?"Escape was no longer a choice; it was a blind instinct. I bolted like an arrow toward the 'Qamariya' (the high arched window). 'My God... where have the mountains gone?' Naji whispered, trembling, his voice swallowed by a cacophony no human had ever heard before. There was a muffled roar emanating from everywhere, a hidden hum like the buzzing of a million bees inside our skulls.
?At that moment, everything stopped.
I was suspended between heaven and earth, falling from a staggering height. I looked beneath my feet, and there lay Great Marib, sprawling like a tapestry of history and awe. I saw its towering palaces built of white 'Balq' stone, shimmering under the moonlight like the bones of giants who had slept since eternity. The great walls encircled the city like an ancient sentinel exhausted by the ages, and its Great Dam loomed on the horizon like a mountain split by human hands with the patience of prophets.
?The city was eerily silent. The narrow, winding alleys looked like withered veins in an old palm, and the rigid palm trees resembled spears thrust into sands that never tire of blood. I felt the cold desert air lash my face, and the scent of frankincense and damp earth rising from the mud houses as if the city were drawing its final breaths before dawn. It was a cinematic scene—a fusion of civilization's grandeur and the stillness of the grave.
?As I was drowned in the wonder of the fall, the night’s silence shattered above a solid, towering minaret. There, I saw the silhouette of a master archer, standing as if he were part of the stone itself. There was no magic here, only a lethal skill surpassing human capability. He drew the long string of a massive war-bow and loosed an arrow that ignited upon contact with the air, like a 'piercing shooting star.'
?I watched the arrow tear through the black of night, trailing a tail of fire and light. It did not miss. It pierced my chest with such force that it shattered my bones and buried my voice in my throat. I felt the coldness of the blade cut through my heart, and the vision of the city vanished, replaced by pitch-black darkness as my soul was violently yanked back through shadowed corridors.
?The Return: The Grotto’s Shock
?Suddenly... the pain stopped, and the wind died down.
I opened my eyes with a horrific gasp, my chest heaving as if I had survived a drowning. I wasn't in the skies of Marib; I was sprawled on my face at the bottom of the dark grotto. The smell of mold and dampness, and the sound of water dripping onto the solid rock, were all that remained of that nightmare.
?I raised my head slowly. The Carnelian embedded in the heart of the rock gleamed with an ominous luster under our faint torches. I turned to my right, and there they were... Naji, Mansour, Saleh, and Hameed.
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Their hands were outstretched, mere centimeters away from touching the stone. It was the exact moment before the catastrophe in my vision.
?'NOOOOOO! Get back!' I screamed in a voice they had never heard from me. I lunged like one possessed, snatching their hands away from the carnelian and shoving them with all my might against the rocky wall, nearly extinguishing the torches.
?They recoiled in shock. Naji fell onto his back, staring at me in terror. 'Attiya! What’s wrong with you? You screamed as if you saw the Angel of Death!'
?'Don’t you dare touch it!' I was shaking like a leaf in a gale, cold sweat drenching my face. 'I saw death in its core... I saw Marib crushed, and an arrow splitting the sky to kill me. This is no treasure... it’s a curse that will take us all to the grave!'
?They stared at me, bewildered. Though they thought I had lost my mind, the raw terror in my eyes froze them in place. And in the gloom of the cave, the specter of that strange man appeared to me, wearing a cryptic smile from behind the rocks before vanishing as if he had never been.
?The Steam-Age Revelation
?'My God... where have the mountains gone?' Naji whispered again. The world had shifted. I looked up and shouted in disbelief: 'Flying ships!'
Massive metallic orbs—iron zeppelins—swam between the towers, trailing chains of brilliant lights that blinded the eyes. There were no horses; instead, there were 'silent carriages' running on rubber wheels, their 'eyes' emitting beams of light that tore through the darkness.
?We stood amidst a strange crowd. Humans wearing long coats and peculiar hats, their faces cold, none glancing at the other. Beside us stood a metallic 'vending machine' emitting mechanical sounds.
Mansour, thinking it a lurking enemy, unsheathed his Jambiya and shouted in his sheer ignorance: 'Out of our way, you speaking hunk of metal!' He kicked it. Suddenly, the machine emitted a sharp whistle, and a small metal arm slid out, spraying a cold mist onto Mansour’s face. He fell back, crying out: 'By God’s help! The idol spits poison!'
?'Silence!' I hissed at them, trying to huddle them into a dark corner. I felt the 'Sentinel’s Stake' (my new power) burning behind my eyes. I began to see the world differently; I didn't see streets—I saw 'gears and copper veins' running beneath the earth, and I saw the 'auras' of the people around me.
?The Arrival of the 'Ranked Ones'
?Suddenly, the crowd parted. Three men emerged wearing light copper breastplates over their coats, carrying short spears tipped with 'rotating sprockets' emitting steam.
?'Temporal ghosts?' one of them said in a deep voice, eyeing our tattered clothes. 'You reek of the "dust of ages." How did you cross the Carnelian Gate without a permit from the High Council?'
?'We are the free men of Sheba!' I shouted back, trying to reclaim my discarded dignity.
?The man laughed scornfully. He didn't draw his weapon; instead, he placed his hand on the ground. In that moment, I felt the vibration before it happened. The Headache Stake!
?With a single touch of his finger, the earth cracked beneath my cousins' feet. 'Fingers of stone' rose from the ground, shackling their legs in place. Saleh screamed as he saw the rock wrapping around his leg like dough: 'Magic! The earth is eating us, Attiya! Save us!'
?I realized then the bitter truth: We were not in a foreign land... we were in a Time where 'Metal and Gunpowder' had become a religion, and where ignorance was a crime punishable by erasure."
