20- Cassiopea
SIMONOS PETRA, GREECE, TWO DAYS AFTER
She closed the book she held in her hands with a sharp snap, whose echo was heard throughout the entire library. A little further away, seated at a large round table covered with tons of papers and books, Kurtis gasped, looked up at the young woman as she slowly got down from the ladder she was perched on, and sighed loudly, exasperated at having been cut off from his concentration. Lara rushed down the wooden staircase that took her back to the library's lower floor, before returning to the mercenary with a quick step. Judging by the expression on her face, she hadn't found anything on her side either. She stopped in front of the table and the young man, her hands resting on the papers covered with notes and erasures. She bit her lips.
"I just can't believe there's absolutely no reference made to that damn source anywhere...", she grumbled through clenched teeth.
"What's even more improbable is that the order that was supposed to help us destroy the glove didn't even know what it looked like until we arrived three days ago."
A wry smile appeared on the American's face, but Lara was not in the mood for jokes.
"We've been searching for two days without finding the smallest clue, how long are we going to be stuck here, rummaging through grimoires that are absolutely of no interest for us?", she said, now sitting up.
"We don't have much to go on at the moment, you said yourself we need to find clues, I guess there're bound to be some… somewhere here," Kurtis retorted as he looked up and gave a look at the hundred of shelves full of old books that surrounded them.
"As far as I know the best way to find clues is to go directly on field. Books tell us things, but ruins speak much louder."
"What ruins?"
Lara met Kurtis's impetuous gaze, and she felt even more angry. She turned around and started walking in circles, arms crossed against her chest.
"I don't know...", she said in a breathe.
"I understand your reasoning, but before finding ruins or whatever we've gotta find a place to look."
"I know!"
The young woman suddenly stopped walking, and took her face in her hands. She massaged her temples vigorously, as if this would help her think and find a solution faster. Kurtis straightened up too, and let himself go backwards in his chair. He leaned his head to one side and then the other to stretch.
"So," he stated, staring up at the high ceiling this time. "Lemme get this straight. We have a group of kick-ass monks who have been protecting and guarding a sacred text hidden in a hell of a mythological bull's barn for thousands of years. A text everyone obviously forgot to tell us about, even the Guardians' butler himself. A text that not only destroyed absolutely all we thought we had built our entire lives and origins on, but which also clearly tells us to deal with it from now on, and to just find a way to get outta that shitty mess by ourselves."
The young man lowered his gaze and the two adventurers stared at one another. Lara titled her head as a response.
"And now it looks like we're gonna spend the rest of our lives figuring out how to get rid of that damn glove. Thanks for the present, guys."
Lara slowly resumed her walk near the table, trying to ignore the mercenary's obvious irritation.
"There are clearly plenty of references in the Lost Prophecy, but I'm not sure it tells us much about the source itself," the adventuress finally replied, hands on her hips.
She came back to the table to take a look at the prophecy they had both written down on a large piece of parchment.
"In the desert land they wandered for days"
"Far into the lost and darkest Lands of the World they all hid"
"Far into the lost lands He went"
"Deserts…", the Englishwoman whispered.
"Yeah but it's not like there're hundreds of different deserts in the world..."
They exchanged a puzzled look.
"Indeed. There's no description, no clear clues," Lara answered as she shook her head gently. "There's nothing concrete. Obviously everything's been done to make it easier for us."
"They had only one fucking job...", Kurtis muttered between clenched teeth.
Lara sighed again, unable to control herself. She stood up, and slowly got away from the table. She walked with cautious steps in the huge alley, trying to figure it all out in her head. She realized day light was slowly fading away, soon it would be all dark in here. She suddenly felt very small as she stood in the middle of the large dark library.
"Why do I feel like we always come back to square one? It's always the same scenario, the same loop that keeps repeating itself..."
"Same old story, right?"
She turned to Kurtis, her gaze a little lost. They watched each other in silence for a moment, both discouraged.
