WATCH
Miryam, Casey and I sit together between their next classes and after my last one for the day. We chat, at first, about things the professor had said about our homework, making sure we all got the same out of it and understand what we’re supposed to be doing. This particular professor is great at lectures but not so much about what he wants us to do by ourselves.
“How’s Willow liking Mike?” Casey asks.
“Very much.” I explain, remembering our dishwashing conversations, “The right amount of challenging apparently.”
“Cool. I was thinking of taking him next semester.”
“Go for it.” I say. I wish I could talk to them about some of the things going on with Willow and my fears, but they don’t realize the depths magic can truly go, even if Miryam is a fellow pagan, and Casey, more agnostic, at least likes some aspects of the faith such as getting tarot readings.
“I hate to be that girl.” Miryam says, “but did they properly sort out everything with your head?”
“Mir!” Casey says.
“Oh, Gods—” Miryam continues, “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just want to make sure you’re okay okay.”
I give her a smile, “I have another check up coming up.” I explain. I actually have to schedule this next brain scan I’ve been putting it off, “but there’s no sign of anything else that could go all screwy.” I guess I’ll really have to be doing those periodically forever, and whose to say there isn’t some lasting damage from Glory that won’t show up until later.
“Good.” Miryam says, “Don’t want to lose you.”
“Thank you.” I tell her, stealing one of the grapes she’s been snacking on. She jokingly bats at my hand, but I keep the grape, popping it into my mouth and snapping the skin, enjoying the sweetness.
“We need to have another evening gathering.” Casey says, “I miss our Tarot and Tidbits nights. You’ve been so unavailable lately.”
I chew on my lip for a moment, “I miss those too.” It used to be a bit easier to hang out when Willow was off with the Scoobies by herself, and well, when Joyce was still alive to keep watch on Dawn, “but with us having been looking after—” not to mention the nights I’d been out helping with vampire hunts myself.
“I know, and she’s a sweetheart, but still.”
“Maybe we can move them to an afternoon some time.” I suggest.
Planning gets moved to the side though because Casey says, “Oh, hey—it’s getting to 1:30 didn’t you say you had to be The Magic Box by 2 today?”
“Thank you!” I tell her.
We exchange cheek kisses and hugs before I rush off to the Espresso Pump to get coffees, for the two of us, before I meet up with Anya.
“How are things going?” Anya says, “Xander has told me some things, but it’s been so hectic lately I haven’t been able to leave the store.”
“You could hire someone to help out…” I suggest realizing as I say it that it would be kind of difficult in case they were exposed to all the Sunnydale craziness that people tend to ignore.
She gives me a look which says she has the same thought, “Yes. Random citizen who knows nothing would really be helpful.”
“I realized as soon as I said it.”
“You could do it. You know about this stuff.”
“I appreciate the offer. Maybe next semester I can cut back on classes and help out more than just doing the tarot readings.”
“Yes.” She says, moving away from where she was rearranging things in the display cases that are the front counter, and coming to sit at the table where I’ve got my wooden box that contains my decks, “You didn’t answer my question about how things are going.”
“I know.” I tell her, “Buffy is adjusting still, but she sounds more like herself. She’s talked about going back to school, but she’d only be able to audit classes until next semester.”
“Xander was talking about offering her to work at the site he’s working right now. She’s strong enough she could handle it.”
I nod, “True.”
“Or she could work here.” Anya muses, “She’s not as knowledgeable, but I also don’t know if she’s going to continue to let Dawn help out. She’s okay with you two still being there, sleeping in her dead Mom’s room?”
“She seems to be.” Now I’m feeling uncomfortable, “We offered to move back to the dorms—now it’s too late. Well, we’d have to go on a wait list for someone to drop out—which we’d be happy to do. It was good we were there though when she went up to see Angel.”
“True.” Anya says, “I could see where you moving out now might be rough given you’ve been there looking after her this whole time.”
“I worry that it’s going to make things complicated with Buffy taking back over Dawn’s care.”
“She is her sister.” Anya remarks.
I nod, “I’m not saying she’s not supposed to be the one in charge. It’s just hard if Dawn comes to one of us for something, and she was back and then she wasn’t and now she is, and she’s so disconnected at times still.”
“From all the trauma. From Hell.” Anya points out.
I nod, picking out a deck of cards and shuffling it to give myself something else to focus on. Anya watches me for a moment sipping on her coffee.
“Can I have a go?” she asks, nodding towards the cards.
“You want a reading?”
She shakes her head, “I want to try reading.”
“How about we both—at the same time? I’ll read for you. You read for me?”
She looks excited, “Okay.”
“Pick a deck and shuffle it.” I instruct.
She pulls out one of the decks I have that has fairy themed cards. I’m shuffling the dragon cards I used for Dawn’s reading those months ago, before we brought Buffy back. After Anya is done shuffling, I have her trade decks with me, and she copies me as I cut the deck into three and put it back together in a random order.
“Okay.” I tell her, “Now I tend to spread the cards out and feel for the warmth of which one feels like I should pull it, though sometimes it feels best to just pull the top cards depending on the type of reading. I—I figure because this is a starter one, we just do three cards.”
“However, you say.” She says, “I don’t expect to be able to feel the energy like you do.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” I tell her, “And from what you’ve said you used magic when you were alive back in the before you were a vengeance demon, and you did that spell with Willow for the necklace.”
She sighs, “I did, but I needed her help. I didn’t feel it quite the way I used to—it’s gotten a little better since then; but I’ve never done anything with tarot.”
I put my hand over hers, “Just do whatever you feel like. Pull the cards and lay them face down one after the other.” I spread the deck I have out across the table in front of me and hold my right hand over the top once I’m done feeling around until things get warm underneath my fingers and then pick cards from there. I shuffle the rest of the deck back together and set it aside, “Okay.” I say, “Turn over the first card.”