Wayward Hearts: Book 2

Part 24

Tyler walked into the Gilbert house holding the sword of the Five in his hands, Caroline and Emma followed closely behind. Klaus sat on the coffee table within his area and smirked as they walked in.

"Well, if it isn't little orphan Lockwood. Come to show how laughably impotent you are against me?" He gloated.

"I'm just helping my friends find the cure," Tyler showed Klaus no emotion, Tyler pulled the sword out from its coverings, "found this in your attic."

Klaus looked unimpressed, "And you think finding the sword brings you closer to your cure?"

Tyler shrugged, "You tell me, I was playing with this on the car ride over and I found this..."

Tyler began unraveling a strap of leather that was bound around the handle of the sword.

"And what do you think 'this' is?" Klaus crossed his arms, still pretending to be unimpressed.

Emma set her books on the table, "A cryptex."

"Like The Da Vinci Code?" Caroline asked.

"Exactly," Emma smirked and nodded before picking up the sword and studying the symbols on the hilt, "each side of the symbol has a different meaning as you turn, and with my archeology knowledge, the magic of the internet, and the pictures of the tattoo, we should be able to get this thing figured out."

Caroline turned to Klaus, "If you wanted to help, we wouldn't stop you."

"Right. Well, might I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic-to-English dictionary from your nearest retailer," Klaus smirked.

Tyler turned to Emma and Caroline, "What's Aramaic?"

"A dead language that hasn't been used since, like, biblical times," Caroline answered.

"Qetsiyah's native tongue, I'm guessing. You know, even if you had the best dictionary in the world, it could take days to translate," Klaus sat down still smirking, "perhaps weeks. In bas so-teen-too ara-ma-eet."

"What does that mean?" Caroline asked.

Before Klaus could answer, Emma did, "'If only we spoke Aramaic'."

Klaus's smirk faded, "Aren't you quite the little scholar."

Emma shrugged, "Years well spent in Duke's archives, nights studying magic. I know a thing or two, but help is always welcome."

Emma sat down at a spot around the dining room table and opened one of her father's journals as well as her laptop. Using Caroline's expert research skills and her own knowledge of the long lost language they worked for a few hours to translate the symbols.

"Okay, this is it. We've translated all the symbols on the tattoo; 'Passage inside...requires a young senator, and a pretty flower'," Caroline became irritated, "okay, none of this makes sense!"

"That's the literal translation, think more abstractly," Emma encouraged.

Klaus began to say the sentence in Aramaic, then he translated it into a more understandable sentence, "Requires a powerful witch and a hunter in full bloom."

Tyler looked at Klaus suspiciously, "What are you doing?"

"I don't need to tell you my reasons," Klaus dismissed him, "Caroline, bring me my sword."

Caroline lifted the sword and brought it just close enough for Klaus to read while Emma brought over the pictures of Jeremy's tattoo.

"Silas rests on the far side, the means of his destruction at hand," Klaus translated, "turn the cryptex to the right...stop. The top of the hilt reveals a key to a nautical map. Turn it to the left. Now turn the other piece. There's something else..."