After finishing her late chores, Alizeh reaches the attic closet that serves as her room and senses a male presence as soon as she opens the door. Alizeh dismisses the feeling as exhaustion, lights her single candle, and enters the tiny space, which she has transformed from a filthy storage closet into a clean, carefully ordered refuge.

Alizeh removes her snoda, the servant’s veil that hides her face and marks her class, and reflects on why she relies on anonymity. Because her unusual eyes could expose her as Jinn to the wrong person, Alizeh has built her survival around concealment, remembering only fragments of her parents’ affection and praise.

Alizeh undresses, organizes her few possessions, and goes to bed despite her intense fear of darkness. As Alizeh shivers under her quilt, she feels the mattress sink as if someone has sat at the foot of the bed; when she opens her eyes, no one is visible, but the sensation returns and confirms she is not simply dreaming.

A flame appears between nearly invisible fingers, revealing the presence of the devil, whose voice Alizeh recognizes from a lifetime of unwanted visitations. The chapter reveals that the devil first appeared at Alizeh’s cradle and has repeatedly delivered riddling warnings despite her parents’ efforts to drive him away.

The devil recites a gruesome riddle about a man with a snake on each shoulder whose immortality depends on the snakes being fed, and whose victims are children found with their brains removed. When the devil vanishes, the darkness reshapes into the hazy image of a handsome young human man. The apparition studies Alizeh, reaches out with a vanishing finger, touches her lips, and Alizeh screams.