One Dark Window

“We were so different, my cousin and I. She was honest—real. Her emotions were mapped on her face while mine hid behind carefully practiced composure. […] She didn’t pretend, Ione. She simply was.”

This quote foreshadows Ione’s transformation by the Maiden Card after becoming Hauth’s betrothed and how little Elspeth knows about her. Despite their 11 years of living together, Ione later proves she isn’t completely honest about her desires.

“Suddenly it became bitterly clear: The infection had not spared me. I had magic. […] All it had taken was a touch. Just a touch my finger on velvet, and I had absorbed something from within my uncle’s Nightmare Card. Just a single touch, and its power stalked the corners of my mind, trapped.”

This quote reiterates Elspeth and the Nightmare’s complicated relationship: Like the former Shepherd King, her magic is shrouded, seeking Card colors amid darkness. Like him, she is now trapped in a performance because of her magic.

“Stranger still, the Nightmare carried his own magic. To his eyes, Providence Cards were as bright as a torch, their colors unique to the velvet trim they bore.”

This quote establishes Elspeth’s Nightmare-fueled magic to set up her reliance on him upon joining Ravyn’s mission. Because seeing Cards is the Nightmare’s power, it is implied that every time she sees a Card, she is inadvertently furthering her own degeneration.

“A heart of gold can still turn to rot. What he wrote, what he did, was all done for naught. His Cards are but weapons, his kingdom now cruel. Shepherd of folly, King of the fools.”

The Nightmare expresses regret for his actions as the Shepherd King, thus foreshadowing his reveal. Though he created the Providence Cards and The Old Book of Alders to help people, his sacrifices poisoned his kingdom.

“They honored her [the Spirit of the Wood’s] woods and took the names of the trees as their own. This was old magic—old religion.”

This quote establishes Blunder’s past view of the Spirit. Though remnants of the “old religion” remain, since tree names are still used to distinguish families, the present view of the Spirit is negative, cemented by her infectious mist—as the Rowan King intended.

“The mist spread, isolating us from neighboring kingdoms. Worse, children who tarried in it grew sick with fever, their veins darkening.”

Though the mist is understood as punishment, it was originally deployed to reinspire faith in the Spirit. In this respect, it is not adults but children whom the Spirit wishes to sway—despite their real suffering by her.

“King Rowan, like his predecessors, used the ancient wisdom of The Old Book of Alders to instill fear—not wonder—of magic. He corrupted our ancient text. Defiled it so that it became a weapon to control Blunder by—just like the Scythe.”

This quote highlights the Rowans’ usage of historical texts—like The Old Book of Alders—to secure their reign and promote fear of the Spirit. Elspeth recognizes this gives the royal family complete control over Blunder.

“There must be touch, there must be intention. Tap a Providence Card thrice to command its magic. Tap it thrice more, and its magic will cease. […] But be wary. Magic knows no loyalty.”

Though the Providence Cards are a powerful source of magic, their mechanics leave wielders vulnerable. Since they can be used by anyone, they are limited.

“I can only affect your emotions, your willingness to tell me everything I need to know.”

This is a concrete example of how limited the Cards’ magic is compared to that of the Spirit. Though the Scythe Card is powerful, it can be overcome.

“For eleven years, the infection had been a leash around my throat. I had cowed under that leash, the hope of a cure beyond the scope of my imagination.”

Elspeth observes her years of self-erasure for the sake of survival. More than the possibility of degeneration, it is the fear of being discovered as infected that has trapped her in the performance of a “shy” girl (Important Quote #3).

“Most of what we know of the Shepherd King we take from lore. His histories were destroyed, and none of his children survived to claim the throne. Brutus Rowan, his Captain of the Guard, became the next King of Blunder.”

This quote hints at the forgotten betrayal between the Shepherd King and the first Rowan King, Brutus Rowan. Given his position as Captain of the Guard, Brutus not only failed in his duty to the Shepherd King but profited from his demise.

“The more I asked for his help, the more potent the Nightmare’s presence in my head became. I understood his emotions—his interest and revulsions—without words, sometimes to strongly I mistook them for my own.”

This quote foreshadows Elspeth’s loss of self to the Nightmare. As she knows little of her magic and degeneration, she does not recognize the melding of their minds—the price of his power.

