Abraham remembered, during their earlier visit to the island, he had imagined a monster rising from the lake to overturn their small boat. Recalling what the Black Pearl had told them about the first rulers of the island, he chuckled to himself.

On the night they had secretly rowed back to their own island, he had not been able to see anything in the darkness—but he had heard a sound similar to the splash of a boat’s oar dipping into the water.

Since there were no living creatures in the lake, the source of that sound could only have been human. Fearing they might be caught by the Lord’s soldiers—or imagining that someone unable to sleep had simply tossed stones into the water—they had never investigated further. Now he understood that on that night, the Lord’s close men had gone to the Outer Isle to collect the life-extending water. They always chose the hour when everyone else slept soundly, so that it would not be discovered that they had violated the law set by the Lord.

Abraham thought to himself:

“The mystery of that deep pit—and of those turtles marching toward it in a line—has finally been solved. Look at them! Clever creatures… They found the water that prolongs life and came in a neat procession. What strong sense of communication and organization they must have to travel in perfect rows.”

After this thought, Abraham murmured to himself:

“Who is smarter—humans or animals? It is clear that in certain matters, some animals surpass humans in skill.”

Everything on the island was just as it had been during their previous visit. After the reeds ended, the dense grove of trees began. Hundreds of colorful birds perched above them, visible even in the night’s darkness. Their harmonious songs soothed the group.

After a while, turtles appeared on the path ahead—but something was strange. Abraham called out:

“Where are they? They should all be moving along this path in a line!”

“Who? Who should be here?”

“The turtles. This path leads directly to the pit where the water of the life-elixir lies.”

When Abraham saw no turtles moving along the path, he reconsidered the thoughts he’d had moments earlier:

“Could something have happened to the water in the pit?”

When they reached the massive, deep crater, he realized he had not been mistaken. Nothing but darkness lay within; the bottom could not be seen.

Noah picked up a stone and dropped it in, then pressed his ear toward the pit. Hearing no splash, he said:

“There is no water here—this is a bottomless well!”

Then, scratching his chin, he asked:

“Was there an earthquake after your last visit?” Noah asked. “Even after I came here, I felt several very strong tremors.” Then he explained:

“I believe the water seeped out through the cracks that formed after the quake—flowing into the surrounding soil and then into the ocean. In other words, that water has mixed with the seas.”

Abraham nudged Mark, half serious, half joking:

“I was excited that we’d found a way to anchor ourselves to the earth forever. I thought even Azrael would have trouble finding us—but it wasn’t meant to be!”

The group began moving away from the eerie pit, but Noah remained beside it. He called out to them:

“There’s no water left—but look at these enormous plants that were nourished by it. Just look at these pineapples! And what about these shrubs? They’re supposed to be small, yet they’ve grown to twice their normal height. My point is this: whatever passed into the water has also passed into the surrounding vegetation. And from the plants, it could pass into us. I believe this is worth testing.”

As the others exchanged uncertain glances, Noah began gathering every edible herb, seed, and fruit he could find. Abraham and the others, finding his reasoning sound, began collecting all the plants and fruits as well. They piled the herbs and fruit onto large leaves and tied them into bundles—when suddenly the ground shook violently.

Unlike the earlier quakes, this one was far stronger and lasted much longer. Although the trees around them were dense—making it unlikely that a heavy branch would fall on them—the deafening roar that pierced their ears filled them with terror. In a place populated only by trees and birds, what could make such a destructive sound? If a stone had fallen from the sky, they would have seen a flash of light—but there was none.

Abraham called out to Mark:

“That tower we saw must have collapsed!” Abraham said, then added with fear in his eyes:

“Let us pray the barrier that kept the lions from crossing to this side hasn’t fallen as well!”

With the relief that the tremor had finally ceased, Mark grinned:

“Let us pray we leave before the real earthquake comes. Who knows if we’ll manage to escape before the volcano erupts?”

