Chapter 17

After the storm, Jinzha drives upriver toward Ram Province. Xiashang’s packed-earth walls stymie siege plans. In tense councils, Tarcquet urges brute force, while Kitay proposes deception. Rin suggests a humiliation gambit to lower the Ram Warlord’s guard and an inside job. Kitay conducts a weak, performative parley as a smuggler-marked ship slips toward the gates with hidden troops.

When the gates stay shut, Jinzha orders an assault. Under punishing arrow fire, Republican towers stall. Unable to summon fire, Rin improvises: hoisted in a rowboat as cover, she leaps to the parapet, ignites Ramsa’s “shit bomb,” and disrupts the archers. Inside, she links up with Suni and Baji as the Shrike lands its siege tower. They seize the gate wheels and open Xiashang to the waiting fleet.

As Republican troops flood in, fresh blue-clad forces appear—Federation soldiers allied with the Ram Warlord. The battle threatens to turn, so Rin targets leadership. She storms the Warlord’s mansion, seizes his infant heir to draw him out, then disables and brutalizes Tsung Ho, ending organized resistance as the Republic secures the city.

That night, Jinzha debates the fate of captured Federation troops and the Ram Eighth Division. Rin demands executions for treason and collaboration; Molkoi and others refuse to kill “Nikara men,” proposing labor instead. Rin explodes, is tackled and removed from camp. Alone, she fails to reach the Phoenix through the Seal, drunkenly stewing in rage and despair.

Nezha informs Rin she’s demoted to foot soldier and the Cike are disbanded. They argue over forced “votes,” collaboration under duress, and the Republic’s democracy. Nezha invokes a myth of people as unformed “mud” to be shaped; Rin insists the weak shouldn’t rule and that power fixes status, hardening her authoritarian leanings.