The air felt different the moment Iris stepped past the outer stones of the temple and the fact that it was dark made everything very eerie.
"Pass me the torch,please, "she whispered .
Sean who was carrying the supplies,handed it over to her without a word.
The cracked pillars reached skyward, strangled by roots and vines that had claimed the structure as their own. Moss crawled along the floors, and strange carvings covered the walls—swirling symbols that looked both ancient and oddly familiar.
Sean whistled low behind her. "Charming. Nothing says 'fun expedition' like potential snake pits and thousand-year-old cobwebs."
Iris didn't answer. Her fingers grazed one of the faded wall etchings: a woman radiant and elegant wearing a sun-shaped pendant,what they were supposed supposed to find .
"Sean come look at this ,"he stepped besides her torchlight flickering across the mural.
"What's this supposed to be ?"He asked.
"A story ? I think,"Iris said her eyes narrowing ."Look_here she's potrayed as a goddess.Beautiful powerful... and then here_"
"Beautiful? Goddess ?"Sean chuckled"That's just an old painting ,full of cracks and dust .And would you look at that_her face isn't even clear "
Iris rolled her eyes ."Look at her neck.That's the necklace we are looking for _the sun pendant .And here ...this part says ,she was not originally from here . She helped the village .But look at the smoke _something happened .The village turns against her .And then here_ it says she was burried here ."
"And all that is from this painting?"Sean raised an eyebrow, already distracted as he scanned the rest of the room , searching for anything valuable _perhaps the pendant from their sketches .
"Iris," he suddenly called from ahead. "I think you need to see this."
She followed him past what had once been an inner sanctum, stepping carefully over crumbled stone and broken tile. At the center of the chamber was a raised platform. On it sat a stone sarcophagus, sealed with iron clasps and covered in red-stained writing.
It wasn't Egyptian. It wasn't Indian.
It was something else.
Sean knelt, wiping the dust off the lid. "There's no record of this in the excavation report. This whole section was marked unstable and untouched."
"It's not unstable," Iris whispered, walking slowly around the tomb. "It was... protected."
Something pulled her toward it, a whisper in her blood. Her hand hovered above the lid—and before she could stop herself, she laid her palm flat against the ancient stone.
A sharp pulse shot through her body, like lightning under skin.
Then, the clasps snapped open one by one with a loud clang.
Sean jumped back. "What the hell—?!"
The lid slid with a deep groan, dust rising like a sigh.
Inside lay a woman.
Her skin was unblemished, lips full and still tinted with color. Her black hair fanned around her like silk. She wore a flowing white linen robe, arms folded neatly over her chest.
She looked like she could wake at any moment.
And then she did.
Her eyes flew open, glowing faint gold.
Her lips parted, breath escaping with a hoarse whisper:
"Nefira…"
Iris staggered backward, clutching her chest. A wave of heat and cold crashed over her like a tide. Her vision blurred . Suddenly she saw the woman in front of her laughing_alive , radiant_ calling out "Nefira!" again and again,her voice echoing through a sunlight courtyard .Iris tried to chase her but she couldn't catch up .
The vision shattered like glass.
She collapsed.
Sean barely caught her before she hit the floor. "Iris?! Hey—hey! Wake up! Come on!"
The woman in the tomb had closed her eyes again, unmoving. As if it never happened.
Sean trembling half-dragged the mysterious woman they found in the tomb and half-carried Iris out of the temple.The air outside hit them like a slap—dry and stifling.
Rohan, waiting at the jeep, saw them and blanched. "What have you done?" he hissed, eyes wide in terror. "You opened it. You touched her."
Sean laid Iris carefully across the backseat. "We found someone—alive. Barely. She said something and passed out. So did Iris."
Rohan backed away. "You don't understand. The witch of Bhangarh—they called her that .They sealed her in that temple for a reason_ and you let her out! We have to leave here .Now ."
Sean stared back at the ruins. "Why ?! This is an innocent woman who's very much alive i don't see a problem in helping her out of those ruins,"
Rohan voiced dropped cold and grim "That is no ordinary woman ."