21- The Symbols

Time seemed strangely long at the bottom of the canyon in the days that followed. Lara, Kurtis and the young archaeologist worked tirelessly on the symbols. Thanks to the young woman's knowledge, they were able to establish concrete translations for the different portal's inscriptions.

At the end of the third day, however, the three young people had not found any precise information about the opening mechanism of the Nephilim gate. For the umpteenth time in several hours, the three of them stopped working, leaving their notes and the sketch of the portal among the other documents on the table. They exchanged a disillusioned look.

"It's much more complex than I thought," the young Turkish archaeologist said in a breath.

Kurtis ran a hand through his hair. His facial features were drawn. He felt exhausted, and irritated. They exchanged a disillusioned look with Lara. The few breaks they were allowed were brief, and they were often separated from each other. Their enemies did not give them a moment's rest.

"Dilara, can you show me again the list you made?", Lara asked.

The young woman nodded and handed her a sheet. On it, the archaeologist had scribbled all sorts of words, all relating to the pictograms found on the Nephilim gate. Her gaze went over the list of words they had drawn up together. Lara frowned.

"Okay," she said, pointing her finger at the first symbol. "So, to sum it up, we have a portal divided into five different parts, and about forty different pictograms."

"And for each symbol, a translation," Dilara told her.

Kurtis looked at them, concentrated.

"But all those words are from completely different lexical fields. Some words seem completely out of context... for example, if I take tree,"the mercenary said, pointing to one of the symbols, "I mean, I don't exactly see why the Nephili would have carved that kind of word into the rock."

"I agree with you, but maybe there's a hidden message... then again, I imagine that their purpose was to hide the entrance and especially to protect it from external attacks," Lara said.

"Sounds like a code, doesn't it?", Dilara stated.

Kurtis bit his lower lip, he looked mixed.

"What I mean," the young archaeologist continued, "is that if there's a door, there's got to be a mechanism to open it. A mechanism that would be triggered by a certain code, or in this case, by certain symbols."

"Do you think there could be a system to physically activate certain symbols, and thus unlock the door?",Kurtis asked.

The young archaeologist shook her head sharply.

"I'm not 100% sure of course, but maybe the door opens if you activate certain symbols in particular. I've seen it done before here in the region, at a site near Aksaray. Traces of a Christian camp dating from the 13th century were found in a troglodytic site. They had protected priceless scrolls in a sort of underground lock, behind a series of symbols that had to be literally pushed. The system was a bit like a padlock after all."

"I've seen it in Latin America too, it was a protection system often used by Inca tribes," Lara said softly, thinking out loud. "That makes sense. But how many symbols to form the code? A portal divided into five areas, so five symbols?"

"Five portal sections, so five symbols to operate it, that's what I think too," confirmed the mercenary.

All three nodded. It sounded plausible.

"But in this case, there could be dozens of possible combinations, given the number of symbols," Kurtis interrupted.

"And unfortunately, we don't have the right equipment to help us here," said the adventuress, who thought of Roman at that moment.

"Yes, but back then, I guess people didn't resonate with computers or technology," Dilara protested.

The two adventurers nodded silently. Hers words weirdly echoed to those Kurtis's mother had pronounced regarding the map they had found on the mercenary's back.

"We could start by making a selection of words," the young Turk continued. "Let's proceed by elimination: you explained to me yourself that these Nepili, Niphili..."

"Nephili," Kurtis corrected her.

The woman gave him an apologetic smile, before refocusing.

"... that these Nephili were super-powerful beings, surrounded by magic and dark forces. In that case, it might be a good idea to start with words that relate to these kinds of themes, and that have meaning for them..."

"Like war, for example?", Lara said, her eyes fixed on another symbol.

"Yes, or darkness, like here," added the archaeologist.

A wave of hope passed through them one by one.

"That's very clever, Dilara," Lara said with an encouraging smile. "But I'm not familiar with all these round shapes by the way," she said, pointing to the contours and details of the portal sketch.

