The Watcher's Stone
Chapter 10: Temple of Banebdjedet
The rough rope creaked as her gloved hands squeezed around the fibers. Lara shimmied down the length, one hand holding out her torch. She still couldn't see the bottom of the shaft.
Hooking the light to her belt to aim downwards, she carefully slid partway down the rope, pausing every few seconds to readjust her hold, conscious of the chafing between her thighs.
Eventually her feet touched the ground and she took the rope and jiggled it back and forth to signal to Kurtis she had reached the bottom. Then the rope jostled as he climbed on it and began working his way down.
She swung the flashlight around, checking her surroundings. A scorpion skittered by, cobwebs littered dusty corners. But she saw nothing that indicated she was actually in the temple yet. When Kurtis reached the ground, they continued on.
They explored the cavern for some time, encountering little besides venomous scorpions and dark, narrow passages until the path ended in what appeared to be an offering room guarding a door. Large statues of various figures on pedestals, some knocked off and broken, others intact, were situated in two rows leading towards the door. Pottery shards and a few mummified animals littered the floor. Lara knelt down and inspected one.
Kurtis rubbed at his arms. "Is it my imagination, or has it gotten colder?"
Lara did feel a slight chill. "We're further underground, and it's nighttime, in January."
"Hope that's all it is."
The door leading to the first level of the temple was sealed. Lara pushed on it and when that didn't work, tried prying it open with a knife stuck in the gap between the doors, but determined the only way to operate it was by a mechanism of some sort.
"Look for a button or switch," she commanded, and went to the pedestals. There was a narrow space behind them wide enough for a person to walk by.
"Found something," Kurtis called.
"Me too…"
A circular piece stood out from the wall, one behind each pedestal. She twisted it in place and dust sprinkled from its crevices, but nothing happened.
"I think we have to turn them all counter-clockwise, or perhaps in a certain order."
So first they turned them all. After a few moments, the door did not open and the switches popped back into their original position.
Lara walked to the middle of the room and crossing her arms, tapped her chin. The statues were different, though not all – there appeared to be two of each, at least of the ones still intact. Two persons with four ramheads (Banebdjedet), two women with a fish-crown (Hatmehyt, his wife), one dressed as a pharaoh with a hook and flail and painted skin (Osiris), one with reeds atop his head (Hapi), and a goddess with a cat head (Bastet). Three other statues were partially or totally broken, their pieces scattered among the sand and rocks.
"They're meant to be turned in a particular order," Lara deduced.
"OK. Which order?"
Lara walked down the center of the pedestals, inspecting the fragmented shards of the broken statues. The order of the statues, beginning from the entrance door and starting left, was as followed: Banebdjedet was to the left of the door and Hatmehyt to the right. Next to Banebdjedet was Osiris, then a broken statue across the walkway and another broken statue beside Osiris. Across from that statue was Hapi, still intact, and beside the broken statue was Bastet. Across from Bastet was the last broken statue. The remaining two statues, in a reverse of the first two, were Hatmehyt and Banebdjedet.
Kurtis spoke. "Do you think the order might have something to do with these pictures?" His torch lit up the walls behind them, showing the gods and goddesses in various scenes.
"It would have to do with their order of importance, I'd wager. Osiris as god of the Underworld would be supreme among these."
"Even though this is Banebdjedet's temple?" he asked.
"Banebdjedet and Hatmehyt were mostly worshiped locally. Banebdjedet was Osiris' ba, so he couldn't be more supreme than Osiris himself."
"What did that guy with the… sticks poking from his head do?"
Lara rolled her eyes, but her back was to Kurtis so he didn't see. "Those are reeds from the Nile. That's Hapi, he was responsible for the annual Nile flooding."
"And the cat lady?"
"Bastet, the goddess of the home, cats, fertility, childbirth, protector of health…" Lara glanced back at him, meeting his eyes for a moment. "...and women's secrets."
Kurtis arched a brow at her.
"That still doesn't tell us the order. Or does it?" he asked Lara hopefully.
"It might. Look at the statues still intact." She gestured towards them, casting her flashlight beam to and fro. "Banebdjedet and Hatmehyt are on opposite ends." She bent down and picked up a piece of a cat ear nearby the Osiris statue. "And if this statue here is Bastet, it would be on the opposite side of the other Bastet figure."
