Chapter 68: Rune — Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Rune pushes through an overcrowded train car, searching for an empty seat. The car is packed beyond its intended capacity—children sit two or three per lap, and adults crowd the aisle, stepping aside only to let her pass. Rune suspects the ticket inspectors were either bribed or took pity on the passengers, but she does not care. She has made it onto the train.
When she finds her seat, the tension in her body releases. She sits and turns her face to the window, exhaling deeply. Outside, desperate people wave money at the porters, hoping to board even as the steps disappear from the doors, while others cry as they say goodbye to loved ones already inside the cars.
Across the aisle, a woman with a toddler on her lap tells her husband she did not think they would make it, and asks what will happen now. Her husband kisses her head and admits he does not know, but he takes her hand and says that being together is what matters most. Rune looks away, blinking back tears.
The train whistles again. As the crowd beyond the window dims, Rune catches sight of her reflection in the glass. It is not the girl she has illusioned herself to look like—it is her real self, because magic does not work on windows. She studies the face in the glass, and the unnerving question resurfaces: Who am I? Who is the real Rune Winters?
She searches her features for a trace of Nan—her adoptive grandmother, Kestrel Winters—but finds nothing, which makes sense since they are not related by blood. She also finds no hint of her half sisters: Cressida, Elowyn, or Analise. But as she studies her reflection, she realizes she has seen the shade of her hair, the color of her eyes, and the shape of her jaw somewhere else—in three other people, very recently.
Something wild and bright flickers inside her, like a freshly lit candle. But she tries to snuff it out. She cannot wander down that path. She has already decided: this is her path. I'm leaving.
The engine chugs and pulls the train slowly forward. Rune leans her temple against the cold glass. Soon she will be out of Cressida's grasp. Soon she will escape the Blood Guard for good. As the train leaves the crowded platform behind, she thinks: Soon, I'll be free. Nothing could make her turn back now.
Key Events
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Rune boards an overcrowded train, finding a seat after pushing through the aisle.
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She observes the desperate crowd outside and the emotional farewells on the platform.
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A couple across the aisle shares a moment of reassurance—they do not know what comes next, but they are together.
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Rune sees her true reflection in the window, because magic does not work on glass.
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She searches her face for traces of Nan and her half sisters, finding none.
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She realizes she has seen her hair color, eye color, and jaw shape in three other people recently.
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A flicker of curiosity rises in her, but she suppresses it, reaffirming her decision to leave.
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The train departs, and Rune looks toward freedom from Cressida and the Blood Guard.
Character Development
This chapter is a quiet but pivotal moment for Rune. She is in motion—literally leaving—but the scene is internal, focused on her reflection and her thoughts. Her physical journey mirrors an emotional one: she is escaping Cressida and the Blood Guard, but she is also confronting the question of who she truly is.
Rune's decision to leave is firm. She has already chosen her path, and nothing will turn her back. Yet the chapter reveals a crack in that certainty. When she recognizes her own features in three other people, something