PROLOGUE

In the distant past, there was a great island nation that cannot be found on any map today. The elders used to say that this land had once been the greatest center of wisdom humanity had ever known. They spoke of scholars who could read the sky, sailors who understood the rhythm of the seas, and people who lived without disturbing the balance of nature. According to legend, people from all over the world came to this island solely to gain knowledge, and then carried what they had learned back to their own countries. In those days, the source of power was neither gold nor armies. True power was knowledge.

I never saw those days.

I am a former priest who lived during the final years of that great civilization. By the time I was born, the magnificent order established by our ancestors had already begun to fall apart. Wisdom had given way to ambition, justice to greed, and compassion to brutality. People no longer took pride in their virtues, but in the wealth they possessed, the armies they commanded, and their power to inspire fear in others. In the squares of the great cities, it was no longer scholars who were applauded, but victorious commanders. Merchants and rulers had become the most respected figures in the eyes of the people.

The cities looked like places of celebration every day. Performances were held in the public squares, bloody games were staged, and sacrificial ceremonies continued in the great white temple from the first light of dawn until midnight. At night, the music never stopped. People danced and believed that this way of life would last forever. While they celebrated, we could see the end approaching.

The few people who wanted to stay away from this corrupt society had already abandoned the cities. Some had withdrawn into the mountains, some had established small settlements deep within the forests, and others had chosen to live out of sight along the coast. I, too, served as a priest for many years. At first, I believed that we could guide people toward the right path. But as the years passed, I realized that the ceremonies performed in the temples no longer had anything to do with faith.

Hundreds of animals were sacrificed every day in the great white temple, and people were told that the bloodshed would appease the gods. The priests described it as a sacred duty, while the rulers used it to control the people through fear. Yet true wisdom had never demanded blood.

In the end, I left the priesthood because a priest who spoke the truth was no longer valued in this country. Very few people who thought like me remained. They called us “old-fashioned,” “prophets of doom,” and “traitors.” Still, we did not stop speaking out because we knew that if we remained silent, there would be no world left for our children to live in.

For years, the true sages had been giving the same warning. They said that the celestial cloud layer surrounding the world like an invisible shield had begun to break down. Nature was not responsible for this. The great forces our ancestors had developed solely to advance knowledge had fallen into the hands of ambitious rulers instead of wise men.

Every nation that wanted to become more powerful had begun producing greater weapons, using the military expansion of its neighbors to justify its own. After a while, no one could even remember why the first war had begun. Wars were no longer fought to gain land or protect the people, but to establish dominance, spread fear, and possess even more. With every new war, the sky was wounded a little further, and the invisible shield protecting humanity grew thinner.

Perhaps an hour had passed since the rain began. I continued watching the city through the ship’s narrow window. At first glance, everything appeared normal. Children were still running along the shore, and those swimming in the sea were splashing water at one another. Instead of seeking shelter from the rain, they had made it part of their entertainment. Their distant laughter reached even the silence of the cave.

I lowered my head.

“I wish,” I whispered to myself. “I wish this were truly just an ordinary rain.”

After a while, my eyes settled on the courtyard of the great white temple. The music had still not stopped. Drums were beating, and people continued to dance without caring about their soaked clothes. The priests carried on with the sacrificial ceremonies as if nothing had happened. Another animal was laid upon the altar. I could see the blade gleaming. Blood mixed with rainwater and began flowing down the marble steps.

A shiver I could not explain rose within me. For years, we had warned them about the disaster that would come from the sky, yet they were still spilling blood upon the earth. What a terrible delusion it was.

The rain grew heavier. This time, I could even hear the drops. The sound of water striking the rocks at the entrance of the cave became steadily more intense, while the sky slowly turned a leaden grey.

Just then, several dogs running on the beach suddenly stopped. They raised their heads to the sky and smelled it for a long time. Then they started to move away from the city, tucking their tails between their legs.

Animals... They always felt before us.

People continued to live as if nothing had happened. A man was walking in the rain with his children on his shoulders. A young couple was laughing and wetting each other, and an old woman was returning home with her Sunday bag on her arm. A fisherman didn’t even need to collect his nets. There was no fear on anyone’s face. Nobody was looking at the sky for long. We were just looking.

There was complete silence inside the ship. No one was talking, we were all watching out the same narrow window. We had nothing left to say to each other anymore. Because we were finally seeing with our own eyes what we had been afraid of for years.

The rain did not stop. On the contrary, it was getting heavier with each passing minute, as if the sky was preparing to discharge all its burden onto the earth.

At that moment, for the first time, an indescribable fear came over me. I knew disaster had begun. But I didn’t know when people would notice. There was only one question inside me that I was afraid to learn the answer to:

Would they understand this when it was too late?

The rain had been falling non-stop for hours. Those thin drops, which no one cared about in the beginning, had now turned into a gray curtain woven between the sky and the earth. I was watching the city below without taking my eyes off the window.

