Chapter Nine
OuroborosChapter Nine
This was all too much. Just way too much information, way too much insanity and completely impossible. She was listening to this stranger she had just met and her best friend talk like they had known each other for years; be close to each other like they were family. Their stories and conversations were completely in sync and no matter how she looked at it they knew all of each other’s idiosyncrasies. At this point, believing that this was some crazy ploy to mess with her or that two strangers would have gone insane together was equally unbelievable than what they were proposing to her; that they were reincarnated souls of Sisters’.
As a result, here she was, skulking together with the two in the gardens of the public historical buildings of Istanbul trespassing on private property. What had she gotten herself into? How did she end up in this situation? As the crime duo that had dragged her into this courtyard faffed with something up ahead of her, Jihyo’s thoughts drifted into her recent memory of what had happened earlier that day.
After their meet up by the statue of St. Felicia and the outlandish confession of Momo that she and Jeongyeon were Sisters, they had retreated from the garden back to Jeongyeon’s rented apartment that was just across the street.
Over dinner Jihyo had been very quiet and while Momo kept a conversation going with Jeongyeon and tried to include Jihyo in the conversation, it had all been too weird and awkward for her so she was unable to really contribute. Conscious of this both Momo and Jeongyeon were considerate and didn’t dive into a conversation of their own, instead they ate mostly in silence.
It wasn’t until after dinner when they were all sat on the couch of Jeongyeon’s room drinking wine and waiting for midnight, that Jihyo finally opened up to question more about what this was all about, what on earth did they mean with all this? Momo and Jeongyeon explained together, about the existence of a Cycle that started from the sealing of their mother into the void out of mortal realms. How the rest of their Sister’s and The Lock existed and the sacrifice they had to give each Cycle to keep their mother from returning to the world.
This sounded like bad fiction to Jihyo, but the wine that they were drinking loosened the mouth that had been locked tight at first and soon she was talking in equal measure and bravely asking questions. She didn’t really believe them consciously but maybe in her heart she already knew that whatever they were telling her was the truth. Or maybe her mind and heart hoped that it was the truth; that there was more to life and the world than being a secretary to a chaebol lady of a company, and that souls could have a life of their own.
It wasn’t until Jeongyeon and Momo started to speak in all the different languages they knew that Jihyo’s mind was completely thrown off the tracks of reality and she made the first conscious concession towards the possibility that all of this was the truth. They spoke in so many languages, most of them unknown to her and probably dead by now. They wrote down on paper in the languages they knew had an established form of writing; not all had a writing system, particularly the really old ones.
When Momo started jotting down a sentence in Sumerian cuneiform Jihyo had reached her limit and pulled back from the table with wide eyes and hands on her head, standing up and walking away from the table.
Both Momo and Jeongyeon noticed and stopped their writing and chatter, Momo immediately getting up to follow Jihyo to the big bay windows at one end of the apartment, the windows that had a view of the street and the statue where all of this had started. A few streetlamps barely illuminated the now otherwise completely dark street and nobody was walking outside; this street was out of the way to not get regular foot traffic.
“This is just absurd you know, downright insane and crazy. I wouldn’t normally believe it but it’s you and here I was slowly finding myself accepting all this nonsense and…” Jihyo stopped to look at Momo, “it’s scary. I’m terrified to believe this. Does it make me insane to believe it?”
Seeing the tremble in Jihyo’s bright big eyes moved Momo to engulf her in a hug and hold her for a while in silence. Illuminated by the moonlight of the clear cloudless sky they stood by the window basking in its beautiful haunting glow. Stars weren’t visible due to the extreme light pollution of the city of many millions, but the moon was clear and bright; a moon that would have been the same a hundred years ago as it was today.
“It doesn’t make you insane,” Momo whispered into Jihyo’s ear. “At most it makes you trusting of your friend. I know this is a lot to take in and believe, I don’t expect you to believe it at all to be honest. But know that I’m not lying and I need to keep going forward with Jeongyeon.”
Jihyo nodded and turned to look at Momo who loosened her hold on Jihyo a little but held her in her embrace. “If you don’t want to you don’t have to accompany us, but I would prefer if I could do all of this with you. I’d rather have you with me by my side, and who knows; maybe we can uncover a little bit more proof to bring you enough clarity to hopefully accept this.”
Squeezing Momo tight in return, Jihyo would give Momo at least that much trust. To believe in her heart that her best friend wasn’t deceiving her and to at least follow her and be there for her wherever this weird adventure she had embarked on would take them, even if she herself didn’t fully believe in it.
They had all sat back and finished their wine while Jeongyeon and Momo revealed the next step of their plan. The reason they had waited and stayed up so late at night was that they needed to sneak into the internal garden of the old ruins of the Byzantine Hippodrome that was locked for the night. Jihyo had wondered why they couldn’t do that in the day but her protest had been light and soon they found themselves standing outside the walls of the hippodrome at a quieter side road looking at the locked fence. Without a second thought Momo and Jeongyeon had waited for the perfect opportunity and climbed over the fence, Jeongyeon flinging her bag over first and leaving Jihyo flabbergasted and scrambling to follow their sudden trespass.
