Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior)
By Kevin Beckett
Chapter IV - Amor Omnia Vincit
(Love Conquers All)
"An grá a théid fán chroí ní scaoiltear as é go
bráth"
"When
love enters the heart it will never be driven from it"
(Old
Irish folk song)
|
T |
he dark skinned man scowled as he walked
down the halls of Castle Maldor. It had taken him the better part of six months
to work his way into a position of trust in the castle community, so that he
could finally deliver top quality information back to his dreaded master. Now, however, that master seemed willing to
squander all of his efforts to date to get details on something the silly mages
were doing. It was not that he
disparaged magic or the practice of it, but that he disagreed with all the rules
and ethics that the mage's council put on humans who fell under their
control. His view on magic was simple,
do whatever works and damn the consequences.
This attitude was part of the reason that he was now working for the
demon master; however, he possessed enough sense of self-preservation to figure
out that this time his master may have gone too far.
He thought, "he's willing to risk
getting me killed for some information that no-one is going to use." It
was his opinion that there was nothing the mages could do in time to stop the
coming holocaust, the demons and their human servants would soon be overrunning
this world, one more step in their goal of total conquest. He had, however, long ago given up letting
what he thought govern his actions, he was bound to the demon and was compelled
to obey. He would get the information
that was sought, or he would die, it was that simple. He continued walking down towards the mage's wing of the castle
complex thinking, "I wonder whom I can co-opt in the employ of the
mages."
He had had some success building on the
petty gripes and imagined grievances harboured in some of the servants which
had resulted in an extensive network of spies and other information gatherers
who feed him information on most aspects of life inside the castle. However, up till this point he had been
unsuccessful in compromising any of the servants who worked in the mage's
wing. "Maybe I can slip something
into the food and when they are drugged search some rooms for clues, or answers,"
he stopped, and thought, "no, the mages will be certain to check all of
their food, but," he paused for a moment, "maybe I can drug one of
the servant's food and get some answers out of them." With that thought in mind, he abruptly
changed direction and headed off towards his own quarters.
------------------------------------------
Elsewhere in the castle complex, up in
the mage's wing, morning activities proceeded in a normal manner. In one suite, two women were entwined
together in bed, naked under a pile of blankets and comforters.
Buffy awoke, as usual, just as dawn was
breaking on the horizon. Looking at her
friend and lover burrowed in her arms she noted, not for the first time, how
Willow's soft breathing trembled the fine hairs on her face, and how her chest
rose and fell, both with her breathing and with the beating of her heart.
Buffy decided to stay in bed, warm and
comfortable in her lover's arms, for just a little while longer. She knew that before long their servants
Aiofe and Bridie would be coming by to get the day underway.
The last ten days or so had followed a
predictable pattern. First Buffy would
awaken shortly before dawn and then she would sweet-talk Willow into getting
out of bed. The two of them would then
proceed to exercise and bathe before breakfast. They spent the morning with Amana and Grael learning and
perfecting their magic and other aspects with respect to the 'mental'
arts. The afternoons had been spent in
the practice halls with Daithi and the other guardsmen. In the 'martial' arts Buffy was without
peer, and she had been spending her time teaching both Willow and the other
guardsmen specific tips and tricks in dealing with demons. Willow had been spending most of her
evenings closeted once again with the mages learning advanced spells, while
Buffy was in conversation with Frankel, discussing slayers, slaying and other
aspects of her life's work. In fact,
the days had been so filled with various activities that neither Buffy or
Willow missed home all that much, certain that Giles and the other's would keep
everything balanced, and their absence explained, until their return.
Buffy figured that their return was not
that far off. It was not in what anyone
had said, but rather in what had not been said. It was also apparent that both Grael and Daithi were on a very
tight schedule and that the nexus of the problem was fast approaching.
Buffy turned her thoughts towards Willow;
she could tell that her lover was dreaming, since her eyes were moving rapidly under
their lids. Suddenly Willow awoke and
breathlessly sat up in bed.
"Willow," asked the Slayer as
she wrapped her shivering lover in a strong hug, "what's wrong?"
