[X] They're likely to dig up some trouble along the way, but at least they can keep an eye on the situation, and having a solution to the Sunnydale High issue at such a prestigious location will play well in the polls. Buffy agrees to change the zoning for the Dean.
"Are you done yet?" Harmony whined. "I want to go out and kill things, not sit in here staring at paperwork."
"You're not actually sitting," Vanessa Waters observed. The conference room was a terrible symphony of paperwork, and she was the conductor.
"I'm sitting in spirit. The chair is metaphorical, or something," Harmony was in fact leaning up against the wall, worrying her fingernails against it. "There's a vast sit deep in my soul."
"You don't have a soul." Buffy said. In truth, Buffy just wanted to go out and kill things too. But a deal was a deal, and all the ts had to be crossed for Vanessa to force through the zoning changes tomorrow.
"Hurtful!" Harmony pouted.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "I know you're just putting on airs now,"
"Well, yes, but what else is there to do?" Harmony said.
"I feel like I've had something like this conversation with Xander before," Buffy said, getting a cringe out of the vampire. Then, to the others, she got back on the subject, "OK, so there's the new cultural center, the marine science building, and the three dorms. Are we still missing anything?
"We shouldn't forget about the permits for the Psi Theta renovation," Ian said.
"Of course, the permits," Buffy nodded. "Those should be quicker to set up right?"
"I sure hope so," Harmony said. Everyone ignored her.
"They're much less trouble," Vanessa reassured her. "I've got them right here, just fill that all up and you can be off on your merry way with your friend."
"It used to be I looked at slaying as work," Buffy said, going over the last form. "Little did I know."
Buffy buckled down on the last form for a while longer with the help of Vanessa and Ian and definitely not Harmony. The moment when everything was finally shipshape though, there was a distinct buzz from Buffy's radio that meant Cynthia was calling. Harmony groaned piteously.
"Cynthia, what's going on?" Buffy asked. It was pretty unusual for new business to crop up so late on a Sunday night, and she tried to tell herself it'd be something quick.
Her tinny voice came out of Buffy's radio, "There's a young man at the front desk that claims to need to see you urgently. He claims to be representing the Transmuters Material."
Buffy raised her eyebrows in a silent question to the group.
"They're legitimate," Ian said. "One of the old sorcerer clans, they have a large presence in LA."
"And they're having some kind of emergency?" Buffy said into the radio. "Can't they just magic themselves out of it or something?"
"I don't believe any lives are at risk, but he seems to be offering quite a lot of money for assistance," Cynthia said neutrally.
A problem that was going to create money instead of gobble it up. Buffy would believe it when she saw it, but she couldn't ignore the possibility. "I'll be right down." Buffy grabbed up her hammer from its resting place on the table and headed out of the conference room, Harmony following right behind. She should've expected she was too impatient to wait somewhere else. "Harm, behave."
"Fingers crossed," she said.
Buffy frowned. "I think that's the other one."
"Whatever, you know what I mean." she said. "I won't spook him or anything. Much." Buffy let it lie there. If this 'sorcerer' couldn't handle Harmony loitering around he probably wasn't very serious anyway.
While City Hall was still working overtime, the chaos of transition had calmed down significantly and there weren't many people around at a time like this. The interns Ian still had investigating Wilkins' stashes had gone home (dream Wilkins was annoyingly unspecific about those too) and she doubted there were even many people still kicking around in the magic department downstairs. The election still loomed at the end of August, but things were quieter for now.
The out of towner was waiting in the lobby with Cynthia, and he started a bit when Buffy came in with Harmony behind her, his eyes drifting down and then back up. Carrying a big weapon around really had an effect on people who knew it wasn't a prop, she supposed. He was barely taller than Buffy was, wasn't wearing anything that seemed special or sorcerery, and he looked pretty young besides; she wasn't sure why some well known magical clan would send a kid like this of all people, but who was she to talk about appearances? He was probably older than she was.
"Name's Buffy Summers, but you already know that," she said. "I'm told you come bearing money."
"I'm Nathaniel Smith," he stepped forward hesitantly, looking like he didn't know whether he was supposed to extend a hand. "I, um, I'm here looking for a relic. We can pay you if you help us."
Buffy twirled her hammer, suspicious. She almost expected Harmony to make some sarcastic comment, but the girl hung silently by her shoulder, waiting for her lead. It was probably for the best; she needed to be wary. "I'm not the old mayor. I'm not going to just hand over some superweapon to you to go off and conquer LA with for a fat check and a favor."
"It isn't like that!" he answered quickly, seeming afraid. "We're looking for the Crown of the First Sorcerer-King. It's just a heritage artifact, it doesn't really do very much."
"If it's so useless then why do you want it so bad?" Harmony cut in, sensing the approach Buffy was taking.
"Well, it is said to add charisma to the words of its wearer," he said. "But like, I'm pretty sure that's just an embellishment. Really, we need it for the conclave. For ceremonial purposes."
Buffy slowly approached him, hammer twirling, trying to get a better read. "So just what are you willing to pay, for 'ceremonial purposes'?" It did sound like a thin excuse on the surface, but Buffy didn't think he was lying. The scared puppy vibe felt too genuine to be an act. That or she was getting fooled by a pretty face.