"So then the one across from Bastet is the missing Osiris statue?" Kurtis concluded.
"And Hapi is across from the other Hapi." Lara moved over to the switch behind one of the Osiris statues. "Follow my lead."
They turned the switches in this order: Osiris, Banebdjedet, Hatmehyt, Hapi, then Bastet.
A grinding noise rang out in the small room and dust sprinkled from the edges of the door. It raised up into a slot in the wall and clicked into place, revealing the opening to the temple. Lara motioned for Kurtis to come along; she didn't know how long the doorway would remain open.
She took the steps down, wrinkling her nose at the mild ammonia smell – there must be more mummified animals buried around somewhere. The atmosphere grew colder as they descended, and she noticed Kurtis casting his gaze all about, a worried crease between his brows.
"Everything alright?" she asked him, slightly amused. She thought she'd be the one nervous to descend deep into Egyptian ruins, but she found it was like slipping on a pair of old boots.
"Place is a little spooky," Kurtis mumbled.
"Demons don't phase him, but a little old temple is 'spooky'."
Kurtis shrugged. "It's not what I'm used to."
They were in a vestibule hall. It stretched left and right with various chambers splitting off, and directly in front of the bottom of the steps were large double doors. On each side of the double doors were two receptacles with symbols etched inside. Lara approached one and scraped at dirt caking it with her nail. It crumbled off, revealing a wedjat eye, the Eye of Horus. The other three receptacles had the outline of a winged figure–possibly Maat–a scarab beetle, and an atef pharaoh crown.
"If this was a typical temple, through these doors would be the Naos."
"The what?"
"The innermost shrine where the image of the sacred deity is kept. But something tells me that's not what we'll find here."
"Right…" Kurtis sounded unsure. He walked up to one of the receptacles. "So we need to find the items that fit these slots? Like fitting pieces of a puzzle."
"Precisely. I'll check down the left, you take the right."
Kurtis glanced at her, his eyes widening for a moment, but without voicing his concerns he turned and marched down the hall. Lara wondered if he was nervous about being left to his own devices in such a place.
He'll be fine, she mentally assured herself, as long as he doesn't wake a mummy. She was relatively sure he could handle not falling into a pit of spikes or getting his head chopped off by slicing blades. What good would all that warrior monk training be if he could be bested by an ancient booby-trap?
Lara went through the first opening to her left, brushing a veil of cobwebs out of her way. It was a small side shrine dedicated to Bastet, with small cat-shaped sarcophagi lining the walls below a bas relief in the goddess' honor. Lara waved her torch from side to side, illuminating the corners and dark crevices, but found nothing of use. On to the next room.
On the right side of the hall she came to another side room, this one dedicated to Osiris. The bas relief was in excellent condition, with the god himself sending Banebdjedet out into the world as his four 'bas'. She was about to leave, assuming the room held nothing of value, until her flashlight cast an odd shadow off the picture of Osiris. Part of him stood out from the wall more than the rest, and as she stepped closer, her eyes widened as she realized his crown was actually the piece needed for the doors.
She stepped forward and in that moment the air around her became charged. The hair on her bare arms stiffened and her mind shot to alertness. In the split second she felt the change, she noticed from the corner of her eye something move, and she backflipped before even fully realizing what it was.
Lara stuck the landing perfectly as she had all her years prior, and righting herself to a stand she saw what it was: Two large, sharpened blades swung down from the ceiling, colliding into each other with a loud and discordant clang.
She watched the blades raise back up parallel to the ceiling and repeat their fall.
Timing their pattern, she waited until they'd raised just enough for her to dash through the gap. Safely on the other side, she felt out the edge of the crown object and pried it loose, stashing it into her backpack.
She rolled past the slicing blades and out the room – one down, three more to go. She briefly wondered how Kurtis was faring, when she felt a gust of chill air sweep down the hallway, and the repetitious padding of boots on dusty stone.
Kurtis was heading her way. Running, he dove forward into a roll, just avoiding a bright blue glow that swooped after him. Lara recognized it immediately. She'd had her own series of run-ins with this type of spirit. Sometimes blue, sometimes white, others an orangish-red–those were the worst with their scalding, fiery touch–but were all easily dealt with once one knew the trick.
Lara flattened against the wall to avoid its path, but she watched it glide around, disappearing through a wall. It would be back.
