Chapter 37

Kitay scales Rin’s window and starts picking her locks as guards approach. Running out of time, he forces Rin to bite a gag and stomps her hand to break it, allowing her to wrench free. Sharing her pain through their bond, Kitay helps Rin down a rope and across the execution dais past the bodies of Baji and Suni.

Ramsa appears to draw off a patrol of Nikara and Hesperian guards. After his bombs fail to light at first, he is cut down by gunfire; the dropped charges detonate, creating chaos. Kitay drags Rin to a waiting sampan, where the disguised boatman reveals herself as Venka.

They slip through the canal toward Red Junk ships. At the pier, Nezha watches but does not raise the alarm; Venka’s arrows miss and the sampan passes into shadow. The Red Junks hoist them aboard; Sarana coordinates a decoy skimmer to exploit command confusion between Republican and Hesperian forces and cover their escape.

Belowdecks, a physician cleans, stitches, and sets Rin’s shattered hand, warning she may lose functional use and might later require amputation. Rejoining the others, Rin hears from Gurubai that Vaisra has signed a sweeping treaty granting Hesperian trade rights, bases, missionaries, and effective political oversight, reducing Nikan to dependency.

Amid reports of riots and crackdowns in the camps, Rin rejects flight. Gurubai argues the south’s numbers and devotion to “the goddess of fire” can become an army. Despite Kitay’s objections and her injury, Rin commits to leading a southern revolt, allying with the pirates and mobilizing peasants and refugees. She frames the war as north versus south and vows to destroy Nezha and the Republic, embracing the Phoenix’s hunger for conflagration.