Editing Openai/69231e78-5a78-8013-81a7-f2dd38762292 (section)

=== Assistant: Ah! ===
Ah! That makes perfect sense. Using the same ritual as a recurring motif is a brilliant structural and thematic choice. It does a few powerful things:
# Connects Past and Present – The ritual links the memory of pre-kingdom, Sovereign-based life to moments of trauma and displacement, like the Trail of Tears, emphasizing continuity of Law and memory across generations.
# Creates a Living Thread – By repeating the ritual, the reader sees Law as action, not text. The same gestures, the same rhythm, echo the Sovereigns’ original walking, teaching that memory persists even under oppression.
# Heightens Emotional Resonance – Readers who know the historical weight of the Trail of Tears will feel the ritual as both sacred and tragic, bridging philosophical ideas with human experience.
# Reinforces Choice and Memory – Each time the ritual appears, it shows that memory and Law are portable, but fragile. The people must actively participate to keep it alive. It emphasizes your theme that Sovereignty must be remembered, not given away.

You could signal the recurrence subtly the first time you use it in Chapter 5, so that when it appears in the Trail of Tears section, the echo is immediate and emotionally powerful. A small line like:

: 

It would bind the two events conceptually without needing a long explanation.

If you want, I can draft a brief template for this ritual that you can reuse in multiple chapters, keeping it consistent while allowing each iteration to reflect the story’s changing context. It would make it a strong leitmotif through the book.