The Festival of Candles is a bright celebration held in an open quarter of the bustling city, alive with such diversions as shadow dancers. It draws a various crowd, yet the whole was overcast by the assassination of Nazif, a perfumist.
In the course of the festival, the Ghost of March and his following confronted Nazif, charging him with betrayal and declaring that his duties were being taken up by the Council of the Ninth Life. The confrontation ended in Nazif's death, witnessed by Chique Manu. That done, Ghost of March and his followers withdrew in haste, whilst the Bostanji Imperial Guard proclaimed a state of emergency to restore order and scatter the throng. The humour of the place turned in an instant from celebration to fear and uncertainty — a plain token of the tensions that run beneath the surface of the city.