She didn't know where to look anymore, and despite all their efforts, she had the impression they were once again facing a dead end. No matter how hard they tried, their search led them nowhere. As long as the glove was with them, it was safe, and while there was no need to rush to find out how to destroy it, the adventuress was eager to put an end to it all. She and Kurtis had been haunted by the Nephilim specter for far too long now. If there was still a threat, even a small one, she knew it was their duty to stop it.
"And it seems Eckhardt was no more advanced than we were," Kurtis whispered as he glanced at Lara.
She stood still and didn't move at all from where she was for a moment, her gaze now lost in the void, her lips tightly pinched together. Of course it would have been too easy to find clues in what Kurtis had discovered in the grimoire kept by Miranda Svendsen. And now they were moving forward in the total unknown, not knowing what they were really looking for. The feeling of frustration and vagueness was terrible.
The adventuress slowly returned to the table and Kurtis when they heard footsteps further down the corridor. A monk was approaching with great strides, his boots echoing against the old stone floor. Brother Giannis gradually appeared in the light of the large chandeliers hanging over their heads.
"Supper is now ready, we are waiting for you in the refectory."
Then, without waiting for the adventurers' reply, the man suddenly turned around and left in a hurry, just as he had arrived. They followed him with their eyes until he finally disappeared at the other end of the library. Kurtis and Lara exchange a 'what the hell was that' look before the mercenary finally stood up. Lara took a look at some documents on the table, and suddenly felt Kurtis' insistent gaze on her.
"You should leave it there for tonight."
They both knew Lara was certainly not one to be intimidated by such remarks, nor did she take orders from anyone. But deep down she knew he was right, and that there was no point in getting as worked up as she was over bits of paper and grimoires. She realized that rather than having to think about anything else, she just liked having her mind busy these days, and that the time they spent doing their research with nothing to talk about but the glove and the prophecy suited her well.
She finally put down the papers she was holding and followed the mercenary, who had already walked away. On second thought, eating would do her good. And a good night's sleep too. They would have plenty of time to get back to it the next day, and the days after if need be. After all, they could take their time, there was no need to rush.
—
The next day was just as long and drawn out as the previous one. Once again, the two adventurers spent a large part of the day immersed in grimoires and other history books, locked up in the sinister library and away from the other monks.
When they finally sat up, both exhausted, no longer able to bury their noses in unreadable old books, they realized it was already the end of the day. The sunlight was beginning to fade and weaken seriously outside. They took a deep breath, and looked at each other, both a little distraught. They did not need to speak to express what they both felt at that moment as they realized they were getting nowhere again.
Someone came their way. They turned their heads at the same time, and discovered Azarias was coming from out of his office to meet them.
"I'm sorry I didn't come to meet you sooner, I guess I got completely absorbed in my reading and research..."
A pale, apologetic smile spread across his tired face, Lara straightened up.
"I suppose you have not found anything in your personal archives either?"
The man shook his head slowly, his lips pursed.
"Truth be told, I'm not quite sure. The archives of the Agio Oros are much more complete than I thought. Many of our records date back to the early days of the order, the earliest writings I could find mention the birth of the Agio Oros, but are still rather vague about the Nephili and their powers."
"I imagine your knights, and the Lux Veritatis' did not know much about this race back then," Kurtis commented.
"It is very likely, yes," confirmed the monk.
The man took the book he was holding and put it in front of Kurtis.
"The book that goes back furthest in history, or at least seems to give the most information about what we're looking for, might be this one," he said. "I don't know if it will be relevant, but I might have found something that could lead us... to something. Maybe."
Lara stood up and watched him carefully, her big brown eyes obviously trying to pierce the mystery that hid behind the monk's words.
"Go ahead and tell us, maybe it will help."
Azarias turned the pages at full speed, and stopped to point at something.
"One of Johan De Gruas' brothers in arms obviously went on the trail of the Nephilim source after he disappeared. He tried to pass it off as something else, some kind of mission to follow in the footsteps of the first guardians, but according to his writings, his intentions were quite different. He tried to decipher the copies of the Obscura paintings, without success. This is his grimoire, and everything's relating to his quest back then."
Azarias showed them several maps and several kinds of documents. Kurtis felt Lara's arm and shoulder not far from his as she leaned forward to take a look at the book.
