Ahkio had never seen his parents honored in this way and had always regretted it. Seeing someone die and accepting that death were far different things. Watching her prepared, smelling the savory aroma of her flesh and organs cooking, helped wash the memory of her post-death awakening. Had it been a vision? Or had she truly been strong enough to reclaim her soul from Sina for a few stolen moments… only to tell him she’d manufactured her own death?

“Did you hear me?” Nasaka asked. She stood at his elbow, grim and surly as ever.

“I heard you,” Ahkio said.

“Have you met Yisaoh before?”

“Not since before I went to Dorinah.” In fact, he had a very difficult time remembering her face. She would have been twenty or so back then. He remembered pining after her for at least a year; a cool, aloof figure, witty and capable. He had always liked her strong hands.

“I’ll need an answer, then.”

“About?”

“Will you eat your sister’s heart tonight and take her seat in two weeks, or shall I set another plan in motion?”

“Your only other option is to find my mother’s sister Etena,” Ahkio said. “But my mother didn’t want her on the seat, and Kirana didn’t either. She’s probably dead in the woodlands by now.”

“I have several options,” Nasaka said. “Etena is not one of them. She disappeared a long time ago.”

“They’ll all lead to civil war.”

“You could save us all the trouble and simply agree to marry Yisaoh.”

“She wants to be Kai,” Ahkio said. “Not the Kai’s Catori. I don’t think she’ll settle for second.”

“You have a better idea?”

“I’ll marry Meyna.”

Nasaka’s laugh was bitter. “Over my rotting corpse.”

“Noted,” Ahkio said. He turned away. “Is Yisaoh upstairs in the Kai’s study?”

“Ahkio, you can’t be serious about Meyna.”

“It’s the best solution,” Ahkio said. He’d been thinking about it all morning, remembering that warm night around the table before Nasaka came for him. “Her husbands are Yisaoh’s brothers.”

“If you won’t marry her, you had best be prepared with a very smart way to pacify her.”

“I intend to ask her about Kirana.”

“Oma’s breath, Ahkio, don’t go accusing the Garikas of murder. I’ll come up with you.”

“No. They hate Oras far more than they hate me. Stay here.”

“I don’t advise it.”