When Buffy and Willow got up the next morning they found Giles in the study on the phone to the Watcher's Guild. They went downstairs and got breakfast. In the living room, Minty was on the computer pulling up information on myths and legends.
"I'm looking for information on the runes we saw in the cavern. I'd like to translate the rest of them. However, The Seven Burrows does not exist in any myths or legends apart from one. It mentions it in one line as a place for great learning, and that the White Magic it held was strong."
"Well, it's not White magic that it down there now, is it?" Buffy bit into her toast.
"A ley-line runs straight through that hill from north to south, I think that has been tampered with."
"What's a ley-line?" asked Willow.
"Its a line of magic energy, believed to cris-cross the country. They join up all the great places of ancient magic, Glastonbury Tor and Stonehenge are two examples of ley-line convergence. I'm sure the Indians of your country believe in the same sort of thing also."
Giles walked into the room. He had overheard the end of their conversation. "That's right, there is a ley-line that runs through Beacon Hill and it is also believed to be damaged. The good news is that if we do it the Portal will be closed and we can go home. The extra good news is that the Watcher's guild has found an ancient text that explains how to do it." He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This is where the bad news starts. It's in a language so old that no one in the Watcher's Guild can translate it. They're faxing the original to here, much use that'll be."
"What's this Giles?" teased Willow. "You using modern technology? Wow, maybe we can bring you into the technological age after all." She grinned.
Minty logged off the computer. "Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment. I'd like to go back to the hill and get back into the Cavern. Maybe I can find something that will help us."
* * *
soon the five of them were back on the hill. It was perfectly silent. No birds sang and the cows in the next field huddled as far away form it as possible. There was no one on the hill and there was no hole either.
"I don't undertand," Xander said. "It was definitely here last night. We pulled you out of it." They paced backwards and forwards over the hill but the hole had mysteriously disappeared. They returned to the safehouse down hearted.
* * *
The fax from the Watcher's Guild was waiting for them when they got back. Giles studied it and put it down in disgust. "I don't recognise the dialect, it looks a little like Germanic runes but the symbols bear no resemblence to any single word."
"Maybe we can just show this ley-line the paper and it'll fix itself?" suggested Xander. The others just stared at him. "Well, it was only a thought."
"Let me have a look," said Minty. Giles passed the paper over to her. She studied it for a few moments and her eyes widened in surprise. "It's the same as in the Cavern." She murmured.
"Can you translate it?" Willow and Buffy said at the same time.
"I think so. It'll take a little while for me to do it. I'll have to phone Grandma Richards."
"The chair of the Guild?" asked Giles.
"No, wrong side of the family. This is my father's mother. She has lived in Cornwall her whole life. She taught me the basics of these runes, she'll be able to help." Minty sat down at the kitchen table with a pad and a pen and began the slow business of translating. Giles went back upstairs to phone the Guild and the others sat out in the back garden.
"She's really nice," said Willow. "But it seems wrong that she is a Slayer."
"What do you mean?" asked Buffy.
"She doesn't want to fight Evil. She believes she's more suited to doing Watcher work, like the rest of her family." Willow replied.
"She could do with some Slayerettes to help carry the burden." Xander added.
"Or create more," Buffy teased with a smile. "Sometimes I wonder what life would be like without you guys. I don't think I'd like it."
They sat in a companionable silence for a long time.
* * *
Minty came running out of the house a couple of hours later. "I've done it!" she was extremely pleased with herself. "I've got the whole rite! Everything we need to make it all right again."
Buffy gave her a hug. "Well done," she said. "we knew you could do it."
"Come on," Minty said to them. "Get up, we have a lot to do. Ingredients to collect and stuff like that." She pulled Xander and Willow easily to their feet and pulled them inside. Buffy followed smiling.
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