Everything You Need to Know Before The Ballad of Falling Dragons

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Fantasy Fangirls podcast for two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore character themes, theories and more. I'm Lexi, older sister and fantasy lore nerd. And I'm Nicole, younger sister and romantic at heart. Today's episode is covering everything you need to know before Ballad of Falling Dragons, which releases on May 19th. It's a sequel to When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker. We're going through a book recap. We're going to go through basic world building characters where everything leaves off for everyone for the plot and all the things we are keeping an eye out heading into the next installment of the Moonfall series. With that said, spoiler, spoiler, spoilers for When the Moon Hatched. If you want a spoiler free guide to this amazing world and characters to orient yourself as you're reading, you're in luck. We do have another fan guide episode that is safe for you to listen to that is spoiler free. That is not this episode. So if you are listening to this and you don't know what the phrase I need you and why it makes us wait, please go finish the book, jump over to that other episode. Link is in the show notes. We will be here when you're done. Next to we a fantasy fangirls are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R. We have a certain bet that we always make before any new release and you bet we're making it today. So please be mindful of those little listening ears. Additionally, we are so excited to see you at upcoming live events. We recently announced our September live show tour starting in Chicago on September 9th, Charlotte, North Carolina on September 24th and New York City on September 27th. All VIP tickets have sold out, but there are some general admission tickets left, but they are going fast, fast, fast. Link is in the show notes. Additionally, we also have some really fun upcoming release parties for the plethora of books coming out. We have the Ballad of Falling Dragons release party on May 18th in Denver, Colorado, then both for Acatar six and Acatar seven also in Denver, Colorado. We're doing a midnight release party for both of those books. Tickets have just gone on sale. You can find the link in the show notes. Then of course we'll be at the Dragon Gauntlet in Boyne City, Michigan, September 11th through 12th. And last but not least, we are going to Lan Con in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 16th through 18th, 2027. And tickets just went on sale for that con. These two, all of these events are in the show notes and on our website. Last thing before we jump into this, when the moon hatched episode, if you love fantasy fan girls and want more events, more content, more community and so much more, please check out fantasy fan club. We have six membership tiers that you can join and three that are fantasy fan girl specific. They include everything from our bop and discord live Q and A's community events like trivia. We just had one the moon hatched trivia recently. We also have book clubs, promo codes for live events. We have full episode outlines, ad free episodes, behind the scenes content, welcome gifts and so much more. So join the party and get details on all of our media network tiers at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club. The link is also in the show notes and really and truly thank you so much for supporting us as we've turned this podcast into a media network and it's a dream come true. It is all because of you. And now Lexi, you are fire and brimstone and shattered ice together. We are your one stop shop for everything you need to know before ballot of falling dragons. That's the quote, right? I think that's the quote. Absolutely. And in reality, we're actually totally swapped. You're definitely ice. I'm definitely brimstone. I know. All right. So as we always like to do, Nicole is going to share a recap this time of the entire book when the moon hatch. So if you need a refresher on what the heck happens in this book, fantastic. Listen up. Before the events of our story, there were five gods, Boulder, Rain, Clod, Ignos and Kailas. While the first four creators use their power to craft the world, Kailas is scooted off to the side, radiating jealousy like it's his full time job. The other creators discover that it is Kailas who was to blame for the moons that began falling. So they trap him in a sterling diet and to this day, that is where he remains. Moons have since stopped falling. Well, except for the first time in five million phases, 23 phases ago, another moon fell. Our story begins with Rave disguised as Kamori Daffodon, a traveling bard, absolutely not an assassin who's at the hungry hollow to track down Tarek Relican. After seven hours of singing, Rave starts her long walk home and Tarek Relican follows her. But when the dumb ass pushes her into the wall, he's not expecting her to fight back or have the air ripped from his lungs or have his hand cut off or have his crimes literally carved into his chest and have his throat slashed and his body yeeted into a hole in the wall. Surprise, motherfucker! Cut to a diary entry. Nine year old Eloin Navan writes about how it's a load of spangle poop that she has to wait until she's 18 to have a moon plume dragon and how she doesn't want to wear that silly stone that her mom wears. I mean, who would want to after watching your mother try to scream and rip it off? Hashtag emotional damage. Back to present day. Shopping! After collecting the list of items for Essie and ordering a few things for herself, Rave is summoned by the evil Serim where she gives Rave some bad news. Rek Zarros has been hired by the Crown to hunt down the rebellion and Rave is forbidden from targeting him. Cut back to Eloin who writes in her diary about how she worries that her brother Hadeon is preparing to leave to steal his own moon plume egg and she doesn't think he's coming home. So what does she do? She sneaks into Hadeon's sleigh. Cut back to the present but this time with Khan. Khan sits in a pub and he's spiraling hard. Who was that girl who sang for seven hours and why does she look just like my ex? But that's a problem for later. He's here to meet with his daughter, I mean his niece, Kazari. She needs help. She can hear Kaelas, God of Aether from within the Aether stone and wants to set him free because she's fallen in love with him. Daddy, I love him. She's in love with the stone. So great. Back to Rave. She wakes up after sleeping the day away to discover the worst possible thing ever. Her roommate Essie has been attacked. Rave activates Aparchment Lark, knee, return to center fold and for her final act she lights a cloth on fire completing Essie's final wish. So new quest unlocked. Kill Rek Zarros for as revenge for Essie's death but uh oh it's not Rave who's walking out of the house. The other stalks through the under city and finds Rek Zarros. Retaliation has its final laugh because when he touches the other she bites his finger off. Although Rave is captured. Diary entry. Elwin finds Hadeon at the bottom of a crevice unable to move his legs. So she crafts a snow hut around him and takes over egg sitting duties. But after some time Elwin makes it home all thanks to a big mama moon plume. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Hadeon is alive but he'll never walk again. On the bright side Hadeon and Elwin both have moon plumes now. Present day. Rave wakes up to find herself shackled to an unknown room with an iron pin on her shoulder and a stringy thing in her teeth. Rek Zarros steps in front of her and decides to whip her back into shredded cheese. Rave wakes up again but this time in a cell and has booked an all expense paid trip to the Guild of Nobles trial. These are getting mighty interesting in the cells as a rune joins the party. Why hello Con Vigor. To say Rave is confused is an understatement. I mean this dude is acting like he clearly knows her. But Con has to wait because it's time for her trial. The vote is in. Prisoner 73 will die by dragon in Coliseum next to Rora Rise. Go big or go home I guess. Diary entry. Time job. Elwin is now 18 and the King of the Burn is visiting with an agenda. He wants to marry her to his son Tyroth Fagor. Thankfully Elwin's father tells him to fuck right off. Elwin also continues to work on her brother Hadeon's moon plumes wing and she can fly, she can fly, she can fly, she can fly. Enough Peter Pan back to the present day. Up in the Coliseum Rave is bound to a wooden stake but movement in the imperial box catches her eye. The Queen of the Fade is trying to stop the execution. It does not matter because a new dragon crashes the party and proceeds to scoop Rave up directly into its mouth. And plot twist she's been rescued by King Kyn. Diary entry. Things take a catastrophic turn for Elwin. Late in the night her mother, father and brother are all murdered and before she can even begin to process or grieve she is forced to don the Aetherstone. At the family funeral Hadeon's dragon makes a devastating choice to scoop up her bonded and give herself to death rather than live an entire life without Hadeon. With her entire family gone it now falls to the Tri-Council to decide Elwin's fate. Present day. Kahn and Rave land in the burn and Kahn immediately decides to yeet her directly into a pond with zero warning and zero manners. But hey the pool has healing properties. First though that pin in your shoulder really needs to come out. Kahn leads Rave to a cute cozy little cottage. The perfect vibe for anyone plotting your escape. And Kahn cooks the man make soup but apparently it's good soup. With her first attempt to leave thwarted by Kahn and his nakedness the only logical exit now is a window and down the trellis like a normal person. It works she's out she's free. But before she can make it to the bottom of a cliff something collides with her head and it's lights out Rave. Rave regains consciousness and is yelled at by strangers rude and a huge silver beast steps in her path. Welcome welcome welcome fate herder. Rave is brought to the Jakul tribe and it turns out Rave is part of a prophecy and her offspring will tether the moons to the sky forever. Yay! Oh and they're also hosting a Tuka trial to decide who will be the father of that child. Yay. Hock wins and she is rightfully appalled. Instead of accepting her fate Rave decides that she's going to fight for herself. During that fight Hock plays dirty and throws a snake at Rave my nightmare whose venom then impacts her ability to fight. Although fate must be on her side because Kahn Kahn has arrived. Kahn and Hock battle and it is rough but after dropping Hock's head at her feet, nice, Kahn scoops up Rave and carries her away as she promptly passes out. Her entry in the middle of the night. The tri-counsel comes for Eloin and on her way to the burn her moon plume slatra follows her even though Eloin begged for her dragon to stay behind. Present day Kahn flies for three days to get a very unconscious Rave to the imperial stronghold in the burn. After kicking everyone out of the dining room Rave is laid on a table and Agni a flesh thread gets to work. Along with Agni, Veya, Kahn's sister learns that Rave is covered in scars from past healing but there's one that stands out. A silver scar over her heart that is in the perfect location for a killing blow. This is when Veya decides she's going to the shade in an attempt to find Eloin's personal diary. Cause yeah did I mention that Rave and Eloin are the same fucking person? Diary entry. A beautiful man scoops Eloin up and she's horrified that slatra just lets him. After the man and his sister, Veya, take care of Eloin in a way that no one has since her family's passing. Present day after getting her iron shackle removed the storm outside continues to