Ruthless Vows

Iris is the female protagonist of the series and the wife of Roman. She is characterized as being a petite, 18-year-old woman with wavy chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and freckles across the bridge of her nose. Iris begins the series as what Forest affectionately terms a “Little Flower”—a nickname that suggests both beauty and fragility—but she grows stronger after the attack on Avalon Bluff at the end of Divine Rivals, illustrating How Trauma Shapes Identity. She emerges from her trauma as something like an albatross, which Marisol describes as a bird that can “fly into the strong wind of a storm, rather than having to avoid it and head to the shore like other birds would do” (199). Marisol’s tacit comparison of Iris to the bird suggests several parallels; for instance, Iris’s return to the war front at the beginning of Ruthless Vows is similar to the albatross’s preference for flying into the storm and surviving it. Marisol also describes how albatrosses “lean into [their strengths] in times of trouble” (199), which carries them far. Likewise, Iris leans into her talent for reporting, which eventually aids in the victory in the war against Dacre.