Chapter 8: Brother Obscura
In an immense hall far beneath the Louvre, Lara dug her fingers into the crevices of the rocky ceiling and traversed across the dome with the agility and endurance of a spider. Sweatdrops fell from her forehead and whizzed through the air before splashing onto the floor's dusty stone tiles, approximately a hundred metres below the climbing archaeologist. Dirt seeped in under her nails and yellowish blisters grew on her fingers.
But no matter how tempting it seemed to just let go and follow the descent of the sweatdrops, Lara kept swinging towards the opening in the centre of the curved roof. She had spent the last half hour exploring these halls, making her way past hellish traps and tricky puzzles, and she sure as hell wouldn't give up when she was this close to the inner tomb and the Obscura painting.
After climbing through the opening, Lara back-flipped from the vertical wall and landed on the floor of a round room within the top of the dome. As she approached an iron gate to her right, the heavy plate automatically rose into a slit in the ceiling. "Wow! These guys must have used extremely advanced technology, considering the time this was built," she thought and walked up a staircase behind the doorway.
The words 'CAVEAT IMPIUS' were inscribed in the wall. Lara's Latin was a little rusty, but she translated the message to 'Unbeliever beware'. "Beware of what, I wonder? Hm, I guess this 'unbeliever' here is about to find out …"
The gate at the top of the stairway also opened when Lara approached it. Beyond it was a large room with eight finely carved pillars, four on either side, supporting the ceiling. Between the two rows of pillars, five statues of tall Lux Veritatis monks stood in a semicircle around the coffin of Brother Obscura. The coffin was suspended above the stone floor by six shorter monk statues with milky-white sceleton faces. The Gothic architecture was illuminated by lit torches jutting out from the pillars.
Lara walked across the room, eyes wide with fascination. It occurred to her that Howard Carter must have felt the same way when he discovered Tutankhamon's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Five words were inscribed on the side of Obscura's sarcophagus-like coffin:
ULTRA VIGILIS UMBRAM, ECCE VERITAS
"Through the spirit of the keeper, behold the truth," Lara translated.
Suddenly, she heard an unearthly howl to her right and noticed a reddish glare through the corner of her eye. Seeing the light draw near, Lara instinctively dropped to the ground and pressed herself against the stone floor. She felt a searing heat whoosh over her back, and yet, at the same time, a chill ran through the inside of her body. The howling was now coming from her left.
Lara scrambled to her feet and turned to get a better look at her assailant. At the first glance, it was just an inexplicable light floating a few feet above the ground. But once Lara's eyes had gotten used to it, she could make out a dark, tattered monk's robe inside the crimson glare. The hood was pulled down to conceal the face, but Lara could easily guess the identity of the ghost. "Brother Obscura …"
The spirit swooped towards her again, but Lara jumped out of harm's way. Unfortunately, she flew right into one of the pillars, bumping painfully into the stone surface. "Fuck!" she burst out as she landed on the floor with a pounding headache. To top it all off, the ghostly guardian was already flying towards her again like an owl towards a mouse.
"Okay, I'll just get the painting and then I'm getting the hell out of here." Lara scanned the room and noticed that each of the tall monk statues was holding a frame for a small painting. All the frames were empty except one to Lara's right, which contained the Obscura painting itself, giving off a light blue glow. "The Light of Truth …"
Lara dashed for the statue, but the painting and its glow vanished in the blink of an eye as she approached. "What the …"
Soon, her gaze found the glowing painting held by another statue across the room. Lara ran for the image once more, and just like her first attempt had proven, the painting magically moved to another statue's hands when humans drew near. "Why are things never easy?"
Behind her, the monk's spirit came flying forth, uttering its usual bloodcurdling howl. Lara reached into her backpack and produced a V-Packer shotgun. She rolled to face the opposite direction and fired twice at Brother Obscura's head. The bullets flew straight through the ragged robe and plunged into the wall. The spirit kept floating towards her, but it seemed to have slowed down a little. Lara back-flipped repeatedly while emptying the V-Packer into the spectre.
Finally, Brother Obscura's howls trailed off and it came to an abrupt halt, stunned. Lara dashed up to the right statue, and this time, the painting didn't move an inch. She snatched it from the stone hands of the Lux Veritatis monk and slipped it into her backpack.
Brother Obscura howled angrily and whirled around to stop the tomb raider, but Lara had already sprinted through a doorway, and the gate was lowered behind her. Realizing it had failed to guard its painting, the spirit let out one final roar of frustration before vanishing into thin air. The robe fell to the floor in a dull heap.
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Lara ran down the staircase and waded through a half-flooded corridor. Her military camouflage trousers were drenched in cold water, and gooseflesh spread across her bare arms. As Lara reached the end of the hallway, a minor waterfall poured down from an opening in the ceiling. The archaeologist filled her lungs with oxygen, just before the surface rose above her head and flooded the entire hallway. "I wonder where it's all coming from - maybe these caves are connected to the Seine somewhere?"
The archaeologist entered the hole in the ceiling, dove through a short tunnel and emerged back in the cylindrical hall with the impressive display of balconies and gargoyles. Lara floated motionless under the ceiling for a moment, staring down at the flooded tomb. The water was so incredibly clear, it could almost pass for normal air. Lara felt like she was flying – an angel without wings, flying through ruins of a forgotten past.
But like all other mortal beings, Lara needed oxygen. She tore herself away from the surreal sight and swam onwards through a passage in the ceiling. A cover blocked the square opening at the top, but Lara's half-numb hands managed to push it aside.
Her head broke the surface first. The quiet, peaceful soundscape of the underwater halls was replaced by the mechanical noises of the high-tech museum. Lara's purplish lips parted and she gasped for the dusty air of the archaeological dig.
Pulling herself out of the icy water, the archaeologist stood and walked down a rectangular, fenced-in area. She stepped onto a crate and easily jumped over the fence to reach the steel doors she had pushed open earlier. Lara returned to the museum and slipped up to the first floor, leaving watery footprints on the marble stairs.
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A/N: Sorry that was such a short chapter, I've been having a little writer's block lately. Anyway, the Louvre siege should be coming soon. Jordana Trent: Thanks for the long review. Karel's that old? (plays game again and looks closer) Well, maybe not 40, but probably older than mid-twenties. Damn, I think I'll fix that chapter …
