Chapter Sixty-Four: Inan

In the fortress cellar, Inan struggles under King Saran’s glare as Zélie defiantly speaks. Saran summons a physician, who, under the king’s orders, injects a black serum into Zélie’s vein to keep her awake. As heated metal is prepared, Inan pleads to spare her for information, but Saran refuses.

The lieutenants restrain Zélie while a blade sears her back. Hearing her screams, Inan attacks the guards but is overpowered at Saran’s command and dragged into the hallway. As the branding continues, forming the letters that mark her as magi, Inan reels with horror and helplessness.

Shaken, Inan flees to a washroom and vomits, overwhelmed by Zélie’s agony echoing in his mind. He forces himself to act by entering the dreamscape, seeking any way to save her.

In the dreamscape’s reeds, Zélie appears disoriented and half-naked, her spirit subdued. She recoils from Inan’s touch and repeats that she “can’t feel it,” revealing a terrifying loss of her magic’s presence. Inan recognizes that Saran’s torture has broken more than her body.

Confronted with Zélie’s devastation, Inan weighs the royal creed—duty before self—against the destruction it demands. He realizes that preserving Orïsha cannot mean destroying the girl he loves, signaling a fracture in his allegiance to Saran’s methods.