Plot
27 year old literature PHD student Daphne Snyder struggles to make a life for herself in Rome where she doesn’t fit in with in any of her peers and has a hard time satisfying the course requirements due to her strict Professor Dr Sebastian Rodrigo who is also the Dean of the university . Professor Henry, Dr Sebastian’s brother offers to support Daphne in the assignment given to her which’s requirement involves publishing a novel about any unsolved mystery related to post restoration times. Professor Henry who primarily teaches world literature suggest a piece from his collection referring to the lost amulet of Istanbul. The story behind the lost amulet of Istanbul remains a mystery which originally belonged to Princess Rania who was the last living heir to the throne for Ottoman Kingdom. History has it that the amulet was in Princess Rania’s possession until her assassination by the soldiers of Khazar Empire caused by her refusal to ally with them for Royal trade due to their malevolent practices. The amulet was last seen around Princess Rania’s neck couple of days before her burial and has been lost ever since. Henry encourages her to visit the Royal Library of Istanbul giving her the contact of Miss Sevgi the librarian, his close friend. Initially reluctant, Daphne agrees to begin her literary voyage and while on the way to the visit the Library, Stella her pet racoon jumps out of the car window and leads her to the Ottoman palace that princess Rania lived in has been now turned into a hotel attached with an antique store that has stocked all the antiques, furniture, jewellery and clothes remaining after the demolishment of the palace by the Kazhar Empire. She quickly becomes friends with Miss Sevgi after visiting the library and gives her a tour around the whole city. Daphne grows frustrated as she is unable to find any supportive information for her dissertation from the books in the library. Miss Sevgi gifts her a dusty book that has a pretty ancient outlook, written in Turkish and also with the symbol of an attractive amulet while Daphne was preparing to leave. Daphne is immediately drawn to the book’s title “In the Shadow of the mosques”. Still confused about the answer she is looking for, she decided to stay as a guest in the ottoman palace turned hotel to get closer to the ultimate truth. Surprisingly she is given Princess Rania’s room to stay as all other rooms seem to be occupied. Although initially feeling unsettled as days pass by Daphne realizes she has never felt home anywhere else in the alien country except in this room. Rania falls in love with Clifford a handsome and kind hearted waiter in the hotel. Daphne finds herself immersed in the book speaking about the mystery behind the lost magical relics in the world that were kept in secret mosques which was invisible to the eyes of humans and was only visible to Jinns in order to keep them out of reach from evil forces and while randomly skimming through the pages she comes across the picture of a female pirate. She is called Tessa a beautiful, smart and headstrong young woman who was abducted by a pirate crew who were in the hunt for treasure in her village that had burned down during a war and thus seperated from her family and her childhood friend Selim. She grows up with the pirate crew engaging in their adventures and fate takes a drastic turn when she meets with a young handsome man named Emir and his brother Mert accompanied by their Uncle Ozan who land up in the same ship while on a journey of their own looking for a golden fleece. Both Demir and Mert fall in love with Tessa and she rejects both of them initially but later on reciprocates Demir’s feelings. Later on she realizes Demir is actually Selim disguised as who he claims he is. She immediately breaks up with him fearing him knowing her true identity because if he does he would take her back home and she doesn’t want her parents to know she is a pirate. However Ozan learns realizes Tessa’s truth and tells Selim. Selim tries to convince Tessa to come with him but she refuses. The pirate crew get on to their next mission which is to steal an amulet that is kept in a secret liar in the Ottoman palace which is believed to hold the power to create protective barriers in mosques where magical relics are hidden. They all disguise themselves as palace servants to leave no room for suspicion. Tessa while exploring the drawings on the walls of the palace gets kidnapped by three masked men and taken to a village. It is revealed that the masked men are Selim, Mert and Ozan who have abducted Tessa to reunite her with her family. Tessa initially outraged at Selim for making her meet her parents, eventually forgives and reunites with him when her parents accept her delighted to have their daughter back. She goes back to the Ottoman palace with Selim, Mert and Ozan to help them on their mission to find the golden fleece and comes across a shocking revelation from an old palace servant that she is the lost princess Rania a Zhuriyya half human half jinn, the daughter of a jinn princess called Shabra and Ekrem the Ottoman prince which makes their blood precious for treasure hunting which explains why she was taken away by the pirates. The four of them decide to get together and fight against the pirates. Rania finds her mother’s amulet but she realizes that for the protective barrier to form the amulet needs the spells of archangles who are guardians of the mosque with whose support they all rebel against the pirates and restore the protective barrier in the temples. Rania reunites with her Royal family and gets married to Selim. However she is envied by princess Afreen her cousin who is now married to Selim’s brother Mert. Little did Rania know that her happily ever after wasn’t as long as she had hoped. The Khazar empire reaches out with a proposal to Rania and the royal family for allegiance for Royal trade which she immediately turns down after realizing their despicable trade practices. Afreen seeing this rift as an opportunity travels to the Khazar kingdom and allies with them to assasinate Rania and the Royal family while revealing royal secrets. The day of the attack of the Khazzar empire on Ottoman palace, Rania rushes to the mosque where the magical antiques are hidden in order to use them to protect her kingdom. Suddenly she is stabbed in the back and turns around to see Afreen gripping the dagger with fury pressed against her body. Afreen reveals she knew Rania’s was a zhurriya all along and also knew that the only way to kill their kind would be to stab them in their back. Afreen locks the mosque after repeatedly stabbing Rania and leaving her bleeding to death inside. Rania finds a scroll lying on the floor and starts writing using her blood in Jinn language the secret of the magical relics hidden in the mosques and also the prophecy of her next birth. While reaching the end of the book Daphne finds incomplete pages which was supposed to include the prophecy. Frustrated and hopeless Daphne decides to leave Istanbul and go home. That night Daphne drunk dials her friend Helen and drops the glass of wine on the floor and it shatters. While picking up the pieces, Daphne pricks her finger on the pieces and shakes her hand. Her blood splashes on the book lying on the table and gradually letters begin to form in the book. Daphne discovers she is the rebirth of Rania and the rest of the story follows her adventure with Clifford and the descendants of archangels who she crosses paths with and teams up to fight to protect the lost amulet which she discovers. She finally submits her novel and graduates and offered to remain in the academia of the college to work alongside professor Sebastian’s son Edwin who Daphne discovers is the rebirth of Selim. A new saga of love triangle between Edwin, Daphne and Clifford begins.
