Echoes
by Rainne
Part Two
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Class ended, children were retrieved by parents, and before long, Buffy, Willow and Faith were the only people in the gym. Buffy locked the front door and hung a sign in its window which read "We are next door at the Magic Box." She then led Willow and Faith into the back office and through a doorway which led into the old training room behind the magic shop. Converted and heavily warded, this room now served as a magickal workroom for the Partners.
Faith felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle as she felt the set-spells and wards in the room. "Wild," she murmured to herself. It was something quite similar to the feeling she'd had at the henge. Could there be set-spells on the stone circle? Giles or Tara might know. The prickle went away when they entered the sunny front room of the Magic Box.
"Hey, Giles!" Buffy exclaimed as the entered the shop. "Look who's here to pick your brain!"
Giles looked up and smiled at the sight of the three women. "Faith! How lovely to see you."
"Faith?" Nicki's tousled and bright turquoise head popped over the railing of the upper catwalk. "Hey, Miss Faith!"
"Nicki? What did you do to your - never mind. Have you been behaving?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically. "I love it here, Miss Faith. Can I stay?"
Faith glanced at Giles and grinned. "We'll see, Nick. You go on back to work for now."
"Okay!" The shocking hair disappeared again.
"You let her do that?" Faith asked Giles with a grin.
He looked disgusted. "I didn't let her do anything. She came back from a night at a friend's house that way. And it doesn't wash out, either."
"Good God." Faith hoisted herself up onto the counter. "Whatcha got her doin' up there?"
"Cataloguing the demonology texts," Giles responded. "You'd be very surprised, Faith. Ungodly hair color notwithstanding, she's matured a lot over the past year."
So have you, Faith thought, taking in the new streaks of silver at the Watcher's temples and the new lines creasing his face. The thought suddenly entered her mind that he was aging. He must be fifty-five or sixty by now, she thought, and determined to find out for sure soon. In the meantime, Giles was asking her what had brought her back to Sunnydale. She pushed her thoughts aside. "It's this." She rummaged in her backpack and retrieved a packet of photographs.
"Oh, my," he breathed as he flipped through them.
She nodded. "It's obviously a stone circle, like Stonehenge, but it's smaller, and there's this crazy vibe about it. When I came through the training room, I prickled all over the same way. It's crazy."
Giles looked thoughtful. "There are a number of set-spells and permanent wards on that room. It could be the same with this circle. Is there anything else you can tell me about it?"
"It's twenty feet in diameter," Faith replied, consulting a set of notes, "giving it an area of three hundred fourteen feet. Approximately. Each of the stones is nine and a half feet tall, roughly four feet wide and four feet thick. There's an altar stone in the center of the circle, too," she added, flipping to a particular photograph and pointing to details as she spoke. "It's got a depression in the center of it, reminds me of a kitchen sink, and these crazy grooves that run down to the edge, here. If you pour water into the depression, the water lands here," she added, pointing to what appeared to be a low spot in the ground.
"Is there anything there?" Giles asked.
Faith nodded. "Krista dug down a couple of feet and found this." She flipped to another photograph. It was the same view, but the earth in the low spot had obviously been freshly turned and in that low spot sat a basin of what appeared to be pure gold.
"Is that...?" Giles inquired breathlessly, touching the photograph gently.
"As far as we can tell, yes. One hundred percent pure."
---
I'm not entirely sure," Tara mused, flipping idly through the photographs. "I mean, it could be anything, really. The only thing - well, not the only thing, but the main thing - that gets me is this basin." She glanced up at Giles. "I may be wrong, but it speaks to me of sun-god worship. I mean, ceremonial basins like this are usually silver. You know?"
Giles nodded. "I agree. I thought the same thing. And what do you make of these channels?"
Tara pursed her lips, studying the images. "As I see it, some kind of ceremonial liquid was poured into the depression. Probably wine or water as an offering to whatever deity they worshipped. It was probably blessed, then let to drain into the basin."
"Well, I coulda told you that," Faith exclaimed.
Giles cocked an eyebrow at her. "Faith, why don't you go train or look in on some of the girls or... something."
Buffy laughed. "Translated from Giles to English, that would mean 'Get out of here before I strangle you,' right?" she teased. "Come on, Faith, let's go next door and kick each other's asses for awhile."
