"Corinne MaCalister is here to see you, Sir." Quentin Travers, Deputy Head of the Watchers Council's Secretary, informed him.
"Show her in." Quentin replied and stood to greet the agent from the Watchers Council's Magic Department. "Ms. MaCalister, thank you for getting on this matter so quickly. Would you like something to drink before we begin?"
"No, thank you, but I appreciate the thought." She assured him.
"Very well, what can you tell me about the official reports from Sunnydale?" Quentin got to the point of their meeting.
"That prior to two years ago every physical copy of the various required reports sent out from Sunnydale, whether mailed or faxed, was imbued with a spell."
"But the protections our agents have should have protected them from it, shouldn't they?" He protested.
"Not this kind of spell, it's very subtle and insidious, it works off of an existing belief. F.B.I. agents scrutinizing those reports already think Sunnydale is nothing more than a rich community near Los Angeles, the quiet, peaceful place that it's advertised to be. A safe place to raise one's kids. Since they believe that already, the spell makes it so they don't see or hear anything that contradicts that. As for the agents we have imbedded in the F.B.I., they were told by the Council that Sunnydale's Hellmouth was inactive, which means the spell just did the same thing to them, made it so they couldn't see or hear anything that contradicted that."
"So someone has been covering up the evidence of the supernatural in Sunnydale."
"Up until two years ago, yes. None of the reports that have come out of Sunnydale in the last two years have had any sign of Magic on them."
"When things started to change in Sunnydale, according to Micheal Fischer's research. But still no notice was paid?"
"The effects of the prior Magic continued to have an effect. An effect that's wearing off. Sooner or later someone in the F.B.I. is going to notice that Sunnydale has higher than average crime rates, even if those rates have been declining for two years. They're going to get curious as why no one noticed before and they're going to wonder what's going on in Sunnydale. That could open a can of worms."
"The President and a few members of Congress and the heads of various agencies are aware of us and what we do, but you're right, it could still cause issues. And someone may decide to investigate without involving higher ups, perhaps suspecting a cover up of some sort, which there is. And Sunnydale itself still needs to be evaluated and Mr. Giles needs to be questioned."
"Yes, I've looked over his reports and I understand why questions have arisen after scrutinizing those reports. I have questions myself after reading them."
"There's also the fact that Miss Summers is approaching her eighteenth birthday and nearly three years of service as the Slayer. She needs to be evaluated, especially given her history and how incomplete of her our knowledge is. Because of Merrick's deception and because Rupert Giles appears not to have been honest with us, as well as in general."
"Ah yes, the Cruciementum. And how exactly will you test her? No Slayer has reached 18 in decades, let alone lastest three years, aside from Nikki Wood and a couple of others."
"If Sunnydale really does have an active Hellmouth, then I'm sure there's an endless number of ways for us to test her knowledge and skills. But given we can't trust Mr. Giles' reports, I ask that you see if you can determine anything about her skill level while evaluating Sunnydale itself."
"I'll do what I can." Corinne nodded. "There's already grounds to fire Mr. Giles, but will you give him the chance to be evaluated as well?"
"I have to, his family will insist on it. Did you find anything else?"
"No and I can leave for Sunnydale immediately if you wish."
"I do, the sooner we have more information, the sooner we can move forward. Again, thank you for getting on this so quickly."
"I was concerned too." Corrine assured him and stood to shake his hand before leaving Quentin to his thoughts and considering the various ways of evaluating Miss Summers skills and knowledge.
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A/N Bear with me on the Cruciementum, I remember an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation where Wesley was being evaluated for Star Fleet Academy and he had to navigate a cultural situation that turned out to be an unannounced test. He could have been injured, perhaps badly, if he'd mishandled it. Unannounced inspections and testing of readiness and skills does happen in the military and 18 is the usual age of admittance to most militaries. And while a Navy Seal is much older than that when a recruit goes through Hell Week, my research shows that week can be so intense that hallucinations from sleep deprivation can happen. So my thinking is the Cruciementum, which translates as Test of Torture, is meant to be a testing of skills and knowledge. Buffy's went really badly, but a competent Council would ensure safeguards to make sure she wasn't killed or Joyce involved. The set up on the show screamed incompetence, if they were really that bad there's no way they could have latest for centuries and Quentin should have been the one fired for incompetence."