Masters of Death

“The funny thing is how simple it all actually is. Do you know what it really takes to make someone immortal? Rid them of fear. If they no longer fear pain, they no longer fear death, and before long, they fear nothing, and in their minds they live eternal—but I’m told my philosophizing does little to ease the mind.”

Second-person narration lightens the tone as Death explores serious topics. Death mocks himself for philosophizing to alleviate the seriousness of the topic of mortality. Since it is impossible for a mortal to truly rid themselves of fear, Death’s comments mock the fact that immortality is always out of reach for mortals.

“‘Balance is king,’ he says, ‘without me, no one would know God was good.’”

Cal’s reiteration of Lucifer’s words introduces the philosophy of balance. In this theory, Lucifer only exists to show the world the goodness in opposition to him. Rather than God or Lucifer existing because they believe in goodness or evil, this concept proposes that they must exist in opposition to each other for there to be any order in the world.

“Where does Death reside? In the dead, of course, and in the souls of the living, in their fears of the future and in the losses of their pasts. Death lives in the too-quiet silences, in the deepest parts of night. […] Death lurks, he stalks, he waits—or so we would believe, anyway, in our selfish vanities and prides, because Death lives so vibrantly in our consciousness that it is exceedingly difficult to imagine he might actually have a home of his own.”

The cultural imagery surrounding death contrasts with the text’s world building. Although cultural imagination believes that Death stalks people and lurks in the shadows, the text maintains that he lives at the base of the Tree of Life. The text’s solidification of death into a specific region and reference to Abrahamic tradition emphasizes the unique mixture of urban fantasy in the novel.

“You have your expectations of heaven and hell. The fact that you call them such things—that there is a polarity in your mind at all, and that they are indeed poles; opposites; a study in contrasts, and with such poetically alliterative names—is already a misunderstanding, but there is only so much that mortal minds can see. True, there is a duality of sorts; balance is king in all things, after all. But there is also a hinge you cannot see, and this is the place where the members of both sides are summoned.”

Second-person narration brings dark levity into musings about balance and opposition. Although balance is the main philosophy in the text, this quote expands the definition beyond polarity to a more ambiguous definition, citing the fact that mortality cannot fully understand the universe.

“‘I have no truths,’ the son says, and signs it away easily, greedily, thinking himself the victor; thinking that Death himself is fooled. Death is not fooled, however, and he smiles. ‘You will have one someday,’ he replies, once the son of the god has gone.”

This interlude foreshadows the revelation that Brandt gambled away his truth. The flashback shows Brandt’s arrogance because he does not believe that he is losing anything important. This quote also highlights Death’s immorality in the game because even though Brandt wins, he ends up sacrificing more because of his foolish trade. This quote highlights The Impact of Immortality on Relationships.

“They can give and take life. They can give and take beauty, fortune, fame. The things on earth like victory and success that take a lifetime to achieve—and which still always come with a price […] those can be gifted in the bat of an eye to an immortal.”

Isis’s description of the immortals emphasizes their flippancy. Although the immortals have vast power such as imparting beauty or fortune on mortals, they do not understand how these gifts would affect mortals’ lives. Instead, the immortals take these powers for granted because they have nothing to lose, which is why they go to the games.

“I know that given the choice, you’ll only walk away again, unscathed as you always do, and I cannot bear to watch you do it. ‘For as long as there is something I need from you, I will not be the fool I was once. I will not be the fool who lets you go.’”

After Fox and Brandt’s reunion, Fox steels himself against the pain he will feel from Brandt inevitably leaving him again. Fox refuses to fall back into his role of “the fool.” Instead, Fox attempts to harden himself against Brandt so that he will not be devastated when he leaves.

“‘This is the ring you gave me, Brandt. And this?’ He prompted, holding up his left arm to gesture to the watch. ‘You again, Brandt. My own name, in fact,’ he said painfully. ‘Fox D’Mora. You gave that to me too, didn’t you? I could never sever you from me, Brandt, and you think it’s fair to ask me questions as if all of that time was nothing?’”

Since Brandt cannot tell Fox how much he missed him, he instead asks him if Fox looked for him. Fox takes this question as an insult because it insinuates that their time together meant nothing. Fox’s explanation that he could never forget about Brandt because of the ring, watch, and name that he gave him emphasizes Fox’s ability to be completely vulnerable with Brandt, even when he is trying not to feel his emotions.

