On the fourth day of Christmas...(2/2)
(Apologies for split - too big for one post)
Fandom: Malory Towers/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2490
Summary: Slaying isn’t all drama and action - unfortunately there’s a lot of scrolls and ancient texts too..
“Fine”
Alicia wasn’t sure that she had heard that right and stopped in the middle of her attack, allowing Marie plenty of time to disarm her and deposit her on the floor in a completely undignified manner.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that your susceptibility to distraction is an area we need to focus on”, Marie dusted down the front of her clothing then held out a hand to help Alicia to her feet.
“Did you say fine?”, Alicia asked, surprised as always at Marie’s strength and stumbling to keep her balance, “As in fine Darrell can come and help me read through the documents Rupert and I took from the vampire nest?”
“Considering that is the only question you have been asking for the past half an hour I fail to see how I could be saying fine to anything else”, Marie began to collect up the equipment they had used for Alicia’s training.
“I thought you were angry about Darrell finding out”, Alicia began to help tidy up.
“Oh I am”, and something in Marie’s tone caused Alicia to stop and look at her, “Her life is in much more danger now that she knows, believe me”.
“Now she knows she can keep herself safe…”
“How?”, Marie loaded the various weapons - all blunt of course, Alicia wasn’t yet trusted with blades much to her dismay - into her holdall, “She has no superhuman powers as a result of this knowledge - and given her personality she is far more likely to get dragged into trouble alongside you”.
“She wouldn’t do anything stupid…”, Alicia protested weakly.
“Darrell would most certainly do stupid things if she thought she needed to help those she cared about”, Marie zipped up the holdall and passed it to Alicia, “And she cares about you”.
“So why are you saying yes?”, Alicia slung the holdall around her shoulders and jogged to keep up with her Watcher.
“Because I know that even if I say no she will get involved anyway - far better for me to know how involved she is”. Alicia blushed, not daring to deny any of what Marie had said.
“Surely monster hunting is easier when there are more of you to help”, Alicia said after they had been walking for a minute or so, “Safety in numbers and all that?”
“Who amongst your friends would be able to aid you in fighting?”, Marie asked, and Alicia fell silent as she considered the question, “Who would you happily see enter a fight with such a disadvantage that every encounter with a vampire brings a huge risk to their life?”
“So the Slayer is always on her own?”
Marie stopped walking abruptly and turned to face Alicia; a moment of conflict crossed her face as she tried to start her sentence twice before appearing to find the words she wanted,
“I know you did not ask for this responsibility Alicia”, and there was something almost apologetic about the way she spoke, “but I will be honest with you - Slayers do not have friends, many never finish education or have a career. None have families of their own, because the risk is too great.. Being a Slayer means being alone”.
Alicia couldn’t think of a response and - though she would be loathed to admit it - even if she could think of a response, she wasn’t certain she would be able to deliver it without her voice betraying her emotions. She swallowed the lump in her throat and glanced away so Marie couldn’t see her expression.
“Well that’s cheery”
“I’m sorry to upset you Alicia”, and Marie did sound genuinely sorry which made it all so much harder.
“It’s fine - the chosen one isn’t it? Not the chosen few or the chosen one and her friends. Should have been obvious from the cryptic prophecy”, and Alicia started walking again, not wanting to continue their discussion, “Where’s Rupert anyway?”
“On an assignment for me”
“You mean you were even angrier with him than with me and you sent him away”, Alicia shot back, surprising herself with how sharp her tongue was.
“How I work with Rupert is not your concern”, Marie said, but added after a beat, “He will return tomorrow evening”. Alicia nodded. How she wished that she could have been sent out on an assignment - not necessarily with Rupert, although she wouldn’t be adverse to that either - rather than remaining at Malory Towers and pouring over ancient scrolls and texts.
“Use the old cottage if you and Darrell are going to go over the texts - I do not want any of the other girls to know what is going on”, Marie warned.
***
“Oh come on”, Alicia stepped in front of Darrell and stopped her in the corridor, “Sally’s only just gone to practice - she’ll be in there for at least an hour and a half.”
