When Among Crows Summary, Characters and Themes
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth is a dark urban fantasy novella rooted in Polish folklore and set in modern Chicago. The story follows Dymitr, a mortal man carrying a stolen chance at breaking a curse, and Ala, a zmora haunted by visions of violence against magical beings.
As they search for Baba Jaga, they move through a hidden city of fear-feeders, strzygi, banshees, and old powers hiding in plain sight. The book is about vengeance, guilt, survival, and the painful cost of choosing what to do with inherited suffering. It’s the 1st book of the Curse Bearer series.
Summary
On Kupala Night in Chicago, a leszy leaves the safety of his forest refuge at Montrose Point and travels to St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. His purpose is to guard the legendary fern flower, a rare magical bloom said to have the power to undo many curses.
The church becomes the center of a strange test of worth. A mortal man named Dymitr arrives, determined to claim the flower, though the leszy doubts that any human should be trusted with such power.
The leszy challenges Dymitr to prove himself by shooting an arrow into the painted eye of a serpent. Dymitr attempts the shot but misses.
Even so, he pleads for another chance, insisting that his need is serious. The leszy, against his better judgment, allows the test to continue.
When the fern flower blooms on the altar, another supernatural judge appears: a noonwraith. She opens Dymitr’s chest through magic and looks directly into his heart.
Whatever she sees there convinces her that he should receive the flower. Dymitr leaves the church with a powerful object that is already beginning to fade.
His next destination is the Crow Theater, a horror-movie theater and bar operated by zmory, creatures who feed on fear. There he meets Klara Dryja, one of the leaders of the zmora family.
Dymitr explains that he has the fern flower and wants to trade it to a cursed zmora in exchange for help finding Baba Jaga. Klara is cautious and angry.
Humans have often been enemies to nonhuman creatures, especially through the Holy Order, a brutal group that hunts and kills them. She refuses to trust Dymitr or place her family in danger for his cause.
After leaving the theater, Dymitr is confronted by his sister, Elza, who has followed him from Poland. She knows enough about his mission to fear where it will lead.
She believes he is taking a terrible risk and that his plan may destroy him. Dymitr refuses to turn back and sends her away, holding himself apart from her concern.
At the Thorndale Red Line stop, Dymitr meets Ala, the cursed zmora he hoped to find. Ala carries a family curse that forces her to see visions of the Holy Order killing nonhuman creatures.
The curse has already killed her mother and cousin, and now it is slowly consuming her. Every day brings more pain, more terror, and more images of death.
Dymitr offers her the fern flower if she helps him find Baba Jaga. Ala does not know where Baba Jaga is, but she knows where they might find someone who can help: an underground creature boxing club in South Chicago run by the Kostka family of strzygi.
Ala and Dymitr go to the club, where violence is entertainment and power decides who gets noticed. Ala enters a fight so they can gain access to the people in charge.
While there, Dymitr meets Nikodem Kostka, called Niko, a rare male strzyga. His existence makes him feared by his own family, who see him less as a relative than as a dangerous tool.
Ala fights a strzyga opponent and wins by using powerful illusions, turning fear and perception into weapons. Her victory earns attention from the crowd and from the Kostka leadership.
After the match, Ala and Dymitr are summoned by Lidia Kostka, the head of the family. Dymitr admits that he is looking for Baba Jaga.
Lidia does not simply offer help. She demands payment in the form of a valuable magical ingredient: a fingernail willingly given in pain.
Dymitr volunteers, showing how far he is willing to go. Niko pulls out Dymitr’s fingernail, meeting the terms of the demand, but then turns the situation against Lidia.
He uses the fingernail to create a burst of blinding magical light and helps Dymitr and Ala escape before the Kostkas can use them for their own advantage.
Outside, the danger grows. The group is attacked by enchanted crows controlled through Holy Order magic.
The attack proves that Dymitr’s mission is not private anymore; enemies are watching and acting. Ala uses illusions to misdirect the birds.
Niko shifts into his owl-like strzyga form and fights with fierce strength. Dymitr reveals that the guitar case he has been carrying does not contain an instrument, but a bow and arrows.
His skill with weapons and his knowledge of the Holy Order’s methods raise questions the others can no longer ignore.
