I sit on my worn-out leather couch and watch the twitching flames of the fire in the fireplace as they flicker and hiss and devour the wood greedily and mercilessly.

They seem to be a good example of this merciless world and its inhabitants. Well, these flames seem to be much more a very good metaphor for us humans.

We are the ones who greedily devour the world and its resources without thinking about the consequences for those who follow us. Or to think about those who still live in the untouched spots of the earth the life that their ancestors had led thousands of years before them and who had never or very little contact with the outside world before.

I have seen with my eyes how people like Ana or Dominguez deal with people who are actually almost defenseless against us. How they deal with the history of these peoples only to get what they want. Destroy whole historically valuable excavation sites, buildings or even peoples for that.

I wish I could say that organizations like Trinity are the only ones on this planet who act for the same reasons as my former nemesis. Power and greed. But unfortunately, life isn't that simple.

I frown a little when a cup of steaming tea suddenly appears before my eyes and I look up at Jonah.

He raises his shoulders with a slight smile. "I thought you might be thirsty."

I blink a few times and take the cup. "If you're not careful, people might assume you're caring for me."

He snorts and sits down next to me with a beer in his hand. "I'll try not to be offended."

I smile a little and take a sip of my tea while I skid closer to him, place my head on his shoulder and stare silently into the flames again to continue my train of thought.

"Do you miss it sometimes," he suddenly asks and sounds as lost in thought as I am.

I know exactly where Jonah is going and take a deep breath. "You mean do I miss squeezing myself through mouldy, dirty, narrow tunnels? Not being able to eat real food or shower for days? Do I miss my clothes being more wet than dry? That we can only treat our injuries with a makeshift treatment? Or do I miss the fact that people I don't even know shoot at me for no real reason?"

He opens his mouth and closes it again, frowning. "Yeah, that is exactly what I meant," he laughs and I join him. "I actually meant more the part where we're researching in dusty, musty libraries, travel around the world and meet new cultures."

I take a deep breath and let his words sink in while I look into the flames again. I'm not quite sure where this conversation is heading. "I must admit that sometimes I really miss it, but I must also say that I have more than enough to do here. Cataloging my father's records will take me months, if not years."

"I'm sure you're aware that there are people who can do this kind of work for you. They're called employees."

"Jonah -" I sighed loudly and raised my eyebrows when he's raising one hand to stop my sentence immediately.

"I know that you are quite skeptical about strangers, Lara," he says and looks at me quite seriously. "I'm definitely the last person who cannot understand that. I just want to say that it's not right after all that you ... what we've been through together, to crawl into your study and pretend none of this ever happened."

I blink a few times and look at him in more than astonishment after Jonah insinuates that I'm using cataloging my father's work as an excuse to stop doing my own work.

I open my mouth to contradict him, but not a single word comes over my lips.

Apparently, my subconscious even agrees with Jonah, I can't say it. Maybe he's right and I'm really using this damn cataloging as an excuse to stop climbing around temples looking for clues so I can find an artifact. "Everything I've touched in the past few years, Jonah, has nearly ended in disaster."

"We didn't end in a disaster," he replies, taking a sip of his beer.

I open my mouth again and this time a sigh comes over my lips. "You almost died, Jonah. Three times."

"Once," he says and I roll my eyes. "And you and Jacob saved me, or I wouldn't be sitting with you today."

"I'm the reason you got into this situation."

"And you got me out of that situation. Listen, we can sit here the rest of the evening and philosophize about what was, what is and what could be. I just want you to know that I want you to be happy. And I want you to know that cataloging your father's work makes you nostalgic. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I lick my lips and look in my teacup.

I have to admit, he has a point. Every time I go through my father's notes or notebooks, I feel the urge to travel again, to finally rummage through an excavation site myself, and to rejoice like a little schoolgirl over every small, insignificant find, to be one step closer to the history of the past through this find. Being the people of the past closer.

Yes, I admit it, I have nothing against a little adventure, but first and foremost I am an archaeologist and explorer. Everything else is just a small addition.

I grit my teeth and sigh again. "And what are you getting at, Jonah?"

