took me a long time. If what she says about how long she's lived is true, then she must've had a lot of practice at doing it."
"And if she's done it for so long she must be so good at it, that nobody notices." His friend finished, slightly awed. "Wow, that could actually happen."
"Yeah," for the first time since his arrival at breakfast he wondered about Torala's presence, "talking about Torala, do you know where she is? I'd kinda expected she'd be here for breakfast."
"She's somewhere outside the house, although I'm not sure where she is. She left before we returned last night."
And there it was again, that freaky knowing of things she couldn't possibly know. He really didn't like that, it might be a side effect of whatever spell was cast on her and if so he hoped he could convince the sorceress to end it.
. . . .
They had spent most of the morning and afternoon in the lounge, where Dawn had been reading every book she could get her hands on while Xander had been busy thinking about everything that had happened since their talk with Valen. It was late in the afternoon when he first noticed the two of them were no longer alone in the room.
"You're back."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dawn look up from her book, clearly interested in the sorceress as well. Undoubtedly she would be trying to see if he'd been right about her not looking at anyone.
"Indeed I have returned."
"Where were you?"
"That knowledge is not important for now, you will find out at the appropriate time. For now there are other things we can talk about. I told you that I would answer some of your questions today. Why don't you ask them?"
Finally he could get some information about the woman. But what question should he ask first? "Why don't you look people in the eye?"
A small smile appeared at her beautiful face. "I have learned that people prefer it if I don't do that, apparently it makes them nervous."
Okay, considering he already felt nervous just being in the same room with her he didn't think that he'd actually want to see her eyes then. He planned to ask another question when Dawn piped up. "Can't you show them to us anyway?"
What was the girl thinking? He looked at her in consternation and noticed the almost spellbound look at her face while she was once again stroking her knife. Apparently he wasn't the only one to notice this as Torala answered that she wouldn't do it for reasons she didn't want to go into.
Before Dawn could try something else to find a way to look at the sorceress's eyes Xander posed the question he really wanted an answer to. "What is it that you do actually?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well, you've lived for a very long time and you said that long life was granted to you for a reason. What is that reason?"
"You wish to know what I do for a living, no pun intended?"
Xander only nodded his head and noticed Dawn doing the same.
For a minute the sorceress didn't move and appeared to be thinking about what she could tell them, until suddenly she stood up and left the room.
Staring at the door through which she had departed he could only whisper. "What the?" Confused beyond measure he looked at his friend, hoping that she would have any idea of what was going on. Unfortunately this didn't appear to be the case as she was looking at him for the same reason. "Is my breath that bad?" If nothing else worked, try a bad joke had always been his motto and this seemed to be an occasion where that might just be what was needed.
Before Dawn could give any sort of reply however, Torala had returned. She walked back into the room holding a tray containing a carafe of water and three glasses. "This might take a while, so I figured we might as well have something to drink."
The care she took in filling the glasses and handing them over, told him how she really didn't want to tell them this story. Why she was doing it anyway was something he couldn't understand.
"To know my task you must first understand more about the way history works. Both of you are familiar with the speech that Watchers traditionally gave their Slayer, correct?"
After they had indicated that they were indeed familiar with this speech she continued. "If you have ever thought about that speech you will have noticed how it has been influenced by Christianity and humanities current habit of thinking that the universe revolves around them. I have no intention of trying to tell you which part of that tale is true and which is false, however I can tell you that where it concerns the beginning it is not correct.
"The world did not begin as either a simulacrum of what you call hell or paradise, nor did it come into existence in order to create humanity. I do not know much about those early ages myself and would only be able to tell you things that archeologists and their ilk have found out, which naturally would not be completely correct."
She paused here for a moment and Xander took the opportunity to take a drink of the ice-cold water.
