The Knights of Scooby
Chapter Four
by Lionheart
based on scene by Prince Charon
*-*-*-*-*
"I don't know, Wills. This seems like a big step. I don't know that I'm quite ready for this."
"Oh, please, Xander?" the redheaded pleaded. "Just this once? I promise it won't hurt... well, too badly. I had to go through this myself once, you know."
"Yah, but it's different for girls. You get all of these desires and urges, so it's natural for you to go leaping into this." The young man balked at what was presented before him.
"Not really, no." Willow shook her head. "There are some girls who go their whole lives without opening them. You'd be surprised. I'm sure Cordelia is one of them."
Staring at the doors of the library before him, Xander gulped, and screwing up his courage, took a step into the sensor beam for the automatic doors, whereupon they swished open, and he stepped inside.
"There, that wasn't so bad, now. Was it?" she cheered.
He was feeling parts of his body experimentally. "I don't seem to be missing and major organs, no. I'd have to give this a tentative success."
"Well, you haven't gotten to the better parts yet," she enthused, leading him to the stacks of books.
Xander and been alternatively freshening and wilting flowers all morning. He had discovered that there were many lucky pairings like that among his 'proof of magical concept' spells. For example, he could chill and warm, clean and dirty, tie and untie, spill and gather, dampen and dry, sweeten and sour, as well as polish and tarnish, all with those handy tutorial cantrips. And the more of them he used, the more cantrips he learned how to use, gaining a greater degree of familiarity with his own magical core.
Of course there was only so much you could learn going back and forth using the same object as your subject, so he had begun branching out, spreading his attentions wider as he sought for usable practice.
The more he did of them, the easier they got, just as the book had said.
He had already built his second practice illusion, and was already finding the slightly more difficult spell a useful instructional tool, even as he used the more complex and slightly more flexible spell for the same old boring thing as his first version.
He had also begun to use a very minor aura cloaking spell, that lasted only a few minutes, and could not hide any unreasonably significant portions of what made him who he was, so if a demon or someone wanted to find an abused and neglected child of drunken parents - there he was!
On the other hand, those changes introduced to him by Mr. Mage Dude were all recent enough acquisitions that they had not colored his aura to a degree he could not conceal, yet. So he practiced by concealing them, and having to recast the cloaking charm every few minutes all day long was leading to a rapid skill increase for him in that area, as the tutorial cantrip did its job.
The same thing with some very minor wards on his and Willow's houses, although they had reached an agreement, because of the work involved, for each one of them to shield their own homes.
"Wills, slow down!" he called, as she dragged him off to her favorite stacks, all romance books for the look of it. No, she seemed equally torn to go to the computers and reference sections.
Xander himself had allowed Willow to cajole his presence into these hallowed halls of learning because he had some definite goals in mind. One of those was to find a book on reading body language, as he'd had this nifty idea that he could use that to help out his flagging aura reading abilities.
About the only thing the Codex said on that subject was to list its uses. The old mage apparently felt that subject a distant relation to actual magic, by which he meant spells and the construction and use thereof. Really, the only thing mentioned was that every single aspect of a living or magical thing could be seen in its aura, if you could make sense of what you were seeing and saw clearly enough that is - both of which were hard states to achieve.
That meant it was possible, in theory, to go diagnosing someone's physical and spiritual health, determining any magic in effect upon them... or reading their emotions.
Now, color him brilliant, but Xander had to ask himself this: what about any given person changed faster than their emotions? So, that was most probably the source of the near-continual state of color flux and pattern shift he saw. And, if he could figure out a way to come to an understanding of that from a more solid angle, say by reading their postures and so on, that should give him a handle for sorting that out, as well as answer such questions as 'why did Willow have colors that he saw in no one else - color patterns that, as near as he could tell, reacted very strongly to HIM of all people' and, on a possibly related note, 'why did that portion of her aura flare when she was standing before him framed by the romance stacks?'
Any aid in figuring this out would be welcome.
So, of definite items on the agenda, one was to hunt down some good books on reading people so he could get another frame of reference to help him sort out all of that. Second was almost certainly to dig up a medical book or two, as that too would assist him in deciphering what he saw in people's auras.
About the only regret he had now about what Mr. Mage Dude had done to him was the maddening holes left in his knowledge, preventing him from using so many of his abilities.
Case in point: Seeing auras was one thing, but understanding what he saw in them was, well, you know, kinda sorta useful too?
Exhibit B would be the technomancy, techno-pagan stuff. Okay, so maybe Mr. Mage Dude had been of the impossibly mistaken impression that Xander was a model student and thus knew beforehand about all that basic science stuff. But, since that was most emphatically NOT the case, Xander was finding he had a capstone without a pyramid under it, and building the darn thing was looking to be a very daunting task.
Thus, Willow to the rescue.
It had been two weeks now since Mr. Mage Dude's visit, and they were feeling more comfortable in their martial arts classes. The trio were far too raw to be able to see any reliable measures of their own progress so far, but their teachers appeared quite happy with them, so that was a good sign, and they did not stint on practice.
The archery was not going so well, but then they had neither a good teacher nor any reliable books to draw from, so it was pure experimentation and trial and error on their parts, which was not going so fast.
Their mutual bike rides were becoming slightly less onerous and they had found quite a few spots in the open areas around town that made for great views or fun places to frolic with frisbees. So they'd taken to having picnics.
After having sprouted hundreds of grape seeds, apricot pits, apples, limes, cherries, and watermelon seeds from their lunches, as well as acorns they found just lying about, and even once a bunch of grain because Willow wanted to try wheat grass in her smoothie, Xander had felt he'd fully mastered the sprouting cantrip and went on and constructed from theory the next step up in that department, which was able to grow a young plant about a foot taller.
