Pandora's Academy

by Skye MacKinnon

  We walked in silence, side by side, until the corridor turned left and transformed into a large room. Columns lined the walls, decorated with carvings. Between the columns were more torches, their crackling sound echoing through the room. In the centre was a stone pedestal and on top of it lay a... Wow.

  “I didn’t expect that,” Seamus whispered, sounding just as awestruck as I felt myself.

  I took his hand, my mind swirling. In front of us was a sarcophagus made from pure gold. The light of the flickering torches made the metal swirl and pulsate in a thousand golden hues, making it seem almost alive. It was shaped like a human body, with a head, a torso which widened where the arms would have been and narrowed towards the feet. Panels made up the sides, some of them smooth gold, others etched with intricate designs. The top was surrounded with a thin band of a brushed silver, framing the otherwise undecorated lid.

  I was having a hard time keeping my mouth closed. I’d never seen anything like it. It wasn’t just because it was a sarcophagus – I’d seen those in museums before, albeit mostly stone ones – but that it was here, beneath the Library, hidden away yet every so precious.

  “Do you think there’s a pharaoh inside?” I whispered; the atmosphere of the room too heavy to speak aloud.

  “I somehow doubt it. I bet they’re all accounted for.” Seamus was whispering too. “Maybe an important scholar. It’s strange that I’ve never heard of this underground burial place before though. You’d think archaeologists would have discovered it by now.”

  “Pandora. The riddle said Pandora is down here. Maybe she’s inside the sarcophagus?”

  Seamus looked at me strangely. “You do know that Pandora is a myth?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Earlier it was you who said that all myths are steeped in reality. Maybe we’re no longer talking about the mythical Pandora, maybe this is about an actual woman with that name.”

  “I’ve never heard of anyone called Pandora who was important enough to be buried in this way,” Seamus muttered. “Do you want to take a peek?”

  I stared at him. “You want to open it?”

  “Maybe it’s empty. As you said, the riddle led us to this room, I doubt it’s just going to end without a final message or clue.”

  He was right. It didn’t feel like we’d reached the end of our little quest yet.

  I walked around the room, making my steps as quiet as possible. This time, there were no hidden doorways; the walls were as solid as they came. No windows, no openings, no carvings on the walls and columns. The sarcophagus was the only object in the room that might tell us what to do next. It was a pity that we couldn’t decipher two of the lines on the papyrus. Maybe they explained what we were to do.

  While I’d been exploring the room, Seamus had been investigating the sarcophagus from all sides.

  "I don't see any way to open it besides pushing the lid off," he whispered. The room seemed to swallow our words, burying them in the thick stone walls.

  "Do we really want to do this? It seems wrong somehow. There might be a corpse in there."

  "The alternative is going back home. I doubt we'd ever stop wondering if we'd done the right thing by leaving the sarcophagus closed, don't you think?"

  He was right. I wanted to know what was inside too. The messages had led us here, which meant someone wanted us to find this room. Opening the sarcophagus was the only way we'd find out why.

  I squared my shoulders. "Let's do this."

  “Interesting,” a raspy voice said behind us. I whirled around, shocked to find Aristarchus of Samothrace, the Head Librarian, standing there. He smiled at my confusion. “When the guard told me that two pilgrims have entered the sarcophagus chamber, I didn’t expect it to be you. You have changed your clothes.”

  I looked down at myself, remembering that I was wearing the attire of an Egyptian Royal.

  “We-“ Seamus began but the Librarian cut him off.

  “I know you are not part of the Royal family. My memory is sharp as ever, I would have recognised you. No, you’re not from here. Who are you and who told you about the Pilgrims’ Quest?”

  “Nobody,” I blurted and Aristarchus turned to me. “We found a scroll in the public library room and deciphered the clue, and then the next, until we ended up here.”

  “You’re not from here,” he repeated. “Your Greek is strange, as if you rarely speak it.” He said something in an unfamiliar language. “No, you don’t speak Egyptian either, just as I expected. Who are you?”

