Reactions to Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry

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First things first, please listen to our spoiler warning for today's episode, because it will begin with our spoiler free thoughts about Rites of the Starling. So it's safe for anyone to listen to, even if you have not started the book. But in part two, spoilers, spoilers, spoilers for Rites of the Starling, as we freak out over this entire book, including the ending. So if you don't know why, not only us, but also the entire internet is freaking out over this book, that's okay, you're safe to listen to part one, but not part two. Do not worry, we will be giving a gigantic spoiler warning before we hop into Rites of the Starling spoilers. Next, we, FNC Fan Girls, are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R. It might be frowned upon for a Starling to curse, but if we are not Starlings, unfortunately. So please be mindful of those little listening ears. Additionally, we are so excited to announce our live show tour. That's right, friends, we're doing three live shows this September, starting in Chicago on September 9th, Charlotte, North Carolina on September 24th, and New York City on September 27th. Tickets go on sale for our fan club this Wednesday, April 22nd, and for the public on April 24th. We have been sitting on this news for so long, we are so excited to finally share it with you, and East Coast, we've heard you, we're ready to give you some love, y'all. We're coming! We're ready. Then of course, we will be at the Dragon Gauntlet in Boine City, Michigan, September 11th and 12th. And if you thought we were done overseas people, we've also heard you. It has just been announced that we are going to be going to LandCon, that is the official Outlander Convention in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 16th through 18th, 2027, and tickets just went on sale. Coming out with us in Scotland, y'all. I'm so excited. Oh my god. Last thing before we jump into this Writes of the Starling reaction episode. If you love fantasy fan girls and you want more events, more content, more community, so much more, please check out Fantasy Fan Club. We have six tiers that you can join, which includes access to our bop and discord live Q&As. We just did one on Shield of Sparrows and Writes of the Starling, but Club often featuring the authors themselves, early access to ad-free episodes, welcome gifts, and so much more. Learn more and join the party at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club. The link is also in the show notes and really and truly as always, thank you so much for supporting us as we've turned this podcast into a dream come true. It is literally all because of you. Thank you for bringing us to the East Coast for taking us overseas. We love you all so much. And now it is time to dive into our reactions for Devani Perry's Writes of the Starling. So first, another quick reminder. This is part one, so this is free of plot spoilers. We both had so much fun with our Shield of Sparrows Fan Guide, where we went down all these theory rabbit holes and asked all sorts of questions and the lead-up to this sequel. It made me extra hyped for Writes of the Starling. And I would say Writes of the Starling was in my top five anticipated sequels this year to read. About a week after we recorded our Fan Guide episode, Nicole and I were fortunate enough to get an arc from Devani, and I dove right on in. Then I proceeded to finish the book in four days, which for me is super fast when there's no audiobook and I have to read with my eyes. Because I dove right in, I had no one to freak out over this book with as I read. And there is this early chapter, if you know, you know, that is the definition of the mind-blown emoji. And I had so many theories throughout. I felt like I was about to burst. Nicole was getting so annoyed with me as I'm like, you Nicole, you need to read this book so I can read it with you. I was like, I'm trying for anyone for backstory. I'm deep in edits in my own book with when you're on a deadline with your editor, you have like days to finish the entire editing and process. And I was able to get an extension, but still with like FFG and everything. I was like, Lexi, I'm trying, but I don't have time to read this book right now. So when I finally was able to dive into that chapter, we both just collectively screamed. Okay, so I want to start off. Like you said, this is no plot spoilers, but as you can imagine, we are going to give vibes about this book. So if you consider that spoilers, then this is just not the episode for you. But with a plot spoiler free question, Lexi, did you like this book? I don't know if I know the answer to this. I think the entire internet knows the answer to this. I have not been quiet. Yes, I loved this book. It is such an easy five stars and a genuinely fun read. It was everything I loved about Shield of Sparrows dialed up times 10. Devani delivered when she said to expect more world building and to treat the setting and the monsters as their own characters. Odessa and Ransom's romance does take a backseat just like Devani prepared us for, but I loved how there was still other romance present. I won't go into any more though because of spoilers. I continue to love and appreciate Odessa as a unique FMC, especially how she truly comes into her own this book after how much she changed in book one. I really thought her character arc from book one and into book two and by the end of book two felt so natural and so earned for her. It was so beautifully paced too. Yes. That was such a beautifully paced character arc. My favorite part of Rites of the Starling was how the story unfolded. It truly felt like one big puzzle where we get a piece here and a piece there. And I was having the best time throughout my reading experience as it all comes together. To me, this was a really strong book too. I preferred Rites of the Starling over Shield of Sparrows. And it was the most fun I've had reading a new book in a minute. Same. Well, honestly, you took a lot of the words right out of my mouth, but I'll expand ever so slightly. This book somehow was both exactly what I expected and nothing like I expected all the same time. Meaning we got answers to questions that were driving us up a theory wall during the Shield of Sparrows recap episode. I can't actually think of a single question that we asked that we didn't in some way get an answer to whether that was directly or adjacently. But you also get answers in a way that you did not expect to get the answers at all. I was someone who did not guess the big twist at the end and I will leave it at that. But the moment that it did happen, I was like, well, god fucking damn it. I have to go back and reread this book again because it's going to be a different book on a reread given that I'm actually rereading it now for or I just finished it last night. Now that I think about it, I can't confirm that. Yes, it feels so much deeper on a reread, which I love those types of books. The twist had me tearing up and by tearing up, I mean crying uncontrollably while I was texting Lexi. It had me unwilling to put the book down for the last 10 to 15%. I don't know. Whenever I started texting you being like, buckle up, I'm going in. It had me foaming at the mouth wondering how book three is going to pan out and get executed, which gives you so much setup for book three while still closing a lot of loops in this book. It just, oh, it's so good. Like it cracks open a few doors and then it slams open like three doors specifically for book three. I will say the only thing that I was like, okay, like I could do with crunching this down a little was the middle third felt a little slow to me, but the ending made up for it. So I don't even care. And also I will admit that on a reread, I was thinking to myself, so I was like, okay, well, like would any scenes been able to have been cut or, you know, be mushed together because like, I just have my brain works now. And I don't know if I actually came up with any because every single thing builds up to a big thing at the end. Yes, I could have done with a hundred pages in the middle dedicated instead to the end to give it a little bit more room to breathe because it is just so exciting. And at the same time, that's getting nitpicky with this five star book read because on a reread, it's like, I don't even care. Just take me on the journey. I love it. Well, I think I will, I think I have a pretty hard and fast rule for myself that anytime I finish a book and immediately I need to go back and reread it because I know it'll be a different book on a reread. That is an automatic five stars for me. So as you can imagine, this was an automatic five stars. Like, like Lexi said, like us getting like the middle was a little slow, that's getting really, really nitpicky. You say a hundred pages, I could even say like 50 to 100 pages could have been like trimmed or combined or something like that. But like at the end of the day, everything builds up to this incredible payoff at the end that, oh, God, it's so worth it. Exactly. Exactly. All right, friends, we are going to be hopping into our spoiler thoughts at the moment. Can you tell there's a lot we need to talk about that spoiler? So sorry about that. But we're going to be hopping into that in just a moment. But first, a quick word from our sponsors. Sorry for the voice note. Just running for the taxi. Did anyone pack hair straighteners? No, I didn't. I've got hair straighteners. Everybody relax. Predeparture drink anyone? Sure, you can roam in the EU at no extra cost. But what really matters is friends and family. That's why we're happy to be your second most important network. Tesco Mobile. It pays to be connected. Terms apply. See tescomobile.com slash home from home. Nothing beats a jet to holiday. Right now, we've got some great deals available. Plus, you'll get the best choice of our free child place holidays. But now, with just a £60 deposit per person, get 22 kilograms of baggage included. And now you can go direct from London Gapwick. JetZew Holidays. Package holidays you can trust. Afternation protected. Subject to availability and conditions. All right, friends. That ends our spoiler free part of this episode. So if you have not finished Rights of the Starling, we are lovingly but firmly telling you to leave now. We promise we will still be here for you to come back to you once when you finish the book. Okay, so three, two, one. Last chance. Are you sure you're gone in case you're running to your phone? I'm going to give you three, two, one. Okay, if you do not know about Odessa's mom. I'm sorry, that's on you. If you're still listening, that means you've finished this beautiful book. So let's finally talk about it. Finally, it's been five minutes. I don't care. I'm so excited. Okay, so let's open this up with an expansion on our previous conversation. Why did we like this book? And this time, obviously, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler central because the number one thing on all of our minds is the timeline difference between these POVs and how much more we learn about this world way beyond Kalandra. That reveal was so good. Okay, so like I mentioned in the