Gladriel never expected to end up at Morningstar Academy.
Once, she was a celestial warrior with a purpose and a future. Then she failed.
Now she's surrounded by fallen celestials who see that failure as proof of who she really is. At Morningstar Academy, weakness is mocked, compassion is considered a flaw, and helping humans is frowned upon.
Through pressure tactics, the academy makes beings forget who they are. Or worse, convince them they were never anything more than their mistakes.
That's one of the questions at the heart of the Morningstar Academy series:
Are we defined by our failures?
Most of us carry labels.
Some were given to us by other people. Some we give ourselves: A failure. A disappointment. Not good enough. Too broken.
The problem is that labels have a way of becoming identities if we accept them.
Gladriel spends much of her journey caught between two versions of herself: the fallen angel the school wants her to be, and the warrior she was meant to be... If only she can remember.
I think most of us understand that struggle.
We've all made mistakes we'd rather forget. We've all had moments when failure felt bigger than everything we've done right. We've all wondered whether personal change is really possible.
That's one reason I love stories. A fearful character can become brave. A selfish character can learn sacrifice. Someone who falls can choose to get back up.
Stories remind us that people aren't finished growing.
Throughout Morningstar Academy, the battle isn't just against external enemies. It's also against the lies characters believe about themselves because the moment someone accepts the lie that they'll never change, they stop moving forward.
Gladriel's journey keeps returning to the same question: If everyone sees you as your worst mistake, do you have the courage to believe there's more to your story?
I think that's a question worth asking ourselves too.
Question: Have you ever had to let go of a label—one given by someone else or one you gave yourself—in order to move forward? Or is there a label you need to give up?