The Scorched Throne, #2
The Jasad Crown
by Sara Hashem
Contents
Overview
The Jasad Crown follows Essiya, once hidden under the name Sylvia, after her identity as Jasad’s surviving Malika is exposed. Hunted by kingdoms that fear magic and pressured by the Urabi resistance to become more than a symbol, she must decide whether to reclaim a shattered homeland, protect scattered Jasadis, and trust powers inside herself that are growing harder to control.
Opposing and circling her is Arin of Nizahl, a prince and commander raised to despise magic but drawn to Essiya by rivalry, guilt, and a dangerous intimacy. Around them, Sefa and Marek struggle to survive in hostile courts and armies, while rulers in Lukub, Omal, Orban, and Nizahl use old laws, relics, and fear to shape the next war.
The novel blends political fantasy, romance, rebellion, and myth. Its central conflicts turn on inheritance, state violence, magical persecution, buried history, and the question of whether power can be reclaimed without becoming another form of domination.
Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers
Arin of Nizahl opens the story as a commander shaped by cruelty and control. Remembering how his father Rawain punished him as a child for courting pain, Arin turns that lesson outward, secretly executing Counselor Rodan for abusing Sayali Barakat, known as Sefa. In the aftermath of the Victor’s Ball, where Sylvia was revealed as the Jasad Malika and Arin nearly lost control, he begins purging corruption while preparing for war. He searches records on Jasad and magic-madness, pressures Jeru to find Sefa and Marek, and refuses his council’s calls for reckless conscription or foreign intervention.
Essiya, formerly Sylvia, awakens among the Urabi, a hidden Jasadi resistance in the mountain refuge called the Gibal. Namsa, Maia, Lateef, Efra, and others recognize her as Malika, but their welcome is tangled with distrust. Essiya learns the Urabi abduct and redeploy Jasadis, intends to use her claim to Omal through her father Emre, and may ask her to raise Jasad’s ancient fortress by Nuzret Kamel. Her magic, freed from suppressing cuffs, begins producing gold and silver veins, visions, and involuntary transport. She discovers the Sareekh il Ma’a, an ancient sea creature bonded to her, and begins to fear that her power acts with a will of its own.
Sefa and Marek survive separately after Essiya’s chaotic magic scattered them. Sefa, starving in Lukub’s Ivory Palace, overhears a plot to assassinate Sultana Vaida and saves her by deception. Vaida recruits her as an attendant and spy, while Sefa secretly stitches intelligence into the Sultana’s gowns and learns Vaida uses Kera, a half-Jasadi tracker, to pursue the Mirayah and a powerful relic ring linked to Baira. Marek, meanwhile, hides among Nizahl recruits until Jeru finds him. Rather than hand him to Arin, Jeru makes a bargain: Marek will search the Shinawy manor for a missing Siege of Six Dawns insignia in exchange for help finding Sefa.
The Urabi’s first strike unleashes magical beasts on Galim’s Bend. Essiya warns Arin through an impossible vision, and Arin arrives alone to fight Al Anqa’a, draining the monster’s magic by touch before Nizahl troops arrive. The attack proves the cages from the Alcalah have been breached and intensifies Arin’s suspicion of the official history. A Mufsid prisoner, Waid Entair, uses Bone Spinner magic to show Arin memories of long-standing magic mining: rulers across the kingdoms, including Rawain, profited from stolen Jasadi magic. Arin also sees Niphran binding young Essiya’s magic and Hanim torturing Sylvia, revelations that fracture his certainty.
Essiya receives Binyar Lazur’s document alleging Rawain, Lukub, and Orban planned Jasad’s siege before the Blood Summit messenger arrived. When Felix of Omal raids lower villages, Essiya diverts from the plan to petition Queen Hanan and instead defends Mahair. There Rory reveals himself as Rusheed Osman, former healer to Omal’s royal family, and gives her Emre Faluk’s journal, which warns that Jasad’s magic was fading, that the fortress depended on mining, and that young Arin was made into a weapon. Omal attacks Mahair, but Essiya, the Urabi, villagers, and eventually Arin’s Nizahl forces turn the battle after Omalian troops strike Nizahl on neutral ground. Essiya heals Raya with frightening gold-silver power, then abducts Arin on kitmers to draw Nizahl away.