first section, I did not see the big plot twist with Cassia being Odessa's mom. I had no idea that was going to happen. This entire book, I was reading it and I was like, you know, 90% of the way in and I'm texting Lexi in all caps being like, when the fuck are these two girls gonna meet? They're dancing around each other. If they don't meet, I'm gonna fling myself off of Odessa's cliff. And now I can see that that was a little dramatic. Well, it really was like this carrot dangling in front of us the whole time. Every time these two characters, Caspia and Odessa, like they'd be kind of near each other. And I was preparing for them to meet like, it was like, okay, this has got to be the chapter. And I kept waiting and waiting, but I love what we were learning along the way. And at the same time, it's like, okay, we're both at the castle now. Are we really not running into each other in the crux art gallery or the training yard or by the boats or the library? Like we're so close to each other. Come on. Well, and then there's that moment where Caspia and Andreas goes to their little side quest in the chasm. And I was like, is this girl about to leave the castle? And her and Odessa have not met yet. I was so livid. And now on a reread, I'm like, gotta, gotta, gotta. So I was actually convinced from pretty much the get go of like chapter three, maybe chapter five, that they were sisters. And Caspia's mother went to Calandra and had an affair with a king or something like that. And then shifted back into a swift and flew home to Nelfenix. But no, after 90% of this book, I was not even quiet. I was all caps. So annoyed. But like in a fun annoyed way where it was like, Oh my God, just fucking me already, your sisters, you need to meet each other per brother score saying you need to meet the warrior. And then we get the reveal. And I was taken so by surprise the way that chapter just slaps you in the face with Margot and then the baby and then him being the king and her being the queen. And the way that chapter is done is so masterful. And then how she stabbed by Andreas and he's still holding her two days later. I'm covered in chills right now like that was so beautiful. I was weeping like a small child. I will say of all the things on my bingo card, sympathy for Odessa's father was not something I was expecting out of rights of the Starling. But the character development we get with him was so masterful. It does make me giggle because the entire book I was like, Andreas is so sus. He's evil. As far as I could throw them. Their relationship was too perfect out the gate. He was so protective. My radar was super up the entire time. I was like, this guy's going to betray her. He's he's working for that. I don't know underground something. Meanwhile, I'm like, well, obviously a handsome wealthy man had a cabin in the woods and she fell in love with him. Like, I was just taken on the journey. It was like, Oh, obviously, like, yes, this makes absolute sense. Like, this is not the first time we've experienced two people falling in love in a cabin within a very tight timeline. That's fair. Maybe I've just I trust no no man who seems too perfect. I just I don't trust them. I don't trust them. And the entire book I was like, this dude's so suspicious. Like, I like, I thought that I was on to something. I was like, guessing this big twist that was going to happen at the end. Okay, but I will say I wasn't entirely off the entire book. He's the king or he was the prince and now he's the king. He's Odessa's father who's been a suspicious dude this entire time. But not me like I was evil the whole time way that I was expecting. So I had an inkling about the big twist at the end when specifically Caspia started writing in journals, I was like, wait, wait, could it be possible? And there were even a few times before that where I like would highlight in my notes and be like, is this a vision? Like, I was starting to wonder but I wasn't fully putting all the pieces together. And in fact, I even went back to chapter three and reread that because I was like, could this possibly be like Odessa's mom? Like, are we working with a different timeline? But I was like, no, no, no, after reading chapter three again, because Caspia has to be Odessa's sister, because her mother has been missing for most of her life. The timeframe lined up too perfectly and it was also around the same seasons to the end of fall, like not yet wintertime. I thought Caspia and Emery's mom was Odessa's mom who fell in love with the king and then had her right in the king had to kill her, which basically, I thought was the case, but it was just Caspia and not Caspia's mom. And so then of course, thinking that Caspia was Odessa's sister, I thought it was going to be a whole thing with Caspia and ransom when they would finally meet and Caspia would later help Odessa with some of these visions and Andreas was betrothed to a character we knew maybe even May. And so I was wondering, so I had wondered and I literally went back through and I convinced myself, no, two different timelines could not be possible. But then the moment that Caspia mentioned being pregnant, I was like, oh, something's not like, this is, this is, I think I know what's happening. And then boom, the blonde-haired ladies made named Margo who's obsessed with the husband. It had me standing up and freaking out. I had an out-of-body experience. I paced for a while. I word vomited to my husband and he's like, what in the world are you even talking about? And then I'm like, shh, I have to go back to reading. I was so locked in. But like I was having a pace around. I was like, oh my gosh, I can't handle this. Well, and I have to say like brava to Devani for how she set up chapter three with making it so concrete in us first time readers brains that this is the same timeline because I'm talking about Emery being gone. She wakes up with a vision of literally the end of last book. Like, oh my God, it's so good. Okay, so we're going to have a lot to say on Caspia's storyline. When it comes to Odessa's storyline, I feel like there are a few moments that really stand out to me, like her standing up to May and realizing she has a found family of her own. The cave scene with Brother Score was so creepy and so good. Oh, I loved it. I know a huge thing that made us both just like weepy was all the sweet moments with Evie. And at the end of the day, I do feel like Odessa's storyline was more supporting in this book versus main character like it was last book. Obviously, I'm still going to be referring to her as an FMC just because that's how she is. But there's a reason this title is the rights of the Starling a direct connection to Caspia versus anything that has to do with Odessa right now with the exception of the very end. However, all of this book is setting up for the end so stunningly. The Thrum is so ominous on that last chapter. We'll obviously be talking about our theories setting up for that later. I loved that ending. It was so spooky, so good. Your hearts and pieces after hearing about how Andrea's just held Caspia for two days in her dead body as she switched back from a swift. Oh my God, the orbits set up. I love a hunt for an artifact. I love it. And it just makes me so excited for book three whenever that comes out. Yes. And how it's been her father's mission. Really her whole life. Also, I bet he especially hates the Guardian because he's known all this time that he is the silver eyed warrior that Andreas's love has been seeking revenge on. But there's so many loose ends with ransom and alasaria and what is next for Odessa? I think that you and I can both agree that like spoiler wise, Caspia stole the show. This book for me. And I think it's one of the reasons this book was so, so, so good is because it still was in the world that we know from book one, but it had this whole new take on it. That is brilliant. It's risky. But man, did it pay off for a book to I am just brava, Devani. Wow. I agree. And in so many ways, it was a fantastic book to that bridges book one and book three that I really think six the landing. This was Caspia's story arc and learning a little bit about Odessa's past. So now she is way more set up for book three. There's so plenty of mystery heading into book three. But wow, I love the histories, the folklore, the visions, the different continents and the politics that are going on between all of them, the types of magic, the foster and the six that are all in rights of the starling and how that's all presented and unfolding as a genuinely great reading experience. And now that we're done with book two, it's like, okay, now we're really back to focusing on Odessa because we have all of the context that we need for her backstory and the starlings to now keep going forward. Yes. All right, so now let's zoom further into the story and discuss some of the pivotal moments from rights of the starling because obviously we had a great time reading this book. Okay, so right off the top, I want to hit on the prologue real quick, because we start this book not in Odessa's POV, not with Caspia, but instead with sparrow wolf, the very first shield of sparrows betrothed for the treaty. I think that this was a brilliant way to start off this book. It reminds us how the magic works with the foster priests and how the bloodbinding magic works and why Odessa was taken away last book. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. Yes. And it also reminds us why the treaty is here in the first place. The threat of the crux is right there looming on the page. One of my personal favorites though is this is an assumption that I think it was setting us up right off the bat for those differing timelines and we didn't even know it. And it was starting us off already 10 generations ago. So it was like way in the past compared to Caspia and Odessa. There's also some delicious Easter eggs in this prologue. The high priest has green blood and it's like, oh my, I remember highlighting that and being like, what the fuck? Oh my God. Yes, we will get into all of that later and how that works. Also, did you notice the line about the sparrow wearing gray? Yes, I did. It reminds me about how Margo would always put Odessa in gray dresses. We also know that Sonnet's 90 is a gray covered book. So I don't know if that's like a little nod for Margo being like, here's a connection to your mom. But I wondered like why Odessa and the sparrow were known for wearing gray. I do also wonder if it's a symbol of them being pawns. Obviously in different ways, but like the first sparrow, which that was her name, she was wearing gray probably because she thought that she was more important than she ended up being like as a daughter kind of thing. And Odessa, on the other hand, she was gray so that she could like blend in. But I noticed that too about the gray and it's almost like the gray representing the sparrow but in totally different ways. