Heir

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death.

“Aiz wished she didn’t hate her enemies with such fervor, for it gave them power over her. But she was a gutter child, and the Kegari gutters bred tough, bitter creatures, ready to stab or scheme or slink into the shadows—depending on what the moment required.”

The opening lines of the novel establish the core of Aiz’s character, which will later lead to her downfall. The harsh, unforgiving environment she lives in has made her adaptable and ruthless. Her anger becomes both a weapon and a burden, a force that motivates her but also consumes her. It is the combination of the two that makes her the perfect target for Mother Div’s manipulations.

“I belong nowhere, Quil had told Aunt Hel as a boy, back when he still shared his woes without fear of her judgment.

You belong to your people, she’d said. The people of the Empire.”

Identity and belonging, or the lack thereof, are central to Quil’s character. He struggles to reconcile his heritage, which places him in a unique and isolating position as he is a product of multiple worlds, but feels fully accepted in none. Helene’s response frames him as a part of the whole, rather than a divided Empire. Yet, this role leaves him with little room to explore his personal desires or grieve his losses, as his sense of duty often eclipses his individuality.

“What if I end up exactly like him?”

Quil’s father, Marcus Farrar, was a tyrant who nearly destroyed the Martial Empire with his cruelty. For Quil, his hesitation about assuming the throne is not simply a rejection of responsibility; it’s rooted in the terror that he might become the same kind of monster. The quote also speaks to the novel’s theme of