An Ember in the Ashes

These chapters jumpstart Laia’s and Elias’s character arcs. Though she fears the catacombs and what might happen when she finds the rebels, Laia forces herself to be brave for Darin’s sake. At this point, she is not able to be brave for herself, but being brave to help someone else ultimately allows her to find her inner strength. Chapters 7 and 9 finalize her involvement with the rebels and reveal her family history. Laia feels inadequate because her parents (especially her mother) were members of the resistance and responsible for great gains made by the group. She doesn’t feel as if she can live up to their reputation and so only mentions her relation to them as a last resort because she doesn’t know if doing so will help or hinder her case. Mazen doesn’t believe her because she’s nothing like her mother, showing how people judge others based on their family. This is also true for Elias since his family is intimately entangled with the Martial Empire.

Children don’t have to be similar to their parents, either in personality or appearance, but others still make judgments based on how a person compares to their family. This idea of family legacy highlights two themes: What Makes Us Who We Are and The Power of Choice. Though both Laia and Elias struggle against identities that do not fit them well, they also struggle with the idea that they feel they have no agency and no real choice in their futures. The Augur implies that Elias’s fate is inescapable, but he does have some semblance of choice in how that fate plays out. Laia, on the other hand, feels she has no real choice at all in whether to do the rebels’ spying. The power, then, lies in the rebels’ hands, and they have already made their choice to not help unless Laia helps them.

Mazen’s demands in Chapter 9 set up Laia’s external journey. Sending her to Blackcliff allows her to cross paths with Elias. The mission is also a way for Mazen to control Laia. He has no intention of breaking Darin out of prison, and he uses Laia’s mission to gather information and get rid of her, showing Mazen’s ruthlessness. The rebel in Chapter 7 who explains the resistance is more combative shows the divide within the resistance, which Mazen also uses Laia to bridge. Mazen’s willingness for Keenan to wipe Laia’s memories shows that Mazen is willing to do whatever it takes to further his own agenda.

Elias’s chapters introduce more key Masks as well as the burgeoning romance between he and Helene. Helene’s blush in Chapter 6 is the first time Elias is aware she’s attracted to him, and it makes him question what he knows, both about himself and Helene. In Chapter 10, he notices her beauty, escalating his awareness from noticing she’s attracted to actually finding her attractive too. Marcus is one of the most ruthless and evil Skulls in Elias’s class, shown here by his insistence that Blackcliff’s policies to whip students to death is what deserters deserve. It’s never made clear if Marcus knows about Elias’s plan to desert, but Marcus’s observations show how a person’s actions can betray them: Elias’s mask hasn’t melded to his face, and he showed disapproval at the whipping. These and other telling behaviors allow Marcus to at least guess Elias’s plans, which unnerves Elias because he fears he’ll be discovered.

Chapter 8 introduces pertinent backstory for the story world. In ancient Rome, Augurs communicated with the gods to determine whether the gods approved of the emperor’s plans. In An Ember in the Ashes, the Augurs play a similar role and have many powers, including seeing all possible futures and reading thoughts. The Augurs know of Elias’s plan to desert, and they’ve chosen to intervene for the empire’s best interests. Elias believes it best to run and leave the empire’s brutality behind while the Augurs believe Elias is needed for his own and the empire’s best outcome. The Augurs show Elias two options—either he stays and gains his freedom or runs and is trapped by his inner demons forever. Elias doesn’t yet understand how a path can lead to a seemingly opposite outcome, showing he’s still at the beginning of his character arc.

Elias’s defense of Helene in Chapter 10 shows that he’s willing to do anything, even risk punishment, to protect those he cares about. His desire to hold off on deserting to kill Marcus if Helene is punished reveals his deep hatred for Marcus and sets up for the conflict between them in the trials and beyond. The trials take up most of the book’s middle portion, pitting the chosen four against obstacles and decisions that irrevocably change them. The eagerness with which each takes the vow to participate mirrors their commitment to power and the empire.

Marcus goes first, foreshadowing how he becomes the next emperor, and Helene going second means she will be Marcus’s second. Zak’s hesitation foreshadows his death, and Elias thinks through his options before committing, showing the attention he gives to critical decisions and foreshadowing his eventual escape from the empire. The theme The Power of Choice is also further developed here, since the choice to participate is a false one. While the characters do choose to participate, the outcomes are pre-determined, thus reducing the choice to participate to really no choice at all. The stated outcome of two deaths is also a red herring (information meant to be distracting) since only one of the four participants dies in this novel.