When the Moon Hatched Episode 5: Chapters 45 - 57

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fangirls podcast. Our two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore character sneak series and more. I'm Lexi, older sister and fantasy lore nerd. And I'm Nicole, younger sister and romantic at heart. And today is episode five as we deep dive when the moon hatched by Sarah A Parker covering chapters 45 through 57. As always, please listen closely to our spoiler warning. Every episode has spoilers for all of when the moon hatched. So if you don't know who Vaya is and why she's mighty surprised to see rave, then please go finish the book. We will be here when you're done. Next we at fantasy Fangirls are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R. We don't cuss as much as Pyrok, but it's not far off and you've been warned. So please be mindful of those little listening ears. Additionally, we are so excited to see you at upcoming live events. We are so stoked to be partnering with Tattered Cover and Booking Gather for a very special release party for Ballad of Falling Dragons, the sequel to this book on May 18th in Denver, Colorado. Sunday, April 19th, we are doing a live show at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. You can still get last minute tickets and join us for this deep dive into how to train your dragon. Check out our website or the links below for more information. And we also have just announced that we are doing an Akatar release party for both Akatar 6 and Akatar 7. Tickets will be on sale soon. Be sure to follow us on social media for more information. Last thing before we jump into this Win the Moon hatched episode, if you love fantasy fangirls and want more events, more content, more community, and so much more, please check out Fantasy Fan Club. We have three membership tiers that are fantasy fangirl specific. 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Thank you so much for supporting us as we turn this podcast into a dream come true. It is all because of you. And now chase death moonbeam. I'm even wearing my shirt today for. To start off every episode, let's get a parchment lark delivery where Nicole does us the honor of summarizing what happens in chapters 45 through 57 of when the moon hatched. Chapter 45. Conn and Rhaigon fly for three days to get a very unconscious rave to the imperial stronghold in the burn. When he lands, he's greeted by his little sister. So loving, but she's pissed at the sight of who's in his arms, but she can be pissed later. More important things to worry about right now after kicking everyone out of the dining room. Rave is laid on the table in an Agni. A flesh thread gets to work, but they isn't ready to drop the subject just yet. Something catches her eye. Rave is wearing Tuka Trial clothing and cons Malmer. Well, shit. What's even more puzzling? Why the fuck is Ello and Rave Navon on the dining table? Chapter 46. Emotions are high, so Conn drags his second in command grime out to the training ring. What better way to work through those emotions than beating the shit out of one of your closest friends? Maybe the imperial stronghold should consider hiring a sight therapist. Chapter 47. New POV Alert. Alone with Agni, Veya learned some pretty important information about her friend from a hundred plus phases ago. Rave is covered in scars from past healings, and there's one that stands out. A silver scar over her heart that is in the perfect location for a killing blow. Dun dun dun. But you know what this calls for? A game of scribby and a drink. So after kicking Pyrox, Asveya drops a bombshell. She is going to the shade in an attempt to find Elloan's personal diary. Because someone needs to get to the bottom of this, and if it's not going to be Conn, it's going to be the little sister herself. Chapter 48. Diary entry. Elloan is lying with Slatra when the door opens and the largest saberside enters, and his rider, Ulala, he's tall, he's broad, he's be-a-utiful. He talks to her, shocking, inquiring about her, and Elloan is too tired to respond. Honestly, vibes. Chapter 48. She lives! And Rave has no fucking clue where she is. But something about this room feels mighty familiar. And yes Rave, all that trial stuff really did happen. But before she can process all of that, a vision smacks her in the face, reaching out. Rave slowly pushes the mirror in her room out of the way. Because that vision, it couldn't be real. Right? Right? Well fuck. Knock, knock, knock. Veya has arrived and damn what a bitch. Eating fruit in front of Rave. How dare you? Veya turns around and leaves, and Rave calls out to her. Only one small problem. In this life she should not know Veya's name. Chapter 50. Rave be nimble, Rave be quick. Rave steals a candlestick. Leaving her room, Rave finds Pyrock and Grime playing Scrippy and decides to steal their snacks. Look at Rave making friends. After chatting with the guards outside the stronghold and getting the 411 on the young elementals and nulls, Rave is joined by Pyrock, who accompanies her into the city. Chapter 51. The city is alive. The people are happy. Which is a complete 180 from what Rave was expecting. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live here after all. No. Focus Rave. Operation kill Rex Zarrows and turn him into a rug is still priority number one. Pyrock finally brings her to the curly quill where she meets Vron, a very helpful mind weft who knows what Rave wants before she can even introduce herself. Efficient. Talk about premium customer service. But her murder tool list is not all he finds in her mind. He knows that she's missing something, something in bold and she doesn't know what it is. And he's overcome with emotions he wants to help her. But Rave refuses. Shocking. Taking her decoy purchases and getting the fuck out of there. Chapter 52. Diary entry. The beautiful man scoops up Eloin and she's horrified that Slahtra just lets him. Like not even a growl. Our girl Slahtra knows what's up. Together the man and his sister take care of Eloin in a way that no one really has since her family's passing. They feed her. They bathe her. They treat her like a person. What a concept. Veja offers to teach Eloin combat lessons and for the first time since meeting Eloin speaks. She's ready to kick some faggore booty. Chapter 53. Pyrok and Rave stop at a tavern for drinks. To take her mind off things Rave attempts to break open her shackle while Pyrok sits back and laughs at each attempt. But does not offer to help her. That's okay Rave because Khan has arrived and he goes to Pound Town. On the shackle of course. Get your minds out of the gutter. Chapter 54. The storm outside continues to grow and no matter how hard she tribes Rave cannot block out Raine's song. Her song overpowers all of Rave's attempts to silence the creators and she can't stop the tears that fall. But unlike in the fade Rave is not alone here. Khan wraps her in his arms comforting her with her calming song and informing her that the iron cuff was a kindness to block out the rain. I need this man to stop being so fucking perfect. Never! Never! Chapter 55. Khan leads Rave deep into the imperial stronghold through his bedroom past his jar of mist and down down down a fuck ton of stairs. Instead of a dusty crusty basement Rave discovers a beautiful cavern full of a moon plume carving. And at the center of this massive silver moon is Slaatra. Rave is hit with a memory all alone in the moonlight. I'm assuming that's what that comment was Lexie. Yes! Yes! Her waking up in a cage with no memories of how she got there but from that cage she saw moon plume shards exactly like the ones that make up Slaatra. Khan tells Rave that he believes this dragon cradled her for a hundred phases before she fell. So subtly implying that Rave is indeed Ellowen. Maybe not the best idea of my guy because what does Rave do? She hugs her old lover and her dragon and vows to never leave their side! Just kidding. She nopes the fuck out of there. Chapter 56. Rave collects her things and is prepared to leave the burn altogether but Khan blocks her path and gives her... money? Thanks, sugar daddy, I guess. With a quick kiss on her temple, Khan leaves and Rave wonders if maybe, just maybe, she should ask more questions. And something here is drawing her to stay! Well damn it, I guess Rave can't leave quite yet. Chapter 57. Diary entry. After her first combat lesson, Ellowen heads to Slaatra's hut only to find the door locked and blocked by her mystery man, aka Khan Vigor. He didn't have to say anything for Ellowen to solve the puzzle. The bowl of stew in exchange for seeing your dragon. But one small problem. The stew is hella spicy! Though by the time she got back from blowing up a bathroom, Slaatra's hut is unlocked. This little song and dance repeats night after night after night but with less spicy food. Sad day for Spice Watch. Thank you so much, Nicole. We will be right back to this episode after a quick word from our sponsors. It's time to listen to the elemental songs, to explore key insights, character analysis, lore, foreshadowing theories, and oh so much more. We start the stretch of chapters out in Khan's POV, which is actually only the second time since Chapter 13 that we've been in his head. Little catching up to do, huh? What's happened? Khan and Rhaigon are in a race to get back to Dom, the capital of the Bern, and get an unconscious Rave to a healer as fast as possible. Even when his little sister, Veya, comes out to welcome him home, Khan's like, I love you sister but I don't have time right now. Sure, Rave needs medical attention but he also has a lot of explaining to do as he is carrying a not-dead eluin in his arms. Veya has no idea her old best friend, Queen of the Shade, Mother of Khazari, ex-lova of Khan is alive after 123 vases of definitely being dead and obviously Veya's gonna have a lot of questions. I do wanna like just pop myself into Veya's POV real quick because walking outside, seeing your brother carrying someone that you haven't seen in 123 phases dressed in a tukitrial outfit covered in blood, that would be a mindfuck even without the history that they have. Yeah. One