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The following text has been faithfully transcribed from Navarrian into the modern language by Jesinia Neilwart, Curator of the Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath War College. All events are true, and names have been preserved to honor the courage of those fallen. May their souls be commended to Malek.
A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.
I tighten the straps of my heavy canvas rucksack and trudge up the wide staircase of the stone fortress I call home. My chest heaves with exertion, my lungs burning by the time I reach the stone corridor leading to General Sorrengail’s office. This is what six months of intense physical training has given me—the ability to barely climb six flights of stairs with a thirty-pound pack.
Lillith Sorrengail
Violet's mother. General of Basgiath War College.
Bonded with Brown Dragon
Signet Power of Storms
Navarre.
kingdom on the Continent
Riders Quadrant,
Quadrant to train Dragon Riders
Basgiath War College
War college that trains infantry, scribes, dragon riders and healers
Basgaith means death wing
Every Navarrian officer, whether they choose to be schooled as healers, scribes, infantry, or riders, is molded within these cruel walls over three years, honed into weapons to secure our mountainous borders from the violent invasion attempts of the kingdom of Poromiel and their gryphon riders.
Rival kingdom
Every Navarrian officer, whether they choose to be schooled as healers, scribes, infantry, or riders, is molded within these cruel walls over three years, honed into weapons to secure our mountainous borders from the violent invasion attempts of the kingdom of Poromiel and their gryphon riders.
Soldiers that are trained to ride gryphons
Mira.
Lieutenant and accomplished Rider
Bonded with Teine, Green Club tail
Signet Can extend shields
Second born daughter of Lilith Sorrengail
Older sister of Violet Sorrengail
Violet.”
Youngest daughter of Lilith Sorrengail
Pushed in the Riders Quadrant by her mother. Trained to be a Scribe all her life by Mr. Sorrengail. (father is not named)
Brown Hair that fades to silver at the tips. In Onyx Storm we learn she has been dedicated to Dune. Theory: possibly have been dedicated to Malek
Bonded with 2 Dragons Tairn, black with morning star tail. Adarana, golden feather tail.
Signets Lightning Wielder via Tairn. Time Manipulation via Andarna (Fourth Wing timeline only)
The protagonist and primary POV character. Smaller than the other riders and physically weak.
She might be here to say her goodbyes, but I’m just glad to see my sister for the first time in years.
I don’t need the prohibited power of mind reading to know exactly what she sees.
riders are the top of the social and military
hierarchy.
Aimsir.
Means Weather
Brennan.
Rider, Lieutenant Colonel
Bonded with Marbh Orange Dagger tail
Signet Mending
Believed to be dead by most, but alive in Aretia
Brennan is alive
the parapet is roughly eighteen inches wide, two hundred feet aboveground, and last time I looked, those were rain clouds moving in.
Potential cadets have to cross this dangerous bridge to enter the Rider's Quadrant.
“Dad gave this one to me,” I murmur, pressing the book against my chest. Maybe it’s childish, just a collection of stories that warn us against the lure of magic, and even demonize dragons, but it’s all I have left. She sighs. “Is it that old book of folklore about dark-wielding vermin and their wyvern? Haven’t you read it a thousand times already?” “Probably more,” I admit. “And they’re venin, not vermin.”
Dad was secretly telling his children the truth
I glance down at the books in my arms and make my choice. “You’re a pain in the ass.” I put the fables in the corner but keep the other
tome in my hands as I face my sister. “A pain in the ass who is going to keep you alive. What’s that one for?” she challenges. “Killing people.” I hand it back to her.
Book of poisons
to just below my waist, wrapping over my breasts and crossing up and over my shoulders. I finger the hidden sheaths sewn diagonally along the rib cage.
Dragon scale armor
“What is this?” I test the material just above my heart, scratching it with my fingernail. “Something I designed,” she explains, tugging my braid painfully tight against my scalp. “I had it specially made for you with Teine’s scales sewn in, so be careful with it.” “Dragon scales?” I jerk my head back to look at her. “How? Teine is huge.”
Mira's dragon,Teine's shed
Teine means fire
Codex?”
Rules for the Riders Quadrant
“There’s no such thing as cheating once you climb the turret. There’s only survival and death.” The bell chimes—only thirty minutes left.
