Militat Omnis Amans (Every
Lover is a Warrior)
Chapter II - Amantes Sunt Amentes
(Lovers Are Lunatics)
Raise
a white sail if you love me
a
black sail if you don't
Seal
me up in an impregnable tower
or
surround me with an impassable moat
I've
heard all the stories told about love
(unattainable
and pure)
but
there is one love of which I'm sure
Your
fear as honed as a battle axe,
I'll
bear my neck, I'll wear the scar,
and
if my nerve should fail the task
I
know your faith will not roam too far
I've
heard all the stories told about love
(two
souls into one)
but
this tale of love is one we've just begun
White
Sale
Cowboy
Junkies, Pale Sun - Crescent Moon
(c)
1993, RCA Records
|
"D |
amn, its cold," thought the
blond girl shivering on the floor.
Buffy took another look around at her new surroundings. The room that she and Willow had arrived in
was large, easily twice the size of the workroom from where they had just
left. Candles and large torches lighted
the room. In addition, there were four
large fireplaces adding their heat and light to the room. Despite all of the fires, the room was cold,
barely above the freezing mark. Buffy
noticed that they were surrounded by at least twenty people standing in a dual
circle, all dressed in heavy robes which had embroidery similar to the work on
her robe.
"Quickly, get some blankets
and boots," Amana said, "they will be freezing in this
temperature."
With that, several things happened
simultaneously. Grael quickly dispelled
the portal with the words "dorrys skeaylley!" As other members of the
group broke the circle, which allowed them to collect several heavy blankets,
which they proceeded to wrap around the two shivering women who were in the
centre of the work circle.
"Where are we? Who are you?
What's going on? Shadow-Cat, what are you doing here?" babbled Willow as
she was being wrapped in blankets with thick fur boots being shoved onto her
feet.
"We will answer all of your
questions," Amana replied as she finished putting the boots on Buffy's
feet, "however, we need to get you warm and fed first. Come, we will adjourn to more comfortable
surroundings."
She then helped Buffy to her feet
and indicated that they should leave the room.
The entire group left the workroom
and headed back down the corridor to the study. The two travellers were given chairs in front of the fireplace
and mugs of mulled wine were handed to them.
Two of the group proceeded to drag
the table up to the fireplace and then had platters of meats, breads, sweets
and cheeses placed in front of the two women.
In addition, several pitchers of various beverages - ales, wines and
ciders, were also placed on the table.
"Ok," Willow said a few
minutes later, after having drunk half of her wine and beginning to feel warm
for the first time since arriving.
"Q&A time, deal us the skinny."
Buffy was quietly eating and
drinking thinking to herself, "better let Willow deal with this, she is
better on the witch stuff and she can fill me in later."
"Fair enough," Grael
answered Willow, "where do you
want to start?"
"I guess with
introductions," Willow continued feeling strangely content in this
extraordinary company. "After
all," she thought, "they did ask for my help, I have no way of
getting home without them, so I might as well deal. "My name is Willow," she said to the assembled group,
"my companion's name is Buffy," she continued pointing out the
Slayer. "The cat that unexpectedly also came along is mine and is named
Shadow-Cat, I guess she will show when she feels like it."
"Welcome, and well met,"
answered Grael, "my name is Grael,
and this is Amana," he continued pointing her out. "We are the leaders of this group of mages
and are the ones who lead the effort to bring you here to help us."
"Speaking of here, where are
we?" Willow asked looking around closely, for the first time, at the room
its furnishings and the lighting,
"it looks very not modern here."
"Here is not a simple question
Willow," replied Amana, "nor is
when, if I can anticipate your next question.
Where we are is in the mage's wing of Castle Maldor. The castle is located in our capital city of
Maldorstat. The building is modern in that we have plumbing, heat and a few
other conveniences that you are used to.
