Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Revision Posted: 18-Jul-2009
Chapter Title: Of Seers and Destiny
They landed at a small airport near the Canadian border in the early morning. Fann was still on edge after a short but stressful visit to Chicago where Amanda had put her through a series of challenges designed to test her current skills. The two hours of driving needed to reach the isolated lake Cassandra lived next to just barely provided Fann with the additional time she needed to recover her inner balance.
Arriving at the end of a long, rough gravel road, all that was visible was a small dock jutting out into the mist covered lake. Climbing out of their rental car and looking across the water, Fann could just barely make out a large island covered in pine trees. A small log cabin was visible through the trees. Turning to her companion, who'd joined her on the gravel road next to the dock, "I thought you said she was in hiding?" Fann asked.
"I called her last night. She knows we're coming," Amanda said. "I'm not sure how it works but people she really doesn't want to see can't seem to find her."
Fann looked around with a practiced country eye. "It seems pretty deserted around here. I'm surprised a lake like that isn't crowded with dozens of vacation cabins."
"One of the benefits of a long life. She owns it," Amanda told her with a smug grin. "Her nearest neighbor is miles away. She has it all to herself. Of course, she also likes to appear mysterious. The people in the nearest town probably think she's a witch."
"Oh," Fann said, frowning. "Is that a good thing now-a-days?"
"She does have to put up with visiting Wiccans during their holidays. They think she's some kind of wise woman. Her hiding techniques don't seem to work on them very well," Amanda said with a laugh. "She usually sends them packing quickly. Her ideas about gods and goddesses are quite a bit different than theirs."
Fann snorted, not surprised at that. She was well aware of Amanda's opinions about religion and had assumed that other immortals were also very skeptical about such things. The only thing she seemed to take seriously about any religion was the concept of holy ground.
From the moment they met Cassandra couldn't seem to take her eyes off of her apprentice, even though she was ostensibly talking with Amanda while they drank tea in her small, cozy cabin.
It had been going on for almost twenty minutes before Fann apparently had had enough of the sideways glances and finally blurted out "Stop it! Why do you keep staring at me!" she demanded. Amanda stared at her normally mild mannered apprentice, not surprised at her outburst. Fann tended to react negatively to overly close scrutiny, a trait Amanda had been working to train out of her.
Cassandra shook her head and said nothing for several minutes, using the interruption as an excuse to give Fann a much closer look, making her squirm nervously in her seat. "I'm sorry. I just find it amazing."
"What's amazing?" Amanda asked, looking back and forth between the two women, just now realizing that they looked so alike that they could almost have been sisters.
"That you've managed to drag one of the Chosen into your schemes." Cassandra mused. "Though she doesn't seem to be an ordinary Chosen One."
"What?" Amanda said, staring at Cassandra before taking a slow, deep breath, hoping Fann hadn't noticed the panicked expression she was sure crossed her face at Cassandra's pronouncement.
"Chosen what?" Fann demanded. Cassandra nodded to herself, as if Fann's question answered one of her own.
"You don't know what you are, or what you are capable of, do you..." She said to herself, though loud enough for both Amanda and Fann to understand her. She looked over her steaming cup of tea at Amanda, her eyes sparkling with clear amusement. "You've run into a Vampire Slayer before. Haven't you?" she asked.
"Yes..." Amanda answered her hesitantly before looking at Fann thoughtfully. It certainly explained some of the things she'd wondered about. "I, uh, borrowed something from her Watcher and she eventually managed to take it back. Why do you think Fann is one?"
"There's something very distinctive about her aura," Cassandra said thoughtfully. "I've only seen one like that once before and it belonged to a Chosen One. Though hers does seem to have something else entwined with it, distorting it. Strange."
"What do you know about them?" Amanda asked, sure her voice was giving her away.
"Not a lot. Just that they are very special women warriors who fight evil. Usually vampires and other similarly evil creatures." She thought for a moment before continuing. "I believe they are quite rare, which is probably why Methos is still alive."
"Cassandra..." Amanda began before being interrupted. Cassandra seemed to have a one-track mind when it came to certain other immortals.
"Yes. I know you don't want to hear about that again," Cassandra raised a hand in silent command. "It can wait. We apparently have more important things than revenge to deal with right now."
"Yes. This isn't what I expected," Amanda told her. "If Fann is a Chosen One, why didn't she know it?"