At least Kurtis hadn't woken a mummy, but this was not much better.
"Follow me!" she ordered, and she dashed down the hall to the next room on her right hand side. The blue water spirit apparated through the wall on their left and she heard Kurtis curse behind her. It must have touched him.
"All I did was knock over a vase," he explained as they quickly entered the room. "And that thing came flying out of it."
Lara scanned the interior, her gaze locking onto a small figure with an oversized fish on its head embedded into a shallow pool of water.
"Over here," she barked, and grabbing Kurtis by the wrist, urged him over to the protective statue. "Kneel beside this, as close to it as you can." They did as she suggested.
Kurtis' shoulder touched hers. The water sloshed against her boots, grazed against her bottom, soaking through her pants. It was colder than she expected. The water spirit flew in after them, twirling above their heads and zooming back out as though spooked by the small statue of Hatmehyt they hid behind.
"Did the vase have pictures of fish on it?" she asked him quietly.
"Fish? Yeah, think so." He looked at her curiously. His arm brushed against hers and the temperature difference between his flesh and the water around her calves caused her to shiver.
"I see."
"What the hell are we doing here sitting in a puddle?"
"Just wait."
The spirit flew back in, seemingly coming directly for them, but at the last moment curved and circled above their heads. Kurtis covered his head with his hands. The spirit dove and touched the statue. All at once it exploded in a burst of blue light, and then vanished.
Kurtis let out a sigh. "The hell was that thing."
"Some sort of wraith," Lara answered as she stood, and brushed the damp spots on her behind. "You must have let it out when you broke the vase."
"What, like an evil fish ghost?" He stood and stepped out of the puddle, shaking his legs to fling drops of water off. "I tried making it go away but it didn't listen. Guess I need to speak ancient Egyptian for that."
"Not 'evil'," she corrected. "Have you found any of the door keys?"
"Just this one." He reached into his pack and pulled out the winged Maat figure.
Moving on, Kurtis returned to the right side and Lara the left. The next room she entered had a simple sarcophagus in the middle. On the walls was the story of the great battle between Horus and Seth, complete with detailed paintings and hieroglyphics. Though she was familiar with the story, she still took the time to read it over.
To think she had got herself wrapped up in that ancient, timeless battle. She wondered if even now Seth roamed the battlefield beneath the Great Pyramid, stuck in time, unable to finish his triumphant victory over Horus, unable to return to the Underworld. There was something indescribable about not only touching ancient history and mythology with her own hands, but affecting it as well.
Atop the sarcophagus was an Eye of Horus. Lara regarded it with suspicion. Was it safe to remove? She inspected her surroundings carefully. Embedded into walls facing the sarcophagus were little emitters. Did they release gas, spit fire? She supposed with no way to trigger the trap ahead of time, she had no other choice: she pried it loose and stashed it with the crown.
Backflipping away from the sarcophagus, flames erupted all around the room. Heat enveloped her as she landed on her feet. She squinted against its sudden brilliance and shielded her face with her arm. Streams of fire shot from the walls towards the sarcophagus to burn the thief, but Lara was unharmed.
She was just exiting the room when she heard Kurtis shouting. Quickly she sprinted down to where he was, skidding to a halt at the doorway where he was swinging a fire torch back and forth over the floor which was quickly becoming crowded with scarab beetles. They poured out of a hole in the wall, probably where Kurtis removed the scarab beetle piece. A rookie mistake.
Kurtis stomped on some of them. Lara grabbed his arm to get his attention.
"There are too many to kill. Come on."
She urged him away and together they jogged down the hall to search for a solution, all the while the bugs followed closely behind.
At the very end of the hall was a room with a pit of spikes. Across the spikes on the other side of the room was a platform and a lever attached to the wall.
Lara pushed against Kurtis' back. "Over there! Go!"
He dropped the flaming torch onto the gathering of bugs, took a running jump to the platform and turned to face her. She waited until the bugs crowded near her, starting to bite at her boots before she joined him. All at once a surge of bugs fell down into the spike pit as they tried to follow her. They swarmed around, attempting to climb the walls but being pulled back down by the other beetles. Crabs in a bucket.
But several beetles still remained above the pit, having not fallen for the trap. Lara clicked her tongue.