Dilara leaned towards what the adventuress was pointing at. Indeed, the portal was not just a set of pictograms, all around some of the symbols, soft and rounded shapes had been engraved, adorning the portal and decorating it. The young woman bit her lip.

"In this case, I've never seen this... but it doesn't look like writing..."

"I don't think so," Kurtis added. "It doesn't look like the ancient Lux Veritatis writing either."

"Okay," concluded Lara. "Let's just leave this aside for the moment, and let's try this then. I'll let you both concentrate on the symbols."

"And so, are you going back underwater?", the American asked, as she was already turning her back.

She nodded.

"We have to check if we can activate the symbols, otherwise our research will be useless."

Kurtis and Dilara went back to the symbols, while Lara disappeared through the entrance of the tent, escorted by Gunderson's men.

It was now pitch black in the canyon. It took her a while to descend and reach the shore of the lake. Her steps were measured, it would be foolish at this point to slip and break her neck on the rocks for a brief second of inattention.

The water was as icy as ever. She immersed herself in it, while Morgau waited for her perched on a rock. Lara swam quietly towards the wall, before switching on her torch. After a last breath of air, she dived in.

She could see no further than a few centimetres. She descended steeply towards the portal. She clutched at the rock to keep herself underwater and level with the portal and its symbols. She decided to concentrate on the first symbol in front of her. Without question, she put her hand on it and applied pressure. Nothing happened, however.

She went back up for some air. The cold of the water had made her arms and hands slightly numb and she shivered. She took in some air, and dived again. She went back down to the same symbol. This time she pressed a little harder on it.

The stone moved under her fingers.

Bingo

She felt the adrenaline rush back into her. She pressed again on the rock, and this time it sank into the wall a few inches. As a precaution, Lara stood still for a short time, breathless, watching for any movement on the rest of the portal. However, it seemed to her that the rest of the door had not moved. She took one last look around. Perhaps they were on the right track.

She decided to go back up.

When she returned to Rouzic's tent, she found that Dilara had been taken back to her tent to get some rest. As Lara approached the table, Kurtis stood up, flanked by two guards and their assault rifles. They barely had time to exchange a discreet glance before the young man disappeared, also taken back to his tent to rest a little.

Lara found herself alone at the large table, surrounded by Rouzic in one corner and some other henchmen in the other. She took a brief look at the archivist, who was, as always, deeply concentrated on a big book, whose thick pages had yellowed with age. But she didn't recognize the Sleeper Scrolls here. The man seemed to feel the young woman's gaze on him, and looked up. Without a word, Lara went back to studying the translations and the symbols.

Despite Lara's discovery, the adventurers did not seem to make any progress during the following day. Lara too had been able to enjoy a few hours of sleep when, very late at night, Gunderson's henchmen came to get her and had her replaced by Rouzic and Morgau.

The adventuress met Kurtis and Dilara again later in the day. Again, they spent much of the day poring over notes and sketches of the portal, desperately searching for the opening combination. After a few hours, they had managed to agree on a selection of symbols, grouping them in order of idea and theme at first.

The camp was in turmoil. Warned by Morgau and Gunderson, Karel immediately had the men gathered. They had all gone down to the bottom of the canyon, to the edge of the lake. Once again, Lara was about to dive to test the code they had established.

She didn't feel very confident, however. Dilara also looked anxious, as if she wished the code wouldn't work. She undressed and dived in.

Once again, she couldn't get used to the temperature of the water. She shivered, before losing focus on her dive. She reached the gate safely. Her fingers slipped and clutched at the relief of the drawings and symbols. She let herself be carried to the first symbol. As she had done two days before, she gave a powerful push, and the stone sank into the wall.

War

She approached the other symbol, a few centimetres lower.

Darkness

The other two symbols were close together.

Infinity, Mind

The last one was a little further away, on her right. She found it harder to push, but after insisting forcefully, the last stone sank into the rock.

