A Secret is Unravelled

"It's not as scary if I'm on a bigger ledge." Lara said as she looked down to the floor of the main room, even though she knew it never a good thing to do when standing in a high place. Having only a limited amount of space to stand on, the situation which Lara found herself in was much scarier than it should have been. But she was able to carry on with her fear and start making her way to the next column in front of her (third set from the entrance on the left side). Standing at the edge of the column she was on, Lara took a deep breath before finally jumping towards the next column and barely managed to grab the ledge with one hand. Luckily, she was able to regain her grip of the ledge and pull herself to safety. Lara was now standing even higher than she was before.

"That was too close!" Lara said to herself. Looking straight, she could see the tops of the platforms on the left side of the room, which would help her get to where she needed to go. But before Lara jumped across to the platforms, she turned around and saw the open doorway next to the only high platform on the right side of the large room. In front of it was the giant column reaching about halfway up the room and was positioned diagonally relative to where Lara was standing. She decided to investigate the small room before making her way over to the open doorway above the grand entrance, so she carefully made a standing jump over to the smaller pillar and then jumped onto the platform leading into the small room. Upon entering the small room, Lara was disappointed at what she saw.

"Everything's been destroyed!" Lara said as she walked across the steep rubble and stone fragments. "Wind, rain, and erosion are the most probable causes for this destruction I would assume. That's just too bad. Oh well, I guess you can't always expect to find something of value in every place you explore. Now, back to what I was initially trying to do!"

Lara re-emerged into the main room and jumped back across and diagonally to the tall pillar she was standing o earlier. Looking over to the other side of the room relative to where she had come from, Lara backed up to get a running start towards the platforms up ahead and then ran forward and jumped across. She landed on her feet pretty hard, but Lara was able to recover rather quickly and she was able to jump across the platforms and onto the large balcony above the grand entrance. Lara then went through the door and found herself walking down a small hallway that continued to the left for before turning left again a ways from where she stood. She followed the dark hallway to the very end until she came to a small drop-off that lead down to what appeared to be an ancient staircase that had since been smoothed out by the elements. At the end of the downward tunnel, there was barely enough sunlight reaching down to reveal another room that seemed to have water at the bottom, but it was hard to tell for sure.

"This looks like unexplored territory to me!" Lara said. "I wonder if Tihocan is buried somewhere near here? The book did say he was buried under this place. If that's the case, it might not be long until I find his tomb as well as the second piece of the Scion! Could the rumours be true?"

Eager to discover the truth, Lara climbed down the small drop and suddenly found herself sliding downwards to the next room which did not lead anywhere except to pool of water at the bottom. The walls were made of eroded stone and small amounts of plant growth were seen climbing their way up the wall towards the opening in the ceiling where sunlight was making its way down. Lara was quick to notice another doorway straight across from where she was sliding, which seemed to lead to somewhere of significance. As she neared the end of the slippery slope, Lara jumped across the room with the strength she had and was able to land squarely into the doorway without plunging into the dark water below.

"I don't think Pierre has found this area yet." Lara said as she smiled. "Looks like I might have the upper hand in this race, just like the previous one last year!"

Lara walked down the small hall and emerged into a small room made from intricate ancient Greek brickwork. The floor had the same lattice design as the room that housed the constellation puzzle. The only thing that was remotely interesting inside the room were shards of ancient Greek pottery. The sun was making its way into the room through another skylight, but the wind outside was not. As a result, the room was utterly quiet…almost too quiet.

"There has to be more to this place than just a few empty rooms and one ingenious puzzle." Lara said to herself. "At least there's another passage straight ahead. It looks like it drops into another room."

Lara carefully dropped into the room below and found it to be longer than the previous room. At the far end was a pool of greenish water that seemed to be connected to the pool of water in the area Lara jumped through not too long ago as far as Lara could judge. Just like the previous room, this room was made of intricate brickwork, except for the bottom portion of the roof, which had a repetitive and beautiful carved design that resembled the intricate patterns found at the top of Corinthian columns. On the side opposite of the water, Lara found another switch with a similar-looking dragon design around it similar to the one that was found in the constellation room. After studying it, she came to the conclusion that it had some sort of function, but she was not too sure what it could be. After a few moments, she decided to pull the switch and see what would happen. Suddenly, Lara heard the sound of rushing water behind her and turned around to see what was happening. There was no water coming at her, but the water that was already present was going down, revealing a hidden tunnel that was previously submerged. The water continued to empty itself out for a few more minutes before it was low enough for Lara to drop down into it and thoroughly explore without having to worry about having enough air in her lungs. She dropped down into the damp stone "sewer" tunnel and splashed upon reaching the ground.

"Hmm…This seems revealing enough." Lara said as her ankles kept wading through the shallow water. Looking clear down to the other side, she saw a small doorway on the right that lead to an upward staircase.

"This is definitely strange and new." Lara said. "I'm seeing a part of St. Francis' Folly that no one has seen for thousands of years. Although I have to ask myself what lies beyond that doorway that I'm about to enter? Surely it has to be another unexplored area, but is it the very thing I came here to find? I have to press onward."

Lara continued to think about these questions as she walked through the doorway and up the staircase. She then turned right and felt her jaw drop at the sight of what she saw next, for it was much more unbelievable and beautiful than anything she previously had in mind, something that would later become recognized as one the greatest milestones in Lara's quest for the Scion.

"Oh my god!" Lara said. "This is absolutely astounding! What is this place?!"

Lara's exploration of St. Francis' Folly has lead her to an underground water reservoir that has been untouched for millennia as well as one of the ancient site's most well-kept secrets. I left this chapter as a cliff-hanger, but most of you could probably guess as to what this secret is, as I have left a huge hint near the end of this chapter. This is where things will start to become very interesting and I can assure you that they will! See you in the next update, and thank you to all that have been following this story so far! I hope you continue following my progress in the coming days, so stay tuned :)

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