In past, present and future

Connor stood on the ledge of the staircase and looked down at the blue light, that would have seemed cold and repulsing if he didn't know he had to go down there. After all these months on the search, all the sleepless nights, the worries and thoughts he had spent on this place, he was here. And felt nothing. No joy. No curiosity. No fear. He laid a hand on the bag on his belt and thought he wanted to get it over with.

He just wanted to place a foot on the first stair, as he was grabbed by his wrist. Lillian's fingers closed almost too tightly around it. Her eyes had been turned at the opening, but when he turned to her, their eyes locked. He could see fear in hers and when her mouth opened to say something, he expected her to ask him to stay. But Lillian's lips closed and now she appeared helpless. She knew that he had to go. She had waited for this moment, too. Even if it had been reluctantly.

"Be…careful," she said quietly and hesitantly and Connor nodded before she stepped to him and pulled him into a short but firm embrace, which he returned. Only when she clung to him so firmly that he believed she wouldn't let him go, he carefully pulled away and laid both hands on her cheeks instead, to make her look at him.

"I will bring the Apple down there and come back as soon as possible," he promised. Connor knew that it sounded easier said than done, but in the end, he had only verbalized his goal. He would reach it, whatever it took. Lillian answered with a weak nod and she placed her hands over his, as he gently ran his thumbs over her cheekbones, before pulling away and turning to the staircase again. Olivia was there, waiting for him to go ahead.

"And you are sure you want to come with?" Connor had been against Olivia's wish but had to admit that it would be better not to go into the temple alone. He didn't know what was waiting for him there. Olivia was still sure about her plan and nodded, which he accepted with a nod of his own. With one last look at Lillian, who was standing there pale, with crossed arms and pinched lips, Connor finally began the descent and Olivia followed him.

At first, they could only take one careful step after another. It was hard seeing the stairs in the initial darkness and they were so wide, that you couldn't get into a rhythm. But the deeper they came and the more they left daylight behind, the more the blue light illuminated their path until they reached the end of the staircase. In front of them lay a long, narrow corridor. Wide enough for one person. Connor had expected to find himself in some sort of cave. With moist, overgrown rock walls, but this corridor was the opposite. Its walls were smooth as if someone had put the effort into polishing them, which would have taken decades. The floor was made of smooth, grey rock tiles. But the most remarkable were the rectangular notches in the walls on both sides, running through the rock like lode. They were made of glass and spread this blue light whose source Connor couldn't detect. It was as steady as sunlight, but how was that even possible? Carefully Connor laid a hand on the glass. He expected it to be as hot as a lantern but it was as cool as a window.

"Strange," he murmured and looked down the corridor ahead that was leading straight forward.

"And you are sure, this is the right place?" Olivia's question was obviously rhetoric. That was why Connor didn't take the time to answer but just went ahead. Olivia followed him without hesitation. Each of their steps echoed loudly off the bare floor and the walls. It was nightmarish to move through this narrow, shallow corridor, but Connor could easily suppress the thoughts about being deep underground. He followed the corridor with determination until it suddenly ended at a junction. In front of them was a wall, to their left and right more seemingly endless corridors.

"Do you have an idea where we have to go?" Olivia's question sounded behind his back, but Connor shook his head while regarding the two corridors. There was no hint on which one to choose, but even if there was, Connor wouldn't know what it looked like. They were identical. Narrow, covered in smoothly polished rocks and illuminated by this strange blue light. Was there even a wrong decision? Thinking of how anfractuous the other Mayan temples had been built, it was possible that this junction would end in one single corridor sooner or later. But even though another suspicion dawned on him, Connor turned into the left corridor. Like the first, it led straight ahead and not into another junction as expected. Connor began to think that his choice had been false and he swore when he found himself in front of a wall. A dead end.

"Who would build something like this?" Olivia asked but Connor didn't answer but was already walking back the way they had come from. He wasn't interested in the logic of this building. He just wanted to find where he needed to bring the Apple and get out of here. Back at the junction, he chose the other corridor and again, they were led straight forward until it took a sharp turn left, went straight again and finally ended at a crossroad. Three more, identical corridors. All of them lead straight ahead in different directions.

"So, if this path is supposed to end in a temple, someone put a lot of effort into making it difficult to get there." Olivia, who had been forced to walk behind Connor, stood now beside him, regarding the corridors as he did. She wasn't wrong. But this temple hadn't been built to receive the faithful but to hide something. Why else the keys? The riddle?

