Fic: Scorned 6/8

[dragonyphoenix]

Title: Scorned
Series: Lotus in Muddy Water
Fandom: BtVS
Characters/Pairing: Faith, Wesley
Rating: PG-13
Concrit: Please, in comments
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, not yet, but the will be once I've taken over the world. Bwah-ha-ha.
Summary: As she pinned the comb in her hair, whiteness snaked out from the comb, bleaching her hair. She screamed, arching forward as she fell into the sea. Twisting under the waves, she writhed under the water, as if scrabbling for escape. Her hand reached upward but was unable to break through the surface. With a final grimace, she relaxed into the sea's cold embrace. As her feet touched down to the bottom, white locks drifted in the current. The moon drifted across the horizon and was close to setting before she moved again. Her eyes opened and looked up from below the sea.
Notes: Many thanks to my most awesome betas: deird1, for making sure Wesley and Aidan didn't do anything totally unBritish; and diebirchen who catches my grammar errors. 
Notes: Petra Hyde Burnand was Faith's previous Watcher, the one killed by Kakistos.
Notes: The song Faith sings after almost being drawn into the ocean is “Siren Dresses” by the Spin Doctors. The punctuation and capitalization of “Sirens” is how I found it in the online lyrics.
Notes: Wesley is quoting Euripedes' Helen when he says “Winged maiden, daughter of the earth”
Notes: I should have mentioned this in Part 5 as well, but the training techniques Taylor is using for Wes and Faith come from a most excellent webcomic called Pillar of Faith.  Used with permission.  He updates once in a blue moon, but the comic is more amazing than I can describe.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Aidan led Faith out onto the beach. “Shouldn't I be wearing sweats or something?”

“Demons won't give you a chance to change.”

“You let Wes put on shorts,” Faith said with a sharp look.

“He's not the Slayer, but you're right. For his evaluation, I let him change because he wouldn't have given me his best effort while formally dressed,” Aidan said. “Now, into the water with you, up to your thighs. You'll be running five miles,” he gestured along the shoreline away from town, “and back.”

“Are you shitting me? These jeans will feel like lead weights in no time, and it'll ruin my boots.”

“Which will slow you down enough that I'll be able to keep up with you from the shore and, more importantly, it'll give you a real workout,” Aidan replied.

“I– hey, do you hear that?” Faith gazed off towards the sea.

“Hear what?” Aidan asked, waving a hand before her face. Her eyes didn't move.

“That music.” She started walking towards the water.

“Faith. Stop,” Aidan yelled. Faith kept going at the same pace. “Faith,” he shouted, grabbing her arm. Without taking her gaze off the ocean or slowing her steps, Faith shoved him into the sand.

“Faith!”

The waves splashed over her boots, but Faith kept walking until a bullet zinged by her. “Hey,” she said, shaking her head.

Both hands on a gun, Aidan said, “Next time I'll aim for a leg.”

“What the hell are you doing?” she said, as she splashed back to the shore.

“You were entranced and walking into the ocean.”

“So you shot me?” she asked.

“I needed to get you out of the trance,” he replied.

“You shot at me?”

“If I'd shot at you, you'd either be dead or injured,” he said.

“Shit, I don't remember any of it,” she said, looking down at her wet jeans.

He nodded. “I know. Come on, we need to get back to the house.”

Faith gazed back towards the water. Aidan wrenched her arm around. “Hey,” she shouted.

“It was taking you over again,” he said, “and I'd rather not shoot you. Come on, we're getting out of here.”

“Not sure I can,” Faith said, struggling against the sound only she could hear.

“Sing,” he told her. “It'll keep the demon out of your head.”

“Far away where the waves unwind, and the toothy rock crashes,” she sang as they raced back to the house.

“Brigit,” Aidan shouted. Brigit ran in from the kitchen, and Wesley rushed down the stairs, just as Aidan was settling Faith onto the living room couch.

“Good Lord, what happened?” Wesley asked.

