“For three years in the Lava Fields, I had longed for more adventure, for any excitement beyond what Cook made for dinner or what Celia bought at market. Now that I had it, all I wanted was to return to that place and be forgotten once more.”

Kestra’s freedom is immediately curtailed by her capture by the Coracks. The wish for adventure is a humorous foreshadowing, as she will soon be given an important quest. Stumbling in unexpected ways upon a hidden heritage and chosen status are frequent themes of young adult fantasy literature.

“‘I’ll give the executioner his orders, gladly.’ My voice became ice. It frightened me to hear it, to realize I was capable of such words. Maybe I was more of a Dallisor than I wanted to believe, because I truly meant everything I’d just said.”

Kestra’s streak of cruelty, shown here in her pronouncement that she wouldn’t hesitate to kill Simon or Trina for kidnapping her, shows now and again throughout the book—an echo of the cruelty shown by Henry Dallisor and Lord Endrick. Kestra initially does not recognize The Importance of Challenging Injustice and Abuse of Power, as she wholeheartedly embraces the regime and is arrogant in clinging to her status within it. This attitude will change drastically as she becomes more aware of the regime’s abuses.

“For most of my life, I’d longed for a relationship with my father. I didn’t need his warmth or approval or even his love. But it would’ve been nice to see him look at me just once without that hollow regret in his eyes.”

Kestra’s longing to be accepted by her father is a need motivating her at the novel’s beginning. Her loneliness is a definitive part of her character, and her relationship with her father forms a foil and contrast to Simon’s close relationship with his foster-father, who provides a model of manhood that Simon wants to imitate, while Henry Dallisor is a man Kestra wants to be nothing like.

“I knew he was only doing this to protect Tenger’s plan. But I wanted to believe a part of him was doing this to protect…me.”

The romance arc in the novel begins with the friendship Simon and Kestra experienced as children in Woodcourt, and this old relationship connects them as Simon accompanies Kestra back to her home. Simon’s desire to protect Kestra becomes the basis for his changing feelings as he is more and more drawn to her as events unfold.

“Nearly everyone here is trying to survive beneath the might of Lord Endrick’s immortal fist. They know the Dallisors enforce his cruelty, and nobody here would lose any sleep if they showed you what being crushed feels like.”

Part of Kestra’s journey of Coming to Terms with Identity and Heritage involves learning early in the novel that the Dallisors are hated for the part they play in supporting Lord Endrick’s reign. Realizing the Dallisors play an antagonistic role accounts for the change in Kestra’s sympathies and her willingness to take up the quest to destroy Endrick when she claims the Olden Blade.

“I had always loved my country, but what if I only loved the idea of it […]? Maybe I’d spent a lifetime staring at a glossy painting of Antora, beautiful and rich in color, but which was actually rotting beneath the surface.”

This image of the false painting signals Kestra’s dawning realization that she has spent her childhood being ignorant of what is transpiring around her. This dawning awareness of what the world is like—as well as her place in it—begins her character arc toward maturity and her gradual recognition of the importance of Recognizing and Choosing Moral Good, even when it comes at the expense of her former life of privilege.

“A true privileged life had nothing to do with the softness of bedsheets or the spread of food on a table. It would have meant I still had a mother to welcome me home, and a father who cared more for my happiness than for his personal ambitions.”

This contrasting image that defines what Kestra deems a privilege is another indication of her growing maturity, as she realizes she would prefer nurturing relationships to comfortable things. The lack of parenting she feels in the early sections sets up the revelations about her true parentage which occur later, invoking coming to terms with identity and heritage.

“If he was strong, then I had to be stronger. I held his gaze, determined to hide my every weakness. Or to discover his.”

Kestra’s refusal to be manipulated or dominated shows that she has a need for control in her own nature. While Kestra’s stubbornness is often a strength, this hardness makes her a parallel to Lord Endrick and Henry Dallisor in ways she doesn’t want to acknowledge, suggesting that one’s worst qualities can be their biggest enemy.

“Lily Dallisor had been feminine, soft-spoken, and infinitely kind. For most of my life, I had never understood how she could have produced a child like me.”

This passage captures Kestra’s affection for the woman she calls mother, but the difference she acknowledges between them also foreshadows the revelation that Lily did not give birth to her. Kestra’s growing awareness of herself, as well as her role and mission, includes acknowledgement that she does not possess these softer qualities in her nature.

“I desperately needed someone to talk to, someone to trust. I needed him to stay with me even after he knew everything, and to take my hand and promise that it would be all right.”

Kestra’s need as a character is for nurturance, to feel like she has an ally and protector. She gets both in Simon. Her softening toward him while they are still at Woodcourt is an essential step in the romance developing between them, but her enduring wariness speaks to the lack of trust she will eventually have to overcome.

“Magic is corruption. Even for those with good intentions, eventually magic will corrupt.”

This declaration becomes an explanation for why there is such hostility toward Endreans, who turn out to be Kestra’s people. However, several of the characters are forced to re-examine fundamental beliefs, and this belief about the corrupting power of magic, which is fundamental to the Corack rebellion, complicates Simon and Kestra’s relationship as well as endangering her quest.

