FIC:: Tower of Fable (2/4?)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Tower of Fable (2/?4) 
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Some ideas have been borrowed for elsewhere to illuminate this story: they did once belong to Other Companies (and still do, I imagine), but since they are by way of being generic concepts, I don't think anything's awry.
SUMMARY: It's got Buffy and Willow in it, and another generic city-state. Also some explanation and an NPC of the classic variety. If anyone spots any smut, do let me know, 'cos I think the bottle ran out before I wrote this bit.
ARCHIVING:: What archiving ?  
SPOILERS: None 
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome. Thanks to all those who've written so far.

 


Tower of Fable - - Part 2
  

The next morning Buffy and Willow woke refreshed and revitalised and, aftera sketchy breakfast, headed for the streets of Clomisport.

They'd also had time to go over what else they had with them, in an attemptto find out what they might have to expect.

"I've got the sword this time," Buffy said, hefting a chunky broadsword.

"So you're the sword-broad," Willow quipped, and it looks as if I'm doing the magic, given that my pack's full of the sort of stuff I'd be paying top dollar for back home."

Suddenly she went quiet and Buffy put her harm round her friend. "We'll get home," she said.

"It had better not take any seventy years, either," Willow replied. "Plus,there are a couple of books in pockets on the side. I haven't had time tostudy them, but I think they're spell books."

 

Clomisport was a bustling little port town. Moora hadn't known who the mysterious Urmelwen in Giles' note (having looked at it more closely, Willow was certain that it was Giles' handwriting, albeit looking a bit rushed) was, so the first priority was to find someone who did.

Except that someone else had other ideas: a lithe young lad brushed past them, and it wasn't till he was thirty feet on, and turning into an alley, that Buffy realised her money pouch was gone.

She was just about to give chase (which, with the press of people, looked ahopeless endeavour) when Willow put her hand on Buffy's arm, and pulled her aside.

>From her pouch she took a noble: "Here, take this. Say: this is my money."

Baffled, Buffy did so. Willow had already slipped her pack off and now sheswiftly assembled a complicated recipe of herbs and powders from various pockets and bags. Then she intoned three words, which Buffy "heard" and instantly forgot, and the entire mass became a sticky pool of something.

"Drop your money in." Buffy complied, and, with utter confidence, Willow said "As this money is bound, so all Buffy's money is bound."

Then she spoke more words, dropped the disgusting confection into Buffy's hand. Except that, the instant the gold coin touched Buffy's flesh, the sticky mess disappeared.

"As this money is unbound, so all Buffy's money will be unbound, when returned it is to her.

"All right," she said: "We can walk on now - your money's on the way back."

"How did you do that ? Is that something Giles taught you ?" Buffy asked.

"No - it's just a first-level extension of Pinfeather's Sympathetic Telecontrol," Willow said glibly: "Any adept learns it in . their first year at . an Academy."

She stopped. "It's happened again, hasn't it ? Who am I . ?"

"You're you," Buffy said, practically: "You've just got a lot more knowledge than you had yes . that is, last week."

The discussion got broken off when a figure walked, or dragged itself to them. It was the young thief. Hands held out Buffy's pouch.

"Here - I can't do anything except bring it back, it seems."

The voice had a lilt, and Buffy flicked the hood away from its head. It was a slim colt of a girl, hardly out of childhood, with short-cropped blue-white hair and a piercingly abrupt expression.

"I'll take it back," Buffy said, "but only if you'll be our friend and helpus. We're on a quest."

"What will I get paid ?" the girl asked, practically.

"A pouch of gold at the end, and not being pointed out to that City Guard for now," Buffy replied. The girl looked round and saw the self-important figure of one of the Clomisport Guard, and agreed quickly. Buffy had no idea how she'd known who the fat, bossy man was, but her instincts had provided the words and she'd seen no reason to avoid the chance.

 

Her name was Toirandy - "Most people call me Randy" - and she was a thief (even if she did prefer to call herself a free-lance adventurer down on her luck). She had never heard of Urmelwen, but she knew of someone who would.

"Old Bardolph knows everything about Clomisport - it's his job to. Come on," she added, "he'll be at the Merchants' Fair now."