"Still here!" Fann sputtered in protest at being ignored when the topic of discussion was apparently herself.
"Yes, but should you be?" Amanda asked herself under her breath. Under the combined weight of looks from both Fann and Cassandra she explained her comment. "A Vampire Slayer...which Cassandra believes you to be..." she nodded at Fann, "is a young woman who works for an organization called the 'Council of Watchers'. Each one has a guardian of some kind called a watcher who assists them."
"A watcher?" Cassandra looked at her in surprise at the information. "Like immortal watchers?"
"No. As far as I could find out when I discovered them they are unrelated. The name is just a coincidence. Their watchers aren't the voyeurs ours are." Amanda took a sip from her cup before continuing with a small grin. "I was able to trick this Council into thinking we're more powerful than we really are. For people who fight evil they can be awfully gullible," Amanda laughed at the memory of her last encounter with a slayer.
"What happened?" Cassandra asked.
"After my encounter with them back in the thirties... they agreed that interfering with immortals wasn't a good idea," Amanda told her, showing her most innocent expression to hide her amusement.
"Good." Cassandra nodded at Amanda with approval. "Some day you'll have to tell me how you did that."
"What does this mean for me?" Fann asked. "Am I supposed to go find these watchers?"
"I don't see why you should," Amanda told her. "They're mostly a bunch of stuffy Englishmen. That slayer I met didn't have an original thought in her pretty head. She did whatever her Watcher told her to do. If they haven't come looking for you yet they must have plenty of them."
"So do you know how someone becomes a Chosen One?" Fann asked them.
"Not really," Amanda conceded. "The Watcher I met kept that a secret. If he even knew."
"Oh," Fann frowned down at her cup. "So you don't think it matters if I stay with you? I'm not ready to give up being your apprentice."
"Well, there is that five year contract," Amanda reminded her. "You can't just go running off. You have responsibilities."
"It might matter." Cassandra told them. "If you are truly a Chosen One, you might not have a choice, contract or not."
Fann looked at her in surprise. "Why not?"
Cassandra looked at Amanda for a moment. Amanda just shrugged and nodded for her to continue.
"Some people have a destiny. How they live their life and what they do serves a greater purpose. No matter how hard they try to avoid it. Most Chosen are among them."
"How do I find that out?" Fann asked her faintly.
Amanda resisted the urge to reassure her with a hug. Fann's obvious enjoyment at learning everything she could teach her about her new profession was very flattering but she wasn't going to lock her up if, for some reason, she needed to be elsewhere.
Sighing, she looked pointedly at Cassandra, "She does a reading for you." she told Fann.
"A reading?" Fann asked, looking slightly confused.
"Tea leaves and tarot cards," Amanda told her. "She'll read your future and tell us what you need to do or if you really have some sort of destiny."
"Oh. Is it safe?" Fann asked Cassandra. "Don't your prophecies usually predict disasters?"
"No," Cassandra objected. "That is just what mortal history has written about me. I wasn't even there for a lot of the things I'm blamed for. And that isn't what I'll see for you." She glared at Amanda. "If she's truly one of the Chosen she will have a destiny," Cassandra told them. "But it is possible it won't be what you're expecting. Or want. Destiny isn't random."
"What do I have to do," Fann asked faintly.
"You need to come back tomorrow morning," Cassandra told her. "I can't just stand here and read you. I'll need to prepare for something like that."
"We'll see you tomorrow then. Let's go," Amanda told Fann, grabbing her arm and pulling her to her feet, their last view of Cassandra was of her sitting, tea cup in hand, shaking her head in amusement at their abrupt departure.
"You seemed to be in a big hurry to leave her," Fann grumbled as they drove away from the lake.
"It's better that way. If we'd stayed too long she would have tried to get us to promise her something, like going after Adam for her," Amanda told her.
"Who's Adam?" Fann asked.
"One of her oldest enemies," She shrugged. "He isn't actually that bad. He can be annoying if he's bored but he's no longer the evil person he was when they first met."
Fann looked at her, "So what's the problem?"
"She doesn't believe anyone when they tell her he's changed. So she refuses to forgive him." She shook her head. "There are some things that are hard to forget, even among us. Once in a while she'll convince herself that he has gone back to his old ways and try to kill him."
"And he's still alive?" Fann asked in amazement, thinking about all of the tales she'd heard from Amanda over the past few months about immortal vendettas.