“Not interested Alicia”, and Darrell tried to step around her. Alicia almost regretted stepping in front of her again when she saw the telltale flush starting on Darrell’s cheeks - the first sign of her temper emerging - although she took comfort in the fact that the infamous ‘glint’ was nowhere to be seen.
“Please? Reading ancient texts gets very lonely”, Alicia said and Darrell shook her head, clearly frustrated.
“Alicia you…”, and Darrell glanced around to check they were alone, then lowered her voice anyway, “You do not understand. I just found out that monsters are real...vampires are real. I do not want to go and read vampire books with you. I am still dealing with...with everything!”. Alicia paused. It had never occurred to her that Darrell would do anything other than take the information in her stride. Since Alicia had adapted very well - almost overnight if she were being honest - she had never thought that anyone else would respond any differently.
“Monsters would be real whether you knew about them or not”, Alicia reasoned.
“Maybe I was happier not knowing”
“Then maybe you should have stayed in bed and not been so curious. You know what they say about curiosity”, Alicia said and that did earn her something close to a ‘glint’ so she decided to try a different tact, “I didn’t mean for you to find out, and I’m sorry you’re upset. I just thought it would be better if…”, and actually she didn’t have a good reason for involving Darrell apart from the fact she wanted someone to share this with. She would have preferred Betty - probably - but she wasn’t about to push Marie’s patience.
“Fine…”, and it was the second time that day Alicia had heard that response. She did rather wish that this time it were a little more enthusiastic…
***
“You’re making me jumpy”, Alicia said as Darrell glanced at the windows for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes.
“You’re the one with superpowers who can actually fight monsters and I’m make you jumpy”, Darrell asked.
“They couldn’t get in here, Marie has just about every ward and protection spell in existence cast on this cottage”, Alicia pulled another scroll towards her, “We’re perfectly safe. Safer than in Malory Towers I should imagine - although it’s heavily protected too”. That seemed to calm Darrell a little and they returned to their reading; Alicia’s eyes were starting to ache from the overly fancy handwriting and the laborious writing style that was clearly a staple for cryptic documents about vampires. She pushed the scroll into the pile they had designated for uninteresting documents - which was perhaps unsurprisingly the largest - and grabbed another.
“Great”, she ran one hand over her face, “This one’s not even in English”. Darrell glanced over her shoulder,
“No that’s Greek”
“You can read Greek?”, Alicia raised one eyebrow as she glanced sideways at her friend.
“You can’t?”, and there was something almost cocky about the challenge that made Alicia grin.
“This one’s all yours then”, and Alicia promptly took the book from Darrell and deposited the scroll in front of her, “Where on earth did you learn Greek?”
“My father taught us. He taught us Latin too. I suppose because they were useful to him in medicine”, Darrell leant her head on her elbow and slowly scanned down the scroll, “I don’t use them often so it might take me a while”.
“Here I thought I knew you well”, Alicia stretched her arms above her head, “What other dark little secrets have you got hidden away”. There was a strange moment where Darrell’s shoulders and back seemed to go rigid for a few seconds before she spoke,
“I wasn’t aware knowing other languages was considered a dark secret”, and she almost sounded normal, “I think it’s about time we go back - or else someone’s going to question where we’ve snuck off too”.
“You mean Sally is”
Darrell just shrugged and got to her feet. She hesitated.
“Can I take this and finish translating it?”, she placed her hand on the scroll. Alicia thought of Marie’s strict instructions to keep everything well hidden from the other girls, then looked at the little spark of curiosity in Darrell’s face,
“Sure. Just...you know...don’t go waving it around”.
***
“Have you seen Darrell?”, Alicia was quite startled by the direction question from Sally, especially given that the two of them generally spoke as little as possible so that they might keep the peace and avoid putting Darrell in the middle of yet another argument.
“Why? She gotten off her lead?”, this was why they didn’t speak. Alicia knew that she was just being antagonistic for the sake of it but something about Sally seemed to bring it out of her.
“I do wish you would grow up”, Sally shot back, “I really cannot understand why Darrell puts up with you”, and she abruptly turned to walk away.