Niko demands answers. Dymitr understands too much about Holy Order rituals, tactics, and magic to be an ordinary outsider.
At last, Dymitr admits part of the truth: he wants to find Baba Jaga because he wants her to destroy a specific member of the Holy Order. His mission is driven by revenge, but not simple revenge.
There is a deeper wound behind it, one tied to Ala’s curse and to the deaths that haunt her family.
Niko brings Dymitr and Ala to a hospice run by banshees, a place associated with death but also with shelter. There they meet Sha, a sheid who gives them refuge until sundown.
The pause gives the characters space to face what they have been carrying. Ala locks herself away during the dawn, when the curse surges and overwhelms her.
Her suffering is not symbolic or distant; it is physical, mental, and relentless. The visions trap her in the terror of other people’s deaths, and she has inherited this agony from those she loved.
During the day, Niko explains more about his own role within the Kostka family. He is their zemsta, a being bound to avenge strzygi murdered by the Holy Order.
His life has been shaped by duty, violence, and family expectation. Like Ala, he is trapped inside an inherited burden.
Like Dymitr, he knows what it means to be used by a larger system. As Dymitr and Niko spend time together, their connection deepens.
They are drawn to each other through shared anger, secrecy, and the need to be seen beyond the roles forced upon them. Their closeness leads to a kiss, a rare moment of tenderness amid fear and pursuit.
Dymitr later tells Ala the fuller truth. He knew her cousin Lena, who died after the family curse passed to her.
The Knight he wants Baba Jaga to destroy was involved in Lena’s death and also in the death of Ala’s mother. Dymitr’s mission is therefore bound directly to Ala’s pain, though he has hidden this from her.
He is not only trying to punish someone who harmed strangers. He is trying to confront a person connected to the curse that has destroyed Ala’s family and now threatens Ala herself.
Ala understands the weight of what Dymitr reveals. His actions have been secretive and dangerous, but his purpose is linked to losses she knows intimately.
She thanks him, but Dymitr refuses her gratitude. He does not see himself as noble.
His desire is darker than justice. He wants the Holy Order Knight not merely dead, but erased in some deeper way.
He wants an answer equal to the scale of the harm done, even if such an answer may cost him his soul, his future, or his remaining ties to the people who care about him.
By sundown, the group prepares to continue. The fern flower is still fading, and their time is running out.
Dymitr, Ala, and Niko remain uneasy allies, joined by need, anger, and the chance that Baba Jaga may offer the terrible solution Dymitr seeks. Their journey through Chicago’s hidden supernatural world becomes a search not only for a legendary witch, but for a way to face curses passed down through families, violence excused by holy language, and the question of whether revenge can ever free the living from the dead.
Characters
Dymitr
Dymitr is one of the most mysterious and emotionally burdened figures in When Among Crows. He enters the story as a mortal man who is willing to risk his life for the legendary fern flower, and from the beginning, his actions suggest that he is driven by something stronger than ordinary ambition.
His encounter with the leszy shows both his desperation and his courage. Even after failing the arrow challenge, he refuses to give up, begging to be tested anyway.
This persistence reveals that his mission is not casual or selfish in a simple way; it comes from a deep wound that he cannot ignore. The noonwraith’s inspection of his heart also suggests that Dymitr carries pain, guilt, and determination powerful enough to convince supernatural beings that he deserves a chance.
Dymitr’s most important trait is his secrecy. He does not immediately tell Ala, Klara, or Niko the full truth about his connection to the Holy Order or his real reason for seeking Baba Jaga.
This makes him difficult to trust, especially because he is human in a world where humans have often betrayed creatures. His silence creates suspicion around him, but it also reflects the shame and danger surrounding his past.
He knows too much about the Holy Order’s rituals, and this knowledge makes him appear threatening even when he is trying to help. His bow hidden inside the guitar case symbolizes this hidden side of him: outwardly controlled and ordinary, but inwardly armed, trained, and prepared for violence.
At the emotional center of Dymitr’s character is his desire for revenge. He does not merely want justice against the Knight connected to Lena’s and her mother’s deaths; he wants something more extreme, almost like erasure.
