Spark

“Her heart was beating so hard that she thought she’d crack out of her own skin. It’s really happening! My beast is coming!”

When the egg fractures, Mina feels like she is cracking too, which represents the bond between her and the storm beast. Additionally, this moment symbolizes a rebirth for Mina because once Pixit emerges, Mina begins to grow into a courageous leader and lightning guardian.

“Without the storm guardians and their beasts performing their duty, Alorria would be like the world beyond the mountains, wild and dangerous.

The storm guardians and their beasts were what made Alorria great. Over the last century, with the weather under perfect control, Alorria had become the most peaceful, prosperous, safest, happiest country in the world. Everyone knew that, and everyone knew that the guardians had to serve to maintain that greatness.”

These thoughts run through Mina’s mind as proof that her parents cannot stop her from going to Mytris Lightning School. However, they also hint at national propaganda that has citizens believing that Alorria is perfect. Diction to describe the nation as “great,” “peaceful,” “safest,” and “happiest,” along with the statement that “everyone knew,” pushes citizens to elevate Alorria above all other nations and to conform. Mina’s language indicates that she is unaware at this time that Alorria’s perfection comes at a cost.

“As their horses clopped by, startled birds burst out of the grass and, squawking, fled to the sky. She watched them until they settled in another part of the field, vanishing from view.

Mina felt a bit like those birds—Pixit’s birth had roused her from where she’d hidden, in the safe, warm shelter of home, and now she was in the air, wondering where she’d land and hoping it would be as wonderful as she dreamed.”

The simile comparing Mina to a startled flock of birds underscores her vulnerability as well as her excitement at exploring the world. When Pixit hatched, she had no choice but to leave the safety of home. Like the birds, her future is uncertain. This passage the tension between fear and hope that she experiences.

“A flash of light caught her eye, and she forgot about Jyx and stared out. Jyx had been right—she could see so much farther from here! The sparkling lights covered the cluster of towers at the heart of the city. Beyond that, Alorria was a sea of darkness. It made the city look even more special: a glowing jewel in the middle of the black night.”

At first, Mina is cautious and terrified to climb the mast and sit with Jyx. However, she finds the view stunning, a sight she would not have seen if she did not take the chance to climb the mast. The metaphor of the city as a “glowing jewel” captures Mina’s sense of awe as she gets to immerse herself in new experiences.

“In daylight, Mytris Lightning School looked just as imposing and unfriendly and majestic as it had at night, with its three black towers and darkened windows. And the land around it—the barren lands—was as stark and intimidating as the name. The hills were blackened, the earth dark and dry, with no hint of grass or flowers or trees, just a few dead shrubs. Everything looked charred.”

The description of the landscape on Mina’s first morning at Mytris Lightning School is a sharp contrast to where she grew up. While everything on the farm is colorful and flourishing, here the land is dry and dead. Although it makes sense that students learning to harness lightning practice in this setting, this location undercuts Alorria’s image of perfection.

“Facing them, Mina felt as if they were calling to her. There was something so wonderfully wild about them. Every road and river in Alorria had been planned with precision to cut through the land in the most direct and pleasing way. Every inch of the farmlands was tamed. Even the sea itself had been curbed within the harbor.

But no one had tamed the mountains.

She liked that—no one told them who to be. They determined that for themselves.”

When Mina flies for the first time, she is drawn to the wildness of the mountains, which contrasts with the controlled landscape of the rest of Alorria. Then, when she personifies the mountains by noting that they choose their own identity, Mina aligns herself with natural resistance to control. This foreshadows her rebellion against social expectations.

“Mina had read that chapter already. It said that beasts and guardians had to work together to harness the weather. A storm beast had power, but it couldn’t use it without a guardian.”

When Mina attempts to transfer Pixit’s energy to sparks in her hands, she remembers reading about this in her textbook. This fact, that beasts and guardians cannot harness the weather without each other, highlights the interdependence between humans and nature. It also emphasizes the human-beast bond that is central to this narrative.

“<<Mina, I can feel you worrying, and I don’t know how to fix it. I know you’re a lightning guardian. I know it like I know air is for breathing and water is wet. But I don’t know how to make you see it too.>>”

Pixit conveys this message to Mina after she fails to summon sparks. This moment highlights Pixit’s love for Mina. Furthermore, he uses a simile to emphasize his certainty that Mina is a lightning guardian. By saying that he knows this like he knows that “air is for breathing and water is wet,” he grounds his conviction in elemental truths.

