Summary
Inan returns Amari's headdress and explains that he has changed his mind about the maji after his experiences with Zélie. Amari wants to trust Inan, but she states he must keep his word and defend the maji, or she will fight him to the death to protect magic.
Zu leads Amari, Zélie, and Inan through the camp. Zélie marvels at the community of divîners, who seem to be living the Sky Mother's vision of peace and prosperity. A foreigner named Roën bumps into Zélie and flirts with her; Inan catches Roën pickpocketing Zélie's staff. Roën cryptically promises he and Zélie will meet again.
Inan holds his magic back out of fear of hurting people in the camp if he loses control, though suppressing his magic physically pains him. Zélie takes him to the riverside to practice controlling his magic. She gives him a bronze piece to fidget with and teaches him a Yoruban incantation for imploring the god Ori's help. Inan brings himself and Zélie into a dreamscape, where they swim in a waterfall-fed lagoon. Inan promises to fix Orïsha and explains how seeing Zélie's memories and feelings changed his understanding of the maji, forcing him to question his long-held prejudices. When Inan kisses Zélie, Tzain rips him out of the dreamscape and confronts Zélie for being naive, asking her what their parents would think and calling her "the prince's whore." Zélie lashes out with her magic in a rage, accidentally wounding Tzain, who stalks off.
As Zélie and Amari prepare for the celebration, they discuss Inan and whether or not bringing magic back is a good idea. Amari credits Zélie for the positive changes in Inan, though she does not trust her brother fully. After losing control of her magic with Tzain and witnessing Kwame's unstoppable fire the night before, Zélie questions whether allowing people to touch the scroll and reclaim their power is wise. Amari takes Zélie out to watch the performances, where divîners dressed as the gods and goddesses dance; the spectacle moves Zélie. Tzain dances with Amari, and Inan takes Zélie away from the crowd. He accidentally calls her "little Zel," her mother's nickname for her, and Zélie allows herself to be vulnerable, admitting that her magic hurt Tzain. Inan confesses he accidentally killed someone with his magic, though he refrains from identifying Kaea as his victim. Inan kisses Zélie and asks her to come back to Lagos with him so that they can use the monarchy's resources to reinstate magic and do away with oppressive systems like the stocks.
After Tzain sees Zélie and Inan kiss, he packs his things and tries to leave camp. Amari chases after him, begging him to wait and think things through. Suddenly, horns sound and the king's men arrive. They demand the scroll and Zélie. Zu steps forward to tell the guards they do not have the scroll, and in response, the guards shoot her with an arrow, killing her. Chaos breaks loose; the guards attack the camp, killing children seemingly at random. Kwame slices his palm and uses blood magic to fight back; his magic kills him but buys the others enough time to escape. Zélie is kidnapped, chained with majicite, and locked in an iron box.
After Kwame's magic nearly killed everyone, the guards are too afraid of magic to let divîners exist. Inan, pretending to be on the guards' side, tries to convince Zélie to tell him how to destroy the scroll. King Saran enters and interrogates Zélie, believing she is the one who killed Kaea. Zélie does not reveal Inan as Kaea's killer, though doing so would likely save her. Saran instructs a physician to torture Zélie by slicing an X into her neck, injecting her with a serum to keep her from passing out, and carving the word "maggot" into her back. Inan fights off the guards torturing Zélie but is quickly restrained. Inan feels Zélie's pain, and her screams haunt him.
Later, King Saran tells Inan that Zélie confessed to Kaea's murder and explained that the scroll could only be destroyed using magic. Saran plans to use Zélie as bait to find the scroll, force her to destroy it, and then kill her, using her body as a warning against future rebels. Saran then orders Inan to kill Amari and then embraces him. Though his father's approval is all Inan ever wanted, receiving it at the cost of Zélie and Amari sickens Inan. Inan waits until Saran sleeps, then rescues Zélie from her cell. Zélie and Inan enter the dreamscape, but Inan cannot sense Zélie's soul, as King Saran's torture has broken her spirit.
