Arthur begins his ardu­ous jour­ney in August 1876, trav­el­ing from Nin­eveh to Cas­trum Kefa, where the oppres­sive heat makes it dif­fi­cult for him to eat. The jour­ney is made all the more chal­leng­ing by the harsh con­di­tions, and his sus­te­nance con­sists most­ly of dates, flat­breads, and camel’s milk. Accom­pa­nied by his guide, Mah­moud, they set out under the cov­er of night, the cool­er hours offer­ing them a reprieve from the scorch­ing desert heat. As they trav­el across the bar­ren land­scape, the night brings an eerie calm, with the moon­light illu­mi­nat­ing the ter­rain and mak­ing it feel as if it’s alive. Although Mah­moud warns Arthur of the dan­gers of trav­el­ing at night, Arthur is cap­ti­vat­ed by the seren­i­ty, his mind wan­der­ing through the ages, imag­in­ing the civ­i­liza­tions that once thrived under the very same sky.

Through­out their jour­ney, Arthur is drawn into deep con­tem­pla­tion, reflect­ing on the land’s once-immense glo­ry. What was once a land filled with pros­per­ous cities and fer­tile soils has now been reduced to a dry, unfor­giv­ing desert. The con­trast of what was with what is, deeply affects Arthur, as he con­sid­ers how human greed, pow­er strug­gles, and envi­ron­men­tal mis­man­age­ment have all played roles in the dev­as­ta­tion of this once-thriv­ing civ­i­liza­tion. This real­iza­tion shifts his per­cep­tion of civ­i­liza­tion itself, see­ing it no longer as a strong­hold of advance­ment but as a frag­ile, unsta­ble con­struct that could eas­i­ly col­lapse under its own weight. The ruins around him become a poignant sym­bol of what can hap­pen when soci­eties fall vic­tim to their own vices.

Dur­ing their trav­els, Arthur and Mah­moud pass through a vil­lage struck by cholera, a trag­ic sight that stirs mem­o­ries of his own per­son­al loss­es. See­ing the suf­fer­ing of those around him, Arthur urges Mah­moud to seek med­ical assis­tance, only to be met with the bit­ter real­i­ty that no doc­tor will come to their aid. Mah­moud, in a solemn and respect­ful ges­ture, begins to pray for the afflict­ed, a moment that fills Arthur with a qui­et com­fort despite his own strug­gles with faith. Arthur, in his heart, is torn between seek­ing solace in reli­gion and rec­og­niz­ing the harsh­ness of real­i­ty, where faith often offers lit­tle in the face of such over­whelm­ing suf­fer­ing. These moments high­light the pro­found iso­la­tion Arthur feels as he con­tem­plates the fragili­ty of life and the inabil­i­ty to tru­ly heal the wounds of the world.

As the jour­ney con­tin­ues, Arthur becomes increas­ing­ly fix­at­ed on reach­ing Cas­trum Kefa, where he hopes to check on Leila, the woman he believes he is meant to be with. How­ev­er, Mah­moud’s coun­sel to turn back rings in Arthur’s ears, ques­tion­ing the imprac­ti­cal­i­ty of his quest. Mah­moud’s ref­er­ence to the sto­ry of Lay­la and Maj­nun, a tale of unat­tain­able love, strikes a deep chord with­in Arthur, remind­ing him that his own obses­sion with Leila mir­rors the trag­ic romance of Maj­nun. The real­iza­tion that he is pur­su­ing an impos­si­ble love adds weight to his already trou­bled heart, but despite his inner con­flict, he refus­es to turn back.

Even­tu­al­ly, after a dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tion with Mah­moud, Arthur decides to con­tin­ue his jour­ney alone, deter­mined to press on regard­less of the risks. How­ev­er, he soon suc­cumbs to a severe ill­ness, suf­fer­ing from dysen­tery, and finds him­self in a weak­ened state. Mah­moud, despite his ear­li­er advice to return, shows unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty, seek­ing Arthur out and insist­ing on accom­pa­ny­ing him through the last stretch of the jour­ney. As they near Cas­trum Kefa, Arthur’s strength fades, and Mah­moud is forced to car­ry him to a near­by shep­herd’s hut, where they seek refuge. Mah­moud, ever faith­ful, watch­es over Arthur, tend­ing to him as he drifts in and out of con­scious­ness.

In his fever­ish delir­i­um, Arthur expe­ri­ences visions of his past, where both cher­ished mem­o­ries and painful loss­es resur­face. Among these mud­dled mem­o­ries, a thief enters the hut and steals a prized blue tablet from Arthur’s belong­ings, a seem­ing­ly small act that car­ries much greater sig­nif­i­cance. The theft of the tablet serves as a sub­tle reminder that even in the midst of his phys­i­cal decline, the past con­tin­ues to shape Arthur’s jour­ney. It is a sym­bol of the long-last­ing impact of his expe­ri­ences and the his­to­ry that has been woven into the fab­ric of his life, show­ing that no mat­ter how much time pass­es, the past remains an inescapable force.