The riddle. Connor closed his eyes. How could he have been so blind to ignore the most important marker they had down here?

"You will find the maze's gate in the god's hand. Follow corridor after corridor will get lost in this place", he recited and caught Olivia's understanding gaze.

"Of course. Seems like this part of the riddle was literal. But what else? I don't want to get lost if I'm being honest."

"But brave Guardian, be assured, the path of death is always the right one to choose." Connor looked over the crossroad again. "Whatever it is supposed to mean."

Olivia squinched up her face and shifted her weight from one foot onto the other as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, that is no reassuring hint, if you ask me. And how is this path of death supposed to look like? The corridors look identical. Even the lighting is the same."

And again, she was right. The last hint of the riddle wasn't quite helpful and no matter how hard Connor thought about it, he couldn't come up with a meaning. After all, the god's hand had turned out to be something different, too. But how was a path of death supposed to look like, considering that Connor didn't want it to turn out literal, as well. He didn't plan on dying down here and Olivia shouldn't find her end here, either.

"Probably we have no other choice but to keep going and hope that we will find the right path." His comment brought him a quite sceptical look, but Olivia seemed to realize, too, that they had no other options. "Alright, then…to the left."

Before Connor could stop her, the young woman had walked in said direction and although he preferred being the one entering the unknown corridors first, he followed her but stayed close. He didn't know of the dangers lurking down here, so he wouldn't be careless. The corridors seemed inconspicuous and until now, nothing had indicated that this would change, but we would never forget where he was. In a well-hidden place, constructed to hide a powerful and dangerous object. Connor's instincts told him, that this maze wasn't the only security. That trusting his instincts was the only right thing to do, was proven shortly afterwards.

Silently they passed four more junctions, choosing their directions wordlessly without finding any obstacles or a hint about the right path. With time, their steps got slower. Their decisions less thought through. Every corridor they followed seemed endless, only to end at another junction or a dead end and they were so identical that Connor wasn't sure if they hadn't already walked in circles. He could hardly keep up his sense of direction or time. They eventually started to nick the walls of the corridors they chose with their blades, to know which they had walked already. They found one of these nicks at another junction. The junction. The one they had reached first.

"¡Mierda!" Olivia called out. "How are we supposed to know if we haven't chosen the wrong path here, or if we took a wrong turn somewhere else?"

The sound of her boot hitting the wall underneath the nick echoed off the corridor. It seemed like Olivia needed this outlet for her frustration while Connor stepped silently into the intersection's centre and regarded each corridor. The easy answer to Olivia's question was, that they couldn't know. They were inside a maze. It was possible that they returned here sooner or later if they made a single wrong decision. The real question was, if they were willing to accept it and might lose time, or if there was something they had missed. Something that could show them the way. The path of death, mentioned in the riddle? Connor hadn't seen anything, yet, that could have pointed to it. A huff sounded behind Connor and he couldn't hold back Olivia, as she walked past him and headed for the corridor ahead.

"We should not…," he began but stopped when he heard a strange noise. An unpleasant shiver ran down his spine and the hair in the back of his neck rose as he was seized by a weird, bad feeling. Out of pure impulse, he stormed forward.

"Olivia, stop!" he shouted and tore her back as he grabbed her arm. The noise grew louder. A buzzing that tickled the ears. As if they got caught in the middle of a bee swarm. But no bees came shooting out of the walls. It was a barricade made of a golden light. So bright that it hurt Connor's eyes and he had to squeeze them shut while pulling Olivia farther backwards. They had taken three steps when the light parted and retreated into the walls. The buzzing stopped as quickly as it had started. At first, there was only the sound of Connor's and Olivia's heavy breathing while they tried to overcome their initial scare.

"Are you alright?" Connor asked and looked Olivia over, who had become unusually pale.

"I…I lost my dagger," she simply answered and her shaky hand pointed at where the light had been. "What the hell was that? How is that possible?"

Connor knew no answer to that. Stunned he stared at the smouldering pile of metal that used to be Olivia's weapon. This…light had melted it within seconds. But how could simple light do what only fire was capable of?

"Those Who Came Before must have built this place, with access to energy sources we do not know." This was the only explanation that came to Connor's mind. After all, Those Who Came Before had had the power to create the Pieces of Eden. If they had built this temple, this maze to protect the Apple, they certainly had used this knowledge to make sure that nobody came near it. "I think we just found the second security mechanism beside the maze itself."

