A Steeping of Blood Summary, Characters and Themes
A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal is a dark fantasy novel set in the divided empire of Ettenia, where humans and vampires live amid fear, betrayal, and rebellion. The story follows Arthie Casimir—a human turned vampire—and Matteo Andoni, a haunted artist with a violent past, as they navigate a web of vengeance, loss, and political deceit.
Through shifting perspectives, the novel explores how power corrupts, how identity is shaped by both humanity and monstrosity, and how found families rise against tyranny. It is a tale of survival, redemption, and revolution beneath the blood-soaked skies of White Roaring.
Summary
The novel opens in the aftermath of the Great Press Massacre at the Athereum meeting hall, where Matteo Andoni, a vampire painter burdened by his violent history, finds himself surrounded by blood and death once again. Amid the carnage, he discovers Arthie Casimir—shot and near death.
Betrayed by her ally Laith, who now serves the cruel monarch known as the Ram, Arthie begs Matteo to save her by turning her into a vampire. Though he hesitates, knowing the curse of immortality, Matteo finally yields.
He drinks her blood and feeds her his own, binding her to undeath. When she awakens, she retains her memories—a rare phenomenon—and Matteo calls her his “Enchantress.
As Arthie recovers in Matteo’s home, she learns that White Roaring has descended into chaos. The Ram’s propaganda blames vampires for the massacre, sparking violent protests.
Arthie mourns her lost tearoom, Spindrift, her fallen comrade Penn, and Laith’s betrayal. Matteo then reveals a horrifying truth: he was once the Wolf of White Roaring, a creature of fear the Ram herself created to seize power decades ago.
He was turned against his will and used to terrorize the empire until Penn rescued him and taught him control. Arthie realizes their destinies are tied—the Ram made them both what they are.
Matteo urges her to focus her anger on the true enemy, and Arthie vows vengeance.
Sidharth, an ally, arrives with grim news: people across White Roaring are vanishing, and the Ram is behind it. Arthie resolves to reunite with her surviving friends—Jin and Flick—and retrieve the Ram’s ledger, a document of damning secrets.
With Sidharth and Matteo by her side, she sets out to rebuild her resistance and uncover the monarch’s experiments.
Meanwhile, Jin Casimir—newly turned into a vampire by Arthie—searches for his missing scientist parents, Shaw and Sora Siwang. Their research on silver inoculation allowed the Ram to weaponize vampires.
Jin’s fury grows as he hunts for clues, learning that the Ram is shipping something dangerous out of White Roaring. He vows to find Flick, who possesses the stolen ledger.
Flick, mourning Spindrift’s destruction, hides in a derelict tea shop with Laith’s kitten, Opal, and the Ram’s coded ledger. She deciphers parts of it, discovering her mother’s double identity as both the Ram and the head of the East Jeevant Company (EJC).
Her hiding place is soon invaded by masked soldiers demanding the ledger. She fights back and escapes, wounded but defiant, vanishing into the chaos of the city.
Soon after, Flick encounters Jin, alive and now a vampire. Their reunion is tense but tender; both have changed.
They join forces with remnants of their old allies and begin piecing together what remains of their mission. When Arthie and Matteo find them, the reunion is fraught with emotion and mistrust.
Arthie’s transformation has hardened her, and Jin’s bitterness surfaces as they argue about strategy and loyalty. Matteo restores focus, revealing his past as the Wolf and earning the group’s sympathy rather than scorn.
Through the Ram’s ledger, Flick confirms that Shaw and Sora are alive and being forced to continue their experiments—this time on vampires bound for Ceylan, Arthie’s homeland. The group devises a plan: Arthie, Jin, and Matteo will sail to Ceylan to rescue the captives, while Flick remains behind to maintain their cover and sabotage the Ram’s communications.
Their plan intertwines espionage and subterfuge with unspoken emotions—Jin and Flick share a moment of near intimacy, while Arthie struggles with her growing feelings for Matteo and grief for all she’s lost.
In Ceylan, Arthie and Matteo infiltrate a sanatorium where Shaw and Sora are imprisoned. They discover that 115 vampires are being kept sedated and experimented upon.
The Siwangs reveal that they’ve secretly delayed the Ram’s work and sabotaged her research, but they’ve also accidentally created monstrous hybrids known as “Rippers. ” When a confrontation breaks out with the facility’s overseer, Bloodworth, chaos erupts.
A Ripper awakens, forcing the group to fight their way out as the sanatorium burns. Shaw and Sora unleash a mechanism that releases and feeds the captive vampires, freeing them from the Ram’s control.
Arthie leads the uprising, declaring rebellion against the EJC stronghold before being struck by a dart while saving Shaw and Sora.
Back in Ettenia, Flick endures capture and torture in the Ram’s fortress. Realizing Arthie and the others are in Ceylan, the Ram departs, leaving Flick alone.