The crowd on the beach was starting to decrease. The children disappeared first. The mothers grumbled at their wet clothes and took them home. Then the elderly withdrew from the squares. They were replaced by young people still trying to laugh. They too looked up at the sky, then shrugged their shoulders and continued on their way. They believed that the rain would stop. Because they didn’t want to believe in anything else.

Suddenly, an old fisherman standing on the seashore caught my attention. He was the man I had seen on the same pier for years. He took off his hat and looked at the sky. Then he opened his palm and collected a few drops of rain. He rubbed it between his fingers. The expression on his face suddenly changed. He started running. He was shouting. I couldn’t hear what he was saying from so far away. But I could see people just staring at him for a brief moment, then moving on.

After a while, the same man took his wife and two young children out of his house. He took his hands and started walking towards the higher parts of the city. He felt the first fear.

Then other people stopped and started looking at the sky. Conversations in the square have decreased. Laughter became rare. One of the musicians stopped playing. The other one collected his instrument a few minutes later. For the first time, silence was defeated by the sound of rain.

The priests waiting on the stairs of the great white temple were preparing greater sacrifices. It was as if the sky would have mercy on them if they shed more blood. People started to gather around them. Some were praying, some were crying, some were holding their children in their arms and lifting them up to the sky. The expression on the faces had now changed. Joy had given way to uncertainty, which had gradually turned into fear.

I was sitting on the stone edge of the window with my hand watching them. I couldn’t get angry at any of them. Because they were human beings like us. They just learned the truth too late.

There are some facts; When a person realizes them, he is no longer close enough to change them.

Just then, there was such a thunder that split the sky that even the stones inside the cave trembled. Thousands of people in the city raised their heads to the sky at the same time.

At that moment, I saw the same expression on the face of the whole city for the first time.

Fear.

And man would first know from his eyes that death was approaching.

As evening fell, the sky was no longer visible.

The rain had turned into a dark gray curtain drawn between the sky and the earth.

The city lights were on one by one, but in that heavy rain the lights could not even reach a few steps away.

After a while...

The first lightning struck, splitting the sky from top to bottom.

The whole city lit up like daylight for a moment.

Great white temple, palaces, harbour, people on the beach...

They all froze in that white light that lasted in the blink of an eye.

Then such thunder boomed that thin pieces of stone fell from the ceiling of the cave onto the ground.

No one spoke inside the ship.

We all looked at each other involuntarily.

Then we returned to the window again.

For the first time, a rush had begun in the city below.

People were leaving the squares, holding their children in their arms, and trying to take the elderly home.

But still, many believed it was temporary.

“It will stop in the morning...”

I could read your lips.

Everyone seemed to say the same sentence.

Another lightning struck.

This time, another one right after...

Then another...

It was as if the sky was cracking, a giant invisible dome was falling apart.

The rain was no longer drop by drop, but like a river that poured non-stop.

The streets of the city were starting to disappear.

Marble streets were being replaced by murky waters.

People were trying to walk in the water rising to their knees, taking their children on their shoulders and closing their doors with sandbags.

The ceremonies did not stop in the temple.

On the contrary...

The priests had lit bigger fires and prepared more sacrifices.

Every time the lightning flashed, I could see people kneeling before the altar, covering their faces in fear.

That magnificent structure where wisdom was once taught had now become the home of fear.

As the night progressed, the thunder rumbles mixed together.

Now one started before the other ended.

The sound of rain and the anger of the sky became indistinguishable.

At one point, my eyes fell on the port.

Sailors were trying to take large merchant ships out to sea.

But the waves were hitting the piers again before they even left the port.

People were shouting, ropes were breaking, poles were breaking, horses were scared and running through the streets.

Even the howling of the dogs disappeared into the thunder.

By midnight, the city had turned into a completely different place.

People dancing in the rain in the morning were now watching the sky from their windows, hugging their children a little tighter with each lightning bolt.

The same question was read on all faces, even though no one dared to say it out loud.

“What if this rain never stops?”

I knew the answer to that question.

I closed the window slowly.

Because I could no longer find the strength to look at the city below.

And for the first time...

That night, I felt that the coming end was not just a disaster.

A civilization had begun to face the fate it had prepared with its own hands.

Later in the night, the sound of rain was no longer heard, but was experienced.

It was as if all the seas of the sky were empty.

The water struck the rocks at the entrance to the cave with such force that every blow was felt on the ship’s hull.

None of us could sleep.

Some of us were praying silently, some of us were closing our eyes and thinking about our children.

I still hadn’t left the window.

The city below was no longer eligible.

Lightning flashes only intermittently, tearing the darkness for a moment, then everything sank back into black.

I saw a different corner of the city with every lightning bolt.

A house...

A tower...

The pillars of a temple...

Then darkness again...

Towards the end of the night, the sound of thunder began to change.

It wasn’t just coming from the sky anymore.

It was as if another hum was rising from the depths of the earth.

At first I thought it was a trick my tired mind was playing on me.