grow and no matter how hard she tries Rave cannot block out Raine's song. But unlike in the fade Rave is not alone here. Kahn wraps her up in his arms comforting her with her calming song. I need this man to stop being so fucking perfect. Kahn leads Rave deep into the imperial stronghold and down, down, down a fuck ton of stairs. Instead of a crusty dusty basement Rave discovers a beautiful cavern full of moon plume carvings. In the center is a massive silver moon slatra. Kahn tells Rave that he believes this dragon cradled her for a hundred phases in the sky before she fell not so subtly implying that Rave and Eloin are the same person. Maybe not the best idea my guy. Rave collects her things and is prepared to leave the burn altogether but something here is drawing her to stay. It des later. Veya is on her way to gore for one reason and one reason only. She left a bangle here over a hundred phases ago and by left I mean she dropped it down a rubbish shoot straight into the hands of a velvet trog. Womp, womp. But the trog allows her to trade the bangle for her mother's malmour. Diary entry. Seven slumbers since Eloin seen Kahn but he's back. Not only with a new scar and a new necklace but his songs are back too and the two finally share a kiss. Fast forward just a little bit and Eloin is now 19 watching Kahn during the tithe. Kahn has grace and acts with fairness that Eloin knows would make him a worthy male that her father would have respected. And she decides fuck it I'm going to tap that. When the next aurora fall comes there's no carving, there's no meal, there's only a parchment lark for Eloin with a rusted key. Following the lark Eloin finds a hidden dwelling carved into the cliff and it can either come with or without Kahn. Always with Kahn. Always! Present day. The great flirt has arrived. With her mask on and intentions for the stay decided Rave finds Pyroc waiting to escort her to the celebrations. They enter the cold netheran themed dome and decide to take their chances with a game of scrippy. But now it's Kahn's turn to play and instead of playing for gold they make a wager. The game does not last long and much to constisement Rave wins. Together Rave and Kahn dance under the aurora and Rave lets down her walls just enough to give Kahn a few kisses. Finally! Diary entry. Kahn is now 20 and life with Kahn is good. But their time has come to an end as King Oster enforces her to bond with Tyrof. He knows that she's been conuddling with Kahn and if she lies about the father of her unborn child she can keep it. What an ass! Present day. Rave wakes up in Kahn's arms and he convinces her not to erase him from her memory. Huzzah! But they need to have a serious conversation. Time that Rave intends to delay for as long as possible and bang bang bang and he bang I said you're not erasing me! Bang! Rave dreams of her time not with Kahn but with the scavenger king. When he would burn her with his twisted way of calling her a fire like bleh. Once she's awake Kahn goes to deal with Rex Zarros who's arrived in the burn searching for Princess Kazzari who's missing. Uh oh! When Rave finally opens up to Kahn telling him that Rave murdered someone she loved then he whipped Rave repeatedly. Kahn tells her that she must go chase death moonbeam aka go kill the douche canoe. Speaking of Rex Zarros this slimy fuck is in Bethame looking for Kazzari but unlucky for him Rave finds him or more accurately the other finds him. Bye Rave! Veya arrives in Arithya in the shade and disguises herself as a servant but guess that particular servant is carrying Tyroth's bastard child. Oh dear. However, Veya does find Elluin's old journal and learns everything. Final diary entry. Elluin grows weaker the further she gets into this pregnancy to the point that she can hardly grab onto her journal anymore. She can feel a battle is coming and she can feel it in her bones she's not going to survive. Well she's right. Cut to a new character! The scavenger king aka Arkin Vigor aka Kahn's half brother who's hiding deep in a cave hideout. Also the fuck has Kazzari? He plans to soon claim the bronze throne of the burn for himself. He sends a lark signed by Kazzari to Kahn as the first part of his plan. Oh dear. But that's not the only lark in these caves. Knee lands in Kazzari's lap dutifully returned to its sender. Wow Nicole that might have been the longest whole book recap you've ever had to do. So thank you so much for refreshing everyone's memories with that. We're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsors, let Nicole recover and we'll be right back. Right now a guide dog puppy is taking her very first steps. One day she'll help someone with sight loss live a full and independent life. Find the crossing best. Good girl. Sponsor a puppy with guide dogs. You're there for it all. Her wobbly walks. Her first harness. The life changing partnership. It's more than a donation. It's the start of a life changing story. Search sponsor a guide dog puppy and be part of a story you'll be proud to share. Guide dogs. It is time to talk about some basic world building for this series. You've noticed that when you have the general idea of what everything means, you're in pretty good shape to focus on the story itself as you read. First up, let's go over how time works in this world. Get it? It's time for time. That's good. I'm so funny anyway. The planet and its sun are positioned where the northern territory, the burn gets a whole lot of sun and the southernmost part of the planet, the shade does not get any sun. Aurora ribbons, which are the silver ribbons in the sky, determine what time of day it is. It's day spelled D-A-E when the ribbons are not in the sky. One aurora cycle is equivalent to our 24 hour day, so at least that's the same for all of us. One phase is 1000 aurora cycles, so you can think of phase as like a year, but it's 1000 days instead. Moving on to the world's version of the gods, which play a huge part in this world, a.k.a. the creators. The creators got some drama between them. There are five different creators, and over 5 million phases ago, they used their songs to literally create the world. Boulder, the god of ground, created the globe and sculpted almost everything. Rain, the goddess of water, coded the world with frost and water. Note, rain is in love with Boulder, but that is an unrequited love. Clode is the goddess of air. Her soft words rustled the leaves, she created wind, and her shrieks churned in the sea. She's chaotic, Clode. We love her. Ignos, the god of fire, loved Clode, another unrequited love, but he loved her so fiercely that he did everything to impress her, from blazing jungles to volcanic blasts that she could dance in. Clode's like, I'm just living my best life. I know, right? I love her. Now, while the world was taking shape, there's a fifth god. His name is Kaelas, and this is the god of Aether. He watched in complete jealousy of all of his other siblings, who could be physically felt or seen. Aether is not so much that. Aether is like, you related it to the force from Star Wars, and honestly, I can't think of it anything different. That is just Aether. It's like the abstract. Yes. The way that Sarah describes it, it's the emptiness where life blooms. It's from people to all sorts of creatures like dragons. It's like the molecules in the air, but like magic. Now, when the dragons of this world, there's three different types that will go through later. When they're ready to die, they fly into the sky and curl up into balls. They curl up into giant hanging dragon balls, and they calcify themselves into moons. And it was said that Kaelas, in all of his jealousy, wrote a silver book, which we both think is going to be very important and valid. And here's what we know about this book. Others fell upon a silver book. Some say Kaelas wrote in his desperation to be heard, who found a different form of power in those runes nobody could read or pronounce, discovering that strange markings could be wielded, could mend bones, charm blood, glamour objects. Really quickly, side note, glamour objects like glamour the fey, the way that Veya's bangle glamours. Oh! I think that's a Kaelas bangle. And the mind-wept who gave her the bangle. No, it's not a read the book of void! Could read the book of void! Yes, exactly! Oh my God. Okay, back to Kaelas though, because I'm getting off track. Okay, so there's five gods. The world's beloved moons, aka the dead dragons, did begin to crash and fall into the world. And Boulder was like, not on my watch. So the other gods discovered it was Kaelas to blame. He was just pissed that he couldn't be heard or seen. So we don't know that. I think that that's an unreliable narrator moment. And he didn't mean to. I think Kaelas is like, with a megaphone in the sky, being like, notice me, dammit! Now the other four gods, this is Boulder, Reign, Claude and Ignos, trapped Kaelas, the ether god, in the ether stone. And to this day, that diadem is where Kaelas remains. Hoo! The story behind this diadem slowly did become myth until one aurora arrives for the first time in more than five million phases, a moon fell. That is Rave slash Ellowen and Selatra. In these past 23 phases, three moons have fallen. We'll share our theories about why now a little later. Orva is a small saber-size in the burn that fell a little over eight phases ago. A molten moth in the fade that is unnamed, crashed into and broke part of the wall that surrounds the fade. And Selatra, a moon plume who fell with Rave slash Ellowen 23 phases ago. Next we have the magic system. The main type of magic in this world is elemental magic, which is magic gifted to individuals from the creators. The more fluent that the wielder is at speaking and understanding their creator's songs, the more powerful their magic will be and the more effective they are at wielding it. Most people who can hear the elemental songs can only hear one, so they can only hear one of the creators and therefore wield one of their elemental powers. Maybe if they're lucky, they can hear two creators, so then they will have two elemental powers. And there are very rare cases for people hearing more like three. For instance, the Vigor twins who ruled the shade and the fade, they have three elemental beads. The Tri-Counsel, they are all tri-beads, so the tri-bead people are where the power of this world is at. Each creator has an associated color with their elemental magic to indicate to others that they can hear one or more of these elemental songs. These colors are worn in the form of a bead on each person. So red signifies the creator Igno's, which means that this person can wield fire. Blue is for rain and her element of water. Clear colored beads are for clode and mean the person is an air wielder. And brown is for boulder, the elemental magic of the ground. I always like to think of an earthbender with this from Avatar, the last airbender. Then there are runes. Runes are someone who have learned how to wield symbols. Remember how I talked about Kaelas earlier? This runic language was found in an ancient tomb that some believe, we included, Kaelas, the god of ether wrote again in that desperation to be heard. Runes wear a white bead and slash or white cloaks with buttons down the front that are stamped with different symbols that announce the runes talents. For different levels of skill, the buttons are made out of different materials. For instance, wooden buttons is like, you're alright, but diamond buttons are like, you're an expert. There are also other magical abilities that someone can have that are very rare. For instance, mind wefts who have the ability to dig into people's minds like a mind reader. We know of two in our story so far. One is Vrun, who is the owner of the curly quill in Dom and had a whole lot to say about rave. He knows everything about rave. He knows that she's L.O.N. He knows that she has