"Bad dream."
"I can tell that," the Slayer
replied semi-sarcastically, "what were you dreaming about?"
Willow paused a moment, as she had been
taught, to collect her thoughts before answering, "indistinct
images," she said a moment later, "dark, twisted images, with an
overlay of betrayal," she added.
Willow was trying to be as precise as she could in her descriptions,
since Amana had told her that for a mage dreams were both powerful and
prophetic. She had been assured that
with additional practice and interpretation her dreams would become less confusing
and more beneficial.
"Strange, I wonder what it could
mean," the slayer replied, "however, that is the clearest dream that
you have remembered yet."
"I'm sure that Grael will be able to
help me with it later," Willow added, "Amana told me that he has a
real gift with this type of dream."
Buffy got out of bed, wincing at the
cold. She was still not used to the
frigid temperatures that were the norm in this reality. She went into the front room of their suite
and raked up the fire calling out to Willow, "Will, now that you are up,
let's get going on our exercises."
"Aw, do we have to," complained
Willow, "after all, we exercised yesterday."
"And the day before, "replied
Buffy, "and today and tomorrow."
"Yes, mommy," replied Willow as
she got out of bed, "if you insist."
In truth, Willow had begun to look forward to the daily exercise
session, for one reason that it was with her lover and for another that she was
beginning to see results. In addition,
she had other, personal reasons to get the day underway, Grael had promised
something special in her lessons later in the morning if everything progressed
as rapidly as it had been for the last few days.
Willow quickly joined Buffy in performing
their exercise routine. Both women
exercised naked, primarily due to a lack of appropriate clothing, but also
because both thoroughly enjoyed the sight of the other in their birthday
suit. Before long they were both
covered with sweat and moving into the final part of the morning workout, at
this point Willow finished up, since there was no way that she could keep up
with the slayer in her kendo routine.
"You are so graceful," she
commented as she sat by the fire watching as Buffy finished her practice,
"I get excited by just watching you move."
"How excited?" the other asked.
"This excited," Willow replied,
as she leaped on the Slayer. Buffy,
allowed herself to be carried to the floor and pinned with her arms above her
head, as the other woman began to softly kiss and lick her between her breasts.
"Mmm," the Arch-Mage said,
"salty, I like salty." Willow
began to slowly kiss the underside of Buffy's breasts, gradually making her way
up towards the other woman's nipples, which had hardened perceptibly at the
attention being paid to the Slayer.
Still holding on to Buffy's arms with one of her hands Willow brought
the other one down and began to stimulate one of Buffy's breasts and its nipple
while she simultaneously began to suck and nibble on the nipple of the other.
Buffy's was beginning to breath more
rapidly, as the attention being paid to her was starting to turn her insides to
jelly. She started to work her hands
free so that she could reciprocate the attention being paid to her.
"Don't," Willow said softly,
"I want to you to relax and go with the flow," continued Willow, as
she began to move down the other woman's body softly kissing, licking and
stroking the sweat-covered skin.
Reaching Buffy's belly button Willow softly blew into it and licked the
sweat out of it.
Buffy giggled and said, "stop that,
witch, that is a very ticklish spot."
"I know," Willow replied, as
she moved even further down the Slayer's body.
She noticed that the hair on Buffy's
pubic mound was matted and damp with sweat.
She delicately ran her fingers though the hair teasing it and gently
pulling on a few of the soft, blond hairs.
She then began to lick the cleft between the slayer's legs, drinking in
the dark musty taste caused by Buffy's sexual excitement and the exercise that
she had done. Swirling her tongue
around Buffy's clitoris she smoothly inserted a finger deep inside of her
lover, pleased with the body-arching groan that emanated from her. Willow continued her dual ministrations on
the other woman for several minutes, driving Buffy to a near peak. Willow slowed down her activities to allow
her lover to calm down, just a little bit, and when she judged that she could
continue without driving Buffy over the edge she swiftly inserted a second and
then a third finger into the other woman who was now rocking back and forth on
the floor in pleasure.
"Please, please," Buffy
whimpered, "please let me finish."
