Amsterdam, Netherlands

23 October 2004

Faith,

Heads up for you. I have to write because Willow says someone has been listening in our cell phones. Giles told me to write instead. Says the CEO of the Elemental Courier Service we're using owes him big time and is the most secure way to exchange info. You'd think that a guy who can call in favors from all these powerful magic types would have more of a life.

Something big is up. Ever since that godawful, bloody mess Angel stirred up in L.A. last May there have been all kinds of big bads, little bads, wish-they-were-bads of the demon world trying to take a piece of the Wolfram and Hart pie. Yeah, I know. You're waiting for me to tell you what's big about that. Nothing we haven't dealt with before. But something really big is up and I don't if it's just a local thing or if it's small world after all.

We got word of another Slayer and decided we'd better bring her in. (Weird stuff happens to everyone, but if it's going to try and eat you or your pals for a midnight snack a little warning is a good thing.) Our best information said that she was in Amsterdam, so Giles and I met at the train station around dusk this evening and set off a locator spell.

When I realized where it was leading us, I thought I'd die--of laughter. The Red Light District. Giles didn't catch on until we were actually in the alley where all the girls are sitting in the windows. He started that sputtering thing he always does when he's embarrassed and doesn't know what to say.

We had a hell of time getting down that alley. Giles managed not to gawk too much because he was trying to control the spell. Eventually we figured out it was the 'lady' who looked a bit like Courtney Love, but not quite as trashy. Then we had to figure out how to make contact.

I told Giles that I couldn't wait to see him justify this expense to Accounting. He sputtered and said "As the Senior Slayer, don't you think you should initiate contact?" I told him he had more training with making intial contact and he said that they'd never trained on Red Light worker contact. So I told him they'd better add new curriculum to Watcher training. It could be an elective.

"It was an elective in the old days, but we were not meeting Potentials," he muttered.

"I so didn't hear that." I think I said that one to myself.

"Contrary to popular belief...oh never mind."

"Never ever gonna mind that one."

And there he went. Shaking in his poor little Watcher boots. I told him not to worry, she just had the ability to literally break him in two. He didn't think that was funny. He never actually had to complete the transaction. He had knocked at the window and she'd opened her door and they were talking when a scream came from behind the curtained window next door. I wasn't sure if it was something I should be worried about or not. The games johns play and all that, but our Slayer knew. She'd pushed Giles aside and was breaking the window. A bouncer rushed up and dove in after her. He came flying out a few seconds later--just missing me. I was a little squicked about jumping in on a private encounter, but my spidey sense had just kicked in.

The room was tiny and huddled in the corner of the bed was naked woman covered with scratches. On the floor was our Slayer and a demon--Palkchor--the kinda lobstery looking ones but with the froggy eyes. It had its legs around her thoat and was trying to unscrew her head with its pincers.

"Eyes!" called Giles. Grabbing a shard of glass from the broken window I drove it through its eye. It squirted out some black goo, which just barely missed my face, but did not miss my new sweater. This business is hell on wardrobe.

Giles yelled a warning from outside so I told her, "You, C-Love, come on. We don't want to explain this."

She looked like she was about to protest, but then looked at the demon corpse. I could read her expression like you can read a picture book. Sometimes you just have to get out.

Giles was putting on his bewildered tourist act for the bouncers as our new Slayer (Her name is Margita, if you want to know) and I scrambled out. We ran toward the canal and jumped on a boat coasting down. I think the pilot was going to ask us what the hell we were doing, but we kept running and scrambled onto a passing boat and then leapt to the street on the other side. Running into Dam Square we joined the crowd and blended in as best we could.

"So," she said after we had walked away from the square. "You know what that thing was?"

"The demon or Giles?"

She raised an eyebrow and said, the demon, of course. So I wound up speechifying the whole Welcome-To-The-Slayer Sisterhood-Hope-You-Don't- Get-Killed-Too-Soon bit after all.

She didn't really know about Slayers. Just noticed that one day she suddenly was a lot stronger and that she'd been seeing some weird stuff. Like vampires...though they don't hang out in Amsterdam too much. The local powers don't want tourists or prostitutes being munched on. I'll give you one guess as to who the powers of the Amsterdam demon world are, but you aren't guessing. You know it was the Dutch branch of Wolfram&Hart. Some time around late May, she'd noticed more problems. More johns that were getting into trouble. More demon shakedowns. A couple of vamps that thought they'd look for some easy pickings in the coffee shops.

