Children of Virtue and Vengeance: Chapter Forty-Four Summary & Analysis

Chimes startle Zélie awake and call her to training before dawn. Zélie stays in bed. She doesn’t feel fit to lead the Reapers after putting Mâzeli in danger at Chândomblé. Mama Agba knocks and enters. She wears the ceremonial clothing of past clan elders and Zélie gets up to bow to her. Mama Agba pulls out a beautiful metal collar. Zélie says she doesn’t feel like she deserves to wear it, but Mama Agba says that elders can make mistakes. Zélie allows Mama Agba to fasten the collar and thinks that this feels like the day Mama Agba gave her the staff. Mama Agba says that if Zélie weren’t meant to be an elder, Oya would’ve rejected her.

Zélie thinks about the ribbons of light she saw in her ìsípayá. She thinks that she initially thought her ìsípayá showed cênters, but she realizes that Amari’s magic is only blue and Nehanda’s is only green. She asks Mama Agba if it’s possible to combine different types of magic. Mama Agba says that it’s only happened once before: the Grounder and Cancer died, but created majacite. It’s possible, but dangerous and unpredictable. From the balcony, Zélie asks what Mama Agba’s ìsípayá was like. Mama Agba says that Sky Mother welcomed her as she kneeled on a mountaintop.

Zélie walks to her Reapers, passing the other clans training on the way. The other elders are skilled and Zélie hopes to be as good as they are. Mâzeli, Bimpe, and Màri conjure animations and greet Zélie when she arrives. Zélie realizes that they can practice incantations and celebrate their powers. She demonstrates by bringing a shadow to life. Màri asks if it’s true that Zélie’s shadows can turn armies to ash, but Zélie explains she could only do that because she was using Baba’s lifeforce on sacred grounds at a sacred time. She knows she needs to demonstrate something, however, and remembers an incantation Mama used once. Zélie leaps off a cliff over the baths and then conjures a shadow to break her fall. She calls Mâzeli to go next.