The silk-covered diary that Kestra has to find at Woodcourt initially serves, like the Olden Blade, as a plot device: The diary will reveal the location of the Olden Blade, or so it is believed. However, the diary also gains a personal meaning for Kestra when she realizes it is the diary of Lily Dallisor, the woman she has grown up believing is her mother, turning it into a symbol of Coming to Terms with Identity and Heritage. At first glance, the delicacy of the item recalls the lost beauty of her mother: “The binding was beautiful, covered in faded pink satin and sewn with maroon thread in the shape of roses” (160). As she reads it and gains a new understanding of herself, the diary comes to signify her new maturity and growing awareness of the world around her.

The diary, and Henry Dallisor’s fear that she might have read it, also offers a means for Kestra to understand the nature of the man she calls her father, as he wishes to punish her for removing the diary from its place. For Henry, the diary stands in for his lost wife; his possession of her diary is like his choice to leave her rooms unchanged and untouched. However, the diary and its secrets also represent the tenuous nature of Henry’s authority. He holds power only through his alliance to Endrick, and Kestra will pose a challenge to that. Ultimately, Lily’s diary represents the truth about Kestra’s birth that Henry is trying to hide and deny.