With sheer determination, Flick escapes her bonds, defeats a guard using Jin’s brass knuckles, and prepares to flee, resolved to warn her friends.
As the story reaches its climax, Arthie, now allied with the repentant Laith, sneaks through the Ram’s underground bunker and discovers imprisoned humans. They are ambushed, and Arthie is captured.
Meanwhile, Jin, Flick, Matteo, and their allies infiltrate the palace during the Ram’s grand vicennial tribute—an event meant to glorify her reign. They intend to expose her crimes with the ledger.
Laith, wounded but alive, warns them that the Ram is preparing a massacre using mutated vampires. The group splits: some storm the bunker while others prepare the stage above.
Inside the bunker, Flick and Jin find Arthie caged among corpses. She explains that the Ram forced her to turn captives into half-vampires.
Matteo frees her, and they all regroup to face the Ram at the tribute. Onstage, the Ram unmasks herself as Lady Linden and locks the palace, unleashing the Rippers upon nobles and Council members.
The group acts swiftly—Arthie, Jin, Flick, and Matteo set explosives in the tunnels to collapse them and contain the monsters. As the Rippers charge, Matteo sacrifices himself to ensure the explosion detonates, burying the creatures—and himself—beneath the rubble.
Above, chaos reigns. Flick attacks Linden, who kills a Councilor before being overpowered.
Arthie confronts her enemy face-to-face. Rather than killing her, she injects Linden with a modified silver inoculation that forces her into a cursed existence dependent on silver—a punishment worse than death.
The Council takes control, using the ledger to expose Linden’s corruption and remove her from power.
Weeks later, the city begins to heal. Linden is imprisoned, the Council governs provisionally, and the people are unaware she was a vampire, sparing further unrest.
Arthie mourns Matteo in his studio, vowing to honor his legacy. Together with Jin and Flick, she decides to reopen Spindrift—not just as a tearoom, but as a haven for both humans and vampires.
In the final scene, Spindrift opens once more at 337 Alms Place. Beneath a painting from Matteo’s studio, Arthie, Jin, and Flick stand united—scarred but unbroken, ready to build a world where blood no longer divides them.
Characters
Arthie Casimir
Arthie Casimir emerges as the fierce yet conflicted heart of A Steeping of Blood. Once the intelligent and calculating proprietor of Spindrift—a tearoom that doubled as an intelligence hub—Arthie’s transformation into a vampire marks the loss of her humanity but also the deepening of her strength.
Her journey is one of identity and moral reckoning. Initially motivated by revenge and survival, Arthie struggles to reconcile her human compassion with the hunger and predatory instincts of her new existence.
Her dynamic with Matteo, the one who turns her, reveals her vulnerability and yearning for belonging in a world fractured by betrayal. As she evolves, Arthie shifts from being a victim of manipulation to an architect of rebellion.
Her leadership qualities, sharp wit, and resilience guide her crew against the Ram’s tyranny. Even as she wades through guilt and trauma, her moral core endures, distinguishing her from the monsters created by power.
By the novel’s end, Arthie’s choice to rebuild Spindrift symbolizes her acceptance of both light and shadow within herself—a reclamation of agency and compassion after so much bloodshed.
Matteo Andoni
Matteo Andoni stands as a tragic emblem of redemption in A Steeping of Blood. Once known as the Wolf of White Roaring, he embodies the consequences of being both victim and weapon.
Turned by the Ram as a child and used as her instrument of terror, Matteo’s artistic soul contrasts with the violence that defined his past. His character radiates melancholy and restraint—he despises his vampiric nature but cannot escape it.
Through his relationship with Arthie, Matteo seeks forgiveness and a sense of purpose beyond survival. Their connection is one of mirrored pain; both have been molded by the Ram’s cruelty.
His gentleness and introspection offer balance to Arthie’s fiery will, while his willingness to sacrifice himself in the end solidifies his redemption. Matteo’s death is both tragic and beautiful—it is an act of love and liberation, closing the circle of his haunted existence.
His legacy, immortalized in his mauve-streaked painting at Spindrift, becomes a symbol of hope amid ruin.
Jin Casimir
Jin Casimir’s arc is driven by rage, loyalty, and the search for meaning after transformation. As Arthie’s brother-figure and Flick’s companion, Jin oscillates between reason and fury.
His transformation into a vampire awakens violent instincts he despises but cannot deny, forcing him to confront the loss of control that mirrors Matteo’s past. His relentless pursuit of his kidnapped parents gives his pain direction, but it also exposes his vulnerability—his desire to protect those he loves defines him as deeply human despite his vampirism.
Jin’s relationship with Flick brings emotional depth to his character; he suppresses his thirst for her blood while longing for genuine connection. His moral compass, though tested, never breaks.
