As the opener of the series, Fallen has a lot to do.
There are lots of characters to introduce, lots of exposition to be
made. Still, there are a few clues in
this book that support my theory – that Luce is an angel. Mostly just unfinished sentences and
ambiguous statements. The real clues
will come up in the next two books, which I will post later.
- · The most important clue is that Luce can see the shadows, or, as we learn to call them later, the Announcers. The why of it is never fully explained; hopefully author Lauren Kate will get around to that in the final book in the series. Throughout the books so far, only angels and Nephilim are able to see the Announcers. These celestial messengers carry news to the Almighty and act as kind of a taxi service through the space-time continuum. But again, Luce is the only human able to see the Announcers. This suggests to me that she is something more than human.
- · Throughout the book, Kate hints that Luce has some buried memories of seeing Daniel as an angel. During Miss Sophia’s review session for Theology, her description of the fall of the rebels from Heaven jogs Luce’s memory of a dream she’d had the night before. She dreamt of flying with Daniel, which, as we learn later, should have been impossible. Later, after the fire in the library, Luce has a similar vision. However, in lives past, whenever Lucinda begins to remember that Daniel is an angel and they are forever cursed, she dies. So, this memory must refer to the very first time Lucinda and Daniel were together, before they were cursed. One could go with the assumption that Lucinda was human for this first encounter, or take a leap of faith and believe that when they first met, Lucinda was an angel as well.
- · Later in this scene, Molly makes a short speech about how she thinks that the lowest circle of hell is reserved not for traitors, but for cowards – those who refuse to make a choice. She covers Lucinda’s name with a cough, indicating that she thinks Luce is a coward. Now, this could refer to the exchange just before, when Luce threw Molly to the wolves when she got caught passing a note. Or, it could refer to the eternal Lucinda, at the dawn of time. What if Lucinda was one of those angels that was ejected from Heaven, because she refused to make a choice between obedience and free will? More on this question when I discuss Passion, the third book in the series.
- · After Daniel confesses part of the truth to Luce – that she is condemned to be reborn and die over and over again, and he is doomed to live forever and lose her time after time, Luce goes to the library to find Penn and instead talks with Arriane and Roland, then with Miss Sophia. During this conversation, Miss Sophia looks at her and comments, “You’re still not awake.” The vagueness of this statement interests me. What, exactly, does Miss Sophia mean by this? Later on, context leads us to conclude that she means that Luce still does not remember that Daniel is an angel. But what if she is referring to a deeper truth, the truth about Lucinda’s own nature? That if Luce were to “awaken,” she would realize that she, herself is an angel?
- · Near the climax of the story, when Cam is gearing up for a throwdown with Daniel, Gabbe and Arriane, and Luce is still trying to figure out what the hell is going on, Kate tosses in this interesting little tidbit: “Daniel, Arriane, and Gabbe all stared at her [Luce] for a moment as if trying to place her, as if they knew her from somewhere but she’d changed so completely in an instant that they no longer recognized her face.” Again, there’s a tantalizing ambiguity here. Kate does not expand on this thought, and we are left to believe that they are simply reacting to the disturbing revelation that Luce has not been baptized in this life, and is therefore in extreme peril; if she is killed, she will not be reincarnated. Next in the scene, Daniel does some incoherent stuttering: “Sh-she hasn’t been…the kiss…the book. That’s why you can –“ and then hurries to get Luce out of harm’s way. But once more the lack of any definite statements about exactly what they’re all talking about leaves me wondering. Indeed, she hasn’t been baptized – we learn at the end of Passion why this is important. But the kiss? The book? What’s this all about? Daniel’s book about the watchers disappears from the plotline during the next two novels, but I suspect that it will pop up again, with some sort of revelation about Lucinda.
- · Later, as Luce, Penn and Miss Sophia are running away from the battle, Luce looks back – and sees the spectacle of light and shadows. Daniel had warned her not to look back, in a very Lot’s Wife kinda way. The implication is that human Luce would be killed if she even witnessed the awesome power that angels exude when they’re not carefully cloaked in their human bodies. But Luce suffers no ill effects. I suspect that this is because she’s an angel herself and can take it. There’s more on this theme in the third installment, Passion.
- · After the battle, when Daniel and the others come to rescue Luce from psycho Miss Sophia, Luce notices a wound on Daniel’s shoulder. “Luce jolted when a strange image flashed into her mind. It was Daniel being struck directly on the shoulder by one of the long black bolts that had hit Penn.” Penn was wounded by shrapnel from the fight. The specificity of the image – the long black bolt, presumably some angelic weapon – leads me to believe that Luce has witnessed an angelic battle such as this before. But, as we’ve discussed, she has never before come close to suspecting Daniel’s true nature without dying. Perhaps this battle in which Daniel was wounded took place in Heaven, and Luce was there to witness it as an angel.
- · Lastly, after Daniel spirits Luce away from Sword & Cross and the celestial truce has been declared, Daniel and Cam meet up in the cabin to watch Lucinda sleep. When Daniel accuses Cam of trying to kill Luce, Cam replies, “Me? Never. ..I just want her. You know why.” But we don’t. Why does Cam want Luce? Just to spite Daniel? Hardly. Somehow, Lucinda is important in her own right. Perhaps because she is an integral player in this heavenly war, and Cam wants her to join his side, instead of Daniel’s. This would explain why Cam spent so much of the first novel trying to seduce her.
Pretty vague, right?
But never fear. When I analyze
the next book, Torment, there will be more than just half-assed
speculation. By the way, these works are
copyright Lauren Kate. No infringement
is intended.
