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“There is no cure for me.” He presses a kiss to my forehead. “That’s why you have to become better than me. There’s only you.”
Six dragons of varying scale tones fill the beach, and all of them rival the size of Sgaeyl. Their massive claws dig into the sand as they lower their heads one by one. My breath falters. We didn’t find the irids; they found us. We did it. They’re here.
YAY! Finally!
“They won’t hurt her. They’re my family.” She turns in a circle. “She’s my human, too.” My stomach twists. They might be her family, but she doesn’t know them, and there’s every chance they’ll kill us all.
“Oh my.” The female on the right gasps. “What have you done to your tail?” The one on the left reels back. Andarna cranes her neck to check her scorpiontail. “Nothing. It’s fine.” My gaze jumps from irid to irid, my stomach sinking lower as I count from one to six. They’re all feathertails. “Tell us what they’ve done to you,” the male in front of us demands.
Andarna lore development.
The irids all gasp, and Ridoc and I share a confused look. I’m guessing they don’t bond to humans.
“For my human.” Andarna tilts her head. “She is part of me, as I am of her. You undervalue our connection.” That last bit reeks of adolescent snark.
“Is it just the six of you?” Andarna’s head swivels to look at them. “There are hundreds of us,” the male to the left replies, speaking for the first time. “Please continue.”
I just breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“That’s why we’re here,” she says. “To ask if you’ll come home to fight with us. To see if the knowledge was passed down of how the venin were defeated during the Great War, or if you know how to cure them.” Her tail flicks with expectation. “And I’d like to know about my family.”
I love Andarna. This poor, lost, brave baby dragon.
can fly!” Andarna snaps her wings shut. “I’m just missing a second set of muscles and can’t carry Violet. The elders said it has something to do with the delicate balance of wind resistance and tension on my wing, and her weight on the spinal discs that run under my seat. But that’s all right because we have Tairn and he works with me every day—and the elders, too. And when I get tired, he carries me, but only on long journeys.” She glances down at her harness and shifts her weight nervously.
It's as if she's seeking their approval, and i'm going to cry if this baby girl doesn't get it.
“And dragonkind has not learned their lesson, either. While you”—the male in the center’s gaze jumps to Aotrom—“gifted your human with ice”—he dares to shift his focus to Tairn—“you armed yours with lightning.” “That’s not how signets work,” Ridoc argues. “And you”—the male lowers his gaze to Andarna—“our very hope, have handed this human something far more dangerous to wield, haven’t you?”
Violet has a second signet!!!
In the spirit of our alliance, you may expect a shipment of our most valuable resource—weaponry—to be used at your discretion.
Confirmation that dragons have been used as weapons since the Great War.
—Official Correspondence of General Augustine Melgren to Queen Maraya
So how did Queen Maryana lose her four dragons?
“The soul is not kept by the earth as dark wielders steal its magic. The power exchange kills the soul one piece at a time, and death has no cure.”
Venin development.
“You preach peace while only having known its privilege,” Andarna hisses in retort.
Truth!!! They are so ignorant.
“Leothan may feel differently”—the tallest male glances at the other one—“but our majority has determined you are irid in scale and name only, Andarna. You will not be allowed entrance to our isle nor instruction in our ways. We part here and wish you peace.”
Gutted.
“I’m guessing he’s why you’ve been so hung up on finding a cure.” Ridoc’s accusation hits me like a bucket of ice water, and I snap my gaze to his. Oh. Fuck. “Yeah.” He nods at me. “I saw his eyes turn red.” “Ridoc—” Xaden starts. “Not a single word from you, dark wielder,” Ridoc grits out, his eyes locked on mine. “Vi, you’ve got one chance to come clean and tell me what the actual fuck is going on.”
OH FUCK. Not the breakup of the squad!!!
“Stop keeping shit to yourself,” he demands. “I don’t want to have this fight again. The four of us are stronger together than we are apart.
Ridoc always the wisest, always the funniest. Lots of depth to his character now.
“Everyone you’ve told values your life over hers—” “That’s not true,” I argue. “Everyone who knows has told Violet to run as far and as fast as she can,” Xaden says. “Myself included.”
Riddoc is actually making this fair to Violet.
fly into Basgiath three and a half weeks from the day we left.
“Queen Maraya is dead.”
War development.
seeing as it’s now the seat of power for your uncle.” King Tecarus.
Who killed Serena??
“The fire started in the famous textile district and, with the help of what we think were wind-wielding venin, quickly devoured most of the city, despite the efforts of the four drifts in permanent residence, all of whom perished. We had a riot of four stationed there to protect the queen. One rider and two dragons made it out alive, which is the only reason we have facts instead of rumors to build on. Estimated casualties are somewhere around twenty-five thousand lives.” Holy shit.
War development - The fall of Suniva.
Devera looks to her right, and Professor Kiandra moves from the edge of the room to the desk in the center of the stage. “If we do not rip apart this tactic,” Kiandra lectures, “they will use it again, and the next town they come for will be yours.
I absolutely love how the professors lecture. It feels like a genuine lecture hall. The bring the classroom knowledge to real life. Life or death.
