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Chapter Fifteen
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
As Amari, Zélie, and Tzain travel, Amari thinks often about Inan. She doesn’t want to fight him; she wants to run to him. Tzain gently points out that Amari is thinking of Inan again, and Amari thinks that she doesn’t know how to breathe without her brother—and she doesn’t know what to do if he’s alive. Zélie stops short, suspicious, but three maji children come around the corner asking for food. Amari pulls out dried meat for them and wonders if Saran or Nehanda are the reason they’re alone. Zélie crouches and points to Gusau’s fortress in the valley below. They watch as tîtán guards unload chained maji from a caravan and shove them inside. They discuss how to plan their attack, but Roën appears behind them and interrupts.
Amari has years of childhood with Inan to influence her thoughts of him, unlike Zélie (who only engaged in a brief, troubled romance with Inan in the last novel). Because of this history and connection, Amari is far more willing to believe that Inan is a good person who’s trying to do the right thing than Zélie is, as Zélie has only experienced Inan’s betrayal. Amari’s question as to which of her parents orphaned the young maji shows that she understands the responsibility of rewriting what the monarchy means after her parents’ cruel reigns.
Themes
Amari charges forward with her sword out and threatens Roën, but Roën smoothly knocks her sword away. He explains that the Iyika already attempted jailbreaks and now, every fortress in Orïsha is armed with mines of majacite gas. If anyone does manage to get in, guards will kill every prisoner. Roën says that with Lagos under siege, the monarchy can’t afford to lose another city or let the Iyika gain more soldiers. When Tzain asks, Roën says that he’s come to take Zélie to the Iyika. Amari insists that they can’t go as the Iyika want to kill her for being a monarch, but Zélie says they have no choice.
Zélie is likely willing to trust Roën here because he’s shown himself to be far more trustworthy than Inan has. While Inan brought about Baba’s death, Roën has, for the most part, been there for Zélie and her cause—and occasionally goes above and beyond, as when he saved her from the collapsing dome. Developing this trust now allows Zélie to practice trusting someone like Roën when the stakes are relatively low.
Themes
