Guilt

Guilt is a major theme of the book because it is the major thing that motivates the main characters. When his mother becomes ill and Artemis learns that the cause is Spelltrophy, he is overwhelmed with guilt for two reasons. First Artemis believes he gave the illness to his mother when he used stolen fairy magic to stop his mother from questioning his three year absence. Artemis realizes as well that if he made his mother ill, that he more than likely also made his father ill when he used magic for the same purpose on him.

Artemis' guilt does not stop with the cause of the illness, however. Artemis then learns that the only cure for the illness is the brain fluid of a special lemur. It turns out that the lemur in question is extinct and that Artemis himself caused the death of the last surviving...