Chapitre7 :
°Disclaimer in the prologue.
°Thanks for the reviews; it helps to know that some of you liked what you read.
"So Xander, I have a question for you. How come I saw you use powerful demon's magic a while ago in that cemetery?"
"Well… you deserve the truth after taking the risk to trust us with what has been done to you. Though I need to perform a secrecy bind on the four of us before I tell you anything, and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about it before, but I needed and still need to trust in you, as you trust in me. Trust is the foundation of this spell." Xander told them.
He tentatively looked at their expressions fearing to see mistrust, disgust or even hurt from Angel but relief flew through him as love, trust and pride came from Ripper and Kyle, and confusion and trust, from Angel. A smile brightened his face as he explained to them what the bind consisted of.
It was an extremely powerful bind created by Orchyari's demons; it enabled people to keep their secrets undisclosed from unsavoury persons. It couldn't be reveal by speech, nor by writing, not even by the reading of one's mind. No one had ever been able to breach this bind, and it was not from the lack of trying. Once it was done they wouldn't have to be afraid of being heard or manipulated by Buffy and Willow. For even if they were able to listen to them without them knowing it, the spell would take care of it, changing what they were hearing to something completely unrelated.
His explanation finished, Xander asked them what they thought of the bind. They all agreed to say that it was the best solution for them. It would protect them from manipulative witch and violent, selfish girl.
Happy with the trust showed by the others, Xander reach under his shirt for the pendant hidden there. They placed their chairs in a circle under Xander's direction and joined their hands as he began to chant the spell. The binding was represented by the joined hands and once finished would take the form of an intricate band around their arms. The language used for the spell was not one known by neither Ripper nor Angel, they could recognize its demonic origin but not which one. It was not the guttural tone of voice that human, (in particular Buffy), seemed to think it should be. It was beautiful, melodic more like what you would think to hear coming from an elf.
Demons were not the violent, bloody and cruel creatures, humans made them to be; they were extremely intelligent, powerful and for the most part peaceful. Yes some of them were monsters who attacked and killed people for their pleasure, but we could say the same of humans, not all of them were good, some being worst than the cruellest of demons.
In his years on the Hellmouth, Xander being a Luenor and exposed to the 'supernatural' had rapidly learned to make the difference. He was five when he met his first demon a Malyageohl, before that he had known of their existence, felt them, even sseen them, but they never approached him; letting him make his own opinion by himself. That was what made him so open minded and receptive to his first contact with demon, in addition they knew him for whom and what he was; helping him to learn everything he could about them, their species, families…
They were the first of three powerful families coming to him, which decided to ally themselves with him. They showed him their powers, taught him how to use some of them and under his council, allied themselves to the other two clans. He had to say that it was one of his best ideas, they were greatly complementing each others, and to this day they still formed a great team.
Coming back to what he was doing, Xander finished chanting the spell and a bright white light surrounded them, binding them together. It was a complete success and Xander smiled to them reassuringly, he reached a hand to each tattoos and hided them with an illusion.
"Okay guys you can stop being nervous, the spell was a success!" Xander told them laughing.
"That' good to know" responded Ripper proud of Xander's achievement, which was really powerful magic, really hard to control because of its demon's origins. He was a lot more powerful than he let himself appear.
"Okay Angel, what do you want to know first, and then we will continue from there?" asked Xander.
"Well first I would like to know where your pendant came from. I've seen you used it to protect those Ghrwhlr demons that time in the cemetery, its powers were incredible." Angel answered with awe in his voice.
Xander looked Angel's in the eyes and smirked.
"So it was you in that tree! Since I didn't felt any ill attempt from you, only curiosity and shock, I let you believe that I didn't notice you and went back home. I knew that if I wore my mask back, the one watching me wouldn't approach me without a good reason." Xander told him smirk still firmly in place and pride evident in his voice.
Ripper and Kyle had to laugh at that, and Angel smiled knowing that the boy was right. Waiting a moment for Ripper and Kyle to regain their composure, Xander began his explanation; first with the pendant.
It was created with the magic used by the leaders of three different demon's family. The first one, he met at the tender age of five, he was in his backyard when the Malyageohl rushed in, bloody from head to toe and exhaustion winning the battle; he collapsed at his feet. Now that he thought back on it, he had been really lucky because it had happened during the week his 'parents' went to who knew where. Every four months they left him to his devices during an entire week, they never told him where they went but he was highly suspicious that whatever they did there was about him.
He was happy for once to be alone; he brought the demon to his home down to his room despite the demon being three to four sizes taller than him, in case of his 'parents' coming back early. He pulled him to his bed and went to his bathroom in search of water and his emergency kit, then went back to take care of the injuries. It took him two hours to wash and healed them all, so it was already early morning when he finally finished. He let the demon used his bed to sleep his exhaustion off and went to lie down on the living room sofa.
