19- Answers
The first thing she felt was the hot, dusty earth beneath her. The blood was pounding hard against her temples, she could feel her heartbeat echoing against the uneven ground she was lying on. There were pebbles and dry earth. Her throat and mouth were dry, almost chafed. Something was heating her face, she shivered as she felt strangely invigorated. She felt the wind and air sweep over her battered body, there was an iodine smell in the air. Gradually she discerned the sound of waves in the distance. The sea. She felt the life returning to her limbs. Almost reluctantly, she slowly opened her eyes.
She was taken by surprise by the bright sunlight and had to squint and shield her eyes with one hand to see clearly. When she sat up, she was seized by violent cramps. She had obviously been there for a while. She hiccupped in surprise when she realized she was perched on a small strip of land, overlooking high rocky cliffs. Down below, as she had suspected, she saw the foam the waves were forming against the rocks. She was back in the open air, trapped somewhere on one of the cliffs of Mount Athos.
She slowly got to her feet, being careful not to slip. The slightest misstep would send her tumbling into the void.
It would be a shame after all that happened
If it had really happened. Lara suddenly had a doubt. But when she put her hand to her head then to her back, she felt a nasty swelling and a wave of pain run through her. Looking a little closer at herself, she noticed that her clothes were still covered in dirt and dust. Her trousers and Kurtis' shirt bore the marks of their fight in the maze.
Her heart leapt in her chest. Lara sat up abruptly, alert. She glanced around in panic. She suddenly realized she was completely alone here. No trace of the mercenary.
"Kurtis?", she shouted.
Her voice echoed against the rock. But only the whistling of the wind and the waves' crash against the cliff below answered her. She scanned the landscape around her, but the mercenary was nowhere to be seen. Trying to stand up, her foot slipped in the rocks and almost dragged her into the void. She barely caught herself. She took a few seconds to calm down.
The images of the fight against the Minotaur came back to her mind, their blood that had made a kind of prophecy appear on the ceiling of the labyrinth, and then, nothing more. She couldn't remember anything of what had happened between the time they had both been trapped in the darkness under that illuminated vault and now. They were no longer in the sanctuary. She didn't know how she had gotten there, but she was out of the labyrinth. She hoped the mercenary was too.
She had to get back to the monastery, but first of all, she had to get out of there. A few feet away, she noticed a slightly larger platform of rock. If she reached it, she could climb up and get back to a trail that seemed to go back down into the valley.
Suddenly her eyes were drawn to something not far below her. On a rock a few feet away, just below her, the sun's rays were reflecting on a golden object adorned with a large red stone.
The medallion, the young woman noted with surprise.
Lara could not hide her astonishment, and began to climb down the rock to retrieve the object, clutching at the steep, chiselled edges. When she crouched down and grabbed the medallion, she turned it back and forth before slipping it into one of her pockets. She then climbed up the rock in the other direction to the small platform she had just come from. She stood up slowly, then bent her knees and leaned forward slightly. She still felt weak, but she should be able to jump. She gave a powerful push and threw herself towards the opposite cliff. She grabbed it without difficulty, and climbed back up to a slightly less steep terrain. She made one last effort, and finally found solid ground and a semblance of a path.
After one last glance behind towards Mount Athos, which the early morning light was slowly bringing out of the shadows, the adventuress turned around and carried by the wind, set off on the small, steep path that would lead her back to the monasteries.
—
He woke up with a start and suddenly opened his eyes. His whole body protested in pain as he began to move. The wound on his arm burnt him brightly as he bent it. He winced. When he tried to turn his head, he suddenly felt himself tilt to one side. He barely caught himself before falling from the tree he was perched in. He grabbed some branches to steady himself and tried to stand up. He realized that he was laying in a large olive tree with thick leaves. He was caught in between several large branches, as if he had climbed up the tree on his own to take a nap. He stood up carefully and started to climb down, before dropping to the ground.
When he stood up, he realized he was completely alone. Beyond the plain in which the tree stood, far to the north, was Mount Athos. On the other side, below the hill and tall grass, he could see the roof of a monastery a few miles away.