Later, the ground beneath the ship trembled slightly.

Nobody spoke.

We all looked at each other at the same time.

The vibration lasted only a few breaths.

But then fine grains of sand began to fall from the ceiling of the cave.

A piece of stone fell next to me.

Then another one...

Later, a deafening noise was heard.

A section of rock on the ceiling of the cave collapsed with a large crack.

The gray sky that we had not seen for years opened inside.

The rain was now falling inside the cave.

Cold drops fell on my face.

I looked up.

The sky was not visible.

There was only water coming down non-stop.

It was as if the clouds were no longer standing in the sky, but were falling on us.

At that moment the rain intensified once again.

I never thought this was possible.

The rain, which had been falling non-stop for hours, had now become even more intense.

Water even started to flow through the mountain.

Thin streams were floating through the rocks, and small ponds formed around the ship.

For a moment I turned my eyes back to the city.

One of the lightning bolts illuminated the sky from top to bottom.

In that brief moment, I saw the people below running now.

The same people who danced in the rain yesterday...

Now he was holding his children in his arms, shouting at each other and trying to reach high places.

But they didn’t know where to run.

First time...

True fear had descended upon the city.

And I knew the second day hadn’t started yet.

There were a few hours left in the morning.

The rain intensified once again.

It had been raining non-stop for hours, but this time the sky seemed to decide to unload all its load at the same time.

I couldn’t make out the drops anymore.

The space between the sky and the earth was completely filled with water.

One of the lightning bolts illuminated the mountain peak.

At that moment I could see the valley from one end to the other.

Yesterday, the river flowing like a thin line became unrecognizable.

Its waters could not fit into its bed, but dragged the trees and rocks in front of it towards the plain.

Another lightning struck.

This time the big mountain at the other end of the plain appeared.

First, a thin slit appeared.

Then a muffled hum came from the depths of the earth.

The mountain slowly leaned forward.

For a moment time seemed to stop.

Then the whole slope collapsed with a loud noise.

Rocks, trees and tons of soil rolled into the valley.

He fell on the river, crushing everything he had put in front of him.

The river stopped for several breaths.

Later, the accumulated waters furiously opened a new path.

He shattered everything in front of him and spread across the plain.

Fields outside the city were submerged within minutes.

Herds of animals were running left and right, their owners were trying to save them.

I could hear people screaming from afar.

No one in the city walked under the rain anymore.

Nobody was laughing.

The entertainment in the square was already over.

The crowd kneeling in the courtyard of the temple was growing by the minute.

Some were raising their children to the sky and asking for help, some were hugging each other out of fear, and some were watching the sky with empty eyes, not knowing what to do.

The rulers were still addressing the people from the balcony of the palace, trying to say that this was a temporary natural phenomenon.

But no one was listening to them anymore.

Because people were seeing it with their own eyes for the first time.

Mountains were collapsing.

Rivers overflowed.

The soil was surrendering to the water.

And faces...

Those faces laughing in the rain yesterday...

Now he was only telling one thing.

Fear.

Sometimes a person understands the approach of death with a voice, sometimes with an image.

That morning...

A country started to read this in people’s eyes.

The rain intensified once again.

Drops were no longer falling from the sky.

It was as if all the gates of the sky had been opened and the ocean was emptying into the earth.

When I looked out the window, I saw that the waters, which were knee-deep a few hours ago, were now rising to people’s waists.

The city no longer looked like a city.

Stone streets that start to drown in the waters, cars that overturn, trees that drift and boats that crash into each other...

Everything was mixed up.

People were shouting, calling each other, looking for their lost children.

A mother’s scream was so painful that it even drowned out the thunder.

An old man tried to catch his wife’s hand at the last moment when she was caught in the current.

He failed.

The woman disappeared into the bubbling waters.

The man fell to his knees.

But the place where he knelt was no longer soil.

He was in the water.

The raging current dragged him away too.

Every corner of the city echoed with the same screams.

People were no longer trying to save each other.

First your children...

Then they were trying to save themselves.

All the roads leading to the high hills were filled with people.

Some were barefoot.

Some were running away with only the clothes on their backs.

Some people had put all their wealth on their shoulders.

But after a few steps, they started throwing those gold, jewels and valuables into the water one by one.

The things they had killed each other for all their lives had no value in the face of death.

Another lightning bolt broke through the sky.

I saw the stairs of the great white temple.

The managers who gave courage to the people yesterday...

High priests who mocked the wise yesterday...

Now they were running away too.

They gathered their gold-embroidered clothes, held the sacred chests on their shoulders, and ran towards the high places in fear of their lives.

None of them turned and looked back.

People who once dragged people after them...

Now he was just trying to save his own lives.

At that moment, the last hope I had for years faded away.

I put my hand on the stone edge of the window.

My fingers were shaking.

I wanted to close my eyes.

I couldn’t.

Because the people who died down there were my people.

They were people with whom I once walked the same streets, shopped at the same markets, and blessed their children.

