6: When the Moon Hatched, ch. 79-END

Diary entry, Lauren, age 31, 42, Rorace cycles after episode 1. The journey is closing a book shut, a lantern snuffed. I think of them first, always them. Khan, who wanted to wonder why the walls of wonder, who I hoped would lose herself in the puzzle only to find herself again in the answer. She did. John, who wanted to taste battle and burn with the spice in the story, to carry retellings like trophies, holding danger and delight in his palm. He did. Kyle, who wanted to be met by characters that felt real enough to bleed, but gentle enough not to wound. A book that opened itself without warning signs, he did. I keep circling back. Did I give them what they needed or did I only borrow their joy to feel it myself and when their pages are full, what is left in mind? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. I don't know yet. I say something wrong while you laugh at me. Welcome back to Between Pages and Friends of Book Club podcast hosted by Khan and Lauren, two vests who read a lot of books. And John and Kyle, their gamer turned reader husbands who agreed to read with them. Hi, I'm Lauren. I'm Khan. I'm Kyle. And I'm John. You're listening to episode six of the Moonfall series by Sarah A. Parker. Today we're talking through when the moon hatched chapter 79 to the end people. Son of a. The end people. This is not a drill. Hope the kids didn't wake up. Anyway, this is a book club style podcast. And while typically there would be no spoilers for future chapters, we have to end in a book, y'all. So make sure you have finished all of when the moon hatched before tuning into this episode. Yes, but before we dive in, quick content alert. This H.O. grain is book club, y'all. Unless your grain is cool, when the moon hatched is an adult fantasy. And we talk about it in all of its adult glory. Expect some stimulus and unfiltered, well, anything really. Earbuds on innocence off. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. Do you like us? Love us? Want some more of us? Join our Patreon for just $5 a month. You can be a book bestie and gain access to our discord plus monthly book talks, live hangs, and plenty of extra fun. But maybe you're not just here for fun. Maybe you're here to ascend. For $10 a month, you can join our found family tier and get access to early ad free episodes, shiny merch discounts, exclusive discord chats, voting power, and unlimited breadsticks. We'd love to get to know you more on our Patreon. All of this wouldn't be possible without all of the amazing friends we've made since the start or the ratings and reviews you give us like this five star review on Apple podcasts from our old friend Brazil titled "Nobody asked you Patrice." I found out about you guys in the fantasy fangirls podcast collab video a while back. I loved the five you guys came with, so I thought I'd check it out and you guys did not disappoint. I was so excited when I went to your channel on YouTube and saw you were doing quick silver. I caught up so quickly and lucky for me, you guys had already posted other videos of books that I had already read, so I immediately went and binge watched those two. My goodness. I am a book girly, but I have no friends that are book girlies like me. So finding this podcast is like finding four new friends. Every single one of you brings something special to the podcast that's made it one of a kind. It's a great thing to look forward to each week. I also love the references you guys make to TV shows. They're the best. I'm happy I found you guys so excited for the next book reveal. Thank you so much. Brazil! Brazil! Brazil! Brazil! Love you too. You are our bestie. So sweet. Well, this is it Khan's final declassified fantasy pronunciation guide for When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. This is of course the part of the show where we highlight all the new names and places mentioned in the chapter section. In places we have Ovidon, the city that straddles the border between the Fade and the Burn. This is neutral territory home to the Tri-Council Citadel. The Velvet Snog. This is the Bar visits. Ten out of ten names. The pits of Kindard. This is where Raeveslash Slatra fought as Fire Lark. And then in characters we have the scavenger king aka Arkin Vagor. Brune and Colette. Two of the armed guards Khan speaks to in chapter 83. Leary is the Moon Plume rec abused and Raeves ended up bonding with. I meant that metaphorically when I typed it, but maybe also literally bonded with Quasabark. Yeah. Great. Calcify. They're calcify. Awesome. And then Teros is one of the shade emissaries from Arithia. And Bruce is Teros's molten Maw rec was planning on bonding with before he died. RIP. Ada is the name of the Arithian servant. Vea disguised herself as. And then lastly in world building we have Bloodlaces, which are full-cuchen detect or test bloodlines and Gorsi grass, which is used as a sedative. And now here to give you the final chaotic chapter recap of when the Moon hatched. It's your boy Juan. Thanks my girl Juan. Shakwan. We start with Eloen and another diary entry. King Austin has returned with Tyroc and Catith. Nice. King Austin has returned with Tyroth and Catac. They have a feast to our Eloen is veiled and silent made to eat whatever is provided for her. She notices Vea is silent at the table. Austin really going in on her here earning a tear from Vea and Eloen snaps. Ripping off her veil, climbing on the table, marching to the other end for a Coke steak, Tyroc and Austin beside themselves. Austin announces that Khan and Vea will be traveling to a village after the flirt to everyone's surprise. Khan and Eloen spend that time in the hideaway home. And we're back with Rafe. Fresh off a double-digit dolloping, if you know what I mean. As Khan prepares some food for them, he asks her if she's ready to talk. She says no. Uh, it's one of my best really. And they eat, consending Alark to Pyroch to get the mindwuft somewhere safe so Rafe doesn't try anything. She tells him she doesn't want her fruit. She wants revenge. Revenge for the pleasure of the night before. So then she starts in on herself. And this week's revenge mojiratica. You got to pull it up. That's what she said. I don't know about that one. Not in this sentence. Sorry. I heard you're out. I guess so. I was on the fence about doing this one, but that's what she said. Rafe wasn't. All right. Bowl, ladder, parentheses, purple circle, and pear, and parentheses. Bricks, a painter, two swirly emojis, like a swirl, and then another swirl. Like a chicken coming out of an egg. It's like a broken egg, right? And like a blush covering the mouth emoji. And that's this week's revenge mojiratica. Good job. I mean, she finished. So I felt like I had to do something. You know what I mean? Even though he didn't pull it out, we still got to talk about. I know that was my idiom before, but that's the golden rule. That's it right there. You guys didn't grow up memorizing that. If you pull it out, you got to talk about it. All right. Another diary entry. Once everyone leaves for the village, Austrian locks Eloen in a room and tells her he knows about her and Khan. Then he uses clothes to cut off her breathing and tells her that if she refuses to go through with the binding ceremony, he'll not only kill Vea, but he'll tell the twins about her and Khan, and they'll hunt him down, saw his head off, and also that if she wants her baby to live, she'll do what she needs to do to make Ty Roth believe it's his. Yeah, do all that and I'll be well. And we're back to Rafe having one heck of a nightmare, or rather a flashback of getting tortured with fire by someone called the scavenger king. Also mentioning how Fallon has been helping her here, she hums her peaceful tune to help with the pain. He threatens Fallon, which makes Rafe threaten him, and he laughs it off, calls her his fire-lark, and now he has what he needs to "motivate her." Khan rouses her awake, asking her what a fire-lark is as she rushes outside to jump in the water. Khan lifts her up, pressing her about who she was talking to, and just as it seems she was about to open up a little, they hear a screech and some horns. Emissaries have arrived from the shade, along with Reck, "I'm a little bitch boy, Zarros." They both notice the moon plume that he's on, clearly struggling with major injuries to its body and wings from the weather. She heads back inside and gears up for war, basically. She's like strapping on knives, all the stuff, a blood rage boiling strong for Rex, Zarros. As she's gearing up to leave, Khan argues that he has come under a white flag. If anything happens direct, there will be war. He talks her down and asks if he can trust her to stay put. She replies, but doesn't answer the question, but he goes to meet with the Emissaries. At the Hutch, Khan gets a better look at the moon plume and it's a really bad shape, something that reminds him of Slatra. Rex tries to use Boulder as Khan cuts him off and gives a little threat. Wreck laughs but shits his dirty little filthy mouth when Rhaigan enters his view, smoke coming from his nostrils as he stares wreck down. Hell yeah brother. The Moonplume's name is Leary, Con plans to take care of her without Wreck's knowledge, securing a Carter dragon for his departure. Con asks why he's here, apparently, Kazari went missing after her anointing and its Rex job to find her. Con plans to keep Wreck and Iron Shackles and the other two MS series under lock and key in their rooms. And we're back to Rhaegh, not waiting around for Con, she ends up scaling the wall up to the hutch where Rhaigan is watching over Leary. She takes in the injured Moonplume, her emotion, bubbling up a thunderstorm and some rain, talking to Leary about some of her memories, as she is hit with some kind of connection to Leary, possibly bond, as we mentioned earlier. She stays with her as Agni comes to heal her injuries, even speaking to Leary in the southern tongue, apparently something she's never done before as Rhaegh. Agni passes out from exhaustion from the healing, Rhaegh tells her that she needs to rest, but not before Agni tells Rhaegh that she sees how "bright" Rhaegh is. Rhaegh now having met two people with dragon sight, something that is supposedly to be super rare. She tells Agni she doesn't want Con knowing and that she has no desire to talk about it. Agni leaves but Con takes her place, asking what she doesn't want him to know about, and she finally confesses to Con that Rhaegh took someone from her, someone she loved. He explains that Rhaegh will be here for another day or two, that he knows they plan to go back to Gourr to chase another lead, and where they'll stop along the way, a city in neutral territory. He tells her that he'll have everything prepared for her to leave and wait to release Rhaegh until like a day has passed, so she can beat him to Gourr and prepare for whatever it is that she wants to do. And his last request is for her to come back to him, and side note that's the last time they talk in this book. Eloindyri entry, leaving with Tyrauth hinting at the note that she left Con, Con obviously not knowing that she's doing it to protect them all, Vea, Con, everybody. And then we get a dag on Rek, I'm a little bitch boy, man child, Zaro's POV chapter. Him and his cohorts plus the Carter from Dom making a stop in Botham at an end that should really be more appropriately titled as a brothel or something, honestly. But what a name for the place. And I'm not sure what the obsession is with the word Velvet, but it's called the Velvet Snog, probably inspired by the Velvet Trog who grew up in the Velvet Bog, her neighbor, a Velvet Frog who made and sold Velvet Klogs mainly to Velvet Hogs who loved to gossip down by the Velvet Log, sitting in the Velvet Fog with her friend, a Velvet Groundhog, sipping on Velvet Eggnog. What happened? I blacked out. Anyway, Rek orders a stake for the Carter who he plans to kill to take the dragon and also a strumpet to his room, paying for the floor to be cleared out as well. After they eat, he heads up to his room where he finds that strumpet, back turned, stoking the fire. He goes in for the kill as she talks about how she's not a big fan of fire, probably having something to do with her time spent in the pits of Kindard, but he laughs because no one has made it out of the pits unless she's fire-lark. At which point she speaks to Klood to take the air from him, sticking his thigh with an iron pin. She's even taken out the door handle and stuck razors down in the hole, bro. What? Whoever this is has been hunting him, and she knocks him out. And Rek comes to at the start of the other chapter. If you hadn't guessed it before now, you know that this is Rave, turned infamous other, called it, having bound up Rek nice and tight to the bedposts, it describes Rave not going away easy, either, packing her in a "tomb of ice" to protect her. The other gives Rek a good slap to wake him up. She takes the fire poker and starts to go to work on his bare chest, making him feel what Leary felt. And we get here that Rave can in fact hear all four elemental songs, although even Rave herself doesn't know that she can hear Ignos, that the other has been protecting her from hearing his song, quote, "until she's ready." And we get back to Veya's story. Now in Erythia's grand palace searching for Elements' diary, winding up a staircase, catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror, the bangle, having changed her appearance to that of one of the maids, like servants of Tyraath. She runs into another servant on her way up, who tells her that she should be up there, already, to Tyraath's chambers, finally making it all the way up, as Tyraath is leaving. He scolds her as someone named Ada, also commenting on his bastard that she's carrying. Well then, he leaves and she heads into the sleep suite where Elements supposedly spent her final moments. She finally gets her hands on the diary, and she reads through the young, the adolescent, and the mature Elements. Reading the final entry and learning that her baby was not Tyraath's, but cons, pretending to make it through sex with the prick to make it believable. The final diary line, being that she feels a battle coming, but that she has a feeling if she were to