2: When the Moon Hatched, ch. 16-30

Diary entry, Lauren, age 31, seven Aurora cycles after episode 1. For days now, I've had to hide what I know from who I normally consider the first person I tell, having to betray Khan this way is like nothing I could ever imagine. Then of course, I do imagine how she had done the same to me for almost a full phase. That lightens the guilt slightly. The urge to speak out during her notes, or John's for that matter, is still almost unbearable. I want so bad to reveal what is to come, but I mustn't. To do so would rob so many of their truest reactions to the tales yet to come, and I should never want to be the cause of a spoiler. I can only be ever grateful that I have my Kyle at my side through it all. The two of us together are a vault made to hold the secrets of the world against those who seek them from us. Although sometimes I wish I could throw him an avult, and yet other times I wish I could be locked in the vault with him. Oh, well, well, well. Oh, well. Amazing. Play this on. That was incredible. Welcome back to Between Pages and Friends, a book club, podcast hosted by Khan, and Lauren Tubessees who read a lot of books, and John and Kyle, their gamer-turned-reader husband, Tufa Greed, to read with him. I'm John. I'm Kyle. I'm Lauren. And I'm Khan. You are listening to episode two of the Moonfall series by Sarah A. Parker. Today we are covering When the Moon Hatched Chapter 16-30. This is a book club podcast, meaning there will be no spoilers here for future chapters. So if you've only read through chapter 30, same. This is a safe place to debrief with us while we discuss. But before we begin the discussion, here's a quick content warning. When the Moon Hatched is rated for audiences 18 and up, and as we'll be talking through direct quotes and themes from this book, our episodes are best suited for adults. Oh, and speaking of, I couldn't help but notice you've been listening, watching, letting us take up space in your head. 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We are absolutely over the moon. See what I did there? To have learned about this literally just today, and to spend the better part of our respective days, starry-eyed, and kicking our feet. Our fellow nominees are amazing podcasts as well. And like I've said, it's an honor to even be considered among them. All of this wouldn't be possible without all of the amazing friends we've made since the start, or the ratings and reviews you give us. Like this recent Five Star Review on Apple Podcasts from our new bestie in the UK, Jessica of the Laris, titled "The Best Way to Spend a Wednesday." Please come to England. [Laughter] Love, love, love this podcast. I've watched you all through my read of "Third of Glass," reading along the "Imperience Series" now, and watching your reactions to "Quick Silver" each week, as I've read this too. Obsessed with the girls, I feel like my US besties to me being a UK girly. I'm such a lorin' always looking for a romance and spice. Loved, a kale, good job. Swooning over Zaden at the moment, and a loved Kingfisher, same. I look forward to everyone's day's episode and laugh along to Kyle and John's dad comments and theories. If I was in the US, I'd so go to Enchantecon, but I guess you guys just need to hop across the pond, so us and UK friends between the pages can meet up. Heart Hands emoji, I love you guys. Dragon Byery Mouji. Thank you, Jessica, for loris. Thank you. You're welcome. Do you actually live in loris? Because. Come on, head up. I mean, don't ask us to write. In the UK. [Laughter] Yeah, where we going to visit you? [Laughter] We are so honored if you would take a moment to write a podcast review on Audible or Apple Podcasts. We recently discovered that Apple Podcasts doesn't display reviews from other countries on our public page, so we logged into our account to find the rest of your amazing reviews, and we've been so overwhelmed with gratitude. Reading through them all, and we will find a way to share them soon. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. This is so sweet. All right, we are kicking off, Conceed Classified Fantasy Pronunciation Guide. This is the part of the show where we highlight all the new names and places mentioned in this chapter section. Now, once again, we are referencing the audiobook narrated by Sarah Molo Kricinson and Fager Al-Kasey. And from time to time, we will be consulting our lore expert, loren, to give us some spoiler-free references to the glossary that is in the book. So, first up in places, a little clarifying one here is the Flourish. This is the name of the Underground Safe Haven that was mentioned in Episode 1. Apparently, the Flourish specifically was also mentioned by name in our first chapter section, and I missed it. So, here it is. That's what that is. And then another clarification in Episode 1, I said Gondraug for one of the pronunciations, and it does change a little bit. So, in the prologue, it is pronounced Gondra in the rest of the book. So far, it's been pronounced Gondr. So, just wanted to throw that one in there. 'Cause I heard Gondra, and I was like, wait a minute. (laughs) And then in characters, we met Rook, the Wo-To, that rave met in the Dungeons, Lauren. Can you tell us what a Wo-To is? Of course. Wo-To is a furry creature with big, paddled ears, a long nose, pronged teeth, and has whiskers. They are around two-thirds the size of a regular fey and are prized for being able to steal things from tricky places. They are also known as great hoarders, and as we see in the book, it's very verbal. Interesting. I was having trouble picturing this one in the book, but having the description altogether is helping me a little bit. I would love some spoiler-free fan art of Rook. Sure. If that's a thing that exists in the world, that would be great. What does it mean by paddled ears? That's a great question. I can't picture that for some reason. Does that mean they're bent over a little bit or no? That's what I was assuming. I thought it was more like a kin-to-ray paddle. Like a shape. Like a round. What kind of kitty ears? Like the ones that maybe like. Oh, the little ones. The little baby ears. The little like-to-it ears. Yeah, and they kind of like. Oh, I see. A little space-cute. You know? Gotcha. Yeah. All right. Lots of kids. Kind of fun. You're kiddies. Many, where are you? Oh, she is. Hello. Hi. She's like, you're talking about me. What excellent timing you have. All right, then we get some more details on the brother kings. So king fade is Kadok Vegor. King shade is Tyroth Vegor. And then king Bern is Con Vegor. aka the Imkognito king. Con's ancient giant saber-seth is called Ragon. And then in the diary entry timeline, Austrian Vegor was king of the Bern previously. And now it is Con. We also get some more dragon names. So Slattra is Eloen's Moon Plume. Allume is Hadeon's Moon Plume. Nathae is Eloen's mom's Moon Plume. And then Akari is, I'm assuming, Eloen's dad's dragon. But we don't get a lot of information or specification on that. And then Bia is the flesh-thedder, a con asked to mend Rave. In world building, we have a weld. And this is another one I want to consult Lauren on, because I don't think we get a really clear explanation of this in the context of the book yet. No, we don't. And reading this really helped me understand something in the book as well. So hopefully it helps you. So a weld is a small handheld device that's ruined to be able to contain different elements in their purist forms. So we see Con hold one of these, but what it can hold is fire air, water, ground, and then we also see him hold it with dragon flame. It says to catch dragon flame, though, it is very rare and would require the blood of a dog or morque to construct. Which a dog or morque was the person so attuned to their dragon they could control its flame. OK, that is helpful. Thank you. Finishing off our world building, we have doom quills. Is that something you can tell us about yet? It's not in there. Oh. It was not. Unless I missed it. [INAUDIBLE] It was not in this giant-ass gloss tree. It was not in there. Kyle's checking too. Interesting. Well, OK, so the doom quills, I think, were only mentioned in the diary entries. And it was when Ellowen and Hadeon were going to get their eggs. And so they were trying to protect themselves from a pack of doom quills. But I don't know that we really get a solid definition on what they are. It was just for their threat. It was mixed between a wolf and a porcupine. Sure. That's what I'm going with. Yeah, but it's definitely not the only assumption one could make. Maybe a little smaller than the actual size of a wolf. But covered in needles like a porcupine? Yeah, sure. But when we have our agility-- you know. Scary. Maybe we can ask Sarah. when she's on the pot. Let's do it. Yeah. Okay, wait, for definition, uh, something. Or what a do-cause I'll forget. It's like, Sarah, what is your answer for a doom quill? It's in a Google Doc now. It's the only thing in the Google Doc. It says Sarah, enter, enter. What is a doom quill? Amazing. Leave it. Our full interview. We centered the outline a week before, and this is it. She's like, I gotta prepare enough content on that. Knowing her, she probably could. I'll her deep lore. Probably. Yeah. That's true. All right. And then we have truth tunes. These are folk who can sift through the minds of others to decipher whether or not they can hear any of the four elemental songs. The nobles and the chancellor were mentioned as those responsible for holding the trials in the fade at least. And then Fani-caw, Dung. Lauren, what did you like to tell us about this? Well, obviously you know what Dung is. But Fani-caw is a- It's a- No, Fani-caw is a winged leathery beast with a stumpy neck and big gloomy eyes. They are less than half the size of an average molten maw and are able to blend in with the rust-colored stone in the burn. They can cling to cliffs and ceilings and have bat-like wings and they can be ridden. So it sounds horrifying. It's what it sounds like. After you're going to have Fani-caw in there but not Dung will. Come on. Sorry. So it's like bat poop then. Yeah. But they're like half the size of a dragon. That's a lot of-- That is terrifying. A lot of bat poop. And it blends in with like the stone and stuff. Yeah. So it'd be hard to-- Wow. Spot. I wonder if they call and that's why it's in the name. Yeah. And it's kind of funny sounding. It probably sounds funny. Yeah. That's kind of a Fani-caw. Hey, wait a minute. Hold on. Save that again. [LAUGHTER] It's kind of nice ring to me. All right. Let's factually finish off this pronunciation guide. I just have a few other terms that we heard in this section. And those are flesh threading. Dragon-site, rindle root used to numb pain and then fermented eel eggs to disinfect. And that's all I got for you today. John, take it away with the recaps. Thanks, Biotch. [LAUGHTER] Flutter. I probably won't put that in there. That was just for us. I don't know. I'll think about it. Catch everybody off guard. Yeah. That's just for you guys behind closed doors. All right. Go on, hope. Thanks. All right. Let's chop it up. We get another diary entry from Eloen. Her and Hadeon are in Netheran. Each with their own-- oh, wait. They didn't each have their own moon plume egg. No, they only have one. And then Eloen takes the one that's flying overhead because he's unconscious. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah. He's sleeping. He's a sleepy boy. He just take it a nap. It'd be like if Connor and I went on an adventure and we'd have to stop at the middle of an ice storm so she could take a nap. And then we'd continue on. That's funny because it's true. I know. [LAUGHTER] Her and Hadeon are in Netheran. Hadeon injured and sleeping while Eloen protects and keeps cold. The moon plume egg that he snagged. He's obviously not doing too good. She's built like a hut around him to keep him warm and safe, but he's sleeping a lot. She's worried that he may never wake up. And if he doesn't, she's not going back home. And we rejoin, rave, post, other, chained up in a cell, beat up, and wondering what happened. She hears footsteps and rec comes into view. They have a nice little back and forth here, rec demanding her real name, sharing with her that instead of contact info, levy handed her a tracking rune. You dirty be. And finally that he was hoping it would lead him to the flourish and that he needs a higher up to get a hold of. Interesting. She stays defiant until rec has had enough and then he just starts to give her some lashes until she pretty much passes out. We're back to Eloen still in her hut with Hadeon who has yet to awaken and their moon plume egg. The mother of set egg is swooping above them, screeching, hunting for them, and her stolen egg. She notes that it must be the mother because they both have a metallic shade of gray and then it gives off a beautiful light. There are other monsters out there as well that she can hear too. She's scared for the egg and hoping that she doesn't have to kill anything to protect it. And we're back with rave. In a different cell, was the mother prisoners? A woto named a rook who is digging a hole in one corner, some sobby check across from them and we're looking dude on her other side. She gets some food but passes it over the rook and we get some info here that she's had experience in a cell before, possibly with Fallen, although we don't really get that info for sure here. Back with Eloen, her and Hadeon are safe, but apparently he broke a leg or two maybe and because she mentions that some bones fuse together but not the right way and that he'll never be able to walk again. She also mentions that his moon plume may never fly because of an injured wing. So bummer there all around. She also recounts how they got out of there. She fought off the doom quills until mother moon plume swept down to take out the rest and she happened to hop on top of it until it listened to her song even though she begged the creators for help and now apparently they won't shut up. Very interesting implications here for little Eloen, a lot of information. Back with rave and her cell, trying to pass the time when someone comes to visit rook and wouldn't you know it, it's the large gruff dude from before now mysteriously dressed as a runie. She listens in on their convo. Large gruff dude hearing that rook had a moon chard and that he's willing to trade a saber-sive tusk for it to which rook agrees. Large gruff dude goes to leave and smells rave. Casually breaks the lock to her door with one hand and sauters in to get a good look at her face. And when he does, he is a loss for words, clearly recognizing her. The truth tune in one of the other cells confirms that rave is confused and doesn't recognize him. Then he takes a weld with dragon flame, holds the true face showing a scar as he notes that she's been quote unquote "mended" also calls her moonbeam and gets interrupted by another runie in disguise calling him sire, confirmation that he is indeed a king before guards come to take her to the council for her trial. Wow. Lots of questions after this interaction for short. She gets to the trial with all the dudes, large gruff dude up in a mezzanine with a bunch of other people looking on. She makes a bit of a spectacle here as they bring an evidence of her killings using her signature for her prison food to confirm the writing on people's chest when she killed them. So they were just like slapping down, just slabs a meat on