Lore

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Part 2, Seven Years Earlier-Chapter 24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Carrying Fire”

Part 2, Seven Years Earlier Summary

On a spring day seven years ago, Lore goes with her father to deliver a package to the Kadmides. At the meeting, they find Aristos Kadmou sitting on a throne, looking to Lore like she imagined “Hades would as he oversaw his kingdom of the dead” (188). Rather than an alliance, Kadmou proposes an offer. He wishes to buy Lore so he can marry her. Lore’s father refuses. He knows Kadmou truly makes the offer to mingle Perseus and Kadmou blood so the Kadmides can wield the aegis shield—an artifact only usable by the Perseids, the bloodline to which it was gifted.

Aristos asks Lore what she wants. Lore responds she will be a warrior, and Aristos insults her, saying she is neither brave nor strong enough. In response, Lore attacks one of the Kadmides, her father pulling her back at the last moment. The Kadmides converge on them, but Aristos intervenes, giving Lore’s father money to purchase Lore and demanding a response by the end of the Agon. Lore and her father leave with a final threat from Aristos that there is no other place for Lore in their world, and he “will ensure that, one way or another” (195).

Part 2, Chapter 22 Summary

Lore and Athena flee back down the tunnel. When they reach the shoe shop, Lore receives a text from Castor that he’s safe. Athena confronts Lore for cutting off their chance to destroy Wrath. Lore argues they wouldn’t have won the fight, which mollifies the goddess. Athena warns Lore not to feed Wrath’s power with her fear, promising “I will not let you fail” (197).

With Iro still unconscious, they go to the address Van gave them as a meeting place, which is a laundromat. Miles is there, and Van arrives shortly after. Miles delivers the money and laptop he went to procure, as well as the additional information that Wrath is after the missing Dionysus. Though the operation went well, Lore is concerned about Miles’s excitement and how he looks “like a kid who had just gotten away with breaking the rules for the first time” (200).

An exhausted Castor arrives and heals Iro. The group’s next objective is to track down Dionysus and use him as bait to attract Wrath. Van pulls up an old photo of the new Dionysus, and Miles recognizes the photo’s location as an old museum that’s currently closed for renovations. The group decides to search it, and Lore ends the chapter with the sobering thought: “if Wrath doesn’t find us first” (206).

Part 2, Chapter 23 Summary

Castor escorts Lore to the laundromat’s bathroom to heal a wound she got during the fight. The wound is bad, and it takes Lore a few minutes to recover, even with Castor’s aid. While he heals her, Castor admits he thought being a god would make him strong, but while it took the sickness from his body, he still feels emotionally weak. Lore asks how he killed Apollo, and Castor answers he has “no memory of what happened” and that the security cameras malfunctioned when Apollo came to Thetis House (211). Lore promises to help him figure it out. After a short silence, a crash and a scream come from where they left the others. Iro is awake.

Part 2, Chapter 24 Summary

Lore bursts into the room to find Iro holding a letter opener to Miles’s throat. Lore attacks, freeing Miles, and manages to calm Iro enough to tell her what’s going on. Iro accuses Castor of cowardly killing Apollo and stealing the power from the leader of the Achillides. Though Castor was bedridden at the time and what Iro proposes is impossible, Iro refuses to relent, promising to “win back the kleos stolen from my lord in death” (216). The words remind Lore of herself years ago and leave her unsettled.

The laptop Miles retrieved holds a copy of the Kadmides’s tracking system, which Van downloaded to his phone. The list of people being followed updates, now showing Lore as a target. Van divvies up supplies and leaves to check on the sheltering Achillides, telling the group he’ll meet up with them at the museum to search for Dionysus. After he leaves, Lore tries to break through to Iro. Iro won’t aid them in finding Dionysus, but she offers information about the poem. An ancient letter from the Odysseides archives claims the poem’s “full text is inscribed on the aegis” (221). Wrath attacked the Odysseides because he found records the House of Odysseus had sheltered Lore. Wrath hunts for her because he believes she can read the poem off the Perseus shield.

Part 2, Seven Years Earlier-Chapter 24 Analysis

At the end of Chapter 24, Lore concludes that Wrath searches for her to wield the aegis and to read the original version of the origin poem, which is inscribed on the shield. Later, Tidebringer informs her these conclusions are incorrect. Athena knows all along that Lore’s information is wrong, but she makes no move to correct her, using the false information to further her deception. Unintentionally, Lore helps build Athena’s web of lies simply by not questioning what she believes to be true. It is possible Lore would not have fallen into Athena’s trap if she’d asked more questions. This also suggests Lore wanted to believe Athena and didn’t want to find information to suggest Athena was lying.

The flashback chapter here builds the framework on which the story is built, and Lore’s misconceptions grow. Lore is certain her family was murdered because her father refused to sell her to the Kadmides. Bracken calls upon social norms in ancient Greece, where women had few rights and were supposed to tend the home. In the Agon’s world, these ancient values hold true. Even though Lore is only 11 years old during the flashback, she would become a wife to rear children and never participate in the hunt. Lore believes the Kadmides killed her family because she defied their leader, which a man like Aristos Kadmou couldn’t deal with. These ideas fit into Lore’s worldview, which is why she never questioned how her family died, even though she had no proof that the Kadmides killed them. Her unshakable belief caused her to stop seeking explanations, which blinded her to Athena’s involvement.