I couldn’t save them.

Tears started to flow down my cheeks.

I tried to suppress my sobs.

But I couldn’t make it.

I cried silently.

Maybe for the first time...

I cried like a person watching a country die.

Just then the rain intensified once again.

I couldn’t see the other shore anymore.

Even the city’s towers began to fade behind the curtain of water.

The sky and the earth were mixed together.

And I...

I was left with a terrible truth inside me.

This wasn’t the end yet.

The disaster had not yet shown its full power.

As the evening of the second day fell, there was no view I knew of the city anymore.

The rain intensified once again.

It was no longer possible to see water falling from the sky.

It was as if the sky had melted and was collapsing on the earth with all its weight.

Lightning turned night into day constantly, and the thunder that followed shook the mountains.

When I looked out the window, people were no longer on the streets.

All the hills around the city were filled with people.

Thousands of people...

Women...

Elderly...

Mothers carrying their babies in their arms...

Children holding tightly to their father’s hands...

They all stared at the sky.

Some are kneeling praying...

Some are shaking their fists at the sky...

Some were crying silently.

There was no hope left on anyone’s face anymore.

At that moment the ground trembled again.

This time it wasn’t as short as before.

The wooden hull of the ship began to creak.

Large rocks broke off from the walls of the cave and fell down.

The hum was getting bigger.

The moment lightning struck, I saw the entire plain.

And I gasped.

Soil...

He wasn’t standing still.

The huge plain was slowly starting to collapse.

First, fine cracks formed.

Then those cracks came together.

Then the whole plain collapsed inwards like the chest of a giant creature.

Houses, temples, roads, trees, people they were all sliding down with the soil.

At that moment the rain increased once again.

It wasn’t just raining from above anymore.

Bubbling water flowed into the newly formed trough from all over the collapsed plain.

The raging rivers were pouring into that giant rift with all their might, dragging everything in their path.

People taking shelter in the hills began to climb higher, screaming.

Mothers were pressing their children to their arms, the elderly were falling to their knees and saying their last prayers.

Some were hugging each other and crying, while others were watching the collapsing lands with frozen eyes.

I understood at that moment...

Sometimes people cried not from death, but from despair.

I was crying too.

Because it wasn’t just the houses that disappeared down there.

A civilization thousands of years old was disappearing into the soil and water before my own eyes.

And rain...

Non-stop...

Some more...

It was getting a little more intense.

The morning of the third day...

We could only tell that it was morning because we knew time had passed.

What a sunrise...

Nor had the darkness from the night dissipated.

The sky had now turned into a one-piece, pitch black body of water.

It was no longer right to say rain.

This it was as if the sky and the ocean had changed places.

The water was not pouring out of the sky in the form of drops, but like cascades flowing uninterruptedly.

I approached the window.

The large cliff that appeared in the middle of the plain yesterday was no longer there.

The waters that swallowed him rose a little higher throughout the night.

I looked at the city.

Streets, squares, palaces and large temples were no longer visible.

They were all lost under the wild waters turning brown.

Of that glorious city, once inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people, only the upper sections of the tallest towers remained.

They too looked like faint shadows among the waves and rain.

Each new wave swallows a little lower in the towers...

With each passing minute, those giant stone structures were disappearing a little more.

It’s not like the city is slowly sinking into the water...

It was being silently swallowed by water.

My eyes involuntarily slid to the foot of the mountain where the cave was located.

I’m heartbroken.

Water, he reached the foot of the mountain.

There were only a few human heights left between us.

The silence inside the ship was broken for the first time.

Nobody was talking loudly.

But I could hear whispers.

“What if the water rises up to here...”

“What if the cave collapses completely...”

“What if we die like them...”

Even those wise faces that had been encouraging people for years had fear.

Because nature no longer separated any of us.

Wise, priest, manager, child, we were all people of the same world.

A bolt of lightning struck.

In the darkness, those high towers appeared for a moment in all their glory.

Then the light went out.

One of them slowly leaned to the side.

Stone blocks poured down noisily.

Only the foam remained as the top of the tower sank into the raging waters.

The towers that once symbolized the power of Atlantis were now buried deep with their own people.

I put my hand on the wooden wall of the ship.

First time...

I thought this ship we had been building for years might not be enough to save us.

I closed my eyes.

I wanted to pray.

But no words came out of my lips.

Because at that moment, not just for the people below...

I was afraid for ourselves too.

The stones beneath our feet trembled.

A thin stream of water began to seep in through the entrance we had sealed.

At first, no one spoke.

Then, within a few breaths, that thin trickle swelled into a torrent that reached our knees.

The cave...

It had begun to fill with water.

The sages rushed to check the ropes.

Some hauled the food chests to higher ground.

No one was issuing orders.

For everyone knew what had to be done.

The water kept rising relentlessly.

Suddenly, a powerful tremor from deep below shook the cave.

Then came the deafening sound of a rockfall.