kizari, all that kind of stuff. The other is the one that Veya came across and won the bangle from who claimed to be able to read this language and has read the book of void, which again we assume is Kaila's book. This mind weft told Veya that with this bangle that she's giving her or that she won from her, it will twice be both extremely helpful and extremely painful. More on this later. Then we have non-magical people who are nulls. A null is someone who does not hear any of the elemental songs. In the fade and shade, their ears are clipped to show this and it reflects that they are less than citizens. They don't have the magical abilities that others do. These two kingdoms rulers value strength and power, which they consider nulls not to be. So they just don't really care about nulls. But in the burn, nulls are given opportunities to become runes or apprentices. They are still wonderful, useful citizens of this society. So in other words, if you're a null, way, way, way, way better to be in the burn, which we can probably thank King Kong for giving them these opportunities. All right, so one of our favorite things about the moonfall series world and all of this here is how rich it is with creatures as well. And the creatures really do play a large role in this story. So first up, we have to talk about the dragons of this world. There are three types of dragons, each of whom are from and thrive best in one of the three kingdoms. So in the north are the sabrecise. These are the dragons that live in the burn. They love the heat and cannot survive for long in the fierce cold of the shade. Khan's dragon, Rhaigon is a sabrecise. Then we have molten maws, which are the dragons that live in the fade in the middle. They can travel anywhere in the world pretty comfortably and are the easiest dragons to charm or steal an egg from. They're the charter dragons because they can go in any direction and take people from point eight to point B without them potentially hurting their own dragons that might not be able to handle the climate. They're the ubers of this world. They're the ubers of this world. Ubers of this world. Ubers in the lift. And last but certainly not least, my personal favorite, the southern region's moon plumes, a.k.a. the dragons that live in the shade. They cannot handle the sun or their skin burns and they will go blind. Elwin's dragon, Slatra was a moon plume and so is a smaller dragon. Rafe has taken under her protection named Leery. I want more of Leery's so much in ballad. I'm so excited for her and this bond that she's starting to create with this other moon plume. Moving on to the other creatures of this world, starting off with one of our favorites, the velvet Trog, large and lanky. These creatures hoard and feast on trash. They consume memories from the bits of trash they eat and purge them as luminous sticky trendles they pull from out of their hands. I look at I think about it like spider webs. Basically like the trash feeds their spider webs. How I take it to the use these tendrils to decorate their layers. This is the type of creature that may have to get her bangle back from at the end of when the moon hatched. And also this velvet Trog, who is located there in Gore that she's getting this bangle from this velvet Trog has only bargained with six people. And I am convinced that Rafe is one of them. Because when we asked Sarah, who are the other six and she was like, yeah, I can't share that. I was like, ah, we also know from Sarah that there are multiple velvet Trogs that are just spread throughout the land, but we've only met the one in Gore. Next up, we have the muskin. They are small knee high creatures that can see into the future, though these visions are sporadic and are subject to change, meaning that what they see is not guaranteed to pass. But for instance, they can foresee when the next great flirt is. And I'm wondering what else can they see like war that's coming or let's say that the twins have their own muskens, which I'm assuming is just a very nifty creature to have for all of these royals because the con has one. What if the muskens somehow tells them that Elwynne Nivan has returned? Or I really think that there could be some major plot point that the muskin shares that is going to move the plot forward. Fiends are big wildcards with information gathering and giving in this series. And I'm so excited. I feel like there's something there. Why love this? Then we have the fate herder talk about creatures that just give a lot of information in this world. The fate herder is a large silver feline like creature that is much more legend than reality. Those who have seen it are often considered crazy or delusional, boasting stories about the beasts and nudging them to make different decisions than they would have originally intended. We know better. This creature did show up in when the moon hatched. When rave was in the boltannic planes and the tribe took that to mean that rave's offspring would tether the moon to the sky. Ha ha, Kazari is that you? However, it grows less and less solid as its intended outcome becomes more and more likely. As we discuss in that episode, it's interesting that the fate herder brings rave to the jacool clan village and it's just assumed that it's the offspring prophecy and that's why she's here. But rave had a feeling that it was for some other reason. And then when Khan showed up and made rave his greater, meaning she now has power over this tribe, the fate herder is no longer seen. That's important. Oh my God. That's so important. So pretty much once when Khan arrived, once when those dominoes set in motion where rave is now considered his greater, greater than the king of the burn, greater than their oa, that's when it starts to disappear. It starts to disappear. And we know that is because it feels like it's done its job. It's like this is very important for ourselves. Now there's a few other creatures that are introduced very early in When the Moon Hatched that we theorized about and we would not be fantasy fangirls if we didn't bring them up. First and foremost, the waif. A rare, lanky, fog-like creature that haunts drapes of mist where they nibble on souls in exchange for messages from the dead. Okay, hold on. Oh my God. I'm convinced that this is going to be really important in Ballad. Two reasons. You meet this character very early on, literally in Chapter One and then it's never mentioned again. Mist, though, is mentioned again and it's in Khan's fucking jar of mist in his bedroom where literally he says, I don't want you looking at my jars of mist. And he like shoves it in the drawer, right? Yes. I think that he's been feeding bits of his soul to a waif in order to talk to Elwin from the afterlife. And he's like, you're here now. No, don't look at my waif mist. I don't want it. This also reminds me how he said early on, too, to rave that you have to behead someone or their spirit's going to come back. So do we know if people who are beheaded do not have the capability of coming back? Hence why Khan made sure his father was beheaded, for instance. But like, rave's family was not beheaded. What if he's been talking to Hadeon and just being like, hey, how's your sister? Can you see her up in the sky? Or or honestly, even his his in-laws or his mom. Or yes, yes. Yeah, there are so many possibilities there. So I think that we should keep an eye out for whoever has not been beheaded is fair game for who they might be able to talk to. Oh, my God. But yes, I'm convinced that Khan has been talking to people. Now, what I'm confused about is the waif the jar of mist or do they? Because I think so. So he just has like jars of weights. That I don't understand. That I don't entirely understand either. But I'm keeping an eye out for that. Lastly is one that we were honestly going back and forth of putting in the outline, but we figured why not? And that is the Elding Bird. This is a mythical bird like creature born from ashes and flames. Very interesting that the Elding Blade, which is the Fyardu Athe's assassins, sounds very similar to Elding Bird. Well, and the glass orb that the Elding Blades have, like what Raith had and showed Livy to her detriment, it contains a depiction of the Elding Bird that's catching in flames. It is literally the Fyardu Athe's simple. And so also when we're thinking about the Elding Bird, like think of a Phoenix, right? Like this is this world's version of a Phoenix. That is important. That very, very important. Even more interesting that the Elding is the leader of the Fyardu Athe. So we're going to theorize who the Elding is soon. But I do think that there is something to the fact that Raith was called Firelark in the pits and Elding Bird is very symbolic with flames. Again, thinking of a Phoenix there. Those are Firebird similarities and both connected to Raith in different ways. But I don't think that's a coincidence. Now, could it be literary non coincidence or story non coincidence? That's my question. I think story non coincidence. Oh, see, I think literary. OK, all right. Let's put a pin in that for later. So let's quickly go through the three distinct kingdoms and the Tri-Counsel. We've already been talking a little bit about them, but let's lay it all out. So starting north in the burn, where it is sunny and hot, hot, hot. There are rainforests, sandy plains and large bodies of water here. It storms often in the burn, and it is actually the only territory of the three that gets rain. Burn locations to remember include its capital, Dom, which is actually a pretty great place to live, despite what Raith previously heard. We're definitely thinking there's a propaganda from the other two kingdoms, making it seem like the burn is a really bad place when it's not and making the burn seem like the enemy for their upcoming war. Then we have the Baltanic Plains in the burn. This is home to clans, including the T'Kul clan. This is where Raith accidentally wound up in the middle of when the moon hatched thanks to the Fate Herder and had to partake in the Tuka trials. Here is where Khan has declared Raith is greater than he. Remember with the six pounds on his chest that was unheard of? That's exactly what this was. I think that's very important for us to remember. Then lastly, we have Gondra, which is a Sabercythe nesting grounds. It is the most northern part of this northern kingdom. We're hoping to get Grimes POV in Gondra in Ballad, since Khan just dropped him off at this location to go after the great silver Sabercythe eggs. The burn kingdom was previously ruled by King Austrin Vigor, a cruel male who valued strength and power. I'm just feeling like we're saying that a lot this episode. And now it is ruled by King Khan Vigor, the king's oldest son. Surprise, surprise. The burn's a much better place to live now. Should be noted that Khan becomes king after beheading his father. He was very pissed off that his father was responsible for Elwin's family's death by poison. Next up is the fade. The fade is in that middle third of the world and is much colder than the burn. It often snows or sleets, but never rains. And the territory is encircled by a massive stone wall built by Boulder in the creation of the world. And most of the population lives within the wall. Main locations of the fade include its capital, Gore, where our story opened up. The kingdom of the fade used to be a creator's blessed place to live, but everything changed when Caddock became king and only cared about military might. Then we have the under city. It's a large divide in the ground directly below Gore, beneath the wall of the fade and in an abandoned dragon bloodstone mine. The under city has become basically the slums of Gore and is known as the most dangerous place to live or visit. Then we have the wall, a massive stone wall that encircles the fade, almost like a belt running parallel east to west as far as