Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.
Isabella has learned the lesson the hard way. The spear metaphor is clean and moral: the tool of harm harms the hand that wields it. Her wariness isn’t weakness; it’s experience talking. The line widens the book’s scope beyond one love story to a pattern of hurting and being hurt. It warns that revenge carries its own poison. Readers see how self-protection can be wisdom after a fall.