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The landing was softer than Buffy anticipated.
Looking down, she was startled to see herself on sand and soft debris. And, looking up, she jumped to see a group of uniformed men. She went to move, but Giles spoke up in what sounded like Spanish. One of the men answered. He sounded friendly enough, so Buffy relaxed slightly. Xander and Willow slowly got up behind her.
Giles smiled and pushed himself up, speaking more quickly.
The man chuckled and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
‘Gracias,’ Giles said. He turned to them. ‘Come on. We’re lucky. I’d almost forgotten that Jesenia had a seer on hand.’ He gestured for them all to follow the men who turned and began leading them through the woods.
Oh, that was right. This girl’s name was Jesenia.
‘What’s a seer?’ Xander asked.
‘It’s someone who sees the future,’ Giles said.
‘Ooh! So, he saw us coming and told them we were coming?’ Willow guessed.
‘Precisely.’ They came out of the woods to a small town. There was a teenage girl waiting there, with a man who was clearly British.
She let her eyes run over all of them and then they landed on Buffy. The woman stepped forward to meet them. ‘I take it you’re our visitors from the future?’ she said in accented English. ‘I’m Jesenia.’
Buffy nodded and stepped forward, shaking the other Slayer’s hand. ‘I’m Buffy.’
Jesenia nodded and gestured to the man with her. ‘This is my Watcher, Thaddeus Charleston.’
The man stepped forward and shook hands with Giles as Buffy’s own Watcher introduced himself.
‘Very good of you to come back and help with this,’ Charleston said as they turned and led the group into the town. ‘Especially considering the dangers in the area right now.’
‘Well, Jesenia is hardly the only Slayer they’ve gone after,’ Giles remarked.
‘What do you mean dangers?’ Xander asked.
Jesenia chuckled. ‘I imagine Columbian history isn’t something you learn in your part of the world. There is something of a civil war going on right now. Well…more like a series of mini turf wars, really. The countryside is rife with raiders. Actually, that’s why the Madrigals were first allowed to settle in the town.’
‘The Madrigals?’ Buffy asked.
Jesenia pointed. Buffy turned her head. There was an unkempt man in a green poncho walking through what looked like a marketplace. He was small and skinny and Buffy almost swore she could see rats crawling over him. At his feet there was a little girl, much neater-looking, with shoulder length hair and wearing a pair of round glasses.
‘Bruno Madrigal is our seer,’ Jesenia said. ‘He’s not from around here. Word on the street is that he’s from a family of people who all have different powers. His niece there, Mirabel, didn’t receive any powers, so Bruno’s mother cast her out. Bruno had already left the family because they blamed him for it when he had bad visions.’ She pulled a face. ‘Apparently, it made the family look bad. He collected Mirabel and left their hometown for good.’
Buffy looked back over. The little girl happily skipped alongside her uncle, chattering about something or other. Even though his hood was pulled up over his head, he was smiling at her. Yet, anger rolled in Buffy’s gut. ‘Her grandmother just…tossed her out because she had no powers? What about her parents?’
‘We’re not sure,’ Charleston said. ‘Even Bruno doesn’t understand why they did nothing to defend her. But, judging from what he’s like, and the way Mirabel talks about the family, this town’s consensus is that she’s a domineering woman with no tolerance for disobedience or disappointment. And the fact that she was quite happy to throw a five year old girl out into the cold for the sake of her “miracle”.’
Buffy stumbled. ‘Five? She was five?’
Jesenia nodded. ‘That’s the reaction most people had when they found out. And she’s the sweetest little girl you’ve ever met. Loves her tío more than anything.’
‘Well, you can understand that,’ Willow said.
Xander nodded.
‘Is Bruno of a nervous disposition?’ Giles asked.
‘It’s better than it was,’ Jesenia remarked. ‘When he first arrived, the only time he showed anything resembling a spine was when Mirabel was involved. Nowadays, he charges when people want to know their future. Cause he knows that there’s a high chance it’ll be a bad future, and he’s familiar with people going “ooh, Bruno makes bad things happen”.’
‘Isn’t he just a seer?’ Buffy asked.
‘That is, unfortunately, a rather common response to a seer, Buffy,’ Giles explained. ‘Because when most people approach a seer, they don’t really want to know the future. They want their fortunes told. They want to hear good news, not bad news. But bad news is a lot more common because seers are supposed to be a human warning system.’
‘But that line of thinking is heavily discouraged here,’ Jesenia said. ‘Twice already, Bruno has given us warning that the raiders are coming. Twice, we have packed up and hidden up in the mountains. Twice, our town has been raided. Twice, not a single soul has been lost to the raids.’
No wonder they liked him so much. Buffy couldn’t imagine what it was like, constantly living in fear of raids. And, this would be human men, not demons. Even though the Slayer had the power to fight them, she might risk killing humans and that would be terrible. Having a seer around to warn when they were coming would be seen as invaluable.
