Manifestations of that beauteous life
Diffus’d unseen throughout eternal space:
Of these new-form’d art thou, oh brightest child!
Of these, thy brethren and the Goddesses’
It had been another tumultuous week at Ashdown Estate, both within the walls of the Sunnydale Lodge and out. The escalating numbers of baby Slayers and the three huge building projects combined to create a chaotic living and learning environment. Okay, so it was down to two builds at the moment. The first project, the six-storey accommodation block across the way from the Lodge having been wrapped up on Monday, but it was still hectic nonetheless.
So hectic that they’d decided to have a break from lessons for the week. The mammoth task of moving 500 of the older girls into the block had been somewhat of an organisational nightmare. With plenty of preternaturally strong helping hands, but only one stairway and 500 mattresses, sets of bedding, chairs and bundles of clothing, it could have been a disaster. But Willow had worked out a strict schedule that involved shifting the girls in from the top floor down, and from the outer rooms inwards. It had taken a whole week, but the Xena Hall residents were all moved in and the new girls, who’d been sleeping on the floor of the converted chapel had dragged their own mattresses up to the vacated dorms, and everyone was settled in nicely.
On top of that chaos, she’d also been a bit distracted by her own personal crisis. Cat had made appointments for herself, Rowan and Willow at Princess Royal on the Tuesday. They’d left Buffy, Spike and Dawn behind to supervise the shift, while Giles had driven her, Oz, Xander and Cat down in the van, and Rowan had skipped a class to drive up and meet them there. The results had been stunning. All three pregnancy results had come back positive, even her own despite how soon after conception it was. Her scan was a no show, her pregnancy too early to register anything visual at this stage. Rowan’s looked routine, a single tiny heartbeat thumping away clearly, bringing tears of quiet joy to her and Xander’s eyes.
The results had been stunning. All three pregnancy results had come back positive, even her own despite how soon after conception it was. Her scan was a no show, her pregnancy too early to register anything visual at this stage. Rowan’s looked routine, a single tiny heartbeat thumping away clearly, bringing tears of quiet joy to her and Xander’s eyes.
But Cat’s scan had clearly showed twin heartbeats, two little pulses beating alongside one another. Her mouth had dropped open in shock. Giles had looked back and forth between the screen and his wife’s face in trepidation.
“What’s the matter sweetheart? “ he’d asked fearfully. “Is, is there something wrong?”
Cat had sighed loudly. “No Rupert, everything’s fine. It’s just that there are two heartbeats. See,” she’d said pointing to the image.
“Oh dear Lord. Our baby has two hearts. What does that mean?” he’d asked in a panic-ridden voice. “Is it an alien? Something supernatural?”
“No mo gràdh, calm down, its not one baby with two hearts. Its two babies with one heart each. Twins ya ken,” she said quietly.
“Twins,” he’d whispered. “Twins. Oh well that’s all right then. Twins! Oh bloody hell, twins. We’re having twins. How will we cope? I still don’t know if I’ll be able to handle one baby let alone two.”
Cat’s calm professional side had kicked in at that point. She’d bustled around, registering herself as Rowan and Willow’s Obstetrician and talking to a colleague who would oversee her own pregnancy and deliveries. After a late lunch at a little café in Hayward Heath, it had been a very thoughtful and somewhat subdued group that headed home to Ashdown that afternoon.
Willow had gone to see Cat privately the next morning, her pregnancy confirmation intensifying her concerns that the baby could be other than fully human. She’d taken Buffy with her for support, having earlier shared her worries, and the specific reason for them. She figured that the Slayer may have had had similar experiences to her own, just vampirey ones instead of werewolfy. She was right and because of that Buffy was very unjudgey and pretty empathetic. In fact at any other time the girls may have swapped tales, all giggly and red faced as they bonded over the naughtiness. But the gravity of Willow’s concerns had eliminated any light-heartedness, a wry smile the only acknowledgment of their wacky sex lives.
“It’s just that,” she’d said haltingly to Cat, “not only does Oz carry the werewolf curse, but one of the times we were um, making love, he might have been, well maybe, kinda, an actual werewolf.” She’d blushed and mumbled, “As in furry and such.”