Hunched and hugging the shadows cast by the overbearing and jagged edges of the ancient walls, the three quietly moved along the yard further in. In general there wasn’t anything of real value in here that could be stolen, but it was now connected to a university so the gates were closed for the night. There wouldn’t be any guards inside the courtyards however.
Making their way through the outer wall Jeongyeon and Momo guided Jihyo with knowing steps as if this route was something they had taken many times before. Whispering quietly on a few occasions Momo pointed out details of the ruins to Jihyo that any lay person, especially at night, would be unable to know and see.
Walking through a side gate they continued for a very short while along the inner wall before tucking into a side courtyard, one that appeared unusually reclusive and unimpressive with a single door to the back of it and one end of it slightly open with the rock hill forming a natural barrier to its surroundings. To Jihyo’s surprise there was another statue of the same St. Felicia she had seen earlier that day at the ruins of the church by Jeongyeon’s apartment. It was a lot more weathered than the first one they had seen and stood at the back of this courtyard by the natural rocky hill on a larger plinth that tucked away little nooks and hideouts into the side.
They all stopped by the statue, Jihyo standing in front of it admiring while Momo and Jeongyeon disappeared to the side of the statue.
“Do you really think the mechanism still works and the way is open?” Momo asked Jeongyeon as they observed the worn side of one of the little hideouts created by the extra large plinth.
“Well it damn well better. The priory entrance was purposely blocked so if this doesn’t work then we might have to get real dirty,” Jeongyeon replied giving a knowing look of disgust as she finished her sentence.
“Ugh not the sewers, I hate the sewer entrance. Can’t we use the water cistern entrance instead? Or even the Hagia entrance?” Momo whined leaning on the cool rock by the statue.
“I think we blocked those too, we’ll see. Besides out of those this is the easiest to access so help me out here so we can stay clean. I doubt this has been used in over a century so the slot appears to be stuck.”
Momo perked up and approached the side of the plinth where Jeongyeon was huddled in, the structure constructed from larger solid pieces of marble. The two put their hands on one of them and began to push the stone in and to the left. Sweat beads forming almost instantly the two huffed and grumbled as they pushed with all their force, feeling only the tiniest of movements under their hands.
Jihyo woke up from her daydream of memory and statue staring, and rounded the plinth to find the two pushing at the statue. “What are you-”
“Hey Jihyo, come here and help push. Come, come, come!” Momo hurried her, Jihyo immediately spurring into action at the request of her friend. She didn’t know what was going on but was there ready to help, walking over and placing her hands next to Jeongyeon and Momo’s on the marble slab.
“Now, push!” Momo said and they gave their all pushing onto the stone, seeing dust begin to drop from the edges of the slab and then they felt it lurch, Jihyo completely taken by surprise. For a moment she forgot to push before realizing this and returning to help with the effort. The stone moved and slowly was beginning to sink further into the plinth before it completely sunk in and tucked slightly inside behind the slab to its left.
Jihyo took a few wobbly steps back in surprise as the whole side of the plinth they had been pushing upon began to shift ever so slightly, the stone dragging against stone creating a low grinding sound that rumbled in their ears. Surprisingly quickly it had moved inwards to reveal an opening with ladders leading down into darkness.
“We really need to oil that, it makes too much noise,” Jeongyeon remarked with a cheeky grin as she clamoured down the ladder squeezing just about through the hole with her backpack.
“It’s been a hundred years since its last oiling, forgive it a little,” Momo said turning to look over at Jihyo standing behind them. “Go after Jeongyeon, I’ll go last to ensure the door closes properly.”
Walking carefully to the opening Jihyo looked down the dark shaft hearing the steps that descended in a measured pace before a solid echo bounced up to her ears. An electric lantern lit up at the bottom with Jeongyeon’s smiling face illuminated looking up and waving to Jihyo. “Come, the ladders are solid stone so it's safe to come down!”
Behind her Momo encouraged Jihyo to go and she looked down the hole once again able to see the steps a little with the aid of the lantern not five metres or so down below. She sighed to herself and turned around sticking her first foot in, Momo being close at hand to assist with the first few steps.
Moving down Jihyo could feel the cold stone outcroppings that formed the ladder under her hands, smoothed over the years of use but with ridged edges to help with grip holding. It also descended down at a slight angle between five to ten degrees so the descent wasn’t completely vertical, making it easier for Jihyo to lean in on the ladders when she felt unsure of her step making the climb down a lot safer.