climb back into her bed, she would not rise from it again, as Veya is overcome with emotion at the realization and implications of Elements' final entry. And then we get an epilogue. In the scavenger king, POV, studying another captor in his cell, apparently whispering to herself, he comments that he recognizes the resemblance to his fire-lark, and we get his name, Arkin, and then we find out that she is his niece. Not that she knows that, or that any of his quote-unquote "half-brothers" know he exists either. What? He has her sign a blank piece of parchment, she gets a little cheeky trying to hide a message in her signature, and then we get some of his intentions that he is after the burn, and that it is rightfully his, that apparently con, stole Arkin's revenge in killing their father. He sends her sign to lark off to somebody, as it passes another lark on its way in, heading for Kazari, as it drops next to her, and the three letters she can make out to form the word "ne." And that's fucking it guys, that's where a freaking stops right there of all places like I just threw a frisbee, and instead of it landing in the grass or someone catching in or a dog plugging out of the air, it just stops mid-air frozen. Like, like it wasn't even a frisbee in the first place, and it doesn't even care about continuing on it, it's a little frisbee life, you know? Just calcified out of the frisbee field. Calcified, floating in the sky. Well, let's get on into it, let's wrap this book up with a bow. Here we go, with chapter 79. This is a diary entry, and it starts by saying King Austin returned on his saber-south, trailed by his two youngest sons, Katak and Tyraath, both here for the great flirt celebration, and I wrote, "Here I fucking go!" Mostly because I was excited about being right, not because I was excited about the actual events, but- What were you right about? The specific instance? Because you've been right a lot to be valid. Thank you. Thank you so much. This was more- it was coming, that I- all of my crazy theories about, like, Austin, Threatening, Ellowin, to like leave after the great flirt and come back to the shade, and like, all this stuff was happening, flirt, flirt. So when it said they showed up, I was like, that's all. Well, and then it's like, as if we already are told not to like Tyraath or we are told he's this horrible person. The first interaction we get the guy is that he corrals, rave in- or Ellowin, I guess, in this moment, in the hallway and tried to shove them into a darkened corner and said she wasn't allowed to speak. And I was like, "Okay, Sarah, I get it. He's the worst." He's terrible. I understand. Well, I don't know. Had they technically interacted before, or were there only interactions before, like, through their parents, where Ellowin was like, "Hell, no." I don't- I think- I feel like maybe she saw him when they were in the shade, but I mean, they don't say that explicitly, but I feel like- This is the first time we see him. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This might be the first time he's been on page, like, at all. He's been talked about, but he's not actually been there till now. Yeah. She's expressed her hatred toward him, but he's never actually met her. And I think his reputation is probably a lot of that too, because she hears you, and if they hadn't met. That he sucks. Yeah. So in Ellowin's POV, she's saying the silence that is expected of a princess, unless she's either bound or given herself to the creators, like Vaya. And this, I think, was new information that Vaya gave herself to the creators. And I was just, no, oh. We found that out before. And she had, like, won her own Tukotrial, and she had done all sorts of stuff. Oh, okay. Well, I remember that. I just- I guess I'm just confused about what that means for someone who doesn't bear the crown. I think anybody can do that? I would assume. We just only- Is it just like a commitment sort of a thing? I guess. I was also- I don't know this thing of the book, I'm not hiding any secrets from you anymore. Answer my question. I don't know the answer. I'm like, is it like a, like a nun type thing? Like they give themselves to the gods and are saying they won't get married to someone else or something, because they can be unveiled at that point. It's not like there. Yeah, I can. A young man. A young man or something. Because Ari, because Ari said she had taken- Yeah, she don't give herself to the creators. Like how? Because Ari said she had taken the oath of chastity when she was talking about how she gave herself to the creators, but I didn't know if those were like two different things. I just- I guess I forgot that they had did that, so I was surprised. What does it seem like that is a requirement, because Vaya certainly didn't do that. True. She didn't. I mean- The whole chastity thing, I mean, because apparently she has been around, right? I don't remember that. What? The only thing I would think about is- - Your dream. - She talks about, she like jokes about making - Make stops on the way to the shade and cons like, I don't wanna hear about what you do 'cause he, he thought that that's what she was gonna be stopping for. - For real. - I mean, the only thing I would think is that Conn isn't like anti-Grim and Vea's little flirty back and forth or something. Like I feel like he would be the one to be like, you can't do that. She's given herself to the creators, you know, or some protective brother type. But instead, he's just like chill with it. - She just said she'd be chased not that she couldn't flirt, come on, yeah. - Lair flirt. - I don't know. - And just to be clear, John, all of these are F-L-I-R-T, so we're talking about flirting, not the flirt. - Tyler's talking about the great flirt. - God, really great. - It's a great flirt. Take a bail off girl. - So in L1's POV, this is when they're at the table. She notices Vea was strangely silent, says close off. Eyes downcast as she ate beside her nephew. And rereading this for the recap, I realized that she was, it was just because Austin was there and plus the fact that he was just like given her a bunch of crap there at the table and saying all this like terrible things to her. But I thought at first that her memory was already gone at this point and that's why it seemed like she was almost in like a zone out type of thing. But that would have been an interesting thing to learn of that oral possibility, but now I know that it was just 'cause Austin was being a dick. - Yeah, 'cause he's a dick. But it does say that she was sitting beside her nephew. So I'm guessing this was Turin since we don't know any other like vague word children. And I think he would have been a toddler by this point potentially. That was interesting. - But it does bring the question, like what did she know specifically that she felt the need to have her memory wiped? Did she choose to have her memory wiped? Did somebody force that on her? - Right. - 'Cause she knew that information. Like, I do have a note about that in a minute. - Okay. - But I don't like it. - Okay. - So if somebody else has a different suggestion, I might accept it as again and instead. - Okay, well we'll expand when we get there I guess. And this is right after Austin makes Veya cry when L1 says, "I snapped. I ripped off my veil, climbed on the table and charged to the other end. I slammed my fork through a pile of coke meat that I'd been salivating over since the meal began. Then I proceeded to sit back in my chair, stuff my mouthful and toss King Oster in a fake smile. The fuck." And I was like, "Oh my gosh, my jaw is on the floor here." That was incredible. And it continues, "I was just sucking the meat juice off my fingers when King Oster announced that Con and Veya would be leaving with catacombs Tyrauth after the Great Flirt. So they could help rebuild a village torn apart by a rabid saber-sive." And I was like, "Serious inception. What is happening? Is she, did she go back and she's reliving a memory? Like this was crazy." - It is crazy. There's so many parallels to what's happening now. And what was going on in the other timeline. This was my note about Veya's memory gap. It says, "In 30 Aurora cycles, I turned 21. Preparations have already begun for the binding ceremony in Arithia between myself and Tyrauth for my coronation." But that 30 Aurora cycles is how long Veya's memory gap is. And this is when they take her and Con for a month. Is that what happened? - They take Con and Veya? - Yeah, don't they say at the end of this that maybe not Con, but I thought they said that Veya was getting taken. - Well, they send, so he, Oster and Sins, all four of them to the village. So Con, Veya, Tyrauth and Catac. - Yeah. So she's like with, yeah, she's with Tyrauth and Catac for that 30 days was what it sounded like. - And Con. - I just, it felt like they did something terrible to her during that month based on how she spoke about them in the previous chapters. And I just was wondering if she chose to have her memory or raised of those 30 days because of whatever happened while she was with Tyrauth and Catac. - That's not what I, I mean, what I was trying to say earlier is I thought that her memory, like she knew of Con's baby or like the baby's origin or maybe she was there when Raeve died or Ellowin died or something along those lines. Like it was that she knew the big vital information and then to protect Kizari maybe or the world from having war or maybe Tyrauth forced her to lose the memory because I also think Tyrauth knows that Kizari's not his own kid or something like that. That's the 30 days because that would be 30 days from now 'cause she's showing or whatever. - Yeah, that was my initial thought too. This just made me really nervous because of the way that she still talks about Tyrauth and Catac. My guess is that it's gonna be, if we do figure it out that it's gonna be Austin just because of how like the heat that he did something or he chose to do something to her or have her memory erased or whatever, especially with how it set up here with him sending all four of them off so he can basically like threaten her and then leave without Con or Vea being able to like intercede or anything. - Yeah, I didn't think anything-- - Maybe she had to use the bangle before to sneak into Arithia and saw stuff that she wasn't supposed to see. - That's totally true, that could be. - But yeah, this specific instance of them leaving didn't make me think anything about her memory gap. It felt like that just set up for Austin to be a D-bag. - Yeah. - Horrible things happened to Vea. - I'm not saying maybe didn't happen, but that's not what I was taking from this. - I'll take it for now. - And I would be surprised if like something serious happened with Con being there too. Like maybe if he sent Vea off like with Tyraff and Katak alone and then can't send Con somewhere else maybe. - I agree with that. - Yeah, although I guess it would be kind of weird that this is the point that she left the note for Con and he was with Tyraff for the whole month. - Yeah, but she would have left for Arithia and maybe he would have stayed in the burden or were up what they were. - Yeah, 'cause it sounded like he's like, for some reason I thought she was like off like the next day. - Yeah, same. I don't know. - I need to reread all of this. - Go back. - I'm only going off of one read. - I wish I could tell you you get more information and understand it on your reread. - But you won. - He the H. - There was already more that I learned from John's recap just now that I missed on my first read. - I definitely don't hear it for one second. - Second. - I was, yeah, even just like skimming through the last chapter again, I was picking up a bunch of new stuff. But my first read I was just like skimming 'cause I not skimming, but I was just like devouring the last chapter section. - Skins? - No dare. - Princess is 2% glass of milk and breath. - Skins. - Skins. - Okay, chapter 80 starts off. This is a rave POV. Thank you. My note just says, what a man. Quote is. - "Fully stocked, covered with a handful of options to break our fast and the male knows exactly what to serve me. Not that I asked for a meal or spring water served in my favorite mug or for my soul to be cradled while he was so deep inside me there was no place to hide." - Just giggle your way through that. - So I read the chapter. - Of course it is. Shortly after, she's the same scene on rave's POV looking at con, him half naked, moving with the mirth of someone who just stepped off a battlefield. Blood barely blotted from his skin before dashing a cloth over his shoulder and preparing food he personally foraged. And me, festering in the aftermath of our emotionally charged coupling, Harris' Q mind mulched, trying to work out how I went from winning the most important game of script I've ever played to sitting at this table, wishless, boggled, and annoyingly aroused. I was just like, what a great paragraph here. The writing is great. Like, holy cow. What a way to write it. - I just love the description of her. Like the only part that I highlighted was wishless boggled and annoyingly aroused. What a description. - Really good. - So good. - The con says to rave, there's only one mind left. In Dom, I believe he's already met him. I'm moving him to a safe house and I wrote, thank you. Don't let her go do something stupid. - Well, and she's like, are you serious or whatever she says? And he responds, you have a history of dipping out the side door, the moment my back is turned, then winding up dead in the sky. Just maybe left. The way the narrator does it so deadpan, like, he's just like, these are the facts and here it is. - Yep. - That was valid. - In the sky. - Calcified. - Calcified. - And then cons, eyes are black, jaw, gritted, veins, embossed all over his bulging muscles. So cheers, everybody. And then rave says, there are no more white flags with me, my king and I wrote, my king and all caps. And then the end of the chapter, rave leaves the room without looking back and I know it was, if you guys just have the conversation already in all caps. - I'm just, one of my major frustrations with this book is that all they talk about is having this conversation. And then they never have the freaking conversation. I wanna throw