“I’d already assumed that to be the case Willow,” Cat said, “He is after all the man you’re in love with, and as such it seems entirely appropriate that he be able to share a loving experience with you in either form. But I’m also reasonably sure that it shouldn’t impact on the genetic makeup of your child to any greater extent than sexual intercourse with Oz would when he’s in human form.”
“Oh Goddess, are you sure? I’ve been terrified that my baby could have birth defects or be, you know, a little, furry cub,” she whispered, mortified. “Or even be born with the were curse, perfectly normal by day but a wolf cub three nights of the month.”
“Well, I can’t be one hundred percent certain, but I’ve done a bit of reading since Saturday night, using the texts we have here in the library and online sources. Rupert was right you ken; there are no documented cases of abnormal births to werewolf or mixed human/were parents. It seems the were virus can only be passed through a direct bite and not via genetic coding.”
“Okay, okay, that’s good right?” she asked Cat and Buffy both.
“Yeah hun, it seems all good to me,” Buffy had reassured her worried friend.
“Willow, tell me this. How would you feel about this pregnancy if you could be assured right now that all would be perfectly normal? I mean I know you spoke the other night about being happy to be a parent with Oz, but that sounded pretty hypothetical rather than real. How do you really feel about this wee babe right here right now?”
“Oh Goddess, I don’t know. I’ve been too scared and worried to even consider how I’d feel about a normal pregnancy. We’ve been back together for a little while, but believe it or not, that evening was our very first night of being intimate. And for this to happen, it’s such a shock. He’s been bagging it since then believe me, although now that I know I’m pregnant, there doesn’t seem much point closing the gate anymore. That horse has definitely bolted.”
“So are you saying you wouldn’t want the bairn either way? I’m not judging here, just trying to be sure I can work out what it is you want.”
“No, no, I’m not saying that at all. I’ve just been terrified to let myself get too attached to the idea of motherhood, in case it all gets taken away from me. I know I could love this baby fiercely, even if it was only normal 95% of the time. But I think it would break my heart if I had to terminate. How soon can we scan or test for abnormalities?”
“Well, we should get your blood test results back by tomorrow so we can start by checking those for abnormalities. We’ll scan again at six weeks and do another set of bloods then as well. We can do the same again at ten weeks.”
“What about testing the baby itself?”
“We can do a CVS by ten weeks. That will pick up chromosomal abnormalities or genetic disorders. And an amniocentesis can be carried out from fifteen weeks, which also allows us to access and examine the foetal DNA. But both of them carry a very small risk of miscarriage – CVS about 1% and amnio about 0.5% so you and Oz need to consider that before you make your mind up.”
“Thanks Cat, for everything. This is just so scary and so out of my control. I’m used to being the one in control and my very first response to this whole drama would be to turn to magic to sort out the situation. But I don’t want to do anything to hurt my baby unnecessarily. So I’m going to do some research and I’m going to wait. But the waiting will be hard.”
“I know Willow,” Cat reassured her, “But in that respect you’re in the same boat as millions of others parents, past and present. You’ll cope. Lean on Oz and your friends. That’s what we’re here for.”
And so the waiting began. Her initial bloods had come through that afternoon, Cat popping into the Library to tell her that the initial screen came back fine, with no anomalies showing up at all. It had helped a wee bit, but Willow knew she wouldn’t be able to relax until they had a definitive answer one way or the other.
In the mean time, she’d had to keep herself distracted. At night she lain in Oz’ arms; losing herself to the endless pleasure that his body gave her. Rather than the unplanned pregnancy dampening her desires, the lack of further risk seemed to ignite a fire in her, her body reaching for him over and over. And he always seemed ready to respond.
During the daytime, even without regular classes on, she’d had plenty of Academy work to see to. They’d advertised a range of further teaching positions, wanting staff on board by the time the new classroom blocks were ready for use. At least one, if not two new positions were open in each of the curriculum departments, including I.T., where, although she would continue to oversee the teaching programme, Willow was intent on jettisoning her classroom duties altogether. In some ways she was disappointed, but she had far too many other responsibilities to attend to in order to continue on in a job that others would be better qualified for and better suited to. Besides, now that she was pregnant, even though the thought of what could go wrong still terrified her, she had to start planning for the future.
