In the fourth chapter of Briar’s Book, the blue pox spreads. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Circle of Magic.Â
Trigger Warning: For talk of disease, classism.
WELL, IT GOT WORSE LITERALLY ONE CHAPTER AFTER I WORRIED IT WOULD.
Dedicate Crane
Look, when Crane shows up and is too tired and bothered to be irritating, I AM GOING TO BE CONCERNED. He tries to be his miserable self, but he is ACTUALLY TOO TIRED TO DO IT. That is scary as hell to me, y’all. But before I talk about that, let’s acknowledge Tris’s vicious burn:
“One does expect a modicum of manners in the young,” he remarked drily.
“Good for one,” retorted Tris. “If you wanted manners, you should have come after I had my tea.”
GO SEE A HEALER FOR THAT BURN, CRANE.
Because I’m a broken record, I’d like to request more backstory on Dedicate Crane. His behavior here, besides alarming my own suspicion, suggests that maybe there’s something more to his past with Rosethorn and Lark. I don’t necessarily mean something romantic, but were they once closer friends? Did they go through something together? The reason I bring this up is because Lark is so quick to offer support to Crane, and she does so while being kind of affectionate to him. Now, unlike Rosethorn, Lark is physically affectionate with everyone, so I don’t see this as a romantic gesture. I wonder if there’s some professional reason she respects him, even though he can be insufferable towards Rosethorn or… well, literally everyone else. Does Crane like anything? Anyone? Who knows?
The Blue Pox
So, it was bad enough that Crane revealed that two more homeless people were found with the blue pox and one died. The remainder of this chapter? It’s a rough thing to read, particularly as you watch Briar’s hope in Rosethorn and the healers evaporate out of him. That doesn’t mean he no longer trusts these people. He certainly does! But that doesn’t mean that this horrible blue pox will simply go away. It seemed more manageable when only Flick was around to take care of. But then two more homeless men (ostensibly the same two Crane referred to) are brought into Urda’s House, and both Briar and Rosethorn quickly become overworked and tired.
That worried me, because I knew that exhaustion could lead to a lowered immune system. That’s a terrible thing to have while they’re in such close proximity to the blue pox. But what else could they do? They quietly went about their duty, doing whatever they could to keep themselves clean while taking care of their three patients, none of whom was getting any better.
And then they get FIVE MORE PATIENTS. It’s the start of something so much bigger than an infection of people in the Mire. Though I do appreciate the Briar is here to at least remind the reader that to blame this disease on the poor is a gross thing to do. Pierce introduces a new character here, Dedicate Henna, who echoes sentiments that sound not all that different from what Tris said in the second chapter. Now, it’s good that Henna arrived and is helping Rosethorn and Briar out; however, it’s utterly useless for her to offer up her opinions on people in the Mire. Briar can read between the lines whenever she talks about the Mire, and he knows that she considers the people who live there to be so utterly different from herself, they’re almost like a different species.
It’s a horribly sad thing, and it’s a prejudice that Briar’s familiar with. But what does that mean for his current identity? He’s gotten so used to the kind of living he’s had within Winding Circle and Discipline that he worries that maybe he’s thinking in a way that’s similar to Dedicate Henna. He definitely doesn’t dehumanize the poor and he’s quick to empathize with them because he went through much of what they did. But he’s also used to bathing, to being clean, to learning how to write, which is a sign of class within Emelan. Flick honestly doesn’t even know a person who can write! So what does that make Briar? Has he changed enough that he’s not the same person? It’s a challenging concept for him because he was Roach for so long. He adores his life with his new friends and his teachers, so it’s not like he wants to go back to the slums or the life he lived.
Honestly, I’m glad he’s thinking about these sort of things because it’s a kind of awareness that a lot of adults I know don’t possess. I grew up poor and most of my friends were poor, and watching some of them come into money? Whew, they did not possess even a shred of the self-awareness that Briar does here. It’s good that he’s thinking of these things! It’s part of maturation as a person, and I think you could view his experience here through that lens. Not only is he questioning his role in this society, but he’s facing issues of death, mortality, and responsibility at the same time. That aspect of this chapter is a lot sadder to me, especially since it means that Briar has to accept that any one of the people in Urda’s House may die, including Flick, even if Briar does everything right:
“We’ll pull her through,” Briar said confidently. “I’ve heard them at the Circle – they say you’re one of the best. I’ll do whatever you say.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t cure people, but Briar doesn’t quite understand that. He thinks willpower alone could save these people, or that healings aren’t pragmatic acts undertaken by mages who can afford to expend that sort of energy:
“Old people and children and those already ill, like that man, are the hardest to bring back – I’d have to go to Death’s kingdom to get them. That will drain me for a month or more – that means I’d be useless, bedridden, too weak even to care for the sick without my magic. If healers use themselves up to save a handful, what happens to the sick brought in tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after?”
This kind of practicality is new to Briar, and it’s unfortunate that this might have to be how he learns of it. What if Flick is one of the people that Henna has to let die rather than save? How is he going to deal with that? And given that this chapter ends with THE ENTIRETY OF URDA’S HOUSE BEING A QUARANTINE ZONE, I imagine that this is only going to get worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjM8yr5v0AI
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