 

Old Bardolph looked even more like a drunken sot than the man at the tavernat breakfast had. His beard, if it had ever been washed, hadn't for weeks, and his teeth had not only seen better days, but had done so (Buffy reckoned) only several decades ago.

But he was Remebrancer, which meant that he was told everything and remembered it all.

"Urmelwen - - a lovely lass: elfin princess or the like - picture of . Andwhat would you ladies want with her ?" His emphasis on the last word tugged at Buffy's attention, but he was already going on: "Anyway, no-one can see her: she's been taken to the Necromancer's Tower, a tenday ago. To warmhis bones, no doubt."

There was no time to ask more: Bardolph had other people to attend to. In any case, Toirandy proved able to fill in the gaps.

"The Necromancer's Tower is the big black one at the end of the Bay. No-one knows how long he's been there - all our lives - but he takes people and they don't usually come back."

"Then," Willow said, "If she can't come to us - "

"We'll have to go to her," Buffy finished.

"Come on, Toirandy - your service isn't over yet."

"I'm Randy," the girl protested, as she followed them away.

 

They climbed one of the city's towers to see their route onward.

"The East Gate's the best," Randy advised. "I know a man there who could sell you ponies."

"Then we go along that ridge," Buffy said, pointing to a narrow jut of landjust inshore, which rimmed the Bay all the way to its terminus. There theridge just projected out into the sea, with an ominously black tower at its farther end.

>From somewhere Willow had produced a rowan rod and now she spoke a brief incantation and sensed the response.

"Yes: that's the way. In fact I think Giles himself may be there." She turned eyes on Buffy that were bright with the possibility that the quest would be over they could find Giles and go home again (even if, right then, she had no idea of what mechanism would be needed to get them egress from this mysterious maze of alternate realities through which they seemed to be living).

She pulled some wool from a pouch, and added some feathers from the top of the tower they were on, and spoke more words.

At once a little bird-like thing sprang to life.

"There, a guide," she said.

"Willow ?" Buffy queried.

"Braxtobel's Fourth Libram: On Simulating .Life - - I've done it again, haven't I ?"

"No, love - just done wonders as usual," Buffy said, and they hugged. Randy stood, looking a little lost.

Then they made their way down again.

 

They were just exiting the tower when Buffy noticed that the street was curiously quiet.

Her sword was out of its sheath even as the first man attacked. He was a rough type, dressed in leather, carrying a cudgel. Against sword he might have had a chance, had it not been for the fact that the sword was in Slayerhands.

The other five rushed at Willow and Randy. The thief-girl dived out of theway - after all, if they were killed, her service would be over, and she could have her bag of gold. Willow scooped dirt up, and the first two men at her fell back, more than half blind, as they were lashed with a dust-storm.

By then Buffy's opponent was dead, and the next one too - running directly onto a sword tending to have that effect. Willow, having time to think, cast another spell and three more of the men fell, trapped in a vast web-likeeffect. The last man was running for it when Buffy shouted "Stop him !" No-one in the scared crowd reacted but Willow pointed her finger and a lance of flame took him square in the back.

Then the witch collapsed. Buffy scooped her up, curtly ordered Toirandy tobring water - "Clean, mind: freshly drawn" - and cuddled her friend, her love, close.

"You had to," she said into the chestnut hair. "He was trying to kill us -they all were - and if he'd got away, he could have come back."

"I know - but I did it and I didn't think first."

"This is like being Serena - like me being the Slayer - you do things, really extreme things, because you have to. Later on, you can see other ways you could have done things, but at the time you do the one that fits with the circumstances."

She looked round: everyone was keeping well clear of the two of them . and of the five corpses (the web had choked the life out of the three trapped in it). She bent down and kissed Willow, deep and hard, then again, soft and comforting, trying to pass over the confidence she had that Willow would never do anything really Wrong.

Toirandy held out a wooden goblet of water, and Buffy took it and passed itto Willow.

"The East Gate, I think you said," she said, as Willow emptied the goblet and passed it back. She tried not to notice that Toirandy was watching her lips especially closely.

 

 

End of Bit 2

Will this be a 3-bit or a 4-bit story ?

Will we get any more smut in ?