74 pages • 2-hour read
The Primal of Blood and Bone
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Chapters 21-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of graphic violence, explicit sex, death by suicide, child death, and cursing.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy and Cas shadowstep (teleport) to Ironspire, the Solis stronghold which served as a prison for Isbeth’s enemies. Kieran stays back. Reaver explains that those of dual nature, like Reaver himself, dislike shadowstepping.
Reaver flies in and leads the way through abandoned Ironspire, down the castle’s basement, lined with the bones of prisoners. Reaver stops before a small, shapeless mound of stone. When Poppy sees Jadis’s tiny shape through the stone, she is gripped with shame at Isbeth’s doings (it is suggested Jadis entombed herself to escape Isbeth’s torture). Cas telepathically tells Poppy that the shame belongs to Isbeth, not Poppy.
Poppy places her hands over the stone, hoping to wake Jadis. However, much to Poppy’s frustration, Jadis does not stir, even as Reaver loudly begs for the draken to return to them. A dejected Poppy walks out with Cas, leaving Reaver to grieve by the side of Jadis, his childhood friend.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Casteel”
Back in Wayfair, Cas shows Poppy the King’s Solar, their new chambers (in medieval manors and castles, the solar or sun-room was a private, upper-story quarters for the family). As Poppy goes in for a bath, Cas meets Kieran. They agree not to tell Poppy yet that Cas knows about the promise between her and the wolven.
Poppy explores the enormous royal chambers, decked out in gold. What Poppy likes most is the enormous gold-veined marble tub in the bath, filled with steaming hot water. However, the tub makes her realize the Blood Crown possessed technology which they refused to share with the rest of the world. As queen, Poppy will ensure everyone in the kingdom has access to hot water.
Poppy falls asleep on the plush bed, but is awoken by a rush of cold air and a whisper disturbingly similar to Kolis’s voice. Poppy imagines it is perhaps Cas or Kieran teasing her and races through the chambers, but the chambers are empty. Thinking she must have left a window open, Poppy gets into the tub.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Poppy”
Kieran asks for permission to enter Poppy’s chambers, and she allows him in as she bathes. Their banter is flirtatious; Poppy asks Kieran about his living arrangements in Wayfair. Kieran assures her his quarters are down the hall. He reminds Poppy that even though the two of them were intimate during the Joining, he has no further expectations from her. Poppy is touched by Kieran’s thoughtfulness.
After she dresses, Poppy and Kieran discuss the ways in which they have changed since becoming gods. Kieran tells her that he worries about the ravens that appeared around Cas when he was angry earlier; to the wolven, the birds represent death.
Cas returns, telling Poppy he fed from Emil to regain some of his strength. Poppy says she is sad she couldn’t wake up Jadis. Cas hugs her to comfort her, as does Kieran. Poppy is reminded of the Joining, and despite Kieran’s “no expectations” promise, feels she may have some expectations after all.
As the three discuss a Primal’s ve’lla or will, which can extend and take many forms, she wonders in disgust if the cold air she felt earlier was Kolis’s ve’lla.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy brings up the subject of Kolis moving around as his ve’lla. Cas, Poppy, and Kieran decide Kolis must be killed as soon as possible, since his ve’lla is growing stronger. Poppy notes that the Fates told her Kolis could be destroyed by another Primal of Death or Life, but Poppy’s vadentia—foresight—is not sure Cas or Kieran can complete that task. Perhaps Poppy is the only one who can vanquish Kolis. In the meanwhile, he can be weakened by the bones of an Ancient.
Just then, Delano asks for permission to see Poppy. The wolven races in, he and Poppy hugging one another for a long time. Emil enters as well, and hugs Poppy. An incensed Cas breaks two of Emil’s fingers, to Poppy’s disbelief, but matters seem to quickly normalize between them when Emil tells the royals about a spate of ghastly murders at Stonehill, a neighborhood in Carsodonia.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Casteel”
Cas and Poppy mount Setti, Cas’s bloodsteed (revealed to be an embodiment of Attes’s ve’lla), to ride to Stonehill. Poppy’s group meets Malik, Cas’s brother, outside the homes of the murdered mortals. It turns out that Malik was the one who raised an alarm about the killings.
The group enter the first house, where a family has been found dead in their kitchen. The mother, father, and two little girls, all have had their throats slit. What is eerie is that they wear smiling expressions, suggesting they died by suicide. Poppy looks at the ghastly sight and remarks that it is impossible for such young children to have died by suicide. She thinks Kolis’s ve’lla possessed the family and made them slit their own throats. Malik tells Poppy at least 50 people have died this way, 15 of them children.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Casteel”
Cas asks everyone except Kieran, Malik, Naill, and Poppy to leave the house to discuss the deaths. Poppy tells the men that she feels Kolis planted visions in the mind of the mortals, just as he did with her, coercing them to die by suicide. Kieran recalls Attes’s words about Kolis possessing the power to make people relive their worst moments of pain.
