~ 8 : The Zodiac Belt ~


The Hall of Aquarius foreseeably promised swimming. Good thing Kurtis hadn't chose this door, Lara found herself thinking, what with his disclosed dislike of the activity. The entrance hall was rather drafty, decorated with tattered strips of cloth hanging from the ceiling, swaying and blowing gently in the breeze. Where the breeze was originating from, though, Lara couldn't tell. It seemed to originate from nowhere. She zipped her jacket up higher and rubbed her arms.

As she moved about, her mind drifted, unable to move past the idea yet that Kurtis had almost kissed her in the hotel room, and furthermore had admitted it to her. It wasn't how she pictured him; though she was learning more and more about him, somehow he was still as mysterious to her as ever. Why did he think I didn't want it? She wondered, thinking back to that moment. As she went over the sequence of events in her mind, she gasped softly to herself. Of course, she remembered. He had been leaning in when she tensed up, and that was when he stopped. She had been on the verge of panicking from how he had her claustrophobically trapped on the bed, the feeling of being unable to move her arms bringing back painful memories of being crushed beneath a ton of rocks... but she could see how her reaction might have looked on his end – anxious eyes widened and body going rigid – that it was in response to his actions and not something completely unrelated.

Oh well, she thought resolutely, It's better this way. Between Kurtis' father and Werner, there was more than enough emotional baggage for them both. They didn't need to add a disastrous and distracting romance to the mix; it was more important they focus on defeating Karel, no matter what. Even if a small part in the back of her mind wondered how that might have felt...

She reached the end of the room, where amid dozens of tepid puddles, was a small pool. An intricately carved water spout, designed like a water jug, jutted out from the wall, and from its mouth poured a small trickling fountain. Underneath where the fountain met the pool, a dark shadow lay, and upon further inspection, she could see there was an underwater tunnel.

Lara splashed in and swam down into the tunnel, going up and down, reaching dead-ends, and squeezing through narrow openings. The underwater passageway appeared to have no end, to the point she was seriously worried about drowning. Her lungs burned and she felt at any moment she would no longer capable of resisting her natural instincts that cried out to take a deep breath, nevermind that she knew she'd only get water. Just as she thought she'd let go, she was pushed forward by her will to live and finally broke through the surface, reaching the other side.

Ardently gasping for air, she pulled herself onto the stone ground and lay there for a few minutes to catch her breath and calm her wild pulse. Eventually she got up and was presented with a brightly lit room. Lined up in a row across the room were jugs, vases, and jars of varying sizes and shapes. Each was of a different design, each in all sorts of different colors and materials; clay, porcelain, peuter, glass; Greek style, Chinese, Ancient Egyptian, and some styles and designs Lara was unfamiliar with. Perhaps unique to the Lux Veritatis, or Nephilic in nature, she wondered.

At the far end was a door with no knob or chain or any other visible method of opening. After trying to kick it down and pry it open with her pocket knife, it immediately became clear there was a trick to it. In the center of the room stood out a brick-red colored tile square, conspicuous because all the other tiles surrounding it were a dull, pallid gray, and it was the only space in the whole room without a jug on it. Being already an expert in solving puzzles, Lara easily deduced this tile was some sort of scale or had some kind of trigger. Judging by the water-holding devices, and what little she knew of the Aquarius sign, she deduced the solution lay in filling jugs up with the correct amount of water. With Aquarius' symbol being the Water-Bearer, often depicted as a man pouring water from a jug at his shoulders, it was no surprise then that the puzzle was related to that.

The question that lay in her mind now was: Which jug to use, and how much water was needed? For convenience's sake she ruled out the vases that were as large as her; she wouldn't physically be able to fill those up and move them onto the scale by herself. She thought about which numbers might be related to the Aquarius sign, but it had been so long since she'd brushed up on her Astrology that she could only draw a blank. But perhaps she could find some clues...

