Chapter Eighteen
Adelice spends the next few days without food or company. She spends the days alone in her room drinking wine and thinking about what she will do to ensure nobody else gets added to her “personal death toll” (275). A man enters and, thinking it is Jost, Adelice tells him to go away. It isn’t Jost but Erik and he’s there to escort Adelice to a meeting with Ambassador Patton. Loricel, Maela, and Ambassador Patton are in the room when Adelice arrives. After each of them exchange some terse words with one another, Ambassador Patton explains that Loricel has declined to take any more renewal patches and, as a result, will soon die. Consequently, Adelice must spend the next few days training with her in order to ensure she is prepared to take her place as Creweler.
Loricel asks to speak with Ambassador Patton privately and Maela takes the opportunity to apologize to Adelice for the loss of her mentor. Adelice remains unconvinced by Maela’s uncharacteristic display of sympathy.
Erik escorts Adelice back to her room and apologizes again for not visiting after Maela caught them kissing in the garden. He tells Adelice that he still has feelings for her but Adelice implies that she’s moved on. Realizing that she’s referring to her relationship with Jost, Erik cautions against her choosing him because he has fewer connections and would certainly be killed if anyone ever found out about them.
Chapter Nineteen
In training, Adelice and Loricel discuss many serious matters. Loricel explains that she is telling Adelice the truth so that she will have the ability to choose whether to become Creweler or escape the grasp of the Guild. Having devoted her whole life to maintaining Arras, Loricel hopes that Adelice will stay, but recognizing the corruption in the Guild and the amount of pain they inflicted on Adeilce, Loricel also respects her decision to decline the appointment. However, if Adelice declines, Loricel will not be around to continue as Creweler and Arras will slowly decline for a decade before disappearing completely.
The conversation turns to mapping and Loricel admits that she’s been mapped just like the other Spinsters. She believes Ambassador Patton is trying to isolate the trait that makes some girls gifted Spinsters. Frustrated, Adelice claims that she won’t sit for another mapping but Loricel informs her that she’s already been scheduled. In fact, they’ve already planned to remap her. Loricel reveals that the Guild used Enora to test remapping and while the results of her procedure were disturbing, Loricel anticipates that they’ll have worked out the kinks before a week’s time.
Adelice remarks that there’s no escape, that’s why Enora killed herself. Loricel explains that when people in Arras die before having their threads removed, a portion of their thread disappears and is reabsorbed by the weave. The Spinsters only collect their remains. Adelice takes small pleasure in the thought that at least some of Enora’s thread escaped the Guild’s clutches. Adelice is intrigued by the idea of matter escaping the Guild’s control and doesn’t completely buy Loricel’s explanation that they preemptively remove threads purely for control.
Loricel then explains “warping” to Adelice and Adelice realizes that it’s the process she’s been using to create separate moments with Jost in her room. Loricel cautions that one can live an entire life in a warped space but that time continues in the space outside the warped area. If Adelice ever attempted to escape by hiding in a separate moment, it would take time, but the Guild would eventually figure out how to break the warp and capture her. Loricel explains that in order to mine elements from Earth, machines create warps in certain areas of Earth but time continues passing in the untouched areas.
Conversation turns back to Enora, and Loricel asks whether she said anything to Adelice before killing herself. She explains that Ambassador Patton is determined to find out whether she committed suicide because of shame about her relationship or because of a flaw in the program. He blamed Valery for the entire incident and had her thread ripped. Loricel laments the fact that they’ll never be able to understand what caused Enora’s crisis. Uncomfortable and helpless, Adelice asks if they’ll begin training and Loricel replies that she doesn’t need any training. She only requested Adelice spend time training so she could give her more time to decide on a plan. Grateful, Adelice leaves the studio. As she leaves Adelice remembers the digifile Enora gave her and thinks maybe that holds the key to Enora’s thoughts before her tragic death. She rushes to her room and cannot find anything noteworthy on the digifile at first. Then she remembers the first time Enora discovered her weaving without a loom and opens up a weather file labeled ‘precipitation’. Inside, in a file marked ‘Thunder’, are several other files, the first of which is titled 'To Adelice' (300).
Chapter Twenty
Adelice reads the letter from Enora over and over. In it, Enora promises Adelice that she is free now and reminds her not to forget who she is. In the folder, Enora saved as many files as she could to help Adelice fight against the Guild. Just as she’s found a safe pocket to store the digifile, Adelice hears a knock at her door. Her heart sinks when she sees that it’s Ambassador Patton. Ambassador Patton guesses that Adelice already knows about the remapping and offers her a deal to avoid it.