However, we do not have mechanical lighting sources, and only recently
have we begun to develop steam based mechanisms." She continued, rising from the table and
moving towards the other end,
"Frankel here is our most senior sage and he will try to give you
what we understand is happening," she said, standing behind an elderly man
who had until that point been sitting quietly at the other end of the table.
"The simple answer is that you
are still on Earth." Frankel said,
rising from the table and taking up the conversation, "however, it is not
your Earth, so to speak."
"That's the simple
answer? I'd hate to have a complicated
on," stated Buffy, speaking for the first time, and beginning to think
that she was back in professor Walsh's psychology class.
"It has to do with multiple
dimensions and differing realities between dimensions," continued the old
sage, beginning to pace around the room.
"We have determined that there are several Earths which occupy the
same location in space time, however, they are layered on top of each other
creating different realities or versions of the same place, your 'Earth' is one
such, ours is another."
"Okay," replied Willow,
"I've read something about this, however, I didn't think it was
possible." She was beginning to
feel a bit more comfortable about what was going on, now that she was starting
to receive data.
"Only our great need has made
it possible," replied Frankel.
"My early researches determined that the 'layers' existed and later
I was able to determine some of the basic characteristics of each."
"Such as," prompted
Buffy.
"Well, such as the basic
geology and atmosphere. The primary
life forms and which of them were dominant.
In addition to the general level of technology."
"Sounds like you were able to
learn a lot," said Willow.
"I guess you're right,"
the sage continued, "I was also
able to determine that there was major differences between the 'layers'.
Essentially, that the closer the
layers were, the closer the various characteristics are. However, once you move significantly away
from your home layer the differences become major."
"How major?" Asked the
Slayer, convinced now that this guy was a male psychology professor, all talk
and little answers.
"Different biology, life
forms, climate and technology to name a few," he replied.
"Ok, I can deal with this
so-far. But why us?" asked Willow.
"I'll answer that in a few
minutes," answered Grael, "however, there are a couple of points that
I would like Frankel to finish up with first."
"Ok then, to finish," the
sage continued, "in my research I
determined that there were weak points between the layers, which potentially
could allow communication or transport between them. Also, it appeared that some of the dominant species on some of
the layers were able to innately use this transport ability." The sage paused to sip from his mug of
wine, "in fact, I think that a
large amount of what we call 'demons' on our worlds are in fact residents of
one layer, who have transported to another," he finished sitting back down
at the table.
"To continue," said
Grael, "in our investigations of your world, we determined that your
reality had very few weak points at which demons and other evil characters
appeared."
Buffy turned to Willow and said
quietly, "the hell-mouth."
"We also sensed the great
power that resided near one of these 'hell-mouths' as you call them and hopped
that that person would be able to come to our assistance, even though they were
very poorly trained," Grael finished, looking at Willow optimistically.
"Well, you have answered a
number of questions, and raised a few more," Willow said, "however,
you still haven't answered why me?"
"That is a bit easier to
answer," Amana said, "for our world has a very large number of these
hell-mouths, so many in fact that we are in danger of being over-run by demons
from the other realities."
"These weaknesses have
occurred relatively recently," added Grael, "what we think has happened
is that the demons who are attacking us are somehow able to create the
weaknesses, or at least expand upon them, and that they have been slowly moving
from one reality to the next, devastating each in turn. Since our world is between them and you,
they have not reached your reality in any great numbers yet. However, we believe that once they dispose
of us, you will eventually be in the line of fire, since there are only about
fifteen or so worlds between ours and yours."
"And as to why specifically
you, Willow," continued Amana, "quite frankly, for all of the power
that Grael and I have, we are nothing compared to the potential power that you
will be able to wield."
"But, I'm new at this, I can
barely do anything, I don't know very much and most of the time I fail,"
Willow said plaintively.
"We know this dear,"
Amana replied, "however, we are excellent teachers and we will ensure that
you reach your full potential."
"But, what do you want me to
do?"
"Simply, to seal all of the
weaknesses between our world and theirs," answered Grael.