"Patience, my dear," said
Willow, as she carefully inserted a fourth and then finally her fifth finger
into her lover.
"No, no," babbled Buffy,
"no, please," she continued as she realized what Willow was about to
do.
"Shush, love," replied Willow,
"I'll be gentle," as she formed a fist inside of Buffy and began to
rhythmically move her arm back and forth; she moved her head back up her
lover's body and swiftly sucked in a nipple for special, oral, attention.
After a few minutes of that, special
attention, Buffy exploded into a body shaking orgasm screaming "oh my
Goddess, yes."
"Goddess, Willow," she
exclaimed a few minutes later, when she was certain that one, she would
continue to breath and two, that she could form a coherent sentence, "you
sure know how to crank me up."
"Happy Valentine's Day,"
replied Willow, "I couldn't find you a card, so I had to improvise."
"Is it the 14th?"
Buffy asked, "I've lost total track of time, not to mention that I don't
have a gift for you."
"Yep, it's the fourteenth,"
Willow replied, as she kissed Buffy on the forehead, and stood up, "and
I'm sure that you will think of something before the day is out."
At that point, there was a discrete knock
on the door, followed by the entrance of Aiofe and Bridie. "Morning,
ladies," Aiofe said smiling as she entered the room, "its time to get
the day moving, although I think that the two of you have been moving pretty
good so far."
"We were aware of your activities
from the sounds we heard outside," continued Bridie, "so we decided
to wait a few minutes."
Willow and Buffy blushed from the roots
of their hair to the tips of their toes, "I was that loud," asked
Buffy.
"Yes, you were," replied Aiofe,
"don't worry, however, we have no stigmas or prejudices based on sexual
orientation in our society."
"In fact, it's been pretty obvious
which way you two leaned," continued Bridie, "given the constant,
non-verbal communication that goes on between the two of you."
"Oh," replied the redhead, as
she turned to help Buffy stand up.
"I guess we are definitely out of the closet then, what with my
little gift to you, eh Buff. Will I get
some type of reward?"
Buffy stood up on wobbly legs, and
holding Willow's hand as they headed off to their bath, thought, "oh yeah,
I'll definitely think of something as a 'reward' for you later."
------------------------------------------
Later that morning both Buffy and Willow
were deep in their studies with the two mages Amana and Grael. Willow was working with Grael on specific
applications in regards to earth and self-magics and Buffy was working with
Amana on tying her newfound skill with air magics to her prodigious innate
skills in self-magic.
"That's right Buffy," Amana
said softly as she watched the intense concentration that the other woman was
displaying, "keep control over your emotions and focus on the energy that
is surrounding you."
"Now you have it," she added a
few moments later as in the air in front of the slayer an opaque shape formed,
approximately one meter wide and two meters high. It appeared to have little, or no, depth.
"Congratulations, Buffy," the
mage said, "this is the best example of a wall shield that you've done so
far."
Buffy was elated at both her achievement
and the praise that had been given to her.
She had accomplished what only two weeks earlier she would have said was
impossible, she had cast a spell, and a powerful one at that. The shield that she had created would block
all blunt force attacks, up to and including a bullet.
"Now," the mage said,
"let's move on to the next step in the spell sequence."
Buffy collapsed the shield and paused for
a moment to collect her energy.
"Ok," Amana said after allowing
Buffy to collect herself for a few minutes, "let's go over the steps one
more time, to make sure that you have it all."
Buffy rested for a second and then
started to list the steps, "first I create the shield, and then I make it non-fixed. Finally I will try to make it key into my
body's energy so that it can indicate to me when someone or something tries to
penetrate it."
"That's it," replied Amana,
"remember to stop briefly between each step, and allow your body to regain
energy. Once you have successfully
completed all three steps, I will teach you how to release the spell and have
it draw energy from its surroundings and not from you."
Buffy paused for a moment and then began
to focus the energy within her on the spell she was about to cast. Shortly there was once again a shield
floating in the air in front of her.