"Stubborn." She glanced at Kurtis. "Stay here." She jumped back over and was immediately swarmed by the remaining bugs. Right away she rolled around to face the pit again and jumped back over. All but a couple fell down into the pit then.
"There," she said and brushed her hands together.
"What's this lever do?" Kurtis questioned, and Lara looked back just as he pulled it down.
"Wait–"
She heard the sound of metal rubbing against metal.
"Huh. The spikes retracted." Kurtis gestured to the pit where the spikes were now but holes in the floor. Many of the beetles fell down into them.
Lara gave his arm a light smack. "Don't do that. You had no idea what that did."
"It's fine. Don't tell me you weren't about to pull that lever yourself."
She pressed her lips together. He had a point. Still, she preferred to be the one pulling the levers around here. She was the experienced one.
"You have the last piece?"
He showed her the scarab beetle piece. She showed her two pieces.
"Let's place them in the receptacles."
They jumped across the pit and left the room, but right as they turned the corner a smelly bandaged arm swung out and whacked Lara in the face. She stumbled back into Kurtis who caught her by the shoulders.
"Whoa!" Kurtis pulled her back out of the way of the ambling mummy. It dragged its feet against the sandy stone, raising its arms towards Lara once more, and gurgled a wet putrid cough.
Kurtis unholstered his pistol and shot the mummy in the face. It shuddered from the impact but did not topple, then slowly raised its arms out once more.
Placing a hand on his arm, Lara pushed down gently. "Don't waste your ammo, they can't be killed with bullets."
They backed up, keeping out of reach of the undead creature.
"Then how do we kill it?"
"We don't have to. They're slow and brainless."
Taking this into consideration, Kurtis holstered his pistol and reaching over, simply pushed the mummy back, creating enough space for them to scurry past it. They made their way to the large double doors and each put in their two pieces into the corresponding receptacles.
The doors creaked open slowly, revealing darkness within. Lara pointed her flashlight past the door. A downward slanted shaft greeted them. Behind them the mummy retched, drawing nearer.
Kurtis looked at her with raised brows. "I'll go first," he offered unconvincingly.
Lara stepped forward. "The time for chivalry has passed, Trent. Let the expert take the lead; this is what you hired me for."
She jumped onto the slant and began sliding down the shaft. A cone of light bounced against the wall from Kurtis' flashlight, signalling he had joined her.
"You know, you never did tell me your rates. I'm not gonna go in debt over this, am I?"
"No worries – I don't charge if I'm having fun."
They slid for several long seconds while Lara kept her balance and legs ready in case she needed to jump.
Then the slant shaft dropped off into a straight vertical shaft. Running up and down the middle of it was a pole. Lara jumped and grabbed it, wrapping her legs around it snugly. However she was directly in Kurtis' path. She looked back just as he reached the end of the slide.
He collided with her, crushing her to the pole. She almost lost her grip but was held up by him as Kurtis grabbed into the pole around her body with one arm, and the other gripped the pole in the space between her legs. He held on precariously like that, half on top of her and half below, both pressing into her and supporting her, preventing her from falling as she readjusted herself on the bar.
With his front against her back, he peered up at her where he was eye level with her breasts.
"Well I'm having fun." Then flashed her a cheeky grin.
"Get down," she griped, ignoring the heat building in her lower half at the thought that he was literally crawling down her body. This was certainly neither the time nor place.
"Sure, just let me–" Carefully, Kurtis maneuvered himself off her the rest of the way, sliding against her back and rear all the way, until his face was now where her boots ended.
"Not too fast, though," Lara added hastily. "Keep on the lookout for more traps."
They slid their way down the pole, not too fast, not too slow, Kurtis now leading the way as he had offered before. He lit and dropped a flare and watched it fall, fall, and fall some more – eventually landing at the bottom. How deep could this temple go?
At about the midpoint down the pole, a whirring noise sounded. Kurtis grunted, cursed, then abruptly pulled himself up the pole until he hit Lara's legs.
"What is it?"
"Something came out of the wall."
Lara directed her flashlight down. Kurtis' shin was bleeding but not profusely.
"Did you see what it was? Blade? Dart? Spike?"
"A blade, I think. It was circular and spinning."
The same sound filled the dark shaft, and Lara pointed the light past him. Sure enough, it was a circular blade as he said, spinning and weaving in and out from corner to corner of the shaft. She hated those things. They had given her much trouble in the Lost Library.