challenge to overcome at a time right now for Khan. Step one, get eluin Rave healed. Remember Rave's state right now from the tukitrials. During her fight with Hawk, Rave was bit by a volley serpent, the venom from the snake made her dizzy and parrot her speech and really screwed up her coordination. While she did get the antidote from Siza, it needs time to work the venom out of her system and then she got a nasty head wound during her fight which has been losing a lot of blood. One of my favorite moments in the entire book is when Khan brings Rave into of course the dining room and Pyrok walks in and says quote, who in the creator's damn fuck is that? And why does she look like eluin? The bond she's dead. This is how we find out that Rave is eluin. It's so good. And then they are taking it a step further and revealing that Rave is eluin's middle name. I remember like coming out of my body in this moment and just gasping. Now I do want to pause here because in Khan's POV, we do finally get a full download and while we've gone through most of it on the podcast, it's worth a quick rehashing. When he ran into eluin slash Rave in the hungry hollow back in gore in the fade, he fully thought he was losing his mind. Then he found her later in a cell and when the truth tune confirmed that she had no recollection of her previous life, that is when he knew she lost her memory when she in sl after fell from the sky, which means that she does not know she is Kazari's mother. So he took her because a you know, he loves her and he's like holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. But also because we learn in this chapter that if his brothers discover that eluin lives, that a navan lives, they would stop at nothing until she is back in Tyroth's clutches, which Khan still does not know if that's something Rave slash eluin would hate or want. Remember he only knows that she eluin left him with a note that said Tyroth is a better male and I need to be with him and yadda yadda. She then married his brother and had quote unquote Tyroth's baby. As far as he knows, she might want to go back to the shade and Tyroth if she remembers that that was her past. So I'm not going to lie, her memory loss is kind of working in Khan's favor right now as far as he knows. He's like you don't remember the brother you left me for? Cool. What if you just remember me? What if you just remember me? Would you like a meal? Can I get you some food? So we've mentioned a new character in the story named Veya, who will actually be a POV character too very shortly. Let's go through who she is, shall we? Veya is the princess of the burn and in her own words, she's Khan's asshole sister you don't want to get on the wrong side of. She's the youngest of the four Vigor siblings and the only female. Khan and her are very close, whereas the twins took after their father to put it mildly. Veya's mother died in childbirth and this made her father and the twins hate her from the very beginning. She has a brown bead in her hair, which means that Veya can hear Boulder's song and wield the element of the ground. She's resourceful, knows how to fight, won her own tukitrial and gave herself to the creators at her unveiling ceremony so she'll never have to be bound to anyone. Though this does not stop her from fucking whoever she wants at least a hundred faces ago, although I'm sure she's still getting it girl. We know that Veya is out for revenge against Tyroth and Katok. When she won her tukitrial, they whipped her as punishment for shaming the family. Yeah, that's how messed up these twins are and how they most certainly take after their father, King Austrin. Besides Veya, a few of Khan's Imperial court here are the first and probably this particular moment's most important. We have Agni. She is a flesh thread at the Imperial stronghold and a very talented Rooney. She has more than 20 gold, silver or diamond buttons on her cloak. Agni is the highest level a Rooney can go in a specific area of Rooney magic. So she is really fucking good at what she does. She is the sister to Veya, the Rooney who healed Rave before she was supposed to have her execution in the fade. I somehow missed that on my previous reads. Me too. I know I saw that. I was like, well, fuck that one. I've been good to mention that episode. Sorry. Which also, Dragon Sight runs in their family. So Agni also has Dragon Sight, which people definitely be getting into that more soon. Standing off to the side is Grime, who is Khan's close friend and second in command. Grime is usually pretty stoic, not one to talk or say much. He's one of those friends who's willing to fight his friend slash king without holding back because his buddy's in a mood, as we see shortly. I have about a million questions around Grime because I feel like there's so much that we don't know about this dude yet. There's one thing in particular I want to focus on at first though. He has white hair and I want to highlight this because who do we associate with having white hair, especially after our signal, a Sarah from a few weeks ago, the Navan family where