"One down," she said softly and, taking a deep breath began
the second part of the spell. Thinking
of the energy that was drawn from her to form the shield she unfocused her
minds eye and saw the ties that the spell had to the surrounding world. She then carefully detached each of the ties
so that only the link between her and the spell was still active. Buffy demonstrated this by having the spell
shield move around her, keeping it within two meters of her.
"Good, good," Amana said softly
as she watched the other woman concentrate on her task, "now make the link
between you and the shield two-way."
Buffy took in another deep breath, and
focused her attention on the actual psychic link, which linked her to the
spell. She could sense that there was
an energy flow, and that it was one way, from her to the spell. Using some of the biofeedback techniques she
had been taught earlier in the week, she reversed part of the energy that was
feeding the spell so that it came back to her.
"Excellent," the other mage
replied, "now let me test the completed spell." Amana then proceeded to pick up a knife and
attempted to strike Buffy through the shield, as expected the shield blocked
her attack, however, Buffy did feel a certain amount of excruciating pain.
"Ow," exclaimed the slayer,
"that hurt!" With that
exclamation, the shield dissipated.
"It's too be expected dear,"
replied Amana, "you will have to adjust the amount of feedback so that you
feel the attack, but not the pain."
Amana walked back over to the workbench
and picked up a pair of tongs, "now try again and adjust the amount of
feedback so that you will not react to the attack as you did, and cause the
spell to be cancelled.
Once again, Buffy went through the steps
to create the spell shield, this time she was careful to limit the amount of
feedback. She also noticed that she was
performing the spell faster.
"Amana," she said, "I'm
doing this faster."
"Yep," the other woman replied,
"in fact, the more you practice this spell the faster you will be. Eventually it will be nearly instantaneous,
you will think of the spell and it will come into place, when you are at that
level we will tie the spell to a power-word in your mind so that you'll be able
to cast it by just calling out the word and it will come into place." At
that she suddenly swing at the shield with the tongs, hoping to catch Buffy
off-guard, once again the spell deflected the attack, this time, however, the
feedback to Buffy was much less, and she did not react in pain.
"Better," Amana said,
"this time you felt the attack, but it wasn't enough for you to lose
concentration and have it dispel."
"It felt like a soft pressure,"
replied Buffy.
"Excellent," continued Amana,
"now lets work on some of the finer details before lunch; tomorrow, we
will work on making the spell independent."
"How will I use it?" asked
Buffy, excited about the progress that she had made, and now confidant that she
could begin to call herself a mage.
"Primarily as an adjunct to your
fighting," replied the other mage, "for example, you could have the
shield protect you from behind as you engaged foes in front of you."
"Cool," replied Buffy, thinking
that it was great to have a way to combine both of her skills together.
Elsewhere in the workroom, Grael and
Willow were working on a different set of skills. Willow was trying to attune herself to the energies of the earth
and the creatures on it. It would be a
useful skill so that she could monitor demons and other animals. She had progressed to the point where she
was able to sense creatures and perform some rudimentary tracking of them when
she felt a familiar rubbing against her leg.
"Shadow-cat," she exclaimed,
"here you are, I haven't seen you in days," she continued as she
reached down to pick-up her feline and sat down by the fireplace to stroke and
fuss over her.
"This gives me an idea,"
commented Grael as he observed the interaction between Willow and her cat, "and
I think that you are ready for this type of work, as I mentioned last
night."
"What's that?" asked Willow
looking up at her teacher.
"Its just that I think that you are
ready to try to attach to a familiar," replied Grael. "Seeing you with your cat there has
reinforced the idea in my mind."
"What do you mean?" Said
Willow, thinking that sometimes Grael could be incredibly leisurely with the
details.
"For mages of your skill level there
is the possibility of training a domestic animal to become your familiar,"
replied Grael, "and I think that you and shadow-cat there would make a
perfect pairing."
"Familiar?" asked Willow.
"Familiar," replied the other
mage, "an animal whom you impart part of your essence, and from whom you
take an equal amount. When done
properly you will be able to use Shadow-cat's senses, and link with her to see
what she sees, and sense what she senses, when you are not with her."
"Cool," said the redhead,
"what do we have to do?"
"The spell involves both a mental component,
and a physical one," replied Grael.