This makes him morally complex. His goal is understandable because it is connected to terrible cruelty, but the intensity of his hatred also shows how close he is to being consumed by it.
Dymitr is not presented as a simple hero. He is brave and compassionate, but he is also dangerous, secretive, and shaped by violence.
His refusal to accept Ala’s gratitude shows that he does not see himself as noble. He may be helping her, but he is also using the same mission to pursue his own grief.
His developing bond with Niko reveals a softer side of him. Around Niko, Dymitr becomes less guarded, and their kiss suggests that despite his obsession with revenge, he is still capable of tenderness and connection.
This makes him more human and more tragic, because he is not someone who has completely lost the ability to feel love or trust. He is a man standing between vengeance and vulnerability, and his journey in the book is shaped by the question of whether he can survive his own need for destruction.
Ala
Ala is one of the most tragic and powerful characters in the book. As a cursed zmora, she lives with daily visions of the Holy Order murdering creatures.
Her curse is not only magical but inherited, having already killed her mother and cousin before passing to her. This makes Ala’s suffering feel both personal and generational.
She is not simply haunted by fear; she is forced to repeatedly witness violence that connects her to the deaths of those she loved. Her pain is therefore tied to memory, family, and survival.
Ala’s power comes through illusion, and this ability reflects her inner life in an important way. She can manipulate what others see, but she herself is trapped by visions she cannot escape.
This creates a strong contrast between control and helplessness. In the boxing club, she uses her illusions skillfully and wins against a dangerous opponent, proving that she is not defined only by her curse.
She is frightened and wounded, but she is also clever, strategic, and formidable. Her victory impresses the crowd because it shows that her strength is not physical alone; it comes from imagination, endurance, and the ability to turn fear into a weapon.
Her relationship with Dymitr is complicated by mistrust and shared pain. At first, she agrees to help him because he offers the fern flower, which may be able to unravel her curse.
This makes her choice practical and urgent. However, once Dymitr reveals that he knew Lena and that his mission is connected to the same violence that destroyed Ala’s family, their connection becomes deeper.
Ala understands that Dymitr’s revenge is tied to her own suffering, and her thanks shows her capacity for empathy even while she is in pain. She recognizes that he is carrying grief too, even if he refuses to see himself as worthy of gratitude.
Ala’s character represents survival under unbearable pressure. She locks herself away when the curse surges at dawn, showing how isolating her condition is.
Yet she still chooses to act, fight, and continue the search for Baba Jaga. She is not passive in her suffering.
Her courage lies in moving forward while carrying visions that would destroy many others. In the story, Ala stands as a figure of inherited trauma, fierce resilience, and the painful hope that even a curse passed down through death might still be broken.
Niko
Niko is one of the most compelling figures in the book because he is both feared and deeply vulnerable. As a rare male strzyga, he occupies an unusual and dangerous position within his own family.
Rather than being fully protected by the Kostkas, he is treated with fear, which immediately marks him as an outsider among his own people. This gives him a lonely quality.
He belongs to a powerful supernatural family, yet his identity makes him someone they do not entirely accept or understand.
Niko’s role as the Kostkas’ zemsta gives his life a heavy purpose. He is bound to avenge strzygi murdered by the Holy Order, which means his existence is shaped by duty, death, and retaliation.
This role connects him to Dymitr, because both characters are tied to revenge against the same violent organization. However, Niko’s revenge is not only personal; it is ceremonial and communal.
He carries the anger of his family and species, even while being feared by them. This makes his position especially tragic, because he is needed for vengeance but not fully embraced as a person.
Niko’s actions show that he has a strong moral instinct beneath his roughness. When Lidia tries to exploit Dymitr and Ala, Niko uses the fingernail to create blinding magical light and helps them escape.
This choice is significant because it shows that he is willing to act against the interests of his own family when he recognizes cruelty or manipulation. He is not obedient simply because power demands it.
He has his own judgment, and he uses it to protect people who are vulnerable in that moment.
His closeness with Dymitr reveals emotional depth. Their growing bond and kiss show that Niko is not only a fighter or avenger; he is also someone who longs for connection.
