Fireborne

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-13

Chapters 14-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “Aletheia”

In a flashback to the orphanage, Lee and Annie have been planning their escape for a year. On Palace Day, the first anniversary of his family’s murders, there is a city parade. His father’s dragon, Aletheia, is brought forward and executed. Lee watches in devastation and puts an arm around Annie, who also sobs over the display. He believes she feels the same he does about the loss of the dragon but later she tells him that dragon killed her family. Lee cannot reconcile this version of his father—the kind of man who would execute an entire family with his dragon’s fire—with the memory of his loving father. He shouts at Annie, calling her a liar and claims her family must have deserved it. Annie explains that her family was killed because they didn’t meet a food quota during the Famine. When Lee claims that the Famine was a lie—something he’d been previously told—Annie is shocked. She tells him that her mother and baby brother died of starvation, their deaths proof that the Famine was very real. In the days after, her words continue to bother him. They taint his recollection of his father and the dragonborn. Lee decides to escape to New Pythos without her. Yet when the time comes, Lee crosses paths with a crying Annie. Lee comforts her, mending their broken friendship, and decides not to leave for New Pythos after all.

In the present, back on solid ground, Annie claims they must report the sighting to the Inner Palace directly. In a meeting with the First Protector and General Holmes, Annie credits Lee instead with ordering everyone below cloud cover and back to Callipolis. Though it pains her to do so, the decision covers for Lee’s lack of action in the moment. Atreus and Holmes agree they have underestimated the New Pythos threat. They send Duck and Criss with a message for New Pythos as an attempt at diplomacy with Rhadamanthus ha’Aurelian—the current scion of New Pythos. Annie is angry with Lee after the events of the day, as she worries he will defect in favor of his kin.

Following the New Pythos fleet sighting, the dragonriders of Callipolis are given a narrower training focus in exclusively air combat. They are told the titles of Firstrider and their second-in-command, Alternus, will soon be determined in the tournament finals. During their class sparring session, Annie and Lee have a personal argument. In private, Lee tells Annie that he is not planning to defect. Her anger bleeds away with the realization that he won’t leave her as she suspected.

In session with the First Protector, the class is asked why the new regime is better than the old. Cor claims the new regime has fair trials, “a trade-based economy that supports a growing middle class” (103), universal education, and equal opportunity for advancement regardless of birth. When asked about the failings of the old regime, Lee admits that many people died in poverty and starvation under the rule of the triarchy, little legal restraints were given to dragonborn, and unjust cruelty and moral wrongs were committed and excused due to the belief that it was the dragonborns’ bloodborne right to act however they wished. Atreus believes unbridled power led to corruption. Under the new regime, power does not correspond to worth. He believes the worthiness of dragons depends on the reason and virtue of the rider, not inheritance.

Lee meets with Tyndale during office hours. He rejects the offer to join New Pythos. Three days later, Crissa and Duck return from New Pythos with a message that claims the triarchs of Callipolis will soon be leaving exile and returning home. Tyndale delivers a message to Lee two weeks later from his cousin, Julia, which asks Lee to meet her in the Drowned Dragon in Cheapside on Midsummer at three in the morning.

Chapter 5 Summary: “Midsummer”

The dragonriders are given new obligations after Atreus holds a public address in which he informs the people of the very real threat New Pythos poses. Dragonriders are now expected to make morale visits, “where [they] make appearances alongside [their] dragons before the people, delivering motivational speeches and showing proof of their nation’s strength to defy the Pythian threat” (113). Though Lee and many of his classmates have been scheduled for morale visits, Annie has not. This shows the Ministry of Propaganda’s stubborn resolve not to support her competing for the role of Firstrider.

Duck and Cor share upsetting news with their friends. Their sister, who struggles with dyslexia, has tested poorly and given an Iron-class assignment. Her dreams of passing Bronze and working as a baker’s apprentice so she could eventually take over the family shop are dashed. When Lee hears that Annie is joining Duck for Midsummer—a family holiday Lee and Annie usually spend together as orphans—he is tempted to accept his cousin, Julia’s, invitation to meet up. Crissa additionally invites Lee to a Midsummer dinner party of her friend’s, which he accepts.

At the party, a student named Gaven wonders aloud what it would have been like to be present at the Palace Day massacre when the Revolution finally obtained victory. Crissa is unwilling to listen to stories about Palace Day but Lee urges Gaven to share the gory stories. The stories push Lee into making a decision: He will meet Julia in Cheapside.