it is very common. Also he's not in a good mood generally, but when Rave arrives and based off Khan's assessment of his second, he seems more pissed off than normal. Is it just because he's seeing Elwin for the first time? It is his best friend's ex lover who broke his heart, but still there seems, especially with the white hair, I'm like, is there something more here? Oh, see, I thought it was just because he's mentally preparing to go get the most dangerous egg. I could see that as well, like where it's like he's looking forward, but something just seems off. Like the fact that he's talking for the first time and Khan's like, whoa, that's weird. So I really wanted to shoot my shot. I asked Sarah a metric fuck ton of questions like how common is white hair in this world? Is there anything else you can share about Grimes upbringing? Was he born in the burn? Why is he in such a shit mood when Elwin slash Rave arrives? What is him and Veya's story? And she obliged me sort of. She says, white hair is quite common in the South. That's dot dot dot. All I'll say. And of course it's Sarah. She added a winky face. So what is this? What? Okay, I have a crack theory. Are you ready? Oh, good. That's yes, yes, yes. Like I wonder if he's in the Vaan and he is not her, maybe her uncle or her cousin or something like that, where I don't think he'd be like a stepbrother or anything or even a brother brother. But I wonder if he's somehow related to her. And that's one reason that he sees her and he's like fuck like as a bad way or a good way. No, a good way. God, she lit like a member of the Navan family lives. They're supposed to be wearing the etherstone. She is one of the most powerful Navans and he could be seeing her like, oh my God, we have to protect her at all costs. This is dangerous. Well, I will say this. We do know that Elwin's Pa, who married the Navan family, he grew up in the Bolton planes. However, he had black hair like Rave does. It was her mother who had the white hair. Okay, but also white hair is very common in the South. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's related to the Navan family. However, here's what I'm thinking. So what if Grime had been part of her family's guard or was a loyalist to the Navan family in the shade? And then when Tyrof came in and infiltrated, I say infiltrated, but you know, technically properly infiltrated it. And then that's when Grime left and he became friends with Khan and maybe the two of them were able to work out that King Austeran is the one who is behind the poisoning and all that. Oh, yes, I like where this is going. Okay, something else I just thought of, which is a less happy version of this. Oh, dear. Are we positive he is going to the Silver Saber Scythe? Because Khan did drop him off there. But are we positive that's where he's staying? He is literally in the northern part of the world without a wager. You've tried to drag in right now. Okay, okay, okay. What if he is one of her ma and pause aides or like a son of one of the aides or something like that? Yes. Yeah, I think we're on. I think we're on to something here. Fuck me. I want to know. God damn it. Then there is Pyroc known to be carefree and he's not a super helpful member of Khan's Imperial Court. Pyroc sees himself as the pretty boy and even talks down about his own usefulness, all while boasting of his brother, Roan's brains and abilities as an alchemist. And we do pick up that Pyroc likes drinking a lot more than the average person. So I want to throw out a quick character analysis for Pyroc because he definitely seems like I'll call it the butt of the joke in court. And he does tend to make a lot of those jokes himself. He says repeatedly about how he does fuck all here and so on and so forth. I think that with his brother Roan being the super useful alchemist, I think that Pyroc thinks that he's worthless as a result and others believe it too. So he cuts them to the chase and says that he doesn't do anything but drink because he thinks and he knows that that's all they're thinking. So he reminds me of a character without getting into spoilers. He reminds me a lot of a character that we dissected a lot in Kindred's curse saga. Yes. I had that same thought. Yeah. I think we're going to see him a lot more next book and learn more about his mindset because I refuse to believe that he's just the butt of the joke. He's just here to drink and nothing else. Like there's more to his story. I agree. And I do remember Sarah saying that at least Grime will have a POV next book. I don't remember anything about Pyroc though. Well I do know that there's more than just Grime, Conn and Waves. So he could be one. Yeah. Oh that'd be so interesting. I was thinking the exact same thing too. And also I want to point out our first impression of Pyroc is clearing out the dining room for our crew. He's more useful than he lets himself or others around him like Conn and his inner monologue. Think. I also do love that him and Agni have a history. He's like, oh boy gets around and I bet he's a good fuck. So back to this very important scene. Because