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
Tzain, Kâmarū, and Khani worriedly wonder what’s going on as Zélie tries to say Roën’s name. She can’t speak to say that the moonstone joined her lifeforce to Roën’s, but they can’t survive without a blood sacrifice. Tzain figures it out and tells Zélie to break it, but she’s too weak and doesn’t want to give up. Zélie grabs Tzain’s wrist and he seems to understand: her ìsípayá showed many life forces of different colors; she needs to connect to him and others. Kâmarū extends his hand, and Khani puts hers out too. Zélie whispers the Yoruba incantation and hears five pulses thundering. Tzain, Khani, and Kâmarū rise off the ground and ribbons of light twist from their hearts, weaving toward Zélie’s. The pain is too much, but Tzain, Kâmarū, and Khani fly into the walls.
Now, everything begins to make sense to Zélie: in her ìsípayá, Oya showed her that she must lean into her community and work together with the moonstone if they want to win. The difficulty of joining together, however, does remind Zélie and the reader that this isn’t an easy or simple process. Deviating from history and tradition means making sacrifices—in this case, a literal blood sacrifice—if they want to continue to harness this power and not kill themselves in the meantime.
Themes
Zélie sits up and breathes, feeling five hearts in her chest. Khani heals Zélie without an incantation and then heals Roën. Kâmarū lifts metal tables without an incantation and crushes them, even though he’s never worked metal before. He crafts a metal arm modeled after his own metal leg for Roën. Khani helps Kâmarū and Zélie realizes that this was Oya’s vision. Khani leads Zélie outside and they bring a blackened corpse back to life. Zélie understands that with magic like this, they can get their people back.
Kâmarū’s ability to fashion Roën’s metal arm suggests that the possible upsides of this are major; remember that Kâmarū is a Grounder, so he shouldn’t necessarily be able to work metal like a Welder. Not having to use incantations also suggests that this makes the maji’s power more like that of the tîtáns—it can be as strong as a river, not just a rivulet.
Themes
