Chapter Text
Do you seriously suppose that we were unable to prove our point when even to this day the remains of Noah's Ark are shown in the country of the Kurds?
Epiphanius of Salamis (A.D. 4th century)
June 14, 2038
Maui, Hawaii
The water was warm against her skin, just as she liked it, it's what caused her to not want to move from her position. If she so much as lifted herself only a few feet out of the tub then she'll be hit with a cold breeze and she wasn't fond of that idea, especially since this hot tub wasn't filled with too hot or too cold water and it was nighttime, but warm water that was just right.
Cassie Drake settled in the hot tub and closed her eyes as she let the water relax her muscles. There was not a care in the world as she sat in the jacuzzi, nothing to worry about. Not graduations coming up or the fact that the civil war in Italy has finally come to a conclusion, with the anti-Fascist side of the war winning.
Cassie turned twenty-four two over a week ago and she didn't feel any older but she knew that as time passed, the older she got and the closer she was to death. She calls herself immortal for practically surviving everything that was thrown at her during her adventures but she could not escape the aging process. Her lifespan was getting closer to an end as she got older and there's nothing she could do about it.
That's why I gotta live life to the fullest.
Eventually, she reached the limit of the hot tub when it lost its temperature. She sighs in dismay before climbing out, grabbing a towel that had been wrapped out of a chair, and secured it around her body, drying herself off.
Her dirty blonde hair had darkened from submerging herself for half a second and she scrubbed the towel against her hair as hard as she could.
She found this hot tub at a resort not too far from her own house. She was almost done with all of her college classes, got her credit, and was one step closer to graduating with everything she wanted. Just a few more days and she'll be graduating with her Master's and PhD in archaeology.
She had been attending the University of Hawaii in Maui for seven years and majoring in archaeology while minoring in anthropology. She has studied all kinds of archaeology: Classic, Medieval, Marine, Bible, the whole nine yards.
She took the towel with her back into the building, where the lights had been dimmed and there was only one person working at the counter. She checked the wristwatch on her right hand and saw that it was already eleven o'clock. The pool and jacuzzi are always closed around ten o'clock but the person behind the counter made an exception for her, seeing that she recognized her as the legendary Cassie Drake.
Cassie liked the sound of that. She was finally known as Cassie Drake, not 'Cassie Drake, The Daughter of Nathan Drake'. Her goal was to achieve her own legacy and she succeeded. All it took was looking for Hawaiki on Easter Island, Ultima Thule in Iceland, Atlantis in the Bermuda Triangle, the Cold Iron in Bosnia, Cleopatra and Antony's tomb in Saudi Arabia, the Philosopher's stone in France, and most recently, Scholomance in Transylvania.
Good times, Cassie thought as she made it to the elevator and pressed the button leading to her floor. Those times were fun.
As the elevator floated into the air, Cassie looked down at the ground.
And with me graduating, I'll have more free time to do that. Derek and I, we'll go on plenty more adventures.
Then she felt her heart drop to her stomach and it was not from the elevator ride.
Derek.
She touched her heart.
This burning feeling in my chest, it's only getting more persistent. Why does my heart beat so loudly whenever I think of Derek? Is it because my feelings for him are getting stronger?
The elevator stops on her floor and she departs from the elevator. She used the key which she kept hidden in her bikini top to open the door leading to her room.
She laid her towel on her bed before she went into the bathroom to grab her pajamas for the night. She turned on the shower and stripped out of her bikini.
I just went to a hot tub session but who knows what germs were in that water. Better safe than sorry.
She washed away all traces that she was in a hot tub.
After she was done, she climbed out of the shower and changed into her pajamas before turning in for the night.
The difficulty of turning in, however, was discovering that she could not sleep so easily. The sounds of her heartbeat were keeping her up. She tossed and turned, slept on one side of the bed before switching to another and she still hadn't gone to bed. She checked the wristwatch she left near her bedside table and found that it was barely twelve-thirty. She had been rolling around like crazy for the last forty minutes and was still unable to get any sleep. She had been closing her eyes and seeing darkness for what felt like forever but she eventually fell asleep.