the book whenever this happened and I knew it wasn't gonna happen too. And she just walks out and was like, me too, rave. - I'm so frustrated. - 'Cause I knew what he was gonna say about Kizari. - Well, and it just, like, we're gonna open book too. And she still has no idea. So rave's character has not changed. This, whatever, like, nothing is different. She hasn't learned information. She's not leaving on a cliffhanger. She's just living in her ignorant bliss. - She might be trapped right now. So that's also something we'll talk about. - Why is she trapped? - Save it for a thought of saving. - We'll get there. - We'll get there. - Okay. Alright, alright, alright, okay, we'll get there. Okay, maybe. Now I'm on a cliffhanger. I don't know what that means, but whatever. Okay, so diary entry, this is when King Austern waved his son's and daughter off this Aurora rise. We both watched them disappear into the distance before two of his guards snapped iron cuffs around my wrist. And honestly, just with how horrible he is and how horrible he's described, I'm genuinely surprised he waited until they were gone. Or like he made up this ruse to make them leave before he was just the worst. And I do think Khan would have fought for her or whatever, but I feel like Austern wouldn't care. Or Tyraff and Kadoff. Yeah, well yeah, but like without Tyraff and Kadoff around, that we know of. So, you're not gonna know. Well, I don't know. I think even if Khan couldn't do anything about it in the moment, he still was next in line to be King of the Burn. And I feel like Austern wanted Tyraff on the throne so badly that I feel like it made sense that he would want to keep all of it like a secret. Especially if he was planning on killing Ellwyn after the baby was born. Like, I feel like he was just trying to orchestrate all of it because he was even trying to keep it a secret from Tyraff that she was pregnant. So I feel like he was trying to make it look to everyone else. Like Ellwyn was just going there. Yeah. Well, he's stuck. He does suck. And he literally sucks the air from Ellwyn's lungs here. He literally sucks. Literally sucks. But like actually my heart dropped reading this that he used clothes for that because like at the beginning of the book, I thought this was so cool when Rave does it to Taric. But then reading this part where like she does that to all of her victims. But then hearing it done to her as Ellwyn before she died, it was just like that made my heart drop. I did not like that. And then again, I was unhappy as I am about this. I was totally right about all three of them being threatened by Austin because he did threaten cod and slatra and vea just for all of them being close to Ellwyn for being people that she cared about. Europe. And then he got real close and looked at Ellwyn. Like he could see straight through her school says, told me he'd been informed that my bleeding is late. Something I hadn't considered until that very moment hadn't even realized and I was like, oh shit. Like I said, my recap like, oh my gosh. Which helps creepy that he knows that before she does. Right. Yeah. That he was informed of it though. So someone else knew before either of them did and came and told him that her bleeding was late. So what happens in the handmaid's tail? Or is that guess what's happening here? Kind of. Kind of. Yeah, I wrote in all caps, oh fuck is it Cod's cause I thought I was convinced it was Ty Roths. Mostly because Cod was not acting like it was his daughter, but I didn't expect it to be because he literally didn't know. And then it says in Ellwyn's POV that if Ty Roth believes he sired, the small seed apparently growing in my belly all will be well. Which is just, oh this was so much worse than I expected. I wrote, I'll take the half wind, but I'm still devastated. But it's just I the craziest part to me is that no one knows about this except for Vea and then possibly Ty Roth. And I think there's a chance because Ari knows because of Kaylis, but I don't know. But Vea is currently the only person confirmed that we know like knows the truth. And then he kind of ends their little chat here. He ends his threat with there will be nowhere or wait this is from Ellwyn's POV. There will be nowhere kind of I can hide where they won't find us. They'll hunt us down for this filthy designer. We've bestowed upon our families. And I just wrote there it is like that's the reason for her leaving. That's for the reason for her writing the note as we find out what she does. So yeah, there it is. Okay, it takes us into chapter 82 another rave chapter and it says the scavenger king and I was like the fuck? Like who is this? New person. He's never heard of before. My note at first was is this freaking Ty Roth? Because I they don't explain who it is in this chapter. So until the epilogue I was really confused because I had been saying for like at least a couple episodes I feel like I didn't make sense to me like who could possibly be the person who was keeping rave captive and torturing her and stuff after she had fallen. And so I just like my immediate assumption was that this was Ty Roth when I first read it. But then I was like why would Ty Roth care about making money from her fighting in the pits or like why would this be such a huge vendetta that he would burn her like this and torture her? And then when John and I were still reading he said that his first thought was that it was wrecked so that I was just like even more confused. I thought it was people from the Fier du Athe and they were like they used her to a certain extent and then Serim had her. And she was able to like actually kind of remember things to a certain extent. Okay, because they that would all her whatever. Yeah, that didn't even cross my mind. I think I was like maybe because they called him the scavenger king and they had called con like the incognito king and whatever. And I was like I was just another weird king nickname. I guess that was just more of a rave POV. But I don't know this like really threw me for a loop. And then the scavenger king says to rave but pain hardens you fire. And I wrote no, it'll caps because I was so wildly wrong about fire. I'm sorry being a nickname that rave had for the elo and had for gone. This was so much worse than I imagined. And then he was like torturing her and trying to get her to speak and saying that he would like give her something to scream about. And I'm just was he literally like burning and torturing her and threatening her friend to try and summon the other for the fighting pits. And if the if fire like was like the only one who apparently could make it out and he was making so much money from her fighting. My assumption was that maybe he was doing that to try and get slaughtered to come out even though he didn't understand like what that was or does that feel like a reach. I was really confused about that but it almost made me cry reading this scene. To me it was almost like she was literally being reborn. Like she literally could not speak and did not know how and Fallen taught her how to speak. Well, yeah, yeah, not that meant slaughter was in charge or rave was in charge. I don't know. But like I don't think he would even have the idea that a dragon or something would be inside of her. Well, no, just I just mean like the the way that she fights like I don't think he knew anything about who she was or like why that was happening. But I'm just wondering if that's if he had seen slaughter like take over in a moment of of needing to survive. And then started getting trying to get her to like go into that state to go into the fighting pits or something because otherwise I'm like why is he just burning her alive all the time because he was even creepin. Yeah, and his POV he was thinking about burning his Ari skin and stuff so maybe he is just super deranged but that was my first thought. Yeah, maybe it's always called her fire or his well because of ignoose if the other does know that language and use it but rave wouldn't. I have a theory about this regarding serene but it would kind of make sense of how she said like or how she recognized that in rave like if slaughter was out a bunch like fighting down there or whatever. Like she had seen her fighting as a fire lark before. Yeah, she said she said she had seen her. She does like she seen it form or whatever. Yeah, and that her eyes were black and stuff. So well after this horrible flashback dream situation rave wakes up and con says what's a fire lark rave. Huh? The director memory. Yes. He says what's a fire lark rave and I didn't actually cry here but I put a lot more crying emojis because again I was majorly wrong on a fire lark name. But that just this was like the scene was so emotional to read it. Yeah, and she ends up like getting up. She runs outside takes a dip in the water and it says here and for the first time ever I let loose a firestorm scream that charges the path of my throat in a spill of bubbles racing for the surface. And this is another one of those sentences that I just kind of glanced over and I'm like I thought this is just her making a big scream but she just breathed fire here underwater. That's and what I am assuming here which is sort of like boiling bubbles on up or something like oh my god. And pretty much just after that con asks again who were you talking to rave and rave says we're not having this conversation and I said oh that's the title of this chapter segment is we're not having the conversation. That's the title of this book. Oh my gosh that's similar to my next note where Khan says now my beautiful spectacular and dignit moon beam let's try this again who were you talking and then a pain to your splitting screech rattles the atmosphere and I wrote if we finish this whole book without them having this conversation I'm going to be pissed and then underneath I wrote and technically we did not technically like we actually did like it is like for a fact. And it's wrecks freaking Zoro's who shows up with two of the shade emissaries just. Probably didn't expect that. That was not on my bingo card for the end of this book. And then it says I catch sight of the saddle bound around its hide talking out the dragon of the blonde rider pressed flat against the poor dragons back wreck Zoro's and my nose of course he's blonde. I'm pretty sure we already did we know that I don't remember it's been 400 cycles. - Yeah, it's really been like three days in this book, but it feels like 40 years ago that we see. - Yeah, it does. - What on seeing him, Raive says she grinds her back molars tasting blood. So cheers. - Wow, you got one. - So proud of you. - Wow. - Good job, good job. And then she goes and she's gonna get ready and she's gonna do the things and whatever. And Con is like, you can't, girly pop. Like he's got a white flag. Don't you see it? And he says, this is a perfect excuse for my brothers to shred across the botanic plains and batter me with a war they've been so looking forward to since I murdered our pa. And this is just so frustrating for her. She wants one thing in life and she gets told no. - Like, girl, this is her only wish. - It's literally all she wants. This is her whole motivation for this entire book. She doesn't want to know her history. She doesn't want to know any of these people. She wants to kill this dude. - She can't even know. - And that's it. - Yep. Chapter 83 is a con POV and it starts with him grinding his teeth so cheers again. - Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. - So hydrated. - I like your little lemon. - It's a pineapple. - Oh, it's a pineapple. Nice. I like your little pineapple. - Of course. - Pineapple kev. - Con is heading to Huch 27 here to speak with Rec and in his POV it says this is one of the earliest Huch's somewhat isolated distance from the rest of them. Rarely used. And I wrote, is this the one slatra stated? Well, they took care of her. I have no idea. - Yeah. - But I'm feeling it makes sense. - Sure. - 'Cause that's kind of sweet as much as I think. - Why not? (laughing) - He can cast a bad move on. - Dream big. - Dream big. - Well, in this section we learn all about how Rec treats his dragon, Leary. And I started like typing some of my highlights from it, but it's really just horrible and disgusting. And there was way too many of them to list for this podcast just because it's absolutely horrible how this poor dragon has treated. So go read the book and read about Leary. And my note is just that rec sucks. And leave a message. - Yeah, I did the exact same thing here. 