After looking around the room and not finding anything she thought relevant, she swam back to the entrance hallway – easier the second time around as she knew the way – with the strips of cloth blowing from the ceiling. There she looked around. She decided to count the strips of linen, as surely they served a purpose other than decoration: There were eleven of them. She swam back to the jug room and inspected the jars and vases, before selecting the eleventh one from the left – a brick-red one. It was as good a guess as anything else, she shrugged to herself. Filling it up with water from the tunnel, she carefully dragged the brick-red vase over to the brick-red square tile in the middle and positioned it so that it was directly in the middle.

The scale seemed to sink a fraction of an inch, and with it the door at the end swung open.


The room she entered was far less dark and dank than the previous two, but no less drafty. On the ceiling above was an elaborate drawing of the planets and constellations. Two planets in particular seemed to be the focus: Uranus and Saturn; and likewise, the constellation of Aquarius was more deeply engraved than the others. On opposite ends, two sarcophagi were nestled on the floor, their lids carved in Latin script. In the middle of the room stood a pole and dangling from it, several small circular brass wind chimes, delicately tinkling against each other and creating a beautiful background music.

Examining her surroundings, Lara found little of value or interest here. There were no scrolls, no wall paintings, nothing but the ceiling art, elaborate wind chime, and two dead Lux Veritatis warriors. There weren't even any noticeable traps or undead knights. There was a door at the far end, but it was locked. As she was about to turn around and retrace her steps, a glint from the wind chime caught her eye. A small key, tied with twine, hung from one of the chimes. Taking a pocket knife from her backpack, she cut the twine and used the key on the exit door.

The door led her further underground in a rather cramped tunnel, dimly lit by torches. When she reached the end, she found herself surrounded by similar tunnels. At the apex of these tunnels where she stood, was a wooden platform and pulley chain that ran the length from floor to ceiling. Centering herself in front of it, she pulled. A hatch in the ceiling above fell open with a clang on the first pull, and simultaneously the wooden platform rose a little. She continued to pull the chain until she reached the top, where she was back in the main zodiac hall. A moment after stepping off the elevator platform, the chain mechanism began to crank loudly and the elevator platform descended slowly.

With no sign of Kurtis waiting in the hall, and having found no clues related to the Nephilim, Lara made her way to the next door in line, which was somehow already opened. The sign above the door, of Virgo.


The Virgo Room was not at all in the same style as Aquarius. Upon entering through the door there was a narrow but finely decorated entryway, furnished with cozy looking chemises. Through an archway the hall spread out into a grandiose sitting room and library. There stood floor to ceiling bookshelves alternating with stone statues and busts of young women. Hung above a small couch at the back of the room was a painting of Madonna and Child. Near the center of the room, placed between two burning torches was a statue of a beautiful angel with large feathered-wings, cradling in his arms a sleeping nude woman, and gazing down at her lovingly. This was the only statue or painting with an inscription. Lara traced it as she read aloud:

"'EX SANGUINIBUS VIRGINIS UTERO, NASCITUR REGINAE ANGELORUM.' 'Through the blood of the virgin womb, the queen of angels is born.'"

All of a sudden the large Madonna and Child painting swung open with a creak, revealing a hidden compartment behind it. As she neared, she saw that the painting was hung on hinges. Inside the compartment was a small pedestal, but nothing sat atop it. If this was the location of the Sleeper Scrolls, Lara thought, they've already been claimed. But there was no way for her to know for sure. Her only option was to keep looking. Even if they had been taken, Kurtis said it was possible to find out the location of the Nephilim Sleepers through other means.

Lara took out Werner's notebook and jotted down the inscription. It might not be useful, but better to have it and not need it. She probed the remainder of the room for clues, noting that the spines of many of the books mentioned Nephilim or Angels. There were too many for her to read all at once, so she decided to come back later if she didn't find anything else. Taking another small brass key hanging from the neck of one of the busts, she exited the room, ran through the underground tunnel and pulled the elevator chain to bring her back up to the main hall.

Kurtis was still no where to be seen. She wished she had come up with some idea for them to mark their progress for the other to see; she wondered if he had even finished the first room yet, or maybe he was already on his third, or even fourth. But ultimately it didn't matter; when one found something important, they'd stay in the main hall until the other came out. Lara wondered briefly if the statue in the Virgo Room counted as 'important'.