When she woke up, she was blinded by sunlight coming from the window which reminded her that she failed to close the curtains last night.
No use crying over spilled milk.
She checked her watch.
It's eight o'clock and I have to be at school at ten.
She quickly grabbed her belongings, changed into casual clothing, checked out of the resort, and drove over to the University of Hawaii in Maui.
Her first class was classical archaeology, which she sat through like a knife through butter, learning things she had already taught herself and barely had enough time to make it to her biblical archeology class.
She pulled out her Bible and set it on the desk, already prepared for the day.
She looked over to her left to see an empty seat.
Derek doesn't have any classes with me on Tuesdays.
The professor told them to open the Book of Exodus, they were going to study the story of the Crossing of the Red Sea.
I've heard that story a bazillion times, Cassie thought. Is the legendary Cassie Drake going to die due to boredom? Well, I've seen people die in creative ways so I wouldn't be surprised. Not ideal though.
After almost two hours of listening to the old professor ramble about the Staff of Moses, Cassie finally fell asleep. Only a second later, the bell woke her up. She jumped out of her seat, taking her bible and books with her, and headed off to the third period of her routinely scheduled day: Medieval Studies
Medieval Studies, the one class everybody hates. How can Derek stand those stories about King Arthur?
That class went faster than usual and by the time she knew, it was time for lunch.
Just as she sat down at her table with a lunch tray in her hands, she was approached by two boys, one of them holding something behind his back.
"What's up?" Cassie said to the two young adults.
The duo grabbed pulled out a chair each before sitting down, the man on the left keeping whatever he was holding out of sight by hiding it under his chair.
The man on her left to her was of average height, slightly chubby, had light brown hair with bangs, blue eyes, a chiseled jaw, and appeared to be at least twenty-five.
"Cassie Drake," the man said. "It is such an honor to be able to talk to the legendary Cassie Drake herself."
Cassie shook his shaking hands.
"I see my reputation proceeds me," Cassie smiled.
"My name is Anthony Worthington."
The man on her right was a tall and skinny man with wavy red hair and brown eyes and freckles. He introduced himself as 'Albert Hurt-Watkins'.
"So what do you want?" Cassie asked. "An autograph, a picture for posterity, the answers for the quiz I took in Marine archaeology? I'm open to all of those except the last one; I have some morals."
Albert and Anthony looked at each other with hard looks before Albert picked up the object he was hiding and put it on the table.
This object looked like a treasure chest but small enough to be held with both hands. It was painted blue with Hebrew writing across all sides and on top looked to be a painting of some kind of log but upon closer inspection, she realized that log was actually a boat.
"What is this?" Cassie asked before smiling. "A birthday present?" She checked her watch. "Sorry, but my birthday passed over a week ago but I appreciate the gesture."
Albert and Anthony looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"Have you heard of Alexander Goldman's Challenge?" Albert asked.
"No. But I've heard of Alexander Goldman. He's an explorer from the early 2020s who is said to have found several pieces of mythical objects around the world."
Albert nodded. "Right, Goldman is said to have found five pieces related to mythical objects and before he passed away three years ago, he put those pieces in chests of various sizes and hid them throughout the United States with clues and riddles behind on his website to find the locations. The challenge is to find these treasure boxes and find the mythical object said thing was once a part of."
"Huh," Cassie smirked. "So everybody gets a chance to be Indiana Jones?"
"The largest of the chests was found in Washington D.C. The one we have here is the smallest on record."
Cassie picked up the small, handheld treasure chest and tried to open it until to realize that it's been locked.
"Why did you pass this on to me?" she asked. "Why not open it yourselves?"
"You see-"
Antony interrupted Albert. "We have tried to open that thing up with everything we got. We tried drilling into it, hammering into it, and even burning it but that thing is nigh-indestructible. Not even those guys in Washington D.C. could open up the big chest. So far, the only way to open the chest is to answer the riddle on the box."
