Part VII - Dungherjahar Ashesh

Willow turned the key and walked into the apparently empty house.

“Buffy!” she called out, throwing her backpack on the couch. “Buffy!” when she was about to shout once more, she heard a noise coming from the basement, closely followed by the door opening.

“Hey!” a very tired Slayer holding a feather duster in her right hand appeared .

“Whatcha you doing?”

“Cleaning.” She answered throwing her exhausted body on the living room couch.

“Why the sudden cleaning bug?” the Wicca continued asking, sitting down next to her friend.

“Boredom mostly. I don’t think I’ve ever been stuck alone in this house for so many straight hours. It gets really dull very quickly.”

“Alone? Where did Spike go?” Willow asked surprised.

“He’s upstairs.”

Willow look at her inquiringly.

“Don’t ask.” Buffy dogged her friend’s curious eyes and changed the subject: “So, you got anything new on little ET?”

“Nop. Not yet. Tara is coming over later to do some research with me. We’re going to work on translating the rest of the passage about the ritual.” Willow’s face immediately lit up when she mentioned Tara’s name.

Buffy smiled sweetly at her friend and asked:

“How are you guys doing?”

“Better.” Was the single answer Buffy got, but she could tell that things were going very well by the blush that quickly sneaked up Willow’s pale checks.

“Well, I’m going upstairs, take a long relaxing bath and lay down for a while. Let me know if you guys find out anything new?”

Willow nodded, watching her friend slowly climb up the stairs.

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Lazily, the Slayer let the warm water surround her aching body. She closed her eyes and relished in the balmy feeling that seeped inside her through every pore of her soft skin. Her mind swayed between reality and the limbo of sweet unconsciousness. The moment of bliss didn’t last for very long. A knock on the door forced her to open her heavy eyelids.

“What?” she sighed annoyed.

“Uhm-Buffy?” Tara’s faltering voice came from the other side of the door. “You better come out here.”

“Hum.” She moaned, “I’m coming.” She rouse from the tub reluctantly and wrapped a towel around her wet body.

“Buffy! Hurry up.” Willow’s very disturbed voice demanded.

“What?” Buffy hissed opening the door abruptly.

It wasn’t necessary for Willow to explain anything. In her hands the Wicca held the book the strange creature had tried to steal a few nights back. A powerful and pulsating red light emanated from it.

“What happen to it?” the Slayer inquired.

“We think someone used a locating spell on it.” Willow explained. When she noticed the frown on her friend’s face she continued: “Someone used a spell to find this book. It’s now sending a signal to whoever performed the enchantment.”

“Huh? You can do that?” Buffy asked.

“Yes. If-if you have a strong connection to a certain object you can.” Tara stuttered nervously.

“You mean to tell me that whoever did this spell can now find this-“ Buffy was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass coming from her room. “Spike!”

In seconds Buffy was in front of the door that led to her room. As she opened it she saw Spike’s motionless body laying on the floor. She ran to him, but the moment she set foot inside her room everything went blank. Suddenly she was hovering in blackness. She knew her eyes were open but she couldn’t see anything. She waved her arms and leg around trying to reach for something solid. There was nothing there to touch. Her heart raced as the darkness that surrounded her seemed to take over her state of mind. After a few moments panic settled in her chest and all she could do was scream. As she opened her mouth and forced the air out of her lungs she was surprised to find there was no sound coming from her throat. “What is this?” she questioned herself, she couldn’t stop thinking: “Does this have anything to do with the Gentlemen?”. She was about to continue her line of thought when she slowly felt the familiar sensation of being sprawled on a hard surface. Slowly she realised her eyes were closed. “Ah! Just another dream!” she concluded, but when she forced her eyelids to open she saw she was laying on the floor and right in front on her lay Willow’s unconscious body. Sluggishly, she sat up and inspected the room, realising it was her bedroom. Behind Willow rested Tara, her body curled up into a little ball.

“Spike!” she whispered desperately scanning the room for the old vampire. To her relief, she found him laying on the floor, on the other side of the bed. She knelt down next to him, carefully holding the towel around her body and stretched out her arm shaking him into awareness.

“Hum?” he moaned opening his eyes. “Wha happen?”

“You ok?” she asked worried.

He nodded. From behind her, Buffy heard Willow and Tara stir. The Wiccas looked at each other and were relieved to find that nothing had happen to either of them.

“Buffy.” The Slayer turned to see Tara’s worried expression looking back at her. “The book… it’s gone.”

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Everyone sat around the dinning room table in silence. Xander was the first to dare say something:

“What do we do now?”

After a pause Willow exposed her idea:

“This… thing didn’t know how to perform the ritual, that’s why it needed the book. That was clear to all of us. What Tara and I think is that it didn’t even know it needed the…” she paused giving Spike a quick glance and then continuing: “inhuman heart. I guess that’s why it never came for Spike.”

“So now that it’s got the book how long till it figure Spike’s his…” Dawn paused in a very similar way that Willow had just done. “Spike’s it?”

“We don’t know.” Tara started. “From what we translated, it needs something other than… Spike. It needs the…” she stopped to check the sheets of paper she held and read: “Dunghe-dunghejar Ashesh, the Dungherjar Ashesh. Sorry, ha-hard to pronounce.”