He took a deep breath, the fresh morning air felt good. The wind was blowing hard and bending the tall grass around him. The mercenary shook his head, trying to remember how he got here, but not a single memory came to mind. He remembered the traps and the Minotaur, but he couldn't remember anything between the last few minutes he had spent with Lara in the sanctuary and that bright white light. His thoughts were a complete blur.
He glanced around anxiously. No sign of the adventuress anywhere.
She might be somewhere else
In the back of his mind, he hoped the young woman had also made it out of the sanctuary safely.
Suddenly, a shape appeared a little higher up on the plain. Something was moving in the distance, between the tall grass. The mercenary put his hand on his chirugai reflexively, ready to attack if necessary. But soon he recognized the strands of hair blowing in the wind and the figure moving towards him in the rising sunlight.
The young woman made her way down to him through the tall grass. Kurtis came to meet her halfway, also hurrying along. When they finally meet, they hesitated for a moment, during which they stood stupidly in front of one another as if they didn't dare to approach each other, not really knowing how to react at first.
"You okay?", they asked in the very same voice.
A faint smile appeared on Kurtis' mouth. They both looked terrible, not to mention the dirt and scratches that covered them both. The adventuress' hair was a complete mess, her clothes were torn in several places. Kurtis, on the other hand, had several wounds, and large blood stains on his clothes, not to mention the huge piece of blood-soaked cloth that hung from his arm.
"What happened?", the young woman asked softly.
"I have absolutely no idea."
Lara raised both shoulders, a little puzzled.
"I don't remember anything... How did we get out of there?"
"Have no fucking idea," the young man repeated in a whisper.
Lara took the medallion out of her pocket, and Kurtis could not hide his surprise when he discovered the small object in the adventuress' hand. He pointed at it and raised his eyebrows.
"It was near me when I woke up," she explained before the mercenary could open his mouth.
The strong and cold wind blew against them, the red stone of the gold medallion glowered as the sun's rays fell on it.
"So, what's next?", Lara asked softly.
Kurtis' clear eyes met hers again.
"I think it's time for an explanation, dontcha think?"
The young woman nodded, and they set off with the same determined step.
—
It was still very early, but he had been walking around in circles in his small office for several hours already. Papers and manuscripts were piled up all over the place on one of the tables next to him; he had spent most of the night doing research.
He stopped for a moment in front of the small window. His gaze wandered over the plain and the mountainous reef that appeared before him, just behind the last walls of the monastery. He particularly liked this time of day, when everything was still calm and quiet, and he particularly appreciated the shapes the daylight drew on the landscape. He took a deep breath and felt his stressed heartbeat slow slightly, but he did not feel any more reassured.
The door opened with a resounding crash behind him, as if it had suddenly exploded, he jumped violently and turned around, his hand resting on his heart. He found himself face to face with the two adventurers, who advanced with a determined step towards him. Covered in dust and blood, their clothes torn, they looked as if they had come straight from the other world, or perhaps they had survived the end of the world. For a moment that seemed interminable, Azarias stood watching them with wide, round eyes.
"You've come back," he finally articulated with difficulty.
"Did you doubt it?", Lara asked provocatively.
The young woman leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest, her piercing gaze aimed directly at the monk. His look of bewilderment became even more pronounced.
"No, of course... well, I couldn't have been sure of anything but-"
"Lemme guess, but now you are, aren't you?", Kurtis asked ironically.
The patriarch shook his head sharply from side to side, as if denying the obvious. Kurtis then grabbed the medallion that Lara was holding out to him, and presented it to Azarias.
"We've found the labyrinth, and defeated the Minotaur."
They didn't think it was physically possible, but the monk's eyes opened a little wider.
"The Minotaur?", he repeated mechanically in a weak voice.
"Don't pretend you didn't know," Lara suddenly snapped as she took a step forward. "You knew perfectly where you were sending us when you told us about this shrine, and you knew perfectly what was inside!"
"I did not! As I explained to you, no one has been there for centuries..."
Kurtis stopped Lara with an arm just as she rushed at the monk, her finger pointed at him. The mercenary could feel she was seething with rage.
"We found the text which is hidden in it, or whatever it is", Kurtis stated before Lara got even more angry.
The patriarch watched each of them without uttering a word, before finally taking a few steps and sitting down at his desk, his eyes lost in the void.
"I think we deserve a real explanation after all we've been through," the American said coldly.
