King for a Day
There was not much else to say about the features of the dimly lit perimeter. It felt like it was almost akin to an abandoned vast hall just with an other-worldly aesthetic and atmosphere, and the two explorers discussed about what they had just read upon the obelisk within the murky domain.
"What do you think happened to the Pharoah in the aftermath of the battle?" Christian began.
"It's suspicious that he wasn't seen again in public life so surely there was a successor if he had died, but I'm sure there is more to uncover here than what we have seen so far." Lara summed up, and he nodded in agreement.
"Yes I believe so too, it does also raise another question of what the fate was of his former friend turned 'necromancer'?"
"I dread to think, do you believe what the story says about the abilities he possessed?" She curiously asked him. A few moments went by, and he came up with his answer.
"Not really. It's all trickery, illusion and deception and whilst I appreciate the lore, I am not a believer in such phenomena."
"Interesting that you think along the similar lines of how Werner thought, whereas from what I have seen and experienced in the past you learn anything is possible…" Lara expressed from her perspective.
"We shall see…we should split up in the meantime to cover more ground." He responded and was seemingly occupied with his thoughts from their discussion.
"Good idea." She replied.
Noteworthy classic Egyptian architecture could be found within the depths and as Lara and Christian had gone their separate ways since depicting what had been written on the obelisk, they made scribbled entries in their notebooks of what they saw. That was until later across to the left side of the gigantic crater there was a narrow opening that Christian had spotted which featured a tiled floor corridor filled with cryptic markings.
'Curious…what could this mean?' He thought to himself as he began to study the inscriptions. Minutes later his fellow companion arrived at the scene.
"Aha, caught up with you at last! What have you come across here?" Lara inquired joyfully.
"A conundrum, I believe there is more to this path than meets the eye."
"Any clues as to whether it could be a trap?"
"Just these markings on the tiles so far…Hang on what's this?" He said as something had caught his attention.
Beside the archway opening laid a hunched skeleton withered and decayed by the hand of time. Before they examined it any further, Lara decided to update Ayesha on their current progress if the radio signal was clear and wasn't prone to too much interference. Fortune was on their side as even for how deep they were there was not too much static on the line.
"Ohhhh…" Ayesha replied as Lara gave a very brief overview of what they had uncovered so far.
"I'll be interested to know the full story when you both resurface. In the meantime, I've got nothing new to report from my side, it's still quiet up here…what the, wait a minute…" The transmission cut off unexpectedly.
"Ayesha…Come in Ayesha, do you read me!?" Lara worryingly tried to call. No more response came from the radio apart from the usual feedback noises.
"Something's happened to her, we have got to go back to the surface now!" Lara reacted and turned to her travelling companion.
"I understand the concern for your friend, but we are standing on the edge of discovery here and we've come so far…to turn back now would be a risky move and wasted opportunity if what we seek is indeed here. Within a few hours this place may get discovered by someone else outside or even worse would get barricaded by the guards and we wouldn't want that happening." Christian voiced his reasoning from his perspective on the current circumstance.
"Well let's get this escapade over with and see what's on the other side of this corridor. I want to make sure Ayesha's well and the sooner we do that the better!" Lara rashly replied and without entertaining the consequences of her upcoming action she headed straight to the direction of the corridor. However, she was immediately stopped in her tracks by a hand placed on her arm.
"Woah, patience Lara. Remember what Von Croy used to say…'Disrespect is the root to carelessness', and if just you go waltzing through there without any inkling or wariness you may get yourself into grave danger. You're reacting on instinct rather than thinking it through properly." Christian reminded and advised her. He could see she was internally wrestling with her frustration and emotion but thought it best not to say anymore on the matter. Lara eventually gathered her thoughts together and reorganised her priorities before she spoke again.
"You're right…I have not forgotten the events that occurred that day in Cambodia with Werner when he said that quote and it certainly is one to keep in mind on any adventure. Okay, we'll see if this corridor holds any nasty surprises and push on. The minute we are done here then we can attend to Ayesha and locate her whereabouts…I hope she is alright." Lara said with heavy concern.
"I'm sure she is, she seems tough and can handle herself from what I gather. Let us see what our skeletal friend here has got in their possession."
Rummaging through the laying skeleton and tattered clothing remains, they could see that whoever it was must have died from a grave injury as surrounding the area was a dark pool of what seemingly used to be dried blood. Next to the left phalanx bone there was also partially covered spike, no doubt being the cause of death that had befallen the unknown corpse many years ago.
"Ah the plot thickens…" Christian stated. After checking the pockets, he pulled out a terribly yellowish stained piece of parchment paper. When unfolded it not only showed a sketched diagram that was drawn on the sheet, but other drawings scrawled around it. They worked out that these were illustrations of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that surrounded to what was representing the pathway that was in front of them. There was also a harshly written passage on the other side of the page.