“Take it from the keeper of a garden—no love can bloom without it. You are not whole […] Your time with the godson of Death will be brief, I’m afraid.”

Iðunn warns Brandt that his inability to be honest with Fox will be their downfall. Iðunn points out that love cannot grow without honesty between partners because trust and vulnerability fuel love. Brandt must face the fact that his foolish gamble will be the reason that his relationship with Fox will fall apart.

“‘I didn’t want to feel’, he said. ‘But nobody could ever do anything about that. No amount of sex or thrills or number of lifetimes could stop it, any of it, and—’ Another shaky pause. ‘I wish I could just stop feeling.’”

Fox’s confession to Viola about not wanting to feel anything shows the extent of his heartbreak. Fox attempts to mitigate this pain by numbing himself with distractions. However, Fox knows that nothing can truly fix his pain because he only wants to be with Brandt. This speaks to Love and Loyalty Across the Boundaries of Life.

“I feel it all, but I will never feel anything as you feel it. Things are so much sweeter when they have an ending; things are so much more painful when they can be ripped away.”

Brandt’s words foreshadow Fox’s realization about mortality. Although Brandt does not want to exchange his immortality at this point in the novel, he does understand that Fox’s love will always be more intense because he lives with the prospect that it will end.

“In truth, he’d never before wanted so badly to break things; to shatter them. To place something beneath his heel and deliver it to shards; to send the tiny, indistinguishable grains of his anguish out to sea on a gust of wind. He wanted to part with his fragile illusions of rightness; to abandon his many worthless moral qualms. To take the youthful pieces of himself and carry on without them, leaving them—and the remnants of a life he’d once shared with Brandt—behind, scattered for someone else to find and choke on.”

Fox’s extreme loss after Brandt leaves threatens to consume him. Rather than healing from his heartbreak, Fox’s pain festers and fuels him toward becoming a thief like Brandt. Fox does not heal from his loss and instead sees his grief as another reminder of the futility and weakness of mortality.

“You’re not one of us, Fox, and for once, that gives you an advantage. Because, for you, there are things worth winning for. It is why a mortal has managed to win this game before, and why you must win again now—because for you, the reward is always greater. It will always be more than anything you could make for yourself, and so your costs will always be less.”

Death’s words to Fox before the game finally encourage him to embrace his mortality. Even though the arrogance of the immortals threatens to destroy Fox’s confidence, Death believes that Fox’s mortality will be an asset. This foreshadows Death’s regret that he must confess to Fox, as he does not know how to tell Fox that he is sorry without the help of the tables.

“It seemed so simple all of a sudden. So obvious. They had never fully reconciled, not really, not in this way. Neither of them had ever really come out and said it; instead, they’d danced around it, pretended otherwise, never acknowledging the bleeding. Never attempting to heal the wound. ‘I am of Death, Papa, and I have known no other father. So why shouldn’t I be the one to absolve you of your wrongs?’”

Fox’s love for Death despite their differences foreshadows his ability to gain mastery over him. To Fox, fighting in Death’s place to save him from Volos makes sense because he loves his godfather, no matter what their disagreements have been in the past.

“‘And the game is what, exactly?’ Fox asked. ‘Is it simply to win against myself?’ Death gave a reticent smile. ‘It is to win against your demons,’ he said, ‘and therefore gain mastery of yourself.’”

Death’s description of the game reveals that it is about facing the past, especially the parts of the past that people regret. The only way to win the game is to make sure that the past does not overwhelm Fox. Although this intimidates Fox, he soon realizes that he has a special talent for the game as a mortal because he faces the demons of his past in his daily life.

“‘I wanted mortality,’ Lainey whispered, ‘only to find that I couldn’t bear it. There is such vacancy, such longing, such loss.’ ‘Yes,’ Said Brandt. ‘How do you bear it?’ she asked him, looking pained. Brandt shrugged. ‘I don’t,’ he said.”

Although Lainey gambles everything to become a mortal, she cannot stand the loss that comes with her wish. Brandt’s response to her question about handling the loss he feels shows the reality of being mortal. Brandt bears the weight of the pain because he must do it to survive, and he does not know any other way to live. This highlights The Impact of Immortality on Relationships.