Anything goes
Dain Aetos,”
Rider, Rider's Quadrant section leader, Second Squad, Flame Section Fourth Wing Second Year
Bonded with Cath Red Sword tail
Sigent Retrocognition
Violet's childhood best friend and son of Colonel Aetos.
Through his bond with Cath, he can read memories upon touching another person.
It’s been a year, and I’ve missed his soft brown eyes and the way he laughs, the way every part of his body joins in. I’ve missed our friendship, and the moments I thought it might turn into more under the right circumstances. I’ve missed the way he looks at me, like I’m someone worth noticing. I’ve just missed…him.
“This might sound harsh, but don’t seek friendships in there, Violet. Forge alliances.”
People die often in the Riders Quadrant
I look around the pair toward the roll-keeping desk, and my eyes widen. “Is he…?” I whisper. Mira glances and mutters a curse. “A separatist’s kid? Yep. See that shimmering mark that starts on the top of his wrist? It’s a relic from the rebellion.” I lift my eyebrows in surprise. The only relics I’ve ever heard of are when a dragon uses magic to mark the skin of their bonded rider. But those relics are a symbol of honor and power and generally in the shape of the dragon who gifted them. These marks are swirls and slashes that feel more like a warning than a claiming. “A dragon did that?” I
...more
The children of the executed parents were marked to identify them.The children learn these marks become useful. The children of the rebellion were conscripted into the Riders Quadrant. This would prove theirloyalty or they would die during training
“Stay the hell away from Xaden Riorson.” The air rushes from my lungs. That name… “That Xaden Riorson,” she confirms, fear lacing her gaze. “He’s a third-year, and he will kill you the second he finds out who you are.” “His father was the Great Betrayer. He led the rebellion,” I say quietly. “What is Xaden doing here?” “All the children of the leaders were conscripted as punishment for their parents’ crimes,”
Violet's mother executed Xaden's father.
Captain Fitzgibbons
“Don’t die, Violet. I’d hate to be an only child.”
Rhiannon Matthias,
Rider, Second Squad, Flame Section, Fourth Wing
Bonded to Feirge Green Dagger Tail
Signet Summoner
A first year member of the Riders Quadrant who is assigned to Fourth Wing. She becomes Violet's best friend
“Dylan,”
A potential cadet for the Riders Quadrant
I give them a tense smile of my own, blatantly ignoring Mira’s earlier suggestion that I avoid friendships and only forge alliances.
A mistake
Healer Quadrant.”
The parapet claims roughly fifteen percent of the rider candidates.
He’s tall, with windblown black hair and dark brows. The line of his jaw is strong and covered by warm tawny skin and dark
stubble, and when he folds his arms across his torso, the muscles in his chest and arms ripple, moving in a way that makes me swallow. And his eyes… His eyes are the shade of gold-flecked onyx. The contrast is startling, jaw-dropping even—everything about him is. His features are so harsh that they look carved, and yet they’re astonishingly perfect, like an artist worked a lifetime sculpting him, and at least a year of that was spent on his mouth.
Xaden Riorson?
Rider, wing leader, Lieutenant
Bonded to Sgaeyl
Shadow wielder and Inntinnsic
There’s a misconception that it’s kill or be killed in the Riders Quadrant. Riders, as a whole, aren’t out to assassinate other cadets…unless there’s a shortage of dragons that year or a cadet is a liability to their wing. Then things may get…interesting. —Major Afendra’s Guide to the Riders Quadrant (Unauthorized Edition)
Dylan is dead. He’s just a name, another soon-to-be stone in the endless graveyards that line the roads to Basgiath, another warning to the ambitious candidates who would rather chance their lives with the riders than choose the security of any other quadrant. I get it now—why Mira warned me not to make friends.
She did warn you
thunder cracks above me, the sound oddly comforting.
Violet’s mother giving her courage
“You’d better get going, Sorrengail,” Xaden’s deep voice orders. I look over my shoulder and see him pinning me with a glare.
Theory: I think Xaden read Jack’s intentions. Jack wanted to kill Violet on the parapet.
We learn later Xaden can read people’s intentions
“The Continent is home to two kingdoms—and we’ve been at war for four hundred years,”
“Navarre, my home, is the larger kingdom, with six unique provinces. Tyrrendor, our southernmost and largest province, shares its border with the province of Krovla within the Poromiel kingdom.”