Driven by anxiety, Seth snapped at Noah:

“And where are your people now? Are they going to arrive only after we’ve all been roasted?”

“Keep your word,” Noah replied calmly and with certainty. “They will come.”

Petrus told both of them to be quiet, then added:

“And what is that strange sound?”

The group fell silent. The noise coming from afar did not resemble speech, but rather the strained groans of someone struggling against great difficulty. Certain that it was not an animal’s cry, they realized there must be other people on the island. And a human fears unfamiliar sounds more than the clearest threats uttered in words. The thought that this sound might be coming from something other than human frightened them even more.

As they moved closer toward the sound, they realized that many individuals were producing those groaning, struggling noises.

The group hurried toward the source of the sound, though they advanced cautiously. In a clearing where the dense trees began to thin, Noah glanced upward through an opening and noticed movement above them. Rubbing his eyes and looking more carefully, he first saw tall masts—then a great green sail.

In that instant he leapt into the air without thinking:

“They’re ours! They’ve come to rescue us!”

He sprinted toward the source of the sounds. The others, although not fully understanding what he had seen, trusted Noah and ran after him. When they reached the spot and saw the scene before them, they were struck speechless.

A large ship—though not enormous—was being hauled over land, from the sea to the lake inside the island, sliding on thick wooden beams greased for ease, pulled forward by heavy ropes. Now they understood that the strange sounds they had heard earlier were the strained grunts of the men hauling the vessel. Though the greased timbers made the ground slippery and allowed the hull to glide, moving such a massive craft was still back-breaking work. The broad-shouldered, thick-mustached men were drenched in sweat, yet none of them showed a trace of complaint.

After embracing the friends who had come to save him, Noah said:

“I was going to ask why you didn’t wait—but you did the right thing!”

The thick-mustached man, panting heavily, replied:

“First, with the earthquakes growing stronger, we feared the volcano would erupt sooner than expected. And with the women and youths beside you, there was no way you could get past the lions on the other side of the barrier… Even we struggled—had to shoot a few. Our gunpowder may not have been wasted, but it’s running low.”

“So you said to yourselves, ‘Whose descendants are we? Dragging ships over land is practically our family tradition, isn’t it?’” Noah laughed, and his companions laughed with him.

“So is this all of you?” Noah asked.

“You assumed there were many people living on the two great islands within the lake. Thinking that the tyrant you call Lord might use the chaos of the volcanic eruption to slaughter countless innocents, we decided not to approach by small boats. We thought: let’s bring the ship close, load as many people as possible, and if we are attacked, we’ll answer with arrows and gunpowder.”

When Noah explained that the population was far too large for the ship to carry them all, the thick-moustached man replied:

“I haven’t seen the lake you spoke of yet, but if it’s large enough, the water will slow the lava. We’ll bring everyone to this isle and then make several trips, carrying them away from here one group at a time.” Then he added:

“Today we’re fortunate—clear skies, no storm. And the light mist is to our advantage. When the Devil’s children arrive, the fog will keep them from seeing our boat.”

Noah signaled with his eyes and brows, urging the man to be careful with his words. Seth heard every bit of the insult but didn’t care; with the composure of a seasoned merchant, he said coldly:

“They’ll be here soon. We should hurry. If they arrive earlier than we expect, not even your corpses will make it back to Istanbul.”

Abraham and the others, seeing the ship and these thick-moustached sailors for the first time, listened to every word being said. They knew that in the new life awaiting them, they would need to understand people—who was good, who was deceitful, who was selfless, who was selfish.

But there was no time to observe and learn, no time to judge by actions. Worse still, a single wrong choice could cost them their lives; there would be no second chances.

After Noah explained to them the landscape of the outside world—its spiritual and ethnic differences, the agitators who exploited them, ideologies that stood united in love against hatred, the foolish who were good yet indifferent to evil around them, and the devoted souls who dedicated their lives to goodness—he ended with the same words:

"The choice is yours"

Although they had told Noah, “We are with you,” a trace of mistrust still lingered in their hearts. But when they realized that the thick-moustached men who had come with him were risking their lives—exerting tremendous effort to save the islanders, even at the cost of possibly being killed by another faction—their doubts vanished, and their decision became firm.