"But all that is not really important for you anyway. The most important thing about it is that the story has changed over the years. As it is the oldest tale that you are likely to know it is the best example I can give you. Like all myths and legends it still contains a core of truth, which in this case is centered on the way vampires were brought into the world. But the story has been altered, for example I once heard the temporal variant of a Watcher give the speech to his Slayer in Sparta, about 2500 years ago. In this speech the demons were created by the Titans in order to help them defeat Zeus and the other Olympian gods."
Listening to the story Xander had a little difficulty understanding some of the terms she had been using, but he thought that he understood the global idea of what was being told. "So, the story about the Slayer has changed over time so it would fit with the religion?"
It seemed that he had understood correctly as Torala flashed him a brief smile that made his heart beat faster. "Indeed, although theology is only one aspect that has had influence on the way stories change in the course of history. It is naturally not the only thing that will influence it, as you surely must have learned in school. Philosophies were important, but so were the effects of war and other political tools. After all, history is written by the survivors and it does not matter if they are the ones that won a particular conflict or merely witnessed it from the sidelines."
Wonderful, it seems they were getting a lecture on how people influenced history. He really hoped that she would get to her point soon or he might fall asleep out of boredom.
"Those however are merely the deliberate attempts to color history as people would prefer it to be. Accidental changes can be as dangerous, but are a lot more difficult to detect. One of, if not the, greatest danger to passing along a correct image of history is the way languages change. The word you are most familiar with that has changed considerably is the term demon. I personally dislike the current usage for several reasons, but that is of no importance either.
"Demon comes from the Greek word daemon which originally was used to indicate the act of a god. I do not know when this meaning changed to the current one, but it likely has to do with the way demons were portrayed in those times."
"Okay, that is all wonderful and I'm so happy for you that you can lecture about all this, but what does all that have to do with you?" It seemed as if Dawn was as bored by all this as he was, but apparently she didn't feel the same compulsion not to interrupt.
The sorceress too didn't appear to have expected that outburst, but she recovered quickly nonetheless. "You are correct, I was indeed lecturing. It has been a while since I have needed to explain things and may have gone a little overboard in my attempts to do so."
"Yes you have and not only that, it was boring as hell." This just kept getting better and better, while Xander didn't think either he or Dawn was capable of telepathy he did his best to send Dawn a message not to piss off the very powerful sorceress who, besides being able to kill them, was also the only one who could get them home. It soon became clear however that it didn't work as the girl kept trying to stare down the sorceress. How she thought to do that he couldn't really understand since that kind of thing needed eye contact.
The sorceress didn't appear bothered by these actions and even smiled at his friend. "Very well, I had planned to give you a brief explanation of the connections between different universes, but I figure that is not something you wish to hear either." Pausing for a drink she appeared to look at Dawn who couldn't keep up her perpetual glower and turned to sulking. "Therefore I shall now talk about myself. There is no need for me to talk about when I came into life or anything about my childhood as none of that would be of interest to you. Suffice to say that I did not appear to be anything more then any normal human child.
"It was only later that I found out that my existence had a specific reason and even there I was at first incorrect in my assumption of why my life was necessary. Only when I first met the entity that was responsible for my creation did I learn the truth of the matter."
Well, it seemed as if after listening to that entire tale he was finally about to find out what he wanted to know. He made a mental note to thank Dawn for her interference in the boring tale before he focused his attention back on the sorceress.
"Since humanity was only the second sentient life form to have evolved on Earth it was deemed necessary that an accurate account of their history would be created. It is for that reason I was brought into existence."
The second sentient life form, did she mean demons? He doubted it but if he was right that wasn't something he had expected and it shocked him so much he almost missed the rest of what she was saying. How could anyone just throw a revelation like that into the middle of a sentence? It did explain why she was so negative about that center of the universe thing, but still. Deciding he needed more information about that other race he asked her about it.
"No, I am not talking of what you call demons. They never evolved on this world but instead come from another dimension entirely, you are aware of the Hellmouths which serve as portals between this dimension and theirs."