His owl-like strzyga form makes him physically frightening in battle, but his emotional arc makes him tender and sympathetic. Niko’s character balances danger and gentleness.
He is shaped by vengeance, but he is not reduced to it. Through him, the story explores what it means to be made into an instrument of revenge while still wanting affection, loyalty, and freedom.
Klara Dryja
Klara Dryja is a cautious and protective figure within the zmora community. As one of the leaders of the family that runs the Crow Theater, she carries responsibility not only for herself but for the safety of those under her care.
Her suspicion of Dymitr is not unreasonable. Humans have betrayed creatures to the Holy Order before, so when a mortal man arrives claiming to possess the fern flower and asking for help, Klara sees danger before opportunity.
Her refusal to help him directly reveals her practical intelligence and her loyalty to her own people.
Klara’s role in the story is important because she establishes the atmosphere of distrust between humans and creatures. She understands that even a powerful magical object can be a trap if it is carried by the wrong person.
Her caution contrasts with Ala’s willingness to meet Dymitr and consider his offer. This does not make Klara cowardly; instead, it shows that leadership often requires restraint.
She cannot afford to be moved by desperation alone, because one wrong decision could expose her family to violence.
As a zmora connected to a horror-movie theater and bar, Klara also represents the way supernatural beings have adapted to modern Chicago. The Crow Theater is not just a setting; it reflects the zmory’s relationship with fear, performance, and survival.
Klara’s authority in that space makes her seem grounded, watchful, and experienced. She belongs to a world where fear is both nourishment and danger, and she knows how quickly fear can be used against creatures by humans and the Holy Order.
Klara may not travel with the main group, but her presence shapes the early movement of the plot. She forces Dymitr to prove that his mission cannot rely on easy trust.
Her skepticism also helps the reader understand why Dymitr’s humanity is such a serious obstacle. In the book, Klara stands for guarded wisdom, community protection, and the painful caution that comes from generations of betrayal.
The Leszy
The leszy is a guardian figure whose presence gives the opening of the story a mythic and ceremonial quality. As a forest guardian who leaves Montrose Point to protect the fern flower inside St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, he represents the connection between old folklore and the modern city.
His movement from a natural sanctuary into a church in Chicago shows how the magical world exists within and around ordinary human spaces. He is not merely a monster or obstacle; he is a keeper of boundaries.
His challenge to Dymitr reveals his role as a tester of worth. By demanding that Dymitr match an arrow shot into the painted eye of a serpent, the leszy creates a trial that measures skill, courage, and seriousness.
Dymitr fails the test, yet the leszy still listens when he begs to continue. This moment makes the leszy more complex than a rigid gatekeeper.
He values rules, but he is also capable of recognizing desperation and perhaps deeper worth beyond technical success.
The leszy’s decision to allow the test to continue is essential because it opens the path for Dymitr to receive the fern flower. He does not give the flower freely, but he permits the judgment process to move forward.
This makes him part of a larger magical order in which worth is not decided by one being alone. The noonwraith must inspect Dymitr’s heart, suggesting that the leszy’s authority is powerful but not absolute.
As a character, the leszy embodies ancient judgment, guardianship, and the seriousness of magical bargains. He helps establish that power in this story is never casual.
Every gift has conditions, every request requires proof, and every crossing into the supernatural world demands a cost. His presence at the beginning makes Dymitr’s quest feel dangerous, sacred, and morally charged.
The Noonwraith
The noonwraith is a brief but unforgettable figure because she sees what others cannot. When the fern blooms, she appears and magically opens Dymitr’s chest to inspect his heart.
This act is violent, intimate, and symbolic. She does not judge him by his words or his skill with the bow; she judges him by what is inside him.
Her role is therefore connected to truth. She exposes the hidden emotional reality that Dymitr himself keeps concealed from almost everyone else.
Her declaration that Dymitr will have the flower suggests that his heart contains something worthy, though not necessarily something pure. This is important because Dymitr is not a simple innocent.
He is secretive, angry, and driven by revenge. The noonwraith’s approval implies that worth in this story may include grief, pain, devotion, and the willingness to suffer for a purpose.
She recognizes something in him that justifies the risk of giving him such a powerful object.