"How's the leg?" she asked.
"Fine."
"Are you going to be able to make it?"
Kurtis looked up at her. "Of course. It just caught me by surprise. If you can hold the flashlight for me though, that'd be helpful."
Lara did as requested, directing the light down the tunnel so Kurtis could watch the spinning blade. He held a hand out at first, clearly trying to manipulate it psychically, but the blade did not stop its trajectory.
"Shit," he muttered under his breath. "Fun way it is, then."
Lara smirked at the echo of her words coming from his mouth.
"You are having fun, though."
Kurtis watched the blade for several seconds, then slid down the pole a few feet while it was briefly retracted, stopping before the next blade sliced him.
"I think I'm starting to see why you do this."
Lara waited for him to slide past the next rotating blade, then glided down to take the place he just occupied.
"It's a game," he continued, watching the traps. "And the first place prize is living. And sometimes a rare, valuable artifact."
He descended past the next. "But mostly just the living. If the tombs didn't try to kill you, their secrets wouldn't be worth uncovering, the artifacts would be worthless."
Lara took his spot as he glided down past the last blade. "Last time you were here in Egypt, the tomb almost beat you." He gave her room to join him and she took it, feeling a wind move around the blade as it cut through the air and tousle a loose strand of hair.
Kurtis met her eyes from below. "The greatest tomb, and you defeated it."
Lara had never thought of it like that. Being buried alive wasn't a loss; it was a win. The fact that not only did she not die, but she had returned to play the game again was testament to that. She didn't know what to say in response; the only thing that came to mind was kissing him.
After that the descent was smooth sailing. They reached the bottom of the pole which ended in a large open room. Kurtis dropped to the ground and swung his flashlight around, letting out a low whistle.
"This must be it," he whispered in awe.
Lara dropped down next and her flashlight joined his. The beam of light landed on a horizontal sarcophagus, but there was something unusual about the shape of it. She neared it and noticed an unlit torch stuck to the side of it.
"Kurtis, here."
He came over and knowing what she wanted, he voiced the incantation and all the torches in the room lit at once with fire.
Lara gasped. The room was packed with sarcophagi, rows upon rows. The added light made clear what Lara had glimpsed before: the outside design and shape of them were not modeled after humans, but Nephilim. Their length was longer than an average sarcophagus by at least four feet, and a pair of horns and wings adorned the gaunt creatures. A hideous, deformed cross between angel and human.
Connected between each sarcophagus was a sort of drain ditch, feeding into each of them. They were all empty, though some seemed to be still stained with red. Blood? Lara knelt by one to get a closer look. They reminded her of something.
The Tomb of Seth. When she took the Amulet of Horus – those same kind of ditches filled with a red fluid and animated the nearby mummies. Did the same kind of magic work on these?
"This must have been Azazel's breeding chamber," Kurtis said as he dragged a hand along the outside of one of the sarcophagi. "How the hell did the Lux Veritatis bring the Stone back here if Brother Occitan was buried with it?" he wondered aloud.
"What's inside of these?"
"Nothing now, I gather. Azazel must have used them to contain the Nephilim while they grew until they were capable of being controlled. Didn't want a bunch of underdeveloped rugrats making a mess of things. But something must have ruined his plans. Tipped off the wrong people."
Kurtis took a few steps around the sarcophagus, his gait uneven. Lara noticed his jaw clenched. Remembering his injury in the shaft, she quickly approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait."
Kurtis furrowed his brows.
The bleeding looked like it had slowed, but she wanted to make sure it was nothing serious. She took a medikit from her backpack and dropped to a kneel beside his leg.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but could you please pull down your pants?"
Kurtis raised his brows as he looked at her from above. "Is there a wrong way for me to take that?"
Lara refrained from replying. She simply tilted her head slightly to the side and gestured towards the ripped and bloody fabric of his pants, waiting.
Eagerly he reached for his belt buckle, unsnapping and pulling the belt loose. He undid the button and zipper of his khaki trousers but hesitated a moment before pulling them down.
Lara had thought nothing of it when she asked. It wasn't the first time she'd tended another's wound or seen a man in a state of undress, and in fact had done both with Kurtis already. But the soft swish of Kurtis' trousers pooling around his ankles brought to her mind completely different thoughts than before.