So, on their bike rides they were now revisiting plenty of their previous lunch locations so Xander could practice his new spell on those old seeds, granting him rapid progress, at least in that one narrow area, while Willow had started to sprout their leftover lunch seeds herself.
Xander and his friends had also developed a new game.
In the past week he had been typing out a substantial amount of the Codex, which even Willow found to be dull. So he was, at the same time, producing what he liked to call 'Xander's Translation of the Annotated Codex of Magical Thought' in between boughts of Jesse hitting him with a rolled up comic book for his pomposity whilst proclaiming this aggrandized title.
The other two called it the Xander-Dex, and Willow devoured it shamelessly, cherishing every line as he distilled Throckmorton's theories into a readable form while doing his best not to diminish the value of the substance. When he did leave a point unclear, however, Willow was then able to go to the original version he'd typed out for clarification. Then, after struggling through that mind-numbingly dull work for comprehension, she had him add those concepts to the Xander-Dex, thus editing his work for quality as they went along. And he was, while doing so, internalizing and processing far more of the original Codex than he had even thought possible.
With the constant practice, Xander was even beginning to learn how to be a decent typist. But it was Jesse who had seized upon a few minor, educational cantrips that his best bud had typed out and started their latest game.
There was, in the Codex, a collection of extremely minor jinxes that could cause an unwary target to belch, blink, cough, giggle, nod, scratch, sneeze, twitch, wink or yawn, and once these had reached the Xander-Dex, they had caught Jesse's interest in a most extreme way so he had exerted himself to master them all, chiefly using his two friends as targets, who had responded in kind, leading to a furious few days of involuntary faux pax during classes and other embarrassing situations before they called a mutual truce.
Now Jesse was eagerly awaiting the coming of school so he could use those spells on bullies during classes. But they still found plenty of use for them whenever the trio went out to, like, cruise the mall or whatever. Having learned all he could from massive over-use of the belch cantrip, Jesse was already deep into studying up on the specific theories needed to create the next level - the fart spell, something with which he was determined to have endless amusement.
But he dreamed of even greater accomplishments down the road, the Holy Grail of minor jinxes, the ability to make jocks wet themselves.
It was his dream.
Well, that and the ability to make Cordelia fall madly, passionately in love with him, but so far none of their educational cantrips dealt with that. So Jesse didn't even know where to start on building that spell.
The level of complexity and utility of the cantrips they were using was very small, the equivalent to either having on hand a small tool that you didn't actually have on hand (like a dab of makeup, for the cosmetic illusion Xander had been using, or a whoopee cushion for the fart spell), or about ten minutes of work on something you could already do an ordinary way.
Neither applied to dating Cordelia. Pity, as Jesse claimed it would relax him greatly when he eventually got the queen of his dreams to feed him peeled grapes while his head rested in her lap.
But of those traumatized youths, Xander was finding his fulfillment in trying to master all of that knowledge poured into his head, while Willow seemed to draw her strength from Xander and his increasing capacity. However, Jesse had found his peace by joining Bible study groups and was now getting along great with his minister while he sought solace in the pleasing word of God.
That was doing a favor for all of them, as Jesse came away from those meetings radiating a sense of peace that helped stabilize all of them. It did not stop him from dreaming of one day creating a minor jinx to cause a jock to vomit, however.
Bless those involuntary reflexes, and the spells that could trigger them.
Of course, none of these would work on the undead, but what do you expect from a minor training cantrip meant for little kids? They weren't all that useful in a fight in any case, as people all pumped up on adrenaline would be far too likely to resist them.
Which was a pity, really, as that left their only purpose embarrassing others.
No, the jocks and bullies of Sunnydale High were not all that likely to enjoy the upcoming school year. Both Xander and Jesse were, independently, working on counterspells for prank cantrips in expectation of the trio's truce breaking down, however. And Xander was working on a spell to give an underwear wedgie, so he'd have a useful tool for when the Prank Cold War turned hot.
Willow had made her own discovery in the form of the stitch spell, overlooked by Xander as he couldn't imagine any real use for it. That was an error on his part, however, and she was quick to point out how that handy sewing cantrip could be used both to mend old or worn clothes (something he had plenty of), but also to embroider things like, oh, say, crosses onto outfits.
That gave the spell instant meaning to the vamp-shy trio, who wanted their vamp-proof suits as fast as they could be obtained. But that wasn't the sort of thing you find off the rack at K-Mart, and until Xander's Uncle paid them for their polishing they probably couldn't afford it anyway, even if they did.
Jess wanted to cover the whole town in crosses, however Xander didn't think that would work.
Throckmorton had very little to say about holy symbols, but Van Hellsing's journal had been far more informative. He'd stated authoritatively that any given symbol's potency was derived from three factors: the faith of the person who blessed/prepared it, the belief of the person using it, and how widespread was the religion it represented, with weakness at any one of those points still yielding a usable object, and one person could both prepare and use a symbol at need.
Thus, someone from an otherwise dead Roman cult could prepare and use a medallion to hold a vampire at bay in spite of it not being a major religion anymore, if he had a strong belief. Or your ordinary Joe on the street could use a cross the same way, and if it was prepared by a faithful clergyman Joe could be nearly an atheist and still have it work (thus a reason crosses were so very popular).
Van Hellsing had cautioned that you couldn't use any symbol you personally disagreed with, so a true atheist was out of luck. Also, not every dude with a cross was going to be thwarting vampires, because if he prepared it himself and had no faith he was not going to get any results out of it. It would also be a nasty (albeit short) surprise for a guy without faith to learn that his friendly neighborhood priest was just holding down the job for the money, not out of any religious commitment, and the things he blessed no better than a toy bought at K-Mart.
So if a nearly non-religious tailor sewed crosses onto Willow's jacket he would not be doing her any favors. Likewise, a person would have to be very faithful indeed to spray paint crosses on the doors to all of the tombs in town and have them work out anywhere near as good as an individual cross would be with an even halfway faithful person holding on to it.
