3: When the Moon Hatched, ch. 31-41

Diary entry. Lauren. Age 31. 21 of Rose Cycles after Episode 1. Khan has all but draped herself across Convegar, and why wouldn't she? Name-saker not, he devours every moment with the kind of effortless arrogance that dares you to look away. I can already hear her scribbled margins in my head, ink smudged where she lost herself in that scene. No, I won't spoil it. Some surprises are meant to claw their way beneath your skin unannounced. And as for her inexplicable fascination with a velvet trogg, God's help me all ignore it. For now. John, on the other hand, prowls like a caged beast denied its feast, the hunger for an emoji itching in his fingertips. The air practically hums with it, though I suspect the next clash of steel and fire will smother the urge, at least for a breath or two. And Kyle, I've tried to pry confessions from him any glimpse of a crimson flag I might soften before it's carved into permanence, but he's too far gone, lost in the marrow of the world itself. He waves away Khan and raves sins with a careless who cares Lauren, they're hot. And I'm trying to find fan art of the fate-hurtter, as though it was reasonable diversion. Perhaps it is, perhaps not. Oh yeah, oh yes, yes. Welcome back to Between Pages and Friends, a book club podcast hosted by Con and Lauren to besties who read a lot of books. And John and Kyle, their gamer turned reader husbands who agreed to read with them. I'm Con. I'm John. I'm Kyle. And I'm Lauren. Welcome to Episode 3 of the Moonfall series by Sarah A. Parker. Today, we're talking through when the Moon hatched chapters 31 to 41. This is a book club podcast, meaning there will be no spoilers here for future chapters. So if you've only read through chapter 41, this is a safe space to try and figure out what the heck is going on while we discuss. Before we start at Behooza, to give a content warning, when the Moon hatched is rated for audiences 18 and up, so we will be talking through direct quotes and themes from this book, meaning our episodes are also best suited for adults. And here's a segue. Let's be honest, you're already one of us. The only question is, what kind of bestie are you? I was really confused on what that was typed out. That was better than what I imagined. Amazing. Okay, sorry. Oh my god. All right. For $5 a month, join the book bestie tier and pull up a chair in our discord. We've got group chats, monthly book talks and live events waiting with your name on them. Or if you're ready to claim full, found family status, $10 a month unlocks everything above plus early ad free episodes, merch discounts, and the chance to steer the ship with voting power. No pressure, but remember, when you're here, your family. All of this wouldn't be possible without the amazing friends we've made since the start. Or the ratings interviews you give us like this five star review on Apple podcasts from our new bestie in Germany. Our zp 6.9 titled Love this podcast. I absolutely love this podcast during my s jm journey. I was looking for something spoiler free and fun and reading thrown of glass alongside you was the perfect match. I laughed. I theorized and I felt totally part of the journey. Now I rereading fourth wing with you and it's just as amazing. Honestly, it feels so rewarding to hear the boys enjoying it too. I'm weirdly proud of them. As an English teacher in Germany, this podcast has become my very own English book club. I adore every minute of it. Thanks for making reading even more magical. Thank you, rzp 6.9. Oh, yes, don't go shun. Fine. Okay. Welcome back to Cons Declassified Fantasy Pronunciation Guide, the part of the show where we highlight all the new names and places mentioned in this chapter section. I will once again be calling in my trusty lore expert lore and for a few glossary checks. So let's get into it in places. We have batham, a neutral city where the tri council resides, dom the capital of the burn and the river oct in characters. We have the jocole clan where cons bet most of his adolescence as a warrior orva, the fallen saber-sized moon, collu, the jocole clan's name for rave, feitada, the fate herder. I would love a glossary check out this one if there's some that you could share. Lauren, this was cool. Yeah, so the glossary is basically what we already have in the story. And it just explains that it is a large silver feline like creature that is more legend than reality. Those who have seen it are often considered crazy or delusional boasting stories about the beast nudging them to make a different decision than the one they'd intended. Which is kind of what we already heard in the story. Are we thinking like a jungle cat type of thing? I don't know. In my head it's like, are we talking about a jungle cat? Maybe there is fan art of this. I have to look it up. I found a TikTok with some AI generator. It looks just like a white lion, but I have a feeling it's more fantastical. It's not something that my head was like bigger than what you would expect. Like a very big. Yeah. I must not have caught the feline aspect of it. I was picturing like, I guess something more similar to what are the things that she sees when she walks into their encampment, fawny calls. Something more like those, like something with wings, more similar, I guess to like a dragon. This first picture is kind of giving that weird cat from K-pop demon hunters. That one. Nice. Oh, okay. Dirty? Yeah. It's kind of giving that energy. I could see that. Yeah. This is just a random cat tattoo that came up, but it's that one. Yeah, that's all that same one. Well, now all I'm going to picture when I think of the fate herder is. Dirty. Isn't that kind of though? It's like nudging her and getting her that little note. It's doing something that is outside of what she would normally do. So that is the knocking over pots. And yeah, I'm here for it. Thanks for. I was trying to see if I could find the initial description. A strong sturdy feline with a tough tail and flowing mane that tangles with the wind. Oh, this is the tick-tock kiosk. Or it's a bit scary. It is. Ooh, okay. That's sweet. I like that a lot. That is sweet. It was like a mix between like a bobcat and like something. That tiger from Zootopia, yeah. Yeah, honestly. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Oh, I sent that picture in our group chat. And then I will make sure to drop it in the Discord chat for this week's episode. That's what that drops. I thank you. Amazing. Continue. All right. Lastly, in characters, we have Siza, one of the females from the Jocole clan, Oaa and Oaa E, King and Queen of the Jocole clan. And then the soul, the one who drew the foretelling of Colu. And then in world building, we have Canett route, a vegetable con pulse from the ground to make soup. The Tukotrial is the battle that we are currently right in the middle of. Malmer was mentioned a few times in this section. And Lawrence got a glossary check for that as well. Yeah. Malmer is a hand-carved pendant that those in the warrior clans of the Baltanic plains offer, someone when they are courting them. They are often made from things like dragon scale, bone, copper or stone. Sick. Oh, this makes me excited. Okay. And then lastly is the wild grooke. This is a great, I didn't need to roll the R that much. Do it again. That was cool. Definitely fits the vibe. Okay, we'll just keep it. The wild grooke is a great tusked beast that is almost impossible to bring down. And that's all we've got for you today. This is our shortest pronunciation guide so far. So I'm going to turn it over to Juan with a recap. Thanks, Queen Juan. We start off this week with a diary entry from L.O.N. Now sporting the diadem reflecting on the "com middle" where her parents were burned up on a pyre and then come Hadeon's turn, witnessing a loom, scoop him up, soar to the sky, tucking him under her wing and solidifying. And shout out to Khan for a call in the early here. We find out that this moon was called "Hade's Perch." Nice work. Then we learn that she will no longer be queen unless bound to someone who is at least a tribeat and her fate rests with the tri council. Switching over to Raeve and Khan, making their way to Dom. Raeve is still trying to figure him out despite everything she was told and has heard about the Vagor kings being tyrants and bad dudes. They swing by a pool and waterfall to a bath because Raeve stinks. Some good banter here between the two. Raeve trying to figure out how she's going to get out of her bindings. She notices the massive tattoo covering Khan's back amidst the scars. A constellation of moons as she quickly realizes it's almost the exact picture of her view from her window at home. She notices a big silver moon next to Hade's perch and confirms that it is they won that fell. She also notices a pendant Khan is wearing, a saber-sive and a moon plume locked in an embrace. Interesting. Finally, notices burns down one leg. Then he takes the pen out of her shoulder as he tells her some of his own history. Being only a duel bead, his father sent him to the Jocle clan in these mountains and the crater formed by Orva. When he was an adolescent, he eventually killed his father and he kind of goes on to explain as Father did see. something "unforgivable," assuming it had something to do with the death of the one he loved, which we discover was Eloen, oh my god. On her way back to Reagan with him, she picks up a saber-sized scale nesting in the dirt and hides it in her bindings. Some fun creature building here too, as we see Khan has removed a tick from Reagan and he like squishes it, just not that was kind of fun. They make their way to the small house after Khan loads her up. Yeah he does. Vegetables for food you guys chill out. Really? More great banter, as he starts to prepare some soup, she asks him what his place is as he replies, "Mal is retreat," and she oddly feels some sort of way about being here since she's not family. She comments that she has nothing to exchange for the hospitality, and Khan says that her name will do. And after a moment she just blurs out rave, although another name almost rushes to escape, quote unquote, "fire-lark." Oh okay, even more great banter, we learn that there have only been three documented moonfalls, a young saber-sized that fell into botanic clanes, a massive molten mall presumably fallen in the fade based on her description here, like took out part of the wall in the fade. And a moon plume, the first to fall in at least a million phases, it had shown bright before falling and blasting a city-sized crater in the shade. She notes that she's seen shards of it before, in a place where she has been quote unquote "remade" several times. Okay, while the soup is cooking, he makes some blades from Reagan's scales, rave looking on and observing. He ladles out some soup for both of them and she struggles to get a scoop with her bindings dropping her spoon. He goes to pick it up for her, placing a hand on her shoulder and she bites him. Really? He slams her up against the wall and basically says, "Hey, this would be a lot easier if you chilled F out and just eat your craters damn soup." She does chill out, eventually thanking him, and she finally takes a bite, letting out a moan, after which Khan promptly bursts out and laughter, leading her to roar up as well, spitting out her soup, and a scene that is probably one of the most awkward things that I've ever read on page. He gently cleans up her face and they go to bed, "Oh, interesting reactions there." That's rude. It was super awkward. Super awkward. It was a bit awkward anyway. He gently cleans up her face and they go to bed. Rave up in the bedroom, Khan taking a spot on the recliner. Rave takes this opportunity to cut her so free to try and escape. She makes it down to the door, but Khan's warning of hunting her down echoes through her mind and she realizes that she's got to kill him. She's poised on top of him when she second guesses herself and he wakes up, his gaze piercing through her as all reason and sense and motivation goes out the window and he serves up a single question. What do you need, Moonbeam? Sorry, I was going to do the voice again. I don't know why. I like my voice right now. He's a deep southern gentleman. I like it. Is that like your babe, Bluey Voices? No, it's absolutely no. Kind of. And he serves up a single question. Thus kicks off a series of events and our series debut of emoji almost erratica quote, "If he whips it out, we gotta talk about." Oh my god. Good quote. Amazing. Are you quoting the official laws of emoji? Good, nice. I'm quoting the book of emoji erratica. Yes. That's my like, ad justification for having even though there was no, you know, all right, pants, hand, finger pointing down, question mark, check mark, chest bond, chest bond, like pulsing heart, finger pointing up, lightning bolt, parentheses, 2% milk, and parentheses. The little swirly guy, a crab, frisbee, chest pond, the little little card. Oh my god. The little, it's like a gardening person, a gardener. I almost forgot what that was. I'm gonna have to relook that one up. I forget what it was. A little gardener, thought bubble, flower. Oh god. Melty face, flip, flop, eggplant, side eye, single like big eye, butter, question mark, tent, fist, the little barber pole, parentheses x with the big eye, single eye, and parentheses. Question mark, check mark, the movie set, clapboard, waving, sleepy Z's, like shocked face, girl running. And that's this week's and when the moon hatched, series debut of emoji, almost erratica. Amazing. Oh, always excited to see new emojis enter the field. