Michel Leiris
Giles cleared his throat and looked around the room, instantly drawing the attention of those around him. They had set up in the Lady Brassey Meeting Room, the furniture arranged much like a lecture room, with several dozen padded chairs set up in rows all facing a central point near the front. With four padded chairs to each section, and spare ones lined up against the back wall, the room was capable of accommodating a large group of people. Which, Buffy thought, was lucky considering the crowd present.
She was seated in the central front row, along with Dawn, Willow and Kennedy. When they’d entered the room, she’d been surprised to see Althanea, Rowan and Matthew sitting in the front left hand row. She’d smiled and waved before taking her seat. To her right sat Faith, Robin, Xander and Andrew. Rona, Vi, Shannon and Chao-Ahn and the remaining seven Hellmouth Slayers sat in the chairs behind held her. A large number of men and women, ranging in age from twentyish to oldish, none of whom she recognised, sat in the back two rows.
“Yes, well, first I’d like to very warmly welcome everyone here today,” Giles announced, quickly getting to business. “This is the very first meeting of our new combined Council. We have not yet settled upon a suitable name for our organization, but the Council of Watchers is, I believe no longer an appropriate designation. We must come up with something that will more accurately reflect the composition and objectives of our organization today.” At that, there was a smattering of comments from around the room, mostly in accordance with Giles comments, but several naysayers complained loudly.
Giles didn’t allow the hubbub to heat up into anything resembling a genuine commotion before he calmly, but assertively resumed his address.
“Yes, we have a proud history, but in the space of a few months the ground has shifted beneath our feet, for some of us quite literally. But we must adjust, and adjust we will, for as always, the world, whether they know it or not, relies on all of us to keep it safe. Maybe we’ve been forced to change through circumstances beyond our control, but we were way past due for change anyway. Let us now do so in a measured, intelligent, democratic way and together create an organization that will protect the world from malevolent supernatural entities.”
‘Boy,’ Buffy thought, as she tuned out, ‘Giles is sure getting into the speechifying these days. He’s gone all Head Watchery.’
Buffy stared into space, reminiscing about Giles’ various speeches over the years, all the times he’d told them off and lectured them, and all the times they’d ignored him. Well look at him now. She was really proud of him. Even if she wasn’t listening to whatever he was droning on about.
Buffy tuned back in as Giles called two men forward to the front of the room and introduced them. Both of them nodded greetings to colleagues around the room as they stood beside Giles. Gareth Robson looked to be in his forties, with thinning brown hair and a round face. He walked slowly and carefully as if protecting an injury but smiled openly at the crowd. Ashton Hurst was younger, possibly in his late twenties and looked around the room nervously. He was thin and tall, with sandy coloured hair and glasses. He quickly pulled out a laptop and sat down at a side table quietly fiddling with the connections, while Robson sank down into a chair beside him. Giles got ready to speak again.
‘Oops,’ Buffy thought, ‘looks like I’ve missed something here.’
“When Buffy and Willow forged their plan to activate all of the potentials, I was reminded of a passage I had seen several years ago in the Pergamum Codex. At one time I believed it referred to Buffy and Kendra or more possibly, Buffy and Faith, as the references are to ‘Slayers’ and ‘Chosen Ones’. However, the use of the term ‘Legions’ could hardly refer to two Slayers. Also, as no specific time frame had ever been attached to the prophecy, I put it aside at the time.”
At this point Giles nodded to Ashton Hurst, who brought a passage of writing up onto the screen. As Giles continued to talk, Buffy read the words set out there.
‘And a time shall come to pass, when Slayers walk the earth, using their powers to beat back the Scourge of Amroz. The battle will be long and hard. Victory shall only be theirs if the Legion of Chosen Ones stands strong, lest the fading of their new powers signal sure defeat and the beginning of the End Days.
“As I lay in bed the night before the Hellmouth battle, I tried to bring these words to mind. I began to consider whether or not Willow’s spell could very well be activating the Legion of Chosen Ones that I’d long wondered about. When the spell succeeded and the First was defeated, my speculations began to gather momentum and an intense need to investigate this possibility took hold of me.
So, despite my many and varied responsibilities on arriving in England, one of my very first tasks was to collect all of my own resource materials from my home in Bath. Once I had a chance to sit down and look at this passage again, it seemed clear that we have indeed created that long prophesised Legion.” Giles strode back and forth at this point, clearly excited about his discoveries, while little pockets of conversation buzzed around the room.
“Given the nature of the text, and the acknowledged accuracy of the Pergamum Codex, it was obviously vital that further research be carried out quickly. I set Robson and Hurst onto it immediately, and they began the task as soon as the Bromley offices opened for business. Robson had been storing the huge numbers of books, compendiums, scrolls and artefacts that had been salvaged from Central Office in a warehouse near his home, many of which, stowed away in vaults in our subterranean library section, had survived the explosion completely or mostly intact.” At this point Giles paused, took off his glasses and addressed his audience sincerely.
