Chapter Sixty-Four: Arin

Arin bursts into the council as Vaida advances on the Citadel. With the council panicked and Bayoum inciting against him, Arin asserts the imminent threat of Ruby Hounds and outlines Vaida’s likely approach through the Ivory Palace and toward Nizahl’s lower villages. Doubting him, Bayoum insults Arin and Essiya; Arin pins Bayoum’s hand with a dagger and throws him from the window, killing him to seize control.

Arin demands Nizahl’s crown in exchange for stopping the bloodshed. Layla cites the Nitraus Vote procedure: the High Counselor and two others can advance a title in an emergency. Rawain argues Arin will never sacrifice the lower villages, trying to undermine his leverage, but the Citadel’s gates begin to fall as the Ruby Hounds arrive, raising the stakes.

Faheem kneels first for Arin, followed by Layla. Fearing for his family in the lower villages, Gersiny also votes for Arin. With three votes secured, Arin accepts the crown, orders the counselors to the basement under guard, and commands that any attempt to leave be met with lethal force. He then isolates Rawain and orders a guard to take Rawain to the Capsule once Arin departs.

Confronting Rawain, Arin rejects the idea of claiming Jasad through marriage, insisting the Jasad crown will belong solely to his wife. As the third gate falls, Arin privately reveals his contingency: he copied Vaida’s ring sigil during the Alcalah and had it engraved into Nizahl’s weapons and defenses, barricading routes to the lower villages and beginning evacuations. He believes the sigil can kill Ruby Hounds and prevent their advance past the Citadel.

Leaving Rawain to be confined in the Capsule, Arin passes Fareed’s statue and vows to surpass Nizahl’s founder, signaling a new, harder-edged rule tempered by calculated mercy and forethought.