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Really creative with this one. Yeah. Well, we all have these slides somewhere. We'll get to that later. Okay. I was gonna wish people good luck on the butter and maybe the 2% milk, but that one might be easy depending on anyway, whatever. Someone grab a towel because even I'm wet, right back in her room, basically questioning her existence and what the hell just happened. Nothing like a sexually deprived FMC to drive the plot forward. Am I right, Lauren? Oh yeah. Anyway, she spies a window in her room and barely makes it through and down the trellis. Her feet hit the mud and she makes her way to the jungle path, getting a flash of memory from another escape of hers in the snow. Interesting. She decides to try and climb down to the pool that they had stopped at before, now gushing over from the storm and we are not lost on the sexual innuendos here, Sarah. As she starts to descend, she sees birds spook and motion from the jungle and gets knocked out. Here we move into a diary entry from Ellowyn. Guards came for her while she was sleeping, even shooting her with an iron pin. She's led outside to molten moths creating a ward around her ithyah. The council apparently chose Tyrauth Vegor as her bind, and she screams and fights, she gets knocked out, comes to on the back of a dragon. Her dragon slatura trying to follow, but there's a team of molten moths like blocking her advance. She recalls being visited by the Fades Queen who offered to remove the pin, getting some insight here into some of the Vegor's quote-unquote character, mentioning that Katoch basically used her to conceive a child forcing them to bind in order to unite the burn and defade. Interesting little backstory in history there. Ellowyn notes that she took off her veil and let the Queen see her face as the Queen continued to mentor wounds. We're back to Rave hanging tight to a tree stump and being washed down river. As some dudes on the shore track her as she goes, she eventually gets knocked off and one of them dives into save her and brings her to shore. As she's throwing up, she notices that they have similar tattoos to Khan, remembering his words and realizes that she has stumbled onto the jokal clan. She's about to go on her way and jump back into the river when motion catches her eye. The two males stare wide eyed as a shape appears out of nowhere on the opposite bank. It jumps over at her and just snarls as the two males speak in their language. She doesn't really know what's going on, but Rave is able to make out two words, a name, fate, herder. She tries to go around, but the creature grows back. She tries to make a break for it, but it catches her and herds her back to the warriors. Rave finally concedes and follows the warriors. They make their way to a camp of sorts made out of a carcass of a dragon, basically. As they walk through the encampment, they begin to call her Kholu and people start kneeling and crying out and all that. They make it to an enclosed space with two thrones, pretty much everyone having followed them in here. There's a male and a female on each respective throne. They try to ask her some questions, but she still can't really understand. Eventually another female makes her way in eyes mokey white and claims again that she is Kholu amidst some other things. Victoria Sial is erupt as the crowd becomes a bustle of motion. All the while, the fate, herder, just curls up and falls asleep. Great. Two big dudes sunt her in with some other creature shortly after, which they promptly kill and let it bleed out using that as the quote unquote cleansing element. Finally, someone who speaks English or their language tells her that they have to cleanse her body, tells her a little bit about what seems to be some kind of prophecy of their people, that the fate, herder, would bring her to them and that her offspring would tether the moons to the sky and that she will undergo some type of trial. They redress her, paint her up in blood, and she's herded to where she quickly realizes is Orva's crater. There are tents dotted around the edge, weapon racks, other things available and it dawns on her. This is a battle ring, y'all. The smart one asks if she wants to honor Orva and gives Raive a flower, pushing through one of the tents and coming face to face with the fallen saber-sive, Orva, still curled up into a ball. This is crazy. She gets some emotional prompting here as she looks upon him and decides to listen and respect it. She settles into her tent for whatever's about to happen. The two big guys come in and offer their pendants, their malmer, they head into the ring and start to battle it out. Raive still confused, asks the smart lady what exactly is going on, and now we learn that they are fighting for the honor of Raive herself and to be bound to make a bunch of jokal warrior babies. And just as the realization sets in, Hot comes out the victor. I hope his last name isn't too ee. As he brings over the other guy's head, plops it down in front of her and goes to place his malmer over her head and and she headbutts him in the face, LOL, as Rave claims that she will be fighting for her self. Oh, we have a story folks, here we go. Her request is translated to the King and Queen and they reply that if the fate herder allows her to get into the ring, then it's fair game. Which is exactly what happens, and she fights Honk off for her own honor. She starts off pretty well, mostly letting him attack her, getting in the first few blows, even getting a little unsolicited help from Claude. She nearly slices his throat, but he's just too brawny. Then he pulls out a freaking snake from like, I don't even know, it's the way I read it, it sounded like he literally pulled it out from his crotch. I don't really know. As she charges him another slash, but getting bit by said snake, as well. The poison sets in fast, making her dizzy and fumbling around, using his momentum against him, she eventually gets the advantage of his back and chokes him out. Poison still working its way through her, she stumbles for her weapon to cut off Honk's head, and as she finally finds her weapon that isn't a mirage, he's conscious again and cracks her upside the head. He tries to get her to yield several times as she keeps fighting, determined to die before he is submitting. When a roar cleaves the air, Rhygan slimming down into the crater, Honk, leaping off and down into the sand, his own mommer displayed on a bear chest to allow, and a right fit of rage, y'all, apparently trying to use boulder, which honestly, I hadn't realized that before. Anyway, and she watches Honk, stock forward to the male warrior intent on claiming the right to bind with her. I had the first note here, really just exclaiming when we find out that, "I was right!" Alum scooped up Hadeon and went up and solidified, and I was like, "Holy shirt, holy shirt, it was crazy." I'm excited to be right, but I was really sad about it. Also, it's so sad. I think the crazy part is that Hadeon is in the moon too. Yeah. I don't think that that's a regular thing. It sounded like that was abnormal. So I guess he's still up there? Yeah. That's crazy. The man in the moon? Yeah. Crazy. That's where that song comes from. That's why they wrote it. It makes so much sense. I don't know. That was just. It's called Hadeon, actually. I did have a quick note in this chapter that in Raeves' pew-er- Raeves? So firmly in my headspace that they are the same person. In Eloen's POV, it says, "until Slotra came, settled beside me and curled her tail into a fluffy nest, I fell asleep within." And that triggered in my head. This was how Raeves woke up in chapter 17. It said, "I'm immersed in an icy sleep that's soft like a wispy tail bound around my body, drifting within the tide of nothingness." Further solidifying my theory that Raeves is Eloen, and the other is Slotra. That's where I'm at. Wow. That's one of my little. Solidifying like the moon. I was just gonna say the same thing. Oh yes. Calcifying my theory. Here for that. My next note is she's kind of given some info here about like how she can't be queen unless she's bound to somebody like specific with a whole beaded thing. But it says, "The fold of Erythia won't accept a queen so weakened by the etherstone unless I'm bound with someone who can wield more than two elemental songs. And even so, I'm not yet old enough to rule." And we get a little insight on that as well. But my thought here was, I guess the diadem still needs to always be worn by someone. Like I thought it was kind of weird that someone needs to be wearing it, but not the queen. I don't know why. I just thought that was odd. Although I guess we get that, like we see that from Kazari, because Kazari's technically not the queen, but she's wearing it. I don't know. I just thought that was interesting. I think it was your theory that comes up later though. It might make more sense. I'm glad you're making that connection because I have no idea what you're talking about. I think I typed it in here. Okay, great. Thanks. Okay. Should you be calcifying? Yeah, should be calcifying. I do some theory stuff. My only highlight here that wasn't already stuff that you guys had mentioned was just about poor Eloen and like her life. Like obviously there weren't things like 100% perfect. Like she had to go through the whole thing to even get their dragons and obviously all of Hadeon's stuff that he was going through and whatever. But like her parents were so kind to her and so protective. And now it's just like literally all gone to crap with the fact that like now she can't even attend this trig cancel meeting to speak for herself because princesses are to remain mute and veiled in public until they're binding ceremony. And it says something that her parents never enforced, but they're not here anymore. So she's just really sad that she's like gone from living like a generally normal ish life obviously with its own struggles and stuff to like complete flip and horrible and have no control over anything. No one really looking out for her. They're just kind of using her. So it's like it is sad. And I was thinking about that too. It says their mom pond never enforced it, but it's not like they even passively enforced it because there were times where they were talking and they were like, "Hey watch your mouth. You know, your princess you shouldn't be saying shit." But they could have easily punish her for that. But it was still very wax. So it does say that she lost it. Yeah for sure. If Eloen and Rave are the same person though that does make it even cooler that later in the section Rave is like, "I'm fighting for myself. Chickens are gonna do it for me." That takes us into chapter 32, another Rave chapter. Yes. And she mentions here that the Fade King and his guild of nobles believe her dead. It says presumably in her point of view. And I was like, I feel like this is a pretty poor assumption seeing as how the queen seemed to be trying to save her and clearly recognized her like, I don't know. I guess the guild wouldn't necessarily know because of that. But I have to imagine that other people saw the queen recognize her. I don't know. I just thought this was like interesting that she would go away from that situation being like, "Everybody thinks I'm dead." When the freaking queen clearly recognized her. I mean yeah and the queen was like screaming about it but also, Ragan came up and just looked like he swallowed her whole. Oh me, he and the whole. Took the whole post and everything. Pre-zooming. Not assuming. So that's an important distinction. Yeah. She's pre-assuming before. Well, never a soon before the pre-come on guy. Well, because pre-zooming is like there's some evidence. It's not like a total like I'll - We were all calm in saying that he came up with her and was like "oh she's dead" so. - There is a slight chance that people can believe in at least. - I'm pretty sure that's exactly the way they set it too. - Oh, she came out and he was like "good news." - Oh my god. - "Banners, my top notes" - Yeah, everybody in the Colosseum. How do you all know these words? - There's like one guy in there. He's like, "Wait a minute!" - Oh, flash robber. - My next note, I had to call this out because I thought this might be some foreshadowing for future, but this is when they are still on Rhygan, they're still flying in the air, and he points out the river, but then she sees the odd golden worm light creature slithering through the