The Watcher's Stone


Chapter 2: Lalibela


"I've heard the Knights Templar helped build these churches in exchange for the Ark of the Covenant," Lara said in Kurtis' direction amongst the procession. A white headscarf draped over her braided hair and a long white robe trimmed in blue covered her more comfortable garb of form-fitting brown and tan camo shorts, boots, and a belly-baring teal top.

Kurtis, dressed in a similar white robe wrapped around his normal clothes of cargo pants and a gray shirt, leaned closer, pitching his voice low to avoid attracting attention from the crowd. "The Knights Templar never got their hands on the Ark, but they did help with some of the construction." Adjusting the turban on his head, he pierced Lara with his gaze, the color as sharp and blue as the edging on their robes. "That's why we're here."

As the procession of worshippers advanced through the narrow trench, Lara and Kurtis neared the main attraction: The Church of Saint George, locally called Bete Giyorgis, cut directly out of the rock and of which all the other ten rock-hewn churches were connected by tunnels and trenches. Outside the entrance rows and rows of shoes, boots, and sandals lined up on dusty mats, and though Lara would rather not proceed barefoot, she knew it was necessary to avoid causing a commotion. She watched as Kurtis leaned precariously against a cut-out cross to rest his ankle against the opposite knee and avoid bending too much. Despite her asking, he had declined to show her the wound from his fight with the mutated Kristina Boaz, promising her 'some other time'.

After she unlaced her boots and slipped off her socks, the pair continued inside, pacing carefully behind the rest of the group. They were all entering the main sanctuary of the church for a mass, one of the many scheduled throughout the day. Lara worried they wouldn't be able to slip away without attracting attention, but Kurtis assured her people were constantly moving from one church to another via the trenches that the priests wouldn't notice a couple tourists moving around. Once it seemed the procession of worshippers had ebbed for the moment, they slipped away and retrieved their boots before making their way down one of the branching tunnels, their steps nearly silent except for the soft swishing of their white robes.

As they walked through the trench, its high walls casting their path in shadow despite the bright sun being at its noon peak, Kurtis suddenly turned to the right. A small section of rock had been cut away, clearly intended as a place for visitors to deposit their shoes, or perhaps for the faithful to find a quiet spot for prayer. Carved into the rock wall was a relief of Saint Peter, identified by the keys he held in his hand.

"Better make this fast," Kurtis said in a low tone. Their voices carried within the rock walls, and he looked around in every corner. "I was worried there'd be people over here, so we need to find the exit before anyone stumbles on us."

Find the exit? "What am I looking for?" Lara asked. Her sharp mind at once kicked into gear, her eyes picking across the carved surfaces for anything unusual. Clearly this was the location of the secret entrance to the Lux Veritatis library Kurtis had mentioned – and no wonder no one had discovered it yet, when it was hidden amongst such a high trafficked area.

"You know what the Saint Peter cross is?"

"Upside down."

"Yeah," Kurtis' turbaned head nodded. "Should be one etched somewhere."

"And then what?" Lara wondered as she moved closer to the walls, searching every shadow and crevice.

"Then I open the door. You'll see," came his cryptic answer.

Not for the first time, Lara wondered what exactly she got herself involved in when she decided to find Werner's murderer.

"I've followed your lead this far," she sighed, then something caught her eye. A plus sign, with the top part longer than the rest. Or an upside down cross… The lines were so thin they could very well be nothing more than small cracks in the wall–of which many littered the place–but she supposed if the cross was too apparent, the place wouldn't be secret.

"I think I found it," she said, and motioned Kurtis over.

He approached and lightly dragged his finger over it. "Yeah, I think you did. Let's see…" He flickered his gaze about the area, stepped back and placed his palms flat against the rock. He briefly turned his attention to Lara.

"Keep a look out," he said, then the area around his hands began to glow faintly.

Though Lara had been told to keep watch, she couldn't find it in herself to look away from what Kurtis was doing. A section of the rock about two meters tall and one meter wide became depressed, and then as though pushing a sliding door open, Kurtis slid the section of rock to the left, revealing an opening behind it. He entered and motioned Lara to follow him, and once she entered, he placed his hands back on the door and closed it once more with his glowing hands.