"Oh."
"I'm beginning to think that
details can wait till tomorrow," Amana said. "Lets let them finish eating and then we will see about
accommodations for Willow and her soul-mate."
"Soul-mate," Buffy
exclaimed, "how did you know Willow and I were soul-mates?"
"For one that knows how, its
easy to see the psychic link between you," Amana answered, "soon you to will be able to see these
things," she added cryptically.
"Now, we know your name, but who
are you and why did Willow bring you?" Amana continued as she quickly
changed the subject.
"I'm the Slayer," replied
Buffy, and seeing questioning looks from the others continued, "don't tell
me that you don't have Slayers? The Councill? General medieval stuffiness and
prophecies?"
"No," answered Grael,
"but why don't you fill us in."
"Well, in our reality we have
a Watchers Council whose job it is to train Slayers and to provide guidance to
them. In addition, they maintain
records of various prophecies and other files with respect to demons and other
evil things," Buffy said.
"And," prompted Grael.
"I'm a Slayer," answered
Buffy, "I was a chosen one and trained to fight demons, particularly
vampires. I have special talents and
abilities - for example I am able to sense demons, I heal very quickly and I'm
very strong and fast."
"Excellent," interjected
Frankel, as he became very animated, "I've read about so-called Slayers in
our past, however, the last of them was eliminated years ago, we must talk
about this further."
"Oh, boy," thought Buffy,
"not another professor Walsh, worse, another Giles."
Willow meanwhile was beginning to
yawn, and drowse off. Amana caught
sight of this and said, "enough
for tonight, let’s get these two off to their baths and to bed. We can finish up our discussions in the
morning."
Amana led Buffy and Willow out of
the room and down the hallway. The
climbed a flight of stairs to another hall, which had a number of doors off of
it.
"This is where we have our
accommodations while we are in the capital," Amana said, "most of us
spend the majority of our time in other locations, however, we were all brought
together for this project."
"In anticipation of your
agreeing to come, we have arranged for you to have a room, I trust that you
won't mind sharing, since we weren't really expecting Buffy," she asked
with a smile in her eyes.
She opened one of the doors into a
fairly large room. In fact, it was a
suite of rooms. The rooms were all very
well lit with several lanterns in addition to fireplaces. The wooden floors were covered in thick
carpets and thick tapestries covered most of the walls. Several large windows were set into the
thick stonewalls and were covered with heavy embroidered curtains.
"This is your sitting
room," stated Amana, "the room to the right is your bed-chamber, and
the one to the left is the bath."
She continued leading the way to
the bathroom that was very well appointed with sinks, a toilet and was
dominated by a very large bathtub. This
bathtub was easily the largest that either Buffy or Willow had ever seen. It was at a minimum a metre deep and could
easily sit four. It was set directly
into the floor, with only the top thirty centimetres or so above the floor
line. Buffy could see that tilled
benches were lining the inside of the tub, which raised the possibility of
serious lounging time in the tub. Steam
was rising from the water.
Amana continued, "the water is
very hot, fed by springs deep beneath the building, we have lots of it, so we
constantly have it circulating though the baths so that dirt and grime is
carried away and fresh water brought in.
There is soap, towels and necessities, over here," she said
pointing out a dressing table and cupboards.
"We will arrange to have clothing
sent up to you in the morning, and there is plenty of bed linen and warm
blankets for tonight already in your bedchamber."
"Okay then," she asked,
receiving nods in return, "we will
let you sleep a bit late, since there is only about five hours till dawn. I'll come up to get you and we will continue
with our discussions.”
At this point a very satisfied
looking grey and white feline walked into the room and proceeded to jump up on
the table and began to groom herself.
"Shadow-Cat," exclaimed Willow,
"where have you been?"
"Meooww," answered the
cat.
"Out exploring I guess,"
replied Buffy.
"Checking out the resident
pest problem probably," Willow agreed.