They had come to understand that Seth was different from Noah and the others not only in manner and temperament, but also in thought, belief, and values. Another crucial thing they grasped was that the people Noah had spoken of—those who would “arrive later”—were not on Seth’s side. They also understood that Seth was playing both sides, while Noah knew this and had reached some kind of uneasy arrangement with him. Noah did not fully trust Seth, but had no other choice.

In truth, the same question occupied not only Abraham’s mind, but also Noah’s and the thick-moustached sailors’:

“Would Seth keep his word?”

Abraham was snapped out of his thoughts by Petrus calling to him:

“Abraham! Mark! Don’t just stand there! Come on, help us pull the ship!”

Abraham, pointing at the thick-moustached men’s powerful arms, said to Mark with a grin:

“Two flies helping giants—that’s basically us right now…”
Then something struck him.
“By the way, remember how you laughed when I said our ancestors should have carried the ship rather than dismantling it? Look—this system they built by laying beams across the stream between the two hills is far more practical, and it saves time. Aside from cutting a few logs and branches, there’s hardly any delay at all.”

Mark made a series of “Hı-hııh” sounds, signaling with his hands for Abraham to stop talking and start pulling.

After tremendous effort, the ship was finally dragged into the lake. But as soon as its hull touched the water, a violent earthquake began again—this time lasting much longer and showing no sign of stopping.

Noah pointed toward the ash plumes rising from the mountain peak and shouted:

“We have at most a few hours!”

Then he turned to Abraham and Mark:

“What’s your plan?”

Abraham and Mark exchanged uneasy glances, their faces tightening, which prompted Noah to continue:

“What I mean is this: How will you warn everyone—your families, your loved ones—and get them here, onto the ship? We need a plan.”

Mark thought to himself:
“How am I supposed to reach so many people? And don’t they already understand that they must get as far from the mountain as possible?”

The ship gliding across the lake was now very close to reaching the island. Since Noah did not know how the Lord would react, he told the sailors to anchor near a spot close to Odessa’s house—in the forbidden forest zone. Abraham, with a confused look, pointed toward the mountain’s peak.

“Do you see the people standing among the ashes up there?” he asked.
“What are they doing there? They should be by the shore!”

Noah did not know the Lord personally, but he knew well the nature of tyrants, so he replied:

“The answer is obvious—he’s tricked the people again somehow. We must be cautious; they may even try to attack the ship.”

Then he addressed both of them:

“You must go at once. Bring back whoever you can convince—whoever you can save.”

Abraham and Mark remembered how, only a few days earlier, the people had searched for them alongside the Lord himself. So they covered their faces and decided to blend in among the crowd. Though the volcano had not yet spewed lava, the air was thick with ash, and fear of death hung over everyone—so they slipped among the people without trouble.

After disembarking, Petrus found Linda and Melisa and instructed them to return to the ship. Then he stepped onto the path leading toward the Lord’s château and added:

“I’ll be back shortly. Perhaps I can persuade a few others as well.”

Abraham and Mark explained what was about to happen—and the only solution they had—to the few trustworthy people among the crowd. They told them the ship was waiting for them, anchored in the forbidden forest. When Mark realized they still did not understand, he added:

“When I say ship, think of it as a giant version of a boat. It won’t capsize easily in a storm.”

Yet he quickly understood the issue was not a matter of explanation—it was a matter of belief.

Seeing that, apart from a few family members, they could not persuade even their closest acquaintances, Abraham and Mark exchanged a sorrowful glance. Then they stepped away from the crowd and shouted:

“Don’t say you weren’t warned! This volcano is about to erupt! Anyone who wants to survive can come with us—we’ll escape this island by ship, the great boat!”