“Faith, can you still hear it?” Aidan asked as Faith over Faith's singing, ““Bright sashed Sirens with their second guesses.”

“Faith, can you hear it?” he asked again.

“Have a bite worse than their roar,” she sang. “No?” she asked in response to his question. Sitting up, she added, “No, definitely not.”

“You will tell me what's going on immediately,” Wesley said.

“Brigit,” Aidan asked, “where do we keep our tomes on sirens and related demons?”

“Up here, right on that shelf behind you.”

“Good, start researching,” Aidan said.

“Are you suggesting Faith has been attacked by some sort of a siren?” Wesley asked.

“No,” Faith replied scornfully. “We're looking them up just for the fun of it.”

Aidan, having already decided Faith and Wesley had to work out their issues without his interference, asked Faith to describe what she'd heard.

“Why don't you?” she asked, still feeling shaken.

“Because I didn't hear it.”

“Huh? But it was clear as day,” she said.

Wesley stood up straighter, as if he were a child reciting in his first school play. “Many of the demons that use sound, or specifically song, to subdue their prey can target an acoustical, um, wave on one or more intended victims.”

“Was that supposed to mean something?” Faith asked.

Brigit dumped a pile of books on the table with an “Umph!” “He's suggesting you heard it, and Aidan didn't, because the demon wanted it that way, although it could also be that your Slayer abilities made the difference.”

“Really?” Wesley said with a huff. “Bergerson clearly suggests that all demons of the–“

“We can debate theory later,” Aidan interrupted. “Right now we need to determine what attacked Faith. What did it sound like?”

“It sounded like long, drawn-out wails, not like crying, but musical somehow. At least the first time it did,” Faith said.

Wesley glanced up at her description, but then gazed off as if recalling something.

“The first time?” Brigit asked.

“When I was running along the beach the other night, I heard it, but it was far off in the sea. The second time, it was just off shore.”

“It sounded different the second time?” Aidan asked.

“There was the same kind of wailing, but it wasn't as– it didn't sound as nice, not so musical. Also, there was this other sound, sort of like bones being crushed.”

“I heard it as well,” Wesley stated.

“But you were here in the house,” Brigit said.

“No, not just now,” Wesley said shaking his head. “Earlier, when Mr. Taylor sent me out running. I, somehow I'd forgotten until I heard Faith describing it.”

“You had practically passed out. Claire and Grace had to help you back,” Brigit said.

“A musical seduction of a targeted victim, then,” Aidan said. “And Faith was singing about sirens on the way up from the beach.”

“I was?” Faith asked. “I sang the first thing that popped into my head.”

“Why was she singing?” Wesley asked absentmindedly.

“To keep the siren out of her mind,” Aidan answered.

“Hmmm?” Wesley asked. “Oh yes, of course.” As if to cover up for missing such an obvious defense against siren song, he started reviewing what he knew. “Sirens. 'Winged maiden, daughter of the earth,' according to Euripedes,” he quoted.

“Wait, wings? I thought Wes said sirens sang people to death.” Faith asked.

“ Euripedes was playwright of classical Athens,” Aidan explained. “Naturally he'd describe the sirens as winged.”

“Huh?”

“The ancient Greeks thought of the sirens as bird-women who would lure sailors to their death with enticing songs and music,” Brigit added.

“Could we please get back to the subject at hand?” Wesley asked. “An enchanting song would fit in with what you heard the first time although not so well with the second encounter. Did you see the singer. Could you tell if she had feathers?” Wesley continued on without waiting for an answer. “There are certainly enough entities associated with the sea, such as the oceanids. Any number of them could easily be associated with sirens given that both groups were seen as Persephone's companions: Acaste, Ianira, Leucippe, Doris representing the bounty of the sea, or Metis as wisdom. Philyra who taught mankind to make paper–“

“Mr. Wyndam-Pryce,” Aidan barked. When Wesley, startled out of his musings, jerked his head up, Aidan added, “I think we should focus on creatures not beneficial to mankind.”

