Sorrow and Starlight: Zodiac Academy 8

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse.

In Sorrow and Starlight, stars represent fate, and the conflict between the Fae and the stars symbolizes The Struggle Between Fate and Free Will. Astrology and the zodiac form the basis of the magic and world building in the series, and the stars themselves are the closest thing the story has to a divine force. Stars are markers of destiny, the literal source of all the characters’ magic, and arbiters of the ongoing conflicts. They are the ones writing destiny, determining the fate of every individual and the outcome of wars and rebellions. When Darcy accuses the fallen star of cruelly toying with the lives of the Fae in Chapter 15, it replies, “Cruelty is a construct of Fae, not us. When we are perched within the sky, we are neither good nor bad. We see all, we offer answers, we guide and gift, but we may take and destroy if the choices made below us invoke it” (203). Later, when the stars whisk her and Tory away, they tell the twins, “We seek harmony in all things. We right the tipping of the scales, forever seeking a point of bliss.