"¡Fantástico!" Olivia growled and grimaced harriedly while she still stared down at the lump of metal. "That was my favourite dagger. But at least now we know where not to go. As long as the other corridor isn't peppered with this…luz de l'averno, too."

Again she just wanted to march off, but this time Connor could grab her arm in time and hold her back. Partly out of concern, she could get into those certainly deadly light traps after all, but also to reign in her impatience.

"We should not lose our heads," he warned her seriously. "We should place every step with even more care than before."

"But there is only this option left." Olivia pointed at the corridor to their right, her expression a mask of incomprehension. "If we don't want to get roasted, we can only go this way. Or we try the other one and hope that we don't end up here, again."

"Or we go straight ahead."

Now Olivia looked at Connor as if she was doubting his sanity. "Did you sleep just now? We can't go there!"

"Just think about it. We have been here for some time now and walked through several corridors. There was no sign of these…barriers and in the end, the maze misled us."

Her eyes were still sceptical. "Yes, and?"

"What if not the easy and obvious paths are the right ones? If these barriers are the hint we were looking for. The hint to the path of death."

"You mean, whoever wanted to secure the temple didn't build the barriers to keep you away from the destination, but mark the path there?"

Connor nodded.

"But then there is still the problem that we can't get through there. Who says that what happened to my dagger won't happen to us? Do you want to take that risk?"

No, Connor certainly didn't. The sight of the molten dagger left no doubt that touching these unknown energy fields was deadly. And still, Connor thought his conclusion was logical. Why was this corridor blocked after they had walked through so many others? It couldn't be a coincidence.

"I have to see it one more time," Connor murmured. Maybe the light had diverted from something that could answer this question. "Stay back," he asked Olivia and ignored her objection as he slowly and carefully approached the corridor. Tensely he listened for the buzzing he had heard before the barrier had appeared. Step by step. Placing one foot in front of the other. But everything remained silent. Connor stopped. Had he been wrong? He had already walked farther into the corridor than Olivia before.

She still stood where he had told her to wait and raised her shoulders, as he turned to her. The same silent question in her eyes.

"Maybe they only appear once. For deterrence." She didn't sound convinced but intended to follow him. She hadn't even taken one step in his direction as the buzzing started.

"Stay back!" Connor shouted before the barrier shot out of the wall between him and Olivia. Just in time for the young woman to jump back. She was only a wavering silhouette behind the bright light which didn't disappear as they both took a few steps backwards. It cut them off. Olivia couldn't go forward, he couldn't go back.

"Connor, are you alright?" Olivia's call was muffled by the buzzing of the barrier. He had expected to feel a heat, but there was none. Only an unpleasant tingling that made his hair rise. It reminded him of the vision when the Apple of Eden had released its power. Was this a similar kind of energy?

"I think, I was right!" Connor glanced over his shoulder into the corridor ahead of him. "I have to keep going!"

"Alone? You're trapped!"

"I do not think so! The barrier did not want to let you through, but me! Maybe it is only allowed to certain persons!"

It remained silent on the other side. Only the buzzing echoed in Connor's ears and he had to squinch his eyes to protect them from the light, where he could still see Olivia. It was vaguely visible that she raised her arm and ran her hand through her hair. She didn't seem to like this situation.

"So you really think these spirits have it in for you, huh?"

Connor hadn't told her much about Those Who Came Before and his first meeting with them. She knew as much as he found necessary to not keep her in the dark. He had never been sure if she believed him or not. Now she had sounded joking. Not mocking or disbelieving.

"Go back!" he asked her. "If I am not mistaken, you should get back to the staircase if you follow the corridor that brought us to the crossroad first! Do you remember the junctions we chose?"

"Yes! Do you think you can find your way out of here?"

"I hope so." He murmured more to himself. Too quiet to be heard over the buzzing. But then he affirmed Olivia's question.

"Be careful in there!"

He didn't answer. Instead, he watched Olivia's silhouette walking away from the light after she had raised her hand in goodbye. Then there was only the barrier itself and its loud buzzing in his ears that gave him a headache. He had to go on.

Connor took a deep breath before he turned to the corridor ahead. A corridor like all the others before. Connor's steps were determined, yet careful. If he was right and approaching the temple, there could be more security measures that wouldn't let him get away so easily. But for some time, nothing happened. The corridor led straight ahead, right, farther ahead, left…Connor wondered if he was going to reach another junction again or would even reach his destination, as the corridor furcated. Connor stopped, thoughtfully regarded both corridors and finally chose the one to his right, where he nicked a spot on the wall before walking on. He had taken a few steps when he stopped again and looked back over his shoulder to the junction.