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, I think it was more literary representation versus like Easter egg. Yes. Character choice representation. Yes, that's a great way of putting it. I also don't know if it's notable that sparrow was a turn. She was sparrow wolf after all. And so it's like the shield of sparrows will begin and end with Torah. Also keep an eye on the history of Kalandra with the kingdoms and the shield of sparrows. Is Ransom's trust in the high priest connected to his family's history with the high priest? Oh, I always just assumed it was because the high priest filters or like sucks the Lysa, not out of him, but like, but remember his father and the high priest too and the high priest and how they have this sanctuary in Alessaria. So, oh, yeah, they do. Something's going on with the turns and essentially choosing the six while the Kenyan brothers and the Vostor who are kind of like hidden and whatnot, they really want to be able to go back to their homeland. Then of course, there's the chapter three reveal starting with a vision that we remember from the end of shield of sparrows. And we get the line, my sister plummets to the earth immediately throwing us into this new POV and that there's somewhere we've never heard of before with no idea about the events of book one aside from just having this vision. And so there's so much mystery and like, Oh my gosh, who are these people? Where are these people? Who is her sister is this? What happened? Well, the moment, the moment this chapter started, I was like, Holy fuck, this is where the crux are from. Oh my, because that was a huge question for us as we were doing the rights of the Starling prep episode last month. It was like, where the heck do the crux go when they're not migrating? And boom, we got that answer right out the gate. I was not expecting that. Well, and then we also get boom, the red hair is Starling hair and monsters are these wonderful, beautiful, lovely creatures here. When I was reading about the Swift, aka the crux and the shapesisters and their affinity with creatures and just how crazy different it is here. Again, it just had me on the edge of my seat in chapter three. I wish I had a reaction video to I do this chapter. I had no chill as it was just answer after answer. And at the same time, question after question, I love so much when a sequel starts out with a lot of answers, but providing us with even more questions. And I'm just obsessed with how Devney did that and started off book two with a bang. Like, what do you mean all these monsters we've been terrified of for an entire book that have shaped an entire civil age station are docile, majestic pets here? What? One thing that was brilliantly done is the main reason we're led to believe off the top that these are the same timelines is this is I want to go a little bit more into this Emory vision and how she's described as being missing. Cassia believes that she might have been killed by the Silver Eyed Warrior, aka the last section of Shield of Sparrows, the last book, which in our timeline, ransom has already killed Emory. And Cassia has only ever seen visions of the past to her knowledge. And I love a good limited POV narration, because I was bought in that this had already happened because Cassia was so sure that it already happened because she to her knowledge has never had a vision of the future before. Well, and it's not until chapter 69 nice that we get a vision from Cassia, Emory and her Aunt Elena. Turns out, Emory was not dead from the Silver Eyed Warrior in Cassia's timeline. But instead, she was missing because she had been taken by the Beacons. She was assumed to have gone off with her pirate Max. But he was also taken by the Beacons and used as leverage. In case you're like, who are these Beacons, Nicole? What are you talking about? Because I didn't remember after my first read. They're the country who is waging war on Nelfinix. They're up at the top of the book in chapter three. We learn about this whole other country to the south that is all on this continent of Ken, which by the way, none of the characters in Calandra have heard of this continent. The Beacon King on the continent of Ken has been up against the southern border of Nelfinix the entire time. Why? We still don't know and it's going to drive me crazy. This also did get me wondering, is this war with Nelfinix and Beacons still going on in Odessa's timeline? Because if so, that feels very important. Well, I think so because Emery is whether she's released or she escapes or whatever, that is in Odessa's timeline. So then she leaves and or Odessa's timeline and that's gets killed. But I definitely think because in Odessa's timeline now her great aunt, Aunt Olenna, she is like, oh, these motherfuckers are going to pay for what they did to Emery. So I think Nelfinix is going to be invading and getting back at Beacon in book three. And I also think Beacon will play a pretty vital role in the next book as well. There were too many Easter eggs with it and the conflict. That's where the Vostor are originally from too. And the Beacons eventually overtook the territory and persecuted them for their religion. And the survivors fled to Calandra, thanks to the help of three Starling ancestors, two of whom were killed as monsters here in Calandra. And the other Starling was a vicious monster who killed everyone in her path until one day she was just gone, assumably back to Nelfinix, forbidding anyone from going where the Crux go for migration. And the Crux only started migrating here when the Vostor arrived. I'm getting ahead of myself. We're going to be going way more into detail about this later in the episode. But I have wondered if Aunt Olenna was a third Starling who survived, even though this had happened hundreds of years ago. So one of the Starling killed could not be Caspia's missing mother who disappeared 25 years ago. So who this third Starling would be depends on how long the Starling's lives are, which I haven't gotten the impression they are long lived like the Vostor. So if this third Starling who came back was probably way more generations ago than her aunt, but I was having so much fun theorizing. I don't know. I assume that the Vostor only are long lived on Calandra, which makes me wonder if the Starling who are trapped in monster form on Calandra are long lived too. Well, and then there's also like the hundred years and she came back after 100 years. Oh my gosh, I need a theory map. I need a iron. I need my red tape. I need Sierra. Oh my god. Okay, going back to Emory for a second and the Beacons who captured her. Yes. Yes. Yes. We know that Emory was taken and captured. This is in Caspia's timeline and quote, my blood stolen by their alchemists for experiments. What the fuck? Okay, so the Beacons stole Emory, use Max as leverage to get her to cooperate and literally just give them her blood. Why? I don't know. Are they testing how the Starling can shift? Are they testing how their blood reacts to Vostor magic? She's gone for the Vostor magic are only in Calandra. So I think it's all about the Starlings and their shape shifting and things like that. You're right. And what's extra sad is she had a child with Max in the prison and they were also using her child against her. I very sadly got the impression that that child is not with her anymore. And that child might still be in Beacon. And what if it's a daughter who is a Starling and they had a Starling. That's why they released her? Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Oh my god. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even like say nothing. I know. I got the impression that she had a daughter but I was getting confused with Graciella because that's her daughter but she was in Nelfenix the entire time. Anyway, she had a daughter in the prison and they use that. We don't know if it was a daughter but a child. But since Starlings only have daughters, yeah, we can assume that. And that they used the child and Max against her. But that was separate from Graciella. This cements to me that when she came back, she had her conversation with Aunt Elena. Then she was like, fuck this dude who probably killed my sister. She thinks that it's the SilverEyed Warrior because that's all that Aunt Elena knows. So Emery goes to Calandra to avenge her sister. This cements for me that Emery saw Odessa and something deep within her because remember she was swapped to Crux and she was gone, lost to the monster. But something deep within her said, holy shit, that's Caspia. Or oh my god, that looks just like Caspia. So that's why last book, the Crux was seen not defending Odessa but not attacking Odessa directly. That is canon because she was like, oh my god, that might be my niece. Like that looks like my niece. So I would also be remiss if I didn't ask while we were in the Emery section, where the fuck is Max? Is he okay? He's missing a finger. He was tortured for a really long time. Two fingers. And a tongue. Bro. I don't know if he made it out alive because Emery was also saying that she was grieving when she was talking to Elena and yeah. I still have hope that Sandra someday will be reunited with Cap, our penis pierced pirate. Because I want Sandra to survive with Odessa, figuring out how to get her aunt out of the bear wool form. Or not technically aunt, she's like her first cousin once removed. And since she's one eyed, maybe she'll have like her own pirate patch and then she, Cap can go off into the sunset and be pirates together. That's my head cannon for Sandra's happily ever after. Okay, so here's something I will say is that there was a really fun theory going, not like that's a fun theory, but like a fun theory going around that fun theory in a long time. Let's see this up. We're still young. There was a fun theory that Jody was Cap because they were described a little similarly in their facial expressions. However, through some sleuthing in our discord, we went between the two physical descriptions and their hair color was different and their eye color was different. So alas, but that would have been so fun because a lot of us were wondering is that why he's so interested in Odessa because she looks just like a startling. But alas. Another person I'm curious about that we met in chapter three was Grace Yella, who would be about 30 years old in her cousin Odessa's timeline. So in the present timeline, she's about 30 years old. Was the right successful for her or did it not call to her? Usually starlings would have the right call to them when they were a teenager, like 15 to 17 years old. However, Caspia was much later in her mid 20s and fewer and fewer starlings are experiencing the right of being able to shape shift. So back with Grace Yella, I wonder if her right is going to call to her much later in life. And maybe her right calls her to Kalandra as well. And she'll work with Odessa to bring down the foster, which I do think the divine is calling the startling to solve. And it's with Odessa that Kalandra will be free of this demon magic. I definitely don't think that we've seen the last of Grace Yella because she is the only other starling we know of in Odessa's generation. Yes, I agree. Absolutely completely. I love this idea that they're being called to Kalandra, especially like Caspia was called to Kalandra so that she could birth Odessa so that Odessa can be a child of both soils. And now Odessa is following these visions and it's down the light. Right. I love destiny. So, okay, real quickly, I will say this. I love how the visions were presented in this story. Sometimes future telling and all that kind of stuff