  “Simple travellers,” Seamus butted in. “As my friend said, we never knew that this Pilgrims’ Quest, as you call it, exists. But now that you’re here, would you enlighten us to what the purpose if it is?”

  The Librarian laughed. “Have you not come to a conclusion about that yet?”

  “A test,” I said slowly. “It’s a test. We had to prove our knowledge of mythology, of languages, of perception. And we had to deceive the guards to get into the zoo, but I’m not sure if that was part of the test or not.”

  “Some would call it history rather than mythology,” he corrected me. “Just because you don’t believe in Pandora does not mean that nobody else does. But yes, your deduction is correct. The quest is an examination of sorts, to find only those most worthy. If you found the scroll in the public library, you missed the first clue, the one that begins the journey.”

  "What does it say?" I asked.

  "It explains the purpose of the test. Only the brightest young scholars who come here are given it, in order for them to prove how versatile their knowledge is. Once they make it to the final part, this very room, I know that they're worthy to study at the Library, the finest institution of learning in the world."

  "So there's nothing in the sarcophagus," Seamus stated with a disappointed frown.

  The Librarian chuckled. "Oh yes, there is. Would you like to see her?”

  I gaped at him. “Her? Is Pandora actually in there?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  “Whether you’re able to recognise her.”

  He didn’t make any sense. Either she was in there or not. I didn’t want to offend him though. There was still the possibility that he’d get annoyed by us and call the guards. Being taken to an Egyptian prison wasn’t on my to do list for today. Granted, neither had this trip been, but it was so much more exciting than my graduation.

  I exchanged a look with Seamus. He turned back to the sarcophagus, putting his hands on the lid. “Is there an easy way to open it?”

  The Librarian laughed again. “There is. I suppose it will be better if I show you before you damage Pandora’s Rest.”

  He stepped forward and hooked his finger underneath the lid where the head met the torso. With a click, the lid loosened, pushed up half an inch by some unseen mechanism.

  “Now push,” he instructed and both Seamus and I carefully shifted the lid to one side, just enough to peer into the sarcophagus.

  It was empty. No body, no Pandora, not even a scroll to explain the purpose of it all.

  “You lied,” I accused the Librarian, disappointment making me sound ruder than I’d intended.

  “Did I?” His smile didn’t waver. “Maybe you just haven’t looked in the right way yet. Think back to one of the clues. Sometimes, you have to look back to see what’s right in front of you.”

  He turned towards the exit. “I’ll be upstairs. Come and find me once you’ve seen her.”

  As soon as I could hear him shuffle up the stairs, I leaned over the sarcophagus, investigating the insides thoroughly. The gold was smooth and polished, reflecting the light of the fire that was illuminating the room. I twisted my hand to touch the underside of the lid. Not smooth.

  “There’s something carved on the lid,” I told Seamus. “Is there some way we can turn it over?”

  He copied my movement, brushing against my hand in the process. I met his eyes, tempted to let myself be drawn in, to ignore the quest and let him devour me with his bo
dy just like his gaze seemed to promise.

  I looked away, focusing on the task at hand. The quicker we revealed the truth behind this mysterious sarcophagus, the quicker we could spend some time together. On a bed, preferably. Away from weird scholars and ancient riddles.

  Not that I wasn’t enjoying this. It was just that Seamus was way too alluring.

  “He said something about previous parts of the clues,” Seamus muttered as he tried to lift the lid in a vertical position that would enable us to see the carving. I gripped the golden rim, joining him in his efforts. The lid was heavy, but together, we managed to slowly move it upwards, inch by inch. By the time we finally had it standing on top of the sarcophagus, my hands were slick with sweat. We could look into the whole coffin now, but it was just as empty as it had seemed before. Damn.

  The lid was a different matter, however. Carved lines were spread across the inside like a spider’s web, running from side to side, intersecting, sometimes curving around each other. There seemed no discernible pattern to the chaotic carving.

