The Jasad Heir

Sylvia remembers the rise of the Usr Jasad. Malika Safa and Malik Mustafa spent years creating the magic that Qayida Zeenat Hend would use to build the fortress. The magic consumed Qayida Hend, burning her from the inside out and making her a hero for her sacrifice for Jasad. Sylvia finds the sacrifice ironic, as magic burned Usr Jasad down a century later.

Sylvia and Arin train for the first trial. The Champions must enter Ayume Forest in Orban. Centuries ago, Awala Dania enchanted all living things in the forest to attack Awala Kapastra’s forces. The forest remains cursed, and the Champions must cross it by dusk. Arin wants Sylvia to practice navigating using only her magic. Marek and Sefa move throughout the forest to see if distance impacts their ability to trigger her magic. Arin blindfolds Sylvia and tells her to try to follow him, reminding Sylvia of Hanim’s training exercises, in which she resurrected monsters to chase the 11-year-old Sylvia through Essam Woods. Vaun attacks Sylvia, and she fights him off blindfolded. Arin tells her not to touch the trees next time, as the sap in Ayume is lethal.

The next day, Arin brings in food from Mahair, as Sylvia keeps complaining about the food underground. Marek hints that Arin did so because he finds Sylvia attractive. Marek finds a berry among the food that he doesn’t recognize. Sylvia looks at it and remembers it from her childhood  as a berry that only grows in the east of Jasad. The berry is sour, and as a child, Dawoud often coaxed her to eat them. She realizes Arin is still evaluating her, trying to ascertain which region she grew up in to discover which lost noblewoman she could be.

Arin and Ren spend the next days searching for evidence of the Jasadi groups’ plots. Vaun’s antagonism grows in Arin’s absence. Vaun grew up with Arin, and he’s so dedicated to Arin’s safety that he’s willing to defy Arin’s orders in order to protect him: Arin has ordered Vaun to protect Sylvia, but he would rather be protecting Arin. Jeru takes Sylvia to the Hirun to wash laundry, and a Mufsid woman approaches Sylvia and calls her Mawlati, the Jasad title for queen, demonstrating that the Mufsids know she’s Essiya. The Mufsid woman uses magic to trap Jeru in the river, nearly drowning him. The woman tells Sylvia that the Mufsids have been tracking her since they discovered Hanim’s corpse, but the Urabi are after her, too. Not everyone in the Mufsids wants to recruit Sylvia, as some view her as part of the corruption of the Usr Jasad, which confuses Sylvia. Sylvia tells the woman that if she joins the Mufsids and disappears before the Alcalah, all four kingdoms will hunt the Mufsids until they recover her. Sylvia proposes she continue with the Alcalah and sneak away to join them during one of the trials, as everyone will assume she died in the competition. The woman agrees and leaves, stopping Jeru’s drowning.

Arin arrives at Sylvia’s room in the middle of the night and asks about the Mufsid woman. She agrees to tell him what happened in exchange for information about his ability to sense magic. He refuses but instead offers a theory about her attack in Essam. He posits that a member of the Mufsids or Urabi has gone rogue, as the specter of Hanim almost killed Sylvia. She must be important enough to kill. Sylvia tells him about the river and the Mufsid woman, but she omits the truth about being Essiya and the Mufsids knowing she’s the Heir. Arin asks Sylvia who she is, and she decides to lie. She claims to be Mervat Rayan, the daughter of the third most powerful Jasadi family, who died in the Blood Summit. Arin doesn’t believe her since she gave him her name for nothing in return.

Arin keeps training Sylvia as the Champion’s Banquet approaches. Her magic remains difficult to access, and Arin thinks she’ll quickly lose the Alcalah without it. Marek and Sefa enter the room, and Marek makes a quip about Arin and Sylvia having a “lovers’ spat” (224). Arin throws a dagger at Sefa’s heart; Sylvia stops it with magic. When Arin realizes putting Sefa and Marek in danger awakens Sylvia’s magic, he puts them in dangerous situations during Sylvia’s training sessions. Sylvia is angry at Arin’s cruelty, and they argue, with Arin calling her a martyr and warning her that martyrs don’t survive the Alcalah. Sylvia tells Arin he can’t understand her because he’s never been hunted, had to fight for his freedom, and been treated inhumanely.

