“Nico! Remember who you’re fighting for!” A voice echoed. “Remember who you are!”
It didn’t matter. Nothing the healers said mattered. Ava stubbornly clutched her tiny newborn to her chest, rocking Kai with the tired hope that the babe would finally stop crying. The healers thought something was wrong, but they didn’t know anything. Just small was all. Ava was determined not to lose another one.
Ava killed the Councilor’s child quickly, without pain, with more mercy than they’d ever give to Kai. The families watched on the temple steps in horror, sobbing out, but Ava didn’t care. They took her child, so she took theirs.
Ava rocked her beautiful baby in her arms and teared up at the chubby health of her little Nicolai. Against her shoulder, Kai stared. Ava touched Kai’s nose playfully and wrinkled his placid expression.
“Your name is Kailjnn, named for the sandstorm of your birth. This is your little jih, Nicolai, named for the First Rain after a long drought. You two have to protect one another, okay? The burdens you’ll know will be uniquely yours, but you’ll always have each other.”
Nico looked up, chubby legs kicking out, to stare with a newborn’s curiosity. A light reflected in jih’s eyes. There. In the glimmer, she found herself.
She couldn’t stay swimming in her tah’s memories. She couldn’t linger over the lives of other Ohans. Those previous Ohans were the past. Their mistakes and knowledge and triumphs were the past. Their chapters ended, and what mattered was the story that she wrote now.
She stepped away from the bloody altar. Tajih asked, defensive and uncertain of the person standing before her, “Who are you?”
The answer came without a doubt.
“I am Nicolai Ohan.”