Bloodmarked

“Instead of forging weapons, typical Rootcrafters commune with ancestors to request access to ambient root—and there doesn’t seem to be a limit with how they use it after that, from healing to memory walking. But Vera’s Bloodcraft spell takes it one step further. In the cave, red root flames ignited within me and flowed from my body, down my arms and hands. I breathed out crimson fire that scorched isels and burned through their demon flesh—but only after they’d attacked me first.”

This quote contextualizes how Bree’s unique powers work: Legendborn steal “aether” from the air while Rootcrafters borrow power from ancestors. Vera’s Bloodcraft bound root to her descendants’ bodies. Like root, this power is meant for protection, not offense, and the power is borrowed, not taken.

“‘I gave you this post with the expectation that you would protect the Scion of Arthur’s life with your own.’

Sel is so furious he can barely speak. ‘And I accepted the post under that condition,’ he spits. ‘As a child.’”

Merlins are forced to enter their Oaths as children before they can properly understand what they mean and give informed consent. This tactic keeps the Order in control of Merlins at a great cost; like all Merlins, Sel is now bound to fulfilling these Oaths to repress his demon nature.

“You think in terms of ‘good’ or ‘evil,’ but Merlin envisioned that his descendants could be both, with the Oaths as safeguards. Demons are selfish, solitary creatures. If our latent demonic natures overcome us, we lose empathy, sympathy, kindness. Humanity. Eventually, all that remain are the core hungers of demonia: the inescapable desires to create and consume human misery.”

Erebus explains how succumbing to the blood works and foreshadows Sel’s descent. Merlin’s Oaths are supposedly “safeguards” against demonia, but it is equally possible they trap Merlins in a path to demonia. Erebus’s words represent what Merlins are taught about What Makes a Monster and how they will inevitably become what they fear.

“‘We are kin and kindred.’

‘By force,’ I spit. ‘Not by choice. One of your “kin” was a monster.’

A pause. ‘It is only when I Call one of my Scions that I can bear witness to their lives, and Samuel Davis was never Called. It was when I Called you that I learned of his sin.’ Another pause. ‘I wish it had not been committed.’”

Bree explains The Effects of Racial and Sexual Violence to Arthur. This complicates how monstrosity is depicted: Samuel was a human who committed a monstrous act. Arthur is tricking Bree: He pretends to sympathize with her about the transgression on Vera’s autonomy and consent, but later takes over Bree’s body.

“I laugh icily. ‘When white people say something’s “not about race,” it’s usually because it is and they don’t wanna talk about it.’

‘Excuse me?’ Cestra sneers.

‘Excuse yourself,’ I sneer back. ‘It was about race to Lord Davis, but at least he had the decency to admit it to my face instead of’—I jerk my chin at the room, the screen, the camera—’all of this!’”

Bree points out how the Regents use innuendo to disguise how their disregard for her is motivated by racism. Their “covert” racism hides under layers of duplicity, unlike Lord Davis, who admitted his prejudice to Bree’s face. While different, both forms of racism are insidious in their effects.

“‘But you’re Lieges,’ I say, confused. ‘You’re part of the Order. Why did you…?’

‘We may be of the Order,’ Samira says in a low voice, ‘but we are not the Order. We are Legendborn. Our allegiance is to one another.’”

Bree learns that parts of the Order are Operating Outside of Authority for Moral Good. This is the first indication that larger parts of their society take issue with how the Regents have been wielding their power. Samira and Gill stand by their peers who fight to save people, not by the secretive Regents.

“‘Listen, Bree, I know “I’m sorry” isn’t enough—that there aren’t any words big or deep enough for what happened to your ancestor.’ His eyes are soft, but his brow is set in a determined expression that I recognize. ‘But I am sorry about what that Scion did to her. Sorry that what he did to her then endangers you now, and takes your choices away. You’ve been forced into a world that not only puts your life at risk but shortens it. It’s not right. Or fair. Or just.’

I have an urge to shrug Nick’s words away. He’s right; they aren’t enough. Could never be. But, I think, no one ever apologized to Vera. Maybe Nick’s apology won’t change things, but the very fact of it is a change.”

This quotation characterizes Nick’s lack of toxic patriarchy and white supremacy, which his father and many leading Order members have. Nick is the only person to account for what happened to Vera and the intergenerational effects it has. Nick breaks the cycle of oppression his ancestors started.

“Samira’s face breaks open in a grin. ‘But you pulled the blade when you did and how you did because you put yourself in the right place to do so. Not your mother, not your grandmother, but you. You brought honor to your Line, and I don’t mean Arthur’s. You don’t need the sword, Bree. You are the sword. Their sword. Our sword.’”

Samira shows the importance of seeing people who look like oneself in positions of power. In some ways, her words echo the weaponization of Bree done by Vera. In others, they emphasize Bree’s individuality and strength. Bree shouldn’t live only for her ancestors, but for herself.