They were encased in total darkness. Lara heard the hiss of a flare activating, then a spark of light emanating from Kurtis' hand that grew and illuminated their vicinity. He pulled off his robe, turban, and relaced his boots, and Lara followed suit, rolling up and stuffing their disguises into their respective backpacks. Lighting her own flare, Lara held it up to the entrance which was now indiscernible from the rest of the wall.

"See?" Kurtis smirked. "Told ya you'd need me."

"I didn't need you when I entered the Tomb of Ancients."

She turned and began walking down the dusty corridor, hearing Kurtis at her back.

"The Tomb of Ancients had already been uncovered. No one else would be able to find this place unless some archaeologists excavate the area like they did at the Louvre, but that won't happen here as long as these churches stand."

She refrained from responding. She would have found an entrance or made one herself, one way or another – but this was certainly less conspicuous.

Several minutes later of walking in darkness, the narrow tunnel began to resemble an intentional corridor. Every few paces unlit torches mounted the walls, and the design of the walls no longer resembled bare cut rock, but rather grafted stones. Passing under an archway, Kurtis mumbled something under his breath Lara didn't catch, and all at once the room brightened.

The wall torches lit with fire all by themselves, revealing wall-to-wall shelves full of books and manuscripts lining the circular room. In the center was a wooden table and four chairs, and various medieval artworks were mounted on the walls and placed upon pedestals, protected and encased in glass. A second floor of bookcases curled around the edges of the room, and a huge modern globe was situated in a circular notch jutting out above the table on the bottom floor. On the walls not covered in bookshelves, painted murals of various scenes were depicted: three medieval knights each holding what appeared to be a Periapt Shard; St. Dismas on the cross beside Christ; Lucifer falling from heaven; Samson destroying the temple; and St. George slaying the dragon with a sword.

Lara strolled forward and suddenly a blade swung down in front of her face.

She stepped back and pulled her pistols free in the next half-second, aiming them at the empty eyesockets of a skeleton knight. Her trigger fingers itched, but Kurtis called out.

"Wait." Then he held a hand up at the skeletal guardian and spoke to it. "In nomine Lux Veritatis, permitte nos transitum."

The skeleton turned and ambled away, finally stopping in a narrow notch in the wall.

Lara reluctantly holstered her pistols.

"See?" Kurtis said with what she could tell was a smug smile without even looking at his face. "Told ya you'd need me."

"Well, it would be annoying having it follow me around, trying to chop off my head while I read."

She moved towards the bookcases and glanced at the spines of the books. They were in many languages, but most in Latin.

Kurtis began to climb the stairs to the second floor. "Look for a diary written by Brother Occitan. He was a grandson of one of the founding Lux Veritatis members, and as he got on in years he was assigned a station in Egypt where he found the Stone. That's pretty much all I know about the artifact."

There it is again, Lara thought in dismay, Egypt.

But if this did take her back to Egypt, she'd be a step closer to finding Putai and the Bantiwa tribe. Though Kurtis needed her help with some unfinished business, she hadn't forgotten them. Perhaps he could even help her with the search.

Kurtis continued. "All of our journals and personal writings are compiled here if they're not passed down to an heir…or burned. Brother Occitan's diary should be clearly labeled."

As he spoke, Lara caught a glimpse of a familiar name. Limoux. Then another: Aicard. The Lux Veritatis left traces of themselves all over France, scattered ruins and remains across Europe…and apparently even into Africa. She must have been nearing the section of personal memoirs. She scanned the shelves, left to right, before falling on the target name. Only one diary labeled with Occitan stood on the shelf, and she carefully pulled it out and blew the dust off the edges.

"I think I found it, Kurtis," she called out before cautiously cracking it open.

The writing was entirely in Latin, the penmanship straight and formal in the front pages and gradually worsening towards the back as Lara flipped through. She heard the creak of Kurtis descending the stairs, then felt his warmth at her back, his presence peering over her shoulder. His hands came into view to take the diary from her, but Lara moved it out of reach, turning and pacing away.