Cassie shakes the box near her ear like she was hoping to hear something inside.
"And you thought I was the only one to solve the riddle." She touched her chest. "I'm flattered. But what's in it for me?"
"Whatever's inside that box," Albert said. "I don't care about finding mythical objects but you are your father's daughter."
Cassie grumbled. "In spite of that, thank you."
She looked over the treasure chest, going over every inch of it, checking for every detail to make sure she doesn't miss anything.
What mythical object could be inside? She wondered. Then again, these two guys said that Goldman found pieces belonging to various mythical objects and put them inside. Given that this is apparently the smallest chest on record, it'll probably be a stick or something but a stick to what?
She looks over the artwork on the box in hopes of getting an idea of how to solve the riddle of opening it.
A boat of some kind against the backdrop of a blue background with Hebrew written on all sides.
She flips the box to see what was on the bottom and saw seven reels that resembled the reels on a slot machine but the card symbols had been replaced with Hebrew writing.
Not a lot of people know Hebrew, she thought. Maybe I can unlock it if I spell a word in Hebrew but what word.
She starts spinning the reels absentmindedly without care, trying to see what words they spell if she had no context to begin with.
One word she managed to spell in Hebrew was 'Ark' on the first three reels
'Ark', she thought. Okay, so it's a least two words with the second word being ark because in Hebrew, the second word usually goes first and then the first word goes second. So I'm essentially reading this from right to left.
She turns the reel until the word 'Noel' turns up.
These seven letters either spell out a word with the last three letters being ark like 'bark' or ark is meant to reference a boat like the Ark of the Covenant or Noah's Ark.
Her eyes widened as she had an epiphany.
A boat, Hebrew writing, the word 'Ark', the word is 'Noah's Ark!'
She spun the reels until they spelled out 'Noah Ark'.
CLICK!
"I think I got it," she exclaimed to Anthony and Albert.
"Awesome," Albert chuckled.
"Open it!" Anthony said eagerly.
Cassie opened the chest, her heart pounding in anticipation of what could be inside.
A stick of bark.
A piece of wood about the size of a knife.
"That's it?" Cassie said with her jaw dropped. "That's what inside? A stick of wood?" She picks up the piece of wood. "How anti-climatic."
She suddenly gasps and the world around her goes dark. She loses her balance and tumbles onto the ground, landing on her ass with the piece of wood clutched tightly in her hand.
She could see nothing but a dark void as far as they eye could see but she could hear something being played over and over again in her head. At first, she was so disoriented that she couldn't make it out but once she cleared her head, she could make out the words.
Noah's Ark, Noah's Ark , Noah's Ark...
Make it stop! Cassie shouted at the voice in her mind playing like a broken record.
Must find Noah's Ark. Must find Noah's Ark. Must find Noah's Ark...
Noah's Ark? It's not real. No, the Great Flood couldn't have happened.
Noah, Noah, Noah...
Stop! Someone turn off that voice!
Cassie, you must find Noah's Ark.
No, I can't. I have school, I have work, I have graduation-
She felt herself stiffen when she saw a figure show itself before her vision. She couldn't see this person's face until they walked closer to her and kneeled, their facing closing in on hers.
"Derek?" she whispered.
Derek leaned forward, his lips getting closer to hers.
Cassie felt compelled to kiss those lips. She leaned in, her eyelids dropping until she bit her tongue and she winced.
Her vision came back to her and she suddenly became aware of her sitting on the floor, a crowd of students surrounding her, Derek Lowell himself kneeling by her side, and her face heating up.
"Cassie," Derek panicked, "are you okay?"
She was wanted to say something but she lost the will to speak when she stared into the hazel-brown orbs in his eyes.
Oh my god, Cassie thought in her mind and felt her face burn like a furnace, I almost kissed Derek.
She remembered the piece of wood she was carrying and looked down at it, staring at it like she was staring into an abyss.
What the hell did you do to me?