But they had barely finished their warning when the agitated crowd—poisoned by the Lord’s lies and convinced that these two young men were cursed—began hurling stones at them and chased after them. Abraham and Mark ran for their lives as though a herd of enraged sheep were stampeding behind them.

Between gasps, Mark snapped at Abraham:

“See? Do you see now the end of goodness, of trying to warn them? These people always side with power. They won’t understand! The beatings, the insults—none of it is worth it! You still don’t get it!”

Abraham replied, “Forget all that—let’s just save our lives,” and pulled a small explosive from his pocket, lit the fuse, and tossed it behind them. When the mine exploded, their pursuers scattered like frightened chicks. Both of them exhaled with relief—not only for escaping themselves, but for keeping the ship, their means of salvation, safe from the maddened crowd.

Reuniting with the few who had believed them, they finally reached the front of ship.

Everyone had slowly boarded the ship. Abraham and Mark were the last two to climb aboard from the long wooden plank. The moment Abraham stepped onto the deck, he frantically looked for his mother and Melisa. When he could not see them, panic gripped him. From Noah’s look, he understood he needed to turn around and look toward the shore.

There, waiting to be taken aboard as well, stood the Lord. He called out to Abraham:

“Despite everything, I am still your true father! Take me onto the ship. I knew all along that someone would come with a vessel like this to save us,” he said, then pointed with his index finger toward the people gathered at the foot of the mountain.

“This thing cannot carry everyone. Some must be chosen. It is the law of nature. Life is a struggle—only the strong and the clever survive,” he added, grinning as he finished: “I told them Allah would extinguish the volcano for my sake. Even I didn’t believe it, but they did. In short, I forced no one. Do not blame me. Take me aboard.”

Noah replied:
“Why shouldn’t we? Those who seek retribution will deliver your punishment—and Allah will give His. Whether they forgive you afterward, I do not know.”

Even Petrus insisted that they take the Lord onto the ship. Abraham sensed that Petrus’s insistence held a meaning beyond simple compassion; after all the truths that had surfaced, to preserve peace in his own family, Petrus should have kept them far away from the Lord.

After a brief hesitation, they finally moved to pull him aboard—
but just then Abraham heard a sharp “vyitt” slice through the air.

A heartbeat later, the Lord collapsed onto the sand, blood streaming from the arrow lodged in his forehead.

Though Lord was cruel, he was still Abraham’s father. When the young inventor’s eyes blazed with fury and he glanced around, he saw that the one holding the bow was none other than Seth. Without a second thought, he lunged at him. Seth had never expected to be shoved and beaten like this; the moment he had feared had come. While trying to shield himself from Abraham’s wild punches, he staggered backward. He had no idea where he was being pushed, nor did he have time to think—everything happened in barely two or three seconds.

Seth lost his balance and nearly plunged into the water, but managed to grab the railing at the last instant. Only when Noah and the mustached sailors rushed in did Seth escape Abraham’s grip.

“Why did you shoot him?” Abraham cried, his voice breaking. “If he was to be punished, it was the victims who should have done it!”

Gasping as he climbed aboard, Seth replied,
“Abraham, how could you possibly know he wouldn’t harm us?”

Even Noah couldn’t make sense of Seth’s actions. How could Lord have hurt them when he stood there alone, unarmed? Only Seth knew the real reason. Back when he was locked in the château’s dungeon, he had made Lord an offer: he told him there was life beyond this island, that the volcano would erupt soon, and that if they fled together—taking with them the important notes left behind by Odessa’s father—Lord could continue being a lord in the outside world as well. As the lone survivor of a mysterious hidden island, people would admire him; human and religious history would be shaped by the tales he told.

In short, he had told him: “Let us be the two who survive this island whose days are numbered.”
Seth’s offer was tempting, but his mistake was delivering it through a servant—and that servant foolishly repeated it in front of the others. A few loyal aides knowing his secrets was not a problem, but before the rest, the Lord could not simply say yes. He, too, knew the volcano would erupt soon, but he had only just learned that Odessa was the daughter of Ilius—the elusive old alchemist he had been seeking everywhere. He had no idea that his former friend had long vanished.
That day, in front of his men, he had burst out laughing:
“This man has gone mad!”
But his true intention was to meet with Seth privately afterward and use Odessa to reach Ilius.