‘Hold on, that doesn’t make sense.’ Willow waved her hands in front of her. ‘If that’s how you guys look at him, why didn’t the people of his hometown look at him that way?’
Jesenia pulled a face. ‘From what I understand, Encanto was founded after a raid. It happened when Bruno was a baby. He himself admits that his mother told him what he expects to be a watered-down and whimsical version of the story. Seems the raiders tracked and followed them and his father turned back to try and slow them down and give everyone time to escape. According to his mother, Pedro just never came back and the miracle sprouted, creating a valley that kept the raiders out and giving the three children their gifts when they turned five.’
So, far more likely, he ran back and he was cut down. And that sacrifice gave them their powers. Which made kicking Mirabel out cause she had no powers all the worse. Buffy wondered if Mirabel not getting powers was a test from the deceased Pedro – one that his widowed wife had spectacularly failed.
‘We have spies in Encanto,’ Charleston said. ‘From what they’ve reported back, I’m amazed that Bruno didn’t leave earlier. Those people are the most passive people to ever live. Although, considering his mother insists the family use their powers to help the town wherever possible, that makes sense. Bruno has one sister who heals people with her cooking and another who controls the weather. One of his nieces can grow floral arrangements in a heartbeat, another has strength equivalent to a Slayer, another has enhanced hearing, and his nephew is a shape-shifter.’
‘So, they live in total safety and have a single family do all the hard work?’ Giles asked disapprovingly.
‘Essentially,’ Charleston said. ‘Bruno’s prophecies scared them because they were mostly negative and none of these people has the initiative to do something about what they are told. And then when the inevitable happened, they blamed him. Like his last prophecy, the night he saved Mirabel from the elements. They all heard it, they all fear it, but no one is doing anything about it – even though the spies can see the evidence of it already starting.’
‘What was his last prophecy?’ Xander asked.
‘When he picked Mirabel up, according to her, he said, “mama, if this is the sort of thing you’ll do for your miracle, you deserve what’s coming”.’ Jesenia smirked. ‘Turns out, he left the first time because he was asked to look forward to see what Mirabel’s gift would be – apparently, not that uncommon. The matriarch liked to know what additional powers she would get so she could plan what they would be used for before they manifested. Except, this time, Bruno saw the house cracked up and Mirabel standing in front of it.’
‘His mother was in the habit of interpreting his visions in the worst possible way,’ Charleston went on, ‘so Bruno made himself scarce until they kicked Mirabel out. But…the cracks have already started appearing in the house. Part of the magic is that the house is sentient, and it knows it’s in trouble. It knows that the magic and the family are in trouble.’
‘But Mirabel was the one who could have saved it.’ Giles nodded as they were led into a house. ‘I agree with Bruno. They deserve to lose their magic.’
‘I believe Bruno still loves his family,’ Jesenia said. ‘But he hates what they’ve done.’
True, and it was so very tragic. Buffy would like to find these people and shake some sense into them.
But…they had work to do.
Bruno did duck in to briefly tell them where the vampires would be attacking from and how. One meeting, that spanned a grand total of five minutes, and Buffy could see exactly what her predecessor meant. Bruno’s posture seemed to be permanently hunched and his smile reminded her of every shy nerd she’d ever met. Even though he was probably somewhere close to fifty, there was an endearing childlike quality about him.
And his niece was the most enthusiastic, happy little girl Buffy had ever met.
It was beyond Buffy how anyone could hate either of them enough to throw them out – let alone a little girl.
***
Things actually went off without a hitch.
Because of the visions, Jesenia ambushed one of the vampires and Buffy ambushed the other. They were dust within minutes. Then they said goodbye to Jesenia and Charleston, and went back home. Then Giles dived for his books and started looking into what the Watcher’s Council knew about the Madrigals.
Turned out, the Watcher’s Council used Seers to find out who each new Slayer was if she wasn’t immediately apparent.
Also…turned out Bruno Madrigal had never been used by them.
‘His concerns were more primarily his niece and his natal family,’ Giles said, reading from a large textbook. ‘He charged for what was known as “non-crucial” visions. However, warnings about the raiders and warnings to Jesenia were given free of charge.’
‘Well, that makes sense.’ Willow lifted her head from her computer. ‘Do you know these if raids are still happening in Columbia?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Giles said. ‘They are.’
‘I guess that means Bruno could have survived on those visions for the rest of his life,’ Xander remarked.
‘He did,’ Giles said. ‘At the time we were there, Mirabel was ten years old. In another five years, his family’s miracle finally broke. According to the spies – both sent from his new hometown and by the Watcher’s Council – it began when Mirabel’s older sister became engaged to a man she didn’t love, simply because her grandmother expected her to marry him.’
Buffy winced. ‘I guess there were cracks before?’
‘Yes, but they were small and unnoticed. This engagement caused a large crack to go right through the floor of the courtyard. It turns out one of the other cousins was in love with the man, but she was holding her peace. The building was representative of the family. It began cracking because the family was cracking under the pressure their matriarch was putting on them. The townsfolk blamed Bruno because he made a prophecy.’