this is truly the first chapter where puzzle pieces are explained and we, the reader, glean more insight outside of Rave's POV. I do love that most of Conn's answers to variations of how is she alive, why doesn't she remember anything is, I don't know. Because when pressed he'll be like, I did try to pry for answers and then she was mean about my cock. There's no way she was willing to answer. Veya cannot believe that her brother has just returned with Elwin. Like this is inconceivable. And add on that Rave is painted and dressed for a Touka trial, which like we mentioned, Veya is very personally familiar with after having won her own Touka trial back way back when, which by the way, I really hope we get more of that backstory because Veya has such a fascinating albeit very painful past. I just want to, I want to know more of the Twama. I do too. But anyway, this is why she is livid at her brother, Conn, and gets three good punches in. He let Elwin slash Rave be in this position in the first place. Veya thinks he took her to this Touka trial, not knowing the full story yet about how or why Rave would have escaped him. Like it would never would cross her mind that Rave slash Elwin would have run away from Conn. But now things are starting to add up. It was Conn who fought and won, and now his Malmer is on Elwin slash Rave, which literally means he has claimed her, although we know that's not how he perceives the situation whatsoever. Veya was very dear friends with Elwin. She taught Elwin how to fight and defend herself. She helped her find her own strength and independence when Elwin needed it most, which makes Elwin's betrayal of Conn with her rejection letter all the more bitter for Veya. Elwin abandoned them without goodbyes. She chose the enemy brother and insisted he was the better match, and Veya cannot forgive Elwin for what she did and how she shattered Conn's heart. Now that Elwin is back, it's an old wound reopened for Veya too. Old questions resurfaced, old emotions that hardened over time to protect her heart, and Elwin being back can put a target on them if the twins find out that she's actually alive. Not just because of who she is as the queen of the shade, but she is of the N'von bloodline. She can speak to all four creators, and she is not wearing the Aetherstone anymore. This means that she is literally the most powerful individual in this world. And now, she's being harbored in the burn. Uh oh, oh dear! While in the last 100 phases, Conn has been grieving, killing his father in Elwin's name and trying to keep himself together, Veya has been stewin'. This is how you know she's the littlest sister. If anyone hurt her beloved older brother, she would burn them to the ground for hurting him. And I will say this, Veya sees Conn's blind spots. He is so in love with Elwin slash rave, so he's not asking the right questions, or she says he's not asking any questions, which I don't think is fair. He is obviously asking questions, he's just not getting answers, but Veya is not afraid to get those answers. But what Conn does know is that rave's memories, they are in there somewhere. He had glimpses like when she told him her name, but when she straddled him at Mazra Treat and then softened, you know, having a knife to his throat and then being like, uh, maybe I want to fuck you again. He caught a glimpse of something tender behind her hardened rave exterior, and that was the moment he knew that Elwin, she's in there, she's in there somewhere. And he has plans to inch that gap in her sealed off memory open wide. My heart hurts for Conn so much. How many times am I going to say this? I mean, honestly, never enough. This poor dude. When he admits to himself that he's afraid Elwin will see Tyroth and remember him, choose him again and leave Conn for his brother again. Even though he knows he has no right to feel that greedy because it's ultimately her choice. He just loves her so much and it's been haunted by the note that Elwin left him all those faces ago. Was it true? Did she really think his brother Tyroth would be the better match to carry on her bloodline? But as we know with the memory loss trope, can't just throw the person with amnesia into the deep end. Gotta ease them into the truth, which Conn notes is painful for Elwin. She is repressing so much grief and pain and heartache, and she's got to have a well of dragon flame built up metaphorically. If Elwin faces her truths too fast or too soon, she could incinerate herself and never come back from that. And we can't have that. No, no. But you know what we can have? A new POV. It is time to get in Veya's head. She and Agni bring the still unconscious rave to the guest suite, which LOL used to be Elwin's old suite when she wasn't sleeping in Slotros Hutch. This is where Agni shares that something about rave is not quite right and she did not want to bring it up in front of all the guys. This is the most relatable woman to woman conversation ever. It's like girl power. Apparently though, she has no issue bringing it up with Veya, who might we add was the one who was just