The ship had already begun to move and reached the Outer Isle—though ash covered everything so heavily that they could see almost nothing. Yet from the terrifying screams echoing through the air, they understood the volcano had erupted and that the lava was racing forward. Now the sky was not only choked with ash but also blackened by the smoke of fires sparked by molten rock. Breathing grew harder with every passing moment.

Noah was reminded of a story he knew well.

When the waters rose to engulf every corner of the earth, Prophet Noah had called out to his son to come aboard the ark. But his son—blinded by the arrogance in his heart and refusing to believe in Allah or in his father’s prophethood—had replied:
“You go. I will climb to a high mountain and save myself.”
Moments later, he was swallowed beneath waves taller than the very mountain he stood upon, breathing his last under the crushing waters.

Now, Noah felt as though he were living the very anguish that Prophet Noah once endured.

“Who could possibly escape these torrents of fire? What refuge, what summit, what sheer, unscalable cliff could shield you from these rolling spheres of flame and keep you safe? You may call this catastrophe a natural event, a pressure of gas beneath the earth, but in the realm of truth it is a servant dispatched by God. Would it not have been better had we taken heed from past destructions and spread brotherhood, kindness, and humility?

Only a few hours ago Abraham and Mark tried to help you—not only did you ignore them, you hurled stones at them. Were you not the very people who did this? Why do you refuse to listen to the Noahs of yesterday and today? Why do egos that have turned Pharaoh-like persist in surviving by changing shape even after countless warnings? Think for yourselves: what would become of us without these admonitions? Do you still not understand that the thousands of ailments, plagues, psychological collapses, hunger, misery, and unrest are also forms of destruction?”

While Noah was lost in these thoughts, Abraham struggled to pull himself out of the inferno of his own anger. Through the blur of his rage he saw his father, Petrus, weeping, and thought he heard him mutter, “I will take revenge.” Abraham could not fathom what revenge Petrus meant, and assumed he misheard.

Melisa could almost see the fumes of fury rising from Abraham.

“Abraham, come to your senses. You must control your emotions—for yourself, for your mother and father, and for all of us who care about you,” she whispered softly in his ear. “Remember Noah’s warnings. If you lose control, someone like Seth may do anything—even kill.”

Abraham nodded, signaling that he was all right. He knew himself well enough to understand that the only way out of this storm of emotions was to exhaust himself. On the Outer Isle, he began pulling the ship—set upon the greased wooden beams—with fierce determination. With such strength, he could have moved the world itself; seeing him like this, Noah murmured to himself:

“I hope he channels this fire toward goodness. I’m certain he will one day become one of those who shape the fate of the world.”

The ship was moments away from reaching the open sea. Petrus, Linda, Cindy, and the few dozen islanders who had survived turned back for the last time, their eyes heavy like rain-laden clouds. They knew all too well that this would be their final look at their island—at their homes, their animals, their gardens, their fields, their trees, their friends, and their memories. And they also knew they would never again be able to say:

“There is an island there—whether we go or not, whether we see it or not, it is ours.”

Odessa had looked everywhere one last time, hoping her father might still be somewhere on the island, but she found no trace of him. She said to her mother, Cindy:

“It’s as if the earth swallowed him whole. He wasn’t on the Island of Qabil either. I asked Black Pearl and his helpers; they said they had never seen any stranger on their island. We searched together, but found nothing.”

Cindy knew her husband. She was certain he understood the island would fall under earthquakes and fire. If he had not died, he must have found a way to escape. What troubled her most was not whether he had lived or died—but whether he had been betrayed and killed, and if still alive, how he had managed to leave the island. “If only you had told me where you went, whom you worked with, and what you were doing,” she murmured, “so that I could find you.”