the floor. First of all, how did they get these? First of all, anyway. She basically tells them that someone had to do it since they haven't been doing their job and not doing anything about these people. They vote on her sentence with it being a draw between being drawn and quartered, herp which is her preference, and fed to the dragons. But then large gruff dude raises his hand in favor of dragons and it looks like that's how she's going out, folks. And she's pissed because she wants to die, how she wants to die. She's escorted back to herself and reminisces briefly on how she enjoys living and some of the things she misses back to Eloen and we get a little time jump here to the future. She's now 18. They are visited by the king of the burn, Austrian Végor, possibly for marriage to one of his sons. And not so many words she basically says that she'll never ever marry one of them, especially Tyraath. She mentions how Hadion has never been the same since their journey and his injuries, which is why she has been working tirelessly to heal up his dragon's wing to fly so he can finally smile again. Back to Rafe, being visited yet again by large gruff dude who takes her to a separate room to get her back healed by a flesh thread named Bia who also is gifted with something called dragon sight, which means that she can see past runes, wait past, right past runes, previous runes. Right? I think it was previous, I'm not sure. I don't like see past them, see further than. I don't think that would have made sense in the context of the system. You don't make sense in contact of the system. Oh, yeah. All right, anyway. Okay, it's past. Yeah, past. Just as to ignite the trail of past runes, so like the trail on her body of old runes. Okay, cool. Thank you. All right. Bia, who also is gifted with dragon sight, which means that she can see past runes. And as Rave says, she can see, quote unquote, "everything inside of her." Her and large gruff dude have a somewhat tender moment as he helps her as Bia comes back and begins the painful journey of healing her back. Why did I word it that way? Back to Ellwyn. Still working on Haydion's dragon to practically fully healed as the dragon recognizes this and ends up taking off, flinging Ellwyn back. And when she comes to, she can see Haydion's dragon in the sky, the light glittering off, plumes of aquaflame thrown skyward as in victory. And Haydion, close by, witnessing the same thing and smiling from ear to ear real quick. Is it Haydion or Haydion? Am I saying it wrong? I always say Haydion. Haydion. I feel like I need a doctor. We laughed about saying, "Hey, Deion." So I'm pretty sure we're talking about it wrong this entire time. I mean, it's fine. And Haydion, close by, witnessing the same thing and smiling from ear to ear. Bia finishes up healing Rave's back and as they discuss getting the pin out of it. of her shoulder. They land on putting, what is, what am I, what's happening? How did, how am I writing this? What's, all right. Bia finishes up healing, raves back, and as they discuss getting the pin out of her shoulder, they land on putting a sav on it. The interestingly has a numbing quality and also another agent that disinfects, but also smells terrible. Okay, that's kind of weird. Back in herself, Rook gone. She's waiting to be taken to be eaten, basically, humming the familiar tune to calm herself. As Uno of all things and creatures pops up like in front of herself, stating that Serim talked to Ruse to send Uno to get rave out. As Uno starts picking the lock, rave tries to get her to stop explaining that they know who she is and if she escapes that they're just going to double down, possibly go after Ruse and other members of the off. At this, Uno goes into like this weird trance thing. Apparently this is what happens when she sees the future. A quote unquote foretelling as rave calls it. When Uno comes out of it, she states that not only Ruse, but Serim, too, would die if rave doesn't make it to the Colosseum. But before she goes, she takes a piece of coal and draws something on rave's forehead, apparently in the shape of Hadeon's dragon's moon, haze perch. And Uno says, this is right. Whatever that means. And now it's time to head to the Colosseum. She sees some familiar faces in the crowd as she is escorted up to the center, and tied to a wooden stake. The feeding bell tolls. At the same time, the queen is able to look on her in a wide-eyed stare of shock, possibly recognition. Couple dragons come down to land as the queen uses clothe to spend a protective gust around rave. And rave quickly realizes that the queen is trying to save her. Just then a giant saber-side comes down, getting its face close to look at rave. And rave is filled with some kind of power or something. She begins to sing to the dragon in another language, and it seems to listen. It gives a roar, chomps her along with the stake, and flies off with rave in its mouth. Okay. Back to Elwin, sleeping and thinking of how Hadeon was during his first flight on aluminum. But that same night, her family was poisoned, her mom and dad, then King and Queen, and Hadeon, all dead. The royal aides tell her that she needs to wear the diadem now. All the creators she can hear now saying the same thing. Sounds like she eventually does wear it if anything, to feel closer to her family. Now a queen. Back with rave in the mouth of a dragon, kind of freaking out, fair. Doesn't know where she's going, basically expecting to be met by several baby dragons and to fight for her life, even going so far as to think of a lighthearted tune, like a bar, almost like a bar song kind of thing, to keep her mind off her impending doom. When she feels them finally land, she gets spit out and promptly vomits. Getting her bearings, she recognizes large gruff dude, saw entering toward her, as he claims to have saved her, giving the nobles a show so they don't go after her to or the off, naming Rhygan as the saber siph and the realization that she's been conversing with none other than Convegor the burn king. Sick burn. She knows how devastating they both look girl, you have no idea. And also that she's getting burnt, alluding to her more fair skin in the weather of what we can only assume is the burn. That's where they are. Con cuts her bindings while getting in some good banter, but then rebinds her hands, throws her over a shoulder and takes her up onto Rhygan screaming. He like places her, so she's straddling him and he ends up giving her 10 seconds to adjust which way she wants to sit. In a funny moment as she gets turned around and plops down, they take off and she's on her way to Dom, the capital of the burn with King Convegor. Let's get into it. Go. We start this chapter section with Eloen packing snow around Hadeon's moon plume egg by herself, because quote, "Hadeon can't," because I found him sleeping at the bottom of a crevice, cuddling his stolen moon plume egg, unable to move his legs. And I thought that he was already dead here. I was really nervous for the first few paragraphs because she kept saying he was sleeping. And I was like, "Oh no, she's nine. Her brother's dead." And she's stranded here by herself. So I'm glad that he didn't die here, but then he still ends up dying in this chapter section, which is just, I don't know, my heart was just shattering for her and also for him. And this was so emotional. It's like total opposite to what my only note here was, because I read the exact same passage, or my only thought was like, "That egg needs to be kept cold? That's weird." It's kind of unique. I mean, it's from the shade, so I guess. Yeah, I guess. And I mean, different animals. It's a different beast. It's built different. Wonderful perspective. Thank you. I wasn't expecting to have to dig into my note there. I just wanted to say I had a different reaction. I was kind of expecting you to tell us all about how eggs, you know. I feel like everybody knows eggs need to be covered in darky meat. It's saying Kyle style details. There was nothing about me. That was like, maybe people don't know that usually eggs should be warm. Egg need to be warm usually. All of you just thought it was weird, thought I mentioned it. I was going to move on. But we were all waiting for it. Now I'm googling. I'm sure the only eggs that are okay with cold would be like deep sea fish eggs. That makes sense to me. But like Nemo? Maybe a good old platypie now and then? Maybe pie. I don't know if that's the plural platypus. Hold on, like what are you doing? Watch it. I want to know if there's any type of animal that the egg needs to be cold. How egg hatch cold? Ask a chat. That's a good idea. Hey girl. I'm finding is that they can tolerate short periods of cold, but they still generally need warmth. I mean, even like penguin eggs. They need the warmth. It's mostly dragons. Yeah, I was going to say fish that are like deep sea. You're not going to really get much warmth out of, which I'm sure I think even then sometimes they find those, you know, underwater volcano warmer spots in the ocean to do that in. Is this real? This says temperature dependent sex determination in reptiles. Yeah, that's actually I think. While most reptile eggs need warmth, in some species like some turtles, cooler incubation temperatures produce one sex and warmer temperatures produce the other. Yeah. What's even crazier is the frogs that can change sex anytime, depending on what their community needs. Like if they're short females, they'll be like, I don't get all changed to a female. That's why animals are crazy. Well now that we know how eggs are hatched, let's get back into the episode. There's two notes that I didn't mean to throw it off that much. I mean hatched is in the title of this book. It must be the one. It's an important thing. Oh my god. Pay attention to how moons hatch. Yeah, that's I mean, yeah, it tells us on the title. You're right. We solved it. Joining us for this podcast, everyone. This is how you become an award-nominated podcast. Okay, my last note for this diary entry is again, very sad note that quote, "The Slay can't make it up this far, so I built a snow hut to keep Haiti unsafe and warm while he sleeps himself better." I again really thought he was either already dead or about to die here. And so I just was like, I'm just feeling, I don't know, I was feeling a lot of feelings for Eloen in this chapter. But then we switch back to Reeves. Oh, go ahead. We're kind of expecting your note to be something about Slay again. Well, Slay can't make it up this far. So I can't slay all the way up here. He was supposed to slay there though, and he did it. He was going to slay so hard. He must have slayed too hard. Slayed too hard. Throw his legs. Everyone's slaying out there. We've all been there. Am I right, Gurley's? That's a that's a T-shirt idea. It could be him like laying on the ground. Oh no. And it just says Slay. Slay too hard. It's spelled S-L-E-I-G. Can we make that? We can come out if it's mixed up. Literally nobody would get it. And it could be him holding an egg, and that's where the people would get. Yeah. Get the reference. You're welcome. We're gonna be billionaires. A smaller image of like Ellowan off to the side like crying. That feeling when your brother slays too hard. No. This is supposed to be sad. Connor is crying though. That was good. That was it. The thing is that all of our fans are going to actually ask for this merch because they're just as unhinged as we are. If it's text only or just like a little igloo or something, maybe I would consider making it. Oh my gosh. Oh this was only the first chapter. There were two of us coming up. This always happens to us. Oh my gosh. It's been a while since we've had chapter one tears. Okay so we move into chapter 17. This is Rae's POV. And we're not about to pass. No. Please keep that going. Okay. Sorry. That's my favorite. That's my favorite bit and it better stay this whole effing book. This is so funny. Chapter 17. At the start of the chapter, Rae is waking up after the events of the other chapter and it says I'm immersed in an icy sleep that's soft like a wispy tail bound around my body drifting within the tide of nothingness. And I wrote, "It's like that because it is that dragon watch!" Dragon watch! Nice! But I called it dragon watch jokingly, but I actually stopped keeping track of all of my dragon watch notes because this is just handed in my head now. So, I've decided to spare you all for most of them because there's so many. Yeah. There's so many. I didn't put mine in from my very first read, but I did have one, a kid into my one like, "Oh, it's interesting that the egg needs to be cold." And then like the chapter immediately after like, "Oh, waking up from a dream where you feel surrounded by cold." That's interesting. And that was the only related note that I had for that section. Interesting. I just think it's funny that you said the events of the other chapter, but you mean the other chapter, not just like the other chapter. I mean both. Oh, man. Okay, this part was absolutely disgusting. The literal worst thing ever made me almost want to throw up because it was written so well as it's described throughout this entire chapters, but like so gross. Where she says she's running my tongue across my teeth. I feel a stringy piece of dot dot dot something wedged in the hairline gap between my sharp canine and the tooth right next to it. Shivering, I decide to not know what it is. And knowing what it most likely is and then all the descriptions afterward is just so gross, so so gross. And then she says my gaze drops to my skin suit and she's talking about how it used to be skin colored and now it is red. And like because she's like covered in blood. And then she references the skin suit like a bunch of times. And it wasn't until the end of the chapter when wreck actually rips her clothes off to whip her that I realized that that was her outfit. And it wasn't just like this other something, something referencing her body as a skin suit. Like I was thinking it was whatever this other thing was referencing the human body. It was wearing not rave talking about her outfit called a skin. That's what it's her body suit that she always has on under her dress. Yeah, but I was thinking it was the other whatever her dress is. She's just going to walk her. She's like in a magic show where she just says like that quick change a bunch of times. So she's wearing like seven outfits. Yeah, you know, it was like in the end of the skin suit when I was like, I was like, oh, it's her outfit. Duh. My bad. So I had mentioned this in the first chapter section like the whole lake thing. It's almost seems like it's a place that she goes to to like put emotional things like down and like into the lake or whatever. Kind of mentioned she mentions it here again. It says, I peer internally dropping towards my lake, jolting at the site. The usually smooth frosted expanse now a litter of ice shards and upturned burgs, spearing skyward. What a mess. And this is coming out of the other chapter. So it's like this clearly like kind of did something to that space in her head, which I think is an act like an actual place. So it was just very interesting. I'm like definitely paying attention to whenever you know she talked well, no, whenever she talks about her lake or whatever. So it's because it's where the dragon lives. That's why it's a mess, John. Does it live in the water? Like what? Yeah, it's under the ice and it came out and now it's a mess. Does it say there's water under the