“Good,” she says, and I smile. I twist my torso and the fabric shifts. It’s golden brocade, beaded in jade, sparkling in the firelight. I run my fingers down it and take a deep breath. It’s happening. This is actually happening. We more than survived. We won.

“Chin up.” Hands lay a cone-like necklace of bone around my neck, painted with swirly blue designs. “The blue is reminiscent of the ocean, Jelani.” The woman presses and something snaps into place. The neckline of the dress forces my head up, but not uncomfortably. She takes my wrists and slides rings on my fingers. “And for luck.” She pulls out two minted Ghizoni coins, and I blink.

“Can I see that?”

I turn the gold in my hands. My face is minted on the coin where the Chancellor’s used to be. She takes them from me, a smirk playing on her lips.

“The world is changing, is it not?” She tucks the gold coins in a pouch, then stuffs them in my bust. “Titube will finish you up, then.” She presses her hands together then sets them both on my bare right shoulder. “My Queen.”

“Thank you so much, Lalae.”

She dips her chin and disappears behind the door. There weren’t many spaces inside the mountain still intact for this sort of thing, but the grandest room they could find is the one they put me in. I told them I didn’t need all that, but they insisted. And tradition is very important to our people, so I kept my mouth shut from then on.

I try to take a step, but Titube holds my foot still.

“Not yet,” she says, holding my foot above a pile of dust. “Okay, now.”

I dip my foot in the soft pile of earth.

“Now the next one.”

I dip my second foot in the pile of golden ash. My feet shine metallic from the ankle down. Titube’s tiny hands work around my calves, tying golden twine. “We pray that strength from our roots would wrap around us, lift us up. That we would walk on the soil they built with pride.” She loops the end of the twine at my ankle in a bow. “It is what the twine represents.”

“Ah, I see.”

“When the world is right again, maybe one day you can escort me to my turning out? Memi says it is when I get to wear nice robes like this one.”

“It’s a plan, then. I would love that.”

She stands, her cheeks pushing up under her eyes. “Now you are finished, my Queen.” She bows, backing away, but before she can run off, I take her by the hand.

“Would you escort me into the Kowana ceremony?”

Her eyes are moons. “You mean it? M-me?”

I nod, tucking her hand under my arm, and we depart the room as the creaky door swishes closed behind us.