“Florell guided her back to the bolsters and stroked her damp hair. Queen Sabran had sometimes done the same, when Glorian was still young enough to lose her teeth. Those memories glinted, bright and distant—coins spent in a well, sunk too deep to pluck back out.”

Glorian often feels neglected by her mother and feels that she cares more about her becoming queen than being her daughter. In this instance, Glorian remembers a time when Sabran cared for her and comforted her in times of need, but now that she is reaching an age for betrothal and heir-bearing, much of their interaction is cold and focused on an undesirable future for Glorian.

“In every conversation with her mother, there were snares. Each time, she leapt headfirst and trapped herself. Her first mistake had been confessing the pain. Her mother did not like admissions of weakness.”

Yet again, Glorian is confronted by the disjointed relationship between her mother and herself. Glorian wants Sabran to be a warm and caring mother, but Sabran values strength and perfection, hoping to mold Glorian into a strong Inysh queen. Her motivations and high expectations of Glorian stem from her own experiences dealing with the fallout of ineffective queens.

“Wulf only meant to lie down, to remember how it felt to sleep close to his family, but he fell into a doze and dreamed his childhood dream, the one that took him deep into the woods. He was searching for someone, though he knew not who, and no matter how long and hard he looked, or how loud he shouted, no one answered. He ran and ran, weeping with fear, until the trees widened into a clearing, where the ground smelled of blood. He could hear bees humming somewhere close—always there, never seen.”

Wulf struggles throughout the novel with feelings of abandonment stemming from his childhood and the story of his origins. He does, however, possess some memories of his very early childhood, and while they most frequently manifest in nightmares and anxiety, he will later discover that he also remembers his mother’s love. His confusion and uncertainty surrounding his childhood define his self-perception throughout the novel, and his reunion with Tuva is essential to his character development as he moves into the future.