can get a little interesting with storytelling. It can feel like a crutch or we've said before a cheat sheet for another deep dive of ours. And this way, I love how there's so much unknown with the visions and yet so much to take from the Easter eggs. And I really love how the visions were done in this world. It did not feel like a crutch or a cheat sheet or anything along those lines. And instead it's just like, give me, give me, give me all the breadcrumbs I can. Okay, I do want to talk about people who may still be alive, may not still be alive. Caspia's mother, Des, we know that she left Nelphanix when Caspia was a baby and no one has really spoken of her since, except for Aunt Olenna calling her a dreamer. Now, Caspia does wonder if that's dreamer figuratively where it's like, oh, I'm just a dreamer, like I want to, you know, see the world, or literally if she has visions like Caspia, I'm leaning both. I would love the idea that Des is still alive. Like, I just want Desa to meet some of her generation, someone from her mom's, you know, line. However, at the end of this book, we do get a little bit more info. We learned that Caspia saw a vision of her mother flying, assuming as a crux, to Cylandra and was killed by a floating voster, bad voster. So who do we know who is a floating priest? The High Priest. Oh my god, I bet that's why he was asking about Odessa's late. He knows about the Starling, he knows about the rights and what happened to them because his god's magic are the reason they become monsters. And he does not want the Starling around because they have the only means to literally destroy the voster. Okay, I'm going to present a theory because we know that Caspia's visions are sometimes of the past or sometimes of the future. Do you think that vision has already come to pass? Or do you think that that's going to happen to let me finish the question? Or do you think that's going to happen to Des next book after we meet her? I'm going to go with the latter. I think that her mother came to Cylandra because she felt the right, she felt it, and she shifted and she was killed because otherwise there would be way more information about a crux having killed everybody and she was the only one around. I think she might be off somewhere somewhere in Ken maybe and then you know she's like, Oh, what's this from? I'm feeling at my 80 year old self and then she flies and she meets her granddaughter because Odessa deserves to meet someone from her line and then she dies. I'm sticking with it already happened and it's another nod to us that Odessa's lineage, her mother and her mother before have been trying to get here and be able to do what Odessa alone will be able to actually accomplish. Okay, so I'd love to focus more on that thrum of the right that is called both Caspia and Xandra to Calandra because what do we think that it was? I'm convinced and I know I already kind of said this, but I am convinced that it's the divine, this powerful God trying to write the world and rid Calandra of the demon orbits. That's what I'm calling them here that are poisoning this land and have a curse of dark magic on it. Caspia was called here and she played her part by retrieving one of the orbs and giving birth to a daughter born of the Starling and Calandra Odessa's journey has now begun and she is on the right path as her mother's visions are coming true. We also cannot forget that Xandra's right is called her to Calandra too and she is still alive, although she's been trapped in a bearable form for 24 plus years, but I don't think her role in all of this is done. She is one of the creators and apparently the spreader of Lyca, but I do think that there's a lot more to Lyca than we currently know because I do not think that it is an accident that the blood is dark green and so is the Vosters and Starlings minus Odessa. This green blood is tied to the dark magic of the orbits, so I also wonder if Lyca has been spreading for a different reason beyond the bear-wolf contamination bites, like within the water, within the land itself, and it just so happens to be within the last several years. I'll marinate a little bit more on that, but I've been thinking throughout books one and two, there's a common theme of Lyca is spreading way faster than they ever anticipated and as far as our characters know it is the bear-wolf biting and then they get Lyca and then it spreads and spreads and spreads and now next thing you know, most monsters that they seem to be encountering have Lyca. I feel like there's another reason beyond just one single source causing all of that and I really do wonder if it's more of like this dark magic and now that things have been set in motion with the Starlings that the dark magic is like feeding on this Lyca and turning the animals against the people in this weird way. I don't know, I'm, my brain is all over the place right now. Now the moment that Xandra turned into the bear-wolf and how gruesome that scene was, like that was such a holy shit, something's not right moment, but to learn at the end that Xandra is the one-eyed monster who together with the creation from Luella created Lyca, that was so, so, so good. Well, do they technically create Lyca or because she already had this green blood and all of that. So it's, I think there's something more to all of this because when they first arrived on Kalandra, the dark magic of this land is what made them so sick and they literally changed then and then once when Xandra shifted, she already had green blood and they were already able, they essentially already had Lyca. Like that's super exactly. Yeah. And so I really do wonder if Luella has somehow accidentally bottled this dark magic and she just had no idea that she's missing that part of the puzzle and now that I don't know how in the world there's going to be a cure, but obviously like Odessa has to be part of that, right? Odessa has to be part of the cure. 100 percent. How? That's for Dev need to figure out. So now this does beg the question, they're going to have to come face to face with Xandra as the Bari Wolf because she's still alive as far as we know. And there has to be some kind of faceoff. Do you think that ransom and slash or Odessa are going to kill her next book though? I'll say this. I worry about Odessa's father still getting killed in the vision that scared Caspia so much. I know that she stopped having that vision once when she did go to Quintus. However, in her vision, he was married with the amber in his ring. He had the scar that in her later chapters, he has that scar. Yeah. So I still worry that Andreas is going to die in that vision has not technically happened yet. But wait, but hold on in that vision. I say all of that, but in that vision, there was no description of the Bari Wolf having one eye. So I don't know. No, but would that be too on the nose? So maybe Devani didn't want to get that relationship. Yeah, she might have excluded that. See, that's what I love. We just don't know. Like, you don't know vision that won't come true or is a vision that has not come true yet. I am leaning towards every vision in some capacity, some way will come true. We're going to go through every single vision later and say whether or not it's happened or if it hasn't happened yet. How do we think it's going to happen later? Sit tight. I have a spreadsheet. All right. So you know how Sandra and Caspia were able to soothe the Mero eel though when they were coming to Cylandra, they were sailing across the ship with Kat. I wonder is Odessa going to be able to, I'll say take that one step further. Instead, she might be able to get through to the person inside the monster because I definitely think that Odessa's Starling magic will look vastly different because she's half Calandria and half Nelvaxian. Yes. And I do think that in order for her to be able to help Sandra, they will have to destroy the orbits. So maybe once when they do destroy that, then Xander would be able to use it properly. But in the meantime, I could see Odessa, yes, definitely being able to potentially shift because she does not have the green blood. I think she's going to be able to shift back and forth between the crux. I think so too. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Going back to my earlier question though, do we think that Xandra is going to die at the hands of ransom slash Odessa or do you think she is going to live? I think she's going to live. I agree. I have to have hope. I have to have their happily ever happen. So badly. He's just been waiting for her for 25 years. I have a beard. My wings. Jokes on you. I have no wings. Oh, poor guy. Poor girl. Yeah, I hope they I hope they get their happy ending. Before we shift over to Odessa's storyline in Rites of the Starling, let's take a quick break for a word from our sponsors. Thank you all so much for being here at our wedding. I can't believe I get to spend the rest of my life with a woman of my dreams. Speaking of dreams. Have you ever dreamed of tasting all the colors of the rainbow because that is exactly what you get with Skittles? Five bold fruit flavors in every pack. Lemon, orange, lime, strawberry and blackcurrant. They're chewy. They're colorful. They're perfect. Just like my wife. So thank you for coming and remember to buy Skittles. Shamelessly promote the rainbow. Taste the rainbow. We're certainly not done talking about all of that, but let's shift gears to Odessa and the present timeline because I was hooked with this storyline as well, especially with the two Voster brothers. You were right, Nicole. Brother Dime is in league with her father. And in fact, I'll even go ahead one step further and say you were also right about her mother turning into a crux in the dining room. But she did and I was making fun of you. But no, it just turns out they killed everybody and hit all the evidence. You're welcome. I gotta give credit where credit's due. Okay. Although neither of us won our bet because we did not go to Alasaria whatsoever. No. Which did absolutely kill me. That was so funny. All right. So Brother Dime and Brother Score know that Odessa is a starling. So Dime passes her off to Score to take her to one of the orbit locations on a reread. It's like, oh my gosh, all the clues are falling into place. We have to talk about that orbit location, the waterfall. When first reading the scene, I was so creeped out, but like on the edge of my seat, I was deeply concerned for Evie and worried that her and FaZe would be taken or something like that. But there was a moment where I sat up straight and just like audibly like gasped because Caspia has been thinking and praising the divine the entire book thus far. Now this is like chapter 10. But this is the first time a member in Odessa's story has said they worship the divine too. So at the time I was wondering like is Brother Score somehow a shifter like a starling? Like all the brotherhood is like a male version of the starlings because this line quote, a growl came from the priest sounding so much like FaZe. It was uncanny. I was like, oh my god, he's a Tarkin shifter. But the shock and awe when I was first reading about the black pool that when Odessa touched it, it was close to it. She's like it nearly killed her. It was so painful. That was epic and terrifying