"So far. He's been lucky," Amanda said, laughing. "He's very good at surviving. You'll probably meet him eventually. He's a friend of Mac's."
"And this Mac protects him?" Fann asked.
"When he's not annoyed with him for other things." Amanda smirked. "He's really good at finding the things that annoy people. Age can do that to you." She shook her head negatively at Fann's unspoken request for more information, leaving her to wonder what she was missing.
They returned to the island early the next morning. Amanda had grumbled good-naturedly about the atmosphere of the diner that was their only choice for a non-fast food meal but Fann had just ignored her and had eaten with her usual wolfish hunger. She'd gotten used to the way Amanda tended to complain if something didn't meet her almost snobbish standards. She'd known her long enough to realize it was just part of the image Amanda liked to portray. When necessary, even when it didn't involve a job, Amanda could be brutally practical.
Fann reluctantly joined Amanda in the small boat. She suppressed a shudder in the damp air as she stared across the mist covered lake, more nervous than she'd been the previous day when she'd first met the seer. The slight rocking motion did nothing to calm her nerves.
"Let's go back!" she mumbled as the side of the boat scraped against the island's small dock.
Amanda looked at her with an inscrutable expression on her face. "Why?"
"Let's just forget the whole thing," Fann told her, unsuccessfully trying to keep a slight whine out of her voice. "I don't really need to know this destiny stuff. Being your apprentice is enough for me."
"She said she would help you," she told Fann coldly. "And she's not the only one here who'll be angry if we leave now."
Fann cringed at her tone. Amanda very rarely got angry with her. "What if she predicts something bad?"
"Then we deal with it," Amanda answered in a more normal voice. Once she'd climbed out of the boat she turned back to Fann, "What is the real problem?"
"I'm too young to have a destiny!" Fann protested. "I like the things we've been doing and want to keep doing them."
"Let's see what she has to say before we make any decisions," Amanda told her. "She didn't say you have a destiny but that you might. Wouldn't you rather find it out now so you can prepare for it?"
"But what if it means I have to do this slayer thing?" Fann grumbled. "I bet slayers don't get to do the things you're teaching me. They're probably too good for that kind of fun."
"Don't worry, you're probably too corrupted now to be one." Amanda reached over and attempted to pull her long braid. Laughing, Fann dodging out of the way before she could succeed. "Ready to find out your destiny?"
"No!" Fann pouted, feeling slightly childish. "Okay, let's get this over with."
"We should probably get going then," Amanda said with a nod. "Wouldn't want to keep the witch waiting. A cranky witch is a dangerous witch."
Wide-eyed and still feeling childish, Fann hurried up the path behind her. The door swung open before they could knock. A tangy smelling fog flowed out, engulfing them.
Fann stared nervously into the cabin. It seemed like a completely different place than it had been the day before. There was something about the cabin that was sending chills up and down her spine. Even with her enhanced vision she couldn't see through the fog. Before she could obey her impulse to turn around and head back to the boat, Amanda sneezed, breaking the mood and causing Fann to giggle in nervous reaction.
"Damn it, Cassandra!" Amanda yelled into the cabin. "Save the hocus pocus for the tourists!" She sneezed again, and grabbing Fann by the arm, stormed into the cabin. As soon as they'd both crossed the threshold the fog dissipated, leaving them standing in the middle of the room. Fann noticed the strange feeling she'd been getting from the fog was also gone.
Coming into the room, Cassandra winked at Fann before addressing Amanda. "You don't like it? I did it just for you. I do have an image to uphold after all."
Amanda sneezed again. "Can we just get on with it? You know that stuff makes me sneeze," she grumbled.
"Fine!" Cassandra pouted. "Take away my fun."
"Fun?" Fann stared at her. "What was fun about that?"
Cassandra shrugged. "There's almost no fun reading someone. I'll take what little I can get. Let's take this into the sun-room." She grabbed Fann by the elbow and guided her towards a door on the other side of the room. Amanda followed in their wake, occasionally sneezing. Fann looked around the large room, taking in the glass walls and room, before her gaze landed on a short table in the middle of the room surrounded by large cushions.
"How does this work?" She asked as she settled onto the cushion Cassandra directed her to, removing her shoes and tucking in her feet.
Amanda shorted in amusement. "She's already started."
"Huh? How" Fann ungracefully asked.
"As soon as she touched you," Amanda told her.