First he explains the importance of the Creweler to Arras. He explains how bad things on Earth were before Arras: people died of hunger; dictators murdered women and children; and nobody could control peace. Adelice is amazed to see that he truly believes the cruel control practiced on Arras is any different than the tyranny on Earth. Ambassador Patton goes on and explains that he had his own wife removed when she began struggling with a psychological illness. He transitions into a discussion about the importance of the family unit in Arras and decries the recent instances of women refusing to be married and men refusing to post marriage profiles. Marriage, he argues, helps the Guild to remain control and to set clear expectations for the citizens of Arras. Furthermore, as a public display of the model marriage, the Guild has decided that Adelice and Ambassador Patton should marry. If she accepts then she won’t be remapped, but if she refuses then she’ll be remapped and then they will marry.
Adelice is horrified. She knows there is a large age gap between she and Ambassador Patton and she doubles over with disgust when he announces his plans to impregnate her. She begs for him to reconsider and promises to be obedient so long as she doesn’t have to marry him and have his children. But her pleas fall on deaf ears. Traumatized, she flees from the room and into the stairwell where she weaves a separate moment and takes refuge. Adelice decides to turn to the only person powerful enough to help her: Loricel.
Chapter Twenty-One
Adelice arrives in the Creweler’s studio, but Loricel isn’t there. She uses the screens to call up Loricel’s location in the dining hall. She calls up the labs where she underwent remapping on the screens and then calls up the repository. There are a number of steel shelves carrying thousands of metal boxes. Each is labeled with a different identifying sequence composed of the person’s birth date, sector, metro, mother’s initials, and child’s initials. Adelice calls up the room she’s standing in on the loom and realizes that she’s probably the first to try to take a piece from the weave on the loom and integrate it into the room’s actual weave but she’s desperate. She carefully weaves the strands of the repository into the studio’s weave so that she is able to enter the repository from within the studio. Once inside the repository, Adelice discovers that each of the metal boxes contains a thread but the threads are much thinner than the ripped threads Adelice recalls handling. Also unusual is that the field marked “Current Status” on the boxes reads “Active” even though the threads were removed (318). She is looking for Amie’s box but instead comes across a box labeled, Sebrina Bell. When she pulls up the picture on her digifile, Adelice notices that the infant girl does not only share a last name with Jost, but also shares his piercing blue eyes. She places Sebrina’s card in her pocket and continues searching for Amie’s box. Before she’s able to find Amie’s box, Adelice hears two male voices approaching. She immediately takes the strands from the repository and puts them back in their place. Safe back in Loricel’s studio, Adelice relaxes, but not for long. Loricel is in the room and immediately orders Adelice to leave. Adelice apologizes and Loricel promises she won’t tell but warns Adelice that she’s “playing a dangerous game” (323).
Adelice exits, clutching the digifile, Sebrina Bell’s card, and a handful of the weave from Loricel’s studio.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Adelice uses the piece of the weave from Loricel’s studio to locate Jost who is directing workers in the kitchen. Though she hasn’t spoken to him since that day Enora passed, Adelice is unable to keep the news about his daughter secret. After some coaxing, Jost agrees to assist Adelice. He leads her down to the cells where she spent her first night in the Coventry so they can speak in private. She apologizes for hurting him but he is not yet ready to forgive her.
His demeanor quickly changes when she explains all she’s learned since they stopped weaving. She tells him about Earth, the plan to have her remapped, Enora’s file on the digifile, and Ambassador Patton’s plan to marry her. He apologizes for being cold to her but she waves away his apologies and asks him to focus on their plans for escape. Finally, she shows him the card proving that her daughter is still alive. Overjoyed, he agrees to help Adelice with her plan. She asks him to get her back into the upper studios so she can go back into the repository and locate Amie’s box. Jost agrees to help and the two head toward the upper studio.
Jost looks on impressed and confused as Adelice creates a rift between the Repository and the upper studio. He wants to follow her into the repository but she asks him to stay in the studio and warn her if anyone approaches. Adelice locates Amie’s card and saves it to the digifile. She then replaces Sebrina’s card so the Guild can’t tell that it had been found. Suddenly, Adelice hears boots approaching. She runs to the rift but a hand grabs her and pulls her away from it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Adelice breaks free from her captor and tries to jump back through the rift, but it is entirely closed. He catches her again and tells her to stop fighting him -- it’s Erik. Remembering Jost in the upper studio, Adelice tells Erik that they have to go back to rescue him. Erik bristles when he hears Adelice say Jost’s name but he promises to help. He’ll pretend Adelice is his captive and take her to Ambassador Patton in the upper studio for punishment.
When Adelice asks Erik how she found her, he admits that the Guild implanted a tracking device during the tour with Ambassador Patton. Erik corrupted the Guild’s file and has been the only one with access to her whereabouts since the device was installed. He tells Adelice that they share allies but refuses to tell her who they are.
