“Of the twenty of my progeny who were brought here, you are all that survive. That you do, that you thrive, is an achievement, for the training you’ve received would’ve been a test for the best of men. And you are not men.”

With these words to Lara and her sisters, Silas reveals the inherent biases that women face in the social political context in Maridrina. Although Lara and her sisters are specifically chosen and trained because Maridrinian women are undervalued in their kingdom, Silas’s perspective on their worth is always measured by the achievements of men. He therefore only recognizes his daughters because they can be equated to “the best of men.”

“Lara had rested on the outskirts, offering nothing, using the time to watch her sisters. To love them. […] The way, even past childhood, they nestled together like a pile of puppies newly away from their mother.”

In this selection, Jensen creates an image that conveys Lara’s motherly instincts. By watching over her sisters, Lara is revealed to be a benevolent figure who would readily endure torture and perpetuate multiple atrocities in order to guarantee that her sisters have are spared from a similar fate. Her willingness to take extreme measures to ensure her sisters’ safety emphasizes her self-sacrificing nature and foreshadows her drastic actions later in the novel.

“Maridrinian women are soft. They are weak. They are good for nothing more than keeping house and raising children. Except for you twelve.”

Because Silas’s main source of power lies in his ability to convincingly manipulate others, this passage reveals the subtle ways in which he controls his daughters by imbuing them with a sense of exceptionalism and placing them above other Maridrinian women. In this way, he makes them feel valued, special, and chosen even as he callously manipulates them into serving his own ends.