"What does it say? Have they found the remains of something, ancient writings, another nephilim cradle somewhere?", Lara asked with excitement.
"Nothing at all..."
The young woman sighed loudly, got away from the table and started walking in circles again next to them.
"His journal traces his journey from here to the plains of Turkey. But from what I understand, he didn't find anything interesting at the time. He never set foot in the Turkish Nephilim shrine you mentioned, but there is every indication that his research was concentrated in the Middle East region. His search continued into ancient Syria and then Iraq before he mysteriously disappeared. His travel diary comes to an abrupt halt."
"I can only guess he must have unconsciously wanted to search around the place where the original nephilim cradle was located," Kurtis commented. "Even if they didn't have a precise location either, the Lux Veritatis knew the shrine had to be somewhere in this area. I imagine the brother you speak of simply followed the clues that Obscura was trying to hide."
"The lust for power is unfortunately universal, and exists since the beginnings of time," the monk replied bitterly.
The two men stood up.
"Well, that's rather positive, I think," said the mercenary.
Lara frowned.
"I imagine they were far too intelligent to concentrate their powers and knowledge in one place," Kurtis added. "So I guess the Nephilim power source should not be in Turkey, logically..."
"However, it would be surprising if they had gone far from their original home," Lara clarified.
"So it's more than likely somewhere in the Middle East," Azarias told them, his eyes full of hope.
"That defines a slightly more precise area for us to search," the mercenary concluded.
"You're right, that only leaves about ten countries and about 7 million km2 to search," Lara answered abruptly and cynically.
"Well, sorry for trying to find a lead to follow."
Kurtis gave her a cold look, but before they got into another heated argument, they were interrupted by footsteps. Just like the day before, Brother Giannis had appeared at the other end of the library and was striding towards them with a slightly overconfident step, his chin raised slightly in arrogance.
Kurtis, Lara and Azarias fell silent as the monk stopped in front of them.
"We'll be right there, Giannis," Azarias told him.
The monk nodded very slightly in agreement.
"Anything new?", he asked in an icy voice.
Lara and Kurtis looked at each other in surprise, before turning to the monk, whom they considered with an astonished look, taken aback by the brother's audacity and arrogance. Azarias, also surprised by his question, babbled a few incomprehensible words, but was soon interrupted by the adventuress.
"Nothing that may concern you," Lara said in an equally dry voice.
The young man's contemptuous and elusive gaze fixed on a vague point somewhere behind them, as if he were looking for something. Then he stared at Kurtis, then at his superior before finally looking away and turning around.
"See you down at the refectory, then," he simply said as he strode off, his gaze as sarcastic as ever.
Kurtis kept his eyes on him, before exchanging a glance with Lara, then with Azarias, quite disconcerted by such an intrusion into their discussion. Then, with the patriarch in the lead, they took the direction of the staircase to go back to the lower parts of the monastery.
—
After a quick dinner, as usual in complete silence and under the inquisitive and suspicious gaze of brother Giannis, who was definitely not fond of them for some reason, Lara had escaped for a while to do some exercise and let off steam. Even though she knew the situation was only temporary, she could no longer bear to stay locked up all day in a place that smelled of dust, wax and old parchment. She needed the fresh air of the evening, she needed to be outside and breathe. And what's more, it was another good reason for her to avoid Kurtis, who she knew had gone off on his own to indulge in a good session of 'let off steam' sports too.
Lara had reached the point where any excuse was good enough to avoid the mercenary, and this as soon as they found themselves in a situation that did not involve talking about work. Deep down, she knew that this could not go on indefinitely. They couldn't spend the rest of their lives ignoring each other like this. Sooner or later she would have to face him. Or maybe the solution was to simply bury the problem deep within herself and forget about it. But when she looked up and saw her reflection in the small mirror in front of her, she suddenly didn't feel convinced at all about that idea.
