“Let them talk back home of Ianthe and Harrowhark—let them weep to speak of us. The past is dead, and they’re both dead, but you and I are alive. What are they? What are they, other than one more corpse we’re dragging behind us?”

Ianthe is quickly established as a character who refuses to live in regret and always looks to the future. Harrow, however, is stuck in the past and cannot move on. Ianthe’s opening dialogue shows that her pursuit of power as a Lyctor is a foil to Harrow’s grief and regret.

“She was Harrowhark alone in front of the mirror again: a nonsense, a monster, an alien geometry. A loathsome squawk of a person. She was nine, and she’d made a mistake. She was seventeen, and she’d made a mistake. Time had repeated itself. Harrow would be tripping over herself for her whole existence, a frictionless hoop of totally fucking up.”

Harrow often displays both a loathing for and detachment from her own body. “Monster,” “chimera,” “alien,” and “failure” are words she uses to self-describe. Harrow’s self-perception, coupled with her birth circumstances, is suggestive of an allegory for body dysphoria. Harrow’s frequent use of language that connotes something foreign, dangerous, and abortive shapes both her self-perception and commitment to honing her mental capacities.

“[I]f you find yourselves on the battlefield, remember that I will make even the dying echo of your heartbeat a sword. I will make the stilled sound on your tongue a roar. I will recall you when you are a ghost in the water, and by that recollection you will be divine. On your death, I will make the very blood in your body arrows and spears.”

John’s anaphoric use of war-centered metaphors is the last speech he gives to regular people before departing for the Mithraeum. His speech suggests a public-facing persona that is regal, commanding, and self-assured of his divinity. This contrasts heavily against John’s private persona of a shabby and awkward father figure who cannot stop his children from fighting.