The Scholar’s Burden

A rush of sensations flooded Maya's mind cold marble beneath her fingers, the scent of parchment and ink, the distant murmur of voices speaking Latin.

She was no longer in her lab.

Blinking, she found herself seated at a grand wooden desk, an oil lamp flickering beside her. The room around her was filled with scrolls and tomes, some stacked haphazardly, others neatly arranged in shelves carved into the stone walls. Through an open window, she could see the vast expanse of a city ancient Rome, its streets alive with torches and movement.

Her hands trembled as she looked down at them. They weren't her own. They were the hands of a man calloused, ink-stained, strong but aged. She reached for a nearby polished bronze mirror, her breath catching as she saw a stranger's face staring back at her.

She was inhabiting the body of a Roman scholar.

Footsteps echoed down the stone corridor outside, and a moment later, a young apprentice burst into the room, his face pale with urgency. "Master Cassius, they're coming!"

Maya no, Cassius stood abruptly, instinct kicking in. His memories wove into her consciousness, feeding her knowledge she hadn't possessed seconds ago. He was a historian, a seeker of forbidden knowledge, and he had uncovered something powerful something men would kill to keep buried.

A deep voice followed the apprentice's warning. "Open this door, Cassius. We know what you have."

The apprentice looked to Cassius with wide, terrified eyes. "What do we do?"

Maya could feel Cassius's emotions bleeding into her own fear, defiance, resolve. He turned toward the desk, where a scroll lay open, filled with cryptic symbols and Latin passages detailing a secret hidden within Rome's very foundations. A secret that connected to the artifact she had found beneath the Sphinx.

The door rattled under a heavy knock. "This is your final warning!"

Maya's mind raced. She had no control over the actions of the past she was merely an observer in Cassius's body, but she needed to understand. Whatever this man had discovered, it was important enough for someone to want him dead.

Cassius turned to his apprentice. "Take the scroll. Get it to the library in Alexandria. There is a man there Ariston he will know what to do."

The apprentice hesitated but nodded, snatching the parchment and slipping through a concealed passage at the back of the room.

The door burst open. Armed men flooded the chamber, their swords gleaming in the lamplight. A tall, imposing figure stepped forward, his expression unreadable.

"You meddle in things beyond your understanding, Cassius," the man said.

Cassius squared his shoulders. "Knowledge is not meant to be hoarded."

The man's expression darkened. "Then you have sealed your fate."

A blade flashed.

Pain lanced through Maya's chest.

She gasped, her body jolting

And she was back.

Maya staggered backward, her lab swirling into focus around her. Her breathing was ragged, her heart hammering against her ribs. She clutched her chest, half-expecting to see blood, but there was nothing. Just the ghost of pain, the fading remnants of Cassius's final moments.

She collapsed into her chair, staring at the artifact.

The past was trying to tell her something.

And she needed to listen.