She put her arm behind her back and bent it as much as she could, but she couldn't reach the zone she wanted to reach. So she decided to change her strategy, and this time she tried to bend her arm to reach it from above. It was even worse. Her wounded side seemed to react and sent a jolt of violent pain when she tried to stand up. Lara grunted, and let her arms fall back, the disinfectant cotton still in her hand. She turned a little, and glanced at her back in the tiny mirror she had placed in equilibrium on the desk.
The long wound on her back looked kind of strange in the late day light. The Minotaur's claw had left a fairly clear mark on her skin. It only looked superficial, but her back was still covered with bruises and scars of all sizes. She felt a pain shoot through her back every time her lungs filled with air, but as usual, she had learned to deal with it. She folded her arm once more and arched her back to reach the wound with the cotton, but nothing did, she couldn't do it.
After her sports session, she had quietly gone back upstairs to take a shower, before moving to her room. Sitting wobbly on the edge of the bed, she had been struggling for several minutes to reach the area of her back she wanted to disinfect. Feeling her neck become sore from trying to turn herself in all possible directions and angles, she finally gave up.
She jumped as the wooden floor creaked at the entrance to her room. She quickly grabbed the tee shirt next to her to cover herself. A figure emerged through the door, which she realized had been left slightly ajar.
"Sorry, the door was open, 'thought someone might have had come in to search while you were gone."
Kurtis was standing there, hand on the handle. He was bare chested, and had his own tee shirt slung over one shoulder. Lara looked down, a little embarrassed, and hugged the tee shirt a little tighter. The young man looked away from her bare back so as not to make her more uncomfortable. He saw her belongings strewn about the room, brother Obscura's grimoire and the medallion lying not far from her on the bed, the cotton pads scattered all over the floor and bed.
"D'you need help with this?"
At first, Lara didn't really react as she suddenly felt not really at ease with the idea of a potential proximity with the mercenary or getting physically too close to him. But understanding she could never clean the wound alone, she nodded gently to allow him to come in. The mercenary gently closed the door behind him and approached with a silent step. He pushed aside some cottons spread on the bed before taking his place next to the young woman. Judging by his wet hair and the smell he gave off, he had just taken a shower. Lara shook her head not to get distracted, and turned round a little to show him the wound, but especially before Kurtis had time to see the pink that was rising to her cheeks. She suddenly felt silly as her heartbeat quickened.
She heard Kurtis reach for something behind her back, and out of the corner of her eye, watched him through the mirror as he prepared the cotton pads and bandages. She pushed her long loose hair to the side to clear her back, and leaned forward slightly. A sudden electric shock ran through her when the young man's warm hands touched her skin, but was quickly replaced by an unpleasant tingling when the alcohol-soaked cotton wool came into contact with the wound. Lara felt her skin heat up and burn, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
"You okay?"
She didn't answer. Kurtis moved the cotton ball somewhere else on the wound.
"It's left quite a mark on you," stated the American, looking carefully at the mark.
"I guess it just wanted to make sure I would remember," Lara replied softly, now pouting.
The mercenary smiled wryly.
"The price of success, as they say."
"Yeah, it must be that."
She took a breath to calm the pain that was spreading through her back. Kurtis's movements were gentle and soft, but her rib was hurting like hell.
"Do you believe in all these stories?", asked Lara as she tried to think of something else.
The mercenary paused, surprised that the young woman was engaging him in conversation. She heard him take a deep breath, he was obviously concentrating on his gestures, but seemed to be thinking.
"I dunno," he answered in a whisper. "I dunno what to think, actually. It seems so inconceivable to me that nobody ever knew. I guess my own father didn't even know about all this, not to speak of my mother… "
"Maybe it will be time to let her know about what has happened, by the way."
They both let out a small laugh but soon the adventuress winced again from the pain.
"I'm sorry," Kurtis told her as he pressed the cotton ball against a particularly sensitive area.
She waved her hand to indicate that everything was fine, even if it wasn't.
"If someone had told me one day we were some kind of Guardians of the Galaxy..."
"…crossed with some Nephili descendants, can you believe it? If that's not a fucking irony."
Lara tried to smile and lifted her head, and looked up at the sky which was beginning to take on serious red and orange hues outside. Far to the south, the moon was slowly appearing, still shy though.
