Chapter 16Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
—Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, thirteenth-century Persian Sufi mystic
9:35 p.m. GMT+3, March 18, 2018
Yacht anchored three kilometers off the Crimean Peninsula
“Barren,” she laments as she gazes upon the stars. “I am barren.
Not from what was taken from me. Not the void within my womb. But the emptiness of my heart, of my soul.”
She stands tall upon her Sasha’s yacht. A vessel designed for pleasure. But not tonight. She searches the sky for the North Star, for the legend told to her by her great-grandmother is very clear on what she must do now.
As the damp, darkening fog rolls in off the Black Sea, she shivers, hands shaking. What’s wrong with her? She’s never shaken before wi
