Crown of Midnight

“Celaena sank back into her pillows. It was just a nightmare. Cain and the ridderak were gone, and Elena wouldn’t bother her again. It was over.”

The events of Throne of Glass still haunt Celaena and will continue to do so throughout the novel. This passage is an example of irony because she thinks her struggles with evil are over when in fact they are just beginning. Celaena greatly desires freedom to live her life freely and in peace, yet she must take orders from a ruthless king and fulfill the mission of a dead queen.

“‘I’ll never forget the people I’ve killed,’ she said. Her breath curled in the air between them. ‘Even the ones I killed to survive. I still see their faces, still remember the exact blow it took to kill them.’ She looked to the skeletal trees. ‘Some days, it feels like another person did those things. And most of those lives I’m glad I ended. No matter the cause, though, it—it still takes away a little piece of you each time. So I don’t think I’ll ever forget them.’”

Chaol and Celaena have finished their morning run and begin talking about Chaol killing Cain in Throne of Glass. He asks Celaena how often she thinks about the people she has killed, and this is her response. This shows that the King’s Champion retains her empathy and morality and that she suffers with each kill.

“The name made her sick with long-suppressed rage and grief, but she managed to say it. Because even if she didn’t want the entire truth…there were some things she did need to know about her capture. Still needed to know, even after all this time.”

This passage references Rourke Farran, the crime lord responsible for Celaena’s capture in Throne of Glass. Because of Farran, Celaena was sent to the Salt Mines of Endovier, a traumatic imprisonment from which she has not healed. This background information provides insight into Celaena’s desperate desire for freedom.

“If I could leave you in peace, I would. But you have lived your life aware that you will never escape certain burdens. Whether you like it or not, you are bound to the fate of this world. As the King’s Champion, you are now in a position of power, and you can make a difference in the lives of many.”

Mort, the skull-shaped door knocker on Queen Elena’s tomb door, delivers this message from Elena. Elena knows that Celaena is growing tired and frustrated by the mysteries, puzzles, and riddles with which she is burdened. But Elena must convince Celaena that her destiny lies in her power as King’s Champion and that she must continue forward to help save the people of Erilea.

“She had a flicker of memory from a time when, just for a moment, she’d been free; when the world had been wide open and she’d been about to enter it with Sam at her side. It was freedom that she was still working for, because even though she’d tasted it only for a heartbeat, it had been the most exquisite heartbeat she’d ever experienced.”

Freedom is a theme woven throughout the novel and is something Celaena has been seeking for a long time. The moment referenced here occurs well before Crown of Midnight, as Sam, Celaena’s former boyfriend, dies just before Celaena is captured and sent to Endovier. She has been through so much for freedom, and she will continue to fight for that freedom, no matter the cost.

“But if Chaol wasn’t in charge of interrogating possible traitors, then who was? Was this person the source who had given the king his latest list of traitors to the crown? Oh, there were too many things to consider, too many secrets and tangled webs.”

Another theme present in the novel is the relationship between lies and truth. Celaena is talking to Archer about getting into the office of a suspected rebel leader, Davis, during the masquerade ball. There is much Celaena doesn’t know about the king’s court, such as the person responsible for Celaena’s list of traitors to target. She doubts Chaol tortures and executes prisoners, but she doesn’t know who else it could be. This lack of transparency hints at the tangled layers of deceit, both malevolent and well-intentioned, surrounding Celaena.

“She’d hardly known where she was going while the gloriella tore through her; all she’d known was that she had to get someplace safe. And somehow, she had wound up exactly where she knew she’d be safest.”

Davis poisons his blade with gloriella, so when he slices Celaena’s arm after catching her, she slowly becomes paralyzed. Even poisoned, she manages to return to the castle on her own strength. But as she stumbles through a side entrance, she finds herself unconsciously drawn to Chaol and the safety he symbolizes.

“Still, Celaena couldn’t shake the chill that had wrapped around her, or ignore the warmth of the amulet at her neck. Even if there wasn’t a creature behind that door, answers lay behind it. And she’d find them—just not today. Not until she was ready.”

The Hero’s Journey is a common mythic structure in High Fantasy following the adventure of a “hero” who eventually returns home, significantly changed. This passage illustrates that Celaena’s long journey demands much strength and maturity. Celaena understands that she can’t solve every problem and mystery at once, and that her success depends on her ability to face a reality she might not want to see.