Though she knew Latin, it had been some time since she'd translated an entire manuscript, and she was feeling impatient.

"How's your Latin?" she asked, spinning in place to address Kurtis. He'd spoken to the skeleton guardian in it, but it was possible he'd only memorized certain phrases, like how Winston only knew certain prayers in Latin from his days of attending Father Dunstan's masses.

"Perfectus." he replied, and held his hand out. Lara hesitated, dragging a discerning eye down Kurtis' rough appearance.

Sensing her train of thought, Kurtis rolled his eyes and extended his hand out further. "Every child of the Order is taught Latin alongside their parents' language. We know it well enough to teach it in university if we wanted."

Lara relented, passing the diary to him reluctantly, not wanting to give any control to who was essentially a stranger, but her impatience won out. She wanted things to move along so she could finally begin searching for Putai. Being reminded of Egypt pulled her attention back to the Bantiwa.

Kurtis sat down on one of the chairs at the table and opened to the first page. Lara stood behind him, reading along over his shoulder as he translated aloud.

"I have decided to keep this document of the events of my life since my transference to Egypt. My station is solitary–alone… and there is no one for me to converse with…"

Satisfied for now that Kurtis wasn't mistranslating, Lara took the seat adjacent him to listen to him read.

He continued to read aloud for a minute, then turned the page, mumbling parts of the sentences. "He's settling at the base," Kurtis summarized. "I'm trying to jump ahead to when he first finds the Stone so you don't have to listen to me drone on and on."

Lara opened her mouth, almost saying 'Keep going, I don't mind', just stopping herself in time when she realized how that might be interpreted. The faintest hint of warmth spread through her face and neck and she looked away. Admitting to herself that Kurtis had a lovely voice was one thing, but admitting it to him was another.

She watched him flip past a few more pages, each time pausing to translate a few sentences of the text before moving on. It seemed Brother Occitan was disappointed with his aging and the lessening effect it had on his powers, and struggled with what he referred to as melancholy and spiritual apathy. He regretted never marrying and fathering children, having no one to pass his powers onto or carry on his legacy. Kurtis mumbled bits of the Latin under his breath before translating, the sound of his rolling 'r's and the cadence of the long and short vowels lulling Lara into tranquility. Minutes passed before she was shaken from her revere by Kurtis exclaiming "Oh!"

"Here we go," he continued, straightening in his seat. Lara got up from her chair and stood behind him, leaning one hand on the table to read over his shoulder.

"Something remarkable has happened today. Whilst in the markets, I came upon a peculiar talisman. Sculpted from a material I've only seen one other time, it depicts an Egyptian ram head in the center of a smooth stone, strung on corded string."

Lara's stomach twisted in knots. Another Egyptian amulet? A horrible foreboding feeling settled in her. Kurtis said it was a Nephilim artifact, but this description didn't sound so. Was it too late to back out of helping him?

No, that Vasiley girl would track her down. She had to settle this business just as much as Kurtis did.

"The merchant in the nearest stall told me it was a symbol of good luck which could ward off evil. I was not inclined to buy it, but the man told me it was not for sale, but rather to be gifted to the one who was most in need of it."

Kurtis paused there, shooting a glance at Lara over his shoulder before continuing. "My prayers for relief have gone on long enough, that I was willing to try just about anything besides dark magic. I was surprised the merchant was willing to part with it for free, but he seemed to have sensed my need of it. He assured me the object had been blessed by the Coptic Christians from the nearest monastery. To be sure, I recited my own blessing over it with holy water before affixing it over my neck. I could see no harm in wearing it, as I know the Egyptian gods are no more than myth. I hope and pray that the Lord chooses to bring me some peace. My correspondence with the other brothers…"

Kurtis trailed off. He dragged his index finger down the writing, skimming the words before Lara could read much more of it, then flipped the page. He began reading a portion of another entry.