Suddenly, Poppy notices the body of a dead child twitch. For a moment, everyone thinks this is a post-mortem reflex, but the little girl’s eyes fly open.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Poppy”
The child jumps on Malik, clamping down her teeth on his arm. Cas pulls her off Malik and slams her against the wall, but she is unharmed. Naill rushes to the child and twists her head till her spine breaks. She finally dies. Poppy learns the girl is a grul, a reanimated corpse created by a god; in this case, by Kolis.
As other corpses awaken, Cas asks Kieran to take the injured Malik back to Wayfair. Cas, Poppy, and the others fight the hordes of grul, killing them by severing the spinal cord or destroying their brains. Cas reminds Poppy not to be swayed by pity for the grul; she will be liberating them by killing them.
An older, white-haired male grul grabs Poppy. Poppy sees his eyes glint like Kolis’s. Just before he is killed by Cas, the grul calls Poppy “S’olis” (663) in Kolis’s voice and reminds her he will be seeing her soon.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Casteel”
Back in Wayfair, Cas reflects on the word “s’olis,” which is old Atlantian for “my soul,” puzzled why Kolis would call Poppy his soul. Cas feels Attes and Reaver know the answer, but are keeping it from him. Cas grows angry at Kolis, his wrathful thoughts manifesting as ice climbing up the walls and the bedposts. A sleeping Poppy shivers. Cas forces himself to calm down, hugs Poppy, and dozes off.
When he awakens some time later, he sees Poppy standing against the window, looking outside. Cas goes up to her and realizes she is sleepwalking. In her altered state, Poppy points to the Cliffs of Sorrow (the spot from where Sotoria first fell to her death) in the distance and tells Cas that she can see herself there.
The next morning, Cas, Poppy, and Kieran meet their generals to decide on how to deal with the untoward incidents plaguing Atlantia. Poppy informs the generals that Kolis, the True Primal of Death, and not the Ascended, are behind the recent murders. When a couple of generals, including Aylard, suggest negotiating peace with Kolis, Poppy reminds them Kolis is an unpredictable, powerful entity who has been entombed for centuries; he cannot be reasoned with. Meanwhile, experts in old Atlantian are to peruse records kept in the vault under the Shadow Temple for possible remedies for exterminating Kolis.
When the three rulers are alone, Poppy argues that she alone should march to Pensdurth with the army. Kolis will not kill her as he wants her essence. The men veto Poppy’s suggestion. Cas feels that Kolis only wants Poppy alive up to a point. Once he has what he needs from her, he will slay her.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Poppy”
The next day, Cas and Poppy have a lighthearted chat in their chambers about Kieran. Poppy discusses the visible attraction between Kieran and the general Helenea at the previous day’s meeting. They are interrupted by Delano’s knock, the wolven telling Poppy that her best friend, Tawny, awaits her in the hallway.
Poppy has avoided meeting Tawny since she woke up, because of her guilt over creating a creature without a soul. (After Tawny nearly died, Poppy resurrected her, inadvertently absorbing Tawny’s soul in the process). Tawny has no idea that her soul is missing. However, Poppy decides she must face her friend. Tawny and Poppy reunite. As Poppy and Tawny talk, Poppy is relieved that Tawny seems her usual witty, irreverent self.
After Tawny leaves, Poppy tells Cas that she thinks Tawny may be a thanion, a mortal without a soul created by a god. Such beings do not initially realize their soul is lost, but grow colder, less empathetic, and unpredictable with time.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Casteel”
Once again, Cas wakes up to find Poppy having sleepwalked to the window. Once he gets to her, she asks him to make love to her, using words that are uncharacteristically direct. Cas and Poppy have sex.
The next day, news of a disturbance beyond the inner Rise draws Poppy, Cas, and Kieran to the ramparts of the castle overlooking the bay. Poppy sees something in the water capsizing ships as inky clouds gather overhead. As a tide sweeps inwards, with the water containing strange creatures, people in the city begin to run toward the Rise.
Poppy wills her eather to open the gates to the Rise to let in the terrified people. Yelling at the generals to take control of the crowds, Poppy heads to the docks. To her horror, she sees ghostly seahorses in the churning waters, creatures clearly possessed by Kolis.
Chapters 21-30 Analysis
Poppy’s visit to Ironspire makes her relive the cruelty of the Blood Crown, illustrating the novel’s interest in injustice and tyranny and Poppy’s own growing unease around Prescribed Destiny Versus Personal Agency as she wrestles with the consequences of power. Markers of violence, such as bones and tattered bloodstained clothing, litter the catacombs under Ironspire, signifying the prisoners who died under torture and captivity. The greatest symbol of injustice is the entombed Jadis; the fire and flight of the draken cruelly juxtaposed against the opaque dullness of stone. Another marker of injustice and cruelty is Kolis turning mortals, including children, from the modest neighborhood of Stonehill into accursed, bloodthirsty grul.
