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Chapter Thirty-Eight
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
Confused, Mâzeli touches Zélie. Nothing happens. When Zélie touches Amari again, the blue glow swells in Amari’s chest. Zélie says that Amari can absorb tîtán magic like Nehanda and reminds Amari of how Nehanda drew magic from her soldiers. Amari is skeptical, but then she realizes she can feel heartbeats of tîtáns outside the door. She concentrates and summons blue light between her fingers. It doesn’t hurt. Zélie explains that Amari and Nehanda aren’t tîtáns; they’re something else that can absorb powers of tîtáns of the same magic type. She decides to call them cênters and says that with enough Connector tîtáns, Amari could overpower Nehanda. Amari comes up with a new plan. At the signal, Kenyon creates a ball of fire and Zélie opens the wall.
Zélie is literally writing history as she creates the term “cênter,” as she gets to dictate how future generations will talk about this kind of magical person. Understanding what Nehanda and Amari are, and specifically realizing that they can connect to others, begins to offer hope that Amari can use being a cênter to build community rather than kill tîtáns she draws from, as Nehanda does. In other words, she now has even more of a choice as to how to use her magic and whether or not to use it for good or evil.
Themes