Power

Her lungs were beginning to burn badly. But she stayed under water for a few more seconds more, waiting for the door to move. The five stones stayed down, but nothing happened. She swam back up.

The first thing she saw when she surfaced was the inquisitive gaze of Karel, who was watching her from the top of the cliff.

She took a breath of air and dived back down again. She carefully walked around the portal, looking at every feature, every corner of it, hoping to find a flaw. But nothing had moved. She went back up.

The camp, the soldiers, Kurtis and Dilara were just as silent as when she had first come up. She decided to dive down one last time. To her amazement, she discovered that the stones had returned to their original position. She spent several minutes in front of the big gate, looking once again for any clue. Her fingers slid desperately over the stone, which remained smooth.

Resigned, she surfaced and swam towards the shore. She got out of the water and grabbed the towel Morgau was handing her, still without saying a single word. Her eyes met Kurtis'. They waited for several more minutes under the sound of the waterfall, but as nothing happened they returned to the camp.

In the hours that followed, Lara dived again to try a new combination of words, without success unfortunately. The adventuress felt the annoyance creeping up on her, and began to have serious doubts.

When they were escorted back to Rouzic's tent by Gunderson's men the second time, they had little hope, and very few leads to explore anymore.

"We must be missing something," Lara huffed as she dropped the towel she had been wiping herself with on the nearest chair.

Dilara looked at her, then at Kurtis, hands on her hips. She was exhausted.

"Maybe I got the translations wrong...", she said, distraught.

Kurtis shook his head sharply.

"I don't think so, your reasoning is quite logical and you are one of the best archaeologists in the country."

The young woman thanked him with a faint smile.

"But that doesn't mean it's been of any use for the moment."

"Either the code is no good, or we need an extra element to activate it... We're at an impasse," Lara grumbled as she leaned on the table, her gaze downcast.

She sighed. She hated being in this kind of situation. She felt even more frustrated as she sensed they were close to find something.

"A key," she heard the mercenary suddenly whisper.

Lara looked up at him.

"Maybe we weren't wrong about the symbols, maybe it just needs a key to open it."

Kurtis suddenly stood up from his chair, which made the two young women jumped. The young man walked around the table, and took a step back to look at the design of the portal. He frowned.

"What's wrong?", asked Lara.

The mercenary ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm sure I've seen these patterns somewhere before..."

The adventuress sensed his annoyance. She stood up in turn and walked around the table to join him. Hands on her hips, she observed the drawing on the table. Her head was buzzing, she was having trouble getting her thoughts straight, she felt drowned in information and the small light hanging over the table, barely illuminating the tent, was giving her a headache. The mercenary ran a hand over his tired face.

He opened his mouth, as if he were about to speak again, and then slowly closed it. He took a few steps forward and leaned over the drawing again. Suddenly, without warning, he walked briskly towards the entrance of the tent. With a sudden gesture he pushed back the canvas and rushed out. Lara followed him in his wake, running to catch up. No sooner had they steeped outside than Morgau and Gunderson were already in their path, blocking their way. Some of the soldiers had gathered around them aggressively.

"Karel!", Kurtis called out to the Nephilim who was talking to Rouzic a little further on.

They slowly turned to them, clearly annoyed and disturbed in their discussion.

"I hope for your sake that you are bearers of good news," Karel said cynically.

"If you give me access to the Sanglyph, maybe."

A strange silence settled over the camp. Karel and Rouzic looked at him with a puzzled expression. Beside them, Gunderson let out a cynical laugh.

"What do you think you're doing, Trent?"

"Some of the inscriptions on the portal are extremely similar to those on the Sanglyph, it can't be a coincidence."

"Do you think the Sanglyph could be a key?", asked Karel, who took a step towards him, suddenly interested.

"Possibly," Kurtis replied, holding his gaze. "It's only a theory for now."

