The Echoing Sands
In the embrace of the limitless desert, hidden from the gaze of civilisation, dwelled a solitary, ancient city known as Esarkis. The grandeur of its architecture and the enigmatic mosaics adorning the city attested to the splendour of a once flourishing culture, now lost in the folds of history.
On its outskirts lived a humble farmer, Hassan, a simple, content man who loved his barren land as much as a mother loves her child.
One sunrise, when resplendent hues were being painted across the sky, a peculiar sight caught Hassan's eyes. Resting on the sandy crest of a nearby dune lay an ornate, golden amphora. Intrigued, he rushed over and pulled it free, revealing an inscribed message 'Freedom at the cost of truth'.
Deciding the message was too cryptic for a simple farmer, Hassan returned to the city and sought help from the wise sage, Moros. Revealing the amphora, Hassan watched as Moros paled instantly. It was said that the desert, a living testament of time, held many secrets, and Moros knew many. He asserted that it contained an ancient Djinn who would grant him one wish.
Forces of temptation danced in Hassan's mind. He dreamt of luscious fields, abundant produce, or even untold riches. But he also recalled the inscribed message. Struggling between greed and fear, Hassan uttered a quiet plea, 'May Esarkis never crumble into oblivion'.
The Djinn, who'd lain silent wove a spell, causing Hassan to fall into a deep slumber. When he awoke, Esarkis had transformed. The war-torn and decaying structures were restored to their former glory, the city, now bustling with peculiar beings from different eras of time.
Days turned to weeks and weeks into months. Esarkis was once again a beacon in the desert. But it was not the resplendent city it once used to be. The beings were mere pretences of life – spectral apparitions programmed to repeat the same routines, an eerie parody of life itself. And soon, Hassan found himself sucked into the time loop. The truth hit him, the Djinn had granted him eternal life in the form of a shadowy pantomime.
In this twisted scene, Hassan wished for death, but death was a luxury he could not afford. So, Esarkis lived on as a city trapped in time, a grim reminder and echo of its own past, shining brightly in the world, yet unnoticed. And Hassan, too, remained just like the city - thriving but hollow, trapped in the echo of the truth - until time would wash even their memory away.