the eye can see. This is where most of the fade population lives. And I mean, like lives within the wall, like there's apartments and houses built within the wall. The segment of the wall that is dedicated to the fade's army is called drill God. It houses the fresh conscripts. And then also in the fade, we have Bogeth. This is the molten ma nesting grounds. The middle region of the world is ruled by King Caddock Vigor. Caddock is twin to Tyroth Vigor and son to the late King of the burn, Austeryn Vigor. He's also brother to Khan Vigor and brother to Veja Vigor. Caddock is married to Duffeya Vigor and they have a son, Prince Tarun Vigor, whose current location is unknown. Sus, we know. I 10 out of 10 think we're going to see Tarun in ballad. Since taking over the throne, Caddock has been focused on growing the military might of the kingdom. This is his ultimate goal right now. The main way he has built the military so quickly is by conscripting young elementals as soon as they start hearing the creator's song. He literally uses truth tunes in order to see if people are hearing the songs or not. In the fade, there is a rebellious group called the Fior du Ath who are working to counteract the tyranny with a focus on the fade. This group is run by the Elding, a mysterious unknown person. I think we're going to know at the end of ballad. This is the group that our FMC rave works for as an Elding blade, aka she's an assassin. Her boss is Serene, a high ranking member of the group. Remember Serene has a little vial that she wears as a necklace that can control rave and the other Elding blades and their headquarters is somewhere called the flourish, which all we know is south of the fade. I've been leaning toward the flourish is where Slotcher's crater is. However, I'm also realizing their headquarters needs to be inconspicuous, which her crater would most likely be a very well known location. So I keep coming back to the flourish might be in the mountains, even near the pits of Kandard where the scavenger king is. And that just brings me right back to my crack theory that the Elding is a scavenger king. The third and final kingdom is the shade. As the southernmost third of the world, the shade is forever cast in darkness with the only light being from the Aurora ribbons and the moon plume moons. It's very cold in the shade and always covered in snow. Main locations in the shade include Netheryn, which is the nesting grounds of the moon plumes, the furthest south location, and then the shades capital, which is pretty close to the northern border of the shade. And that is the shades capital, Erythia. The shade used to be ruled by King Odric and Queen Adora Navan. Parents of Hedion and Elwin rave Navan. The maternal side of this family is tied to the Aether stone. The shade is under King Tyroth Vagor's reign, who rules alone since his queen Elwin died. He is twin to Cadok Vagor, who rules the fade, and brother to Khan Vagor, the king of the burn. The princess of the shade is Khazari Vagor, who is actually the daughter of Khan and Elwin slash rave, but nobody knows that. So everyone thinks that she is Tyroth and Elwin's daughter. Then there is the tri-council. This is a council of ancient people comprised of tri-beaded elementals, which again are fey who can hear three elemental songs, extra, extra special and rare. And they are very knowledgeable runes as well. These tri-council members hold some sway over the kingdoms because of the council's power and sometimes intervene in political matters. Like for instance, when Elwin's family had died and they came up with, oh, hey, the princess of the shade should marry the prince of the burn. And I definitely think that King Austeran had some influence in all of that, but that's okay. They're supposed to be neutral. So I think that's another plot line as well. Moving on. They reside in Bothain, a neutral city between the fade and the burn that does not fall under the rule of any king or queen. How very interesting that we know of at least one character going to Bothain so he can quote, get a look at that book. Rhone, who is Pyrox brother, is an alchemist. And while we have not met him yet, we can strongly assume we will next book. When we asked Sarah Parker if there was anything she could say about this book that he is wanting to look at, she told us, quote, I can tell you absolutely nothing about any of this, but I can promise you're going to get these answers in ballot. We are both convinced that this has to be the book of void, especially given how runes who are wildly skilled are in the tri-council. They might know how to read the book of void. They might be the gatekeepers of this information, which means that mind weft that they interacted with and got the bangle from. Did she have special access to this? I wonder if she was a member of the tri-council and then she just aged out. I hadn't thought about that. I don't know. I don't know either. I don't know. There's options. So all of that is the world building of when the moon hatched. Now let's dive into the story itself and where things leave off at the end of book one, so we can all be ready for book two. War certainly does seem to be looming in this world. The fade and the shade are working together against Khan because their rulers are twins and they have their eye on the burn, which has valuable untapped bloodstone, among other reasons that they want to invade the burn. Dragon bloodstone is the ore that is mined from the ground in areas where dragon blood was spilled and then fossilized. It's the currency of the fade and the shade, and it is used in all three kingdoms for its medicinal properties, which Sarah has told us prolongs long lives. We don't know much about Tyros army in the shade or his military might, but we do know a lot about Cadok. He has spent at least 125 phases building up a military and only caring about strength and power in the fade. Good news, the burn does have its own army that can almost rival the fade and the shade. It's taken Khan a long time to build up his forces because unlike at least Cadok, he does not believe in forcing his citizens into conscription. This war will be detrimental to the whole world. And as Khan puts it, quote, a battle would puncture our world and scatter the skies with many more moons. It's unknown when this war will break out, but Veya has made it clear that if Raev slash El-Owen being alive comes back to the twins, they will use Khazari against her and bottom line. Fuck everything up and ignite this war that they are also carefully dancing around right now. OK, when do you think the war is going to break out? I think that'll be a book three thing. I think we will get to like the pinnacle of it. I think that. Oh, you know, you mentioned. Yeah, I think that it'll kind of be building up to that. And then the war will be part of the cliffhanger that will be coming in book three. I keep thinking back to when you had asked, like, do we think that another moon is going to fall and ballot a falling dragons? I wonder if a moonfall is going to set things in motion or cause some issues with, like, where is it going to land? Right? Hmm. Yeah. If it lands in the burn and it makes them weaker so then the bad guys can come in. What if it lands right there on Caddox military? My dad, you're so sad for all of the innocent. It was grips, but yeah, at the same time, I do wonder if a moonfall will expedite like the plot in some way, like be a really good triggering point for that war to happen next or it'll cause issues with the current war's motion right now. I wonder if Kazari's capture is going to be what triggers the war because what if Tyroff thinks that Kazari's with Khan and that's why he invades. Well, Wreck was already looking there. True. And then he said, nope, I don't see her here. Well, now Wreck's back and now Wreck is dead and now Wreck is dead and he was toting a white flag, so that could be considered a war, even though the death happened on neutral soil, but he does. I was going to say that was the whole point of her not killing him in the burn. So he left and now he's dead, so we don't know if Tyros. That's not Khan's problem. It's not his problem that he died. It would be Khan's problem if Tyros is convinced that it happened in burn soil and Khan's just covering it. But it really does happen on neutral soil. There are like it does and all of that kind of stuff. But that's that's a like it happens on neutral soil, but does Tyros know that? Or is he going to use that as the triggering point for Kattok and Tyros to invade? Believing we also know that the scavenger king is sending Parchment Larks to Khan. Yeah, we don't know what that's about. Or later. Parchment Larks says. Cool. Okay. There's a lot of options. I think the war is going to definitely be started next book. I don't think it's going to reach its pinnacle by any means until book three. But I do think that the triggering event is going to happen next book. OK, so we so I was going to say the pinnacle of what then tips over and starts the war. So it's the it's the beginning of the war. Yeah, we're on the same page. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, OK, let's talk about the Fade Queen because Homegirl maybe makes one or two appearances in When the Moon Hatched, but she feels like she's going to be a main key player. The Fade Queen has not been heard of since Rave escaped her execution. This is only after her husband, Kattok, caught wind of her trying to stop the execution. She tried to stop a prisoner of the Fjordu, Athebe, murdered and Kattok has now since made it where this queen is not been seen. I am worried about this woman. I hope she's OK. We also know that she used to sneak people out of the Fade and assumably into the burn. But she hasn't now because she's missing. Have I mentioned I'm terrified for this woman? By the end of the book, we still don't know where the queen is. We don't know if she's alive. Do you think that she's alive? I'm going to ask this question. So all we know is that she has not been seen or heard of and it is presumed that Kattok is keeping. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I definitely do think that she is alive. Like, how dare you even say that? I don't think she is in good shape and our crew will have to help her out somehow some way. Do you think she's with Tarun? Not if he's not if he's the fucking Elden Blade. I do think that she is essentially locked away in the Fade, but I do not think that Turin is there in the Fade or in Gore, at least. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Oh, God, I'm worried for her. Another important plot that we're sure will continue in Ballad. Back in the burn, Agni, the skilled royal flesh thread with dragon sight, tells Veya of the silver scar above Rave slash Ellowen's heart. This silver scar was not mended by a flesh thread and would have been a killing blow no matter what, like the flesh would not be able to heal that in time, which that's not what everyone, including Veya and Khan, have been led to believe about Ellowen's death. The world was told that Ellowen died in childbirth. Recognizing the silver scar and a killing wound on Ellowen and Tyros story about how she died in childbirth, not adding up, Veya sets out to find Ellowen's diary and figure out what truly happened. There are things in life we make more complicated than they need to be and things that we worry about that we don't need to, like making tax digital for income tax. Summups free MTD for income tax solution is ideal for sole traders turning over more than 50,000 a year. It's already built into the sum up platform so you can stay compliant without paying for software or worrying about getting it wrong. Did I mention it's free? Getting started is easy. Just search sum up MTD online. So really quick, because I realized I didn't add any other stuff in this outline because I think it's just so ingrained in both of our minds that the other is Slotra. Yes. Amazing. So we can also, I believe, agree on the fact that Slotra gave her life force. Yes, somehow to Ellowen here in this silver scar. And that is how rave is alive, first and foremost. But that's why this scar looks not like anything that Agni has ever seen before. So I think we both agree and I am willing to die on this hill. That silver scar is entirely from Slotra giving her life force. And that is why rave has the other within her. Cool. Just needed to make sure we agreed on something other than the queen and her safety. By the end of When the Moon Hatched, this is what Veya learns in Ellowen's diary. Ellowen and Khan were very much in love when she left him for his brother and left him the note that said Tyroth would be a better male for her to bond and have children with. But what Ellowen's diary revealed is that Austeran, Veya's father and then King of the Burn threatened Ellowen into sticking with the plan to bond Tyroth. Tyroth bonds with the sole heir to the Shade. He becomes king of the Shade. And then the three cruel Vagour men, father and twin sons, will rule the three kingdoms of this world. Ellowen does not want to leave Khan. She loves him so much she wants to spend her forever with him. But she had to and she had to pretend like she wanted to leave him or else Austeran would go after Veya and Khan to keep Ellowen in line. King Austeran also forced Ellowen into keeping the true father of her unborn child a secret from everyone, including Khan and Tyroth. During Ellowen's pregnancy, she quickly started fading away. Her body getting drained of energy from the ether stone on her brow and the baby growing within her. In the final diary entry, Ellowen writes that a blood lace is coming to presumably test the baby once when she's born to confirm who the father is. And that's not going to be good because Khan is Khazari's biological father. Now, that was the last area entry. So we have no idea what happened after that. But blood laces are able to detect someone's bloodline. I think that is extremely important for our story. And it was like one little line mention. We don't know who killed Ellowen, but we can gather she did not die of childbirth. We also know that Khan did witness Selatra scoop Ellowen up and fly into the sky to become a moon together for a hundred phases. So he would have been somewhere there in the shade at that time. I am convinced that the blood lace confirmed Khazari is not Tyros and Tyroth found out and stabbed Ellowen in the heart for her unfaithfulness to him. Then pretended Khazari was always his and that he was mourning his love, his queen, ensuring that much more his position as king of the shade. And I think somehow they might be connected to Ellowen's tragedy. And that is the missing 30 cycles. But I don't know how yet. We'll theorize about that a little later. And like Nicole said, we also believe that Raid came back to life because Selatra bonded on a soul deep level, giving her life to Ellowen slash Raid. I also think that Kailas might have had a little something to do with her truly coming back to with their moons falling and she's alive over a hundred phases later. Why are you giving me that look right now? I don't think Kailas was like, here's your mom. Like, I don't think that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. OK, so I think that the rebirth was like 90 percent Selatra binding herself to rave. And the way that this impossible truly was able to happen is this like extra 10 percent of Kailas's either magic of everything and nothing. I think Kazari wielded Kailas magic somehow some way by sheer want alone to have her mother by her side, and that's when Raid fell from the sky. I agree. But she also might have somehow some way like between using Kailas's magic and Selatra with the bond. That is what so uniquely brought Raid back to life. Oh, interesting. I think it's all Selatra giving her life for 100 percent, like 100 percent. But I see where you're coming from now. Interesting. All right. Let's do a quick TLDR on Kazari's relationship to Kailas. Kazari has been able to hear the creators since the day she was born. This is not normal. She always wore a iron necklace to block them out. But eventually when she was about 98 phases old, she took off said iron necklace and began listening to and learning the creator songs, specifically Kailas. When she listened, she learned way more than she expected to. Yes, that is as vagus. She tells us in the book and eventually she fell in love with the God of Ether. And now she wants to set him free. We have very differing opinions about this relationship. I feel like Kailas is playing Kazari in order to get himself freed. I think that he is manipulating her to fall in love with him so that she will find no way to free him and then he can do whatever he wants as retaliation on the four creator brothers and sisters who locked him in a fucking diadem for five million years. Meanwhile, I think that he is misunderstood. I think that Kailas never meant for these moons to start falling. And it was just a consequence with his magic that he didn't mean for it to happen. And so now someone is giving him attention. Someone is listening to him and he is so happy about that. And so I do think that there is this weird love between the two of them. I don't think that he's purposefully manipulating her. And so I do think that once when he is freed, I don't think it's going to purposefully be as malicious as everybody kind of thinks. Khan says at one point that the creators must have had a reason to put him in there. There is so much foreshadowing that it is simply a given that this is what happened. And I really do think that a huge part of Kailas is how misunderstood he is and how everybody doesn't understand him or his magic like either Nicole. And I think that it is going to come back and he's going to get a redemption arc because he never meant for any of this. We are making a bet right fucking now. Oh, I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this. But it is basically Kailas is purposefully manipulating Kazari in order to be freed. I say yes, you say no. Yes, there's a lot of fine print with all of that. But yes, OK, Kailas is purposefully manipulating Kazari and does not love her and does not love her so he can be freed for malicious intents. He has malicious intentions. That is purposefully manipulating in a nutshell. Now, here's the deal. If he's purposefully manipulating her, but he fell in love with her at the same time, this is no one voted. Yeah, because then that makes me right. No, no, we're both right. If that's the case, you know, why is this he's malicious purposefully manipulating if he is purposefully manipulating Kazari and at the same time, maliciously, manip if he maliciously manipulating is with malicious intent. Lexi, I need that in the document. Oh, my God. OK, Kailas is maliciously, purposefully manipulating Kazari and does not love her in order to be freed from the diet. Nicole says yes. Lexi says no. Shocking. Yes. I think the only time you say yes when it involves making a bet is when you finally sign off on the bet and say, yes, that works for me or that someone's dead. All right. So then, OK, going back to Kazari's timeline with Kailas here, 23 phases ago, so when Kazari was around 100 phases old, two phases after she started understanding Kailas's language, that is when Slautra's moon fell. And this is the first moon to fall in over five million phases. It's only when she started understanding Kailas's language when moon started fucking falling. Let me remind you of our very first bet, Lexi. Kailas is not purposefully making moons fall. Lexi said he is not purposefully Nicole said it is on purpose. How can you agree with that with this timeline? Because I don't think I'm talking about like that goes back to he's misunderstood. Oh, my God. He's not being malicious. Like he's not purposefully meaning for these moons to fall. It's just happens to be some of his magic that is unfortunate. I think he is so angry at being locked in a diadem for five million phases to the point where he is like, I I want to fight back. And the second someone starts understanding his language, a moon falls. Are you kidding me? I think that's what they want you to think. Well, good. Good job, I guess. Cone has spent the last twenty three phases tracking down all of Slotcher's moonshards and bringing them back to his shrine in the burn. He now has almost all of her pieces, but a small section in the back. I hope he gets to finish Slotcher's shrine. That makes me that would make me really sad if he didn't. Because he can't stand to know that she is a whole and he knows that Elwin would hurt so bad. Does he know that Elwin would hurt because he's been talking to the wave in his jar of mists and he's been chatting with Elwin. OK, see, like what if he can't reach her, though, because she's been in this weird in between of life slash death? Well, what? No, no, because she died for a hundred years. So I'm wondering if only twenty three phases ago, he's been trying to communicate with her and she can't talk back and he's been like, what's going on? That's all right. I'll make a bet with you. I don't think that he's talked to Elwin in. Whoa, okay. Yeah, I don't think that he's talked to her. He has not spoken to Elwin via wave. Lexi, I never get that impression throughout the entire book. He's been so desperate to talk to her, but I don't think that he ever was successful with that. OK, I think he has. But twenty three phases ago, it stopped working and he's been like, what the fuck? We also do know that the scavenger king raided Slotcher's crater and took a bunch of shards when Rafe was also extracted from this crater and Rafe remembers seeing these shards from her cell like it carded off. So I am still wondering if Khan knows more about the scavenger king than we currently know. I don't think that he knows that it's like his half brother or anything like that. But maybe he knows of the scavenger king because he might have needed to infiltrate and get all these shards or this is definitely more likely thing. I'm not making a bet over this, Nicole. He tracked them down after the scavenger king sent these shards off elsewhere, like to sell them or whatever that might have been there. I definitely don't think Khan knows about the scavenger king because I also wonder if he did somehow, let's say raid, I've been wondering what if Khan accidentally and indirectly helped Rafe escape like he was essentially turned into be a distraction, had no idea that she was there already, obviously. But when he was getting the shards and the scavenger king was focused on him, then that's when Rafe left. Again, I'm not willing to make a bet on this. I'm not another one of my crack theories. I like that crack theory. That feels plausible, like many of your crack theories do. So we know about slatra falling. That was 23 phases ago. We also know that eight phases ago, Orva, which is a small saber-sized moon, that is that fell in the Baltanic plains and the Jekyll clan moved into its crater and now honors that small little moon. Now, we don't know if these other two dragons that fell, Orva, the saber-sized and the unnamed molten mawe, we don't know if they were also special to Khazari or if they were just random. Her mom, though, falling from the sky, I assume that was not random. But we don't know if Khazari knows her mother's particular moon fell. All right, so now let's dive into where our characters leave off at the end of when the moon hatched as we head into Balad. Starting with my love, Khan Luk Vagor is the oldest legitimate Vagora sibling. Khan's Pa, Austeran, did not treat Khan well at all. When Khan was a child and it was discovered that he could only hear two of the creator songs, which for an average person is a cause