Willow opened the book that Terese had given her and began reading about Mati-Syra-Zemlya. Mati-Syra-Zemlya was known as the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names. Literally translated it meant Moist Mother Earth and she was not often depicted as having human form but of being the earth itself. She was the Slavic Earth Goddess, the Great Mother. Her dominion was agriculture and fertility, anything having to do with the land including crops and property disputes. Considered the oldest and most powerful of Pre-Christian Slavic goddesses, Slavic village people would pray to her for a good harvest by sacrificing hemp-oil on the fields.
In addition to agriculture and fertility, she was the goddess of justice, solemn oaths, divination, truth and oracles. She possessed all knowledge and, on being asked, would release signs that could be interpreted. She had the ability to predict the future and settle disputes wisely. She was invoked to confirm oaths and marriages.
Worshipped into the early years of the twentieth century by Russian women who called on her to protect them from disease, Mati-Syra-Zemlya was also Goddess of Healing.
‘Sounds like quite the busy deity,’ Willow thought as she started pouring sand into the shape of a pentagram, placing candles at each point. Once the room was dark, except for candle-light, she sat in the center of the star. Saying a silent prayer to Hecate, asking her to bless the circle, she finished the sacred space by pouring sand in a counter-clockwise circle around the pentagram.
After taking several deep breaths, clearing her mind, she began to pray:
“Mati-Syra-Zemlya
Recorder of promises
I beseech you
Assist me in my quest
A promise made, now forgotten
Please hear me
Show me what I need to know”
The images came so fast Willow didn’t see them so much as feel them . . . except one. One moment in time stood out. It had been because of Glory. Willow had reversed the mind suck and it had sent her, Tara and Glory flying in three separate directions. Crawling across the rubble she called to Tara; even now she could hear Tara’s hesitant “Willow? I got so lost.” The promise had come without thought, “I will always find you.” Her heart ached as she wondered if she could keep it.
The ritual had taken longer than she’d thought and Willow was exhausted. Mind whirling, but body unwilling to go in search of Buffy and Xander, she curled up in the papa-san chair and stared out the window. A glimmer of hope asserted itself. Maybe, just maybe, Tara was out there waiting to be found. Whether or not she, the gang, the coven, or anyone else could find her remained to be seen. Willow yawned and her eyes closed as she drifted off to sleep.
“Juno, Goddess of the Moon,
please protect me
in this darkest time
in my season of need.
Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow
Messenger of women,
I beseech thee
allow my cry to be heard”
Willow looked around and saw she was back in Buffy’s living room. Tara was sitting in the center of a pentagram. Willow was worried but no longer panicky; if this was real, she had some fast talking to do. How could she possibly make Tara understand what was happening when she, herself, wasn’t sure? How could she convince Tara she wasn’t a figment of Tara's imagination or some sort of demon?
“Tara? Baby . . .” Willow said hesitantly
“Willow?” Tara looked tired and scared.
“Baby - I know what the promise is. How do I keep it? How do I find you? Help me, baby, help me find you.”
“I-i d-don’t unders-stand. You’re not real. You can’t be here. Y-you’re dead.”
“I don’t understand it either, baby.”
Willow jerked awake. What? How? ‘Okay, not so scary, but were we really talking or is my subconscious adding to whatever is going on?’ Willow thought. ‘Or maybe whatever is happening is getting worse.' She sighed and stood up, stretching to get the kinks out of her neck, shoulders and back. ‘A quick shower,’ she thought, 'then I’ll rejoin the others. Mati-Syra-Zemlya has just given us another wrinkle to consider.’ The glimmer of hope reasserted itself and Willow smiled. Tara was coming home.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Except for the sound of pages turning, the library was silent. Buffy’s mind began to wander; they’d been at this for two hours and were no closer to finding an answer than when they started.
Standing and placing her book on the table, Buffy stretched. When Giles shot her a questioning glance, she wandered to the window saying, “need to clear some cobwebs. The words weren’t really words so much as letters in weird patterns.” Giles chuckled and went back to the tome in front of him.
Staring blankly out the window, Buffy thought about Willow’s dreams and wondered if Dawn could be right. If Willow’s dreams were some sort of really long distance cross-dimensional phone call then maybe Angel was out there, too. She closed her eyes against the tears threatening to overwhelm her. She hadn’t realized over the past year how much she had taken for granted that Angel would always be there for her. Losing him last month had rocked her to her core and she still felt a little lost. She opened her eyes and stared across the compound. It took her a moment to realize that she was staring at Angel walking toward her. She blinked but he was still there, smiling and waving. ‘But it’s daylight. And he’s dead,’ she thought, closing her eyes. When she re-opened them, Angel was gone. ‘Okay, enough is enough,’ she thought.
She turned around and walked back toward the table. When she got there, she noticed Xander was tipped back in his chair, staring off into space, a blank look on his face. “Xander!” she said sharply, laughing out loud when his startled reaction sent him sprawling backwards, falling out of his chair.
“Huh, huh? Wha . . .?”
“Earth to Planet Xander. You still with us? You know . . . research . . . Willow’s wiggins . . . ringing any bells?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah, Buff. Sorry, must have checked out for a minute . . . or ten . . . ” Xander stammered and blushed as he stood up and righted his chair.
“Hm . . . more like twenty or thirty from the amount of drool on your shirt. So that’s twice in two days you’ve spaced . What’s going on?”
Xander looked hungrily at Dawn, who was smirking at him, before stammering, “Uh . . . nothing. I dunno . . . just . . . yanno . . . not . . . uhh . . . just . . . ” Buffy stifled her smile as she watched Xander struggle.
Giles cleared his throat and Buffy reluctantly turned away from the squirming Xander. Giles looked thoughtful and had his glasses in his hand, cleaning them. “Giles?” she asked. She looked at Xander and said with a completely straight face, “He’s having an important thought. You can tell because he’s cleaning his glasses.”
Ignoring her impudence, Giles considered a moment before speaking. “Xander, have you been having more daydreams than usual? Has anyone been having more daydreams than usual?” Giles asked.
“Yeah, yeah I have,” Xander said, “like a lot more. I space out all the time. My guys have had to shake me more than once. Not really usual. I mean, here, research . . . sure . . . perfectly logical for me to drift off. Not on the job though,” Xander said, seemingly relieved to be on safer ground.
Giles nodded. “Buffy, Dawn? Either of you two been having more daydreams than normal?”
Dawn nodded and said thoughtfully, “Yeah, now that you mention it, I have.” Buffy noticed her quick look at Xander and knew exactly what her sister had been daydreaming about. The blush rising in Xander’s cheeks told Buffy that he did too.
Giles looked at Buffy.
“Okay, yes, I have. Way more. Only it’s not just daydreams, I don’t think. Some of it’s like hallucinations. I’m seeing something that’s not there.”
Dawn and Xander both chimed in, “Me too.” Buffy stifled a giggle as Xander and Dawn glanced at each other then quickly looked away, both of their faces beet red.
“What are you thinking, Giles?” Buffy asked.
“I, too, have been given to flights of fancy recently. Not the usual sort of thing for me. Hallucinations seem like a good description of some of what my daydreams have been. Since I know what mine are, I’m curious, are you all daydreaming or hallucinating about dreams unfulfilled? Desires you missed or want or can’t have?” They all gaped at him. “Right. It seems we have to expand our research. We may be dealing with an illusionary or dream making demon.”
“Hi guys, what’s going on?” Willow asked, walking in at the end of Giles comments.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*