After a brief moment of hesitation, during which the Nephilim merely stared at Kurtis, the latter turned his head and waved to Rouzic and some of the men. The archivist slipped away, and returned under escort with a metal object in his hands. As the man handed the metal disc to the mercenary, Gunderson stepped forward, threatening. The American challenged him with his eyes, but understanding what was at stake, the 'born man' finally let him pass and went back to Rouzic's tent. Morgau followed them, followed by several men.

Kurtis ran straight into the tent. They all gathered around the table. He swept the pile of papers and documents from the table with a wave of his hand, and placed the sanglyph disc in its centre. It was then that Lara noticed for the first time how detailed the object was. She noticed all the elegantly chiseled elements in the golden metal, shining under the low hanging light.

When the young man placed the sketch of the portal next to the weapon, the resemblance was obvious to them. The same rounded arabesques, the same details, the same fineness, like that of a precious jewel.

"The key...", whispered Dilara beside them.

Morgau watched them, her hands clasped tightly around her spear.

"I think you're good to dive again, Miss Universe."

Morgau handed her the metal disc, which she grasped firmly before diving in. Once again, she slowly descended towards the large stone portal, which awaited them a few meters away. She let herself be guided by the light of her torch, and instinctively descended towards the centre of the portal.

Her heart skipped a beat as she noticed a completely empty, smooth rock cut-out, devoid of any pattern or decoration, unlike the rest of the portal. The space was barely wider than a hand.

It might fit

Without question, she placed the sanglyph on the central spot. She readjusted it slightly, but the metal slipped and almost naturally embedded itself in the stone.

She took some distance to look at the entire portal. She stood there for several seconds. She wasn't sure what to expect, but the sanglyph didn't move from its spot. The stones and pictographs did not move either. She saw no movement, no gap anywhere.

She went up for air.

"It's fitting!", she shouted.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Morgau, who was waiting for her on the bank, straighten up.

"Is it open?", the sentinel shouted to the adventuress still in the water.

Lara shook her head.

"I'll try to engage the symbols," she simply answered.

Without waiting for the agreement of the sentry or Gunderson a little higher up, the young woman dived back in. She set out to find the pictograms they had previously selected with Kurtis and Dilara, and which she had activated earlier. She hoped that by engaging the symbols, the more the sanglyph would finally open the door to the Nephilim domain.

She pressed each of the symbols: War, Power, Infinity, Mind and Darkness. Again, she waited underwater for a few seconds, apprehensively watching for a reaction from the stone. The sanglyph however did not seem to react, nor did the stone around it. Lara could feel her heart beating a thousand times a minute.

She climbed up once to get some air, and then dived again. She waited. She waited for something to happen, for the water to move, for the cliff to collapse before her, for a passage to open. But there she remained, alone in front of the still closed portal. After a few more seconds, resigned, she decided to go back up.

The night that followed went by at an incredible speed. After trying to find other codes, and studying other possibilities, Lara, Kurtis, and Dilara were finally escorted back to separate tents to rest for a while.

The adventuress had a hard time falling asleep. Several times she tried to connect mentally with Kurtis but it didn't bring any kind of comfort to her. She could feel the young man's presence, but she knew they were being bugged and watched from all sides. Knowing he was only a few feet away, and that she was unable to talk to him or touch him other than when they were talking about the portal frustrated her. She couldn't get rid of the bitter feeling it brought to her.

When she was picked up the next morning and taken to Rouzic's tent, she found herself with Dilara, already working on her notes. The young woman gave her a gentle smile. However, Lara noticed that Kurtis was not there. She looked around the tent in surprise.

"I think Karel needed him," the archaeologist said gently when she saw the Englishwoman's questioning look.

"Do you know why?"

The young woman shook her head.

"Master Karel needed his foresee."

She jumped. Rouzic was walking slowly towards her, coming out of a remote corner of the tent

"I had almost forgotten you were here," the Englishwoman said ironically.

The archivist's cheesy and disconcerting smile did not prompt her further. She took her place next to Dilara and the two women concentrated once again on their translations and on the Lux Veritatis scrolls this time.

The next few hours seemed endless. Kurtis had still not joined them, and Lara was getting seriously worried. Out of patience, she stood up abruptly, unable to stand still.