The path of death. Connor frowned, turned around and walked straight to the other corridor he had just excluded from his choice. A familiar buzzing sounded and behind him rose the barrier of light. After all. These deadly energy fields were showing him the way.

From then on, it was easier to move through the maze. Every time he reached a crossroad or a junction, he tested each corridor for the light barriers. Not once he found his markings which he still placed. So he wasn't walking in circles and this could only mean he was nearing the temple. Or in the worst case, a fatal dead end since the barriers made it impossible to go back. He had no other choice but to walk through the maze and trust the instinct that told him that he was on the right path. Soon he would reach the temple where he could put away the Apple and with it, this burdening duty.

Eventually, it felt like he had walked the maze for an eternity when the light in front of him suddenly started to fade. The glass lodes that had constantly been running through the walls suddenly ended in the void but when Connor slowly approached the darkness beyond, he realized that they continued dimly in the ground. Over a narrow bridge made of polished rock with no bannister. Underneath it was a yawning, pitch-black abyss. When Connor left the suffocating corridor and carefully stepped onto the bridge, he knew that he had made it through the maze. Now he was inside a cave whose size he couldn't fathom. Around him was nothing but blackness. The only light came from the rock beneath his feet and some sort of platform on the other side of the bridge. On it was nothing more than a pedestal which was irradiating the same cold blue light as the ground. Connor's hand moved to the bag on his belt on its own accord, while his steps slowed down, the closer he came to the pedestal. He was seized by a strange feeling. It was of the kind that made you shiver and your instincts call out for you to flee. As if somewhere in the darkness, there was something big, horrible lurking. This feeling grew stronger when Connor finally reached the pedestal. Its surface was smooth except for four stone tips in its centre. Seemingly made to hold an object. An object like the Apple?

Connor opened the laces of the bag and took out the Apple of Eden with both hands. The cold metal in his palms reflected the dim, blue light around him in an eerie way and showed him his own, distorted reflection. His frown, the tensed expression of his mouth. He was only moments away from getting rid of the Apple for once and for all. To finally put an end to everything that was chasing him since he had found the keys on Ray Jarvis' body over a year ago. And still, he felt no relief.

"I have been searching this place for months," he spoke quietly, still looking at his reflection. "I have spent day and night thinking about it, only to stand here without knowing what it was all for. I sacrificed all this time, and for what?" He had looked up now and had shouted his last words into the darkness. They came back to him as a muffled echo, but he didn't get an answer.

"You said, the Apple had to be brought to safety so that it would not get into the wrong hands. I understand that. But why was I supposed to simply bring it away? Why not destroy it? What is its purpose? What is my purpose in all of this?"

"You are a messenger."

Connor whirled around when the voice sounded. Echoing off the walls and his mind. He could feel her presence before the flickering form of this woman appeared in front of him. He had hoped she would. He had so many questions.

"What for? And why? What is behind all of this?"

"Something far bigger than your human mind could ever fathom," was the simple answer which didn't please him, just like her next words. "But you do not need to know the purpose. You fulfilled your task. Again. Now place the Apple here and you may proceed with your life as you wish."

"I have heard these words already, but are they the truth? Or are they supposed to distract me from the truth?" Connor couldn't hide his resentment. Again she didn't answer his questions. Again she wanted to leave him in the darkness about why he had followed her words over and over again. Back then, as a boy and today as a grown man. No, this time he wouldn't make it so easy for her. Connor stepped back from the pedestal and away from her, weighing the Apple in his hands as he considered his next words.

"When we first met, you said my lineage was special. In past, present and future. What did you mean?"

"That your lineage is meant to accomplish great things. Your ancestors and yourself played your part in something fateful."

"How?"

"This is of no concern to you."

"It is!" Angry Connor turned back to her and took a few steps in her direction. "You speak of my lineage, my blood. I want to know my role before playing the game. Again." He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He needed to control himself. He was dealing with someone with much more power and knowledge than he could ever imagine. She could simply vanish and abandon him. "Give me answers and I will do as you ask."

His words had been more careful now but still bore an unmistakable demand. He wouldn't give the Apple away before she hadn't told him what he wanted to know. At first, she remained silent. Her silhouette was too hard to make out so that Connor couldn't tell by her expression if he had gone too far. But he was sure that she wouldn't show her thoughts or emotions anyway. If she possessed the latter at all. When she finally began to speak, her voice sounded as objective and neutral as expected.