“Oh.” Wesley blushed, embarrassed to have lost focus so blatantly his first time out. “There are the sea witches, although I've never read anything that would associate them with song or music of any kind. The Romanian iele are related to the Greek nymphs, but they're only malevolent when crossed being more strongly associated with retribution than vengeance, very much like Nemesis actually. They also tend to gather in groups, leaving scorched earth behind where they've danced. The undead rusalka are, according to my cousin Percy, as pale as vampires. Each one is bound to the mortal plane by a comb, although Sellers claims that they'll die if their hair dries out, and that the combs keep their hair damp. Sort of odd, that. No need to wander off topic. They do sing, but nothing I've read suggests the kind of sounds Faith and I heard. The banshee, dressed in either gray or white, brush out their fair hair with silver combs.” He shivered. “Must be a disturbing sight. I don't suppose you saw this thing? No, it doesn't matter since whatever it is, it can't be a banshee. While they do keen, it's only to foretell death and not to cause it. The bean nigh, washers at the ford, are related to the banshee but, while washing blood from the grave clothes of those about to die does sound rather gruesome, they don't actually cause death.”

“Wait,” Faith said, sitting up. “You said something about a comb.”

“Well, yes,” Wesley said, uncertain how to proceed when someone was actually paying attention to him. A pedantic mode seemed the safest. “The banshee brush their hair out with combs, but I don't believe that's relevant. They aren't demonic, per se, but more–“

“There was a woman,” Faith interrupted. “She had a comb in her hair.”

“You didn't mention seeing anyone on the beach,” Aidan said.

“It was earlier,” Faith said. “At a beach party, there was this guy hanging out near the water with a woman. She had a comb. It had waves on it or something.”

“One woman wearing a comb hardly a demon makes,” Wesley said.

“What happened to the man?” Aidan asked.

Faith shrugged. “He came back to the party with me.”

“Now really,” Wesley said. “We have no indications that she was a demon.”

Brigit blanched as she looked at Aidan. “You think Faith took a demon's victim?”

“Hey,” Faith said. “It's my job to take out demons. What's the big?”

“The big,” Aidan said, “is that you were caught completely unaware.”

“Look, the banshee don't attack humans, and the rusalka live in rivers, not oceans,” Wesley explained. “Is anyone listening to me?”

“The banshee,” Brigit shouted. She started rummaging through the books on the table.

Giving her a condescending look, Wesley lectured, “While they might, as a related form to the bean nigh, be associated with rivers, the banshee are in no way associated with the sea.”

Still rummaging through the books, but now with an irritated look on her face, Brigit said, “You mentioned earlier that the banshee use distinctive combs in their hair.” Looking up into the air, she struggled for a name. “Patricia Lysaght,” she said triumphantly, “theorized that combs were associated with the banshee only because banshee and mermaids were confused for each other in local myths.”

“Mermaids and combs, really?” Wesley asked. “Do you happen to have a source available–“

“And what's this got to do with my demon?” Faith asked.

“Mermaids rarely attack humans,” Aidan said.

“But there might be related demons that do,” Brigit added.

“Back to the books?” Faith asked in obvious dismay.

“For us,” Aidan said. “I want you catching up on your sleep. This thing is dangerous. You should be well-rested before you attack it.”

“Oh,” Wesley said as Faith stood. “And you really should get out of those wet clothes. Umm, the carpet,” he said, referencing the water that had soaked into carpet and couch.

“No time to worry about that now,” Aidan said, as he shoved a tome into Wesley's hands.

 

 

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

OOO the baddie is after Faith because Faith took her prey away. She really doesn't like to share, and Faith was rude about it!

Glad I got Wes down correctly. It was fun putting him into pedantic mode.

yeah, they are on the right track. I don't have that - at the last minute something goes wrong - thing down yet. Although Back to the Future does a great job of it right at the end there! It's been on tv here lately.