As Jadine leaves Isle des Chevaliers, she refers again to Alma Estée as Mary, the name that people who live at L’Arbe de la Croix use for all of the Black women from the island who work at the house. socioeconomically inferior. Jadine’s use of that name shows that while she has called off her engagement to Ryk and pointedly didn’t see Valerian during her visit, she remains complicit in the systemic racism of the unjust power structures that those two men represent. This points to the book’s ultimately cynical outlook on the nature of power. Empowerment, the book suggests, necessitates oppression. It is impossible to exert control over oneself without subjugating someone else in the process.