The weirdness didn't get too out of hand during the summer, but since the equinox, the nights have been longer and the opportunities to make trouble have been greater. The Palkchor demon was the third she'd seen, but the first to strike a working woman during business hours. Margita thanked me for the tip on how to kill it. Giles had joined us at that point and said that tips weren't going to cut it, she was going into training. She wasn't happy about that. I have no idea if she'll show up to see us in the morning. I pointed out that she would have been a goner if we hadn't showed up tonight, so she owed us, but I don't know if that really matters to her.

What Giles didn't tell Margita he saved for me. The Palkchor are traditionally the vassals (that's his word) of the Order of the Left Eye of Talchymana. Talchymana is one of those ancient demonic gods shrouded in mystery. Or something. (again, Giles' words). Apparently, the only thing that has kept Talchymana from making an appearance in our world was the Senior Partners from Wolfram and Hart. Since Angel (seriously, have you heard anything from that L.A. bunch?) staged his showdown, the big T is trying to stage a comeback.

I bring you into it, because the Order of the Right Eye is rumored to have set up headquarters in Cleveland. Have you noticed anything? Any attempts at harvests or ritual murders or unusual activity? Something weird? I mean weirder than Hellmouth Weird?

Buffy


P.S. I know it's hard, but you are going to have write. The Elementals Courier Service is our only secure channel right now.

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

November 15, 2004

B,

I hate writing. You know this. Shit, at least the phone was quicker, not to mention easier. By the way, thanks for the reader's digest of current events.

Few things, no I haven't heard from Tall, Dark and Broody for awhile. Too long. Something's up B. I can feel it. Things aren't right in LA, my gut tells me so. Dunno, maybe we should go and see what's up. Wes usually would drop a line, and on occasion Soul Boy would call me. But nothing. It feels like...a...void or something. Hell I dunno, it just feels like an emptiness is in the pit of my stomach.

Once shit clears up around here, I may take some of the kiddies and do a recon, check up on the Fang Gang and all. What can I say, business is booming around here. Apparently that memo idea you had about letting the vamps know we were in town and not to f*ck mess with us, never got sent.

It's been going crazy. Worse than a two dollar whore on crack. Last night, I had a little adventure.

Me and one of the Mouseketeers were checking out this nest of vamps right? So we'd done the recon ahead of time and it looked to be a typical set up. Stupid vamp with stupider minions. We dusted 'em no prob, but the leader vamp didn't go poof, as you like to say. He sorta...I dunno, melted, I guess? It was the craziest thing. Turns out he was more than your average dumbass. He was a delivery boy too.

I had poked at his puddle of goo with my boot and this glowing sphere sorta plunked out of it. Let me say, it was nasty. Usually I'm all for getting down and dirty while slaying but ugh. Heh, so I made the newbie retrieve it. Classic line too. "Look Twinkie, if you wanna make it home in one piece, you'll shut up and pick up that ball NOW. Otherwise, you can find your own way back to the house. Got it?" Man these kids B, give 'em an order and they snap in line. It was great. Now I know why you were all with the General B when we fought the First.

Anyways, so I bring the thing back to our own Resident Tweed and show her. Come to think of it, she said it was a summoning orb, the Orb of uh, hang on...Keilapherum. Yeah, that's it. Watcher Chick says it the first step in the ritual of F'rengilal. Which is used to bring the, oh shit, Order of the Right Eye of Greshgarnilgar. Son of a bitch, we might have a problem here B.

I've got to go, apparently this shit is pretty bad. Like First bad. Ya know, I love being a Slayer and all but for Christ's sake, can we not catch a f*cking er, freakin' break here? I'll be in touch. We're going to go check out some reliable sources and see what's the what around here.

You know what that means. Slayage time. I have to say, Cleveland is actually decent when it comes to dance clubs and all you can eat 24 hour diners. I'm jealous B, Amsterdam? Gotta be thrillsville. C'mon B, spill, I know that yogurt thing was a cover. Hungry and Horny, girlfriend, it's our curse and our blessing.

Anyways, I gotta go. I'll keep in touch. And B? Watch your back, seriously. This shit ain't nothing to mess with.

- Faith

22 November 2004
Amsterdam, Netherlands


Faith,

It's bad. Really bad. And we have one month. On the Winter Solstice, things start hitting the fan. It's good information from an old friend of yours--and Angel's.

Slayer-of-the-Evening C-Love has finally accepted that she has to be trained. She tried dodging Giles and me for a couple of days, but Amsterdam isn't that big, and that damned patroling instinct meant she'd run into demons or vamps sooner or later. And me, of course. In a bar fight with another hooker, I'd back her, but her technique needs some definite polishing. I'm thinking we should send her to Qi Zhou in Liverpool for a few months, but Giles thinks he knows a gypsy Watcher hiding out in Muncie that might be a better a match. If we don't figure out something before the month is up it may not matter. For now, we've got her.

