Chapter 22: Ali

Ali tours the bustling hospital with Hatset, proud of the shafit-led work and dreaming of lasting reform. Hatset urges patience and permanence in Daevabad and teases him about marriage. Inside, they visit the reclusive scholar Ustadh Issa, who grudgingly admits them after Hatset offers gunpowder.

Issa recognizes Ali and angrily confronts him over a Nile map linked to marid summoning, insisting such contacts demand blood sacrifice. Hatset reveals Ali’s scars, and Issa accuses Ali of making a pact. Ali denies it, explaining the lake possession and Dara’s death. Issa outlines marid “acolyte” lore—power in life, possession at death—and is baffled Ali lives.

Pressed, Ali displays water magic. Hatset reveals a faint familial water affinity in Ayaanle children but nothing like Ali’s. Terrified of exposure, Issa refuses easy answers but, at Hatset’s plea, agrees to research marid lore, warning the truth may be grim.

Exhausted and haunted by dreams and rain-tugged emotions, Ali falters at court. Ghassan praises Muntadhir’s Navasatem planning but rebukes his neglect of Nahri. Their argument is interrupted when a bloodstained Daeva widow claims shafit murdered her husband near the hospital camp. Kaveh seizes the moment, demanding the camp’s removal and blaming Ali’s policy.

Recognizing the widow from Kaveh-arranged encounters, Ali privately raises doubts, but Muntadhir publicly twists his words, shaming Ali before onlookers. Ghassan confines Ali to the palace. Certain the shafit face mob violence and that the Guard won’t intervene against grieving Daevas, Ali bolts for the infirmary to protect them.