"Good-night then,"
replied Amana, "I'll see you in the morning." She turned and left the suite, closing the
door behind her.
As soon as Amana had left, Buffy
turned to her friend and lover saying, "Witch girl, you've got some
serious explaining to do."
"Buffy, I know, but please can
it wait till later," Willow said as she went over to the bath and began to
undress in preparation for getting in.
"Okay," the Slayer
replied, "I'm too tired to worry about it now. Lets bathe and get to bed," she continued, removing the
blankets that were wrapped around her body and sitting down to take off the
boots.
Soon both women were undressed and
in the water sitting on the benches at opposite ends of the huge tub. Buffy looked over at Willow and was once
again stunned by her beauty, grateful that they had found each other and that
they had acknowledged their love. She
moved over to the other woman and slowly began to caress her neck and
shoulders.
"Mmm, that feels nice,"
Willow said, sighing and relaxing into the others touch.
"Shush don't say anything,
just go with the flow," the Slayer responded as she began to stimulate
Willow's breasts and nipples with the tips of her fingers, which immediately
began to harden from the slayer's activities.
Buffy continued performing her special magic on Willow's nipples as she
also began to kiss the neck and shoulders of her lover.
Willow was beginning to feel the
effects of Buffy's touch, and kisses, deep inside of her body. She raised Buffy's head up from her neck and
kissed her, surrendering her mind and body into the kiss by focusing all of her
attention to it. Their tongues duelled
together as each women tried her hardest to explore the others mouth.
"Bath, soap, wash, we've got
to wash," Willow babbled after a few minutes of deep kissing.
"Good idea," the other
replied, "rubbing soap on soft body parts sounds like fun to me."
Willow picked up the bar of soap
and quickly created lather, she then proceeded to gently wash Buffy, making
slow gentle motions over her body, focusing particular attention to her chest
and belly. Soon she moved her hands and
the soap lower on Buffy's body, making tentative, darting, even teasing moves
towards her sex.
"Stop that," Buffy
exclaimed, "you are getting me too wet."
"You're in the bath,"
Willow said quietly as she continued her assault, "you're supposed to be
wet."
"Then stop teasing me and
finish the job," Buffy demanded.
"Your wish is my
command," Willow responded and proceeded to move her hand between Buffy's
legs and began a direct assault on her lover's sex.
Buffy was beginning to break out
into a sweat, as she was beginning to peak to orgasm, and she wanted it to be
mutual with Willow. She therefore
proceeded to caress Willow's pubic mound, and tentatively massaged her clit
while inserting a finger deep inside of her.
Buffy was pleased to discover that Willow's skin was glowing, more that
the hot water alone would explain and that her breath was beginning to come in
short shallow gasps.
Willow moaned deeply into Buffy's
neck. She had already been at a high
level of excitement and Buffy's probing fingers deep inside of her were
beginning to push her over the edge.
Both women continued their respective assaults, and within moments, both
had powerful simultaneous orgasms.
"Goddess, that is exactly what
I needed," panted Willow, "I trust you feel the same lover," as
she proceeded to embraced her friend in a hug.
"Oh, yeah. Quite a fine way to relax," Buffy said
near breathlessly, as she reciprocated the hug, while searching out and finding
Willow's mouth for another deep passionate kiss.
After a few minutes the women moved
apart. "Come on love, its been one
hell of a day," Willow said as she began to wash her hair. "Let's finish up here and get some
sleep."
"No problemo," Buffy
added as she to began to wash her hair, "I think tomorrow is going to be
even more strange than tonight was."
Within the hour there were two
women intertwined on their bed in a deep sleep. A very contented cat then leaped up on the pile of heavy blankets
that covered the two women, and took up residence on the pillow behind Willow's
head.
"Purrrrr," came deep from
the cat as she thought, "my tummy is full, this is not my normal
territory, however, my human is here so I am happy."