“‘What life could we have had where I never told you that I loved you?’ Brandt begged, and it was wretched, and undignified, and all of it, every breath of it, or Fox. ‘What kind of life could have ever been enough if I never confessed that I would love you, Fox for every day that I walked this earth?’”

The climax of the narrative stems from Brandt’s confession that he cannot speak the truth to Fox about his love for him. Although Fox understands Brandt’s desperation to return to the game so that he can tell Fox that he loves him, Fox knows that he never would have risked losing Brandt to right his past wrongs.

“Brandt had told Fox once that he would destroy him. Brandt had been overburdened with ego then, but two centuries of searching does something to a person. It bends a person to the purpose of sorrow, to the whims of memory, to the fears of solitude. Brandt Solberg had spent so long searching every corner of the universe to taste Fox D’Mora on his lips one more time, and now that he had, he was emptied of everything.”

Brandt’s character development stems from the loss he felt after losing Fox. Although the past version of Brandt was arrogant, Brandt’s ego humbles him. Brandt finally understands how Fox felt after Brandt left because he experiences the same rejection when Fox walks away from Brandt in the game.

“His last words to the love of his life. True, but not the truth. Fox understood now what Brandt had meant, that there was no life at all if it meant living with an eternal absence. Because now, forevermore, Brandt would live the rest of his days with the emptiness of a life, and for that it would be Fox who suffered most. Not Death. Not the demon king. Not even Brandt. Lose the game, Fox finally understood, and lose everything.”

During the game with Volos, Fox realizes that if he does not win the game, then Brandt will always remember Fox’s rejection as the last thing that he ever said to him. Fox knows that this knowledge will destroy him, so he becomes rejuvenated to defeat Volos for the sake of talking with Brandt again.

“‘I regret underestimating you […] I regret thinking you were so small and fragile that loving an immoral was something from which you needed my protection. I regret that in my attempt to insulate you from the beings I believed to be far more complex than you, I caused you unimaginable pain—which […] is in fact something I should not be capable of feeling, but which I have learned, irrevocably, from you. […] Because I hurt,’ Death clarified shamefully, ‘when you hurt.’”

Death’s confession to Fox about his regret heals the rift between them. Death does not understand why he feels such an emotional response to Fox’s pain because he is immortal. Fox explains to Death that the pain he feels on Fox’s behalf is a sign of love, which presents the idea that immortals are privy to some level of human emotion.

“If all of this was written, predestined, like living with your hands tied behind your back, then what was even the point? If the only way to win was not to feel, then it seemed very clear that the only way not to lose was never to play. Never, in fact, to live. So, then it was a curse, existence. Life was a death sentence, after all, and even the sweetest of loves would still always end. Fox, a mortal, had never had any other choice but to accept it.”

Fox’s musings before he wins the game threaten to take a dark turn because he questions the meaning of life. Fox’s nihilism stems from his belief that mortality is a curse because mortals’ lives end. This moment shows the opposition to Fox’s final message of hope to emphasize its importance by contrast.

“He assumed it made him inferior somehow—he’d assumed this whole time that in routinely point out his mortality, Death had always intended to belittle him—but he was wrong about that, wasn’t he? Mortality wasn’t shameful. And it wasn’t weakness, because it was what made him different from the others who’d played at these tables only to lose.”

Fox’s internal turmoil leads him to the understanding that his mortality is a powerful strength. Fox realizes that his mortality gave him the ability to win the game because he had a lot to lose if he lost it. Fox’s mortality gives him strength because he will do anything to fight for the people he loves, knowing how easy it is to lose them.

“Maybe it was a choice. To love, to forgive, to lose, to live—it was always a choice, and thus, the fact that he was a mortal was finally one worth celebrating. Because it would end! Maybe that was the entire secret, and therefore the whole thing was actually astonishingly simple. That over and over, he was presented with the same impossible decision—live and suffer, love and grieve—but still, every time, with all his being, his answer was and will always be yes. It would be difficult and painful, and however it ended, it would end—but still, he could choose it. To live, to love; it was always a choice, and inherently a brave one, to face down certain doom with open arms.”

Fox finally understands the strength of mortality and the beauty of endings. Rather than thinking that an ending is sad, Fox realizes that endings are beautiful because they give meaning and joy to life. Fox will never struggle with never-ending boredom and dissatisfaction. Instead, he knows that he will choose mortality and love because the shortness of life makes everything more precious.