fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [11/30]

Gabrielle hadn't received word from home this week. Ordinarily that was little cause for concern; not even her Greece, strange as it was, could send correspondence with anything like the (more or less) reliable speed of the current era. This week, though, it had her fretting. Were her parents all right? Was Lila? Helen, wherever she was now? Salmoneus, Autolycus, Hower and Minya, Flora, Pandora, Joxer, her Amazons, Homer and the boys at the Academy, Hercules and Iolaus?

And Xena . . .

That was the one that really twisted her stomach with worry, even though she remained mostly convinced that no matter what this thing was, Xena could handle it. The what-ifs were just persistent enough that Gabrielle couldn't help imagining a world without the Warrior Princess in it.

Her life without Xena in it.

That was . . . unthinkable.

On one level, she was aware of how many people she'd met and learned to care about throughout the past several years of her travels. It wasn't until moments like now, though, that she realized just how many people there were, and the thought had her in a pensive but agitated mood.

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"Peter had some business of his own here in the library," Ender sort of lied smoothly, "So we figured we should join forces."

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," Wes returned, standing up so that he could extend a hand to Peter over one of the walls of books. And if he maybe looked a little bemused as to what sort of other business someone might have in the library that wasn't about this, well. Could you blame him?

"I've a few texts that look, er, passably promising if you'd like to take a look," he offered. "I can't say I'm entirely hopeful at this point, but..."

Peter's smile got increasingly more polite. "Hey, if you think it's something, it's something," he said. "Lead on, Wyndam-Pryce."

"What playground are these texts in?" Ender wanted to know, trying to radiate only a little ignore the bravado so that Peter wouldn't pick up on it. "Demonology?"

"A few," Wesley said, indicating an especially tall section of book-wall. "Though I can't say any of them have been all that helpful, and really, I'm not certain it's the right direction. I've moved on to looking at mystical enchantments, as they can generally be a bit broader in scope..."

Here, Ender and Peter, have a stack of really old books!

Ender took them, and handed two to Peter, who immediately pulled a face (but said nothing, thank God). "Summarize it for me?" Ender suggested. "We need some idea of what we're looking at."

That face from Peter earned him a side-eye -- at least, until Wesley remembered getting that very same face from Buffy in response to his books from time to time, and he winced. Right. Buffy.

Wesley quickly shook his head to clear that thought from his mind, though the sting from the memory lingered in his expression. "There are sorts of -- veils, I suppose one would say, that can be cast on individuals or groups," he summarized. "Particularly effective in wiping memories. In fact, according to this text here --" He leaned over the book-wall to indicate one of the books Ender had just passed off to Peter, "-- even when confronted with the reality of what they've forgotten, subjects of these spells will immediately forget again, regardless of whatever evidence to the contrary there might be." Now he was reaching for another book, because one thing Wesley lacked was the capacity to stop talking. "And I thought," he said, flipping through to get to a particular passage, "that if it was coupled with this spell here, used primarily for vanishing things -- it might have a similar effect to what we're seeing."

"It's not the former, unless they altered it," Peter piped in. "I don't know much about this magic mumbo-jumbo, but these people, they don't just forget again."

Valentine's increasing confusion and desperation had kind of stuck with him.

He did have a point, but Ender wasn't going to hammer it in further. Wesley looked nervous enough already. "How likely is it that someone would be able to fit these two spells together?"

Yes. Nervousness was a thing. And now uncertainty as well -- Wesley bit his lip, pondering what Peter had just said.

"I can't be certain," he admitted. "Tara would know better than I -- but in general, at least in my universe, the existence of one spell doesn't preclude another one from being used. That is to say -- it's possible."

Yeah, that wasn't all that helpful, Wes.

"But you say you've spoken to someone who hasn't forgotten again?" he asked Peter. "What, ah. What happened? If you don't mind..."

"For the five minutes I spoke to her, she seemed to be pretty aware of what I'd told her about what was going on," Peter said briskly. "Of course, she didn't stick around too long."

Oh.

"I'm sorry," Wesley said sincerely, looking down. "I -- I haven't had to -- to hear something like that."

Yet.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Then I hope you won't have to," he said, "But apologies aren't going to get us any closer to a solution, so let's just toss that one off the table and move on."

"Which book held information on the second spell you mentioned?" Ender asked, much more lightly than Peter.

"This one here," Wesley said, leaning over to indicate one of the books he'd handed over. "Chapter... six, I believe it was. Conjuring and Vanishing."

They were just lucky it was one of the ones in English. The state he was in right now, Wesley might just as easily hand over something in Latin without even noticing.

Library, Wednesday [11/30]

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