------------------------------------
Elsewhere in the castle, others
were not yet sleeping. Grael, Amana,
Frankel and a couple of other people were sitting around the long table in the
study, deep in conversation.
"I think that this is going to
work out fine," Grael said to the group, "she is young, strong and
incredibly powerful."
"I agree," commented
Amana, "she appears to have taken everything about tonight's activities
well. No panic and no fits of
hysteria."
"The slayer is an unexpected
bonus," interjected Frankel, "having one with her abilities may prove
to be the deciding factor."
"That's true," replied
Grael, "she also has an unbelievable amount of strength and power, and if
we can link the two together..."
"Yes," asked another
member of the group.
"Well, it could mean our
certain salvation," answered their leader.
"That speculation can wait
till later," Amana said as she took up pen and paper, "lets confirm
what we need to accomplish in the next few days."
"We need to finish briefing
them," answered Grael, "and then we will have to assess Willow's
training in greater detail. I think
that we will also want to begin to train Buffy also."
"But," interjected
Frankel, "I want to work with her, get more details on slayers, and
slaying. Maybe have her train
others."
"I agree with you
Frankel," replied Grael, "however, in addition to that, she is going
to need to be trained in her other abilities, certainly not to the level of
Willow, but she is going to need those skills."
"That is certainly true,"
continued Amana, "I think that a certain amount of cross-training for both
of them is in order. We should arrange
to give Willow some fighting practice, after all, she will not always have time
for her magic."
"I hate to interject
but…," said another member of the group who had been silent up to
now. Unlike the others he was dressed
in form fitting, padded, clothing and had a battle hardened and scarred
face. He was the garrison commander for
the castle and had primary responsibility for the safety of the mages when they
were in residence.
"What's that Daithi,"
asked Frankel.
"Well, it's just that if we
are talking about cross-training and other things, we had better use our time
wisely," Daithi replied.
"Why," replied Grael.
"My sources have begun to report
that the opposition is gathering strength and may be poised for a major strike
at the capital."
"We will discuss this further
tomorrow, Daithi," replied Amana, "however, if we want to be able to
get anything done in the morning, we have to get some sleep in what is left of
the night." And with that, she
said her goodnights and headed off to her suite.
Other members of the group also
decided to turn in, and finishing off their various beverages they headed to
their respective. All except the commander,
who remained behind to have another mug of ale.
"Time," he thought,
"how much time do we have before evil falls over the land for good?"
--------------------------------------
In a different location, hundreds
of kilometres from the activities going on in the castle was another
stronghold. Unlike Castle Maldor the
buildings were shrouded in darkness for no lights were visible from any of the
few openings that pierced the thick stonewalls. Inside it was dark and unpleasant the temperature matching the
sub-zero outside air. Several different
beings inhabited the building and none were overtly friendly to humankind.
Suddenly the atmosphere was
punctured by a blood-curdling scream.
"What in the name of the Chaos
Gods do you mean you don't know?"
Striding down a corridor was an
immense figure, with blood red skin, yellow eyes and sporting three horns. It turned towards another being, which was
practically running to keep up, and continued. "I told you to find out
what those blighted mages were up to.
You know that my ability to see inside of that damned castle is very
inadequate at the best of times and now that all of them are in residence it is
totally impossible."
"I know master," the
other creature replied. This one
appeared to be a human male of middle age,
"but nothing I've done is generating answers."
“I don't care who or what you have
to maim, torture, kidnap or kill - but find me the answers, and find them
fast," the master said punctuating its statements with pointed jabs from
its claw tipped fingers, "or else
I'll be using your entrails to do my divining." With that, the demon turned and left the corridor through a
nearby door.
The humanoid shivered to his bones
thinking to himself, "I've got to get some answers, or get out of here."
Turing around he spotted a small,
green frog like figure and yelled out, "Kratel, get your webbed feet over
here now!"
"Yes, master," the small
imp like creature replied.
