The Narrow Road Between Desires

The lightning tree serves as a symbol of desire. The children of Newarre gave the tree this name because it was struck by lightning years ago, leaving only “a broad, broken, branchless trunk” that has been bleached white by the sun (8). This symbol gains its meaning because of the wide range of desires that bring people to the lightning tree in search of Bast’s help. Some, like Kale, come in search of petty vengeance, but the novella’s deuteragonist, Rike, longs for safety for himself and his family. The lightning tree also provides insight into the protagonist’s identity and his relationship with desire. Members of the faen folk are drawn to “places with connections to the raw, true things that shape the world” (50). Thus, Bast is naturally drawn to the lightning-struck tree just as he feels that it’s natural for Fae to indulge their innate desires for things like vengeance and pleasure. This creates a certain level of irony within the story as Bast helps others satisfy their desires while trying to rein in his own. In addition, the fact that the tree is dead underscores that desire can be powerful and dangerous, capable of changing people just as lightning has transformed the tree: “Trailing down the remaining trunk, the lightning had charred a wild, dark, forking image of itself into the bone-white wood, as if to sign its work” (8). Many of the story’s most important scenes take place at the tree. For example, Bast asks Rike to reflect on the person he desires to become there, and he casts the climactic spell on the boy while walking in circles around the tree. The lightning tree shapes the story’s structure and gives insight into the desires that propel the novel’s characters.