The rest of the trip Ios was tense. Percy seemed to be going out of his way to avoid her. Not that she was exactly seeking out his company either. He usually sequestered himself to one of the other cars in the train, and came back late. Lara passed the time on the trip pouring over her father's notes. What Percy had managed to decipher for her at any rate. But it was far from helpful. In his later years her father had been…absent of mind. Many had chalked it up to insanity brought on by grief after the death of Lara's mother. But Lara didn't necessarily buy it. Sure, her father's notes were scattered and disorganized, but there was a common theme amongst them all.
Life.
Whether it was the poems of Sappho, the holy grail, or the Fountain of Youth, her father's notes were littered to references to ancient artifacts known for giving or extending life. Perhaps that was more disturbing than insanity. Lara liked to think that she knew her father fairly well. Had known how he thought and what drove him. She knew that her mother's sudden death had haunted him, but would it really have driven him to this? To seek for an alternative to death?
It seemed like an impossibility, and yet the more she read, the more she became assured that that had been his goal all along. But had her father truly believed in it? Believed in bringing back the dead? She supposed that it wasn't out of the realm of impossibility. In her time of adventuring, she had seen many an oddity. Her time on that hellacious island certainly came to mind. But did her experiences with the supernatural really indicate that there was a way to cheat death? Was it as far-fetched as she believed, or were her own biases getting in the way of seeing the truth?
It was late by the time that they arrived in Greece, boarded their ferry, and made their way to Ios. They checked into their hotel and turned in to their respective rooms for the night. When Lara's alarm went off the next morning, the sun hadn't even begun to rise over the horizon. She managed to beat Percy to cafe in the hotel, and was just tucking in to some tea and porridge when he stumbled down. He looked more and more worn down as the days went on. The bags under his eyes had grown more pronounced, and he moved with the sluggishness of a man who hadn't slept in days. If he was continuing to have night-terrors, she supposed that he likely hadn't.
He grunted a greeting to her, as she slid the cup of coffee, she'd gotten him in his direction.
"Cream and seven sugars," she said, winking at him when he glanced at her, "I'm pretty observant too."
"Thanks," he muttered, his voice rough and husky with drowsiness. He tilted his head back, and drank half of the cup in one gulp, seemingly oblivious to how scalding hot it was. Placing the cup back on the table, he stifled a yawn and stretched his arms above his head.
"We have the boat from six this morning to six tonight," he said. "That should give us more than enough time to get to the site, and for me to go down and investigate."
Lara arched an eyebrow and placed her cup back on the table.
"Who decided that you would be the one to the dive?"
"I did," said Percy, not backing down.
"Oh really now?" Asked Lara, "And who gave you the authority to make that call?"
"I did, since I was the one to book the charter and find the location."
"And we're here on my dime," retorted Lara,
"Let's not do this right now," said Percy tiredly, rubbing at his eyes. "It's too early and I don't feel like fighting right now. We can go in shifts. You can go first if you want, and then I'll go after."
Lara continued to stare at him intently for a moment, before nodding in acquiescence.
"Remind me again of what we're looking for down there," said Lara.
"Aside from a possible page," said Percy, scratching idly behind an ear.
"Obviously."
"Shipping records and manifests. Captain's diaries or journals. Any documents relating to the passengers on board the ship."
"You just described pretty much anything that could be on the ship," said Lara in amusement. Percy smiled at her and shrugged.
"The details matter," he said simply. "But yeah, we probably need everything. Never know when something might or might not be relevant. Even then, something that appears at first glance to be irrelevant might be the most important clue at all."
"You might be the master of saying a lot to say nothing at all," groaned Lara, sliding down in her chair. "You sure you were supposed to be a historian, not a politician?"
"Oh hell no," laughed Percy. "Could you really imagine me as a politician?"
Lara chuckled, "No, I suppose not. Something tells me you don't quite have the patience for it."
"Shock of shocks," muttered Percy, "Almost like my tolerance for bullshit is at an all-time low."
Lara chuckled, and checked her watch, "Best to get your breakfast to go, it's nearly six."
After Percy grabbed a to go bag with his breakfast in it, they made their way down to the docks. Lara didn't fight Percy when he insisted on being the one to pilot the boat. After her previous experiences on ships, she was far more content to close her eyes and let Percy man the helm. It was an hour of relatively peaceful waters to get to the site, about ten nautical miles off the coast of the island. They'd been forced to go at a slower pace due to the speed laws and heavy police traffic on the waters, and the sun was just beginning to crest over the distant horizon as Lara began pulling on her dive equipment.