She was eye level with his underwear. Black underwear, and his… right there was his…
Averting her gaze to his leg, she set to inspecting the injury, willing herself not to look anywhere else. With his powers he could probably heal it without stitches, as the bleeding had already almost stopped completely, but it wouldn't hurt to apply them just in case. Taking the needle and thread out, she first applied antiseptic and cleaned the blood off around it.
Kurtis held still, and when she glanced up at him she saw he was pointedly staring off at the sarcophagi around them. When she pierced through his skin with the needle, he said, "I don't really know if that's necessary…"
"I've already started. This won't take long. Besides, how many of these scars on you were because you didn't bother to tend to them properly, and instead relied on your healing?"
Kurtis let out a breath. "Hm. Point taken."
As she stated, only a couple minutes passed before she finished the stitches and packed the medikit back up. Kurtis bent down and pulled his trousers back up, taking care at the button and zipper. Lara cleared her throat, pretending to be absorbed in inspecting the design of the sarcophagus.
They continued on then, passing sarcophagus after sarcophagus until they entered a grandiose burial chamber. In there was only one sarcophagus, carved and decorated in the normal fashion and size, except with one important distinction: a smooth, shiny black stone laid at the base of the figure's neck.
The stone called out to Lara. She approached it and touched it hesitantly. Sensing no danger from it, she carefully picked it out from its resting place and held it in her open palm for inspection.
The stone was roughly the size of her palm and it caught the light from the lit torches, somehow retaining its own glow in the darkness. Etched onto the face of the stone, the grooves filled with gold, the head of Egyptian god Banebdjedet was depicted.
The Watcher's Stone.
"I've got it," she whispered.
The Stone itself was such a deep black it resembled obsidian, but she knew it couldn't be; the monk's notes stated they had tried everything to destroy it, including melting it down in a forge. The chiseled lines of Banebdjedet's face were so precise, and the gold within filled them perfectly, there was no way it was made by human hands.
Based purely off its beauty, she understood Brother Occitan's reluctance to part with it.
Kurtis seemed to be having similar thoughts. He stared at the rock with an intensity surpassing any look he ever gave her. His rounded eyes reflected the glow of the ram head, blue and gold mixing together, his mouth softly parting in amazement. He reached for the Stone and without thinking Lara closed her hand and brought it to her chest protectively.
With his line of sight cut off, Kurtis finally blinked, the intensity leaving his gaze. He glared at her.
"Give it here."
"What for?"
"I just want to see it."
"That's what your eyes are for, not your hands."
He frowned at her and held his hand out. "I'm not gonna do anything with it, I just wanna look."
Reluctantly she handed it over. Kurtis held it up between forefinger and thumb, turning it around this way and that, the flames from the torches glinting off its surface. The ram engraving was only on one side. The other side was smooth black.
"Not really how I pictured it."
Lara held her hand back out for it. "And how was that?"
He returned it to her surprisingly without a fight. "More Nephilim-like."
"The material is certainly not anything you'd find around here. Is it familiar to you?"
He shook his head. "No…it's not the same stuff as the Periapt Shards or my Chirugai…"
That worried Lara. If Kurtis hadn't even seen anything like it and the monks before couldn't manage to destroy it, what could they do? It seemed keeping the Stone hidden forever was the only viable option.
Lara stashed the Stone in her backpack. "Come on, let's get out of this place."
Since they couldn't return the way they came, they continued forward. After passing through a hallway rigged with fire traps they came upon an offering room, the pedestal in the center set before a stone throne. Lara approached and delicately sat upon the throne, resting her hands on the armrests and gazing out at the scene before her. She imagined Azazel in her place, changing his form to appear as Banebdjedet, sitting at this throne day in and day out, accepting worship meant for the real god, basking in his power. All the while plotting the downfall of the very people whose sacrifices he received. How angry and betrayed the priests must have felt when they realized they were serving an imposter, a false god! No wonder Banebdjedet didn't let anyone use the Stone.
But how did they stop Azazel, how did he manage to escape and become a Sleeper? How did they destroy his Nephilim army? Within the answers to those questions was surely the key to defeating Karel.
Kurtis spoke, snapping her from her thoughts. "Let's get out of here and far away from this place. Karel's workers are probably close to breaching the temple and I want the Stone as far from him as possible."