The noonwraith also deepens the atmosphere of Slavic folklore in the story. She appears at a moment of blooming and judgment, linking natural magic, deathly presence, and moral examination.
Her power is not explained through ordinary logic; it feels ritualistic and ancient. This makes her less like a conventional supporting character and more like an embodiment of supernatural truth.
Although she appears only briefly, her impact is large. Without her judgment, Dymitr would not receive the fern flower, and the rest of the story would not unfold.
She functions as a threshold figure, allowing the quest to begin only after she has looked into Dymitr’s hidden self. In that sense, the noonwraith represents the terrifying clarity of being truly seen.
Elza
Elza is Dymitr’s sister, and her presence reveals that Dymitr’s mission has consequences beyond himself. She follows him from Poland because she believes his quest is reckless, which shows both concern and fear.
Her arrival suggests that Dymitr has not simply stepped away from an ordinary life; he has left behind family ties, obligations, and people who care enough to pursue him across great distance.
Elza’s opposition to Dymitr’s plan gives the reader another view of him. Through her, his mission appears dangerous, obsessive, and perhaps self-destructive.
While Dymitr sees his path as necessary, Elza sees the cost. This makes her an important grounding character.
She reminds the story that revenge can look heroic from inside the avenger’s mind but terrifying from the outside, especially to someone who loves him.
Her brief confrontation with Dymitr also shows his emotional isolation. Rather than accepting her help or explaining himself fully, he sends her away.
This action reveals his belief that he must carry the mission alone. It may be partly protective, because he does not want her harmed, but it is also harsh.
Dymitr’s rejection of Elza shows how revenge narrows his world and pushes away even those who might save him from himself.
Elza’s role is not defined by magical power but by familial truth. She represents the life Dymitr is trying to leave behind and the human bonds that still pull at him.
Her concern makes his quest feel more tragic, because it shows that he is not merely risking his own life; he is breaking the hearts of those who still want him to return.
Lidia Kostka
Lidia Kostka is a figure of authority, calculation, and danger. As the head of the Kostka family, she controls the underground strzygi boxing club and commands enough respect to summon Ala and Dymitr after the fight.
Her power is social as much as supernatural. She does not need to attack them immediately; she can impose conditions, make demands, and turn their desperation into an opportunity for herself.
Her request for a fingernail willingly given in pain reveals her exploitative nature. She understands the value of magical ingredients and knows how to pressure people into offering what she wants.
The wording of the demand is especially cruel because it requires consent under distress. Dymitr volunteers, but the situation is clearly shaped by Lidia’s manipulation.
She turns need into leverage, which makes her a dangerous kind of antagonist.
Lidia’s relationship with Niko also reflects the darker side of family power. Niko is feared by his own family, yet he is also bound to serve as their zemsta.
Lidia’s authority exists within a structure that uses people according to their usefulness. Her willingness to exploit Dymitr and Ala fits this pattern.
She sees others through the lens of advantage, power, and magical value.
As a character, Lidia represents the moral ambiguity of the creature world. The Holy Order is violent and monstrous, but supernatural communities are not automatically gentle or just.
Lidia shows that oppression does not prevent the oppressed from becoming cruel in their own systems of power. Her presence complicates the story by making the world feel politically layered rather than divided into simple good and evil.
Baba Jaga
Baba Jaga is more of a looming force than an active presence in the provided events, but her importance is enormous. Dymitr seeks her because he believes she can destroy a specific member of the Holy Order.
This makes her a figure associated with extreme power, danger, and last resorts. Characters do not search for Baba Jaga for ordinary help; they seek her when they want something terrible, transformative, or nearly impossible.
Her absence increases her power. Because she has not yet appeared directly, she exists in the story as a name charged with fear and possibility.
Dymitr’s willingness to trade the fern flower and risk multiple dangerous encounters just to find her suggests that she is not easy to reach and not safe to approach. She represents the kind of power that desperate people turn to when justice has failed.
Baba Jaga also shapes the choices of the main characters. Ala joins the mission because the search may lead to the unraveling of her curse.
Niko becomes involved through the search’s connection to strzygi knowledge and Holy Order violence. Dymitr’s entire journey is aimed toward her.
