Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Eight

"Bruce, this is not working," I groaned as I leaned back in my chair and massaged my aching eyes. Banner took his glasses off his nose and dropped them to the counter with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

"I don't know what else to do," his voice was quiet and full of exhaustion. We'd been working on translating this tablet for months and still nothing had come from it. We hadn't even broken one single letter of the weird script.

"There has to be something that we're missing. Something that we haven't found that will be the key to breaking this tablet," I said leaning back over the tablet. The scratchy symbols taunted me with their hidden meaning. I sighed and rubbed my eyes roughly before looking down at the symbols again.

ᛥᛃᚫᛚ ᚫᛞᛂᛚᛋᛏᛂᚾ

ᚱᚬᚡᛑᚤᚱ ᛗᚯᛑᛉᚱ ᛒᚣᛏᛏᛇ ᛖᚠᛐᛖᚱ ᛞᛦᚱᛉᛏ ᚨᚠ ᚺᚼᛘᛚᛖᚾ ᛟᚸ ᛑᛇᚿ ᛓᛛᚯᛑᛉ ᚴᚱᛜᚷᛂᚱ ᛁ ᛑᛇᛏ ᛊᛐᛉᛞ᛫ ᚻᚡᚬᚱ ᛞᛖ ᚩᛛᛛᛂ ᚴᛟᛙᛙᛂᚱ ᛏᚼ ᛚ    ᚩᛏ ᛞᚯᛰ ᚻᚡᛜᛚᛇᚾᛑᛇ ᛔᛢ ᛖᛀ ᛌᛉᚿᚵ ᚨᚠ ᚾᛢᛛᛂ᛫ ᛞᛖ ᛉᚱ ᛓᚨᛑᛂᛏ ᛁ ᚱᛂᛀᛋᛀᛝ ᛒᛛᚼᚡᛂᚱ ᛞᛖ ᛖᛀᛰ ᛓᛛᚨᚾᛑᛂᛐ ᛘᛂᛞ ᚬᚠᚱᛜᛀᛄᛉᛀ ᚨᚠ ᛖᛀ ᚠᚭᚱᚠᚨᛑᛂᚱ ᛟᚸ ᛒᛛᚪᛑᛂᛐ ᚨᚠ ᛖᛀ ᛃᛟᛗᚠᚱᚢ ᚱᛉᚿ᛫ ᛞᛖ ᛉᚱ ᚲᛟᛗᛈᛛᛖᛏᛰ ᛥᛔᚼᚾ    ᛗᛜᛄ ᚠᚼᚱᛉ ᚵᚩᚿᚵᛇ ᛟᚡᛇᚱ ᛞᛇᚱᛇᛋ ᛥᛃᚫᛚ ᛏᚼᛚ ᚩᛏ ᛈᛖᚸᛖ ᛗᛜᛄ ᛊᚭᛗ ᛞᚢ ᛥᚯᚸᛇᚱᛰ

"Okay, let's go back over what we know already," I said quietly. Banner nodded and slid his glasses back on his nose. He blinked a few times before leaning back over the counter. Our notes were scattered all over the table in messy writing that only we could read, "So we know that after the symbol that's a large circle with a straight line through it, there is a large space. That most likely signifies the end of a phrase," I said pointing to the four times that that symbol occurs on the tablet. Banner nodded slowly and followed my fingers as I pointed.

"And the single symbol that is a straight line is most likely a single letter like I or A," he said quietly. I looked at their occurrences in the tablet as well. They only happened twice so it wasn't very much to go on.

"And a lot of the symbols repeat so it's gotta be a letter system and not a word-based system like Chinese or Mayan," I said looking at our tallies of the amount of symbols and the times that they occurred. Banner nodded and took a deep breath.

"We also can see that some of the cluster of symbols is repeated. So whoever wrote this must be using the same group of words over and over. Kinda like filler words or place holders like of, and, or the," Banner explained as he pointed to the group of symbols: ᛟᚸ, ᛞᛖ, ᛏᚼᛚ, ᚩᛏ, ᛖᛀ, and ᛉᚱ, "Do we have anything else?" Banner asked. I shuffled through the notes that we'd made over the past few weeks and shook my head.

"Sadly, that's all the information we've gathered so far," I said quietly. There was a stack of books that Fury had sent up that had to do with ancient African civilizations and their cultures and none of them had any record of a written language that looked at all similar to this, "How long have we got before we get our Carbon dates back?" I asked, planting my hands on my hips and looking up at Banner finally. He looked at his watch for a moment and then back at the calendar behind him.

"It should be done sometime today actually," he said.

"Oh thank god. Then we can actually tell if this should be impossible or not," I said leaning back from the counter.