Tomb Raider: The Golden Seal

Chapter 3: Manticores

"And when I'm done with you," he whispered, "you'll see what I did to your mentor was a blessing in comparison..."

As for the man, Karel was neither worried nor scared of his Golden Seal. It would be a great pleasure to strangle the last Lux Veritatis to death with his bare hands.

It was said that Nephili were a cruel race. Well...this was only the beginning.

(...)

Lara pulled herself up and climbed, helped by Kurtis.

"You owe me an explanation." She gasped.

"And a Painting."

She laughed. "Forget about the Painting, it's hopeless." She sat on the floor and lit another flare. Maybe it was a trick of the green light mixed with the shadows, but Kurtis really did look ill, if his pale face was anything to go by.

"Why did you come here?"

"Actually, I fled. I assumed you were being chased by Gunderson, so if I stayed in Istanbul we would've been caught by his men."

Then Lara looked at his hand and saw the golden, square-shaped ring with the engraved map, and said: "What do you know about all this?"

"Not much." He said after sitting next to her. "Last thing I recall was that bitch's head rolling on the floor, after being skewered like a Turkish kebab. I was an idiot. One should not underestimate his enemies." His voice sounded bitter and frustrated. "Then when I woke up, I was in some Turkish woman's house; she started screaming her head off when she saw me jump out of bed. She told me everything she knew, and then I hoped you'd received my call and come soon."

"But you were unconscious." Lara said. "How could you call me?"

"With that." He said, pointing at the Chirugai, which was tied to Lara's belt. "May I have it back?"

She gave it to him. Kurtis lovingly caressed the weapon before affixing it to his belt again. Seeing Lara's suspicious look, he said: "I won't ask you to believe me, and I don't expect you to understand how I did it. I contacted you; let's leave it at that. Call it a miracle, if you want. There's also the 'miracle' of me being alive."

"The people who helped you..."

"I have no idea who they were. After Eckhardt killed my father, I'm the last one." In fact, Kurtis had never told her what he was. She had figured it out watching the strange display of his mental powers and the information he had of his ancestral enemy. And he was aware she knew it. "Now tell me everything." Kurtis said, very seriously. "What I told you is all I know."

And Lara told him. Although he was frowning, she saw admiration in his eyes when she told him how she'd killed Eckhardt. She told him about Gunderson's visit, the Golden Seal's story, everything she'd discovered recently.

When she finished, Kurtis sighed. "So this ring on my finger is called the Golden Seal and can decide which of us wins and which of us dies?"

Lara gasped. "Didn't you know that?"

"Well, no." He said. "All I know is that my father gave me this ring when I was sixteen. He never told me about its purpose, even though he was so proud of being a Lux Veritatis."

A sudden noise made them jump. They heard hurried footsteps above on the surface of the necropolis, some orders shouted aloud, and the clicking and sliding of metal-on-metal as machine guns were readied...

"Dammit." Lara cursed, "Gunderson!"

To her surprise, Kurtis kept calm. "It's about time. I was waiting for them."