The two Slayers stood to go, but Willow stayed in her seat at the research table. At Buffy's quizzical look, she smiled weakly. Faith noticed that she was just a touch pale as she spoke. "You go ahead, honey. I'll just... sit here. For awhile."
Instantly, Buffy and Giles were at the redhead's side. Buffy had Willow's wrist, checking her pulse, as Giles felt her forehead and cheeks. Willow simply sighed and submitted to their ministrations.
"No fever," Giles stated.
"Her pulse is a little high," Buffy replied. "Wills, baby, do you wanna lay down on the couch in the office?"
"No, Buffy. I'm fine. I promise. I'm just a little tired. I'm just gonna sit here and rest, okay?"
Slayer and Watcher shared a significant look, and finally Buffy leaned down and kissed Willow gently. "Okay, sweetie. Yell if you need anything, okay?"
"I will, baby," Willow replied, smiling softly.
Buffy and Faith moved into the gym next door and Buffy flopped down on one of the training mats. Faith dropped gracefully down next to her and eyeballed her. "What's wrong with her?" she asked quietly.
Buffy sighed. "She almost miscarried in the fifth month," she replied. "She was in the hospital for over a week and on bed rest until two weeks ago. When the doctor finally let her get up, he warned her that if she doesn't take it easy, and I mean really super easy, she could go into labor early."
"Holy shit, B," Faith breathed. "That's harsh."
Buffy nodded glumly. "At this point, according to yesterday's sonogram, she could deliver now and the baby would live. Probably spend time in an incubator, but would live. The problem is that an early delivery could kill Willow."
"What?"
Buffy sat up briefly, then flopped back down again. "They're going to have to deliver by C-section. She... she's not really built for babies. Natural delivery could kill her."
Faith blinked in astonishment. "Your specialist didn't say anything about this before the procedure?"
Buffy goggled at Faith. "What procedure?"
"The IVF, moron," Faith snapped. "You know, when Willow got pregnant?"
Buffy blushed.
Faith's jaw dropped. "You didn't."
Buffy nodded.
"Holy shit, B," Faith exclaimed. "And it didn't make things weird between the three of you?"
Buffy shook her head. "Surprisingly enough, no. We were all perfectly okay with everything. I... I think, in a strange way, it's brought us closer together." She paused for a moment, then said quietly, "We're finally a family."
---
They didn't find anything in research that day or the next, and by the third day, Faith was going stir crazy. Fortunately for the sanity of everyone around her, a call came in about a Vahrall demon menacing a small community in northeastern Pennsylvania. Faith took Kerry and Kate - the K-team - with her and headed off. The Scoobies breathed a sigh of relief.
The day after Faith and the K-team left, Nicki found the first reference in the Black Chronicles that pointed to possible prehistoric sun-god worship in Europe and specifically among the Celts. It wasn't much, but it was a start, and it gave Giles a direction to look in.
Research was suspended for a day when Willow began having early contractions and had to be hospitalized, and then returned to strict bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. Her obstetrician told her firmly that she was not to step foot out of bed for any reason except a trip to the bathroom until it came time for the baby to be born. Giles and Buffy brought her home and put her to bed immediately. Unable to do anything else, Willow set about researching as best she could from the bed. By the time Faith and the girls limped back, the search had been narrowed considerably.
"We're pretty sure it's some kind of offshoot cult," Tara explained as she unwrapped the haphazard bandage around Kate's calf. "Most of that area in pre-Roman times was devoted to goddess-worship, though they did worship a god as well. This cult, though, seems to focus on the god only."
"Prehistoric monotheists," Faith mused, then glared around her at the shocked expressions she got from everyone. "What? I can know big words."
"So, are there any references to this cult being magick users?" Kerry wanted to know.
"Only in the nature-and-herb magick sense," Nicki told her. "Not the heavy mojo like what we learn. At least, not according to the books."
"The type of magick Nicki is referring to would actually be more appropriately defined as sorcery," Giles interjected. "And, as she said, there is no record of these cults being involved in the use of sorcerous magick."
"Would you be able to find out anything more if you went to the circle itself?" Faith inquired.
Tara glanced at Giles with a thoughtful expression. "Maybe," she mused. "It'd be better than just looking at the pictures. And we could check out this vibe you've mentioned."
Giles nodded in agreement and Faith grinned. "Sweet. Pack your bags, yo! We're going to England."