"The elders approved $250,000 on delivery," he said quietly.
"That's a big ceremony." Buffy said. It would be a huge get out of jail card for the city if it was true though, wiping out almost everything they'd spent on Rack's bounty.
"Traditionally, wearing the Crown let the clan that possessed it lead the conclave of the clans," he said. "The Crown was lost hundreds of years ago, but the rule is still on our books, and the clans are very hidebound about that kind of thing."
"So you guys want to be grand poobahs at this conclave thing," she said. "Still a big price tag, but I guess I can see it."
"I don't see a bag of cash," Harmony commented.
"They'd wire it to you if we actually found it." He almost backed up a step from Buffy when she gave a skeptical look in response.
"That is generally how these kinds of things go," Cynthia piped in. "Cash transactions end up with one party murdered and betrayed a distressing amount of the time. I took the liberty of making a few calls at Mr. Smith's behest; there is a 'Transmuters Material' account and they are showing they have money available to pay."
"Still, we go get it for them first before we get anything real?" Buffy scoffed. "Seems a little scammy to me."
"I could hardly take it and hope to escape, here in your place of power. They don't want to pay in advance because they aren't sure it's even here."
"So this could just be some wild goose chase?" she asked.
"I don't think it is. I, um, I found a map." He ruffled around in an actual honest-to-god fannypack he was wearing and brought out a crumpled piece of faded parchment. "It was buried in the archives, nobody had any idea where the Crown was until I found it."
Buffy took it, but had a hard time figuring out what it was trying to indicate. Nate cautiously approached her and pointed out a triangle. "Some of the symbology is from our clan history, and obviously the writing is in Gallic, but it's this triangle here."
She compared it to the sketch of the coastline. "That's on the east edge of town, by the desert." He nodded, and she paused, giving him another measured look. "You could've probably gone out there on your own, without us even noticing."
"Only to die to whatever protections or guardians it has, or even some other denizen of the Hellmouth gone awandering." He looked like he was trying to figure out how to explain something for a bit. "I'm not, ah, regarded as a very promising student. I was hoping that this discovery would gain me some favor with the elders, but then they sent... well, me to actually go retrieve it."
Buffy was starting to get a feeling about what was going on. She felt a little bad for Nathaniel; adults not trusting you sucked, and these ones were callous enough to put his life in danger too. "OK then. We'll do some of our own research on the area, maybe some scouting, and we'll get a team ready in a few days. This should-"
"Ah," he interrupted, looking contrite. "The conclave is tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Buffy was disbelieving. "Isn't it a little late to go searching for ancient relics?"
"I only managed to track the map down today," he apologized. "It was well hidden."
"So we can go adventuring tonight then?" Harmony said, suddenly interested. "I've been missing all the adventures lately, I want to go!"
He seemed confused, which Buffy supposed made sense, but when she was about to explain Harmony noticed too and vamped out. "Don't get your panties in a wad, I do fights all the time."
Nathaniel actually backed away in surprise this time, bumping into Cynthia's desk and almost falling down. Before he could, Buffy moved forward quick as a flash and caught him. "Don't worry, she's under control." She pulled up on his shoulder and put him back on his feet, leaving him a bit stunned.
He spoke again after recovering for a second, "I'd heard rumors of the Slayer working with a vampire, but-"
"This is a different one," Buffy said quickly. "I'm not trying to make a habit of it or anything, it just happens."
"Far be it from me to tell you how to run your fiefdom," he replied, absently rubbing at his shoulder. She hoped she hadn't hurt the poor guy; it could be hard to be gentle when she moved fast. She could sympathize with his situation, and after all, unlike most of the people asking for her help he actually wanted to pay her for it.
"So can we go?" Harmony asked, getting her face back under control.
Part of her still thought she was being too trusting, but Buffy forced it down. If she couldn't trust her gut she'd never be able to get Sunnydale out of half the messes it regularly got itself into. "Yeah, we can go. Nate, you aren't totally incompetent with magic, right?"
He didn't recognize the nickname at first, and then hastily responded when he did. "I'm very good at detail work with transfigurations? And I've been working on thickening air recently too." He didn't seem confident.
"We'll take a swing through the magic department too," Buffy said. "Hopefully there's someone down there who can round us out, and that should be plenty for whatever half-baked challenge we find protecting some relic that isn't even magic."
Willow was definitely asleep at home; CyberWillow had worriedly informed them all of her passing out on her feet a few hours ago and Oz had handled it and gotten her into bed. Nobody else was half as good as she was, but Buffy hoped that with Nate to help it would go fine.
MetaVote: Who do Buffy and co find downstairs to take on their Sunday night expedition? Buffy, Harmony, and Nate are definitely going, and you'll have one more.
[] Jonathan Levinson has been working with illusions lately and is looking to prove himself in the field again after his scary encounter with Detective Stein.
[] Andrew Wells was able to figure out Amy's deception before, so bringing him along could be a good luck charm against another betrayal. His summoning isn't particularly strong, but he has a wide bag of tricks.
[] Giles doesn't do active magic (much), but he has a wide knowledge of various demons and their rituals, as well as a lot of experience. Buffy always feels more confident with Giles along, and he might be able to share some of the burden of watching out for the other two newbies.