“Well, where’s this Dungie thingy and how do I get my hands on it.” Buffy asked matter-of-factly.

“The problem is we don’t know what it is. We have to go to the Magic Shop and research it.” Willow explained.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get cracking.”

They all stood up, including Dawn. Buffy gave her a look and shook her head.

“Please, Buffy. I wanna help.” The younger Summers girl pleaded.

Buffy thought for a while and realised that it was time to include her kid sister, plus she would probably be safer in the Magic Shop where she could keep an eye on the teenager, than alone at home.

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They had been sitting around the table, cover to their necks in thick, heavy, smelly books for hours now.

“I give up.” Spike sighed dropping the book he was reading on the table.

“I wish Anya was here. She’d probably know what this Dungher is.” Willow moaned.

“Wish granted.” The ex-demon’s familiar voice came from the door that led to the training room.

“Anya!” Xander exclaimed surprised to see his ex-bride.

“Willow, can you tell this… thing I am not talking to it EVER again.” Anya said in a cold and distant tone, her chin high in the air as she turned away from Xander.

“Anya, we-“

“Willow, tell it!” Anya repeated.

“Anya?” Willow whispered. She really didn’t want to get in the middle of this.

“Tell it!”

Willow sighed: “Xander, Anya isn’t talking to you ever again.”

“But, An-“ Xander started to protest, but Anya cut him off, holding up her hand to his face and walking towards the table.

“What’s the problem?” she ignored Xander’s pleas and spoke calmly.

Xander was going to start talking but now it was Buffy’s turn to cut him off:

“What’s the Dungher-“ she looked at the piece of paper that had something scribbled in it with Willow penmanship: “Dungherjar Ashesh.”

“Dungherjahar Ashesh.” Anya corrected.

“You know what it is?” Tara asked.

“It’s a powerful dagger used to kill the Lord of the Cimbels.” She walked behind the counter, opened the cash register and took out a small key.

All eyes in the room were on her when she moved towards a small wooden cupboard and unlocked it. Inside were three books that were three times as thick as the ones that were now abandoned on the table. With a lot of effort she tried to pick one of the books up, but it was too heavy and she would have fallen if it hadn’t been for Xander helping her. He gave her a soft smile which made Anya’s ex-demon heart boil in anger, so she simply let go of the book. Under the unexpected burden Xander lost balance and fell to the floor with the book crushing his chest.

“Can’t breathe… oxygen.” Xander breathed forcefully.

Anya stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, enjoying the view as Dawn and Buffy immediately came to his rescue. Buffy easily managed to pick the book up and drop it on the table.

“So what does this baby have?” the Slayer asked, happy to see that everything was falling into place. Even though the chill that froze her stomach told her this story was about to get ugly, she’d rather know what she was facing then live in ignorance of it.

Anya gave Xander another cold look before she turned towards Buffy and started looking though the giant book. They all stood there in silence watching the shopkeeper go through the eggshell coloured pages.

“Here it is. She finally spoke, pointing to a black and white drawing of an old man. It was a normal man but there was something wrong with his eyes. They were entirely black; they had no whites like a normal person. “That’s Aronh, Lord of the Climes.”

“So who was this demon?” Buffy asked impatiently.

“Oh, he was no demon, he was very human alright.” Anya clarified. “Story goes he was the most powerful sorcerer that ever lived. Really big on black magic, hence the black eyes. To make a long story short: lived five thousand years ago, very powerful, wanted to rule the world, unleashed a plague on humanity, diseases, famine, death, yada, yada, yada, humans got together, humans killed him with the Dungherjahar Ashesh, which in Sumerian means Will of the Gods.”

Everyone stared at her.

“Let me guess, this Aronh guys had followers, right?” Buffy deduced. When Anya nodded, she sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. “The Climes?”

“Bingo. They vowed to bring him back even if it took them a thousand years to do it. For that they would need the same weapon that destroyed him.”

“Guess they are running about four thousand years late.” Spike groaned. “Persistent little buggers, aren’t they?”

“This is no time for jokes, Spike.” Buffy warned. “What does Aronh have to do with the First Slayer?”

“The First Slayer?” Anya repeated.

“Yeah. Buffy stumbled into a Khind’Ara that was trying to steal this book…”

As Willow told Anya the long story, Buffy fixed her eyes on the old man sketched on the worn out page. It wore a long, dark, hooded robe, which covered every inch of him except for half of his face. 

“So now we were looking for the dagger.” Willow finished.

“Summon the First Slayer? Are you sure?” Anya asked. “Sometimes Djaklan is kinda tricky to translate.”

“Yep. That’s the one thing I’m sure of in the entire passage.” Willow assured.

“Maybe it has to do with the power associated with the Slayer.” Xander offered.

“Well, whatever this thing has to do with the First Slayer, it needs the dagger to perform the ritual. Guess we have to get our hands on that thing before anyone else does.” Buffy affirmed. Turning to Tara and Willow she continued: “You guys search the net and see if you can locate the dagger. Anya, we are going to need your connections with the dealers of magic merchandise.”

The ex-demon nodded, headed towards the telephone and picked it up.

“The rest of us, guess we have to search for a connection between this Aronh and the First Slayer. So noses in the books please.” Buffy directed.

Everyone sighed in unison except for Dawn. She was always willing to participate in the Scooby Gang research parties.