Essiya and Arin crash into the Mirayah, a shifting realm that suppresses magic and holds ancient dangers. Forced together against a dulhath, mutated Omalian soldiers, and rochelyas, they confront both attraction and fear. Essiya reveals her spreading veins and the transfer of magic to Raya; Arin admits secret records of recurring Jasadi magic-madness. He offers a suppression cuff as protection, but Essiya rejects preemptive containment as oppression. They choose each other and become lovers, but when the Mirayah releases them, Essiya leaves Arin guarded by Niseeba and rides for Omal.
In Omal, Essiya infiltrates the palace and finds Queen Hanan murdered on the throne. Felix appears crowned, having staged a trap to frame her. Essiya embraces overwhelming magic, summons enormous kitmers, kills Felix, and broadcasts a call for Jasadis to gather before Nuzret Kamel. In Lukub, Sefa tries to steal or destroy Vaida’s ring. Vaida reveals she recognized Sefa from the beginning and kept her as leverage against Nizahl. Sefa cuts off Vaida’s ring finger, encounters an ancient guardian speaking through Vaida, and is captured for the Traitors’ Wells. Marek tries to save her, but Arin’s sight of Essiya’s kitmer proclamation pushes him to open war: he orders Sefa rescued, the Ivory Palace seized, and the Zinish Accords broken.
Arin pieces together Binyar’s pages and deduces the deepest conspiracy: Hanim Werda, Essiya’s tormentor and former Qayida, conspired with Rawain and bore Arin as a shared heir to Jasad and Nizahl. Rawain made Arin a living conduit whose draining ability fed stolen magic into the raven scepter. After Wes is murdered on Rawain’s orders by Vaun, Arin executes Vaun, confronts Rawain, severs his father’s hand to free the scepter, and renounces his old title to bring the power to Essiya. The Urabi capture him in the mountains, where he reveals Hanim is his mother and arrives prepared to die. Essiya’s council debates executing him, but after Jasadi guards brutalize him and Arin stops Essiya from killing them, she accepts he may be an ally.
Essiya’s magic-madness worsens, yet Arin draws off her power at great risk and swears personal fealty to her before the Jasadis, not to a throne. Together they plan routes for the returning diaspora, but Arin secretly leaves to seize Nizahl. Essiya follows his note and uses the Sareekh to ferry hundreds to Janub Aya, where Jasadis gather before Sirauk Bridge. Arin is arrested, freed when Vaida marches on Nizahl with revived Ruby Hounds, and uses sigiled traps copied from Vaida’s ring to destroy the Hounds. He kills Vaida with a sigiled dagger, then races toward Jasad. Before that, he forces a Nitraus Vote, kills Bayoum, becomes Supreme, and confines Rawain to the Capsule.
At Janub Aya, Nizahl forces attack as Essiya prepares to raise the ancient fortress. Marek begs her to wait for Arin, but during the renewed assault a Nizahl recruit throws a spear at Sefa and Marek dies saving her. Grief and the falling mist push Essiya into the spell. Raising the fortress unlocks memories of Rovial, the ancient founder of Jasad, betrayed by her sisters Dania, Baira, and Kapastra, whose torn-out magic reincarnates each century and causes magic-madness. Arin reaches Essiya, but she recognizes that Rovial’s power in her could destroy the world. She raises the fortress fully, then chooses not to trap Jasad behind it; instead she destroys it, releasing stored magic back into the land and strengthening her people. The raven from Rawain’s scepter transforms Arin, restoring his true black hair and healing him, but Essiya enters the mist and leaps toward entombment.
