I chose Mojot Svet for the end of ISH because of what it means and regardless of the fact that I don't speak of word of Macedonian. Banshee doesn't speak it either, but the translation of the song and the way it sounds and feels to me were too important to not include in something that has been so firmly tied to me and how I use music.
“My world is called music
it has no religions or borders
my world is eight notes
one Balkan soul”
The bit about the Balkans aside, this is everything to me, and I think it's everything to Banshee and the Homicides, too. Their world is only music, they can go anywhere, believe anything or nothing, as long as they have this world of notes in their heads. I could not find anything more appropriate in a language I'd already written into SWAN, and I didn't care to. I legitimately hope you can feel the things the song says, just like Banshee.
If it's not obvious by now, Banshee has become incredibly important to me. I hope she was not a obtrusive thing for you. I hope something in her felt familiar. I grew up writing this story, some people I know grew up reading it. Banshee grew up in it, and because of that, I hope you have some kinship with her.
One of the most important things in the world to me is the way women and girls are portrayed in the media, and someday, I dream of using Banshee, or someone very like her, to positively change the way it is now.
I thank you if you stuck around from SWAN to ISH for any length of time. I thank you if you were there since 2005 and I thank you if you just discovered it last week and read through the whole thing. I thank you if any part of this lingered longer than 'I read a story on the internet', be it a line, a word, a character, a philosophy, a song. I could labor on a lengthy string of thanks for individuals, but you all know that you were important from beginning to end - you either encouraged this mess or beta'd it, or drew fanart, or cosplayed, or made music, or went to a concert, or became my friend, or some delicious combo of the above. I can thank everyone who looks at this by saying I have Banshee-like hopes for all of you.
I hope your world stays music. I hope it has no religions or borders. I hope you have in eight notes an infinity of songs, regardless of if they have names. I hope you want to be visible – to be here.
-Lady Yate-xel