"You heard our terrible
master. I need answers, but fast,"
the humanoid continued as he and the imp returned back down the passageway,
"put together a raiding party, five or so in addition to yourself, and get
into that accursed castle and get me a couple of victims so that I can torture
some answers out of them."
"We will depart at once
master," answered the imp.
----------------------------------
Buffy woke the next morning at her
usual time of just before dawn thinking to herself, "damn, not even in the
same reality and my slayer senses still get me up at dawn." She realized that she was entangled with
Willow with their arms and legs intertwined.
Feeling a warm spot above Willow's head she thought, "well,
Shadow-Cat must be off looking for her breakfast, I guess I had better get my
day going," moving slowly and
carefully so not to wake her lover she got out of bed, only to realize that
other than her ritual robe and some blankets, she still did not have anything
to wear. It was cold in the room, but
not freezing, obviously someone had been in to re-build the fires.
"Oh, well," the slayer
thought, "it's not as if Willow hasn't seen me naked before, and I
certainly don't want to wear my robe to do my exercises."
Buffy went into the sitting room
and spotted an agitated cat reaching up and scratching at the door.
"You want out, don't you
girl,” Buffy asked as she opened the door.
Shadow-Cat meowed back to the slayer and bolted out of the room. "We are going to have to arrange for a
cat-door and other kitty things if we are here much longer," thought
Buffy.
After quickly creating a free space
in the room, by moving carpets away from the floor, and pushing some of the
furniture towards the walls, Buffy began her morning routine. She spent a dozen minutes doing careful warm-up
exercises and then spent about twenty minutes stretching out her muscles. Once she had warmed-up properly, and having
done the required stretching, she moved into the serious portion of her morning
workout. Buffy, having had no formal,
early, slayer training did not use the council's particular workout routine,
rather she used a combination of Aikido and Karate katas which she and Giles
had augmented to suit her particular requirements. After twenty minutes or so she was beginning to feel relaxed and
the sweat was beginning to run off of her body. Earlier, while doing her warm-up, Buffy had noticed an old broom
by the door, which she had used for several of her stretching routines. She now broke off a four-foot section of it
while thinking, "this will do until I find a replacement." With that thought she then launched into a
series of Kendo exercises concentrating on her thrusting attacks and her
defensive speed.
Buffy was being watched. Willow had woken up shortly after Buffy had
started her katas and was enjoying watching the slightly erotic display of a
nude slayer exercising which was being put on for her benefit, even though
un-knowingly. In fact, she was
beginning to become just a wee bit aroused by the display.
Willow was familiar with Buffy's
routine, having watched it several times, albeit with a fully clothed
slayer. Just as Buffy was finishing up
the last of her kendo routines she said, "meow, that looks yummy."
"What," exclaimed the
startled Slayer, "Will, I thought you were still asleep. Just how long have you been watching
me?"
"Oh, about thirty minutes or
so," Willow said smiling, "I would never dream of disturbing you at
your exercise," she continued with an impish grin.
"And may I assume that
you received no, vicarious, pleasure from watching my activities," Buffy
asked as she grabbed a towel and headed back into the bedroom.
"Who, me," answered
Willow, trying her best to look innocent.
"Up now, slouch," Buffy
said as she proceeded to pull the blankets off the protesting occupant.
"No, too cold, you come back to
bed," protested the redhead.
"Nope, sloth-girl," Buffy
answered, as she continued her assault on the blankets, "time to rise,
shine and bathe. If you are lucky and
ask nice, I just might let you wash my back though," she said as she left
the room heading for the bath.
"Oh, goody, may I
please," said Willow, as she jumped out of bed, "oh, cold, goosy
bumpies," she yelped, as she quickly ran to grab some of the blankets from
the night before.
"Morning love," the
hacker said as she moved into the bathroom and hugged the slayer from behind as
she was in the process of gathering the soap and shampoo for their bath.
"Sleep well," she asked
as she tuned Buffy around so that she would be able to snag her good-morning
kiss.