At the bottom Jeongyeon was ready to receive her and placed her hands gently on Jihyo’s back for the last few steps until she finally landed safely on solid ground at the bottom. Momo’s head was peeking through the entrance hole looking down and beamed a smile when Jihyo landed. The two at the bottom looked up to see Momo’s head disappear for a moment before two legs poked inside and after a few steps of descent stopped.
“Turn on the closing mechanism, I’ll wait here to make sure it closes properly,” Momo said standing up on the ladder high above them just low enough to allow the entrance slab slide back into place.
To the left of the bottom of the ladder in a little nook there was a metal gear mechanism with a crank which Jeongyeon walked over to and attempted to push. A grating grinding noise and a few dodgy sounding clicks echoed and boomed in the hollow corridor before the crank slowly and painfully moved forward.
“Need a hand?” Jihyo asked moving next to Jeongyeon. The latter nodded and together they pushed harder managing to crank it a few more times before it stopped and locked into place, the grating seized and above them slowly they could hear stone move.
“It’s rising up! I’ll give it a little assistance if it gets stuck on the slide,” Momo chimed down to the two who watched as the entrance slab slowly rose up and before long was slanted at an angle to slide down back to the entrance. With the same grinding of stone and screeching the slab made its crawl to the entrance and finally with a little assistance from Momo clicked into place, closing the way they had entered. She then hurriedly climbed down the ladder to join Jihyo and Jeongyeon at the bottom.
“Levers and cranks. Electricity wasn’t really a thing back then and we needed something sturdy and reliable to last well over a century,” Jeongyeon explained to Jihyo before turning around with her lantern to walk down the tunnel that opened behind them; a rock tunnel that had most of its jagged edges smoothed and covered in white concrete render for stability. It winded down and further in for some twenty metres before it made a sharp turn to the left.
It took Jihyo a moment to realize just what had transpired in the last hour. They had snuck into the ancient Hippodrome of the Byzantines, found a remote courtyard with a peculiar statue, opened a secret door on the side of said statue that worked using some fancy old machinery and technology. What Momo and Jeongyeon had told her earlier that night had been all talk, now there was some very compelling physical evidence to that talk. Maybe they didn’t have quite as many screws loose in the head as she had initially thought.
Jeongyeon lead the pack with her lantern which lit their way brightly around five metres ahead of them, the uneven rock wall casting long ominous shadows both ahead and behind them. Reaching the end of the corridor where it turned left the rock walls changed to large stone blocks and bricks as before them opened up a large underground hall. It had a vaulted ceiling with decorated ribs and pillars at equal distances across the space to support the vaulted roof.
Their first steps into the hall echoed in the empty space, the lantern light casting deep shadows from the pillars creating narrow streaks of light that disappeared into the far dark corners of the room, beyond what Jihyo could see. The air was rough and parched , coarse and a little dusty as their steps kicked up the century old dirt from the ground. This place had been entombed for a long time; perhaps even the century that Momo and Jeongyeon claimed it to be. She could believe that much at least.
“How big is this?” Jihyo asked, her voice immediately sending a loud echo through the hall, lingering in the silence that followed her words.
“This hall is about twenty by ten metres or so. There are a few more rooms; a few bedrooms, a library, a kitchen, equipment storage, large pantry.”
Their steps carried them further into the room the echo marking their steps. The lantern light illuminated the probably rather fragile and hollow chairs and tables that were still standing. Some of the canvas on the chairs had withered and been eaten by creatures and bugs, but overall the century had been surprisingly kind to this place. There were no signs that the dust had been disturbed recently, so Jeongyeon and Momo had to have known about this location before visiting it for the first time.
“So what is this place?”
“It’s our old headquarters from the last Cycle. This is where we spent our last months before the final fight,” Momo said walking off to the side to take a peek into one of the side rooms. The door was unhinged with rust but the beds were mostly standing with basic cupboards and shelves for equipment.
“You built this all?”
“No, the halls were all pre-existing, we just repurposed it,” Jeongyeon said walking to the furthest reaches of the back towards a smaller room. “It was built as a secret hideout for royalty during the Isaurian dynasty but was long forgotten since then. I found it in my youth and kept it a secret so I had a place to go hide and disappear. It came in handy when our old headquarters were found and burned down.”
“How long ago was that? Burned down? Where?” Both Jeongyeon and Momo were speaking about these things and their past life so naturally that even Jihyo forgot her scepticism for a few moments as she asked for clarification. It was very compelling.
“I think the building of these was started sometime in the 750AD? Completed by Empress Irene of Athens before she was deposed and sent into exile,” Jeongyeon said giving a smile to Momo who chuckled along. There was a story hidden behind that name as well.
“Our old headquarters were in Vienna. We were discovered by the Cult and had to flee. We had already used this space a little by then and had set it up as a background hideout, but the escape from Vienna was a hectic and dangerous one,” Momo continued the explanation as she stopped to look over at the side rooms while Jeongyeon and Jihyo reached the little room in the corner of the grand hall.
