POV Rio
"Really, on my lawn?" Lara says, unimpressed.
"At least it wasn't inside?" I defend weakly.
"It's nice to see you again," Lara says after a moment of silence.
We hug, but I feel a heated stare from somewhere, and yet when I look, there is nothing to be seen.
'Odd.'
"So what's the plan?" I ask Lara.
"Our ride will arrive tomorrow morning. They managed to collect enough fuel to transport us to Venice. We'll be searching the city for the burial place of the second knight, who should have the clues of where the grail is located, or at least the location of the third knight's resting place. We also need to keep an eye out for an old... acquaintance of ours who went missing while looking for the grail," Lara says with some hesitation at the end.
"Who went missing?" I ask.
"Alex West," Lara replies with a helpless smile.
"I swear that man has some god-awful luck, or he's picked some terrible jobs," I say mirthlessly.
"Uh, what about us?" John asks.
"Oh, I'll leave with Lara and her client to Venice, then I will teleport back here and bring you guys over once I am certain it's safe. I don't think this will turn ugly, but the more separation between our groups, the better," I reply.
John and Helen seem to agree, but Lucy refuses.
"I'm coming with," Lucy demands.
I don't love the idea, but given Lucy was disguised as Asia Argento and she was more than capable of protecting herself, I felt it wasn't a terrible idea.
"Fine, just please be safe, and I'll warn you right now, it might not be that interesting for you," I warn.
She smiles at me and gives me a surprise hug. I wasn't going to refuse, so I went with it. What I didn't see was the glare she sent Lara's way, nor the smug smile that came with it.
"Oh yeah, who is the client?" I ask as the hug ends.
"Uh... Well, it's Lord Rumpterfrabble Saunterblugget Hampterfuppinshire the third," Lara says while trying her best to say the client's name.
"I don't know what's worse, his name or the fact that three generations decided to keep that name," I ponder.
Everyone else seems just as baffled by such an odd name.
"So is he... British?" I ask with uncertainty.
"I have no idea. While nobles can have some outlandish names, I don't believe they would have such an outlandish name," Lara replies with a shrug.
"Did you look into them?" I ask with raised eyebrows.
"Sure, but there is little to be found online about them, and finding physical info on them isn't as feasible nowadays," Lara replies.
I don't argue with that, and we change the subject to reviewing the info on the Holy Grail. There wasn't much to go on. Just the legend of three knights that were tasked with protecting the Holy Grail. The first knight's tomb was discovered in Spain during the reconstruction, and from that info, they believed the second knight was buried in Venice. The third knight had almost nothing written about it, so there were nearly no clues to go on. But there was a riddle that Lara had dug up that was possibly in reference to three trials God had set for those attempting to claim the Grail.
The riddle had three verses:
Only the penitent man will pass.
Only in the footsteps of God will he proceed.
Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth.
"This riddle is pretty vague. Though maybe each trial has to do with each knight?" I theorise.
"It's possible. Three knights, three trials, three verses. Patterns are often how you solve these kinds of puzzles," Lara replies.
Sometime Later...
"It's wonderful to have you, Ms Croft. My name is Antonio Rossi. I will be working alongside you while you work. I grew up here in Venezia, so if you need anything, directions, access to somewhere, local history, maps, you can ask me," Antonio says with a large smile.
"A pleasure," Lara greets with a smile.
"And who might your companion be?" Antonio asks.
"You can call me John Constantine, I'm a colleague of Lara," I reply while shaking Antonios hand.
As we shake, I discreetly place a tracking spell on him, as I couldn't say for certain, but the man triggered some spy senses and made me think he wasn't what he appeared to be.
"A pleasure, Mr Constantine," Antonio says with that same practiced smile.
"Please just call me John," I respond.
"Of course, and who is your last companion?" Antonio asks.
"Asia Argento, she's a bit shy around strangers," I comment.
"Hmm, Italian, or just an old family name?" Antonio asks.
"An old family name, she wanted to come along, and her skills made it a good idea to me," I reply with a toothy smile.
"Very well, now let me show you to your hotel," Antonio says with a smile.
We are guided through the city, and it looks pretty rough.