The man's distraught and lost gaze finally stopped on the mercenary. Without waiting for his approval, the two adventurers sat down opposite him. For several minutes, the monk remained strangely silent, before clearing his throat loudly. He pulled out the same grimoire with the reproductions of Obscura's paintings and put it in front of him.
"As I explained to you, your coming here is not a coincidence, and never was," he began to explain in a shy voice. "Everything was sort of already written. Or at least we knew that this day would come sooner or later."
"Let's get straight to the point, Azarias, we've heard it all before and we've wasted enough time," Lara retorted sharply.
The monk nodded slowly and crossed his fingers in concentration.
"Agio Oros is an order that not only accompanies the Lux Veritatis in its missions, but that has always stood for the protection of the very essence of humanity and its origins. We are the custodians of one of the oldest texts in the world."
"But this text includes several excerpts from other texts, including one from the Apocalypse, how is that possible?", Lara interrupted him, frowning.
"It also contained the prophecy described in the Enochian Gospel, a text that was transcribed in the Sleeper's Scrolls too," Kurtis added.
"Everything is all connected in one way or another."
The monk took a deep breath.
"The Lost Prophecy, as we called it, is directly linked to the oldest origins of our world, and to its darkest hours. It has survived the ages and mankind over the centuries. It holds the secret of the world's balance, or at least its origins, which only two very specific beings can maintain."
"The Guardians," Kurtis murmured softly.
Azarias shook his head slowly.
"So you knew all along...", the Englishwoman grumbled, suddenly sitting up in her own chair. "You knew our origins, you recognized us, and you said nothing..."
"I had to be sure you were the real Guardians. Only legitimate Guardians could enter the shrine and come out alive, only the true Guardians could reveal the prophecy..."
"And so, who are they? What are they supposed to do?", Kurtis asked hastily.
"Legendary forces, or rather legendary and extraordinary beings. Those who are to protect humanity from destruction and the darkest forces. Those who are supposed to protect and defend this world. They are the last survivors of the Old Times, those who survived the Shadows and the ancient wars. One Angel, and one Demon. The direct descendants of the fallen angels, 'those fallen from Heaven'..."
There was a sudden heavy silence in the room. Lara and Kurtis turned to each other, their brains shrouded in a thick mist. The information was slowly making its way in themselves, but both were pushing back hard against the evidence that was taking shape before them.
"The Nephili," Lara murmured, her heart suddenly stopping.
She felt Kurtis' clear gaze on her.
"What?"
"Originally, this word was from Hebrew," Azarias explained, "and referred figuratively to the demon angels who came to earth to mix with men. But according to several historical studies, 'Nephilim' had several variants too: 'those who have fallen', 'those who fall' to refer to fallen angels, or 'those who make fall', to refer to those who have mixed with men and corrupted their souls. But basically, this is the word which designated the first fallen angels, those who were expelled from Heavens…"
Kurtis stared at Lara, then at the monk.
"Is that a fucking joke?", he said, unable to contain himself.
Lara looked into the patriarch's eyes. She felt like a huge chasm had suddenly broken up underneath her feet, and she felt herself falling without being able to hold on to anything.
"Are you telling us that we are part nephilim ourselves?", Kurtis asked, unable to hold back a cynical laugh.
The patriarch stared them straight in the eye, fearing the two adventurers would explode in anger at any moment. The adventuress and the mercenary exchanged a distraught look as the world suddenly seemed to be falling apart around them.
"In concrete terms, you are telling us that we are the descendants of a line of biblical fallen angels, and therefore Nephili?"
"Actually you are not exactly nephilim, but your blood was made from the same original energy."
"You gotta be fucking kidding me," said the mercenary in an unpleasant voice. "That's bullshit!"
"You can't be serious," Lara whispered bitterly.
"I wish this was just a memory from the past, and that the prophecy was just a legend..."
Kurtis stood up abruptly, jostling the chair he was sitting on.
"Are you fucking telling me that I've spent my whole life fighting my own origins? I've been fighting against something that I am myself? This is pure bullshit!"
Azarias stood still for a moment, his hands raised in front of him in submission.
"I understand your anger-"
"You fucking understand nothing! How dare you question what my own father spent his life fighting, and paid for with his own life, like thousands of us?"