  “Any idea what this means?” I asked.

  Seamus shook his head. “I don’t see a woman on there. Nor writing or anything else that would give us a clue. It just looks like someone randomly scribbled onto it. We might be able to see more if we lay it down.”

  I nodded and we shifted the lid to the other side of the sarcophagus, then slowly lowered it so that we now had the underside at the top. The lines didn’t make any more sense than before, but at least we could now examine them properly without having to hold the lid up.

  “Alright, let’s go through the clues one by one,” I suggested. “That might help. The first woman and the final letter. We solved that one, all parts of it. Then we had the one about Pandora. The jar, filled with death and disease. How hope was the last to remain.”

  “It mentioned fire,” Seamus said slowly while running his fingers over the carved lines. “That didn’t really match the contents of the jar. Maybe we need fire to reveal the secret? Hold the lid for a moment, I’ll try it.”

  He stepped to the closest wall and took one of the torches from its holder. Shadows flickered across the room, making the atmosphere even more dramatic. The stage was set, now the big reveal could begin. I really hoped this would work. I didn’t want to leave without a resolution to our quest.

  Seamus held the torch towards the carvings, illuminating some thinner lines that I hadn’t seen before. They ran alongside the thick gashes like shadows, so fine only a needle could have produced them.

  One of them caught my eye. It curved into a delicate spiral that was wrapped around other, shorter lines. No, not lines. Letters.

  “Shine some light here, I think I’ve found something.”

  I pointed at the letters and Seamus was quick to hold the torch closer.

  “It’s a word,” he said, confirming my suspicions. “ἐλπίς. Elpis.”

  “Hope,” I whispered. “Only hope remains.”

  “And look, the final letter, sigma, is longer than it should be.” He held the torch even closer. “The little swash at the bottom turns into a curved line, but it’s so faint it’s hard to follow.”

  I thought back to the riddle. “The path is aflame. I think I know what it might mean. Seamus, try touching the line with the torch.”

  He gave me a curious look but did as I asked. As soon as the flame licked against the gold, the line exploded into silver light, sparkling as the fire raced across the pattern, illuminating some lines while leaving others dark.

  I stared at the lid with wide eyes. I hadn’t expected that. Some kind of sign, yes, but not this. There had been some kind of chemical reaction that had transformed several lines into glowing white markers.

  “Wow,” Seamus muttered breathlessly. “It’s her.”

  I frowned and stepped back to have a better view of the whole lid.

  There she was. Pandora.

  It was the glowing outline of a woman, with thick curls of hair surrounding her head. There was no face, no details, but if there’d been any doubt about who the woman was, her name was carved near her feet.

  Πᾰνδώρᾱ

  The flames hadn’t died off yet though. While Hope slowly stopped glowing and turned back to almost invisible carved lines, more words appeared on Pandora’s chest, hovering above a jar that she seemed to hold in her hands.

  I stared at the biggest word of them all. Ἀνησιδώρα. Anesidora.

  “Pandora’s second name,” Seamus explained even though I knew that already. “She who sends up gifts. Not terrible things like death and disease, but gifts for humanity from the Gods.”

  I read the other words out loud, translating them as I went along. “Knowledge. Wisdom. Courage. Humility. Passion.”

  “Her gifts.” Seamus’s voice was slightly choked. “We’ve made it, Laura. We’ve found Pandora and her jar. And I think I get it now. The people who want to become scholars at the Library should possess these virtues, so if they manage to find their way here, find Pandora and return upstairs, they’ve been sent up by her. Pandora’s gift to the Great Library. The best of the best.”

  I couldn’t suppress a smile at the awe in his words. I was feeling exactly the same, merged with a strange sense of accomplishment and pride. I stepped around the sarcophagus and into Seamus’s arms. We’d made it. We’d solved the riddle and we’d come out different people at the end. We’d started as teacher and student, now we were… what, exactly?

