Prompt-O-Rama

The Key (Prompt: Secret)

"... read this. This can't  refer anything but this shrine?" Mahath pointed to the text on the bark..

"Read it again for me, will you?" Bali said, unimpressed. Mahath sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

The day the guardian eyes the great Fish,

The day the waistband cuts the sun,

The day the sun shall hide and return,

That day, the Fish shall reveal the key. 

"And what do you suppose that means?" Mahath was impatient. 

"Look inside, will you?" Bali pointed to the sanctum. Inside, stood the most beautiful deity they had ever seen. Made of fine gold, the deity was of full human form, standing tall, holding a torch in one hand and a horn in the other. He stood on a spherical pedestal beneath which a perennial underground river flowed. During the flood season, the sphere would be half-submerged and the water would become visible as it entered via a duct and exited via another. And on the front wall, opening up at an angle was a great window that the deity seemed to eye. On the spring equinox day, the sun's rays would directly light the deity's eyes up, a treat that the Lord's devotees thronged to experience. 

"The lord of the five elements. Look. I agree with you on every other aspect. The sun as the guardian eyeing the lord, the spring equinox when the equator cuts the sun in half and finally, an eclipse on this day. All this tallies. But a fish? You are yet to show me one."

"Look, the Fish could be a metaphor for the  Lord who created everything in the beginning. All ancient traditions have the story of genesis from water. Hinduism for instance speaks of God incarnating as a fish to save the last of the devout from the great deluge so he establishes order after the floodwater recedes." 

"Or, it could be a red herring. Do you really expect a fish to reveal a key? Where do you think the fish would have it? In its gill?" 

"This is the best interpretation anyone can offer," Mahath was without a better defence. 

"An interpretation. Have you ever seen a fish with hands, feet and a human-face? This heist is pointless. And look at the sheer number of people gathered here. The last thing you want is to die for nothing," Bali gestured for the two to start.

"Sirs, will you please step outside? We need to close the shrine for the duration of the eclipse," the priest walked up to them and said.

"Yes, sir. We will. But, Is there a temple for a fish around here?" Mahath made one last ditch attempt.

"I only know of aquariums. Not temples. Please leave. I have work to do" the priest led the two out and closed the temple doors from the inside. 

"So much for your tales of the deity holding the key to a secret vault," Bali taunted Mahath as the two left.

Back in the sanctum, the priest removed the golden armour that they deity was, to reveal a great fish-like form that had a golden key for its pectoral fin. 

Thank you they don't know of your real form, the priest smiled at his Lord before offering a ceremonial bath and placing the armour back. As the eclipse ended and the first rays of the sun entered the sanctum, the devotees witnessed their Lord's eyes shining in all glory. There would be no fish to see until the next equinox-eclipse.