In 1872, Arthur finds him­self on a mound in Nin­eveh, sur­vey­ing the chaot­ic rem­nants of ancient archae­ol­o­gy where local peo­ple have scav­enged stones from his­toric walls. He over­sees thir­ty labor­ers who toil beneath the relent­less sun, their sounds rem­i­nis­cent of a speed­ing train, cre­at­ing a steady rhythm of exca­va­tion. How­ev­er, the harsh real­i­ties of their work weigh upon him, as he wor­ries about the dwin­dling funds to pay the labor­ers. Despite the exhaus­tion, Arthur retreats to a makeshift tent dur­ing the heat of the day to study cuneiform tablets, dri­ven by the deter­mi­na­tion to recov­er lost lit­er­ary trea­sures.

His curios­i­ty leads him to dis­cov­er rem­nants of an ancient boat­yard, hint­ing at for­got­ten har­bors beneath the parched land­scape. Once a thriv­ing trade hub, the area is now cov­ered by time’s pass­ing and human neglect. Arthur reflects on the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of the region, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the ini­tial dis­cov­er­ies made in Ashurbanipal’s palace, where tablets were over­shad­owed by the glam­our of stat­ues, lead­ing to their mis­man­age­ment and neglect.

He learns that arte­facts unearthed have often suf­fered dam­age dur­ing ear­li­er exca­va­tions due to chaot­ic meth­ods and a lack of care. The rival­ry between French and British teams com­pels them to rush their find­ings to Europe, feed­ing an insa­tiable desire for Mesopotami­an antiq­ui­ties, inten­si­fy­ing their com­pe­ti­tion. The trag­ic inci­dent of an attacked trans­port ship reveals the per­il in retriev­ing his­tor­i­cal trea­sures, as the arte­facts des­tined for Europe sink into the Tigris Riv­er.

Arthur, feel­ing a mix of humil­i­ty and con­fu­sion, pon­ders the lega­cy of past civ­i­liza­tions. He con­tem­plates the ephemer­al­i­ty of grandeur, real­iz­ing that behind every tri­umph lies a neglect­ed side steeped in bru­tal­i­ty. Each evening, he returns to the Yazi­di vil­lage, form­ing bonds with its inhab­i­tants, par­tic­u­lar­ly with Leila, the faqra, who shares enchant­i­ng sto­ries and music. Her pres­ence cap­ti­vates him, pulling him into a nar­ra­tive that thrives sole­ly through oral tradition—an intrigu­ing con­trast to his schol­ar­ly pur­suits of writ­ten texts. Arthur’s evenings merge with Leila’s tales of water, draw­ing him deep­er into the Yazidis’ vibrant cul­tur­al fab­ric, forg­ing con­nec­tions and insights that enrich his under­stand­ing of their her­itage amidst the rem­nants of ancient civ­i­liza­tions.