Chapter 5
Alone in his apartment, thousands of miles from Sunnydale, Rupert Giles paced. If what Buffy had told him were genuine, and there truly was an elf dying on her couch, then the evil in Sunnydale was great indeed. Only the most potent of magics could poison an immortal elf.
While he had told Buffy he'd contact the Watchers' Council, he doubted they would have anything useful to contribute. Other avenues would be more useful at this juncture.
He was familiar with the idea of elves, and had even met one years ago. When he'd been a small boy, staying with his Watcher grandmother, she'd been visited by an elf. He remembered the moment quite vividly, sneaking down from his bedroom when he was assumed to be fast asleep. He couldn't sleep, however, knowing that his grandmother was going to meet with one of the oldest immortal warriors on the planet.
He had been tall and dressed in modern clothes. His long blonde hair reached down to the middle of his back, with no concession to the styles of the time. He was almost glowing, imbued with the force of ancient magic.
The elf hadn't stayed long, and young Rupert had crept back up to his bed, hoping his grandmother would be none the wiser about his midnight activities.
The next time he'd seen the immortal being had been at his grandmother's funeral. As they'd all left the cemetery, the elf had pulled him aside and handed him an amulet. "When you need my assistance, simply activate the amulet. I will come."
Giles walked over to a trunk in a corner of the living room, reaching down and opening the lid. Sifting through the piles of books, papers, and miscellaneous magical artifacts, he pulled an intricately carved box out from the bottom of the trunk.
Inside the box was a silver amulet on a thick silver chain. The amulet was engraved with writing in an ancient language - Quenya, he believed, or possibly Sindarin. One of the ancient languages of the elves, in any regard.
He took the amulet over to the kitchen, and held it over the sink as he picked up a steak knife. He cut his finger, letting the blood drip onto the gleaming metal. "Tolthan-le," he murmured. "I summon thee."
****
"Anybody order pizza?" Wrapped in her computer research, Willow barely heard Xander's voice coming from the front hallway.
"Yay!" yelled Dawn, running down the hall from the kitchen. She scrutinized the boxes in Xander's hands. "No cheesy bread? You always get cheesy bread."
Anya came in through the door behind Xander. "Got the cheesy bread. Also, overpriced soda and buffalo wings. Which have always puzzled me, as buffalo from this dimension don't have wings. Now buffalo from the dimension without shrimp, they have wings, but they're much larger, and wouldn't be nearly as good covered in barbeque sauce."
Xander gave his ex-girlfriend a fond smile as Dawn grabbed the bread from Anya. "Willow! Food's here!" she called as she passed the room where Willow sat next to the unconscious elf, her fingers unceasingly clicking over the keyboard.
"Food," Willow muttered. "Who could think of food at a time like this?" Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her that apparently she could. Willow kissed Legolas on his forehead, gently stroking his cheek. "I'll be right back. This is just a teensy little break. I'm not going to stop until I find out how to save you."
She made her way back to the kitchen, gratefully taking a glass of Coke as Buffy passed it to her. "Thanks."
"Meat or Veggie?" Dawn asked, scooping pizza onto plates and passing it around the table.
"Veggie," Willow decided, grabbing a breadstick from the box that was passed around the table.
Buffy looked across the table. Willow still looked pale and drawn. She'd barely been sleeping before Legolas was poisoned, but now it was even worse. Dawn looked happy now, but Buffy was concerned about the way her sister seemed to be drawn to the evil ring. Xander, who could always be counted on for moral support - and snacks - was playfully teasing Dawn about the mountain of parmesan cheese she'd heaped on her bread. Anya took a sip of her drink before picking up her buffalo wings, which, now that she'd mentioned it, was a weird name for little wings and legs. Buffy only hoped they really didn't come from strange inter-dimensional buffalo.
The Scooby Gang, together again. Well, sans Giles...and Spike. Still, they'd stopped many an apocalypse together, and together they could find a way to help Legolas. They had to. She didn't know if Willow could survive another loss, or if the world could survive another attack by Dark Willow.
****
An hour after he'd spilled his blood on the amulet, Giles heard a knock on his door. The elf was prompt.