“Getting worried about her sneaking off with me?”, Alicia called, and she almost managed to convince herself that she only said it to annoy Sally even more. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Sally had struck a nerve with her choice of words. Either way it had the desired effect of Sally’s back going stiff as she stopped in the middle of the corridor.
“She’s not sneaking off anywhere”, but Sally didn’t sound quite certain about that, and it was almost like they were back in third form…
“Alicia Johns. I’ve been looking for you everywhere”, and Marie seemed to appear out of nowhere, and it was peculiar to hear her speaking to Alicia like a student and not a Slayer, so much so that Alicia just stopped and stared for a moment. Marie stepped past Sally was a smile and a hello.
“A word, Alicia?”, and Marie clearly expected her to follow so Alicia did, feeling her cheeks flush at being pulled up like this in front of a classmate. Once they were halfway to Marie’s office and Sally was long out of earshot Marie spoke.
“I do hope you weren’t saying anything that might prompt Sally into finding out about your extra-curricular activities - I rather hoped you had learnt your lesson”, Marie glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and Alicia offered a sheepish smile, “Now that you are both Fifth Formers, don’t you think it’s about time the two of you at least tried to behave like adults when you’re in the same room”.
“Where are we going?”, Alicia asked, because she was certainly not inclined to discuss her thoughts concerning Sally Hope with Marie of all people.
“Rupert has returned, I felt it best you be part of the meeting”, Marie replied, and she pushed open the door to her office, “Oh…”. Alicia stepped in quickly alongside Marie and found Darrell waiting - looking rather uncertain - in the room.
“She hasn’t said a word to me since she arrived, although I did convince her to wait for you”, Rupert commented, “Rather think she’s scared I might bite”. He smiled that self-assured grin of his and then glanced at Alicia who couldn’t help but grin back.
“Thank you Rupert”, Marie turned to Darrell, “What’s wrong Darrell?”. Alicia was quite surprised to see Darrell’s gaze drop away once Marie looked at her,
“I translated your scroll but it doesn’t make much sense”, Darrell held out the scroll to Alicia, who quickly took it whilst trying to ignore the fact that Marie’s eyes were practically burning a hole in the back of her head. Well, what was another lecture after all?
“How so?”, Alicia asked, scanning over the translation in Darrell’s neat cursive.
“It’s worse than the French poems - all this abstract imagery”, Darrell folded her arms across her chest, “At first I thought it was a really poorly written description for laying water pipes because it kept talking about a conduit…”
“Conduit?”, Rupert perked up and his question seemed to make Darrell jump, “In what context?”
“It…”, Darrell glanced between Alicia and Marie then returned her attention to Rupert, “About a conduit that will bring about new life in place of the old life”. Rupert had begun rummaging in his satchel,
“I came across the same…”, Rupert dug out a book, covered in dust and cobwebs and put in on Marie’s desk and began to flick through it, “Here - the monks wrote about it…”
“Monks?”, Alicia stepped closer to peer at the book, pulling a face when she realised it was in Greek as well.
“In this line of work there’s always monks”, Rupert replied, “Busy little fellows, always getting up to no good. Anyway, they wrote about the arrival of the conduit and how it began to bring forth the new life by wiping out the old, leaving carnage across the South of Greece before the monks were able to trap it. Later on…”, and Rupert flipped through to a later page, “One monks writes about his fears that one day the conduit will ‘burst forth’ once more - big into the water imagery apparently”.
“So they thought it would come back?”, Marie asked, holding her hand out for the book.
“Am I the only person who doesn’t read Greek?”, Alicia asked. She was promptly ignored by Marie and Rupert who were still pouring over the book, but she noticed a tug of a smile on Darrell’s lips.
“You think the vampires are trying to bring back this conduit”, Rupert sounded more animated than Alicia had ever heard, his whole face practically came alive as he spoke.
“I think there’s a good chance, yes”.
“Can I ask a question?”, Darrell’s voice broke their discussion and then she seemed to shrink as three sets of eyes turned on her before she found her voice, “What exactly is this conduit meant to be?”
Marie glanced at Rupert who shook his head, then she lowered her eyes to scan over the pages for a few seconds. With a sigh she slowly placed the book on top of the table,
“That...is a very good question”.