They couldn't say with any authority that they even know anyone with that kind of faith. Actually, it was worse, as they couldn't say with any certainty they knew of a priest with ANY faith! There wasn't some convenient meter to plug into the back of their heads that you could use to check, after all.
Spooky, really, as the only test they knew of kind of involved risking your life trying to hold off a vampire with a symbol that may or may not be any good.
On the other end of the scale, opposite the cheap junk and dodges, the best examples of the most effective symbols would obviously be strong in every department. So a strong Rabbi giving an orthodox Jew a blessed Star of David would see some serious performance out of that, as Judaism was still very much a major religion.
When he'd learned that, Jesse had extended an invitation to the duo to join him in his Bible study classes, citing it as a self-defense measure every bit as useful as Xander's martial arts classes or Willow's healthy diet.
Seeing the logic of his viewpoint, they'd agreed. Even Willow, who had replied (on being questioned) that most of the Bible was the Old Testament, and that was the same either for Christians or Jews. They both read and believed in the stories of Moses, Abraham, Joseph being sold into Egypt, and all of that.
In fact, Jesus Christ had lived his whole life as a good Jewish boy. He was born and raised as one of the covenant people and had never once broken the law given to Moses... although, he may have pointed out a time or two that the additions to that law the Jews came up with on their own were not quite as valid as the ones God carved into a rock with His finger.
There were some, many in fact, who maintained that the only reason Judaism and Christianity were two separate faiths was because of a political schism at the time of Jesus, instituted by a Sanheidren who hadn't wanted to hand over power to him by recognizing him as the rightful Messiah.
So she felt fine with Bible study for all of them, as you could not have faith in something if you didn't know what it was. And the only faith they could truly count on for preparing symbols and all that was their own.
And, speaking of study brought them back to the Sunnydale Public Library.
"Hey, Wills, I'm going to be..." Xander trailed off as his third eye fed him information he didn't want to believe.
"What is it, Xander? What's wrong?" The redhead looked up at him in obvious concern.
Xander grabbed his Willow by the arm and led her slightly deeper into the romance stacks, to which she responded by an ever increasing blush. He was standing sort of close to her and her thoughts were sliding into babble.
"Um, Wills? Did you know there were magic books in this library?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" she looked up at him, puzzled that he would say such a thing about her natural environment.
To his aura sight it was obvious. Magic things had a bright glow like a light bulb compared to the background appearance of the general non-living shelves full of books, and several of those books had the glow of magic, some slight, as though they merely detailed spells, others bright, as if the books were, themselves, enchanted.
A few minutes wandering around proved it was true in all sections of the library. There were many books, hidden in among the normal ones, that had obvious signs of magic. There was no way it could be accidental.
"So, is it just me or has this place always had magic and I just never knew it?" he asked at last as they returned to where they'd started.
"I've never found any before," Willow offered comfort in spite of being confused herself.
"Well, the Amazing Xander-Vision says that at least one of the librarians is a witch, and we've got magic books scattered all over the place, in and among the rest of the collection."
"Look, there are some magic ones right here." Her best friend indicated a space on the shelf among the hardback romance novels, when Willow had always preferred the paperbacks (easier to hide that you were reading one).
"Here, you stay there. I've got some things I've got to look for." The teen left her without so much as a chance to squeak her surprise, or dismay at being abandoned there in the romance stacks.
Standing where Xander had left her, Willow looked down at the books on the shelves and saw the library had five copies of the 'Magic of Life, Magic of Love' by Casanova, and three copies of 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles' on the shelves.
Willow picked up the former, turning the cover over in her hands, not certain if she dared to open it. When she was standing thus, Amy Madison came upon her and said, "You shouldn't use that."
"Eep?!?" cue instant petrified-from-embarrassment teen trying to hide what she was looking at, as Willow shrank upon being discovered.
Amy just pushed her friend down into a seat. "Look, we've known each other since kindergarten, right? So that makes you a friend, and friends don't let friends fall prey to sex fiends. That book," Amy pointed to the tome on sex magic that Willow was still desperately trying to hide under the reading desk. "is all about how to use sex magic for fun and profit, while that book," this time she pointed out the many copies of 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles' on the shelf, "is all about how to take advantage of the people who use the spells in the book you're holding."
Amy swept her hair back out of her face and sat beside her friend, closely so they could whisper. "Look, my mom told me all about it. I don't know from trying to use them personally, or anything. But according to her there are three books that between them contain all but a very small fraction of the sex magics ever created (say 94 percent, but nobody really knows for sure), as they were all compiled and recorded during the peak of the 'Golden Age of Sex Magic', where the spells were in common use, easy to find, and research ran high. New spells and rituals were created and old parts of the ancient art restored from obscurity by an interested elite that had nothing better to do. But our library here carries only two of the Golden Three."
"The first is that one," the blonde pointed to the book Willow was still holding and trying to hide, although nearly forgotten as her attention was no longer so much on her embarrassment anymore. "Written by Giacomo Casanova, who is THE Casanova of legend. It's his first one, and he wrote it when he was young and flush with success, calling it the 'Magic of Life, Magic of Love'. It details all of the then-common rituals young lovers could use to gain powers, bond to each other, etc; a near encyclopedia from the 'here is the art, have fun with it' perspective. The book is still quite common in some circles, having been reprinted and imitated many times. So far nobody's ever written a better 'How To' book for sex magic than he did."