“It took a lot of time and effort, and several dead ends, but on Friday Robson rang me, excitedly sharing his discovery with me. Robson, Hurst and I have spent the whole weekend completing the translation of this prophecy and interpreting its message. If correct, it provides us with a vital task to perform.”
At this point Gareth stepped forward, as eager and excited as Giles was.
“This passage is a translation of a text that has survived through time as a single papyrus scroll. Written in hieratic, it is almost 5000 years old and is possibly itself a translation from an even older Sumerian version. The text had, over many years of scholarship, been largely translated. But recent events coupled with Giles’ interpretation of the Pergamum passage have provided us with the final clues needed to complete the translation.”
Robson nodded to Hurst, who opened up the next page in their presentation. Up on the screen the page read ‘The Song of Sagaria’.
“The Council have never really considered this text a Slayer prophecy, as we have always assumed Sagaria, the central character of the passage, to be a female witch or warrior, possibly a Slayer, but undoubtedly of ancient times. The text was thought to describe events long past. But Giles’ interpretation of the Legion of Chosen Ones, triggered a memory of this scroll.”
Once more, a new page came up on the screen. The passage was a long one, and the room was quiet as the occupants focused on trying to read and make sense of it.
Shall arise once more that night
Her gifts, they shall be twofold
When wielded by the White
Her Daughters will awaken
Sharp and true shall be Her bite
And victory will be with them -
The Legion of the Light
Sagaria’s Daughters shall arise
Answering the deadly call
Light shall cleanse the fields of Evil
The abyss will tremble, crack and fall
But Her gifts will slowly falter
And the Legion start to dim
Unless the Three together
Can seal Her powers in
Both Parents mighty warriors,
One Dark, the other Light
And the Child they share together
Begotten on that night
All Three must stand together
‘Fore the ending of the year
And claim Sagaria theirs.
Lest the Legion disappear.
There was silence as everyone tried to interpret the words. Buffy, Faith and the other Slayers largely appeared confused. Giles stepped forward once more.
“The key to unveiling this prophecy came with Willow’s discovery that the weapon uncovered by Buffy bore symbols that, when translated, referred to it as a Scythe.” At this point Hurst’s finger’s darted over the keys of the laptop and up popped a split screen, the Song or Sagaria still displayed on the left while a slide show of photos of the Slayer Scythe began playing on the right.
“In truth,” Giles continued, indicating the screen, “it looks little like a traditional scythe, so we considered investigating the term scythe more broadly. Perhaps it referred to the Scythian race rather than the farming implement. The Scythian peoples of ancient times were a nomadic warrior race who made and used weapons like these in battle. Their name for these weapons was sagaris. Suddenly it occurred to us that Sagaria was in fact the Slayer Scythe itself, a weapon so ancient and powerful, that the people who forged it and prophesised the role it would one day play, had named it and endowed it with divine properties.”
Giles paused as he let everyone read through the text again with this knowledge in mind.
Faith folded her arms as she called out, “So Giles, who the Hell are these Daughters supposed to be?”
“Actually we believe that the two terms, Sagaria’s Daughters and Legions of the Light are interchangeable. Both refer to the new Slayers, all those activated by the essence of the Scythe, by the power of Sagaria. So it appears that Willow’s spell was foretold eons ago.”
Excited murmurings once again broke out around the room as various groups worked on unravelling more of the powerful text. Buffy felt the tension begin to run through her body as certain phrases started to become clear to her. Willow was almost leaping out of the seat next to her.
“Okay,” Faith interjected once more. “So Willow goes all White Witchy and wields our girl Sagaria. That wakes up all the mini slayers. I get that bit. And I suppose the abyss is the Hellmouth right?”
“Oo, oo, and the cleansing light bit is Spike and his laser show isn’t it?” called out Willow, oblivious to the clenched fists and shaky breathing of the girl beside her.
Dawn leaned forward excitedly. “And Sagaria’s gifts are the Slayer upgrade and the total kick ass rockiness of the scythe itself,” she yelled as she slashed through the air with her hand.
“Yes, yes, thank you to the peanut gallery in the front row here,” Giles grumbled affably. “Those aspects of the prophecy became rather straightforward once we realised who, or should I rather say what, Sagaria was. Indeed the entire first half of the Song has already come to pass, with quite astounding accuracy. However, the section that gave all three of us concern were the lines that spoke of Sagaria’s gift faltering and the Legion dimming. It appears that if we cannot stabilise the effects of the Scythe spell, then the activation will wear off and all of the new Slayers will lose their powers.”