The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction - Part 2

Chapter 331: Underground Temple, City of Diya, Cave, 1960

Underground Temple

City of Diya

Cave

Kamchatka Wilderness

Soviet Union

1960

Indy and Emily reached the top of the narrow stairs over the pit of lava containing a lake of fire, complete with tossing waves of molten rock threatening the foundations of the underground city of Diya.

They'd found six out of the legendary Seven Swords of Diya. Indy was holding one sword, with his other arm in a sling - injured from trying to knock out an apkallu. Emily had two other swords tucked against her belt. The apkallu of the unseen realm, lords of the underworld city of Diya had kidnapped Shorty and Lizavet - two of Indy's adopted kids. Shorty and Lizavet each had two of the swords. This meant the apkallu had four swords. Indy and Em only had three. The seventh one was in the supernatural Unseen Realm according to the legends.

"Anything in the legends about the city of Diya and the apkallu, Em?" Indy asked, looking around.

Emily joined him at the top of the stairs. They faced a vast chamber, cloaked in darkness that stretched around the entire top of the pit, like a balcony.

"No. Diya seems to be Asian in origin. But none of this architecture looks Asian..." Emily replied.

"What's it remind you of?" Indy asked.

"Covered columned halls... like in Egypt or Rome, or the abbey exterior porches of Europe. The Alhambra in Spain comes to mind too... but it wasn't... dark. Those places were designed to let light IN. This place...." She swallowed and listened to the noise echoing and distorting her voice. "Dad... it's a... necromanteion.... Where people called on the dead to give them oracles."

Indy glanced back at the fiery pit. "We don't have much time to admire the scenery, Em. The lava from the outside of Diya has probably melted everything -"

Emily knelt and touched the floor. "It's cool."

"What do you mean?" Indy moved his boot along the smooth stone floor.

"This isn't the same stone that we crawled through to get here," Emily replied, wincing at her raw skin and scraped elbows. "The passageway with the flames had pumice stones as its floor. They scraped off the top layer of my skin... even through my jacket. This is... blue... with flecks of white... like the stars in the sky." She looked at Indy. "Blue sandstone... which means underneath us, there might be some granite. Granite doesn't melt as quickly, so this is a more permanent structure. The sandstone was melted with cobalt or something similar to produce a glass."

"Blue sandstone had its origin in Venice," Indy mused. "So this is modern medieval era - which would explain the architecture."

"No, Dad. Smelting of rocks to make metals and weapons of war was an apkallu knowledge passed onto humanity." Emily looked at the strange row of white stones at the edge of the columned chamber. "These don't look like a wall. They're loose. And they're not a midden heap."

Indy picked one up. "They're smooth like quartz. A boundary?"

"I don't know. It could be," Emily considered. She moved to the edge of the line of stones.

"We should have brought more light," Indy frowned.

"That was the point, Dad. Sensory depravation." She blinked. "I know about it because of my blind eye. I had to adapt. My hearing is better on my blind side... and that's why tombs and small spaces are so awful for me. I lose the ability to use my hearing as a measurement."

"Hearing as a measurement?" Indy asked. "I never thought about it - but yeah - I was hunting an idol and one of my guides got the drop on me. I heard the pistol cock and just knew he was within whip striking distance."

"We all do that, Dad. It's how we know if we're too close to someone or something. And then my depth perception gets messed up because it needs two functioning eyes and hearing distance measurement from background noise, and the walls look like they're moving..."

Indy clapped his hands.

Emily flinched.

The echo bounced through the darkened chamber.

Emily turned him. "Dad - don't do that again without warning me. I'm in just enough pain and I've reached a sound depravation level adjustment so that noise physically hurts."

"I'm sorry, hon." He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice to create less of an echo. "What's your assessment?"

"The lava lake is making too much noise to get an accurate measurement or oracle... in the mind of the ancients. For it to be a true necromanteion there would have to be walls on every side." Her boot followed a line in the stonework. "And I think there were..."

Something groaned above them.

Indy stared at the ceiling. "Walls are coming down!"