"I'll be on the radio from up here," said Percy, settling himself onto the bench seat just outside the cockpit. There was a mess of papers, topographical maps and other documents spread across the table.
"Sounds good," said Lara as she pulled the diving mask into place. She turned around and gestured at Percy. He reached over, and started her tank without looking up from his work.
She stepped up to the side of the ship, placing one of her finned feet on the railing on the side, and was about to jump in when Percy called out over her radio.
"Watch out for sharks down there. They like to make old wrecks into their dens."
"Trying to scare me out of going?" Asked Lara, and Percy's chuckle reverberated in her ear.
"Just testing the radio and giving you some friendly advice. Had a bit of a close call with a Great White when I was diving in the North Atlantic,"
"And here I thought you were only a historian."
"A man's gotta have hobbies, and Shark Week is one of 'em."
Laughing, Lara got her breathing back under control, before diving into the waters. The Ionian Sea was shockingly warm, and beautifully clear. The salt of the sea was hardly even visible, and she had a clear field of view for what felt like miles in every direction. The waters were shallower where they were, only a few dozen feet to the bottom where the ship lay.
She couldn't name the style of the ship, she certainly remembered seeing similarly styled ships in museums and books and the internet. If nothing else, at least she was fairly certain that they had found the correct site.
The ship was enormous. It was one thing to see these ancient vessels in books or on the internet, but it was another to see them in person. They really were impressive behemoths. The size of a small house, it was impressively large. There were at least four levels to the monstrous vessel, and even the holes in the side where the oars came out seemed larger than life.
All at once, Lara was once again hit with the reality of the situation. This wasn't just some ship at the bottom of the ocean. It wasn't an exhibit in a museum, lovingly recreated by historians and archeologists. This was the real deal. An actual trireme, from ancient Greece. Men had worked and lived on this ship. Had died on this ship.
It was equally sobering as it was exhilarating.
Swimming down, she swam around the perimeter of the ship, looking for an opening. On the port side of the ship, there a was large hole. Likely the cause of the sinking in the first place. It was a slim fit, but she managed to squeeze through, taking care not to rip her dive suit along the jagged splinters along the opening.
It was like swimming into another world. The inside of the ship was a mess of wooden framing and sea life. Barnacles and seaweed grew along the bulkhead. From a mess of wreckage on the sea floor, a school of fish scuttled out and swam past her, startled by her sudden appearance.
She tried to determine her position on the ship, which was somewhat problematic given that to her, the ship didn't look too different from one end to another. There was mire structure to the bulkheads and ship directly behind her, which she deduced meant that likely the captain's quarters were there. Before she moved however, the radio crackled to life in her mask,
"Captain's quarters are to the stern on triremes," said Percy,
"Thanks," said Lara, turning around and swimming towards the stern,
"Hope there's a hole for you to crawl through," said Percy. "You're not going to be able to pry your way through a door."
"I'll have you know, I'm fairly strong, thanks," said Lara sourly.
"I'm aware of that," said Percy calmly, "But when you're underwater, you're not dealing with normal physics. Shit's going to be a hell of a lot heavier the deeper down you go. At your depth, trying to open a door would require the same amount of torque as moving a tractor."
Lara flushed. She'd known that, of course, this wasn't her first dive. But she tended to get defensive when it came to matters of physical strength. She'd dealt with enough chauvinistic assholes over the years that it was an easy trap for her to fall in to. Shaking her head clear, she glanced around the bulkhead before spotting a small hole in the frame. It was a tight fit, but if she was careful, she figured that even with her tank on her back, she would be able to get through.
Approaching the hole, Lara flipped herself around so her head was poking through the whole and she was gazing up at the roof of the ship. Resting her gloved hands on the sides of the hole, Lara slowly and carefully dragged herself inside of the hole. Once inside, she found herself in pitch blackness. Reaching down to her harness, she flipped on the flashlight, throwing a cone of light over the shadowy interior.
There was a single desk in the center of the cramped room, along with a single small hammock in the corner. Lara involuntarily shuddered. She wasn't normally bothered by cramped spaces, but something like this. The way the walls seemed to cave in on the small room. She couldn't imagine life in here. Living like this. It seemed like a nightmare.
