Us Against the World

The Fifth Season: Every Age Must Come to an End
by N.K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season is a science fiction novel set on a supercontinent called the Stillness. The narrative alternates between two third-person perspectives—Damaya and Syenite—and one second-person perspective, Essun. Syenite travels with her assigned mentor, Alabaster, and their relationship begins in hostility but evolves into mutual understanding and respect. Meanwhile, Essun journeys with Hoa and Tonkee in search of her daughter, Nassun. Through her grief and drive for revenge, Essun gradually rekindles her hope in others, even those of a race that once shattered her past. Damaya’s story, told from childhood, introduces the world of the Fulcrum and the deceit of the Guardians, which shapes the novel’s class system. In the end, all three main characters—Damaya, Syenite, and Essun—are revealed to be the same person, leaving readers eager to continue the trilogy in search of an answer to the haunting question: Where is Nassun?

In this essay, I closely examine Syenite’s relationship with Alabaster, focusing on the literary device of the relationship arc, and tracing the development of their connection over time. I also explore how this arc reflects Syenite’s relationship to herself across her three identities.

Syenite faces a social obligation to maintain a sexual partnership with her mentor, Alabaster. As an orogene, the Guardians have trained her to obey. Because of her strength, she is expected to breed with Alabaster as part of their mission:

“If Syen isn’t careful, if she pisses off the wrong people, if she lets herself get labeled difficult, they will kill her career and assign her permanently to the Fulcrum, leaving her nothing to do but lie on her back and turn men’s grunting and farting into babies” (71).

Alabaster’s response to this forced intimacy defines the tension in their dynamic:

“Because that’s hate in his face” (72).

From their first interactions, the reader senses an unjust world—one that both characters resist in their own ways. After their first encounter, Syenite feels ashamed, while Alabaster remains emotionally distant. Their sex continues, mandated by the Fulcrum’s breeding program, and Alabaster observes:

“I think you hate me because… I’m someone you can hate. I’m here, I’m handy. But what you really hate is the world” (149).

Alabaster knows that any child they conceive will be enslaved to power a node, “chained to a wire seat and drained.” Though the Guardians paired them for power and procreation, Alabaster instead mentors Syenite to question authority and imagine freedom. When they reach the island of Meov, he remarks,

“They don’t kill their roggas [slur for orogene] here. They put them in charge” (296).

Later, their relationship deepens when they take on a third lover, Innon. This is the turning point—their intimacy becomes mutual, and the idea of a child shifts from duty to love.

“It’s just been so long, Syen… Not since he’s had a lover he wanted” (354).
This love trio embodies a sense of hope and agency:
“‘Baster doesn’t want her that way, nor she him. And yet it’s unbelievably arousing for her to watch Innon drive him to moaning and begging…” (372).

Syenite’s relationship arc with herself mirrors the world’s cyclical “seasons” of disaster and calm. As Damaya, her relationship with her parents is dark:

“…and hates herself, because of course Mother and Father are selling Damaya if she can think such thoughts” (27).
When she is handed over to Schaffa, her Guardian, he breaks her hand to enforce obedience, saying,
“Never say no to me… I am your Guardian. I love you” (99).
Her belief that “the Guardians are the closest thing to safety a rogga will ever have” (329) exposes the depth of her conditioning. We see this again in Syenite’s awareness:
“…that she is a slave, that all roggas are slaves, that the security and sense of self-worth the Fulcrum offers is wrapped in the chain of her right to live and the right to control her own body” (348).

When Syenite later faces Schaffa again, she must finally say no—to end the cycle of control. Through this, the reader understands the whole arc of resistance and self-realization across her identities.

The novel’s structure allows us to recognize how Syenite’s history shapes Essun’s present. “Once you lived surrounded by the walls he built for you, in a home you made together, in a community that actually chose to take you in” (407). The rise and fall of peace between “seasons” parallels Essun’s struggle for survival. When Alabaster is taken by a stone eater and Syenite is left alone to protect their son, Coru, the irony deepens when we later discover that Hoa—also a stone eater—genuinely cares for Essun.

“But I wanted to travel with you… I like you” (396).

Relationships are central to both my storytelling and personal philosophy. Self-discovery often begins through connection with others—through those who choose to invest their time and care. This truth is mirrored in Syenite and Alabaster’s relationship: although it began as an obligation, they ultimately choose one another. Alabaster gives Syenite a glimpse of happiness and freedom she has never known—from her family, the Guardians, or herself. The relationship among the three versions of Syenite reflects the many selves that exist within every human life and how our past continually shapes our present. This lesson inspires me to write deeper, more honest relationship arcs in my own characters and to embrace how lived experience can transform the people we become.

Work Cited
Jemisin, N.K. The Fifth Season. Orbit, 2015.