'Cause my next note is that I had a bunch of notes about how much I hate him, 'cause he's so mean to her. But then it says something about his like white flag and cons POV says, I'm tempted to shove it up his ass and deliver him to Rafe, but kingdom rules. - My kingdom rules. - I love the way the narrator read that it was so good. - The dead pan for Khan is top tier four. - It is. - How I picture him and all of his sass. - It's great. - Shout out to Fadrelle Casey for that. - Yes, for real. And then when Khan is kind of being sassy to him and stuff, I think it's Recu says, you're gonna call it off your beast when Ragon shows up and he says, or will I go down in history as the male who stoked the war between the shade and the burn. And then Khan says, oh so tightrof is his patron and he's who sent him. And I was like, okay, now we're getting somewhere. Give me some plot. Like what is the story? Who's the bad guy? What are we doing here? Like we are at the end of the book and I'm ready for some story. So that's excited for that. - Well you're getting it. - We don't get it. We don't really, but that's okay. - Not that story, but a different one. - There's been a lot up till now. You know? - We'll be more her thoughts later. - Okay, do you in for a little bit more? - Do you, stew in your little stew? - I've been stewing for six months. - A little crackpot. - Stewing a bowl. - Slow cooker. Okay, Khan says to Rec here, we don't condone animal cruelty in this kingdom. You've severed your bond with the beast. That's on you. And Rec says, I'll just have to lash it back into her later. And my note here literally that I wrote was what? But this is just really interesting. Like they have talked about how Elluin got on the back of Slahtra until she listened to her song or something like there's kind of been some of these descriptions of like almost like taming these dragons until like a bond of some sort. But it was really interesting here that Khan said he had severed the bond. And Rec was like, I'll just have to lash it back into her later 'cause I feel like a lot of the other dragon type of stories that we read is like they bond with one person until that person dies. Or it's like, this is a very different sort of bond than what I've read before, which is it sucks in this particular instance, but it is really interesting. - It's more of like a domestication. - It feels more like a horse. - Like everyone can have one. Some that you're closer to than others or trust more than others. And you might have like a tame a wild horse or something. - But with a dragon. - Yeah, like you might die in the process, but. - I mean to be fair, I'm sure it was hard to domesticate wolves. Now they're just little dumb dogs, but at first, I'm sure it was pretty difficult. - Courses are also pretty big and scary to be fair. - True, yeah, those are wild stallions. - Eurang. (laughing) - Oh, appreciate it. - Amazing. Then we learn about Rick in Kizari. He says that he is hunting someone, talking about the princess who went missing just after her anointing. And we actually saw this happen way back in like chapter 13 or whatever that con, the first con POV, when he meets with Kizari and she had like ran away. And then we don't hear from her again, assuming that she was picked up by the scavenger king at some point in there and has been in his prison since. But Rick is here on the hunt. And from Con's POV, he says, "Everyone knows this male being Rick "has hung off Kizari like a sticky shadow "for many phases desperate to vie for her affections." So disgusting. (laughing) Gross. And then of course, Con says, and on the reread, this is like a big slap on the face. (laughing) Con says, find comfort in the fact that if she were my daughter, I'd do anything in my power to keep her well the fuck away from you. I was like, "Mush, it's your daughter." (laughing) Oh my God. And then chapter 84 is another rave POV. (laughing) Wow, it was really speeding up. - Yeah, building up to the beat drop. - Sure, she has made her way up to Leary. And she says, "A jagged blade now wedged in my chest "as I dip inside myself. "I lift the memory from the obsidian shore within "and put it where it's meant to be in my chest "where I can feel it always. "The emission, it feels right, so heartbreakingly right." And this is her like, I think accepting what happened with Lachra and like all of those things. And I just love this for her. I love that she's gonna find some healing or some acceptance and whatever has happened. But she just keeps an eye and an eye. - This whole chapter was really sweet character growth for rave, but especially the end where she says, "To Leary, I think you and I were supposed "to find one another. "No one will ever hurt you again." - Thank you. - Reading those comments makes me a little ticked that she's doing this with a random dragon and like not the dude that has been like 10 out of 10, the entire book for her. I don't know, that just makes me feel some kind of way about it anyway. - I mean, she did do him. - Yeah, sure. - She also had the tag that she had done more with him. - She's done a lot with Conn. - Yeah. - Hey, Lachra was there too. - She's taking a very related just a little bit further. - And she has Lachra since she was a kid. Like she's gone through a lot more. - Yeah. - Yeah. - She said that her soul was cradled while Conn was inside her. But technically her soul was cradled in a mood while she was inside. - Inside. - So we've come full circle here. - Yeah. - Wow. - Wow. - Might be one of your best insights yet Kyle. - Thanks. - That looks good. - And my note to end the chapter here was like, hand it rave, just bond a new dragon. - Thanks so much. - I hope so. - I hope so. - Moby. - I say that, but I am like super excited for this. Like, especially like she's obviously lost a piece of her that was like super important to her. She's been feeling some type of way about it. And this dragon here has obviously been going through something depending on however long like this Leary has been with. - Even by the time I for some of it. - Yeah, like geez man. So redemption for like both parties. Hopefully we get to see a little bit more of, I would assume we get to see more of Leary in book number two. So over the rest of the series. So that'd be sweet. - It is absolutely crazy to be thinking about all the things that Reck has done to this dragon. That some dragons would even take it. Like they could just eat you. Why at no point has the dragon be like, no, you're dead. - That's why I mean like with their bond. It is, it has to be deeper than just like one moment of submission. - Yeah. - Because it seems like. - I mean it does try to prep at him. That's when concept looks like he broke the bond or whatever. - Yeah. - And she's also incredibly weak by this point. - Yeah. - True. - Incredibly. - And he probably kept her way, kept her that way on purpose. - Yeah. - But it sucks. - 'Cause he sucks. And he did say that she was like, I don't know if she was smaller than other dragons, but that she could never really fly that far. Like, - Yeah, which might also just be down there. - Yeah. For like he intentionally picked a weaker one. - Yeah. - Well, and he intentionally did the word they were talking about. Like he didn't even bring someone to shelter her from the human stuff like that. - Oh yeah. - He's like, ah, whatever sort of thing. - Yeah. - The worst. - Well, then he was planning on killing, what's his name, Taros and bonding his dragon to after that. - So. - Which could be how he got leery. - Who knows? - 'Cause it doesn't sound like he would have gone out to go get the egg and to him care about stuff. He got it from somebody. - Yeah. - Mm-hmm. - Fricking worst. - I did think it was really cool though in chapter 85, which is another rave POV. - I'm just saying one. - Thank you. -Sylet parties are pretty much headphones. -Sylet disco. -Yeah. -Sylet disco. -I did think it was really cool at the beginning of this chapter that Rave instinctually speaks to Leary in the Southern tongue and like doesn't even realize that she's doing it. It's just like like she-- -Honey. -That's it. That's why Raque was spotted with her too. He speaks the Southern tongue. -Didn't even Raque and I knew how to talk that way. The maid's like, "Oh my gosh, how did you not do that?" -I think she knew, which I could speak with. -Raking it came naturally. -Your textin is coming out. -Okay. Lauren didn't see that unfortunately. -No, I didn't. Sorry. -That's too bad. -Then here Rave is talking to Agni while she heals Leary, but Agni starts talking directly to Rave and like looking at her with her dragon sight. Rave says, "I don't want the king knowing." Agni says, "Veyes said the same when I brought it up with her. Your secret safe with me." I was like, "What?" But I guess I should have known because we know that she's via sister and we get that whole thing that it's in their family line or whatever. So I was surprised. But then I'm like, "Why was I so surprised about this conversation?" I guess it was just because there's so many other things that we were thinking about when I was like, "Oh my gosh." -Yeah, because we see this conversation. -It was me with Vea being committed to the creators. -Yeah. -But we see the conversation with Agni and Vea. Never Rave is like passed out or whatever. And first gets back to her room. She's like, "Look at me with your special eyes." -My breath. My wound. -My wound. -Oh, then in Rave's POV, I just thought this was very cute. She's with Leary and it says, "I reach forward taking one of Leary's tendrils and running it through my fingers. Her trilling sound softening to a high-pitched purr that saws in longer, more languid drags until her breaths turn deep and even." This was a very cute description, first of all, but also very reminiscent of her times with Sotra and the Hutch and like singing her to sleep and stuff. It was so cute. And also very cute. But for different reasons, Convegor. And I quote, "His arms are crossed the sleeves of his black tunic rolled to the elbows. Hello, forearms. His hair held back in such a loose bun that the tendrils hang around his face. He's the picture of Savage regard, a fierce sturdy presence. With his beast at my back and this massive impenetrable male at my front, I should feel small. I don't. He's only ever made me feel vast, mighty even and perhaps he's right." -He's like, "Hell yeah, yes he is." She asks how long rec and the others I he's with and stuff will be around in escorted in the city. And Con says, "Another few cycles perhaps. He's thorough. I suspect my brothers, MSaries are here to scope our military weight more so than to hunt for our for his missing daughter. So I've got them under arrest in their guest suites." So that was interesting too. That like Tyraath is doing all these sneaky military plans and some setup future hopeful war battles something to go down that would be cool to see. That's the technical term. Yeah. And Con kind of senses her motives here asking how long they'll be around and he tells him that he looked in like one of their bags and saw some letter or their plans to go to go. And she's you know, he can she's he's probably sees the wheels turning and he says, "I will have everything arranged for your departure once allure is healed and we'll do everything in my power to keep rec and dumb until the day after you leave the city." And I was like, "Hell yeah bro, but also don't let her out of your side." No! Don't do it! And then it says, "I can understand why Ellyn loved this male with her entire heart. He threads his hand around the small of my back, tucking me into his chest, warm lips brushing against my temple. Come back to me, rave to us." Then he's gone. And I wrote, "This is it folks. My boy at the tip of the top. Con is at the tip of the top, baby. He is there." Incredible. He's been dethroned. Oh wow. Is it just barely over the top or has he? It is. It's not a it's not a far surpassing. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. He just scooched over and was like, "Come share the seat." Yeah. That's a better explanation for it. Because there's more of resand yet to come, right? In future books. Yeah. And there's more of Con yet to come. So it'll be interesting to see this. This battle for the Nice. This is only one book of Con vague or though. I would also like to point out. It is also, I don't know if you have any like a recency bias or anything like that. That's very possible. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say that I typically do probably because it's been, yeah, it's been, it's been quite a bit since I've read Akator. So yeah. Well for now, I'll share. I'll enjoy one chicken it with resand. I guess on the screen. One chicken it. Share in that seat. I don't think either of those males would let that happen. I understand what you're saying. They would have John told them too, I think. You got to share. Conwood. One cheek. Let's go to Mr. The snort. All right. All right. We'll get into this here. You're invited to a Sorcerer's Affair. This April magic is coming to Kansas City with a Sorcerer's Affair by Bookish Lore Events. We in between pages and friends are thrilled to be a part of it. Join the four of us for an exclusive VIP event before the ball, then stay and dance the night away under enchanted lights at the main event. It's going to be a night of fantasy books and unforgettable memories. Tickets go on sale October 4th at Bookish Lore events kc.com and don't forget you can use our code friends 15 for 15 dollars off your ticket. And we're picking back up with another diary entry here. This is Ellowand note that she left for Con. It says stating that I enjoyed our time together with that Tyraaths a more gifted sire and everything I need if I'm to breed healthy younglings to maintain my family line to maintain our ability to protect the etherstone. And I was like, yep, I knew it to protect him and the others from a worse fate. It's all coming together. And now that I'm thinking about it a little bit more, I'm surprised that Con kind of bought this, you know what I mean? Yes, I was about to say that, but I also feel like he probably didn't until he heard that she was pregnant. Oh yeah, true. Good point. Because that would have really. He's probably doing a little bit of that. He's probably doing a little pining and then was like, oh damn, like she pregnant. Like she was serious. Yeah. Like she did it. Yeah, that's a good point. I agree. I'm on board. Well, I mean, I'm on board. I'm on board, but I'm not on board. Yeah. You know, right? Yeah, I'm with you. Oh, forget the board. Chop up the board. Oh, one cheek the board. One cheek the board. You're kind on it. Not all the way. Yeah, actually that's perfect. Oh my god. One cheek in the theory. One cheek in it. Oh my god. I'm crying. We got we got calcify and now we got one cheek in it. I don't want that on the back of my teeth. It's one cheek. It's not a full moon. It's not a teacher. It's on the shorts. It's on the shorts. It's iconic. We can make swimsuit bottoms on fourth. Nice. With one cheek. Sign me up. It's like half of this one suit and the other has just a whole cheek on the other side. Anyway, wow. And then she just ends this diary entry with. He may never know that the youngling I carry is his or that I'm pitted with a fear that I won't survive long enough to find a way to make this right. She's like, oh, dab in the heart literally. Oh, right. I mean, or Hashi or I don't know what happened. And that takes us into chapter 87. Rec freaking Zarros. And I I let out a very audible like, oh, like when I saw the name. I'm sorry. Can I hear that? Would you say? Oh, is anyone else's headphones cutting out? Yeah, yeah. I was I was freaking out. I wanted to share in this moment with with Connor, but apparently she had spoiled this for herself. Cheater. Cheater. An accident. It's the podcast fault. What a half the I felt so bad. What? Wait, don't hit the game. Wait a minute. What had happened was last week I was getting the outline ready to add