Lore

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Part 5, Chapters 56-58Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “Mortal”

Part 5, Chapter 56 Summary

Athena’s mortal form burns to ash, leaving behind a glowing being. The goddess’s essence enters Lore in a storm of lightning and pain, “threatening to tear her mortal body apart” (451). The storm subsides, leaving her with the power and strength of a god. She stops the car carrying the sea fire, smothering its path with dirt—the only thing to stop the flames. She runs back to Track Sixty-One, which is engulfed in flames. Calling upon her new godly strength, Lore beats the floor, intending to send the flames far enough below ground that they have no oxygen to feed on.

Castor arrives as Lore works. He rushes for her, yelling for her to stop, even as Lore finally breaks through and the fire starts to fall. Castor reaches her. The fires are out, but Lore’s power threatens to consume her. Castor kisses her, begging her to stay with him. She holds on to him as a tether to the world “with everything she had in her” (455), finally falling unconscious.

Part 5, Chapter 57 Summary

Lore wakes in her bedroom at the apartment with her new power pulsing inside her and Miles leaning over her, concerned. Lore’s been asleep for a day, and there are “only hours left until the end of the Agon” and the end of her time as a mortal (457). She doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her but knows she’ll somehow find her way back to New York and her friends.

Miles and Lore join the others on the roof of the apartment, where they watch the city rebuilding. A heavy awkwardness settles over the group as Lore-as-goddess arrives, which she breaks by talking about anything but her situation. Lore fills the group in on what happened with Wrath and Athena, trying and failing to answer all their questions about the ascension. The night wears on with friendship and laughter. Lore watches it all, “too afraid to look away in case she missed a second of the life she loved” (461).

Part 5, Chapter 58 Summary

Lore feels a shift in the night at 11:50. She and Castor promised the others they’d wake them up before midnight, but they can’t do it. Lore can’t face another goodbye that isn’t “on her own terms” (462). She and Castor retreat to the far side of the roof to wait, where Castor tells her he remembered what happened the night Apollo visited. Apollo let Castor kill him and then ascended himself.

As midnight draws closer, they talk about what they want and how they feel. They wrap each other in an embrace, and Lore sends a prayer to Zeus or any god that is listening to please let them choose their fates. She feels an ancient presence of “immense, rumbling pressure” behind her that takes her godly power away. The presence fades, and she opens her eyes to see Apollo’s power no longer in Castor’s eyes. They are mortal once again, and they kiss as the sun rises over a new day.

Part 5, Chapters 56-58 Analysis

After taking Athena’s power, Lore struggles to hold on to her physical form. The immortal essence wars with her mortal body. Since we haven’t seen any other ascension, it is unclear if this is how the transition normally occurs or if Lore’s situation is different because Athena was the last of the original gods. Castor finds Lore and heals her, allowing her to hold out against the essence’s destructive force.

Lore’s earlier dream about the gods is partially explained in Chapter 58. Apollo didn’t die when Castor ascended, but it is unclear what happened to him. Castor finally remembers that Apollo let Castor kill him, but there is no explanation for why. It’s possible that Apollo transferred his powers to Castor in order to avoid the Agon. The god may have also given the healing abilities to Castor to save his life because Castor showed him kindness.

The Agon’s true purpose is never divined. At the end, Lore prays to have a choice, and a presence takes her and Castor’s powers away. The presence could be Zeus, but it is never said. Lore’s prayer suggests the Agon could have been ended at any time if the gods simply asked for it to be over. It’s also possible that Zeus wanted the other gods gone, and the Agon ended because the last of the original Olympians finally died. If this is the case, Apollo must no longer have access to his powers or immortality because if he did, the Agon would continue. It’s also not made clear what will happen to Castor once the powers are gone. It is implied that the constant healing energy being applied to Castor’s body keeps his cancer away. If that power goes away, the cancer could come back.