Realm Breaker

“Knighthood was three or four years off. A lifetime, Andry knew. And there is so much else to consider. My position in Ascal, my future, my honor. His heart sank. Knights are not free to roam as they will. They must protect the weak, aid the helpless, and above all serve their country and queen. Not sightsee.”

Here, Victoria Aveyard demonstrates the cost of Andry’s ambitions and the drawbacks of committing himself to knighthood. Although Andry is an exemplary squire by all standards, his aspirations of knighthood can only be met at the cost of his personal freedom, which he must sacrifice for what he deems to be a greater purpose.

“There is power in Corblood and Spindleblade, enough to cut the Spindles through. It is our duty to stop my brother from this ruin, to save the realm, to save the Ward.”

With this statement, Cortael delivers the basis of the narrative’s plot and explains why it is essential for Corayne to take up Cortael’s mantle after his death. Although she seemingly has no magical power, her existence is the key to righting the damage inflicted by her uncle on the realm, for she is one of the few people whose blood has the power to close the Spindles.

“They took you and trained you and told you that you were something special, an emperor returned, Corblood and Spindleborn. […] The last of an ancient bloodline, meant for greatness. Old Cor was yours to claim and conquer, yours to rule. What a glorious destiny for the firstborn son of the parents we never knew.”

Here, Aveyard exposes Taristan’s inner turmoil and the festering jealousy that he has harbored toward Cortael and, by extension, toward the Elders who chose Cortael over him. Though he has the same attributes as his twin brother, Taristan was cast aside for no other reason than the fact that he was born slightly later than Cortael. His hatred of his brother’s privileged upbringing makes him a perfect target for What Waits to exploit.

“[The burnt, living corpses from the Ashlands] were like mortal men but not, twisted from the inside out. Most clutched battle-worn weapons: rusted iron swords and notched axes, cracked daggers, splintered spears. Broken but still sharp, still lethal.”

In this passage, Aveyard reveals the consequences of unleashing What Waits on a living world of mortals. Whenever this demon god consumes a world, the people within it are reduced to mere tools; they no longer have will or volition to act as individuals, and their broken minds make them an easily manipulable and deadly force to wield in the demon’s next conquest.

“I am squire to Sir Grandel Tyr, a knight of the Lionguard. This is my duty. I must help him. All other thoughts faded, all fear forgotten. I must be brave.”

Here, Aveyard exposes the tragedy that will push Andry into changing his sense of identity. She implies that prior to this moment, Andry drew his strength from his station. Here, however, not only is he unable to fulfill his function as a squire, but his previous purpose is rendered fully redundant, for being a squire or a knight is not enough to face the overwhelming strength of the army from the Ashlands.

“Corayne fixed her lips into her best smile, on hand in her satchel with her fingers closed around the final and heaviest pouch. The weight was a comfort, as good as a knight’s shield.”

In this passage, Aveyard reveals the insulated environment within which Corayne lives prior to Dom’s arrival. Corayne’s comparison—that money is as effective a protection as a knight’s shield—demonstrates that her life has been largely free of violence, despite the fact that she is the daughter of a pirate captain. Her naïve thoughts indicate that she has yet to be exposed to the harsher lessons that Andry and Dom have learned on the battlefield, but after Dom’s arrival, she will soon be forced to learn that money can no longer be used to bargain for her safety.

“[Erida] went fierce as the lion on her flag, both hands curled on the arms of her throne. She bore the ring of state like a shield.”

Here, Aveyard draws an implicit comparison between Corayne and Erida, using the shield analogy. Whereas Corayne looks to money as a way to buy her freedom and safety, Erida uses her royal authority to keep herself in power and protect herself from anyone who would try to take her throne.

“Andry saw the same young girl in [Erida’s] eyes, set apart from the rest of the children. Eager to smile and laugh and pay, but isolated too. Forever marked as a princess, without the freedoms of a page boy or a maiden or even a servant child. The young girl vanished with the tightening of her jaw. ‘You will speak of this [the massacre at the temple] to no one, Squire.”

This passage attests to Andry’s empathy and the personal history that he shares with Erida. Despite their differences in station, Andry still sympathizes with how constrained her life was as a child, but when Erida calls him “squire” despite being alone with him, Aveyard implies that Erida sacrificed her innocence and her friendships when she took the throne.

“‘At least my father was good enough to only abandon me once,’ Corayne said coolly, her teeth bared. With a will, she stepped away from Meliz. ‘You’ve done it a thousand times.’”

This excerpt reveals the contentious relationship and fundamental misunderstandings that stand between Corayne and her parents. Though it remains unclear why Cortael abandoned Corayne, the protagonist misunderstands her mother’s refusal to include her in her pirating trips. While Corayne believes that Meliz thinks her incompetent, Meliz merely does not want to expose her daughter to the dangers that she routinely encounters on the high seas.

“‘It is not like us to bleed,’ [Isibel] whispered, stricken. Domacridhan of Iona went cold. For the first time in his life, he felt hatred for his own. It was so much worse than he knew.

 ‘You’re afraid,’ he said dully, glaring at her in accusation. ‘You’re terrified.’”

In this excerpt, Aveyard demonstrates another facet to Isibel’s questionable leadership. Though Elders are well aware that they are not immune to harm, Isibel’s comments reveal that she and many other Elders have internalized the myth of their own invulnerability to a certain degree. More than the feasibility of overcoming Taristan and What Waits, what stays in Isibel’s mind is the prospect of lasting pain and permanent death.

“You have been named and inked. No amount of blood will rewrite what has already been rewritten.”