ice? It's usually where it is. It's factual. It's a frozen lake. Where you find it. My frozen lake has the water adjacent to the ice. Not really under it just off to the side. Separate. Like dug a big hole, put the water in there. And then it's just the ice on top. Let's just take bikini bottom and move. Anyway, I just had a note on your note about like, I just love the idea of an inner picture of one's mind. And specifically having it upturned without your conscious notice. It's something that I love to be like included in stories. I have included in this. So like my D&D campaigns or whatever. And it sort of makes me always wonder like thinking about characters. What their mind Palace would look like when they go into their mind and be like. Where are they exactly? My palace for one. My palace for one. And hers is an ice palace. Yeah, literally got one. She is Elsa. But it's an ice palace for two because there's a dragon in there. All right. Get there. Get there. My next note is when Rek tells Rave that she bit off his finger. And in her POV she says, that makes sense. So too does my aching jaw. I quietly hope I didn't swallow the tip remembering past instances when I blanked out. I come to with a belly ache and a weird gamey taste in my mouth. Best not to think about these things too hard. And I was just like gross. Literally so gross. Disgusting. Yeah. It's giving our favorite shape shifter from another series. Oh yeah. That's true. Yeah. Animals? Powering. Rave in this part of the chapter refers to the other as her inner psychopath, which made me laugh when she first mentioned it. But also I want to know if she's ever tried to explain this to anyone or like investigate it further. Because she's always like best not to think about it too hard, which honestly that's fair. I just imagine like she had been with Essie, right? For a long time. I don't know if this ever happened while she was living with Essie. And if she woke up and Essie was like, dude, what the hell happened to you? But if she was just, did she just tell him she was black out drunk? Like what did she say? What did she say? How does she? Yeah. She told her friends like, I have a psychopath in me by the way. And they were just like, okay. Okay. I'm not going to refer you to a lake. He comes out of my frozen lake. Well, what did she say? In the last chapter section, she was like something about like denial is where it's at. Oh, River any jet hand? Yeah. Denials where it's at. I'm not going to talk on today's episode. I was in for real. Like she says something about like how it's better to just not think about it or forget. Whatever that line was. And Kyle was like, oh yeah, that's me for sure. Whatever it was. Was it the part where she was like, it's the stones that she builds up to hold against. I don't know whatever her emotional torment blah blah blah. She's talking about emotions. I was listening. Oh yeah. Ignorance is myself preservation tonic. That's what this is. Where she's even like best not to think about it or. Yep, she does all these things and she's just like, ha ha, this thing's happening, but we're just not going to go out and move on. My inner psychopath. She's just. Yeah, living in ignorance. Ignoring your mental issues does to be fair work like 30% of the time. 30% of the time it works every time. Okay, I said I stopped keeping track of my dragon watch notes for the most part, but that's not true in this job track. In the same chapter. I lied. Rex says your eyes are different. They were black earlier. Now they're blue, which we heard happening with Serim in the first chapter section because the first time Serim saw. Rave her eyes were also black and then they keep changing. So her inner psychopath is black glittering eyes. I think it's just the fluorescence. Connor. Uh huh. Yeah, sure. I think it's just the most important thing to do. It's the most important thing to do. I was like, "Draight and Friday, you do." I was like, "Draight and Friday, you do." I was like, "Draight and Friday, you do." So when Rhett comes into her cell and he mentioned something before and she was like, "Oh, he knows like all this information." And then he says, "Kamori Devedone, traveling barred from Orig." What's your real name? And I was like, "Not so resourceful after all." A Rhett also says, "Your lips are tight now, but if they weren't so loose while you were speaking to the musician at the Hungry Hollow, you wouldn't be in this predicament and your friend wouldn't be dead." And she's thinking, "He's talking about Levy, which means in turn she handed you a ruined note I used to track down your living quarters." And when this happened, my jaw was on the floor. I was like, "I did not see this coming." Like this was very surprising. Like she was very convincing. When I think last episode you were saying that Levy would be her friend. I know, bro. I guess you. Except no about her. Yeah, I sure did that she would like step in as kind of like Essie's replacement or whatever kind of thing. Yeah. Maybe still probably not. So I have a habit of stopping in really terrible places and I stopped in like the middle of this sentence. And so I read, "You wouldn't be in this predicament." When he's like, he mentions the musician at the Hungry Hollow, "You wouldn't be in this predicament and your friend wouldn't be dead." and then I saw a levy. He's talking about levy, which means I stopped reading right there. I thought levy was dead. I thought he killed levy. So I was really concerned at this point, but I had to start reading and come back to it later. And then I was like, okay, she's not dead. He was talking about in the same sentence, her friend. I know. I'm glad that levy was not actually dead. But does that mean that wreck was the one that levy was offering to escort Rave home? Also, because levy was like, my bound, he'll be here any minute. We should let us walk you home. Does that mean they were like working closely together and he was going to be like outside waiting for her or do we think that she was actually married? I mean, maybe she doesn't give-- If it was a ruined note, then-- She doesn't give the information until after she says no, right? Like Rave says no and then she's like, okay, well, if you ever want to-- Whatever. Yeah, but that's sketchy because he could have been waiting to meet her outside and then she was like, no, and then levy's like, okay, well, since you're saying no, then here's this room to note so he can track your location. Maybe he was planning to meet her outside, but maybe not, I don't know. I just didn't know. That wreck was in town before that night, even though she had to find out until like the next day or whatever that wreck was in town. That's the wreck we've had to have time to meet levy and get her that ruined note or whatever. Yeah, but I feel like levy knew what it was because then my next note was where she was thinking back to that conversation and levy had said my details in case you want to perform together again. Her lips had molded into a sad smile the moment she'd said those words like they tasted bad creators. I was like, oh, I liked her so much. I really liked her a lot. I want to believe that this was just something that she was cornered into doing and maybe she made a lot of money for it to help support her baby or something. I don't know. Fake pregnancy belly. That's my. No. You think she wasn't actually pregnant? That's right. The whole thing was a ruse. The whole thing's a sham. Okay, but my last note from this section is that we got confirmation here that Serim does in fact have lots of people's blood in her little vial because we weren't sure about that last week. Yeah, and it makes this whole moment so tricky for Rafe because I know she doesn't like super love Serim obviously through like their whole backwards relationship, but to turn over Serim would be then to it basically enslave all of those people stuck in the vial to wreck or the crown or whoever else would eventually be in charge. And so it's like that is like another way Serim holds power over her and like is basically a way that whoever's in that vial won't turn her in kind of a thing like it's yeah like a whole nother layer of compliments that goes with that. Yeah. Okay, well we did not have any notes for the next diary entry. That's one where Eloen is still nine phases. So we're going to move into chapter 19 which is a Rafe POV just one. I first of all I just love the visual in the text here when Rafe mentions her relentless shutter that and then in the text it was like new it was like a new paragraph lines where it finishes the sentence. So it says the relentless shutter that just won't stop and they were like all on different lines and I just like the way that that was really just like that punctuated with snaps and everything. My next no I don't remember that we got any confirmation on this but I would like to know who rook's master is because when Rafe asked why he was locked up he just said to punish my master and then we don't learn anything else about that. And then I was like Khan specifically came down there to see him but now I don't remember what he was even asking rook about but I just want to know who that is. What? What's asking about the moon chart? What? The moon. Well I know he was asking about the moon charts but I don't remember why. Because he wanted that conversation start. I think he knew that he had I guess thrown it because he was like last I heard you were seeing running off of the big old chart of the moon and I really want that. I remember yeah yeah from the glossary it says that these creatures are good at sneaking in places and stealing things and then forders. So maybe their master collects random stuff like that and just hordes onto it or something if it's the same type of creature maybe something like that. Yeah it could be that since he was the one caught doing it they couldn't really do anything to his master except take him away from him. Yeah. Serim is his master. Plot twist. Done done done. I mean wouldn't put it past her. Last episode we were wondering how the elemental beads were assigned and we did get our answer here and it's so sad. It's like a truth tune we'll sift through these kids' minds to see if they can hear the songs and then it says there's always a carriage to the side waiting to swallow. Is that right? Waiting to swallow the freshly beaded conscripts and trundle them off to drill god for training. Always a churn of weeping parents buckling beneath the knowledge that they may never see their gifted children again. Always a poor of other younglings freshly labeled nules leaving the tent with a bleeding ear nursing that clipped flesh. That's all super sad. There was confirmation but it's so sad. Yep. And then she's offered food while in the prison and I just think it's absolutely wild that she has to like sign for it and it's like should you ever make it out of here alive you'll have to pay for every meal consumed. I think that's so savage on top of everything else that super sucks but okay. So but she signs her name prisoner 73 and that's where we get another one of her little aliases because she goes for prisoner 73 for a lot of this little section. Yeah. Yeah. Well speaking of her meals that she has to pay for they just kept saying the word gruel over and over and every time they said it I just kept thinking about prison Mike from the office. He was the guy in the cell next door. He kept eating on the street a bell on the ball. I loved a ball. That's all and then rave grits her teeth. So cheers everybody. I needed a drink. This is my first tooth grit and she goes on to talk about where she is. It says a cell I was born into or just relating the cell she was into as one that she like grew up in. A cell I was born into in my own strange way bonded with its walls and the smell and the female I shared it with and a couple of questions that I had had here was she born in the undercity as part of like Tarex rain like what she wants a child in one of his cells. I know Lauren agrees with me and give me the thumbs up. If so like how did Serene come to find her that's just I guess just a general question anyway but if she was like part of the kind of under city that would also be very interesting like how Serene came to find her because I've always since we met Serene I've always thought that maybe she kind of was not part of Tarex whole thing but she definitely like well I guess it would make sense that she knew about it but maybe a little bit more than she just knew about it and knew what was going on but because we don't get a ton of information about the cell yet or where she was she mentions in this chapter section how she was like dragged out of her cell at some point like later in the section but I will note here though this wording because I think it plays into our theories for later that it says a cell I was born into in my own strange way I don't think this was her literal birth I think this was the thing that we'll talk about later I okay that totally makes sense I would agree with you yeah okay it doesn't make sense to me because I don't know what we're doing but I guess we'll get to it later so we jump to another diary entry from Eloen she's still nine here and she's talking about how Hadeon will never walk again because his bones fused back together but not in the right way this guy is going through it he's the left way oh okay because it's broken yeah it didn't go the right way right the left way I'm a little lefty yeah literally yeah okay it works it's laid too hard he's just like constantly sitting given blue steel to anyone who looks at him oh Hadeon come on you don't have the last time the smolder Eloen also mentions Hadeon's moon plume may never fly because her wing the word that they use is gammy because her wing is gammy so just like you know hurt injured whatever and I wrote here oh it made me think of the moon because she describes the moon is having a like a bad wing or whatever and I was like I think con called it here I think she's on to something thank you and then shortly after is when Eloen like well yeah I'll just read it yes I then climbed on her back and held on really tight for really long until she listened to my soft song but I just did what I had to do to get my brother home because the creators wouldn't sing to me no matter how much I beg them to help now they won't shut up and this is another one when I read this I was like hey I was like not expecting this either I because it's not like she comes off as like a scared little girl type of thing but I'm just like she freaking somehow hopped on to the back of this giant moon plume dragon when it was flying down doing whatever like how did she even do that in the first place and now all the creators are talking to her too so a very quick change for her it's also interesting to me because we don't really know a lot about this bonding process other than that people like steel and egg and wait for it to hatch but that it says until the dragon listened to Eloen soft song right and then suddenly Ellowyn could hear all of the creator songs. Yeah, that's true. But I don't understand that. I don't know what my point is, I don't understand. Like why that would be a connection? Yeah. Like why that would allow her to hear the creators or for the creators to like pay attention to her now or something like that? Yeah, or even in this bonding process that she would be the one to sing to the dragon. Oh, I got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But both of those things, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is this creators? Does that mean all of the creators or is that? They keep saying the four elemental songs, but obviously there is a fifth if the princess can like hear Elis, right? Only if they were, if they're wearing it. But yeah, but that means she does have an elemental song technically. Yeah. So then yeah, can she hear all four of them? No. And then she's going to be wearing the diadem. That's what I, I mean, that's what I assumed. Because that's kind of how it referenced. Did it reference all four, her hearing all four of them like later in our chapter section? No. Because it does talk about her hearing them again, I think later. But I don't know if it says specifically like all four. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. We might get there because I might have had a note on that. As far as I say something and I care. Remember? The rainbow wheel. Oh, I was wondering if how the, there's only one diadem, obviously, of Calus, but there are three kings. And so like, how do they decide? Is it always someone from a specific line? Like is it someone from one of the specific kingdoms? Like it's always a movie from the shade who's wearing the crown. Because now it's the princess and the fade, right? That is wearing it. Or is it the burn? Well, it's the fade, right? Because it's, it's con's niece. Yeah, I don't know where she's from. I don't remember what she's in the fade. I think because it's the, it's the fade kings like daughter. Yeah. Is it the queen that she just saw? Is it not? Like in this chapter section? Not that queen. Well, she's in the fade. Well, it, that's the queen, but he was talking to the princess and the princess is the one currently wearing it. I'm sorry, what? No. Wait, what? Yeah. Yeah. That's accurate. Cadoc. Cadoc is the king of the fade. The, and the queen that we just saw was, was his wife. Which chapter was that? Because that's in the fade. But the, in the, in cons POV chapter, he was talking to the princess, Kizari, and she has the diadem on and she's talking to, she like fell in love with Kizari. Oh, bro, I totally forgot about that. So that was why I was wondering like why Ellowin didn't wear the diadem before her mother died. Like, is there a specific age where they're supposed to wear it or I don't know? Well, and wasn't Kizari wearing it like when she was born? Because she had it when she was a baby. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I was questioning why Ellowin wasn't wearing it. Yeah, because I guess technically at the end of that one chapter section and her POV, it says, I will eventually wear it if only to get closer. Bob a boss. So she doesn't technically, we don't technically know like when she starts to wear it. I felt all. Yeah. But they're in the shade, right? Ellowin is in the shade. Yes. So I'm just wondering how it get, how it passes down like, it's in the female line. These are all male kings or whatever. So maybe they're, I don't know, maybe it's like somehow the male line has split the kingdom or done the thing, but it's staying within this one female bloodline specifically. Not their other wives. These guys are getting married to other, you know? Well, and it's also someone who's like blessed by the gods with the power to hold it. So it might, I guess it might not have to be a bloodline because when they initially made the diet, they just like picked somebody who was like powerful and they just blessed them with the power to. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's been in the that bloodline since. Yeah, I think, I think that is said. Yeah, that's like a line of power. Yeah, it's just interesting to me that it would change like kingdoms or whatever you want to call that. It is. And confusing for sure. You know what? I bet it'll make sense. Yeah, actually, I don't remember. I mean, you're reading. Honestly, if all of the kings had their queens on the throne, I think we'd pop champagne and raise a toast. We could move on. I can use a play that song out of it. Chapter. It's from Lauren's Show, Choir Show. Is it? Oh, okay. I never actually used that song. Oh, you almost did though. It was, it was listed in my song before we got into it. Then I cut it. Cut it, cut it. Cut it, cut it. 10 minutes later. Chapter 21. What? Chapter 21. Rave chapter. Rave's game of guessing. I'm sorry. I'm not spastic. Well, yeah, I can't do it if I'm the one doing it. I know. It is bad. I don't know. Really simple, though. I just said that Rave's game of guessing which water drop is the next to fall was so relatable. I'm sure it's not just me. Like who else needs to have raindrop races on car rides when you're young or possibly still now on the front windshield probably should be paying attention to the road, but I still driving. I'm terrible. What else am I going to do? I'm going to die. When all you can see is range. Okay. That's great. It is relatable though. I really like that song where she was just like dang it when she was wrong about which she was betting on. Well, she was like hearing a noise and she was like in between all of that was like and it's definitely going to be this other one. I don't think there's time. It's just like going through all her thoughts like it never left her. Yeah. I loved it. When we took our kids to the beach a few weeks ago, was that a few weeks ago? That was a month ago. That was over a month ago. When we took our kids to the beach last month, they loved watching the birds. Like there would be like little formations of birds that would fly by and they kept calling it. They would go, it's a bird race. Yeah. They kept telling us there was a bird race. It was so funny. Reminded me of this. I had like a whole betting ring around the corner. I was seeing a huge kid would win. They honestly they would. It's just daisy over there holding everybody's money. Keep it track. It's always directing traffic. Get it line. So good. That's how that would go down. In Raeves POV though, when Khan shows up and it says a voice I recognize, I went, "Hey, oh, so excited." But then she said something about she was like referencing a previous chapter section where she had her dagger like pressed up against Khan's crotch. And the wording here it says, "With my iron blade pressed to his member." I wrote not his member. Just because they use the word "member." Just the word "member." Why are we calling it that? Yeah. To make him your member. Because she members it. Hello. She members it. That's funny. Also plays into our thoughts and theories. Oh, that's nice. Whoa. Remembering things or his member. Oh. All right. And this is when he is talking to Rook. He says, "Because someone I'm acquainted with saw you scurrying for the nearest sewer with a moon shard in your midst." And from like chapter, I think like 20 or something up to I didn't take notes for my recap. So I was going back. And this was on my second read through this. I wasn't like put it for some reason. I wasn't putting like the moon shard. Like I just kind of glossed over that. I was just like, "Oh, a moon shard, yeah, sure." But then I was like, "Hold on a second. A moon shard. A piece of a fallen dragon mood." I think so. And it got me really excited for what this might mean. To moon shard, it's not a member. Calm down. I'm so excited to talk about it. We are all so sassy with each other today. I'm just giggling because my next note is in Reims POV when Khan was about to leave without noticing her. And then it says when he stops drawing a deep sniff on the air, his head turning my direction slower than a setting Aurora. And I was like, "He keeps sending her. Oh my God." It's giving Anthony Bridgerton in that one scene where she comes out of the carriage or whatever. And he turns to breather in. You don't talk about so good. I'm shocked that I don't know what I hear. I don't know what I'm talking about because I love it. It's like such a viral scene. Everybody will know what I'm talking about. Everybody. It's just a saved video that she replays on her phone over and over again. This is viral. It's such a big, more cake comes out of the carriage. And he turns to smell the air she was in or whatever. And he gets caught doing it and then tries to play it off all cool stuff. That's hot. It gives Pride of Bridgerton with the hand flex. It's the saving energy. Gotcha. It does read a book once in a while. When you describe it though and you're saying, "Yes, she comes out of the carriage and this guy smells the seat she was in." That sounds awful. No, she's an arrow. That she passes by. He helps her out of the carriage. He sticks his face down in the cushion. Yes. If I saw anybody walk by and somebody sniff the air behind them, they're immediately on the creep list forever. That's all I'd say. It's cute. Okay. But everybody who actually cares will know. If you ever need to set Lauren Off-Kyle, I'll just bring it up. Don't come after Anthony Bridgerton. I'll just be like behind Lauren going, "Wow. You like that though, right?" When people smell my jeep. Notice how John's not saying anything about this because he does that with my shampoo. I mean, I would get like someone walk by with a fresh shampoo. You're like, "I'm trying to out the shower." I do. I don't want to get out of the shower. You specifically like the panting shampoo, and you always tell me how much you like the way it smells after a shower. I think there's a difference though between saying the way you like someone's shampoo smells and just sniffing the air behind it. Oh my god, I'm going to send you guys this scene, and you're going to see how dumb you're making it. You said, "Don't kill romantic." That's what's happening here with Con. Let's bring it back to the book. He smells the air, and he knows it's her. It is hot. Thank you. She probably smells terrible. I was going to say she smelled like rap. Well, they probably did in the 1800s too. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm sure it's your tinsel. Yeah, that's fair. Speaking of Con smelling rave, I just had a note here when he says, "Come forth into the light." He just made me chuckle for some reason just how he braised this, "Come forth into the light." I'm like, "Why is he talking like this all of a sudden?" She's never written like this before. Then they just have some really cute banter when she says, "Who died and made you king?" And he goes, "My paw. He dead pants." I'm actually king or whatever. Which is really funny. And then can we talk about how he breaks the effing padlock with his bare hands. Okay. So hot. Yeah. Those bare hands. There's no argument for this one. That is hot. Yeah. He brings it into that. And then rave is speaking to him. She says, "Hate to break it to you like this, but I'd never seen you before that slumber on the south side of the wall." He kind replies, "For your sake, he growl, stalking forward, packing the space full of his massive presence. I hope you're wrong." And I'm like, really, I've been like, really trying to guess this. Like basically like who she is. Which again, will be in our thoughts and theories. Thoughts and theories. More. And our thoughts and theories. You guys are building up a lot of, oh, oh, we suspense for ya. Yeah. And that's it. That's the bathroom theory. That's the bathroom. Okay. So Con finally sees rave's whole face for the first time. And it says, "His brows collide, a choked sound slips out of him like his lungs forgot how to work. He lifts a trembling hand as if to cup her face. His stare blazing back and forth across rave's face. He's completely baffled." And then he starts tripping over his words. John. Thank you for the visual description. You're welcome. Yes. You're welcome. Yeah. For our YouTube audience. So he's completely baffled. And then he starts stumbling over his words. And he's like, "How?" And then he literally punches the stone wall in bellows. How? So I don't, I know that now he has his own dragon. But when I first read this, I was wondering if he was somehow bonded previously to the dragon that is obviously canonically inside of rave. Since he keeps like sending her. But then John said he thinks that Khan may have known rave before because of his next note. And I now agree. So this is where we were starting to get into our softened rave. It's a little bit. It's a little bit. So, yeah. So a little bit past this part. It says, "A scar that can be seen by a dragon flame." This is when he puts it up to her or whatever. It says, "The only substance in existence that can ignite a trail of long ago runes and unearth their glowing ghosts." And a couple notes here for me, I was like, "Ah, so she clearly had a major head injury at some point and now doesn't remember who she used to be." And when he sees the scar and then kind of sees that she's been mended, he says, "You're head, you've been mended." And her POV, it says, "Mended." Such a funny word, signifying the end of something. And I was like, end of her previous life or previous identity perchance. So yes. So, there's more banter here than I love. And a lot of this chapter made me laugh, but Khan says, "Your eye would happen." And then he says, "I love the dead man from him, it's so good." And then Khan says, "Who are you protecting moonbeam?" And this is the first time he calls her that. And I freaked out because I have heard this name before. This is like one of the only things that I had heard before starting this book. And I don't know what it means. And I don't know if this is just an affectionate nickname that he's given her or if this is the name of the dragon in the frozen lake. It's actually a really big slur. He should not be saying that to her. She's so pale. She's so pale. She's making whatever the hold is. She's from the burn. So that's how he says it, moonbeam. No. No. You're protecting moonbeam. Oh my god. Wow. Okay. Anyway, yes. I think it's adorable. I don't know what it means, but I think it's cute. I was just freaking out because I've heard moonbeam before, but I really don't have any context for it. I've heard one line and I still have no idea what that means. So. Fenaris. Yeah. She's just a Fenris. She lost her memories. She was Fenris before. And that's the other is just his. It's the one wolf. It's the one wolf. Dornell, everybody. We solved it. Oh my god. Man. What a crossover. Amazing. Okay. So from Raeves POV, she's trying to piece together who this guy is because she doesn't know officially that it is Khan yet. And she starts like going through all she knows is he is a king. And so she says that she's seen the king of the fade. And so she knows the other two is one is the king of the shade is even to be more rotten than this kingdom. If rumors are anything to go by, the cold shadowed expanse governed by king Tyraath Vegor and describes him as a cruel prince with a, or excuse me, a cruel king with a heart said to fester from the loss of his queen. So that's just interesting lore about Tyraath. And then we also get this information about Khan, which some it believed to be true, I guess, for what we know about Khan or what is maybe not true. I don't know. With saying few who venture deep into the sunny part of the world return to tell the tale talking about the burn, though it's said its king, Khan is savage and bloodlusting that Rhaegun, his ancient saber-sife, was too big to fit in any of the city's huts the last time he came to gore. He lets the beast hunt freely across his kingdom, firing cities with his blazing breath and feasting on his folk whom he cares little about. So obviously we know like