If Nevahe's story never happened? First of all, Ala Mhigo would never have fallen, and thus never prompted her parents to run back to Sharlayan from Sharlayan ((oh that's confusing)) and thus also prevented her parents from leaving their research in Saint Mocianne's Arboretum and becoming almost destitute. The fire seven years after she was born would have never happened, meaning she wouldn't have a crippling fear of open flames and she'd also be able to run long distances, her lungs never would have been damaged from smoke inhalation.
Nevahe would probably have grown up a proud member of the Tevennie family, doting on the twin siblings who would have been born soon after her ninth Namesday. Instead she was formally disowned by her paternal uncle at her parent's funeral and left on the streets.
Would she have been happier? I don't know. She doesn't know. She'd like to think she'd be happier, living in Colony!Sharlayan with her parents and siblings. She'd like to think she'd be happier not having to fight her way through the Studium, to prove herself at every turn to people who would once have been her peers but now saw themselves above because she had no Surname and wore tattered clothes. She'd like to think she'd be happy to be able to run long distances without feeling like her chest was about to explode, that she'd be happier if she hadn't had to stow away on a ship bound for Aldenard. That she'd be happier if she was Nevahe Tevennie, not Nevahe Duskwood.
And maybe she would have been happier...but maybe she wouldn't. Those things did happen, her life as she knew it fell apart when she was seven...and she wouldn't be the person she is today if they'd stayed the same...and she's happy with who she is right now. So, she chooses to live for tomorrow. She chooses to live for who she will become under the guidance of the people who touch her life in little ways everyday.
((Hm...didn't really end the way I expected it to...I guess Neva decided she didn't want to wallow in the 'what if's' and has decided to write her own fate.)
Nevahe would probably have grown up a proud member of the Tevennie family, doting on the twin siblings who would have been born soon after her ninth Namesday. Instead she was formally disowned by her paternal uncle at her parent's funeral and left on the streets.
Would she have been happier? I don't know. She doesn't know. She'd like to think she'd be happier, living in Colony!Sharlayan with her parents and siblings. She'd like to think she'd be happier not having to fight her way through the Studium, to prove herself at every turn to people who would once have been her peers but now saw themselves above because she had no Surname and wore tattered clothes. She'd like to think she'd be happy to be able to run long distances without feeling like her chest was about to explode, that she'd be happier if she hadn't had to stow away on a ship bound for Aldenard. That she'd be happier if she was Nevahe Tevennie, not Nevahe Duskwood.
And maybe she would have been happier...but maybe she wouldn't. Those things did happen, her life as she knew it fell apart when she was seven...and she wouldn't be the person she is today if they'd stayed the same...and she's happy with who she is right now. So, she chooses to live for tomorrow. She chooses to live for who she will become under the guidance of the people who touch her life in little ways everyday.
((Hm...didn't really end the way I expected it to...I guess Neva decided she didn't want to wallow in the 'what if's' and has decided to write her own fate.)