Inside the entombment, Essiya awakens with Dania, Baira, and Kapastra in a memory-made Essam. The sisters explain that immortal power eroded their empathy and that they entombed themselves to stop endless war. They propose siphoning their excess magic back into the kingdoms, creating limits rather than erasure, and Essiya agrees despite fearing she will return too late. In the aftermath, Sefa is named Vaida’s heir and becomes Sultana of Lukub; Orban and Omal stabilize under new arrangements; Jasad celebrates renewed magic and open borders. Arin rules Nizahl effectively but remains frozen in grief, visiting Sirauk Bridge each year. Ten years after Nuzret Kamel, the mist finally clears. Four figures emerge, including Essiya, and Arin welcomes Suraira home.
Characters
- Essiya (Sylvia)The surviving Malika of Jasad, long hidden as Sylvia, is forced to lead the Urabi and scattered Jasadis after her identity is exposed. Her unstable gold-silver magic, connection to Rovial, and choice between protecting Jasad and endangering the world drive the central conflict.
- Arin of NizahlNizahl’s prince, commander, and later Supreme begins as a hunter of magic and becomes Essiya’s lover and sworn weapon. His draining ability, engineered by Rawain through the raven scepter, links him to the stolen magic conspiracy and to Jasad’s future.
- SefaEssiya’s loyal friend survives Lukub’s Ivory Palace by becoming Sultana Vaida’s attendant-spy. Her courage against Vaida’s ring and later accession as Sultana of Lukub make her a key bridge between Jasad, Lukub, and the postwar order.
- Marek LazurSefa’s beloved companion hides among Nizahl recruits and works with Jeru to search for her. His death saving Sefa at Janub Aya becomes one of the losses that pushes Essiya toward raising the fortress.
- RawainArin’s father and the Supreme of Nizahl orchestrated the Blood Summit conspiracy with Hanim and turned Arin into a conduit for stolen magic. His rule embodies Nizahl’s anti-magic doctrine and the political lies Arin must overthrow.
- Hanim WerdaA former Jasadi Qayida and Mufsid leader, Hanim betrayed Jasad with Rawain while believing their shared son Arin would secure the throne. She also tortured Essiya, making her both a political architect and a personal terror.
- NamsaAn Urabi warrior and leader who helps bring Essiya into the Gibal and later supports her claim despite conflict. She pushes strategy, healing, and discipline while gradually becoming one of Essiya’s most important Jasadi allies.
- EfraA hostile Urabi operative whose emotion-manipulating magic lets him sense Essiya’s dangerous surges. He begins as one of her sharpest critics but remains crucial to monitoring her magic and later claims Marek as one of Jasad’s dead.
- MaiaAn Urabi ally with rare lahwa power who can enter and sever minds. She supports Essiya, revives Diya by entering her mental prison, and helps the Jasadis during their migrations and battles.
- LateefAn elder and later Malik of Jasad who recognizes Essiya as Malika and guides Urabi strategy. He provides historical knowledge, political caution, and continuity for Jasad after the entombment.
- JeruArin’s principled guardsman defies orders to protect Marek, expose corruption, and later aid both Arin and Sefa. His loyalty is grounded in justice rather than blind obedience, making him vital to Arin’s break from Rawain.
- VaunA longtime Nizahl guardsman loyal to the crown above truth. His murder of Wes on Rawain’s order proves the depth of Rawain’s control and forces Arin to execute him.
- WesArin’s veteran guardsman repeatedly challenges Arin’s isolation and accepts a deadly mission to shadow Rawain. His severed head becomes Rawain’s warning and the evidence that exposes Vaun.
- Sultana VaidaLukub’s ruler is mercurial, brilliant, and hungry for power through Baira’s ring and the Ruby Hounds. She uses Sefa as leverage, threatens Nizahl, and becomes Arin’s major battlefield adversary.
- Felix of OmalThe Omalian heir escalates raids on lower villages and later murders Queen Hanan to seize Omal’s throne and frame Essiya. His coup forces Essiya to unleash public, overwhelming Jasadi power.
- Queen Hanan of OmalOmal’s queen is tied to Essiya’s claim through Emre and becomes the intended target of the Urabi’s original political plan. Her murder by Felix transforms Omal’s succession crisis into open confrontation.
- Sorn of OrbanOrban’s heir is consumed by his comatose Champion Diya until Essiya bargains with him. After Diya wakes, he agrees to open and protect trade routes for Jasadis.