The massive boulders sealing the cave entrance broke loose.

Raging waters poured in with furious intensity.

We felt a powerful jolt beneath the ship.

First, it swayed gently.

Then, once more...

And once more...

The ship, which had sat motionless on the stone floor for years, slowly broke free.

There was water beneath it now.

The ship had begun to rise.

No one rejoiced.

For although this was the moment we had awaited, we knew the outside world was gone forever.

I looked out the window one last time.

Where majestic mountains had once risen, there was now only a churning, seemingly endless expanse of water.

The city, temples, palaces, tall towers, people all had vanished beneath those same dark waters.

And our ship, bearing humanity’s last hope...

Began to rise silently upon the dark waters.

The rain did not cease.

Even after we left the cave, the sky continued to unleash its full fury upon us.

The ship was tossed about like a leaf upon the raging waters. The wind was blowing from every direction, and the thick beams groaned as massive waves crashed against the hull.

No one was speaking.

Everyone was clinging to something, praying only that the ship would stay afloat.

One wave would lift us toward the sky...

The next would plunge us into a dark abyss.

There was no longer any horizon.

The sky and the sea had merged into one.

Behind the curtain of rain, we could not see even a few steps ahead.

Was it day...

Or night...

We could no longer even tell.

The sailors manning the helm were struggling with all their might.

But finally, one of them lifted his head and spoke in a low voice.

“We can no longer determine our course.”

Another looked up at the sky.

“The stars aren’t visible.”

A third picked up a bronze navigational instrument resembling a compass.

He stared at it for a long time with trembling hands.

Then, he quietly shook his head.

“We can’t see a thing.”

In that moment, we understood.

We were no longer steering the ship.

We were being carried solely by the wind and the waves.

Hours passed...

Perhaps days...

No one was certain.

The rain never stopped.

The storm would ease slightly at times, only to return with even greater fury.

The ship drifted ceaselessly toward the unknown.

We did not even know if the lands we had left behind still existed.

And we had no idea what lay ahead of us.

We were simply trying to survive.

No one knew where we were going.

No one knew which sea we were upon.

The only thing we knew...

Was that the world we had left behind was now too far away to ever return to.

The storm would not subside.

The rain continued to pour as if the heavens were emptying all their waters, and giant waves tossed our ship violently from side to side.

We no longer knew how many days had passed.

The sun had vanished.

The stars were nowhere to be seen.

Sky and sea had merged into a single darkness.

Those at the helm had long since given up the struggle.

None of us were trying to steer the ship anymore. For we had realized that this was not possible.

Yet, I harbored a feeling I could not explain.

It was as if an unseen hand were righting the ship after every massive wave, drifting us in a different direction.

I was not the only one who felt this.

One of the old sages quietly approached me.

“Our brothers did not abandon us,” he said.

I did not ask what he meant.

For I, too, felt the same thing.

The wise ones we had sent to the east years ago...

The people to whom we had foretold the approaching catastrophe...

It was as if they were calling out to us.

The wind shifted.

The direction of the waves changed.

The ship began to move forward with determination, as if caught in an unseen current.

Days later, one morning, the curtain of rain parted for a brief moment.

A dark landmass appeared on the horizon.

No one could speak.

For we could not tell if it was truly land or merely a trick our eyes were playing on us.

Hours later, the rocky shores became clearly visible.

A giant wave hurled the ship forward with all its might.

The thick hull scraped against the rocks.

Then came a second wave.

And the ship came to a halt, settling onto the muddy ground of the shore.

We collapsed onto the ground.

For a long time, no one could stand up.

Finally, for the first time since the day we left the cave, I set foot on solid ground.

I sank to my knees.

I gathered the earth in my palms.

I wept silently.

We were alive.

The old wise man gazed at the horizon.

“The lands our brothers reached...” he said.

“Old Turkey...”

But he did not stop there.

He remained silent for a while, narrowing his eyes as if listening to the direction of the wind.

Then, he pointed to the east.

“We will not stay here,” he said.

“Those who await us are in the east.”

We all fell silent.

The shore was not a sanctuary left behind; it was merely a brief respite.

Our journey was not over.

Only the sea voyage had ended.

The old wise man spoke again. “We are going east. Our brethren are waiting for us. They have guarded the knowledge. Now, the time has come to take it up.”

We all gazed silently toward the east.

The rain was still falling.

But now, there was solid ground beneath our feet.

And the road stretching out before us would lead us to the sacred hill in the east.

The storm showed no signs of abating.

The rain was still pouring down as if the heavens were emptying all their waters, and giant waves tossed our ship violently from side to side.

We no longer knew how many days had passed.

The sun had vanished.

The stars were nowhere to be seen.

The sky was blanketed by a seamless, leaden darkness.

Finally, with the push of a last wave, the ship ran aground.

We collapsed onto the ground.

For a long time, no one could stand up.

At last, I set foot on solid ground for the first time since the day we left the cave.

But we were on land now—real land.

