Then, at 3:14 AM, an anonymous link appeared in his inbox. No subject line. Just a single button: .

He tried to close the program, but the "X" in the corner had turned into a drawing of a closed gate. He scrolled faster. The text wasn't just describing the city of Serai; it was building it. He saw descriptions of the Great Minaret, and suddenly, a long shadow stretched across his desk, cast by a sun that wasn't in the room.

The cursor pulsed over the "Save" icon. Elias heard the distant sound of a marketplace—cries of merchants, the chime of camel bells. He looked at the library exit; the door was now a high stone archway leading out into a blinding desert noon.

His mouse hovered over the link. His antivirus software remained silent, but his gut screamed. The file size was impossible—0 KB. Yet, when he clicked, the progress bar didn’t move; the file simply appeared on his desktop as if it had always been there. He double-clicked.