"Forgive the scenery, the... invasion was hard on Venezia, and it's a sore subject, so please avoid bringing it up," Antonio cautions.
Despite the damage and the very low foot traffic, the city still had some beauty, and the lessons on the local culture intrigued me for more than one reason.
'Either he truly is from Venice, or they trained someone exceptionally well.'
I wouldn't say I was a master of Venetian History and Culture, but from what I did know, everything he said seemed correct. Though I did notice his movements were odd. He was hiding it really well, but I was almost certain he was a trained operative. He was slightly overcompensating on occasion and undercompensating on other occasions. Now, these slip-ups were rare, but they still happened.
"Don't react, I'm speaking to you with magic," I speak to Lara telepathically.
"Is it the man?" Lucy asks.
I was a bit surprised she noticed, but I didn't show it.
"Yes, I'm at least 90% certain he's a trained agent, while I doubt they would drag us all the way out here to kill us, we should still be cautious. Also, assume they are always listening. Until I can debug our hotel rooms, don't break character," I warn mentally.
Lara and Lucy both reply in the affirmative, and we all act as if nothing had changed. Eventually, we are led to the hotel and released to unpack our stuff. I get to work finding all the various bugs in the room and carefully removing them. Once I got an idea of what they did, I was able to break them in a way that seemed like a mechanical failure. Others I left as they were, as they wouldn't be hearing anything anyway. Almost all the devices were audio-based, and the only cameras were those in the hallways.
Once I was done debugging everything, we started the job Lara was sent here for, which meant a lot of cross-referencing old historical records with maps and then investigating the places we did find for clues. I offered to use some magic to speed things along, but Lara refused.
"It would defeat the fun of the adventure," Lara says with a smile.
"Fine, we'll do things your way," I say while taking a seat.
"Good, now if the second knight was buried here, then they should have been buried under a church. We find the right church, we find the knight," Lara explains.
Of course, the one thing Lara didn't mention was that finding a specific church in the historically Catholic Venice was not going to be easy. Venice has existed for over a thousand years and has built many churches in that time. We also couldn't be certain if we needed to find the knight in the City of Venice or the territory of Venice. The Republic of Venice has been around for a long time, and the territory has changed drastically in that time.
'Oh well. Might as well just start looking.'
Two Weeks Later...
Two weeks... We had been looking for two weeks for the damn knight's burial place. John and Helen were having lots of fun as they had even left Venice a while ago to explore the rest of the country, but I was stuck reading over ancient maps and tax records. But finally, I had something.
"I think I got something!" I say with some pride.
Lara and Lucy came over to see what I had found.
"Here, according to this map, this place is just a library, but if you look at the map from 1798, it labels it as a Church. Going further back, this church was built in the 9th century. Now it's a library that holds some relics from the 4th Crusade. We've checked just about every other church in the city, but we couldn't find the right place because it isn't a church anymore," I explain while showing the various maps.
"It's promising, we can check it out tomorrow," Lara says, but signals nonverbally.
Lucy and I nod. We wouldn't go tomorrow, we would go tonight while invisible.
Later That Night...
I gather everyone, and we teleport to an abandoned house I had set up as a temporary base on the other side of town. Once there, we put on the invisibility cloak and make our way to the Biblioteca di San Barnaba. Getting there was easy as the streets were practically empty, save a few very suspicious people on "midnight strolls".
'Hmm, must be more agents.'
We reach the library, and I pick the locks really quickly so we can get inside and then close the door behind us. After checking to make sure we were alone, I removed the cloak.
"We should be good as long as we don't make too much sound," I comment.
We walk around the library looking for anything that might lead us to what we are looking for. As I am doing so, I feel like the place seems familiar. To be fair, much of this trip has felt that way, but I was unable to put my finger on why it felt that way.
'Huh? That's odd.'
I notice a slight change when I walk over a set of tiles. I get closer to the ground and tap.
Tap Tap
'It sounds hollow.'
I focus and cast a spell to reveal what lies behind, which ends up revealing something very promising.
"I found the entrance to the catacombs," I call out to the others mentally.
Lucy and Lara come over and look at the dark pit leading into the catacombs. Before I can say anything, Lara jumps down first. Lucy and I look at each other and shrug before hopping down to follow.