Chapter Four

Hell's Gates

The doors opened shortly followed by a gust of ice particles and a bitterly cold breeze. Trinity pushed into the cold and through the door and into the first area. After a few moments some Trinity troopers return and start taking the truck past the doorway. Lara watches closely, more than likely the doors will shut soon and she'd have to decide whether to risk getting trapped behind the door or missing out on finding what Trinity are up to. The trucks pasted the doorway and Lara decided. She moved quickly towards the doorway, taking a quick glance at the runes as looked into the first area past the door. It was similar to a hallway but with towering pillars and all the walls were covered in runes. Lara recognized these as runes of protection. Lara moved in and hid behind a pillar. The Trinity recruits seemed rattled by the situation, Lara could hear them discussing among themselves.

"This is beyond just a scouting mission, did you see that freaky writing on the doorway?"

There was a younger looking recruit who looked well out of his league but was trying to be in charge.

"That writing is Greek, Greek's love writing on walls and doorways".

The other recruits didn't seem impressed by his so claimed understanding of the writing.

"We're in Norway dumbass, there has never been any Greeks here."

The younger guy mumbled something Lara couldn't hear as he wandered towards the trucks. Soon enough a senior Trinity shouted for everyone to group up, everyone was quick to head towards the trucks. Lara made her way slowly forward. She had been right, as she pushed forward the doors shut behind them in a dull thump. Now she was trapped in god knows where with a whole group of Trinity, by herself. Lara walked past the remaining pillars and looked out. The hallway area opened up completely to an bright sky and an icy rocky ridge that seemed to be surrounding another interior level below. The air was thick with an icy mist. Trinity was busy looking down the ridge, Lara guessed that were discussing how to get the trucks down. On the right hand side of the ridge a set of buildings that looked partly destroyed drew Lara's attention. Trinity seemed static for the moment and were focused on what they were doing that it allowed Lara to slip into the ruined area. The entrance was blocked by an fallen pillar. Lara checked underneath to see if there was a way through and she saw the inside of a circular room. Sliding under the fallen pillar Lara squeezed her way into the room. The room had a dome shaped ceiling with an hole punched in by a rock slide that had spilled into the main room. The ceiling was painted like the sky outside and the walls of the rooms that runes and murals depicting an repeating female figure in various situations.

Lara looked back past the fallen pillar, she could still see Trinity trying various methods to get there trucks down the steep ridge. Deciding she still had time she moved to the start of the mural and pulled out her notebook to start translating the runes and images the best she could. The runes were very old and pre dated the Viking era, these were Norse but no like anything Lara had seen before. Lara looked at the female figure, she was shown to be with two male figures that were heading towards a sole male figure. Each figure had a set of runes above them and Lara looked closely at the sole figure on the furthermost right. He had long hair and a large beard, also he only had one eye. Lara knew this must be depicting Odin, going back to the other figures she examined them as well. The figures were approaching Odin, the female was younger but still the same person as the other parts of the mural. This female figure eventually sat on a throne overlooking a sea of corpses. Lara was familiar with Norse mythology. This was the goddess of the underworld, Hel. She is the daughter of Loki and was appointed by Odin to rule over the underworld realm of Hell, that was a part of Niflheim. Lara checked the trucks again. They had attached the trucks by cables and were slowly moving down the ridge with each truck holding the other from slipping down. Lara didn't have time to study the mural further and follows Trinity down the ridge.

The ridge only led to a second surrounding outlook that allowed a view of a large open area of ice and different structures dotted around the landscape. The outlook also had a set of ruins that Trinity was now exploring. Lara moves closer to listen in. Two senior Trinity soldiers are standing near the entrance of the ruins.

"Do you know what J.G.H. wants with this place?"

The other senior solider looks over the ruins.

"Something about a relic of some Norse god."

Both of them move into the ruins. Lara hears the end of the conversation.

"Regardless we need to find it soon."

Lara followed carefully behind them, listening for the slightest sound of movement. The ruins were complex enough for her to hid in, however if she was spotted it would be a difficult escape. The Trinity troops were moving deeper into the ruins so Lara felt confident to check over what was in the first room. It was identical to the dome shaped room on top of the ridge. Once again, there was a mural going all around the walls in the room. Hel was shown in every image again, all the depictions seemed darker than before in subject matter. The images showed death and acts of violence in nearly all the images. Lara looked for any depictions of Odin to find a clue as to what the relic Trinity could be looking for. Towards the end of the mural saw Odin holding a spear. Above the image was runes, the first was Odin and the second was something new to Lara. She had a rough understanding of how the runes translated to Viking era runes. Lara looked at the second runes for a while, she saw the letter g that looked like it formed the word gun. After a few more moments of study she felt she had translated the runes. In full it said, Odin and Gungnir.