He had to wait till the following day for the demon to wake up; he was finishing his dinner when he heard him coming to the kitchen. He was looking a lot better than he had the night before and Xander looked at him beaming with pure joy. Shocked by the child display the only thing the demon could do was to ask him why he helped him, and why he didn't left him there to die?
The child was left perplexed by this question why wouldn't he have helped? He couldn't understood, this person was in need of help and he didn't felt bad so why wouldn't he do something about it?
That was when the Malyageohl understood, feeling himself weakening too quickly after the attack to go back home, he had followed the sent of a Luenor living in this town, but he had thought that he had fallen unconscious before reaching him. It seemed he had found him after all, and he was really powerful if the fact that he was untouched by the disturbing magic released by the Hellmouth, was anything to go by. He decided to stay with the child a few more days to see who he really was and how well he was protected.
To say that it wasn't what he had expected was the understatement of the year; the demon was outraged and angry. That child was alone for the week without any protection, wasn't taught what a Luenor was, so he didn't had any mean of practicing and developing his power. That was something he had decided to remedy to. He couldn't let the child in this state, but first he needed to find what his power consisted of, he deserved to be helped, his open mindedness and care were something to be nurtured. He wasn't prejudiced against demons in the least; he was listening and following the balance instinctively and the demon knew that protected and guided he wouldn't fail the final test.
It didn't take him a day to find the boy's affinity, his curiosity, his eagerness to learn anything and everything, his capacity in stocking information and in reusing them at anytime; all leaded him to an affinity to knowledge. After that all he had to do was to teach everything he could from his clan to every other demons clan, to magic, to… well to every subject possible; that child was so eager it wasn't a hardship and he never forgot a thing.
After that week he or one of his clan would come once a month to his home at night bringing with them books of every sort and teaching him what they could. A year later his clan agreed with him and they allied themselves with the boy, since then no demon had been able to hurt him. The Malyageohl being master of illusions, they taught the child their magic enabling him to deceive his parents' supervision to meet his teacher of the month. This demon clan was the first but not the only one to ally itself with him and taught him.
The second one was the Orchyari's clan; he stumbled upon them as he was taking Willow home, before going back to his. The demons were following them since they had left school searching for the magical trace of an evil witch who had escaped the judgement of her people for her crimes. She was too dangerous to be left alone, but she found a solution to her problem by making herself magically regressed to the age of a child. The clan couldn't do a thing about it; their very nature was against hurting a child even if this child was really an adult. They lived to protect, they were expert in shielding be it body or mind, they had created a binding spell protecting the secrecy of those under it and to this day it had never been violated. They were extremely powerful and had been asked by the demon's community to track her and protect the Hellmouth, it was clear that the witch's plan was to increase her power by stealing its magic.
That day they were watching the two children and were going to go back to the rest of their clan once the girl was back home, when a rabid dog attacked Xander. They just had the time to erect a shield and save his life when the dog jumped for his throat. They had to show themselves to secure the boy and take care of the dog; the poor thing was mutated into something directly extracted from a horror film. It was suffering too much, that's why he attacked; the pain was making him crazy. They didn't have a choice but to kill it, but they noticed a mark on him a dark burn on his back in the shape of a dark rune. Someone had used the dog and twisted it for their own experience, and they didn't have a doubt on who would be able to do this horror, though at least it wasn't suffering anymore.
They took back the boy to his home afraid of the reaction he would have after realising they weren't human, but he only looked at them with a smile threatening to illuminate the entire street and thanked them with all his heart. They smiled in return ant that was when they felt it, the child was a Luenor and extremely powerful at that; they didn't know how they could have missed it before.
But already the boy was firing question at them at a mile a minute; Who and what were they? How did they save him? Where did they live? … They had no doubt that knowledge was his affinity and were trying to answer all of his questions.
In awe of his reaction and loving his unprejudiced behaviour, they decided to help him improved his power by teaching him protective magic and bringing him books. In fact one of their books was the one stolen by Willow, they were the only ones giving him books on mind magic. They taught him to protect his mind and hide his real feelings from Willow. They allied themselves with the boy during the year of their first meeting.
The third and last clan was the Lindehwrk, they mastered travelling through space with magical portal and instant travel making them travel from one point to the second in seconds The first method took a longer time but a lots of persons were able to cross it before it closed itself and you only needed the exact name of the place you intended to go for it to work. The second was quicker but you could only take with you one to two persons and you had to know what the place looked like before travelling there, but it was really life saving.