Momo had taken her phone out and with its flashlight she swung by the other rooms, seeing the conditions of the kitchen, the other bedrooms and finally the library. It had been filled with books and papers, all the research they had done about the previous Cycle and the location of the final encounter. They spoke of the ritual to open The Door; or in the case of the Eternal Ladies, how to Lock the door.
On the table she could see piles of what looked like paper under mounds of dust and she carefully lifted a few up to see what they were. Dust spilled everywhere and Momo coughed a few times before focusing her phone light on the paper to read the text. It was an older Arabic text regarding one of the Cult’s ritual sites.
“Hey look at that, all the documents are here and have not rotten away. The dry air kept them safe although they are a bit fragile,” Momo chimed from the room and looked over her shoulder to see neither of her two companions close by. From the corner of the hall the lantern light betrayed their location so Momo walked over to them. “You hear?”
“Yes, that is really good news indeed,” Jeongyeon said from deeper within the room as she was lifting up a larger piece of furniture while Jihyo stood back holding the lantern. “Help me out with this Momo.”
Pocketing her phone Momo moved to assist Jeongyeon and together they moved a huge piece of what looked like a table top, now a little broken and hollow but still a hefty piece of wood. The dust and cobwebs took flight and filled the room as the two tipped the table over onto the floor, the loud crash and torrent of particulates left them squinting their eyes and coughing until the dust mostly settled.
What was revealed under the table was a large steel safe, a good metre by metre in size. It wasn’t showing much in the way of age, wear or tear and stood resolute under the table that they had just turned over, even after the table had broken down from age.
“Well would you look at that it’s still here. This is great!” Jeongyeon said all pumped up with excitement Momo quickly following her to the safe door.
“How did you know there was a safe… never mind,” Jihyo asked before knowing exactly what the answer was. This was their safe when they lived their previous lives hundred years ago so of course they would know it's here.
“Remember the code still?” Momo asked, only partially remembering the combination herself. She wasn’t the best with remembering numbers.
“Of course.”
Jeongyeon knelt down and began to rotate the combination, a very long series of rotations and numbers, Jihyo counted it to be a good eight digits long. There must have been something very precious in here to have such a long combination and a big safe.
Before Jihyo could wonder further what might be inside, the lock clicked loudly and Jeongyeon turned the handle to open the safe door which creaked a little from the years of disuse and lack of oil. Jihyo was left astonished that they knew the code and had managed to open this old safe, before the contents almost sent her reeling over.
“Wonderful, it's all here.”
There were stacks of folders on the top shelf, lots of folders and rolled up pieces of paper. Some looked like bank notes and other very formal looking documents. On the bottom shelf there were small bars of gold stacked high and wide along with huge stacks of Ottoman five lira banknotes and pouches of gold lira coins. The currency was of little more than historical value, but the gold was a different story.
“Jihyo, how much would you say the market price for one of these one kilogram gold bullions is currently?” Momo asked with a wide cheeky grin on her face as she walked up to her friend and threw her arms around Jihyo’s shoulders.
Even though Jihyo lived in affluence as the secretary of Momo and saw huge transactions of money being made in the company bank accounts, Momo was certain that Jihyo had never seen this much gold and physical wealth in one place. It left her friend completely in shock and awe, unable to really respond.
“I… I don’t… the last I checked gold was at around 1414 dollars an ounce. So that puts a kilogram price of…” Jihyo mentally counted for a short moment and stopped talking as the price of the single gold bar hit her.
“Approximately what?” Jeongyeon turned around to look at the completely baffled friend of Momo.
“45 000 dollars, or over 50 million won. Just how many of them do you have there?” Jihyo began to count the bars sitting in the safe, “fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighte-... I think, I think I need to sit down.”
Picking up some of the documents and papers from the top shelf of the safe, Jeongyeon got up and walked over to lean closer to the lantern light that Jihyo was holding in a daze. Momo walked over to have a look at the papers too.
“It’s good that we have this gold, means I don’t have to use my personal funds and raise suspicion or worry from my family,” Momo said as she glanced over the first paper. Jeongyeon looked over at her Sister with a smirk before Momo doubled up on her explanations, “Not that I mind using my own money, of course not. Just better to have an untraceable source of income that’s all.”
“I know, silly,” Jeongyeon gave a little shove before showing her document, “look at this. The deed to your manor by Ferto Lake. Think it still exists? We could sell it for more cash flow.”
“Oh wow, I completely forgot that was here. Do you think we can claim it and sell it? It’ll be hard to prove I’m the owner, or that any of us are, even with the deed. I don’t exactly look like the locksmiths of Lakatos that I used to be.”
“We could try to forge your identity for it.”
“Too much hassle. We have enough gold here anyway.”
“True.”
Silence fell over the three; Jeongyeon and Momo shifting through the documents in the lantern light while Jihyo ran loops in her head trying to make sense of all of this. The turning and shuffling of pages was the only sound in this small underground room, and as time went on the dry oppressive air was getting to Jihyo. Her mind being thoroughly confused might have been a factor to further exacerbate this sensation and difficulty breathing.
