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Chapter Eighty-Five
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Children of Virtue and Vengeance, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Systems of Oppression
Cycles of Violence
Tradition and History
Love vs. Duty
Summary
Analysis
No one speaks as Nâo powers their boat. There’s no need to speak now that they’re connected. As the boat gets close to Ilorin, Zélie’s old home, she thinks of Baba and Mama Agba. Zélie announces that they can hide here until sunrise, when they’ll free the captive Iyika. Tzain calls for Zélie and points to the distance, where a single reed dwelling stands above the waves. It’s Zélie and Tzain’s old home. Tzain and Zélie climb down to it and discover everything back the way it was before Ilorin burnt. The only thing different is a parcel and a folded note on Zélie’s cot. They’re from Inan. The note says that he’s sorry, while the packet is full of dozens of letters he wrote to her. Angry, Zélie throws the packet to the ground, but picks up a letter that clunks.
Rebuilding Zélie’s home—which may have been the construction project he sent Ojore to oversee—shows again that Inan genuinely wants to make things right, even if he understands that rebuilding one hut doesn’t bring back the hundreds of Ilorin’s villagers who died when the village burnt. It does, however, have the desired effect of attracting Zélie and Tzain’s attention and giving Zélie more information about what exactly they’re going to find when they reach Lagos in the morning.
Themes
That letter contains the bronze coin Zélie gave Inan, now fashioned into a pendant. She cries as she reads the accompanying letter. Inan writes that he’s sorry for everything, but it’s clear to him that the monarchy is the problem plaguing Orïsha, not magic. He says he’s going to dissolve the monarchy. Inan writes that if he runs into Zélie again, he’s prepared to die. Zélie hands Tzain the letter and hates herself for wanting to believe Inan. She tells Tzain that they still have to free the captive Iyika and asks what Tzain is going to do about Amari. Tzain winces and says they can’t be together after Amari almost killed Zélie. He suggests that next time, they fall for siblings who aren’t royalty.
Now that the bronze coin is back in Zélie’s possession, it can go on to function for her much as it has for Inan: as a reminder of the human cost of this war and the violence, as well as the power of love to try to make things right. Inan’s understanding that the monarchy is the problem indicates that he now understands the power structures that keep him in such a powerful position—and he recognizes that those structures are predicated on violence. Getting rid of them, in theory, means ending the violence.
Themes