for celebration, his father instead shipped him off to the Baltanic plains to live with the Jekyll clan, claiming that if Khan survived, he might earn his father's respect. Well, that backfires against Austeran. And after climbing up the clan ranks all the way to the top as Oa, aka the king of the Jekyll clan, Khan goes back to his father and cuts off his head before feeding it to his dragon, Rhaigon. This is when Khan takes his place as king of the burn and starts implementing changes for the better. Why did Khan kill his father? Well, there's plenty of reasons. But the main one is that Khan found out King Austeran was behind Elloen's family's murder and Khan sought revenge on her behalf. Last we see of Khan, he is in the imperial hutches with Rave, where he tells her that he will arrange everything for her to leave. He also points Rave to the neutral city of Bothain, where she can lie low, waiting for Rek to come back through there instead of kill Rek here in the burn and launch everyone into a war. Khan is really trusting in that phrase. If you love something set it free, if it comes back, it's meant to be with his line of literally quote, come back to me, Rave to us. So he's assumably waiting for Rave to come back to him. He's in the burn and oh, another quick thing to point out with him, too, is he and his dragon Rhaigon are Dagomort, which means that they have a connection where they can kind of like feel each other's emotions. He can wield fire into his. He can wield his dragon's fire and he can kind of channel a little bit more of his dragon's strength, a huge deal that they are bonded in this way. Nobody else's. Yes, definitely. Next, we have Elwin slash Rave. Elwin Rave, Navan is the former queen of the shade, bonded technically to Tyroth Vagor, but Elwin died during childbirth. Or as we will later learn, she was murdered slash had a killing wound over her heart after Khazari was born. Backing up a little bit when Elwin was 18, her mother and brother Hadeon were all poisoned after her father refused to marry her off to Tyroth Vagor. Well, happened anyway. After her parents died, Elwin was severely depressed and forced to move to the burn while Tyroth took over in the shade. It was on the opposite side of the literal planet that she's used to. It is in the burn that she meets Khan Vagor and together they have a whirlwind romance that ends with a note where Elwin tells Khan that Tyroth is a better match for her. But little does Khan know that this was the only way because his father threatened the life of Khan and Veya that Elwin agreed to bond with her older brother. We also do have confirmation from Sarah that Khan does not know Khazari is his child. Fast forwarding a little bit. Elwin gives birth to Khazari in the shade and somehow it ends up in her death. Again, it's notable that that blood lace is called to the shade most likely to test Khazari's blood. It would not be good if it led to Khan's blood and not Tyroth's. I am convinced that Tyroth killed Elwin or at minimal had her killed. He is responsible for her death. I think Khan, if he learns that. He's already so mad. He is going to once when he learns about her runes because Agni did not tell him because Agni and Veya are like, let's not tell the little high strong right now. This will only make things worse. But he will find out very, very soon. I think. Yeah, I think so too. After Elwin's death, the ether stone is placed on Khazari's brow literally as a baby and Slaatra scoops up Elwin, the dead Elwin, and together they fly into the sky and become a moon where they stay there for a hundred years. But for reasons we do not know, their moon falls and Elwin wakes up as Rave. Khazari learning Kailas' language. That's what I cannot agree more. For a while, Rave is in a cell held captive by the scavenger king, aka Arkin Vigor, where eventually she escapades. We still don't know how and she finds her way to gore. That is where she meets Serim and joins the fear dueth. So Rave has no recollection of Elwin or her past life, but there are little glimpses like that her name is Rave. That was Elwin's middle name. Rave just thinks that she came up with it or something along those lines. No, no, no, that was a deep set older memory or how she is so drawn to Khan that we have been talking all about during our deep dive. Her memory flashes, especially once when she's in the burn. I could go on and on and on. By the end of when the moon hatched, Rave has accepted that Elwin used to exist, but she still doesn't know who specifically Elwin was. All Rave knows is that Elwin had a moon plume named Slatra. She was in love with Khan and loved their home in the burn. She had secrets and that she left Khan and their happiness to bond with someone else. In other words, she still does not know that she is of the famous Navan line. She used to be Shade royalty. She was married to Tyrof and has a daughter named Kazari with Khan. At the end of the book, Rave is in buffane after she kills Rex Zarros while under the control of the other. And there has started to be a relationship forming between Rex Zarros's stolen slash charmed moon, Pume, Leery and Rave. And Leery is still located in the burn. She was very severely wounded and she is healing there under like shady protection and all of that, right? Yes. And that actually brings me to another question. When do you think Rave and Khan are going to be reunited? I think pretty early on. I think on the earlier side, too. Yeah, yeah, like I hope so. Maybe like a quarter of the way through the book at most. Let's talk about this other that we keep mentioning and including we were just talking about moon plumes. So that was great. Talk about the other. This other is the beast that lives deep inside Rave in her icy lake. It's like a metaphorical but not really metaphorical layer within her where she puts all of her emotions and all of the things that she wants to repress. And I will bet my e arc of burn of the Everflame. I promise we don't have it yet, but I would bet that that slaughter is the other. Yes. Yeah. I was like, whoa, whoa, where is this going? That's a big, that's a big one. But yes, I agree. I would I would also make that bet. Yes. Like I would bet many, many things that I love very dearly. That's the other. Anyway, the other can take over Rave's body and even use the creator songs while she does so. But when this happens, Rave gets shoved down into herself and doesn't know what's going on, leaving her with amnesia for the duration of the other's takeover. The other is lethal, vengeful and will bite off body parts and slaughter all the people pissing her off in her path. Yes, we know that the other is a she as well from Sarah. She did confirm that or might have accidentally let it slip. I'm not exactly sure. And it is not confirmed, however, who or what the other is. But again, we highly, highly, highly expect we are willing to drive dramatically on hills, on mountains that the other is slotra. And this is the deep connection that she and Rave share. Slotra gave her life force to Elowen to rave. Their souls are bonded and slotra basically lives within rave now. All right, let's head to the burn. We have some members of cons imperial court. First up is Pyroc. Pyroc is the brother of Rhone and is known as the unhelpful member of cons council. Even in his glossary entry, it just says, quote, a not very helpful member of King cons imperial court, sibling of Rhone. I disagree justice for Pyroc. But that's just me. Also, I feel like he's been told his entire life that he's not helpful. He's not helpful. He's much less helpful than his sibling to the point where he believes it so deeply that he now says it to cut to the chase before others can point it out. Justice for my dude, Pyroc. Pyroc wheels Ignos. Interesting that his name is Pyroc, aka Pyre, and always has a drink in his hand. By the end of the book, we know that Pyroc is still in Dom and Khan has sent him a parchment lark to move Vron, the only mind left in Dom, to a safe house. That way, rave cannot have Ron erase everyone from her mind. Honestly, there. Rhone is Pyroc's brother, who we do not meet on the page in book one. But we think he's coming back in book two with the Easter eggs we get in book one. Rhone is a very talented alchemist, and he is currently in Balthain, the neutral city where the Tri-Council is. He went there to try to get a look at, quote, that book again. He's certain there are more pages that haven't been transcribed and released to the public. We strongly believe that this book is the book of void, which was Kalis's book. And I'm so curious about these more pages that have not been transcribed and released to the public. Again, that's going back to like this gatekeeper of information that is so popular in fantasy books. Yes. Do you think rave can speak Kalis? Probably, but I don't. If she wanted to, maybe. Or maybe you have to worry. There's no language. She would have to learn his language. But like, what if it's somewhere deep within her? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. We don't know for sure, though, what this book is. But Sarah herself has confirmed we will learn in Ballad. By the end of when the moon hatched, Rhone's been gone for weeks and Khan is getting very worried about his advisor. That feels very important. And what a great opening as we head into book two. Lastly, we have Grime, who we do know is going to be a POV character. Next book. Grime is Khan's second in command. Last we see of him in when the moon hatched, he asked Khan if he could take leave so he can attempt to steal one of the eggs rumored to be laid by the great silver sabersythe, Ara. Lexi, you brought up a great theory in episode six about how he's not going to bond an egg. He's going to bond Ara herself. I love this theory. Thank you. I really appreciate that you bet against it, even though you love the theory. I am so convinced. I bet against it for the bit, but I really hope you're right. I really hope so. The reason that I think this is it's almost war. There is no time to take care of hatchlings. I love the babies so much, but we got other things to do right now. We need epic legendary dragons part of the story. And this T.F. is too perfect for Grime not to bond with this great silver sabersythe that was foreshadowed in all of when the moon hatched. Yes, we can also infer that Ara is part of the song that is called The Ballad of the Fallen Moon, considering next book is called Ballad of Fallen Dragons. We feel like this is important. So let's do a quick TLDR on this song slash story. Ballad of the Fallen Moon tells the tale about two dragons. But when the black female sabersythe became a moon in the dark, assuming the shade, a moon plume curled around that sabersythe and fed her her own light and thus turned the sabersythe's scales white. But then the moon plume fell from the sky, sadly dead. And now the white sabersythe searches along the plains for her friend, looking for shards across the rock and snow, definitely in the shade, trying to piece her together, kind of like Khan and sadly failing to do so. So we do wonder if Grime's silver sabersythe, if he can bond the silver sabersythe or even an egg, I wonder if silver sabersythe, silver sabersythe, say that five times faster, can fly in the snow. I think that they can fly in the snow and travel to the shade. So they're the Uber dragons. See, here I am thinking that this is literary symbolism and it's poetically beautiful for the story. Oh, I. OK, another bet. Silver sabersythe's, not the greats, but any silver sabersythe's can travel to the shade and be fine. Yeah, I'll make that bet. OK, all right. We also know that Grime has white hair. And when we asked Sarah if she could share anything about said white hair, about his upbringing or anything, because Kazari also has white hair. All she said was that white hair is common in the south, a. K. A. The