Giles opened the door to his house, both surprised and expecting the sight before him. He'd known that elves were immortal, but the man before him looked exactly as he had twentysome years ago at Giles' grandmother's funeral.
"Haldir," he acknowledged. "Thank you for coming."
"I knew there would be a time in the future when you needed my assistance, though I did not know why." Unlike Galadriel, he could not tell the future. His knowledge had come from travelers to the past, visitors from the twenty-first century who had saved his life at the battle of Helm's Deep. Though they'd been reluctant to impart any information that might change the future, they'd let small details slip - like the name of a Watcher named Giles. He only wished he had learned more information about the growing threat.
Haldir had tracked the Giles family from their first entry to the Council. He'd had a soft spot for Amelia Giles and her young grandson Rupert. The Watcher woman had been intelligent, courageous, and filled with a compassion that most of the other Watchers lacked. As a whole, the members of the Watchers' Council were overly academic, arrogant about their supposedly exclusive knowledge of the supernatural, and disdainful of those they did not consider to be of their ilk.
Though they supposedly protected and trained the Slayer and Slayers-to-be, they had no consideration for the girls, no sympathy for the young ones who gave their lives to defend the world from evil. He'd heard that the current Slayer, Buffy Summers, had mutinied, rejected the Council's authority and continued her demon-slaying mission on her own.
Good for her.
Back to the issue at hand. He stood there, in the home of Rupert Giles, awaiting for the Watcher to voice the reason for his summons.
"You may have noticed that a great evil appears to be rising," Giles began, waiting until Haldir nodded before continuing. "Lately, signs have begun to appear that this evil may be stronger than anything we've ever faced before. Watchers and potential Slayers have been disappearing, never to be heard from again. A friend of mine who is a powerful witch has been having visions of the earth itself opening to swallow us whole. But that is not why I have summoned you tonight. I called you here because she's discovered an elf who appears to have been mystically poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Haldir couldn't believe it. He stood, completely still, trying to comprehend such a thing. "How? What wizard could have accomplished such a feat?"
"We don't know. He apparently showed up on their doorstep and collapsed-"
"Why poison an elf?" Haldir's body tensed, the elf barely restraining the urge to pace. Who could do such a thing? Who would? "We're almost as vulnerable as men to physical violence. Why take the trouble to use powerful magics to create a poison when someone could simply stab, shoot, or decapitate the elf in question?" Then he realized that Rupert hadn't told him who had been poisoned. "Who is it?"
Giles knew who Haldir meant when he'd asked his final question. "Legolas."
Haldir paled. Legolas. His friend. He'd known the younger elf for thousands of years, since the fateful day the Fellowship of the Ring had passed through his homeland of Lothlorien.
"You know him?" Giles asked.
Haldir nodded. "I know all of the elves still present in this world...so few of us left. But Legolas... he has been my friend for a very long time. What is being done to cure this poison?"
"Nothing. We don't even know what caused it, let alone how to cure it."
"There is one poison, one magical elixir known to harm the elves, Dagnir o Edhel, though I have never heard of anyone being able to produce it. To create such a thing would require strong dark magic."
Giles pulled his glasses off his nose, dangling them from one finger. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying desperately to stave off his growing headache. "I think its safe to say that whatever's out there is capable of such magic."
Haldir shook his head. While he'd known he'd be called on to assist the Slayer at some point in his life, he had no idea the consequences would be so dire. "The remedy must be prepared."
"You know the cure?" Giles put his glasses back on, staring at Haldir in shock.
"If there were only one known poison capable of felling your kind would you not make it a point to know the cure?"
Giles nodded. The elf had a point. "What does it entail?"
"I will gather the ingredients and then you will take me to Legolas."
The command was imperative in his voice. Giles was not used to being told what to do, but it was clear that Haldir was not used to people questioning his decrees. After all, who was going to argue with someone thousands of years old?
"I haven't told you everything." Giles turned away, walking over to the window and staring out at the night. "Events are far worse than the poisoning of an elf."
Haldir stood up even straighter, steeling himself for what was coming next. He had a horrible feeling about what Rupert was going to say.