"Well, technically speaking, I'm the one who's the direct descendant of the first Nephilim line..."
"Why do you say that?", Lara asked as she watched the young man work on her back over her shoulder.
"Well, in the prophecy, they spoke of a demon man, and an angel woman," Kurtis replied very seriously.
"And how do you know I'm not the demon this time? And you, the angel?"
"You don't really look like a demon."
"Wouldn't that be a bit sexist?", Lara retorted.
"Don't take it personally."
Their eyes met through the small mirror, and for the first time in a long time, they exchanged a sincere smile.
"But I must have had Nephilim blood in my veins anyway," Lara added after another spike of pain had passed. "Otherwise it would have killed me, just like the other guinea pigs."
Silence fell in the small room. She heard Kurtis tearing something and felt him applying clean compresses to her back. She could feel her skin heating up, sensitised by the disinfectant.
"Miranda can read minds, she even admitted to me that some of her family had similar gifts. Do you think she's part of one of the Nephili bloodlines too?", Lara asked.
"It's very likely. And I imagine there are undoubtedly others like her, or like us, still hidden somewhere. We may not be alone."
"But if I understand correctly, we are the only Guardians."
The mercenary finally removed the cotton wool and proceeded to cut several pieces of plaster to secure the bandage. Lara turned her head away again, thoughtful.
"But our ancestors couldn't have been the only survivors of the first Shadow War," she said suddenly.
She tried to sit up, but felt Kurtis' hand press her down as he kept working on the bandage.
"I guess Karel and his two other heavies stayed well hidden while their buddies were being slaughtered by the angel army," the young man said to answer her. "Which explains why they are not mentioned in the prophecy. They hid for centuries until the war was over..."
"And they wandered around hoping to find a way to save their species, as Azarias told us."
"While still figuring out how to destroy the world at the same time," Kurtis added wryly.
"Do you think brother Azarias could be right, could the Nephili be a peaceful people?"
She caught sight of the American's piercing gaze through the mirror. Kurtis put the last piece of plaster on the young woman's back, and suddenly stopped moving. For long seconds he just remained silent. He then looked away and shook his head slowly.
"Maybe everything changed when they met the Black alchemist, indeed. They knew they would inevitably disappear. And I guess Eckhardt just gave them a chance to survive. That's when they made a pact with him. That's when they supposedly discovered black magic and alchemy. I guess they thought this was their only way out. But from what was written in the prophecy, the Nephili knew exactly what they were doing when they went to mix with the first humans... they wanted to destroy the human race..."
Lara knew that Kurtis was not wrong on this point. The Nephili were the most complex enemies she had ever faced, and perhaps even the most powerful. And after all they'd seen, all they'd faced together, it didn't make sense to her that the sleepers were only mere victims of divine wrath.
"I can't help thinking Karel and all his shit are some fucking divine beings from above, and that really freaks me out."
They exchanged a surprisingly heartfelt laugh.
"Well, good news is those ones will no longer be on our backs. Just like those megalomaniac Norwegians, by the way," Lara answered. "I really can't stand all these idiots who want to control the world anymore."
"Yep. It's always the same old story, with the same creepy psychopaths. Guess they think we've got nothing better to do but kick their fucking asses."
Lara laughed again, and sat up slightly, her muscles aching from being stuck in the same uncomfortable position for several minutes. She remained still and silent for a moment, and sighed.
"It doesn't make sense, does it? And why us?", she said in a soft whisper.
Kurtis shrugged, and then frowned. He finished the huge bandage that now covered much of the young woman's back, and his warm hand lingered on her hip for a moment. But to his surprise, the adventuress did not push him away.
"Perhaps it was already written, indeed, and maybe we couldn't have changed it anyway," he replied gently, almost mysteriously.
"It may be silly, but I don't want to believe that it's just a legacy. I can't stand the idea we are what we are because someone decided it for us. I don't want to believe Miranda Svendsen has revived an extinct part of us that will decide of our fate..."