Cassandra glared at Amanda. "Do I give away all of your professional secrets?"
"You don't have to," Amanda told her with a smirk. "I'm teaching them to her myself. She's a natural."
"All of them?" Cassandra looked back and forth between Fann and Amanda in apparent amazement. "You're really serious about this apprenticeship?"
"Yes," Amanda told her. Fann wondered what she was missing but decided to wait until later to ask her about it.
"That changes things a little." Fann heard Cassandra mutter under her breath.
Before she could ask her what she meant, Cassandra gave Fann a look and murmured "Hush." Fann shifted nervously on her cushion while Cassandra silently watched both of them for several minutes.
"You wanted to know what was going to happen?" At Fann's nod she continued. "Reading someone to find out their destiny isn't really that complex. But it's an ability very few people have. After seeing your aura yesterday, I was able to do a basic reading. But all it did was confirm what we already know, that you are one of the Chosen."
"Oh." Fann sighed. With some of the tension she'd been feeling leaving her, she asked the question she really dreaded being answered. "But what about my destiny?"
"Ah. That requires more work. I rarely do that kind of reading."
"Why?"
"It requires physical contact." Cassandra visibly shuddered. "Not a pleasant sensation. The auras of mortals are very noisy."
"How were you able to touch me then?" Fann asked curiously, wondering why Cassandra had reacted so strongly.
"I spent the evening preparing for it," Cassandra looked at her. "Though it appears I didn't need to. Your aura seems to have a shield of some sort around it."
"Were you still able to see anything?" Amanda asked.
"Yes."
Fann watched as Cassandra placed a tarot deck on the table and started to shuffle it. "Are those cards going to tell you what my destiny is?"
"No," Cassandra told them with a small smile. She started to lay out the cards in front of herself in a complex pattern. "They're just a tool that I use to help organize what I've already read from you in my mind so I can explain it."
Fann watched in fascination for several minutes before she was distracted by a laugh from Amanda.
"You should see the confused expression fortune tellers get if they see the way she uses the cards," Amanda told her.
"Where'd you learn this card thing?" Fann asked Cassandra as she continued to shuffle and lay out cards.
"There's an old coven in England that uses the cards this way," Amanda answered for her.
"A coven? For real witches?"
"Not exactly," Cassandra answered shortly, finally putting down the cards and looking at her with an expression that discouraged further questions. "They prefer to be called Wiccans. They're Goddess worshippers. Witches, real witches, are something else."
"Okay..." Fann shifted nervously. "What happens now?"
"Now we discuss your destiny," Cassandra told her. She sat silently for several minutes as if waiting for something from Fann.
"And...?" Amanda prodded.
"She needs to want to know," Cassandra told her. "I won't tell her otherwise."
"Whatever you can tell me would be great," Fann told her. "I would rather know than not."
Cassandra sighed and got up from the table. "Tea?" she asked.
"Sure," Fann said, frowning at Amanda in confusion as Cassandra left the room.
"The whole fortune telling experience," Amanda pronounced loftily. "Tea leaves and tarot cards, just like I told you."
Returning to the room with the mugs of tea, Cassandra handed one to each of them before sitting down with her own. She waited until they had taken a sip of tea before continuing. "Last night I called an old friend who knows something about the Chosen One and slayers."
"Oh?" Amanda murmured in encouragement.
"Apparently, most slayers die very young. Their destiny is to fight the forces of darkness and help maintain the equilibrium between good and evil, often at the cost of their lives." She reached over and squeezed Fann's arm in a comforting manner when she saw her distressed expression. "But I sensed a long life ahead of you. It made no sense. Until now."
"What did you discover?" Fann asked faintly.
"Think of your destiny like a web of possibilities. It guides you along your chosen path." She stared into her cup. "All people have some path their lives follow but few have a true destiny. A destiny that can influence others. And they usually only have one. You seem to have two."
"Two destinies?" Fann asked, hoping this confusing explanation would make sense later.
"Yes. You have the destiny of a slayer. And something else."
"What does that mean?" Fann asked.
"If you went to the Council of Watchers and worked for them as a slayer, you would have the short, violent life of one." She shook her head. "And since you aren't immortal or likely to ever be..."
"Why are you so sure about that?" Fann asked curiously. "When we first met Amanda said that she wasn't allowed to tell me even if I were going to become immortal. Couldn't you be lying?"
