She knew what she had to do. She knew she had a duty to protect her children and everyone she cared for. And she knew – oh, she knew this feeling well. She recalled feeling this way when she had been leader of Jaded Shadows, and more prominently, as one of the kings of Shadowed Sun. She was able to retrieve the feelings that accompanied those times with such a precise clarity it made her head begin to spin. She knew her task now would be to grow in ways she had never thought possible, especially at her age. She was seven years now by her approximation. She had lived to see seven winters and could recall many of them. She knew she was growing older in a land of youth: so many here were barely two or three years old and so many of them died or disappeared young. So many of them found wisdom in their last breaths: they understood the consequences of the names and words that killed them. Tayui did not want their wisdom, but slowly, she was beginning to believe it was true. She did not want Nayati to be correct: the AniWayan she had all but forgotten about until now. And she did not want Aurèle, her sister so long estranged that she had thought she was nothing more than a ghostly apparition.

Even if she had not spoken to her sister in almost a month, she had still heard her words. Tayui stood looking down at the Salt Lake where her daughter had been buried. Surrounding her were shallow holes where she had tried to dig up Noir and hold the bones and whatever was left for one last time. Her attempt to desecrate her own daughter’s grave left her muddied and sobbing and she was only just beginning to recover.

But now, her task was clear: she wanted Haku dead. She had seen Kaena and made her demands and she still wanted to see them through. Haku deserved far more than death. But she needed to have mercy and give him what she needed and not what he deserved. She needed to fight and win. She needed so much and she needed it all now. She needed the world and would settle for nothing less.