As she was dwelling on whether to go into the next room or wait, the elevator hatch dropped down and she heard the clacking of the chain as it was pulled. Kurtis slowly emerged from the hole, and when he caught sight of her his eyebrows raised in surprise. Once the elevator was in place, he departed and jogged over to her.

"Find anything?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. There was a statue – one moment," she reached into her backpack and withdrew Werner's notebook to read the inscription verbatim. "'Ex sanguinibus virginis utero, nascitur reginae angelorum'. Through the blood of the virgin womb -"

"'The queen of angels is born." Kurtis finished for her.

She put the notebook back. "That was inscribed on a statue of an angel holding a woman."

"Sounds ominous." he replied thoughtfully.

"Right, but as soon as I read it aloud, a painting in the room moved, and behind it was a compartment with a bare pedestal."

"Well that's not good."

"That's what I was thinking." Lara replied. "Do you have any idea what it means? It was the library you mentioned, and the room was very... Nephilim-centric. Odd, I would think, for a Lux Veritatis tomb."

He shook his head. "It's referencing a ritual. The Order has recovered very few scrolls or icons made by Nephilim, as being immortal, they don't see the need behind keeping detailed records. What few spoils of war that my forefathers have collected were housed here, which is why I guessed the Sleeper Scrolls would be as well."

Lara nodded; it made sense. "Well, they weren't in the library. There were too many books to look through, we should come back to it if we don't find what we need in any of these other halls. How far have you gone?"

Kurtis pointed behind him. "Just about to go into my third one. I'll let you know if I find anything."

And the two went their separate ways again.


The symbol for Sagittarius stared down at Lara from above the next door, taunting her. She looked behind her; Kurtis had already entered the third door on his side, but she was stuck here. With great frustration she tugged on the pulley chain once more, but it refused to budge. The door wouldn't open! Grumbling to herself in vexation, she resigned to try the next door. She would just have to come back to this room at a later time. Perhaps there was a lever in another room that would open it, as usually was the case in these old tombs.

The door to the Aries room slammed shut behind Lara, trapping her from leaving the way she came. An arena was before her, the floor covered in an elaborate heavenly mural. Swirling lines and curves shaped the planets, and standing in the center of each were small pedestals. Writing could be made out along the edge of them, but as Lara drew near she was stopped by a blinding light.

From the center of each pedestal bright light beams shot to the top of the room and a deep, groaning voice thundered through the arena: "qui occurrit... praepara imminentis mortis... lux veritatis circa te..."

The light died then and in the place of the pedestals, in the middle of the room, appeared two beasts. Their bodies were that of men, but their heads were ram skulls, skeletal and without flesh or eyes. They wore armor from the neck down that rattled and seemed to dangle as if attached to a body far too thin. One wielded an axe and the other a sword, and in their other hands they carried shields. Their bodies gleamed with a shimmery red aura, and their prodigious horns glowed as if on fire.

"Great. Just what I needed." Lara muttered under her breath. Without further ado, she freed her twin pistols from their holsters, aimed them at the two ram sentinels and began firing.

The ram guards approached her, blocking her bullets with their shields, and she backed up at the same time, avoiding the swipe of their weapons. She was so far unable to land a single hit to their bodies; the bullets merely glanced off the shields, and no matter where she shot at the covers seemed to appear at that place instantly, as if they knew where she would shoot before she did so. As she fought off their attacks, the one with the axe halted and remained still while the one carrying the sword continued to follow and attack the tomb raider. The pair moved in an arc, Lara hopping back and firing her gun, leaping and dodging sword strikes that the other continued in its onslaught.

As she was changing out her empty pistol magazines with a full pair, she suddenly sensed movement to her left. She did a back-flip just in time to miss being rammed by the axe-wielding Aries' horns. It collided with its partner's shield, its horn lodging itself in the thick material. When it pulled itself free, the shield had a huge crack down the middle. A well-placed shot from Lara's pistol shattered the escutcheon and the pieces showered to the floor. Then the axe-wielder began to approach as the other stood still.

