Disclaimer: All characters and locations herein are the property of Tamora Pierce. Plot and actual written words owned by me. Written for the Dancing Dove's Perfect Sentence Challenge.
She kept her name.
Darra Chandler, The Price of Owing by Kitty Ryan.Name
She kept her name. Through all the turbulence and the temper-tantrums, through every bitten-back oath and early morning thunderstorm, she kept her name. She was given a chance to change it, or more than a chance. After all, it was only proper; mages never kept their families' surnames, after they were officially qualified.
To Daja, it had been a sign of remaining true to her roots and her few but dear Trader friends. To Briar it hand been redundant. Sandry had agreed very easily and Tris suspected she rather liked the authority that her father's legacy lent her. No one had asked Tris why she agreed to their pact. They knew, or thought they knew, that she no longer considered herself a merchant, although the values her heritage had imparted on her were not entirely gone.
Because I've had it for too long
, she could have said, or Because I've already become known by it. What she could not say is, Because they tried to oust me from their midst, and this is the last remnant of them I still have. Gods damn it all, I'm not letting go. She kept her name because she could. Nothing they had done or might yet do could take it from her.