BY THE third day of the excavation, just as Dr. Clara Kosuma was about to descend from her car, Professor Runyi knocked on her window. His toothy grin told her that he brought good news, excellent news.
"What is it, Professor Runyi?" She put on her eyeglass while her left hand held her tablet and papers; thus, she pushed the car's door using her hip.
Clapping his wrinkled hands, Professor Runyi walked by her side as she headed towards her tent. "We found a passageway." The excitement laced in his voice was evident, but curiosity got Clara more.
"A passageway? How come? Did they have enough time to create a grand tomb for a heart when they just lost the war against the Austin Empire?" Clara's eyebrows knotted together.
'It makes no sense,' Clara pondered.
Clara expected a small golden casket for the sultan's heart to be buried discreetly. But from the very beginning, she was wondering. Why did they need to bury his heart?
"Do not worry, Dr. Kosuma. We are just waiting for you to explore the passageway. Your equipment is ready." His eyes were sparkling like a kid on Christmas Day. It is sickening.
Too tired to reply, Clara nodded as she trotted towards her tent. Setting her things down, she spun to Professor Runyi. "The recorder and the camera?"
He immediately handed them to her. The recorder was for her voice, and the camera was for live documentation of the newly found passageway. Since the Hungarian Government funded this research, whatever materials they found below belonged to them, so she needed a record for safekeeping.
Clipping the recorder in her breast pocket, Clara set the camera's settings as she strode towards the entrance of the main excavation site, wherein the rest of her team was gathered together with the soldiers from the UN.
The captain of the soldiers nodded at her as a sign of respect. "Doctor, my men have already set the lights at the passageway's entrance. We need your consent to operate the safety machinery for your safety purposes."
"Let me check it first, captain. I will only bring two soldiers and Professor Runyi. We will take turns maintaining the balance of the carrying capacity since this is an ancient ruin."
Clara and her company strode towards the excavated farmland. The passageway got dimensions of three meters tall and four meters wide. Sturdy beams with lights attached to them supported the passageway. They could see the tiled descending stairs.
'With how things are, it looks like Sultan Suleiman prepared this tomb before his death. Did he plan to die that time? Did he know he would die as he marched to Habsburg? What were you thinking, Sultan Suleiman?' Clara's thoughts were a mess.
Stepping into the unknown, Clara aimed the camera at her as she turned on the recorder in her breast pocket. The blinking red light of the camera signaled her to start her report. "This is Dr. Clara Kosuma, head of the Hungarian Research Team. This is our third attempt to find the lost tomb of Sultan Suleiman's heart. On the third day of our excavation, we discovered an ancient passageway that might lead us to the said heart." As Clara started talking, they began descending the stairs. Careful in their footsteps, Professor Runyi explored the wide passageway using his flashlight. Clara turned the camera to the walls and ceiling. "The tiles reached the ceiling, and the calligraphy on the tiles says Sultan Suleiman's Heart."
"Stop," said Clara as she felt the edge of the stairs. The others halted as per her command. "Turn on the lights!" Clara commanded the soldiers at the entrance of the passageway. As the light flooded the dim-lighted passageway, a spacious place with four grand columns welcomed them.
"Oh my goodness," said Professor Runyi after he gasped audibly. "We found it, Dr. Kosuma." His voice trembled with a mixture of awe and happiness. But Clara felt the exact opposite. She did not know why. She knew she got to feel the joy she longed for after spending many years on this discovery.
'But why do I feel like crying? Why does my heart hurt?'
Clearing her throat subtly, she continued her report as she walked carefully while focusing the cameras on the columns. "Diwani scripts, a distinctive Ottoman style of Arabic calligraphy, littered the columns. It says, 'The threads connect'." Clara knew how to read the ancient language of the Ottoman Empire called Elifba. Moving to the second column, she continued. "No calligraphy is found for the second column. Instead, it is full of painted flowers, including a Tulip. According to Ottoman records, the Tulip symbolizes beauty and perfection. Now, the third column has calligraphy on it. It says, 'The hearts connect'. And the last column, like the second one has painted Tulips on it."
Clara stopped on her track as she realized something in the middle of her report. Even Professor Runyi, looking around by himself, sensed her as he looked in her direction. "From the decoration, the columns, and the calligraphy, this is not a tomb... It's a... a church, an underground church basing from the descending stairs."
She walked towards the center of the columns. There must be something in here. Why did Sultan Suleiman set his campaign camp here? Why is it specifically near a church? What if the march towards Habsburg was just a ploy? What if what Sultan Suleiman wanted was here?
"Is this not the tomb, Dr. Kosuma?" The subtle hint of disappointment laced upon Professor Runyi's voice. "Hold this," commanded Clara to the Professor as she knelt in the center of the area.
Clara pushed the tiles randomly. In her fifth attempt, one tile opened up. "Provide me some light," Clara commanded one of the soldiers while she analyzed the small statue of a woman inside the tile. The woman's statue could not be deciphered because of its old age, but Clara could figure out the pristine curves of a woman. On instinct, she twisted the sculpture to the right. And then, the tiles before them opened up, earning a gasp from Clara and the Professor.
Approximately twenty tiles opened up, showing them a body-size golden casket, not a small one that would be fit for a heart. The soldiers opened the golden casket, and one of the soldiers said, "It's a mummified woman."
"What?" Professor Runyi reacted incredulously. He walked towards the opened golden casket of the said mummy of a woman. Clara followed him, and when she saw the mummy, the only telltale sign that would recognize the mummy as a woman was the Ottoman wedding dress inside the casket that surrounded the wrapped body of the mummy. "Dr. Kosuma, look at that. It's calligraphy in Elifba."
Indeed. Some calligraphy was written on the casket's cover, it was pretty long, and compared to the calligraphy from the decorative, this one was made in haste. Clara read it aloud.
"Kosem, Sultan Hazeyn Suleiman's precious heart."
The four realized something.
'The heart in legend is not some rotten organ from the ancient times, but a woman.' Clara finally realized.