dirt, leaving a wiggly trail. And I was like "what is this?" I feel like we're gonna maybe run into this later. It's just a giant per form. - I thought we did. - I thought this was the thing that bit her. - The snake? - The thing that hawk threw at her, that bit her. - She wouldn't have seen a tiny little snake from. - Yeah, this was like. - This was like way up in the. - Yeah, this was like a massive, like, you know, dune worm type of thing. - But is this. So I wanna know if this creature is called an oct, that's what the river's named after, because they didn't actually say that, but I was streaming based on the context clues here. Do we know? Can we get a glossary check? - To be perfect. - Okay, first glossary on oct, oh. - No glossary in that shirt. - Yeah, you're right, I checked earlier too. But I will say, it wasn't until now that maybe I'm realizing that I envisioned this wrong. Was it described as like a giant worm, or was it multiple little worms? Because I was picturing like the little James and the giant peach maggots that are really tiny and they crawl everywhere. - I don't know. - That's fine. I think it's just this. Are you talking about in this instance where she makes it? - Yeah, where she sees it now. Was it one worm, or was it. I thought it was a multiple worm. - Bending it was just one. The odd golden worm like creatures, leather and through the dirt, leaving a big, ugly trail. - Just one then. - Does it mean the one odd golden, or like, you know, how old is it? - The rest were normal. - Oh, the odd like. - There's just one freak down there. - One, three. - All right, well that's my bad. I was, yeah, not envisioning it as a large thing until now then. - Well, so like, what did he throw at her then? - Snick. He pulled the snake out of his pocket. - He really came out of his crotch, according to John. - I thought it was just in his pocket, but. - I'm so tired. - You grabbed the right one. (laughing) - Whoops! (laughing) - I mean, that's what the whole challenge was for, so. (laughing) No, I don't think it was this. I didn't even think it was like named after the river, but. 'Cause they always like, reference the river as like a blue ribbon is how it's like, reference multiple times. - Right. - So I guess I didn't connect it to a creature, but. - It just seemed odd that she didn't name what the thing was, but it was like in that same paragraph where they were talking about the real to that, I think that's the only reason I assumed that. - Yeah, I mean, I feel like she was just observing things 'cause he pointed out the river specifically and while she was looking at the river, she noticed this thing. - And he had to name all the creatures to her from the previous chapter section two, so it's not like she's super, super familiar with. - That's true. - All the things around here, she's never been to DOM or whatever, so. - Oh yeah, I guess. - Yeah, sure she has. - That's a, okay, a golden. (laughing) (laughing) - The wink of hell. - Oh, so good. - So I don't know why in my head, I thought these were the same thing, but that says it's a golden worm-like creature, but the description of what he threw at her is a small hissing serpent. And for some reason, I was like, oh, it's the thing. - The thing from the river, yeah, right, right. - The thing from before. - That giant, enormous thing that they could see on the sky. (laughing) - Just out of the. (laughing) - No way! - Why? - That's kind of a illegal ref, call 'em out. (laughing) - It's a Leskin bull worm. - And it only took a tiny bite. - It's just a little nibble. - It's just a nibble. - Just one tooth, and just like. - Yeah. (laughing) - That's all due to some trash. - That's all due to some trash. (laughing) - One tooth is all takes. - So take it. - So take it. - People are just like, yeah, classic hawk move. Pulling out the Leskin bull worm again. (laughing) - Boy, this is a tangent. - Every time. - Okay, next minute. - Oh, thanks. - No, I was just excited that we got a cool change of scenery. And so I put in the little description that says, "Scoarched Earth gives way to lus- "Ruset Jungle, the heavily vegetated mountains "before us so large and vast, "they may graagon feel like a pinprick in comparison." So it's excited coming into this after the. I mean, we've seen like a couple of different sort of landscapes so far, but this was fun. This was a new one. And then I loved like all the banter between Con and Rave in this whole section, but this part where Con says, "Your hips are sharp," and Rave says, "I'll show you something sharp." I just forgot that sounds like something I would say, 'cause I used to do that to John all the time. - Well, and then his response to that is, everywhere that comes out of your mouth is sharp moon beam. I'm half dead already bleeding out at your feet. Can't you see? Like, oh my God. - Yeah, yeah. I just so lost my heart. - This, I mean, and that just my next note was really just condensing all the other notes that I had in this section, 'cause I just said I could not stop giggling through this entire chapter, like the scene where he like throws her into the water and then she's like flailing around and then realizes she could just stand up and like throws the soap in her and like, oh, hold back and forth. I was just giggling, so I just put, I just decided to condense all of them into this one fan girl moment and I put the gift of Nick and Jess from New Girl freaking out about seeing Prince. - Yeah, and Nick like passes out. - Yeah, that's me in this section at Con Bakehor. So, Alan, thank you. - Yep. - Well, and then whenever he's like throwing the soap at her and stuff, it says failing to muster anymore words to wield, I poke my tongue out at him instead. He returns the gesture to me and the corner of my mouth threatens to lift. The king just stuck his tongue out at me. - Yeah, it's so funny. - They're bantering, they're just like, I don't know, the whole bit, it's just so good. - Sort of going along with what they say even to themselves on learning that the water they're bathing in has peeling properties, raves inner monologue, just says, well, that's handy. And I was like, I feel such an inner kinship to her inner thoughts, like especially when they sort of break the fourth wall and notice like what is and isn't convenient about her story. Like more of that too with like the fate heard her later on where I was like, oh yeah, well, what are you gonna do? He gotta go to your story. - He gotta go do your story. - Yeah. - Oh, that's funny. Oh, this the next part was my absolute freak out about con having moon's tattooed all over him, including Hayes Perch, which made me so emotional because Rave was so emotional about it and has no idea why. And then I was all caps freaking out about him having her moon tattooed on him. I'm calling it her moon. That's where my head is at, but the moon that had fallen that he has that moon tattooed on him as well. And I was losing my mind. And John walked into the room while I was reading this section and he was looking at me like I was a crazy person because he saw, he like, I was reading in bed and John came in to get ready for bed. And I was like giggling. And then my jaw was on the floor. And then I was like, ugh. - Just where you're like sitting up, you like sat up off all quick and stuff. Oh, they're like, yeah, that was funny. - Been there. - Yeah. So then Con has this carving of a saverside and a moon plume locked in an embrace around his neck. And I'm guessing this is for like the ballot of the fallen moon question mark, but also his dragon is a saverside and Eleon's was a moon plume. And while his saverside is not the one from the ballot, their dragons could totally have been mates or something. So I'm still on board for that. But either way, this is very cute on him. This is very cute of him to wear on his little leather necklace. - I'm sure it's cute on him as well. - Yeah, very cute on him. So it's really well with his tattoos. And with, I think I even know about this later, but because of the whole like courtship thing, I'm hoping this means that Rafe gets to wear it at some point, because that's really cute too. Really just fangirling over everything in this chapter. So, oh, this was a quick reference back to the diary entry that John pointed out. Con says in this chapter that his posse and him off to be a warrior when he was nine after discovering he could only hear Ignos embolder. I'm guessing this was why he wasn't the one that, what was the, what was the vagor's name, their dad, - Erdok, Karak. - Is that like Austin? - Karak. - Austin, right? I think you're right. Anyway, I'm guessing this was why Austin tried to marry Tyraath to Ellowin and not Con, because he was saying that he, whoever married Ellowin had to have more than two elemental songs or whatever. So that was just a little connection there. And then he freaking said Ellowin's name, and I was losing my mind about this too, and John was already asleep, but I had to be very quiet. - Did she succeed, John? I'm pretty sure I was passed out. I don't know what I said. - You were completely passed out, but I was freaking out and I put in all caps. This is not a fucking drill. (laughing) Because he says, and I quote, because I was mourning someone I loved very much. I discovered my paw had done something unforgivable and I took her revenge because I thought she no longer could. Now I have regrets and Raeve says, what was her name? And he says Ellowin, and I'm screaming internally, of course, because I was trying to be respectful, but. - Scream. - And then she asks him what happened to her, and he replies she died. And it was at this moment, I just wrote, my gosh, if she is Ellowin, this is gonna be crazy. - And I said, if? - We're going through it over here. - Yeah. - I'm glad I'm happy for you. - Yeah. - It's all part of this really. (laughing) - During all of this too, like this whole conversation that they're having, he is helping her wounds. And the descriptions of the pain healing process she goes through during that scene are very well written, so I just wanted to acknowledge them from like the changes in her dialogue and how it's written, how she is talking, and how her pain is described specifically. There is a line where he, after he angst the pin free, that she says, he must have just siphoned out half my skeleton through that tiny hole. And I was like, yeah, that was written in a way that I felt it, like that. - Yeah. - I'm just painful. - All right, that takes us to chapter 33, another rave chapter. And my note here is when, well, it says, "Con and rave approach this little house "in the jungle and in raves POV." It says, "Most of all, I wonder why just looking at it, "makes the backs of my eyes sting." Blissers of emotion, I pop faster than con, pop that tick. And I was like, probably because you built it together. Yes. - Oh, what? - Yes. - Yeah, guys, I'm curious. You guys have just decided it is fact. - Oh, yeah. - Obviously they did. - I mean, I feel like I'm making sure this isn't somebody else doesn't have a note on that. But when she makes a comment about the butcher thing. - Yeah, I have that in here. - She's like, it's a little wonky or something like that. And he's like-- - Yeah, that it's like, probably shaped. - Probably because she loved it before, or she was the one that built it. Bam! Bam! - My goodness. - Call me emerald-as-chef. Bam! (laughing) - My God. - Speaking of being a chef, God is giving her all these veggies to prepare for a meal. And sort of stacks them up in her arms so that she can't even see over the stack. And he just goes, "Follow me and rave with her vision blocked by the veggies." It's just like how? And he just says, "Tether yourself to the alluring tone of my voice." And I was like, "That's just monster's ink." But follow the sultry sound of my voice. This and the whole snake in the boot situation. I feel like, "Maybe she just had it on in the background." When she was around her kids are watching monsters and their kids are like, "Oh, yeah, say something." - That's good. - Yeah. - "Had some Pixar films on." (laughing) Wow. This is more of, I guess, mine and John's calcified theories about this. When rave is hesitant to go into, how did you say it? - Mose retreat. - Mose retreat. - Thank you. When rave says it to go inside and she says, "I'm not family." And then it says, "Con's course growl fills the space." So abruptly, I jolt, stare whipping back to him as he says, "Get in the dwelling prisoner 73 or you'll miss out on this meal." But because she says, "I'm not family." And he reacts like that. I was like, "Yes, you are, girlfriend." (laughing) "Family." (laughing) - When you hear your family, family. That's right. Have a bread stick. They're own personal. I love garden. He did unlimited super breadsticks. They were bottomless at one point. You are right. You did see a breadstick. You know what I mean. I was just about to say that didn't have any bread, but somebody was sporting a loaf. Oh, wow. Wow. A love thing. Lucky. Wow. Well, then Khan asked for Rave's name and his face drains of color when she says Rave and he asks just Rave and it says quote, another name says was through my soul, like a burning scream fire, lark, fire, lark, fire, lark. I'm assuming almost like whatever that presence is like under the lake, maybe like wanted to say it. She was like trying to get her to say it. And she just eventually just says just Rave stuffing the other down far away. And then in italics, it says gone. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? I want to know if this was Halloween's name for Khan, like how he calls her moon beam. Yes. Okay. Great. Cattle. Cattle, put it in the sky. Cattle. In the sky. And then when they're wrong, they just fall. We'll see if you're right when it crashes down. Well, it's like a fire, lark supposed to be like a parchment lark. Oh, I love message. And then I just thought of it as like a lark as a bird. And I guess that they have different kinds of larks, parchment, fire, rock, maybe. Rock, rock, rock, but like a fire, they're not airborne very often. Yeah. They're like, lightless larks. Oh, my God. No, a fire, lark could be like when serious black talks to Harry through the fire and is like little facebears and mashes or whatever. Diggin' at the same time. The fave, the flaming bird came down and turned into a friend or family member talking to me. I freak them out. Like it just crashed. Please just at the parchment lark next time. He almost killed me. That might be a fun little game to play for us. Like see how many, sorry, I'm like jumping. Turn him to a fire bird. And a explosive message to your life at the supermarket. Don't forget bread. We've talked about how we have so many theories. And I love that you said we've they've like calcified something about like how many moons can we keep calcified or something? We experience across the book. We should start writing them down. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Moon count. Moon watch. Moon. Yes. I need to get a tissue for my eyes because my makeup is running. You better catch it. You better catch it. Shut up. Oh my God. Good stuff. We are in the third chapter of this chapter section. It's been an hour. Oh my God. Everybody. We need to speed it up. Park it there. Honestly. I feel like we always got to get this stuff out in the first few chapters. And then we start to focus in once we make the running jokes. Yeah. It goes a lot quicker. Okay. Back to it. Chip chop. Oh, this is the part with the butcher block. And I my note about this was I guess had some more layers. But it was really just like it was everything about this little house like this little place where she was obviously having some kind of emotional response to it. But then this whole part with the butcher block where she says it's oddly shaped. And then says that only adds to the cuteness in my humble opinion. Wish I had one just like it. Like screaming because I can't wait for like actual flashbacks of her like memories coming back where conties is her for making this oddly shaped thing. And she says it's perfect or something. And then when she sees it here and she says it's oddly shaped and he's like, oh, you think it's oddly shaped? I just like I won't playbacks of all of this later when because this is you know because it's calcified. So obviously that's going to happen at some point. I can't wait. You guys are just making such bold statements when you just don't know. And it's just funny. Well they're true. Sure are presuming a lot. Yeah, a lot of presumption. And you know what presuming does makes a press out of you in me. Yes it does. Okay, well from here she talks about the three documented moonfalls since folks began like scribing their history onto scrolls. And it's I thought that was interesting because the prequel talks about how the gods created things and then it ends with like and then a moon fell or something like that. And we only hear of that one. So like hearing that there was three and like getting all the info was a little surprising to me I guess. Or I guess I if they had talked about the others I had missed that. And so we learned about the adolescent saber scythe that is barely three phases old and we actually get to see that one when she goes to the botanic plains. And then also the molten moth large enough to destroy a chunk of the wall littering this guy with a cloud of dust and sand that could be seen all the way from Gore. And if she talked about that one, if don't remember. So maybe she did maybe she did. And then the moon plume which is the first one to fall. And so that was the only one that we like knew for sure that had fallen or whatever. And this one seems to be the one that has all of its like moon shards because it says like bursting into a litter of shards that blasted a crater within the shade. So large a city could dwell within its dimpled depths which is wild to think about like that even even the adolescent one that they were able to my weakness. Oh my god. That you know what that city. Okay guys might know. What is this dimple city. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Just that even that adolescent one is big enough that they could build this whole like fighting arena and like all the things and stuff. So to think that the other one is so big that a whole entire city could live in it or like be made in it is just wild. And then the fact that Khan is collecting moon shards from it as if he's going to be able to collect all of those or something which is also beautiful. Yeah. It really is like that. Just for like a point of clarity. You said in the prequel. I think you mean the prologue. The prequel. Just so people don't think we have some prequel that no one else has. We have the same information. It's just in this story so it's called a prologue. Sure. The one chapter prequel. There's a guy. The thing is the beginning of the information in that prequel. That's true. It could have been its own a lot. I could have had a lot more details. But like think of all the drama between the gods. Like that could have been its own story. I would have been here for you. It might still be. It could be. Yeah. Might still could. Should would be. I can't. Okay. I know from this chapter. This is continuing the thoughts about the moon plume and such. In her POV it says I've seen moon shards before in a place where I was remade more times than I could count those glorious shards. One of the only forms of luster that didn't cause me some sort of pain. So were these the shards from her moon plume slaughter you steal her or like put her back together after the moon fall? Is that why the dragon's like inside of her? Because they were using moon shards. You can't even get through your stuff until that laughing. Because I'm watching you guys. Oh, I can't. My eyes hurt. I still have a lot of questions about how all of this happened and who would have helped her or who decided that she needed to be imprisoned and like not know anything about who she was. Somebody else saw her. Yeah, I agree. She's like this windy go over here. Like happening. Let me talk for a second. Open up those papers. You need me to tape them open for you. Oh my god. Oh boy. Oh boy. Here we go. Stop crying. You need the moisture for your eyes. He did used to work at the eye doctor so he would know. The eye doctor. He was. There's only one. The next one's my note isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Did you even finish the note you were talking about? Sort of. Oh my gosh. This feels like for a while when we were doing throwing them glass. I think it was in our tandem read episodes. I kept crying so much every time we recorded because I was always laughing so hard that I just quit wearing eye makeup for a while. Probably should have done that today. Oh, okay. Chapter 34. This is such a stupid note. You're not even gonna try to fix your other one. You're not gonna. You're just gonna move on. It's fine. Yeah, we'll just. We got it. We'll make sure. We'll get in post. Yeah. Thanks, editor. Okay. God the skiff. I can't do this. I can't explain it to the people. Wait, chapter 34. I didn't see the gift until just now. Yeah, chapter 34. My first note is that we have exposed forearms people. And I quote Khan's black tunic is rolled to the elbows exposing slash marks up and down his corded forearms. - Tell me about it. - Half the buttons popped, offering peaks of dense chess muscles that tense with each strong clamp of his tool. - Oh, continue. - And you, and guess that I put that she was laughing about was just Princess Mononoke literally just biting into someone's forearm, 'cause that's how I picture some of you girls being feral about forearm. Just, ah, give me that up. - I thought you were talking about how raved the bite is on. - Yeah. - She does, too. - Princess, who, who, and what day? - Princess Mononoke. - From. - From Princess Mononoke. (laughing) - Oh, dumb. - My best self-titled. - Got it, got it, got it. - Oh, that one. - Yes, yes. - This made me think of the little clip of the dark gray cat like in the evil laugh. It's like a really popular little clip, right? It's like biting some dudes foot under the cover. - It's like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. (laughing) - Okay, well, Con serves rave soup, and she tries to eat it. - Yeah, if her bound hand, and it says her teeth gridded as she tries again, so cheesy. - Wow. - Stirp it up like soup. Good soup. - Wow. - Good soup. - Speaking of good soup, rave tries to eat her soup and spills it everywhere, and I wrote, "Oh, M.G. is he about to feed her?" Then she bites him, and he backs her up against the wall, and I quote, "With his thighs shoved between mine, "with my hands pinned above my head, "and his hand cludged around my jaw, "our body's flesh breath's sawing through our bare teeth, "and I wrote, 'There's so much better.'" - I just put the image of SpongeBob, telling magic, write that down, write that down. (laughing) - And then the best part is he still does feed her later. - I know. - How much better am I mounted from the soup? - Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm. - Is it a marker? - I mean, she ate and retzaroes his finger, so. - I guess that's true. - Well, yeah. - I mean. - Surely contests better. - What's up, tell? - I would think a forearm tastes better than a finger. - Done a finger. - All right. - Quick pull for this episode. Let us know in the comments. - I feel like a forearm would involve more hair, but I mean, you know. - It's a little more meaty than a finger. - Fingers just all tinned and bone. - Yeah. - Gross. - Grossly. - And cons got some juicy forearm, so. - Yeah. - Any cannibals? Try 'em in. What's the best taste? (laughing) - You know from experience, shout it out. (laughing) - Oh my God. - Just somebody's like, "Well, I didn't want to say anything, "but." - Well, when you cry, pants. (laughing) - All right. - Wow. - And I'm POV-quote in this chapter that said too hot, and then in italics, not hot enough. And I wrote, that's how I feel about this whole chapter. Thank you, Sarah. - This whole chapter section, honestly. - Yes. - My main takeaway from this chapter was Con sort of reassuring her that she's safe during the rainstorm. She doesn't need to worry. She gives him a little sass saying that he wants something out of her, which is the only reason she's still alive, to which he replies, "All I want out of you "is to eat your fucking soup." And maybe for us to get through this slumber without any more bloodshed, a concept I'm aware you struggle with. And I said, I feel like this is a variation of every conversation at every meal I've ever had, convincing our two young girls to stop break dancing on their chairs and at least eat one nugget. Like, I just want you to eat, and then we'll go to bed. - Nobody gets hurt. - No more bloodshed. - That's basically what happened here the other night too, 'cause our kids were like, farting around on the chairs and one of them fell off. - That's what ours do. ours like to move in them and they're very squeaky and they'll just say they're going, (mimicking) - And we're like, can you please stop? - Please stop. - Well, on our youngest thing is like whenever she finally starts eating, then she has to go to the bathroom or she'll get up and she'll come over and be like, "Can I just have a hug?" And she knows that we're not gonna like deny her. I'd be like, "No, go eat your food." So it's like she just starts to get out of it with things that she knows we're not gonna tell her no for. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's so-- - Children. - No, the wars. (laughing) - Just take a chicken nugget. - I had a lot of highlight. - Oh no. - Oh no, no honey. (laughing) - No. - No. - No. - No. - Oh honey. That's what she says. - Oh no honey. (laughing) - Okay, we're in the heck where we-- Oh, I had several many, many highlights of Khan's dialogue from this whole section, but this was just one random one that happened to have a note attached to it where he says there's a difference between being cared for and being commanded, know it. And I wrote, "Your honor, I love him." I feel like all of the highlights I had where I said that, they all seemed like such random dialogue, but I do love him. I love him so much. And then, "Rave" is thinking of "Sey" here and how "Sey" used to bake for them. And this just set a whole pang of sadness straight to my little heart all over again. "Sey" dying already feels like it was a million phases ago, but it just hit me. I'm so sad. - Doesn't it though? I feel like on my first read, I really struggled with, it feeling kinda, I don't know, maybe not choppy, but it felt like we were here and then we went here and now we are. And it was almost like, wait, that was still this book or that was like, that wasn't actually that long ago, but it makes it feel like it was forever ago, kind of a thing. - Yeah, and I think it was in this section, she said something about it being like, a few Aurora cycles ago. - Yeah, it was like, holy crap. 'Cause it's been weeks. - I think all of that first scene from her killing that one guy at the very, very beginning to "Sey" dying was one night. It was like, she woke up the next day and that's when "Sey" was dying. And then she was in jail for like two days and then she's now with "Con" or whatever. So it's like literally been like for maybe four nights. - She didn't even stay the night there. She just opened left. - Crashing. - Wild, crazy, crazy. - Well, this scene of them laughing together, my no here says, this little scene of them laughing together is so cute. And then John was like, trashy-gate. (laughing) - I'm so proud. - It's so cute. - John, I thought this was cute too. - No, just, when I first read it, it just felt so like out of place to me. I don't know, it was really, it was odd. - I guess, I thought it was sweet. - Yeah, I guess it's like she's finally comfortable enough maybe or something that she could feel. Like she could laugh in her guard wasn't 100% up all the time. - Yeah. - I don't know, it's just, some of those walls coming down to maybe both of them. Like there's so many elements of that, you could look at it from. - And he never thought he would hear her laugh again. - Because she died. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my gosh. - I'm so proud. - I mean, you could tell that she was like hurting to break earlier whenever he stuck his tongue out of the door. - Yeah. - She's like, I almost smile at it. So yeah, maybe this was just like, they finally sat down, got some food in their billies and realized like how funny they are. And they're like, oh my gosh, we've been killing it with our mixture. - This is our start of us. (laughing) - Right out of my moths retreat. - That's right. - That's what it's called. - Moths retreat podcast with Colin and Ray. - I tune in. - I thought it was cute. - It was cute. And it led into this other cute moment where Ray was realizing that Colin just wants her. But she thinks in her POV and I quote, "that he doesn't want me for my affinity with clod "or boulder or the ease with which I slay." And I wrote, "Yah, squeeze slay." - I wrote the same thing. I was like, get it. - So say. - And then to Tick and Colin's jaw pulses, cheers everybody. - Yeah. - Dress. - Nice nag one. - Cayman Islands. I've been there. - I've been there. - I haven't. - Why are we talking about it? - It's on my mug. - Oh yeah. - This probably went on our honeymoon. - Nice. - Honeymoon, you say? - Calcium. - Do rise, do rise, do rise. - Put it up there. - Send it up. Launch it. - Launch it. - Launch it. This is getting a lot of it. - This book is elaborate. - It is. - Get up with Sarah. Okay, so I had me know earlier about how I hope that he was about to feed her because she couldn't feed herself to soup. And then he, not only grabs her spoon and feeds her, and then I put in parentheses, called it. He also wipes her face. He gives her a second serving. He offers her fresh water, and he cleans her shirt when they're done. And I wrote my gentle giant. I love him. - But also she let him do all of those things, which is a lot for her in that moment too. So. - It is. - Look at us grow up. - Love him. - And then in all of his amazing conness, he says, the only exit is down the stairs and out the back door. That's if you can creep past me quietly enough since I'll be sleeping on the cedar. If you succeed, I'll enjoy hunting you down. So be my fucking guest. And I was like, (laughing) - You give out to Shazardown. (laughing) - Everyone listening, if somebody had said to this, to you in real life, you should be scared. And probably actually-- - She's probably scared. - She has it. But in this fantasy book, he he he he he he he. - It's circumstantial I guess. (laughing) - Chapter 35, Rave. My very first note, I think one of the very first things said, is she sort of thinking about comedy? Like, well, perhaps he's a good male, a good honorable king. I don't have the heart to peel back the layers and find out. And I, He wrote layers like an ogre. I still have enchanted con on my mind. We learned a lot about Shrek. - We did. - We did do that. - Yes. - Lots of fun facts. - Dream on mood. (laughing) - Not the gum drop buttons. - This is more of my calcified theory reactions, but in Rape's POV, it says, "I'm broken in ways Con will never understand, condemned to a lonely existence I've found peace with, and I wrote no bestie, you don't understand." He probably feels the same way because of this theory I've calcified in my mind. I feel so much sympathy for him because of this. But then, oh, oh, and then I had another one of these moments where in her POV it says, "The world would be a better place with one less tyrannical, vegoer brother." Yes, that's it. That's the hook. And I wrote, "I hope she tries to work up the nerve to kill him and then they kiss instead." And then later when she's trying to, after she's worked up the nerve to kill him, it says, "The strangest need to kiss him surges through my veins and I wrote, yes girl do it." Then, later on, when they're doing other stuff, and he says, "Cut me if you want me to stop. He raps his thumbs sliding across my cheekbone. I'll gladly bleed beneath you so don't be shy." And I wrote, "All caps, this is so much better." (laughs) I will say, like, for the line where she's like, "The world will be a better place with one less tyrannical, vegoer brother." Yes, that's it. That's the hook. I couldn't help but picture her like, turning to camera and be like, "Yeah, that's it. That's the store you signed up for." That's where we're going. (laughs) This part made the song "The Hook" pop into my head, and then I just kept, yeah. So, "Captain Hook." (laughs) What? Where? Thank you. I'm shocked. (laughs) I don't know. Are you actually shocked? Yes, I am. I'm just, I'm, I'm, like, blue-shraveler? Yeah. I'm very surprised at that. I don't know. Okay. Yeah. So, once his eyes pop open and she notices that his eyes are lit with a soul-crushing blaze. And how she called this out, I was wondering if he had dragon sight, especially after this, he does the whole ICU. And I forget what she says. She gives him a retort or something. He's like, "No, like, I see you." And I'm like, "Okay, that seems interesting." He had to reiterate himself. So, I brought that up to that question. Mm-hmm. And then, mm-hmm. And then, I, of course, I had to talk about this. Said, "I let my head tip back. Bottom lips tucked between my teeth." Surrender to his administrations. And I was like, "No, no, no, no, not the administrations." I highlighted that for you, like, knowing that. I almost did, but I wanted you to find it on your own. (laughs) No. This was from throwing a glass, right? Yeah. It's a front, yeah. It's a central, rather, bothered youth in that series. Playing administrations. Grounding, but grounding. Grounding, God. Don't remind me. (laughs) Well, on the positive side of the writing and the scene, I had a highlight that I really loved from Ray's internal headspace while she's trying to activate beast mode. To, like, I think this is what she was trying to hype herself up to, like, kill him or just, you know, push down all her feelings toward him and stuff. But it says, "Stripping back the sprouting emotions, "I feel for con until I'm left with a bare skeleton, "I leave lying on my internal shore, "bundling all my budding curiosity, "intensive appreciation and tying it to a stone." And then it talks about how she tries to, like, find a spot to, you know, chuck the stone into the water or whatever. But I just love the way that she describes all of it. It's like, really, every time she's talking about this internal space, like the frozen lake and stuff, it's always so good, but I just always love that. Then this is also a call back, too. It was a throne of glass or imperial, where Rave has her own, I call it a "that's so" Rave in moment. And her POV says, "A dream maybe." And I wrote, "A dream memory, if you will." - That's a dream. - That's a dream memory. - A dream memory. - Wow, I totally forgot about that. - She was having, like, a sort of a vision of, like, another time or something. - Oh my God. That's, like, a dream maybe. - Literally a perfect explanation for that, or a perfect example. - Thank you. - Nice. - So proud. My last note from this chapter is just that I got to the end where, like, Khan shuts her down and she runs back to her room and she's, like, feeling so much shame. And I, just, him, so affected by this book, I had to take a break to, like, wallow for a little bit because Sarah A. Parker really has me in a chokehold, and I will wholeheartedly feel whatever she tells me to. And then I saw Jon's note from this part. - Yeah, which I said, "Won the emoji not erotic, a bullshit was that?" (laughing) - Yeah. - You don't get it all in the first try. - Doesn't she know it? (laughing) - I love that Conner's, like, I will wholeheartedly feel whatever Sarah tells me to, but also all of these facts and theories that I've made up in my head are true. And I will believe all of them. - I'm hard. And I feel so deeply for these characters because of the tragic backstory I've made. It's like people watching at a mall and you feel bad just 'cause of the store you made up for someone you don't know. - Oh man, they probably live in this. - This has happened to you, often. - Yep, I people watched a lot. When malls were a thing, yeah. They're not really a thing anymore. - All right, chapter 36, Raeva. - Thank you. - I as the only person who wrote a note in this chapter, this is the one where she escapes. She is actually able to get out of the house and through the window and goes into the river and takes off or whatever. And she's trying to be careful 'cause there's this huge storm going on. But then it says, "A flock of tawny birds ripping from the jungle "squacking as they shoot skyward. "My heart leaps into my throat. "Birds don't fly during storms. "Everybody knows that. "They hunkered down. "Did something spook them." And then she thinks that it's con. And so she takes off faster and then slips and falls and passes out for, by the way, it looks like 50 bajillionth time. Girls passing out every other second probably needs to go to the doctor. But I was thinking back when I like highlighted it originally and thinking back through my notes, do we think this was actually con or do we think this was the fate herder in this moment? - Fate herder. That's what I think. - That's kind of, I did not think about it until John said it and then I was like, "Oh, I totally am in agreement with that." - 'Cause I could even see if this, obviously like the fate herder knowing more things that would maybe make the birds fly in that way would make her run, you know, like all of the things to like lead her to that moment. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I don't know. Just kind of set it all up. - Totally. - Mm-hmm. I'm great with that. - That went all the lead. - So, a little diary entry. Now you're finally getting-- - Cousified. Put it up there. - Cousified. It was a fate herder. - Set it up quick. Okay, we have another diary entry and this is the one where the Fades young queen it came to visit Ellowyn and Ellowyn removed her veil to let the queen see her face. So in my calcified theory, she totally recognized Ray immediately at the trial because the first time they met, she saw her face and the queen was like so kind to her and made her feel loved. And I just, it was really sweet to read about. And I really hope they are all connected because all of these moments would be really freaking cool if this is true. - Well, I just like, the queen, like her own story, the young queen story is also equally sad to whatever Ellowyn is going through and seems just as much, I don't know, forced into the horrible situation potentially and being tied to the veggores and all of the things. - Yeah, and just like after losing her whole family that she has someone to relate to in this moment is really sweet, it's very special. And then the last line about Slatcha and not being able to survive in the burn, Ellowyn says I'd rather die than watch her turn to stone and I wrote the foreshadow egg. Ah, I don't even know what we're foreshadowing but I know this is foreshadowing. - And I mean, speaking of foreshadowing, coming out of where we just were with Rae where she gets knocked out or whatever and then it goes into this chapter. I was like going crazy, highlighting all of these things Sarah writes into this chapter and all of these things have been happening or have just recently happened to Rae. So I was just calling it all out. Like the POV of Ellowyn thinking about her parents, she says where they'd sing me songs that always made me feel better. Like Rae was constantly like humming throughout the story so far. Ellowyn got a smack to the side of the head by one of the burns barbed guards and everything went black for a bit and Rae gets knocked out, it says everything went black or like blackness or whatever. So I was like, okay, just keeps going. The Fade's queen coming to see Ellowyn and helping her, the queen talking about conceiving a youngling who forced them into abiding the tide the burn and the Fade together and I secure not, which I'm assuming that this could be Kizari. I think the timeline kind of matches up with like who they are and age wise. I think this would make sense as well. Yeah, which when he mentioned this, we talked about how we were confused about like why Kizari had worn the crown from like such a super, super young age when Ellowyn didn't. But if Ellowyn wasn't wearing it because her mother was still alive and then Ellowyn was bearing the crown and she died at some point, supposedly in the near-ish future from these diary entries. Then if that's like while the Fade quain is pregnant with Kizari, then whenever Kizari's born, it would make sense that if that was around the time Ellowyn was dying that she would be wearing the crown at that point, which was like, again, I don't know the timeline, how close it is, but I feel like that would make sense. Yeah, and then the last one was they had Ellowyn wearing cuffs of iron and she had been shot with an iron pen. She's been and Rae has been wearing like iron cuffs and she was also shot. with a pen so it's just like all these. -Coins at it? -Midrally all these same things that have happened to Rae if it's just super crazy. -Yeah. Are you calcifying? It feels like you're calcifying. -Send it. -Oh my gosh. Are you calcifying right now? -Oh my gosh. -Oh my gosh. -Everybody's calcifying. -Are we preparing for takeoff? -We are taking off. -Oh my god. -Chapter 38, I was cracking up at the start of this chapter. This was such a weirdly specific thing to relate to. But when Rae was waking up from being knocked out, I just kept laughing at her whole internal monologue and everything she was doing because it was so goofy. And she was seeing the people who were running alongside her and she's like, "Hi." -Oh yeah. -It sounds bad that I'm saying. I think this has only happened once. One time passed out in a doctor's office. I think it was because I had just seen a needle and at the time I was very not a fan of that. And so I was like standing in the waiting room and I passed out and I hit my head on a door hinge on the way down. And I woke up, like, it sounded like I was out for a little bit. And I woke up and there were people like I was on the floor and there were people like over me, you know, like trying to make sure that I was okay. My friend Bethany was there and she said that I opened my eyes and smiled and it was like the creepiest thing ever. But I felt like I had just woken up from the best nap of my life and I took me like a good couple minutes to figure out where I was and like what was happening. But I felt great. It was really freaking everybody else out. And so reading this chapter where she's waking up from being knocked out and she's like just like loopy. -Everyone else was like, "I thought you were dead." -Anyone listening, if you've ever been knocked out in a crazy way, do you also relate to this moment? -But like actually please tell me, if you're just gonna get this felt so random. -Sure. -But it was funny. -In this whole chapter, when we actually get into some more serious events, I was convinced that Cole Lumec Queen, like the whole time and I was freaking out every time they said it, until they explained what it meant and then she like, saw the throne and there was already a queen on the throne. But I thought that it meant queen and that they were like literally recognizing her, but that's not what happened. -Yeah. I didn't think it was queen at first, but I felt like maybe it was their literal name to these people. Because I was thinking that if her and Con were together in a previous life or whatever, then maybe he brought her here enough that she basically was basically like family to them or something so they know her really well. That's kind of where my mind was at the start of this. -Yeah. -And they were like calling her Cole Lume and all that stuff. -Yeah. -So, I do think House of Fight of the Middle of That was wild. -Calf of that. -So, I'm putting that any time. -Calf of that. -Fried. -Can I go witness? -I don't think it was like, I mean, we sort of learn pretty quickly what Cole Lumec means whenever they're talking to her about it, but like it is in the glossary and it literally just means the person who brings the offspring to whatever they say. -Yeah. -The prophesied person. -I had some real shouty all caps notes about it though, because they said Cole Lume like 20 times before they explained what it meant. -So, I was really trying to figure it out, but. -I'm sure they did explain what it meant, but it was in that weird language that none of us understood. -Yeah, well, yeah, that too. -That doesn't make it weird. Come on. That's their language. -My bad. So, sorry. To everyone who speaks that language. I would be interested to know from Sarah how she came up with that. Like, is it an actual language? -Yeah. -She could write some weird letters together and pretend it makes sense to her. -I was trying to decipher it. -Yeah, actively. -Come on. They're not weird letters. Those are the rare letters. -Oh, my God. -I was wondering before we began recording those. I wonder if you could reverse engineer it with like what words they say that they translate, and what words they say that you don't. If some real smart person out there has been like decoding it. I mean, like, "Oh, here's everything else they said." -You're telling me you haven't already tried to do that? -It's NOOP. -Or Google it to see if someone else really has. -I literally thought of this right before we recorded it as I had time to Google it. -I have not Googled it. -Can you Google it real quick? -Yeah. -I just want to know if it exists. -Joo-hoo-clan-language. -Okay, that's what I'm saying. -It's probably based on Icelandic, what I'm seeing here, because jokal is an Icelandic word that means "clasher." So if it's anything close to that, then it maybe at least loosely based off Icelandic. -Well, I was going to say that's weird for it being in the burn, but that did say there were people from all over. -Well, this one from a TikTok says, "What language is spoken and when the moon hatched?" "When the moon hatched was a written language, I don't understand. Joey is me. I am Joey. Moonplume. Moonby. Moonpupoo." -That's all I said without clicking on the video. -Oh, thank you. -John, you're not Googling, are you? -Don't do it. -Oh, okay. -Well, anyway, are we ready to continue? -Yeah, I'll do some more research on that later. -Yeah. -Okay. -Me too. -Okay, let's do it together. -Oh, it could be in the same room researching. -Parallel per se. -Anyway. I did really love this like crazy prophecy concept though. I just like, this chapter section did not go where I was expecting at all. And I loved it. I thought it was crazy and like, I don't know, kind of wild and fun. I hope it takes the plot in an even crazier place, I'm sure it will. But then the fate heard her. I was also just freaking out about. And I, like I said at first, when there was something happening with the cliffs or like the rocks in this scene too, I thought that it was Khan's like sick, boulder skills. I was not expecting it to be a giant, invisible fate-enforcing cat that was not on my bingo card. -But it's so cool, especially seeing the fan art of it. -I like that she's described as something that physically nudges someone like a bossy handler. So it's not just like this mysterious fate that you see in other books or just like the word "fake" getting thrown around and it's like, they feel a gentle breeze that direction. No, it's like a literal physical something standing in your way and not letting you walk a certain direction or actually pushing you in another. And I liked that it was like an actual physical thing. -Yes. -It makes you wonder like she's really good at like obviously creating the world and the backgrounds and the beings. It makes me wonder though like in the world if someone encountered this creature for the first time, why did that become normal? Like why were people like, oh yeah, that's your fate. -Instead of just being like, that's the weird animal that pushes you like you know's word. -What's that like? -It's the fate one. -It sounded like all the people who had seen it were like delusional or like would be said to be crazy. You know like nobody actually really super believes it. It's just like a mythical, like more legend than it is reality or whatever it said. So I guess it's just through years and years and years of rumors and storytelling and whatever. -I don't know. -Faces and phases and phases. -Yeah. -It's like when Bigfoot shows up, you know? Not everybody's going to believe it's just like, they stop. -Faces keep coming and they don't stop coming. -That takes us to chapter 39, a "The Raid" chapter. And this is when they're taking her into their like village or whatever it is their camp. It says it must have taken a great affinity with Boulder to find these remains to excavate them so precisely without disturbing their position. And I was thinking, I mean, this could have been con, right? He's apparently really proficient in Boulder so I was interested if maybe he, you know, when he was still young that he kind of helped make this place and like excavate and do all the things to make this like a little camp for them. -Yeah, I'd buy it. -Yeah. -I like that Boulder. -That is a nice Boulder. -I'd classify it. -Cosified. -Cosified. -Tea. -It's going to be a thing. When they're like leading her into this soul, what are we calling it? This, uh, where like carcass. -Carcass. -Yeah, like when they lead her inside of this place, I kept thinking that when they brought her in or then when they brought her into the throne room or this like head office thing, I just kept thinking like whenever they go into the next place, Con was going to be waiting there like, well, well, well. -So I made sense that he wasn't there, but I just kept thinking that was going to be really funny if he was just like, told you. -Just wanted another throne scene. -Yeah. -Don't we all? -There's still time. -Yeah. -Oh, I thought this was so funny whenever they are walking through this like little village and everything and the fate-hurters obviously following her. -And all the people are reacting to it and it says it occurs to me that it's probably what I was supposed to do when I first saw the fate-hurter, kissed the ground. -Instead, I tried to run from it, yelled at it, snarled at it, and essentially told it to f off. -It'll probably give me a shit fate and honestly, it's warranted. -I've certainly gotten a blood on my hands to justify it. -Classic, classic rave right there. -Classic rave. -Yes. -I just thought it was funny that she kept thinking like, should I be, should I be nailing? Do I bow? -But never does. -Like, never does. -I'm like, ah, bad, whatever. -By the time you're wondering, it's too late anyway. -Yeah. -Then it just looks rude. -Yeah. -It looks like a sarcastic bow. -So when she's trying to figure out what the heck is happening, Siza says it was foretold that the fate-hurter would bring you to us, that your offspring would tether the moons to the sky, she says with a hitch of awe forever. -And I don't have a lot of thoughts about this yet. -Mostly just a question. -What the f is happening? -What does that mean? -I like your note. saying what the fork is happening with no spaces like it's all one work. Because it was. What happened in my hand? Well, the fork's happening. I don't know. Like, this is something I was putting in my thoughts and theories if I had any thoughts and theories about it. It sounds to me that they're saying. - Oh, don't. - Or dole. - I just spring, what? - Don't. (all laughing) - Oh! - Oh! (all laughing) - I bet! - Of all your thoughts on theory so far, that's probably the most accurate. (all laughing) - Calcify it, maybe, calcify it, calcify it, baby! (all laughing) That's good, send it on up. - She, after finding out that, she's told that in her head, she says, "I am no-cola and I will never carry offspring." And the italics, when I first read this, made me wonder if this is a hard and fast rule that she plays by, or if this is a hard fact of life, much like some other books where that option has been taken away from some main characters. So not necessarily like, "I'm never gonna do that, but like I never will do that." - Can't, literally. Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. - Yeah. - Which, I mean, just for all that Rave has gone through in her life, I feel like that's potentially on the table as an option. - Of course she mentions, like briefly after this, that she has never missed like a tonic. - Oh, that's true. - That's true, that's true. - Okay, yeah. - Hey, you gotta take the fertility suppressant tonic. - Yeah. - And you have to talk about it. - Which is brew. - And go which is brew. - Well, if you don't talk about it, everybody thinks that you're pregnant. - Yeah, automatically. - Automatic, the first rule of fantasy. - I don't have any book. - My last note from this chapter. - Oh my God, Connor. - It's Rave's B-O-B. (laughs) - It's in italics. It says of a broad old dong right on the air. LOL dong. - And I saw that this was highlighted. So I clicked the note and I was like, "I knew this is going to be your note. I knew it." - He said it out loud. - The emphasis you put on that word just now. - She put the emphasis on it when she put it in italics. - Yeah, it's in italics. It's just in her head, right, Lauren? - Yeah, she's the same outfit. - Hey, Connor's the one who thought there was mind-to-mind speaking. (laughs) - I said it in. - I said it in. - That wasn't calcified. - Yeah, that was skim. - That was skim calcified. That's the best. - Oh my God. - 2% calcified. - Slightly curdled of d. (laughs) - Ew. - That's like the cottage cheese of calcification. - My word. - All right, chapter 40. Ray, you've, anybody. - (laughs) - (laughs) - Got more intense at the end there. - Me, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. (laughs) - Oh my God. - So first of all, hearing John react to this chapter alive was great. Specifically the description of the battle ring. Like just, he was reading it next to me and I had already read this part, but hearing his reactions to it real time was just, was just great. Mine literally, my note just said, whoa. (laughs) John was a lot more animated, but it says the skulls that were in like the battle ring were not from fallen animals. They have rounded heads and tapered canines. The fresher ones retaining the rotten remnants of a tapered ear, their fey. And I just, that was one of those descriptions where I was like, oh, shit. Okay, this is, it was more serious than I thought. - Well, and like the head that hawk chopped off or whatever's probably gonna be one of that. Like, you're just gonna like add it to the line of severed heads, I guess. - Take the body, leave the head. - This is a creepier. (laughs) - Yeah, super creepy. - That's what I always say. (laughs) - Always, he always has, (laughs) - Classic. - That's even creepier because then it's like, it's people they know. Like he's been part of the clan. - It's probably one of those things that they're like honored or a warrior. - Oh yeah. - Yeah. - Oh yeah. - I don't know. - Yeah. - Mm. - Or like, yeah, they're like dead and dishonored. And we're like, oh, you didn't win the height, so. - So what you get? - I can't claim them. - Oh my God. - Seriously, I mean, that's, I feel like it, sometimes would operate. - Yeah. Yeah, so they reveal that piece of it. And then they reveal that there's a whole saber-sized moon that didn't break apart upon impact and it wrote, also, whoa. Really exciting notes. But that was wild. And the description of this like adolescent moon and rave placing the flowers next to it and then respecting this like pleading request that she felt to turn away. It like almost made me cry. It was just this whole piece was so unexpected. - Yeah, and like the fact that the moon wasn't even where it had fallen, they like rolled it. - Oh yeah. - Out of the way or whatever, like the fact that they could even do that. Or even a thing to do that is wild to me. And then yeah, that it's like its own little altar, I guess, to the moon. It's just also an interesting piece of world building on how they, I guess, treat the moon. It's not just I guess these people, but maybe the whole world. But yes, this whole moment where it was like, she had seen the moon, obviously, and she had like reached out to touch it. And then it says, "A morning presence deep inside "erges me to turn around to stop looking, "not an urge, a gentle probing request, a plea." And so she listens to it and like turns around and doesn't look back. So it's like, I don't know. The whole description, everything is just so well done. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. It's sad, this sad moment. - Poor sloucher. - For the little baby, for the little baby drag here. - Cosmetic. - You know what I'm saying? - For the little baby one that actually is. - I know. - Cosmetic right there. - I know. - I know. - My next note is when they're getting ready to like fight each other or whatever, and they're kind of like starting to battle or they're like picking out their weapons. And that's when it like dawned on me. I was like, oh, I was like, is Zaren and Honk gonna fight for her? Maybe to like marry her or something or like who gets the priceless honor of making babies with her? - And that was right. - Cosmetic. - Launch it. - Cosmetic quick. It's about to fall. That would happen real quick. - Oh yeah. - So I keep wanting to say honk now, 'cause you keep saying it. - Say it. - I can't say it. - Cosmetic. - Yeah. - I don't like honk. - Cosmetic is our new go off queen. - Cosmetic, I honk. - Say it too many times. - Cosmetic honk. Cosmetic honk. - Cosmetic honk. - It's like picket signs. - Make it eternal. - Make it eternal. - The snore. - What is happening in the snore? - So honk wins the fight and immediately grabs. He immediately grabs his mullmer and tries to put it around Raeves' neck, which is super cringy in this moment. But this moment, even though this sucked, made me think that maybe at some point, you should wear cons with the saber side and the moon plume on it, 'cause that's just adorable. I'm excited for that. This though, absolutely not. - The only reason it's like-- - Good bye. - Horrible. Well, first of all, it's impressive in a weird way. How quickly this village of people is like, oh yeah, this lady shows up. Yeah, let's go die. Like, let's go fight each other. Like, it's like, bid 10 minutes, guys. - Uh-huh. Everybody's gonna die. - Yeah, 'cause they showed up like as soon as she was like in the tent, they were like ready to die. They like knew what was going on. - Yeah, they brought in the animal for cleansing and stuff and they was doing it. Like, no questions asked. No data prepare. - We've all been high school. - And some new kid shows up and everyone's like, dibs, the new hot one, and that one's fine. (laughing) - We care to fight to the death. - Yeah, that's high school for you. - Bring in the animal. Bring in it. Oh my gosh. - But the problem, specifically, when Hawk is like putting the malmer around her, is that he like physically grabs her. Like, she is clearly not having it and trying to get away. And he like grabs her shoulder and tries like force it on her. And that's the big ick. Like, it'd be one thing if he was, and she was like not a fan and even was trying to say no, but he's still, but it was like the grabbing of her shoulder and the whatever, that was just like, no, too far, sir. And he was like clearly frustrated the whole bit. - The one like impressive thing about it was how quick it was. 'Cause when I read it, I thought it was gonna be like a long drawn out battle. I was like, oh no, Hawk just ruined that guy. Like that was done quick. So like, pick out. And then like, I guess, I was saying, oh, you're lucky, he's our strongest fighter. There will now be great celebration. After which, he'll escort you to his tent and show you the pelt of his kills. Upon which, you will hopefully make strong songs and daughters in the cycles once your bond grows strong or grows sturdy. And I was like, what a first date, am I right? It just reminded me of the janitor from scrubs showing off all his little taxidermy stuff. Like he just brings her back to a tent and he's like, I killed this one. Look at this one. I made this one into a puppet. And right of just be like, okay. - Right. - Oh, that's amazing. - Like what a weird, I don't know. Sorry, not weird. You know, that's what they do. - Yeah, not weird, that's their culture. (laughing) - I just couldn't imagine going, I mean, I'm sure we've all gone on some weird first dates but to have like a show of kills that you have, you're like, so kids. (laughing) Wanna get started right now? - Let's do it for you. (laughing) - Oh my gosh. - Well, since it wasn't doing it for Rave, she says, I will fight for myself. And I actually typed this out in my notes but I put a gif in here of Marina from Brave going, "How the shootin' for me, oh not." (laughing) - Nice. - That was a pretty good impression. - She said twice, it was great. Thank you. So they tell Rave that as long as the fate doesn't prevent her from shooting for me on hand. She can do it. But my primary note here at the end of this chapter was that I'm really surprised that the fate-hurtter is even still around with how rare and mysterious it is and people always think you're crazy. If you've seen it, I figured it would give her a nudge and just dip out immediately before it's been seen by too many people. But since this is a huge prophecy-fulfilling thing that specifically the fate-hurtter was going to bring her, I guess it makes sense, but it's just chilling. It's taken an app. I just wasn't expecting that. I also thought it was interesting how she was trying to figure out what the fate of that moment was and how she was even saying, maybe these two guys, like somebody just needed to die. And I just got brought here for these other two dudes' fate and trying to basically push anything off that had nothing to do with her when obviously it clearly does because she's the main character. But yeah, nobody knows what it's there for. And it is interesting for sure. Maybe it's because their whole prophecy is like, oh, our prophecy is that it will bring the one who produces the offspring. Maybe she's like the 37th one that it's nudged in here. And that's why they're so ready to go. They're like, we got another one. Get the battle started up. We got a live one. And then when it doesn't happen, they're like, all right, well, it'll bring another one. We're sure the prophecy is still right. All those heads around are all the different tries that they've had with the fate of her. Yeah. That's why it's just like taking an app. Yeah. Same old same old, just another Monday. The next one. It's sitting there like, I hope I'm right this time. They're getting pretty antsy. That's the best part about it just being like a legend. Does it could just do anything? Yeah, like, say. So chapter 41, this is our last chapter of the episode. And Rave is-- she's raven. She says, my body is mine. And I will do with it as I please. Nothing more. And I wrote, go off, Colu. I wrote, go off, O-A-E. Because that's the queen. Even better. And then Rave references Spangle shit here again in her POV. And at this point, I just-- I'm never going to hear the star-spangled banner the same. This had never crossed my mind, like, connecting those two things. And right now, being the beginning of the school year, this is the first song we cover and the choir. So we're ready to sing it for sporting events and whatever throughout the school year. So it's now officially ruined for me. And I even thought about it today at work. So thanks for that, Colu. I'm surprised you hadn't thought about it before. Because like, oh, since phase one, I was there. I guess soon as Spangle took off. [LAUGHTER] And then we get a little trickery here, I guess, from Rave. She uses the elements to her advantage. She grabs, like, a handful of dirt. And she throws it toward Hawnk here. And it says, "Cloed lashes the wind into a gust, spraying the sand into his eyes, helping me of her own accord. Hawnk roars. I smile. Love you to, Claude. Miss you. Because the whole area is infused with iron or the sand. So they can't use their elements. So the fact that she gets a little unsolicited help from Claude here, I thought, was kind of cool. Kind of fun. Well, this is our first time to see a god, I guess, since the other chapter. I think-- Yeah, it's been a while. Oh, yeah. Well, I guess the queen tried to use Claude to help her whenever she was with the dragon. But yeah, I feel like that's the last time we-- Still, though. Yeah. It's been a bit. Yeah, it has. Yeah. This whole Hawnk thing is like your Dan B. It has. That's what's happening right now. It is. Hawnk roars really got me-- [LAUGHS] Hawnk roars. I'm just imagining that-- That sounds like a little goose. Yeah. Anyway, so-- Don't say it. You do whatever you want. Now it sounds