dragonyphoenix

Title: Demonic Runes

Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 470 - Termites
Rating: PG
Summary: Another chapter for Shanshu
Word Count: 1477

The Etruscan runic system is a branching of the B'shtok family of demonic alphabets. Runes, especially demonic runes, had never been Wesley's strong point, as this one particular scroll was proving. He was most definitely, however, not muttering out loud, no matter what Andrew said on the subject. “The lowly worm, no, the lesser worm? Ah, no, this modifier makes it, ah, what? Man. The man. Right. And the greater lord, the high being, oh, demon, and this modified speaks of the two of them as one. The man and the demon made one, possibly a vampire. Ah, temple, house, no, it's a verbal form, so, ah dwell in one shell. One body, man and demon, vampire is looking like a correct translation. And this is obviously ritual of sacrifice. That's demon again and the other is body. Ah, fled, abandoned, left desolate, destroyed? Removed it's blessing. I supposed from a demonic point of view, possession would be seen as a blessing. Best guess the demon has been cast out of the body. Ah, which would make it a shanshued vampire. Next is, hmmm, unknowing, innocent, possibly naive. Ah, and this is definitely sin, full of sin. Only one who is naive but also full of sin. And the next? Great divide, doorway, gate and it is opened, shattered, broken, no it's still functional so not broken per se.”

“Do termites eat paper?”

Wesley, already used to Andrew's distractions, stretched as he sat up from his book. “What?”

“Termites, I was wondering if they eat paper, because I thought I saw some, termites that is and not books, flying, possibly mating to set up a nest, but I was told they were ants. I'm not so sure they were ants and I'm worried about the library. What would we do if they ate all our books?”

Ah, and this actually was a valid concern. “Call a pest control company.”

“But what if they are ants?”

“Presumably you don't want ants either,” Wesley replied. “Now, please, let me get back to my work.”

“You've been translating that particular scroll for twenty minutes and all you've got is that a shanshued vampire will be the sacrifice in some sort of ritual that opens the gateway between worlds. We already knew that.”

“We don't know that he's the sacrifice.”

Andrew pointed to the scroll, indicating a specific rune. “That means lamb, in this context, a sacrificial lamb.”

Wesley searched through The Dictionary of Demonic Symbols, reading through a half a dozen symbols before he realized Andrew was right. “How did you know that?”

Andrew glared at one of the dozen Slayers who were each busy searching through prophecies written in human tongues. “I had to find a new language for my private journal because somebody taught herself Klingon.”

“You've been watching me struggle with this for the past three hours and hadn't bothered to tell me that you can read demonic runes as easily as you could read Latin?”

“Uh, I can't read Latin.”

Wesley handed him the scroll. “Go on then.”

“Okay, in the abode of the great lady, so that's a temple, those who dwell up high, above maybe?, in the eyes of others, stood as beasts on all fours to immortalize or maybe share their glory. Oh, that's Mann's Chinese Theater.”

“That's what?”

“Mann's Chinese Theater?” Andrew asked. “It used to be Grauman's Chinese Theater but there was a name change …”

“I don't care about any name change,” Wesley interrupted. “How did you get from that,” he pointed to the scroll, “to a Chinese anything?”

“He does that,” one of the Slayers, Zin might be her name?, said. “We're not sure how, but he's usually right.”

“It's obvious,” Andrew said. “Dwelling above in the eyes of others? That'd be fame or celebrity, right? And standing on all fours to immortalize their glory, well that's leaving their hand and footprints in the cement. Only one place it could be.”

“I see.” Huge intuitional leap but it did make sense. “Go on.”

“Fire descends or pours or flows from the cup, or maybe that's grail, of the moon. This bit here is the eye of god.” Andrew pointed out a specific rune. “I think it's sort of like Thor but I don't see how a reference to Thor would make sense in a demon's scroll.”

“It's a more ancient and demonic god-form but there is an association. This rune does refer to a god of thunder and lightning.”

“But Thor's a good guy.”

Wesley pulled off his glasses and started polishing them. “This isn't Thor. It's a demonic deity associated with lightning. The symbols may be similar but it's not the same entity.”

“Oh, sort of how like Batman from the original tv show and Batman the Dark Knight have the same …”

“Could we get back to the task at hand?”

“Okay, so I think this grail of the moon is that silver artifact you brought from Rome.”

The two artifacts had been left in an alcove at the far end of the library. The first was a flatish bowl, silver. It had been worked so that its surface appeared to be covered by dozens of shallow waves. The second artifact, made of iron, consisted of two circles, shaped rather like wheels, one inside the other, connected by what were probably jagged lightning bolts. The inner wheel circumscribed two lines that split the area into four equal spaces.

“Yes,” Wesley agreed. “And the other artifact could certainly be described as the eye of Thor, or of a lightning deity that is.” Wesley hastily added that last bit to avoid an argument about Thor's lack of evil qualities.

“So there's fire in that silver grail-like thing, and wasn't the Grail a cup because that's not looking very cup-like.”

Wesley held back a sigh. “There are differing descriptions of the Holy Grail, including cup, platter, and emerald. A silver bowl is well with the range of a grail.”

“Oh. Okay. There's fire in the grail and it's being poured onto … Wouldn't that hurt? Having fire in that grail I mean because the grail's metal and fire and metal are generally a pretty ouchy combination.”

Wesley closed his eyes. Oh, this was going to be fun. “The Fire is blood.”

“Blood?” Andrew asked, “Why would fire be blood? I mean, if I was going to associate anything with blood, it'd be water or ketchup or tomato soup or maybe the insides of those little pizza rolls but that'd be more viscera-like than bloody.”

“It's an ancient association,” Wesley explained. “If the fire is being poured, we can assume it's blood.”

Andrew stared as if Wesley had grown a second head, but he but did continue. “So the Shanshu's blood is poured from the silver bowl onto the eye of the God – who is definitely not Thor – and then …” As the sound of a single chord filled the room, Andrew stopped and looked around. “Where is that coming from?”

Wesley leaped to his feet. “The artifacts!” Five of the Slayers threw themselves toward the demons.

Four demons, with robes so bark-like that they looked for all the world like trees, wearing white masks popped into the library next to the alcove. They grabbed the artifacts, shifted to a different note, and vanished before the Slayers could reach them.

“What was that?” Andrew asked.

“Zin is it?” Wesley asked the Slayer-in-charge. “Get two squads together. Meet us out front with a couple of vans. We need to get to Grauman's Chinese Theater before the demons can complete their ritual. Oh, and have someone call Xander. Fill him in. Unfortunately I don't believe Buffy can make it back in time, but they should know what's happening in case we fail.”

“And someone grab me a sword,” Wesley called out to the Slayers and they vanished out the door.

Wesley grabbed the scroll and a notepad. “I'll want you to finish translating this on the way.”

“Sure,” Andrew said as he ran after Wesley. “But could you tell me what that singing stuff was?”

“It's how some demons travel between dimensions. Different chords map to different locations.”

“Oh, sort of like the Stargate – if you get the symbols right you can return to Earth – but with musical notes instead of symbols?”

Wesley pushed through the front door of the Academy. The vans weren't there yet. “Actually that's not a bad analogy. A specific set of notes brought those demons to Earth, to our library. Another set took them either to a demon realm or directly to the theater.”

When Andrew spoke, his words dropped out slowly, as if he were working out the corollary . “So, they could be killing Spike right now?”

As a van full of Slayers screeched to a halt at the curb, Wesley replied. “If they are, we may already be too late.”