"The Nephili were beings of intelligence and immensely rich and infinite knowledge," the patriarch insisted. "They were the result of the mix of the Universe's purest forces..."
"Shut up," Kurtis cut him off in a bitter voice.
"... and they were beings who were just trying to keep their species alive."
"The Nephili were just bloodthirsty monsters, ready to do anything to survive, even if it meant wiping out the whole of humanity. We've seen what Eckhardt, and then what Karel did to humans to resurrect the Nephili. We've seen what their powers can do. They have tortured, massacred thousands of men and women throughout centuries, they mutilated them. Their only purpose was to reduce every spark of human life to nothing. Don't you dare telling me I'm that kind of monster myself!", Kurtis added, now ready to jump at the monk to knock him.
The monk didn't answer, and silence fell back into the office. Lara felt as if she was now watching the scene from another dimension, as if her mind had suddenly left her body. Next to her, Kurtis breathed heavily, his fists clenched. He felt Lara's hand grasp his. She pressed it lightly to tell him to sit back down, though she herself could not feel herself holding on.
"How could the Lux Veritatis never have known about this... prophecy? How could they not know about it? And how could my father not see what I was, if that's what I really am?"
The monk shook his head helplessly.
"I can't tell you, Kurtis. Even though we are closely related, the Lux Veritatis had its own battle to fight, and I guess you had to be trained as a Lux Veritatis knight first and have your powers revealed."
"And so, what are we exactly?", Lara interrupted him.
Azarias cleared his throat once more.
"The very first War of Heavens was the one that sealed the fate of our world. A merciless war between the ancient angels banished from the Heavens and their new human lineages, and the Domain of the Heavens and the world of Light. Ironically enough, the two survivors have unwittingly become the main elements in restoring balance to the world. That's exactly what you are. You are those elements. You are the direct descendants of those ancient extraordinary beings. You are the children of the first angels and demons. You are the two Guardians we've been waiting for."
"Come on…"
"That explains why you have strengths that most other humans don't have, whether it's highly developed physical abilities...", the monk replied, looking at Lara, "or extraordinary mental abilities," he said, directing his gaze at Kurtis. "You are heirs to a divine power..."
"We are certainly not," Lara hissed, as her expression suddenly changed.
"Haven't you spent your life struggling to understand the origins of the world and its knowledge? Haven't you spent your life seeking the most precious knowledge and lost objects, and fighting against the evil forces that would try to use them as weapons?"
Azarias then turned his gaze to the mercenary.
"And you, have you not spent your life fighting the darkest of demons? Yet you are familiar with dark magic and forces."
The two adventurers exchanged another look full of innuendo.
"And what exactly does that mean for us?", asked the young man in a cynical and highly annoyed voice. "What does it change? What are we supposed to do now? Spread the divine light on earth?"
"Since Eckhardt's release, the forces of evil are at work more than ever, you both know that better than anyone. You are the Guardians of light and peace, you keep the world in balance by pushing back and destroying those forces of evil."
"I don't understand, what do we have to fear then if this is basically what we are already doing every day?", the Englishwoman asked.
"The Guardians are directly linked to the Evil forces' awakening," Azarias murmured in a mysterious voice.
"Sorry to disappoint you but you're a bit late," Kurtis interrupted. "We destroyed everything related to the Nephili. Eckhardt is dead, Karel is dead, the entire Cabal has been eradicated, all their labs are in ashes, there's nothing left of them, nor from the Nephili…"
"We still have Eckhardt's glove, which is basically a Nephilim artifact too," intervened Lara. "But as long as we have it with us, nothing can happen."
"The threat is not necessarily nephilim. Although it is the most terrible and dangerous one from all, there are other forces at work too, the threat is always rumbling in the shadows," the patriarch told them. "We'd better stay on guard."
"I don't see what difference it makes to us," Kurtis retorted. "If it means fighting evil forces, demons, big vilains or whatever this is basically what we've both been doing for years. It doesn't change anything for us. So what's the kind of dangers that awaits us now?"
"I wouldn't say."
Azarias fell silent again, his fingers tightly crossed against each other. He finally seemed to catch his breath, he felt his heartbeat gradually slow down. He also felt much lighter, as if freed from a heavy weight. Yet, in front of him, the two adventurers seemed more lost than ever. The monk looked down at the sketches of the paintings before him.
