Marriage is Murder

Marcus drew his handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around the knife wound in her finger.

"Sorry," he said. "I must have cut it a little deeper than I thought. Its really bleeding."

"Its fine," she said.

"Here," Brian said. He reached out to her, took off the handkerchief and healed her finger quickly.

"I really could have gotten a bandaid," she said.

"You can't dive with a bandaid," he said. "And it really isn't a big deal.

"Edward," Michael frowned. "Can I see those doodles you were doing while we were talking?"

"My doodles?" Edward frowned. "I was just keeping my pen busy. They don't mean a thing."

"Where'd you put them?"

"Um..." Edward said, looking through the pieces of paper on the table. "Here." Michael began to study them.

"What if...what if they did mean something?" Michael said.

"Then I'd say you'd been nipping the firewhiskey, my friend."

"No, I'm serious. Look at some of them. They look just like some of those symbols we saw on the trap."

"What?" Edward frowned. Edward looked at the papers again. "You might just have something. If we can put the runes in the right order and decode them. And that's a big 'if.'"

"I'm not going anywhere. Are you?" Michael asked.

"Well, this would be helpful if we had Robert to help us decode the runes themselves. He's quicker at these things."

"If he doesn't come before too long, we can send for him," Michael said.

Jess swam and splashed with Jack then feeling come what cold climbed out. hearing them talk about the runes she spoke up as she dried off " like a combination rune lock you mean,that would mean its something really important the person didn't want just any one to access" she sat down on the sun lounger. She paused seeing Jack walking up in his swim trunks now her cheeks flushed and Steven chuckled as did Cassidy as she climbed out.

" Hey your married no need for the blushes" she said but this just made Jess blush even more knowing Jack had seen it.

"Were kinda starting from scratch and seeing where it goes." Jess said trying to cool her cheeks off. Jack chuckled and sat down next to her.

"Yes, so its kinda like were... finding each other again" he said choosing his words carefully. He saw the look on Cassidys face and rolled his eyes at her. " so..how would finding the combination work, wouldn't you have to find the lock to fit the combination?" He asked shifting the focus off him and Jess.

"Close, I think," Edward said. "I wasn't thinking when I did these. I was just making squiggles, or so I thought. But he's right. These are the same language of runes that were on the trap. Some of them I got in either upside down or backwards, but yes, they're runes.

"The combination lock you spoke of is all about being a seer or not. No one but a seer was even supposed to know about these particular runes. The problem is now that it needs to be not only translated into English, but then we need to break the code. Its beggared on two additional levels beyond just being available to the seers. Michael is right. We are going to need Robert's help with this."

"Can you put each individual rune on a separate piece of paper?" Khaat asked.

"I can do better," Edward said. He flicked his wand at the runes and duplicated them, made them glow a bright blue and lifted them into the air. "Now--thats' better. Now we can turn them round or right side up, and eventually shift them into proper order--without the bother of little pieces of paper being blown all over the deck."

Jess sat and watched the runes float up into the air and stay there she also felt Jack shift as he sat behind her. She looked back at him then to the runes. Cassidy walked over and turned a few she could see were the wrong way up. "There, those are, I think the right way up" she said and stepped back .

Jim looked up at the runes "Isn't that one on the end the one for eternity or is it infinity?" he asked folding the paper and placing it down on his lap as he studied them noting Edwards interest in them as well. "Could it be possible Edward that you know this but have forgotten it?" he asked.

"You're all wrong," Edward sighed. "I know very little about them, but I do know when you're all guessing." He wiped the runes out of the air with his hand, making them disappear. "I'll leave this to Robert."

"Why are you pushing so hard?" Khaat asked them. "Just wait til we have the key and we can just go right to it."

"Whatever 'it' is, unless you know that too," Michael said.

"No," she frowned. "Of course not. I'm just a seer. Look, you don't have to go back with me, you know."

"Oh, no," he said. "You don't get to try to swim with one hand and drown--like your husband."

"I have more than one hand," Brian said.

"And I didn't drown," Khaat frowned.

"And you're both missing the point," Michael said.

Brant and the others collectively sighed and nodded "I guess we wait." Brant said looking at the rune like shapes that floated in the air. They all heard Edward and nodded. Jess lent back against Jack feeling the sun on her skin again. Cassidy pulled out her loom and began to weave.

" whats that going to be?" Brant asked her watching her weave.

" um..not sure still" she said continuing, " maybe a bedspread?" she said chuckling" if I don't drop any more stitches " Jess watched her and chuckled.

" you mean like the one about to fall?" she said and pointed it out. Cassidy picked it up in time to see a chess board appear.

" Jess, Chess" Jack said and moved to sit by the board. " control and focus" he said and she nodded smiling at him.

"Now thats something I really need to get back around you" she moved a pawn and waited for Jacks move.

When Robert and Kate got back, Michael and Edward showed Robert the runes Edward had discovered. Robert frowned. Edward cast them again into the air.

Robert made quick work of switching them right side up and the right way around. Then he stood looking at them.

"I am rather good with codes," Marcus offered, "even if I don't know the runes. There is a pattern here enough to decipher the pattern."

"Decipher away, then," Robert motioned. Marcus moved the letters in various combinations for about twenty minutes. Then he looked at Robert.

"See if that makes sense," Marcus said.

"Hm..." Robert began to read and translate the letters. He used his wand to write the letters below the runes. "The Hall of Immortality."

"What?" Michael frowned.

"Yeah. That's what it says. The Hall of Immortality."

"What does that mean?"

"No clue whatsoever," Robert shrugged.

Brant watched and made notes as he watched Robert now returned work on the images. He wrote each symbol down and the letters each represented for future use. He was also intrigued by what he heard they spelt out.

Jess looked up then back at the board she was getting distracted by the runes but Jack kept getting in her line of sight. " block out everything but the game" he said and pointed down at the board. Jess sighed and continued by moving her bishop to take his rook.

Cassidy sighed as she kept weaving the roll of woven fabric growing around her as she continued. Steven sat beside her.

"Are we going to find some sort of phony claim to immortality that never works?" Michael groaned. "I so don't want to find some mysterious oracle that promises everyone will live forever that belonged to a bunch of dead people. That shit never works."

"I don't know, but it ought to be interesting, shouldn't it?" Edward laughed. "I rather like the adventure of it. Don't you? I think its worth pursuing just for the hell of it."

"So we're going after something lame, aren't we?" Michael said.

"Most likely," Robert said. "You're right--those things never work."

"No," Khaat said, as Marcus defeated her. "This is important. Its been waiting to be found again."

"And it just happened to be us, when we're only planning to be out for a few hours," Michael said.

"When did you get to be such a skeptic, Tremaine?" Edward asked.

"I'm a realist," Michael said.

Each chuckled at the conversation the two men were having Jim just shook his head and stayed out of it while Brant slipped the book into his small leather pouch and sat back feeling the sun warm on his face and back as he sat watching. Jim stood up and then headed down below.

" ha take that" Jess said taking his knight Jack sat and smiled as he moved and took her king. " hey no far" she said but Jack shook his head.

"It is fare you took your eye off the bard" he said as he stood up. " Brant gym, training." he said and walked down to the gym again Brant as not far behind.