Leaning on the wall Jihyo stared at Jeongyeon and Momo as they rifled through their stacks of paper standing next to each other, quipping once in a while with a joke and enjoying each other’s presence. She had seen so much tonight. Heard them speak and write foreign languages, ones that Jihyo was pretty darn certain Momo had never learned on her own. They had snuck into a secret passage in the hippodrome knowing exactly how to get here and then Jeongyeon had immediately walked to the location where the safe was, unlocking it with the long combination.
Even though it was healthy to be sceptical she had been shown so much that what Momo and Jeongyeon were claiming could be possible. Of course all the things they had done tonight could also be done by someone who wasn’t a reincarnated soul, but would Momo lie to her like this? She had never lied to Jihyo.
completely dry from the air, Jihyo began to cough feeling the sandy air get stuck at the roof of , making it difficult to swallow.
“Hey you alright?” Momo walked over to Jihyo concerned about her cough and more generally about all the confusing thoughts and information that were running in her head.
For many lifetimes after another Momo had been forced to explain who she really was to friends and loved ones so all of this was a familiar procedure, but never an easy one. As Eternal Ladies they very rarely had any evidence to show and explain the truth of the matter and their reason for existence, except for their language and other skills that their expanded memory and mind gifted them over several lifetimes. The fact that this time they were able to go back to gather physical evidence from the previous Cycle was a very rare treat indeed.
“It’s just the air; it’s really dry and dusty. I’m fine.”
“Jeongyeon, let’s take what we can now and read them back at your place,” Momo said looking back at her Sister.
“Wha- oh right. Sure. Do you think we can carry all the gold out now or…?”
“I’m fine hones-” Jihyo tried to explain getting cut off by Momo who embraced her in a hug.
“Shush now, we are leaving. It’s late anyway,” Momo chimed at Jihyo, turning back to Jeongyeon, “We’ll come back for the rest later. Our bags will rip open if we try to take them all.”
“That… that is true. We still need to figure out how to cash these out anyway.”
“Jihyo might be able to help with that,” Momo said smiling and looking at her friend who nodded, trying to hold back the coughs that were about to come out but failing miserably, her whole body shaking along with the mute coughs.
“Okay, that’s enough we are going. Jeongyeon grab what you can from the gold and files and I’ll take these. Let’s see if the cistern or church exit is open. Sewers are last resort.”
Bagging the files, papers and eight gold bars the three made their way to the kitchen. The stoves were cold; all dry ingredients that had been hanging from the roof line were long gone leaving empty knots on the line. Old plates, pots and pans were strewn about, the kitchenware looking as you would expect century old equipment to look like. The stoves and ovens however were original from when this secret hideout with its tunnels was first built.
At the back corner of the room there was a little nook that hid behind it a whole other corridor. Jeongyeon in the lead with the lantern was followed by Jihyo and Momo bringing up the rear. The corridor was narrow and they had to move single file within it, the lantern light not really reaching behind Jeongyeon as her body blocked most of the reflections.
After a short minute of moving it opened up a little to a small room. To the right the corridor continued further into darkness and straight ahead there were steps down to a small pool of water with a few larger pipes bringing more of it in to keep the water fresh and moving. It was the source of clean drinking water in this underground abode. Over the years the water level had risen probably due to some blockage down the exit drain pipes. It had raised so much so that it was close to the top of the steps meaning that the narrow corridor passages leading to the cistern exit would also be partially submerged.
“That… looks like a wet route. Let’s see if the church exit is open. If not we will have to get wet,” Jeongyeon said leading on to the second corridor that continued off to the side.
“Still better than the sewers,” Momo chimed as she urged Jihyo forward.
This second narrow corridor continued similarly in the darkness for a little longer, possibly a good three to four hundred metres before they arrived at another small room with a few smaller boxes and jars in the back. Jeongyeon moved a few of these to reveal metal bars covering a hole a metre in height and half in width.
Jeongyeon crouched down and switched the light on her lantern to focus straight forward like a flashlight and peered in. “The way isn’t blocked! I was certain we did block it… or maybe we were going to but didn’t have time.”
“I think that’s it. We probably intended to but never got around to it,” Momo replied before she shuffled past Jihyo to be by Jeongyeon’s side by the hole.
They both placed their hands on each side of metal cross bars and with a heave lifted them up. The individual bars themselves were at most a centimetre in thickness, so the whole contraption was easy enough for two people to lift. At first it moved at a snail's pace, stuck a little from years of disuse, but finally it shifted up high enough for them to pull the bars out. There were little grooves and streaks in the stone ground that showed the path where the bars had been pulled many times before.
