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

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

Militat omnis amans (Every lover is a warrior) Part 4c/?
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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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.
She 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."
"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 to himself yet. 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.
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 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 greater
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.