Seekers of the Crypt; the Lost Artifact

A Map

  It’s already late at night and the other employees of the museum are going home one by one. And when it turned ten in the evening, they were the only ones left in the museum. Feng Hu stepped out a bit as well to get them coffee.

  Garie got up from her stool and started stretching her limbs.  

“Oh gosh. My limbs are so stiff. A massage would be nice.” Garie whined.

  Levi stood up as well and started stretching.

“Are you done deciphering the script?” Levi asked and Garie nodded.

  Then Levi whipped his head towards Garie.

“You did?” He asked and Garie nodded again, showing him her notes.

  Levi looked into the notes and started interpreting the translation of the script.

“Whoever did this script deserved either an award or a punch on the face,” Levi said.  

“I’d rather kick that person in the gut. It’s really difficult to understand what he’s trying to say on this tablet. There are symbols that don’t have any translation.” Garie said.

  Then Feng Hu came in with their coffee and some pastries. Garie took one cup and took a sip of her coffee. Levi also took one cup and then grabbed his laptop and tried finding things on the internet that can help him understand the translated script. He is taking a few sips of coffee as he does the searching, and he also started munching on the pastry. After a few minutes of searching, and then he finally found one that makes sense. 

“I think I found one,” Levi said, and both Garie and Levi approached him.

“The first part of the script, says ‘the hare traveled from the south to north.’ It’s not literally meant to point at the animal, but it’s symbolism.” Levi said.

  Garie furrowed her eyebrows and then she looked at the tablet. There was a symbol that looked like overlapping circles. She then looked up as she started to rake her brain about the possible meaning of it. Then her eyes widened when she finally got it.

“Equinox!” She exclaimed and both Levi and Feng Hu looked at her.

“The hare that moves from the south to north, is the equinox on the Earth when the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator, heading northward as seen from Earth. The March equinox is known as the vernal equinox or spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and as the autumnal equinox in the Southern.” Garie explained as Levi and Feng Hu looked at her like she grew another head.

“What’s that got to do with the tablet?” Feng Hu asked and Garie frowned.

“I don’t know.” She said.

“Let’s take this slow, part by part, and by the end of it, we’ll have the answer. So the first part of the script is pointing towards an equinox.” Levi said and then he looked at the translated script.

“The second part says ‘raised high on a walled platform, with five palaces.’ Do you have any idea what that is?” 

  Silence engulfed them again as they begin to think. Then Garie looked at the tablet again and she noticed there were five small rectangular symbols drawn around the scripts.

“What did the third part say?” Garie asked, and Levi looked at the notes and to his laptop.   

“I think it says, ‘gateway of all nations.’ What is that?” Levi told them.

  Garie was positive she has heard that phrase before so she grabbed her tablet and started searching for it.   

“The Gate of All Nations, it is referring to subjects of the empire, consisted of a grand hall that was a square of approximately twenty-five meters in length, with four columns and its entrance on the Western Wall.” Garie started reading what she has found.

“What empire is that?” Levi asked.

  Garie then looked at the tablet once again and then at her notes. She started analyzing it on her own, and now she is seeing the symbols that help her understand it.

“Where did you say this jade tablet is from again?” Garie asked.

“The Achaemenid Empire of Persia, oh my bad, it's Iran now,” Levi answered.

  Then Garie started typing and searching on her tablet. Then she suddenly stopped and showed her iPad to Levi and Feng Hu.

“Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The complex is raised high on a walled platform, with five "palaces" or halls of varying size, and grand entrances. The function of Persepolis remains quite unclear. It was not one of the largest cities in Persia, let alone the rest of the empire, but appears to have been a grand ceremonial complex that was only occupied seasonally; it is still not entirely clear where the king's private quarters actually were.” Garie read from her iPad as she pointed at the five rectangular symbols on the tablet.

“The five palaces.”

“Until recent challenges, most archaeologists held that it was especially used for celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, held at the spring equinox, and still an important annual festivity in modern Iran.” She continued to read from the tablet and pointed at the two overlapping circles on the jade tablet.  

  Levi looked closely at it and then he looked at the jade tablet.

“Wow. So the clue hidden in the jade tablet is indeed the location. The location of the Lost Artifact is in Persepolis.” Levi said, looking triumphant.

  Feng Hu on the other hand is busy documenting their every discovery.

“Not just the clue Levi,” Garie said, and then she grabbed a blank white paper and pencil.

  Then she placed the paper on top of the tablet and started tracing it, well more like doing a stencil. She tried to cover the whole tablet and when she was done, she showed it to Levi and Feng Hu.

  Indeed the stencil Garie made from the tablet looked like something else.

“Is that –“

“A map. If you look closely at the symbols on the tablet that doesn’t have any direct translation, they are not part of the script but symbols that form a map once you compare them to the layout of the Persepolis.” Garie explained and Levi was in awe at how she explained them.