'I cannot believe I got this far and now this accursed place will become my grave. To whoever finds this do not make the same foolish mistake as I did with the trial up ahead, be warned it has a concealed trap that has ensnared me. Better yet, leave this jinxed catacomb while you can… Barely made it out… Curse those who thought and constructed it! So close to what may have been treasure ahead that I now cannot see or take as mine… I cannot get out…beyond saving…I am sorry my love…not…to…be…reunited…I feel…tired…cold…'
"A shame that tragedy had struck our friend here. Nevertheless, I am glad that we have been warned of the perils that lie ahead and our venture seems to be not in vain. I've just spotted the pitfall of where the last attempt was to cross this path." Christian pointed out to the whereabouts of the missing tile.
"Right, we don't want a repeat performance of former endeavours. The more I look at this there seems to be a pattern with the ancient symbols…I've got an idea." Lara proceeded to open her notebook and on a blank page at the back she drew simple depictions of the hieroglyph floor tiles that were before them, one or two were missing from previous attempts but that was in their favour. After that she then began tearing the drawn upon paper piece by piece and then on another page drew out the grid layout to represent the decorated arched corridor.
"I see what you are doing, clever…Now we can work out the path and be on the same page." Christian happily commended.
"We can translate the hieroglyphics and see if the tiles have a particular order to them so one could get across safely." Lara explained whilst her companion briefly took off his hat and scratched his head.
"Question is though what on earth is the sequence or password?"
Using a combination of their shared knowledge, experiences and interest of Egyptology along with the picked-up notes from the deceased traveller from time ago, Lara and Christian began working out the required pieces to solve the puzzle. They first began roughly translating the collection of the hieroglyphic paper tiles that Lara had made as close as possible to the letters of the alphabet in English.
"This makes no sense! Something is missing here with these jumbled characters, there just seems to be no consistency." Christian had frustratingly voiced, but Lara remained composed.
"Not forgetting that most of the vowels were not represented so we would be spelling out these words primarily using consonants like the Egyptians did."
"Well, I can see why our pal here failed in this challenge. The people who had set this trap knew what they were doing and designed it to be confusing to wanderers, particularly those who didn't possess the required knowledge of the language."
"Let's start with the ankh that is amongst the first row of tiles, this is significant as it refers to the key of life so it must have something to do with the phrase that is required. Christian, from the looks of this we may be heading towards a burial chamber of someone important."
"I believe it to be the Pharoah from the story written on the Obelisk." He replied.
"So do I…"
"I remember it is also the belief that the words reversed will protect against evil spirits in the afterlife…hang on that's it!"
Rearranging the paper hieroglyphs on the page, Christian placed the symbols in a left-to-right order where the letter furthest left represented the last hieroglyph at the end of the corridor but also the first letter of the passage. It began with the step stool hieroglyph that was the letter 'P', followed by the vulture, a loaf of bread representing 'T' but there were multiple choices for what could be 'H' which was either a house or a wick. The next word included another loaf of bread and a quail chick, whilst the last word started with a vulture, horned viper, loaf of bread, a mouth and finally the ankh symbol. Altogether this roughly translated to 'Path to Afterlife'.
"It looks like we're on our way of unravelling this mystery if we have decrypted this statement correctly." Lara said excitedly.
"There's only one way to find out, who shall first take the plunge into the unknown?" Christian queried while raising his eyebrow at her.
"I will happily volunteer as I suppose it's my turn after you came up with the afterlife theory, here we go…"
The famous tomb raider began her first step to start the trial and to her delight their assumptions so far were correct as each step had rewarded her a sturdy platform allowing progression. She managed to pass the set of uneven tiles where the previous seeker's ill-fated attempt had come to an end and even from there it was miraculous how they had barely crawled out alive. Absolutely wanting to avoid a similar fate, Lara sighed as she carefully looked out for the next set of hieroglyph tiles that they had speculated would spell their translation. However, the adventurer soon stopped in her place by the confusion of the next row for the eighth word.
"What symbols do you see in front of you?" Christian called out to her noticing that she had now paused.
"There are six of them, on my left is the lion, wave and the house hieroglyphs. To my right is the wick, foot and owl. All of them are intact and give no inkling which is the correct one on either side, so it is difficult to determine what to go for."
"That adds a twist to include both the house and wick, fifty-fifty choice. I'll let you decide."
"Thanks!" Lara retorted and gave him a playful scowl look. He smiled shaking his head in response knowing what she was like. Focusing back to the task in hand, Lara decided to use her previous experience with the hieroglyphic alphabet and chose the tile that had the house symbol drawn. She took a deep breath and was feeling the nerves crop up despite being well versed in these situations from past adventures, then she made the leap with a steady foot. All seemed well until suddenly…
"Woah!" Lara blurted out as the tile collapsed and she fell straight through.
"Lara!" He shouted in disbelief to what he just witnessed.
Deadly razor spikes were ready to catch their prey deep within the chasm for those that chose wrong. Fortunately for the seasoned athletic archaeologist she was swift and just in the nick of time successfully managed to reach out for the edge of the wick tile with her right hand. Eventually she also pulled up her left hand on the ledge and performed an impromptu yet elegant handstand to get back up.
"Now you're just showing off, that was a close one!" A relieved Christian commented.