"The One Ring has resurfaced." He paused, waiting for Haldir's reaction.
The elf stepped back, staggering under the weight of Giles confession. The One Ring? Back again to work its evil will? "Impossible," he gasped, unable to do more than stand dumbly, watching the Watcher as he continued his explanation.
"Historical records clearly state that the Ringbearer carried the ring to the fires of Mount Doom, where it was cast into the fiery chasm and forever destroyed. However, Buffy, the Slayer, has told me that it appears to have resurfaced and is currently located her living room."
"That's impossible," Haldir insisted, striding closer to Giles. "She must be mistaken."
He spun around to face the elf. "The ring spoke to her, spoke to all of them. It's real and it's in Sunnydale, California. Legolas was protecting it with his life."
"Why not just kill him?"
"Perhaps the persons responsible thought the poison would simply weaken Legolas, leaving him more vulnerable to temptation." He paused before voicing his next thought. Perhaps this evil was even more insidious than they were giving it credit for. "Or perhaps they wanted something worse to come of his death."
Haldir stared at Giles, waiting for an explanation with barely contained impatience.
"Legolas didn't go to Buffy's house because she's the Slayer. He went because of Willow. She's a witch, one of the Slayer's friends. She had somehow become acquainted with Legolas. Fell in love with him, apparently." He paused, unsure as how to go on. "She's quite powerful. Under most circumstances, she's good and kind. But the last time she lost someone she loved...she went crazy, wild. Delved deep into dark magics, killed her lover's murder - flayed him alive, actually - and tried to end the world."
Haldir blinked. The One Ring was potentially in the hands of a powerful witch who had once tried to end the world. "If she uses the ring..." he warned.
Giles quieted him with a wave of his hand. "She's strong. She won't."
"If she uses the ring, the world as we know it is over. The ring will corrupt her completely, and darkness will rule the land."
"She won't," Giles insisted. He knew Willow, knew all that she'd been through since Tara's death. She would not descend into evil again.
"You'd best be certain of that fact, because if she does, the world is doomed."
Alone in his apartment, thousands of miles from Sunnydale, Rupert Giles paced. If what Buffy had told him were genuine, and there truly was an elf dying on her couch, then the evil in Sunnydale was great indeed. Only the most potent of magics could poison an immortal elf.
While he had told Buffy he'd contact the Watchers' Council, he doubted they would have anything useful to contribute. Other avenues would be more useful at this juncture.
He was familiar with the idea of elves, and had even met one years ago. When he'd been a small boy, staying with his Watcher grandmother, she'd been visited by an elf. He remembered the moment quite vividly, sneaking down from his bedroom when he was assumed to be fast asleep. He couldn't sleep, however, knowing that his grandmother was going to meet with one of the oldest immortal warriors on the planet.
He had been tall and dressed in modern clothes. His long blonde hair reached down to the middle of his back, with no concession to the styles of the time. He was almost glowing, imbued with the force of ancient magic.
The elf hadn't stayed long, and young Rupert had crept back up to his bed, hoping his grandmother would be none the wiser about his midnight activities.
The next time he'd seen the immortal being had been at his grandmother's funeral. As they'd all left the cemetery, the elf had pulled him aside and handed him an amulet. "When you need my assistance, simply activate the amulet. I will come."
Giles walked over to a trunk in a corner of the living room, reaching down and opening the lid. Sifting through the piles of books, papers, and miscellaneous magical artifacts, he pulled an intricately carved box out from the bottom of the trunk.
Inside the box was a silver amulet on a thick silver chain. The amulet was engraved with writing in an ancient language - Quenya, he believed, or possibly Sindarin. One of the ancient languages of the elves, in any regard.
He took the amulet over to the kitchen, and held it over the sink as he picked up a steak knife. He cut his finger, letting the blood drip onto the gleaming metal. "Tolthan-le," he murmured. "I summon thee."
****
"Anybody order pizza?" Wrapped in her computer research, Willow barely heard Xander's voice coming from the front hallway.