Placing the metal bar grate to the side, Jeongyeon was the first to crawl inside the hole, crouching and moving slowly ahead. Momo and Jihyo watched her move until they saw that the light disappeared from the hole on the other side into something more open.
Jeongyeon had reached through into a small room part of a larger ancient cellar. The hole she had come through was down in a lower section below the main walkway and hidden out of sight and view. The cellar had been integrated as part of the modern sewage system, new pipes having been laid to run through the area and to supply services to the church above. To her right she could see the steps up to a modern door.
Switching her light back from a flashlight to the lantern mode to illuminate the whole room, Jeongyeon placed it on the ground a little to the side of the hole and peered back through. “It’s clear, you can come through.”
The next to go through was Jihyo, Momo being the last to come as she pulled a few of the jars to give a little cover before sliding the metal bars back into place to block the route. Both of them managed through in quick order and once they were in the cellar Jeongyeon made her way up the steps to the more modern metal door. It was run down and in poor condition, and locked.
“Let me get this,” Jeongyeon said, pulling out a little pouch from which she revealed a set of little metal tools. Lock picks. With ease she picked the lock and carefully opened the door to make sure their coast was clear. It opened into a front courtyard of ruins that sat lower from the park and ground level above. They all shuffled out quietly and Jeongyeon closed the door behind them.
Crouched and stealthy they walked along the edge of the ruins and pillars, to their right the huge hulking mass of the Hagia Irene church shadowing their movements. Peeking out onto the park grounds both Momo and Jeongyeon made sure that there was nobody in sight and the coast was clear. They were now within the Topkapı Palace grounds and would have to sneak out once more.
Staying in the shadows as much as possible, the three sneaked across the green park to reach a section of wall to walk in its shadow. As they reached this section the hill that the palace and church sat upon began to slant down towards the sea. With this the buildings and trees were cleared from their view and the night city opened up to them with millions of lights across the Bosporus channel flickering in the dark. It was a sight to behold; and it was unfortunate they couldn’t stay there to admire them.
Carefully speeding down the hill there were further ruins part of the old Byzantine palace grounds but these were less blocked off and guarded than the more recent Ottoman palaces and buildings. Surprisingly easily they slipped through the courtyards and walls not encountering a single person before reaching the waterfront. Once again vaulting over a fence once the coast looked clear they found themselves right by the water of the Bosporus channel, the water bank having been modernized with pedestrian paths, some benches and trees to make the place more accessible.
There were street lamps illuminating the road at regular intervals so the three crossed the street over to the waterfront to enjoy the slight breeze in the otherwise oppressively warm night. Sitting down by the very water on large stones they took a breath of fresh air, a stark difference to the oppressive dusty interior of their old headquarters and the mouldy interior of the cellar and sewer waters.
The city twinkled as the millions of home lights took the role of the stars in the night sky, since the real stars were not visible within the city due to its light polluted sky. The water lapped against the pier side and a few lights bobbed up and down in the water, the late night ferry traffic carrying the last of the night’s passengers across. In the centre of the water they could see Kız Kulesi, Maiden’s Tower, a small island that conjured stories of love lost and found, while to their left the top peak and edges of the Galata Tower basked in the darkness of the surroundings.
“That was… exciting,” Jihyo let out a gasp. She had never trespassed on property let alone public locations that were fenced off and guarded. It was both exhilarating and scary and Jihyo was shocked to have found herself so easily and readily following Momo and Jeongyeon into these illicit activities.
“You did great!” Momo said happily to Jihyo who had by now loosened up in her composure and was feeling more alive than she had in awhile. All of this had turned into an exciting adventure and for just a moment she forgot all about the crazy revelations of Momo and Jeongyeon.
The salt from the Bosporus channel water filled their nostrils and brought different images and memories to each of the resting ladies; Jihyo thought about the mud flats of Boryeong where she had spent many of her childhood days picking clams, oysters and octopus. She loved the sea and her mind that had been shocked by the revelations of the day and her lungs that had been constricted by the dusty air underground now felt free in the sea air. She could always escape to the sea.
Momo thought of her life as a Pacific Islander almost a thousand years ago. As the chieftain's daughter she had been forced to learn sailing but was equally restricted from engaging in it. She remembered how her brothers and cousins of the tribe had snuck her out with them to sail the island and seas. Those days she had been so free, flying across the water and fighting one of the strongest forces of nature; typhoons. Fighting it, surviving, and then after once again battling another cosmic war against the Cycle. For Momo it was one of the most enjoyable of her past lives.
Jeongyeon, who was reaching levels of relaxation she hadn’t in a long while was reminded of the time she lived a life of piracy in the Aksumite Empire. How they had robbed merchants, almost always bloodless as most merchants preferred their lived and they didn’t like murdering people. How the navy of the Aksumite King and Roman Legions had set an ambush on them one day and her ship had sunk. She had managed to survive and swim ashore, found her crew once again and raided another merchant ship. In the middle of that raid which had unfortunately turned violent her soul had awoken mid battle. Now that had been a rude awakening.