“And then Pixit was there, bounding across the tables, calling her name. <<Mina!>> She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his feathery scales. Throwing one leg over his back, she slid onto him. She felt his wings pump beneath her, and they were rising up toward the chandeliers of the dining hall—and then out through one of the broad open windows.”

In the chaos that ensues when students learn they will fly into a thunderstorm, Pixit instinctively knows to get Mina out of the dining hall. His actions illustrate how well he knows her, for he does not hesitate to remove her from the raucous setting even though he, too, is excited about the storm. Her love and gratitude are evident in the way she hugs him and “burie[s] her face in his feathery scales,” seeing Pixit as a refuge from chaos. The tactile image of his “feathery scales” conveys comfort and softness.

“She knew others were in the storm, lots of others. Jyx was somewhere. And Zek and Ferro, and all the other students and their storm beasts, as well as the guardians who’d come to harvest the lightning. But with the storm around her, Mina felt as if she and Pixit were alone.”

In the thick of her first thunderstorm, Mina is scared and feels alone despite knowing that there are many lightning guardians nearby. Her thoughts symbolize her perception that she does not belong at Mytris and is not a true lightning guardian. Like the storm clouds her vision, her doubts about herself prevent her from becoming a guardian.

“Terror shot through her like a lightning strike, and she scratched at the rock, trying to find some way up, away, now!”

After falling on the mountain, Jyx and Chauda leave Mina and Pixit, who are both injured, to get help. As Mina and Pixit scramble to the border in the rain, they hear strange voices and panic. The simile, comparing Mina’s fear to a “lightning strike,” suggests the speed with which terror spread inside Mina. Furthermore, the comparison is ironic, for as a lightning guardian, lightning is a force she is supposed to master. This highlights her insecurity about her role.

“On the ledge, Mina curled up against Pixit. He folded his unhurt wing around her, and they slept.”

After “the outsiders” leave Mina and Pixit, the pair snuggles together and sleeps despite fear, worry, and physical pain. This represents the safety they provide each other, for Mina’s proximity to Pixit and the beast’s protection of her are symbolic of how deep and comforting their bond is.

“Mina stopped thinking about how unfair it was to be punished for asking a question and started thinking about what the prime minister’s reaction meant. If the prime minister hadn’t known what Mina was talking about, if the question had never been asked before, if the answer was that storm guardians were innocent and what a silly child she was for even worrying, then Mina wouldn’t be here, sequestered in this room, away from the other students, safely prevented from asking that question where anyone else could hear.”

When the prime minister has her thrown in a room and banned from the day’s events because Mina asks about the connection between the festival and the storms beyond the border, the girl realizes several things. First, she understands without a doubt that there is a connection between Alorrian control of the environment and devastation beyond the border. She also realizes that the prime minister and probably others know this truth already and are actively hiding it. Finally, Mina recognizes that she is viewed as a threat or else she would not have been kept away from everyone else. Mina’s moment of realization fuels the theme of The Importance of Environmental Awareness and Responsibility.

“Given the closeness of the festival and the sensitivity of the issue right now, I don’t want the prime minister to decide to make an example of a promising student by expelling you for promoting so-called ‘false propaganda.’”

When Professor Dano helps Mina escape after she offends the prime minister, he explains why he is helping her. He reveals how much faith he has in Mina and that he does not agree with the prime minister. Because he calls the propaganda “so-called” and quotes the word “false,” he indicates his belief that the rumors are not fabricated but true. Through his diction, he subtly aligns himself with Mina’s cause.

“<<No. It’s because you finally let yourself be you. The you I know you are. The you who has something to say and finds her own way to say it. Not loud, but determined to be heard.>>”

When Mina decides to tell her family about the storms and the incident with the prime minister, she raises her hands to stop their talking, and sparks fly between her fingers. She believes that she has finally acted like a lightning guardian, but Pixit corrects her, insisting that she has always been one. His comment indicates that Mina has had courage and her voice all along, underscoring that Mina’s strength lies in embracing her uniqueness. Additionally, this passage highlights just how close their bond is, for only Pixit fully understands Mina’s capabilities.

“An idea began to form in her mind, as beautiful as lightning.”