"Ok, what do we do first?"
"First we will need a little blood
from both you and your cat," replied the mage, "then we will mix it,
and complete the spell with the mental component."
Over the next hour both mages worked
carefully to achieve success in the casting of the spell. They carefully prepared their ingredients,
and gently extracted a small quantity of blood from both Shadow-cat and from
Willow. The cat sensed that something
important was going on a bore up with the various indignities that were
performed on her. Finally, Grael
indicated that they were ready to cast the spell.
Willow took up the various components of
the spell, and concentrating on the cat that had taken up residence on one of
the workbenches, gathered up her power.
She then focused on the essence that designated her pet and herself.
Then, using the force of her will, forced a potion of the essences to combine. She immediately experienced a mind-expanding
awareness of the world around her, and she knew that she was seeing through
Shadow-cat's eyes, there was incredible depth perception in what she was seeing
and a total lack of colour, she could also see herself, and with her normal
sight could see Shadow-cat. The
experience was quite unnerving and as soon as she realised what had happened,
the spell collapsed.
"That," Willow stopped for a
moment to collect her thoughts, "that was quite an experience."
"Strange, and frightening, was
it," asked Grael.
"Yes," replied the redhead,
"however, I'm pleased that it succeeded at all."
"I told you that you were capable of
completing the spell," answered Grael who was very pleased with the
results of the spell, "with practice you will be able to both maintain
your focus with Shadow-cat as well as pick up some of what she is perceiving
with her other senses."
"Now," he continued, "lets
sit down by the fire, grab a drink, since you are certain to have a headache,
and we can discuss some of the finer points of the spell."
Willow and her teacher proceeded to spend
the rest of the morning deep in conversation on the various aspects of working
with a familiar and what the limitations were.
Willow learned that if she died that Shadow-cat would also die, that for
the first few weeks the interaction would be very limited, however, she would
eventually be able to virtually take over shadow-cat and direct her to places
that Willow and not the cat wanted.
Eventually Buffy and Amana had to come over to pry Willow away and send
the younger women off to dinner with Bridie and Aiofe who had arrived several
minutes earlier to announce that it was time for the meal.
After the foursome had left to dine,
Amana sat in the spot recently occupied by Willow.
"Very productive morning," she
said after a few moments, "I'm especially pleased that Willow was able to
successfully cast the familiar spell."
"So was I," replied the other
mage, "and on her first attempt to do the spell."
"Impressive," Amana said,
"most mages take four or five attempts to do the spell."
"She's is definitely not most
mages," answered Grael, "I am beginning to think that soon she will
be beyond my skill to teach her anything."
"Time to accelerate and intensify
the training then," said Amana, "come, dear, we will discuss this
over dinner."
At that the two older mages headed out to
their own dinner, deep in conversation.
------------------------------------------
Later on that afternoon Willow and Buffy
were in the training halls working on group tactics with Daithi and the
guardsmen. The training halls were a
series of practice arenas, classrooms, barracks and armouries, which
encompassed the entire back third of the castle complex. The women were currently in the largest of
the practice arenas; it was a three-story chamber approximately thirty meters
by sixty. The floor was a combination
of wood, stone and sand - since there was very few windows set into the scared
walls, lighting was provided by several huge lanterns hanging from the vaulted
ceiling and eight fireplaces, each large enough to roast a small cow.
Willow had trained very hard and
diligently over the last ten days, she had swiftly picked up the fundamentals
of hand-to-hand combat and with concentrated one-on-one training had gained
self-confidence in her talents. What
the two women were now working on was cooperative manoeuvres, in a simulated
town environment complete with houses, shops and other forms of defensive and
offensive cover. The two women were
working for the most part back-to-back in order that Buffy could concentrate on
the fight without having to spend too much attention on Willow.
Willow was using her enhanced perception
to keep aware of dangers and then to communicate them to Buffy. Buffy was also trying to use her new spell
in a defensive effort while keeping up with her attacks. Shadow-cat was also involved; she was
keeping to the edge of the practice arena, every so often Willow would link
with her to gain additional skill and confidence in working with her familiar.
