Chapter 5: Nahri

At dawn over the Euphrates, Nahri notes Dara’s exhaustion and fear of deep water and resolves to escape. They land amid the ruins of Hierapolis, where Dara sleeps. Nahri burns the flying carpet to delay pursuit, then returns to steal Dara’s emerald ring to finance her flight.

Touching the ring traps Nahri in vivid visions of Dara’s past as an enslaved wish-bound warrior razing a walled city for his human master. Dara awakens in panic; they struggle for weapons before he regains control, devastated by the memories. Nahri admits she tried to steal the ring to run. Dara insists he won’t hurt her and, pressed, reveals he is no longer a slave.

Earth tremors and ghoul shrieks interrupt. Dara rekindles the burned carpet with fire magic. Nahri demands leverage and forces Dara to give his true name—Darayavahoush e-Afshin—before boarding. In flight, he answers her questions: daevas are fire-formed beings reshaped by Suleiman’s curse into mortal bodies; the ifrit are ancient daevas who refused judgment and twisted themselves with forbidden magic; marid and peri exist; and humans usually cannot perceive such beings.

Dara recounts how Suleiman stripped daevas’ powers, bound them to penance, and later trusted Anahid and her descendants, the Nahids, with healing and the seal’s undoing magic. The ifrit spent millennia exterminating the Nahids; the last pair died about twenty years prior. Dara implies Nahri’s Nahid blood makes her a target and a potential healer of great importance.

As the revived carpet disintegrates over the Euphrates, they tumble near shore; Dara avoids the water while Nahri considers fleeing. Dara offers a choice: risk the ifrit alone or seek identity, respect, and resources in Daevabad. Tempted by knowledge and legitimacy, Nahri takes his hand, threatens retribution if deceived, and agrees to steal horses from a nearby village.