Contents
Chapter Ten
Overview
Sylvia slips past the guards, arms herself from a Jasad-marked arsenal, and forces open a hidden exit to escape the underground complex. In Essam Woods, rain and darkness trigger a harrowing vision of Hanim and the carved number 1,822, exposing Sylvia’s trauma and resolve. Her escape succeeds, but freedom remains precarious and haunted.
Summary
In the dead of night, Sylvia waits out the patrols, slips from her room, and navigates the silent underground complex. She discovers a chest of Jasadi-forged weapons—bitterly ironic, given Arin’s plan to train her as Nizahl’s Champion—and hides two daggers in her boots.
At the sealed silver door, Sylvia forces it open, sprints through the narrow passage, and reaches the dirt-ceiling drop where she was brought in. Trapped with no rope, she wedges a dagger into the wall to make a foothold, leaps, and uses the second dagger to break through the packed earth until moonlight appears. She hauls herself out and covers the opening.
Crossing the warded grove’s boundary, she’s hit by freezing wind and darkness. She runs east, hoping to find the river, brooding over her unpredictable, cuff-bound magic and Arin’s captivity. Memories of Hanim’s brutal training surface as the forest grows hostile, rain sheets down, and distant howls close in.
Sylvia stumbles upon a tree marked with a carved number—1,822—and a grotesque vision of Hanim manifests, taunting her about digging. Immobilized by terror and revulsion, Sylvia relives the years of abuse counted in those numbers: 1,822 days of forced training and planning her escape.
The vision culminates with Sylvia’s grim acknowledgement that the hole she was forced to dig made an excellent grave—an expression of her enduring resolve. The chapter ends with her free of the complex but ensnared by trauma in the perilous woods.
Who Appears
- Sylvia (Essiya)Protagonist; escapes the underground complex, arms herself, and confronts a traumatic vision in Essam Woods.
- HanimAbusive former mentor/Qayida; appears as a decaying vision, taunting Sylvia about 1,822 days of forced digging.
- ArinNizahl Heir and captor; his hidden Jasad complex and plans compel Sylvia’s midnight escape.
- SorayaSylvia’s late attendant; recalled for a sneaking trick, highlighting lost past and grief.
- DawoudDeceased from Usr Jasad; briefly remembered, underscoring Sylvia’s losses.