The hazy fringes of Sarween transformed into translucent curtains, concealing the secrets of the stone tower that suddenly rose from the depths of the sea. Adham and Dr. Luma stood before the ancient gate, which resembled a mouth open to another world. The seaweed-covered stones pulsed with temporal scars, each crack bearing a letter from an extinct language. "This isn't a tower... it's a cosmic record," Dr. Luma whispered, her hand tracing Adham's name carved into the stone, alongside a death date yet to be written.
Inside the tower, the air was heavy with the scent of copper and jasmine. The spiral staircases ascended, yet also descended, as if mimicking the vortex of consciousness itself. The walls were covered in broken mirrors, each fragment reflecting Adham's face at a different age: as a child, a young man, an old man. In one of the mirrors, he saw Yara waving to him from behind cracked glass, then disappearing.
"Time here isn't a straight line, but a torn fabric," Dr. Luma said, opening an ancient book found on a dust-covered shelf. The pages were filled with geometric drawings similar to those in Yara's letters. "These are equations for time warps... they used to think they were fiction."
They ascended to a circular room, in the center of which was a miniature model of Sarween, but with horrifying details: houses turned upside down, trees growing their roots towards the sky, and clay figures melting under an invisible rain. Above the model, a wall clock hung, its hands turning counterclockwise. As Adham approached, he heard Yara's laughter, then the laughter turned into a scream.
In a corner of the room, a manuscript was found covered in gold dust. The text was a continuation of the chapter Adham had written, but it contained details about the night of Yara's disappearance that he hadn't dared to write down: how he saw a dark shadow dragging her towards the sea, and how the sea split in two before swallowing her. In the margin, a sentence in his handwriting: "Fear of the truth made me create the cruelest lies."
A violent tremor knocked the manuscript away. From the window, Adham saw the sea boiling like a cauldron, the waves forming into human faces calling him by different names. "You don't remember, because you're condemned to oblivion in every loop," Dr. Luma said, gripping his arm tightly. "But this time, things are changing... the tower has never appeared before."
In the lower level, they discovered a room locked with a bone latch. Inside the room, a box made of ebony wood contained twenty silver necklaces, each bearing a number from 1 to 20. The last necklace was broken, with a miniature picture of Yara inside. "These are your failed attempts to break the loop," Dr. Luma said, her voice cracking. "Every time you die, you start again... but something tore the fabric this time."
When Adham's hand touched the broken necklace, the room suddenly collapsed. The walls receded like theater curtains, and the floor turned into a sea of flying letters. He saw himself sitting on a wooden chair, writing by candlelight, while young Yara played with her doll at his feet. But the doll was moving without strings, whispering the words of the cryptic letters. "Father, you built the cage... and now you must break the key."
They returned outside the tower, where the sky was raining cold fire. On the shore, the fishermen gathered around the carcass of the white shark, which began to decompose at an unnatural rate. Inside its mouth, an old pocket watch was found, stopped at 8 PM—the time of Yara's disappearance.
Dr. Luma took out her violet lamp, which began to glow with rapid pulses. "The tower is collapsing... and the loop may be broken." But before they could move, they heard heavy footsteps approaching. From the fog, an old man emerged, carrying a cane carved in the shape of a serpent. His face was identical to Adham's face in the highest mirror.
"You've finally arrived," the man said, his voice like Adham's, but with wisdom burdened by centuries. "I am what remains of you after twenty lives... but this time, the end will devour itself."
The wind carried the scent of jasmine once more, mixed with the smell of blood. Adham looked at his hands, finding them turning into black letters melting into the air. Dr. Luma held him, but her eyes began to evaporate like morning dew. "Time is running out... find the center."
Before everyone vanished, Adham saw Yara standing on top of the tower, waving to him with a hand holding a broken necklace. Her voice pierced the fog: "The truth isn't outside... it's the wound you carry within."
This is how the loop begins... again, but with cracks in the haze.