The next time Lara was ready: When the other Aries charged she knew perfectly well just when to jump out of the way. Its horns got stuck in the other's shield just as before, and with a couple more gunshots it shattered. Now they were both without protection.

She concentrated all her gunfire on one then, all the while avoiding their attacks and charges, until the one she was shooting at froze in place. The crimson aura faded from it, and its gleaming horns dulled until turning black as soot. It no longer moved and seemed to have lost its spark of life. Smirking triumphantly, Lara leveled her gaze at the remaining ram-man. Its glowing eye sockets seemed to flicker in acknowledgment and accept her challenge. It held out its sword and without warning the blade was engulfed in fire; hot flames licked its metal edges. Lara backed away from the heat and shielded her eyes, the sudden wave of heat having taken her by surprise.

As she was recovering, it advanced and swung at her, the blade connecting with the forearm she was using to screen her face with. But instead of cutting her arm as a sword would, it burnt her flesh instead. She fell down with jaw clenched in pain and anger, and holding back a scream, she unleashed the remaining ammo from her gun magazines. Lara rolled to the side at the last second as its sword came down hard beside her head and glanced off the stone, sending sparks flying. She got to her feet and sprinted across to the other side of the room as fast as she could, and dug for more gun magazines from her backpack. By the time she had her pistols loaded again the creature was by her once more and carving arcs in the air.

She backed up while firing until almost reaching the wall. Now crowded, she ran and jumped and pushed off the wall with one leg, launching herself towards the beast and kicked it in the face. The hard toe of her boot cracked its skull and its face caved in, and the Aries fell backwards to the ground. When its sword hit the stone floor the flames were extinguished and its glimmering carmine aura vanished.

At the same time as the final sentinel was defeated, the door on the opposite end from the entrance lifted and allowed her to exit. Damp with perspiration, she wiped her forehead, knelt and applied burn ointment and a bandage to her arm. Then she went through the lower passageway, returning to the main hall once more. Apparently her battle with the guards triggered a lever mechanism as the door to the Sagittarius hall was now open. She strolled over calmly, catching her breath, and entered.


The Hall of Sagittarius held a test of archery. Murals of battlefields and warring men adorned the walls, and bullseyes were painted on large wooden circles mounted at the other end. Between the murals was a single sarcophagus. At the entrance was a bow and a quiver full of arrows resting on a table. Lara, intrigued by the set up, took them and shot a couple off. Her score was decent but it was not her best work. After all, her skill was in firearms, not archery. Letting the bow fall to her side, she approached the murals.

The first one on her left depicted a battle. At the helm of the battlefield were a group of knights donning armor, carrying swords and shields. Behind them were a line of archers shooting flaming arrows up into the sky. And their target: large, white winged monsters. Angels... or maybe Nephilim. Upon closer inspection, Lara saw the knights' chest plates had the same Lux Veritatis arrow symbol that Kurtis had tattooed on his shoulder. In the background of the mural were cylindrical poles or beams of rock, topped with rounded mushroom heads...but giant mushrooms? She didn't know what they meant. It struck Lara that this mural wasn't just pretty artwork, but was rather telling about a battle that had actually taken place. The Lux Veritatis, a whole army of them, slaying the Nephilim.

The mural on the opposite wall depicted another scene, one she concluded took place soon after the battle. A much smaller group of Lux Veritatis warriors stood surrounding two Nephilim that were being placed in sarcophagi. Their eyes were closed and arms crossed over their chests as though dead. One of the knights was depicted taller than the others and held above his head three daggers – the Periapt Shards.

So what was the meaning of this? Lara couldn't understand why the Lux Veritatis simply didn't kill those last two Nephilim, why they either put them into or allowed them to remain in a state of sleep, rather than destroy them forever. Perhaps Kurtis knows more, she thought.

In order to exit the room, Lara assessed the solution was in the arrows. Taking a hint from the mural, she lit the arrowhead of one of them from a torch mounted at the entrance, and shot it off at the bullseye. This time she hit a perfect ten, and the flame from the arrow began to spread and soon burnt the entire piece of wood. Once it was completely blackened, the door behind it cranked open on its own accord, and Lara returned to the main hall.

