The image of balance structures the novel, set in the two realms of Ruwenda and Labornok and organized as a quest for unity, or balance, between opposites. Motifs within the quest represent related dualisms — male and female, reason and intuition, science and magic, nature and culture, and nurturing against destruction. The swamps, hills, and mountains extend from Orogastus's Tower, a monument to the good and evil in human knowledge and prowess, to the hidden places — remote mountains, swamps, mires, ice caves — where nature's mysteries survive. Even the mires themselves — the golden and the black — and the two- sided mountains embody dualism.

The quest motif, Mikayla's mission to Labornok, Fiolon's banishment and dangerous journey home, where he claims his rightful heritage and role as Archimage, connecting the separated places and providing the energy necessary for growth.

The elements which co-exist in the macrocosm are...