“‘We have to keep moving,’ Shade mutters. Anger flares in his eyes, but he knows what must be done, what must be ignored, to stay alive.”

Mare Barrow, Kilorn Warren, and Shade Barrow have run from Maven’s army in Naercey and realized that Maven put an army of shackled Reds out in front of the Silvers as a first line to fall if Mare’s group attacks. Maven is sending a message that Red lives are not worth preserving and that he has no problem forcing Mare to kill her own. Mare’s observation that they must ignore this to stay alive calls to the difficult choices she’s made and still must make. Her entire plan revolves around fighting for Red lives, so it is ironic that she cannot do so here when they need her to fight for them. This scene also shows the sacrifices made in war and how some battles must be lost to ultimately win the war.

“I swing my legs over the side of the cot, almost thwacking my head on the bunk above me, and find a neatly folded set of clothing on the floor. Black pants that are too long, a dark red shirt with threadbare elbows, and boots missing laces. Nothing like the fine clothes I found in a Silver cell, but they feel right against my skin.”

Mare has woken up on the submarine after narrowly escaping Maven’s forces several hours ago. Before finding the clothes, she reflects on how she’s woken up in many different places to find unexpected surprises waiting for her, and she wonders what this awakening will hold. The clothes symbolize how Mare’s life has changed in the last few days and what she fights for.