In Gombe, Amari and Tzain go to a tóju, a divîner bar. There they meet Tzain's agbön competitor and friend, Kenyon. Tzain explains that the guards captured Zélie, and she is essential for the ritual that will bring back magic during the solstice, which is only in two days. Initially, the divîners do not want to help, believing the guards will slaughter them all. Amari reveals her identity, the scroll, and the sunstone and asks the divîners to reclaim their magic and break Zélie out of the prison.
The divîners touch the scroll and receive their powers. Khani, a female agbön player, becomes a Healer; Kenyon becomes a Burner; Femi, a Welder, a maji with powers of metal; and Imani, a Cancer, a maji with the power to conjure illnesses. The divîners who awakened their magic break into the fortress. Those who were too afraid of magic help by setting alcohol from the bar on fire, creating a diversion. Through the chaos, Amari sees her father. Instead of cowering, she longs to fight him. However, Tzain pulls Amari's attention, and the King gets away. Inan carries Zélie back to the cell, where he hands her off to Amari and Tzain. Though he does not want to leave Zélie, Inan goes back into the castle to fight for Orïsha.
Analysis
To apologize for cutting Amari when they were young, Inan returns Amari's headdress. Since the headdress was a gift from Binta, Amari's divîner friend, the gesture signifies healing not only in Inan and Amari's relationship but closure in Amari and Binta's relationship as well. Amari did not save Binta, but by converting the crown prince of Orïsha to the divîner cause, Amari ensures Binta did not die in vain.
Given space to celebrate their culture, worship their gods, and practice their magic, the divîners create an idyllic community. Zélie is nostalgic and hopeful when she smells familiar foods, hears spoken Yoruba, and imagines celebrating the Àjọyò. By invoking Yoruba cultural imagery, the text creates a welcoming, warm tone that contrasts the divîner community with rigid, hierarchical cities like Lagos and Ibeji under the monarchy's control.
Inan fears losing control of his magic as he did with Kaea, but suppressing his true self weakens him. Inan's relationship with magic is another example of the theme of reclamation of identity; when Inan embraces his magic, he becomes powerful, useful, and desired.
Water represents power and life throughout the text. Zélie and Inan sit by the river while she teaches him how to connect with the god Ori. This location is significant, as Inan gains life force and purpose by using his magic. When Zélie and Inan connect in the dreamscape, Zélie conjures a waterfall and a river. The fact that Zélie is able to influence her environment within the dream world demonstrates that her connection with Inan is powerful. As Inan embraces his power within the dream world, he submerges himself in the water.
Zélie accidentally wounds Tzain with her magic, which parallels Inan killing Kaea. Like Inan, Zélie consequently questions the prudence of restoring magic. The divîner community functions with rules and roles, like the monarchy.
Inan asks Zélie to return to Lagos with him and fix Orisha within the monarchy. The conversation recalls an early quotation where Zélie laments that Tzain "wants to believe that playing by the monarchy's rules" will help them survive. Just as Inan recognizes Zélie's humanity after seeing her memories, Zélie realizes Inan is capable of change after seeing the depth of his magic.
As was previously foreshadowed during the competition in Ibeji, Kwame's use of blood magic kills him. The guards kill indiscriminately, even shooting Zu. Her death exemplifies the theme of loss of innocence; Zu was young, optimistic, and struck down without being given a chance to negotiate.
King Saran tortures Zélie physically and psychologically by carving the slur "maggot" into her back. He states that his duty is to remind Zélie of "what she is." Saran believes his role as King requires him to subjugate the maji and break their will, and this philosophy made hatred for the maji part of the monarchy's political foundation. Saran plans to display Zélie's body to warn off future rebels, a callback to how the guards hung Zélie's mother's body as a warning during the Raid. The psychological torture breaks Zélie's spirit and severs her connection to her magic; King Saran destroys Zélie's identity through trauma, not magic.
