“Mortal poets, bards, and writers were often a problem for divines. Such humans were visited by Fate’s owls and granted insight into our legends, our myths, our lives. And how easily anyone with a quill and ink could rewrite our tales, shifting them to best suit their beliefs, whether they were truth or not.”

The difference between truth and myth appears throughout the text, especially in the context of Matilda and Vincent’s relationship. Matilda grows up hearing myths about gods slain by their lovers, of power-hungry mortals killing gods for their power. Vincent grows up hearing myths about the cruelty of the gods. Despite the narratives they’re fed, both Matilda and Vincent push back against the conventional narratives, forging a lasting romance between a god and a mortal.

“I thought about the Poet Queen he had gone to deceive and woo, and I wondered what it would feel like to have a thorn in my side.”

Bade uses the metaphor of “a thorn in his side” to describe Adria, demonstrating the adversarial relationship between the two of them at the beginning. However, Matilda can see through Bade’s veneer of indifference; she wants a thorn in her own side, a relationship with someone who loves her.

“I had never seen this mortal boy before. I had only read his dreams, and yet he knew of me. Somehow, he had seen me, and I had slipped into a dream of his, unknowingly.”

Matilda and Vincent are fated to find each other, as the novel later elaborates that their threads are entwined on Rowena’s loom. Though Matilda first appears to Vincent in his dreams, their encounters soon occur in the physical world, kickstarting their friendship and romantic relationship. The fact that their relationship begins despite being in different worlds supports the idea of their love as fate.

“Whenever I was tempted to rest, I would imagine Bade’s face. How he would look at me when I returned to the under realm, unsuccessful in my first endeavor as herald. If Adra pierished, it would be due to my failure.”

Matilda feels so emotionally close to Bade that she risks her own life and safety to journey to the Skyward realm to save Adria, finally utilizing her heraldic magic. Matilda’s empathy for Bade and Adria demonstrates her selfless nature, even as an early teenager, and the pressure she places upon herself to succeed.

“And I would like to think my story began long ago when I came into the world as a pale, silent boy, destined to one day die. But it truly begins here, in this moment when my dreams grew bones and teeth and skin in the waking realm. The moment I met Red.”

Vincent states that his life didn’t begin until he first dreamt of Matilda, demonstrating the importance of her presence in his life. Vincent also states that he was “destined” to die, demonstrating his acceptance of his own mortality, even as he begins a relationship with an immortal.

“You are parchment, ink, cloves. You are water dripping down stone, and the smoke of a burning scroll. You are something deeper, darker still. Something I am not sure how to describe, which means you came from the realm far below. The only place I have never been.”

Warin’s first words to Matilda when they meet have a predatory tone. He wants to reach the under realm, and by pointing out that Matilda is from it, he foreshadows his later attempts to use her to find an Underling door. He sees Matilda as a physical representation of the place itself, attributing qualities of the under realm, like “the smoke of a burning scroll,” to her.

“This is how we speak to each other these days. What I weave, she undoes. And all her warps and wefts? I pick them apart. We strive to outdo the other by making patterns that cannot be unraveled.”

Rowena and Orphia are sisters, and they communicate through their twin looms. They attempt to thwart each other, and as Matilda later finds out, use mortals in their game in a way that Matilda finds immoral. With their representation, the novel alludes to the fates of Greek mythology, who weave the thread of life on a loom.

“A nine-point constellation is good, but magic rooted in peace is weak, submissive. I think we should worry more as to how Bade will try to use this to his advantage.”

Phelyra’s words about Adria’s magic demonstrate the gods’ fixation with power. Adria has power as a goddess, but Phelyra assumes that peace magic will be easy for Bade to steal and use. This represents Phelyra’s fundamental misunderstanding of Adria and Bade’s romantic relationship and foreshadows Adria’s ability to protect Bade and Matilda’s magic from Warin.

“There was more to her magic, just as there was more to mine.”

Matilda immediately recognizes something within Adria that she sees within herself. Though Matilda doesn’t yet understand what she’s seeing, the connection between them remains significant as Matilda discovers her soul-bearer magic.

“And I realized, far too late, that I could have chased after my mother’s soul. I could have walked with her, spoken with her one last time, as she journeyed to the misty gate for eternal rest. It is a regret I still have. A bruise that has never healed.”

Matilda’s inability to say goodbye to her mother is something that haunts her, especially when she later discovers she can return souls to the living world. Though Zenia was not a particularly warm and loving mother, Matilda still yearns for her, and her death shapes Matilda and guides her to be distrustful of others.

“But I imagined he could still sense this weakness in me. The compassion for mortals. The way I missed my mother and my kin below.”

When Matilda seeks to return to the mortal world, Thile refuses, and Matilda imagines it’s because of her compassion and empathy, which she assumes Thile sees as weakness. The Risks and Rewards of Vulnerability remain thematically important, and though Matilda has vulnerability within her, she tries to hide it from the other gods, who would instead view it as a risk.

“We were gods, and yet we lived by the sunrise and sunset of the mortal world. The wax and wane of their moon. The order of their time, and when the seasons were appointed to ebb and flow. They did not realize the power they truly held over us, these humans who lived for a brief moment of time. But it was far greater than they knew.”