"According to my friend, what makes us immortal is not compatible with the ancient energy that makes you a slayer. The life forces aren't compatible," Cassandra said. "Just be glad. Immortality has its' drawbacks."
"Like what?" Fann looked at Amanda briefly for an answer but she was staring at something far away.
"Amanda can tell you later," Cassandra said. "Just believe me when I say that you would not enjoy being an immortal slayer."
"So, this other destiny?" Fann asked. "How does being a slayer affect that?"
"It's very unclear," Cassandra said with a sigh. "The two destinies are intertwined. Even if you don't pursue the life of a slayer, you are still a Chosen One and have a part to play in the conflict between good and evil. But I'm finding it difficult reading anything beyond that."
"Why?" Amanda asked, once more paying attention to the conversation.
"Some people are easy to read. Mortals have a simple life, no matter how complex they might perceive it. Immortals also have simple lives. Their stories all lead in one direction. If Fann were just a slayer... her future would be very clear."
"What do you mean?" Fann asked nervously.
"If you were just a slayer, you would already be dead," Cassandra told her sadly.
"How?" Amanda asked, surprised.
"Slayers attract danger to themselves. She hasn't had any training in the arts of the Chosen and the mystical skills slayers are endowed with require honing."
"I can take care of myself!" Fann protested.
"Against humans? Yes." Cassandra appraised her barely restrained form. "Against vampires and other creatures of the night? No."
"It doesn't matter now," Amanda told Fann in a voice she found very soothing. "We're visiting MacLeod so he can train you."
Cassandra looked at them. "Good. You will need it."
They quietly drank their tea for a few minutes while Fann processed what she'd been told so far. "What did you mean? That my destiny wasn't clear?"
"It's tied in with your Sidhe heritage," Cassandra said. "It blurs the things I can see."
"My what?" Fann choked out over a mouthful of tea.
"Her what?" Amanda spouted.
Cassandra looked at both of them before shaking her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised."
"Who are the Sidhe?" Fann asked.
"A myth," Amanda told her firmly.
"Not a myth," Cassandra corrected. "I haven't seen someone with so much Sidhe blood as you appear to have in over five hundred years but they did exist. I'm not aware of where they originally came from but there was definitely something special about them. They lived for a long time. They can be found in many Irish legends. Some say they could travel between worlds. Other legends say they went back to where-ever they came from."
"How can you tell I have some of this Sidhe in me?" Fann asked. "And what does it mean?"
"It's clearly there to anyone who has the skill to look past the effect being a slayer has on your aura." She reached over and grabbed one of Fann's hands. "The magical signature of the Sidhe is very distinct. The more Sidhe blood you have, the stronger it is. But the combination of the two..." She nodded to herself. "That explains it."
"What does it explain!" Fann asked impatiently, before looking sheepishly at Amanda, who now seemed absorbed in everything Cassandra was telling them.
"My friend said that this Council is able to detect slayers. But she claimed that there is rarely more than one at a time and they are all currently accounted for. You must be at least a quarter Sidhe to be shielded from their spells. And from the demons."
"From the demons?" Fann squeaked.
"Yes. Demons, vampires, and other evil creatures are supposedly attracted to slayers."
"I've never seen anything like that," Fann told them.
"Exactly!" Cassandra pronounced. "You probably weren't supposed to become a slayer." She shrugged. "The kind of elemental magic used to originally create the Chosen One often seems to have a mind of its own. It's very dangerous to tamper with it. Something must have gone very wrong when the last Chosen One died for you to become a slayer."
"So what do I do?" Fann asked. "What about my destiny?"
"Enjoy your freedom. Your long life. It probably won't be as long as a pure Sidhe but it'll certainly be much longer than that of an ordinary mortal. Learn to defend yourself against the evil that will eventually be attracted to you." She shrugged elegantly before taking a sip from her cup. "Your destiny will take care of itself. If you're happy it must lie in the direction you are already traveling. Learn everything Amanda can teach you. You have plenty of time."
"Damn," Amanda grumbled. "I should have taken their advice."
Fann looked at her in surprise, having almost forgotten her presence. "What?"
"I should have gotten you to sign that ten year apprenticeship..." She winked at Fann who laughed while Cassandra looked on in amusement.
Note: The Sidhe mentioned in this story are the Sidhe of Irish legend, reinterpreted for this story. They are not the Sidhe/elves of modern fantasy literature. Not a pointy ear anywhere. Sorry.