"You in?" Asked Percy,
"Yeah," said Lara,
"Tell me what you're looking at."
Lara didn't particularly enjoy following instead of leading, but in the present moment, this was Percy's expertise, and she would never hesitate to defer to someone else's expertise.
"There's a desk in the center of the room, and a hammock in the corner,"
"Anything else?" Lara glanced around the room, there was something faded and torn in the corner of the room. Something that looked like it might have been fabric of some kind, but otherwise not of any use.
"Not that I can see, guy lived kind of spartan,"
Percy snorted, "Cute."
Lara chuckled. "Something does come to mind though. Assuming we do find anything, is it even going to be of any use? I mean it would have deteriorated beyond use, right?"
"Not necessarily," said Percy. "We have a lot of papyrus documents and journals that have lasted centuries under the right conditions. Typically, it takes something with a high level of acidity to really dissolve or damage it. Assuming we can find anything, there's at least a decent likelihood that it'll be salvageable."
"Better than nothing I suppose," said Lara as she swam over to desk and began pulling open the drawers. Bubbles escaped from the drawer, burbling up past her, along with a number of dust particulates. There was nothing in the first couple of drawers, but she hit paydirt in the last drawer on the bottom. It was a small journal, bound in leather and wrapped tightly.
"Got something," said Lara, "Looks like a journal of some kind."
"Well, that's something," said Percy. "Any of it legible?" Lara unbound the leather, then sighed. The inside was faded and damaged. The ink on the papers of the page were smudged beyond recognition.
"Nope," she sighed, "All of the ink has faded. Nothing useful here."
"Bring it up anyways," said Percy. "Who knows, maybe we'll find something."
"Fair enough," said Lara. She glanced around the room once more, but decided that there wasn't anything worth investigating. After tucking the journal away in a pouch on her dive suit, she clambered back out of the hole and was once more in the main part of the ship.
"Okay, where now?" Asked Lara,
"See, this is why I wanted to be the diver," said Percy, "One of us actually knows their way around the ship." The tone was teasing and light-hearted but Lara felt herself flush all the same.
"Jackson…" she growled,
"There should be a ladder to the oarsman's levels somewhere near you," laughed Percy. Swimming forward, Lara scanned her surroundings for a moment before spotting what Percy was referring to. There was a small opening in the hull, and Lara could see the top rungs of a ladder.
"Got it," she said, "Heading down." Gripping the rungs one after another, she pulled herself down into the bowels of the ship. Luckily it wasn't as dark down on this level as it had been in captain's quarters. The large holes in the side of the ship where the oars were used provided more than enough light for Lara to maneuver. The lower level was an open space. Three aisles of benches lined the levels, divided by small alleys for movement.
"All right…where to now?" Asked Lara,
"Storage is likely going to be one floor below. But I don't know if we'll be able to get into there. Those doors were typically locked."
"Still worth a shot," said Lara.
"Probably," said Percy, "Check near the bow. There should be a hatchway."
Swimming towards the other end of the deck, Lara examined the floor carefully. Sure enough there was a hatchway on the floor. There was a small handle on the wooden frame, and Lara reached down and tried to pry it open. But after a few moments of fruitless struggling, she gave it up as a bad job.
"No good," she panted, trying to steady her breathing, "It's stuck,"
"Focus on your breathing right now," said Percy calmly, "Last thing we need is one of your lungs rupturing."
Swallowing heavily, Lara took a few minutes to compose herself. When her breathing was steady again, Percy spoke up,
"All right…try looking around the benches. It wasn't uncommon for sailors or slaves to attach their personal writings to the underside of their workstation."
For the next twenty minutes, Lara painstakingly searched each and every bench. Taking care to run her hand on the underside of the benches, but her efforts were for naught. If anything had been there, it was long gone. As she inspected the last the row of benches at the aft of the deck, she all but gave up hope. She was about to say as much to Percy, when something caught her eye.
There was a section of the bulkhead, which rested up against the small alley that housed the ladder to the upper deck, which was slightly misshapen. Swimming down, she ran a hand out across the wood. There was part of the bulkhead that stuck out further. It could have been a manufacturing defect, or a result of whatever caused the fight, but she didn't think so. The damage to the ship was all on the other side, and the side she was on had been left relatively untouched. Moreover, it looked like the bulkhead had been intentionally tampered with.