A shared question troubled the minds of Abraham, Mark, and Odessa:

“How had communication through the tall tower worked? What were the energy waves mentioned in Ilius’s notes? Why had Ilius disappeared? Was he alive—or dead?”

Mark longed to meet Dr. Wickens, the man Noah had spoken about, so he could begin unraveling these mysteries. Abraham, however, felt he might never have such an opportunity.

When a person is far from home, they say he even grows homesick for the village madman. In time, they too would find themselves missing the cruel Lord and even his superstitions. The very tales they once clung to with fierce conviction would one day make their grandchildren laugh. The tooth stains caused by fluoridated water, the lake monster, the deceit of the “grave pit,” the supposed obligation to marry one’s cousin, the Island of Qabil, the belief that dogs were God’s punishers—countless absurd superstitions would become memories that made them smile.

Yet, on the other hand, they had learned the hard way how disastrous the excuse “I was ignorant, I didn’t know” could be. To Noah, the Twin Island was like a miniature version of the world itself. The stone tablets handed down by their ancestors, and the papyri secretly placed in the library by Ilius—recording what he had learned from the tower—were priceless treasures of knowledge for the island. Abraham, Mark, and those like them who understood their worth had devoted themselves to both scholarly and spiritual learning.

But just as in the rest of the world, the majority on the island were ignorant. Before he oppressed with superstition, the earlier Lord had oppressed with science; and after he set foot on Abraham’s island, the new Lord oppressed with religious myths. In both cases, the ignorant outweighed the sensible. Most of these people thought only this:

“Why should defending the truth fall to me? Let the world burn for all I care—so long as the Lord leaves me alone, what do I care whom he harms?”

And indeed, they had not been wrong in their fears. Yet this time, in the world of illusions created by the Lord, they too had sunk.

As Noah reflected on all this, he finally turned toward Seth.

“Are you aware of this?” Noah said.
“Abraham’s Eastern Isle is like medieval Europe—where those who wield religion for their own gain hide behind château, exploiting the poor with lies and superstitions.
And the Western Isle—what they call the Island of Qabil—resembles a Europe racing headlong into collapse: where, under the illusion of limitless freedom, religious, traditional, and moral values are all torn down. The end of that road leads nowhere good.”

“We must speak of the Twin Island so that people out there may understand this.”

He added,
“There is a faction that thinks it can use science to take revenge on religion. What they fail to realize is that they will be the first to be crushed beneath the very fire they ignite.”

Seth smirked.
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no problem. Life’s pleasures lie in women and money.”

Noah raised an eyebrow, reminding him of their agreement.
“I assume you’re referring to one woman in particular—Maria, the love of your life? If she hears you calling many others ‘women,’ this dark passion may end in sorrow. And don’t forget: speak of Abraham’s brilliance and courage, of Mark’s alchemical skill, and of Odessa’s fluent Hebrew. If all goes as planned, Abraham will be taken to the New World, Mark to the regions around London or Rome, and Odessa to Jerusalem.”

Seth teased Noah, lowering his voice:

“But before all that, you’d better calculate how to survive the deep, dark waters you’re about to face—otherwise you won’t make it to my wedding in İstanbul. That would truly upset me.

And be ready—this time you’ll have to swim with only one arm!”

With a knowing look about their shared history, he turned and walked away.

Noah had no idea what his reluctant ally meant by “one arm,” but the tone of his words suggested he intended to keep their agreement, and that alone eased his mind. His thoughts drifted back to the days before they had ever set foot on the island. Everything had begun with the arrival of his scholarly friend at the seminary on Heybeliada, accompanied by two foreign guests. Though Dr. Wickens and the man he knew as the cardinal spoke of things that sounded fantastical, his friend Mehmet—the palace archaeologist—had confirmed the earliest part of their story. That day, Noah had realized that these men were determined to travel thousands of kilometers to reach a distant island and save the people living there.