That's how they met, it was on the summer of Xander's fifteenth, just before Buffy came to town, just before Jessy's death as well. He was fighting with a vampire, and as he was going to deliver the killing blow, a blinding white light exploded before them. Taking advantage of Xander's distraction, he used his greater force to throw the boy in the portal.
Fortunately for the boy, the one coming from the portal had just the time to catch him before he disappeared to who knew where. He was placed behind the leader of this new clan before the one next to him rushed to follow the escaping vampire, a second later and ashes were falling to the ground.
Without Willow disturbing the auras around her, they immediately felt what he was and his power. Though as an awe struck Xander curiously started to ask every questions that came to his mind, the representatives of the Lindehwerk and their leader, like the two others clans before them, never doubted knowledge was his Luenor's ability.
They came to Sunnydale on a request from the demon's community to alert the other clans of the arrival of the slayer in town during the following days and to be careful because she was already loosing herself. They told the boy as well, already trying to protect him from harm.
In the same way as the others, they started to teach him their magic, lending and giving him more books, helping him adjusting and improving his fighting skills. The boy knew he was lacking in this domain, but did everything he could to avoid being hurt when attacked.
In three days they had agreed to ally themselves with Xander, respecting his force and courage.
The boy decided to try and fool Buffy in thinking he was helping her, even though he was in fact going to try to save innocent demons which were falling victims in her hands. It was a dangerous game to play, but one he couldn't ignore. Unfortunately he knew that alone, he wouldn't have the power to help everyone, when the slayer killed before his very eyes a family of completely peaceful demons, without letting them speak for themselves.
His tortured and pained soul, his helplessness at the massacre he just saw before his eyes, his rage at not being able to save anyone, his horror at seeing two children and their parents being slaughtered, called to the three clan's leaders which had became his friends and went to him to offer their comfort.
That night they passed hours comforting the boy before he was able to sleep, they didn't leave him alone for one instant, speaking softly to each other about what to do to help the boy that had helped them so much. It wasn't before Xander woke up terrified from a nightmare that the leaders came to an agreement with each others.
They would bind their clans in an alliance to help and protect the boy, with the boy being the holder of it. It was an extremely old binding ceremony that the Orchyari's leader felt would be perfect for them all; it would let the boy use the source of their powers with the help of a catalyst and would placed him under their protection.
After a long moment of talking reassuringly to the boy, that yes he was strong enough to assume this place; that no he wouldn't fail them like he failed that family of demons, and that no he didn't fail that family anyway, that he couldn't have done a thing in the first place.
They finally sat themselves around Xander and began chanting the spell, as the volume increased; their magic came to the fore and went to surround Xander in green, crimson and dark blue. Then it converged to the ground before the boy and exploded in a multitude of colours revealing a pendant in the shape of a crimson dragon and green snake embracing a dark blue rose; symbolizing perfectly the new alliance between the three clans.
The last thing needed for Xander to become the holder of this powerful pendant was his blood, which he gave freely and without blinking. The moment the blood touched the pendant a lightning of blue, crimson and green rushed through him without causing him any pain. Seconds later it settled in a happy glow, showing its acceptance of Xander and gifting him with more power than he could imagine.
Letting the boy showing his appreciation and thanks for what they just did for him with words, hugs and tears, they guided him back to bed for more needed sleep.
Pausing in his story for a minute, Xander looked back up to see three awe inspired faces, smiling with determination he jumped back in his story without giving anyone time to ask questions. He knew that a lots of them were circling through their mind, but he needed to finish his story before he could even think of answering those, so he went on.
That pendant was what Angel saw him used against Buffy in that cemetery. The day before a family from the Ghrwhlr clan came to him, soliciting his help; they were guardian demons, which were compelled to go to Buffy and help her with her hunting and protection. Though they didn't want to, they had heard of her violent nature and feared for their son's safety; children in their clan were seen has sacred and miraculous, to be protected from anything because of their rarity. Their clan had been decimated by the same predator that they were being forced to serve.
So they devised a plan, Xander with the help of his pendant would cast a protection bubble around them, sending them in a space in parallel to the one they were at the moment. That way they would be close enough for the illusion to be physical and far enough for avoiding any injury. The only catch was that he couldn't save them of the horror of seeing their own illusions being slaughtered, but they were still alive and that was what was important. That and the shock of their supposed deaths broke the compulsion they had felt to serve there worst nightmare, so he was more than happy to send them back to their home an clan.
Once finished, his eyes came to Ripper and said, "Ripper there is something you need to know, but I'm not sure that you are ready to hear it. It's about the slayer."
He watched as understanding replaced the confusion he had seen lurking in the man's eyes before telling him, "Don't worry, I'm ready but before anything else, you have to understand who I really am and where I came from..."
Author note:
°Hope you still like it, and review please???