The blonde tossed her hair back over her shoulders where it belonged before leaning in close to conspiratorially whisper, "Giacomo Casanova wrote two of the Golden Three books on sex magic, and was once arrested in his home city of Venice by the inquisition on charges of witchcraft - charges on which he was convicted! He wrote over twenty books in total, and died as a librarian, just like my mom is now. She works in this place, and I'm summering as an intern. Anyway, Casanova's other book, which she won't let me see a copy of until I'm sixteen, was entitled 'To My Younger Self', and he wrote it in his early seventies (and the last years of his life, when he was alone and disliked). She told me it's a much darker work, containing warnings of all of the darker aspects of sex magic, perfected by a thrill-seeking, power-corrupt, occult-practicing aristocracy in control all over Europe. In it he warns of hidden sides of sex magic, developed to control and dominate your lovers, and to which he, in his youth, had fallen victim. After having his fortunes ruined many times by these predators, he had sought for counters and defenses to their techniques, even developing some of his own. But, by the time the book was ready, those same predatory sex-mages that he sought to teach the young to defend against had begun being toppled all over Europe by the revolutions and wars being fought, destroying the ancient aristocracies that had turned sex magic into a tool of control and domination in the first place. Thus, copies of his second book are rare and hard to find as those very classes of people it was designed to defend against ceased to exist, on the whole. And, like I said, our library here doesn't have a copy, nor will mom let me use hers. I haven't even gotten a chance to look at it, really. She says that she won't until I'm sixteen and a cheerleader. How unfair is that?"
Willow, sitting there looking vaguely scared, did not have a comment at that time, something which Amy politely ignored, going on just as if she had been agreed with, "Anyway, nothing in the first book is safe to use without the second, because the third is so dangerous. It's called 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles', and contains a great selection of what the nobles liked sex magic for. Yes, there are a few rituals using sex as a source of power, even some abilities that Casanova's first handbook skipped over or he didn't know about to record. However, the majority of the content is about all those things he warned about in his second book - how to take advantage of lovers, use people's affections, warp and take control of them through the very sex rituals they had performed, and all of the dark and nasty stuff that turns a person into a possession of the sexual predator using the dark side of the arts, compiled by the practitioners of this seedy side, in the court that was the very capital for sex magic among the aristocracy that perfected it."
Amy pointed to the bookshelf. "As you can see, we carry many copies, which I think is strange. You wouldn't give anyone you liked a copy of the Diary of Versailles, as it is a handbook on how to be a very nasty person. So I don't know why we have any. But actually, we have six. I know one is undergoing repairs for stains, so I guess two are checked out right now. That means if you even THINK about using the arts in the first book, someone will be waiting to take advantage of you, which is sick and the real reason I came by to warn you when I saw you headed this way with Xander. Is he your boyfriend now?"
Willow just blushed uncontrollably, unable to speak.
Amy gave her a sly smile. "Well, tell him you'll have to wait, as the best stuff has to be performed when you're still a virgin, and you don't dare do ANY of them until I can somehow wheedle out of mom that second book on how to protect yourself from the rituals and stuff in the third."
The red-faced redhead made some sort of interrogatory squeak, while gingerly pointing a shy finger to the copies of the other sex book.
Amy raised an eyebrow. "The Diary of Versailles? It's actually a compilation of hundreds of spell books, grimories, and private journals left over by the noble elite, compiled for Napoleon and presented to him on his coronation as emperor as a gift by a courtesan who had been a part of the noble court scene and wanted him to start the sex-capades all over again by saying, 'look at how much fun we had taking advantage of those ignorant young folks!'"
The blonde shared a secret, girl-to-girl snort of dissatisfaction as she told in hushed whispers, "Mom says it's ironic, I call it sad, but the existence of a catalog of spells intended for taking advantage of the users of the innocent side of sex magic, taking control over bonds formed between them, breaking them, and otherwise toying with people who were in it for the fun, has mostly prevented any sort of wide scale resurgence of the use of sex magic. Any time a group tries, sooner rather than later somebody with a copy of the Diary of Versailles shows up and ruins it for everyone. The scarcity of Casanova's second book means most such groups are vulnerable, and having heard her stories and read a few spells out of the Diary, I don't DARE do any of the fun stuff until I've somehow read a copy of the one we're missing."
Willow was beet red and in the process of making a few vowel sounds.
Amy just shrugged. "The originals of all three are naturally in French, and that might prove a difficulty to us, but mom says that it just means that the students who take French in High School have more fun than anyone else. So of course I am planning to take it, even though mom says that she has hold of an excellent translation into English.
"Now, I know it sounds silly but Casanova actually sounds like he was a really nice guy. I mean, the first line of the story of his life goes 'I am writing My Life to laugh at myself, and I am succeeding.' "
She giggled, but Willow remained petrified.
"Now..." Amy paused, looking fretful and chewing her bottom lip a second before continuing in a hopeful tone, "You know about the vampires, right?"
Willow gave a small and terrified nod, bowled over by the things the other girl was discussing so openly.
"Good," the blonde sighed in relief. "That makes things much easier. Now look, there are two things the books on sex magic kind of gloss over that apply to our situation in this town. The first mom says is that it is a great way of dealing with the stress of living in Vampire central, and keeps you very relaxed. The second is that sex magic is VERY much focused on the essential energies of life and living, and are also a great deal of fun. But according to my mother, when you are 'high' on that energy just after a ritual you don't smell so good to vamps - like food that's just way too rich and you'd spaz yourself to death for tasting, so given a choice most of them would go for other targets that aren't a human equivalent of a six pack of Jolt colas and a double handful of hot chili peppers - the eye watering kind."
Amy sighed once more, dropping her hold on her friend. "The DOWN side, she says, is that sex magic is very much the drug trip of the magic world, with all the stuff that entails - it's highly addictive, it will burn you out, and so on."
Sitting there a few moments while Willow's heart fluttered and her face stayed fire engine red, Amy recomposed herself and stood up with a smile, dragging the poor redhead behind her. "Did you know that you are the first girl my age I know who is able to use magic? There's so much more we have to talk about! C'mon! I want to show you this nifty book I found on cosmetic spells, and makeovers!"
"Eep!"
