52 pages • 1 hour read
Glow of the Everflame
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 32-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 32 Summary
Diem, Teller, and Maura stage a makeshift funeral for Andrei. Luther, Eleanor, Taran, Alixe, and Lily attend. Because Andrei’s body is gone, Diem and Teller bury his daggers in the ruins of their old house. Maura says the Rite of Endings. Afterward, Diem goes to see Henri. Mr. Albanon invites Diem inside, but Henri isn’t there. Mr. Albanon reassures Diem that Henri loves her. He also admits that he is worried about the person his son is becoming.
Diem and her friends head away from the Albanons’ home. Suddenly, Henri and a Guardian leader named Vance arrive. They are still upset with Diem for compromising their attack and siding with the Descended on the night of the ball. Diem tries to explain herself, terrified at the thought that she might lose Henri forever. She insists that some of the Descended “are good people” and declares that she wants to help them (413). Henri suggests that they let their past misunderstandings go and start afresh. She agrees, proposing that they meet for a private conversation the next day. Henri kisses her, but Diem feels suddenly trapped. She pulls away from Henri and races into the forest and toward the palace.
Chapter 33 Summary
Diem practices her magic with Taran, Alixe, and Luther in the dungeons. No matter what they tell her to do, she cannot summon her powers.
That night, Diem meets Henri and Vance in the grove. They reveal their plans to seal one of the Crown’s boats. Diem begs them not to do so, but they defy her. Henri shrugs in Diem’s direction as he and Vance disappear.
Chapter 34 Summary
Two weeks later, Diem is nervous about the Period of Challenging. She is still meeting with the houses to avoid the Challenging, but she has not yet mastered her magic. After a dungeon training session, Eleanor reassures Diem and shares her own difficult story. A sympathetic Diem declares Eleanor to be her sister.
Diem meets with the smaller houses and feels that they are less likely to challenge her. However, she grows unnerved when House Byrnum starts proposing various weddings. They threaten to challenge Diem if she will not sanction Roderyck Byrnum’s marriage to Lilian, which upsets Luther. Diem stands up for Lily but fears the Byrnums’ rage.
Chapter 35 Summary
One day, Diem brings Lily to the healers’ center to make good on a previous promise to teach Lily about healing. Diem knows that she could get in trouble for doing this, but she hopes that this small act of rebellion will help her to make some changes in her world. Meanwhile, she studies the center and feels nostalgic for her old work. Then the women start talking about Lily’s future. Lily suggests that she marry Roderyck to keep the peace with House Byrnum, but Diem doesn’t want Lily to do something that she doesn’t want to do.
Over the following days, Diem trains alone with Taran. Alixe is protecting Teller and Luther has “vanished without explanation” (444). Diem grows increasingly frustrated when she still cannot summon her powers. Taran dismisses her concerns, teasing her about Luther instead. She reminds him that she is betrothed to another, but Taran insists that Diem and Luther have a special connection. Frustrated, Diem scolds Taran for talking out of turn and intruding on her private life.
Chapter 36 Summary
Diem meets with the last house, House Ghislaine. Eleanor reassures a nervous Diem beforehand, but Diem feels worse when she learns that Luther isn’t attending. The meeting is dull and uneventful until someone asks about Luther. Remis reveals that he stripped Luther of his titles and removed him from the council, appointing Aemonn in his place. Diem is horrified but doesn’t know what to say.
Chapter 37 Summary
Alixe and Eleanor lead Diem back to her chambers and discuss what happened at the Reception. They are all afraid that Aemonn will dismiss Alixe and Eleanor on the grounds that the two are women and have lesser powers.
Diem convenes with Lily and Teller in her room. Everyone starts talking about the Receptions and the Challenging. Once alone, Diem’s mind reels. She does not know if she can survive the Challenging and cannot decide what she truly wants. Remembering the compass that she was given, she asks it to point her in her heart’s direction. She mounts Sorae while clutching the compass, convinced that Sorae will take her to Henri. Instead, Sorae takes her to her old home, where Luther’s sword is lying. She realizes that what she wants is a home, a family, and love. Diem starts talking to herself and is shocked when a familiar voice responds and Teller appears behind her. He encourages Diem not to give up and to fight for what she wants. He also reminds her of Andrei’s lessons about survival.
Alone in her chambers, Diem takes out her Orb of Answering. She asks it whether Auralie and her birth father are alive, and the orb answers yes to both questions.