shade. I absolutely think that Grime was Rave's Alouin's uncle or an advisor to her father or something. Like he was an important character in the shade during the assassination of her parents and her brother. Oh, my God, I just feel like Grime has so many so many secrets. I think I'm leaning toward he was an advisor. And then when Ty Rath took over, he had to escape and his dragon, Inka, sadly, didn't make it. We know that Inka has been gone, but we don't know for how long. I think that she really was a moon plume if he is from the shade and Khan does not know how his dragon died or Grime's painful history. So I do think that Inka unfortunately did not make it out when they were trying to escape and he somehow some way still ended up in the burn. And Khan has been keeping them safe ever since then. We also know that Veya and Grime have apparently been dancing around each other for about a hundred phases, but they have not acted on their attraction. I want there to be something between them so badly. All right, so now let's go through Veya. Veya is the youngest Vigor and only daughter, and she was Austrin's least favorite child. Shocking. Fucking asshole. Many, many phases ago, Veya partook in her own Tuka trial and after winning, she gave herself to the creators so that she could not be forced to go through another one. But because of this and the dishonor on her family, her twin brothers whipped her back. We really hate them. And so does Veya. She's been stewing on her revenge for a long time. She has a close relationship with Khan and was very close with Elwin before Elwin went and bonded with Tyroth. And Veya's been a little bit upset at her best friend for leaving them like that. And now that she has the diary, she's learning the real truth about why Elwin did all of this and that diary. She also learns that Kazari is Khan's daughter, not Tyroth's. That's a big deal. At this point, all we know is that Veya is currently still in the shade and she has to sneak back out of the kingdom to get back to the burn. And we are very, very worried about her. One more quick note is that she can only hear one elemental song, which is Boulder. That was another reason that her father did not like her because she did not have enough powers. Then we have the scavenger king, aka Arkin Vigor, who we only meet in the epilogue. He is actually the oldest son of Oster and Vigor, though we do not know who his mother is, I twitches. He also is a very bad person who held rave captive and gave her the name Firelark. Bad Arkin. He also tortured her for an X amount of time. We don't know exactly how long. Arkin wants what he believes is rightfully his, aka the bronze throne, which is the kingdom of the burn. So this is why we're leaning toward Arkin being the oldest Vigor son. He thinks that the burn, which used to be his father's, is rightfully his. And it's like he's next in line for it. So that's why we are thinking he might even be older than Khan because he thinks that this should rightfully be his as the heir. And Khan is the oldest true Vigor. Yes, sibling. Yes. Yes. Arkin is also pretty pissed that Khan stole his revenge for himself. We can assume that means the revenge of killing Osterin. My guess is that Osterin made Arkin maybe even Arkin's mom as well, an outcast since he's a bastard, but no matter what, Arkin hates Khan. Probably why he had rave in a cell. Did he know it was Ellowin? I think so. I don't know. I guess he wouldn't have known about the relationship, though. I guess anything is possible, but I don't think he would have known about the relationship, but I do think again, that was such a big deal that this moon fell. And there's like a woman within it. Like people would know that used to be the former queen of the shade. And I do think that he knew who he had, but he literally broke her and obviously did not tell her who she was. We do not know exactly how Arkin plans to take the burn thrown for himself. But we do know his planned now involves his niece, Kazari, who he has signed a blank parchment lark at the very end of the book that he sends to Khan, quote, and not her doting paw. So it is safe to assume that even Arkin does not know who Kazari's real father is. Yes. The way that in his epilogue, he compares her to his fire lark. And while obviously he never refers to Ellowin or anything like that, again, I wonder if he does know that Kazari is Firelark's mother and he just doesn't view Firelark as Ellowin because he broke her like he did. I think so, even though he's like, yeah, I yeah, I think so. I think he does know. Well, and then we can't forget that Kazari writes within her signature that he made her sign with for that blank parchment lark. She said, like, hit a little note, kill the sadistic fuck as a way to tell Khan she's in trouble, but it seems that the scavenger king did notice this and he doesn't really care. It's just like, haha, she thinks that she's so clever. I'm sending this anyway. Yes. So we're just going to keep our eyes open for this parchment lark that he is sending signed by Kazari. Speaking of Kazari, she is the princess of the shade daughter of Ellowin, Rave, N'von, and everyone believes her father is Tyroth Vagor, king of the shade. I know we're starting to get a little bit repetitive here, but it's a big book. There's a lot of things going on. Secretly, though, Khan is her father. Kazari is the current wearer of the ether stone. The stone holds Kailas, the god of ether, who Kazari has fallen in love with and wants to set free. She knows something about this creator, something she learned from listening and learning his songs, but unfortunately, we don't know what specifically she learned. That's on purpose, everybody. That's definitely on purpose. Growing up, Kazari was very sheltered to the point where everyone believes Tyroth is just an extremely protective father, but we know better. He's a fucking asshole, and that was not necessarily the case. Kazari had in her own way a hard childhood. She was physically punished during her lessons if she was not perfect. And eventually she said enough is enough and devoted herself to the creators as well as took an oath of chastity. This is not good because the maternal line always is the ether stone wearer. So if she does not bear children, no one would be able to have the ether stone passed down after her. What a coincidence that she is wanting to set Kailas free. So therefore, there is no need for the ether stone anymore. And we have the fate herder prophecy that raves offspring, which is Kazari, is going to tether the moons to the sky forever. We can assume that between Kazari's travels from Gore when we first saw her in the book somewhere along the way, the scavenger king captured Kazari. He describes it as she basically fell into his clutches. So Kazari is imprisoned now by the scavenger king, presumably near the pits of Kindard, where rave used to be held prisoner by the scavenger king. In the last chapter, we also see that knee finally made its way back to Kazari, cementing that Kazari sent this to rave and that she is her daughter. If you're like, who and what is knee? Knee is a parchment lark, which is the go to form of long distance communication. Parchment larks are ruined squares of parchment that have activation lines. So when folded into the shape of a lark, these notes will flutter to the one the message is intended for. Also important to note that Veja received a blank parchment lark when she arrived in the shade, her and Khan send parchment larks back and forth to each other with a very special ruined ink that can only be read via dragon flame. We do not know what that parchment lark says, though. So this whole thing with knee is a big deal because several phases ago, Kazari sent her mother a parchment lark that said, I need you. And what do you know? It found its way to rave who has no recollection. She has a daughter. Then rave wrote back, no, you don't. After Essie died and it arrived back to Kazari when she's locked up by the scavenger king, leaving all of us like the mind blown emoji. So with the knowledge we know about Kazari being set on freeing Kailas and it being prophesied that she will tether the moon to the sky forever. What does that mean for her desire to free Kailas or how she's learning his language? Potentially she's the only person in this world. Maybe except for a mind what they are knows who can hear and understand him. What kind of power does this mean? Kazari holds a lot. I'm telling you because I know that we've already mentioned this a little bit this episode, but throughout our deep dive, I have been really intrigued by what ether means. It captures space, light and spirit. This fifth element is the abstract Nicole's favorite word. And I'm fascinated to learn what magical possibilities are in store for those who can wield this power. I'm not going to say it's like a life and death sort of power, but I do think that there is a form of life associated with this. Again, going back to space, light and spirit. It is the abstract element. All right, we've talked a lot about every little nook and cranny of this book. And somehow we are still not done. So let's go. Never. Let's go into the rapid fire things that we are keeping an eye out for as we go into ballad of falling dragons. Number one, our dude Prince Turin. Oh boy, where are you? We do not see him on the page in When the Moon Hatched. All we know is that this Prince of the Fade, son of Cadok, is missing. A prince missing? When we asked Sarah a Parker, is there anything you can share about him? She said, quote, my lips are sealed. I'm going with he is with the scavenger king. Do you think that he is imprisoned by the scavenger king? Yes, I do. I don't think so. We already have a bet on that, right? OK, we do. We do. I'm going back to my theory that Prince Turin is the Eldine. He could be working to take his father down, but I don't think he knows exactly who Rave is because you've been thinking that the Eldine does know specifically who Rave is. Yes, right? I do. I do think that. All right. So no matter what this prince, we know that he's going to be coming back into this story somehow, that's never a throwaway line, especially when it's paired with Sarah not telling us anything. We do know that he is a tribe, so he is powerful and he has not been seen in many phases, quote, some say he went mad and rather than make the problem public, the king was all too happy to hide him away. So when the concept of he's been missing, like he's been missing from the public space, like nobody has seen or heard from him in phases. So there is speculation also that he is more competent than King Kadaq, plus Serene blushed when Rave assumed that she was sucking the Eldine's cock. So what if the Eldine is a powerful person who hates his father and who wants to bring everything down and he's a handsome young ish male like Prince Turin is the Eldine and it was considered that he was going mad because he was challenging his father, so he escaped. I do see that he's going mad as challenging his father, Kadaq just spitting the propaganda. I don't see him and Serene together, though, because in my mind, Serene's like like our version of like 60 years old and Turin would be this world's version of like 30 mid 30s. And listen, I don't want to yuck anyone's yuck. I never got that impression with Serene at all. I think she's like looks like she's in her 30s. And who knows if she even technically is maybe she just has a crush on the Eldine. Again, this was an unreliable narrator moment with Rave where she is assuming that. But I just have a I don't know. I don't know, mom. All right. Speaking of things we don't know, there's so much we don't know about Arken, the scavenger king, AKA Khan and the twins's half brother. More specifically, how did Rave escape him? Why is she called Firelark? Why did he want her? How did Fallon die? Who was