Even without appearing directly, she pulls the characters into alliance, danger, and revelation.
In the story, Baba Jaga symbolizes dangerous possibility. She may offer a path toward vengeance or liberation, but that path is unlikely to be clean.
Her role suggests that some powers can answer suffering, but they may do so in ways that demand terrible costs. She stands at the edge of the narrative as a promise, a threat, and a test of what the characters are willing to become.
Sha
Sha is a quieter but meaningful character who offers refuge when the group is vulnerable. As a sheid working within a hospice run by banshees, Sha belongs to a space associated with care, death, and transition.
This setting matters because the characters arrive after violence, pursuit, and exhaustion. Sha’s willingness to shelter them until sundown creates a pause in a story otherwise driven by urgency.
Sha’s role shows that the supernatural world is not only made of fighters, hunters, and manipulators. It also contains caretakers and protectors.
The hospice stands in contrast to the boxing club and the attacks by enchanted crows. Where those spaces are defined by spectacle and violence, Sha’s space offers temporary safety.
This makes Sha important to the emotional rhythm of the book, because the characters need refuge in order to reveal truths and form deeper bonds.
By allowing the group to stay, Sha indirectly makes possible several important developments. Ala has a place to isolate herself when the curse surges.
Niko explains his role as zemsta. Dymitr and Niko grow closer.
Dymitr later tells Ala the truth about Lena and the Knight. Without Sha’s refuge, the characters might remain trapped in action without the emotional honesty that follows.
Sha represents compassion within a dangerous world. The character’s significance lies not in dramatic confrontation but in protection.
In a story filled with curses, revenge, and pursuit, Sha’s care reminds the reader that survival depends not only on power but also on shelter, trust, and the kindness of those who offer safety without demanding control.
Lena
Lena is an important absent character whose death shapes the emotional and moral stakes of the story. She was Ala’s cousin and one of the victims of the Holy Order.
The curse passed to her before her death, linking her suffering directly to Ala’s current condition. Although she is not physically present in the main action, her memory influences both Ala and Dymitr in powerful ways.
For Ala, Lena represents family loss and the terrifying path of the curse. The fact that the curse killed Ala’s mother and cousin before passing to her makes Lena part of a chain of inherited suffering.
Ala’s visions are not abstract horrors; they are connected to people she knew and loved. Lena’s death therefore gives emotional weight to Ala’s desire to be free.
Breaking the curse is not only about saving herself but also about ending a pattern that has already taken too much.
For Dymitr, Lena is tied to guilt, grief, and revenge. His knowledge of her death reveals that his mission is not random.
He is connected to the harm done to Ala’s family, and his pursuit of Baba Jaga is partly driven by what happened to Lena. This connection complicates his relationship with Ala.
He is not merely an outsider offering a magical bargain; he is someone whose past intersects with her deepest pain.
Lena’s role shows how absent characters can still shape a story’s living conflicts. Her death motivates revenge, deepens Ala’s suffering, and exposes the cruelty of the Holy Order.
She stands as a reminder that violence does not end with the dead. It continues through memory, curses, guilt, and the choices of those left behind.
The Knight
The Knight is the central human threat behind Dymitr’s mission, even though the character remains mostly offstage in the provided events. As a member of the Holy Order connected to the deaths of Lena and Ala’s mother, the Knight represents institutional violence made personal.
This is not an abstract enemy. This is a specific figure whose actions have shattered families and created lasting trauma.
Dymitr’s desire to have Baba Jaga destroy the Knight reveals the depth of the harm this person has caused. He does not simply want the Knight punished.
He wants something closer to unmaking, which suggests that ordinary justice feels inadequate. The Knight therefore functions as the focus of Dymitr’s rage and the symbol of everything the Holy Order has done to creatures and those connected to them.
The Knight’s importance also lies in the fear surrounding the Holy Order. This organization hunts nonhuman beings, uses violent rituals, and summons enchanted crows through magic.
The Knight stands as one face of that larger system. By linking this figure to specific deaths, the story prevents the Holy Order from being only a distant institution.
Its cruelty becomes intimate and traceable.
As a character, the Knight represents the kind of evil that hides behind authority, mission, and order. The title suggests nobility, but the actions associated with the figure reveal brutality.