Unknown to the various people in the
training hall their activities were being monitored by someone who was not at
all in favour of the activities going on.
The suspicious dark man, who had been stalking the halls earlier that
day, was watching from an upstairs gallery the workout taking place below. He had successfully drugged one of the
cooks that morning and had been finally able to obtain some information on what
had been going on in the mage's wing for the last couple of weeks. He had been stunned by the information, not
only was his master correct about the potential for harm to their campaign, but
the two world travellers working out in the arena below were potentially the
greatest threat that he had yet faced.
He had decided to take matters into his own hands; he had therefore ordered
one of his spies to arrange an 'accident' for the two women in their practice
today. Hopefully the accident would
give him and his master the time to complete their plans for this world. He was staying up out of the way, to observe
the results, and to be in a position to make a quick getaway if things turned
out to be unpleasant for him.
Willow was really getting into the
practice this afternoon, she was working well with Buffy and it appeared that
she was always anticipating which direction they would be moving in. Buffy was also in high spirits, first
because her lover was really in the grove, and was providing not only excellent
intelligence but also backup - they were simulating Willow's spells on the
guardsmen. Buffy also felt that today she
was reacting almost instantly to Willow's warnings, in some cases it seemed
like she was reacting as Willow spoke.
Buffy's use of her spell shield was also improving with practice, it was
still not instantaneous, and it still had a tendency to collapse at inopportune
moments. Buffy, however, had used it
successfully on occasion to block one quadrant of potential attacks, and that
combined with Willow watching her back resulted in only two avenues to defend,
all in all a major improvement, with the potential of survivability in future
battles greatly increased.
Willow was at that moment trying once
again to use her link with Shadow-cat.
So far that afternoon it had proven useful, on occasion, to have a
different perspective on the battle. It
had given her some additional time to warn her partner, and had allowed her to
see beyond the immediate area and into areas of cover, which were not visible
to the two women.
<Grey, sharp, empty of humans,>
Willow saw with eyes other than her own.
"I'm going to have to get used to
this," Willow thought as she looked around with two sets of eyes, one, her
own, on the area immediately in front of her, and the other, Shadow-cat's, at a
location near the back of the training areas. "It's either that, or go
crazy," she mumbled to herself.
<Human, fear smell, there, - small
human, not guardsman, servant> Willow saw and smelled, someone enter the
training area from the rear of the complex, he was not familiar, not that she
new everyone, far from it, but that he was not dressed like a guardsman, in
fact he was dressed like a cook, complete with an apron and a rather large
knife.
"Hugh," asked Grael as he
entered the gallery above the training hall, "what are you doing
here?"
Grael had decided to come by and watch the
two world travellers in their workout, to try and get a sense of how they were
proceeding in a non-magical area. He
was not happy to see Hugh d'Troville also apparently watching the activities of
the two women. He still did not fully
trust the man, even though Daithi had vetted him and even though he had worked
without incident in the Castellan's office for the last six months or so. Grael
had been keeping the existence of Willow and Buffy away from most of the castle
community, having Hugh here could only mean that word had leaked out.
"Good afternoon Sir," replied
Hugh as he gave a curt bow, inwardly seething at having been found watching
what was supposed to be a closely guarded activity, "I was just
supervising some inventories in this area when I heard the noise and came by to
investigate."
"Hmm," thought Grael, "I
wonder if that is completely the truth."
"Well, what do you think of what you
have seen," he asked the smaller man.
"Impressive," the other
replied, "they are certainly very competent in practice," he added
after a moments pause.
At that moment there was a piercing
scream from the arena. Both men turned
back to the gallery balcony to look at what was going on below.
A few moments before...
<Human, knife, fear smell, what is it
going to do to my human, fear, hurt human>
Willow had sensed that this unknown
person who had been sneaking around in the back of the training area was not
pleased to be there, and in fact was rather afraid to be there. However, at that moment she was rather
preoccupied with six of the guardsmen trying a simultaneous attack on Buffy and
her. So she had not warned Buffy of
this stranger, figuring that he was just trying to grab an illicit look at what
was going on.