Anyway, she, Giles and Ashley had spent Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons interviewing candidates, offering positions to all but two of them. They didn’t have a wide pool from which to recruit, prior knowledge and acceptance of the supernatural world being a necessary prerequisite, but luckily the calibre of applicants was quite high, and several of their appointed personnel were able to start almost immediately, the remainder in a month or so.
In the rest of her spare time, she dove back into her Guardian research to keep her mind busy. It was crazy really, there was such a lot of research that was pretty urgent at the moment – both personal and family in terms of reveal spells, protection charms and prophecies, but something drove her to focus on her Guardian project. She found the work soothing and feelings of providence seemed to both entice her to continue and to guide her discoveries. It was intriguing.
She’d had to search through the most arcane and obscure texts to find any information on the Guardians at all. None of the more commonplace Council tomes had even mentioned such a group. Willow had not known what to think about that, whether the Watchers had always been truly ignorant of the existence of the Guardians, or whether at some stage a schism had formed between the two groups, so deep that all knowledge of the women had been suppressed and eventually lost.
Instead she’d turned to the Classical Greek and Roman authors, poets such as Homer, Hesiod and Ovid and historians like Herodotus, Stephenus of Byzantium and Pliny the Elder to discover what she could about the people and practices of those times. What she’d been trying to find was any reference to the temple cults of Hunting Goddesses, in particular the Greek Goddess Artemis, but also the Roman Diana, Sumerian Inanna, Akkadian Ishtar, or Egyptian Neith or Pakhet. Her goal was to try and identify a temple where a Sineyan form of the Artemis deity was worshipped.
Right from the start of her study, it was clear how much the various mythologies, arcane rituals and ceremonies borrowed from and influenced one another. Eventually she ended up back at the story Matthew and Colleen had shared in July about the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The fact that that temple had been attributed to the Amazons was her strongest lead.
Finally, she’d decided to pin her luck on Ephesos, an Amazon warrior from Lydia in ancient Turkey. Supposedly the city of Ephesus was named after her, and her daughter Amazo became the eponym of the Amazons. But the part that interested Willow was that she was also said to have been the first of the Amazons to honor Artemis and even surnamed the goddess Ephesia. Willow thought, well hoped, that given the link between the Amazons and the Scythians, that the temple at Ephesus secretly paid homage to Sineya and that Ephesos may have been high priestess of that order.
Once she’d settled on Ephesos as her guide, she’d made a start on composing the words to the invocation and organising the ingredients for the summoning. Finally, everything was ready. It was Saturday morning. Rowan was back from Med School for the weekend, Giles was happy to spare her a couple of hours away from his Protection spell research and Althanea had driven back up from Hatherley that morning, having a break for the weekend from lessons and training sessions they’d set up at the Coven for four new Wiccan apprentices, three young girls and a young man, three friends and an older brother respectively of four of Ashdown’s young Slayers.
Everyone was gathered in the library, not just the spell casters, but also the balance of the Scoobies, curious to see whether or not the Guardians would respond and be happy to support Willow in her endeavours. She had laid out the circle already, and once she and the other three casters were in place, they lit the candles and Willow called on each of the elements to invoke the blessing.
At last they were ready to contact the Guardians. Willow was nervous; generally Giles or Althanea led the summons. But this was her baby so it was up to her to take charge. The room was quiet and calm as she began.
Fierce Warrior Goddess,
Huntress and Slayer,
Blessed be fair Ephesos,
Handmaiden and high priestess,
Who honoured her Goddess
With gifts and libations,
Who watched over her daughters
And armed them for battle.
We call on you to grant us with your presence.
Come forth fair Ephesos, we invoke you.”