- DiyaSorn’s Champion lies trapped in a mental loop after the Alcalah until Maia frees her. Her revival secures Orban’s cooperation and reveals the personal bond beneath Sorn’s political choices.
- Rory (Rusheed Osman)Mahair’s apothecary reveals himself as a former Omal royal healer who knew Emre and Niphran. He gives Essiya Emre’s journal, providing crucial insight into her parents and Jasad’s fading magic.
- RayaA maternal figure in Mahair who comforts Essiya and helps anchor her to ordinary life. Essiya’s resurrection of Raya exposes the frightening capacity of her gold-silver magic.
- FairelA young Mahair archer who recognizes Essiya and participates in the village’s defense. Years later, she manifests blue-white river magic, signaling the renewed and unstable spread of ancient power.
- MedhatA Jasadi fire-wielder who travels with the Urabi and helps defend Mahair with walls of flame. His grief during battle underscores the cost paid by Essiya’s allies.
- KenzieA Rivertamer whose crocodile magic enables the Urabi’s passage beneath the Desert Flats. Her death in the Mahair conflict marks one of the Urabi’s significant losses.
- Sareekh il Ma’aA legendary sea creature bonded to Essiya’s magic. It rescues her, reveals wonder beneath the sea, and later ferries Jasadis from the mountain refuge to Janub Aya.
- Binyar LazurA Nizahli general and Marek’s brother whose seized writings expose advance movements before Jasad’s fall. His pages help both Essiya and Arin dismantle the official Blood Summit narrative.
- Emre FalukEssiya’s father and Omal’s heir appears through memory, portrait, and journal. His research into magic, love for Niphran, and warnings about Arin and the fortress reshape Essiya’s understanding of her inheritance.
- NiphranEssiya’s mother and the first Jasad Heir feared her daughter’s overwhelming power. She bound Essiya’s magic with cuffs and planned escape with Emre before tragedy and madness overtook her history.
- DawoudA Jasadi courtier connected to the Urabi and to Namsa, whose death during the Alcalah haunts Essiya’s early standing among them. He also delivered Binyar’s document to the resistance.
- IsraArin’s loving presumed mother raised him under Rawain’s cruelty and went to the Blood Summit knowing she would die. Her memory anchors Arin’s grief and complicates the revelation of his true parentage.
- RovialThe ancient founder of Jasad and source of the reincarnating magic inside Essiya. Her betrayal by her sisters explains the recurring cycle of magic-madness and the novel’s deepest mythic conflict.
- DaniaOne of Rovial’s sister Awalas who helped tear out Rovial’s core and later remains with Essiya inside the entombment. She proposes channeling excess magic back into the kingdoms to restore balance.
- BairaAn Awala sister associated with Lukub, illusions, the Ruby Hounds, and the relic ring. In entombment she helps Essiya understand that limiting magic is not the same as losing it.
- KapastraAn Awala sister linked to blue-white magic and ancient creatures such as rochelyas. She supports the plan to funnel excess magic back into the world from within entombment.
- FareedA Jasadi man stripped of magic and made king in the ancient conflict surrounding Baira and Rovial. His story becomes part of the buried origin of kingship, blood rule, and magical theft.
- Layla AyudNizahl’s inter-kingdom emissary and Arin’s political ally. She frees Arin from the Capsule, supports his Nitraus Vote, and helps him become Supreme during Vaida’s attack.
- Faheem GiranNizahl’s High Counselor after Rodan, initially mediating Arin’s council. During the Ruby Hound crisis, he casts the first decisive vote to advance Arin’s claim as Supreme.
- BayoumA hostile Nizahl councilor who pushes conscription and later accuses Arin of treason. Arin kills him during the emergency council to seize control against Vaida’s assault.
- Gersiny BiyadAn elder Nizahl councilor whose fear for his grandchildren in the lower villages leads him to support Arin’s Nitraus Vote. His vote helps make Arin Supreme.
- KeraA half-Jasadi tracker employed by Vaida to follow life chains and magic imprints toward the Mirayah. His discoveries help Vaida pursue ancient power and escalate Lukub’s threat.