"I know a guy," he starts and makes a soothing hand gesture when I am about to contradict him again. "It's all within the law, Lara." He smiles a little when I sigh again and continues. "Well, I know a guy with a shipwreck of the 7th century BC who could use help from someone your caliber."

"From someone of my caliber," I ask skeptically and look at him with furled eyebrows. "Why would your mate need help from someone like me when everything is legal?"

"Are you kidding me," he asks almost astonished and holds my gaze. "There aren't many people in the world that have your expertise."

"I'm sure there are plenty more qualified people like me, Jonah."

"Just hear me out before you make up your mind, okay?"

"All right," I say more reluctantly.

Jonah pauses briefly as he starts talking again, "Well, I know this guy who has a license for everything. You know, all the dives and stuff. It's all government-sanctioned and approved. So, my buddy and I were chatting a few days ago, and at some point, your name came up."

"You told your mate about me?"

"Yeah, sure. After all, you are my girlfriend, aren't you?"

I open my mouth, again and again, no words come over my lips.

Jonah and I have not yet given a label of what we have now.

I mean, yes, we have become much closer than we already were, physically and emotionally as well, but we agreed right at the beginning not to label anything hastily, even if we live more or less together.

None of us dared to call us boyfriend and girlfriend.

Yes, we think that we are some tough guys and yet we don't even dare to talk about what kind of relationship we have. That's how badass we both are.

But I also have to say that since my father's death I try to keep myself emotionally closed, not to get too close to anybody because nothing good comes out of it anyway. Most of the time, I lose the people that I care about very much.

Sounds crazy and paranoid? Yeah, maybe I'm both, but the past has taught me otherwise.

I know that my silence hurts Jonah, so I say with a furled brows, "And my name came up by sheer coincidence?"

"Um," Jonah says with a bashful smile and raises his shoulders. "Not necessarily by coincidence. Perhaps I mentioned once or twice that I have a special girl."

"Once or twice," I ask, looking up at him. "Should I be concerned about the reason you mentioned this so explicitly?"

Okay, yes. I heard it myself. I sounded like a jealous chick.

"Come on," he replies, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "You should know me better."

"I know, I'm sorry," I sigh. So much for no emotional attachment. By all appearances, I'm predestined to fail at these things.

I empty my cup and put it on the wooden end table. "And what kind of shipwreck are we talking about?"

"A Greek trireme."

I furl my eyebrows while I give him a skeptical look. "So that would mean we would have to go to Greece."

Jonah takes a sip from his bottle and nods in agreement. "Yep."

"And hypothetically," I state, take the bottle out of his hand and take a sip too. "What would you do while I'd be attending this extrication?"

Jonah smiles a little and shrugs. "Sightseeing."

"Oh, okay," I chuckle amused and look at him in disbelief. "So while I'd be doing all the work, you'd have all the fun?"

"That's pretty much how I imagined it, yeah."

"Unbelievable," I laugh and lean against him again, closing my eyes when he kisses my head.

"So you think about it," he asks with a chuckle.

I take a deep breath and look back into the flames, nodding. "Yes, I will think about it."

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

Yes, I know I promised Jonah I would think about his proposal on Greece and I have. That's why I sit in my library and read all the books about Greek ship history that I could find.

I must clearly admit that the history of maritime is not one of my strong points. I don't know how Jonah came up with the crazy idea that I could help his mate Marty Andrews with this venture.

I searched for the name on the internet and I have to admit that Jonah is right. Marty Andrews seems to be a serious man and not some dubious treasure hunter working for a billionaire who wants to expand his private collection at any cost. That's why I'm getting more and more fond of the idea of Greece.

For far too long I have been sitting here in England instead of following my passion.

I came to this conclusion after yesterday's conversation, but I will not admit it out loud.

"Reading something interesting," a female voice with a heavy accent asks me and I turn to the source in surprise.

A young woman in her early twenties, brown eyes, and short dark brown hair looks at me with a slight frown.

I met Verena Kropf a year ago in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and strangely enough got along well with her at once.