In Cheapside, Julia and Lee share a teary reunion. Julia claims she and Ixion escaped Palace Day with their lives and fled to New Pythos. She also claims she’s not only become one of the first female dragonriders amongst the dragonborn but Firstrider as well. Julia was sent by the triarchy and Rhadamanthus to convince Lee to join them before it is too late. However, Midsummer is a time for family, and she doesn’t want to discuss politics. Meanwhile, Annie attends Midsummer with Duck and his family. Duck implies his romantic feelings for Annie, which she kindly yet awkwardly rejects.

Chapter 6 Summary: “Semifinals”

Annie trains diligently for her battle with Power in the upcoming semifinals for Firstrider. During the semifinals, Lee easily beats Cor and becomes a Firstrider finalist. During Annie’s battle with Power, she attempts a close-proximity strategy that aims to push Power’s dragon, Eater, to burnout. By provoking enough shots from Eater, he will run out of ash and Annie can land a killing shot to Power. However, Power manages to hit Annie twice. Just as he’s readying to land the third strike that will mark his victory, he discovers that Eater is out of ash to spew.

Power flies Eater above the cloud cover, giving Annie a difficult decision. Per the tournament rules, anything that happens above cloud cover is fair game—including maneuvers that are forbidden such as contact charges. Annie must decide whether to risk a contact confrontation with Power and Eater above the clouds or remain below giving Eater time to recover his lungs.

Annie and Aela rise above the cloud cover and are immediately assaulted by Power and Eater. Eater digs his claws into Annie and Aela. They dislodge Eater and Aela claws Eater’s inner wing, distracting Power long enough to land a kill shot of ash to his armored chest. Power hands over his helmet—the “proof and guarantee of a match won, in the absence of a referee” (146). Annie and Aela descend from the clouds with Power’s helmet marking her victory. Annie and Lee are proclaimed the Firstrider finalists who will soon face each other in the arena. Later in the evening, Criss and Duck take Annie to the Pickled Boar tavern to celebrate with a drink.

Chapter 7 Summary: “Morale Visits”

The Firstrider Tournament is a month away, set a week before the Palace Day anniversary and two weeks after the Lycean Ball. Lee plans a second meeting with Julia at Wayfarer’s Arch at midnight on the next full moon, a week before the Lycean Ball. On the first patrol, Annie runs with Power after the tournament, he offers to become her training partner instead of Lee since they will be battling each other for Firstrider soon enough. Annie rejects his offer. Power claims she must like the idea of being his Alterna more than being in command because “serfs are always happiest when they have a lord” (156). The insult makes Annie even more dedicated to winning and becoming Firstrider.

Annie is summoned to the office of Miranda Hane, the Minister of Propaganda. She expresses satisfaction with Annie’s academic and rider performances and admits that Instructor Goran has previously underreported her skill in the air, which is to blame for her hesitancy in supporting Annie’s participation. However, upon being impressed by Annie, Miranda has scheduled her for a morale visit to her hometown of Holbin Hill. Annie is apprehensive about bringing her dragon and making a speech before the town, as the villagers have a tragic history at the mercy of dragonfire, but she has no choice but to accept the assignment.

Annie is sent to shadow Lee during his next assignment. She watches him give a convincing speech to Cheapside that gains their enthusiastic approval. Afterward, she watches him greet every citizen in a line and give them comforting reassurances. A woman looks into Lee’s face and seems to recognize his maturing features as that of his father and kisses his hand reverentially in the way people would show gratitude to dragon lords in the old regime. The moment makes Annie uncomfortable because she avoids thinking about the fact that she has always known who he really is.

Leading up to her morale visit to Holbin, Annie practices her written speech daily. Annie chooses Duck as her partner on her upcoming morale visit instead of Lee, as the ministry suggests. Minister Miranda Hane also attends the morale visit. Annie gives Holbin Hill a riveting speech but during the meet and greet portion, she is spit upon by many villagers who despise her decision to associate with dragons and become a dragonrider after the pain and misfortune dragons have brought them in the past. One villager tells Annie her father would be ashamed of her. Despite this, Annie remains calm rather than risk an emotional spillover that could affect her dragon, Aela, and send her into an uproar. Afterward, Annie meets with Atreus and Hane. They believe her speech was delivered beautifully and express approval of her levelheadedness despite the villagers’ poor reactions. They apologize for sending Annie on an impossible mission.

