Judgement

Rogue Demon Hunter

Sam Perlo-Freeman

This story is set about a month after the end of Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and setting in this story, which are the creation of Joss Whedon. I am merely borrowing them.

Thanks to Rachel Powell for beta-ing the story and for her comments and suggestions.

June 21^{st 2002 - Midsummer’s Day}

"Hail Sunna, breaker of dawn's might! We stand upon ceremony beseeching thee: Banish the darkness in this Golden Hour..."

Willow joined in the words of greeting as the first rays of the sun shed their light over the horizon, heralding the dawn of the solstice. As the sun’s warmth began to lift the chill of the night, Willow felt indeed like this was a new dawn for her. Sure, she was still nervous at what was to come - nervous as hell - but she also felt hope. This was her chance to truly face up to what she'd done, to face up to herself. There would be a price to pay, she knew, but she felt ready to face it.

Her fellow Witches had received her with grace and kindness, and had invited her to participate in this dawn ceremony before the hearing began. This had done much to alleviate her fears and inner turmoil. The lush, hilly landscape of the southwest of England had also re-awakened in her a sense of wonder, helping her to get outside her own head a bit. The scenery was beautiful of course, but Willow also felt a sense of ancient mystery - she could sense the power flowing through the land - the land where perhaps King Arthur had once ruled, and Merlin worked his Craft. Or maybe that was just her romanticised image of a new and far-off country. Whatever, it lifted her spirits, and helped put her in the right frame of mind for the day.

The current scene was not so romantic - no wooded grove, but a barren, worn hilltop surrounded by miles of rough, sparse, moorland - gorse, heather and peat bogs, with only the occasional tree. She had been warned that powerful magicks may be involved in the day's proceedings, and they needed to be as far from 'civilisation' as possible. That was of course a cause for concern, but she trusted these people. Just so long as she wasn't working any of the magic.

She turned her mind back to the dawn ritual.

***

Giles shuffled absently through the heather, a few hundred yards down from where the Witches were celebrating their Midsummer, atop Cut Hill. (Not the highest point on Dartmoor by some margin, but it had the virtue of being in the middle of nowhere. The nearest village was some four miles hence, ironically enough called Willsworthy. Hopefully a good omen.)

He had no problem with this act of Pagan worship, but it was not something of which he could feel himself a part. He was not exactly irreligious, rather he saw himself as a pragmatist in that area. What worked, he would use. Wiccan rituals and magic carried enormous power, and indeed he’d just a month ago used them to help save the world. But the whole God & Goddess, universal energy thing, he wasn’t greatly bothered with. Equally, he knew that there was nothing so effective at scaring the cold shit out of vampires and many other demons as the rituals and paraphanalia of Christianity, but he certainly wasn’t a Christian. His knowledge of the arcane, the occult and the extra-dimensional was second to only a handful, he liked to think, but as to who or what were the ultimate forces, and what, if any, the ultimate purpose behind this crazy and wonderful Universe, this left him as baffled and bewildered as anyone. If he had a religion, he would have to say he was a Watcher. And, he laughed bitterly to himself, that was one in which he had been seriously losing faith these past few years, and from which he had already been excommunicated once.

For all the warmth and light of the rising sun, Giles’s mood was apprehensive. Despite the warm welcome and hearty hospitality offered by the Coven, he had not been able to dispel from within himself the unesase left behind by his dream of the night before. He trusted them, but he wasn’t sure if Willow was ready to face this trial. She would not face execution or even imprisonment as she might at the hands of a secular court, but they would be probing today the very depths of her soul. And there was so much … unresolved within her, he sensed. Last night he had talked further with Dragonwind, the Coven leader, of what might be involved. Dark magick had wormed its way deep within her being, probably in ways of which she was scarcely aware, and removing that could require a cleansing ritual that would scour the very fabric of her soul.

He looked back up towards the hilltop, and the colourful, joyous circle of worshippers, and suddenly he felt very alone. He shook the feeling off quickly. He was here to be with Willow, to support her through this, not to wallow in his own maudlin reflections. He stopped for a moment of quiet to listen to the sounds of the moor, the birdsong, the whistling wind, the soft brushing of the gorse and heather, then started to clamber his way back up the hill, to where the hearing would soon be commencing.

***

It was now eight in the morning, and most of the group had departed for some much needed catching up of sleep, or a hot Midsummer’s breakfast in one of the nearby villages. With Willow and Giles, there remained five of the Coven. Three were to conduct the hearing: at their head was Dragonwind, a tall, imposing woman in her forties with jet black hair. Her features were flinty and hard-set, but not unkind. She was dressed in black, a chemise-top and a long, flowing skirt, which could have made her look almost comically like the fairy tale stereotype of a Witch, but for her demeanour, commanding yet comfortable, that quickly banished all thought of ridicule. Alongside her on her right was Forest, a dreadlocked, goateed man in his thirties whose face frequently showed a mischievous grin, and on her left, Shannon, a plumpish blond woman of a similar age.

These three sat cross-legged on small wooden meditation stools in a small arc in front of a wide cairn not far from the hilltop, that served as an altar. Willow sat facing them, with Giles next to her. Giles had brought a mat and some cushions to increase his comfort, but Willow chose to sit directly on the ground. Two other Wiccans, Kevin and Leaf, were present to assist with rituals and practicalities, and completed a loose circle. In the middle a pentagram had been inscribed, and around them a circle had been cast, with white, yellow and red candles round it, somehow kept alight despite the wind. The air was thick with the pungent smell of the sage that had been burnt in the casting of the circle, imbuing it with the energy of wisdom. To this end also, Dragonwind, Forest and Shannon all wore necklaces of Tigerseye, as well as prominent, metallic pentagrams. Dragonwind held a long, ornate dagger, or Athame.

Dragonwind stood, and the rest of them followed suit. She held the athame aloft in both hands and, looking slightly upwards, chanted

“I call on guides and spirits higher than I
To awaken the wisdom that we hold inside
As we work for the light make this spell right
Harming none and helping all is how it shall be
I call on Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, to share the wisdom
Of the Ages and Ages of Wisdom
This we make true by the pentagrams we wear,
Earth, Fire, Sea and Air
Ruled by spirit as all should be
This we make true”

Her voice rang with deep, smooth, crisp harmonics, like a well-tempered bell. The other witches chanted quietly with her. She then turned towards Willow.

“Blessed be. Willow Rosenberg, know that you are here among us not as a prisoner, but as a sister. This does not mean that this will not be a searching and painful enquiry, with hard judgements to be made, or that you do not face a difficult road ahead to make restitution. But we are not here to stand above you as the holy and righteous over the outcast criminal. Nor is this a court of law, a place of intricate legal argument and hair-splitting. We are here to hear the truth, as far as you and others can tell it and we can divine it, and to offer you a path to redemption. It will not be an easy one, and there may well be points along it when you wish for the comfort and certainty of a prison cell. But we believe this is a better path both for your own sake and for the sake of justice. Do you understand?”

“I… Blessed be. I understand. I am ready.”

“Good. Let us begin. Please, sit down.”

***