"Yep, how about you," the
Slayer replied returning, with vigour, the kiss.
"Not bad, weird dreams,
though," Willow replied testing the water, "oh, goody-goody,
hot," and proceeded to jump into the bath.
"What do you mean weird,"
asked a suddenly concerned slayer, as she to entered the water.
"Well, just strange images,
and vague uneasy feelings, like I've experienced this reality before or
something," Willow answered as she began to get to work with soap,
"turn around Buff, you promised me back."
Buffy complied with the mock order
from Willow saying, "well I didn't exactly promise, but you have been
good."
"How good," bantered the
redhead.
"Very," replied Buffy,
"by the way," the blond continued, "you know that what you did
last night was nuts, right?"
Willow said nothing as she continued
to wash Buffy's back.
"I mean, off you go - dragging
me and a cat with you, into an unknown portal in the middle of a ritual,
answering no questions."
"Hey, I didn't mean to bring
the cat," Willow responded, "and, I had no real choice Buffy, I'm supposed
to help those who ask. I'm almost
compelled to go."
"Okay, its all water under the
bridge anyway," the slayer replied, "I just hope that these folks can
get us home."
"Oh, I think so," Willow
replied, "besides, I'm dieing to see what Giles's reaction was."
"Well, I can guarantee,
whatever his reaction, he wasn't speechless," answered Buffy.
The two women spent the next few
minutes washing themselves, and each other.
Things were just beginning to heat up from their activities when they
heard a knocking at the door.
"Damn," Willow said
extracting her hands from several of Buffy's sensitive spots, "just when
things were starting to get interesting."
"Come-in," she yelled to
the door giving Buffy a quick kiss as she left the tub and grabbed a towel.
She turned to her lover and said,
"we will definitely finish this later."
Willow went into the sitting room
to great Amana and two other women who had arrived with several items. Principle amongst them was several items of
clothing.
"I hope you slept well,"
asked the mage, "and I trust you
are rested and are ready for what looks to be a very busy day," she
continued as she and the other ladies laid out the several items of clothing.
"We have brought several items
of clothing for you," she said, pointing out the robes, dresses and other
apparel, "we have also brought under-clothing and other toiletries for the
two of you."
"Thank-you," replied
Willow as she proceeded to look over the various items of underwear and finding
that all of the items were in their sizes.
"I think however, that Buffy
is going to need clothing that isn't a dress," she continued not seeing
anything resembling pants in the pile.
"We know," replied Amana,
"however, since I understand that Buffy will need to be fitted for armour,
albeit leather armour, she can wear the clothes that we have brought here in
the meantime."
"These will be fine,"
said the Slayer as she emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around
her body, "just so long as the clothes are warm, I'll be happy," she
continued joining Willow in choosing appropriate underwear and other garments.
"Wait," Amana said, as
the two travellers were starting to dress, by dropping their towels, figuring
that modesty was definitely going to lose out to warmth, "I have brought
Aiofe and Bridie along to be your assistants." Amana said as she pointed out the two other women. Aiofe was tall and dark-haired, while her
companion was a little shorter than Willow.
Both women had pale complexions and deep jade-green eyes.
"But, we don't need help to
dress," Willow complained, "after all we have been doing it ourselves
since we were small."
"It's not that you need help
dear," explained Amana, "its just that two persons as powerful as you
and Buffy are required to have assistance as part of your station in our
society. Others you will come in
contact with will not give you the respect that you deserve if you do not have
the symbols of your rank and position."
"Oh," exclaimed Buffy as
Bridie began to help her to dress, with Aiofe performing the same task for
Willow, "will they cut our food and help us to eat also?"
"No, that they won't do,"
replied Amana with a smile in her eyes, "however, they will serve your
food and keep your suite tidy."
"That will help," replied
Willow as she tried to come to grips with the situation.
Within minutes, the two women were
dressed and were heading out of their suite.
