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Summary
Chapters 12-14
Chapter 12
Kira wakes the next morning unable to remember her dream, but certain that it was important. As she begins her day’s work on the Singer’s robe, she observes the cycles of ruin and rebirth depicted in its rich embroidery. She longs for the color blue so that she can depict calm, tranquil scenes. Thomas visits Kira in her room followed shortly by Matt and Branch. Thomas reports that he heard the sound of a child crying again during the night, and suggests they look around on the floor below. Kira asks Matt if he has ever seen a beast. He replies that he has seen “billions and billions,” leading Kira to drop the subject. The three of them, along with Branch, decide to explore the Edifice in search of the source of the sound Thomas keeps hearing.
Chapter 13
Kira, Thomas, Matt, and Branch walk carefully down the stairs to the floor below where Kira and Thomas live. They hide behind a corner in an empty corridor when they hear footsteps, which turn out to belong to Jamison. From their hiding place, Kira and Thomas can see that Jamison has entered a room, and they can hear that he is speaking to a crying child. Suddenly, the child begins to sing, and Matt realizes he knows her. Jamison speaks harshly to the child and then slams the door shut, giving Matt the chance to tell Kira that the child’s name is Jo and that she used to live in the Fen. Back in Kira’s quarters, Matt explains that Jo’s singing brought happiness to the Fen before both of her parents died and she was taken away. Later the same day, Jamison comes to check on Kira’s work. Kira tells Jamison what Annabella said about there being no beasts, and he responds with shock, anger, and the claim that Annabella’s mind has weakened with age. When Kira asks him if he has ever seen a beast himself, he reminds her that he saw her father taken by beasts.
Chapter 14
The next morning, Kira starts on her usual journey to Annabella’s hut in the woods. On the way, she encounters Marlena, a weaver Kira used to work with. Kira knows Marlena lives in the Fen, so she asks about Jo. Marlena remembers Jo as the singing tyke whose songs seemed to be full of magic and unexplainable knowledge. As Kira continues on her way to see Annabella, she encounters Matt, who was waiting for her at the start of the path and tells her not to go. Earlier in the day, Matt had seen draggers take Annabella to the Field of Leaving. She was dead. Horrified, Kira decides to go find Jamison to ask for direction. Matt says he saw Jamison walking alongside the draggers as they took Annabella. Though Kira intends to go straight to speak with Jamison when she gets back to the Edifice, she ends up taking a detour to Jo’s bedroom. The door is locked. When Kira knocks at her door, Jo is crying and frightened, but Kira reassures her that she is a friend and promises to return, asking Jo to keep their meeting a secret. Back on the floor where Kira lives, Jamison tells her that Annabella is dead, and Kira obeys a sudden instinct not to mention Jo.
Analysis
In Chapter 8, when Annabella first introduces the idea that there might be people living outside the village, Kira’s curiosity about the color blue becomes potentially dangerous knowledge since it concerns what exists beyond the local area. Interestingly, though, Kira reveals in Chapter 12 that she longs for blue specifically to depict tranquility, which connects whatever lies outside the village not to the danger of beasts or the unknown, but to calm. On the Singer’s robe, the many shades of red and yellow that Kira can create are often used to depict scenes of disaster and destruction, while the faded remnants of blue can be found in the serene moments between catastrophes. This dichotomy subtly suggests that, although Kira has always been told that only danger lies outside the village, there may be more to the story. Kira also notes that in addition to her disability, her mother’s calm and peaceful way of raising her set her apart from the rest of the villagers and contributed to Vandara’s hostility toward her. This further sharpens the division between the chaos of the village and the potential for tranquility that Kira associates with blue and, therefore, with elsewhere.
Jo’s existence and Annabella’s denial of the existence of beasts reveal to Kira the importance of seeking out information directly from the source, rather than relying on hearsay and rumor. At first, Kira learns about Jo through the usual methods that are dominant in village life: through Thomas’s report of hearing crying, and by eavesdropping. These methods of learning line up with how Kira has collected information throughout her life, that is, indirectly from stories and secondhand accounts. This pattern continues as Kira seeks out more information about Jo from Marlena. However, Kira is unsatisfied with gossip and speculation, especially because it occurs the day after Annabella tells her that beasts don’t really exist. When Jamison comes to her room after she hears him scold Jo, she wants more information, but she also realizes that asking directly could put her in danger. Upon seeing his reaction to her question about whether beasts are real, Kira realizes that information is only as reliable as its source.
Different indicators of social status collide when Jamison refutes Annabella’s claim that beasts are not real. Jamison, who has a higher social position than Annabella, seems angry and shocked to learn that she denied the existence of beasts. Kira recognizes Annabella’s four-syllable age and experience as giving her reliable knowledge, and Kira is inclined to believe Annabella over Jamison, despite his place on the Council of Guardians. However, as women, Annabella and Kira are at a disadvantage when it comes to information because they are not allowed to read, write, or serve on the Council of Guardians. This forces them to rely on either firsthand knowledge and personal experience, or on informal secondhand accounts. Unlike Jamison, neither Kira nor Annabella has access to official records or other documentation that would clarify the workings of the village and the surrounding woods. However, Annabella’s age and her role as an outsider living alone on the outskirts of the village give her direct experience with the surrounding woods. Jamison, by contrast, is an insider living in the Edifice and working as part of the government. When Kira correctly interprets Jamison’s reaction as being untruthful, she realizes that his social status and official knowledge may not make him trustworthy after all.
Since the time Annabella first told her that there are no beasts in Chapter 11, Kira’s ongoing quest for answers has served both to develop and problematize Gathering Blue’s age-based hierarchy of knowledge. Kira asks three different people if they have ever seen beasts, each of whom has a different number of syllables in their name. Thomas, who is roughly Kira’s age, says that he has never seen a beast, which Kira believes, but this does not reassure her that beasts are not real. Matt says he has seen “billions and billions” of beasts, which Kira recognizes as an outlandish exaggeration from a one-syllable tyke whose wisdom is limited and whose imagination is incredibly active. The hierarchy becomes more complicated with Jamison, because not only does he claim to have seen beasts personally, but he also insinuates that Annabella’s advanced age has made her less rather than more knowledgeable. Based on her own interactions with Annabella, Kira doubts that Annabella’s mind has deteriorated with age, but to disbelieve Jamison would mean trusting her own judgment over that of a three-syllable guardian on the Council. It is thanks to Annabella’s four-syllable age that Jamison’s answer doesn’t immediately quell Kira’s doubts, leaving her open to Annabella’s explanation that someone wants her to be afraid of the woods.
