TRUST
Buffy blinked.
It took a second for the information to register in her mind. A part of her was still completely bedazzled by what she had just seen ……
She shook her head violently to clear her thoughts.
For a moment she felt like laughing …the whole situation was just too surreal. There was a real life Fairy –princess sitting in her living room, asking for her help!
Dawn would love this! And yet Buffy could not shake the eerie feeling that came over her….some sense of impending doom.
The fairy still sat there, unmoving like a statue.
" The captain of your guard, as in bodyguards?"
Selena nodded, patting the sofa next to her, motioning Buffy to sit down.
" Why don´t you come sit with me, so we can talk like friends?"
Sitting down Buffy couldn´t help but frown, realizing that she was doing as she was told.
She sighed. This was going to be very exhausting!
Up close Selena was still extraordinarily beautiful, her skin clear and pale, flawless like the finest china.
" So you want us to help you to do what? Free him?"
" Yes, I want your help to get him back from her!"
" Why?"
" As I said …" Selena told her evenly.
" ….your strength might tip the scale. She is not a common fairy, she is of royal blood, of the ancient blood like me…..my powers alone will not be enough. And I don´t think she´ll return him to me without a fight!"
Buffy looked directly into the fairy´s eyes.
" Why …why did she take him and how? Excuse me for saying that, but the two guys outside on my porch seem to be able to take care of themselves, they have to if their job is to protect you. Spike told me you are quite powerful, apart from that glamour magic. I imagine that the captain of your guard is no push-over either."
Selena gave a smallish laugh, like the gurgling of a soft flowing river.
" No ….he is not…"
She looked at Buffy for a moment as though considering the fact that she might have to explain.
" They are here for my protection, but they are mine to protect too…..and I take care of what´s mine. My cousin, the Lady Iolanthe Serena Miriamel has found it suiting her needs to apprehend my captain and not let him leave her realm again. I want him back!"
" Why don´t you tell her that?"
" I did …..she will not have it. She wants a confrontation."
Buffy felt her forehead crease up, she was not sure where this was going. She shot Spike a quick look, but the vampire simply shrugged.
" You are a princess, right? Why don´t you go to your father, he is the king after all, he can order her to…"
Selenas laughter interrupted Buffy in mid-sentence. It was a harsh, bitter sound with an almost metallic ring to it. Not at all pleasant or soothing.
" My father does not care!" Selena told her in a clipped tone.
" Oberon would never intervene on behalf of one of my guards."
Buffy sighed inwardly. This was just great! After beating the first…… one would think that fate would cut her some slack, but noooooo…..
Now she was getting involved in fairy politics!
" Iolanthe is provoking this and she knows that I know that. She wants me to come to her. She has some agenda I don´t know about yet. Cay was not supposed to have been there…in her reach."
"So you think this is really about you?"
" Oh no, it´s about him , but also about me…it is a very long story…"
Buffy´s eyes narrowed slightly, staring into the fairy´s storm grey eyes.
" Well if you want my help you´d better tell me the whole story…..so far I can´t tell who is the good guy here! If you want me to help you, you have to tell me the truth."
Selena stared back at her.
" Leave us…" she told Spike and Siobhan without even looking their way.
Spike looked as though he was trying very hard to resist the order.
" Will you be alright?"
Buffy was about to tell him that she could take care of herself, but seeing how much strain it was on him to resist Selena made her change her mind.
" I´ll be alright!"
Selena sighed. As she started talking, her voice became low and quiet, like a soft breeze rustling through leaves.
" Cay was not supposed to go to her. I ordered him not too, but he defied me. We suspected that Iolanthe had a plan. She asked me to come to her, offering information. She claimed to have knowledge,…….. to have found something that I have been looking for… for a very long time. Whether this is actually true or not, I cannot say. But I turned her down."
" You do not trust her?"
Selena smiled sadly.
" No, I do not trust my cousin. She has been absent from court for hundreds of years, she carries a grudge against me. I doubt she has ever let it go!"
" A grudge?"
" Against me and Cay, yes."
" Are you lovers?"
Selena stared at her for a second, her face blank. It was still beautiful to behold but Buffy felt a shiver run up her spine. There was nothing in that face, despite of it´s beauty it suddenly seemed dead and empty like a doll´s.
" No." the fairy answered evenly.
" So he and your cousin …"
" No!" Selena repeated tonelessly.
Buffy frowned in frustration.
" If you want me to help you I need to understand this!"
" I told you the truth…" the princess stated with an almost inaudible sigh. Her features alive once again, with the light bouncing of her skin in a manner that Buffy had never seen in any creature.
" Cay is a handsome man, he turned many a lady´s head at my father´s court. He is a warrior, a knight of ancient blood, known for his valour. He is a good catch you might say. Iolanthe had her eye on him. She wanted him to become her companion, her consort. Cay had no inclination towards Io …..but there was no polite way to turn her down. She is the king´s niece….Instead of becoming her consort he choose to take the post as captain of my guard."
Buffy nodded. It surprised her that she understood. She found herself remembering the political science courses she had taken in college, not really grasping the workings of world politics…..and now she understood the workings of the royal fairy court! Take that Professor Schamhein, she thought.
" Ahh….since you are higher up in the aristocracy than your cousin, she could not take offence by that, right?"
Selena smiled at Buffy.
" You understand!" she said surprised.
