Wild Reverence

“War only makes love flame brighter, defiant. It seems to bloom from the bloodshed you leave behind, unfurling from the most unlikely places. From the broken seams of the world. From the graves and the anguish and the fear you inspire.”

One of the earliest commentaries on love in the novel comes from Zenia’s assurances to Bade that love still exists in the mortal realm. This sets the stage for the development of Matilda and Vincent’s relationship, as they fall in love amidst the war between the gods and the conflict between Wyndrift and Grimald.

“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.