This contrast makes the Knight especially threatening. The character embodies the story’s concern with violence justified by ideology and the devastating consequences of treating other beings as things to be hunted.
Ala’s Mother
Ala’s mother is another absent but deeply important figure because her death is part of the curse’s history. The curse killed her before passing onward, making her one of the clearest signs that Ala’s suffering is inherited rather than isolated.
Her fate shows that the curse is not a temporary hardship but a lethal force that moves through family lines.
Her death shapes Ala’s emotional world. Ala is not only afraid of what the curse does each day; she has already seen what it can ultimately cause.
Knowing that her mother died from it makes Ala’s condition more frightening and more intimate. The curse attacks memory, family, and the future all at once.
Ala’s struggle is therefore also a daughter’s struggle against the fate that took her mother.
Ala’s mother also matters because the Knight participated in her death. This connects personal grief to organized violence.
Her death was not simply the result of a magical condition in isolation; it was tied to the Holy Order’s cruelty. This makes her part of the moral case against the Knight and the organization he serves.
Though she does not appear directly, Ala’s mother gives the story a deeper sense of generational pain. Her absence is felt through Ala’s fear, Dymitr’s revenge, and the urgency of breaking the curse.
She represents what has already been lost and what Ala may become if the curse is not undone.
The Strzyga Opponent
The strzyga opponent at the boxing club serves an important role in revealing Ala’s strength. This character exists mainly within the fight, but the encounter is not meaningless.
By facing a dangerous supernatural opponent in a public and violent setting, Ala proves that she can survive more than visions and fear. She can act under pressure and use her abilities with precision.
The opponent also helps establish the atmosphere of the Kostka boxing club. This is a place where violence becomes entertainment and status is earned through combat.
The strzyga fighter is part of that world, representing the raw physical danger that Ala and Dymitr must navigate in order to gain access to Lidia. The fight is not just a spectacle; it is a test of whether Ala can force powerful people to notice her.
Ala’s victory through illusion makes the opponent significant as a contrast. The strzyga fighter likely represents physical threat, while Ala wins through perception, fear, and misdirection.
This reinforces one of the story’s central ideas: power does not always look like brute strength. Ala’s abilities are rooted in the mind, and the fight allows her to transform what might seem like a fragile or cursed identity into a formidable weapon.
Though minor, the strzyga opponent helps reveal character and world at the same time. Through this fight, the reader sees Ala’s courage, the brutality of the underground creature community, and the way supernatural beings test one another through danger.
The Enchanted Crows
The enchanted crows function less as individual characters and more as a threatening extension of Holy Order magic. Their attack outside the boxing club shows that the Order’s reach is wide and that its violence can pursue the characters even in creature-controlled spaces.
The crows turn an ordinary urban image into something sinister, making the city itself feel unsafe.
Their importance lies in what they reveal about the group. Ala responds with illusions, Niko fights in his owl-like strzyga form, and Dymitr reveals the bow and arrows hidden in his guitar case.
The attack forces each character to expose power, skill, or secrecy. In this way, the crows act as a catalyst.
They push the group from uneasy cooperation into shared survival.
The crows also intensify suspicion around Dymitr. Because the magic is connected to the Holy Order and Dymitr understands its rituals, Niko demands answers.
This moment forces Dymitr to admit more of the truth about his mission. The attack therefore serves not only as action but as revelation.
It breaks through secrecy and moves the characters toward honesty.
As a symbolic presence, the enchanted crows represent surveillance, pursuit, and corrupted magic. They suggest that the Holy Order can weaponize even creatures or natural forms associated with omen and death.
Their role makes the danger feel relentless and helps bind Ala, Niko, and Dymitr together through combat.
The Holy Order
The Holy Order is the major antagonistic force in the book’s world. It is a violent organization that hunts nonhuman beings and inspires fear across creature communities.
Its presence explains why Klara distrusts humans, why Ala suffers visions, why Niko is bound to vengeance, and why Dymitr seeks Baba Jaga. Even when its members are not directly present, the Order shapes nearly every major conflict.
What makes the Holy Order especially dangerous is that its violence appears organized, ritualistic, and ideological. It does not act like a random group of attackers.