“My aunt had told me once that my strange charcoal eyes were special, beautiful even—a dark window to the soul beneath. But as I glanced back into the looking glass, the reflection of my black eyes flickering to that bright, eerie yellow, I had to wonder…whose soul was it?”

Like Elspeth’s eyes act as a dark window to her soul, so, too, does the Shepherd King’s one-window altar for the Spirit exhibit his. As Elspeth fades and the Nightmare grows stronger, her eyes come to reflect this change, too.

“And while I was sure Filick Willow was one of the cleverest men in Blunder, there was something he was terribly, terribly wrong about. What happened five hundred years ago mattered. Far more than I ever realized.”

In this quote, Elspeth recognizes how little impact she has in the grand scheme of things. More than anything, it is Blunder’s forgotten history that dictates their future, as the Spirit, the Shepherd King, and the first Rowan King have unfinished business—and Elspeth is but a pawn in their game.

“That’s why I’m seeing your memories. I may not be getting weaker like Emory, but I’m…fading. A lump rose in my throat. That’s my degeneration, isn’t it?”

Elspeth finally recognizes the severity of her degeneration. While invisible at a glance, it will erase her personhood upon completion—a tragic turn considering she has found independence through Ravyn’s mission.

“I’m not TAKING anything, Elspeth Spindle. […] I cannot TAKE. I am capable only of what I am willfully given. […] In the end, I took nothing you had not already given me.”

This quote clarifies the Nightmare’s influence on Elspeth’s degeneration. Like the Spirit, who requires an offering for her magic, so, too, does the Nightmare require an offering to impart power. In Elspeth’s case, she has always offered control of her body for the sake of survival.

“We were the same, he and I. Gifted with ancient, terrible magic. Woven in secret, hidden in half-truths. We were the darkness in Blunder, the reminder that magic—wild and unfettered—prevailed, no matter how desperately the Rowans tried to stamp it out. We were the thing to be feared. We were the balance.”

Elspeth’s use of the word “balance” holds a double meaning. In the first sense, she and Ravyn will restore the power dynamic imposed by the Rowans. In the second sense, she and Ravyn are that which measures magic, survivors and embodiments of the Spirit’s mist.

“It’s pageantry that keeps us looking like everyone else.”

Elm’s quote frames decorum as a tool for hiding one’s true self and intentions. This sentiment echoes Elspeth’s history of hiding her infection for the sake of protecting herself and the Spindles.

“When the shadows grow long, when our names turn to dust, what we loved, what we hated, will spoil to rust. All will be forgotten, save one truth unshaken…What did we do when the children were taken?”

Despite the Nightmare’s dark nature, this quote reveals his sense of justice. Though a failed monarch when he was alive, the Shepherd King’s care for the vulnerable is genuine. In his eyes, this is the true measure of a person’s legacy.

“Life had sheltered them [Elspeth’s half-sisters], like pearls kept in a velvet pouch. And I—I was not made of pearls. I was made of salt.”

While Elspeth’s half-sisters are beautiful, sheltered “pearls,” she is “salt,” practical in itself and resilient. She knows herself, her purpose in “salting” the Rowans’ earth, that which was stolen from the Shepherd King.

“Had I not been assured he [Elm] carried only his Scythe, I might have thought there existed a Nightmare Card between us—a knowing, a reading of my mind.”

This quote reveals how similar Elspeth and Elm are, both in character and love for Ravyn. While they dislike each other, part of this lies with their shared protectiveness of loved ones.

“Elspeth pulled me from the Card, the darkness. So I protected her from a world that would see her killed.”

The Shepherd King perceives his relationship with Elspeth as one of debt. To pay for delivering him from the Nightmare Card, he offers knowledge and power in moments of need.

“To be wary is to be keen—Keen of those who may use magic for wrong. To be clever is to be wise—Wise not to use the Cards too often. To be good is to be reverent—Reverent of balance—of the salt in the air—of the Spirit of the Wood. Be wary. Be clever. Be good.”

Though “Be wary. Be clever. Be good” is Blunder’s motto and farewell, this quote implies its full meaning has been forgotten. The direction to be “reverent of balance” no longer applies to the Rowans’ society, as the Rowan King and Hauth only revere Providence Cards.