"You are afraid to accept that you have been allowed to live and must do something with that grace.”
Maritinius is Crispin’s mentor and business partner. He is aware that Crispin is grieving the loss of his entire family due to the unforgiving plague that occurred two years ago. Maritinius’ words of encouragement in this quote motivate Crispin to find a reason to continue living. According to Maritinius, Crispin is lucky to have survived that devastating plague that claimed his family. Therefore, Crispin should thank God and move on with life. When Maritinius gets an opportunity to travel to the golden city, he appoints Crispin to go instead to help him recover from his loss.
“Time passing did complex things, to deepen a wound or to heal it. Even, sometimes, to overlay it with another that had felt as if it would kill.”
One key theme the narrator describes is grief, and Crispin is at the center. Crispin lost his father when he was young, leaving him unhappy for most of his childhood. When Crispin became an adult and married, he was blessed with daughters, but as fate dictated, he lost his entire family. In this quote, the narrator explains how Crispin copes with pain and the motivation to move despite the loss.
“The world was a place of grief, Kasia had understood, beyond tears, after the first two nights journeying south with shackles on her wrists. Man was born to sorrow, and women knew more of it.”
The author depicts Kasia as a woman who has gone through hell in life, and the worst is yet to happen. Kasia is an enslaved woman whose tribulations start when her masters rape her severally. Kasia is an emblem of gender-based violence. After all, she has been mistreated most of her life because she is a woman. Making matters worse, the townspeople want to offer Kasia as a sacrifice to the God of pagans during the Day of the Dead.