- BausitVaida’s operative who reports disappearances, Essam claims, and later brings urgent information tied to the Mirayah. His work feeds Vaida’s expansionist plans.
- NiseebaA kitmer conjured by Essiya that carries and later guards Arin. After Essiya’s entombment, Niseeba remains one of Arin’s closest companions.
- IngazA gold-dominant kitmer conjured by Essiya to carry her during her attempted escape with Arin. Its failure near the Mirayah helps strand them in the dangerous realm.
- The MirayahA shifting realm that suppresses and siphons magic, drawing in creatures, lost soldiers, and those who seek ancient power. It tests Essiya and Arin together and remains central to Vaida’s ambitions.
- Al Anqa’aA glass-feathered beast from the Alcalah unleashed on Galim’s Bend. Arin’s draining of it publicly demonstrates both his power and the stakes of magical containment.
- Waid EntairA Mufsid Bone Spinner imprisoned in the Citadel. Before execution, he shows Arin memories proving the kingdoms’ long history of magic mining.
- SulorA corrupt Nizahl section leader who hides nobles’ children by forcing ineligible lower villagers into conscription. Jeru kills him in a Fortune by Four duel, exposing rot within Nizahl’s military system.
- Queen of OmalA pragmatic former lower-village laborer chosen to lead Omal after Felix’s fall. Her attendance at Sefa’s coronation signals a new regional order.
- EhalArin’s loyal horse and recurring companion on major journeys. In the epilogue, Arin rides Ehal to Sirauk Bridge for his annual vigil.
Themes
Sara Hashem’s The Jasad Crown is driven by the question of what power costs—and whether it can be remade into something other than domination. Across Arin and Essiya’s mirrored arcs, the novel returns again and again to inheritance: political, magical, familial, and traumatic.
- Power, corruption, and chosen accountability. Nearly every throne is compromised: Rawain’s reign is built on mined Jasadi magic, Vaida’s ambitions awaken the Ruby Hounds, Felix murders Hanan to seize Omal, and even Jasad’s ancient rulers exploited magic to preserve the fortress. Yet the book distinguishes inherited power from chosen conduct. Arin begins as Nizahl’s ruthless Commander, executing Rodan and policing magic, but gradually turns his strategic mind against his father’s lies. Essiya, meanwhile, rejects both Felix’s crown and the fortress as permanent enclosure, ultimately shattering it so Jasad’s future remains open.
- Truth as liberation and danger. The plot advances through buried histories: Binyar Lazur’s testimony, Waid Entair’s visions, Emre’s journal, and Arin’s discovery that Hanim and Rawain are his parents. These revelations do not simply correct the past; they destabilize identities. Arin’s whole doctrine against magic collapses when he learns he is a conduit for stolen magic, while Essiya’s “madness” is revealed as Rovial’s ancient, reincarnating power. Truth frees them from propaganda, but it also demands unbearable choices.
- Survival versus sacrifice. Essiya repeatedly fears that leadership means dying usefully—raising Nuzret Kamel like Qayida Hend, sealing herself away, or becoming a monster before she can fail her people. Sefa’s palace chapters and Marek’s desperate choices complicate heroic sacrifice: Sefa fights quietly through espionage and theft; Marek dies protecting her, but his memory is claimed by Jasad as belonging. The novel values survival, but never pretends survival is painless.
- Love as rupture and renewal. Arin and Essiya’s romance is not an escape from politics; it transforms politics. Their attraction begins in distrust and violence, but becomes a force that makes each question inherited hatred. Arin kneeling to Essiya and later abandoning Nizahl’s old order shows love as allegiance to a truer future. The epilogue, with Arin waiting at Sirauk until Essiya returns, frames love as the novel’s final act of defiance against certainty.
- Home, diaspora, and voice. The Urabi refuge, Mahair, Janub Aya, and the restored Jasad all ask what it means for a scattered people to come home. Essiya’s call through the kitmers restores not just territory but voice: Jasad will no longer survive by hiding alone.