The ground beneath my feet was not the soil I knew.

Everything had turned to mire.

With every step, our feet sank into the mud, and we struggled to move forward.

The rain was no longer as fierce as before, yet it fell ceaselessly.

Dark clouds cloaking the sky had completely obscured the sun.

Despite it being daytime, the surroundings were shrouded in twilight.

I lifted my head and looked around.

This place, too, had borne the brunt of the catastrophe.

The cliffs lining the shore were shattered, and some hills had split apart.

Areas that had clearly once been stream beds had transformed into small lakes.

Most of the trees had been uprooted, and giant boulders had been dragged all the way to the shore.

The sea had altered the shape of the land.

Some coves had closed off entirely, while in other places, the ocean had encroached kilometers inland.

It was as if this land, too, had been recreated in the span of a few days.

Silently, I scooped up a handful of earth.

The mud oozed slowly between my fingers.

We were alive...

But just like the world we had left behind, the land we had reached was no longer as it once was.

The old sage gazed around for a long time.

Then, he pointed toward the east.

“The catastrophe has changed this place, too,” he said.

“But those who await us are still in the east.”

No one replied. We cinched the load on our shoulders a little tighter.

We left behind the ship, sitting silently on the shore.

And we began to walk eastward with heavy steps.

For the first time since the day we finally left the cave, I set foot on solid ground.

We were on land at last.

The sea lay behind us.

The ground beneath my feet was not the earth I knew.

Everything had turned to mire.

With every step, our feet sank into the mud, and we struggled to move forward.

The rain was no longer as torrential as before, yet it continued to fall ceaselessly.

Dark clouds blanketed the sky, completely obscuring the sun.

Despite it being daytime, the surroundings were shrouded in a twilight gloom.

I lifted my head and looked around.

This place, too, had borne the brunt of the disaster.

The rocky cliffs along the coast were shattered, and some hills had split open.

Areas that had clearly once been stream beds had transformed into small ponds.

Many trees had been uprooted, and massive boulders had been dragged all the way to the shore.

The sea had altered the shape of the land.

Some coves had closed off entirely, while in other places, the sea had encroached kilometers inland.

It was as if this land had been reshaped in the wake of the great catastrophe.

Silently, I scooped up some earth in my palms.

The mud oozed slowly between my fingers.

We were alive.

But neither we nor the land beneath our feet were the same as before.

And so, we began to walk eastward with heavy steps.

The sky remained blanketed in dark, leaden clouds.

The sun refused to show itself; despite the daylight, the world remained bathed in a pale, twilight gloom.

The rain had slowed to a fine drizzle.

Yet, the traces of the days-long disaster had not yet been erased from this land.

Everything was mud.

With nearly every step, our feet sank into the mire, making our progress difficult. Lakes had formed in places that were clearly once flat plains.

Small streams had carved out new channels, sweeping away everything in their path.

Some hills had partially collapsed, while certain rock formations looked as though a giant hand had torn them from their original spots and deposited them elsewhere.

The coastline had changed.

In some areas, the sea had encroached kilometers inland, completely swallowing up certain bays.

Elsewhere, the receding waters had left vast swamps in their wake.

The catastrophe had transformed not only the great land we had left behind...

But these lands, too.

Old roads had vanished.

Valleys had shifted.

It was as if the world had been reshaped in a matter of days.

We kept walking in silence.

Each step brought us closer to the east—to the lands holding the ancient secret that awaited us.

We walked without stopping.

No one wanted to rest.

The catastrophe we had left behind drove us ever onward.

Our feet grew heavy in the mud, and our soaked clothes clung tighter to us with every step.

We were exhausted.

Yet we dared not stop.

The leaden clouds in the sky did not break all day long.

We never saw the sun.

We could only gauge the passage of time by the gradual fading of the light.

As evening fell, the wind grew cooler.

The rain finally slowed to a light drizzle.

Not a single star was visible through the clouds.

The land stretching out before us was silent.

There was no sound of birds...

Nor did we encounter any other living creature.

It was as if the catastrophe had silenced not just the cities, but all of life itself.

The old sage halted our march.

He gazed around for a long moment.

“We shall rest here tonight,” he said.

We chose a small rise sheltered from the wind by large, nearby boulders.

Finding dry wood was nearly impossible.

We gathered wet branches and managed, with great difficulty, to light a small fire.

The flames were weak.

Yet, for the first time in days, they were enough to warm us, if only a little.

No one spoke. Everyone was looking at the fire.

We all had the same question in mind.

Who was really waiting for us in the East?

And they...

Did they know we were coming?

On our first night, we gathered around the fire.

The rain had stopped.

But the sky was still covered with dark clouds.

The faint light of the fire illuminated our faces, which had been sleepless and weary for days.

Soon, a few people appeared from the darkness.

As they approached, they gave the old greeting.

We returned the same greeting.

They were our brothers whom we had sent to the east years ago.

We embraced each other.

No one could speak for long.

