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T'CHAKA WAS IN his quarters looking out of the window. It gave him a view of the Golden City, the sun shining on the horizon and giving an orange-yellow hue to the buildings below. He had his hands behind his back and was deep in thought.
The king recalled what transpired the day before. How he berated W'Kanne. How he exposed the secret he was willing to keep ever since W'Kabi and Okoye came to him with the baby. Ramonda told him he had no right to do what he did, and now he felt regret.
He was just a child...just like his own daughter. He was a great friend of the royal family. Yet, he scolded him like he was any other subject who had done something wrong. In reality, he was just guilty. He had that guilt for years now.
Seeing W'Kanne, an outsider, prospering in Wakanda made him regret not taking in N'Jadaka. After he killed N'Jobu, he selfishly left his son back in the United States out of fear of his action's repercussions if he did. But years later, now seeing the grown child that W'Kabi brought in from the outside and how he was living well, he felt as if N'Jadaka could've been the same.
He would never know.
T'Chaka was uncharacteristically cold toward W'Kanne because of this...even more as he grew up. Despite not being of Wakandan lineage every time the king saw his face...he saw his nephew. The nephew he abandoned. The nephew who would have prospered being a part of the royal family and the kingdom just like the outsider is.
The old man started to feel immense sadness. He cried as he looked out of the window. He felt bad about everything. About killing his brother...leaving his nephew...and now showing disrespect to a close friend of his family. For hating a boy that had no choice but to grow up within their culture...a culture he now happily lived in.
T'Chaka walked away from the window. He looked at his right hand and saw the ring his father had given him. The late Azzuri and his ancestors were always heavy on isolationism and would've done what he did if it benefited Wakanda and the throne...but maybe that was wrong. Maybe they were all wrong.
To help the country as well as many others on the outside...maybe it was time to accept the new. He thought it was probably best to start thinking of change. And that was going to start with apologizing for his recent actions.
W'Kanne was at the Border Tribe village doing his usual work whenever he was there. He picked up a bundle of grass and kept feeding the White Rhinoceros in front of him.
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