Deciding to interrupt before she started lecturing about that he asked her. "Okay, but could you tell me about those others then?"
"They are no longer of any real importance to this world as they left it long before humanity started its existence."
That wasn't what he wanted to know, but no matter how he and Dawn tried to get more information, the sorceress did not tell them anything else. In the end he had to give up, temporarily, and while vowing to himself to ask again later he tried asked about her other revelation. "You are some kind of historian then?"
"My work is slightly more complicated, but yes, dealing with the course of history is my most important task."
"Isn't that kinda boring?" Dawn wanted to know.
"History is fascinating as it deals with people and since I always deal with the current situation I am hardly ever bored."
. . . .
They had continued to question Torala for the rest of the afternoon, only taking a break for dinner. Unfortunately every answer that she gave them would call up two completely new questions so that in the end they still didn't really know anything about her.
Several hours after dinner the subject Xander had been waiting for finally came up when the sorceress spoke up. "Dawn?"
"Yes?"
"Why do you think I have made you read during the time you waited for the arrival of you friend?"
As he watched Dawn pondering about this question Xander had a feeling his suspicions about that would soon be vindicated. "I don't know, until Xander mentioned it yesterday I hadn't even really noticed."
"He also mentioned something else yesterday, did he not? Something concerning the dagger you are carrying?"
His friend's reaction to this was to once again grab her knife and glare at both him and Torala. "I'm not crazy."
"I have never claimed that you are. Although the effects of the knife have influenced your psyche this does not mean you have lost your sanity."
This seemed to confuse Dawn about as much as it did Xander, had his information been wrong or his conclusion?
"Oh, good. But what are you talking about then?"
"While your mental capabilities have in no way been diminished, the dagger has exerted a great influence on those portions of your brain that influence your emotions. It has also slightly altered your ideas of right and wrong, but that was not in my opinion a bad thing, you already knew that humans can be as bad or even worse then demons."
"Duh, humans tried to kill me years ago because they were too lazy to think of another way to stop Glory."
"Indeed, but now the dagger has influenced you so that you are more than willing to inflict pain on humans even when it's just in an attempt to gain information."
That reminded Xander of the meeting in the demon bar and he felt a slight twitch on his chest, where the knife had cut through his flesh. He decided however that it would be best if he kept himself out of this conversation, yesterday had already proven that he wasn't the right person for this job. He had allowed himself to be distracted for a moment however and he did his best to catch up with the conversation again.
"…influencing my emotions? And why wouldn't I notice something like that?"
"The influencing is done by the fact that you subconsciously try to protect yourself from the dagger. The mechanics behind it are rather complicated and I am not certain I could explain them so that you would understand. Why you wouldn't notice something like that is because of the dagger itself which prevents this from happening."
"And now you want me to throw away my knife, like Xander." Saying this Dawn glared at him in such a way it caused a shiver to run down his back. Luckily he was saved from having to defend his actions when Torala spoke up again.
"No, while his intentions in that matter were honorable this would not have done you any good. Disposing of the dagger would not even prevent you from getting any worse as it is connected to you. There is only one solution that I can offer to this problem and that might be dangerous."
He had been hoping there would be a solution after she had hinted about it during his dream. Xander sat up straighter and opened his mouth in order to ask what it was, but the words stuck in his mouth when Torala turned towards him and indicated he should be quiet.
"Dangerous how?"
"You will need to go to a temple that is located in the Himalayas. There you must look for a certain artifact that is capable of two actions; it can destroy the bond with your dagger completely and thereby relieve you of its influences. This will also ensure the destruction of the dagger."
"I don't want it destroyed, I want to keep it."
"The artifact will show you how it has influenced you so that you can make a choice based on all the facts. As I said before, there are two options you will have between which you must choose, destroying the bond was the first and the second is completing it."
"Completing it? What do you mean by that?"
