Chapter 20: Ali

At Sheikh Anas’s desecrated mosque, Ali oversees dismantling the trafficking pens and orders even bricks saved for reuse. Memories of the murdered sheikh and the freed shafit’s stories weigh on him. Lubayd reports Aqisa has taken the rescued women and children to the hospital for Subha Sen’s care.

Ali details recent fiscal fixes to Lubayd: compelling Ayaanle repayments, funding Guard uniforms and cadet zulfiqars, improving rations, and promoting a whistleblowing secretary. Lubayd warns that soldiers are speaking fondly of Ali, and that such popularity can look like a bid for military support—dangerous given their plan to depart safely.

Muntadhir arrives with jeweled companions and cousin Tariq al Ubari, revealed as the man behind the shafit “recruitment” scheme. Tariq dismisses abuses as exaggerations; Ali counters with eyewitness accounts of a child nearly auctioned. With no physical evidence left after the cleanup, Tariq claims innocence and demands compensation beyond Ali’s meager offer and proposed exile to Mecca.

Ali refuses further payment, citing scarce funds needed for soldiers and the hospital, and denounces Tariq’s exploitation. The watching crowd grows hostile toward the emir’s party. Tariq insults the shafit and questions Ali’s loyalty to family. Ali nearly draws his blade; Muntadhir intervenes, threatening arrest and promising to personally compensate and protect his cousin.

As the emir withdraws, Muntadhir rebukes Ali for choosing beliefs over family and forbids the intimate nickname. The confrontation ends with Muntadhir publicly siding with kin and Ali left with hardened resolve but deepening estrangement from his brother amid rising popular support among the city’s lower classes and soldiers.