"Yay!" yelled Dawn, running down the hall from the kitchen. She scrutinized the boxes in Xander's hands. "No cheesy bread? You always get cheesy bread."
Anya came in through the door behind Xander. "Got the cheesy bread. Also, overpriced soda and buffalo wings. Which have always puzzled me, as buffalo from this dimension don't have wings. Now buffalo from the dimension without shrimp, they have wings, but they're much larger, and wouldn't be nearly as good covered in barbeque sauce."
Xander gave his ex-girlfriend a fond smile as Dawn grabbed the bread from Anya. "Willow! Food's here!" she called as she passed the room where Willow sat next to the unconscious elf, her fingers unceasingly clicking over the keyboard.
"Food," Willow muttered. "Who could think of food at a time like this?" Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her that apparently she could. Willow kissed Legolas on his forehead, gently stroking his cheek. "I'll be right back. This is just a teensy little break. I'm not going to stop until I find out how to save you."
She made her way back to the kitchen, gratefully taking a glass of Coke as Buffy passed it to her. "Thanks."
"Meat or Veggie?" Dawn asked, scooping pizza onto plates and passing it around the table.
"Veggie," Willow decided, grabbing a breadstick from the box that was passed around the table.
Buffy looked across the table. Willow still looked pale and drawn. She'd barely been sleeping before Legolas was poisoned, but now it was even worse. Dawn looked happy now, but Buffy was concerned about the way her sister seemed to be drawn to the evil ring. Xander, who could always be counted on for moral support - and snacks - was playfully teasing Dawn about the mountain of parmesan cheese she'd heaped on her bread. Anya took a sip of her drink before picking up her buffalo wings, which, now that she'd mentioned it, was a weird name for little wings and legs. Buffy only hoped they really didn't come from strange inter-dimensional buffalo.
The Scooby Gang, together again. Well, sans Giles...and Spike. Still, they'd stopped many an apocalypse together, and together they could find a way to help Legolas. They had to. She didn't know if Willow could survive another loss, or if the world could survive another attack by Dark Willow.
****
An hour after he'd spilled his blood on the amulet, Giles heard a knock on his door. The elf was prompt.
Giles opened the door to his house, both surprised and expecting the sight before him. He'd known that elves were immortal, but the man before him looked exactly as he had twentysome years ago at Giles' grandmother's funeral.
"Haldir," he acknowledged. "Thank you for coming."
"I knew there would be a time in the future when you needed my assistance, though I did not know why." Unlike Galadriel, he could not tell the future. His knowledge had come from travelers to the past, visitors from the twenty-first century who had saved his life at the battle of Helm's Deep. Though they'd been reluctant to impart any information that might change the future, they'd let small details slip - like the name of a Watcher named Giles. He only wished he had learned more information about the growing threat.
Haldir had tracked the Giles family from their first entry to the Council. He'd had a soft spot for Amelia Giles and her young grandson Rupert. The Watcher woman had been intelligent, courageous, and filled with a compassion that most of the other Watchers lacked. As a whole, the members of the Watchers' Council were overly academic, arrogant about their supposedly exclusive knowledge of the supernatural, and disdainful of those they did not consider to be of their ilk.
Though they supposedly protected and trained the Slayer and Slayers-to-be, they had no consideration for the girls, no sympathy for the young ones who gave their lives to defend the world from evil. He'd heard that the current Slayer, Buffy Summers, had mutinied, rejected the Council's authority and continued her demon-slaying mission on her own.
Good for her.
Back to the issue at hand. He stood there, in the home of Rupert Giles, awaiting for the Watcher to voice the reason for his summons.
"You may have noticed that a great evil appears to be rising," Giles began, waiting until Haldir nodded before continuing. "Lately, signs have begun to appear that this evil may be stronger than anything we've ever faced before. Watchers and potential Slayers have been disappearing, never to be heard from again. A friend of mine who is a powerful witch has been having visions of the earth itself opening to swallow us whole. But that is not why I have summoned you tonight. I called you here because she's discovered an elf who appears to have been mystically poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Haldir couldn't believe it. He stood, completely still, trying to comprehend such a thing. "How? What wizard could have accomplished such a feat?"