<KNIFE, throw knife>
"What," Willow screamed as she
finally sorted out all of the images coming from Shadow-cat,
"Buffy!!!!" she yelled, as she threw herself in front of the knife
that had been thrown by the mysterious cook, who at that moment was also
screaming, this time in pain, from the scratching and biting that was being
inflicted on him by an enraged feline.
"Willow!!!!" screamed Buffy as
she turned from the battle to see her soul mate laying on the floor with a
thirty centimetre cooks knife protruding from her chest and with her lifeblood pooling
on the floor beneath her.
Buffy quickly bent down beside Willow and
applied pressure on the wound.
"Someone, do something," she yelled to the group of people who
were quickly forming a circle around the pair on the floor.
"Buffy," replied Daithi softly,
"Buffy, she's gone, there is nothing we can do, the knife entered her
chest right near the heart."
"She can't go," pleaded the
slayer, "she is everything to me."
Willow was not yet dead, she was however,
very close to it, "Buffy," she whispered, "Buffy are you
there?"
"Yes love, I'm here," she
replied, "don't struggle, I'll get some help."
"There's no time for me," the
redhead replied weakly, "I'm going to the Goddess, but know that I have
always loved you...," she fell silent as she lapsed into unconsciousness.
"No," exclaimed the determined
slayer, "no, I will not accept this." Buffy looked with her second eyes and immediately dove into the
energies that surrounded everything and everyone. "Those medalling mages are always saying that Will and I are
soul-mates and that we are tied together,” she said to herself, “lets just see
how tied we are," as she used her recently found talent to perceive the
magical energies, and the links between them to search out and find the ties
that bound her to Willow.
"Where are they," she muttered
to herself as she totally detached from reality and plunged into her task. She quickly found that there were several
ties to Willow and that they were going dim as the life force was sucked from
her. However, there was one tie that
was both large and complex, which Buffy could tell, intuitively, was the one
that tied the two of them together.
"I have no idea what I'm
doing," she thought to herself, "but this is either going to cure
her, or kill us both."
Buffy then used some of the biofeedback
tools that she had been using with her spell shield and combined it with the
depth of her love for the other woman and used the link to pour life sustaining
energy into Willow. At the same time,
she tried to extend her own ability to self-heal to what she was doing for
Willow. She expanded her awareness and,
without knowing how she did it, looked deep inside of her lover. She was able to tell that the knife had not
penetrated the heart, however, it had nicked one of the major arteries. Buffy pulled the knife out of Willow's chest
and tried to apply her healing abilities directly on the wound, without
success. She rapidly became frantic
with panic, her lover was passing away in her arms and there seemed to be
nothing she could do.
Suddenly a thought came to her, and
without thinking twice she acted on it.
Buffy reinforced the energy link between her and Willow, and, without a
concern for the consequences, forced herself to spiritually and psychologically
follow with the power that was flowing between the two of them.
Buffy's mind exploded with the impact of
the jumbled thoughts of Willow. She
saw, and experienced what Willow saw.
She remembered what Willow remembered, and she felt the agonizing pain
that Willow was feeling. She also saw,
and felt, a lifetime of Willow’s experiences, the fears, the love. She saw the truth of Willow’s love for her,
and the depth of the emotions she felt for her. Using all of her experience to block out the pain, Buffy quickly
forced Willow's body to accelerate the healing process, using the energy it was
getting directly from the slayer. Buffy
could see the results, the tear in the artery closed and healed. Willow's heartbeat, which had been erratic
with the reduced blood flow, strengthened, as the healing process that Buffy
had hastened created new blood for her.
Then the wound in Willow’s chest began to seal itself together and began
to heal.
<Buffy,> the Slayer heard, <what
are you doing?>
<Shush,> she replied to herself,
realizing that somehow the two of them could essentially read each other's
mind.
<Buffy!!> The other exclaimed
mentally, <what are you doing in my mind?>
<Healing you, silly,> Buffy replied
with relief as she collapsed in exhaustion, her body nearly drained from the
effort that it had been put through.