Here, Aveyard reveals the permanence of Sorasa’s exile, which undermines her eventual plans to take Dom’s life in her attempt to be reinstated with the guild. The phrase “No amount of blood” is especially significant, given that Sorasa still believes that spilling Dom’s blood will right her unspecified wrongs and allow her to find a path back to the Amhara.

“Discord is a better shield than steel.”

In this passage, Aveyard once again uses the shield analogy to add another dimension to how women operate in the world to secure their own protection. Because Sorasa cannot wield monarchical power like Erida or wealth and bribery like Corayne, she deliberately affects the emotional dynamics of her environment to secure a path to safety.

“While Erida was queen, she was a woman first, in the eyes of most. Untrustworthy, unfit, too weak to rule. History gorges itself on women raised high and then brought low by men grasping for their power.”

Though Erida will often comment on Taristan’s precarious political position, this excerpt hints that her anxiety about him is a projection of her own worries over her ability to maintain power. She knows all too well that it is a matter of time before her subjects find fault with her leadership, and her insecurities compel her to remain on guard and to project an image of perfection at all times.

“He [Andry] knew the star better than his father’s face, which he only carried in flashes.”

This passage heightens the tragedy of what Andry will eventually fail to accomplish by choosing to support Corayne and the others. Given that Andry lost his father at the age of six, all he truly has left is of his family is the memory of his father’s devotion to the crown. By choosing to follow Corayne, he symbolically casts away the only connection that still remains between him and his father.

“There’s our Andry, too good for the rest of us.”

Though this comment is made to taunt Andry and make him feel ashamed for surviving while Grandel died, it nevertheless attests to the stoutheartedness and nobility of Andry’s character. Such is his sense of duty and justice that he garners envy from his devotion alone.

“But then [Corayne] turned her head to look out to the Long Sea. The sun put her features in silhouette, and there he was again, a ghost Dom could not believe in. Cortael. He was in her eyes, in the ways she raised her face to the wind and searched the horizon.”

In this passage told from Dom’s perspective, Aveyard hints at the tension between him and Corayne. While Dom vows to protect her and atone for letting Cortael die in front of him, this resolution causes him to view her as a connection to his deceased friend, whom he viewed as a family member. This perspective will eventually trouble Corayne’s view of their relationship, given that she does not share the same love for her deceased father; instead, all she knows is his absence and her resentment for it.

“‘I’ve seen many things that would terrify most,’ [Sorasa] replied. ‘Monsters and men. Mostly men.’”

Here, Aveyard foreshadows that while gods might be at play and trying to encroach upon Allward, it is often mortals—and men like Taristan in particular—who commit atrocities to satisfy their own desires. In Taristan’s case, both his goals and those of What Waits just happen to align.

“[Sorasa] swallowed hard. There will be no Amhara Guild left if the realm shatters. This is just good logic. Simple business. A means to an end.”

Despite Sorasa’s designation as an assassin who has been exiled from the Amhara Guild, this passage alludes to a hidden kindness and a softness in her heart. Aveyard implies that Sorasa isn’t staying with Corayne and Dom because she believes she can make a difference; instead, she simply wants to be with them and to help them, but she is so unaccustomed to this feeling that she must lie and negotiate with herself.

“Burn the life behind you, save the realm from fire.”

Here, Aveyard elicits a sequence of fire imagery that compares Andry to the burnt army controlled by Taristan and What Waits. In both cases, burning one’s life allows the person to dedicate themselves to a divine battle; in Andry’s case, this is a battle against What Waits, while in the burnt army’s case, they engage in a battle on the demon’s behalf. Though the army of burnt corpses was once presumably forced to watch their livelihoods go up in flames, Andry must do so voluntarily and sacrifice all that he holds dear.

“[Erida’s servants] polished marble, cleaned windows, dusted pews, and shooed of the beggars at spearpoint. In the morning, the procession from the palace made for a breathtaking sight. While the court paraded over the Bridge of Valor, the citizens crowded along the neighboring canals, craning for a glimpse.”

Here, Aveyard shows the double standards and hypocrisy inherent in Erida’s leadership. Although she travels across the Bridge of Valor, she shows no valor to her people, who are cleared from the church at spearpoint. She also shows no mercy or consideration to those who are the most disadvantaged, and her actions clash with her carefully curated public image of the caring queen.

“Corayne smiled as she had in Lecorra, drawn to this place, rooted in it somehow. But this time it wasn’t the Spindletouched echoes of Cortael she felt. This was the land of her mother, of Hell Mel.”

In this passage, Aveyard intimates that part of Corayne’s inner journey is to reconcile the lingering, discordant feelings that she has for her parents. Although both of her parents are inaccessible to her in different ways, Corayne inadvertently searches for ways to connect with them even as she journeys alone.

“The [ Spindleblade] was a gargoyle on her back, misshapen under the cloak. It made her slump. Dom wanted to take it from her, to ease her burden. And claim what little of her father remained on the Ward.”

Though Dom is resolute in his duty of keeping Allward safe from Taristan and What Waits, this excerpt suggests that he wants to lift Corayne’s burden from her. As she later points out, there were other people with Cor blood whom he could have asked to carry the sword. However, Dom chose her specifically because she was Cortael’s daughter, and he regrets the fact that he never considered the full impact that his request would have upon her life.

“[Erida’s] boots left light indentations [in the moss]. So has [Taristan’s]. She followed the footprints.”

In this passage, Aveyard signals Erida’s slow descent from any semblance of moral decency as she willingly takes the next step—literally and figuratively—and follows in Taristan’s footsteps, thereby becoming an agent for What Waits. While Erida still deludes herself that she has the upper hand on Taristan, Aveyard uses the imagery of this scene to convey that Erida is now choosing the same path that led Taristan to the demon god: the desire to conquer at all costs.