‘But he didn’t specify what would happen,’ Buffy pointed out. ‘He just said they deserved what was coming for them. Besides: totally agree.’
‘Yes, but that was enough,’ Giles said. ‘But the family didn’t blame him. You see, after what happened at Mirabel’s gifting ceremony, the family had actually become afraid to have more children. It seems Mirabel’s parents did have strong feelings against kicking their daughter out, but they didn’t know how to stand up to the family matriarch. And the other sister did have another child, so there was sheer unadulterated terror in that house as the boy grew until his fifth birthday which contributed.’
‘Ooh!’ Willow winced. ‘If he didn’t get powers, he’d have been kicked out too. And no Uncle Bruno around to save him.’
‘Fortunately for him, he was granted the power to speak to animals,’ Giles said. ‘And the rats in the walls told him what had happened ten years prior, leading him to understand why everyone had been so quietly terrified leading up to his fifth birthday. At the same time, the cracks were appearing all around their home and even started stretching into Encanto. Bruno’s sisters realised that this was what he meant but…had different reactions.’ Giles read on a moment. ‘Mirabel’s mother quietly accepted it as a punishment for allowing her daughter to be cast out just because she had no gift. Their sister, however, launched into denial.’
‘What about Bruno?’ Xander asked.
Giles flicked some pages. ‘Never showed any signs of losing his powers. I imagine it’s because he never strayed from the path. He loved his family for the people they were, rather than loving them for the gifts they were given as his mother did. And that was the whole point of his father’s sacrifice. But his mother also made the cracks worse by blaming Mirabel for them.’
The Scoobies looked at Giles in confusion.
The Watcher shrugged. ‘Evidently, it was Mirabel’s fault that Bruno had left them. It was Mirabel’s fault that Bruno’s parting words were what they were. And it was Mirabel’s fault that the entirety of Encanto was breaking apart.’
Buffy narrowed her eyes. ‘That doesn’t even make sense!’
‘Oh!’ Willow jumped up. ‘It’s the “Never My Fault” thing! She couldn’t accept that all of it was her fault, so she pointed her finger at somebody else. The fact that Mirabel was never given a gift made her an easy scapegoat.’
‘That’s the common theory,’ Giles said. ‘And it caused tension in the family because she wasn’t there. She hadn’t been there for ten years. So, eventually, the house…Encanto…the entire valley, it all shattered and they were left wandering. Apart from the youngest one, they all lost their powers. He used his powers and led them to the town where Bruno and Mirabel lived, but didn’t tell the rest of the family.’ He chuckled.
‘Let me guess,’ Buffy said. ‘Bruno knew they were coming in advance and he had the option whether to have them turned away or granted refuge?’
‘That’s it in a nutshell,’ Giles said. ‘He and Mirabel both. They decided that just because the grandmother had cast a little girl out into the cold, they were not going to sink to their level. The population was allowed in, but their reception was decidedly frosty. Antonio was the only one who understood why, and one of the few not subject to the cold treatment, and he went to speak with his uncle and his cousin.’
‘Bruno must’ve been surprised to find out the rest of the family lost their powers when his were still going strong,’ Willow remarked.
‘I expect so.’ Giles smiled. ‘It seems that, then, the cousins all became aware, and then Bruno’s sisters and brothers-in-law did. Her parents were the next ones to visit, really to apologise to Mirabel for allowing her grandmother to kick her out and to thank Bruno for having to nerve to come in and save Mirabel when she needed him most. But still, the question stood…Why did Bruno maintain his powers while the others, except the youngest, lost theirs?’
‘They ever find an answer?’ Xander asked.
‘There are several theories,’ Giles said. ‘But…Mirabel spent time with each of her family members and their powers seemed to return. Their grandmother didn’t notice because she was reeling at being considered so poorly by the people around her. Not until Bruno predicted the next raid and the people of the town immediately moved. Her daughters and her grandchildren already knew what to do and then she saw her son leading the population to a safe location.’
‘Oh, I get it,’ Willow said. ‘Because he’s the seer, he can see where is safest.’
‘So the confrontation happened in the mountains and this is when all the anger and resentment the whole family had finally boiled over,’ Giles said. ‘Mirabel’s mother yelled at her own mother about kicking her daughter out and then forcing her eldest daughter into a betrothal with a man she didn’t love. The other sister yelled at her for forcing an unnatural control on her emotional states for years. Bruno had a bone to pick about his mother failing to behave as one for him. And the grandchildren had their own bones to pick as well.’
Buffy smiled. ‘So, basically, the whole family exploded at her.’
‘Yes, and Mirabel finished it off.’ Giles smiled, looking proud. ‘She said “the miracle nearly died because of you”. It turns out that last line was exactly what the old woman needed to break through to her.’
‘So,’ Buffy said, ‘at the end of the day, Bruno’s vision came true and Mirabel did save the miracle.’