  His lips brushed against my forehead. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter 3

  We didn’t land in his office where we’d started. No, we ended up in his bathroom. I wanted to ask him whether he’d planned that or whether his time bracelet was malfunctioning, but a wave of nausea hit me, and I pressed my hand against the tiled wall to steady me. And hit a button. And got drenched by cold, freezing water.

  I squealed, my nausea gone in an instant, replaced by shock as I tried to get away from the iciness pouring down on me. How the hell had we ended up in his shower?!

  Seamus didn’t scream, nor did he say anything at all. He captured me in his arms, holding me, refusing to let me go. Keeping one arm wrapped around my chest, he used the other to turn the shower dial to make the water warmer.

  “If you wanted to see me naked, you should have asked,” he whispered into my ear, making a shiver run down my back. His voice was molten honey and sexy as sin, promising things I wasn’t sure I’d be ready for. No, who was I kidding. I was ready for him. I had been for a long time. Two millennia, actually, plus a few centuries. Travelling through time together had forged a bond that I didn’t quite have a name for. Something special. Something that I needed to explore.

  "Then I'm asking now. Take off your clothes."

  His eyes turned dark as he took me in. If he was surprised by my brazen order, he didn't show it. Slowly, his lips curved into a smirk, before he unzipped the top of his suit and pushed it down, ripping off his shoes and stepping out of the jumpsuit. He wasn't wearing any underwear. Damn that guy. How could a teacher be this gorgeous? It really was criminal.

  I resisted the urge to run my hands over his hard chest. Instead, I simply devoured him with my eyes, taking in every detail, every inch of his perfect body. In my mind, I imagined how it would feel to touch him. How his smooth abs would feel beneath my hands. Warmth spread between my legs as my gaze lowered from his chest to his abdomen and further down to his hard, erect cock. The way he held himself was so unlike the boys I'd been with at the Academy. He was a man. He was confident in his own skin and he didn't need to flaunt his assets like other guys. He was so perfect.

  "Your turn," he whispered huskily.

  I met his eyes, forcing myself to draw my gaze from his cock.

  I gave him what I hoped was a sultry smile and unzipped my soaked suit, slowly drawing down the zipper without taking my eyes off him. My breasts spilled from the suit and I couldn't help but smile when he sucked in a sharp breath. I hadn't realised how re
stricting the suit had been and now that it was hanging around my hips, I rolled my shoulders and arched my back.

  "If you continue doing that, I'll take you right here, right now," he groaned, his eyes fixed on my breasts. Because the suit had been so tight, I hadn't put on a bra, which I was rather glad about now. The way he looked at me made me feel desirable. Hot. Sexy. I'd never felt that way before. With him, I was at ease in my nakedness, not embarrassed in the slightest. On the contrary, I wanted to show him more of me, all of me.

  I pushed the suit all the way down to the wet floor and stepped out of it. My panties were instantly drenched, but admittedly, they were already a little wet and that had nothing to do with the shower and everything with having a naked man standing very close to me. His smell filled the air, musky and alluring. I needed him.

  "Touch me."

  My voice was hoarse with need, but he didn't move. Just stared. I shivered despite the warm water pouring down on us. I'd never wanted anyone the way I craved Seamus.

  "Please," I added, almost begging.

  He reached out slowly, twirling one of my nipples between his fingers. I moaned as fire raced through my body, igniting my core.

  "If we do this now, I won't be able to hold back. It will be hard and fast. I won't be gentle. Are you ready for that?"

  His words turned my insides into lava.

  I met his eyes. "Yes. I need you."

  "What do you need me to do?"

  I felt a blush spread on my already flushed cheeks as I realised he wanted me to spell it out for him. Talk dirty.

  "Fuck me. I want you to fuck me."

  I'd never said that to anyone. For a moment, he didn't respond. His fingers stopped twirling my nipple in that delicious way. Had I done something wrong?