"I believe that as long as the glove exists, there will still be a threat, however small. I think the leaning of your coming here is directly linked to it. I think the priority is to find the original source, so that the glove can be destroy."
"The Prima Materia thing?"
The patriarch looked at Kurtis as if he were coming to denounce the worst of insults, his eyebrows furrowed.
"That's its black alchemy name."
"The element, or at least the source, that Eckhardt himself hoped to find," Kurtis said, turning to Lara.
"The one the glove was forged with," she murmured as her eyes met his.
"And the one with which it could potentially be destroyed," the mercenary concluded. "Has Agio Oros discovered anything about this, have you managed to locate this source?", he said, turning to Azarias this time.
"Not as far as I know."
"And how do we proceed then?", Lara asked.
"I don't know exactly," stammered the old man.
The two adventurers turned to one another and a nervous laugh escapaded them both. But within a few seconds, Lara's attitude totally changed. Misunderstanding and irony gave way to the deepest anger.
"That's enough!"
She stood up abruptly, completely out of herself.
"I've heard enough. If you have no other stupid excuse for keeping us here and wasting our time, then I'm leaving. I'm going home."
"Miss Croft, please…"
"I certainly do not intend to continue wasting my time here. If you can't do anything for us, we'll find a way to carry on on our own. We were doing just fine before you ruined our lives with your stupidities."
"The role of the Guardians is not one to be taken lightly, this is very serious."
"Believe me, I'm very serious too. Who are you to question our origins, our families, our entire lives?"
"Again, I'm really sorry for this, Miss Croft."
"Is that all you have to say to us?
She stared straight at the old man, and felt him kind of slowly shrivel in his chair. At that very moment, if he could have disappeared to escape her anger, she was sure he would have. She felt Kurtis' soft touch as his hand grabbed hers, just like she had done with him minutes before when he had lost control too. She let the mercenary's warmth and feelings calm her down, and the tension eased a little. But Azarias didn't looked away from her.
"Believe me when I tell you that we are on the same side," he told her with a solemn expression.
Lara ignored him and turned to Kurtis. She knew he was also quite disturbed by all this, she could feel it. This discussion had felt like a bombshell to them both. With a tiny movement of the head, the American asked her to sit back down next to him, under the slightly fearful gaze of the monk.
"We don't know how to destroy the glove, and you don't either, and so what now?", the mercenary asked.
Azarias stroke his long white beard and stayed silent for a moment, once again lost in his own thoughts. He took a deep breath.
"Agio Oros has been investigating several leads for centuries, but the search has always been fruitless," Azarias told him very seriously. "But when the Nephili arrived on Earth, they founded a number of colonies and cities, starting from their original cradle."
"The one we've already destroyed in Cappadocia, we already know that, thank you," Kurtis cut him off.
Azarias nodded and refocused so as not to lose the thread.
"They hoped to make their civilization prosper, as any civilization would. The Nephili were extremely intelligent and thoughtful beings, so it's obvious to us they kept their source of energy and power separate to protect it, in case the rest of their empire collapsed. We assumed that this source, this very essence of Nephilim energy and life, was therefore hidden in a remote and undoubtedly isolated location."
"I think we already knew that too," the adventuress replied wryly.
Azarias gave her a side look, obviously upset at being interrupted this way.
"Our order has been investigating serious leads for several centuries, extensive research has been conducted in certain regions of the world, but none of our followers have ever found the slightest trace of this element, alas."
"In which part of the world exactly?", asked Lara, suddenly curious.
"In Europe, but also in the Middle East, where the traces of the ancient Nephilim civilisation were the strongest."
"None of the missionaries you have sent have found any clues to its location?"
"Unfortunately not," Azarias replied, shaking his head. "Brother Obscura recorded quite a bit of information in his grimoire, but the leads were never serious enough to be followed up..."
The patriarch carefully closed the open book in front of him and handed it to the young woman, whom he felt more conciliatory now.
"We did have access to the Sleeper's scrolls that helped us find the periapt sword in St. Petersburg. Maybe we'll find other interesting information in what's left of our notes, our attention was focused on something else, we may have missed something…", Lara pointed out.
