In the chap­ter, Arthur pre­pares for his return to Nin­eveh, marked by a pre­vail­ing heav­i­ness due to the absence of a spon­sor and the emo­tion­al strug­gle of leav­ing his fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly his twins, who feel his depar­ture keen­ly. As he nav­i­gates their sor­row, their inno­cence is poignant­ly cap­tured in his daugh­ter’s embrace and his son’s draw­ing, which sym­bol­izes the boy’s under­stand­ing of their father’s jour­ney as both noble and dan­ger­ous.

Ten­sions also flare between Arthur and Mabel, his wife. She con­fronts him about his deci­sion to trav­el so soon, reveal­ing her deep-seat­ed resent­ment over his appar­ent pri­or­i­ti­za­tion of work over fam­i­ly. Arthur defends his choice pas­sion­ate­ly, express­ing a deep con­nec­tion to the ancient tablets he stud­ies, assert­ing that his schol­ar­ly pur­suits are vital to him. Nev­er­the­less, Mabel remains unswayed, her accu­sa­tions of infi­deli­ty sug­gest­ing a frac­ture in their rela­tion­ship. Despite this emo­tion­al tur­moil, Arthur feels com­pelled to ful­fill his respon­si­bil­i­ties as an archae­ol­o­gist.

On arrival in Con­stan­tino­ple, the atmos­phere is fraught with unrest height­ened by the recent death of the sul­tan. Arthur is cau­tioned about the per­ils he might encounter on his jour­ney toward Nin­eveh, includ­ing upris­ings and dis­ease. Unde­terred, Arthur embarks on his expe­di­tion, intent on send­ing let­ters home to his fam­i­ly, vivid­ly recount­ing his expe­ri­ences in hopes of bridg­ing the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al dis­tance.

As he nears a Yazi­di vil­lage he remem­bers fond­ly, a sense of trep­i­da­tion wash­es over him. Accom­pa­nied by his guide, Mah­moud, Arthur learns that the vil­lage has changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly due to vio­lence and dev­as­ta­tion, a stark con­trast to the mem­o­ries he cher­ish­es. Mah­moud’s sor­row­ful demeanor reveals the extent of the tragedy that has befall­en the com­mu­ni­ty, which Arthur learns through shock­ing details of a mas­sacre car­ried out by the local lead­ers, leav­ing him reel­ing as he con­tem­plates the loss of friends and cul­ture.

The mas­sacre is an atro­cious act that, while buried in the past, haunts Arthur’s cur­rent exis­tence. It forces him to con­front not only the fragili­ty of human life but also the impli­ca­tions of his endeav­ors in archae­ol­o­gy. The real­i­ty of sor­row and loss clash­es with his pre­vi­ous­ly held con­vic­tions about his work, invok­ing deep intro­spec­tion regard­ing his role in the world. His attempts to con­nect with the liv­ing and the dead now invoke doubt and guilt, sig­ni­fy­ing a pro­found shift in his life’s pur­pose. The chap­ter cap­tures Arthur’s emo­tion­al upheaval, the weight of his­to­ry, and his strug­gle with iden­ti­ty amidst con­flict­ing alle­giances to fam­i­ly, past friend­ships, and pro­fes­sion­al duties.

Wait­ing ai