"Where is he?", she asked Rouzic.

Before the man could answer, the tent opened wide, and the American mercenary entered, flanked by several men. He was covered in bruises and bloodstains, one of his lips was bruised, no doubt from a punch. Gunderson's men dragged him to one of the chairs, where he dropped down. He let out a grunt of pain. Lara rushed to him.

"What have they done to you?", she asked, as she glanced at the many wounds on his chest and face.

"Karel invited me for a cup of tea and other small talks, you know..."

Lara gave him a disapproval look, before exchanging a knowing smile with him. He gritted his teeth a little more as the young woman brushed her fingertips against a wound on his cheek.

"Let's just say that I didn't let myself get hurt."

Lara perceived from the corner of her eye that the Turkish archaeologist was watching them, both embarrassed and curious.

"Dilara, could you bring me some gauze and something to clean this, please?"

The young woman complied. Lara glared also at Rouzic, who was trying to show his disagreement.

"But more seriously, they wanted me to use my powers and my foresee... This fucking bastard can't even see all the clues his own people left behind them..."

"He wanted to know what was on the other side, I guess?", the adventuress said as she refocused on the mercenary.

Kurtis nodded gently.

"Did you see anything?"

"Absolutely nothing."

Their eyes met.

"... it's as if something is blocking the entrance to the shrine, as if the portal itself is blocking all forms of magic."

"Dark magic you think?"

"Could be, yeah..."

Lara finished cleaning his wound gently. The young man's gaze wandered to the documents scattered on the table.

"Back to square one," he said with a sigh.

He watched Dilara nervously nibble on the end of her pen. A shape caught his eye among the papers on the table. He suddenly stood up.

"What is it?", he heard Lara protest.

But the young man ignored her. He grabbed the sketch of the portal and the sheet of paper on which the translations of the pictograms were written. He remained like that for a moment, as if frozen in thought. After a long moment, he grabbed a pen and seemed to draw something on the sketch.

Dilara and Lara watched him, puzzled. Lara saw his eyes move from the sketch to the list of translations at great speed. He circled several specific points on the sketch. Lara noted he had highlighted six words in all: 'sun', 'air' and 'fire' in the upper part of the portal, and 'moon', 'earth' and 'water' in the lower part. She frowned, attentive.

The young man finally paused, thoughtful. His azure eyes met the young woman's hazel ones. Before she could even open her mouth, he interrupted her.

"Apart from the rounded figures decorating it, something about this portal caught my eye from the start. As I told you, some of the words seemed completely out of context given what this shrine is supposed to contain. At first I thought the original Nephili had incorporated completely basic words to distract from the real symbols that border on the access code. I didn't understand why they needed to use such simple words here..."

He pointed to the first word, the one furthest up on the portal. The word 'sun'.

"… except that from the beginning, we've been in a universe constantly linked to magic and dark alchemy."

Lara's eyes opened wider and wider. She approached the young man. Dilara listened attentively.

"The balance of alchemy is based on several principles and several elements. To begin with, two stars: the sun and the moon. From each of these stars flow the four fundamental elements, air, fire, water and earth."

The American then pointed to the pictograms that corresponded to these words. The words 'sun', 'air' and 'fire' were grouped in the upper part of the diagram. The words 'moon', 'water' and 'earth' were in the lower part.

"All of them are linked to each other in one way or another... all of them are involved in the balance of things, whatever they are, and therefore in the balance of what surrounds us..."

"... and therefore the world," Lara concluded, her eyes shining brightly.

Kurtis nodded in agreement. Dilara was speechless with admiration. The mercenary drew two huge triangles on the paper, which overlapped each other in a perfectly symmetrical way. Two triangles which linked perfectly all the elements together. One with the point up, and the other with the point down.

"This brings us to the pentacle of alchemy."

The two triangles overlapped perfectly with the rest of the design and the portal. Lara noticed that the place reserved for the Sanglyph fell exactly in the centre of the two triangles.

