Tomb Raider: The Golden Seal

Chapter 3: Manticores

Cappadocia was a semi-arid region noted for its exceptionally beautiful rock formations. Lara didn't find a single soul in the wilderness - fortunately, she thought - and it took her little time to slip into the excavation and crawl through the tunnel. At the end lay the discovery.

The necropolis was structured in multiple continuous circular chambers, each chamber consisting of twenty bulbous stone niches housing a Nephilim. Selma's team had undergone a careful drilling in order to see inside the "sarcophagus". Nothing like the bungling activities of the likes of Carter and Schliemann; archaeology was now more advanced. Lara, taking care to avoid touching them, looked into the holes and watched those creatures, lying in their final resting place.

The Nephili were tall and rather lanky, and their remains skeletons covered with strips of skin. Dead to be sure, and likely killed after being placed there. Lara figured it out while seeing an etched mark found in some skulls: A Lion's face surrounded by the three Periapt Shards; the insignia of their ancestral enemy, the Lux Veritatis. After the warrior monks discovered the place, the Nephili, temporarily lethargic, had embraced their eternal rest. The only one who escaped was the Sleeper, whose former location was the only empty hole... Lara wondered how he managed to elude the Lux Veritatis.

When she reached the last chamber, the tunnel suddenly went down. Lara lit a flare, and after a few steps, she saw a signboard: Danger. Unstable ground. But it was too late. As she was trying to move back, the old, cracked floor disappeared from under her feet. With a scream that echoed through the darkness, she began to fall into the void, cursing her stupidity. But before she fell to far a strong arm came out of nowhere and grabbed her tightly.

Then she heard a familiar voice: "Always getting into trouble, aren't we, Miss Croft?" Lara, hanging over the abyss and suspended only by the arm, looked up. It was Kurtis.

(...)

Joachim Karel sat quietly on the couch where, only hours earlier, Lara and Selma had been talking. He looked around the Turkish archaeologist's tiny apartment, wishing he could have caught her. It had been a while since he'd killed somebody, and he felt frustrated... since this woman knew too much and had managed to escape alive.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Karel looked with disgust at that mechanical device that humans were so proud of, but begrudgingly admitted they turned out to be more helpful than not on many occasions.

He walked slowly on purpose towards the phone. If the call was not important, it would stop ringing soon. However, the sound persisted. That was the signal. He picked up the phone.

"Meister." Answered Gunderson's voice. "We've found them. Both of them. In Cappadocia's necropolis."

The necropolis...his former home. The place he took the only living Nephilim save for himself, and escaped to Prague; laying all his hope in it...and all for nothing. "Excellent." Said the Nephilim.

"What must we do?"

"Take them. Both of them. I want them alive."

Gunderson sounded doubtful. "Meister, the woman will be trouble..."

"I said I want both of them. And don't hurt them either... or you'll be wishing I was as merciful as Eckhardt."

"Yes, Meister."

He hung up. Karel, satisfied, left the apartment. His plans had been ruined by Lara Croft and her unexpected intelligence; she'd been easy to manipulate...but turned out to be impossible to defeat. This time nothing would fail...he had everything going for him.

What Gunderson was ignorant of - in fact, only Boaz, Eckhardt, and Karel had known of it - was that the Sleeper had been a female specimen. She was meant to give birth to a new Nephili breed; and yes, by the traditional way, that method that humans went crazy for. Her destruction had wiped the chance of creating a pure race. Now he had to find a human woman...one worthy of giving birth to a second Nephili generation. In fact, Karel had already chosen her. He smiled.