comic diary

🎧 At the beginning, their relationship was fraught — with only the two of them left, Awa is forced to be the overbearing djeli, keeping the inexperienced Mansour from straying off the path. In an interaction with one of the warlords that took power in the aftermath of the wizard’s attack, Awa is questioned on why she’s still following Mansour instead of being someone else’s djeli. The warlord comments that she must be incredibly dedicated to the prince, which makes her laugh. In fact, she’s dedicated only to bringing peace back to her world, and the prince is the only way she knows how to do it. | “So if I’m stuck with Mansour, I can at least make sure he doesn’t sully his soul from contact with dirtbags like you.”

🛡️Eventually, Mansour gets his act together and starts taking his role as future king seriously, ignoring what everyone’s said to him about being a failure as a prince, protecting Awa and their allies. When Awa attempts to do her job as her djeli, galvanizing him with her song, but he refuses. Awa is confused, but one of their allies understands: Mansour does not feel worthy of songs meant for kings.

🛡️Towards the end of the book when they’re about to meet the wizard and get their answers, they’re attacked one last time by the biggest warlords, and it’s here that we see how much Awa and Mans have grown! Mansour says he’s been relying on Awa too much over the years, and that it was time she could lean on him, because he’s no king. So he lets Awa play her music for him and he’s able to demolish the warlord in one hit. Afterwards, Awa asks if he was being genuine about what he said about her, and he was — | “You’ve been trying to push me, and everyone we met, to be better, and learn our past to build the future. Perhaps someone like you should have had this tower this whole time.”

🎧 And it’s hilarious Mansour said this, because it’s exactly what would happen next. They do meet the “wizard,” but it’s nothing lil they expect. The real wizard everyone feared had died long ago, and only his wives remained — or, at least, the spirit of one of them. They had rebelled against their cruel husband and escaped him, only to find that those outside the tower would treat them no kinder. So, they retreated back to the tower and used the fear of their late husband to protect themselves against the kingdom that threatened them — Awa and Mansour’s home. When Awa questioned the necessity of letting all the citizens suffer even years after the king’s death, the spirit explained that they’d planned to fix everything, but they died before they could. Thus, they searched for someone “invested in the fate of the world, but critical enough to decide if it deserved a second chance.” Awa, part of her still thinking as a djeli, assumed the spirit meant Mansour, the prince, the hero to the throne, but the spirit quickly cut that down. No, they were leaving the tower and all the power and knowledge inside it to her.

🎧 With the tower, she’s got a choice: to lock all the knowledge away forever, or use it. But she uncomfortable with that responsibility, not wanting to be like the warlords and kings and other people that got them into this situation, so she decides to take it to her people, broadcasting a song asking them what they want. And while the book leaves it open on what the people exist, the answer isn’t the point: it’s the fact that Awa and Mansour, from important and royal linages, raised to rule their kingdom, leave it up to the common, everyday people to decide their fate. It’s so awesome.

++ bonus: them as little babies <333