“It’s beautiful here,” Jihyo whispered, dabbing her forehead from the sweat with the handkerchief she had with her.
“How are you feeling?” Momo asked as she took a sip of her water offering it to Jihyo.
“Better, a lot better. I…” Jihyo looked at her friend with her round pleading eyes. She was like a puppy lost in the confusing revelations of tonight. “I’m not sure what to believe still but I think you aren’t completely insane at least.”
“Well, that’s a start. Take the time you need to figure it out. If you find it’s too hard to accept that is totally fine and understandable. I’ll still be your best friend and love you all the same,” Momo said, giving Jihyo a little hug before looking over at her Sister Jeongyeon. “Should we get going back to your place?”
Jeongyeon nodded and got up as Momo reached her hand out to Jihyo to help her up. “Ready to go?”
Grabbing hold of the outreached hand Jihyo was pulled up from the pier and the three disappeared into the warm night air of Istanbul to sleep the night’s exhaustion away.
Jihyo woke up to the sound of faint rustling and chimes with the scent of flowers wafting into her nose, a smell she wasn’t familiar with. Following this there was a hint of smoke and what smelled like sandalwood incense. This was a completely new combination of smells to her, a very different sensation to wake up to.
The night before she had crashed almost immediately after they got back from their nightly excursion, having barely managed to open up the pullout sofa bed while Jeongyeon and Momo slept in the larger twin bed of the room. The sunlight was peeking through the cracks in the curtains and although the temperature outside was hot their room, even with the air conditioner on, felt unusually cool. Almost cold.
Opening her eyes Jihyo sat up on the couch and looked over towards the direction of the dining area of the room. The table had been moved to the side to create an open uninterrupted space and in the middle of this sat Jeongyeon, cross-legged and with her arms placed across her chest. Around her were beautiful white flowers, candles and incense sticks burning, and there was a little stone bowl that was placed in front of her, inside of it was what looked like burnt paper and flower petals. Momo was standing a little off to the side watching Jeongyeon before she noticed the awake Jihyo.
As Jihyo’s mouth opened to utter a good morning and question what was going on, Momo motioned for silence and quietly tip-toed over to Jihyo on the couch.
“We need to stay quiet. Jeongyeon will attempt to locate our other Sisters and The Lock,” Momo whispered as she sat down onto the hardwood floor at the foot of the couch, leaning in to Jihyo.
“She will what?” Jihyo asked Momo who put her finger in front of for silence.
“She will meditate. Just wait and watch,” Momo said and Jihyo’s early morning confused mind was once again thrown into a loop first thing in the morning. Ever since yesterday evening she hadn’t really had a chance to rest and think. Both of them sat silently watching Jeongyeon sitting on the apartment floor.
Jeongyeon had been gathering herself and building her resolve for the past half an hour as Momo helped with the meditation ritual, burning incense and spreading the smell of the Calla Lily flower, one that had a potent smell and was from their first home. A familiar scent that they had used for eons to help focus their meditation and one that allowed them to slip out of this world.
The ritual was risky and difficult to do; it took time and effort to achieve so it couldn’t be done on the fly. Slowly but surely the real world and reality was beginning to slip away from her, the sounds of the world disappearing as were the sensations on her body. She was feeling less and less and soon her current body was nothing more than a stranger to her, a passing acquaintance that didn’t even belong to her.
Her memories, her current existence, her feelings, her name; all who Jeongyeon was needed to be let go. Her breathing slowed down further into longer and deeper breaths, her heart rate dropped to what felt like a dangerously low beat, and if one would have touched Jeongyeon her skin would’ve felt surprisingly cold to the touch. Her body was releasing most of its heat as she attempted to completely focus on mind alone and release herself from the sensations of her body. It was as if she was releasing her body from the world of the living to the dead. It was a gruelling meditation exercise that could only be undertaken when completely safe and in an area of undisturbed concentration and warmth of her surroundings. If she messed up, she could find herself forever lost in meditation.
One final rise and fall of her chest and she fell into a meditative trance letting her mind wander away from her body, from this reality. With her arms crossed across her chest her mind lingered on the now for only a fraction of a second more before she let it all go. She was no longer in the now, sitting in her apartment in Istanbul with Jihyo and Momo.
Her mind was travelling beyond time and space, beyond the ether of the world, feeling out for the discrepancies in the spiritual veil and membrane that covered the whole earth. Very faintly she could feel the existence of dips in this veil, how spirit energy would roll and flow towards these dips and disturbances in the membrane. These disturbances were her Sisters and the Lock.
Jeongyeon’s head slumped forward a little and her arms fell down limply onto her legs. Jihyo gave a little squeak of surprise while Momo smiled. Her arms falling were the outward sign that Jeongyeon had now slipped out of her body and was no longer in this physical vessel made of flesh.