"We don't know. He apparently showed up on their doorstep and collapsed-"
"Why poison an elf?" Haldir's body tensed, the elf barely restraining the urge to pace. Who could do such a thing? Who would? "We're almost as vulnerable as men to physical violence. Why take the trouble to use powerful magics to create a poison when someone could simply stab, shoot, or decapitate the elf in question?" Then he realized that Rupert hadn't told him who had been poisoned. "Who is it?"
Giles knew who Haldir meant when he'd asked his final question. "Legolas."
Haldir paled. Legolas. His friend. He'd known the younger elf for thousands of years, since the fateful day the Fellowship of the Ring had passed through his homeland of Lothlorien.
"You know him?" Giles asked.
Haldir nodded. "I know all of the elves still present in this world...so few of us left. But Legolas... he has been my friend for a very long time. What is being done to cure this poison?"
"Nothing. We don't even know what caused it, let alone how to cure it."
"There is one poison, one magical elixir known to harm the elves, Dagnir o Edhel, though I have never heard of anyone being able to produce it. To create such a thing would require strong dark magic."
Giles pulled his glasses off his nose, dangling them from one finger. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying desperately to stave off his growing headache. "I think its safe to say that whatever's out there is capable of such magic."
Haldir shook his head. While he'd known he'd be called on to assist the Slayer at some point in his life, he had no idea the consequences would be so dire. "The remedy must be prepared."
"You know the cure?" Giles put his glasses back on, staring at Haldir in shock.
"If there were only one known poison capable of felling your kind would you not make it a point to know the cure?"
Giles nodded. The elf had a point. "What does it entail?"
"I will gather the ingredients and then you will take me to Legolas."
The command was imperative in his voice. Giles was not used to being told what to do, but it was clear that Haldir was not used to people questioning his decrees. After all, who was going to argue with someone thousands of years old?
"I haven't told you everything." Giles turned away, walking over to the window and staring out at the night. "Events are far worse than the poisoning of an elf."
Haldir stood up even straighter, steeling himself for what was coming next. He had a horrible feeling about what Rupert was going to say.
"The One Ring has resurfaced." He paused, waiting for Haldir's reaction.
The elf stepped back, staggering under the weight of Giles confession. The One Ring? Back again to work its evil will? "Impossible," he gasped, unable to do more than stand dumbly, watching the Watcher as he continued his explanation.
"Historical records clearly state that the Ringbearer carried the ring to the fires of Mount Doom, where it was cast into the fiery chasm and forever destroyed. However, Buffy, the Slayer, has told me that it appears to have resurfaced and is currently located her living room."
"That's impossible," Haldir insisted, striding closer to Giles. "She must be mistaken."
He spun around to face the elf. "The ring spoke to her, spoke to all of them. It's real and it's in Sunnydale, California. Legolas was protecting it with his life."
"Why not just kill him?"
"Perhaps the persons responsible thought the poison would simply weaken Legolas, leaving him more vulnerable to temptation." He paused before voicing his next thought. Perhaps this evil was even more insidious than they were giving it credit for. "Or perhaps they wanted something worse to come of his death."
Haldir stared at Giles, waiting for an explanation with barely contained impatience.
"Legolas didn't go to Buffy's house because she's the Slayer. He went because of Willow. She's a witch, one of the Slayer's friends. She had somehow become acquainted with Legolas. Fell in love with him, apparently." He paused, unsure as how to go on. "She's quite powerful. Under most circumstances, she's good and kind. But the last time she lost someone she loved...she went crazy, wild. Delved deep into dark magics, killed her lover's murder - flayed him alive, actually - and tried to end the world."
Haldir blinked. The One Ring was potentially in the hands of a powerful witch who had once tried to end the world. "If she uses the ring..." he warned.
Giles quieted him with a wave of his hand. "She's strong. She won't."
"If she uses the ring, the world as we know it is over. The ring will corrupt her completely, and darkness will rule the land."
"She won't," Giles insisted. He knew Willow, knew all that she'd been through since Tara's death. She would not descend into evil again.
"You'd best be certain of that fact, because if she does, the world is doomed."