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“Well cupcake, are you ready to hear what I can tell you about what you need to do,” Lorne asked with a grin.

“Damned straight,” Spike snarled. “Tell me where my girl is!”

“Hold up there, luscious. That’s not how this thing works.” Lorne said, raising a hand to stop Spike from blowing a gasket. “I can’t tell you where you sire is right this second, BUT I can tell you where you have to be.”

“Get on with it then, I don’t have all night,” Spike complained.

“Okay then, here is what I can tell you.” Lorne carefully glanced around to make sure they were not being overheard. “It seems your sire is ill…”

“Dru is sick?” Spike grabbed Lorne by the lapels of his overly colorful jacket and growled at him. “Where is…”

“Easy there, handsome.” Lorne removed Spike’s hands from his jacket and straightened out the lapels. “She’s being rather well taken care of. In fact she’s possible safer than you, all things considered,” Lorne said with a thoughtful frown. “Anyway, you need to take a trip to the mouth of hell just north of here, and take the sunshine and its shadow with you.”

“Wait a minute,” Spike said. “First off, I don’t like hellmouth’s especially that one. Too many family members running around, acting all high and mighty. Moreover, I do not want to see any of them. Second, how in bloody hell am I supposed to take the sunshine and a shadow there?”

“I can’t tell you that, blue eyes. I can only tell you what the Powers show me, sorry.” Lorne shrugged apologetically. “However, I can tell you that things are not always what they seem, and to keep an open mind about things that seem unusual.”

Spike grumbled and glared at Lorne, but quickly realized that he would not get anything else out of him. He nodded and thanked Lorne for his time, and then turned towards the bar, planning on having a drink or ten. Maybe even chat up that blonde he had seen earlier. A flash of dark hair near the bar caught his eye and he peered through the shadows trying to see whom it belonged to, as the form looked familiar. “What the bloody hell,” Spike muttered, “That looks like Dru!” He couldn’t see her face, but the way the woman walked, along with her long, dark hair, definitely reminded him of his sire. After excusing himself from Lorne, he started towards her, when he was rudely shoved out of the way by the self-same demons he had noticed casing the bar earlier. The woman headed towards the exit, and the group of red-skinned demons followed her outside.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Giles slipped into bed alongside Joyce and tried to fall asleep. However, he was not having much luck as his mind kept bouncing from one subject to another. What kept lingering in the forefront of his mind, surprisingly, was not the parchment he had received, but Angel’s sudden interest in a prophecy he had previously ignored as unimportant. He tossed and turned for several minutes, unable to sleep. He finally gave up the attempt and climbed out of bed when he noticed his restlessness was starting to disturb Joyce. “Since I can’t sleep, I might as well see if I can make any headway on the prophecy,” he muttered to himself as he slipped his robe on and headed back downstairs to the study.

He bypassed the study in favor of the kitchen, deciding he needed a cup of tea before settling in for a long night of sleepless pondering. While waiting for the kettle to boil, he thought back over the way Angel had been earlier. When they had first found out about the prophecy, he had seemed disinterested and apathetic, and yet he had seemed almost eager when he had shown up after his patrol this evening. “Wonder what he’s up to,” Giles pondered to himself, startling a little when the kettle started to whistle. He made himself a cup and carried it into the study.

Settling into his chair, he sipped at his tea while gazing, without really seeing, at the parchment on the desk. “BLOODY HELL!” He shouted, almost dropping the cup, when he noticed the words, in clear English, on the paper. “I don’t bloody well believe this…,” he muttered, placing the cup carefully off to one side as he stared at the words

Daughter of the Sun,

“Well, it seems someone wants this prophecy translated, I wonder who could have done it though…” Giles trailed off, deep in thought. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he scrambled for one of the photocopies he had made the day before. “This could work! I can use the translated portion, replace the symbols that look the same…,” Giles trailed off as his pen fairly flew over the photocopy of the prophecy. A knock on the door interrupted his musings. “Come in,” he called.

Joyce opened the door and walked over to Giles. “Did you come to bed at all?”

“I waited up for Angel’s report, and then came up to bed, but I had trouble sleeping so I thought I’d come work on the prophecy,” Giles said as he stood up and wrapped his arms around Joyce.

“Did you make any headway?” Joyce asked.

“Some. When I came in, part of the first line had translated itself,” Giles said as he reached for the parchment to show her. “I had this idea to use these four words to help with the rest.”

Joyce nodded and smiled, “Like one of those cryptogram puzzles you make fun of me for doing.” She reached up and ruffled her fingers through his hair.
“Right. Sorry about that.” Giles said with a sheepish look on his face. He turned back to the desk and picked up the paper he had been writing on. “I managed to do some of it, but unfortunately there isn’t much to go on.” He showed the paper to Joyce.


Daughter of the Sun, ____ of ____.
____ of the ____, ____ of ____.
____ the ____ of ____ ____,
____ ____ ____ ____ the ____,
____ ____ ____ ____.



“It’s not much, but it is a start,” Joyce said with a frown. “To bad the symbols don’t denote letters, instead of words. It would be much easier.”

Giles nodded distractedly and placed the paper on the desk. “I think I should get dressed. Somehow I don’t think I should go to work in my robe.”

Joyce grinned and patted his behind. “I don’t know, you look rather fetching.” She squealed and darted out the door, with Giles hot on her heels.





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