"You can choose to make the bond complete, this means that you would transfer a part of yourself into the dagger thereby making it a part of you. This would be dangerous and it has side effects that you might not like. If you so desire however, the artifact will show you what the major consequences are of either choice."
This wasn't what he had expected and he didn't really like the options that had been presented. Xander was certain that Dawn would never choose to destroy the bond, but the talk about side effects didn't exactly fill him with confidence for a happy ending either. "So she has to either destroy the dagger or make it part of her?"
"Indeed."
"Isn't there another way to do this? I mean both options sound kinda risky."
But it was obvious to him even before he had posed the question that there was no other way to help his friend.
"What happens if I don't like either choice? If I just want to go on as I'm now?"
"You must choose between the two. The artifact will not allow anything else, if the choice would take you ten years you will remain in there for ten years but you will not be able to leave as you enter."
"Oh." This seemed to have left Dawn lost for words, it was actually the first time since meeting her and Buffy at the airport that this had happened. Every other time he had been in her presence she seemed to have had a definite opinion about something, only now that it concerned her precious little knife was she uncertain.
"You said it'll be dangerous to go there?" Xander wanted information about the situation if Dawn did decide to go and this time he would make sure to get as much as of it as possible.
"Yes, the temple is most likely guarded by an assortment of demons that wish to prevent anyone from having access to the artifact." Predicting his next question she told him. "I am not certain what type of demons you would have to face but I would suggest you arm yourselves well."
That was fairly close to his worst-case prediction, so he was fairly content with the information but there was something else that had bothered him since she had talked about it. "Why do you call it an artifact? Doesn't it have a name?"
"I am certain it has a name, but since it was created by the race I mentioned earlier today I am not familiar with it."
"Wait a minute, you're telling me that it's alien technology?"
"They were native to Earth therefore I do not believe you can call them aliens."
He had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes, it was amazing how literally the woman could be and the worst part was that he didn't know whether it was intentional or not. "Okay, not alien but still created by a non-human race right?"
"Indeed. Unlike the demon races they did have a tendency to create, this artifact is merely one of several pieces they left behind on Earth."
He wanted to ask more questions about the artifact and its origin, but Dawn had reached a decision and vocalized it. "I'll go."
Torala's attention was immediately drawn back to her and Xander thought he noticed a slight sigh of relieve in the woman. "Good, you will not be able to succeed alone so you will have to go together. This however does pose a problem as it has been proven you may not be able to control yourself in his presence." Dawn blanched a little at this and Xander felt the need to curse the sorceress for talking like that. "Therefore I must ensure he will be safe from you and there is only one way to do that properly."
Xander wanted to ask what exactly that would be when he suddenly found himself staring in Dawn's beautiful eyes and hungering for the taste of those sweet lips.
. . . .
When Xander woke up he knew that last night he had either drunk too much or Anya had decided to once again... That thought didn't make sense, Anya was dead and he knew that he hadn't been drinking, but he did have an enormous headache and his mouth felt incredibly dry. However, combined with his sore muscles and the smell of a perfume that was obviously not his he had no trouble figuring out what the weight on his chest would be.
Still a little drowsy and not bothering to open his eyes he moved his arm to caress the soft skin of the female body on top of him and smiled a little. Obviously last night had been a good night. Trying to figure out who it could be however was more difficult and he frowned in his attempt to do so. When this only intensified his headache he decided it wasn't really important now and was about to let himself fall back to sleep when he heard a moan that sounded vaguely familiar.
Opening his eyes in sudden realization the moonlight enabled him to identify the owner of the brunette hair that lay spread out over his chest. He immediately tore his hand away from his friend but he couldn't stop his first thought from escaping his mouth in a loud whisper. "Buffy is so gonna kill me!"
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Post-fic comments: Not much to say actually, it's been a while since I had it end in a cliffhanger and this isn't a very great one but it should have you wonder about what has happened and more importantly why. (Especially when you consider the pairing part of the disclaimer which I wrote long after the story had been finished.) Next part in two days.