"As you said before it's very likely the Prima Materia simply revealed something that was already part of us. But I think that doesn't change who we are in any case. I mean, I guess the injection just helped revealing some of our abilities that had remained dormant until now. But in the end, it doesn't change who we are, and what we are fighting for."
She didn't answer, lost in her own thoughts again.
"And I've come to the conclusion we've both seen enough strange things to know that anything is possible anyway."
Lara nodded softly, looking out into the distance.
"Yes. We grew up in completely different environments, and yet we have always fought the same evil forces. That's what binds us together and that's what makes us so complementary."
Lara left her sentence hanging in the air and fell silent, realizing what she had just said. Her heart beat a little harder against her rib cage without her being able to control it and unconsciously, her fingers gripped a little more tightly the shirt she was still clutching, as if she had been able to hold back the words that had already come out of her mouth. Embarrassed, she forced herself to keep her gaze straight ahead, not daring to turn her head for fear of meeting Kurtis' piercing gaze. She waited for something to happen, for the mercenary to move or speak, but he did not.
The atmosphere in the small room became calm and serene all of a sudden. The setting sun's light filtered through the window in a dazzling orange colour that spread all around them, Lara could feel its rays warming up her leg. The air was soft and pleasant. Kurtis' hand, placed reverently, almost fearfully against her skin, radiated an indescribable, but extremely soothing warmth. And although it annoyed Lara to admit it, it did her a world of good. He was simply there with her, impassive and yet so tormented, just as much as she was herself. Her breathing finally calmed down, her thoughts became a little less hazy. They savoured this moment of respite without admitting it to themselves and for a few seconds, they felt at peace, as if everything had suddenly become normal again.
Kurtis' voice rose softly behind her.
"Lara, we need to ta-"
But the adventuress interrupted him abruptly with a wave of her hand, already focused on something else. Her gaze was drawn to the grimoire lying next to her, and to the medallion that shone brightly in the setting sunlight. The illuminated red stone made strange shapes on the reproductions of the paintings. She frowned and leaned forward.
"What the...?"
She held up a finger to silence him and tell him to let her concentrate.
"Did you notice that each painting represents an excerpt from the prophecy?"
The mercenary leaned back, puzzled, before suddenly straightening up. He looked down at the grimoire too.
"The images used to cover the original paintings are from the prophecy," he murmured.
Kurtis stood up and took a few steps to sit down opposite the adventuress. But once again, the young woman stopped him in his tracks. He recoiled, not understanding exactly what was going on in the young woman's head.
"But we couldn't see it until now, as we didn't know about the prophecy," she continued in an almost inaudible voice.
Kurtis knelt down beside her so as not to disturb her, and they both looked at the pages of the grimoire. Lara was right: the five paintings represented five excerpts from the prophecy. And neither of them had seen it because their attention was focused on something else. But he realized this was not exactly what had caught her eye. As the mercenary focused on the paintings, he noticed a detail on the engraving on which the medallion was placed, the one representing the angels descending to earth. A ray of sunlight was streaming through the bedroom window and striking the locket's large red stone. The reflection had caused something to appear on the painting, something that could not be seen with the naked eye.
At angel's feet that formed the tip of the squadron arriving on earth, was a tiny, barely discernible letter in all the details that made up the engraving. A letter hidden in the painting itself. An 'a'. The two adventurers looked up at the same time.
"We were so busy looking somewhere else I forgot what brought us here."
Kurtis reflexively scratched the spot where the letter appeared, as if he thought it was a mirage. And yet it was there. He picked up the medallion and oriented it to the emerging sunlight, before placing the red stone's light on the next painting, the one depicting the demon and the angel. After several seconds of waiting, a letter appeared in one of the interlocking Gothic columns.
"Another 'a'," Kurtis stated.
Lara felt her pulse suddenly quicken. In one motion, they turned the pages to look at the other paintings. In the same way, Kurtis scanned the other ones one by one with the stone's red ray, looking for any detail that would appear before their eyes. Hidden in a soldier's shield in battle, in a thick black cloud, or in the handle of the destroyer angel's sword in the fifth painting, three more letters appeared. A 'p', an 'r' and an 's'. The two adventurers straightened up in one movement.