Rhaegun is freaking huge and all the things. And now she's heading to like we end this where she's heading to the capital of the burn. And this is the only information about it that we have. So it's gonna be great. And then as she's heading to, they're taking her to the trial. Yes. And he's like kind of, they're like going back and forth still as like the guards are kind of like starting to take her. And Rhaeg says that Khan can get back to hunting moonchards and concepts and clothes. And from her POV it says the world around us fades into oblivion as he looks upon me with such a fierce intensity. I almost forget how to breathe. And Khan says not much point anymore since I found the most important piece. Oh. What was that? Oh my god. This is kind of when I, like this one sent me into the spiral. And this was another one where I had read this the first time reading all the way through. I hadn't taken any notes for my recap and I went back and I was like, oh my gosh. Because I remember reading it the first time and I was like the most important piece of what? I tried to like think about it for a couple of seconds and I'm just like, whatever. I don't know what he's talking about. But then the second time I went through, I put that a little more together. I was like, they were just talking about moonchards. He found the most important piece of a moon or a moonshard. Like, you know, like this is kind of when I went through. She is either the dragon that fell or she has a piece of the dragon that fell like in her somehow or like, like she is a moonshard or like she's like, she's like the main piece of the moon that fell. Because he's like, they know sidepiece. That's right. Because like after this, because we don't really know that timing yet of like when the moon fell, like coming from the prologue. Right. Yeah. It was some of like this information. At some point, like after Eloen's story that we're reading and then like to the time we picked up with Rafe at like the start of the book. So I'm thinking we'll probably read maybe in like the Eloen diary chapters about the moon falling or maybe that's like the end of the book or something is like kind of toward the end of the book is when like the moon falls in like Eloen's story. Yeah, like meets in the middle, you know, the end of Eloen's story and like with the moon coming down anyway. Yeah. I would, yeah, I would assume if they're hunting moonshine. they wouldn't be doing that. Like, five million phases after the last one fell, so. - Yeah. - Makes sense. - Wow. - That's a theory. - That's a lot of, that's a theory, John. Good job. - Yeah, we can get to it. - Chapter 22, Rave. (laughing) Thank you. I just wrote some of my favorite moments of her in this chapter because I freaking just love her so much and her banter is hilarious. And this is during her court case or whatever, like her trial and it says, "I cut a glance to the leering nobles." Oh, apologies, I say my voice echoing through the vast space. Forgot to bathe for our very important date, silence. - Never mind, prisoner 73. I mutter in a forged veritone. We know you've had a lot on your plate. - I just thought that was so funny. I like playing like she's having this conversation with them and stuff. And then when she's like getting read a list of all of her things and stuff, she says, "Have you ever wished that the ground would split "and chew on your enemies? "Guess my dream came true. "Lucky me." And then the truth tunes like, "Not a lie." (laughing) So funny. And she's like, "Thank you." See? - Like those are moments of truth tune waits for, like I can chime in and be sassy with her. And still be doing my job. - That's so good. - Yeah, I was struggling at this next part too 'cause the chancellor says, "You self-appointed as prisoner 73, "are hereby charged for the murder "of 23 soldiers of the crown." And she cuts them off and says, "25." And he goes, "Excuse me?" And then her POV says, "If he's going to read out my charge, "he might as well get it right." And I wrote, "This is such a Kyle-coated response." (laughing) - I just wrote that I felt called out. Accurately called out, but still called out. (laughing) - Yeah, made me laugh. And then John mentioned this in his recap, but this dude just comes out and starts flopping flaps of preserved flesh on the ground that they dug out from wherever Rave dumps her bodies. And it's disgusting, but I just kept laughing at the wording 'cause I kept using the word like, flopping and like, slabs of meat on. I don't know why that was so funny, but it was just like, I don't know, made it. - I feel like it was just the vibe of like, what Rave was going through in the moment. Like it was just, - It was equally as ridiculous as she was acting. - Yes. - Yes, yeah. That's what I loved about it. It was so good. - Well, it was the flopping, like, slaps. - I'm just seeing that. - I'm holding it. - Flaps of flesh. And then he says, and this was your dot, dot, dot handwriting. When you signed for your rations, he says it was mused to look in his cruel eyes. If you could even call it that, I'm certain my youngling could do a better job and he's barely out of the crib and they all start laughing and jeering at this. But this is so rude if John's actually right about her having some kind of amnesia and relearning speech and writing like in a cell. And that just made me feel so bad for her. I know we don't, none of that is like solid evidence at this point, but I just was feeling a lot of sympathy for her in this moment. - And like the art of the writing in the book, I had to like look back and check. I was like, that's good writing. What is this guy talking about? - Yeah, 'cause when she writes Prisoner 73, it looks like a different font, almost like some of the art. - Yeah. - Or whatever. - Yeah. - That's true. - Yeah, and it shows up a few times and I was like, that's decent. Who's your kid? Like the master of calligraphy toddler over here. The next one, C. Jean. (laughing) - What? - He was a famous calligraphist. (laughing) - All right. - Is calligraphist a word? - No, I just sort of made that one up on the fly. Calligraphyist. Calligraphist, me, I don't know. - Calligraphy? I don't know. (laughing) - I'm googling it. - In John's chapter recap, he did ask like, where do they get these bodies? - Is calligraphy. - Is it just the bodies, the 25 that she just killed? Like did, obviously it doesn't like tell us that she's out there and carved? - Well, I guess she couldn't, 'cause Rick got her. So yeah, they had to be old, old bodies. Were they just collecting them? Like, there's some valid questions. - So does they even find them? - Yeah. - Or like, like was somebody tracking her? And that's, this is where I think I'm even more suspicious of Serene. 'Cause like, how did they even find the bodies? 'Cause it's not like, I feel like she didn't dump 'em in the same place. - Yeah. - Yeah, it doesn't sound like it. - I mean, well, she sort of referenced throwing things to the trogg, right? The trogg? - No. 'Cause if they were just wandering around with them and they were like, who found some dead guy that was written on, they were like, oh, dang, yeah. - They are sent jambeans. - That's very possible. - Yeah, the fact that I assume took the time to like, fully of a meat off so they could easily take it to the court was wild. - By the way, calligraphers and calligraphists are both correct. - I love being technically correct. - It's the best kind of correct. - Shhh, don't run. - The biggest viral ever. - It doesn't say calligraphers is more commonly used. - I was gonna say like, any English teacher would be like, you're correct, but you're not the most correct. - Any English teacher if they were Kyle. - Yeah, that was all my English users, which might be why I'm the way I am honestly. (laughing) - Where are we? Oh, this was, I guess, related to my last note 'cause there is a little piece from her POV that says, "I learned to write with a piece of coal "on the ground of a cell and no matter how hard I try, "I can't stop my words from looking like I'm still "scratching them upon the stone." So even if it's not, I mean, it's still so sad. - I love her so much. - Then they vote for if she's gonna die by dragons and freaking con is the deciding vote by one. And I was especially mad on my first read, what the f-con make? What's the plan here? What is this guy? 'Cause you don't know that it's con, I guess. So it's like whatever. And then, I don't know, it's just wild. And then you see his whole plan play. It was so cool. - I was excited about it. - I was not, I was like, this is her. - Oh, he's cooking up so. He's gonna get her out of there. - All right, moving on to chapter 23, another rave chapter here. And this is after the whole council thing, raves on her way back to the cell. And she passes another cell and she sees like this kid that she recognizes. And she's like thinking back towards, she'd seen him before. She says, "I'd given him an elding orb, asked if he'd wanted my help in any way. He'd push the orb back into my palm and told me he wanted to do it himself." And I was like, "Do what himself? What is up with this orb, bro? Like what is this thing?" - He's like, "I don't want this little glass orb. It's gonna break. Keep your glass over. Keep the same." - I don't want your material. - Deer. - Deer. - Stupid. - Then this is the first time. - Sorry. - Okay. - Okay. - (laughing) - Yes. - Amazing. - Then this is her first reference of her calming song. It said, "I tap my hand against the floor to the beat of my calming song." And we don't really, I guess, learn what this is. I have a note later too where she talks about how she was humming the ballad of falling moons. So I don't know if that's the song she's referencing as her calming song or if it's something else and we just don't really know what it is. Just from how she talks about the ballad of the falling moon and how emotional she was and crying and all the things. I'm surprised if that's her calming song, but maybe I don't actually know. I do just love her connection to music and how music is helping her through all of this as well and just humming a little tune to herself and whatever is really cute. 'Cause she does it a couple times while she's in the cell and I love that. - I guess I was assuming anytime she said this, she was talking about the ballad of falling moons. But I don't know either. - I guess my guess because it's the only song we know of. - I also get some mention here. I guess until she's in the Saver Scythe's mouth and she sings or has that little song or that little moment. - Yeah. It's also interesting that it's just the beat of the song. I mean, I assume she's like mentally singing the lyrics or something, but just like tapping in her. - I do that with my fingers. I'll play the piano when I'm just thinking or doing something. - I guess I was picturing her just tapping her foot in like a one, two, three. That sort of thing. My final note here for chapter 23 is when she's back in her cell she's kind of like reminiscing thinking of like, you know, her about to die by dragon basically. But she says, "Love the feel of fallen snow "peppering my skin in the way a frosty Southburn breeze "nips in my nose, numbing the tip of it like an icy kiss." And at first when she was like kind of talking through this, I thought that she was remembering the previous life that she clearly had. But I did forget that it does snow in the fade. And that we got a little bit of that when she like in her interaction with Taric and stuff. But in addition to this, it has mentioned her pale skin in time or two. So I think there's something here possibly from like where she's really from or who she really is or something. So again, there'll be more on that later. - That's a theory. Okay, next up is another diary entry with Eloyn Navon. But now she has 18 phases. And I was not expecting the time jump here. That was kind of crazy. I had to like pause at first and I like highlighted the title of the chapter. And I was like, "Whoa." - When I like that, the audiobook narrator's voice changes too. Like from the little gay voice. And now she sounds more like young adult, young woman kind of a thing. - Yeah, I like that. And then I was kind of freaking out at this connection that I did not put together until I was doing the pronunciation guide that Austin, who this is one of Austin shows up to like Mary Ellow and off to one of his sons and he was talking specifically about Tyraath who is now the king of the shade. Right? Yeah. So I this was like the first connection for me in these timelines. Like they're just I know you can see the number of phases but it was just feeling more connected for me now because I know they like live a long time and all of that. So Austin is Tyraath's father. So that led me to start wondering if like because she had refused Tyraath. Did they marry her off to Khan instead and then she like lost all of her memories and then became rave but we have more thoughts on that now in pop some theories because this was like before I had kind of revisited the events of the other chapter. So like now that we have some more information I think my thoughts on this have changed but that was just kind of a crazy gasp moment for me going back through everything. Yeah. But shout out to Ellowyn's Pa for saying that Tyraath was a bad choice and is like a jerk or whatever and like supporting her and not just being like one of those dads that's like you must do it for the family or something like that. Like he's clearly looking out for his daughter for his life that and obviously but like for the time that he was there. RIP. Ellowyn's Pa and everything with Hadeon makes me so sad as much as we like you know about him today because it says I ask Hadeon if he'd like to come with me to the hutch to like see the dragons but he stared at the wall like he always does. I accepted a long ago that he never came home from netheran not really. I swore I wouldn't leave him there but I did. Because it's been obviously like a long time since then and he's still not okay. Yeah. Really sad. And that jumps us back to chapter 25 back with Raive. Thank you. And this is where she's talking about the ballad of the falling moon where she says she taps she taps against the floor while I hum soft and low ballad of the falling moon whipping through the otherwise eerily silent cells and then I think Con walks in so she like steps steps her song really fast but yeah I guess it would have to be that I don't know. And they have some more banter here it ends with her saying he tells her to get like get up and she says dine a ditch or better yet a coliseum getting feasted on by a flock of molten balls. I'll meet you there and then like her head she calls him an a hole and then it says I sponge a little satisfaction from his rumbling sigh. I was like I felt the sigh so deep and he's just trying to be like he's just like trying to help her and she's just like you know suck it like wherever I hit you and he's just like like this. But she just gets satisfaction from it which is like the total opposite point. Yeah she knows yeah she knows he's grinding his gears she'll be grinding something else later. Oh I can only assume. Speaking of which my next note is Con says I'm not that sort of monster prisoner 73 I would not take pleasure from you were it not given freely and I wrote consent king. And oh yeah yeah this this continues he says he's still trying to like get her going to like do something or like get up or whatever she he says your choice