Though the gods like to think themselves superior to the mortals, the mortal world’s timing still rules the gods. The fleeting nature of human life doesn’t cheapen mortal existence but instead adds value to it. The narrative places their movements in the context of the cyclical nature of the mortal world with allusions to the “wax and wane of the moon.”

“Why did I care? That solstice was a long time ago; I had been a naive boy writing to her, thinking she would be my salvation. I took hold of the wooden shaft, drawing on all the anger, the sorrow, the fears I had buried for the past thirteen winters, and I yanked the arrow free.”

Vincent questions why he still cares about Matilda and still bears the wounds of Matilda’s absence. He calls his vulnerability forth to summon the strength to pull the arrow out of Matilda, demonstrating his early willingness to engage with his emotions.

“But I would honor that old blood-smeared prayer of Vincent’s, that weight in my pocket. And I could only hope I did not fail him again.”

As in her heraldic mission to rescue Adria for Bade, Matilda puts pressure on herself to help Vincent. The obligation she feels toward him is heavy because she cares about him and has empathy for his cause. Her reference to the “blood-smeared prayer” of the past highlights that she is also trying to make up for her past failure to help.

“This, then, I could carry home, and that was when I acknowledged it. I felt the expanse yawn wide between us—Matilda and me. The mundane and the magical. The mortal and the divine.”

Vincent fails to rescue Matilda from Warin, but he does recover her cloak. Vincent very clearly delineates between himself and Matilda in the context of their divinity status, juxtaposing their relative power and establishing the Impact of Power Dynamics in Romantic Relationships. He knows there is a rift between them because of their backgrounds, but he doesn’t yet know how to bridge it.

“But granting admonishments and refusing to promise help when needed? Telling a myth in which a god is completely forgotten, all because he loved a mortal woman? These things should not have surprised me.”

Matilda is disappointed when Shale, a Skyward who’s been close to her, refuses to promise her aid and instead gives a vague warning about a god killed by his mortal wife. She wants loyalty from Shale, and though he doesn’t betray her outright, his refusal to help her demonstrates the limitation of the gods’ loyalty. Part of Matilda’s character arc is realizing that her concept of loyalty goes beyond that of the other gods, contributing to the theme of The Role of Loyalty in Identity Formation.

“I did not want someone helping me out of duty. I was weary of such things, of a world of debts and vows. I would prefer to face the terror alone than to have someone in my shadow who was only there out of obligation.”

Matilda’s perception of Bade’s loyalty is that he feels obligated to Matilda because of the salt-vow. Matilda values true loyalty, and she worries that Bade’s loyalty is forced, demonstrating the thematic complexity of loyalty and betrayal in the novel.

“He had not been wrong. I prepared myself to pay again, and again, in the days to come. I wondered if there would be anything left of me by the end.”

Matilda’s selfless nature is an important aspect of her characterization. When she loves someone, she’s willing to give of herself, and her empathy for the mortal realm grows in tandem with her relationship with Vincent.

“My home is your home. My arms are a haven for you to rest. My last name is yours if you desire it. I will love you to my grave, and even beyond it, when the mists welcome me, when I am hopefully very old and gray and grouchy and have spent the seasons beside you when you are here and dreaming of you when you are gone. I love you, dearly, Red.”

In Vincent’s love confession to Matilda, he promises his home and the rest of his life to her, illustrating the depth of his love. His promise to love her “beyond” the grave foreshadows Matilda following him into the mists after his death. With his use of his old name for her, “Red,” he evokes the length and depth of their relationship.

“I will not ask you what this magic is you now wield. Let it remain your secret until you are ready to speak it aloud. But one day, I will have need of you and your power. One day, I will call for you, and I would ask that you remember this night and how I spared you from death.”

Enva saves Matilda from Alva, and her request to borrow Matilda’s magic doesn’t return until the Epilogue, when Enva needs Matilda’s magic to enchant the Alouette typewriters, setting the stage for Divine Rivals. Enva doesn’t force loyalty from Matilda, but she is open about her expectations for the future.

“I felt something heavy on my brow, but when I lifted my fingers, there was nothing but my hair, speckled in snow, and my brow, smooth and cold. And yet a peace settled upon me, sweeping the frantic clutter of my thoughts. My mind became clear, and I knew what Vincent needed.”

Matilda’s crown of stars appears after Adria’s additional stars join Matilda’s constellation, granting her additional power and the ability to clear her mind in the heat of battle. Adria’s magic appears in the very moment Matilda needs it most: to save Vincent from the churning waters of the river.

“I was not the one for that task. Had I not kept vigil at Matilda’s side for days in the sepulcher, waiting for the impossible? Refusing to seal her in stone?”

Vincent can’t bring himself to ask James and Lara to bury Tristan, as he himself couldn’t let Matilda go. He deeply understands how love can transcend death, and though he claims returning from death is “impossible,” he knows firsthand it isn’t, as Nathaniel returned from death.

“The road that led to the northern mountains, a place I had once walked with him and his people. I remembered the meadow where I had lain down beside him, and we had gazed at the stars. I had felt safe in his arms, feeling him breathe against me. My eyes opened.”

Matilda knows Vincent so well that she can predict where he went seven years ago, after her death, because she remembers what he once dreamt of. Matilda associates the memory of the place with safety and emotional intimacy, and she knows Vincent enough to know that he would feel similarly.