“‘It is punishable by death to speak of or to encourage magic. It is an affront to the gods, and an affront to me that you sang such a song in my hall.’ Rena Goldsmith just stared at him, her eyes bright. She hadn’t struggled when his men grabbed her after the performance or even screamed when they’d beheaded her companion. As if she’d been expecting this.”

The King of Adarlan says this to Rena after she dedicates a song to the royal family. The song was rich in magical lore and themes, a calculated move to prove to the king that he can outlaw magic but not make it disappear. Rena’s rebellion starkly contrasts the horrors happening throughout the rest of the continent, and her fate is ironically swifter and more merciful than the rebels sentenced to work in the Calaculla and Endovier mines.

“Family. Dorian had never really considered himself to be in an actual family. And certainly not now. If anyone found out about what had happened in the hallway yesterday, about the magic he might have, his father would kill him. He had a second son, after all. Families weren’t exactly supposed to think like that, were they?”

Dorian’s reflection here illustrates what life would be like under the King of Adarlan’s rule, especially as his family. Dorian knows his father is a powerful and ruthless king who would not show even him mercy for his magic. Dorian understands that his position at court is expendable, as is his life; he also acknowledges that his blind obedience to his father prevents him from becoming the man he wants to be.

“While they’d been gifted, they’d never once pushed their borders—even when wars came to their doorstep. When foreign kings had threatened them, the retribution was swift and brutal. But always, no matter what, they kept to their borders. Kept the peace.”

When Dorian goes to the library for the first time to find answers to his magic, he discovers that Terrasen is a very different country from Adarlan. The King of Adarlan is an unstoppable force, killing anyone in the way. Terrasen nobles, however, never expanded beyond their borders and only ever eradicated foreign threats. Dorian is shocked because he’s grown up in a kingdom where everything is for the taking if a ruler is strong enough.

“And he destroyed my entire kingdom! You daydream about the power and honor of Terrasen’s royal court, yet you don’t realize what it means that the king was able to destroy them. They were the strongest court on the continent—they were the strongest court on any continent, and he killed them all.”

Nehemia wants Celaena to promise that she will help the princess save her kingdom when the time comes, but Celaena knows it would be a suicide mission. Celaena believes the king is unstoppable and feels hopeless, but Nehemia disregards this, focusing only on helping her people escape. These two powerful women are at odds with one another because one wants to free her people, but the other wants to free herself.

“He’d kill any man who hurt Celaena; and if the king ever gave him the order to dispatch her, then he’d plunge his sword into his own heart before he would obey. His soul was bound to hers by some unbreakable chain.”

Because Chaol is a man of honor and integrity, he struggles when his loyalty shifts from the king to Celaena. This transition marks his character growth: He continues questioning who Celaena is and what threat she poses to the kingdom, but he no longer blindly follows a ruthless king. Further, the fact that he sees himself as bound to Celaena makes her later hatred of him more tragic.

“Celaena knew where she was before she awoke. And she didn’t care. She was living the same story again and again. […] She smiled bitterly as she opened her eyes. It was always the same story, the same loss.”

At this point in her journey, Celaena has lost her family, home, country, freedom, peace, companion, and best friend, among other things. A typical Hero’s Journey is linear, starting with a call to adventure and ending with a return to everyday life. But Celaena’s journey is cyclical: She is stuck in a perpetual loop between tests, allies, and enemies; approaches and ordeals. Maas denies her a typical hero’s ending; instead, Celaena moves from one loss to the next.

“His father exploded when Dorian suggested that, but Dorian had still written her parents a message, expressing his deepest condolences. His father could go to hell for all he cared.”

Like Chaol, Dorian’s loyalty is shifting. He is growing increasingly aware of his father’s misdeeds and learning how harmful blind obedience is. While he wasn’t close to Nehemia, Dorian understands the implications of a royal assassination and feels the king should offer a public apology after her murder. He defies his father and at least writes a letter to Nehemia’s family, showing his compassion and growth.

“Then Celaena and the King of Adarlan smiled at each other, and it was the most terrifying thing Dorian had ever seen.”

