Coming of Age Story: for Michael, although he still has some more Character Development to go through at the end of the novel.Also, Francis says Michael is 'playing a game that no one else knows the rules to'. Chess Motifs: The eponymous traitor game appears to be similar to chess.It also foreshadows the real world climax in which Michael is pushed out of a window by Shipley. In the climax of the Evgard plotline, Argent uses the view of the half-an-hour-late sunset through a lightlead window to trick some soldiers into thinking there is a fire. It's a type of glass that slows down light, meaning what you see through a window made of lightlead glass would be what happened 30 minutes ago. They're introduced early in the real world plotline, when Francis tells Michael about it as a new idea for Evgard. Character Development: Michael, as seen when he finally stands up to Shipley.Bystander Syndrome: Michael often behaves like this, to Francis' horror.He is said to target gay kids specifically. The Bully: Shipley, who is first seen cornering a boy several years younger than him and burning him with a cigarette.Michael's experience had already started before the novel begins, when he was bullied in his old school. Break the Cutie: All four of the main characters goes through a lot of breaking.When the latter takes over the former, Argent is horrified to find that they are Mirroring Factions. Gray-and-Grey Morality: The conflict between Evgard and the Mereish.Black-and-Gray Morality: Michael and Argent may both have betrayed their friends, but their enemies are a homophobic bully and a sadistic rapist, respectively.Armoured Closet Gay: Michael suggests that this is why Shipley likes to pick on gay and effeminate students.Annoying Younger Sibling: Luke, Francis's brother who dislikes Michael, to disastrous consequences.He only told Shipley that Francis is gay as a revenge, but it turns out to be true. Accidental Truth: Michael's lies about Francis.

The book alternates between Michael and Francis lives in reality (in third person, in Michael's POV) and in the Evgard from Michael's imagination (in first person), where they're known as Argent and Columen, a slave and the Duke's son, involved in an ongoing war between their peoples. Fearing that Francis has betrayed him and their secret, Michael decides to take revenge. Until, of course, Michael gets an anonymous note in his locker saying I KNOW WHERE ARCASTER IS. Both boys keep their world hidden safely in a locked box, in the form of maps and poems. Francis is a cool and tall redhead who, instead of making fun on him, joins Michael in a game of make-believe, creating a fantasy land called Evgard and its capital, Arcaster.

The incident - and his mother's inaction in the face of it - makes it hard for him to trust people again, but this changes when he meets Francis.

After being bullied, Michael changes schools.

The traitor baru