" S. Is that a code?", asked Kurtis.
"It looks like it," whispered the Englishwoman.
The young man had just time to look away when Lara stood up abruptly and pulled on the shirt to cover herself. She began to think quickly, waking in circles in the small room like a caged lion, hands on her hips. Then she rushed over to Kurtis, who was holding the pieces of parchment on which they had transcribed the prophecy. She leaned over his shoulder and ran a finger across the paper.
"Did we miss something in the prophecy?", the young man asked, watching the adventuress' concentrated face beside him.
After a few seconds during which she remained totally silent and concentrated on her reading, Lara finally shook her head.
"I thought it might correspond to specific excerpts from the text," she said in a frustrated whisper. "Maybe it refers to specific words in the prophecy, maybe it forms a sentence, I don't know..."
"And what about those letters could form a word, what if we just had to put them in the right order?"
The young woman frowned, barely listening to him.
"That would be too simple."
"And why not?"
"I guess Brother Obscura and the Lux Veritatis weren't stupid enough to just leave a code word out in everyone's view," she replied, glaring at him.
"The letters couldn't be seen by the naked eye, we needed the medallion to read them anyway," the mercenary replied in an equally dry voice. "I think the brother was indeed intelligent enough to know what he was doing."
"It must be something else, we're looking at it from the wrong angle."
"Or maybe these letters correspond to numbers? A code with numbers and not letters?"
"I don't think so either."
"Okay so basically, everything I'll be proposing is wrong, right?", the mercenary asked, feeling exasperated at the young woman's obstinacy.
"I'm just saying we must take the time to think, Trent," she chut him off. "There's not enough to form a complete code. Or to form GPS coordinates like those we've seen before. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't look like the processes of the time."
"I think the last time you were so sure about yourself was the time when you were absolutely convinced you'd found the Nephilim sword in the Hermitage Museum's storerooms, and when you just fucking went for it alone, even if it almost killed us both. Or maybe it was the time you went for a walk in the sanctuary without paying any fucking attention to all the potentially deadly traps around you?"
"Don't start with that again."
"Again, you assume that only others can be wrong," the young man told her implacably.
"Let me remind you I am a specialist in code-breaking. This is my job, basically."
"You're actually an expert at opposing me and proving me wrong every fucking time you can."
The adventuress suddenly grabbed the paper Kurtis was holding and snatched it out of his hand. She was raging and her eyes flashing, but the young man held her gaze without blinking, his chest heaving with anger. Lara turned her back on him in a theatrical gesture and concentrated on the prophecy. Kurtis ran a hand through his hair before turning his back. Hands on his hips, he took a few steps in the room before stopping in front of the window. He stared at the horizon and the setting sun outside, trying to calm himself down.
Several minutes passed without them speaking to each other, each sulking in their own corner like two children having a fight. Lara tried to focus on the document in her hands, which she desperately read again for the umpteenth time, but she could not concentrate properly. Several times she cast sidelong glances at the mercenary who was standing only a few feet away from her. He did not seem to want to move. The lines of the huge tattoo on his back, the Celestial Wheel, stood out in the darkness that was beginning to fill the small room. Without realizing it, Lara stood for several seconds staring at the tattoo and the rounded shapes she knew almost by heart. Her eyes fell on each of the central dots, all of which represented a specific location for the Lux Veritatis. She realized they now knew all the locations they were pointing to: Monstegur in France and the Order's old fortress, Prague, Antarctica which they had just escaped, Egypt and the first mission ever conducted by the Lux Veritatis...
Lara's heart leapt so violently that she thought it would burst through her chest.
All except one
Her eyes fell on the last spot of the tattoo, the one located not far from Egypt.
"The only one we couldn't identify out of the five," she blurted out aloud this time.
She dropped the sheet of paper she was holding and rushed towards Kurtis.
"Wait, what?", said the young man who saw the adventuress coming at him like a fury, her eyes rounded by a revelation that had obviously just struck her.
He couldn't help but take a step backwards, surprised by the young woman's abrupt attitude.
"What did you just say?", he asked again.
"Shut up and turn around."