A Master of Djinn

In a coffee shop, Fatma skims headlines about the summit continuing. Hadia arrives and observes improvement with the bruises on Fatma’s neck. Rather than explaining the bruises’ origin, Fatma reveals that al-Jahiz can control djinn. If the ministry found out, it would cause a panic, possibly leading to djinn being arrested. Moreover, Fatma describes the ripple under the impostor’s mask—his face is an illusion.

The women note Alexander Worthington’s absence from the summit, but Hadia shares new details: Alexander’s military career is less than exemplary. It’s unlikely that he’s a criminal mastermind. Fatma adds that Siwa indeed has a gambling addiction, and the two decide to visit forensics.

At the ministry, which is in the process of rebuilding, they visit Dr. Hoda, chief of Forensics, who Hadia is surprised to learn is a woman. Dr. Hoda shows them the mask, pointing out its magical symbols. The crack has repaired itself. The mask is enchanted, an illusion that depends on the viewer’s expectations. Illusion magic creates a shared delusion; if one person sees gold, they spread that perception to others. Sure enough, the mask is not gold, but clay. Only a djinn could create such magic, most likely the Ifrit. The illusion on the lock of hair is much stronger. Dr. Hoda needs more time to unravel the spell, but she offers to create something to speed up the rate of magical decay.

Leaving forensics, Hadia and Fatma go to the holding cells to visit Zagros, who seems defeated. He faces charges of attempted murder and treason. Fatma tries to convince him to defend himself, to tell the ministry about the impostor’s controlling voice. Zagros begins to asphyxiate as he speaks about it; Fatma drops her line of questioning, realizing Zagros is under a spell. Zagros confesses to being part djinn, his mother a Daeva, a fierce-tempered and violent class of djinn; his rage during his attack destroyed the calm, dignified demeanor he worked so hard to cultivate against stereotypes.

The two agents turn to leave, but Zagros cryptically asks if they’ve read One Thousand and One Nights, urging them to ask a specific bookseller “to show you what you cannot see” (263). Regarding the Nine Lords, Zagros describes nine powerful djinn who once enslaved all other djinn; the enslaved djinn rebelled and lulled the Nine Lords into an eternal sleep. Fatma suspects the impostor wishes to wake the lords with the Clock of Worlds.

The bookseller Zagros mentioned, Rami, works in a very small shop. One Thousand and One Nights has remained popular in Egypt for centuries, and the man working the store offers them editions in several languages. Fatma reveals her badge and mentions Zagros, asking him to show her what she can’t see. Rami closes the shop and takes the agents home for tea.

Rami, who has obtained many rare manuscripts for Zagros, begins to tell them the history of One Thousand and One Nights as a set of stories compiled over centuries, from as far away as India and France. One story, the City of Brass, is unique. In the tale, travelers search for a lost city with technology similar to the boilerplate eunuchs in Cairo. However, it is the connection to King Sulayman that Rami believes important.

According to legends, Sulayman captured spirits and sealed them in containers of brass, using a special seal. That seal, Rami believes, gives the user mastery over these spirits—the djinn. He doubts al-Jahiz, who abhorred slavery, would wear a signet that enslaved another.

Though many people in Egypt know of this legend, it remained far from their minds, which Rami suggests is the work of a spell to draw people’s attention away, making them forget. Any mention of the seal in writing is difficult to read, straining the minds of the reader and causing them to fill in the gaps it leaves behind. Rami himself only became capable of grasping it through painstaking research and the discovery of gaps in the spell; he told no one of this worldwide enchantment, save Zagros. He teaches the agents how to recognize the gaps—the moment when clocks chime the hour—and sends them off.

His wife, Tsega catches them before they go. Rami did not mention that he frequently disappears, and after returning, must learn all this information again. Tsega says she has spotted mechanical wings kidnapping him, which Fatma identifies as an angel.