By the novel’s conclusion, Jin’s acceptance of his dual nature and his partnership in rebuilding Spindrift mark his evolution from vengeance-driven survivor to compassionate protector, embodying the novel’s theme of healing after monstrousness.
Flick Casimir
Flick Casimir, Arthie’s sister in arms and Jin’s emotional anchor, represents resilience shaped by pain and defiance. Once the witty and resourceful codebreaker of Spindrift, Flick’s ordeal—her isolation, torture, and confrontation with her mother’s evil—transforms her from clever rebel to hardened survivor.
Her discovery that the Ram is both her mother and the corporate tyrant behind the East Jeevant Company becomes the crucible of her identity. Flick’s strength lies not in physical power but in intellect, courage, and the refusal to be defined by her bloodline.
Her moments of tenderness with Jin offer glimpses of humanity amid despair, while her cunning manipulation of documents and codes keeps the rebellion alive. Even in captivity, Flick’s resolve never wavers.
By the novel’s end, her survival and role in reviving Spindrift reflect her triumph over both personal and systemic tyranny—proof that intellect and heart can endure even under oppression.
The Ram (Lady Linden)
The Ram, also known as Lady Linden, embodies the monstrous face of ambition in A Steeping of Blood. As ruler of Ettenia and the secret head of the East Jeevant Company, she wields both political and scientific power with ruthless precision.
Her character is chilling not only for her cruelty but for her belief that control justifies corruption. By turning Matteo into a weapon and experimenting on vampires and humans alike, the Ram becomes a godlike figure who engineers fear to maintain dominance.
Her dual identity—aristocrat and scientist—reveals the convergence of intellect and moral decay. The irony of her fate—imprisoned, dependent on silver to survive—reflects poetic justice.
Her downfall exposes the fragility of power built on deception and fear, completing her arc as both creator and victim of her own monstrosity.
Shaw and Sora Siwang
Shaw and Sora Siwang, Jin’s scientist parents, serve as moral mirrors to the Ram. Forced into servitude, they embody the torment of intellectuals coerced into atrocity.
Their survival under the Ram’s regime blurs the line between complicity and resistance. Despite guilt for their role in vampiric experimentation, they redeem themselves by aiding Arthie’s group and helping free the imprisoned vampires.
Their scientific brilliance is matched by emotional complexity—their actions stem from love for their son as much as remorse for their sins. Their final stand in Ceylan, risking their lives to awaken and liberate the vampires, represents redemption through courage and truth.
Laith
Laith’s transformation from trusted ally to betrayer, and later reluctant redeemer, encapsulates the theme of moral ambiguity that permeates A Steeping of Blood. Initially driven by fear and ambition, his betrayal of Arthie sets much of the tragedy in motion.
Yet as the story unfolds, his guilt manifests in acts of atonement—risking his life to warn Jin and Flick and aiding the final assault against the Ram. Laith’s journey underscores the novel’s exploration of human frailty and the possibility of forgiveness.
Though he remains haunted, his actions at the end mark him as a man striving to reclaim lost honor.
Ivor
Ivor, Matteo’s loyal butler, plays a quieter yet vital role. His humanity anchors Matteo’s world, serving as a reminder of decency amid bloodshed.
Though often relegated to the background, his horror at Arthie’s transformation and his quiet compassion for his master reflect the conscience of those who must witness monstrosity without the power to stop it. Ivor’s presence emphasizes the emotional toll of servitude, loyalty, and moral endurance in a world where innocence is rare.
Themes
Redemption and the Burden of the Past
Throughout A Steeping of Blood, redemption emerges as a constant struggle against guilt and the desire for renewal. Matteo Andoni’s journey reflects the torment of living with one’s sins and the yearning to atone for them.
Once known as the Wolf of White Roaring, he bears the stain of his past massacres—a reputation built not entirely by choice but by manipulation. His violent history, orchestrated by the Ram, makes him both victim and perpetrator, bound by remorse.
Even after years of restraint, the massacre at the Athereum drags him back into bloodshed, reopening the wounds he has fought to heal. His act of saving Arthie and turning her into a vampire becomes both a repetition and a subversion of his past—he takes a life to preserve it, not destroy it.
The theme of redemption here is not a clean absolution but a constant negotiation between self-hatred and acceptance. Arthie’s transformation also parallels Matteo’s: she becomes what she once feared, forced to reconcile her ideals with her new nature.
In their shared damnation, redemption takes the form of purpose—fighting oppression rather than surrendering to guilt. By the end, Matteo’s sacrifice during the palace assault serves as his absolution.
It is not divine forgiveness that redeems him but his choice to face death so others might live freely. Hafsah Faizal thus portrays redemption as an act of reclamation—a painful acknowledgment that atonement is earned not through denial of the past but through the courage to confront it.