End of Chapter Four
Chapter Four
by Lionheart
based on scene by Prince Charon
*-*-*-*-*
"I don't know, Wills. This seems like a big step. I don't know that I'm quite ready for this."
"Oh, please, Xander?" the redheaded pleaded. "Just this once? I promise it won't hurt... well, too badly. I had to go through this myself once, you know."
"Yah, but it's different for girls. You get all of these desires and urges, so it's natural for you to go leaping into this." The young man balked at what was presented before him.
"Not really, no." Willow shook her head. "There are some girls who go their whole lives without opening them. You'd be surprised. I'm sure Cordelia is one of them."
Staring at the doors of the library before him, Xander gulped, and screwing up his courage, took a step into the sensor beam for the automatic doors, whereupon they swished open, and he stepped inside.
"There, that wasn't so bad, now. Was it?" she cheered.
He was feeling parts of his body experimentally. "I don't seem to be missing and major organs, no. I'd have to give this a tentative success."
"Well, you haven't gotten to the better parts yet," she enthused, leading him to the stacks of books.
Xander and been alternatively freshening and wilting flowers all morning. He had discovered that there were many lucky pairings like that among his 'proof of magical concept' spells. For example, he could chill and warm, clean and dirty, tie and untie, spill and gather, dampen and dry, sweeten and sour, as well as polish and tarnish, all with those handy tutorial cantrips. And the more of them he used, the more cantrips he learned how to use, gaining a greater degree of familiarity with his own magical core.
Of course there was only so much you could learn going back and forth using the same object as your subject, so he had begun branching out, spreading his attentions wider as he sought for usable practice.
The more he did of them, the easier they got, just as the book had said.
He had already built his second practice illusion, and was already finding the slightly more difficult spell a useful instructional tool, even as he used the more complex and slightly more flexible spell for the same old boring thing as his first version.
He had also begun to use a very minor aura cloaking spell, that lasted only a few minutes, and could not hide any unreasonably significant portions of what made him who he was, so if a demon or someone wanted to find an abused and neglected child of drunken parents - there he was!
On the other hand, those changes introduced to him by Mr. Mage Dude were all recent enough acquisitions that they had not colored his aura to a degree he could not conceal, yet. So he practiced by concealing them, and having to recast the cloaking charm every few minutes all day long was leading to a rapid skill increase for him in that area, as the tutorial cantrip did its job.
The same thing with some very minor wards on his and Willow's houses, although they had reached an agreement, because of the work involved, for each one of them to shield their own homes.
"Wills, slow down!" he called, as she dragged him off to her favorite stacks, all romance books for the look of it. No, she seemed equally torn to go to the computers and reference sections.
Xander himself had allowed Willow to cajole his presence into these hallowed halls of learning because he had some definite goals in mind. One of those was to find a book on reading body language, as he'd had this nifty idea that he could use that to help out his flagging aura reading abilities.
About the only thing the Codex said on that subject was to list its uses. The old mage apparently felt that subject a distant relation to actual magic, by which he meant spells and the construction and use thereof. Really, the only thing mentioned was that every single aspect of a living or magical thing could be seen in its aura, if you could make sense of what you were seeing and saw clearly enough that is - both of which were hard states to achieve.
That meant it was possible, in theory, to go diagnosing someone's physical and spiritual health, determining any magic in effect upon them... or reading their emotions.
Now, color him brilliant, but Xander had to ask himself this: what about any given person changed faster than their emotions? So, that was most probably the source of the near-continual state of color flux and pattern shift he saw. And, if he could figure out a way to come to an understanding of that from a more solid angle, say by reading their postures and so on, that should give him a handle for sorting that out, as well as answer such questions as 'why did Willow have colors that he saw in no one else - color patterns that, as near as he could tell, reacted very strongly to HIM of all people' and, on a possibly related note, 'why did that portion of her aura flare when she was standing before him framed by the romance stacks?'
Any aid in figuring this out would be welcome.
So, of definite items on the agenda, one was to hunt down some good books on reading people so he could get another frame of reference to help him sort out all of that. Second was almost certainly to dig up a medical book or two, as that too would assist him in deciphering what he saw in people's auras.
About the only regret he had now about what Mr. Mage Dude had done to him was the maddening holes left in his knowledge, preventing him from using so many of his abilities.
Case in point: Seeing auras was one thing, but understanding what he saw in them was, well, you know, kinda sorta useful too?
Exhibit B would be the technomancy, techno-pagan stuff. Okay, so maybe Mr. Mage Dude had been of the impossibly mistaken impression that Xander was a model student and thus knew beforehand about all that basic science stuff. But, since that was most emphatically NOT the case, Xander was finding he had a capstone without a pyramid under it, and building the darn thing was looking to be a very daunting task.
Thus, Willow to the rescue.
It had been two weeks now since Mr. Mage Dude's visit, and they were feeling more comfortable in their martial arts classes. The trio were far too raw to be able to see any reliable measures of their own progress so far, but their teachers appeared quite happy with them, so that was a good sign, and they did not stint on practice.
The archery was not going so well, but then they had neither a good teacher nor any reliable books to draw from, so it was pure experimentation and trial and error on their parts, which was not going so fast.
Their mutual bike rides were becoming slightly less onerous and they had found quite a few spots in the open areas around town that made for great views or fun places to frolic with frisbees. So they'd taken to having picnics.
After having sprouted hundreds of grape seeds, apricot pits, apples, limes, cherries, and watermelon seeds from their lunches, as well as acorns they found just lying about, and even once a bunch of grain because Willow wanted to try wheat grass in her smoothie, Xander had felt he'd fully mastered the sprouting cantrip and went on and constructed from theory the next step up in that department, which was able to grow a young plant about a foot taller.
So, on their bike rides they were now revisiting plenty of their previous lunch locations so Xander could practice his new spell on those old seeds, granting him rapid progress, at least in that one narrow area, while Willow had started to sprout their leftover lunch seeds herself.