The mercenary leaned back in his chair, his hands now crossed behind his neck.
"I highly doubt it," he told her in a breath. "We've studied the scrolls in every possible way, I'll be surprised if we find anything. But I guess we're stuck for now, so maybe we can start with this, we can always give it a try. Thinking about it, we might find other clues in Eckhardt's grimoire, but I haven't had enough time to go through it all," he added in a frustrated and bitter voice.
Lara looked away, and sighed loudly.
"We should look for anything that might look like codes, a map, a blueprint, anything that might come close to the prophecy."
"That sounds logical to me too," whispered brother Azarias.
He saw the cold, distant gaze of the adventuress suddenly returning to him.
"I'll take a look at Brother Obscura's notes. That will give us something to start working on. If our mission is now to find the Prima Materia source, I think we should be more than capable to deal with it. But first, Guardian One needs a shower," Lara announced, rising from her chair.
The two men watched her leave the room without her looking back, and she disappeared further into the library. Kurtis stood up slowly, still sore from what they had been through in the labyrinth and what Azarias had just told them. All the ideas were colliding in his head.
"As Guardians, you'll probably be luckier than us," Azarias said as the young man turned his back to him.
"I hope so too, Azarias. There's no need to hurry, but we must find a solution."
The mercenary stepped through the door and left the office, before disappearing into the shadows of the adjacent library. Brother Azarias suddenly found himself in a state of great calm, alone and completely exhausted.
—
IN THE MEANTIME IN OSLO, NORWAY
She could hear the continuous hubbub of people bustling around her, and the sound of machines with their regular beeping in the background. She could not feel her hands or feet. No part of her body seemed to react. She felt as if her head was so swollen that it would explode at any moment. She felt her skin suffocating under a ton of bandages and dressings, the needles in the crook of her elbow hurt like hell. All she wanted to do was rip them out to free herself from the constant itching, even if it meant doing it with her teeth. And that terrible, cold, hospital smell made her nauseous.
She didn't have the strength to open her eyes. She was terrified of what she was going to find. She didn't want to see, she didn't want to know how she was, or how her body felt. She wasn't ready.
"I think she's awake," she heard a little further into the room.
She felt movement around her, and people pressing against her bed. Someone grabbed her arm, and for a moment she hoped that someone would take away that nasty needle that was poking her elbow. She felt fingers grasp her eyelids and force them up. She was blinded by a bright light and threw her head back to free herself.
"Mrs. Svendsen? Can you hear me?"
She shook her head sharply, and finally opened her eyes. She saw a ceiling and walls of a small room of a dubious colour, there was indeed a whole bunch of big machines next to her bed, and cables of all kinds. A young man was leaning over her, his little lamp shining in her face.
"Can you hear me?", the man repeated.
She glanced around in panic and began to shake in earnest. She tried to sit up, but couldn't. She wanted to get out of there. The nurse placed a reassuring but firm hand on her arm.
"Stay still please, you can't move for now."
She wanted to answer him, but her voice was blocked by the thick pipe that was sticking in her throat. She was suffocating.
"Calm down, ma'am."
Where is my husband?
But she knew he couldn't hear her. Another nurse rushed into the room and came over them. Miranda's distraught eyes turned to each of the nurses at great speed.
"...y ...usba…", she articulated, but the tube was stuck far too deep for the words to be audible.
Luckily the nurse who had just entered seemed to understand.
"You made it through miraculously, but your husband is still undergoing surgery, he was very badly injured. We'll tell you more as soon as we can. You've got to rest, madam."
She suddenly stopped struggling and lay back in bed. The nurses helped her to gradually catch her breath and regain her composure. She concentrated on the beeping of the machines and stared at the white ceiling.
The base had swallowed them all, but she had survived. Yet she had been buried alive and crushed under tons of rubble, she was there, safe and sound and at home. She couldn't remember anything about how she had gotten here. But here she was, and strangely enough, this feeling soothed her. She felt serene and at peace. She had survived.
She felt the fatigue suddenly overwhelm her, and the eyes she had struggled to open slowly closed. She no longer had the strength to fight, she was exhausted. She had to rest. For the moment at least, because she knew she couldn't wait to be back on her feet.