“William is a healer to his very core. It’s who he is. The strength? The fighting? That’s just what he does. What he must do. He doesn’t enjoy battle the way Selwyn or Nick do. The way Greer does, or even Tor. How must it feel to hold death in one hand and restoration in the other?”

This quote characterizes William, especially the conflict he feels between his personality and legacy. William is forced to commit violence due to his inheritance, but it goes against his nature. Being Legendborn is forced, not consensual. Breaking the Legendborn cycle would free people like William from having to transgress their morals.

“Some plantations kept records, I think…but how well? Was Vera born on Samuel Davis’s plantation, or had she been sold to him from another? Ironic that the Order, with the blood of chattel slavery on the hands of their founding fathers, with their Wall of Ages and thick tomes of family records, has to face the all-too-common challenge of researching Black American family ancestry.”

The Regents track Legendborn bloodlines, presumably to keep track of the next inheritor to a Line. They have this privilege because until Bree, every Scion has been white, and those family lines are accessible. When the Regents try to track Bree’s enslaved ancestors, the same systems of oppression and familial destruction the Order enacted as the enslaving class hinders their search for Bree’s lineage.

“‘All of the Scions, our knights’ spirits tugging at our souls like fish on a line. It reminded me that I am the Scion of Gawain no matter where I am or what I’m doing. We get so few choices. I keep saying it, but it’s true,’ he says quietly. ‘I chose to let Dylan go.’

‘Because Arthur Called? Or Camlann?’ I ask, then swallow. ‘Or me?’

William pushes to standing. ‘All one reason at this point, don’t you think?’ Bitterness sweeps across his face, there and gone.”

This quotation highlights the flaws within the Legendborns’ inheritance cycle. It takes away Scions’ choice of how to live their lives. It further conflates Bree with these systems even though she really wants to break free from them. This foreshadows a possibility that the cycle will be broken in the third book.

“‘Out of order.’ The corner of the man’s mouth lifts in a smirk full of sudden spite, eyes glued to mine as if to pin all that spite right on me. Paint it on my face, so I won’t misunderstand.

I understand perfectly. And even without looking at her I know Alice does too. Her face flushes a bright, angry red, but she says nothing. We’re in the middle-of-nowhere Georgia. There’s the war, and there are battles. Neither of us chooses this battle.”

This quotation complicates What Makes a Monster. The Order thinks demons are bad and need to be killed, while humans are good and to be saved. However, some humans can commit more violence than a demon does. These racist gas station employees won’t let Bree or Alice use their facilities. This recalls “whites only” signs from eras of Jim Crow segregation, as well as objects like The Green Book, which was a list of hotels and gas stations in the South that were safe for Black people to use. That era of segregation continues to affect the social environment of the Southern United States.

“‘Because the O-word used to hunt and imprison “rogue” aether users for using magic they didn’t understand and couldn’t control,’ I answer dryly, crossing my arms. ‘Experiment on them. Lock them up in prey buildings with wards on the doors and windows. Ask me how I know.’

It’s not just me, though. I think of Patricia, and how I’m still hiding her identity. Mariah, the only other root practitioner and Medium that I know. My mother, hiding her abilities. Then, the memory of the Salem Witch Trials manacles on display in the Lodge’s library rises up behind my eyes.”

The Order maintains their power by hunting any magic-users who fall outside of their control. This includes Rootcrafters and “rogue” magic users. Tracy Deonn ties to the Order’s violence to US history, imagining that they had a hand in hunting down the famous Salem “witches,” imagined here as “rogue” magic users.

“But the last time I saw this many Black and brown people I was on a ritual plane between life and death, and I was staring at my own family members. I breathe a sigh of something like relief. For once, I’m some place where I’m more at home than the Legendborn are. A world of magic users who look like me, even if we aren’t exactly the same.”

The Order is largely white and racially segregated. They use oppressive and nonconsensual magic that uphold the social systems that empower them. Bree was the only Black person there. At Crossroads, she finds non-white magic users like her; this representation makes her feel less alone.

“‘Your ancestors were once considered property by the colonizers and their descendants. Your body viewed as a means to an end. The Order is still upholding thousand-year-old traditions as if they had been written yesterday, so why would they release a four-hundred-year-old one?’ His eyes flashed. ‘Whatever knowledge or power these white folks have deigned to give you, whatever little Oaths they’ve let you make, it’s all a gesture. You’ve seen the Regents’ true faces. They may allow one of their precious Scions to share their knight’s gift with you, but instead of honoring your sacrifice they’ll demand your gratitude.’”

Valec points out the contradictory role Bree has in the Order: She supposedly leads the organization that enslaved her ancestors. His words highlight the hollowness of “diversity” in white institutions that don’t really want to be equitable. In the Order, power will always be contingent upon one’s adherence to their system.