Chapter 38 Summary
Eleanor and Lily help Diem choose an outfit for the Challenging, which will take place the next day. They encourage her to look her best, reminding her that she will not ruin the dress because she will only be using magic.
Diem and her friends convene in the dungeon for one last practice session, and Diem is shocked when Luther resurfaces. He apologizes for disappearing and insists that he wants to tell her all his secrets after the Challenging. She promises to return the favor. Then he gives her a note from Henri that wishes her luck. They change the subject, and Luther explains that he is considering a bonded bargain with House Hanoverre to marry Iléana. If he agrees to this, Hanoverre will not challenge Diem. She clutches him, begging him not to sacrifice his happiness for her sake.
As the practice session commences, Diem still cannot summon any offensive actions, but her friends teach her how to form a protective shield. Afterward, the friends break for lunch. Diem insists that she has to go to Mortal City.
Chapter 39 Summary
Diem takes her friends on a tour of Mortal City. They visit Maura, Diem’s former employer at the healing center, and Diem shows her friends all her familiar haunts. When they stop at Henri’s house, Diem is shocked when Mr. Albanon informs her that Henri has left Mortal City on an undisclosed mission. He wishes her luck at the Challenging, and they part ways. Heading out, Diem feels hurt and confused to realize that Henri didn’t inform her of his whereabouts.
Chapters 32-39 Analysis
As the Challenging, looms, Cole deliberately intensifies the tension in the narrative, emphasizing the fact that Diem has been preparing for this fateful day ever since the golden Crown first appeared above her head. As Diem struggles to master her magic amidst the mounting tensions between her and the other Descended, she doesn’t know who to rely on. In this way, it soon becomes clear that the Challenging is a narrative device that is meant to force Diem into a crisis point that will compel her to face the raging conflicts that plague her internal landscape.
As Diem repeatedly visits Mortal City, these scenes collectively capture her longing to regain a sense of home, family, belonging, and love. Diem’s Quest for Self-Discovery began when she left her home in the village to move to the palace and take her place on the throne. However, this geographical move has not severed her ties to her past, and in the aftermath of Andrei’s death, she must find a way to come to terms with the two separate halves of her world—mortal and Descended. Cole therefore designs a scene that is symbolic of Diem’s inner struggle, and in Chapter 32, Diem, Teller, and Maura join Diem’s new friends in digging “a makeshift grave where [Diem’s] home […] once stood,” wielding Andrei’s old “blades to the earth in his memory” (402). This morose image captures Diem’s attempt to make peace with her father’s passing, symbolically laying her old life to rest along with her father’s remains.
However, despite this ritual, Diem struggles to make a clean break from Mortal City and the life she once knew. This issue is encapsulated in her encounter with Henri. Although she agrees with Henri’s desire to “put all this behind [them]” and “start over,” Diem suddenly “need[s] to be anywhere but here” (414). She therefore pulls away from Henri and retreats to the palace, and her instinctive action suggests that the palace, not Mortal City, is now Diem’s home—even if she does not yet identify it as such. In these chapters, her actions often speak much louder than her words, for outwardly, she keeps insisting that she still belongs with Henri and refuses to acknowledge the fact that her feelings for Luther are far more intense and authentic than her feelings for Henri. When she is in Henri’s orbit, she reverts to a childlike version of herself, but her heart tugs her back to the palace. These internal vacillations capture the Challenges of Love and Duty and show that Diem is caught between who she once was and who she needs to become.
This issue arises once again when Diem uses the compass to help her discern her true desires. She believes that the compass will bring her to Henri, but it instead brings her to the rubble of her old home, and she soon realizes that this location represents “the safe, joy-filled bubble of [her] childhood” (468). The moment forces her to acknowledge that she continues returning to this setting because she still feels like a child and has yet to truly embrace the weighty Burden of Leadership that her new position demands of her. At the same time, she realizes that this setting can no longer truly satisfy her deepest needs, for her father is dead, and her old home is in ruins. This desolate imagery symbolizes the death of her childhood and serves as a sign that Diem must accept her adult responsibilities. The impending Challenging therefore ushers Diem over the threshold that divides childhood from adulthood, and she knows that she will have to summon her own will and strength to win this challenge and claim her place as a grown woman in a leadership position.
Unlock all 52 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 9,150+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
