Wajed, Ali’s trainer and proxy father, retrieves Ali for Anas’s execution. Anas has been kept alive for a public execution. He has obviously been tortured; they tried to get him to tell them who was with him that night, but he refused. Anas dies bravely.

Muntadhir is Ali’s brother who will become king. He is promiscuous, untrained, and has an alcohol addiction. It is revealed that the king, Ali and Muntadhir’s father, has Suleiman’s seal. After the execution, Ali’s father, the king Ghassan, discusses the situation in Daevabad with Ali and Wajed. He reveals a chest that contains weapons, which they acquired by following a member of the shafit resistance. Anas had sworn that they were not collecting weapons, so Ali feels betrayed and confused about what they were planning to use them for.

Ghassan argues that shafit should be treated as less than pure bloods. He feels that he has a duty to protect the daeva, and doing that means oppressing the shafit. He believes that there are too many of them already, almost enough to win a revolution, and if they get more food and resources they will continue to reproduce.