" She was offended of course, but she would not openly admit it. But believe me, my cousin felt very insulted. The Lady of Dawn, Mistress of the morning dew, the swan-princess of the fairy court does not take kindly to being denied! Iolanthe is said to be the most beautiful of all fairies, the most desirable lady at my father´s court. To have a man turn her down is the worst offence she can imagine. She is after all a celebrated beauty, the sunkissed one, the golden child……the sawnprincess!"
Buffy tried hard to imagine anyone being more beautiful than Selena and shook her head. None of this made any sense to her.
" If she is that desirable, why did he turn her down?"
Selena sat up straighter, looking straight into Buffy´s eyes. Her facial expression was solemn and almost sad.
" We both know that beauty is not everything, Buffy."
Buffy suppressed a mocking cough. That was easy to say if you were a magnificently dazzling fairy.
And yet there was something in Selena´s voice that made Buffy furrow her brow. It was more the absence of something, the slayer realised. Selena´s voice had become more real. There was no hint of rustling leaves or gurgling wells in that voice now. It was still soft and pleasant, but it was just a voice ….
It made Buffy nervous. She thought about what Selena had just said.
" What do you mean ……what is it about your cousin that made this Cay turn her down?"
she asked gravely.
There was an ice cold feeling in the pit of her stomach that made Buffy feel like she didn´t really want to know.
" Iolanthe has the reputation of being ……a little extreme, vengeful ."
The fairy answered slowly, choosing her words very carefully.
" How?"
Selena
scowled for a second.
" I was told that my cousin….considers some things as amusing, or should I say
amusement…..things that are not to everybody's liking."
Buffy´s brows shot upward.
" What are you saying? That your cousin is a pervert?"
" I would not say that."
Selena leaned back, thinking.
" You have to understand that most of us fairies are very old. We have been around since the dawn of creation……for some this long time has gotten …tedious for lack of a better word. Some have lived a thousand lifetimes and it has …..bored them They are looking for ways of distracting themselves from their eternal existence. It has made them …."
" Cruel…" Buffy said tonelessly.
Selena still looked her in the eye.
" Yes."
Buffy nodded absentmindedly, moving her hands over her arms as though she was cold.
She swallowed, looking away from the fairy princess next to her, turning her head towards the door Spike had disappeared through.
" And what is it that your cousin does to distract herself from mentioned boredom?"
Selena sat next to her, utterly still and unmoving like a precious statue.
" Iolanthe enjoys pain. She indulges causing pain……drawing blood. It makes her feel alive."
Buffy´s head snapped back towards the fairy.
There was something in her face now, almost hidden under millennia of self control, but Buffy could see it simmer underneath the surface …..fear. Not fear for herself, but fear for someone else …….
" I need to get him back…." Selena whispered harshly.
" He was not supposed to meet her, I knew it was a trap. I told him and still he went ….."
" Why did he ?"
Selenas face turned blank again, hiding all feeling. Buffy had to resist the urge the lean forward, to touch that pale face in order to feel if it had indeed turned into a cold, hard mask.
" For love…"
Buffy stared at her, digesting the answer she had not seen coming. Two words…..a universe of possibilities.
" Yours"
" Yes."
" You said you aren´t lovers."
" We are not …..we never were….Iolanthe lured him there under the pretense of having information. Information that would mean nothing to her but everything to me, the whereabouts of …….someone close to my heart."
" Then……why…..oh…"
Buffy understood.
" I still don´t see how I can help you……"
" I want you to come with me, to help me free him …fight by my side if need be."
Buffy thought about it for a second.
" Come with you ……but where……where is your cousin now?"
" Where would you think the most vain and nacicist person you can even imagine would be, Buffy? My cousin has found it pleasurable to spent her time in Los Angeles…away from the court."
" L.A?" Buffy jumped up from the couch, moving away from the fairy. Los Angeles …Angel ….whoa …there was no way….
" Sorry …your majesty but I can´t ….I really can´t! And I don´t think you´ll need my help..on this …."
Selena looked at her, utterly still. Then she stood, a fluent motion, as though her whole body was liquid. Buffy knew that no creature she had ever seen could move like that. It was both graceful and threatening.
" Please Buffy, come with me. "
She said it seriously, matter of factly.
" I would hate it to have to stoop to my cousin´s level in order to have your help. But I will do it none the less."
" What?" Buffy took a step back. There she was …a fairy princess, a beautiful, bedazzling thing. From the looks of it nothing more than a a girl on the cusp of womanhood, a fragile, delicate figure. But her eyes carried the storm inside of them …Buffy could hear thinder roling in the distance.
" I want to make this clear, so there will be no misunderstandings, Buffy. I need your help, I want your help. There is no limit to what I am willing to do to get back what is mine. I take care of my own and I will not see one of them destroyed by the vanity or cruelty of my own kin. It is your right to deny me and no harm will come to you or your friends, if you do. But you will pay a price and you should be sure you will be willing to pay it, for not helping me."
Buffy swallowed hard. Selena´s face had gone hard once more, empty and blank as if it were just painted on. She might be able to fight her, but she would not win ….
" You said you will not hurt us."
" I won´t …..but I will take your vampire!"
Buffy blinked, shaking her head in confusion.
" What?"
" Your vampire, even if you will not help me. He will go to Los Angeles with me …he will go where I tell him to go. Whether I succeed or not, I will take him with me and he´ll never return to you!"
" You can´t do that!" Buffy gasped.
Selena smiled sadly, still beautiful even in her anger.
" You know I can ….. he loves you very much, I know. Believe me …I know what it would be like ….."
She stepped forward, grabbing Buffy´s hand faster than Buffy could pull it back.
" You want to see pain? Let me show you….."
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