In August 1876, Arthur embarks on a chal­leng­ing jour­ney from Nin­eveh to Cas­trum Kefa. The heat of the day dulls his appetite, forc­ing him to sub­sist on dates, flat­breads, and camel’s milk. He and his guide, Mah­moud, trav­el pri­mar­i­ly at night, find­ing solace in the seren­i­ty of the star­lit land­scape, which feels alive under the moon’s ethe­re­al glow. Though Mah­moud warns of dan­gers at night, Arthur rev­els in the peace­ful still­ness, sens­ing an ancient his­to­ry beneath the sands.

Tra­vers­ing this des­o­late ter­rain, Arthur reflects on the past glo­ry of the land, once teem­ing with vibrant cities now reduced to dry desert. His­tor­i­cal trau­ma looms large; avarice, pow­er strug­gles, and envi­ron­men­tal abuse have oblit­er­at­ed civ­i­liza­tions. Arthur’s under­stand­ing of civ­i­liza­tion shifts from a stur­dy con­struct to an omi­nous threat, a storm poised to destroy all that stands in its way.

Upon pass­ing through a vil­lage, Arthur encoun­ters despair—people strick­en by cholera, evok­ing mem­o­ries of per­son­al loss. He urges Mah­moud to find help, but the guide sad­ly dis­miss­es him, stat­ing no doc­tor would come. Here, Arthur observes Mahmoud’s poignant prayers for the sick, an act that envelops him in com­fort despite his strug­gles with his faith, recall­ing the futil­i­ty of seek­ing solace through reli­gious obser­vances amid pro­found suf­fer­ing.

Dur­ing their rest­less ride, Arthur remains focused on reach­ing Cas­trum Kefa to check on Leila, inter­nal­ly grap­pling with Mah­moud’s advice to turn back, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing the imprac­ti­cal­i­ty of his quest for a woman who may nev­er ful­ly belong to him. Mah­moud’s ref­er­ence to the tale of Lay­la and Maj­nun hits Arthur hard, as he rec­og­nizes his infat­u­a­tion with Leila mir­rors the trag­ic sto­ry of unat­tain­able love.

After per­suad­ing Mah­moud to return to safe­ty, Arthur press­es on alone. How­ev­er, he soon suc­cumbs to debil­i­tat­ing ill­ness, feel­ing the grip of dysen­tery. Mah­moud, despite his ear­li­er inten­tions to return, finds Arthur and insists on accom­pa­ny­ing him, high­light­ing a deep loy­al­ty. As they approach Cas­trum Kefa, Arthur’s strength wanes, and Mah­moud car­ries him to a shepherd’s hut, seek­ing help while watch­ing over Arthur.

In his fever­ish state, Arthur expe­ri­ences mud­dled visions of his past, reveal­ing both cher­ished mem­o­ries and painful loss­es. A thief enters, scav­eng­ing Arthur’s belong­ings, and unwit­ting­ly takes a sig­nif­i­cant blue tablet that Arthur pos­sessed, a sub­tle act that sug­gests the ongo­ing sig­nif­i­cance of the past even as Arthur’s present dark­ens with ill­ness .