Hive-Aristocrat Okra

Okra was senior heir of the Fourth Petal, elder of two molt-princesses, and the presumed next throne. Their younger sister Iska called the ritual molt-duel three molts early. The duel was clean. Okra lost. Iska fed the half-dissolved body to the petal-pool, as is custom, and was elevated the same evening.

The duel does not always take the first time. The pool spat Okra out three months later, on the wrong side of the cradle-moon, half-formed and full of the resentment of the dead. Iska is, technically, their sister. Okra is, legally, a stranger she already killed. The Dethroned Petal was grown from seed-stock stolen on the way out. It is not the throne. It is finer than most outsiders ever see. Okra does not ask for revenge. Okra asks for a fleet whose chorus does not include Iska.