The Sand Palace: The Death of Jasmine

In 1820, a British explorer named Henry Cartwright claimed to have found “a city made of glass and gold buried beneath the Arabian dunes.” His journals mention a woman he called the Desert Bride — a queen who ruled without shadow, whose palace rose and fell with the wind.

According to legend, she made a wish to keep her people safe from invaders. The wind granted it — by turning them all into sand.

Cartwright’s last entry is smeared with blood:

“She asked if I would stay. I said yes. The dunes are moving. They sound like breathing.”

His bones were found 40 years later, inside a chamber of fused silica shaped like a throne room. Beside him was a statue — a woman’s silhouette with open eyes, made entirely of compressed sand.

Under ultraviolet light, her pupils glowed faintly blue.

Desert locals call her Al-Nasiha, “She Who Waits.”

And sometimes, when the storms roll in, her palace rises again — just for a night.