Celaena’s grief causes her to lose touch with reality, turning her savage and ruthless. She brings the king Grave’s severed head and a list of the rebels she killed in the warehouse. She didn’t kill them for the king’s sake, but the outcome is the same: the evil king’s gratitude and respect. When she smiles at the king—something she has never done—Dorian fears for his friend and the harm she might cause.

“She was hiding something—a secret she kept locked up so tight that only the horror and shattering loss of that night could have made her slip in such a way. So the more he could discover about her, the better chance he stood of being prepared when the secret came to light.”

Throughout the novel, Chaol has grown increasingly curious about what makes Celaena so different and ruthless. He loves her for her strength and beauty, yet he knows there’s something inside her that allows her to be such a lethal fighter and willing assassin. Lies and deception are a normal part of court life, yet Chaol knows that Celaena is hiding information that threatens the peace and safety of the realm. His curiosity leads him to research more about her, and he hopes that doing so will help him accept whatever her secret is.

“’The Wyrd governs and forms the foundation of this world. Not just Erilea, but all life. There are worlds that exist beyond your knowledge, worlds that lie on top of each other and don’t know it. Right now, you could be standing on the bottom of someone else’s ocean. The Wyrd keeps these realms apart.’”

This passage taps into the book's magic system and describes the power uniting not just Erilea and Celaena’s world but all of the planets in existence. It also shows the reader the vast universe Maas has created for the novel, adding complexity and depth to the setting. The Wyrd’s sheer power makes it extraordinarily dangerous, which raises the stakes of the novel later on.

“And the only way she’d die a traitor would be for her to do what he feared: ally with this secret organization, find Aelin Galathynius, and return to Terrasen. This was a hint that she had no intention of doing that. She had no plans to reclaim her lost title, and posed no threat to Adarlan or Dorian. He’d been wrong. Yet again, he’d been wrong.”

Chaol is extremely close to discovering the truth about Celaena. In another example of irony, he convinces himself that she is safe and trustworthy, unaware that her true identity makes her one of the kingdom’s biggest threats. Chaol will soon learn that if Celaena toys with magic she doesn’t understand, she could endanger not just the king and Adarlan but the entire world.

“The hood had fallen off the creature, revealing what looked like a man’s face—looked like, but no longer was. His hair was sparse, hanging off his gleaming skull in clumpy strings, and his lips…there was such scarring around his mouth, as though someone had ripped it open and sewed it shut, then ripped it open again.”

The creature under the library symbolizes the king’s cruelty. When Celaena learns that the king has been using Wyrdkeys to manipulate magic, readers understand that the king created the creature. This exemplifies the king’s cruelty, as he only uses his power to torment and manipulate others.

“The now-familiar abyss inside of her stretched wider. There was no end to it, that hollow ache. No end at all. If the gods had bothered to listen, she would have traded her life for Nehemia’s. It would have been such an easy choice to make. Because the world didn’t need an assassin with a coward’s heart. It needed someone like Nehemia.”

Celaena struggles with her guilt, shame, and grief. The more she learns about Nehemia’s role in finding the Wyrdkeys and stopping the king, the more Celaena realizes how strong and selfless she is. These discoveries help Celaena realize, too late, what a true leader does for the sake of their people. Celaena knows she fights for her freedom and not for the freedom of others, which makes her feel selfish and unworthy.

“Nehemia had dreamed of a court that could change the world, a court where loyalty and honor were more valued than blind obedience and power. The day Nehemia had died, Celaena had thought the dream of that court forever vanished. But looking at Dorian as he smiled at her, this prince who was smart and thoughtful and kind, who inspired good men like Chaol to serve him… Celaena wondered if Nehemia’s impossible, desperate dream of that court might yet come to pass.”

When Nehemia and Celaena first discussed a better world with noble leaders, it led to anger and hurt. Celaena was unwilling to promise to help Nehemia because she thought it was a hopeless cause that would end in death. Celaena has developed and matured, so she now sees that a royal court worthy of making the world a better place is possible, but it’s only possible through men like Dorian.

“And she didn’t know how she would do it, or how long it would take, but she would see it through. Because Nehemia couldn’t. Because it was time.”

After enduring numerous trials, Celaena finally accepts her identity and her destiny. Previously, she refused to help Nehemia save Eyllwe, but now that she’s ready, she promises with blood to save Nehemia’s people and reinstate her father. This acceptance foreshadows the adventure and struggles sure to come in the subsequent novels in the series.