Rebecca: The Reluctant Heroine of A Resistance of Witches

Overview

Rebecca is a Jewish French Resistance fighter turned SOE agent who becomes an unwilling ally to the witch Lydia Polk in Morgan Ryan’s A Resistance of Witches. Introduced in Chapter Nine as a hardened, pragmatic operative, she initially meets Lydia with suspicion and hostility. Over the course of the novel, Rebecca evolves from a cynical survivor who dismisses the supernatural into a sacrificial protector willing to give her life to destroy the Grimorium Bellum and protect her friends. Her story is one of resistance and resilience, driven by deep personal loss and a fierce commitment to justice.

Plot Role and Key Actions

Rebecca first appears waiting on a French beach for an SOE supply drop. She reluctantly agrees to transport Lydia to Dordogne under the cover name Chloe Moreau, only after being told the order came from Churchill. During the journey, she tests Lydia’s cover, forces her into the car boot to evade a milice checkpoint, and later forces a confrontation when the milice inexplicably let them pass. This confrontation leads to Lydia revealing her magic—glamour and paralysis—and confessing she is a witch hunting a dangerous book.

After dropping Lydia at Château de Laurier, Rebecca is captured by a Nazi witch who uses voice compulsion to force her into a Gestapo safe house. There she endures torture by cigarette burns and beating, defiantly singing “La Marseillaise.” Lydia projects to her and instructs her to carve a pattern into her own skin; Rebecca uses that wound to stab the witch through the throat. She then knocks out the Gestapo officer and escapes disguised as the dead witch.

Rebecca later returns battered to the château and forces herself into the mission to Auvergne. At the farmhouse, she recites the Kaddish over René’s grave and warns Lydia that the book will consume her. When Gestapo surround the château, Rebecca takes Henry’s hunting rifle and insists on holding them off so Lydia and Henry can escape—a decision she frames as necessary to prevent the Nazis from seizing the book. She is shot in the shoulder but escapes, eventually reaching Claire’s maquis safehouse.

After a fraught reunion with Claire, Rebecca attempts to flee with Henry but is captured. The maquis leader Claire orders her execution after Rebecca’s escape story—involving Lydia’s healing magic—is disbelieved. In the final confrontation inside the Bavarian castle, Rebecca grabs the Grimorium Bellum from Lydia’s corrupted hands and throws it into a fire, suffering agonizing pain from the book’s sentient defense. She survives and later chooses to stay in France, continuing to hunt former Nazi witches (mentioned in the VE Day epilogue).

Motivations and Personality Traits

Rebecca’s primary motivation is vengeance against the Nazis who destroyed her family. In Chapter Ten she confesses to Lydia that she began with small acts of sabotage—“stealing road signs” and “vandalizing posters”—before moving to active resistance. She carries her father’s crushed spectacles as a talisman, whispering a Hebrew blessing over them at the checkpoint. Her Jewish identity is a deep source of pain and resolve; she recites the Kaddish for strangers and fights with a “thick, black spite” that sustains her through torture.

Her personality is defined by suspicion, pragmatism, and a visceral contempt for the supernatural. She “preferred her world to be orderly” and felt “visceral dread” at anything occult. This makes her initial alliance with Lydia fraught with distrust. She is fiercely independent, often refusing help, and prone to explosive anger—Claire once accused her of being consumed by rage. Yet beneath that hardness lies a capacity for profound loyalty and tenderness, glimpsed in her kiss with Claire and her eventual willingness to die for Lydia.

Her moral philosophy is utilitarian: she believes ends justify means, arguing in Chapter Ten that if dark magic could save lives, witches should use it. This clashes with Lydia’s refusal to become like the enemy. Over time, Rebecca’s own sacrifices—burning a priceless book to create a diversion, forcing Henry to flee with the Grimorium Bellum at gunpoint—show that she is willing to sacrifice everything, including her own life, for the greater good.

Character Arc

Rebecca’s arc moves from self-preserving cynicism to selfless heroism. Initially, she sees Lydia as a liability and intends to abandon her. The torture in Chapter Fourteen forces her to acknowledge the reality of witchcraft, and she begins to see Lydia as a person. Her rescue of Lydia and Henry by holding off the Gestapo marks a turning point: she chooses to stay behind knowing she will likely die.

The maquis episode tests her trust and her ability to tell the truth. She confesses the supernatural truth to Claire but is disbelieved, leading to her near-execution. After she and Henry are freed by Henry’s spirit work, Rebecca resolves not to abandon Lydia, telling Henry “we can’t leave her” (Chapter Thirty-Four). This culminates in her final act in the castle: grabbing the cursed book and throwing it into the flames, accepting excruciating pain for the sake of destroying evil.

By the epilogue, she is still fighting, hunting Nazi remnants in Morocco. She has not lost her edge, but she has gained a deeper understanding of sacrifice and the hidden world of witches.

Relationships

Lydia Polk: Initially antagonistic—Rebecca nearly shoots her, calls her a “putain de sorcière démoniaque” after her capture. Their bond develops through shared danger. Rebecca becomes Lydia’s protector and, in the end, saves her from the book’s corruption. The relationship is built on grudging respect.

