Nothing belongs to you. I knew the rule, but I didn't like it. My stuff was mine.
-- Donal (Part 2, Chapter 12)

Importance: Val repeatedly teaches her children that nothing belongs to them. She takes food and toys away from them and expects them to learn that they do not have the right to anything. This has a negative effect on both Wavy and Donal. Wavy feels as if relationships do not even belong to her. When she meets Kellen she is constantly struggling between her desire to have him all to herself and her understanding that nothing belongs to her. Likewise, Donal grows up in a household where he has no actual possessions. He does not have one caretaker in particular and is shown as being passed around from one semi-responsible adult to another. What is interesting about the idea of nothing belonging to either one of them is that they belong to each other...