The beard he grew on the journey
I simply cannot picture any of the male characters with any sort of facial hair.
“How many people knew the distribution schedule?” I ask. “Right there.” Devera points at me. “The answer is too many. We have traitors in our ranks.”
Too many secret venin.
“Sometimes I forget just how nearly perfect Bodhi is at everything,” I say to Xaden. No one thought of him during Battle Brief yesterday, and he should have been the first name that came to mind. Countering signets might not be the best offensive tool, but damn if it isn’t a hell of a defense.
Is Bodhi the traitor? Venin?
“I think he won,” Rhi says. Xaden nods once before Aaric backs away, then breaks into a run to mount Molvic. “I’d definitely say so,” I agree.
Aaric is so full of surprises... almost like he's too good...
Or I can always join you in the Assembly chamber. You do some of your best work on that throne.
Aaric throws his arm across Lynx’s chest and drags him back, bumping into Sawyer just before the door bursts open and the Duke of Calldyr flies through.
Do we know Aaric's signet? He has an awfully good sense of timing...
“I can flatten the tip of my tail and boost him,” Andarna offers, having crept closer.
She just wants to be useful. To belong.
Even Aaric, who has yet to manifest a signet,
I don't think so...
“There is if you’re a dream-walker.” He nods thoughtfully, and my heart pounds as I guess what he’s about to say. “It must be your second signet—the one being bonded to Andarna gives you. It would make sense. Her kind are peaceful, and the ability itself would be passive, even a gift in a culture like that.”
“There is such a thing.” Xaden’s voice drops. “It’s absolutely more dangerous than lightning. It’s a form of inntinnsic,” he ends on a whisper.
“That used to be my worst nightmare, actually,”
VIOLET SEES PEOPLE'S WORST NIGHTMARES!
“It’s how you save Tyrrendor.” Aaric’s voice drops to a whisper.
I believe Aaric can see the future/how conflict plays out as his signet. Like Melgren.
“The prince said to protect Dunne’s temple!” she argues, flicking her tail and knocking over a vat of burning coals that hiss as they hit the wet marble. The embers narrowly miss the twenty-foot-tall statue of the goddess, which looks almost exactly like the one in Unnbriel.
Dunne, god of war? Violet's bloodline relative? Aaric knows more than he lets on.
“I’m not leaving. You don’t always have to do everything on your own.” She backs up a handful of steps and lifts her arms. “Sometimes, I do,” I counter. She shakes her head. “We can handle this.”
Love their friendship.
To the left of the wyvern’s body, behind Tairn and Sgaeyl, darkness transforms. Scales the color of night ripple into a shade that’s not quite black or purple, forming the dragon whose horns carry the same swirling pattern as Andarna’s. “It seemed necessary to fire your wardstone,” Leothan says. My stomach bottoms out. The irids have come.
FINALLY!!!
Asher returned today. Gods help us if anyone finds out. I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive him for what he’s done to her. —Journal of Captain Lilith Sorrengail
He definitely dedicated Violet as a priestess of Dunne.
“We are separated by many generations but share the same bloodline. Unlike the others you encountered who are of a more distant line, we are of the same den, or would have been had you been raised among us.” He’s her family. My heart clenches. “Your human may stay,” he replies to Andarna. “The rest may not participate in our conversation.”
Andarna has family!!!
“You should be given the chance to learn our ways,” he continues. “To choose our ways.” “You will stay and teach me?” she asks. “You will come home with me,” he answers, holding her gaze. “It may take a few years, but the others will accept my decision. By then you will have learned enough to know your truth.”
“I love you and I want you to feel complete,” I tell her, and she slowly meets my gaze. “I want you happy and safe and thriving. I want you to live.” My voice breaks. “Even if it’s not with me.”
I'm crying.
Weird. There’s no mark at the back of his neck like he carries on his palm. There hadn’t been one on Dain’s wrist, either.
???
There is no goddess more wrathful than Dunne. Entering Her temple will slice the soul from any attendant who has shunned Her grace.
Ie Theophanie.
“Shit!” she shrieks, then uses her speed to appear twenty-five feet to my left, clutching her nose. “That’s never going to straighten out!”
Hm i don't picture her character caring about appearances.
Hi! I’m Quinn Hollis. I’ve decided we should be friends. That’s what she said to me as we climbed the turret on Conscription Day. You do realize we’re about to cross the walkway of death. Well, then it might be a short friendship, but we’ll make it a good one.
I'm ugly crying rn.
For when you lose yours. Strike in the dark, Violet.
Aaric can see the future i swear.
“He’s a fucking precog,” I whisper in awe. A real one—not like Melgren, who can only foresee battles. If Aaric wields true precognition, he saw this, and he gave me a weapon made of the fractured temple—a temple Theophanie can’t step inside. I don’t believe in oracles, but I do believe in signets.
I called it.
topples to her knees. “Stone doesn’t kill venin.” “You were never just venin,” I reply. “Dunne is a wrathful goddess to high priestesses who turn their backs on Her.” She opens her mouth to scream, then desiccates in an instant.
