Prologue

It was initially found in 1939, forty-four feet underwater, in the ruins of an ancient temple off the coast of Crete. The fetish was encased in a partially intact box made of jewel-encrusted ivory and petrified cedar. The case was elaborately carved with indecipherable 'Linear A' script. The case alone would have made it a remarkable, if not unique, anthropological and historical discovery. As things turned out however, the press of evolving world events caused the mixed Greek and American team that recovered it to box the case and its contents up and ship them off for storage in a warehouse near the airfields of southern Crete. With the outbreak of World War II on the mainland, the American team packed up their work and prepared to leave Crete for the duration of the conflict. Amidst the frenzy and confusion that followed, the crate containing the artifact was mis-labeled with American supply markings.

As a result, on the fifth of October 1940, the fetish began its journey towards the United States. It was carried aboard the small merchant vessel Aurora, crew of nine.

On Friday, October 11^th, the Aurora developed a serious malfunction in her left diesel engine. She fell back from her escorting convoy. The last radio contact with the Aurora reported her to be diverting southwards to avoid a storm. It was assumed that she broke up somewhere between middle Florida and the shoals of the Carolinas.

Over the course of the next several decades hurricanes, tides, passing cargo ships and the natural wear of time spread the undistinguished wreckage of the Aurora over nearly fifteen nautical miles of the US Atlantic coast. The oak crate that contained the fetish and its case was lost for the next sixty four years.

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