“It remains one of his many secrets, unspoken, resting listlessly in the darkness we shepherd. Still, it was the first time I stopped fearing the Nightmare—the voice in my head, the creature with strange yellow eyes and an eerie, smooth voice. Eleven years later, and I don’t fear him at all. Even if I should.”

This quote captures the complicated relationship between Elspeth and her Nightmare Card, the soul of the Shepherd King. Divided between earned trust and eventual submission, he is both her ally and antagonist—the consequence of her degeneration to the Spirit of the Wood’s infectious mist.

“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.