We arrived at Corbières half an hour past midnight in a light drizzle. I welcomed the cool spray on my skin while I opened the stable doors so Lou could park his antique beauty. Despite my tiredness, the adrenaline still circulating in my system made me restless. I decided I would search for the resident ghost. "I'll try to find Sir Guillaume, so we don't lose time."

Lou laughed. "He probably waits in our bedroom to get the news. You can start with your language lessons right away."

"Huh. Not tonight. I still dread this part of the plan. But perhaps our friend Sir Guillaume has a better idea."

Of course, the knight wasn't in the bedroom or the living room. I checked the library and the wellness area, including the whirlpool, but both were dark and empty—the slightest tickle in my wrist announced a ghost in the vicinity. When I wanted to talk to him the most, Sir Guillaume wasn't around.

The upside of the situation was the prospect of an undisturbed night for Lou and me and the chance to catch up on some sleep in the morning. On the downside, it meant I would have to wait another day to get new information and find a solution to our current problem.

After a late breakfast, I started the day, a Friday, in the library studying the article Vic had printed for me. From there, I delved into related research. I called Matt when I had all the information I could gather and filled several pages with scribbled notes. He joined Lou and me for lunch.

While Lou retired to do administrative hostel work, Matt and I place a makeshift do-not-disturb sign at the library door and took over the room so I could summarise my results. "The newspaper article brought to my attention by the Raven was right. There is a curse inscribed on that lead tablet. The scientists had to unfold the defixio to make it visible, but once this was achieved, the letters became legible. Seems a person called Marius wrote it. Here, Vic's article contains a picture of the inscription."

Matt bowed over the black-and-white photograph, supplemented by a neat ink drawing, a frown forming on his face. "Not that I can read more than a few of these scribbles. Where did you find the name of the guy?"

I chuckled and pointed at the first line. "Here, and welcome to the club. I felt the same when I studied the text first. But after a while, and with the help of the author's explanations, I got the hang of it. It's written from right to left, which makes reading an additional challenge, and some letters are differ t in Roman handwriting. Here, for example, the double-I stand for an E."

"Huh. I always thought the Romans had the same alphabet and wrote from left to right, same as us." Matt picked up the print to study the picture.

"They did, but the author suggests that writing in the other sense was supposed to enhance the magic of the curse formula. Sounds like a weird logic but fits well with other, more recent magical practices I know of."

"Okay, sounds reasonable. Let me try—here is an M, and this could be an R." He looked up and wrinkled his nose. "I guess I better stick to electronics. This deciphering of ancient writing is not my forte."

"Neither is it mine, but that's why we need specialists for certain jobs. Anyway, here is the text in transcription." I pointed to the passage I had marked in yellow. "Not that it makes much more sense to me, but the last paragraph of the article is dedicated to three different interpretations the author thinks plausible."

Matt looked at me, waiting for my explanation instead of reading himself. I grinned. "Right, the Short version is that Marius cursed a certain Cinna that he declares to be his. It remains unclear if the name Cinna or Cinne is male or female. It is pretty rare in the linguistic evidence and could be both. Anyway, the reasons that drove Marius to this dramatic step remain unclear, but the epigraphist suggests a love affair."

"Isn't it always about love?" We had been too busy to hear Lou entering the door. He stood in the doorway with a tray loaded with a coffeepot and three cups. As usual, Mister Mortimer trailed him. They both joined me on the sofa, the black cat curling up in my lap.

"Love is an important motivator." Matt picked up the pot and filled three cups. "So is coffee—thanks, Lou. To recapitulate, we know Marius cursed his male or female lover Cinna because he or she broke his heart, right?"

"It's a possibility. The author's favourite reading is that Marius cursed Cinna and the person who gave them away in marriage. That's her reading of the third line, which contains the verb conciliare. According to her, it means either 'to give away in marriage' or 'pairing' somebody. But she proposes two other interpretations, too." I pushed the last page over the table so they both could study it.

"Wow." Lou leaned back with a mischievous grin. "That's scientists for you—three hypotheses and no definite interpretation."

I chuckled. "You're right, but the author states she believes the first reading to be the correct one. I'm tempted to trust her instinct, as she's the expert in this case. Aside from a well-thought interpretation, she gives us at least a hint of where to begin if we wish to dig for more information and a few names to confront our ghost with. Marius for one."

"You think Cinna might be the ghost herself?" Lou leaved through the print and studied the transcription of the tablet.

"I can't be sure, but it would explain a few things. This means we deal with a female Cinna. Wish I'd known that yesterday."

"It might have helped." Matt tapped his finger on the print. "If this Marius guy cursed her unjustified, it might explain why she still hangs out in Aventicum after all this time. But I believe we still need to convince Sir Guillaume to help us with communication."

"That's what worries me the most. I doubt I'll be able to get a grasp of Latin fast enough to be of much help and lead a complicated conversation about love affairs. Will you?"

His hearty laughter told me enough. "Me? Languages? I might be an expert in complicated love affairs, but I'm happy I somehow kept my grades in German and English on a level to spare me trouble at home."

I could relate. Living in a country with four official languages and English as an additional must in touristic regions like ours could be demanding. "What about you, Lou?"

My friend placed an arm around my shoulder. "Sorry, San. English and French come natural enough. German is a hassle, and unless the ghost speaks pig Latin, I'll be a failure. I doubt anyone except an advanced AI can learn a language this fast, which leaves us with the options of using google translate, finding a fluent Latin speaker, or—"

A knock at the window interrupted him. With the library on the second floor, this wasn't something any of us expected. Mister Mortimer jumped up and drove his claws into my leg, his tail a quivering question mark and his rich black fur bristling. On the broad windowsill sat a bird, its feathers a gleaming black and one beady eye staring straight at me through the glass pane. Then it picked up a walnut from the sill with its beak, knocked it against the pane, looked at me again, nodded, and took flight.

Matt glanced from the agitated cat to the window and back. "What was this about?"

"Seems the Raven felt the urge to kick my ass." I rubbed the scratches on my thigh and stroked Mister Mortimer, who rolled into a purring ball, the interruption already forgotten. I envied the cat for his remarkable talent to ignore anything unpleasant. But the Raven's message had been clear enough to me. "If we can't learn the language in a reasonable time, why don't we bring the ghost of Sir Guillaume along?"

"Because you said yourself that our medieval friend is bound to the castle." Matt emptied his cup.

Lou tapped his lips. "We don't know that, right? It might not be the entire castle he is bound to. Chances are high it's just a part of it, perhaps a single stone or a piece of furniture that keeps him engaged in the premises."

"You suggest we search for the exact part of the castle he is bound to and bring the object, whatever it is, with us to Avenches? If it works and Sir Guillaume trails along, it would be amazing." Matt's eyes gleamed.

"As long as we don't need to bring one of the old roof beams or the whirlpool." Lou winked before he stood up and paced the room. "But how do we find out what Guillaume is bound to? The key problem will be that we deal with quite a headstrong character. He won't tell us as long as he fears this endeavour could end his beloved post-mortem existence."

Matt's lips twitched. "Still, between the three of us, we might convince him. He always nursed a soft spot for you, San."

I pulled a face, but I knew it was worth a try. I only hoped the knight wasn't bound to the giant hearthstone in the knights' hall.