In Jaclyn Rodriguez’s A Vow in Vengeance, those who hold political power present choices that appear voluntary but function as mechanisms of coercion. Rune and the other characters repeatedly face ultimatums disguised as opportunities. The novel demonstrates how ruling authorities construct options designed to compel obedience, revealing a system in which apparent freedom masks strict control. Within this system, Rune’s actions show how individuals can sometimes gain agency by manipulating or reinterpreting the rules imposed on them.

The druid kingdom’s two main tools of control, the Selection and the Oath, make this pattern clear. The Royal Decree presents the annual taking of one hundred mortals as a required “penance” they must accept “without defiance, or summon our fury” (xviii). Anyone who fails to appear risks the loss of life or property. The Selection functions as a mandate, not a choice. At the Wall, the newly selected must pledge loyalty to the druids. Refusal leads to death staged as a walk off a plank a thousand feet above the ground. When Draven hands Rune the liquid for the Oath, he states the terms without embellishment by saying, “drink or die” (25). The command carries the shape of choice but none of the freedom.

Early in the novel, characters move within this narrow system, and their resistance stays small and often meets grim ends. When druids reach her cabin, Rune’s mother chooses to step outside rather than hide. She tells Rune, “They may steal my freedom, my love, my very breath, but so long as I do not fear them, they hold no power over me” (xv). Her stance gives Rune an example of courage, yet it cannot change what happens next. The druids still take her, and they burn the house. The scene shows how defiance inside an oppressor’s limits rarely changes the outcome of events, even when it preserves personal dignity.

Later, Rune and Draven show a different kind of agency by working within the regime’s cultural and political rules to redirect them toward their own goals. After political pressure pushes Draven toward a betrothal, he escapes it by declaring Rune his fated mate, a claim strong enough in their culture to override the arrangement. When he states that Rune “is clearly meant to be my queen” (167), he invokes a cultural tradition that supersedes royal expectations. Rune also redirects the Selection to serve her mission by entering it on purpose, turning a punishment into a route toward vengeance and reunion. These actions demonstrate how individuals can exploit the system’s internal rules and contradictions, exposing how authority maintains control by presenting coercive demands as voluntary decisions.