make it and she says I did make a choice you took it from me talking about his vote in like the council thing or whatever her trial and he said because it was the wrong one he reaches out as if to grip me around the shoulders a snarl rips up my throat and I snap my teeth at his fingers I'm doing it and he says then do it and she says not until you turn around and I was like can we please make a clip of this audio as if we were speaking to our children please like I I felt this so deeply as well like this is really I have this conversation multiple times a day with my kids this is life with toddlers oh my gosh I'm doing it then do it not until you turn around I'm like this is absolutely gold and then when he takes her to the room with Mia she makes an observation that the room lit by a jar of capture to moonlight and I was just like what the hell does that make it's like what the this is a thing like what is that yeah well and then we get him talking about his wield that he shows earlier with like the dragon site and she's like you have to leave it at the door and he says I have three moon beam and she says the one with dragon flame and so he like throws it and she like chucks it down the hallway or whatever so we know the one is dragon flame and then I guess in my head I thought it was them the moonlight that you were just talking about but maybe that is just an a jar that lit the room not in the wheeled so now I'm wondering like what's in the other two that he would have and then we don't know we always know is that like Khan is strong with boulder that he could like destroy an entire city or at least that's like his reputation that she knows him by so is it like the other gods or like the other powers or something that he would want to carry around or because we know he has a wonder if one of them is fire because we know he has a little bit of ignoose affinity because he was a dragon flame right well no because he called the he called the flame from the lantern in her cell down into his palm to like try and see her face at first but for all we know he could he could kind of be like how she is with boulder and how you know he only knows like maybe a few words or something so maybe he he likes to carry around like some fire some extra fire that stuff but the last one's just a straight up gun single bullet one time you so long oh my god your name is not the one written on the bullet it would be interesting if he had ice though coming from the burn yeah that's true I mean he might not have air he you know keep his feet food refrigerated one thing that I like was wondering about them was they obviously contain like pieces of the elemental power to use but has it ever been explicitly stated if like you have to also have that affinity or if someone who had an affinity for boulder could be like oh here's like I'll just fill up this wield and then I'll give it to you it's all loaded up ready to go you know I was thinking of it like interesting in avatar how the water benders always have that little like sack of water so that they're always have water available even though they're in like the fire nation and there isn't water available you know what we're talking about so yeah that's pretty much only the water vendors that have to do that though yeah but I'm saying like maybe it is something where there's not burn they can't create it themselves they have to bend whatever it is or whatever with the gods so like maybe they have to have water and so they bring it around and one of the real things or fire or just convenient whatever yeah I don't know so rave walks in and notices that be a this girl that's in the room can flesh thread which is both a very cool power and a very cool name for the power but rave saying this would better be a threesome really caught me off court there was like all this beautiful description language of like the the space and everything that was going on and I'm taking it all in she walks in and says that and I just laughed out loud I really enjoyed his response to it as well where he was like I'm not willing to share but if that's what you really want it could be arranged once your back is healed just like following along I was like you know I thought nearly that didn't do it but sure I mean compromise important now is not the time but maybe like her consent king consent king exactly okay and then this was sort of a bond watch of some kind I guess if you want to call it that it says as though physical strings not around my ribs stretch across the room and tether to his making it impossible for me to draw a single breath without him noticing and my note in all caps was there is an existing bond here of some kind some kind of bond some kind of bond yeah kind of in the same conversation here rave says to him there is no reality where I'd willingly you and I wrote narrator what you might cut out well yes it did for the word that for you where I'd willingly fork you and my comment here I wrote as a narrator she didn't know how wrong she'd turn out to be but then I wrote okay but what if she already has I honestly didn't know who's the one that was for a moment it was a facial expression when he did it for me does this to me all the time oh does he all right okay then rave grins her teeth again she hears a real a drink pretty cool off for a minute seriously I actually really need an ice pack hold okay cool I'm gonna bring gold in oh hello and last we meet again okay my next note is just that I want to know the secrets I want to know what bio is gasping at when she looked at rave I want dragon sight yeah and I added to this I said to kind of go into what you're talking about it says this Rooney doesn't need dragon fire to ignite the trail of past rooms because she's blessed with dragon sight she can see them with her own eyes meaning she's seeing quote-unquote everything and I wrote what is this mean and I also noted that like we don't know anything about runes either like we have an idea of the capability of what they can do like with Essie but what about like runes apparently in or within the body because that's kind of an inferring that she maybe has like a room within her or like Maybe that was somehow used to like mend her for something so for healing is like is flesh threading and mending like two different Talents or skills like are they separate things? I don't know I will say that I feel like Overall in fancy so far and perhaps this book will be the exception Because I feel like her lore is so detailed and deep that you would be like writing about an animal to be like That's indigenous to this region. What am I thinking? But like I feel like ruins are generally like a trust me word like you write about words and fantasy in general It's like you're just supposed to trust it some sort of magical language that can do special things But I do feel like if anyone was going to change that it would be miss their abarker and her glossaries and guides and everything Yeah, my next note is when they're starting the flesh threading process and Ray says you know this is pointless right it causes not to me He rumbles then takes my hands in his big sturdy once and I wrote okay love him Yeah, and in the same moment are like right before this actually it says he reaches around to gently tuck the drape of material around my hips So it's not agitating my rag and flesh and I was like An intimate gesture And then after that moment she has this moment with him and says I'm still in town killing you if given the chance And it says I worn past clenched teeth Oh, I missed one And he he's like yeah, I know And then Khan says revenge is the loneliest deity of them all moonbeam take it from someone who knows and my note just says what does this mean Probably that he's like it gone down the path of revenge before Okay, and then I have a quote from rave's POV here It says perhaps because I'm used to doing this without an audience besides the runie fixing me new without somebody else Timing their breaths to my own as though reminding me to breathe without somebody else tightening their grip on my hands every time I flinch wiping the sweat from my brow rubbing drags across my The labor coaching Okay, let me finish my clear. She did not do that to me whenever I was in labor Just drink coffee and said you got this Actually And she didn't have not an exaggeration Oh, deadham Okay, now I'm gonna finish my good redhead. Okay without somebody else tightening their grip on my hands every time I flinch wiping the sweat from my brow rubbing tracks across my blanche knuckles as if to call my rioting heart and I wrote He's so gentle. I love him so much Is it just because he has the same name as you guys? Well, that's part of it The only calm I knew before this before the podcast was the star track one Yeah, he didn't know you from college. He didn't know you from our friendship. He's only known you That's true. I also just knew you like theoretically by way of stories like she told me about her friend Connor and I was like she could be lying Before She literally stayed in her house Oh, I'm in college came to your wedding Wow, I'm just kidding. I'm kind of new you I guess I guess anyway after this little scene where she's you know Talking about all this good stuff. He's done for her She says it doesn't matter how much of my skin is smooth or how deep he kneels at my feet I'm still an assassin marked for execution come a roar rise and he's still a tyrant king and in my head It was giving she was a girl. He was a boy. Can I make it anymore obvious? Complete with a gif in the notes by the way of yeah, this is one of my favorite references you've ever made I think really That was one of the easiest ones I've ever made She's like under a bridge or something like Yeah, she's pretty underground in that Air is this is the early 2000 early 2000s or under a bridge either one Never been either Be completely honest the early 2000s were the 90s. Yeah, what like because you have if you grew if I was born in 1999 I was born in 1990 all right. That's exactly how old I am and frankly the first five or six years of my life was still the 80s dying The 90s happened later and blood into the next decade which I think happens with every decade You have the influence of the past one sort of at its peak and then it takes like three or four years to die The new decade really show up Okay, yeah, goodbye. Yeah, okay. Well. Yeah. I mean this is a I believe this was a 2001 2002 song. So yeah That makes sense This is so funny coming from you You are so technical about I'm talking about the essence of the 90s It's the vibes man He would have been like 11 Yeah, what the thing is if you were If you were growing up in that time you either were a product of the 90s or your parents were so you were still raised in a very 90s household But anyway The next chapter is another eloen nivan diary entry we don't have any notes from there. So we go to chapter 27 with rave Thank you so much. I'm sorry I had to catch up Then Con is taking her back to the cell After she's like flesh-bredded or whatever the banter is everything and She's talking about like she's thinking in her head. Oh no The banter is them talking about how she didn't kill him because he would have been like too heavy to drag over to the wall or whatever real reason She says and then she thinks to herself. He smelled good. I effed up. Let's not dwell on it. I mean that has happened Yeah, I did note this to here. I was like what a train of thought I know but whoever out there is making like a candle-centred of con it better be like flipping amazing if it would be so much You just would not kill anybody over it. You know because that's like a normal fact must feel pretty good if you don't want to commit murder, huh? Takes a lot to stop those thoughts Okay, and then the next one I wrote this is a huge throwback to our thermoglask coverage That is said now I get to die smelling like fermented eel eggs barely softened by the herbal twang Lovely I'll bang his back. It's twangin. It's herbal Thanks It's herbal okay my next no is that I am so excited that Uno showed up I got so stoked about this but I would really love some fan art of Uno And I know I already asked for some of Rook because I was really having trouble picturing what they look like my imagination is terrible and I just have no idea what Uno looks like So if you could find some although now I'm seeing Kyle's notes Is it any I did a search and really nothing Mm-hmm. Yeah, so what we should be asking is people to make fan art of it and then send it to us Please if you're listening If yeah, anyone out there please make me some fan art I think there might have been one of you know, but it was like really sort of janky a-i art So I was like there's just like all sorts of extra appendages and stuff and it was like right now right You're muted For some reason I pictured it is that it's like sitting on the chair. It's that white creed animal that's sitting on the chair and it's like this That's what I pictured it is So close to it honestly like with that That's like for me is from what other people have described it as. That's really close Yeah, Uno is a misgun right? Yeah, yeah, okay, so this came up Yeah, that's the one that I saw oh my god This came up as miss fantastic beasts a little baby guy. I don't know what okay? That's not what I was picturing yeah, he's not cute for sure for woe to I could not find anything For some reason people are way more interested in drawing rave and con and all the dragons and crap. I don't know why Yeah, I just put it in the I'm sure that's exactly what it is Yeah, oh my god Pretty close, you know that amazing Okay, love Uno even more now honestly I think my brain latched on to like one specific detail from the first mention of Uno where like all she could see was the fluffy white tail. - Yeah. - And so in my head, Uno was just like a big fluffy, black and white dog. So that it was like, that it was like, their little hands reached up to grab the lock and I was like, "Whoa, this thing has stones suddenly." - This isn't right. All right, well thank you, that is very helpful. Oh my gosh. - Yeah, there's the-- - Oh yeah! - That one's actually a little better than the one I found. - That's kind of cute. - I don't remember what that thing is called. - I think that was dose. - Well, time for bed. - That's called humor. You broke them. - I quit. - That was the most British joke. (laughing) - Okay, well my-- - This isn't insane episode. - Yup, there's a lot happening. - This is how you get nominated for awards, baby. (laughing) If we win, we're gonna be so insufferable. (laughing) - Say that. Okay, so then, okay, but with this in mind, this is why I was confused 'cause I just kept getting conflicting images in my brain 'cause then it says her large fluffy ears, twitch as they strain for sound and these photos that we were coming up with that are obviously not exactly what this creature is 'cause this is Sarah A. Parker's creation. I wasn't picturing large fluffy ears. This is why I kept going back to dog. But then Uno says, "Sareem spoke to Master. "Command did I get you out." And this was like one of the, I think this is the first line that we get that Uno actually speaks. And I just wrote, "I wish Minnie could talk to me like this." I could just ask her a question. She'd be like, "Yeah." I'm so excited if you ever redunge and crawl. - I was just thinking this thing. - I just couldn't come back to it. - Oh yeah. - Get away. But that is actually a cat. So that's what's up. Oh, and then I was