Pulling her knife free from the holster around her ankle, she traced the lines of the wood and began to dig her knife into where the wood had been plastered. Wiggling the knife up and down, the wood of the bulkhead shifted. It was loose, as though someone had tampered with it previously.
"Lara?" Asked Percy, "You there?"
"Hang on," she said, "Think I might have something."
Digging her knife more deeply into the cracks, she slowly and carefully began to dig the wedge of wood out from the bulkhead. After a few minutes work, she pulled a several inch long and several inch wide block free from the bulkhead.
The inside of the bulkhead was hollowed out, leaving a small cavern inside. Inside the cavern was a case, just about the size of wine bottle. It was locked tightly with an ancient-looking padlock, and appeared to still be sealed. Her heart hammering in excitement, Lara did her utmost to keep her breathing even as she reached out and grabbed the pouch. Tucking the case close to her chest, she turned and began swimming out of the ship.
"I definitely got something Percy," said Lara. "Small chest, it was hidden in the hull of the ship."
"Was wondering why you went all silent on me," chuckled Percy, "I'll leave you to toy around with whatever is in there while I go down myself."
"Sounds good,"
"Hey, maybe we'll get luck and there'll be fifty pages or something inside,"
Lara snorted, "And because you said it, now you've jinxed us."
Percy's rumbling laugh answered her,
"Probably right," he said, "Either way, I'll start putting on my gear and when you're up here, I'll head in."
"Sounds good."
Five minutes later, Lara's he'd breached the surface of the water, a dozen or so yards from the boat. She could make out Percy's bare back as he pulled his dive suit on and adjusted his oxygen tank. She grunted as she approached the side of the boat, and tugged her tank off her back. Percy met her at the stern dive platform, and after taking her tank from her, helped her onto the boat.
"Bad news," said Percy, pointing to his oxygen mask. "Mic in the mask isn't working. I tried toying around with it a few minutes ago but there's nothing."
"That's weird," frowned Lara as she tugged off her dive suit, "You make sure it was on the right frequency?"
"Yeah," nodded Percy, "But it was just silence. Here," he put his face in the mask and spoke into the radio. Lara held her ear up to her own mask and listened, but even though she could hear Percy speak, no noise came through the radio.
"Cheap hunk of shit," growled Lara tossing the mask to the deck.
"Didn't these masks cost a couple hundred dollars?"
"Try a couple thousand," said Lara bitterly. "All the more reason for me to be pissed about this."
Percy chuckled, "It's always been weird to me how multi-millionaires can be so stingy. Not like this is even going to put even a noticeable dent in anything."
"It's the principle of the matter," said Lara as she clambered past Percy into the boat. "Besides, how do you think we keep our millions? Can't be spending it all, all of the time."
"Sure," chuckled Percy as he put his mask on, "All right, I'm heading down, see you in a bit."
"Try not to drown," said Lara as she put the box and journal on the small table near the pilot house. "Would hate to make my day any better."
Sitting down in the chair at the table, she ignored the journal in favor of the box. She focused her attention on the lock specifically. By modern standards, it was a relatively simple mechanism. Nothing too special or technical. Moreover, the lock itself had rusted and looked as though it were moments away from falling apart. Reaching down to the deck, Lara grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her hand. Then, carefully, she gripped the lock and tugged. It took almost no effort before the lock fell away entirely. Nearly crumbling as Lara pulled it away. Unwrapping the towel from her hand, she gingerly reached out and gripped the corners of the small chest. Lifting it slowly, her heart hammered in excitement as she a flash of several stacks of papyrus inside. Opening the chest fully, she carefully reached out and gripped the corners of the small paper inside.
As soon as she did, something…strange happened. A painful throbbing starting in her temples that slowly worked its way to the back of her skull. Like someone was repeatedly hammering away at her brain stem with a ball-peen hammer. She gasped, dropping the paper back into the chest, her hands shooting to her temples. But almost as soon as she had let go of the pages, the ache in her head ceased.
What the hell had that been? Why had her head felt as though it were being rampaged by a horde of elephants the moment she'd touched the paper, only to stop immediately after. Her mind wandered, as it often did with the unexplainable, to that hateful island from so long ago. The island of the unexplainable. Of the mysterious and bizarre.
Of the divine.
