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Chapter Forty-Seven
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
Zélie and her Reapers watch the sunset and then, Zélie says that her charges are going to race to a hill three kilometers away to test their mastery of new incantations. She sends them off. Màri’s shadows let her surf the wind, while Bimpe’s shadows guide her to a river and then turn into a board under her feet. Mâzeli still hasn’t fully mastered the incantation, but he conjures more shadows as the first ones flicker. They swing him through the trees and surprisingly, he wins. He bickers with Màri, but Zélie thinks that if Roën saw how Mâzeli moves, he’d try to get him to join the mercenaries. Bimpe trudges up the hill as Zélie spots Amari down below. Zélie sends the Reapers back and follows Amari until she sees Inan.
Seeing all her Reapers use the same incantation in such wildly different ways shows Zélie the richness that she gains by becoming a part of the family of Reapers. Her shadows don’t look like any of her Reapers’, and that makes them all far more powerful as they turn to fighting other foes. This race is also a way for the Reapers to celebrate themselves and their abilities in a way that’s entirely disconnected from the war. As such, it allows them to look forward to the future rather than dwelling on the present.
Themes