because you have no idea how any of that works at the time. God, it was so good. Well, and how secretive Brother Score is about the orbit. I genuinely worried that they were the bad guys. But when he and Daim are praying to the divine and already knowing the divine is Caspia's religion too, just like you're saying, it's like, oh, something's here. I don't know what, but I love it. We'll go more into the orbits shortly. But in hindsight, this waterfall and retrieving this thing that Odessa was able to track down is a big fucking deal. And only Odessa is able to feel it and truly find it, just like her mother was able to do with Andreas back in that canyon. And her father is partly behind this with the waterfall and all of that, working with these foster brothers to find the orbits and save Kalandra from this dark magic that turns creatures into monsters. He just didn't want his daughter to be involved in all of it. But oops. He won some points back at the end of this book, but he's got a long way to go. Yes. Yes. And then as soon as we finally feel content, he's probably going to die. Absolutely. Or like he's going to die and then we'll feel content. So like that's, yeah, yeah, that's, so we know that two have been not destroyed, but in his possession in the foster brothers, like on the good side's possession. But that's all that we know. There's six of these orbits. And they have an idea of where the all the locations are. So I bet that Odessa, she is going to be searching primarily for the other three. And then they got to go into the heart of Alasariah and go up against the Vostras. And that is going to be the big climax of next book. Okay. Before we talk about the big timeline reveals, the Vostras, the orbits, the visions, let's dive really quickly into our main couple, Ransom and Odessa, one of our main couples. As Devani mentioned, when we interviewed her about a year ago, Book One was the romance book and Book Two was the world building. And yet again, she delivered. And because of that, Odessa and Ransom's relationship was really not front and center. It stepped aside for Caspia and Andreas. And I'm not going to lie. I didn't miss Odessa and Ransom's relationship. We were pretty open in our previous shield of spares episode about how with Odessa and ransom, like we love them individually. They're such rich characters. And together they're good, but I don't feel like that, that pull towards them. And to be honest, that's okay. There's so much else that makes this such a good book. So the fact that they didn't reunite until about halfway through the book, I didn't really mind. It felt really natural to me. Yes, I agree. And I really do love the reunion that they had. And being in Odessa's POV, I felt her relief at seeing him alive. How he swooped in at the perfect time. Evie crying harder than ever when she was wrapped up in his arms. That reunion was so, so sweet and it felt so earned in the best way. Yes. Although Freya. All right, P, my friend, girls. I'm not ready to talk about it. I'm not ready to talk about it. Well, and one thing that Odessa needed to be alone for a while with Evie, like that storyline with the waterfall that needed to be just Odessa because Ransom would have stepped in and been too protective and she needed to be able to do that on her own. And I love that. And I think also a big part of toward the end of the book, when she really stands up to her sister, May and her father and comes back a different person, she really has become a different person. Yes, a big part of that is because of Ransom from book one. But I think it was really a lot of her having to be on her own and be a motherly figure, having to try to work with people who she might be a little bit scared of and completely living outside of her comfort zone. And she came back a stronger, more confident person and she needed to do that on her own. I agree completely. I do love the messiness that is Ransom's Lysa getting worse and the complicated feelings he had towards the healer allure and trying to find a cure. I am very curious how the experiments went with Odessa's blood. I'm assuming that's going to be a book three bit of info we're going to get. Maybe not bit, maybe large chunk. I do think it's very poetic that she would be the cure to his poison. I just think that's some yummy romance right there. That's very sweet. I will say when it comes to Odessa and Ransom, I was a little bit worried about the miscommunication trope, where how he wouldn't say, I love you. And I'm still a little bit like, okay, like he did say it at the very end, but I'm just a little myth about that part of the story. If Odessa was one of my best friends, I would have been like run girl. If he wanted to, he would. I would have given some very advice that she did not want. Well, and him not telling Odessa about the crux turning into a woman that definitely looks like Odessa. I completely understand that this is a very difficult conversation for Ransom to have with Odessa. And I'm sure we'd have a field day with Ransom character analysis and his POV in a deep dive if we were to do one. But as a reader who loves Odessa and everything that's unfolding, it's like, come on, tell your wife this extremely important bit of info. Like, I know that they were on the run with, you know, Jodi and that whole crew. And so it's hard to step away. But then you're in your own private room. And you're like, I have time to bang you. You also have time to let your wife know about some very important details that she may would not have been present for. Especially when she's extremely worried about the incoming migration. And you're like, I just don't know, honey. I don't know. All right, we've alluded to it quite a lot. So let's do the full download on the Voster, the Starlink, the Orbits, and Dark Magic in Calandra. Basically, let's go through how all these puzzle pieces come together. Lexi, I'm just going to hand you the mic for a reaction archives. If that's right. Yes, let's go to the library with Axton. So the Voster originally came from the same continent as where the Starlings live now, the continent of Kin. The Voster were driven from their homeland ages ago after they lost a war with the country, Bisa. Their religious beliefs did not align with the Bisan King, who was their next door neighbors. And the King used that as an excuse to attack them, claiming they were abominations. The Voster worshiped a God whose name is no longer spoken, while the other kingdoms worshiped the divine. The few that made it out of this attack alive were aided by three Starlings who helped guide them away from their homeland. And together they ended up on Calandra. The three Starlings shifted here on Calandra, though, and only one left the land alive. Back in Kin, the Voster did not have powers, but in Calandra, they now do have fluid magic, water, wind, and blood. They got this magic because long before the migrations or the Voster came to Calandra, there was an ordinary group of men that worshiped Calandrian spirits in a monastery deep in the mountains of this land. One harsh winter, they found themselves on the brink of death from starvation. They prayed to their spirits begging for help, but by the time the ice melted, all of these men were dead, except for six. Yes, six. These men felt abandoned by their spirits and started worshiping demons. They made a bargain with the demons for magic and immortality. With their bodies possessed by the demons, these men became magicians. They fooled people into believing their power was a blessed gift to save them, and these men became known as the Six Gods that Calandra worships. During the time of the Six, they created monsters, bear wolves, fennec, caverine, aligasts, scrisers, tarkin, and this all led to a great battle between them and the starlings, who were originally from this continent of Calandra. The six were outnumbered and the starlings won. Due to the traditions of the starlings, the dead magicians were burned and the remains sealed in glass orbits, and for an unknown amount of time, there was peace, but it did not last long. While the magicians were gone, their magic remained, seeping from these orbits and leaching into the land, and it slowly spread throughout Calandra, becoming a curse on the land. So the magicians magic is the reason humans have starbursts in their eyes, the voster have magic, and the swift turn into monsters and the starlings lose control over their bloodline's gift, turning their blood green and not allowing them to shift back from animal form, getting trapped as these monsters of the land with no control. This ultimately chased the starlings away from their homeland of Calandra and all the way to Nelthinex, where their dynasty started. So nowadays, there are voster who feel this is wrong and want to undo the magic that binds them to this land, to return this land to what it once was. So within the brotherhood, they work to track down the orbits and restore Calandra's balance, cast away the curse. That's where King Andreas Cross comes in. He has been limited in what he can personally do with tracking down the orbits because he is bound as king to blood oaks. He believes the voster may have their suspicions about him, but when the four voster were killed by Caspia who shifted into a crux, he ensured there was no trace of them here and brother Hain took the fall. Andreas's people closest to him, including General Hoxley and Brother Dime, are helping the Kenan track down the orbits so that they can return to their homeland of kin. And now two of the six orbits are in King Andreas's possession with a general idea of where the other four are. Specifically, he thinks that tyrants built their capital to protect the voster's sanctuary, which is built upon an orbit. Hence why King Andreas has been obsessed with getting access to Alessaria before this generation's migration. It's to find the orbit, destroy all six, stop the crux becoming monsters, and break the power of the voster, which obviously the High Priest will do everything in his power to prevent because most of the voster like having all of this power. We can gather that Ransom has the same gifts thanks to Lyca as the Starling and the voster maybe have when they arrive in Calandra, not shape shifting by any means, but heightened senses, quick healing, green blood, and eyes that shift color depending on their mood because Caspia had gold eyes which would turn silver when she was angry and sometimes the most beautiful green color. Yep, that all sounds familiar. So I'm really exciting now that we have more context about Lyca and the barry wolf that bit Ransom and the dark magic that curses this land with basically monsters. And what do you know Odessa's heritage is tied to Lyca, but it's like I wonder if she's immune from it? Maybe because she is a Starling born here in Calandra. I think that is key to her being different and the key to saving the continent. I could not agree more. Something that is also sticking with me is we know that that Starling who won the war against the six men who became these six gods throughout history and how it's taught and religion and all of that. Do you think that Starling is related to Odessa? Absolutely. Now she was beheaded. So even though the Starling was a kill, she was killed because