The temple plaza was so crowded that people spilled over to the adjoining streets and rooftops. As a Naming candidate, Rasia arrived early to get a place at the front of the steps, but she and Ysai had managed somewhere near the middle. It was not her fault they severely underestimated the size of the crowd. These numbers were unprecedented. Everyone in the Grankull attended the namepour, the big celebration afterward, but the actual ceremony usually only interested immediate and extended family members. Apparently, everyone was excited to see the faces of those who slayed a dragon. And, also, Nico, the Ohan, or whatever.
“Do you see him?” Rasia asked as she tried to pick Kai out from the crowd. She could barely see over everyone’s heads when she stretched to her tiptoes. She only had a clear view of the rising temple steps that staged the ceremony.
“Maybe. I think that’s him by Kenji-shi.”
Rasia gave Ysai’s shoulders a considering look. Knowing her thoughts, Ysai raised his eyebrows.
“Come on, I practically bought a house for you.”
“You know the rules.”
She sneered. “Oh, amazing and physically superior jih of mine, can I please borrow your shoulders?”
He grinned and crouched down for Rasia to climb up. She smoothly hopped onto his shoulders and balanced herself for the lift, then she rose out of the crowd, far higher than everyone else except for those on the rooftops. Someone behind them complained, and she threw a ‘V’ over her shoulder.
“They’re over there,” Ysai pointed, “to the right of the stage.”
She spotted Nico by the steps, because of course, Nico came early. Next to Nico, Kenji-shi carried Rae on his hip, while Kai stood almost hidden between them. Rasia waved to get his attention, but he kept his head down. She had hoped to meet up with him before the ceremony, but that became nearly impossible in the thickening crowd.
Azan caught sight of her wave and waved back where he stood with his siblings and his parents off to the left. Rasia spied Zephyr, Suri, and Neema. She couldn’t find Kelin but had no doubt he was around.
The Ceremony started with a rumble of drums. Ysai tightened his grip on her thighs as the crowd surged forward, jostling him and rocking Rasia in turn. He elbowed the person who shoved into him and glared until they backed off. Rasia snickered in amusement. She undoubtedly had the best seat in the entire Grankull.
The Council and scribes proceeded to the stage. Ysai waved as Jilah walked behind the other scribes, as if she had any problems spotting them both sticking out of the crowd. Jilah smiled in their direction and then focused on the task of carrying the Book of Names to the pedestal atop the stairs.
The Mythkeeper stood before the podium, and her voice boomed, amplified by the acoustics of the temple dome over the courtyard. “We are gathered here today to welcome new faces to our kull. These individuals braved the Forging to feed us with their hunt and have earned their place among us. Those that endure remain.”
The Mythkeeper read the first name from her list. Traditionally, they called names in the order of who returned first from the Forging. That could have been Rasia if she had beaten Shamai-ta’s record, but as it was, her kull would be called last.
“Child of Avalai Ohan and Kenjinn Ilhani,” the Mythkeeper announced, halfway through the ceremony.
The crowd jostled and clamored to get a glimpse of Nico as she walked up the temple steps. Nico could not have looked more elegant as Rasia did dangerous. She wore a shroud and a blue gossamer dress that flowed like water to the distant eye.
Nico bowed as the Mythkeeper dipped her thumb in a clay-worn bowl and then spread gonda blood at the bridge of Nico’s eyes. While all eyes were on Nico, Rasia gazed intently at Kai, where he finally raised his head to watch his sibling unveil her face. He was not wearing the pants from the market. Rasia had delivered them to his house earlier that morning while he had his interview. Why wasn’t he wearing the pants? The whole point was for Rasia to take them off of him later.
The Mythkeeper announced, “We welcome the newest member of the Grankull. Introduce yourself.”
Nico peeled back layers of her shroud one at a time until she stood full-faced before the crowd.
“My name is Nicolai, child of Avalai Ohan and Kenjinn Ilhani. I am the magic-born heir, of the First Rain. I am the soil of the Wingfields and the Han before my time. I am the Oasis. I am the Elderheart. I am the Ohan.”
Cheers rang out through the crowd, followed by audible name-songs of ‘Ohan’. Rasia rolled her eyes at the fanfare. Thanks to Nico, who had to go and pick up every straggler on her way back to the Grankull, it was the longest ceremony in years. It was the first Forging in generations where everyone had either passed or died. There were no survivors in between.
“Child of Kibari Oshield and Shamaijen Windbreaker.”
Goosebumps sparked up Rasia’s arms when they called her name. This was it. This was the moment she had been waiting for all of her life.
“Shall I throw you on stage?” Ysai asked.
“I’m game.”
He chuckled and crouched. Rasia jumped down to the ground, and he squeezed her shoulder. “I’m proud of you, Raj. Tah is too.”
“I know,” Rasia said through a watery grin.
She turned toward the temple steps. No matter how congested, the crowd parted the way for her. Thus far, she was the farthest candidate from the stage. People cheered and congratulated her as she walked through them. More than one person echoed Ysai’s sentiments about Shamai-ta and how he would have wished to be there.
The Mythkeeper had changed out the bowl for one filled with thick black liquid. Rasia bowed as they smeared the dragon blood between her eyes, the first to ever receive the honor.
“The Grankull welcomes you. Introduce yourself.”
Rasia turned to the crowd and unwrapped her shroud. For so long, she imagined standing on this stage smothered by Shamai-ta’s absence. She imagined herself gritting through the pain of words never spoken and a hug that would never come. She imagined herself staring out at the crowd and seeing nothing but strangers.
Alone.
But she felt Shamai-ta as tangible as the sun on her skin. She felt him in the tall and proud carriage of Ysai’s shoulders and in the encouraging words of his peers who remembered him. She felt his unflinching acceptance and understanding in a kulani Rasia never saw coming. Shamai-ta left little parts of himself everywhere for her to find.
The biggest part was her.
“My name is Rajiani, child of Kibari Oshield and Shamaijen Windbreaker. I am the hunter, the wind-chaser, and the horizon-seeker. I am the discoverer, the wanderer, and the adventurer. I am the mane of wild horses. I am bones thrown afield. I am a map with no end. I am two-blades and dragon-sail. I am swiftness and movement. I am the dark waters of the dragon’s coast, a Graveyard of bones, and the today of Yestermorrow. I am Rasia of the Dragonfire.”
Cheers roared throughout the Grankull. Thunderous applause vibrated from every crevice. Rasia lifted her face to the faint lights in the sky, at that sea of stars peeking through the sunset.
“Tah, I did it.”
The Mythkeeper dipped the pen in the black blood of the dragon and handed it to Rasia. She signed the first symbol of her name. She squinted at the paper. Then she unabashedly turned and flowed through the motions to the crowd’s confusion and Kiba-ta’s mortification. She remembered the symbol that stumped her and wrote the rest. With confidence, Rasia signed her names.
She flipped the page to the next entry, then stepped back in line with the other kids. She lined up beside Kelin who glanced up and down at her clothes. “Nice outfit.”
Rasia glanced up and down at Kelin’s magnificent dress of heron feathers. He had made quite the entry. “Same to you.”
Neema walked onto the stage next.
Then Zephyr.
Then Azan.
Then-
Rasia searched the crowd for Kai and couldn’t find him where he had been standing before. She wondered if he had moved closer to the steps in preparation for his turn. In her focus to find him, she had almost missed the Councilor’s parting words: “Thank you to everyone for attending the Naming Ceremony. Please convene in three drums at the Tail for a feast and celebration in honor of our new faces to the Grankull.”
The fuck?
“Wait,” Rasia stepped out of line. “What about Kai?”