all my notes. I went to the list of chapters so that I could type in the chapter names, but because I had already finished the section, it started at like chapter 78. So I just saw a list of chapters for the end. And I saw Rex Zarros and I was like, oh shit, I'm not supposed to see that scroll away. So I ruined this big surprise for myself. An accident. And John was really upset that I already knew about it. That was pretty good. Because I was going to do it on purpose. I was planning on filming her. And I was already a filmer. And she's like, oh, yeah, I already saw that. I wish I didn't because I would have been so shocked by this. Yeah, I was looking forward to it, but yeah, I'm so sorry. It's okay. Yeah, I am very anti-names being listed in like the chapters for all books because that's also happened to me. for other things. Or you see like, oh someone's coming to die. But then you're like, oh, but they have a POV in two chapters. So like whatever. So it'd be a dream memory. I agree. I can't spoil. When you see like who's narrating or whatever. Right. Well, we do start this chapter with wreck freaking Zarrows and his accent to me is like one of the most random things about it. And he's like spurring his dragon and it goes to the saloon. And it's like all of a sudden we're in a wild west. What happened here? To be fair, he did have the accent at the beginning of the book. And this is also a more of a whorehouse. I would say that. But it is he does have the the tell apart. It's given Wild West. It is very the same thing. It is very southern. Is a pretty dramatic accent. Yeah. And I have a note here. He talks about, I don't even know. He mentions in his POV. If I've learned anything from Pa's regular whippings, it's that manners are of the utmost fucking importance. And I just wrote what a joke. This clown talking about manners. This guy. This guy is a freaking guy. And then to be the utmost creep of all creeps he's talking about his are here. And he says she knows I love to chase that I effing feed off of it. I've decided that's why she chose to hand herself to the creators. Why she chose to run? Because when I find her, I'll give her exactly what she refused to admit she wants me. And I'm like, okay, creeper. Go away forever. And good thing he does, but still. I really hope when they do meet, she literally has no idea. She's like, who are you? Just to throw it like, oh, she's dead now, but I hope that one would be. She probably didn't know. I hope we still at least get that moment where somebody's like, yeah, Rex Aros and she's like, who? Well, he heads up to his room. It says I pull the door open a smile cutting across my face when I see the shapely piece of ass, doguing large fireplace at the back of the room. And I was like, oh, is this going to be rave? And then she goes down a couple more paragraphs now. It's like, it is rave. Like, yes, I loved it when this happened. This was a great moment. And then she's trying to like, she's kind of toying with him about who she is or whatever. And she talks about how she was in the pits and all the things. And he says, unless you're trying to tell me your fire, like, so he knows something about this and who fire, like is unless there's more than one fire, like, and the term fire, like, is just someone who made it out of the pits. Or is she special with this specific title? And so everyone knows about her or I would assume that this was her specific title in the pits and rack only knows about it because he's shady as hell. And he was probably down there, like, putting people in the pits or like betting on the fights or something at some point. That's what I was going to say. The pits. I saw that building up at the back of your mind. She's waiting for a moment to wind up. As soon as you said the pits for the first time, because I know I had said, but when you said it, that's what brought it to mind. I always got a ring of mouth. She's bubbling up. Anyways, so she turns around. She stabs him with the iron pin and he tries to run away and he goes to the door. And he tries to like, open the door with the door handle. And the handle is gone and it's a hole. So he reaches in and she puts freaking like razors in the door handle. Yeah, that's right. Live against it. Like the forethought for this moment is insane. And she's thinking about it. Genius. She is. Wild. Good. And that takes us into chapter 88, the other and the first part of the first sentence here, the other straddles, Recazaurus. Now I was like, I have to think knew it. I knew we were going to get. And another chapter tore the end. If not the last chapter, it's not the last chapter, but I knew we were going to get. The last chapter. Yeah, I knew we were going to get the pin ultimate chapter. I do just want to also shout out the narrators for the other chapter narrations with the back and forth. And I get all the way from the one if you are still not listening to the audiobook, go listen to those two chapters specifically with the back and forth right now. I also just feel like it gives a lot more insight on what's narration and what is actually like ultra or rave or whoever's like thought process in it since it switches like sometimes middle of the paragraph between the two. Yeah, between the two narrators and stuff. So it's really well done. So amazing. And then Connor, you had mentioned that some of your friends asked if slot, if you got that it was slot rat at the end. And I was like, okay. And I got here. It doesn't ever actually say specifically that it is. And so it is, I guess, technically still a theory since it hasn't been word for word in the book that it is her. But I just put some evidence for why I believe it is where Rick says you're dead and she, the other chefs strictly speaking, he's not incorrect because slot rat is calcified in the sky. And then the other says you protected her eyes talking about Leary. Didn't you? Nice, a small mercy that was not bestowed upon herself many cycles ago. So kind of referencing what happened to her there. But yeah, it doesn't ever actually say this is her. I think we've all calcified that at this point. Yeah. But I'm here for that. And say that. Yeah, me too. Well, there's, I mean, there's stuff about it throughout the entire book, but yeah, it was interesting. Like even Khan looking at rave and being like, oh, I just found the most important piece. And then literally when he has slot rat, there's one piece missing and it's right where rave was curled up. Like there's a lot of those little things, but yeah, I was surprised. I finished the book and my friends were like, what about what about the last chapter? And they were talking about this one. It's like, what, what about what crazy theory are you talking about? And then after a few minutes, I was like, Oh, do you mean that it's slatra and they were like, yeah, I thought that at the beginning. So funny to me. Oh my gosh. But this part concerns me a smidge. This is what I was talking about earlier in the other POV. It says the one she loves, meaning rave did not fall easily into the watery den. She battled and slashed, kicked and screamed, then only went still in quiet once the other, meaning slatra, packed rave in a tomb of ice to protect her. But this is the last that we hear anything about rave. We didn't get any descriptions like this before. Seemed like the, which is this only the second chapter we've gotten of the other? Yep. Yep. So at the first time, it seemed like rave knew that it was happening. Rave knew the other was going to take over and she was like, I'm not going to get credit for his death because this is happening now. And I wouldn't necessarily say she was like excited about it, but like she knew it was happening and it sounded like she was sort of submitting to it. So this was super interesting that she's like kicking and screaming and then slatra had to literally pack her into a tomb of ice to protect her. So is rave going to be stuck like this or did slatra only do this long enough to kill Rek? I am not sure if it was like this difficult to get her to submit to slatra taking over. I feel like it wasn't a fight necessarily against slatra taking over because she just didn't want her to like, you know, like that she would be stuck there or something like that. Like it's not like slatra is trying to be vindictive or evil or something and keep her there. It sounded more just that rave's literal one motivation. This entire book is to get revenge on this guy and then it's being taken away from her in this moment. And so she was trying to for that moment. Yes. To me. And I wasn't. Yes. I'm not this. But I am a little worried about it. But I don't know because before it was like, it seems like every other time that this has happened, slatra only takes over long enough to murder the person and then rave wakes up later and like things are back to normal. But just some of the other descriptions in this chapter sort of made it sound like this was like just how it is for right now. Although I don't know. It says to protect her and I don't know if that means just to protect her from like the wreck potentially hurting her or if she's trying to protect her from other things like the knowledge that slatra probably maybe has, but that she doesn't like because we also find out that slatra has been blocking out ignos in order to not like trigger rave. So I don't know if this means more than just this one specific instance. But I do think it's really interesting that ragan and slatra can sort of communicate through rave like the moment that she first saw ragan earlier in the book. I forget maybe chapter 28. I think it was like earlier on and as soon as she saw ragan slatra like burst out out of the ice and started like singing through rave to ragan and like a language that rave didn't know. So I just would be really interesting to see if she is still slatra for a while and if ragan could like communicate with her somehow while she is the other. That was sort of where my brain went. Maybe that's completely off the wall and not warranted at all. But I do think that would be cool. Guess we'll find out in April. Maybe. My only note for this chapter was just Rick screaming. It says his muffled cries of pain turning to whittled whimpers and just noting that he bought out the floor so he could quote make this bitch squeal without others listening in. So I put kind of a poor decision in retro effect. Don't you wish you had someone next door who might be able to hear you? But it also makes you squeal. It also makes me kind of wonder if rave had not somehow arrived first or whatever and the lady up front who was just like blue eyes, yeah sure I got a room for you. I'm like just already knew that she was sending him up to meet with this because I mean I don't know if she was prepared. She'd been there for a while. She replaced a whole door knob and everything. So I would love to feel like that lady was just like, "Oh yeah, I know him. You could kill him." - Yeah, I would think he's been there before. At least it sounds like he has. - So. - Frequence the velvet snog. - Classic wreck. - Classic wreck. - This. - Yeah, wrecked. - Mmm. God. - This part of the others POV, I just thought was hilarious and it was totally giving Ann Darno to me. It says eating this wreck is probably a step too far. Unfortunate considering how delicious is fried flesh smells. No, must not. (laughing) - That is so Ann Darno coated. - It is. Let me be loud. And then in the other's dialogue, I guess it says, though you may not have understood Liri's pain sounds, I did. Unlucky for you. I'm here to show you exactly how she felt. And I was like, "You know what, hell yeah." So excited. - Yeah. - That she gets, like I know Raeve has been plotting this revenge the entire book, but I'm also really happy that Slotcher got it too. - Mmm. And it kind of continues in this, this is when we get some insight into the elemental songs for Raeve, but Slotcher or the other says, he doesn't know about Reyn, doesn't know that it's actually four, neither does the one she loves referencing Raeve. The other having gone out of her way to absorb Ignos is spitting a scalding tune so it doesn't trigger her strong but delicate host. And I just wrote, boom, dig it, he calcify. - Boom, dig it, calcify. - Oh, that's right. - All right. - Yeah. - I love that. - And it goes on to say, until she's ready. So I'm really hoping for some epic moment, where she just like, I don't know, breathes fire on a heck ton of people or something. - Yeah, that's super cool. - I'm ready for it. - I do think it's, this was like really wild to me again, that Slotcher is the one like blocking out some of this stuff from Raeve, but didn't Conn mention that Ellyn could hear all four earlier? Didn't he say that when he was like, she like cried with Reyn and she, whatever the like something with Boulder. - I thought he said he wasn't sure. - Or was it just in the POV, maybe he didn't finish that sentence out loud. - I feel like it was enough that we all inferred that she met off for it, but I guess yet didn't say out right. So maybe she doesn't know, but Con does. I feel like Conn knows. - Conn knows? - Conn knows. Conn knows. - That's how to like it's that. - I feel like there's a time share in here. I don't know, okay. - Okay, and we're onto our final chapter, chapter 89, we're finishing off with Veia here, as she is winding up the stairs. It says, coming to an ornamental mirror on the wall, I pause tucking strands of pale hair behind my pointed ears, checking my sharp, pretty features and blue eyes for any cracks in my imitative appearance, jarring as it is to see myself as not me. And before she confirms it, I was like, I'm assuming this is the bangle at work and we do get that confirmation like shortly after this. - And I wrote LOL at us thinking the bangle held memories and it does something completely different. - Yeah, it's got like a needle and you just gotta like prick the person that you wanna imitate and then you got it. - Yeah. - It was one of those things that whenever you guys guessed it, I was like, yeah, sure, it holds memories. Why not? - But honestly, if the frog can like consume the memories of the object, this probably does have some really wild ones in it. - Probably. - That's why it's, she said it was so juicy. - Yeah, 'cause it didn't only have Veia's, but probably all the people that she's ever done that too. - Yeah, yeah, like 'cause she got it from, who she get it from, the-- - A mind-wift. - Yeah, a weird mind-wift. - She's had like studied the book of Void or something, yeah. So we don't even know how old it is. - Who says he can talk with Kaylis? - Oh yeah, the turn. - Yeah. - Do you? - 'Cause I want to say as she's making her way up, this place is a labyrinth, each doorway bracketed by Stern, Silver Armored, guards known as Thorns. And I loved this. I thought this was so cool that these dudes are called Thorns. I thought that was an amazing word for them. That was pretty cool. And then she runs into another like, made or servant or whatever. And as she sees her coming up the stair, she says, "You're late, Ada." The foreign name snaps at my spine, reminds me that I'm not Ty Roth's sister, not at the moment. I'm not the one that took his mother from him. And I didn't remember this, but I was like, "Childbirth perhaps?" Or did we know this? So thanks for the confirmation here, Con. - Oh, yeah, I believe this was confirmed earlier that Austin's wife died giving birth to Veia. And that's at least part of the reason that Austin, Caddock and Ty Roth really hate Veia, even though that's literally not my fault. - Gotcha. - Forget about that. - Yeah. I had a quick note here about the description of Ty Roth. Do we think that there's a reason that he has one green eye and one black eye? 