"My dreams which had previously brought no peace, now excite me. In my sleep I relive my most triumphant moments with the Order. I am someone else, someone stronger, someone powerful and wise. There are dreams where I am a mighty judge at a trial of sorts–perhaps a prophetic vision of the end of the Shadow War? I get the sensation that during the dream everything is sharp, but once I wake the details slip from my mind like sand through fingers. It is a sign I think that the talisman is working. I have told Brother Bogomil of my troubles…" Kurtis trailed off again, either not wishing to bore Lara with irrelevant details or not wishing for her to learn too much about the early Lux Veritatis order.

She bristled at the thought. "Just get to the point," she muttered, more to Brother Occitan's diary than to Kurtis.

"And I thought I was the impatient one." Kurtis turned another page. "Give me a minute. I'm trying to skip the boring parts."

He leaned over the diary, carefully turning pages until he had reached close to the middle of the book, where the script had started to become looser and less legible. He hesitated there.

"Occitan started hurting himself and others without realizing it," he recapped. "And Brother Bogomil decided to visit because he must have received strange communications from him. Here he declares the Stone to be a corrupting force, which invites evil spirits to oppress the user's soul."

"Based on what evidence?" she asked, and began to pace behind Kurtis.

"He would know based on his authority. Bogomil was knowledgeable about the history of the Lux Veritatis, the Cabal, and the Nephilim. He determined the Stone to be the object spoken of in ancient Nephilim texts, the Watcher's Stone. Apparently Occitan became obsessed with the promises of the Stone. Bogomil sent for another monk to come to Egypt, and they performed an exorcism on Occitan." Kurtis continued reading, pausing now and then to summarize.

"But even after the exorcism, Occitan was marked by the Stone, and reportedly dreamt about it and longed for its affect. Its…power."

"Power?" Lara paused. "What about the evil spirits?"

"He hasn't said anything about it yet. But I have heard of it, so its effect must be real. Between Occitan's diminishing will and his diminishing Latin, it's getting more difficult to parse what actually happened."

"But the Stone was having some negative affect on him?"

Kurtis lifted the open diary for Lara as she passed behind him. "See for yourself."

Lara took the diary from Kurtis. Brother Occitan's writing gradually became scribbles and rough sketches of dark, shadowy figures as his mind deteriorated. Based on the monk's writings and drawings, even after being cured by Brother Bogomil the talisman continued to torment his thoughts and dreams. He was convinced he was being haunted by a spirit himself. Towards the end of the diary, the handwriting suddenly changed.

"Did you see this?" she asked Kurtis, and brought the book back over to Kurtis. "It looks like Brother Bogomil wrote in here."

Kurtis' eyes scanned the text. "This is what we've been looking for. Bogomil says Occitan hid a sleeping boy in his quarters. Occitan claimed the child was born a week ago but looked to be about 12 years old, and appeared like a young doppelganger of Occitan." He glanced at Lara in shock then continued. "Occitan was extremely protective of him, said it was his…father?" Confused, Kurtis continued, "But Bogomil demanded the boy be destroyed. He believed it to be evil. Like a demon disguising itself, a changeling. He restrained Occitan and used his Irenscyld– that's another of our special weapons, like my Chirugai– to behead the boy. He believed the child had no soul. The monks tried to destroy the Stone – smashing, breaking, using the Periapt Shards on it, even pouring molten metal over it – but nothing worked. It was made from a material as strong as the Shards. So Bogomil locked it in a small coffer, and hid it within a sepulcher in Ethiopia, so the 'saint who triumphs over evil can guard against its power'."

She waited for him to say more. "That's it?"

Kurtis checked. "The rest of the pages have been torn out. The last thing Bogomil says is that Brother Occitan will be separated from the Stone and carry out the remainder of his duty in the 'City of 1,001 Churches'. Since he has no children of his own, he's to help with the formation of Initiates until his death. The diary ends after that."

"Lovely."

"They're probably still there. The torn out diary pages, I mean." Kurtis snapped the diary shut and went to return it to the bookcase. "We can retrieve the rest of the pages if we need them, after we get the coffer."

"You know where it is? Based off that clue? 'The saint who triumphs over evil can guard against it'?"

Kurtis flashed her a smirk. "We were just there. Saint George, of course." Together their eyes traveled over to the painting on the wall: Saint George triumphing over the evil dragon.