wrong. Now Hawnk sounds wrong. I feel like it should be all-- God. Anyway, he tosses a small hissing serpent through the air. And then it bites rave. But this was the part where I was like, is this the-- actually, is this the thing? But obviously, they're not the same thing. I don't know why in my head those were connected. It's right you wouldn't know an octopus, but you in the octopus. [LAUGHS] But also, like, what-- he's our best fighter, and he's all these things. But he's a cheater. Yeah. He's not it. He's a jerk. Yeah. What are the odds that he didn't know that snake was there? And that was just him going, like, throwing it. He doesn't even kind of dumb. So chances are good. But then it spikes rave with its venom. And at this moment, I thought crap, this chapter's just going to end with rave passing out again. Right? She does it like 40 times. She's gonna be dumb about that. Yeah. Which, like, technically she probably-- I mean, she probably is about to pass out, but-- Well, yeah, she's like-- Yeah, got all the venom or whatever. And it even says-- She's a few concussions. Yeah. Yeah. It says, I just lie. Heavy lids, head heavy, or feeling weaker and more brittle than I did when I woke, confused in that cell so many aurora cycles ago, way back at the very beginning. And we had little hints of that from when she was in the cell, recently or whatever. So whatever the heck any of that means. But yeah, she is definitely about to straight up pass out. I really-- Whatever that means. From whenever she woke up at the beginning, we don't know what her beginning was. We could say-- Oh my god. I'm gonna be done talking forever and ever. Cosplay. For real. Oh, OK. Oh, OK. Oh my god. A hole. Yeah, sorry. Don't laugh at that, guys. Is that honey? Sorry, I was so mean, but it was so funny. That's my ammo. Oh. [LAUGHTER] Gosh. And as she is face down in the dirt, she hears Reagan come over and says, I'm certain I'm seeing things as cons boots thump upon the ground. And I was like, call it and thank goodness he is here. For real. For so many reasons. Yes. Yes. Most of the things I just want to look at him. Just want to-- would you look at that? Yeah. Just look at it. The reason that I personally am really glad that this was cons showing up was because right before this, for a moment, I thought it was about to switch to another chapter, again, for the first time since chapter 15. And I was about to be so mad at Lauren for cutting me off right before another chapter. So I was really glad that this was just con because I was going to be mad otherwise. But it's not. Other was-- But Reif was like-- No other was. Reif was like, she had started like monocle laughing. And it just-- in everything in her POV, it felt like she was about to just summon the other. And so I really thought that was going to happen. And I kind of bombed it's not happening because I want another other chapter. But I did not want to be cut off right before it. No, I'm trying not to be mean. I'm trying to make sense with my stopping point. You're doing great. They've all been perfect. Good. This is my first time doing it. I mean, obviously, Kyle was there. And I was like, what do you think about this or that? But usually you lead most of those. I'm doing it, Mom. Yeah. I'm doing it. Mom? You're doing amazing, sweetie. Yes. So Khan does show up. And it says he is shirtless, but for his own murmur, hanging around his neck. And my note is all cows. Here we go. Woo! [LAUGHTER] Cannot wait. And the very last line of this section says, probably not a good time to commend him on his hunting skills. But damn, it's tempting. I need to find her. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he did. I'll have to see if I can find her again, but actually did see a TikTok about that specific scene. Where Khan shows up at the end of-- or not the end of his fight, but in the middle of his fight. And it's just the audio of someone talking in there be like, what are you closing at? Because of why you're not here. There is a ton of fan art. I feel like of this specific scene that I have seen of him like coming off the dragon. I would like shirtless fan walking in and all the things. Yeah. I think I'll let you finish the scene. Texting. OK. Yes. I mean, I don't want to ruin something. Stay in a plate. Yeah. OK. Let me know when you're done. Well, that wraps up this chapter section. What are our initial impressions and current character thoughts of all of the new characters in a whole, John? Yeah. This was a great chapter section. It continues to just draw me in. I'm starting to get to like a turning point where-- OK, Sarah, like I need some answers or I'm going to lose my freaking mind. So hopefully some more of that is coming in the next chapter section. That would be great. Characters, I mean, Raven Con are both kind of at the forefront here. So-- I like both of them. The banter she writes with both of them is like really, really good. They clearly are familiar with each other in some way. So-- Yes, it does. That'll be interesting development as we continue the story. It's interesting that we get so much about the magic and the beads here to start. It's like she kind of sets that up here at the start. And then there's a little bit of a break there as we're into this part of the story. And I feel like we might be with the jokal clan for a little while here in this section possibly. Because I mean, you know, he's obviously going to kill Honk, right? Like, and then that's going to happen. Like they're going to be-- Honk, if you love Rafe. They're going to be bound by this prophecy in some way. And maybe something happens here while they're there where she gets some more memory back. Or something. She goes through some more dream memories. Or she gets some more, am I right? Yeah, just straight gets it. And then she just gets her memory just knocked back into her. There you go. Something knocked back into her. Well. Conny and he thoughts and he retorts any agreements. Oh well my first thought is that you can consider this episode the hard-lotch for me and Conveg or I Connacon Connacon As a fai! I love him! I love him so much. I feel like I said this maybe during Quicksilver that someone was very quickly claiming the ranks of the book boyfriend list, this is happening much faster. Wow, there is I think even greater potential here, maybe I don't know. We're only halfway through the book, so we'll see how it shakes out, but, I love him. I really like Rave as an FMC, although I can't figure out exactly what it is, that makes me like her so much. Maybe it's just the combination of the sympathy that I feel for her character mixed with like, that she's just crazy enough to have a fun POV, but not so crazy that it completely takes me out of the story. But either way, I am obsessed with her and con and this big, fluffy magical fate-hunting kitty cat. I love him too. All right, all right. Any thoughts and theories for where this thing is going? She's definitely, Eloen. Definitely, Eloen. I think it would be super fun. We talked about this briefly, if like, the fate-hunter became kind of like her pet, and it's like always follows her around, I think that would be super sweet, and she just like has it as a pet from now on. I think she's, I think we are going to get a lot more memory stuff. Once like, the whole battle thing kind of alms down a little bit, and we learn whatever's going to happen with her and con, I do think they're going to maybe stay there for a little bit, and maybe it's something where she even has an interaction or some interactions with the, with either like, soul, whoever soul is, if it's not the milky-eyed lady, but maybe if she does have some interactions with the milky-eyed lady and does some like, prophecy stuff, memory, whatever, and we get some more. It's technical. I'm a mom. I know you keep doing this with your hands. I can do it. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. So I could see that happening. I feel like the more I think about it, I'm, well, I guess he has said that he's a king. Like, Con said, like, in the cell that he was a king, or she, she asked him, like, who died and made you king? And he said, my pa, it's, I feel like it would be weird if he's the king of the burn, because he's still only a double bead. He's not a tri-bead. So like, how would he have come to be king? So I feel like maybe he's a king in a different sense. I don't know. I'm so mulling that over a little bit. Wasn't it confirmed that he is king of the burn? Was it? One of those really, I thought- people called him sire. And so I think she just- it was in her POV once. Yeah, I thought it was in her POV once too that she listed out like the king of each place, because they're all brothers. And then it was like, this one was the worst one ever. Oh, well, yeah, I guess that's true. That's so interesting to me though. I mean, I guess if he killed his own dad, then he was the one that was like, you know, sent him to the jokal clan. It was like, you can't be king, you can, but you can do this to earn my respect. And if he killed him, then like, well, now he can be king if he wants to. So maybe that was like some series of events there. And he became king after that happened. But yeah, it's kind of like it. Okay. Come, anything on your end? Yeah. My overall thoughts right now is- I'm pretty certain this is going to be my top read of 2025. That's- Whoa, big statement. Correct. Yeah, currently one of my thoughts. But I think that doing my first read on the podcast has just helped me enjoy it so much more because I really get to take my time to like understand everything as we go as much as I can. And this is also the first time that John and I have been first time readers on something together in two years. This is like, I think this is only the second thing we've ever read together as like first time readers. And when we did that before, it was like prior to books to Graham and like all the crazy stuff we do now. So we were having a lot of fun reading together, but not theorizing like crazy and having all these conversations. So it's- I'm really enjoying like being able to talk about it with John as we go. And then also talking about it here and just like really taking my time. Because I think the writing style of this book specifically, it seems like it helps a lot if you can go slow and just kind of take it all in and absorb it. So it's been so fun. I just love it so much. And I'm so affected by her writing. It's totally my jam. For theories, there's so much happening now. I don't know. Raven being Ellyn is firmly in my head can, and so I'm not even gonna call that a theory. It's calcified. But I feel very vindicated over Hayes Perch and John totally thank you. And John totally called it Khan and Ellyn being in love. So those are both exciting and also devastating to read in this section. But things just change so much in these last few chapters that I- I don't even know what to theorize about right now. I am really curious to see what Khan says about Raven being Kholu. Like if he- if that was something he knew about, or if this was like a shock to him, or if he would have thought it was her or something. I also really want another chapter with the other just because I want more information. And I'm dying to know what's going on with Ellyn. There's just like, there's a lot. And so I'm excited to read the next section and see- I don't know that this would happen in the next section. But I'm like excited for the storylines to start colliding a little bit more. But I'm also just sad that we're already halfway through the book because I don't want it to end. I love it so much. No, we're halfway. And we just found out that the second book got pushed back to April. So we have to wait even longer for a book to you. All right, that takes us to the Cry Counter and I don't think anyone's cried this episode. So that is still a one for me and two for Khan, our current rating champ still in the lead now from the second book in a row. I'm so proud of that. Can't wait. Thanks. Well, somebody poor me a glass of water or snake venom antidote because that was a bit spicy. And next week we're charging head first into chapters 42 to 59. So sharpen your theories. If you want to scream cry or aggressively wave your arms like I'm up at about your favorite characters with us, then you gotta jump onto our discord with neatly organized spoiler free and spoiler filled threads. So you can safely chat and theorize no matter when you listen. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok and for even more bookish nonsense behind the scenes shenanigans podcast updates questionable memes and merch drops because just like arrowsmith you don't want to miss a thing. I really wanted you to sing that. I'm sorry to this point. Still hot and bothered after that chapter chunk. Same here. Cool down with us over at BetweenPages and Friends.com. Join our Patreon and don't forget to join our newsletter for all the news and updates. Till then stay wordy, stay nerdy, don't stress and stay blessed. Bye bye now. Bye bye.