The Blade and the Chalice
by Lara
SUMMARY: Wesley and Fred find a ancient treasure locked in the vaults of Wolfram & Hart
RATING: FRC [AU]
SPOILERS: Through the end of Season Four.
DISCLAIMER: I only wish I were as successful as Joss Whedon. He and Mutant Enemy own this; I just write fanfic for fun while waiting for my own big break.
DISTRIBUTION: Permission granted to WNW and Blue Moon Rising. If anyone else wants to archive it, please let me know.
FEEDBACK: Very much appreciated. Please e-mail lara@darling-moon.com. Flames, however, will be used to fuel the fire in Wesley’s next spell casting session.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Answer to the Survivor Challenge posted by justsmile on the Wes/Fred #55 thread of Forums4Fans.
The words that had to be used in the story:
I hope no one is offended by ideas presented in this challenge response. I just
finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and have this particular
focus on the brain at the moment. The ideas, of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the
Grail presented there and in Holy Blood, Holy Grail are something I’ve
long believed in (see “Deliver Us From Evil”, particularly Movement
Three).
“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Her hands reached out tentatively to touch the tarnished locket as it spun in the air before her. Despite the lost luster of the once burnished metal, she could see the engravings of pagan symbols woven together around the edges. In the middle, however, seemingly at odds with the pagan symbolism was the Star of David, an equilateral triangle and its inverse locked together in perfect union, she knew, with its ratio of line segments equal to phi – 1.618.
Sitting down, Wesley laid the locket into Fred’s hand. “I found it in the vaults while I was taking inventory of what the firm held. When I saw that, I have to say, I was surprised as hell.”
Her eyes shot up her forehead at this. “Why?”
“Because that...is the locket that Jesus gave to Mary Magdalene almost two-thousand years ago.”
“What?” Almost dropping the locket in surprise, Fred looked up at Wesley, figuring that he had to be joking. But she could tell by the expression in his blue eyes that he was being completely truthful. “Jesus...gave this...to her...?”
“Why not. She was his wife, after all.”
“I...I know the stories...that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, that she was actually the Holy Grail in that she carried Jesus’ bloodline to France, but...this is...” She suddenly realized the double meaning in the Star of David on the locket. It represented not only Jesus’ lineage from the House of David, but also something much more powerful and ancient. “How did Wolfram & Hart get something like this?”
“How do they get anything?” Wesley shook his head and chuckled, reaching out to take the locket from Fred, their eyes meeting for a moment as their hands touched. Finally, he broke the spell, glancing down at the jewelry in his hands. “The locket was in a very old oak box down in the vaults. From the look of the wood, I would imagine that the wood was from a very old oak tree. That indicates a very high status for any item that only a long-established tree could be used to make its resting place.”
“I know that only royalty could have afforded to have something like this made back a millennia ago, but still...to cut down an oak tree for a locket? There had to be more. Like a chest or a cof—.” Her word went unfinished as she knew exactly what else that oak tree must have been used to make.
Wesley nodded in confirmation of her thought. “There have been stories of this locket for so long,” he said as he held the locket up again to the light. “I never imagined I might hold it. The double symbolism is brilliant.”
“You mean the Star.”
“Yes,” he responded with another nod. “Symbolic of Jesus’ lineage, but also symbolic of the unity of male and female.”
“The blade and the chalice, man and woman, fused together,” Fred murmured, her fingers again moving to touch it. Her fingers found Wesley’s hand instead.
“The God and Goddess as one...”
Leaning over, Wesley pressed his lips to hers as their fingers twined, the locket held fast between them.
From a post from me to the F4F thread after posting the above:
Oh, god...not getting plot bunny ideas...no...
Eeek. I'm getting thoughts for turning this into a longer, more involved story. Wes and Fred get me into so much trouble...
Stay tuned!
© August 2003
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