Citra took it upon herself to investigate Scythe Faraday’s death using the Thunderhead because she believed the true cause of his death was murder. Scythe Curie gleaned people who appeared “stagnant” in their lives, ending their lives quickly and painlessly. However, Scythe Goddard decided to take Rowan on as his new apprentice and Scythe Curie took Citra on as well.Ĭitra moved in with Scythe Curie and began her training.

The following night, Xenocrates informed Citra and Rowan that Scythe Faraday had gleaned himself in order to free them from their apprenticeship. They kissed, but did not want to continue their budding relationship any further, knowing that one would have to glean the other by the end of the year. High Blade Xenocrates, who presided over the MidMerican conclaves, accepted this proposal.Ĭitra and Rowan returned to Faraday’s home in a daze. After this interaction, Scythe Rand, one of Goddard’s allies, proposed that the winner between Citra and Rowan would have to glean the loser at the end of their apprenticeship. When Curie asked Rowan about his greatest fear, he replied that he feared nothing. After Citra failed her test, Rowan decided to purposely fail his own. She asked Citra about the worst thing she had ever done, but Citra lied when she said that she had pushed a girl down the stairs. Scythe Curie, the infamous Grand Dame of Death, administered their exam.

They faced the first test of their apprenticeship. Meanwhile, Scythes Goddard, Rand, Chomsky, and Volta conducted mass-gleanings, killing large numbers of people in public places and wreaking terror among the public.Īt the Vernal Conclave, in which all the MidMerican scythes gathered to reflect on the previous few months, Citra and Rowan encountered many new scythes and observed the divisions that existed within the Scythedom. Citra and Rowan grew to be close friends, even though they bickered with one another. Faraday trained his new apprentices to master various forms of weaponry and glean with compassion.

Citra and Rowan left behind their families, moved in with Faraday, and began their training for the deadly profession. Scythe Faraday, an old, well-respected scythe, recruited teenagers Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch as his new apprentices. In a future in which nearly all forms of natural death had been eradicated, scythes gleaned, or killed, humans to control the growing population. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Shusterman, Neal.

The arc of a scythe