freaking out about this part where Uno draws a moon on Rave's forehead, bottom lip wobbling. Like she's emotional about it and then says, "This is dot, dot, dot, right," and it helix. She whispers. And I swallow the odd thickening in my throat. And Rave says, "I know." Like this was a really emotional moment between the two of them as she's drawing this on her forehead. So my actual note in all caps was, what was a bunch of exclamation points? But you guys have notes on this too? - I think earlier in John's chapter recap too, he said that he drew haze moon or whatever, or haze birch. - Haze birch. - But it doesn't say that. - It's not confirmed. It just says drew a moon. So I don't know if that is-- - Well, it says that one specifically. Like we know that she likes that little wonky moon or whatever, but-- - No, it says that she could tell that's what he drew on her forehead. - Yeah, hold on. - I'm holding. - Here it is. Her bottom lip wobbles as she drags the piece of coal across my forehead. I immediately know the shape she's drawing. So thoroughly familiar with the moon, I seek out in the sky whenever I'm looking toward the shade. - You still don't know if that perch or the little moon-- - You bitch. - He's perch though. - That's still-- - Well, that's what I actually called it. - Oh, I'm okay with you. Boom. - That's fine. I'll just go to my note here. (laughing) So then the person next and the cell next to her, whatever the one that's eating our food, was like, "Kris and I, like, yes." Was like, "Then why a moon, I cast my gaze forward, tap, tap, tap, taping my foot to the soothing tune in my head because they fall. Even when we don't want them to pour the little wave, she thinks she's gonna die." - Yeah. And my question for this, when she draws the moon on her forehead, like, "Is this an additional piece for Reagan to see?" Or, I was thinking maybe that was something to help him recognize, maybe possibly the queen even, although with the queen, you know, I don't know like how big the Coliseum is or like the distance there, so it could have been like, it could have been like impossible for her to see something like that. But I don't know, maybe it was just more like, I guess sentimental than for a specific purpose. I don't know. - Yeah. - And I wanna be surprised if Uno can see more of Ray. - Yeah. - And maybe he just knows she likes this moon or some sort of weird, how she has some weird draw to that moon or whatever. - Yeah. - And did it for her? - I may not even say, 'cause we talked about it in the previous episode, so I'll bring it back up because I just thought of it myself. Maybe not saying more of Ray, but in the description of Missions after their physical description, not only being verbal, they can see into the future. Those these visions are sporadic and like subject to change. So it may not be like of her, like whatever's current, but she might just be saying, "Oh, this is right for your future." - Yeah, that's what I mean, that is what she did, right? It said that she's-- - She doesn't explicitly say if she like drew it on her because she had a vision, but-- - Well, but not the right one. - I thought I said that she did look into the future here. - Oh, maybe I missed-- - Yeah, she does. - She went into like a train or whatever. - Yeah. - I don't remember that part. - That's like the whole part of the-- - Uno being there. (laughing) - I don't remember it. Uno came there to say silly things and draw on her head, and that's all I remember. - Okay. - Oh, she says Master Dye. - That's how Kyle's gonna make the most of it. (laughing) 'Cause he doesn't remember it. - Uno says Master will die if you do not go to that Coliseum. So, Reem too, I have seen it now. - Which is why, you know, eventually it doesn't help. - Yeah. - Yeah. - All right, well, moving into chapter 28, another rave chapter. She is heading into the Coliseum, and it says she's passing by, quote unquote, familiar faces on her way to the Coliseum, "Fae and folks she recognizes." She also mentioned that she's seen some of the members of the auth here, like in the groups or whatever, and I thought this was super interesting. It says, "To me, their faces glow like moons." And I was like, like, are they literally glowing or do they just look like happy or like proud or something that she's doing this? - They're like beaming like a big smile. - That's what I mean, but that seems weird. I was just clean, and she's been around dirty people forever. So, I don't know. - Maybe they're all in the second trimester, and they're just glowing. - Maybe. - They're just glowing. - Maybe. - All the same. - Yeah, maybe. - Great time to bring a kid into the world. - Sure. - That's an appellate though, 'cause I not stood in the stuff longer than a fan tension to that. - But I was paying attention to the freaking queen who shows up, and by the way, this is the queen that owed Khan a favor. So, I don't know if this was the favor that Khan was like calling in, because Raeve said that she doesn't usually come to these, but it says her gaze falls upon me, and she still's eyes widening with a flash of something. Shock, disbelief, recognition. And at this point, Jon and I had like, I think we had started to talk about some of this stuff, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, it is recognition." And she's crying and screaming at the guards, and then she starts singing to clothe to help save Raeve. And I'm like, "Breaking out." Then I start full on losing my mind at this part where Khan's dragon looks at Raeve. And it says, "Something blasts again." Call back, if you prefer back to the quote that Jon pulled up earlier in this chapter section. "Something blasts up from the depths of my shattering internal lake like a net that swallows my solid heart." Claw's gore into the stony flesh, injecting me with a song that wrestles up my throat and sits on my tongue like a ball of icy flame, prying my jaw wide, it spills in rhythm with my galloping heartbeat, my serrated voice cutting through the din, a language not of the common tongue, but something different, something I don't understand, and probably should question. And I wrote, "Yes, question it. How the effervescing to this dragon, girlfriend." I'm, but this is the most, it is a dragon. - Yes, yes, it is. - No. The thing outside of her is the dragon? - No. - Yes. - It has to be, it has to be that. Literally, Ragan just looked at her, and the dragon inside of her was like, "What up, bitch, I'm so sorry." (laughing) - You wanna do it, do it? - Yeah. - Literally, I just, I'm, this is, and then we don't talk about it again. I'm just like, yeah, you just don't question it. - Ignorances. - Yeah. - That's it. - Take your feelings and push them way there. - Way there. - Stop questioning things. That sounds like a quote from how I met your mother, but I know you've never seen that. But it's Ted Mosby goes on this whole thing about how we're from Ohio, and in Ohio, we take our feelings and we shove them way down to, if he does the motion and everything. That was spot on. - Nice. - Really spooky. - So, hey. - Woohoo. (laughing) - And then, Ragan, Ragan? - Crab Ragan. (laughing) - Exactly what I was thinking about. - I'm Ragan. - I'm exactly what I'm like. (laughing) - Okay. - And then, Ragan literally like, not swallow her, but like, not bite her. I don't know. Picks her up and isn't bound. - Literally. (laughing) - I think that's so much. (laughing) - I have said like five things this whole episode and every single one you just make fun of me for. - I'm sorry. - It says, "Sharp teeth close around me, casting me in a pitch of darkness that's hot and wet, splitting crunching sounds attack me from all around, before the steak, I'm sobbed, oh my god, before the steak I'm bound against dislodges from the stage and lurches sideways, taking me with it, leaving my plunging stomach behind, fear finally, mastocates me into oblivion. So like, literally is inside a dragon's mouth. And then like, "Chomp, chomp." is crazy. - This was quite shocking to read. It was just like, oh, like, oh, it really happened. Like, it really just bit her and took steak and all, like everything. - Well, that's where you leave it, like that she just gets bitten, like, she basically, and you don't know if she's dead or alive, and it jumps to a diary entry chapter. So she just left in this like, what is going on? - I was like, I was all about it the whole time. I was like, well, there she goes, she did. - No, I thought it was the queen's dragon, but I figured that I thought that the queen had, like, called her dragon in or something. I don't know if the queen has one, but I figured that she, since she was singing to Claude to save her, I was like, oh, this is her dragon. And she's going to take her to meet her somewhere. - No, I'm like, she's about to get eaten by dragons. This big scary one came up, it didn't work, she did. - She got-- - She got-- - She got-- - She got-- - Book over. - Yep, but it does jump to a diary entry from Eloen. And she says, "Hi, on the aftermath of seeing Hadeon take his first flight upon allume's backs, smiling beaming. Both of them hollering in victory screams to the sky. And I was just beaming, like, so excited for Hadeon here. After all the stuff he's gone through, and obviously, however short lived this moment was for him, but that he got the moment. Like that he got to live, that one stuff. And that Eloen gets to remember him, like that instead of-- - For now. - What? Okay, that Eloen gets to remember him in that moment. Like, after, obviously, then he dies, but here's nice. - Yeah. Then they literally all die. I was not ready for her whole family to be killed. And I'm, like, I feel a little more settled on this now, but going-- I mean, the only information that we have right now is that Austin was there, like, right before this happened. And he was trying to get her to marry Tyraath. And she was like, nope. So I, at first, was like, I don't feel like it would have been that deep that Austin would have just, like, killed her entire family immediately after pitching this, like, one time, but that could have been-- I mean, there could be way more going on there. But I'm assuming that-- - Well, and maybe was Austin being pissed about that. - And this is how to plan her. - Also, like, he had to plan her. Is was she supposed to be also a part of that? And she just happened to sleep somewhere else? Or would-- - Well, I don't know, because he wanted Tyraath to be king is what I'm assuming. So I figured this is maybe, like, his way of forcing Ellowyn into marrying Tyraath so that he could be, like, king of the shade. I don't know. But now she's queen, which is also insane. Go off. - To be late. - And then she says that all of the, like, servants, all the people, and even the gods themselves are telling her that she needs to wear Ma's Diadem, and she's, like, she says, "They say I need to wear Ma's Diadem now that it's finally loosened from her head, but only after it suckled every last drop of life from her body and made her unrecognizable." So we know that she hasn't, like, buried them, and everyone's trying to be, like, "You need to let them go." Like, they're just kind of around. So does that mean that her Ma's body is just, obviously, like, looking different, like, like, all the life has been literally sucked out of it, and that's absolutely disgusting and horrible, and all the things. It's just awful. - Yeah. - And then to think to that, now she's like, "Okay, now it's my turn." Like, that's horrifying. - Yeah. Well, even with the little, like, the little snippets that we got earlier in her POVs where her Mom was, like, just freaking out about the crown, and how difficult it was to wear, yeah, that she's seen that happen, and now she knows she has to wear it. - And she goes on to say that, "Ma once told me she's never felt closer to death in the moment that she's settled the crown on her brow, so perhaps I will finally put it on, if only to be exactly that closer." And that ends that chapter, and I was just like, there's another one of those couple sentences where I was just like, "I was not expecting that either." It was just like these little moments, and some of these parts are just like really shocking, and just like kind of surprising. She just kind of like throws it at you a little bit. - Especially with the diary entries, because it's like so much like happens, and it's just whatever L.O.N. decided to document. You know, so it's like, it's not written, like, rave's a story necessarily where it's in all the appreciating detail of every tiny thing. It's just chunks of information. - Little snippets. - That yeah, like, hit hard. - And that takes us to our final chapter of our chapter section, chapter 30, still rave, working through, and it says, "A shiver rakes up my spine. As I imagine them scrapping over my remains, while they spit primitive flames that lack the punch to end my life cordially, I'm definitely either haunted, cursed, or a bit of both, referencing the baby dragons she's presumably going to be meeting once she gets spit out." But I just wrote here, like, the imagery in her descriptions is astounding. It is so cool how she phrases things, like, that lack the punch to end my life cordially. I don't know, that one was just like, what a good way, a little creative way of writing that. - That's so good. - Well, and it's, I feel like it's so clear to see too, as much as it's like the whole scene where she's literally inside the dragon's mouth, and the saliva building up, and then she almost falls down its throat, and rolled around in there. - Yeah, that whole scene was crazy, and then yeah, just spit out. It's just so well done. - That's so good. Oh, so, so while she's, this is while she's still in the dragon's mouth, right, she's like humming this little song. This bar song was kind of what we called it. This is where I realized that I need a glossary check on the word "trog," because it says, "There once was a jollyweed drifter who drove into the molten bog to escape the fiery logs of a hatchling molten smog that emerged as a velvet trogg." And I was like, wait a second, I thought that the trogg was like a trash shoot, and now I'm really confused, and I need a glossary check. - Hello, I'm here with the glossary. The velvet trogg is a large, linky creature that likes to hoard and feast on trash. They have four arms, long black hair, and blue velvet skin. They consume memories from the bits of trash they eat, and purge them as luminous sticky tendrils they pull from gaping holes in their hands. Using these tendrils to decorate their layers, these creatures are verbal. And so I think they did talk about like throwing things to the trogg or down the trogg, but like it was meaning to these creatures, and they had talked about how there were creatures that lived under the city and feed it on its trash. I didn't know that they pulled tendrils out of their gaping holes in their hands, but I didn't know they existed. - Well, they do, and then they have like a really big affinity for metal, and they just like to decorate the metal. So if you ever find like a velvet wrapped steel, it's probably from a velvet trogg. - Don't take Kyle. - Decorating its metals, and its layer. - Those are rare members to find too. Anyway, back to the jolly weed rifter. - Amazing. So a velvet trogg sounds wild, and not something to mess with. - Yeah. - Sounds pretty see- - But, I saw it in the images of that. - I saw it in the images of that. - So I saw it in the images of that. - Where maybe these