Power, Corruption, and Manipulation
In A Steeping of Blood, power operates as a corrosive force that distorts morality and identity. The Ram, or Lady Linden, embodies this corruption in its most insidious form.
Her manipulation of both politics and biology—turning vampires into weapons, staging massacres, and controlling public sentiment through fear—demonstrates how authority, once centralized, feeds on deception. The Ram’s creation of vampires like Matteo and Arthie turns people into instruments, stripping them of autonomy.
Her propaganda against vampires mirrors political tactics of scapegoating marginalized groups to maintain dominance. The manipulation extends beyond politics into science and emotion: Shaw and Sora Siwang’s coerced experiments reveal how intellect and progress can be twisted under tyranny.
Even within the rebellion, manipulation lingers—Jin’s fury clouds his judgment, and Arthie’s decisions blur the boundary between righteousness and ruthlessness. The novel positions power not as a tool to be seized but as a temptation that demands vigilance.
True strength, as shown through Arthie’s final confrontation with the Ram, lies in restraint. By injecting Linden with silver rather than killing her, Arthie dismantles tyranny without succumbing to its cruelty.
Power, Faizal suggests, becomes just only when wielded with empathy and moral clarity. The Ram’s fall is not simply political but symbolic—the dismantling of a system where fear rules over compassion, and where control is built on exploitation.
Identity and Transformation
Transformation in A Steeping of Blood transcends the physical change from human to vampire—it encapsulates the redefinition of self in the face of trauma, loss, and survival. Arthie’s transformation forces her to confront the loss of humanity while uncovering new dimensions of strength.
Her identity, once grounded in leadership and morality, becomes fractured as she battles hunger and rage. Yet, through her new existence, she learns the complexity of moral balance—that monstrosity lies not in fangs but in intent.
Matteo’s transformation years before mirrors hers, though his evolution is shaped by guilt and repression. Jin’s journey, too, is one of identity crisis, caught between scientific rationality inherited from his parents and the primal instincts of vampirism.
The transformation each character undergoes symbolizes the confrontation with the self—the necessity to shed illusions to survive. The act of “turning” becomes both death and rebirth: death of innocence, rebirth of truth.
By the novel’s end, identity is no longer static; it is fluid, shaped by choices rather than nature. Arthie’s acceptance of her vampirism and her decision to reopen Spindrift as a haven for both humans and vampires mark her reconciliation with her dual existence.
Transformation thus becomes not a curse but an evolution toward unity—between human and monster, guilt and grace, mortality and eternity.
Resistance and Revolution
Resistance in A Steeping of Blood is not merely rebellion against an oppressor but a profound assertion of dignity and truth. The Ram’s empire thrives on propaganda, silencing voices of dissent by turning society’s fear inward.
The Great Press Massacre signifies the annihilation of truth, where information itself becomes a battlefield. In this climate, Arthie, Jin, and Flick’s defiance is as much ideological as it is physical—they fight to reclaim narrative, to unmask deception.
Spindrift, once a tearoom and later a secret hub for resistance, symbolizes sanctuary in a world governed by lies. Each act of rebellion, from retrieving the ledger to exposing the Ram’s duplicity, is an act of reclaiming memory and voice.
The rebellion is personal as well as political: Arthie resists her internal despair, Jin resists vengeance that would consume him, and Flick resists submission to her mother’s authority. Faizal portrays revolution not as a sudden uprising but as a collective endurance—the accumulation of small acts of courage that fracture tyranny.
The final uprising during the tribute, culminating in the Ram’s downfall, reflects how revolutions succeed when truth outlasts fear. The theme underscores that resistance, when rooted in love and memory, can rebuild even the bloodiest ruins.
Love, Loss, and Immortality
Love in A Steeping of Blood exists in the shadow of death and eternity, making it fragile yet transformative. Arthie’s relationships—with Jin as a brother figure, with Flick as a partner in survival, and with Matteo as a complicated emotional anchor—reveal the many shades of love: familial, platonic, and romantic.
Love here is not a sanctuary from pain but the very force that deepens it. The immortality of vampires heightens this paradox—time stretches endlessly, but affection remains painfully human, always bound to loss.
Matteo’s love for Arthie is steeped in guilt and reverence; his sacrifice becomes a final expression of devotion that transcends life. Flick and Jin’s evolving affection unfolds amidst blood and chaos, where vulnerability becomes rebellion against despair.
Loss, in Faizal’s world, does not negate love but immortalizes it. Every act of mourning—Arthie’s grief for Penn, Matteo, and the fallen—becomes a testament to enduring connection.
The reopening of Spindrift in the end transforms grief into continuity. By serving both humans and vampires, the trio redefines immortality—not as endless life, but as the persistence of compassion across suffering.
Love becomes the novel’s most radical act, the quiet defiance that outlives death, hatred, and tyranny alike.