restrained for launching herself across a table and punching her brother three times. I was a big brother. I know. I know. That's such little sibling energy. Exactly. Thank you. He's like, OK, I'll give you three. OK, now that's OK. Now you're done. Yes, this is so real. Agni knows that if Khan knew this information, he would let's just say not take it very well. Like he would burn the world down and maybe start a war if he thinks that Tyrof killed Elwin. But I am getting ahead of myself. Agni, like with her sister, Beya, as we've mentioned, has the gift of dragon sight or the ability to see hidden runes on skin without the need for dragonfire. What she sees on rave is not just a room there, another room there. It is quote a layered stain of many, many runes. There are so many runes that she can't tell how old any of them are. This is only something that someone would see from someone who's been tortured or dead over and over and over again. Like rave to have this many runes on one person is not only uncommon, but it's heartbreaking. Fuck the scavenger king, dude. Oh my god. While the many, many runes are puzzling, Agni tells Beya of a single wound above rave's heart that glows in the shade of silver. Agni has never seen anything like this before, and that doesn't appear to have been mended by any rune. This wound is a killing wound. Dun, dun, dun. Not one that anyone could survive since healing a stab wound to the heart takes more time than the patient would usually have before they died. Even though Beya is very upset with element slash rave, she is extremely upset about the circumstances that would have happened to get rave into this position where she needed this rune. She is visibly distraught as she tells Agni to keep this from the males, men don't need to know this. They're too emotional. Khan is a little on edge right now. I can't even imagine because Khan still doesn't know this. No, he still doesn't. Which is, oh dear. I'm nervous for him to learn this next step or next book. Well, let's talk about that stab to the heart. So what do we know? It is widely believed and accepted even by Beya and Khan that Elwin died in childbirth and then Slatra took her and flew up to the sky. Even from Elwin's final diary entry where she genuinely worries about ever getting off this pallet alive, this death by childbirth does seem plausible. I am very curious how the ether stone was taken off Elwin's brow because we know it physically could not be removed from her mother's head until all the life was dried up within her. Oh, I bet that was the mark on her brow that was healed when Khan pointed it out in the cell. Like how did that get healed there? And it was like ripped off of Elwin before she became a similar husk like her mother and then she was mended somehow before Slatra flew her up. We'll worry about this detail later because that's very important, but back to how she died. At least in the fade, people know of Tyroth as a king who has been mourning his queen these past 123 phases. But here's a stab to the heart that no flesh thread would be able to heal in time. Death is too swift with a fatal stab in the heart like that. Elwin would have died too fast, which means she was dead dead, except obviously she is alive and no runes mark that wound only a silver glow that Agni has never seen before. This means she was healed and brought back to life some other way, like a dragon's life force, a dragon that is silver. Literally this is Slatra. Like this is like this has slatras paw all over it. I swear to God, if this is not slatra, I it is. It is. So allow me to present my theory. I think that right after Raeve had the baby, the blood lace that we know was called into the city verified that the baby was not Tyros and Tyroph stabbed Elwin in the heart because she was weak and unfaithful, not useful to him anymore. But to say face and hold the shades power, he told everybody else that she tragically died in childbirth not like he's going to tell everybody that he just killed their beloved queen. Slatra was so heartbroken about her bonded that she took Elwin and flew up into the sky to become a moon. While up there, Slatra's life force fused into Elwin, healing the fatal wound that killed her. Think back to the ballad of the fallen moon and how the silver moon plume gave its life force and coloring to the black sabersight. And this right here is the stronger connection that Slatra and Elwin slash Raeve have. Slatra's spirit is within who we know as Raeve. Slatra is the other. I could also see this connection between dragon and fate directly tied into Kailas's magic and Kazari learning his language and causing the moons to fall. I don't know again, but again, I always come back to Kailas and spirits and anything that might have to do with that. So I'm keeping an eye on that. Okay, so I'm like 90 to 99% on board with the Tyroph killing Elwin after discovering that Kazari was cons because that just makes so much sense. But I will present one more theory. Are we sure that Elwin didn't take her own life? She was so heartbroken after Khan and what she had to