Chapter 17: 17. Take Two

Sunday morning all three of us were up early again. Marianne and I showered and got dressed, but before we left our room we had a little conversation with Eva about her bracelet.

"After thinking it over I agree with you Lexi," our demon ghost friend stated. "The safest place for it is on your wrist, where we can both keep an eye on it."

Eva looked at Marianne and added before she could protest, "I also agree with you Marianne, wearing a Minoan antiquity in the open around Crete is asking for trouble."

I frowned, "So what's the solution?"

"Magic of course," she replied with a smile. Her expression became serious again as she asked, "With your permission Lexi I would like to use magic to seal the bracelet to your wrist, so it cannot be removed. It will be similar to the first few days, before we signed our pact? The difference is I can unseal it at any time, this isn't permanent."

"Ok," I shrugged. "So it's more like a lock or something, you have the key so you can unlock it whenever we want?"

She nodded, "Exactly."

"That's not going to stop people from recognizing it though," Marianne pointed out. "What are you going to do about that?"

Eva explained, "A little more magic will disguise its appearance. You told that man yesterday it was a cheap souvenir, that is what it will look like."

That seemed like the best solution all round, and once she did her magic both me and Marianne agreed it should work fine.

The bracelet was secure on my left wrist, and it looked like it was made of copper instead of gold. The engravings were more or less the same, but appeared a little more crude. And it wouldn't come off, but it wasn't uncomfortable either. It almost felt like it was part of me, rather than something stuck on or worn.

With that problem solved, the three of us finally left our room and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Then while me and Marianne ate, all three of us discussed our plans for the next few days.

"There are at least a half dozen museums in the city," the beautiful French girl explained as she sipped her coffee. "But the most important one is the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. It's the best in the world when it comes Minoan art. And it's only a few minutes' walk from the hotel."

It wasn't hard to guess where we'd be spending the rest of our day today.

Eva asked, "Do you want to visit all the museums here Marianne? And what else would you like to see while we're on Crete?"

My girlfriend... I still wasn't entirely used to that, but it made me smile every time I thought those words. I was a girl and I was girlfriends with another girl and it was almost more than my little gay heart could handle. Me and Marianne were together and the only time I ever felt so happy was when I woke up in that hotel room in Bloomsbury after Eva resurrected me.

My girlfriend shook her head, "No, we don't need to visit them all. There's maybe one or two others I'd like to see, but AMH is at the very top of the list. Aside from museums though, the city itself has a huge amount of history behind it. You can see some of it from our hotel balcony, like the fort and the old harbour? If we have time it might be fun to just wander around and explore."

After a sip of her coffee she continued, "Whatever else we do though, I absolutely must visit Knossos! We cannot come all the way to Crete and not see that. If we can fit it in, I'd also like to see the ruins at Phaistos too."

"What about you Eva?" I asked our demon. "Have you figured out how you want to go about searching the island for your family?"

Eva nodded then launched into her somewhat detailed travel plans. "Like we discussed earlier, we'll need to rent a car. This island is many times larger than either Santorini or Milos, I think it will be too difficult to visit everywhere I'd like if we have to rely on busses."

She continued, "Marianne, I know you've said the only places outside Heraklion you wanted to visit are Knossos and Phaistos, but there's so much more history around the island, not to mention the beauty of the natural landscape. If neither of you mind, I think we should plan on several stops along the way. We'll set out west from here, we can visit Rethymno, Chania, and Kissamos."

"After that we can head east again," Eva kept going with her plans, "We'll take a detour to the south side of the island so we can visit Phaistos. We can visit Gortyna too if you like Marianne? Then to the east of Heraklion we can visit Malia, Petras, and Zakros."

"We can also stop to see the natural wonders if either of you are interested," she finally finished.

I grinned, "Wow Eva, it sounds like you really have done your homework. When do we get started?"

Our demon looked to my girlfriend and asked, "How long do you want to spend here in Heraklion?"

After a few moments to think it over, Marianne suggested "Let's plan on four more nights here. We'll visit AMH today, then we'll see what we can visit on foot tomorrow and Tuesday. Wednesday we'll visit Knossos, then Thursday we can check out from the hotel, rent a car, and get started following Eva's itinerary."

Eva agreed, "That sounds good to me, if it's ok with you Lexi?"

"Works for me," I smiled. "I've never really gone on a road trip before, but with my girlfriend and my demon friend I know it's going to be be fun."

When Marianne and I were both finished breakfast the three of us prepared for our second attempt at setting out from the hotel. Happily there weren't any rude interruptions or angry men yelling at me this time. The museum wasn't that far away, and by about ten in the morning we were in the first exhibit hall, surrounded by pre-historic Cretan artefacts.

Most of the stuff in that first area actually predated the stuff my girlfriend was studying, and in fact some of it even predated Eva which was impressive.

Not that our demon friend had a lot of experience with this part of the world from that far back, according to her she'd never even visited this part of the Mediterranean until she hooked up with her lover somewhere around two-thousand years BCE. And she didn't really visit the Aegean until after her child was born, around sixteen-hundred BCE.

The exhibits were all kind of interesting regardless, and the three of us spent a while in that hall before we moved on to the next one. That's where we started to get into Marianne's area of expertise, and needless to say my girlfriend was excited about seeing stuff in person that she'd only ever seen in pictures before.

We spent a while there looking over pottery and figurines and stuff, but the third exhibit hall was where it got really interesting. There was more pottery there, but the thing that caught my attention was this clay disk with writing on both sides. It wasn't that big, only about fifteen centimetres across, but it looked really interesting.