like velvet troggs are working with serene, and giving the dead bodies that get thrown down there away, or something. - Uh-huh. - Like if it is a sentient creature down there that can talk. - Like who knows what dealings are. - Whatever they're going down. But this is like another one of her little songs though. So I was like, is this the song she was singing? Is this her calming song or something? Because she's obviously singing it here while she's stressed out or whatever. But, I don't know. Is this a velvet trogg? - Who? - Don't like it. - Don't like it. Creepy. - Yeah, that's what came up when I did the surgery. - We'll drop all of these pictures in Discord, just so people know. If you don't look them up yourself, find them there. I will say though, in the song, their once was a jolly wee drifter. The audiobook says their once was a jolly wee gypsy. So don't know. - Necessarily why they're different. But. - Depending on when the version of the book was written and when the audiobook was done, they might have changed it just for the fact that gypsies often seen as not a term that should be used because it's can be seen as derogatory towards a certain actual people group in real life. That could be my only guess. - Oh wait, you said they have four arms. - Yes. - Yes. - Yeah, they have four arms. - Why does this have three arms? - Oh, big. They got four arms. - A gel can. - Oh, a gel can. - A gel can. - Love black hair. These hairs on this thing are disgusting. - Oh, well. - Yep. - You love long black hair. - I do. - It's so hard ever. - That was a rush on rave. That's what I said. - That was sweet. - Connor. Connor's just like that. That TikTok audio where it's like, oh my god. - Oh my god. (laughing) - Yes, my next note here is when she's saying this about Con. From what I hear, all this one has is a very hungry dragon and an affinity with Boulder strong enough to crush a city with a single word. And I was just like frickin' sweet. Like when we were- we get to see some of that. I know they kind of alluded to him being like super powerful when it comes to like Boulder, but I'm hoping we get to see some like some like Matt some kind of magic. I just want to see it like a sweet magic off kind of thing like somebody got like ignos and somebody's got Boulder and like I don't know I just I think some battles are going to end up being pretty sweet in here. I really hope we get some action. Oh, there's going to be some action. I knew that would not go on comment at all. I just want to know if his affinity to Boulder strong enough to crush a city with a single word is something that has happened or is this just like an exaggeration, you know, like hyperbole of his power that people just like mentioned in passing or whatever. I don't know. Maybe he did do it before out of revenge and that's why he was like, wow. Don't do that. It's very don't you do it. Don't you? Don't do it. Oh, I did think it was hilarious though after this like revelation about him and his this affinity with Boulder that raised POV says I've often thought folk look like their pets. This is no exception. This is like the her first time seeing Khan next to his massive dragon. It just made me laugh. Honestly, it helped me see both of them better. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. Like just like just like dragon. Big shoulder super. I don't know. Yeah, I'm here for it. I love it. This next door to my just my weekly neuroses note after Khan goes through the many reasons rave would die and he's lands by herself. She says he's so full of dragon shit and listening to it in the audio because like why be specific is dragon duty less trustworthy than other plops? Was it a necessary descriptor like crap is crap. You just say bum bombs like everyone else. But I will immediately amend this note because I brought up this like the conversation with some other friends and they afforded me this list of they're all my head. They afforded me this list of human type craps that we run into and their different meanings like bullshit is lies. Dog shit is poor quality. That shit is a logical. Ape shit is aggressive. Horset is unfair and I was like, oh, yeah, maybe they're poops do have different connotations just like ours do chicken shit cowardly dip shit stupid. Yeah, wow. Sure. I just thought it was like she was trying to get something from a spengal something something so she kept saying spengals yes, and then she's literally next to a dragon so she says dragon shit like I just assumed she was pulling from her. In vicinity to that specific type of crap. So that's the one she pulled around her. Yes. Okay. But what you're saying also makes sense. But it's just a weird thought I had while reading. Well then it says his upper lip peels back from canine's long and honed making muscles tight and low in my belly strangely. I wrote you mean you're uterus? And I wrote you mean my uterus? And I just wrote hello. And then I think I think kind of in the same conversation it says she says nobody makes me scream certainly not him. And I wrote okay this just teed up for us here. I said don't worry you'll change your tune. Trust me. Sort of giving like the nobody makes me bleed my own blood. I should have put that in there. That's good. I think Khan says you're right you do smell bad and she goes screw you and he goes you wanted to kill me a moment ago I can't keep up. I just love him. And then a few lines later they keep going back and forth but he says heartily to Klein and I just love that and I also want to add that to phrases I say regularly. Hardly decline. And then he gave her his cloak and called her adorable. I love him so much. And then oh my god I forgot about all of these I had so many good highlights from this chapter. Raim says I'm going to cut out your tongue with that blade in your boot and he says I prefer you use your teeth but beggars can't be choosers. I end but this next one is just because I was surprised at all and I was dead but he crouches grabs her ain't her left ankle in one hand clutches the chain and the other and yanks shoulders bulging a link pops free and catapult through the air it was like just surprised no one noted your boy poppin chains bare handed like we talked about the padlock earlier but some phrases strong floor arms okay so then Raim is like freaking out about the whole chain situation and she says conno I did not agree to this his body stiffens steps slowing a slow grading sound coming from him he says say it again she says what if he says my name moonbeam say it again and I was like I'm squill it and after she does so multiple times she's like screaming gone gone gone he after multiple times she's he says all you didn't say please and keeps walking anyway which is very respectable well and he hasn't actually like introduced himself like she just in her own way you know figured out that it was con big or and so whenever she says it obviously he like he didn't even know that she knew he was still keeping this whole secret so and then they get on the dragon and they go fly on a magic carpet ride together and he says you're coming with me to Dom and she says so few go to the Burns capital and return but then he says you okay and it's fine and it's fine this is also the first thing he said to her this is like his first line in the book and then it says yes I whisper cradling the strange giddy feeling with a gentleness I didn't realize I possessed worried it'll break if I squeeze too hard she says I'm okay this is my last note of the chapter section and it's an all caps because I said I am officially obsessed with these two and I don't even really know anything about them yet I love them oh good well yeah it kind of feeds right into our first little question here at the end of the reading then what are your now not so initial impressions and current character thoughts John yes love continuing to love all the like description imagery just loving the writing in general character thoughts I really do like rave I think we're gonna get to a point where or we're gonna see like how powerful she is but I also think we're gonna really at least I hope so I hope we really get that or a moment like that with con because she's like alluding to him being like this massive dude and he just seems to be like a force to be reckoned with so I would love to see a moment with him like we saw with her as the other taken out all of them guards I would love to see a moment like that in some way with him I think that'd be really sweet especially use of a boulder and see what you know his affinity with ignoices or if he's got any other tricks up a sleeve as well so very interested to see what role serene is playing in all this because I think there is more to her little sus getting a little sus her way yeah I think that's I think that's pretty much it calm convegor is very quickly climbing the ranks on my book boyfriend list I made very big fan I love him already what he's I just think that's funny because he said like five things and nobody said the best things okay sure and he's so sweet he's so gentle I just love him that's all but we will get to visit a minute but I just am having so much fun discussing this book with John already it feels like we are getting like literal crumbs of information just scattered throughout these pages but like in the best way because it's so well written but John and I have just been like getting super into these theory conversations and like gasping over little revelations and connections and stuff and I'm really loving this reading experience because it's making me even more excited for the possibility of all four of us being first time readers for brimstone and the ballad of falling dragons if we can make that work I feel like it's gonna be so fun yeah this is your guys' first read together right because you did a third of glass but you had already read it and then all the things on the podcast and stuff so this is your first like yeah obviously like we get to like react about it but also just like ever that's so fun yeah I love that yeah it is fun I mean technically we read thrown of glass together for the first time but it was like pre books a gram and all of that we did we did we did keep pace with each other but we didn't have like super in-depth theory conversations and stuff like we do now yeah love that well with where we're ending our two doms heading to doms he's gonna dom on top and he thought some theories for what's coming next pull that one out 10 out of 10 just pulling one out way right John any theories on your end well I'm trying to see what she wrote do you want me to just read through it because I basically just annotated our conversation yeah you can go ahead yeah so I'll add if I need to okay so this is while John and I were talking yesterday so I literally wrote okay John and I are talking so I'm gonna type it out here perfect so this is the working theory with the information we currently have Austria - And this is from, this is like, kind of like from both of us. Like we've talked through this and be like, "Yes, I think we both agree on this." It's kind of thing. - Yeah. So yeah, so we were like tossing ideas back and forth and just kind of, this is what we landed for right now. So Austin came to visit Eloen and wanted her married off to Tyrof. She said, "Hell no." And her parents stood by that rejection. But then they were mysteriously poisoned. Initially I typed, "I don't know why it would be that deep for Austin other than just ensuring "his line continued to be in power." But the theory is that we, is that he killed Eloen's family and left her alive as the new queen to force her into marrying Tyrof. And that's how Tyrof became king of the shade. And now Tyrof is described as a cruel king with a heart said to Fester from the loss of his queen because he thinks Eloen died, but she survived and lost all of her memories in this accident. And now, but before, oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I lost my line. You're messing me up. Stop looking at me, just read. I'm trying not to look at you, but you're doing this with me and then it's, 'cause you're my eye. Okay. (laughs) So she survived, she lost all of her memories in some kind of accident and now she is rave. And John said that he thinks because her marriage to Tyrof was loveless, that was the way that she had met Khan at some point before and she had fallen in love with him before this accident that she's now been mended from. So. So much like she had like an affair with Khan kind of thing. Yeah. So I still have no idea how this would explain the dragon situation, but I could see a like love story or just legendary friendship actually being between Eloen's dragon and Khan's dragon. And that maybe they were even the moon plume and the saber-sith from the ballad, but again, we would need to fact check the timeline because I have no idea what that is. This is just the train of thought we are currently going down, but because Khan's dragon is a saber-sith and in the ballad, the saber-sith is the one who survived and the moon plume is the one that plummeted to the earth and shattered and now Khan is hunting moon shards and now he's saying that he's found the most important piece when he's looking at Raive, that's just, this is how we got here. So where in your house is the like red string cork board? You can now, it's just literally-- This Google Doc. [LAUGHTER] Because you're like, "Cuz this to connect to that." Yes. Uh-huh. Amazing. Yeah. This is the result of our conversation yesterday. But it was so much fun. Yeah. Even if none of this is correct, it was a really fun conversation. But I do think a lot of this is correct. The word is the best part of theorizing is talking it out. Yeah, you're getting to the part in the podcast episodes where you get to be like, I was right about that. I was wrong about that. You know what I'm saying? And call yourself out. Yeah. All right, well, that takes us to the Karai counter. Don't cry at this episode. No, no cries. I still have one for-- Episode one and Khan still has two. So you're the winning Khan. Keep it in the title. You're the winning. You're the winning. You are the winning. I can't say anything. I'm going to mute. OK, bye. Oh, man. Well, someone better check my pulse, because this is a wild read. And the best part. We're still just getting started. And you can get with us again next week, because we go through chapters 31 to 41. If you want to scream theories in real time with us, you'll just have to catch the closest saliva covered riding a dragon jar over to Discord, where we have our spoiler-free and spoiler-tastic podcasts, threads, for each and every individual episode. So even if you're late to this episode, we are your perpetually safe space for this kind of content. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok as well for more fun and exciting book content in general. updated podcast merch drops. Lots more. And there you have it. The Moonbeam has landed. King Khan is beating his chest. And we are not OK. If you're emotionally straddling a large gruff man, we are here with you. Head over to BetweenPagesAndFriends.com and join us as we scream into the void and our Discord. Share all the theories, prep for more pain, spice, and plot twists that I can only assume will leave us all emotionally unstable and the best way possible. Till then, stay wordy, stay dirty, don't stress, and stay blessed. Wow. Whoa. That's an outro. Those are great outro's, boys. Whoa. Those are great. Thanks. I wrote it. Hey, too. (upbeat music)