“It would be a great sacrifice on my part, to rule this land,” Malini said, slow and solemn, as if her heart were not a burning coal, a thing of joy and rage. “I am only a woman, with brothers still living. If I am to rule… my lords, I must rule in the name of the mothers. I must rule as a mother of Parijatdvipa. “I have not burned, as the mothers burned,” she continued. “I know it isn’t their will. But I burned my goodness upon the monastery’s flames. I burned my gentleness. I made a fitting empress of myself. My lords, if it is the will of the mothers and the nameless both, then I will take
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