We were children of the same wisdom.

But fate had separated us into two separate paths years ago.

The oldest of them sat silently by the fire.

He studied my face for a long time.

Then he spoke slowly.

“Tell us, the last days of our homeland.”

I took a deep breath.

The moment I closed my eyes, everything began again.

The first rain, then the sky poured down incessantly...

Rivers overflowing...

Rocks falling from the mountains...

People filling the city squares...

The final prayers in the temples...

Families embracing each other...

Despair...

Fear...

And hope...

My voice trembled as I spoke.

It was as if I was reliving all those days.

The sea rising a little more each hour...

The houses disappearing one by one...

The temple towers slowly vanishing into the water...

The final struggle to reach the cave in the mountains...

The screams of the people left outside as the ship’s doors closed...

Even the cave filling with water...

And finally, the ship rising from the darkness and setting off on an unknown journey.

When I finished speaking, there was a deep silence around the fire.

No one raised their head.

The oldest sage spoke without wiping away the tears streaming from his eyes. “We,watched the west for years.”

“The rains finally stopped.”

“In fact, the sea began to recede after a while.”

A tiny glimmer of hope arose within me.

The wise man continued his words.

“But what we expected did not happen.” “Our homeland never reappeared.” “The land had collapsed.” “Where our cities once stood, there was now only the sea.” “The catastrophe did not merely destroy our homeland.” “It altered the mountains.” “It altered the rivers.” “It altered the coastlines.” “The world was no longer the world it had been.” In that moment, we understood. We had not simply left our homeland behind. We had left behind a world lost forever.

By morning, the rain had ceased. The dark clouds blanketing the sky had not yet dispersed, but for the first time in ages, the horizon appeared a little brighter. We left behind the charred stones of our fire. We were no longer alone. Our kin, sent to the east years ago, had joined us. They knew these lands far better than we did. The eldest sage walked in the lead, and we followed in silence. What we saw along the way showed that the catastrophe had touched this place, too. In places, stream beds had shifted, rock formations had shattered, and old paths had vanished completely. Yet, the sages from the east never lost their way. As the sun neared the west, the old sage pointed to high cliffs in the distance. “We have arrived,” he said. I looked up. Atop a high hill, the ruins of ancient stone walls were visible. Some stone columns still stood upright. Others had sunk into the earth under the weight of centuries.

The old sage spoke quietly. “This is one of the eastern temples built by our ancestors.” “Centuries ago, they sent us here to guard it.” We climbed the stone steps with heavy strides. The moment I stepped inside, I felt a strange sensation. It was as if I had returned to my own home after a long journey. The temple walls were ancient. Yet, they still stood tall and firm. Upon the large stone altar in the center lay sacred symbols that time could not erode. The old sage placed his hand upon the stones. “One day...” he said. “Other structures will be built over this temple.” “People will forget the true history of this place.” “But the stones will not forget.”

That night, we rested inside the old temple.

We did not yet know.

Thousands of years later, people would see another sanctuary where this sacred structure stood...

But beneath it, this ancient temple—upon which we now set foot—would quietly continue to exist.

That night, we lit a fire in the courtyard of the old temple.

The rain had ceased.

For the first time in days, stars adorned the sky.

No one spoke for a long time.

Amidst the crackling of the fire, the eldest priest stood up.

He slowly raised his hand toward the sky.

He pointed to a single star shining on the eastern horizon.

“Look...” he said.

“Our ancestors called it the Guiding Star.”

“For at night, it revealed not only our path but our destiny as well.”

We all watched the star in silence.

The priest continued speaking.

“Our first sacred temple was built where it pointed.”

“Priests would watch the sky every night, trying to read the silent signs of the Guiding Star.”

“Sometimes it heralded abundance.”

“Sometimes, drought.”

“And sometimes, great changes to come...”

The flames of the fire swayed gently in the wind.

“As years passed, the star would shift its position in the sky.”

“Then we would understand that the old temple’s task was complete.”

“We would not tear it down.”

“We would seal its doors with massive stones and entrust it to the earth, just as it was.”

“Then, we would build another sacred temple at the new location indicated by the star.”

The priest fell silent for a moment.

His expression grew solemn.

“But the last temple was different.” “The Guiding Star had shown us that a great catastrophe was approaching.”

“We did not know what would happen.”

“But we knew that the days to come would not be like the days of old.”

“That is why we hastily sealed the last temple.”

“We did not touch the sacred relics inside.”

“We blocked its doors with stones.”

“For we hoped that one day we might return.”

The priest pointed once more to the star in the sky.

“Now, the Guiding Star shows us the way again.”

“The old temple has fulfilled its purpose.”

“Tomorrow, we shall continue our journey.”

“We shall reach the place it indicates.”

“And the new sacred temple...”

“...we shall build together.”

No one spoke that night.

We were all watching the same star.

Just as it had been for thousands of years...

It was showing us the way once more.

The next morning, we woke with the first rays of the sun.

