Ancient Mysteries

Troubadours; poets and storytellers of the middle ages. That's what this small black notebook reminded Ben of.

Flipping through its weathered parchment pages, the smell of familiarity permeated his nostrils. Deja vu vivified his perception. He stood, rapt in stillness. An image appeared in his mind's eye.

An ironbound chest, the glint of silver, and the sense of closeness...

His staunchly empirical mind struck him back into reality, totally writing off the previous moments experience as phantasmagoric. He closed the notebook shut, the cracked leather cover emitting a quiet but crisp snap.

Remembrance quickly fading, he mused.

'Why did I agree to do this again?'

It had been years since his team had gathered for an expedition of this caliber. He was under the impression he had retired, but one's life's work rarely ceases the call that easily. As begrudgingly as he prepared to set out from the comfort of his beach villa back in Maui, the allure of mystery this mountaintop emanated proved to override.

Listening to the creaks and groans of stout timber answering to the call of high altitude wind, a shuffling down the hall triggered a more practical remembering. The team Ben undertook this endeavor with were busy at work throughout the other parts of the ancient hall.

First discovered in a remote part of Norway at the turn of the 18th century, it has been scarcely touched since. Inscriptions and texts found would indicate 11th century, CE. Among those, most of them appear runic in origin, yet other groupings and collections found at different points convey particular inflections not yet seen before.

That was the current perplexity occupying Ben's focus, coupled with the nagging feeling of something else, but he was interrupted. His colleague and partner, Joan, burst through the door.

"You must come see this!" She exclaimed. Giving him just a moment to follow, she darted back out through the door. Ben followed her down the old hall, his boots making solid thuds against hard, cold earth. They arrived together at the central alter, finding their other two colleagues in the midst of intense discussion.

"The mechanism is unlike anything that should have existed in this era," John stated.

"Even if we considered all the outliers, how could it have ended up here, this far removed from where the days known civilizations resided?" Sophia questioned.

This was the first time Ben had studied the alter up close. Of course, he noticed it first entering the place, it's virtually impossible not to. Raised upon a dais, the effigy stood out as if something from the most daring myth. Carved out of solid copper, stood a stern and proud female figure. She had a very direct and powerful look facing west. An almost perceptible aura radiated, but something else caught Ben's attention.

The sword she was holding in her left hand had carved in its blade the same peculiar symbols he had just seen. That sense of familiarity began to arise again.

"I'll be right back!" And he half ran towards the room he was in to grab the old volume that so caught his attention prior. Picking it up with intense urgency, he returned to the alter. As if his fingers couldn't forget, he opened right back up to the place which beheld the very same symbolism. Upon further scrutiny, he began to make out illustrations of the mechanism that was their current point of intrigue.

It truly was baffling. An elaborate system of gears, pulleys, and dials indicated that the alter and its guardian were not stationary objects. The 'controls' in question were positioned on pedestals at precise points. Pullies on either side of the back wall seemed to disappear into it. It seems as if the book were laying out an instruction manual, of sorts. But due to the obscurity of these different symbols, Ben could not comprehend.

"Joan, how about you take a look at this?"

Like Ben, Joan had studied extensively all manner of subjects regarding Norse culture, runic lore, and mythology. That had been a clear and connective talking point, all those years ago. Now, he could see that same fire at work behind her golden-green eyes. As if sparks began to ignite, the dawning of understanding flashed as her pupils dilated.

"I never thought I would come across this in all of my years of work!" Barely containing her excitement, she pressed on.

"The nature of these inflections are only vaguely alluded to in Havamal. Modern scholars thought them to be lost completely, but this appears to be a whole volume! This could possibly be our most breakthrough discovery."

Ben, now in a slight stupor at the implications asked, "What do you make of the illustrations?"

Joan took a few moments to study the book once again. Without even speaking she began to adjust the dials to different points. Each adjustment making the haunting sound of scraping stone that hasn't been moved in centuries. After she seemed satisfied with their new positions, the look of perplexity settled back in.

"Now, which one of those pullies is going to set these changes in motion?" said half to herself.

Left or right?

Heads or tails?

Intuition, a dirty word as far as the scientific community is concerned, urged Ben forward to the left pully. One firm, decisive pull gave way to all manner of clicks and shifts in what felt like the floor beneath them. Something only out of a movie, a passageway opened up to a staircase that led down.

Each one urging the other to go first, Joan took the lead. Lighting the way with her high-intensity LED flashlight, they reached the bottom and there it sat, almost as if expecting them. The ironbound chest Ben had just previously thought of as nonsense, stood right before them wide open. Filled to the brim with what could be estimated at 20,000 silver coins, that was hardly the most exhilarating find.

Another dais lay behind it, but a much more grim picture lay before. Two intact human skeletons lay at its base, almost in reverence for whatever had left them to come to that state...