Talia Moodley

at the system and it's great when you finally see her and Siona meet on the page because yeah it is just these kind of like two opposing forces where Tomla I think again is a bit more gentle in the way that he approaches it even though he has his breaking point but Kara just yeah she was like a fury which was brilliant well she's also been living in the system since she was a child she's been working since she was like five years old because there's no other way for them to survive doesn't Siona at one point ask her like why aren't you in school she's like I'm working are you

And it's kind of the way that the narrative has been perpetuated over years.

Like I think, again, that's the benefit of putting this sort of story in a fantasy world because readers can draw their own, I guess, mirrors and parallels so we can see it in this way where I guess in different countries they might have their own experiences as well.

But it's just, yeah, the way that narrative over the course of generations has been spun that, you know, it's a kind of, you know, it started as like a saviour kind of narrative where they said, no, no, but we're rescuing them from their, you know, deeds or whatever and they don't have the same kind of language or culture or learnings as we do.

When, you know, again, you later find out that, and I don't think that this is a big enough spoiler to be coming in the After Dark section, but you find out that a lot of

what tyrannous society is built on was stolen from the Quen culture like it was kind of their culture that was already at this advanced point it was just the way that the tyrannous viewed it they didn't consider it as I guess they didn't consider it on an equal playing field as theirs and they thought that they could kind of step in and take over and claim ownership of it without ever acknowledging where it came from so I think all of that obviously can be related quite clearly to

the situation in Australia and, you know, terra nullius, like that's the whole, it all links back to that.

And I think it's just that kind of thing of ignorance doesn't excuse things because I think there's a very good

kind of ethical conversation that's brought up a few times throughout the book which is like what makes a good person is it your and this is a kind of discussion that Siona and Tom will have with their conflicting beliefs and their faiths where from Siona's point of view everything that matters is your intention so if you are not intending to cause harm you're not intending to hurt anyone you're trying to do the good thing so I guess with the factory like Brigham's trying to employ these women and give them jobs and produce goods that better society around them

Um, but that then Tom will kind of counters with, but that doesn't matter if your actual actions are causing harm.

It's all to do with your actions.

He's like, his God wouldn't care if you showed up and said, oh, but I didn't mean to do that.

I was intending to do this.

He said, well, all that matters is kind of the action that played out.

Yeah.

But it is really interesting that whole the way that the magic system works, because again, we'll explain more, I think, in the After Dark section, but there is a real cost to the magic that Siona and the High Mages do.

And, yeah, the fact that she's forced to confront that in such a kind of gory way and it literally makes her have this kind of moral conundrum and breakdown.

Again, it was really interesting in that way that the author doesn't say this is right or this is wrong.

They just leave you to take your own meaning from that.

I think it's kind of the best type of writing.