Henry Boudreaux: Rebecca treats him with wary detachment at first, but they become allies. She forces him to flee with the book, and later they escape the maquis together. In the castle, they coordinate silently to save Lydia; Henry restrains Lydia while Rebecca destroys the book.

Claire: Rebecca’s former lover and leader of a maquis group. Their relationship is marked by unresolved anger and lingering love. Claire orders Rebecca’s execution but also shares a gut-wrenching kiss that “felt like goodbye.” Rebecca confesses to Claire but is not believed, a betrayal that deepens her isolation.

Family: Her father’s glasses are a constant reminder of her murdered family. She recites the Kaddish for strangers, substituting her father’s memory. In Chapter Thirty-Four, she tells Henry she feels survivor’s guilt over being the only one left.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Reluctantly transporting Lydia (Chapter Nine): Sets the entire plot in motion. Without this decision, Lydia would never have reached Dordogne to track the Grimorium Bellum.
Forcing Lydia to reveal her magic (Chapter Ten): Leads to Rebecca’s acceptance of the supernatural, though she remains skeptical.
Singing “La Marseillaise” during torture (Chapter Fourteen): Defiant act that buys time until Lydia’s projection arrives. Consequences: burns and beating, but she survives with her spirit intact.
Staying behind at Château de Laurier (Chapter Sixteen): Her decision to “open the door” and hold off Gestapo so Henry and Lydia can escape. Consequence: she is shot in the shoulder, later reaches the maquis but faces suspicion.
Confessing the truth to Claire (Chapter Twenty-One): The truth costs her credibility. Claire sentences her to death, but her escape with Henry is ultimately aided by Henry’s abilities.
Throwing the Grimorium Bellum into the fire (Chapter Thirty-Eight): The book’s sentient pain nearly kills her, but the act destroys the book’s power and allows Lydia to regain herself. Consequence: she collapses but survives.
Choosing to stay in France (Chapter Forty-One): Rather than return to England, she continues her fight, hunting Nazi fugitives in Morocco.

Themes and Symbolism

Rebecca embodies several core themes:

Betrayal: She is betrayed by André, whose cowardice costs lives, and by Claire’s lack of faith. Betrayal fuels her cynicism.
Sacrifice: Her entire arc is a series of sacrifices—of safety, trust, and physical well-being. The ultimate sacrifice is nearly dying to burn the book.
Magic vs. Morality: Her utilitarian arguments with Lydia foreground the central moral question: can one use dark means for good ends? She comes to accept magic as a necessary tool.
Power and Corruption: Her refusal to use the Grimorium Bellum’s power herself—despite her earlier advocacy for ends-justify-means—shows her recognition that the book corrupts absolutely.
Resistance and Resilience: Her name itself echoes resistance. She survives torture, betrayal, and near-execution, always fighting.

Symbolically, the crushed spectacles represent her father’s lost wisdom and her Jewish heritage. The Kaddish she recites for strangers demonstrates her insistence on honoring the dead even amidst chaos. The knife she uses to stab the witch is the same type as the one that killed Kitty—Othala rune—turning the weapon of oppression into one of liberation.

Questions and Answers

Q: Why does Rebecca initially refuse to believe Lydia is a witch? A: Rebecca has always loathed the supernatural and “preferred her world to be orderly” (Chapter Ten). She demands concrete proof, which Lydia provides by freezing her with a spell and using glamour to disappear.

Q: How does Rebecca survive the Gestapo torture? A: She sings “La Marseillaise” to defy her captors, then uses a brick to knock out the returning officer after Lydia’s projection helps her kill the witch. She escapes disguised as the dead witch (Chapter Fourteen).

Q: What is the significance of the crushed glasses Rebecca carries? A: The glasses belonged to her father, and she whispers “May my memory be a blessing” over them at the milice checkpoint (Chapter Ten). They symbolize her murdered family and fuel her vengeful motivation.

Q: Why does Claire order Rebecca’s execution? A: Claire does not believe Rebecca’s story about how she escaped Nazi custody—specifically the involvement of Lydia’s healing magic. She gives Rebecca two days to tell the truth, then sentences her to death after Rebecca slashes Roger’s face during an escape attempt (Chapters Nineteen and Twenty-One).

Q: Does Rebecca survive the burning of the Grimorium Bellum? A: Yes, she is severely injured by the book’s sentient pain but is dragged away by Henry. She recovers and is last seen in the epilogue hunting Nazi fugitives in Morocco (Chapters Thirty-Eight and Forty-Two).

Conclusion

Rebecca is the moral anchor of A Resistance of Witches who demonstrates that true heroism often comes from the least likely sources. Her transformation from bitter, skeptical fighter to willing martyr underscores the novel’s exploration of sacrifice and the cost of resistance. For readers seeking a deeper understanding of her final fate and the aftermath of the Grimorium Bellum, the ending explained page provides further analysis.