After Mina summons sparks and tells her family everything, she formulates a plan. The simile comparing its beauty to lightning coincides with her belief in herself as a lightning guardian. This is a shift from her earlier self-doubt when she likened her terror to lightning. Believing in herself gives Mina the confidence and the courage to do what is right.

“It was beautiful in the same way a tangle of colorful yarn was beautiful. Unlike in Alorria, the farms weren’t laid out in squares in a perfect patchwork quilt. Instead they were trapezoids and thin triangles, wedged in between rivers and streams that meandered across the land. There were no neatly laid-out forests with carefully manicured paths and bushes. Here the forests were clumps of trees wrapped in vines and greenery so thick that it knotted them together.”

When Mina and her friends fly to the outpost, she marvels at the beauty of the lands beyond the border. Despite the contrast to the perfectly cultivated landscape of Alorria, the wild, uninhibited nature of the world beyond the border is just as beautiful. The comparison to “yarn” suggests intricacy rather than rigid perfection. She comes to see disorder as beautiful, which contrasts with what she’s been told about the lands beyond Alorria.

“Ours can withstand an ordinary storm, but to survive a catastrophic ten-year storm, you need the heavy-duty bunkers they have in the cities.”

When Mina and her friends visit the outpost to learn more about the impact of Alorrian weather control, Varli shares that they have underground bunkers to protect them from the storms. However, the storms that result from Alorria’s Ten-Year Festival are so destructive that they must evacuate and retreat to the cities where the technology is more advanced, and they are safer. This fact highlights the devastating impact Alorria has on the world outside its borders, illustrating the theme of The Importance of Environmental Awareness and Responsibility.

“Mina wanted to cheer. He’d heard the words she’d said and the ones she hadn’t.”

When Mina proposes that they get her visual essays into the hands of real lightning guardians, her friends agree, and Zek provides the reasons why it will help stop the festival. Mina wants “to cheer” because after years of being overlooked, her voice is finally heard. In fact, she does not have to convince her friends to accept her plans. This moment highlights the theme of Discovering Voice Through Courage and Ingenuity, for Mina’s creativity and compassion gives her a voice even if she is not loud or talkative.

“She didn’t care anymore if she failed her training or was expelled from Mytris, if there was a way to help save the people who had helped her. Some things are more important. She couldn’t just wait for another chance to help, not when she could make a chance.”

Mina’s growth is evident when she refuses to accept defeat even after the prime minister seals Mytris Lightning School to keep the Ten-Year Festival on track. Her past worries about not being good enough or getting into trouble recede in importance when people’s lives are on the line. This marks the turning point for when she truly becomes a leader, which in turn fuels the theme of Discovering Voice Through Courage and Ingenuity.

“Mina felt it hit her fingers and rattle down her arms. She brought her hands together, holding the lightning steady above her, high above the net with their passenger. She screamed as they burst through the white light and through a wall of wind.”

Until now, Mina has questioned her abilities as a lightning guardian, focusing on what makes her different from the others. However, in the storm, she has no time to doubt herself, as she must act to save Eione. Her scream exemplifies not only how difficult and scary this storm is, but is also a metaphor for the voice she has struggled to find. The imagery of bursting through “white light” and “a wall of wind” conveys that she is breaking through the difficulties that have held her back.

“‘That’s not why I’m here. I’m the quiet one. I’m not going to tell them anything,’ Mina said. ‘You are.’”

In the capital, Eione is angry because she assumes Mina will tell their story for them, but Mina corrects her. She is simply powering the speaking tube and projector so Eione can tell her own story. Although Mina does not have a loud voice, there is irony in her saying she is “the quiet one” because she has orchestrated all of this. Further, by refusing the spotlight, she redefines leadership as assistance rather than dominance.

“‘This is where I’m supposed to say, “You’ve done enough”’ he said. “You’re just a child. Go play and don’t worry about the world.” But there’s no point in saying that to you, is there? You don’t listen.’”

After the government announces the suspension of the festival and sends humanitarian aid to those beyond the mountain, Professor Dano and Mina talk about next steps, and she wants to do more. He finally acknowledges that she is much stronger and more determined than he once believed. Because of her actions to save the outpost and make the prime minister listen, he knows that she will keep fighting. Mina has become a formidable leader: someone not afraid to use her voice in whatever way she can. His inversion of her disobedience as a virtue shows his full faith in her leadership capabilities.