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Chapter 9: Unknown

Summary

El ponders a deep inner conflict. When she was younger, she’d wanted to join an enclave and be valued for her powers. But now, faced with the chance to join an enclave, she cannot accept the imbalance of power implicit within them. All non-enclave students act as servants to the enclave kids in an effort to join their ranks, and the kids who do not get into the enclaves usually end up dead. El wants no part of such a system, even if it would bring her luxury and comfort. 

Aadhya and Liu join El on a trip to the bathroom so that they can keep watch for monsters and take showers. Now healthy without the corruption of malia use in her system, Liu mentions that she needs to cut her hair. Aadhya suggests that she could use the hair to string a lute using a sirenspider leg. The three discuss a trade in which Liu would get a copy of El’s enclave-building spell and Aadhya would get Liu’s hair. El knows that this would mean that the three are in an official alliance until graduation.

Since El’s new spellbook has Arabic in it, the magic of the school decides that she is now studying Arabic, in addition to the other languages she studies for her spells. Liu saves a seat for El in their writing workshop and says that she is rewriting a song spell. Liu plays the song, without lyrics. El can tell that Liu has not gone back to malia: she still looks healthy. Liu admits to El that she is “pretty behind on mana,” which would be a liability in the alliance. In spite of this, El still wants the alliance with her and Aadhya.

When Orion says he has work to do in the lab, El heads to the library. There, Chloe invites her to join the New York kids, but El turns her down because she suspects another plot. Chloe follows El down the aisle of books and tells her not to go to her desk, because the New York kids have set a magical trap for her. Chloe tells El that the New York kids suspect El is a maleficer who has somehow enchanted Orion. El responds by telling Chloe that she is not dating Orion and that she doesn’t want to be part of the New York enclave, or any enclave. Chloe reveals to El that Orion has never actually been friends with anyone, despite everyone trying to gain his favor. El tells Chloe that she should try treating Orion like a person.

Analysis

In this chapter, Novik expands on the theme of privilege through El’s ruminations on the way enclavers seek safety for themselves and their children at the expense of others. Though El deeply desires the security that an enclave could offer, she has learned that the relative safety and comfort the enclave kids enjoy inside the Scholomance comes at the expense of the labor and sacrifice of independents. She ultimately comes to the realization that she has not shown off her skills and power because in her heart, she finds enclaves unjust and their actions reprehensible. While the enclaves’ safety is not directly correlated to the suffering of those outside the enclaves, El still sees the enclavers as guilty of utilizing their privilege to take advantage of others, and her strong sense of morality will not allow her to find safety that way.

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