While the acts of cruelty in the novel may seem senseless and random, they are often motivated by the desire of an elite to establish a hierarchy or assert its power. For instance, the Blood Crown created Ascended so it could keep mortals—at the bottom of the social pyramid—in check. The Ascended’s practice of partaking of mortal blood became symbolic of the upper classes draining the masses of resources. The motif of injustice and appropriation of resources even applies to languages. After Cas notes that the grul called Poppy sol’is or “my soul,” he is reminded that the old Atlantian term was appropriated by the Blood Crown as the name of their land, Solis, “yet another way the Ascended had bastardized our culture when they named their kingdom” (665). Thus, the novel touches upon the complex nexus between class warfare, violence, and the appropriation of culture and resources.
Poppy continues to struggle with the tension between her mortal temperament and her newfound powers. Due to her just, kind nature, Poppy’s impulse is to preserve life at all costs. Thus, she struggles to kill the grul, till Cas reminds her that “they are no longer mortal […] The sooner we put them down, the sooner their souls can be released” (655). Poppy also feels tremendous guilt about inadvertently taking Tawny’s soul while bringing her back to life. She avoids Tawny for a long time, and when she meets her friend, she feels “choked” with sorrow at Tawny’s chilly skin. Poppy’s absorption of Tawny’s soul highlights the issue of the cost of power: Poppy exercised her life-giving powers believing she would do her friend good, but an incomplete knowledge of her own abilities has inadvertently backfired. The narrative suggests that unless Poppy understands her own powers and limits, the consequences will always outrun her.
This section continues to foreshadow the unknown—and perhaps uncontrollable—nature of Cas’s powers, with Cas’s desires and challenges with self-control adding another angle to Love as Both Sanctuary and Burden Under Pressure. For instance, as Cas fumes about Kolis threatening Poppy through the grul, his rage manifests itself as frost. Cas feels “a slow, dark, and heady satisfaction” (668) as the frost spreads icy vines through the chambers, suggesting he revels in his fury. However, when Poppy begins to shiver, Cas retracts his anger, suggesting that his love for Poppy is the counterpoint to his destructive tendencies. Cas’s self-control around Poppy suggests that his love for her has a positive influence upon his behavior, even when he is under emotional pressure.
Love as a sanctuary is also established by scenes of Poppy hugging Kieran, drawing comfort from his physicality. The Poppy-Kieran interactions, such as when Poppy is in her bathtub, contain a hint of sexual suggestion, illustrating the text’s flirting with the “reverse harem”/ “why choose” subgenres of romance, with the female romantic lead having more than one lover. The sex between Cas and Poppy touches upon another sub-genre, the dark romance, which often explores themes of powerplay and depicts explicit scenes, such as Cas noting that he doesn’t care if someone watches him and Poppy while he is “fucking her like some sort of beast” (719). These elements of the text heighten the novel’s adherence to romantasy conventions by emphasizing the strong passion between the romantic leads, while also playing to dark romance tropes of dominance and a brooding, often aggressive male protagonist.
The theme of The Importance and Inevitability of Change plays out in many ways in this section, including in the shifting equation between the central trio of the series. The different manner in which power splits between the three leads to an imbalanced equation. For instance, as a Primal of Death, Cas’s power of destruction now clashes with Kieran’s temperance. Further, since Kieran’s loyalty to Poppy—both because of the Joining and the notam (the magical mark Poppy bears)—supersedes his lifelong friendship with Cas, Kieran resists Cas more often. The changing dynamics lead to friction, while demonstrating that all relationships are subject to flux.
With a cosmic crisis looming, the novel has an edgy, dark tone, sharpened by Poppy’s dreams of captivity. The narrative alleviates the heavy themes with humor, such as when Poppy wryly notes that Aylard accepts Cas’s directives without an argument because “someone with a dick was giving the orders” (676). The sequence with Cas breaking Emil’s fingers because he hugged Poppy for too long is also played for laughs, though it reflects the darker aspects of Cas’s possessiveness toward Poppy. However, the fact that Cas and Emil immediately forget the violence—astounding Poppy—shows the bonds of friendship run deep between these characters.
Emil’s physical affection for Poppy, mirrored by Delano’s affection for her, symbolizes her bond with the realms. The hugs of these characters for Poppy are as much a symbol of the realms being tied to her, as were the vines that grew over her protectively in stasis. Further, the novel emphasizes even so-called minor characters like Emil and Delano to reflect the collaborative nature of decision-making and the importance of found family.
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