TROPHY WIVES
NINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN
Alanna and I have been together most of our lives. She is the beautiful one, and I am the worker; at least, that’s how it looks to people who see us now. It is not how we began. I was a princess in a tower, and she was a drudge who worked for my father, tending all the machinery that kept me imprisoned and alive, and trained me in my terrible purpose.
All that changed when we found and ate the bondfruit.
We live more than half our lives beneath the surface now. Inside, we are all sorts of different people, and outside, we have tried on many different roles, but we also meld into one another as we share eyes and thoughts and conversation. Still, I am the one who doesn’t mind work and is driven mad by music, and she is the one who makes plans and minds details.
Alanna laughs and thinks,
Tell them your name, Ylva. You always forget the important things! Very well. My name is Ylva Sif.
. . .
