"The goddess of Sun, Arinne, have mercy on us. We poor people need your light and warmth, but we are equally vulnerable to them. Arinne Arinne, have mercy."
The ground was dry and cracked. A silhouette of a man crouched in prayer was wavering because of the heat.
"This old man! Do you still believe in gods? It's been thousands of years since the gods abandoned us. They won't hear your voice, your pleas. Instead, let's work quickly, finish this job, and leave"
Arsh called out with a mischievous tone, teasing the old man. But he got a slap on the head from his father.
The old man didn't mind Arsh. He was used to it as youngsters these days didn't believe in the goddess.
The man kept praying while he poured the water from his leather flask onto the ground slowly. In a moment, the water evaporated. Soon his voice turned into a whisper
"Arinne… Arinne, have mercy on us."
It was the end of the break. Soon, everyone finished their meals and prayers and returned to work.
The desert was hot, the sun burning. Even though they had spent their lives here, sometimes these conditions were too challenging. They were all wearing plain white clothes. Their heads were all covered, and they wore veils to protect their faces from the sand. But it wasn't enough to protect themselves from the heat.
Most of the time, they had to work until nightfall and couldn't work because of darkness. They didn't know what they were looking for, why they were digging, or how long they had to dig.
Sometimes they worked with archaeologists from Symran. But this group, unlike the others, told them to dig without giving any information. If anything was damaged, they would inevitably be blamed.
Arsh always found this ironic. These lands belong to them, it was his country, his village. But when an artifact or a little part of treasure gets lost or damaged during excavation, they treated them like a thief or a criminal. He hated this. But there is nothing he could do. They have to work to survive.
It wasn't always like this. Even though he didn't remember because he wasn't born yet, his grandfather told him, life wasn't difficult before wars. Twenty years ago, their country was invaded by Symron. After that, it had become difficult to make a living. Resources became scarce, the currency changed, and it made life even more difficult for them.
While he was thinking about that, he turned his head towards the tent where Professor Millway was resting. The head of the archeology group was watching them under the umbrella, sipping something from a cup.
Actually this wasn't the first time they worked for him. His father's group usually worked on construction sites in their own villages and elsewhere. But they would also occasionally participate in such excavations because the money was pretty good. Professor Millway has been coming here almost for ten years. He was looking for something related to his studies. But every time he left this place disappointed.
It seemed he would be disappointed this time, too. The excavation is taking too long and unlike other times there is no finding. Before, sometimes they were able to find tomb rooms. Not every excavation is a success. This time also didn't look like they would find anything. It was a sloppy way to work, even for them.
But they had to continue until Professor Millway told them to stop.
In Arsh's mind, this man looked nothing like a professor. He was bald, had a pot belly, and looked so stupid for a professor. Not like he had seen a lot. But he assumed professors must be elegant people with wisdom in their eyes, like his grandfather. Arsh also didn't like his father working for this man who looked down on the villagers.
On the other hand, according to him, his assistant Will was more tolerable. He would occasionally chat with the villagers and Arsh, and he joined them during meals.
They worked a couple of hours more. Some men were talking to his father about finishing the work quickly and returning to village for today. Everyone was tired. Arsh was the youngest employee among them. maybe because of his youth, he didn't have as much difficulty as the other employees. But he also wanted this job to be over quickly as the blazing sun was burning his skin. The excavation continued until sunset. As darkness began to fall, they began to prepare to go home.
As Arsh dropped his belongings and walked toward his father, he noticed a small hole in the ground right under his feet. Before he could escape, the hole widened, and Arsh fell into it.
It wasn't a direct fall, he felt his body crashing into something he couldn't see and his skin was scratched. In a couple of seconds, he was on the ground on his back.
He felt for a moment that all his bones ached from the impact. Pain shot through him. He gasped for breath.
He was hearing some voices, but couldn't focus, sounds were buzzing in his ears.
"Hey! Arsh… Arsh, are you okay?"