Xander and his friends had also developed a new game.
In the past week he had been typing out a substantial amount of the Codex, which even Willow found to be dull. So he was, at the same time, producing what he liked to call 'Xander's Translation of the Annotated Codex of Magical Thought' in between boughts of Jesse hitting him with a rolled up comic book for his pomposity whilst proclaiming this aggrandized title.
The other two called it the Xander-Dex, and Willow devoured it shamelessly, cherishing every line as he distilled Throckmorton's theories into a readable form while doing his best not to diminish the value of the substance. When he did leave a point unclear, however, Willow was then able to go to the original version he'd typed out for clarification. Then, after struggling through that mind-numbingly dull work for comprehension, she had him add those concepts to the Xander-Dex, thus editing his work for quality as they went along. And he was, while doing so, internalizing and processing far more of the original Codex than he had even thought possible.
With the constant practice, Xander was even beginning to learn how to be a decent typist. But it was Jesse who had seized upon a few minor, educational cantrips that his best bud had typed out and started their latest game.
There was, in the Codex, a collection of extremely minor jinxes that could cause an unwary target to belch, blink, cough, giggle, nod, scratch, sneeze, twitch, wink or yawn, and once these had reached the Xander-Dex, they had caught Jesse's interest in a most extreme way so he had exerted himself to master them all, chiefly using his two friends as targets, who had responded in kind, leading to a furious few days of involuntary faux pax during classes and other embarrassing situations before they called a mutual truce.
Now Jesse was eagerly awaiting the coming of school so he could use those spells on bullies during classes. But they still found plenty of use for them whenever the trio went out to, like, cruise the mall or whatever. Having learned all he could from massive over-use of the belch cantrip, Jesse was already deep into studying up on the specific theories needed to create the next level - the fart spell, something with which he was determined to have endless amusement.
But he dreamed of even greater accomplishments down the road, the Holy Grail of minor jinxes, the ability to make jocks wet themselves.
It was his dream.
Well, that and the ability to make Cordelia fall madly, passionately in love with him, but so far none of their educational cantrips dealt with that. So Jesse didn't even know where to start on building that spell.
The level of complexity and utility of the cantrips they were using was very small, the equivalent to either having on hand a small tool that you didn't actually have on hand (like a dab of makeup, for the cosmetic illusion Xander had been using, or a whoopee cushion for the fart spell), or about ten minutes of work on something you could already do an ordinary way.
Neither applied to dating Cordelia. Pity, as Jesse claimed it would relax him greatly when he eventually got the queen of his dreams to feed him peeled grapes while his head rested in her lap.
But of those traumatized youths, Xander was finding his fulfillment in trying to master all of that knowledge poured into his head, while Willow seemed to draw her strength from Xander and his increasing capacity. However, Jesse had found his peace by joining Bible study groups and was now getting along great with his minister while he sought solace in the pleasing word of God.
That was doing a favor for all of them, as Jesse came away from those meetings radiating a sense of peace that helped stabilize all of them. It did not stop him from dreaming of one day creating a minor jinx to cause a jock to vomit, however.
Bless those involuntary reflexes, and the spells that could trigger them.
Of course, none of these would work on the undead, but what do you expect from a minor training cantrip meant for little kids? They weren't all that useful in a fight in any case, as people all pumped up on adrenaline would be far too likely to resist them.
Which was a pity, really, as that left their only purpose embarrassing others.
No, the jocks and bullies of Sunnydale High were not all that likely to enjoy the upcoming school year. Both Xander and Jesse were, independently, working on counterspells for prank cantrips in expectation of the trio's truce breaking down, however. And Xander was working on a spell to give an underwear wedgie, so he'd have a useful tool for when the Prank Cold War turned hot.
Willow had made her own discovery in the form of the stitch spell, overlooked by Xander as he couldn't imagine any real use for it. That was an error on his part, however, and she was quick to point out how that handy sewing cantrip could be used both to mend old or worn clothes (something he had plenty of), but also to embroider things like, oh, say, crosses onto outfits.
That gave the spell instant meaning to the vamp-shy trio, who wanted their vamp-proof suits as fast as they could be obtained. But that wasn't the sort of thing you find off the rack at K-Mart, and until Xander's Uncle paid them for their polishing they probably couldn't afford it anyway, even if they did.
Jess wanted to cover the whole town in crosses, however Xander didn't think that would work.
Throckmorton had very little to say about holy symbols, but Van Hellsing's journal had been far more informative. He'd stated authoritatively that any given symbol's potency was derived from three factors: the faith of the person who blessed/prepared it, the belief of the person using it, and how widespread was the religion it represented, with weakness at any one of those points still yielding a usable object, and one person could both prepare and use a symbol at need.
Thus, someone from an otherwise dead Roman cult could prepare and use a medallion to hold a vampire at bay in spite of it not being a major religion anymore, if he had a strong belief. Or your ordinary Joe on the street could use a cross the same way, and if it was prepared by a faithful clergyman Joe could be nearly an atheist and still have it work (thus a reason crosses were so very popular).
Van Hellsing had cautioned that you couldn't use any symbol you personally disagreed with, so a true atheist was out of luck. Also, not every dude with a cross was going to be thwarting vampires, because if he prepared it himself and had no faith he was not going to get any results out of it. It would also be a nasty (albeit short) surprise for a guy without faith to learn that his friendly neighborhood priest was just holding down the job for the money, not out of any religious commitment, and the things he blessed no better than a toy bought at K-Mart.
So if a nearly non-religious tailor sewed crosses onto Willow's jacket he would not be doing her any favors. Likewise, a person would have to be very faithful indeed to spray paint crosses on the doors to all of the tombs in town and have them work out anywhere near as good as an individual cross would be with an even halfway faithful person holding on to it.
