Bathed Silver in Mercury

I. Elerie and Nick

Doctor Elerie Taylor had always been drawn to the 'otherworldly' the beyond, had always felt its pull. She believed wholeheartedly in the supernatural and had been searching for answers her whole life.

A couple-hundred years ago she would have probably been called a witch and burned at the stake for her doings, investigating spells and rituals, visiting mystical sights. Her ex-husband, when they were still together, used to jokingly call her a witch as she 'meddled with magic'.

She'd always had this strange sensation when visiting places of the past - a strong feeling of presence other than the life around her. Who then, was it she sensed? What was it? The dead? Perhaps. Either way she had always felt a strong connection to the ancients. It was hard to explain, but basically she summarized it as having some sort of reassurance that there was something more, something beyond.

Could she speak with ghosts? No, but she could sense them, their presence. That of civilizations and worlds long since passed. But despite possessing this 'gift', she still had many questions and not enough answers.

Following her divorce she was in a dark place and worked with whatever artifacts she could. She hadn't gone out into the field much, leaving that to her colleagues, who would go conduct the excavations and digs and then bring the findings back to the museum to be examined - besides, she had always been a bit against removing the items from their hiding or burial places. They had been put there for a reason, why disrupt it?

This was how she met Doctor Jenny Halsey who worked as an archaeologist through the Natural History Museum in London and she offered Elerie a job. Some may think that someone like her, so deeply engaged in the supernatural, myths, and magic, wouldn't be working at a museum of natural history, a place of scientific fact. But it was from there that she could conduct her investigations, alongside her new friend and colleague. The strange 'gift' of hers had helped lead them to some of the greatest findings of their careers - ancient manuscripts covered in spells and symbols, slabs of broken stone bearing carved rituals. All with connections to something beyond, and once fully examined Jenny would take them to her department of 'special collections'.

And then everything changed. She was brought back out into the field.

"Just think, El," Jenny had told her before her departure. "This could be it."

Now here she was, all the way in Iraq, searching for what could be their greatest find yet. Finding the lost tomb of an ancient cursed princess whose existence had tried to be erased from history itself would prove everything she believed, prove there really was something else out there beyond what they already knew - what they thought they knew.

Below the helicopter stretched seemingly endless desert. As the chopper neared the golden ground, the uneasy feeling deep within the pit of Elerie's stomach swelled, something that always happened when she was following the trail of some supposedly enchanted antiquity. With it was the feeling that they were about to discover something truly great, but she had yet to discover what.

At last they touched down by an abandoned, ransacked village, and the archaeologist emerged into the beating sun.

She was, however, not alone.

Someone had been waiting for her.

—-------------------------

"Sergeant Morton, Corporal Vail, come in."

"Colonel Greenway, Sir."

"We have reports of a capture, and based on the coordinates you two are closest to it."

"Capture of what, Sir?"

"Who. A British archaeologist, a Dr. Elerie Taylor-"

Both Nick and Chris's heads shot up and their gazes met.

"No way!" cried Chris.

"Is there trouble, gentlemen?"

"No, Sir," Nick was quick to say, though his mind was racing. Hell, his heart was racing. Ellie, she was out there. She was in danger.

"Dr. Taylor's been captured by a group of armed insurgents. They obviously didn't like her snooping around. I'm sending you the location now, get her out of there."

"Yes, Sir."

The comms line went dead.

"Oh God," sighed Chris. "This is bad."

Nick was inclined to agree. "Jesus Ellie, what did you get yourself into this time?"

(I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and introduction to my character! Thanks so much for reading!)