Chapter 13 Kidan #2
“You must answer these questions yourself and compare them to the previous masters’. Then you must decide if you’re going to inherit their culture or sever it.”
Kidan’s ears perked up. “Sever?”
“Listen carefully. To inherit a culture, you must dream in the same language, believe in the same faith, believe in the same politics and values. All four points must match. To sever, all four points must be different.”
Kidan blinked. “But how is that possible? I can share the same faith as my… mother.” She quickly moved past the scratch in her throat. Thinking of her lost family was already beginning to unravel her. “And have a different political view. It can’t fit cleanly.”
Slen’s pen tapped in agreement. “Culture can’t be separated into black and white. There will always be differences and similarities between a child and a parent.”
The professor listened with his head tilted to the window, angular face with no flaw, ageless as written words.
“Thus why inheriting a house is a difficult endeavor. It is almost impossible to be in complete harmony with a previous master unless you spend a lot of time with them. That is why the ownership of a house often comes easiest to a child of the same bloodline. You cannot cheat the house into believing you are of the same culture. It is connected to your mind and your intention. It is not something to be achieved within a semester or even a year, unless you’re exceptional.
The average amount of time it takes to master a house is seven years.
Mahlet Adane took four years. Omar Umil six. Koril Qaros three.”
A stone dropped in Kidan’s gut. Seven years…
Kidan pushed down the panic building in her and shook her head. “Dean Faris told me she mastered her house when she was twenty.”
A spinning light appeared in the professor’s granite eyes. “As I said, exceptional students. Dean Faris is a rarity. She possesses a mind like no other. The question is, will you three carry on your legendary status and become exceptional as well?”
He sounded mocking yet interested. Like a giant studying the play of ants.
The room grew dark with the looming weight of what they had to tackle. Slen’s jaw had tightened slightly, her gaze straight as an arrow. If there was anyone who would be exceptional, it was her.
Yusef rubbed his hand, thinking quietly. Kidan’s feet bounced. Any other challenge, and she wouldn’t have minded. But digging into the dead? She could already feel the punches all over her flesh.
Why couldn’t her task be to murder again? Kidan would love to pay Ajtaf or Makary a visit.
“You must think critically on what decision to make,” the professor continued seriously. “Peel apart your own identity and see what you can part with. Severing a culture is no different than cutting off a limb. Yet inheriting a culture has been likened to a noose around the neck. It is up to you.”
Either way, they appeared to be fucked.
Except Yusef. He was smiling.
“What?” he said when he felt their narrowed eyes on him. “Inheriting is the easiest answer.”
Kidan and Slen exchanged a quick glance. How nice it was to have such certainty, to belong in the fold of your family, between their languages and beliefs. Unlike them, Yusef had his great-aunt, the current owner of Umil House, to guide him. Kidan didn’t even have her sister.
“There’s no third option?” Kidan pushed. “Do all four points really have to match or be entirely different from the previous house master?”
“I will give you a famous example,” the professor said, a shadow of a smile crossing his face. “Susenyos Sagad.”
Her chin inclined in surprise.
“Adane House was left to him fourteen years ago. Uxlay law says he cannot formally take possession of the house until he lives alone for a consecutive set of twenty-eight days. However, that is only Uxlay law. The moment Mahlet Adane named him inheritor, the house allowed him to try and master it. So why has he continuously failed?”
Kidan remembered Susenyos in the observatory room, on his knees, the moon beating down on him, trying to conquer his pain night after night. Desperate to change the house law. Something sour pooled in her gut, parsing through the four questions that pulsed in and out.
Most likely his values didn’t align with Mahlet’s.
“Susenyos was unable to fully sever his culture from Adane House nor inherit it fully, so he became stuck.”
The word “stuck” swung like a sledgehammer. But Kidan did not know her mother well enough to see what they shared or did not.
To inherit or to sever? She had no clue.
And she didn’t want to know. She’d managed to avoid learning anything about her mother, to spare herself from any more loss, but here Kidan was again, bleeding for Uxlay.
She tightened her fists, nails digging into her palms.
“Very well, begin your investigations into your house’s culture—” The professor cut off abruptly, reaching into his pocket for his phone.
He read something on it, then lifted his head. His dark eyes went to Kidan’s laptop as if he knew she’d been searching for information about rogue vampires.
“The dean would like to speak to all three of you.”
“Why?” Yusef asked.
Professor Andreyas assessed Kidan long enough to make her straighten up.
“Your curiosity about Lusidio is about to be answered.”