They couldn't say with any authority that they even know anyone with that kind of faith. Actually, it was worse, as they couldn't say with any certainty they knew of a priest with ANY faith! There wasn't some convenient meter to plug into the back of their heads that you could use to check, after all.
Spooky, really, as the only test they knew of kind of involved risking your life trying to hold off a vampire with a symbol that may or may not be any good.
On the other end of the scale, opposite the cheap junk and dodges, the best examples of the most effective symbols would obviously be strong in every department. So a strong Rabbi giving an orthodox Jew a blessed Star of David would see some serious performance out of that, as Judaism was still very much a major religion.
When he'd learned that, Jesse had extended an invitation to the duo to join him in his Bible study classes, citing it as a self-defense measure every bit as useful as Xander's martial arts classes or Willow's healthy diet.
Seeing the logic of his viewpoint, they'd agreed. Even Willow, who had replied (on being questioned) that most of the Bible was the Old Testament, and that was the same either for Christians or Jews. They both read and believed in the stories of Moses, Abraham, Joseph being sold into Egypt, and all of that.
In fact, Jesus Christ had lived his whole life as a good Jewish boy. He was born and raised as one of the covenant people and had never once broken the law given to Moses... although, he may have pointed out a time or two that the additions to that law the Jews came up with on their own were not quite as valid as the ones God carved into a rock with His finger.
There were some, many in fact, who maintained that the only reason Judaism and Christianity were two separate faiths was because of a political schism at the time of Jesus, instituted by a Sanheidren who hadn't wanted to hand over power to him by recognizing him as the rightful Messiah.
So she felt fine with Bible study for all of them, as you could not have faith in something if you didn't know what it was. And the only faith they could truly count on for preparing symbols and all that was their own.
And, speaking of study brought them back to the Sunnydale Public Library.
"Hey, Wills, I'm going to be..." Xander trailed off as his third eye fed him information he didn't want to believe.
"What is it, Xander? What's wrong?" The redhead looked up at him in obvious concern.
Xander grabbed his Willow by the arm and led her slightly deeper into the romance stacks, to which she responded by an ever increasing blush. He was standing sort of close to her and her thoughts were sliding into babble.
"Um, Wills? Did you know there were magic books in this library?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" she looked up at him, puzzled that he would say such a thing about her natural environment.
To his aura sight it was obvious. Magic things had a bright glow like a light bulb compared to the background appearance of the general non-living shelves full of books, and several of those books had the glow of magic, some slight, as though they merely detailed spells, others bright, as if the books were, themselves, enchanted.
A few minutes wandering around proved it was true in all sections of the library. There were many books, hidden in among the normal ones, that had obvious signs of magic. There was no way it could be accidental.
"So, is it just me or has this place always had magic and I just never knew it?" he asked at last as they returned to where they'd started.
"I've never found any before," Willow offered comfort in spite of being confused herself.
"Well, the Amazing Xander-Vision says that at least one of the librarians is a witch, and we've got magic books scattered all over the place, in and among the rest of the collection."
"Look, there are some magic ones right here." Her best friend indicated a space on the shelf among the hardback romance novels, when Willow had always preferred the paperbacks (easier to hide that you were reading one).
"Here, you stay there. I've got some things I've got to look for." The teen left her without so much as a chance to squeak her surprise, or dismay at being abandoned there in the romance stacks.
Standing where Xander had left her, Willow looked down at the books on the shelves and saw the library had five copies of the 'Magic of Life, Magic of Love' by Casanova, and three copies of 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles' on the shelves.
Willow picked up the former, turning the cover over in her hands, not certain if she dared to open it. When she was standing thus, Amy Madison came upon her and said, "You shouldn't use that."
"Eep?!?" cue instant petrified-from-embarrassment teen trying to hide what she was looking at, as Willow shrank upon being discovered.
Amy just pushed her friend down into a seat. "Look, we've known each other since kindergarten, right? So that makes you a friend, and friends don't let friends fall prey to sex fiends. That book," Amy pointed to the tome on sex magic that Willow was still desperately trying to hide under the reading desk. "is all about how to use sex magic for fun and profit, while that book," this time she pointed out the many copies of 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles' on the shelf, "is all about how to take advantage of the people who use the spells in the book you're holding."
Amy swept her hair back out of her face and sat beside her friend, closely so they could whisper. "Look, my mom told me all about it. I don't know from trying to use them personally, or anything. But according to her there are three books that between them contain all but a very small fraction of the sex magics ever created (say 94 percent, but nobody really knows for sure), as they were all compiled and recorded during the peak of the 'Golden Age of Sex Magic', where the spells were in common use, easy to find, and research ran high. New spells and rituals were created and old parts of the ancient art restored from obscurity by an interested elite that had nothing better to do. But our library here carries only two of the Golden Three."
"The first is that one," the blonde pointed to the book Willow was still holding and trying to hide, although nearly forgotten as her attention was no longer so much on her embarrassment anymore. "Written by Giacomo Casanova, who is THE Casanova of legend. It's his first one, and he wrote it when he was young and flush with success, calling it the 'Magic of Life, Magic of Love'. It details all of the then-common rituals young lovers could use to gain powers, bond to each other, etc; a near encyclopedia from the 'here is the art, have fun with it' perspective. The book is still quite common in some circles, having been reprinted and imitated many times. So far nobody's ever written a better 'How To' book for sex magic than he did."