The strongest pull in this spirit world was right next to Jeongyeon preventing her from accurately focusing on the fainter disturbances further out. Her mind had to shut that feeling out first letting her mind ignore the pull that Momo’s presence was having on the flow of spirit essence. She pushed further out as if she were climbing out of hole that dragged her down like a ferocious current before she finally got out of the pull that Momo and herself created on the veil. Breaking through to the top of this well where the veil of spirit spread more evenly across the whole world she could feel them; her Sisters and the Lock were still scattered.
It was impossible to tell the exact distances of these disturbances, only a faint idea of closeness. Two signals were far off to the east. At this distance they appeared close to each other however it was hard to tell exactly how close they truly were. All she knew for a fact was they were very far from Jeongyeon herself, possibly across the globe.
The rest of the signals were also bunched up in pairs. They were all to the north-west from Istanbul of which two were slightly more north than the other two, all within a few thousand kilometres from her. That meant that besides Momo and herself four of them were in Europe already and that they had most likely paired up. This made Jeongyeon happy; most of them had already found one or another and that all were alive and well.
Keeping the directions and feeling of relative distance in mind Jeongyeon brought herself back from the ether. As much practice as she had it was still a rather violent and uncontrolled return, feeling herself pulled down a whirlpool of spirit akin to the sense of drowning; a sensation that Jeongyeon was unfortunately very familiar with.
Her wandering mind found itself back in the correct body with a crash regaining all the memories and knowledge of herself she had let go just minutes ago. Her eyes still closed and body still unmoving she took a huge gasp of air as internally she felt like she had received a punch to the gut. Returning to one’s body was the part about this meditation that Jeongyeon really disliked.
Soon the physical sensations of the Turkish autumn heat and familiar scent of the flowers and incense hit her once again. Cold shivers shook her as her body began to heat up again in her apartment and conscious thought returned. She was back. Her arms and hands curled and cramped in response to her returning to her body.
The two left waiting in the real world had watched Jeongyeon in silence and Momo noticed the physical movement of her Sister, stood up and walked behind Jeongyeon facing the same direction that she was facing. Without a word Jeongyeon pointed to the two directions where she had felt the disturbances in the ether to be the closest. Momo crouched behind Jeongyeon turned to face each direction one after another with her phone’s compass app, screenshotting her phone screen in each of the directions Jeongyeon pointed at. “Four, within two thousand kilometres or so. Two in each direction”
Jeongyeon then turned back to face east and pointed out towards the two faintest souls she had felt, the ones she approximated to be across the globe. “Two more but really far. Maybe still back in Korea or at the very least within East Asia.”
“So at least most of us are in Europe. We should be able to figure out approximately where they could be right now with these directions,” Momo said as she slipped her phone in her pocket and then placed a towel that she had heated in the sun around Jeongyeon, wrapping her up in the warmth. Jeongyeon’s body was freezing; almost hypothermia levels and she needed to be warmed up properly.
Jihyo watched the two perform this action without fumbling as if it was routine for them, something they had perhaps done a thousand times over. It was quite impressive to look at even though she wasn’t exactly sure what had happened.
“How did you find the direction before phones? Using a compass?”
Both Momo and Jeongyeon looked at Jihyo surprised as they had both been completely taken into a world of their own.
“Well, whenever we can and as long as they have existed we have used compasses. So that goes back quite some time. But if we didn’t have a compass or were out in the field most often we would perform this at night so we could use the stars,” Momo thought back. “I think the first time we used a compass was… over a thousand years ago?”
“That sounds about right,” Jeongyeon agreed.
“You don’t use the sun?”
“The sun gives a rather vague direction at most. So extreme cases yes, but more often than not we would have used the stars. You can be a lot more accurate and particular about the direction with the stars, especially considering Polaris, the North Star, is very stable in the sky. We can pretty accurately tell direction using it as reference,” Jeongyeon explained, her cold muscles beginning to slowly warm.
Assisting Jeongyeon up from the floor Momo walked her Sister out to the window and sat her down on a chair before pulling the curtains wide open to let the hot morning sun blast into the room. Jeongyeon could immediately feel the warmth of their closest star on her skin and cold shivers consistently ran up and down her body as it attempted to heat it up.
“Another beautiful day,” Jeongyeon mumbled quietly as her body temperature slowly returned to levels of the living.
Jihyo got up from the couch and walked over to the windows to stand close to Momo and Jeongyeon, all of them admiring the new day. They would have to figure out how to cash the gold they had, to gather and bring all the books and documents out of that cavern into this room and go through the material. It was going to be a long process. But for now they could just admire the beauty of the world around them.
Even though she still had many questions and was mostly lost in all of this craziness that had been revealed to her in the last twelve hours or so, Jihyo had started to accept all she had been told a little more. Maybe there was some sense in this madness and maybe she had a role in this.
A wide smile spread across her lips.
“Yeah, it really is.”
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