she was considered like this evil pythoness, but in reality it was the Starlings who were the good guys trying to fight off this evil magic with the magicians. And because this was their homeland and they could shift and they had visions and all of this kind of stuff that were able to help aid them in this war. And yet they were in a way their own demise because they kept these orbits and the magic did not go away because these orbits still existed. And we still don't know why these orbits were not destroyed or anything along those lines once when they kind of started putting the pieces together if they had put those pieces together. Yes, exactly. All right, we've talked a little bit about the Thrum with Caspia, but now we need to talk about the ending because Odessa feels the Thrum inside her chest tugging and we get a vision. She has the vision site too. Ransom with his silver eyes is on his knees in front of her, but she is not Odessa. She is a massive bird, a crux. Dark green blood drips from his fingertips and he puts his blade down and only says quote, my queen. Bad, bad, bad. This is bad. A direct parallel of what happened with her mother and her father when Andreas killed Caspia, but it looks like Ransom is putting the blade down. Put the blade down, sir. Now, if I know anything from fantasy, it's that visions are not what they seem. So I wonder if this appears as if they made the same deal as Caspia and Andreas, but Ransom cannot kill Odessa like Andreas killed Caspia. But maybe this is a crack theory. I necessarily don't think that when Odessa shifts, she's going to be lost to the monster, like Zandria and Caspia were, because like we've mentioned, Odessa is Kylandron and Starling. She would be able to shift more willy nilly and still keep her right mind. Maybe, yeah. I wonder if she shifted here and she's still in her right mind. And the reason Ransom is on his knees is not because he's bleeding and dying. I don't think that's actually Ransom's blood or Odessa's. If she has red blood, does that mean that she's a Starling who can safely shift? Yes, exactly. Yeah. The curse of this continent does not apply to her in the same way that it does when her ancestors came here, getting really sick and get a Starling version of Lysa. So I hope that her blood stays red and this dark green blood that is in the vision is not hers, because only then is that really a possibility for her to be different. Well, okay, let me throw out an idea of who's it might be. What if Ransom, Anselsh or Odessa just battled with Zandria, the Bari Wolf, and that's where the green blood came from. Hence why Ransom just put down his weapon because he was fighting. And Odessa is somehow tapped into this ability to be able to command the monsters. So this, my queen, could be Hail the Queen of the Monster. So I'm not saying Zandria's necessarily dead. I'm saying that while Odessa has shifted into a crux, she has tapped into Zandria's mind and able to calm her down, bring herself back up to the surface. And that is why Ransom is kneeling and saying my queen, but he's covered in blood from the fight. This could also just be one of the visions that changes as she tries to make different choices. We love to talk about destiny, like how Caspia did after having the visions that she killed Andreas. But I still don't think that, I think that's still going to happen. Yeah. So I have a feeling that in book three Odessa will spend most of the story feeling like a ticking time bomb and will have a major sense of urgency, like how in this book, it's the migration coming. Next book, it'll be like destroy the orbits before she shifts and destroys her husband and before the migration comes. I'm telling you, Graciella needs to come and help her. But Graciella would come and shift and be trapped unless she, yes, that's not helpful. Not unless she's in her human form like Caspia was for a long time. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Something I am worried about is how in chapter 54, before Odessa learns the whole truth about the Voster and the orbits, Ransom convinces Odessa to believe the High Priest has their best interests at heart and Ransom sends a message to the High Priest. I could be missing where that comes up in a later chapter, but this is bad. I don't think that's brought up again. That's bad. The High Priest knows about the Starlings, at least I think so. I think that he was curious about who Odessa's mother is because he has already been suspicious of King Andreas. Well, and he killed your grandmother. Yes, yes. And we cannot forget how King Ramsay of Turra and the High Priest clearly are in cahoots. Like they're trying to destroy history probably because they're trying to ensure that nobody knows about the histories of before Kalandra was the Kalandra that we know of today. Yeah. Well, and let's also not forget that Ramsay is injecting Lysa into or a form of Lysa into all of his soldiers in the hopes that they become super, super humans. That's where I worry that something's going to happen with him and Beeson and maybe they'll become bad guy ally villains together. What if that was the testing? Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. Even though she says that she's been in Beeson this whole time, I do think that she was there, but I really do think that King Ramsay might know more than he's been letting on. And didn't he say something about red hair in Shield of Sparrows? I'm sure he did. Oh God. Yes, he did. He did say something about. Okay, so all of this is say. Where does this ending leave our main characters? I'm main characters. This is the operative word there because we could be doing this for hours. Ransom has just recently had brother scores siphon a lot of the Lysa out, but it's still in him. It's just not quite so close to the surface where he's attacking his wife in the middle of the night. Andreas has been working successfully, sneakily undercover with members of the Brotherhood to discover the orbits and believes there's answers in Alasaria. He has two orbits right now out of the six. Odessa is having visions of her becoming a crux and has not told ransom about them. I don't think she's going to tell him for a while, but to be honest, I don't know. I'm kind of like, maybe I'm like, sweet payback asshole. I'm like so here for it, even though it's more of the miscommunication trope, whatever. Thor like that right there. It's like, well, that solves that whole mystery. So Thor and Jodi have both been called back to quote, keep Odessa alive as she goes to search for the orbits. I love that Odessa's father called them back days before her and him talked about her mother. She learned the truth about the orbits and all of that. Like, oh gosh, they're going to be playing such a cool role in book three. I love Jodi. I'm almost like, do you have to stay with ransom? He's interesting. I see like his whole like doll thing just would get under my skin. The doll is annoying. Yeah, that's fair. And then as far as we know, Odessa's great aunt, Olenna and Graciella are still in Nelfonix, maybe battling a war against the Beacons. So let's go through the Starling family tree real quick, at least with the main characters that we know of. I'm going to do this from Odessa's POV. So we have great Aunt Olenna, who is the ruling Starling in Nelfonix. There is Grandmama Des, who Odessa is named after, and she left when Caspia was a baby. So that is Aunt Olenna's sister. We can deduce Grandmama Des was called by her rightist to Kalandra as well. Ah, because the divine is wanting things to be righted and only a Starling can do so. However, she turned into a crux and presumably in the past tense was killed by the high priest. So then we have Grandmama Des's three daughters, Emery, Saskia and Caspia. Odessa's aunt Emery has a daughter named Graciella, and she also had another baby while imprisoned by the Beacons. But we do think that they took her from Emery. So Graciella is Odessa's cousin, then Caspia is of course Odessa's mother. There's also Caspia's cousin, Zandra, who I don't think we know exactly who her mother is, but it's not Aunt Olenna. Remember, there are lots of Starling women, big family tree, and this is only a little sliver of that family tree. So Zandra, the one I'd bury wolf that is terrorizing Kalandra, is Odessa's first cousin once removed. It's her mother's cousin. And the crux that killed everyone at the end of Shield of Sparrows, that was Odessa's aunt Emery, her mother Caspia's sister. All right, friends, buckle up because we are about to go through every vision that happens in the book and go through whether or not it has come to pass, or if it hasn't come to pass, theorize how that might occur next book. A huge shout out to our Discord members who helped me put together this spreadsheet. We got Lacey, Chloe, Jensen, Tegan, and I know there's more of you in the Shield of Sparrows chat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for helping me out with this. It was unbelievably helpful. Oh my goodness. Okay, so very first, we have the vision in chapter three where Caspia sees Emery's death. This happened at the very end of Shield of Sparrows. Then a vision from the journal in chapter four was of a lion wick that was trapped and then freed. The man was gifted with a claw. Then Damon is wearing the claw and tells Odessa the story admitting that it was his father who fought the lion wick. This is what she's reading in the journal. So we learned about this last book. This is the claw, the claw, that makes someone immune to sickness that we learned about last book. Then we have a vision that Odessa reads about actually in Luella's journal about a woman who's holding a beheaded snake who burns it and then, you know, places the snake skin on her wound thinking that that would cure it. Well, Luella's journal is Caspia's journal. Yes, exactly. Luella found it because Caspia had like put it away. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, exactly. So this has come to pass because Odessa sees this in real time and she's like, what the fuck? But the big thing we get from that is that always if there's a poison, there is a cure, which is what sets Odessa off on getting the cure for Lyso and she's in the Quentus Castle. Then in chapter nine, we have a vision which is of a man with brown hair who's on a horse. In front of him is a little girl with gray eyes and they weave in and out of indigo mountains that are capped in white, aka snow. So this is not entirely happened yet. We could assume that this happened once Ransom caught up with Odessa and Evie and this is Ransom and Evie in front of him. Evie does have gray eyes with the Cerulean starbursts and Ransom does have brown hair. They were traveling near mountain ranges traveling to Rosso. So I could absolutely see that. This also might be something we see next book, TBD. In chapter eight Odessa shares one of the stories that is from the journal that she had found from Luella that we now know is from her mother. And it is a man with golden hair stands on a cliffside and a ship is anchored in an ocean bay, the waves rocking it back and forth, seven circles of women sit huddled together on the deck. Their heads bent in quiet prayer, but one woman with unbound red hair stands apart from the others. She keeps post at the stern watching as the last rowboat of her sisters pushes away from a sandy beach beneath the cliffs. Only when those women are aboard nestled in their own prayer circle, does the woman look to the golden-haired man. The call to raise the anchor rings out, mingled with the cove seabirds, tears are streaming down her face. And the man stands on the cliffside until the sun sets crying for his beloved as she sails into the unknown. So we got to talk about this one here. Could it be from the past after the Great War and they're all leaving and going away from Kalandra? But I think that it's actually not happened yet because most of these things in the vision are going to happen and it's showing that they're on the right path. So what if the blonde man watching her leave, who's blonde in this that we know? Arthie, are you saying this is Arthie's future is heartbreak? This boy? Well, that would be like way off in the future, but I think about the woman and how they're crying. I guess when I first read this, I just assumed that it was King Andreas, but he doesn't have blonde hair, does he? I think that this is after the Great War and this is after they've defeated the six. They're heading to Nelphenix and that's why he's like they're sailing off into the Great Unknown because they're going to a continent no one knows exists right now. That's true. So that would be in the past though. Oh my goodness. I need way more than whatever, however much time we're dedicating to this reaction. Okay, okay. So to dissect that one. Next, we have a story again from Luella's journal, which is a vision from Caspia. This is of a man with three gashes on his face. He's beheaded an animal after having been attacked by said animal and he's skinning the creature and he makes an overcoat of it to disguise himself. This is of the aligasc and we meet him in rights to the scarling. His name is Striker and that's how he gets through the bogs is by dressing up as an aligasc. Then of course we have another story from the journal, which is a woman in gray leather and metal armor with white hair, four stars on her cheek, and a falcon lands on her arm and she sighs at the message that is delivered via scroll. She takes off her armor and is finally free. So we can assume that this is Thora and I bet that this is going to be something that happens in book three. I wonder if the message that is being delivered that could be from King Andreas because they are currently going off on a mission to help Odessa to keep her alive so that she can find the orbits and then they will be literally out of deaths with their master so to speak. Yeah. So that's like the deal that they have right now with King Cross. Yes. All right. Number five, we have a vision from Caspia. This is of a woman with wild red curls. We assume that this is Emery in the cell praying to the divine next to her is a man who has light hair. He points to the dark hall. Remember, he has no tongue and he has missing two fingers, but she shakes her head. She will not leave until quote the divine has called him home, aka he is dead and she cannot shift while she has a child in her womb. The enemy takes the blood in her veins and she does not bother to fight it. So we can definitely assume this has already happened. This is Emery as she's captured by the Beethans. When I first read this, I thought that for sure she was captured by King Ramsay or something. Oh, God, that would have been cruel. Well, honestly, it might be kind of one in the same. So I'm not like that. I think King Ramsay is working with the Beethans. I think you're right. I so think you're right. One of Caspia's visions is a woman with brown curls holding a sword to ransom throat. His eyes are green and then she turns away and they flash silver. So we can assume that this is actually from Shield of Sparrows chapter 12. When ransom gives Odessa his sword for the first time, she's just freshly dyed her hair at the beginning of this chapter before this sword scene. So that's why she has the brown hair instead of the red hair. In chapter 21, we have another vision from Caspia. This is of bodies in the courtyard. Fire is around everywhere and major air quotes. Caspia is calling to Zandra in her very wool form. Andreos is dead at her feet. I am going to go out on her limb because we assume that this one is just one of those visions that she had and then has been changed. It doesn't happen that way. I think that this actually is still going to come to pass. I wonder if actually Caspia was looking through Odessa's eyes at the moment. And this could be foreshadowing for book three. Zandria has come in. Andres has been killed by Zandria, which is so sad. I don't think he's making it out of book three alive. I definitely don't. I don't think that he wants to achieve this mission and his heart is gone and he has never forgiven himself for what he had to do to the woman that he loves more than anything. And he really has been a shell of himself ever since then. Now continuing from this previous vision is Zandria commanding the bear wolves like an army. We really do see this frequently, not necessarily with the one-eyed bear wolf, but just how these bear wolves with the Lysa is very, very, very dangerous. And so again, I do worry that this is going to still happen in some way or another. Yes. Absolutely. We have a few quick rapid fires back to back. We have Koss in his tent with the bread, which is a vision that Caspia sees that does come to pass basically right after that happens. Now they do come in and I'll say almost interrupt that. They do. Yeah. Yeah. So that's again where it's like this question of, yes, we know that those visions do not necessarily cement that it is going to happen. And yet oftentimes they do still happen in a different way than we would have assumed, like with the sun, with the blonde hair. We have a story of a blonde little boy naming their puppy. We learn later that this is Arthy naming his brand new puppy is so cute. In chapter 31, Caspia has a vision of Holly washing her hands and she has green blood on them and she's trying to hide that fact. And so we can assume that this is after Caspia's labor because she was the midwife who helped and she is being paid a lot of money to stay quiet about that whole green blood thing. You know, that one just tiny little thing. We'll say with Margo. Yeah. She's also in on all of this and she made a promise to Odessa's mother, Caspia, to protect her daughter. Yeah. I know. All right. Chapter 35, we get another vision. It's of Andreas looking at his blonde baby boy and smiling. We can assume that this did happen, just not on the page. And we can assume that this was Arthy and he was smiling at his little child. Well, sort of child. Sort of. Well, that's true. We haven't really talked about. There's too much to talk about. Oh man. Okay. So then we have another vision in chapter 38 from Caspia and it's of her killing everyone in the throne room after she shifted. But Andreas does not stab her. Instead, she kills him. So she is able to change this outcome and it's essentially like, if you do not kill me, I will kill you. So we have to change it. Like, I'm sorry, but you got to do this for me, buddy. Oh, it's so sad. Another vision from Caspia is of a mountain forest covered in white countless graves beyond the fortress wall, a man with black braids and one leg holding his newborn son. This does happen, but it is off page referring to elder after the Emory attack last book. Oh my gosh. So he is alive. So this is Tilly as husband, because remember he lost one leg and he was on death's door, but he's going to be alive. She had been pregnant. So I am going to hope that this is going to come to pass in book three, that he's going to survive and he's going to be able to hold his child. Yes. Yeah. Another one from chapter 42 is a vision that Caspia has of Kos reading the first page of Caspia's hidden journal long after she's hidden it. Yes, this does happen, but off page. Now from chapter 44, we actually have a story from sonnet's 90 about the six and the evil python nest's battle. The python nest fought with a legion of powerful non-calandrian female warriors, aka the starlings. The python nest was given prophecies via the darkness and this gave her an unnatural advantage. And even though the six were gods, they were outnumbered until finally Mac, the god of war, killed the python nest and cut off her head. Then the six chose to retreat to the shade. This is a lie. A lie. A stinky lie. Oh, and again, it's like whoever's perspective is telling history, right? Because in this version with sonnet's 90, the six are the good guys. And so this evil python nest, she is the starling. She is the bad one. She is ruled by the darkness of this powerful divine that is the bad religion. However, we know differently where the six, they had dark magic and they ensured once when they were gone that there was a curse on this lance. Yes. Well, and this is someone wrote in the in the notes here. They wonder if this was propaganda written by the high priest. Oh, absolutely. Starlings so fucking good. So I have a crazy crack theory. Okay. That the priest is one of the original magicians. And that but how is it alive? I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but I don't know. I that's a bit of a crack theory that I have. I love that though. Oh my god. What? Wait, no, what if he's the son of one of them? So in chapter 52, Kaspia has a vision of brother Hane kneeling at the edge of a cliff. And he says by the great grace of the divine guide them home by the grace of the divine grant those starling the strength to do what I could not by the grace of the divine welcome me to glory blood falls out of his nose and he is beheaded by an unknown person and his head falls to the cliff. So we do know that he took the fall for the four dead foster that Kaspia once when she shifted killed. And so my understanding with all of this is that he somebody had to take the fall and he was personally ready to raise his hand be like I understand this is my part to play in all of this in order for the foster to no longer be very, very, very suspicious and this king be dead. He and his lineage have to keep trying to make this happen. So I will sacrifice myself there. There's another vision in chapter 57 for Vostor are walking across a marble floor. Andreas is facing them and then he begins to fight them throwing a dagger at the priest. So he fights the priests before Kaspia comes in and has a field day. Another vision that Kaspia has in chapter 59 is Emory and Aunt Olenna talking about Emory's capture and Emory saying that she's going to find her sister Kaspia because that's Kaspia had literally left to go find her. So she feels an obligation to go do the same. And we can assume that yes, this is what happened that then set the chain of events off that Emory came here and was killed by the silver eyed warrior. Last but not least, we have Odessa's vision, which is of ransom on his knees. She is a crux in front of him. He puts down his blade and says my queen. So knowing that we have to start wrapping this episode up at some point here, let's go through some of our other favorite moments or just things that really stood out to us from this book here. I love the scene on the ship where