When they arrive in the studio Adelice sees Ambassador Patton and Jost who has a cut by his left eye and is being held by two guards. Maela and Pryana are also present and the two of them wait in joyful anticipation for Adelice’s punishment. Ambassador Patton asks Loricel to pull up the weave of the research area so Adelice can explain what she was doing. When she resists, he threatens to kill Jost. Thinking not only of herself and Jost, but also of Amie and Sebrina, Adelice acquiesces but she claims that the corresponding patch isn’t in the weave. Frustrated by what he believes to be Loricel’s incompetence, Ambassador Patton pages for Dr. Ellys so he can complete Loricel’s remapping. He plans to remap Loricel that night and complete Adelice’s remapping the following day. When Loricel expresses her disagreement with his decision he has a guard seize her as well. Adelice tries to save Loricel from the process by reminding Ambassador Patton of the potential devastating consequences that would result if he remaps Loricel and loses Adelice but Ambassador Patton has a back up Creweler: Amie Lewys. Though she’s never exhibited skill in weaving before, new technology may be able to find and activate the recessive gene for weaving in her DNA.
Maela steps forward and offers to finish punishing Jost. In response, Adelice punches her across the face. Erik apprehends Maela who protests and claims that she is defending Adelice. Maela continues to taunt Adelice who becomes so enraged, that she grabs the room’s threads and splits the entire room in two, creating a dark crevasse right at Maela’s feet. Terrified, Maela runs towards the wall but Ambassador Patton looks on with interest. Loricel steps forward and, anticipating Adelice’s next move, reminds her about the people she’d be leaving behind: Jost, her sister, Loricel. Adelice laughs and orders the guard holding Jost to loosen his hold. Adelice wonders why Loricel hasn’t closed the rift and thinks maybe she’s also on her side. Loricel also tells Adelice that if she jumps, she’ll be entering a reality that she won’t be able to manipulate. Spinsters only have their weaving powers in Arras. Such a gift would be useless on Earth. Tiring of the exchange, Ambassador Patton steps forward and demands that Adelice fix the severed room. But Adelice has a plan now and she ignores Ambassador Patton’s demands. Instead, she provokes Maela. She begins speaking about the kiss she shared with Erik in the garden but doesn’t stop there. Adelice goes on to explain how similar Jost and Erik’s blue eyes are, how they both came from a small fishing town, and declares how obvious it was that the two were brothers but that she didn’t know for sure until she’d kissed them both. Enraged that Erik kept such a huge secret from her, Maela lunges at him and throws him into the tear in the room. Adelice grabs Jost and quickly jumps in after him. She watches as Loricel swiftly patches up the crack, enabling their escape, and knows that the Guild will punish her severely for her participation in their treason. As they fall through space, Erik slows his descent by grabbing at some of the threads around him and Adelice realizes he is like the men Loricel mentioned, one who is also able to weave. Adelice creates a gap in the layers of tapestry allowing them to escape to Earth. They land on a pile of concrete and Adelice observes the desolation around her. Not long after arriving, a vessel in the sky flies overhead and casts a light on the newly arrived visitors.
Analysis
In the final section, Adelice runs out of time. Loricel announces that she will not accept any more renewal patches, so her death is imminent. Ambassador Patton tells Adelice that she can either marry him willingly or undergo remapping and then become his wife. Terrified of marrying Ambassador Patton, serving as Creweler, and potentially having her mind altered, Adelice finally begins to take affirmative steps towards escaping the Guild.
However, Loricel threatens to complicate Adelice’s decision by informing her that without a Creweler Arras can only survive for about a decade, one that will be marked by challenge and hardship for the people of Arras. Again, in weighing her decision to escape, Adelice must decide whether to sacrifice others for her own happiness or sacrifice herself for the well being of others.
This choice becomes harder when Adelice discovers that Sebrina Bell is still alive during her visit in the repository. Adelice adds her name to the list of those she’ll need to free from the Guild’s clutches. This discovery relates to the theme of deception in novel—nothing in Arras is as it seems, not even death. This discovery also foreshadows what Adelice will find on Earth. Where the Guild claims there is nothing but death, Adelice suspects that there is indeed life.
When it becomes clear that Adelice has made a choice, Loricel also resolves her internal conflict. She knows Adelice is essential to Arras’ survival but she also wants to preserve Adelice’s choice to reject the assignment. In an act of loyalty that will certainly cost her, Loricel allows Adelice to carry out her plan of escaping to Earth with Jost and Erik, though she has the ability to thwart it the entire time. Loricel permits the group to jump and then ensures their safe escape by closing the gap after them. Though Adelice brings Jost and Erik along with her, it’s unclear how or whether she’ll be able to return to save her sister and Jost’s daughter.
The novel ends on a suspenseful tone, which is fitting given that it is part one of the Crewel trilogy. After the three arrive on Earth they very quickly find that the planet is far from uninhabited. Just who or what they’ll find remains to be seen.