"I thought that alchemy had appeared in the Middle Ages...", the Englishwoman told him. "I thought the Nephili only became connected to alchemy after they met Eckhardt..."

"Eckhardt and the other great alchemists of the time did indeed develop it mainly during the Middle Ages, but some Lux Veritatis have found traces of what looked like the first drafts of black magic long before that..."

"The Nephili may not have known these principles would later be used by humans," said Dilara.

The two adventurers exchanged a steady glance. Rouzic, who had been listening attentively to them until then, had once again come towards them. As usual, Gunderson's henchmen did not take long to react and go to warn their master. The archivist retrieved the metal disc.

"We may get somewhere," he said, waving them out.

A handful of soldiers suddenly appeared at the entrance to the tent. As they had feared, Karel had been informed immediately. Lara, Kurtis and Dilara left the tent in silence, accompanied by the archivist. Outside, Karel was already waiting for them. Lara could tell from the expression on his deformed face that he too felt he was nearing his goal. With a nod of his head, he indicated to his men to move. The group came to life, the adventurers and Dilara were directed to the edge of the cliff and then stopped.

"Spare me your whining and let's get down to business, please," the Nephilim told them with a scornful look.

Dilara glared at him.

"Again, we're not machines. If you're not happy, just dive in yourself," she told him without blinking.

Gunderson came closer at high speed, his hand raised. Kurtis stepped in just as the mercenary was about to strike the young woman. Several men jumped up and pointed their guns at him and the two young women. They did not move.

"I'm seriously getting sick of your little games," Karel hissed.

"Give me the Sanglyph, and let's get this over," Lara interrupted him.

The Nephilim looked at her for a short moment, then his eyes fell on the disc Rouzic was holding in his hands. With a slow and measured movement, Karel grabbed the weapon and handed it to the adventuress. Their eyes met as the young woman grasped it.

She could not see very clearly underwater. She mustered all her strength to concentrate on the portal. Again, she reached it rather quickly. She activated the first pictograms at the top of the portal, 'sun', 'fire' and 'air', before slowly moving down to the other three, 'moon', 'water' and 'earth'. One by one the stones sank into the wall without offering any resistance.

Carefully and slowly, she then went to place the sanglyph in its intended location. The metal scraped against the rock with an unpleasant noise before it was finally properly positioned.

Her heart was pounding, almost painfully against her rib cage. She could feel the blood pulsing around her skull at high speed, and the sensation was greatly amplified by the icy water closing in on her body and tired limbs.

The next few seconds seemed endless. She tried to hold on as long as possible under the water. She felt anxious. She had mixed feelings: she hoped that the door would finally open, but she also knew that when it did, they would all plunge into the unknown, with no way back.

There was an Olympian calm under the water. Lara kept her gaze desperately focused on the sanglyph, waiting for a move. She felt the anger return to her when she saw that once again nothing had moved on the portal.

Out of her mind, she forced herself to the surface. Being out in the open felt good, but a bitter feeling had come over her. Her eyes met the pale eyes of the young Morgau, who had come down to the bank with her.

As she swam to shore, she felt the water vibrate around her. A vibration that was most likely not coming from the water itself or the waterfall. She turned around, looking for its exact source. A glow caught her attention under the water, a few feet away. She soon realised it was the Sanglyph, from which a soft golden light was emanating. Lines of light had suddenly lit up and snaked between the pictograms of the portal. The rock was moving.

Lara dived again. As soon as her head was submerged, she heard a strange sound. A thud echoed around her, amplified by the water. It sounded vaguely like a whale singing.

The gate opposite her suddenly collapsed in on itself. The various blocks that made up the façade and the pictograms seemed to detach themselves one by one from the door, gradually forming a large black hole in the rocky façade. She felt the sudden movement of the water, which pushed her a few feet away.

The gate had now completely disappeared. She swam at full speed to retrieve the sanglyph that had fallen to the bottom of the lake, and finally came to the surface.