do. She was weakened by the Aether stone and then she had an heir who could wear the Aether stone. Like I'm not saying that this is the most lovable FMC moment because she would have had to leave Kazari to Tyroph and the Aether stone, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. I will say I do think that it is more on par for Tyroph to have stabbed her and man, what delicious revenge I hope we're about to see from either Khan or rave. I can't wait. So the only reason I guess I did not consider that a possibility is because we do in fact in this stretch of chapters that we'll be talking about, we get a dream of when she was stabbed. You are right. I think it's trying to reach for her daughter, we think at least. And so I don't feel like that gave I just killed myself vibes. Yeah. And also I don't think that Elwin based off of what she did when King Auster and blackmailed her for the betterment of her life for her baby for Vaya, she's not someone who would immediately have a baby and then be like, so yeah, like I don't that doesn't seem like Elwin. So I think you're right. I think it's Tyroph. I think she's on a mission to get to the bottom of this. And yes, what she knows about the stab wound could very likely lead the bird into a war with the shade and thus the fade to even though Vaya has never been to war herself. She is hungry for revenge. They've been preparing to take the other vagueres off the board all these phases and undo all of King Auster's work having his twin sons overtake the two southern kingdoms. They know the time will come at some point. And now with Elwin back in the mix, it'll probably happen a hell of a lot sooner than they initially expected. Vaya wants answers. She is headstrong and wants to be ready to take down her enemies once and for all. She has her eye on the prize and that is to rip off her brother's heads since she unfortunately did not get the pleasure of killing Pa that was Khan's kill instead. Vaya has absolutely no love for her brothers besides Khan. When Vaya was younger, she had her very own tuka trial where she won like a badass, but it did not go over well. And like we mentioned, her twin brothers, Kharak and Tyrof both decided to punish their little sister by whipping her 78 times. Royally fuck these guys. Leaving her back muddled with deep overlapping scars she keeps as a reminder to why her brothers need to rot. So understandably, she wants them dead, dead, dead. I can't help but instantly connect Vaya and rave together. Beyond the tuka trial, they're similar injuries. They're both headstrong. They're both so independent and they're ruthless yet loyal beyond beliefs. Like it's no wonder these two constantly gravitate towards each other. Vaya shares her sneaky, sneaky plan. She's been cooking with Pyrox. So don't tell anyone Pyrox. Elwin used to keep a diary. Vaya knows this because she once caught Elwin tucking it into a hole in the wall in her old room here. Ah, which rave will see because that's of course where she's staying. And she's like, huh, what a great place for a journal. I love moments like this. And while Elwin's diary did not seem relevant before, now it could be the key to knowing the truth with a very much alive Elwin who does not remember herself. Previously, Vaya thought Elwin left Khan for Tyroth. Even if Vaya didn't think the letter Elwin wrote was true. But the fact was Elwin is still left without saying goodbye. She left them without clear answers and only broken hearts. And then she died in childbirth with a baby from her new bound. Now turns out that's likely not how Elwin truly died. Someone killed her and everyone in the world, including Vaya and Khan, have been lied to. And the one person with answers who lived through this has no recollection. Yeah, I'd honestly want to find this diary too, even if it is on the literal other side of the world in the shade deep in enemy territory. With how much you and I obsessed over diaries and research, we would be feral looking across the whole world for this. Even if it is literally on the other side of the world in the shade deep in enemy territory. As crazy as it sounds to hunt after something that might be lost to time, Vaya needs this information and recognizes that she's got to go to the source, which happens to be the old Elwin. Her diary that might help Vaya discover the truth. Vaya does agree with Khan that they are not ready to jump into war yet. Right now is the time to gather information, all the potential leverage over the evil twins that they can, especially now knowing something is there to uncover. Even if Vaya is furious with Rave right now, it's not the same fury that she has for her brothers. Oh, definitely not. She's sad because she lost her best friend and her near sister and she's pissed at her because it was not cool what she did, but she still has that deep love for her. And maybe there's answers in the diary for Vaya's own broken heart from Elwin too and she needs these answers for her own peace of mind as well. All right, so now let's get back to our FMC because she's been unconscious this whole time. Rave