'Cause it does describe it as like, their mother's green eyes, like, their mother's eyes were green. And then the black eye is just described as like, the pit of his septic soul. But apparently he does have one of each. And Rafe's eyes turned black when she's the other. So I was just wondering if it's possible that something might be going on with Ty Roth too, or is this just a coincidence and he totally sucks. - I agree he totally sucks no matter which one. But I don't know what's happening here. And I'd be interested to have the description of Caddock and see if he also has one green or one black since they're twins, or something's going on there. - Oh, yeah. - I don't know. Ooh, I forgot about that. - It's the other eye for him. - Yeah. - Exactly. - She's opposite. - Yeah. - My next note was Ty Roth saying to not Ada. He said, tell me Ada. Do you think that carrying my bastard brings you certain privileges? And I wrote, well fuck. I was not expecting that. - Mm-hmm. Well, and he goes on to talk about how, you know, he already has an heir. And even though she's off tripsing around somewhere and he doesn't know where she's at and all these things. But that's not true. He's already has not his stutter and that there's baby as far as we know is the only heir that Ty Roth actually has. So that could potentially come up someday if we like have this time jump or something and this kid has some sort of claim to something or thinks he does or who knows what. - I feel like the answer's also just yes. That should get you some privilege like you're carrying their child. - I meant that he's gonna say he should have the crown or something. - Oh, no, yeah, I get what you're saying. - You know, something more than just being part of a family kind of a thing. - I'm confused about this though, because so technically Kazari would be the heir to the burn because she's Khan's daughter or would she also be the heir to both because she's Eloen's daughter and Eloen is like the queen of the shade. 'Cause sometimes the, I feel like traditionally the paternal line matters more but in this case the maternal line is the one bearing the ether stone. So I would think that her heritage where Eloen is concerned would be more important. But then if Ty Roth were to have died without an heir, would Arkin be the one to take over the shade technically? Or like wouldn't have. - I mean, that's, but. - Well, I know, but I mean they also don't know that Kazari's not his daughter. So like would she still be the rightful heir even if she wasn't his? - I think if Eloen died as queen of the shade and everyone's mind, she is dead, then that power would have fully transferred to Ty Roth. So it would have had to have been his kid and his kid only. She's sort of out of the picture due to death at that point. - But Kazari still is bearing that, I mean it passed directly from Eloen to Kazari. That's why I'm like. - But does it say, I don't know. - I don't know. - With the wearer of the ether stone has to be the queen of the shade or in the shade specifically or just. - We'll see, I don't know. Because Austin was saying, I think in order to manipulate her into marrying Ty Roth that she would have had to be married to someone who was like a tribeat or whatever for people to take her seriously as the queen or to accept her as the queen. But I don't know that that's necessarily true. - I think that's just Ty Roth or the Dasturian. - Yeah, Austin will be. - Yeah, I get his way about whichever kid he wants in which power place. - Yeah, I don't know. - But this whole scene, no matter what was happening, I was just really nervous that he was gonna try to like kiss or something, like Ty Roth and with Ada. 'Cause he like grabbed her chin at one point and some of the other stuff and like, he's just really rude the whole entire time, surprise, surprise. But I was really glad it didn't like take it. A creepy step. I was just like, oh no, he's gonna, you know, the whole time. (laughing) - Me too. That would have been awful. I had a quick note that I just thought this was really cool and I hope it comes up more in book two, which like I say that, I don't want it to come up because that means everybody's separated but they are separated right now. It just said, whenever either of us are beyond the safety of Dom, Con and I, meaning Con and Vaya, write our notes in Invisible Ink, Eliminated Only by Dragon Flame, which we both carry a weld of, which I just think is super cool, but it does sound like they are gonna be maybe separated for a while 'cause we don't know what happens to Vaya after this chapter or so. - Yeah, we leave her in Tyrom's chamber dressed as his like, mistress at the time. Like, so who knows. It's, yep. But she does say like, I can't believe I knocked out his pregnant mistress, how horrible with the poor thing is already living a slumber terror. I make a mental note to pat her pockets with enough bloodstone to buy her a better life before I wake her from her forced sleep and go on my way. And I was like, well, that's nice of you 'cause that is your niece or nephew in there. So that's kind of you to take care of them. But also with all these theories about what's gonna happen to this kid, if we do go into book two and Ada does run away somewhere with the child, you know, maybe we never see them. Man, that's not a thing at all. Or, I don't know. That's the question, Mark. I don't know where this is exactly, but at some point she says anything less will be like a sip of water that turns to lava in my throat. And I just thought this was a really nice sentence. I wrote nice sentence, Sarah, you wizard. That's a good one. And as she heads into the sleep suite there, and she's like looking for spots that Elliman could have hid the diary, she notes that half the room had been crumbled when her moon plume referencing slatra. Broke through the wall after Elliman passed away, scooping up her lifeless body, she then carried into the sky where she curled around her and died. And I was just like, oh damn. And that's a little bit of confirmation of like kind of what happened, because we didn't really know any specifics up until then. So we at least know that, you know, slatra came in here and snatch her up and then took her up. And then last note here for the chapter, my hand pushes into a jagged hollow, a lump forming in my throat as my fingers graze across the face of a leather bound book. There you are. And I was like, holy shit, we got the diary people. I've been looking for you. We got the diary people. And that's like exciting. And then the diary entry happens and the POV and the diary entry was a blood lace has arrived up on drag and back this rise. If she's here to test my younglings blood, once I give birth, the paternal line won't draw in Tyraus direction. It'll draw north to Khan. So my revised theory, I guess, is that rather than Austin stabbing Eloen immediately after producing an heir Tyraus may have stabbed her because of this that he believed the child to be his and then found out that Eloen lied in like a probably a really embarrassing way after Kazari was born. But this is just also further confirmation that I was super wrong and I totally thought the baby was not cons. I just was not expecting him to not even know. And that's why I think Veia's mind was wiped without her permission or like it was forced on her. Like she maybe was in the room or something when all of this went down. And so they like just wiped her whole entire time of being there with Eloen from her memory. And most maybe like super threatened and all this other stuff that makes her super scared about trying to go get those memories back because she was like all freaking out and knew these such a big deal. And hadn't done it obviously for the hundred years since it happened. So that's that's where I'm at calcified with that theory for Veia that it was this time. Not those other 30 days. Yeah, that happened. But obviously we don't know that she was physically in this room. It just feels like something major happened there that they would want to like. I think I was. Oh, go ahead. Do you go right ahead? No, no, no, you go. I would say that whenever Khan does find out that it's his daughter, I think that's going to be his like no more holds on Khan. Like he's going to go ballistic. If when he finds that out, I hope so. Let's go, dude. Let's see his wrath. Yeah, I think the only reason I was assuming Veia wasn't there was because we know Khan wasn't there. Right. In my head, those were just the same. But I think you're right. I don't think that there was ever any confirmation. I think we just knew Veia didn't know how elo and died. Yeah. And I just feel like with how close they seem as friends during that time and whatever that if elo and was actually going through something, Veia would be there. But I don't know. All she remembered was the note that Khan was given. But that doesn't mean obviously that she still wasn't there in that moment. And whatever else, that's just the last thing she remembered or was told that this note happened and excepted or whatever. And Veia's POV here after reading the final diary entry, she says to die right here to not see Kazari grow for Tyroff to raise Khan's daughter as his own. I close the diary of NMS truth settling in my chest like a serpent voice to strike. These pages are going to rip the world to shreds. And I was like, "Kunner!" Oh my god. I think it's such a cool idea though that this whole entire book Veia has been sitting there reading this diary. It's like, you know what I mean? Like we kind of got it from the very beginning of the book because Veia says that she reads the whole thing. You know, and it brings us to this point. Like, I don't know. It's kind of neat. That's exactly what I was about to say. Like going back and picturing each of those entries being read by her gives it a whole different. In that moment. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool. And then we get the final final. We get the epilogue, the scavenger king. And at first I was, I was excited either way, but I was pretty excited when I thought this was a flashback of rave. But then finding out that it was Kazari. But I was like, "Oh damn, he's got Kazari also. How long has he had her like the entire book almost?" Yeah. It was just pretty crazy. At least a month, right? Cause like, Khan went away for those 30 days or whatever that rave in them had that separation. And she had knee. She's had knee for a while, I feel like. Yeah. Chapter 13 was when Kazari and Khan had their conversation. Chapter 14 was when Essie died and rave sent knee back. And this was her receiving knee back from rave. Yeah. So that's, yeah. So it's been since like the beginning of the book. Crazy. Oh go ahead. I was gonna say in my mind, I thought that she had sent this to rave while she was here, but she didn't. No, cause rave had knee for a very long time. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She had her for five phases. And that like, her piece of paper was wild. And I'm assuming she kind of sent this, I don't know if it was specifically too like I want to send this to my mom. And she never expected it to return. No, cause boom, send to her and then she's like, oh, oh crap. Like is she alive? Because she may have, she may be have just sent this out. Like never, never expecting. Just in desperation. Yeah, she just needed to send it out to say that she needed her mom not expecting anything. And now it just came back to her and she's like, what? Hold on a second. I thought she was. Yeah. I thought my mom was dead. Pretty crazy. Well, one of the things Connor had talked about with her reasoning that knee was from Kizari was Kizari had said ever her school teacher was mean to her. She used to write little fire, large notes and throw them into the fire and just like randomly just throw away notes like that all the time. Yeah. So this is probably just one of those that she did on a whim, cause she had done those 100 times. Yeah. And didn't think anything of it probably in that moment. Just whatever. Wild. Gavinger King is looking at Kizari and says she's speaking to someone of that. He's certain, just as certain as he is that this particular someone only exists within the confines of her particular mind. So this is assumingly K-Lis because Kizari's in love with him. Whatever that means. And just sit there having conversations with him in her mind. So I'm really looking forward to a Kizari POV. Hopefully, dude. And see what he's like. All the italics. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Bring them back. Yeah. And then Arkansas POV here, he says she is after all his niece. And I was like, the f. Oh, man. I was not expecting this one to come through. So this one was a big surprise. Yeah. And then the line continues and it says not that she knows that not that any of his half-brothers knows he exists as far as he's aware, but they will. And I wrote, I'm sorry, what? Yeah. Perhaps I have somewhere thoughts on this, but I'll just save him for the end of the chapter. And he continues and says he's resentful of her being Kizari's plush life of the way her pod notes on her loves her. I think he's referencing that his father didn't do those things to himself. He's like mad that that happened to Kizari, but that means that Ty Roth loves her and notes on her is what I'm getting here. I don't get that energy from Ty Roth, but I don't even know. I don't even know if your information is wrong and just sees like what is presented to the world and not what happens behind closed doors kind of an energy. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of what I got from it. If people know that Ty Roth is sending people out to look for Kizari, even though it seems like he has an ulterior motive in sending people to the burn, maybe that's all that he sees in coming from his outside looking and sort of perspective is jealous anyway. If he's also like the unknown half-brother who has not had the life of royalty, quote unquote, anyone who's even like had some time living in a palace with all of your needs attended to or at least available to be attended to is probably going to be like a like a few steps above your means of living where he could be jealous of it because he's obviously been kicked out or left out of people even knowing he exists. So, yeah, which I'm very interested to know the story behind that and who his mom is and whatever else. So, but he continues on and says the only thing he cares about is the bronze throne of the burn that rightfully belongs to him and later says he has plans for the great con vigor. And I'm like, okay, let's set up a plot. Let's end up some future story. Let's learn something about excited. And then he has Kizari signed this paper which she does just does. She does not question this action. She asked for it. I thought he just has a shine of paper. Well, it said the first thing that she did was demand a parchment lark to send to con. Oh, okay, I miss that, but sure. And then she includes on the side, killed the sadistic fuck and the fact that he just like laughs at that and sends the note anyway and he's just like toying with con. I don't know, it's a whole thing. - Or asthumingly it went to time. - Yeah. - But, yeah. - I feel like this was some sort of ransom note situation where not just like played into what he was hoping for. - It's crazy. - Oh, and then at the very end, it says this like parchment-lark flies in and it says, "Cosari Flinches opens her eyes, the lark flips onto its back, bearing three small, perfectly scripted letters upon the underside of its belly." - Me and I wrote chapter 13, thank you very much. - I did waffle on that theory a little bit, but that was my original theory and I'm very proud of that. Thank you. So proud. Also terrified for Cozari, but by overall thoughts on this chapter, 'cause I did not really take any notes while I was reading it for the first time. It was more of just like a jaw drop what is happening kind of thing. I am actually like really pleased about this because it didn't make sense. Like trying to theorize who was holding rave captive and like while all of these terrible things happened to her. And so I am really glad that it wasn't just some character where this didn't really make sense for their motivations. Like I love that this is setting us up for a bigger bad in the next story and I actually really love that it's not just K-Lis 'cause I was expecting, because it was the only thing I knew at the time, something to have happened with Cozari because we know she's trying to free K-Lis, but I think it would be too early. If this, I think the series is supposed to be five books, question mark. I think it would be way too early for the gods to be like directly involved if that's gonna be like an overarching plot line through the rest of the story. So I really loved how this book ended. And I think it could make sense because Austern seemed so displeased with Con his whole life and that he was only like a dual bead instead of a tri bead. And then they tried to have another son, but it was Vaya, like it was a girl. And then Austern's wife died giving birth to her. I could see maybe Arkin being the result of Austern trying to secure another heir in secret after his wife had passed because he was like trying to obtain another heir and it didn't happen with his wife. So I could see that happening and maybe him keeping it a secret because he knew how powerful Con was, even though he was only a dual bead. I don't know if he knew that Con is like dog of work with Reagan or something, but I don't know that he would have directly trained up Arkin in secret, but Arkin obviously believes that the burn belongs to him and maybe Austern was trying to do that and just didn't get the chance because Con killed him. So I feel like there's so much there with their backstory, but I am really interested to see if whoever Arkin's mother is might be important or come back into the story later 'cause we don't really know anything about her. Do we know if she's a livery dead? - Who, Arkin's mom? - Yeah. - No, I just hear it all. - I was just looking in the family tree at the very end and it just says unnamed female. - Yeah, so it says. - Okay. - So. - Yeah. So that could go either way. I feel like it could either not be important at all 'cause it could be a servant. Like what Ty Roth is doing with Neda or maybe she is important. I don't know, but yeah. That's where I'm at with that. - All right, that's the whole freaking book. So let's get into our overall thoughts and star ratings. - John? - Four stars. Although I am slightly battling this number, I think it's the ending that has lowered it for me. I'm battling between like a four and a five because I feel like if I had maybe read all the way through, it might be a five, but because we had split it up into sections and this last section, I just felt like moved really quickly. There were a lot of those diary entries that were like a page and a half long and you're just like diary entry like, "Boop, you flip a page and you're onto the next thing." So I wanted like more out of the last bit here, but again, like I said, if I was reading it all the way through one time, then maybe I still would have given it a five. So that's where I'm struggling. So either way, top fantasy read for me. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the entire book. I was always looking forward to reading like whatever it was coming next. It was refreshing to get like a green flag type of male main character instead of someone who like, you know, can't get past their past or is like the typical morally gray and goes in and out of treating the female main character like garbage and like then like they can't breathe without her. Like they're just like waffling. But I also felt super connected with the writing in the world building. Like I feel like it's very beautifully written and like Lauren had a comment she mentioned the last episode where there was some poetry in the way that Sarah wrote things or how she just like formulated her description to describe something like fairly normal, but she used a different way and just some different wording to just kind of use your imagination a little bit. And of course a new top main man. - Hey, well. - Since nothing to sneeze at, you know what I mean? - I just sneeze at it. - I love that you were like four stars maybe, top fantasy book ever, top book boyfriend ever. - I get it, that basically could change things. - It does, yeah. And the end I feel like has taken me a bit to process and I am like really pleased with it now. I wasn't like displeased with it at first, but I think it just like there is a lot happening. And it is book one. So there's a ton of questions that you're left with, but I ended up really appreciating that. So my rating for this book was five stars. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. This is my top read of 2025 for sure. I know the writing style is controversial just from what I've heard, but I love how poetic it is. I love that the author doesn't like spell everything out for you. But there's so much subtext and complexity to her characters and their stories and it simultaneously hints at a ton of answers and also gives you a million more questions. But I love that. I love the really deep lore and how immersive and lived in this world feels. It makes me really excited for the rest of the series because it feels like Sarah just has some really wild things planned. And this may warrant an accretary reread for me, but I'm pretty confident that Convegore has also knocked a resand out of my top spot for book boyfriend. Oh my god. Which is quite an accomplishment, Sarah A Parker. So five stars. Lauren? Oh right, settle in folks. I give this three stars. And if I did half stars, I would do-- Do your half stars? 2.5. I really, really struggled with this book. And it's been hard on the podcast too because I can't share it in my feelings inside know what happens. I know it's me being the re-reader. So I don't know. On my first read for the preparation of this podcast, I kept saying I didn't like it because I did read it on my own. And Kyle was reading, but I read through it so much faster than he did. And I had just kind of like a solo run of it. And I was really confused at stuff. I didn't understand it. I usually read along people whether or not it's all of you or just Connor by ourselves or whatever. So I really debated for a really long time if we should even do this book for the podcast. I feel like I had so many vague conversations with Con about my feelings trying not to spoil the book, but also being like, I don't know about this book and all of the things. But after of my own research and seeing other content creators and other people we trust, saying how much they love the book, I obviously decided to go for it. And I knew Con and John would love it, which they did. So that all worked out. But after my reread, my feelings on this book have only calcified. And I am just not a fan. This is just not my book. And I've debated even longer if I should share my specific feelings on that on podcast. Because I don't want in any way my feelings to be negative about the author or the fantastic book that they did right and that other people love or to make my feelings hurt anyone else's experience. That's why I haven't really shared much because I wanted Con and John to just love the read and all the people following along. But we've had so many DMs, so many. I know you're out there of other people who just this just wasn't your book either. I've had a lot of conversations since finishing this book about it with those people who feel the same as me. So I'm going to share some of my feelings. And this is your moment to skip forward, if you don't care, or respectfully disagree with me or disagree with Con, John, and whatever Kyle's writing is on this too. And so you do you don't come at me. This is just my feelings about this book. OK. So in my opinion-- and this is for you guys too-- to just accept and move on. In my opinion, literally nothing happens in this book. Everything that we have learned actually happened 100 plus phases ago. And the POV that we have of this person just doesn't remember and refuses to learn that information. There is no forward movement for that character, only ever looking back. We go about this story in a blind confusion for about 600 pages, learning scraps of a story that already happened in the past. There's no current plot in this book. There's no future plot right of this specific book until that last chapter. There's not a bad guy. There's not a competition. There's nothing to overcome. There's no strategy. There's very little action. And even the spicy action we get is a memory from over 100 something years ago. And when we finally get information about this bad guy and potential war and all the thing, it's literally the epilogue with the scavenger king. The world building is amazing. The world building is phenomenal. And the creatures and all the places and all the things. It's huge shout out to the world building. But world building is not plot. It is not the story. And we get to see so much of the world. But that made it feel kind of choppy to me. I kept trying to learn the world and make theories. And you guys did the same on the podcast with episode one and theories about Kaylis and Serim and her vile, the fear to wrath and the elding or prince turn being hidden. and then we completely leave it and go somewhere completely different. And now we have theories on the fate-hunter or the people of the Joe Cool Clan. And then we completely leave it and we go somewhere else. And now there's theories on Grim and his dragon. But none of that is sever in the rest of the story. We just leave it. And it's lost to this figuring out our memory situation that we take all book to learn. But finally, in the end, maybe this is the most toxic thing I'm about to say. But I just think Convegger is too perfect for me to be in love with him. There's just no room for growth. Maybe I like the morally gray. Maybe that's what it is or the own personal struggles and all of the things. But he's just too amazing. And if anything, it makes me worried that he's going to die off because he has no room for growth or he's going to turn evil or something or something has to happen to his character. There's just no way from book one to book, potentially five. He's the exact same the entire time. Like something has to happen there. I don't know. So, yeah. The writing in this is so beautiful. Very poetic. And like John was describing earlier, how I've described multiple times in the podcast episodes. It's wonderful. But I honestly think if you took out the poetic writing, we would have a short story of maybe a hundred pages or less about a girl who gets her memories back. Everything else was pretty predictable as we saw because you got all your theories right and nothing else really happens. If I was reading this alone, I don't think I would pick up the next one. I do however really enjoy our conversations about it. It did really help me understand a lot more. And I'm really, really hoping that book two has like a good forward moving plot for us to follow and just move forward, not just with living, rave refusing to get her memories back because that's still where we are with her. She never took a step out of that. What only time will tell? And I guess I'm going to be content living as the bad guy of the series where I just didn't like thirsty on it. So there it is. That's my feelings. But hold it in. Oh, they have it, folks. Send your respectful DMs to Laura. Respectful, please. Yes, respectful. Books are for someone. It's not for others, so it's fine. Yeah, that's totally fine. I will say though, I'm not the lowest rating for once. I read this 3.9 stars. The curse has been broken. Kyle, real quick. Is this your highest rating so far of any of the might? I'm pretty sure Tower of Don was at least for. I'm pretty sure Tower of Don made a 4-1 or something. 