"Alexei, if you are reading this, it means I am no longer with you. Forgive my secretiveness, but some secrets are too dangerous to entrust to paper. This medallion is the key to one such secret. I have kept it for more than sixty years but never dared to use it. Now it is your inheritance and your choice. There is a hidden mechanism in the medallion. If you decide to activate it, be prepared for the consequences. Some doors are better left closed. With love, your grandfather."
With trembling hands, Alexei unwrapped the fabric. On his palm lay a silver medallion the size of a large coin. Despite its age, the metal had not tarnished and shone as if new. On the front was an equilateral cross with widening ends, framed by an intricate ornament. On the reverse side were strange symbols, resembling both Syriac script and some astronomical signs.
Alexei's heart beat faster. He held the medallion closer to the light of the desk lamp, examining every detail. A thin line ran around the edge—an almost imperceptible seam. It seemed the medallion could indeed be opened. But how? His grandfather had mentioned a hidden mechanism.
Alexei carefully began pressing on various elements of the ornament. Nothing happened. Then he tried turning the edges of the medallion in opposite directions—to no avail. Perhaps press the center of the cross? Nothing again.
He had almost given up when he noticed that one of the symbols on the reverse side looked slightly more convex than the others. Alexei carefully pressed it with his thumb. A barely audible click sounded, and the medallion split into two halves.
Inside was a tiny piece of parchment, folded several times. Alexei carefully unfolded it with his not-too-delicate fingers, afraid of tearing the fragile material. The parchment displayed the same strange symbols as on the reverse side of the medallion, as well as a short inscription in Latin:
"Light in water, water in light. Solomon's key will open the way."
Alexei read this phrase several times. It seemed both simple and enigmatic. What was this "Solomon's key"? And what path was it supposed to open?
Below the inscription was a schematic drawing resembling a fragment of a map with a lake and marked points on its northern shore. One point was circled and marked with a cross. Alexei immediately recognized the outline—it was Lake Issyk-Kul.
He leaned back in his chair, clutching the medallion halves in his hand. The rain outside intensified, drumming on the roof with redoubled force. Fragments of thoughts raced through his mind. His grandfather had clearly found something important during that expedition in 1954. Something he had concealed all his life and decided to pass on only after his death.
Alexei reached for his phone. He needed to talk to someone about this find, someone who understood ancient artifacts and, more importantly, the geography of Issyk-Kul. A face flashed in his memory—olive skin, warm brown eyes with a characteristic almond shape, an unruly strand of chestnut hair constantly escaping from under a hair tie. He involuntarily recalled that expressive look she always gave when she disagreed with something.
Dinara Kambarova, his classmate and former lover. A talented ethnographer specializing in Central Asian cultures. Now she worked at the Historical Museum in Bishkek. And she was the granddaughter of that very boy Kambarov who was in the photograph with his grandfather.