Arin sends Sylvia to Mahair. She reunites with Rory, who questions her training with Arin. She tells him it’s not worse than her training with Qayida Hanim and finally shares the whole story of her time in Essam Woods before she found him, how Hanim used magic to torture Sylvia to try to awaken her powers, which had been dormant for a decade before the waleema. Rory is shocked Hanim found Sylvia, because Hanim hated Sylvia’s family. The Malik and Malika named Niphran as Qayida when she was born, upsetting many of the prominent Jasadi families. After Emre’s death and Niphran’s struggles with her mental health, Hanim became Qayida. Hanim and Supreme Rawain conspired together to topple Jasad, but when Sylvia’s grandparents discovered the plot, Supreme Rawain turned on Hanim, and Hanim was exiled while Jasad and Nizahl remained tentative allies. Among the Qayida’s functions is to reinforce the wards protecting the Usr Jasad, and Sylvia wonders if Hanim could be the reason the fortress fell. Rory explains that Hanim was exiled two years before the Blood Summit, and the Qayida must reinforce the wards annually. Sylvia wonders if the Mufsids and Urabi existed before the Blood Summit. She laughs at the irony of Hanim’s fate and tells Rory that she killed Hanim.

Sylvia and Arin return from Mahair together. They argue about Jasad, as Arin presents his version of Jasadi history, in which the Jasadi are not innocent. He claims Malik Niyar used magic to strangle Lukubi soldiers while they slept, and Malika Palia used magic to rot Omalian crops to cause mass starvation. He also states that the Blood Summit stemmed from Jasadi magic, magic that always corrupts. Sylvia tells him to stop talking and warns him that something’s coming.

They’re attacked by a Ruby Hound, a magical creature originally from Lukub that died out when the magic faded in Lukub, Omal, and finally Orban. Sylvia uses her magic to halt the creature. Arin manages to shove a device in its mouth but is injured in the process. Sylvia uses magic to hold Arin back while she reaches into the hound’s mouth and activates Arin’s device, killing the creature. She realizes the Urabi used magic to resurrect it and finds a note with their seal that states, “The enemies of Jasad begin from within” (244). She tends to Arin’s wounds.

Sylvia is angry at Marek for antagonizing Arin and putting Sefa at risk. She asks him why he fled Nizahl, asking for his secrets in exchange for accepting his apology. Marek shares that he comes from a prominent military family in Nizahl, all of whom joined the army as soon as they could. All his siblings died horrible deaths in service of Nizahl, including a brother who died protecting a Jasadi prisoner who nearly killed Arin. When it was time for Marek to join, he fled. Sylvia asks which group the Jasadi prisoner belonged to, and Marek answers the Mufsids.

Vaun arrives at Sylvia’s training session, as no one else is available. Their sparring turns into real combat as Sylvia goads him, insinuating that Arin has feelings for her and that they’ve been intimate. Vaun takes deep offense to the idea that Arin would debase himself by sleeping with Sylvia, and he attacks her. Vaun nearly kills Sylvia before she accesses her magic and bursts into flames. The fire doesn’t hurt her, but it burns Vaun, who jumps back. Sylvia uses her magic to levitate a sword against Vaun’s chest, pinning him against the wall. Arin enters and tells her not to kill him and that she’s not a killer. Sylvia knows she is, but she decides Vaun isn’t worth the further erosion of her soul.

Arin comes to Sylvia’s room and touches her arm, allowing her magic to come to the surface and heal her wounds. Sefa and Marek help Sylvia pack up her room, and she asks them what they heard about Jasad growing up. Sefa remembers resentment against Jasad and an instance in which Jasad refused to help the other kingdoms during a period of famine and later robbed Lukub of its precious metals. Marek remembers concern about the Usr Jasad, as the fortress was so impermeable that it allowed Jasad to act without consequences.

Arin and Sylvia ride in an unassuming carriage during most of the three-day journey to Lukub. Marek and Sefa follow behind in another unmarked carriage. Arin tells Sylvia that he’s sent Vaun away, which shocks her, given the longstanding nature of Arin and Vaun’s friendship. Arin asks Sylvia why she didn’t kill him after the hound wounded him, as she could’ve easily blamed his death on the creature. Sylvia realizes killing Arin didn’t occur to her.

An hour away from Lukub’s Ivory Palace, Arin and Sylvia’s retinue meets up with the rest of the Nizahl brigade. Sylvia and Arin enter an ornate Nizahl carriage, and as they proceed, Sylvia sees people trapped in deep wells on the side of the road. Arin explains that Sultana Vaida, leader of Lukub, punishes traitors by leaving them to die in wells where everyone can hear them suffer. Sylvia is disgusted by the cruelty, but Arin reminds her that the Jasadis used to punish traitors by having soldiers lift them into the air and find creative ways to publicly kill them. Sylvia refuses to accept Arin’s implicit belief that the destruction of Jasad was justified, especially in context of the frequent assaults, rapes, and murders of innocent Jasadis, but before their argument can continue, the carriage arrives at the grounds of the Ivory Palace. Sylvia feels guilty for entering Lukub as the Nizahl Champion and wonders if her freedom is worth “sell[ing] away the Jasadi pieces” of her soul (269).