For the first time in days, the sun was touching the earth through the dispersing clouds.

The scent of earth, rising after the rain, enveloped the entire plain.

The stone walls of the old temple gleamed like gold in the morning light, and water droplets left over from the night trickled slowly down the stones.

The old priest walked slowly to the altar.

He placed his hands upon the sacred stone.

He remained silent for a long time.

Then, he turned and looked at us.

“Today, a new journey begins,” he said.

“We are now going to the sacred place revealed by the Guiding Star.”

“There, the final legacy of our ancestors awaits us.”

“And there...”

“...we shall build the new sacred temple together.”

The priest took up his staff.

He looked at the old temple one last time.

Then, he began to walk silently toward the east.

We followed him; behind us lay sacred stones that had stood for millennia.

Before us stretched a new era, unknown to anyone.

After days of walking, the old priest stopped.

A vast plain lay before us.

A powerful river flowed through the plain, following a wide bed that was said to have once been dry. One of the sages from the East gazed at the waters of the river.

“Before the disaster, there was only a dry valley here,” he said.

“Now, a great river flows through it.”

We all watched the water for a long time.

The disaster had transformed not only our homeland but these lands as well.

The river had taken a completely different course.

There was a small settlement a short distance back from the riverbank.

A few stone houses...

Hearths with smoke rising from them...

And people who approached silently when they saw us...

The wise men of the East knew them.

They greeted us respectfully.

That night we rested in the village.

The elders talked for a long time.

The young people, for the first time during our journey, fell asleep with hope on their faces.

The next morning, as the sun rose, we set off again.

We were slowly climbing towards the rocky hill behind the village.

When we reached the top, the old priest stopped.

He took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes.

Then he spoke slowly.

“Here...”

“The sacred hill that our ancestors entrusted to us.”

Before us lay bare rocks.

Herein, the bedrock surfaced among the earth.

The old priest opened the leather pouch around his waist.

From it, he took out a small, dark green, smooth stone, about the size of his palm.

We all watched him silently.

He grasped the stone with both hands.

Then he placed it on the bedrock.

Closing his eyes, he murmured a short prayer in the ancient language.

The surface of the stone began to tremble slightly.

The old priest moved his hand slowly.

The sacred stone in his hand followed his movement.

A thin mark appeared on the bedrock.

The mark gradually deepened.

It was as if an unseen craftsman was carving the rock.

As minutes passed, the hard rock began to take shape without any sound of hammering.

First, a long shaft emerged.

Then, arms extended to the sides...

The stone inside the rock slowly began to take on a T shape.

No one said a word.

Finally, the old priest withdrew his hands.

He took a deep breath.

There was a tired but peaceful expression on his face. “This is how it began,” he said.

“That is how our ancestors’ first sacred stones came to be.”

Then, he looked at us all.

“From this day forward, this will not be my task alone.”

“The new sacred temple...”

“...we shall build together.”

The old priest withdrew his hands from the stone.

We all gazed in awe at the first great T-shaped stone rising from the bedrock.

After a long silence, he spoke.

“Behold, this is the first great stone to be erected at the heart of the new sacred temple.”

He slowly ran his hand over the stone’s smooth surface.

“Yet, this stone will not be merely a pillar.”

“We shall entrust the stories we tell upon it to future ages.”

We looked at him with curiosity.

“We had carved the very same things onto the stones of the last sacred temple we sealed.”

“The signs given to us by the Guiding Star, the harbingers of the approaching great catastrophe, the days when the sky turned dark, the ceaseless rains, the rising waters, the people trying to flee, the crumbling cities, and the end of the old world.”

He paused for a moment.

There was deep sorrow in his voice.

“Those who find this place after us will look upon these figures carved into the stone.”

“Perhaps they will not understand our language.”

“Perhaps they will not even know our names.”

“But they will understand this: a great civilization once lived here.”

“And that civilization was destroyed by a great catastrophe.”

The priest looked at the stone once more.

“We shall uphold the same tradition in the temple we are about to build.”

“This time, we will carve into the stone not only the signs of the stars...”

“...but also the catastrophe we witnessed with our own eyes.”

“Thus, those who come thousands of years after us...”

“...will not forget how the old world ended when they look upon these stones.”

Night had settled silently over Hattusa.

Only the flickering light of torches could be seen in the courtyard of the Great Temple.

No one spoke.

The craftsmen, chosen by the high priest’s command, were carefully examining the large T-shaped stone they had spent the day preparing—inspecting it one last time.

The stone’s surface was no longer smooth.

Every line, symbol, and groove carved into it held a specific meaning.

These were not mere decorations.

Nor were they a map.

It was a sacred language, understood only by those who could read it.

The elderly high priest approached the stone with slow, measured steps.

He ran his fingers over the newly carved symbols.

Then, he turned to the craftsmen.

“Is it finished?”

The eldest of the masters bowed his head.

“It is finished, Master.”

The High Priest studied the stone for a long time.