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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Firebird
The firebird is a recurring image throughout the novel and is depicted in numerous ways. It can be seen in the double eagle that graces Ravka’s flag, which flies over Nikolai’s procession alongside the Sun Summoner’s banner. The two emblems are more deeply intertwined than Nikolai realizes. The firebird is integral to Ravkan mythology, according to which the bird circumscribed the country’s borders, created its rivers, and anointed its first king. Alina is surprised to discover that the firebird is depicted alongside Sankta Ilya as the third amplifier, but she has been continually exposed to its image since her childhood, albeit in a slightly different form. The double eagle crest is so engraved in her consciousness that she searches the ship Volkvolny for it in the heat of battle. In Os Alta, the symbol graces both the Palace and its counterpart, the Little Palace, designating those who have sworn fealty to the King. Yet instead of connecting this symbol with the firebird, Alina digs through archaic literature and little-known tales, ignoring the possibility that the mystery of the firebird might be far easier to solve than she realizes.
Names
Several of the novel’s characters have multiple names that offer clues to their characteristics and motives. Nikolai, for example, chooses the name Sturmhond, meaning Scourge of the Sea. He is known to Genya as Sobachka, the Puppy, which Alina finally pieces together when he claims his connection to the royal family. He chooses the name Sturmhond in order to disguise his identity and separate himself from the royal family, but his chosen moniker implies his deep loyalty to the people of Ravka and a closeness with the Grisha. The people of Ravka know Alina by many different names as well, including Sankta Alina, Daughter of the Two Mills, and the Sun Summoner. Some of these frighten her, as they suggest a position of leadership with which she remains uncomfortable. But some of these names provide clues about her roots and might even help her find the object of her desire, the firebird.
Finally, there is ambiguity around whether Ilya Morozova and Sankta Ilya are the same figure, since they share a name but inhabit such different stories. In this way, the name itself creates a mystery that is not solved in the book as Alina does not find the truth of whether Grisha and Saint are one in the same. Their tales suggest a twin likeness with the Darkling and the Apparat, respectively, one searching for worldly power through magical means, the other seeking spiritual power through political moves. Though the name Ilya is known to many Ravkans and Grisha, they each have a different understanding of his character and legacy.
Smells
Scent is a powerful trigger of memory, and Alina associates certain smells with people, places, and events in her life. Green grass smells like Keramzin, the estate where she and Mal were raised as orphans. Forest smells remind her of Mal and their journey from quasi-siblings and playmates to young lovers. She also associates Mal with clear running water, although that scent carries some deeper association she cannot yet identify. In battle, the smells of blood and gunpowder sicken her as they remind her of the Darkling and the destruction she helped him wreak. But he also smells like winter and night, which she equates to absence and which could be the result of either destruction or the longing for it. That smell haunts his chambers at the Little Palace, rooms Alina cannot find the time to redecorate. Finally, in the chapel, Alina is hit by the twin scents of incense and mildew. She realizes the association they have for her too late, as she is already in the Apparat’s clutches when she realizes the scents remind her of him.
