62 pages • 2 hours read
Jennifer L. ArmentroutA Light in the Flame
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Fate Versus Free Will
Despite the heavy reliance on elements of prophecy and divination, free will, choice, and love are presented as forces strong enough to change destiny. Free will and destiny interact in complex ways to build reality. For instance, Sera is prophesized to be someone who will “remake the realms” (586). However, aware of the prophecy, Ethyos deliberately placed the embers in her bloodline, thus fulfilling the prophecy with his choice. Further, every choice that Sera makes, such as willingly opting to be Nyktos’s consort and risking her life to resurrect that of others, ends up fulfilling the conditions of the prophecy. These events show that the circular way in which fate and free will operate is difficult to parse and that individuals are free to exercise their own choices.
The role of the Arae or Fates shapes the universe of the novel. The Arae are primordial entities who predate even the Ancients, the first-generation Primal gods. Nyktos describes the Fates as not even having a form for the longest time, existing as a part of everything. Holland, an Arae, tells Sera that the Fates can see every possible outcome of a scenario play out and tend to facilitate the scenario that is the most beneficial or least harmful. Yet Holland also openly states that the Fates do not foresee everything. He tells her that “love is powerful […] more so than even the Arae could imagine” (43). Throughout the novel, Holland’s observation about the limitation of the Fates is proven right. Delfai observes that though the Fates retrieved a pure conduit for the embers of life to prevent a concentration of power, the move backfired. The Fates did not foresee that Kolis would steal the conduit—the diamond known as the Star—and use it to upset the balance of power in all the realms.
Another instance of the Fates misreading a situation is that of Holland assuming that Sera is Sotoria reborn. By the novel’s end, it is revealed that Sera is not just a reincarnation of Sera but the holder of two souls. Nyktos notes that “Holland was wrong” about Sera, adding, “I think a lot of us were wrong” (454). The fact that a mortal woman is right, while all-knowing Fates, Primals, and gods can be shortsighted, illustrates the importance of human choice. Another feature of the interplay between free will and fate is the primacy of love, as primarily shown in the relationship between Nyktos and Sera. When Holland tells Sera that love has the power to change fate, he foreshadows that Nyktos loves Sera, even though his kardia has been removed. In fact, Nyktos’s actions toward Sera clearly showcase his love for her, even though he may think that he is incapable of love. Thus, love becomes a tool to change the laws that govern the novel’s universe.
The Corrupting Influence of Power
In the novel’s universe, the power that gods, especially Primals, yield is enormous: The angry god Phanos drowns an entire city over a petty vengeance. Primals are the apex gods at the top of the social pyramid, beings as much of silvery ether as they are of flesh. Primals like Nyktos can fly, take lives in a second, and teleport in the form of shadowstepping. Given the amount of power that Primals and lesser gods yield, they need to guard against power’s corrupting influence. The novel underscores the point that, by its very nature, power tends to warp the wielder. Thus, conscientious gods like Nyktos forever examine themselves to ensure that they are not using power for unethical reasons. Sera notes that the draken, inky marks that Nyktos bears on his body symbolize his ever-present awareness of the lives he has taken: “You feel the marks those deaths left behind, and you carry them on your skin” (272). The marks are a metaphor for the concerns that are on Nyktos’s conscience.
Nyktos is one of the few Primals who are relatively free from the corrupting influence of power. While Kolis is the embodiment of corrupt power, even other Primals like Veses and Hanan are willing to go to any extent to exercise control over others. Hanan is shown to start a war because he feels threatened by Bele’s ascension, while Veses controls Nyktos through blackmail. On several occasions, Nyktos and Sera observe that the gods of the nine courts are “cutthroat” and power hungry (28). Kolis is the extreme end of this hunger for power. His deep corruption is illustrated by his creation of forbidden life forms, such as the Craven and the Revenants. Nyktos notes that creating both involves killing a mortal while feeding from them, a taboo according to all ethics and laws of their universe.
While Nyktos and Sera are largely presented as ethical in their exercises of power, both are capable of using it in morally questionable ways. At Kolis’s court, Nyktos rips out Dyses’s heart because Dyses disrespects and threatens Sera. Sera calls the act “a little excessive” but does not condemn Nyktos’s actions (418). She has killed people in the past and plans to murder Veses violently for preying on Nyktos. Nyktos explains that he and Sera are capable of using their power punitively because the Primal essence changes an individual. It makes them more neutral and objective: able to judge when taking a life is required for the greater good. Thus, Nyktos’s killing of Dyses can be justified because Dyses is inherently evil. Although the text does not judge Sera and Nyktos for their actions, Sera does note that most mortals have a far more enhanced ability than the gods to feel regret about their actions. This may make them subjective, but it also prevents them from misusing power, suggesting that perhaps the best way for gods to exercise their power with caution is to become more human.
The Quest for Identity and Self-Acceptance
Sera’s quest to establish an identity and accept herself is central to the novel. In an early sequence, the god Attes tells Nyktos that he can see why Nyktos would want Sera since the mortal makes “such an alluring accessory” (198). The word “accessory” enrages Sera, and she tells Attes that if he refers to her so derogatorily again, she will feed him his own eyes. Attes is not the only character who refers to Sera as an object; even Delfai, a god of divination, calls Sera a “mortal vessel” for the embers she bears (553). These instances of objectification illustrate that Sera has often been treated as less than a complete person. Her angry response to such treatment demonstrates her growing commitment to advocating for herself.
The novel gives several reasons why Sera feels objectified and limited to a role. One is that Sera has been raised to be an assassin and keep secrets. To keep her secret mission from getting out, Sera was raised more or less in isolation. This former life of secrecy has impacted her psyche. She often refers to herself as invisible or a ghost. Another reason why Sera feels that her identity has been snatched from her is that she has been burdened with fate and responsibility since an early age. She had no choice in the matter of being chosen as Nyktos’s consort. As she tells Nyktos, she could never have shrugged off this responsibility, as she believed that wedding Nyktos was the only way to save her kingdom from the Rot. Thus, Sera struggles under the burden of the roles and labels assigned to her.
In the Shadowlands, Sera begins to assert her identity and her right to make choices. When Nyktos tells her that she should do as she is told to keep herself safe, Sera rejects his authority. She tells him that now that she knows that stopping the Rot is not about her, she has become her “own person” (162). She will do what she deems right, “no matter what risks may be taking” (162). Though Nyktos and other characters often call Sera reckless, she acknowledges that this is her true self. She will eventually learn to temper recklessness with prudence, but that will be on her own time.
Apart from establishing her autonomy, Sera also finds self-acceptance through love and friendship. When she is intimate with Nyktos, she observes that she feels free and like herself. She also feels liberated in her friendships with Nektas, Jadis, Reaver, Bele, and Aios. Sera’s growing sense of self occurs in tandem with her expanding powers. Thus, her power can be seen as a metaphor for her selfhood. The more she becomes herself, the more power she gains.
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By Jennifer L. Armentrout
