Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life Mythological Container Page

She climbed out as the island began to sink.

“You understand this isn’t a trinket, Lara,” said her ally, the disgraced MI6 agent Kessler, from the opposite seat. “If the legend holds, it doesn’t just contain hope and despair. It contains the first breath of every living soul. The original template of mortality.” She climbed out as the island began to sink

Lara caught the box inches above the lava. The heat was apocalyptic. The ichor touched her gloves—and vanished. The box sealed itself, smooth and silent. Lara felt a cold whisper in her mind: You held death. You gave it back. It contains the first breath of every living soul

She danced across the plates with the grace of a cat, Kessler heavier but precise. At the chamber’s heart stood a pillar of obsidian, and upon it, a box no larger than a bread loaf. It was not ornate. It was simple, seamless, the color of dried bone. No lock. No seam. The ichor touched her gloves—and vanished

“Mister Kessler, Miss Croft,” Dorian said, brushing debris from his jacket. “The box, if you please. Dr. Soren has a theory that the ‘breath of souls’ might be a concentrated biogenic agent. Immortality in a jar.”

Lara looked at the horizon. “There’s a temple in the Himalayas. Older than the Minoans. A lock made of frozen starlight. This thing needs to be buried where no one will ever find it.”