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Apparently it was found at Phaistos, one of the places we were going to be visiting later on. And it was neat listening to my girlfriend explain how there was all this mystery about it, like nobody knew what it even said.

According to Marianne there were lots of theories and lots of people had tried to decipher it, and some of the markings were similar to other ancient writing and stuff. She said there were even some questions if the disc was genuine or if it was a hoax from the early nineteen-hundreds.

At that point we both turned and looked at Eva, and my girlfriend asked "I don't suppose you know anything about it? Is it real? Do you know how to read it?"

Our demon friend shook her head, "I can't read it, and I've never seen it before. Sorry Marianne."

"On the other hand," she added with a smile, "It looks genuine to me. The markings remind me of the sorts of things I saw in this part of the world when I was visiting my child."

Marianne pouted, "Thanks Eva. I suppose it would have been too much to ask, that you'd be able to solve this ancient puzzle."

Eventually the three of us got moving again, and the next few exhibit halls all sort of blended together for me. Not that they were boring, but there was so much to see and to my uneducated eyes it was all sort of the same.

My girlfriend was absolutely in her element, she was excited and enthusiastic as she pointed things out and talked non-stop. She took pictures with her phone, except there were signs at some of the exhibits that didn't allow photography. In that case she pulled out a notepad and pen and took notes and even drew some sketches of the objects in question.

Our demon actually recognized some of the exhibits too, we'd got into the brief window of time between when her child was born and when Eva was imprisoned. That span of about five hundred years was spread out across a few of the museum's halls. I was a little worried it might be painful for my demon ghost, but she didn't seem too emotional or upset.

And it was fun watching Eva and Marianne compare notes, my girlfriend was in heaven getting accurate information from someone who was a first-hand witness during the time period in question.

At one point I wondered why nobody was giving my girlfriend any funny looks for having a conversation with empty air, like I got some stares for talking to Eva when it was just the two of us. But I realized people thought Marianne was talking to me, since the two of us were obviously together. So talking with our invisible ghost friend in public was ok, as long as it was the three of us and folks could assume my girlfriend and I were talking with each other.

For the most part I kept quiet and just listened while Marianne asked questions or enthused over the various exhibits. And I listened in as Eva answered questions or explained what she knew or what she'd seen way back when.

In a way it was really strange when I actually thought about it, like we were looking at some ancient drinking vessel from three and a half thousand years ago and Eva was describing how she'd seen humans using it in their rituals. It definitely drove home the point though, that she was an ancient being who'd been around a very long time.

Slowly but surely the three of us made our way around the halls on the main floor of the museum. When we finally finished the last big hall on the main floor I was ready to head upstairs and check out the rest of the museum, but to my surprise Marianne wanted to return to the hotel instead.

It was only about three in the afternoon and the place was open for several more hours, but she seemed to have had enough of it. Though it crossed my mind that maybe the second floor was stuff from later on, like after the bronze age. Maybe it was more Classical Greek or Roman, or even more modern than that.

"Is there anything else you wanted to do this afternoon?" I asked her as we made our way towards the exit. "We have a few hours before dinner time."

My girlfriend apologized, "I'm sorry Lexi, Eva. I almost forgot today is Sunday. I need to call my mother, we talk every Sunday."

"Ah," I smiled. "It's ok Marianne. It's nice that you have a good relationship with her."

She smiled back, "It is, she's a lovely woman. And someday you will meet her!"

That was a little scary to hear, but at the same time I was happy about it. We were girlfriends, of course she'd want to introduce me to her mom at some point.

When we got back to the hotel we went straight up to the suite, then Marianne got comfortable on the sofa while she started her call. Eva and I wandered out onto the balcony, and I finally got to appreciate the view.

"You're very cheerful today," my demon ghost friend commented as the two of us watched boats in the marina and the old port.

I gave her a happy smile, "I am. And I owe it all to you, Eva. I can't thank you enough, I can't even put into words how grateful I am for everything you've done. A month ago I hated my body, I was lonely and my life was going nowhere. Then you granted all my wishes and dreams, you gave me a second chance at a better life. I'm a cute girl, I've got a beautiful girlfriend, and it's all thanks to you."

She blushed, but she was smiling too. "I'm glad Lexi. It makes me happy to know you and Marianne are happy together."

For a moment I tried to lean my head on her shoulder, but I still couldn't touch her. That broke my smile and I sighed, "Some day Eva we'll figure out a way for me to hug you."

"We'll see Lexi," she replied with a wistful smile and a small shrug.

I glanced over my shoulder to check on Marianne. She was still talking on her phone and based on her wide smile and bright eyes I could tell the call was going well. I knew she was probably telling her mom about the two of us officially becoming a couple, and from the looks of it her mom was reacting positively to the news.

The call lasted about forty-five minutes, and when she was done me and Eva finally went back into the suite.

I sat down next to Marianne as I asked, "How did it go, how's your mom?"

"It was a very good call," my girlfriend replied happily. Then she pulled me into a hug and added, "You two didn't have to hide out on the balcony the whole time."

"We wanted to give you some privacy," I explained as I hugged her back. "Anyways it's a nice view out there, and the weather's good."

After that we talked a bit about dinner, then Marianne searched on her phone for an interesting restaurant for us to try. Eventually the three of us wandered back out into the city to find the place she picked, and Eva sat and talked with us while me and my girlfriend had a very nice dinner.