It has rituals, Knights, and magical methods, including the enchanted crows. This gives the organization a sense of structure and history.
Its cruelty is systematic, which makes it more frightening than individual malice alone.
The Holy Order also connects the personal stories of the main characters. Ala’s curse is filled with visions of its killings.
Niko’s role as zemsta exists because of strzygi murdered by the Order. Dymitr’s revenge centers on a specific Knight within it.
This shared enemy brings the characters together, but it also reveals different responses to trauma: Ala seeks release, Niko carries duty, and Dymitr seeks destruction.
As a force in the story, the Holy Order represents persecution disguised as righteousness. Its name suggests holiness and discipline, but its actions reveal brutality and dehumanization.
By making the Order central to so many characters’ wounds, Veronica Roth shows how institutional violence spreads through families, communities, and generations.
Themes
Revenge and the Cost of Unmaking
Dymitr’s search for Baba Jaga is driven by anger that has gone beyond ordinary punishment. He does not simply want a member of the Holy Order defeated; he wants him destroyed so completely that the harm he caused feels answered in kind.
This desire gives Dymitr’s mission urgency, but it also makes his morality uncertain. He is willing to steal sacred magic, bargain with cursed creatures, endure pain, and involve people who already live under threat.
His revenge is understandable because the Holy Order has murdered and terrorized nonhuman beings, including people connected to Ala’s suffering. Yet the intensity of his goal suggests that vengeance can become a curse of its own.
In When Among Crows, revenge is not shown as simple justice. It is shown as a force that can protect memory, expose hidden guilt, and challenge violent power, but it can also consume the person seeking it until they no longer know what healing would even look like.
Fear, Survival, and Power
Fear shapes nearly every relationship in the story. The zmory feed on fear, but they also live with it because humans have repeatedly betrayed creatures to the Holy Order.
Ala’s curse forces her to witness visions of violence, turning fear into a daily inheritance passed through her family. Niko is feared by his own relatives because his existence marks him as a tool of vengeance rather than a fully accepted person.
Even Dymitr moves through the story with secrets because honesty could make him vulnerable or rejected. The story treats fear not only as weakness, but also as knowledge.
Fear tells these characters where danger lives, who has power, and what history has taught them to expect. At the same time, fear can isolate them, making trust feel impossible.
Their alliance matters because it does not erase fear; it asks them to act despite it. Survival depends not on being fearless, but on choosing when fear should warn, when it should be resisted, and when it should be shared.
Trust Across Divided Worlds
The alliance between Dymitr, Ala, and Niko develops in a world where trust has been damaged by violence. Dymitr is human, and that alone makes him suspicious to Klara and Ala because humans are linked to betrayal, hunting, and the Holy Order.
His secrecy deepens that distrust, especially when he shows knowledge of the Order’s rituals. Ala and Niko also have reasons to guard themselves: Ala carries a deadly family curse, while Niko has been used and feared by his own family.
Their bond is not built through easy confession or instant loyalty. It grows through risk, shared danger, and painful truth.
Niko helps Dymitr escape exploitation. Ala begins to understand Dymitr only after learning how his mission connects to Lena and the violence against her family.
Trust here is fragile because every character has evidence that trust can be fatal. Yet the story suggests that real solidarity begins when people stop treating each other as tools and start recognizing the wounds behind each other’s choices.
Inherited Suffering and Chosen Responsibility
Ala and Niko both carry burdens they did not freely choose. Ala inherits a curse that killed her mother and cousin, forcing her to experience visions of the Holy Order’s violence as if trauma itself has become a family legacy.
Niko is bound as a zemsta, expected to avenge murdered strzygi, which turns his identity into an obligation shaped by death. These inherited roles show how violence continues long after the original act ends.
It passes into bodies, families, duties, and expectations. Dymitr’s guilt also connects him to this pattern, since his mission is tied to past deaths he cannot undo.
When Among Crows asks what people owe to the dead without suggesting that duty should erase the living. Ala, Niko, and Dymitr all carry history, but they are not only symbols of pain.
Their choices matter because they begin to decide how those burdens will be used: as weapons, as warnings, or as reasons to protect someone else.
