Holiana was born into wealth and privilege. Her family treated those beneath their station with kindness, but her peers did not always follow their example. Many of them believed deeply in social order and made certain that everyone knew where he or she belonged. Holiana refused to see the world in those terms. She saw goodness in every person she met, from a child begging in the streets to a condemned criminal walking in chains toward the gallows. She believed that, given the right opportunity and motive, anyone could choose to sacrifice his or her life to save another.
That belief shaped Holiana. Even the smallpox scars that marked her face seemed to brighten rather than dim her presence. Her smile carried the warmth of someone who had chosen hope deliberately, rather than from naivety.
Holiana’s family was forced to evacuate their mountain summer home after a rebel assault. When she heard the call to flee Orudara entirely, she recognized it as the only path she could live with. Her parents refused to join her. They believed the uprising would fade as others had before it. When she persisted, they dismissed her choice and sent her away with nothing. Holiana left them behind and walked into the wild in search of the gathering refugees.
She reached Carimpluni Bay exhausted, hungry, and penniless. Messo noticed Holiana’s kindness before he noticed anything else. Her quiet courage and her unwavering belief in humanity drew him in. They married months before the ships were completed, and she boarded with him while expecting their first child.
Holiana entered the exodus with hope. Messo entered it with warning. Together, they carried a vision of a world that might yet be better than the one they had fled.