The Old Road

The desert had always been a place of secrets. Beneath its vast, unyielding expanse of sand and stone, whispers of ancient mysteries lingered, carried by the wind and buried in the shifting dunes. It was a land where the stars burned brighter, their light unfiltered by the haze of city life, and where the silence was so profound it seemed to echo with the weight of the unknown.

Franklin Carter had spent decades chasing those whispers. Long nights under the open sky, his telescope pointed a...