The warrior smiled as though its sight had somehow relieved his pain, and given him some sort of peace in his death. The two men were locked, their eyes staring into each other’s souls as the sand continued to rise around them. Time came and went, but still the sand rose, until long after the warrior outside was buried alive, and his now lifeless eyes stared at him with accusation.
The storm lasted two whole days. When it finally stopped, Smith fought to open the hatch, but there was nothing he could do. The hatches opened outward, and now unimaginable amounts of sand weighed heavily above. He tried the other hatches, but each of them opened outward. He felt his way around the bowels of the ship, searching for an axe or anything to help free himself from his curse.
He struck a match and lit the lantern again. He studied the artifact under the poor light of the oil lamp. The skull stared back at him. Its white teeth grinned hideously at him as though it had known all along what the outcome of its theft would be. Smith spun the skull upside down and stared at it from below. Solid gold had been flattened to make space for a unique image, delicately etched inside. It depicted two mountain peaks, leading together with a small lake or possibly snow in the middle. He’d never seen the place, but there was no doubt in his mind of the image’s purpose — it was a map.
As fear took over, he could no longer resist the urge to scream. He cried out to anyone who could help him. To his brother, to the other members of his party — all of whom were now dead — and finally, when fear and hysteria had taken over his rational mind, he cried out to God, and asked for forgiveness.
He then held the ancient relic close to his chest and laughed hysterically. Because his final act of redemption was to ensure the man with the purple eyes would never achieve his goal. That he would never get a hold of the artifact — because it had been entombed forever.
It was still dark outside the defensive walls of the monastery. Billie Swan stared over the stone parapet to the north, past the closed Turkey-Armenian border, where the snow-capped twin peaks of Mount Ararat glowed orange under the light of the crescent moon. The mountain stood at a near-quadripoint between Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.
Her eyes were almond shaped, and hazel colored, with tiny speckles of gold that glittered in the light. They were luminous and intense, befitting her intelligence, as she stared at the holy mountain. She had regular features that betrayed her Eurasian ancestry, and a sensual, full-lipped mouth. She breathed deeply, and watched her breath crystalize in the night. In two hours the first light of winter’s solstice would shine through the twin peaks, turning them a golden red. And, if her grandfather’s notes were to be believed, that first light would show her the precise location of the opening to the ancient temple.
Billie had been following her grandfather’s notes since he died, years ago. Every lead she’d taken led to a tangent, and she had nearly given up hope of finding her grandfather. This time felt different. This was the closest she’d ever come to finding the temple. This lead had taken her to Mount Ararat, which was enshrined in mystery and biblical myths. The most predominant of course, being that the top of the mountain was where Noah had first stepped off his Ark.
In the seventh month the Ark rests on the mountains of Ararat, and in the tenth month the tops of the mountains are seen — Genesis 8:4
She smiled. The place was mysterious all right. And the Armenians were right to worship the sacred mountain, but it had nothing to do with Noah and his Ark — and everything to do with an ancient civilization who were genetically and mentally predisposed to greatness.
In the silence, she allowed her mind to drift, and she imagined what she might find inside. An ancient database of information by one of the greatest civilizations who ever lived? Or nothing more than a Neolithic cavern, and further evidence the Master Builders never existed? She thought about the last person to enter the ancient temple, before it was permanently sealed because the information stored inside was deemed too dangerous to humanity. The forbidden fruit. Gregory the Illuminator had seen that knowledge — he then spent the next fourteen years of his life imprisoned inside Khor Virap.
She lowered her gaze from Mount Ararat to the walled monastery. Her expressive eyes were pensive as they examined the grounds. The old stone fortifications provided a meek wall surrounding a modest stone church. Nothing about its appearance suggested such a rich and fanciful history. That the birth of modern Christianity once originated on the very same ground, seemed preposterous — but that didn’t make it any less true.
The Armenian name for the monastery, Khor Virap, translated to Deep Dungeon. Until the start of the fourth century, that was all it was. A two hundred foot pit, dug into the hillock at the base of the Ararat plain.
It was said that when King Tiridates III ruled over Armenia, his assistant was Grigory Lusavorich, who preached the Christian religion. Tiridates, a follower of the pagan religion, became displeased with his assistant for having another religion, and ordered that Gregory's hands and legs be tied and that he be thrown into the Khor Virap to die in the dark dungeon located in Artashat.
The King waged wars and persecution against the Christian minorities. However, Gregory did not die during his fourteen years of imprisonment. His survival was attributed to a Christian widow from the local town who, under the influence of a strange dream vision, regularly fed Gregory by dropping a loaf of freshly baked bread into the pit.
While Gregory was imprisoned in Khor Virap, King Tiridates III was said to have gone mad. Tiridates's sister, Khosrovidhukt, had a vision in the night, where an angel told her about the prisoner Gregory in the city of Artashat who could end the torments. Few people believed her visions, as most thought that Gregory had died within days of his being cast into the pit. But Khosrovidhukt had the same dream repeatedly, eventually threatened that if the dream's instructions were not followed, there would be dire consequences.
Gregory was brought out of Khor Virap in a miserable state. He was taken to the king, who had gone mad, tearing at his own skin. Gregory cured the king and brought him back to his senses. Gregory knew of all the atrocities committed, and saw the bodies of the martyrs who were later cremated. The king, accompanied by his court, approached Gregory, seeking forgiveness for all the sins they committed. King Tiridates III embraced Christianity as his religion following the miraculous cure effected by Gregory's divine intervention and proclaimed Christianity as the state religion of Armenia in 301 A.D.
Billie had spent hundreds of hours reading through the stories of Gregory the Illuminator. For the most part, she believed they were based on fact. All, except for the reason why he’d been imprisoned in the pit in the first place. That was the part she was most interested in. It was the early section of the myth that brought her here today.
In the year 286 A.D. Gregory made a pilgrimage to Mount Ararat in search of his God, where high up in the larger of the two volcanic peaks, he had seen a vision of God at work. When he reached the place, where he’d often seen a halo of light in the night, he was met by a cavern filled with information, so far advanced from his own, that he believed the owners to be Gods.
What those Gods had told him was so remarkable that he quickly returned to King Tiradates III to tell him the truth. When King Tiradates III heard Gregory’s story, he found it so impossible to believe, and yet so damaging, that he ordered a second team to seal the ancient temple, so that no one else would ever find it. When Gregory confirmed to the King that his wishes had been carried out, King Tiradates ordered him taken to the Deep Dungeon and left to die in solitude. Tiradates III knew he needed to send him to a place where no one would ever hear him speak the truth. But just as importantly, he knew that he couldn’t kill the man, either.