When Lee meets with Julia at Wayfarer’s Arch, he learns her dragon, Erinys, has sparked—meaning she can spew dragonfire rather than just burning ash. Julia doesn’t reveal if the rest of her fleet can, however, but Lee knows it usually happens hierarchically so the rest should soon follow. Julia claims Lee can stop the coming war by winning Firstrider, and perhaps even becoming First Protector, then taking back Callipolis from the inside for the triarchy.

Chapters 4-7 Analysis

The flashbacks of the orphanage days often work to develop the theme of The Moral Ambiguity of Revolution. Without Annie’s added context, which offers a completely different—and unsavory—perspective of Lee’s father, Lee would have continued to view the deaths of his family from a black-and-white point of view. Before learning that his own father murdered Annie’s entire family and likely many others, Lee believed the First Protector and his Revolution to be the wrongdoing. However, Annie’s experiences help Lee see that there’s moral ambiguity to both sides of the story. Regardless of their individual experiences, the novel questions whether the violence perpetrated during the Revolution was justified and whether the new society that has emerged is truly better than the old one.

The execution of Lee’s father’s dragon, Aletheia, in these flashbacks serves as a symbol of the fall of the old order. Lee’s reaction to this display mirrors the pain that comes with losing his family and his legacy. In contrast, Annie’s perspective of this event highlights the trauma inflicted on the common people by those in power. The death of her family members during the Famine because of unmet food quotas brings to light the harsh realities of life under the rule of the Triarchy, which sharply contrasts with Lee’s idealized view of the past. This divergence in their backgrounds and experiences explored throughout their flashbacks adds tension to the story as it progresses, illustrating the ways in which their personal loyalties and political ideologies might clash.

As the novel delves more into the complexities of Lee’s and Annie’s characters, the internal and external conflicts they’ll be facing throughout the rest of the novel are revealed. Lee, born Leo Stormscourge, faces the external conflict of maintaining his hidden identity in a society that would likely execute him if his true lineage were discovered. This external conflict is mirrored by his internal struggle between the loyalty he feels toward the friends and society that raised him and the lingering connection to his family’s legacy. His decision to meet with his cousin Julia despite rejecting Tyndale’s offer to join New Pythos suggests an inner turmoil that is far from resolved. Lee is caught between supporting the ideals of the new regime and the pull of his bloodline.

Internally, Annie grapples with the near-certainty that her childhood friend from Albans Orphanage is the son of the man who ruined her family. This conflict contributes to the theme of Acceptance Over Revenge. Annie will eventually need to come to terms with where both of these characters come from and who they will become—whether they want a future driven by revenge or a future that embraces empathy and peace. Another internal conflict is the trauma of her past, which created a phobia of dragonfire that conflicts with the challenges of dragon-on-dragon combat that lie ahead. Externally, Annie fights against societal prejudices that see her as little more than a lowborn orphan despite her skill as a dragonrider.

By winning the first stage of the Firstrider Tournament, Annie takes her first steps toward being recognized for her own merit. However, Lee’s poor reaction to seeing his kin riding dragons in the sky on a drill with his squad forces Annie to lie for him to Atreus and Holmes, crediting her quick thinking to Lee instead. As it’s described from Lee’s perspective:

After years of being underestimated […] Annie has just proved herself competent in a crisis, capable of leadership, and worthy of the kind of promotion she was recently told not to pursue. And she’s sweeping her actions under the rug, for my sake (89).

As is made obvious from the challenges Annie faces early on, Annie’s journey is one of self-empowerment and found confidence as she learns to harness her strengths, overcome her self-imposed limitations, and prove wrong the discriminatory biases others have of her.

This section additionally reveals important aspects of Power’s character. Power is a foil to both Lee and Annie, who represent the new regime in different ways. His arrogance and sense of entitlement are remnants of the old regime’s mentality, despite him never being a dragonborn elite himself—only an adopted son of Janiculum members. Power’s disdain for Annie’s lower status in the taunting remark that “serfs are always happiest when they have a lord” reveals his ingrained belief in certain social hierarchies despite the new regime’s promises to be different (156). His character highlights the persistence of old prejudices that the new government must tackle in transforming their society.