Contents
Chapter 27: Ali
Overview
Overworked and facing exile, Ali collapses into a vivid marid vision revealing Anahita subduing the marid and raising Daevabad’s island. He wakes unleashing uncontrolled water and speaking the marid tongue, alarming Aqisa and Lubayd. They force secrecy and composure as Navasatem begins, while a chilling warning—“They are coming back”—lingers.
Summary
Exhausted from preparing the hospital’s opening, Ali retreats to his room, brooding over his impending exile after Navasatem. He drifts into sleep, slipping into a visceral vision from a marid’s perspective at a sacred lake.
In the vision, marid gather as daevas—thought banished by Suleiman—arrive protected by fire. Anahita, speaking the marid tongue and bearing an eight-pointed star, shatters their realm’s veil and forces the landscape to reform, raising an island in the lake and declaring it the site of her city. She commands the marid to aid her people or be destroyed, promising peace but threatening annihilation if they kill another daeva.
The marid narrator resists as lesser spirits flee; elders force him through a portal with a charge to save them, warning, “They are coming back.”
Ali wakes thrashing, speaking a slippery, unfamiliar tongue as water pours from his skin, his room drenched. In the struggle he claws Lubayd’s face. Aqisa bars intrusion, then orders a cover-up, insisting it was only a nightmare and that no one mention marid.
Shaken, Ali sees the soaked chaos and the blood on his hands. Lubayd and Aqisa reveal they have long noticed his water affinity but kept silent to protect him. With the maghrib adhan marking Navasatem’s start, Aqisa delivers ceremonial clothes and compels Ali to repeat that it was a nightmare. Ali complies, still haunted by the warning.
Who Appears
- Ali (Prince Alizayd)Exhausted prince; experiences a powerful marid vision, unleashes uncontrolled water, injures Lubayd, and is forced to deny it.
- AqisaProtects Ali, blocks intrusions, orchestrates a cover-up, orders him to call the episode a nightmare.
- LubaydHolds Ali during his episode, is clawed across the face, helps conceal the incident.
- AnahitaAppears in Ali’s vision; subdues the marid, raises Daevabad’s island, threatens retaliation.
- The marid (vision narrator)Provides Ali’s vision viewpoint; witnesses Anahita’s domination and warns they will return.