Divine Rivals

Both in person and through The Emotional Impact of Written Words, the opening chapters focus primary on developing Iris and Roman as the protagonists of the novel, while also exploring the more problematic aspects of their relationship. The rivalry between Iris and Roman is quickly established as an obstacle to any type of friendship or romance, but the sly “back channels” represented by their mystery correspondence through the enchanted typewriter lend an element of romance to an interaction that has yet to show any signs of becoming one. This unique development also serves to provide additional depth to the main characters, for in person, both reporters make false assumptions about one another based upon the armor they wear in public. For example, Roman exudes a cocky, pretentious countenance that causes Iris to view him as a wealthy, privileged snob, while Roman assumes that because Iris did not finish high school, she is a sloppy and unreliable coworker with no ambition and a poor work ethic. It is only through their written communications that they will slowly come to know each other well, despite Roman’s decision to keep the truth of his identity a secret for the time being.

In fact, Roman’s decision to finally answer Iris’s letters to Forest rather than just silently “lurking” and reading them indicates a turning point in their relationship and foreshadows the development of the romance trope commonly known as “enemies (or rivals) to lovers.” While Roman’s initial presumptions about Iris have yet to evolve, even after he has read her previous letters, his decision to write back to her opens the doorway to a mutual correspondence that will eventually allow for the creation of an emotional connection. Their long-distance relationship will continue to deepen as the story unfolds, and in the meantime, Roman’s knowledge of Iris’s identity and her lack of his provides the author with multiple opportunities to capitalize on the tension of the dramatic irony involved in the story’s premise.

As The Intensity of Wartime Relationships, both familial and romantic, becomes a key theme of the novel, Ross devotes ample attention to conveying the dynamics within Iris’s own family of origin. The Prologue is therefore designed to offer a necessary snapshot of the brother-sister relationship that originally existed between Forest and Iris before his disappearance on the front lines. The moment of goodbye at the train depot demonstrates a sibling relationship so strong that Iris even entertains the thought of following Forest to the war front. In return, Forest’s love for Iris is evident in his insistence that she prioritize her studies, and his vow to write to her regularly also raises the mystery and tension that surrounds his subsequent silence and lack of letters. In this opening scene, Iris is unafraid to show the depths of her emotions, and this display provides a stark contrast to her demeanor months later, when she admits to wearing metaphorical armor to protect her vulnerable, emotional side from the scrutiny of those around her. The only emotional outlet that Iris can find is in writing letters to Forest; however, as the tone of her letters makes clear, her love for him is tainted by the anger she feels at his abandonment, for she resents the fact that the brother she so loves chose a goddess over his own family. This sentiment is compounded by her grief at his apparently broken promise to write back. In a sharp contrast to Iris’s emotive approach to the loss of her brother, Aster handles Forest’s absence by consuming alcohol to excess, and eventually, her addiction leads to the loss of her job, her spiritual abandonment of her daughter, and a drastically decreased quality of life for both of them. The combined impact of Forest’s broken promise to write Iris and Aster’s abandonment greatly increases Iris’s belief that all her loved ones will eventually leave her; this conviction only enforces her metaphorical armor, and only her letters to the mystery correspondent will allow Ross to fully articulate the character’s greater emotional depths.

This section also introduces the theme of The Dangers of Censorship by providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Gazette, an eastern Cambria media outlet run by a narrow-minded boss and highly regulated by a willfully ignorant chancellor. Although the chancellor’s motives are cleverly hidden from the public, Roman can easily envision him “quietly enforcing [censorship] to keep the east out of the war’s destruction” (53). While the citizens of Oath who are still relatively unaffected by the war are content to retain their ignorance, those like Iris whose family members are directly involved in the war effort are all too aware of the dangers of being unprepared during wartime. With the chancellor’s and Zeb Autry’s restrictions placing a chokehold on Iris’s writing, her frustration only intensifies, prompting her lunch discussion with Sarah about career aspirations. Iris’s ultimate desire is to inspire and inform others by writing the truth, and this ambition reflects her steadfast belief in The Emotional Impact of Written Words. While her ideals shine through in the mystery correspondence she shares with Roman throughout the novel, it will also later apply directly to her career when she leaves the Gazette and joins the Inkridden Tribune as a war correspondent.

While Ross employs considerable world-building skills in her creation of Cambria, she leaves the rules of her universe’s magical system largely unexplained. It is clear from the narration that subtle enchantments are an everyday reality for the citizens of Cambria, and while the connection is never explicit, it can be assumed that such vestiges of magic are connected to the presence of the warring gods in one way or another. This underlying presence of magic influences everything from grocery stores to typewriters, and even as the characters accept the reality of such marvels with relative equanimity, the narrative also reveals a level of uncertainty about these enchantments, and even the characters themselves never fully understand how such magically imbued items function. This fundamental lack of knowledge also implies a connection to The Dangers of Censorship, for upon her attempts to ferret out the history of the war among the gods, Iris discovers that important pages have been ripped out of the history books, almost “as if someone wanted to steal the knowledge of the past” (35). The lack of documentation about the past dooms those in the present to unknowingly retrace the steps of history, reigniting the ancient war between Dacre and Enva—with humans as collateral damage.