“I’d just spent hours in a dungeon once occupied by two women who sacrificed everything in the hope of defeating Lord Endrick. The Coracks wanted to continue their quest, and had forced me into their battle. My only remaining question was, would I join that fight, even if I were not compelled?”

This decision is a key moment in Kestra’s character arc as she asks whether she can sincerely support the revolution. Not only is Kestra challenged with recognizing and choosing moral good, she must also decide if she will participate in the importance of challenging injustice and abuse of power, another key theme of the novel.

“Dallisors always get the last word, and she’s as bullheaded as the worst of them.”

Gerald’s comment to Simon continues the motif that Dallisors have to get the last word, a defining characteristic that is repeated several times. This attribute draws another parallel between Kestra and Henry Dallisor, suggesting that the man who raised her has had some influence on her after all.

“I’d always looked down on the world through diamond-studded windows. She’d looked up at the world through salt glass. Despite those differences, we were both looking in from the outside.”

As Trina and Kestra prepare to return to the dungeons, Kestra’s reflection highlights the ways in which the two characters are foils for one another. Kestra’s sense of being an outsider forms part of her motivation for taking up the quest she is given; so does the idea of remedying injustice.

“I made a promise […] to Garr, the man who adopted me. If I could be half the person he was…”

Speaking to the theme of coming to terms with identity and heritage, Simon is here driven by his promise to his foster father, Garr. Initially, Garr provides a model of masculinity that Simon admires; later, he serves a plot function when Kestra suggests he was really the exiled King of the Halderians, Gareth. Simon’s wish to be even “half the person [Gareth] was” also differentiates him from men like Tenger, who are arrogant and assured of their own worthiness for power.

“Truth brought more than responsibility. It had thrust upon me impossible choices with terrible consequences, and a lump in the back of my throat swelled with every new revelation. Darrow had been right […] I didn’t want this.”

The trope of being the chosen one, and facing the burdens of that responsibility, is a common one in young adult fantasy novels like The Traitor’s Game. Much of Kestra’s internal conflict stems from coming to terms with identity and heritage, and her role in the rebellion.

“You and I have at least one thing in common, Simon. We both escaped those dungeons, only I did from my birth.”

This revelation of another point of commonality brings Simon and Kestra closer, confirming their romance. The revelation of the identity of Kestra’s mother provides a surprise twist in the narrative, causing Kestra to re-evaluate her motives and her alliances.

“It’s safe, and my secret alone. There are no remaining clues to its whereabouts […] If anything happens to me, that dagger will be lost forever.”

During the initial stages of the search, Kestra’s discovery of, and decisions around the Olden Blade, suggest she feels responsible for it. This foreshadows the later development that she is in fact the Infidante and is becoming more committed to recognizing and choosing moral good, as she understands it is crucial that power be given to the right person.

“If I were anyone else, I could have been that person for him. I could have shared my heart with him and together, he and I would have faced whatever the future held. If I were anyone else.”

Kestra’s discovery of her birth mother’s identity creates another obstacle to her and Simon’s romance. This passage in particular puts a twist on the theme of the chosen one, as Kestra contemplates why she cannot choose to be with Simon.

“Silence collapsed the world between us. Our own Pit of Eternal Consequence where we might fall forever.”

The Pit of Eternal Consequences was, in Kestra’s childhood, a reference to the pit outside the dungeon. Here, Kestra changes the meaning to speak of the emotional distance between herself and Simon, reflecting the sense of despair and entrapment she feels in being unable to be fully open and vulnerable with him.

“Do you think everyone who might claim the Blade is the same quality warrior? If we want to see Endrick defeated, the Infidante must be the strongest possible choice!”

Kestra’s declaration to Simon shows the growth in her character arc as she has committed to the cause of finding the Infidante and recognizing and choosing moral good, as Kestra is determined to find “the strongest possible choice” and not just the most expedient or seemingly popular one. The resulting disclosure that Kestra is the Infidante adds a twist to this commitment, as she is not a warrior, nor seemingly in any other way equipped to fight Lord Endrick.

“You are pure Dallisor, cold and calculating and with a soul more dead than the Ironhearts.”

There is dramatic irony in Trina’s assessment of Kestra in that Trina does not know Kestra’s true bloodline, but Trina’s statement is also to some extent true: Kestra’s ability for cruelty and coldness, which resembles that of the Dallisors, has been a key element of her upbringing, reflecting the difficulties in coming to terms with identity and heritage in the novel.

“The instant we passed through the town gates, a blossom unfolded before us. This was no mere village. The Halderians were doing more than gathering. They were resurrecting themselves.”

Much as Kestra gained a new understanding of Antora while passing through the countryside, the area inhabited by the Halderians is a surprise as well, very different from what she was told. The image of the unfolding blossom suggests that the Halderians are gaining strength in advance of a revolution of their own—a conflict that helps set up the premise of the second book in the series.