“The Shadow King is a grand conqueror, spreading his influence slowly across all the world, just like his father before him.”

This early description of Kallias’s political goals frame Alessandra as a character who values power over all else, as opposed to introducing commentary on the ethics of colonialism. It serves, as well, as an early suggestion that Kallias and Alessandra will make good partners because they both seek to maximize their power, no matter the cost to others.

“Oh, he is a delightful mystery that I can’t wait to solve.”

In the beginning of the novel, Alessandra sees others as objects to be manipulated and understood, rather as whole people. Kallias’s mysteriousness is a lure, posing a challenge of understanding for a heroine who regularly finds others too uncomplicated to keep her interest.

“I haven’t had many opportunities to make friends, and it has been my experience that most ladies do not like me. Not when I’m their competition for the attention of men.”

Despite the ways in which she advocates for gender equality and sexual liberation for women, Alessandra here shows that she is subject to many of the sexist attitudes of her culture. Through her friendships with Hestia and Rhoda, she must unlearn the patriarchal mode of viewing women as competition rather than whole people.