I learned that Verena comes from a rather complicated family. Her mother is German and her father is American, who was stationed in Berlin at the time and who left immediately after learning of the pregnancy. Her mother had to work full time to care for her daughter and herself while Verena was raised by her grandfather, who took the role of her father until he died when she was only six years old.

This is only the short version of the very complicated story.

Don't we all have a complicated story in some way?

Anyway, she worked as a guide in the museum and I was instantly impressed by how well she knew about the exhibits so I invited her for a coffee after the tour and Verena declined because she was in a relationship and her girlfriend wouldn't be too happy about that.

Yeah, that's how I learned that she's into women.

Yes, apparently I had probably given the impression that I was hitting on her.

After I had cleared up this misunderstanding, I invited her again for a coffee to explain to her who I am and what I do.

At this coffee, I learned that she has the same passion for history as I do, but unfortunately, she couldn't study it in the way she wanted to because she didn't have the necessary school-leaving qualifications, so I suggested that she could become my protégé on the condition that she would come with me to England.

I must admit, I never imagined that I would have my own protégé.

I sit back in my chair and take a deep breath. "Just a bit of maritime history."

Verena strolls over to the table and sits down beside me with a dramatic sigh. "Haven't you always told me that you're not really a fan of ships?"

"I don't necessarily have to be on a ship to learn the story," I reply as she pulls the book, in which I had read until a few seconds ago, to her.

"Might be a little difficult on a trireme," she mumbles with a furrowed brow. "Although I have heard of shipbuilders who have built an exact replica."

I look at her in amazement and furl my eyebrows. "What exactly do you know about this type of ship?"

"Why," she asks slowly and skeptically. "Is this some kind of oral exam?"

I roll my eyes and press my lips together with a snort.

"All right," Verena says and raises her hands. "All right. The trireme was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks, and Romans. The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side and of the bireme a warship with two banks of oars, of Phoenician origin. The word dieres does not appear until the Roman period. Depictions of two-banked ships, with or without the parexeiresia, are common in 8th century BC and later vases and pottery fragments, and it is at the end of that century that the first references to three-banked ships are found. Fragments from an 8th century relief at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh depicting the fleets of Tyre and Sidon show ships with rams, and fitted with oars pivoted at two levels. They have been interpreted as two-decked warships, and also as triremes. Modern scholarship is divided on the provenance of the trireme, Greece or Phoenicia, and the exact time it developed into the foremost ancient fighting ship. Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes the invention of the trireme to the Sidonians. According to Thucydides, the trireme was introduced to Greece by the Corinthians in the late 8th century BC, and the Corinthian Ameinocles built four such ships for the Samians. This was interpreted by later writers, Pliny and Diodorus, to mean that triremes were invented in Corinth, the possibility remains that the earliest three-banked warships originated in Phoenicia.

I stare at them and blink a few times. "Why couldn't you study history?"

"I told you so," Verena sighs and turns the pages. "I only have a secondary school diploma. To study I would have needed a higher education?"

"Didn't you ever think about going to an institute of higher education after you graduated?"

"I thought about it, but unfortunately I didn't have the necessary financial means at that time."

I'm nodding off slowly and taking a deep breath. "Right."

"Yes," Verena replies a little lost in thought, but then she looks at me. "Is there a special reason why you are informing yourself about this type of ship?"

I am relieved that I'm not the only one who is terribly bad at changing the subject. "A friend of Jonah's has the salvage rights of a trireme." I pause and only now realize how ridiculous that statement actually sounds. "Well, the right to salvage the cargo of the trireme. Jonah asked me if I would be interested in being part of this venture. But we would have to go to Greece."

She nods slowly while she looks at me with a smile. "It almost sounds like you're ready to go back into the field."

"Yes, it's overdue."

"While you and Jonah are gone, I'll make sure everything's right here."

"Oh, no," I laugh and take the book back, close it and get up to put it back in its right place. "No, no, no. You don't think I'm going to leave you here alone just so you can throw a huge party with your friends."

"I was thinking of a little party."

I laugh again unintentionally and stare long at her. "Have you ever been to Greece?"

Verena almost shakes her head sadly. "No, I've never been. Unfortunately. I wish I'd had the chance, though. I've always been fascinated by Greek history and mythology."

