be kind

"Where's my free will, if you please? And this child seems to me to have more free will than anyone I ever met. Are you telling me that she's just some kind of clockwork toy wound up and set going on a course she can't change?" "We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not," said the witch, "or die of despair."

Has anyone written a fic where while tracking down the slave vessels that were stolen/hunting the ifrit, Dara discovers that Rustam wasn't murdered by them, but handed over to them by Manizheh like she tried to do with Nahri in the last book?

I kinda imagine it happening where Dara's tracking a lead on insane magic happening

Obvi Zaynab and Aqisa are with him, and they will never admit it, but they've all become close friends

Turns out this lead is a slave in current use by an awful human master

This slave is not having a good time (do they ever tho?)

They somehow manage to go undetected and get this slave pulled off to the side at like night or something to explain who they are and what they're doing and that they've got Nahid healers to help out back in Daevebad

The slave's like "shit, is this real?" Because let's be honest, who would ever be crazy enough to do a rescue crusade like Dara's mission

This slave is also on the brink of like, insanity, lets be real. He was an anxious traumatized mess in River of Silver, and nothing's gotten better for him

The slave is also like "wait you're who??" to Dara and then is very "you aren't getting me back to her, I don't want her help, she betrayed me and that's why I'm in this situation"

Dara is just like "ok slow down, why don't we start with who you are and how long you've been enslaved"

Just... The priceless reaction at the name drop

From all 3

The "wait you're who??" is suddenly reversed

Rustam is very firm on the stance of he can't go back to Daevebad, where the Nahid to help him is his sister, the same person who handed him over to the ifrit to begin with

Everyone is like "dude what????" But they realize that yeah, she's been crazy for a while, this kinda tracks

Rustam gets a crash course on everything that's happened in the past 20 or so years

Minus a couple sensitive topics for Dara and the girls

It's suddenly a lot easier to persuade him back to Daevebad

They just gotta get his vessel back from his current master

And locate his relic

Plotting, heisting, and murder definitely happen

Mission successful

Dara is gonna want to be the one to personally get this vessel back to Nahri because he's still a simp

The three of them get back to the border, and Zaynab is able to convince Alizayd to help Dara in via his river

Don't get me wrong, he didn't want to

Zaynab is just very persuasive and very insistent that what Dara has will make Nahri happy

Of course he caves when Nahri's happiness is on the line

They find her at the hospital, Jamshid there with her

They lore drop

The Nahids are speechless

Now they really got to figure out how to free slaves from vessels

And also find his relic