“‘What’s with the code?’ Alice asks. ‘Stations, conductors, stops.’

I answer before Mariah does. ‘Are we following the Underground Railroad?’

‘Not quite,’ Valec clarifies. He comes to stand beside me, arms crossed, gazing at an old home up a ways from where we’ve parked. ‘There wasn’t just one route, anyway, and no one really knows all of them, or even the full extent of any single route, for security reasons. But we’re using the technology and knowledge left behind, yes. Keeping our people safe still looks a lot like hiding from those who would do us harm.’”

During enslavement, people would seek their owed freedom using the Underground Railroad, a mutable network of safehouses leading north. Their descendants use the same networks to stay safe from the Order, who perpetuate these centuries-old traditions of persecution.

“Merlin beckons the others down from their perches. ‘Into the circle. Kneel. Pledge yourselves as knights once more, and your power will be multiplied, and woven into your bloodline for all time.’

Nick climbs down, watching me with something like pride, like awe, like fierce joy. He is the first to kneel. The first to take the flat side of Excalibur to his shoulder and, gasping, receive the jolt of aether it sends through his body. The first to look up at me with glowing silver eyes.

‘The Table,’ he says. Because it is what Lancelot said.

‘Forever,’ we say together.”

Bree and Nick witness the beginning of the Spell of Eternity. Alice later calls this type of romanticized fulfillment of ancestral wishes “indoctrination” by the Order. They are taught to play “hero” and look to their ancestors as ideal. In this bloodwalk, they’re both swept away with this romanticization. As both Bree and Nick find out, their ancestors are not innocent of the Order’s crimes.

“The average Merlin knows how to cast large weapons that are hard and sharp, and the harder and sharper, the better. But what Sel did was unprecedented. He cast thousands of flexible microscopic aether constructions, and manipulated them to keep you alive.”

Sel begins to think outside the box that he and other Merlins are trapped in by the Order. Sel was taught he could only be used for fighting. He learns he can use his magic to create beauty or to save Bree. Sel’s magical creativity and these “unprecedented” uses of Merlin magic foreshadow the possibility the Merlins will break free of the Order’s control.

“This site is reclaimed from our oppressors. Rootcrafters have cared for it for a hundred years, and spent the first half of that helping ancestors who wanted to move on from their trauma go to rest. The spirits who remained control this place in death, because they never could in life.”

Volition used to be a plantation. The spirits of formerly enslaved people still live there. However, their descendants have used the powers their ancestors passed down to them to give their spirits peace. This shows the consensual and mutually beneficial relationship between Rootcrafters and their ancestors, as opposed to the exploitative ancestral bonds of the Legendborn.

“William’s face is solemn, thoughtful. ‘In the Legendborn tradition, we call ourselves Awakened when our knights call us. But we don’t really talk about them as if they’re alive. Beginning to wonder if we should.’

‘Well,’ Lu says. ‘Awake ain’t the same thing as living.’”

This quotation highlights the difference between the role of ancestors for Legendborn and Rootcrafters. At Volition, ancestral spirits walk among their living descendants. William wonders if Legendborn should address their ancestors like Rootcrafters do theirs. Lucille points out what William doesn’t realize: that their ancestor relationships differ because of their unique magics, which in turn are affected by how their groups approach systemic power.

“Nick points back toward the dining hall. ‘This is the beginning of the Order. You do realize that, right? At first it was the one hundred and fifty knights, then it was the thirteen—enhanced by Merlin and binding power to their bloodlines—but that down there? That’s the beginning of the society. The public praise. The bragging. The display of power, crown of our enemy. Hubris, organized.’”

This moment juxtaposes the moment Bree and Nick experienced the “beginning” of the Spell of Eternity when Lancelot gained aether powers. Nick has realized how the Order romanticizes their lineage to control then while shoring up oppressive power. The real Order is not about saving people, but gaining fame and power at any cost.

“I am Arthur Pendragon, and I own this body now.”

Arthur re-inscribes the violation of Vera by his descendent by using Bree’s body as his tool. Like Samuel felt he owned Vera, Arthur thinks he owns Bree. This nonconsensual violation has racist undertones: Arthur sits atop the throne of “white dude magic” (61) while Bree descends from enslaved folk.

“This is the worst thing I can imagine: that all we fought for and everything Sel had done to keep his demonia from overtaking him would happen right before my eyes. Not just through me, but because of me.”

Bree repeatedly confronts the inevitable devastation the Order’s system of power wreaks: William has no choice but to commit violent acts, Nick has no choice but to run from attempted murder, and Sel has no choice but to succumb to demonia. These things happen “because of” Bree because, though she burns her ancestral plane, she still inhabits the Arthurian figurehead, and within that system, no one has true choice or freedom.