The Book That Broke the World

Livira returns to the story in which she is the knight on horseback. She reflects that when she wrote the story, she “wanted to explore what it really meant to be trapped and what it really meant to be rescued” (182). She pauses in her quest to battle the white child, who has again appeared in her story, trying to hold onto the story even as the white child struggles toward her. The girl says the assistant lied in saying that Livira could save the library by bringing the book back, but Livira simply wants to see Evar again.

Livira loves the idea of preserving knowledge, but she admits that knowledge can be turned into a weapon. These are the oppositional beliefs that Irad and his brother Jaspeth seem to have taken. Yute has tried to achieve a compromise between these two stances, and Livira realizes the white child is Yolanda, Yute’s daughter. 

Livira returns to Evar’s library chamber still holding her book. She sees that the assistant she was previously trapped within attacked by an Escape, one of the automated beasts. Malar takes her to the Exchange. He reminds her that people don’t choose sides because of a logic; he says, “We fight for the people we love” (187).