"The event I am speaking about will change this world. Make it a better place. But it lies in a future that is far out of your reach. Not even your great-grandchildren will live to see it. Have faith that you did the right thing and place the Apple."

"Is it part of this event as well? What is its purpose?"

"Its energy will help create a better world. But you do not need to know more. Just place it here and you can leave. Unchallenged by a faraway future and open for the future still ahead of you."

Connor lowered his eyes to the golden object in his hands. He didn't believe that it was so easy. That he only had to put the Apple down to shake off the responsibility he had for it. That he could go on with his life without knowing what his actions might cause. The spirit's answers didn't please him. An event in a faraway future that needed the Apple's energy? The Piece of Eden he considered more dangerous than any weapon known to this world.

"I have seen what the Apple is capable of. There is nothing good it could cause. How am I supposed to know that I can trust you if it was you who created it?" he asked hesitantly and looked at her again. For the first time, he believed to see an expression on her glowing face. It seemed like she was frowning. Was she getting impatient?

"You forget, that an object we created returned the woman you love to you, even though she was not worth it. It was our decision that brought her back. For your sake."

Connor frowned when she had only finished her first sentence. It wasn't the hint that she saw him in their debt, or not even the reveal that there had been more behind Lillian's healing on Unst than the Shroud itself. It was the carelessly spoken subclause that made his blood boil.

"What do mean, she was not worth it?" Connor asked between clenched teeth.

"The Shroud was made to heal and resurrect those whose lives have a deeper meaning. She is insignificant and if it was not for you, the Shroud would not have brought her back," the spirit explained and the casualness in her voice was only fueling his anger. As if she was speaking of a banality and not of a human life. A life that would have been thrown away like some piece of rag, if it wasn't for him?

"What has the worth of Lillian's life to do with me?"

"You lost your heart to her." The spirit stepped slowly closer to the pedestal between them. Still, Connor moved back. His expression distrustful and at the same time disbelieving about what was revealed to him. "If she had died, you would have decided to never let anyone get as close to you. Your heart would have been closed up for any other woman and would have remained alone forever. Your lineage would have been discontinued and that would have destroyed everything."

"This is the reason?" Connor uttered. "The Shroud brought her back so that my bloodline would continue?"

"She has no other meaning to us and still we brought her back. You should be grateful."

"She is a human being!" Connor took a step forward again and was hardly able to restrain his anger. Not anymore. "Every life has a meaning and Lillian's life means more than the continuation of my lineage. How dare you render such a judgement?"

He couldn't believe the carelessness of this woman. Not only because they were talking about Lillian. He didn't understand how you could ever judge a life like that. Evaluate and rank it. Maybe - no - certainly she was right. When Lillian had died, it had felt like a part of him had died with her. She was the first person he had ever born deeper feelings for. The first he had imagined a life with, although he hadn't realized it back then. Losing her, after he had lost so many loved ones, had made him doubt if letting someone get so close was right at all. He would have stayed alone so that he would never have to experience such a loss ever again and yes, he probably would never had any offspring. But this couldn't be the only reason why the Shroud had saved Lillian. She was no livestock you could use for breeding and conservation. Was that what Those Who Came Before saw in humans? Livestock they could use to realize their plans he still didn't understand. Was that, what they saw in him, too? A means to an end? And why should he be grateful for it?

"You used me, right from the beginning," he growled. "You gave me instructions which I followed without question and when I did, you never gave me answers. I do not owe you anything and I do not want to owe anything to someone who talks about persons and their lives as if they were pawns in a game. As if they were replaceable."

Connor lowered his eyes to the Apple again and at this moment, he made a decision. He turned away from the pedestal and slowly stepped to the edge of the platform they stood on. Beyond was nothing but bottomless blackness. "I do not know what you are planning. But no matter what it is, I will no longer be a part of it."

Connor shifted the Apple into his right hand and stretched his arm out over the edge. The golden surface shimmered and still felt cold, although he had held it in his hands for so long. This object could only bring harm, Connor was sure of it. No matter if it was in the hands of the Templars, who could enforce their notion of order with it, or in the hands of Those Who Came Before, who spoke of a better world but saw no worth in human life. None of them should get it.

"You are making a mistake," he heard the spirit's voice who suddenly didn't sound uncaring and objective anymore.

But Connor tilted his hand and dropped the Apple.