Zahri — The Princess of Maari

In Maari, the forest remembers. It remembers the footsteps of those who came before. It remembers the women who carried magic from one generation into the next. It remembers every ruler who understood that the land was never something to possess. And from the day Zahri was born, everyone knew that one day she would be expected to remember too.

Zahri is the youngest of five children and the only daughter born to Maari's ruling family. She has four older brothers who have spent much of their lives protecting, teaching, teasing, and occasionally irritating their little sister. But none of them question what everyone in their family has always known. One day, Zahri will rule Maari.

Maari is a matriarchy. Magic passes through its women.

A Maari woman may pass the gift to either a daughter or a son, and men can become powerful magic users in their own right. But a Maari man cannot pass that inheritance to his children. The line continues through women. So Zahri's birth meant something beyond simply welcoming another princess. She represented continuation.

Even as a child, the responsibility waiting for her was impossible to completely escape.

Her brothers could imagine lives of their own. Zahri was being prepared for one that already had a name: Queen.

Zahri has a rich, warm peanut-butter complexion and beautifully defined features, but in public, most people rarely see her entire face. Her clothing reflects Maari's traditions of modesty. Flowing fabric covers her body, and a delicate veil rests across the lower portion of her face, leaving her expressive eyes visible. There is one notable exception. Zahri's arms are never covered. Strong and chiseled even as she grows, her arms carry intricate tribal markings telling the story of her people, her family and her royal lineage.

In Maari, covering them would not be modest. It would be hiding who she is. Upon her head rests a small crown unlike the heavy crowns imagined in stories of kings and queens. Zahri's crown is delicate and luminescent, giving off a quiet glow rather than demanding attention through its size. She doesn't need a large crown for people to know she's a princess.

Royalty does not mean Zahri spends her childhood sitting quietly waiting to become queen.

She has four older brothers. That alone makes such a childhood nearly impossible.

They challenge her. They protect her. They know exactly how to annoy her. And because Zahri has grown up surrounded by older boys, she has learned how to hold her own.

She is privileged in ways children elsewhere in Nduara could barely imagine.She has access to teachers; history, magic, knowledge, resources and protection. Her family name opens doors before she ever reaches them. This will eventually make meeting children such as Toma, Duneir, Batu, Oceara and Siraya particularly interesting. Their worlds have taught them things hers never needed to and hers has taught her things theirs never could.

Unlike some of the old gifts beginning to reappear elsewhere in Nduara, Maari never forgot its magic. It lives openly among them. Zahri therefore doesn't grow up wondering whether magic exists. She grows up learning what it means to inherit it. But possessing magic and understanding it are two very different things. Zahri still has to learn. She will make mistakes.

She will discover abilities she doesn't fully understand. Eventually she will have to decide what kind of woman she wants to become not simply what kind of ruler everyone expects her to be. Inheritance can tell you where you came from but It cannot decide who you become.

There will come a time when Zahri's crown carries considerably more weight than it does now. A time when the kingdoms of Nduara can no longer afford to concern themselves only with what happens within their own borders. When that day arrives, Zahri will have something others in her generation do not. She has been raised knowing that sometimes your decisions affect people you will never meet but that day has not arrived yet. For now, she is still the youngest child, somebody's little sister, still learning, still becoming a girl beneath the veil.

The people of Maari already know Zahri will inherit their throne.

What none of them know yet is what kind of woman will eventually sit upon it.