The blonde tossed her hair back over her shoulders where it belonged before leaning in close to conspiratorially whisper, "Giacomo Casanova wrote two of the Golden Three books on sex magic, and was once arrested in his home city of Venice by the inquisition on charges of witchcraft - charges on which he was convicted! He wrote over twenty books in total, and died as a librarian, just like my mom is now. She works in this place, and I'm summering as an intern. Anyway, Casanova's other book, which she won't let me see a copy of until I'm sixteen, was entitled 'To My Younger Self', and he wrote it in his early seventies (and the last years of his life, when he was alone and disliked). She told me it's a much darker work, containing warnings of all of the darker aspects of sex magic, perfected by a thrill-seeking, power-corrupt, occult-practicing aristocracy in control all over Europe. In it he warns of hidden sides of sex magic, developed to control and dominate your lovers, and to which he, in his youth, had fallen victim. After having his fortunes ruined many times by these predators, he had sought for counters and defenses to their techniques, even developing some of his own. But, by the time the book was ready, those same predatory sex-mages that he sought to teach the young to defend against had begun being toppled all over Europe by the revolutions and wars being fought, destroying the ancient aristocracies that had turned sex magic into a tool of control and domination in the first place. Thus, copies of his second book are rare and hard to find as those very classes of people it was designed to defend against ceased to exist, on the whole. And, like I said, our library here doesn't have a copy, nor will mom let me use hers. I haven't even gotten a chance to look at it, really. She says that she won't until I'm sixteen and a cheerleader. How unfair is that?"
Willow, sitting there looking vaguely scared, did not have a comment at that time, something which Amy politely ignored, going on just as if she had been agreed with, "Anyway, nothing in the first book is safe to use without the second, because the third is so dangerous. It's called 'The Intimate Diary of Versailles', and contains a great selection of what the nobles liked sex magic for. Yes, there are a few rituals using sex as a source of power, even some abilities that Casanova's first handbook skipped over or he didn't know about to record. However, the majority of the content is about all those things he warned about in his second book - how to take advantage of lovers, use people's affections, warp and take control of them through the very sex rituals they had performed, and all of the dark and nasty stuff that turns a person into a possession of the sexual predator using the dark side of the arts, compiled by the practitioners of this seedy side, in the court that was the very capital for sex magic among the aristocracy that perfected it."
Amy pointed to the bookshelf. "As you can see, we carry many copies, which I think is strange. You wouldn't give anyone you liked a copy of the Diary of Versailles, as it is a handbook on how to be a very nasty person. So I don't know why we have any. But actually, we have six. I know one is undergoing repairs for stains, so I guess two are checked out right now. That means if you even THINK about using the arts in the first book, someone will be waiting to take advantage of you, which is sick and the real reason I came by to warn you when I saw you headed this way with Xander. Is he your boyfriend now?"
Willow just blushed uncontrollably, unable to speak.
Amy gave her a sly smile. "Well, tell him you'll have to wait, as the best stuff has to be performed when you're still a virgin, and you don't dare do ANY of them until I can somehow wheedle out of mom that second book on how to protect yourself from the rituals and stuff in the third."
The red-faced redhead made some sort of interrogatory squeak, while gingerly pointing a shy finger to the copies of the other sex book.
Amy raised an eyebrow. "The Diary of Versailles? It's actually a compilation of hundreds of spell books, grimories, and private journals left over by the noble elite, compiled for Napoleon and presented to him on his coronation as emperor as a gift by a courtesan who had been a part of the noble court scene and wanted him to start the sex-capades all over again by saying, 'look at how much fun we had taking advantage of those ignorant young folks!'"
The blonde shared a secret, girl-to-girl snort of dissatisfaction as she told in hushed whispers, "Mom says it's ironic, I call it sad, but the existence of a catalog of spells intended for taking advantage of the users of the innocent side of sex magic, taking control over bonds formed between them, breaking them, and otherwise toying with people who were in it for the fun, has mostly prevented any sort of wide scale resurgence of the use of sex magic. Any time a group tries, sooner rather than later somebody with a copy of the Diary of Versailles shows up and ruins it for everyone. The scarcity of Casanova's second book means most such groups are vulnerable, and having heard her stories and read a few spells out of the Diary, I don't DARE do any of the fun stuff until I've somehow read a copy of the one we're missing."
Willow was beet red and in the process of making a few vowel sounds.
Amy just shrugged. "The originals of all three are naturally in French, and that might prove a difficulty to us, but mom says that it just means that the students who take French in High School have more fun than anyone else. So of course I am planning to take it, even though mom says that she has hold of an excellent translation into English.
"Now, I know it sounds silly but Casanova actually sounds like he was a really nice guy. I mean, the first line of the story of his life goes 'I am writing My Life to laugh at myself, and I am succeeding.' "
She giggled, but Willow remained petrified.
"Now..." Amy paused, looking fretful and chewing her bottom lip a second before continuing in a hopeful tone, "You know about the vampires, right?"
Willow gave a small and terrified nod, bowled over by the things the other girl was discussing so openly.
"Good," the blonde sighed in relief. "That makes things much easier. Now look, there are two things the books on sex magic kind of gloss over that apply to our situation in this town. The first mom says is that it is a great way of dealing with the stress of living in Vampire central, and keeps you very relaxed. The second is that sex magic is VERY much focused on the essential energies of life and living, and are also a great deal of fun. But according to my mother, when you are 'high' on that energy just after a ritual you don't smell so good to vamps - like food that's just way too rich and you'd spaz yourself to death for tasting, so given a choice most of them would go for other targets that aren't a human equivalent of a six pack of Jolt colas and a double handful of hot chili peppers - the eye watering kind."
Amy sighed once more, dropping her hold on her friend. "The DOWN side, she says, is that sex magic is very much the drug trip of the magic world, with all the stuff that entails - it's highly addictive, it will burn you out, and so on."
Sitting there a few moments while Willow's heart fluttered and her face stayed fire engine red, Amy recomposed herself and stood up with a smile, dragging the poor redhead behind her. "Did you know that you are the first girl my age I know who is able to use magic? There's so much more we have to talk about! C'mon! I want to show you this nifty book I found on cosmetic spells, and makeovers!"
"Eep!"
End of Chapter Four