Buffy’s desperate gamble had worked, however it appeared that there had
been one or two unexpected side effects.
Daithi realised that he had just
witnessed something extraordinary. He
had seen Buffy wrap Willow in her arms and then watched as she appeared to fall
into a trance. What happened next
staggered them all, first the blood had stopped flowing from the wound in
Willow's chest, and then the wound had healed.
Finally, the wounded Arch-Mage's breathing had stabilized as the Slayer
collapsed in fatigue; it appeared that Willow would not, in reality, die. Daithi quickly ordered several orderlies
forward with gurneys, to take the two women to the infirmary.
Upstairs in the gallery, Hugh had watched
the proceeding below in horror, not as Grael thought, in sympathy for the two
women, but rather in the collapse of his plan and position. He extracted himself quickly from Grael's
company and made immediate preparations to leave the castle, and the city.
Grael was too stunned to much notice of
the hasty departure of Hugh; he was shocked by the attack and immediately went
down to the infirmary to check on the two women. Once he had been assured that they would be fine, he left in a
foul mood to find Daithi and the cook who had initiated the attack. He needed answers, and he needed them soon.
------------------------------------------
Later that night the two young women were
to be found in a heavily guarded room in the infirmary. There were guards posted both inside and
outside of the room. Additional guards
were located at each intersection in the hallways and staircases. In addition, the patrols in the castle had
been increased, and the patrols had had their frequency and patterns changed.
Meanwhile the city had been sealed and
was being scoured from one end to the other for the traitor Hugh d'Troville and
any of his accomplices that were still around.
Daithi had little hope of finding Hugh, but he hoped that the dragnet
would shake free some of the other conspirators who had not yet been able to
flee the city.
<Rather like bolting the barn door
after the horse has left isn't it,> asked Willow who was occupying one of
the two beds.
<Yep,> replied Buffy, <but
better safe than sorry. The information
that Grael got from that cook indicates that that Hugh guy had a lot of people
on his payroll.>
The two of them were still stunned by
this side effect of Buffy's desperate healing action. They continued their conversation in this manner, mostly because of
the novelty, but also because of the three guardsmen in the room with them.
<I feel like I'm in the zoo,> Buffy
said mentally, <if those three don't find something to do other than stare
at us, I am going to scream.>
<I agree love,> replied Willow,
<but its only till tomorrow, then we can go back to our own rooms.>
<I can't wait, and I don't think that
I'll be able to sleep properly if I'm not in your arms> replied the slayer,
<this is just too weird for words, though don't you think?>
The two women upon awaking had noticed
that the tie between them had not gone back to the way it was before the
attack, rather it appeared to be even larger and more complex than what could
be explained by Buffy’s actions; it was also apparent that they could move back
and forth between each others thoughts and memories at will. Amana, who had been at their bedside when
they awoke, explained that it was all a product of the intense emotions felt by
Buffy when she was healing Willow, and also due to the deep love between
them. She had advised that since each
other's mind was now fully open to the other, that they immediately spend some
time building a secure location in their own mind which only they could access,
since even for two people as deeply in love as they were needed to keep some
secrets, after all if they didn't Christmas and birthdays would be forever
ruined. She had also indicated that
both Grael and she had hoped for a deeper link to develop between them, not to
this extent obviously since what had happened was totally unprecedented, but
were intensely upset that the improvement in the link had come as a result of a
traitorous attack on them.
"Meeooow," said Shadow-cat who
was occupying her usual place on top of Willow's pillow. She had been pleased with the day's
activities, and had been helpful in the capture of the attacker. All in all a very good day she thought to
herself, she was now a familiar, and would therefore be of even greater service
to her human.
"Yes, you silly feline,"
replied Willow, "if not for you I wouldn't have seen the attack in
time."
"And then I'd be the one who might
of died," replied Buffy softly.
<Its ok love,> replied Willow,
<by the way, thank-you for the Valentines gift.>
<It wasn't what I had intended,> replied
the other, <but, you're welcome.>
The two women drifted off to sleep, while
deep within both the link between them, and within certain cells of their
bodies, changes were occurring.