Silver Elite

Wren Darlington is the protagonist of the novel and a uniquely powerful Modified (Mod) who possesses four abilities: telepathy, projection, mind reading, and incitement. As a Mod whose veins do not glow silver when she practices her abilities, Wren is a rare and valuable asset for the Uprising. However, because they do not know the full extent of her abilities, they undervalue her and fail to prioritize her safety. This, in addition to the losses of her parents, her uncle, and her friends over the course of the novel, exacerbates her internal struggle with loneliness.

Wren grapples with The Moral Ambiguity of Survival due to her identity as a Mod in a society marked by intense prejudice toward her kind. Her own uncle burns her bloodmark off her thigh, creating a “jagged stretch of scar tissue on [her] left hip” to hide the truth of her identity (4). In Wren’s world, actions like these are a necessity for survival. She continues to struggle with accepting the moral ambiguities of the war between Mods and Primes (non-Mods) while making friends in the program. Despite learning to like Lyddie and Lash, Wren is resentful at times of the prejudice against Mods that’s been deeply ingrained in them since birth.