Content Warning: This section includes discussion of racism and gender discrimination.

Isabel Ibañez explores power in colonial, political, personal, and romantic dimensions through the illicit trade of antiquities, the manipulation of authority figures, and the gendered power structures in relationships. The clearest form of power in the novel is knowledge: Those who possess it can control it and use it to manipulate others. The search for the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra is the ultimate pursuit of power: Lourdes and Cayo both hunt for it because of its potential to grant immense wealth and influence. Cayo represents the dark underbelly of power, using coercion and brute force to achieve his goals. His belief that “[e]veryone has a price” (181) summarizes his transactional view of power.

In addition, the novel examines colonial power, specifically European control over Egypt’s antiquities. Cayo’s cover identity, “Basil Sterling,” is a member of the British Antiquities Service, and the real historical figures Monsieur Maspero and Sir Evelyn serve as institutional gatekeepers, deciding who has access to discoveries and how they’re disseminated. Abdullah, an Egyptian archaeologist on the team, is Ricardo’s brother-in-law and represents the local resistance against the appropriation of Egyptian heritage.