Getting a track on these Left Eye guys was not easy. It took us a couple of weeks of shadowing various demons (which is easier than you'd think around here). Until a couple of days ago, that told us absolutely nothing except that demons like singing Burt Bacharach songs in Karoke bars. Oh yeah, and trying to kidnap and eat the occassional baby, sacrifice a virgin (not at all easy to find in this town) and play craps with real bones.

The break came from the karoke bar. A Morthael demon was singing "You Light Up My Life" (I don't care about the new salary for Slayers, NOTHING can ever compensate me for nights I've spent listening to demon karoke) when a slim, green-skinned demon sidled up to me and grabbed my hand in desperation. I started the old elbow action, but he started talking. And I became much more interested.

"Easy, sister. You aren't my type anyway. I do know all about you. I've read too many people-human, demon and vampire not know who you are. I try not to do it anymore, but that handsome fellow up there is a little hard to block out. I should have known better than to come into a karoke bar. I was weak."

"Who are you?"

"Lorne--"

"Lorne?"

He slapped my hand, "It's short for something much more pretentious, now don't interrupt. I read souls and futures when folks sing. I try not to judge, but that guy is about to do something that even I, in my depressed-why-haven't-I-drowned-myself-in-a-canal state of mind-- can't ignore."

He hustled me out to the alley. I don't have to tell you about him. Giles saw the touch and was on our heels. Lorne said one word and quieted the sputtering. He quickly filled us in on his problem--our problem, he insisted because he was already breaking his promise to himself not to interfere. The demon singing was on his way to kidnap a baby in an outlying suburb. Seems it had just been born and was need for a ceremony. Lorne wasn't sure what the ceremony was for, but he knew it was not going to end well for the kid. The most puzzling thing, he said, was that the demon had no discernable future beyond the next month. But it was ecstatic about this non-future.

"Ecstasy with this bunch is never a good sign. I keep getting some idea of the Left Eye--oh does that mean something to you?"

At that moment C-Love joined us and we decided that she and I would tail the demon. I'd try to stop him from getting the kid, but not too hard. She'd follow it and see where he took the child.


I'm not too clear on what happened. That damn thing almost killed me. We followed it to a birthing center and waited for him to come out. I stepped up to offer token resistence and it knocked me head first into a lamp post and pushed me over the bank into a canal. I don't remember much after that. Giles tells me a small boat hit me, but I'll have to take his word for it. Because I don't remember anything else until I woke up this morning.

C-Love had followed the demon through a series of small alleyways until it jumped into another canal. It never came back out.

Giles and Lorne figure something is going down on the Winter Solstice, but they don't know what exactly. Lorne just has some vague visions--apocalyptic, course. He was rather blase about it. The Malthaor and the baby have something to with it, but noone is too sure. Giles was muttering something about Amsterdam being the wrong place for any type of Talchymana ceremony.

Frankly, my head hurts too much right now to figure it out. We have people working on the where--though who knows if they'll find out anything. What have you found out about the Orb?

Later,

Buffy

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

December 4, 2004

B,

Don't f*ckin' start ok? I got too much shit going on right now to hear another lecture from General B. Must be nice to be sitting on your asses over there cause it's wicked crazy over here. Everyone in demon land got the idea of taking to the streets. I've got more vamps and demons running around than I know what to do with.

Apparently the Orb is set to go off at Solstice time. Nice, we couldn't get a Harley or even a goddamn day off, we get a demon lord with an attitude instead. I know I was bad for a couple of years but jesus, this is insane.

Weird thing is, can't find where this asshole is hiding. He's got some sorta high priest guy to start the ceremony or some shit. I've kicked countless asses and smashed lotsa heads but no one's talking. It's like...I don't know what it's like B, I ain't never seen anything like this before. Not even with Kakistos.

The vamps and demons running around, they're weird too. All the melty kind, it's like their brains have been fried on too much acid or something. We've lost a couple of kids cause of numbers. There's way more of them then there are of us. Don't f*ckin start on me with that either. I know Slayers are supposed to be better but Christ B, they're just kids. I trained 'em the best I could but they're young and inexperienced and the vamps usually are roaming in large groups at night.

Be nice if you'd send a coupla Ingas and Helgas to come help out. Bitch. I gotta go, it's patrol time, I'm gonna do some more nest crashing to see if I can find this bastard. Watch your back. I'll write if I survive.

- Faith