"Arsh, make some noise if you can hear us"
"…there is no voice. Did he faint?"
"How deep is this well? Where are the ropes? These are too short! Don't we have longer ones?"
Everyone was shouting and running around.
The professor was also running, but it was not because he was afraid something had happened to the boy. It was the possibility of finding what he had been searching for over a decade.
When Arsh started to come to his senses, he saw a couple of stars from the small hole above him.
He wasn't sure how long he had been lying there.
He guessed the pit was five meters deep. The things he had crashed into were dry tree roots. He was lucky; if they hadn't slowed down his fall, something bad could have happened.
He could hear his father's worried voice:
"Why is he not answering? Should I try to go down?…"
"Dad… Dad!" It was hard to shout. It was as if his bones were sinking into his lungs. But his dad heard him.
"My son, are you okay? May the grace of Arinne be upon us."
"I'm okay, just a bit scratched."
"Don't worry. Others went to the village to bring longer ropes."
"Okay, I am waiting"
Soon he started to hear a new voice. It was Professor Millway. "What are you seeing there? Tell me!"
"It's so dark here, I can't see anything… only dry branches."
The hole was small, and it was getting darker. He couldn't see anything at all. He slowly got up from the ground.
"I will throw you a torch. Look around carefully."
He stepped aside a little and waited for the torch. The moment the torch hit the ground, he realized the well was wider than he had thought. The hole he had fallen into was about a meter in diameter, but it widened downward like a funnel. At first, he thought the place he had fallen into was a water well, but he gave up that idea. The ground they had dug had reduced the distance between the hole and the surface, and eventually, it had become weaker and could not support Arsh's weight, causing him to fall.
The ground and walls of the well were covered with dry branches like snakes entwined together. He found it strange that there were tree roots here. The villages were built in oases or places where water sources could be extracted. Outside these places, it was impossible to see trees.
There were also a lot of holes in the walls. Probably these holes were opened by animals and reptiles.
He was trying to look around carefully because he was really worried that a snake might come out. This was a place where snakes liked to nest. He was scared of them.
He told the Professor what he saw in the well, one by one and asked "Where is my father?When will they take me out of here?"
"In a moment, in a moment. Your father sent someone to the village to get rope and ladders. Now you do as I say. Don't you see anything else? It should be there."
'So the thing he is looking for somewhere here, but there is nothing…'
After a while, he noticed a large hole behind the dry roots. He stuck the torch into the ground, took out the small pickaxe hanging from his belt and cleaned the front of the hole.
The hole was about one meter wide and roughly one and a half meters long. When he extended the torch inside, he noticed that it widened further inward. He stepped back and shouted
"There is a tunnel here. I am going to look at it."
As an answer he heard his father voice again.
"Arsh be careful, don't go there, wait until we come"
His father was worried the tunnel might collapse. But on the other hand Professor was excited
"Okay, look carefully, okay? It is really important. If you find something there, I will reward you."
'Just find the thing you want and don't come to this desert again,' Arsh mumbled to himself.
He entered the tunnel, bending down. This place was also covered with dried tree roots, and he could see the end of the tunnel. But there was something different here. The end of the tunnel, the wall was flat and not completely covered with roots. When he got closer, he saw symbols on the wall.
'Is it a gate of a tomb? No, it is not.' He had seen a lot of tomb rooms until today. But this was unlike any of them. The shape of the door was different, and there were also circular symbols with different shapes inside them that he was not familiar with.
The only thing he recognized was the writing on the wall. It was an ancient language, but it didn't belong to this region. He knew about this language, thanks to his grandfather and the archaeologists who came to the region.
It was written in the middle of the door: "You can't know your destination until you arrive."
'Hmm… so what does it mean?'
Arsh wanted to touch the symbols on the door, which were framed by the ancient writing. They had the shape of a crescent moon and a star above them.
The moment he touched the symbol, the first thing he heard was a loud voice. From the middle of the symbol, a crack appeared, and it opened toward the inside of an enormous place.