Onya and Tris entered the clearing, followed by a dozen warriors and a few seken.
Natshanagada stood facing her students, a peaceful smile on her face. She was waving her hands enthusiastically while telling them a story, and the Natblidas were completely captivated by her story. For a short second, time stood still, Onya gazed at her open face and shining eyes, then she turned to them in surprise.
Each Natblida had been assigned a warrior, a Wormana who served as their ticha when the children weren't together. Once, Onya had been Leksa's ticha, but she had never been that of another younger Natblida. She couldn't bear the thought that she would be training Leksa's replacement. Tris, on the other hand, would take up the torch. Once she was an accomplished warrior, she would be given a Natblida to train, and that was why Onya had to teach her all the traditions in the life of a Natblida.
That was the reason for their presence that day.
The Natblidas had already joined their tichas, and Kassy moved closer to Onya when she saw her, Nova clinging to her skirt.
"What's going on?"
"Today is the day they will learn to put on war paint," Onya replied.
"Huh. Alright."
"Why can't I have war paint?" Nova asked, her voice whiny.
"Because you are too young."
Nova puffed out her cheeks angrily and stamped her foot, but Kassy fixed the situation in a heartbeat.
"Don't worry, ladybug, we'll do it on each other."
Onya was about to refuse, but already Nova and Kassy were walking away, chirping, delighted.
She turned back to Tris.
"Let's take a look around."
War paint was unique to the wearer. Its purpose was to warn that one was in a state of war, of course, but it also served to frighten one's enemies on the battlefield. Onya's accentuated her eyes, "Eyes of Death", as Gostos had told her long ago.
Leksa's, although impressive, was not intended to scare. She was the first Heda to have declared that she preferred to be trusted rather than feared. Leksa didn't need war paint to look impressive, she only achieved it through her posture.
The Natblidas religiously learned the meaning of the paint, earnest and serious, before their ticha applied it to their faces. This meant that they were officially warriors-in-training, and one day one of them would claim the title of Heda.
Tris watched their every move carefully, but Onya, like most Natblidas and their Wormanas, was distracted by the amused squeals and laughter that sounded a few feet away.
After a while, another Wormana named Otis, annoyed by all the noise, turned to Onya.
"Can't you get 'em to shut up?!"
Kassy and Nova were fighting trying to get paint on each other's skin, their faces covered in black smudges. Onya sighed, turned to Tris.
"I take the big one, you get the little one?"
The girl nodded, an amused look on her face, then rushed over to distract Nova, leading her to the nearby stream of water to wash her hands and face. Onya walked towards Natshanagada, who had remained seated on the ground, a laugh on her lips. Her white face was covered with black traces, which went in all directions. In the midst of it all, her strange eyes shone with joy.
Sighing, Onya crouched down in front of her.
"You look like five year old who played with their parents' makeup, it's ridiculous."
Kassy only laughed harder.
"It's worth it."
Onya shook her head, trying to push away the hint of a smile that was starting to stretch her lips. She grabbed the rag lying next to Kassy and gently grabbed her chin, beginning to wipe the black smudges smeared across her face. Kassy continued to giggle from time to time, but she held her peace.
"You know, Linh drew on her face once."
Onya looked up from her spot to meet her gaze.
"Linh, your daughter?"
"Yeah. She had seen a woman put makeup on her face and thought it would work with her markers. She put ink all over her face!"
She laughed and Onya cracked a smile.
"It didn't come off when I tried to clean her up. She started crying but Raven couldn't stop laughing. She was literally rolling on the floor. In the end, we allowed Linh to draw on our faces so that we would match."
Onya wiped a particularly stubborn mark above her eyebrow, hesitating to speak her thoughts aloud.
"This Raven you keep talking about..."
"Yeah?"
"Is she your lover?"
For a second, Kassy stared at her in silence, mouth open in amazement. Then, suddenly, she burst out laughing, so hard that the other warriors turned to look at them. Embarrassed, Onya had to stop wiping her face.
"Stop it!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Kassy repeated, but she couldn't stop laughing. "It's just...Raven!"
And she started to laugh again, almost choking on her own saliva. Annoyed, Onya threw the rag in her face.
"Stop laughing!"
"Okay, okay! Alright!"
She finally calmed down, wiping away tears of laughter, her shoulders shaking from time to time with another burst of laughter.
"No, Raven is not my lover. That would be so weird. I've never told you about her?"
Onya ignored her question, going back to wiping her face.
"I found Raven when I was ten. She was two and her mother had left her alone in her quarters, but Raven got out. She was walking around barefoot, her hair was a mess, but she was not looking for her mother. She was trying to find the place where the astronaut went into space. I took her to a window, and we watched the outside maintenance in their white suit."
A small smile refused to fade from her face, as if talking about Raven warmed her heart.
"From that moment, I started to take care of her. She was brilliant, the smartest two year old on the Ark. We would introduce each other as sisters, people didn't say anything about that, not even her mother. To be honest, I'm not even sure she cared where her kid would go. Everyone knew we weren't bioligacally related, but they also knew that I was the one to contact when Raven wasn't doing okay."
She shrugged.
"She's seventeen now, and she still calls me her big sister. Well, used to call me. She's been studying mechanic since she was fourteen, and she's damn good at it. I'm very proud of her."
Suddenly, she grabbed Onya's hand and pulled it away from her face.
"It's a little like you and Leksa."
Onya had never thought of Leksa as a sister. She didn't have siblings anymore, and she wasn't sure she wanted to go through the pain of losing one again. But Kassy was right: Leksa had once been her little sister, when Onya knew no other word when she wanted to explain the warmth in her heart when she thought of the little girl.
Approaching footsteps snapped her out of her thoughts. Tris approached, holding Nova by the hand. The little girl immediately went to sit on Natshana's lap, taking a lock of her hair to start braiding it.
"I was thinking about something," Tris said, then added to Nova's glare, "Alright, we were thinking about something. Your name is Cassi... Cassiopa or something, right?"
"Cassiopea."
"You said it was the name of a constellation, the one that forms a W."
"It is."
"Well, if you had to wear war paint, you should draw the constellation with paint," Tris said, as Nova clapped her hands.
"Kassy of the stars, Kassy of the stars!"
"She won't wear war paint, she's neither a warrior nor a citizen of the Coallition," Onya added, and Tris looked down.
"I know, but it was just an idea."
"It's a great idea, baby," Kassy replied softly with a smile. "I think, if I had been born on the Ground, that would have been awesome."
"Are you sure you can't wear war paint?" Nova asked, a disappointed pout on her face.
"No, ladybug. Remember when I talked about cultural appropriation?" Kassy replied calmly. "I'm not from here. I'm not a citizen of your people. I can't do something that is a tradition and a symbol to you guys as a costume. I respect it, and I think it's a beautiful tradition, but it would be disrespectful of me to do that. Do you understand?"
Nova nodded, still sulking a bit.
"Come on, ladybug, why don't you go and see if Aden needs someone to tell him a joke."
Nova immediately scampered off, Kassy chuckled.
"You're good at that," Onya noted.
"Yeah, did you still doubt it?"
"I've seen you. You once burped when Titus was trying to talk."
Kassy burst out laughing, and Tris laughed too.