Daniel's sister, Leah, suffered severe mental trauma as a
child, and is now agoraphobic (scared of open spaces) and also scared of other people
aside from Daniel and their grandmother. Thacia, who becomes Daniel's close friend and
love interest, is able to visit Leah because of Thacia's deep love of all people. Leah
is not scared of Thacia because Leah can see that Thacia would never harm her, or even
consider the possibility; Thacia has room for nothing but love in her heart. This is
something that Daniel does not yet understand:
He knew he would never know how she had
accomplished it. Girls were strange creatures. He could not understand them. But he
could see the change in his sister's face. She was fragile and pale beside Thacia's
vivid beauty, but smiling with a smile so like their mother that it caught at his
throat.
(Speare, The Bronze Bow, Google
Books)
While Leah is also
somewhat friendly with a Roman soldier named Marcus, her friendship with Thacia is vital
to their personal growth. Thacia knows that Leah needs care to become healthy again, and
worries that Daniel cannot provide that care. Leah is scared of others, but welcomes
Thacia as a relatable person; both of them are constrained, Thacia by her culture and
Leah by her fear, and so they have more in common than Daniel realizes. By allowing
Thacia to visit her, Leah shows that her condition is not static, that she can heal, but
needs the love of others to reach that healing.
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