Inan’s bronze coin, which he fiddles with to calm his nerves, represents Inan’s emotional connections with the Iyika cause as a whole and specifically his unwillingness to buy into the idea that violence is the only way forward. He acquired the coin in the previous installment of the series, when Zélie gave it to him and pointed out that his last object that served this purpose (a majacite game piece that symbolized his connection with King Saran, Inan’s ruthless father) was hurting him due to the fact that majacite is poisonous to maji. The bronze coin, meanwhile, is safe for Inan to handle. The fact that the coin came from Zélie—whom Inan still loves, despite the fact that he’s not supposed to—points to his desire for peace. Broadly speaking, the fact that Inan continues to hang onto the coin and not replace it with something more expensive, more fitting of a king, or not connected to Zélie shows that he hasn’t succumbed to the same thirst for power and glory that the rest of the monarchy has—he’s still not sold on the idea that the monarchy has to be so violent and oppressive toward the people he loves on the other side, like Amari and Zélie. Ultimately this manifests in Inan’s attempt to dissolve the monarchy, a system that would put those people he loves, but doesn’t agree with, in power.
Inan’s Coin Symbol Timeline in Children of Virtue and Vengeance