Was it mere coincidence? She didn't think she or anyone in he family had a past history of migraines, but it wasn't necessarily out of the realm of possibility. But migraines didn't suddenly start and then just abruptly stop. No, it had started the moment she had touched the paper, and ceased the moment she'd let go. So did that mean it was cursed? She supposed it wasn't entirely out of the realm of reality. She didn't know much about magic, didn't even necessarily know if it were real. But lacking any other scientific explanation, it seemed to be the only thing that made sense. But she needed to be sure. Once could have been mere happenstance, unlikely as it was.
She reached out again, hesitating, her fingers mere millimeters from the paper. Swallowing thickly, she mustered her courage and brought the tip of her finger forward, just far enough that it tickled the edges of the papyrus. But that was all that was needed. The pain returned instantly, as great and terrible as it had before. But Lara had been ready for it this time, and as such wasn't surprised by it. More importantly, she became more aware of a stranger and potentially more disturbing phenomena.
The voice whispering in her ear.
It was a soft, distinctly feminine voice. But she didn't understand what was being said. The voice was clear, but was most assuredly speaking in another language. More curiously, was the tone the woman spoke with. It seemed urgent. As though the voice had been desperate to tell Lara something. Something Lara couldn't understand.
Her temples throbbed painfully, and she wanted more than anything to let go, but she was beginning to feel something else. A new, and equally strange sensation. Like a tugging in her naval, trying to force her northward, back to the shore.
It was as fascinating as it was both deeply disconcerting and immensely painful. It was like her very soul was being tugged in two different places at once. Like a piece of her had suddenly gone missing and her body was desperately trying to reclaim it. With a gasp, she relinquished her grip on the paper and tumbled back. She fell out of her chair, collapsing onto the deck in a heap. Her shoulders shook as sweat dribbled down her cheeks. Her chest heaved in aching, desperate attempts to pull some air back into her lungs. After a couple minutes, the pounding in her temples began to recede and her vision slowly became less blurred.
Hauling herself back to her feet, she shakily reached out to the chest and shut the lid. Still shaking rather terribly, she snagged a nearby towel and hastily wrapped it around her shoulders. She clung to it like a lifeline, and she did her best to calm herself down.
Not a coincidence then. Most definitely not a coincidence. What in the hell had they just stumbled into? What was this? What had been the voice? Had…had that voice belonged to Sappho? It had sounded somewhat Greek, it was most certainly a possibility, and not outside the realm of possibility. But…but what did that even mean? Why was some ancient, dead poet trying to communicate with her? And what was she trying to say?
And did she tell Percy?
No. No she couldn't do that. He'd think she was insane at best, try and institutionalize her at worst. Just because she knew that there was more to the greater world than the average person didn't mean that he did. She wasn't so naive as to think that the world knew as she did. So she wouldn't tell him. She needed his help if she was going to figure this entire thing out. After all, there was no guarantee that she'd be able to find someone else able to interpret ancient Greek. She just needed to be sure that he didn't touch any of the papers. She didn't need him thinking he was going insane or anything.
She worried at her lip. That was going to be a problem in and of itself. How was she supposed to keep him from touching the paper if he was going to be interpreting what it said? He had told her that he needed to examine the pages in order to maybe track down the remaining pages.
She paused, her mind going slightly numb. But he had already touched the papers hadn't he? He'd touched the paper back in London, when he'd first examined it. He'd reacted strangely then, too…did that mean that he knew? Had he felt what she had felt? It was entirely possible, even likely that he had and had tried not to appear phased by it. It certainly explained his reaction. But what direction did that give her now. Did she confront him? Did she tell him? What if she had been imagining things, looking for an excuse to distrust him? Maybe she had been overreacting and now she was projecting onto him. She groaned as her temples continued to throb painfully.
She sighed, and leaned against the bulkhead. She would bide her time for the moment, but avowed to watch Percy closely. If he reacted as he had back in London, she would confront him, but if he didn't, then…well she didn't really know what to do then. But she would deal with that later.
More worryingly, did her dream from the night before have anything to do with these pages? It seemed too convenient, too fishy for it to be little more than a matter of coincidence. She was certain of that. But what was the connection? The pages? Sappho herself? Were the men she had seen after the pages or were they after something else? There were too many questions, too many uncertainties.
She turned her gaze back to the sea, watching the way that the water lapped against the side of the boat.
For now, it was a simple waiting game, and only time would tell what came next.
AN: And we're back! Got some fun chapters coming at ya, and some fun ideas that I've been playing around with. Hope you enjoy and thanks for the tremendous reception for this fun little story. Shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week
All My Love,
LilDB