Willow repeated the invocation three times, gaining strength and confidence at each recitation. As she paused at the culmination of the third reiteration, the air in the centre of the circle seemed to shimmer and swirl, then an image slowly began to flicker into view. The figure was that of a woman, the manifestation faintly translucent as she stood there in her long white gown. The short sleeveless tunic or Chiton was embellished with elaborate gold braid and cinched below the bust, falling in soft drapes to just past the hips. The matching ankle length skirt was loose and flowing. Her long, brown hair was drawn up and pinned at the back of her head and adorned with a gold circlet.
Willow gasped as the woman peered intently at her then began to speak.
“Rejoice fair maiden. Ephesos sends greetings. I pray you are well?”
“I am well fair Ephesos,” Willow replied. Having studied Ancient Greek salutations, she was familiar with the format. “Greetings from Willow. We welcome you here to our sacred circle and bring you praise for heeding our call. There is much we wish to learn from you. Will you impart your wisdom to us?”
“Indeed, Willow. For though my sisters and I have passed from this realm, we continue to watch from afar, desiring only to help where we may. But alas, for many centuries we have been estranged from those whose job it was to guide and uphold the Chosen Ones. Their words and actions were often times deemed ruinous, shaped not by noble intentions, but rather by a voracious desire for power and control. Men who saw the One as little more than a tool, a weapon they could wield to meet their own base needs; men who betrayed their own sacred calling. These men have steered their order far from its designated course.”
“Not all of us are like that,” Giles spluttered, outrage and humility warring for dominance in his psyche.
“No brother, that is true. Yet it is fair to conclude that the teachings and decrees of the ruling body greatly influenced and circumscribed the thinking and deeds of each individual,” Ephesos added gently.
“That may have been the case in the past,” Buffy exclaimed from outside the circle, “But we’ve been working on things, honestly. We’re trying to work together, guide and support the younger girls, be good role models you know?”
“Ah, greetings child!” Ephesos’ tone and posture softened as she turned towards Buffy and addressed her. “Well met. Felicitations and blessings upon you and yours! It is an honour most high to find myself in the presence of such a One as yourself. The Goddess chose wisely when she laid her hand upon you.”
“Um, wow!” Buffy stuttered. “Yeah, right, thanks. But you know I didn’t do it all by myself. I’ve had lots of help from my friends and family, especially Giles and Willow and Xander and Dawn, and of course Spike!”
“Ah, yes, the vampire. Seeming strange, yet not inexplicable. Often times the dark and the light are drawn to one another, for one cannot exist without the other.”
“Okay, very philosophical. Anyway, as you’ve probably picked up, things have changed around here, big time. For a start, I’m not the ‘One’ anymore, just one of the ‘Many’,” Buffy said, using air quotes to emphasis her words.
“Child, you will always be the One. And if you succeed, both in meeting the conditions of the Song of Sagaria and in overcoming the approaching darkness, you will have truly earned your role as progenitor of the new order.” Buffy gasped, ready to either refute such a fantastic prediction or ask what progenitor meant. It sounded faintly dirty!
“But there is much work to be done before that may come to pass,” Ephesos concluded.
“Can you help us?” Willow asked. “Can you guide us along the right path?”
“Indeed, for we have judged your purpose most worthy, the attentions of you and your fellow delegates exceedingly fine; and thus we have hearkened to your call. The path you walk doth seem true to our hearts and minds, and so we purpose to accompany you, to aid your journey.”
“Oh my Goddess, that’s fantastic, ah I mean that pleases us highly. So um, what form will your aid take?”
“My sisters and I have already given this much thought. It is many years past since we have actively inhabited the earth bound realm, our sole remaining priestess merely enduring the endless years of her watch until she could complete her assignment and relinquish Sagaria to her new mistress. The time is nigh when we must summon and train two new novices; initiate them into the sacred mysteries and rites of our calling, and ordain them into our divine order.”
“Well that seems a good idea. Do we need to advertise or ask around? What sort of criteria are we looking at?” Willow asked.
“We need women who are compassionate, mindful, selfless, learned and of course gifted adepts in the fields of magic and mysticism. As to applicants, we have no need of such, for we have already made our selection,” Ephesos stated calmly.
