FIC: REPOST: Militat omnis amans (Every lover is a warrior) Part 4b/?

["Beckett, Kevin" <kevin.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Militat omnis amans (Every lover is a warrior) Part 4b/?
K. Beckett (c) 2000 

Disclaimers:
Buffy, Willow and all of the other characters and places from the show
belong to Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy etal. Everyone and everything
else is mine. None of my characters are meant to resemble anyone living,
dead or un-dead, if you see yourself you are looking way too hard.

Rating: R 

Other: 
The Latin and Gaelic are mine; I take the responsibility for any
translations of them. In addition, the descriptions of the rituals, spells
and other craft work come from my traditions, so please don't take offence
if something described here does not match your traditions or what you think
it should.

Archiving etc.: Ask and I will say yes.

Spoilers:
Everything up to the middle of season four - I diverge then.

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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 dear, 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."