“‘None of us can follow where you go, Tisaanah. But you have everything you need to survive. And listen to me—use it.’ The girl nodded. Her eyes burned. ‘Never look back. And never question stepping forward and saying, “I deserve to live.”’”

Before Tisaanah’s mother is enslaved and led away to work in the mines, she predicts that her daughter will experience a better fate because of her magical abilities. Nevertheless, Tisaanah is plagued with survivor’s guilt for much of the story, unsure that she deserves to live when so many others have died. Her attempts to free those who were enslaved alongside her are a means of atoning for having won freedom.

“I had made a critical miscalculation. I had naively thought that his twisted, confusing affection would help me escape. Instead, it would crush me, because Esmaris only possessed or destroyed, and if he couldn’t do one, he would do the other.”

When Esmaris whips Tisaanah for trying to buy her freedom, she realizes that he cannot let what he sees as his property go. This is the first appearance of the principle that guides the behavior of several other characters whose desire for power is so extreme that it always leaves destruction in its wake—The Urge to Possess or Destroy.

“Who has ruined you so badly that you can’t do anything but stand in the way of people who have actual important things to do? Why do you feel such a pervasive, petty need to shove your petulance in the Orders’ faces?”

Tisaanah is confronting Max about his uncooperative attitude. He refuses to train her principally because the Orders want him to do so. It doesn’t occur to him that Tisaanah is being harmed by his stubborn behavior. Of course, he has good reason to resist the influence of the Orders, but those facts don’t come to light until late in the novel.