Chapter Sixty-Five: Essiya

Essiya arrives in Janub Aya on the Sareekh and steps onto Jasad for the first time in eleven years. After thanking the sea serpent as it departs, she climbs the coastal hills and surveys the ruined, self‑scorched wilayah, noting collapsed roofs, outward‑blown glass, and charred doorframes that prove residents torched their own homes before fleeing.

Namsa greets Essiya with a mare and mournful memories of Janub Aya’s perpetual mist. Essiya tells Namsa where Dawoud is buried, then focuses on the plan: in two days Nuzret Kamel will clear Sirauk’s mist and Essiya will raise the fortress, intending to avoid its consequences. She reads the ruins as a deliberate last stand—Janub Aya left in flames and intends to return in kind.

That night, the Gibal cohort camps outdoors out of respect. The Sirauk mist, thick with magic, settles over sleeping refugees while Essiya keeps watch, her own unstable power whispering warnings. By morning, thousands of Jasadis crowd the valleys and river approaches, a fragile encampment straining the small wilayah. Lateef urges Essiya to keep Rawain’s scepter close and sends them to rest, while Essiya hides her swirling eyes beneath a hood.

Essiya shifts into her kitmers’ sight to track allies and threats: nobles panicking in Lukub; ambushes and bodies across Essam as the khawaga strike, showing Sorn kept his word; darkness spreading in Orban; and, crucially, Ruby Hounds patrolling Vaida’s Ivory Palace and woods—beasts likely forged in the Mirayah. The reports confirm a brutal campaign forming beyond Jasad’s borders.

Efra interrupts, warning that if Essiya’s magic surges again, no one can bring her back. He then delivers grave news: roughly two thousand Nizahl soldiers are marching south, with regiments moving through Alb Safi and Essam Woods—likely dispatched when the Heir visited the Gibal. Essiya orders secrecy from Marek to avoid appeals for mercy and resolves to track the troops and prepare defenses. She warns Efra to keep others away and not to touch her unless he means to kill her, underscoring how volatile her power has become.