"Phew! Yeah, lost my balance there, but that's the last those spikes will see of me!" She confidently replied though she did take a few moments to catch her breath after that eye-opening event.
Without too much hassle, Lara managed to complete the last few letters of the theorised passage for the presented challenge and to their joy the combination turned out to be true. Christian following the same path caught up with her and eagerly the duo pressed on wondering what they were about to face next. The tunnel took a sharp turn left and a set of dusty stairs were ahead though it didn't take long before both adventurers stood in awe of the vault they had stumbled into as they lit up the fire bowls surrounding the enclosed area.
"Wow…" Was all both could say.
It was beautifully decorated chamber with various graphics and hieroglyphics on each wall, and a significant cartouche was at the centrepiece of it all. Eight magnificent statues of gold and silver were placed around the boundary, all seemed to have been implanted with rare gemstones and sculpted to look like guardians who were ready to protect or fight any intruders.
"I think it's safe to say that this is not just any room, it's a burial tomb…" Christian pointed out the grand burial enclosure that was placed in the centre. They both approached the sarcophagus with caution just in case there were any hidden traps waiting for the unwary. There were none to their relief and upon inspection of the crypt it revealed more information that Lara read aloud.
"Here lies Aknetem, the fallen ruler of the land and betrayed by the hand of his closest ally. Died without child… and his heritage will remain here for eternity…"
"That certainly confirms we are in the inner sanctum of the previously nameless Pharoah and what his fate was in the end. It also proves the manuscript is accurate and somewhere the jewel artefact we seek should be here…" summarised Christian.
However, they didn't have to look too far as above on the casket was an engraving that stood out and within that laid buried a mesmerising encrusted gauntlet. The main feature of this ornament seemed to be a substantial emerald jewel installed at the back of the glove, but as the two gazed at it in wonderment they certainly felt a radiating force surrounding the material like it was pulsating. Lara extended both of her hands to the piece, already feeling the surging energy upon the touch and she slowly lifted out the precious gauntlet from its holding place without too much effort.
"I can't believe what we have discovered here. This is amazing!" Lara enthusiastically announced, but Christian remained quiet as he stood by her staring at the desirable object. Out of the blue he tried to viciously snatch the artefact from her hands, and only just she managed to thwart the action with her quick reflexes. She stepped back and confronted her companion face to face.
"What are you doing!?" Lara angrily questioned him. She gasped as his demeanour had completely changed from pleasant and friendly to one that was emotionless and unsettling as he glared at her. She didn't recognise him at all, and it made her feel completely disconcerted.
"Taking back what is rightfully mine!" Christian aggressively blurted out as she slipped the gauntlet in her backpack. His current expression told her she was in danger, but Lara stood her ground though wished that she had brought her signature dual pistols.
"What do you mean what's rightfully yours…have you lost your mind!?" She argued back, readying herself for a fight. Amid the confusion of the situation, she thought about potentially using the gauntlet to her advantage but with little to no knowledge of its unpredictable power that could be a costly mistake and may easily backfire. Instead, she would use it as a last resort and would try to make him see sense, maybe even knock him out if it came to it. He began to chuckle.
"Oh Lady Croft, you have delusions of grandeur about this when all you are is a means to an end!" Christian declared and with that he lunged directly at her. She dodged this move by jumping over him and then quickly turning back to throw some punches in retaliation at him which he managed to block, and the brawl ensued.
"Please stop Christian, this isn't you!" She attempted to reason with him as they reached a stalemate with the fight with neither side gaining the upper hand, but he didn't listen nor respond.
"Give me the gauntlet now!" He demanded as they got further into the scuffle. Lara knew she had to change tactics and was about to make her move but within that instant she saw it.
'A hidden blade!' The thought flashed in her mind, but it was too late for her to try and disarm him.
It all happened at once as Lara felt her breath forcedly drawn out of her body by the impalement of the blade through her abdomen. Time stood still for that split second in the struggle as they glanced at each other silently. An agonising pain then took over Lara as she at once fell to the ground, stunned and grimaced over her pierced wound. She awkwardly turned to face her new adversary after experiencing the heavy burden of betrayal within those moments.
"Why!?" Lara cried out to him with mixture of hurt, anger and distress in her voice. It was an emotional rollercoaster with the feeling like her heart had just been torn out, she was frantically breathing and didn't know what was going to happen next. All she could do was watch. Christian did not say anything at that time, he went over to her backpack and drew out the artefact. What transpired next Lara found strange as it sounded like he was in an inner turmoil of what his next move would be.
"No…I can't… I loved her once before and I cannot bring myself to kill her…I will not." Christian oddly said, though Lara couldn't see what was going on until he came over to her side and looked at her remorsefully in the eye with the gauntlet in hand.
"I am so sorry Lara… I want you to know the sacrifice you have made for this is going to a worthy cause, and you will be remembered. Farewell." He apologetically said to her. Those were all the words he could say, then he walked out and left her alone in the chamber with the mix of crackling flames from the fire bowls and the underground ambient noises.
"Kurtis… Ayesha…" In and out of consciousness Lara barely had whispered out as she soon closed her eyes into pure darkness.