Blood at the Root

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of enslavement, cursing, sexual content, death, and graphic violence.

Malik dreams of “their story. Their history” (281). It begins in a sugarcane field, and Malik hears Miriam singing. A storm brews around them, with magical lightning coming from the sky. Miriam and Malik float into the sky and look down at his ancestors who sprint through the fields, many of them shifting into animals like birds and jackals.

The scene changes, and Malik finds himself by the water. He places his hand over it, and it begins to ripple. Waves form that separate the water, and his ancestors slowly step into it.

Malik is transported again, this time to a small cabin. An older Miriam sits with a young child, who Malik realizes is Mama Aya. Aya practices her magic. Time then shifts, and Aya is older. Miriam is dying, and she tells  Aya that the Scroll of Idan now belongs to her and hands it to her. As Miriam turns into a pile of ash, Malik bolts awake in his bed.

Mama Aya takes care of Malik after the attack and dream. She tells him that someone tried to steal his magic, but they don’t know who.