“Oh, gosh, you really do move fast when you’ve a mind to, don’t you?” said Willow, shaking her head in astonishment. “So do you need us to send these women a letter, or call them or will you contact them somehow?”
“That will not be necessary, for our chosen postulants are already in this room.”
The initial response to Ephesos’ revelation was a resounding wall of silence, matched by a host of dropped jaws and bulging eyes. Eventually, one strangled squeak of surprise breached the quiet, and a flood of disorderly noise followed in its wake. Declarations of disbelief and demands for immediate answers, competed riotously with gasps of astonishment and nods and murmurs of comprehension. The clamour came from Xander, Dawn, Giles and Andrew and it took a while for the other to calm them down.
“I think,” Willow asked meekly, “What these spirited, ah delegates were enquiring about is whom exactly it is that you have chosen and why?”
“Thank you Willow, well asked. To answer the question foremost in the men’s minds, we looked no further than this group of women. Firstly, it would be difficult to match elsewhere the level of skill and presence of mind to be found in this room. Secondly, it has ever been that the aspirants were selected from those women that not only lived in and accepted the mystical world of the Slayer, but also wished to support her, therefore kith and kin.
As to whom precisely, the resolution was not as undemanding as I have made it seem. If truth be told, any of these fair womenfolk, excepting one, would make a fine pupil. The exception of course is the One, the Slayer herself, for she cannot Slayer and Guardian both be. After many hours of debate, we agreed we wanted two young women, who still had many, many years ahead of them on the earthly plane. Age alone eliminated wise Althanea, although we may yet find a role for her in our order. The Healer possesses magic of a different kind; skills that will be in great demand through the days of darkness, but skills that align not with the demands of priestess. The Gate Mistress has endless power and resources at her fingertips but she has a different role to play in the coming conflict.”
While Ephesos spoke, the rest scanned the room, mentally eliminating the occupants one by one as the Guardian high priestess discounted their suitability. Finally the field had narrowed to two; both women seated within the sacred circle, both women familiar with and comfortable in the mystical world around them, both women skilled users of magic. There were several gasps and Xander calling out “Rowan, no!” before Ephesos raised her hand, demanding silence.
“Willow and Rowan, you have been chosen. You need not give your response directly, I will grant you a period of seven days in which to consider your decision. Presently, I will take my leave of you, but will leave in my stead our most recent apprentice. Like many of our priestesses, this young woman did not come to us until after her own earthly passing. But as she is but recently departed, her sisters and I have bestowed upon her the gift of her corporeal form. She will be able to move between the two planes at will and will act not only as your guide and tutor, but also as an emissary.”
“Before you go fair Ephesos,” Rowan asked quietly, “May I ask a question?” When the Priestess dipped her head in acknowledgement, the young witch went on. “What about purity? Don’t priestesses have to be virgins?” She blushed as she spoke further. “You do realise that not only do Willow and I have … companions, but we are both with child.”
“Unlike many of the Artemic cults, purity is not a stipulation within the order of Sineya. Indeed your gravidities will elevate your positions within the group. For as with your sisters, the Slayer and the Healer, you both carry within your wombs the long awaited progeny of the New Order.” At this point Ephesos turned and spoke directly to Willow, “Calm your fears little sister. Your son will be born hale and hearty, with a boon upon him. You are blessed.”
Unbidden, tears began streaming down Willow’s face, relief and joy releasing the tide of emotion she’d kept so carefully at bay. She turned to look at Oz; his face was shining with love and pride as he mouthed, “I love you!” at her.
Ephesos was ready to leave, knowing they would have much to consider, Willow and Rowan for the most part, but their partners and friends also. From out of nowhere a warm wind descended, gently stirring the priestess’ garments. A golden light fell upon her upturned face and then she was gone, and another stood in her place. Her gown was similar to Ephesos’, although lacking adornment, and while her hair seemed fairer, the circlet that held it back was brown in colour.
Slowly the woman tilted her face back down and opened her eyes. Gasps of recognition and astonishment echoed around the room and Willow issued a startled cry, “Oh my Goddess, Tara!”