her cellmate when we asked Sarah Parker if she can share anything more about how Rave escaped? She said that we'll just know when ballad. So at least we know we're going to get more scavenger king answers in ballad. Yes, we also know that Rave relearned how to talk and write in her cell while imprisoned by the scavenger king. I think I mentioned this in one of our episodes, but I put two and two together that if Kazari is in those cells, what if she sees like this handwriting that she now already has from the know you don't and she's able to be like, wait a second, why is this handwriting the same? That's such a little detail that I think would just be so cool if it came back. But we don't know if she's in the same cell or not. We do know, however, that Rave shared this cell with someone named Fallon, who taught her about the world and life beyond their cell. They drew moons on the ceiling of their cell and Fallon told her about this beautiful life beyond. We don't know how Fallon died, like Nicole said, but we can infer that her love for Rave was part of the cause, like maybe Fallon sacrificed herself to save Rave or something along those lines. Rave was a renowned fighter in the pits of Kandard called Firelark. And it seems known in circles that the only person ever to escape the pits was Firelark. Like Rex Zarros said when he's like, oh, the only one who's ever escaped from those pits is the Firelark. I think that is somehow going to come back. I know that Rave is dead, but Firelark having escaped might come back into the story somehow and now Khan knows that Rave has night terrors about Firelark. So I think that he's going to put two and two together somehow. Rave was tortured by the scavenger king and his flames countless times, leading to her with mending runes covering her body, where it is impossible to tell just how many there are or how recently or long ago they were. She escaped after Fallon's death and found her way to Gore where she started her new life, but she is haunted by the scavenger king's torment and the loss of Fallon. OK, so then I have a question about the scavenger king. Do you think he's making it out of book two alive? Because I don't think so. I think he's dying. I initially would have thought, no, I think he's not going to make it out of book two. But I also don't think we're going to get much of Caddock this book based on what we'll share soon from Sarah. So maybe Arkin is like the big bad of book two. Kind of like how Wreck was in book one, but on a way more magnified scale because we have all this setup for it. Ah, but there's so so much backstory that we don't know. I'm going to unconfidently, unconfidently say, yes, I think he is going to survive book two and he will survive to the third book, but he will die halfway through third book. Oh my God, I this it. Hold on. Wait, are you saying someone's not going to die? You know what? Yes, I am saying. Wow, wow. All right. Arkin is dying in ballad. Lexi says no, he survives. Nicole says yes, he dies. All right, switching up. We can assume that there's going to be some mixed up family drama next book on multitude of levels while many people on both Rave slash Elwin and Conside are dead. We still don't know a lot about those people. Like whose dragons are still alive? We know from Sarah Parker that we're going to learn if King Ostern's dragon is dead or alive in ballad. Don't worry, we already have a bet about it. We are also going to learn about Tyroth's dragon in ballad, but we're going to have to wait until book three to learn about Caddox dragon, which is ominous. And I think kind of what you were looting to a second ago, Lex, I think that this means we're not going to spend a whole lot of time in the fade. We're going to spend much more time in the shade in ballad. Veya is already there. She still has to escape. I'm very worried about her. I am as well. Also, how long does the Bengal magic glamour last? We don't know. Anyway, we also don't know about Elwin's parents, dragons. Are those moon plumes still alive? That's a great question, too. And Sarah did say we will learn a touch more about a connection among all moon plumes in ballad. So I'm very curious to learn about that. OK, let's move a little bit more to the burn now. Because there was so much set up with the Jakuul clan in when the moon hatched. And while a lot of people were like, this is a side quest, Lexi and I, as we were doing the deep dive, were like, no, it's not. It's so much set up. But we have so many questions unanswered. What the hell does Kalu mean? We asked Sarah, she unsurprisingly could not answer. We also know they left the clan with Rave being deemed Khan's greater. If he's the king of the burn, she's got a lot of power over this clan in the Baltanic plains, which means she might be able to do things like, oh, I don't know, call them to a war with the fade and the shade. Ah, then there's also the Fate Herder. When we asked Sarah a Parker if the Fate Herder brought Rave to the trial for the prophecy the clan believes, a tethering the moves to the sky. Or if there was another reason that the Fate Herder brought Rave to the clan. All she said was, quote, the Fate Herder has dot, dot, dot reasons. I think that has to be bigger than just Khazari tethering the moons to the sky prophecy. I 100 percent agree. She needed to be deemed greater than Khan for reasons we will find out later. And I do think it's going to come back to the oncoming war. That's a cool clan will fight with the burn. And yes, another thing about Rave that we have been spiraling over her entire conversation with the mind weft run, specifically how he was very choked up and emotional about how special Rave is. And he said that the answer is within her. If she's only willing to drain, assumably the lake within herself, aka access her memories and past and that the creator rain is power because no one is strong enough to wield snow, which covers half the world. But Rave could. She could be the first person who is strong enough to wield snow if she did not tuck sadness into that icy lake of hers. So I think that once Rave faces her inner truths, faces who she truly is and the pain and the sorrow that will be an epic self healing journey, then she will be able to tap into her power as an avan, which they are extremely powerful because they have to be able to withstand the ether stone, plus the cold loving other that is within her, which we are convinced is slacha, to then together have this power like never before seen in this world. And she will be the only person who can wield snow. That will be important. I briefly mentioned this earlier, but let's go back to Veya's missing 30 aurora cycles while she had the magic bangle on for the first time over a hundred phases ago. The mind weft who gave her this bangle said that it would surfer in two ways, both painful but necessary. Veya does not remember what happened the first time, but it is clear. Those secrets are very painful. And Sarah has said that it's probably a good thing. Veya does not want to know, but Sarah also said we will find out what happened in these missing 30 cycles within the first 15 chapters of ballad. In episode six, Nicole and I talked a whole lot about our theories for what happened to Veya during this missing month. And my ultimate takeaway is that she was forced to do something she did not want to. And I really do worry that it had to do with Ellen because this all happened over a hundred phases ago. Whenever we hear that kind of timeline thing, I immediately think of Ellen and all of that backstory there. I do think Ty Rath did kill Ellen, but how poetic would it be if Veya had something to do with Ellen's secrets and her death that Veya is now currently trying to uncover and she finds out that she somehow had some part of it. And maybe during these 30 aurora cycles, Veya went to the shade, which we know round trips would usually take about 30 cycles and on her way back, she was terrified of what she had to do. She was scared that she was forced to do it, whatever that might be. So she got rid of the bangle before returning to the burn. And that is why it ended up in Gore. Do you think we're going to find out about Veya's missing 30 cycles from Veya or from another P of E? I don't know. I don't know. You know, just for fun, what do you think? I want to say from Veya, but I feel like a lot would have to happen in order for her to understand that. I'm going to say from Khan, because we know that he had to do with her throwing the bangle in the trash suit. So I'm going to say we're actually going to learn it from Khan. You know, just for shirts and giggles, then I will say from Veya, although I think that she will unwillingly learn about it. Again, she's in the shade. Something might go down there where she finds out about something. Tyros might give an evil villain model log and tell her about what happened. Oh, that would be good. But we would be in Bay of POV. So you would win. OK. We will learn about Veya's missing 30 cycles from Nicole, Khan's P of E, Lexi, Veya's P of E. All right, Lexi, we have a bet that we have not made yet for Book Two, that we always make for our sequel, that we always do sex scenes. I call two sex scenes this time. OK, I say three. So what are we going to do? Just two or three in the past. You have said neither of us can take three because that's Whitley's. So we get either two or four. Fine. That's why I called for two. Fine. I will do four or more. You'll do two or less. Whitley gets her solid three. OK, well, we made a lots of bets this episode. And at the end of our next episode, at the very end of episode seven, once we have all of our bets, we will go through all of them with you all. And of course, we also do a social post to. We love how much you all like to join us with these bets. And there we have it, friends. Thank you so much for listening to this episode for everything you need to know before Ballad of Falling Dragons. We have absolutely loved deep diving when the moon hatched and cannot wait to continue with the sequel, Ballad of Falling Dragons. Next Monday, May 19th, we are wrapping up our When the Moon Hatched coverage with episode seven. Perfect timing before Ballad comes out on May 19th. We would love to give the biggest warm welcome, welcome, welcome to our newest feral fans and deep divers in the fan club. Thank you so, so much from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for being here. Welcome, welcome, welcome, Kiara and Brandy W. Bup, bup, bup, bup, bup. Woo. And if you're like, hey, I want my name shot out on the podcast, we'll be shot with all this love to join our fan club at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club link is also in the show notes. Thank you, as always, to our Mind Weft, a.k.a. our content researcher, Brooke. Quick pause. We have had like five outlines in the last two weeks, almost all within different lore, like we've had Imperian, we've had Right to the Starling, we've had How to Train Your Dragon, we've had When the Moon Hatched and Brooke has kept up with it all, so three cheers for our favorite Mind Weft. And of course, our executive producer, a.k.a. our sanity manager, who had his work cut out for him in Seattle this last weekend, and of course, the co-host of Fantasy Fanfellas, Hayden. We are very active on social media, so please be sure to follow us on Instagram and slash our TikTok at fantasyfangirls.pod. And if you're watching this on YouTube or want to watch on YouTube, pretty please hit that subscribe button to keep following along. While you're hitting buttons, go ahead and hit that five star button on whatever podcasting platform you're listening on. We're so close to 14,000 five star reviews on Spotify. You all that is going to be the fucking perfect. Yeah, that is insane. 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That's what they did in high school musical.