I nod slowly and hope I won't have to smile. How I would love to tell Verena that in every mythology there is a bit of truth.

We know each other quite well, but I'm not yet ready to tell her what kind of things I've experienced in the last years, adventures. I know her well enough to know that Verena would call me crazy the moment I finished my first story.

Can I blame her? No, not at all.

I mean, I thought my dad was crazy back then too, before I got involved with the Solarri brotherhood, the storm guards and

Himiko. Before I had realized that my father was anything but crazy.

There is much more in this world than black and white, or gray.

Things of which very few are able to really understand, or those who understand these things and want to use them for their own plans.

Things that are better hidden from the world.

I take a deep breath and cross my arms. "Then it is time for you to finally see Greece with your own eyes. Interested?"

A smile flits over Verena's lips and her eyes shine. "Hell, yeah."

"Lara," Jonah says when he enters the library and pauses when he sees Verena. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know -"

"Relax, Jonah," she jokes amusingly and I have to smile myself. "It's not like you and I caught us making out."

I have to start laughing when he rolls his eyes.

"Very funny," he grumbles and turns straight back to me. "Marty wants to know if you're in or not."

I raise one eyebrow and lick my lips. "He hasn't given me much time to think about it."

Jonah clears his throat and I'm sure he had talked to his mate about this possibility some time ago. "He just wants to know whether or not to count you in."

"Sounds to me more like you forgot to tell Lara that you already agreed to this Marty guy," Verena replies while I silently agree with her and Jonah looks at her warningly. She raises her hands with the corners of her mouth turned down. "Just thought I make my point."

"This is a conversation between two adults," Jonah now growls a little unnerved.

Verena looks around searchingly and looks at him questioningly. "And where is the second adult?"

"Okay," I say quickly when he opens his mouth to reply something. "that's enough for today." I've rarely seen anyone who winds up Jonah so easily like Verena does. I find it amusing every time and it doesn't get old, too.

"Tell him to count me in. Anything else?"

He closes his eyes for a second before he says, "John wanted me to tell you that your practice hall is ready for today."

I nod several times and smile a little. "Okay, thanks."

"You're welcome," he mumbles and glares at Verena before leaving the room.

I take a deep breath and look at her too before we start laughing together.

„I really like him," she laughs and I have to shake my head.

TRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTR

I slip my T-shirt over my head and hiss a little when I move.

I know I gave up this kind of life after I came back from Peru, but I have made it a habit of continuing to practice free climbing on a climbing wall every now and then.

I can say that falling directly onto the ribs from a height of three meters is anything but pleasant.

"I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to take Verena with us," Jonah says thoughtfully while he's staring at his feet.

"What," I ask hissing and carefully touch my side to make sure nothing's broken for real. I've had better ideas before, though. "Why?"

He slowly raises his eyes and furrows his brow. "We've only known her for less than a year."

I sit down next to him on the bed and look at him from the side. "If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that it's always better to be surrounded by people I trust. I trust her, and you should start doing the same."

"Hmm," he hums and grits his teeth. "The past has taught me that it's always a risk to trust someone you hardly know."

"You know what the past has taught me?"

"What?"

"The past has taught me that you should trust those you know the least. These people have your best interests at heart."

"Hmm," he repeats his humming and now meets my eyes. "Jacob, Sofia, Etzli and Unaratu."

I hold his gaze and smile a little. "To name some of a few."

Jonah tiredly rubs his face with his hand, frowning. "Yeah, you are right. But the past has taught me something else."

"What's that?

"That it's always better to take you to the hospital after you've fallen ten feet."

I roll my eyes and smile a little. "I'm fine."

"No one who fell from that height is fine, Lara."

"I'm fine. Really." I look at him with big eyes after Jonah pokes me in the ribs. "Ow!"

"Ow," he laughs and repeats the poking. "Ow is the opposite of 'I'm fine."

I look at him in amazement and punch his arm hard, laughing as he also says ow and rubs the spot. "I can keep this up all night, Jonah."

Jonah looks at me for a long time and then grunts and rubs his arm. "Okay, okay. Yeah, you're fine," he agrees and I grin triumphantly.