When Lara reached the main hall she felt something was not right. Upon scanning the perimeter of the room she saw the fourth door on Kurtis' side was left open. Crossing over to the other side, panic began to bubble in her belly. She went to the door and paused.

"Kurtis?"

There was no answer. She stepped over the threshold and into the hall. She noticed straightaway the cause of that strange feeling: something had happened to Kurtis, something bad.

The long dim hallway was empty except for a defeated corpse. A huge bull-like beast lay still on the floor, resembling in a way the ram-men Lara fought. Its head was a bull's, but its body was a man's. Blood – human blood – splattered the wall near the corpse. As she neared the body she felt her boot step on something. She moved her foot and bent to pick it up. When she saw clearly what it was her heart sank.

Kurtis' golden ring, that she'd never seen him without since first seeing him in Café Metro, lay there abandoned on the stone floor. But why would he discard it? As a sign for her? She pocketed the ring and as she turned to leave something glinted in the darkness, reflecting the light from the torches. With delicate fingers she picked it up by its handle. A used syringe lay by the wall, having been carelessly dropped after its contents emptied.

This meant only one thing, and the sudden worry and fear she felt earlier was now founded. Kurtis had been taken, drugged by that vicious assassin Morgau. Though she wanted to search the rest of the crypt for him, a large part of her knew there could be no other meaning behind this. This was a clue left behind on purpose.

As Lara exited the hallway back into the main chamber, an image flashed across her face. The round-topped cylindrical poles in the mural... she had seen those before. Valley of the Fairy Chimneys, located in the Cappadocia Valley, Turkey. The battle took place near there – and if the Nephilim were buried soon after that battle, then it only made sense they were still nearby the battlefield. Which meant the two remaining Nephilim were buried somewhere in Cappadocia.

With great consternation Lara retraced her steps to leave the Crypt of the Warriors and came out from under the Château de Montségur, leaving a tomb unexplored for the first time in her life.


A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing! I also want to thank Meldelen again for beta-reading my chapters, and bringing different perspectives to my story: Thank you dear!

Some notes: I don't know Latin, at all. If there are errors please forgive me, I used an online translator and everyone knows how those can be wrong. The Latin used in the Aries room roughly translates to "who intrudes... prepare for imminent death... light of truth surrounds you..." The idea of the Crypt being zodiac-themed comes from something I read about early notes for AoD: the Tomb of Ancients was supposed to be twice as big as it is, with a whole section being the Zodiac Halls as well as the Hall of Seasons, but due to time constraints, was cut out. I don't know how true this is, it's just something I read online before. Since I've always been fascinated by Astrology I jumped on the idea to make one of the Lux Veritatis locations zodiac-themed.

If the ending of this chapter seems confusing, I'm sorry for that but I promise it'll make more sense as the story progresses. As a reminder, so far this story has been (with the exception of the Prologue) only from Lara's perspective; we only know what she knows and can only see her thoughts and not others. This is about to change soon and we'll learn more.

Now stay tuned for a bunch of masturbatory explanations of my references in this chapter: The Aquarius sign is the Water-bearer, so hence the water and the jugs. The house in reign is the 11th, so there's eleven strips of cloth, and it's element is Air, so that's why there was an unexplained breeze blowing the cloth and the wind chimes. It's ruling planets are Uranus and Saturn - which are depicted on the ceiling of the tomb room. The Virgo room is full of references and art depicting virgins, as that's the image associated with Virgo - the Virgin. Aries is the Ram, and it's element is fire so the beast's sword lit on fire. Sagittarius is the Archer, depicted as a centaur with a bow and arrow. It's also a fire element so Lara needed to light the arrows on fire. It's ruling house is the 9th, so there were nine arrows (but I left that part out). The room she finds Kurtis' ring in was, if you can guess by the bull monster, the Taurus hall ;)

For music, I listened to "The Unseen Attack" from the TR: Angel of Darkness soundtrack by Peter Connelly for the Aries fight scene, and "Mystery 2" from the TR: The Last Revelation soundtrack by Peter Connelly for when Lara sees the angel statue :)

~ Clairesail