[4] Carmody has also drawn from aspects of classical mythology in the work, including myrmidons, from the warriors of the same name who accompanied Achilles, and sylphs, whom she calls silfi.
Unfortunately, with her athletic build and independence, Glynn is often mistaken as a myrmidon, the Amazon-like women who are the sworn protectors of the soulweavers.
The Soulweaver Alene and her myrmidon protectors Feyt and Tareed find her, who privately suspect Ember is the long-awaited "Unraveller", given her strong physical similarity to Shenavyre and the prophecy.
To gain coin to pay for the ship fare, Glynn attempts to sell a rare stone to the leader of the anti-Darkfall cult run by the Draaka.
Meanwhile, Glynn adopts the persona of a Fomikan who had worked on an aspi breeder’s farm, lest she be discovered as a stranger to Keltor.
Through a vision, Ember saves the Holder's (the King) life from an assassination attempt by Coralyn, his mother, who wants to put her other son, Kalide, on the throne.
In a violent storm, Bayard falls overboard and drowns while Glynn helps the fienna give birth.
Throughout the novel, the plot is broken up by stories of people observed by the Watcher back in our world in the same relative time.
These Australian twin sisters are drawn separately through the portal from Earth to the world of Keltor and the plot follows their parallel journeys.
Carmody commented in an interview that she "lives in one of the most beautiful places on earth doing what [she] love[s] doing and getting paid for it and in the same world there are people who are getting shot, who are starving, who are suffering tragedies, kids dies because some brute bashes them.
[4] She states she "is interested in the finer spark of human beings...[as] the thing that makes us at our best is almost always dark, difficult and painful".
[8] Ember is dying and believes she has lost the ability to feel emotion; Glynn, while attentive to her sister's needs, lacks her own sense of worth.
Additionally, it is revealed that Glynn's boyfriend, Wind, committed suicide some years earlier after struggling with depression and feelings of emptiness.
Eidolon Magazine describes the work as “outstanding in its evocation and control of an invented world and society” and that “her narration presents with equal precision the menace and emotional isolation that threaten her typical victim-heroes”.
[8] She goes on to say that Carmody has avoided the “hackneyed clichés and absolutes common in fantasy novels" and that it "offers believable heroines in a landscape of moral ambiguity”.
[8] Magpies magazine says that the “huge cast of characters, events and the intricacies of religion, philosophy and politics keeps readers thinking and puzzling over each chapter”.