4, yeah, but maybe 4.2. I feel like I vaguely remember that. Maybe. But this is maybe 4. I'm mind blown. This is amazing. I will say I also really struggled with this book at least for the first read. In fact, like when we were both done with it, I think we've said before, maybe even on the podcast, Laura and I both went to each other. We were like, what the hell's going on? I was like, what even just happened? Did anything just happen? So then when we're on those reread and Kyle tells me to put it 3.9, I was like, I thought you were on my side. What the heck? What change? It's the second read did help make sense of things and also clarify things that were very unanswered. I don't think there's anything wrong with having questions given the, like this is the first book in a series. There are also things for the most part that don't matter to the story being told in this book. Like, Lord said, there's like the fate hearder we sort of joked about being like almost like there to get the story back on track. It's what it felt like. But who knows, it could make a bigger, you know, a bigger part in a later book. But for now, just goes like, well, that was kind of like a weird little side character. I do like to rate books as if they were standalone books and I stand by that because every book in a series should be able to stand on its own. It shouldn't rely on the books around it. And you run into that a lot. Most of the time with books in the middle of a series, I feel like we're sort of just bridging the two major parts together. That said, I really struggled with the format of the story. I talked to learn about this. I was like, is this man versus self? Is this man versus nature? Is this a hero's journey? A three act? Is it Greek tragedy? I can't? Like, place. What's happening here? But overall, bear with me on this. I think it's a mix of man versus self due to Rave trying to find who she is. Assassin, Rebel, Ellywin Reborn, Lover, Fighter, etc. Can she choose one? Can she be all of it once? But I'm digging deep into my like English classic college year. Mixed with a storytelling technique called Kishoten Ketsu. That is a Chinese storytelling technique where there is no greater evil to be slain. The big moment that culminates in the story is at the end where she started to realize like, I'm in the same place that I once was and I'm finding a balance between my multiple identities. There's no villain, there's no battle like Lauren said, but there is a twist. There's still a twist even though there's not like a, yeah, an epic fight or a villain to be slain currently. So I truly did enjoy not only a very well thought out world and character, a cast of characters, but like a shift from that usual fantasy formula. I feel like that's probably maybe why it got read a little higher because like, even John said it's like, it's a character that's different without Geely with the same morally gray thing, the same relationship dynamics and stuff like that. And it was just sort of a breath of fresh air. I do hope on Lauren's side that it does get more intense later on. I feel like we have read some books, not even on the podcast, but in book club where it's like, oh, it's a bit of a slow start, but the last three quarters of the book is super intense because now you already know the characters. So maybe that's what I'm hoping for with the continuation of the series is like, okay, we've nailed down who and where everyone is. And now we're going to get into the craziness of it. I just feel like that goes against your rating a book for a book though. It's the book. No, I'm saying this book alone, 3.9, it won't change with future books, but I do hope the story moves on and progresses towards that more, I guess, like larger issue thing because I feel like it's a good place to start man versus self solve your own problems and then move out into the greater world. Also this whole debate is really funny to me because one of the only things I knew about this book is that it was a mystery. That's what a mystery novel is. It's like a blast book one. There's a lot of mystery there. There's a character does it really know all the things and stuff. I mean, I know you can add more. There's like a game happening on the side. There's like this challenge. There's like, you know, there's other stuff happening in the plot for only that book that then we move on. And so it's like that kept it. I don't know, it made it feel like something was happening. Not just. Yeah. Also when we read that. I feel like a lot of people were like, I thought this was about a trial and that it wasn't about the trial at all. So I feel like there's still, there's definitely still a balance. And I do agree that this isn't like a plot driven book. This is definitely more of like world building information like character development sort of thing. But I think a lot of the things that just based on her writing already, I feel like all the things she introduced in this book, even though she hasn't come back to them yet, I think are going to all play like a huge part later on in the series, which is why I wasn't mad about it personally in this like in this one book, because it felt like all of these things are going to circle back around. The only two things that I will respectfully disagree with is that you said there was no action and no spice and the only spicy we got was from 100 years ago. Like they did have current spicy. They're not the spiciest in the world. They said very little. Yes, we also did get some pretty good fight scenes current fights. You know, it's con in them and like the whole decapitation of the people that we're trying to take her as a wife of the joke old clan and stuff. Again, not your epic battles. The only other thing was the, oh, the only story we learned happened a hundred years ago is sort of the same thing as saying like if you read Lord of the Rings and you were like, I don't care about Sarah on that happened a long time ago. Like, well, the current story is going to play into it a little bit. You just got to give it a sec. Yes, but there was other story happening at the same time. And then those little pieces came in and affected the bigger story. It wasn't an entire book just to figure out the old story. Like that's what I was like saying earlier in the episode, even with her wanting to kill wreck and then getting stopped. Like that is the only thing she's ever wanted. The only motivation Rave has had is to kill wreck. She has no motivation to learn her past. She has no motivation to even be around con. She has like no motivation. She wants to run away and kill wreck. I think that is the goal. That is thesis statement. That's all she has. Bullet point number one. And so it's just like, I don't know, I just wanted more from her maybe and maybe we get that. But while you're talking one of the DMs that we got some came to mind where someone was like, it felt like no, someone else said it felt like a prologue. Like this book was one big prologue for the rest of what's going to happen. And that just makes me do we need to stop whatever's happening? Sorry, that was many. Yeah, it was many. She was in here. Messing up. I was like, but yeah, that is just one big prologue for the rest of the series. And to me, it doesn't encourage me to want to continue the series. Yeah, I can see that. I have a code for you and the others that feel that way. What up? Yeah, I have a code for who's refusing to read this right now, not refusing, but putting off because it's incomplete. And I honestly could see that maybe like when it's a completed series. And if I read through the whole thing and I was like, oh, yeah, I've told you before that I hate when people say it, but like, oh, it gets better by the third book. And I'm like, well, I don't want to be two books deep worried about when it gets good. I want it to start off. But yeah, it's like a whole series where you're like, yes, the first one is sort of a prologue where you meet characters and stuff like that. And then it gets more intense later on. I totally get that viewpoint to be stuck where all you have available right now is a prologue is that I could understand the aggravation there. But that's a long prologue. If that's all of this. That's all right. I am a pig. These are my-- - I am a bit yet. (laughing) - And we'll bring 'em back up in the Q&A. (laughing) Get to the crack out here. - 100 things in this book, like we can go back and listen to the episodes that I raved about and like, gushed over and certain lines and things that happen. Like, there are parts of this book that are great. That's why it's still three stars. It's just overall was not anywhere near a five star and anywhere near a top book boyfriend for me. - I mean, I will say even your 2.5 rating is literally like, that's average. That's a perfect average book. It's not bad at all. - That's like the middle. - So. - The third lowest book I've ever prayed. (laughing) - For Lauren, that's like negative five stars. - That is really bad. - I can't account for how your poor rating was when you're handing out five stars, like they're one dollar bills. (laughing) I can't tell you. - I would like to go on record to state that when Lauren was really torn over whether or not we should do this book, I said multiple times. If you did not enjoy it, I don't think we should do it. - I just want to make you, I knew you didn't like it. - Yes, but I just want to state that I did not force Lauren to read this book a second time and talk about it for six weeks. This was a choice to make. - Change that chair for weeks. - That's fine. And I've enjoyed it. And I've, I think some of these are some of our best episodes. And I think we would have never had calcified and we're gonna keep that forever. - True. - It's calcified in this context. - When I do think of like, most of what Lauren and I didn't like about it the first time was because it's so rich and it's like a lot to understand. And we basically did read it by ourselves and we did to understand it. And this second read through like she and I have both said, has helped us be like, "Oh, I, okay, I get it." And enjoy it a little bit more now because of it. - Yeah, absolutely. And I know there's a lot of comments we get to from people who are like, "The podcast is helping me understand." - Yeah, reading with Lauren. - I would definitely recommend this book, but I would never recommend reading it alone. - No. - I would definitely not audio only. - Yeah, I do think that reading it on the podcast has really made me enjoy it so much more too because I am paying attention to all the tiny little details and making sure that I understand things as we go. And we're, you know, every time we've had an episode, like there have been things that you guys have picked up on that I didn't on my first go round. So yeah. - So three safety nets for information. - It is. (laughs) - Yeah. - All right, that takes us to the cry counter where it is time to re-crown the one the only con. - I'm so excited for you. I have one. The boys have zero and con. It's five big old cries. - Where'd you go? - Where'd you go? - There's the crowd. There it is. - It's beautiful. - Thank you. - Thank you. - It makes so cute. Make that your bummer. - Thank you so much. - Okay. Love it. - Oh man. Well, next week we'll begin into the nidious. Nidious of it all in a Q&A episode. As is per our tradition where we will cover all the subjects we think need. A little more attention as well as any questions you love leaves us in our way. After we're done guessing all that, we'll also be having a little sit-down chat with Sarah A Parker herself in the flesh on a camera to congratulate us being such good readers and detectives and let us know which theories may be worth. An extra calcification maybe. As always, join us on our discord where we have spoiler free and spoiler filled channels for you to talk with like-minded folks about this and any other series we've covered. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok for exclusive content behind the scenes updates, podcast news and merch drops. - And of course, I don't remember to put between PagesMfriends.com for a Patreon. Perks are newsletter and to get into cons pants. Wait, not ear pants. - Hey. - Not ear pants. - Wait, whoa. - That's not what that says. - Not ear pants. Oh my hands. - I mean, not ear pants. - Wait a minute. - We're selling pants now is what we're trying to say. - Consisting in your pants. - We got pants. - We got pants. - Pants, pants, pants. - Between you, PagesMfriends. Can we just sell pants that say like different book and boyfriends so you can say you've gotten in their pants? It says it's for sale. - Oh my God. - Pants, pants. - So, I'm pretty up. - That's actually a great idea. Look at that. See? - The one I hadn't made that joke. - You wouldn't have had that great idea. So you can get into those pants over at the PagesMfriends. - That's right, for all your pants. Till then, stay wordy, stay nerdy. Don't stress and stay blessed. I read that one last week. I didn't rewrite it. Flying off the cuff of my pants. - You're picking up your pants. - Yeah, the cuff of your one pants. - You're one chicken those pants. - I'm really one chicken that one. I didn't pick either saying I was one chicken both sayings. - You were. (laughing) - You're watching the party. - Bye. (laughing) (upbeat music)