Amana led them down two fights of stairs to a large room, which was
obviously a dining hall. Like the other
rooms in the castle it had thick stonewalls.
Several heavy oak beams spanned the hall, forming the support structure
for the roof. The floors were thick
pegged oak boards, and there were a number of chandeliers hanging from the
ceiling.
"This is where we will break
our fast," she said leading them to three chairs, "after we have
eaten we will retire back to the study and continue our conversation of last
night."
The serving girls with several
platters of fresh fruit, breads, cheeses, yoghurts and beverages, quickly
filled the table in front of them. The
three women quickly fell to eating.
----------------------------------
Later they returned to the study
area, which had already begun to fill with the other mages. The women took the same places that they had
the night before. After allowing everyone time to greet each other, Grael stood
up to continue the discussions from the previous night.
"I trust that you will want to
know what we have planned," he said starting the conversation, "we
have gone ahead and made some preliminary plans, which we will discuss with
you, however, I would prefer to continue discussing our present situation
first."
"That sounds ok to me,"
replied Willow, "I do have a number of questions."
"Well, ask away."
"Okay, first, why is it so
cold, second, why do you speak English, and third what gives with the weird
technology level," Willow continued. "I mean you have plumbing, some heating
and very fine textile weaving, but no electricity or mechanical devices."
"The answers to your questions
are all related to the same cause, and will sum up the background left out last
night," answered Grael, "it has to do with the differences between
your world and ours, and the impact that the flood of demons has had on our
world."
Frankel then took up the
conversation, "we have studied, as best we could, your world. It would appear that for the most part our
world followed yours in societal and scientific development up until about two
hundred years ago. For example, we had
the same Judeo-Christian influence, the Middle Ages, the reformation and the
beginnings of the industrialized era.
We also experienced the same waves of exploration."
"What happened then,"
asked Buffy.
"Two things," answered
the sage, "first, we entered into a mini-ice age due to a series of
massive volcanic eruptions, and second we began to experience the increased
demon activity. We are still not
entirely convinced that the two events are not related, since the demons do
appear to love the results of the cold," he continued, as he once again
got up from the table and began to pace around the room.
"Both of these events had an
immediate retardation effect on our scientific progress, in addition to massive
bouts of war, famine and social upheaval.
As a result we are approximately a century and a half behind your
world," he concluded, staring out of a window.
"Well, that does answer my
questions," replied Willow, "I do have one other before you go on
with your agenda."
"What's that," asked
Amana.
"Why is magic apparently more
advanced here," said the redhead.
"In part due to the upheavals
we talked about," answered Amana, "we have been required to develop
other methods to deal with our problems and with the demon plagues, however, we
have now come to the end of our resources."
"Hence our need for you,"
concluded Grael.
"Okay, then," said the
Slayer, "what are your plans for us then?"
"Right, down to
business," replied Grael.
"First, we would like for both
of you to be fully assessed in your magical talents," continued Amana,
"then, we are going to arrange for you to be outfitted and appraised in
your fighting skills Buffy."
"We would then like to take some
time to have additional talks with the two of you on slayers and slaying,"
interjected Frankel, continuing his personal agenda.
"That will probably take most
of today," added Grael, "then, over the next few days we will start
to train the two of you."
"Heavy workload,"
commented Buffy.
"At least it will keep us
busy," replied Willow, "in fact, sounds like fun."
"We will also be training you
in several Martial arts Willow so that you will be able to protect yourself
when you don't have time for magic," added Amana.
"Oh, boy," exclaimed
Buffy, "sweaty witch-girl, I love it."
"Alright then," said
Grael, "lets get down to work."
At that moment, Buffy felt a
familiar unpleasant cramping in her loins.
She turned to Willow saying, "Will, watch-out, my spidey sense is
tingling!"
Suddenly the door to the study area
burst open and six demons burst in, with the leader, a green imp like creature
yelling, "Ok - scum, now we are going to get some answers!”