Ruthless Vows

“Iris fed a fresh sheet of paper into the roller, but she thought of her typewriter, wondering where it was. The last time she had seen it had been in her room at Marisol’s bed and breakfast. And while the B and B had miraculously survived the bombing, there was no telling what Dacre and his forces had done to the town once they had overtaken it. Perhaps the Third Alouette was still there in her old room, untouched and coated in ash. Perhaps one of Dacre’s soldiers had stolen it, using it for nefarious correspondence, or maybe had smashed it to glimmering pieces on the street.”

Iris has always viewed writing as a positive thing. Whether it be her letters to Roman or her articles for the Gazette or Tribune, Iris’s writing has been a powerful tool for informing, inspiring, and persuading. However, the attack on Avalon Bluff tears her away from Roman and her beloved typewriter. Without the tool she used to write or the person with whom she shared her primary hobby, Iris’s passion has itself gone “untouched and coated in ash.”

“A fortnight wasn’t much time at all; Iris still had faint bruises and scabs on her knees and arms, from when she had crawled through the rubble and clouds of gas. She could still hear the thunder of the bombs exploding, sense the shudder of the earth beneath her feet. She could still feel Roman’s breath in her hair as he held her, as if nothing would ever come between them.”

Iris’s physical wounds symbolize the lingering mental and emotional wounds that Roman’s absence has left her coping with in day-to-day life. They also represent the lasting trauma caused by the war and the attack on Avalon Bluff. The question of how to cope with such trauma is one of the narrative’s central themes, with the novel ultimately advocating for Pain’s Necessity to Healing.

“Iris chewed on her lip, knowing this was the moment of no return. And yet there was no other option. She was consumed by the thought of writing to Roman again. Of taking that magical connection into her hands once more, letting it slip over thresholds and cross war-torn kilometers.”

The impact of written words showcased in Divine Rivals returns in its sequel. Now on opposite sides of a war between gods (and physically on opposite sides of a war-torn country), Iris and Roman still manage to connect through their writing. Moreover, Iris’s words to Roman prove crucial in restoring his memories and thus his sense of identity and his relationships with others.