“Look here.” She said as she pointed at the paper.

“In the tablet, it looks like it was just a random symbol, but once traced, it is actually a pair of lamassus, bulls with the heads of bearded men.” She said, and then she scrolled through her iPad and pointed at a certain illustration that matched what was on the paper.

“It stands by the western threshold. Another pair, with wings and a Persian head, stands by the eastern entrance, to reflect the power of the empire. And if you look closely, in the map there is a symbol in between the overlapping circles, but in the photo on the internet, there is none.” She told them.

“What symbol is that?” Feng Hu asked.

“The griffin-like symbol is the Huma, it is a legendary mythical bird from the Iranian legends and fables which became a common motif in Diwan and Sufi poetry. There are many legends of the bird, but what is common to all is that the Huma never rests on the ground but circles high above the Earth its entire life. It is completely invisible and impossible to spot by human eyes. The bird looks for opportunities to bestow valuable gifts to those on Earth.” Garie explained.

“What about it?” Levi asked, kind of clueless.

“It means if the symbol is in the tablet but not in the ruins, it means it’s concealed, invisible to human eyes. One wouldn’t know that it exists unless you have the tablet.” She answered.

“It’s like it’s a mark that leads to a secret doorway that possibly leads to where Xerxes hid the Artifact? A concealed sign that says there is something valuable there?” Levi asked and Garie nodded.

“Wow. How can you possibly think of that?” He asked and Garie rolled her eyes.

“I work here in the museum; I get to have free lessons every day.” She said.

“Wow.” He said.

  Feng Hu took a photo of the paper as well as the notes using his phone.

“You should keep them properly. That is a piece of vital information for the continuous search for the Lost Artifact.” Feng Hu said.

  Garie nodded and then she started to gather all the papers and then she was looking around for a folder to put the papers in but she can’t find any. So she began looking around, and when she thought of the supplies cabinet, she placed the papers on her colleagues’ table and started rummaging on the cabinet.

  Levi was still amazed at how Garie was able to crack the secret of the jade tablet. He looked at the tablet and in one look it does look like a normal jade tablet that contains ancient scripts, but only Garie would think that it was a freaking map by comparing it and the photo of the ancient ruins from the internet.

  Then he started packing his gadgets when Feng Hu suddenly stopped him from moving.

“What?” Levi asked but Feng Hu covered his mouth as he started looking around.

  Then all of a sudden, a dagger came flying towards Levi but Feng Hu quickly pushed Levi out of the way and caught the dagger, at the same time the windows shattered as men in black commando suits barged in. 

  Garie was startled about the commotion that she run back towards Levi who was hiding under the table as Feng Hu was fighting the intruders. When she saw one was trying to take the tablet, Garie grabbed the marble vase on her colleague's table and she threw it towards the intruder.

  Hitting right on the head, the intruder didn’t get to take the tablet and it also fell on the ground. The other intruders saw Garie and attacked her. She dodges the attack and started fighting back. One pulled out a rod to hit her, but she caught the rod and then she kicked the attacker to his side before she twisted his arm and flipped him over her shoulders. Then she delivered a strong neck chop, rendering it unconscious.

  Levi who was still hiding under the working table is scared to his wits. He’s an engineer, an inventor not some kung fu master like Feng Hu who is like Jackie Chan. He watches as Feng Hu beat the crap out of the intruders like he is watching a Chinese movie, as Feng Hu leap and do a flying kick that sent two attackers crashing on the tables.

  And when he looked at Garie, she too was like an action star fighting the intruders. She even uses a rusted metal staff to fight them; hitting one attacker by one end and delivering a roundhouse kick towards another.

  When he noticed one intruder got up from the floor and tried to get something from the table, the first thing Levi thought was the tablet. So he didn’t think and grabbed into the intruder’s leg and punched its knee cap. Levi cried in pain as he waved his bruised knuckle as the intruder fell on the ground. 

  Then their eyes met and the intruder growled at him and pulled out a knife. He was about to stab him when Garie hit him by the metal staff.

“Levi, they wanted the tablet!” Garie told him as she fights more intruders.

“Get the tablet out of here!” Feng Hu yelled.

  Levi hissed as he has no choice. Even scared, he crawled out of the table, and then he grabbed the tablet and tried to make a run for it. The intruders tried to chase after him but Feng Hu and Garie stops them.

  Levi was about to get out of the hall when he was suddenly kicked in the abdomen and then to his chest before he was punched in the face. He felt his surroundings darken in a split second as his knees gave out.

  Garie saw what happened to Levi and she saw a feminine figure take the tablet from Levi who was now unconscious on the floor. Garie hissed and tried to chase after the feminine figure but then she heard Feng Hu scream that their notes were taken too.

  When she went back to the workstation, all the intruders are escaping and the whole place is a mess.

“Damn it!”