the maro eels are coming because we remember how terrifying and bad, bad, bad that was from Odessa's journey across the sea in book one. But Xandra and Kaspia go right up to the maro eels and they use their starling gift to sue the creatures because after all, the divine had bonded their bloodline to the creatures of this world. Seeing this so early on in the book, like after chapter three already was just so, so cool. And it also made me realize this is why the creature seemed drawn to Odessa. It's not so much that monsters are drawn to Odessa in a bad way, like she's kind of been thinking, but her starling bloodline naturally has a bond with creatures. And I guess that they're picking up on it, I assume, even if they want to kill her instead of any chance at soothing. But I also think that this is promising for our favorite pet monster phase. And once when they free Kalandra of the Stark magic, it'll be like, I'm going to call it a blanket that has been lifted from this stifled bond that is already breaking through. And I really love how he is, might be a monster, but she feels his kinship with him. And I think that is really showing that as a starling and of Kalandra, she still has a special way with a creature who is so small and impressionable. Well, and I do think that I hate to say this, I do think that they're going to release him next book, and it's going to be this really, really sad moment. And then once they destroy all the orbits, he's going to come back and be their pet Tarkin for the rest of their life. I think he's going to come back in in a moment where he gets to save everybody and help. Yeah, a little Tarkin. I love it. Yes. Yes. I loved learning about the Voster priests being able to turn their magic inward and make it so Caspia and Odessa wouldn't be in pain. I just, I loved that little bit of magic. Odessa and Evie's bond had me crying, I think as early as chapter six, when Evie is crying and needs to wear the shirt covered in blood because all she has left from her father, I was a blubbering mess. And maybe that's also just, I have an almost five year old son and every day to get him out of his Batman pajamas and into anything that is clean is a whole thing. And I know that's a completely different circumstances than this, but just that sense of a motherly figure just doing their best with a child who is really and truly going through it. The way Odessa is trying to soothe Evie and also let her feel all of her grief. My mama heart was hurting so much throughout all of that. And I could feel the pain that Odessa was going through as she did her best and a damn good job carrying for the sweet little girl. Like at one point, I think it's to Sally that she's like, I'm not her mother. Like I'm not good enough to be like that. And Sally's like, I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit there. Like you're being really great here. Odessa has become a mother figure to Evie and they've been through so much together. And I just love their bond and how Evie is included in this story. She's really innocence represented in this mix with all these monsters and trying to get to safety with emotional comfort. And I love Evie's addition to this series. There's this moment where they're on Freya and Evie has started holding phases paw as they travel just to like soothe. And I that is when I cried. I also want to point out that Evie still doesn't know that her mother was Luella and that ransom is her brother still has no idea that. Yeah, she's going to need so much therapy that poor kid. And then when Odessa does tell her the truth that she's actually married to ransom and Evie realizes that she's not her stepmom like she's thought all this time. And she's like, so you're not my mom like who's gonna be my mom then? And it's like, oh, sweet girl. Oh my goodness. Pivoting slightly. I know that we've mentioned ransom. He's not like my favorite book boyfriend. I love him as a character. Don't get me wrong though. Regardless, I do want to highlight this line because this is when Odessa is saying how her family wants her to go back to the woman that she used to be. And ransom says quote, you were always this woman. I knew at the day I watched you jump off this cliff. You were always my queen. It's not your fault. They weren't paying attention. Oh, that's such a good line. And that's a good line from a man who loves his woman even though he won't fucking say it until the end. I really loved Odessa's transformation. I know we talked about a little bit at the top of the episode, but how she stands up for herself to her sister and her sister is like, oh, like you're different now. And it's just like, yeah, I am. And the way that her family still treats like she hasn't changed. Like I think a lot about quite a few of us have experiences in our own way where maybe we went off to college or after college, you know, like went and we're off to be adults. And then we go back to our hometown and we're being treated like we always had been. And I know for me, I am not the same person that I was when I was in my early 20s. And when I used to hang out with some of my old friend group, they still treated me like old Lexi. And it drove me absolutely crazy because it's like, no, I have done the damn work. Don't treat me that way. And I love how Odessa shines as a character so much in the second half of this book, a book in her family. A moment of appreciation for the mavens we meet in the story, the white haired niece of Kathleen, Thora, and the two in a secret relationship. I'm so sorry, I don't remember their names, but they can only trust a few in their maven group. And the mavens, they're their own found family. And I think that you're right that we will spend a lot more time with them next book, that the vision of Thora will definitely come true. And maybe she'll be another mentor for Odessa, like Tilia had become in book one. I'm just really excited for more of them. Going back to the healing of Odessa, there's this moment with her and her father when they're finally getting to talk to each other plainly and really just work through the shit in their relationship, not all the way. And I don't know if there's ever going to be an all the way with that. There's not 100% trust. But he says, quote, the only person I've underestimated is you. For that, I am deeply sorry. I wept at that line. That was so good. Oh my gosh, speaking of lines, I wept at the line from Brother Score when he says that she needs to find a warrior. And then at the end, Odessa asks if he meant her mother, aka finding her past, figuring out what her past is. And Brother Score says, no girl, I meant you. Oh, that's so good. Nathalia, or her nickname, Holly, has been the royal nanny since Odessa's birth. And now she takes care of Archie and even Evie. Well, we get her origin story. She was a midwife that Caspia met when she was wandering the streets of Ralthough Barefoot and was going through a tough time. And she helped with Caspia's labor and delivery, and therefore knows what's up with Odessa and all that stuff. Again, I love how the past and present weave together. I love that cursing for all future starlings is illegal. But then Caspia learns Klandrin, and she starts cursing with them. And she like loves saying, damn it, and fucking shit. I just love it. Oh, it's so good. And how she learns the different meanings of fuck. And she's like, yes, this is my favorite one. This is my favorite. I love the subtle language differences too. I mean, obviously there is like the whole language difference. But for instance, how years are summers, a sun is a day and so on. And even in the stories apart from Caspia's visions, we get glimpses of the Starling language, like the story from Sonnet's 90 of a great battle between the six and the evil Pythonist who fought with a legion of female warriors more powerful than any mass in Kalandra. That's the Starling as we've been saying, the prophecies given to this Pythonist by the darkness gave her an unnatural advantage in the war. Visions. She had visions like Caspia. But back to the language, because that was the whole point of this, it stood out how it's worded that the battle raged from one summer solstice to another. That's why they call years summers. Yes, okay. So last one, and this is more of a question, but did it stand out to you that some of the monsters had white eyes and some of them didn't? Because I think it's a sign of Lysa. Okay, that would make so much more sense because I originally was thinking like, is that the shifters? But then I realized that when those were killed, like the alegasks with the white eyes were killed, they didn't turn back to humans. So I think you're right. I think that is the sign of Lysa. All right, friends, again, we could honestly go on and on and on about this book, but we do have to wrap it up at some point. Nicole, Nicole has to get back to her edits. I need to go back to editing so fast. So thank you so much for joining this special episode, discussing our reactions to rights of the Starling by Devani Perry. This has been so much fun. Next Monday, we are back with the creators with When the Moon Hatched Episode 6, covering chapters 58 through 75. Y'all pray for relaxing on this week. Thank you, as always, to our librarian, aka our content researcher, Brooke, and of course, our executive producer slash sanity manager slash cohost of the Fantasy Fan Fellows podcast, Hayden. We are very active on social media with weekly trivia, book guides, and lots more. So please be sure to follow us on Instagram and slash our TikTok at fantasy vanguards 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 were listening on. Do it for fantasy fangirls, fantasy fanfellas and fantasy fan reads just to do the whole just make the nice trifecta of the fantasy. But really and truly friends, it is one of the sweetest, kindest, most wonderful things you can do that takes less than two seconds for any podcast that you listen to regularly. And last but certainly not least, share this episode with your fellow rights of the Starling Friends. If you were watching them, think when are these two girls gonna finally meet? And you're just like, once they finish the book, this is a great episode to send to them. All right, friends, thank you so much. We hope that you had so much fun reading this book too. Bye bye. Bye. But we're gonna be hopping into that in just a moment. But first a quick word from our sponsors. Thank you all so much for being here at our wedding. I can't believe I get to spend the rest of my life with a woman of my dreams. Speaking of dreams, have you ever dreamed of tasting all the colors of the rainbow because that is exactly what you get with Skittles? Five bold fruit flavors in every pack. Lemon, orange, lime, strawberry and blackcurrant. They're chewy, they're colorful, they're perfect. Just like my wife. So thank you for coming and remember to buy Skittles. Shamelessly promote the rainbow, taste the rainbow. Nothing beats a jet to holiday. Right now, we've got some great deals available. Plus, you'll get the best choice of our free child place holidays. But now, with just a 60 pounds deposit per person, enjoy flexible monthly payments. And now you can go direct from London Gatwick. 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