Quicksilver

Quicksilver’s two fantasy settings have starkly opposed climates. Zilvaren, where Saeris grows up, is an arid desert with two suns that never set. Queen Madra’s totalitarian rule and unequal dispersal of resources leave water as the most valuable commodity. In Yvelia, by contrast, water is easy to access; the cold landscape sees frequent snowfall, something that astonishes Saeris when she first witnesses it. Saeris finds this shift disorienting; when Everlayne remarks with distaste that Saeris must be uncomfortable after more than a week without a bath, Saeris privately reflects that she’s never had a bath, as that much water could have sustained her family for weeks in Zilvaren. The lack of water in Zilvaren plays into the novel’s climax, in which Saeris and Carrion nearly drown: They cannot swim, as they have never had access to enough water to learn how.

In Yvelia, silver is the most valuable commodity, as it is the only substance that can permanently kill vampires. Gold, by comparison, is used for little more than decoration. This, too, shocks Saeris when she suggests that Fisher sell some of the abundant gold at Cahlish to purchase silver, only to find that the relative values of the two substances are reversed from that of her world, and that silver cannot be purchased for any amount of money in Yvelia. This, they later learn, is part of manipulation on Belikon’s part, who keeps all silver for himself in order to aid Malcolm, who is his brother.

The novel’s worldbuilding thus follows the economic principle of supply and demand: The worth of various materials correlates to its scarcity and abundance in different environments. The novel does suggest, however, that though value of certain commodities may shift according to the availability, all commodities are important. Yvelian Fae, for example, do still rely on water, even when it is abundant; in Chapter 20, for example, Ren explains that the Darn river is important to mountain people; when it freezes, walking on it is the only method of transportation available to their isolated communities. The Darn also serves as an important boundary, as the dead cannot cross running water. Though the value of precious metals in Zilvaren is less apparent, these metals are still key—without their presence, Saeris would never have uncovered her skills. Thus the text suggests that in its fantasy world, resource value is dependent both on abundance and scarcity, and on inherent magical qualities that give commodities other functions.