wakes up with no clue where the hell she is. Not only did she pass out after a traumatizing experience with the Tuka trial, but even in her sleep, she was bombarded with night terrors, which I will say I initially thought was the moment that she lost Essie. But the more I read it, the more I wonder if it actually might be the moment that Elwin dies. And the scalding word is either something spewed at Tyroth or her like calling Slatra or something. And she's reaching for something important in this night terror, something that is hers. She's like mine. I think that's the baby that she just. Yes, she can't reach for her own child because she's draining away cold and empty. She's dying. Literally, same fucking brain because when I read this, I was like, holy shit. This is Elwin after she gave birth. Yes, yes. But enough of that for now because Rave jerks awake. And when she looks around the room, she's hit with a sense of deja vu. These curtains look familiar to her and she does not know why. But on the plus side, looks like she avoided her fate of being Kalu who pops out world saving babies. Yay. A reader is going. And she's healed. In fact, and this is so sad, Rave is surprised that someone would wash her, dress her and brush her hair as she doesn't see herself deserving of such treatment. Rave goes to move the shutters to see where the hell she is and a different memory flashes. She's grabbing a mirror and easing it to the side to reveal a hollow hidden behind it, where then she reaches into a hole and pulls out a leather bound book and holds it close to her chest. This is Elwin's diary, but as quickly as the memory surfaces, it flashes away. Rave notes that it disintegrates, like crumbling dirt shifting through the gaps between her fingers. I love that phrasing. Oh my God. And it causes an emotion to stir up inside her and she doesn't understand why. Probably because it's your diary that you wrote everything in, which pause. We can debate this when we get to the very end of the book. But writing down this much detail when you are writing down information that may or may not cause a war is a choice, Elwin. Diaries can be read. That's what I'll say. I proved that when I read your diary as a small child. Thank you for the entertainment. OK, so I just learned about this now. I told you I'm so sorry. So Rave, just completely haunted by this memory, reaches out to the mirror in front of her, moves it to the side and sees the very same hole. No diary, though. And her heart drops back in this place of such vivid memories are starting to creep back up to the surface. I see Lake be damned. Something I will note is that if it is slot, I'm leaning away from this theory. But if it is who's sending these memories up the icy lake, she's just like don't like she's like playing the Gopher game that's like the you know, where they like pop up the go smack them down. Yeah. And that's right. She's the hammer and slot just like go for. I think it's about the memories and her being here. And I think Slotch was responsible for a lot of things. I don't think this is. But maybe who knows? I love how we meet there in Rave's POV after just having a they a POV chapter. Rave is understandably like who the fuck do you think you are? Immediately, it's obvious that Khan's sister does not like Rave. She's threatening Rave that if she breaks Khan's heart again, she'll break Rave. And that Malmer that is currently around Rave's neck. It means a lot. So don't go play in with Khan's heart. He already doesn't think he's worthy of Elin Rave. And worst of all, they is eating fruit right in front of Rave and not sharing. How rude. Let's look at this interaction from Veya's perspective. She does not trust Rave, as we've mentioned. The last time she saw Rave, she abandoned her, her brother. She did all the things that was not very nice. Veya does not want to repeat the past. So she's rebuilding these walls now. She's setting a precedent with Rave that if she does anything to hurt Khan, she will hurt Rave back, like Lexi mentioned. After all, Khan has been told his whole life that he is not good enough. And he has bled that belief into Rave too. Now, when she's dawned his Malmer believing that she's too good for him and he does not deserve her. He does not deserve to have his Malmer around her neck. And Veya is basically saying, fuck that. You break his heart, I will break you again. Good little sister, I love her. But that wall cracks majorly when Rave calls out Veya's name. Veya has not introduced herself. There is no reason for Rave to know her name. I love how this is described. A word bloodins up Rave's throat, unchecked, mouth shaping the name Veya as if from muscle memory. Yes, because you are besties. This is proving to Veya what Khan was telling her, that Elwin's deep down there somewhere, even though in this moment and most others, Rave refuses to acknowledge the possibility that there's more to this. For her mental health, for her well being and survival, she cannot crack open that box. This is going to be a very common theme specifically in this episode. Because like Veya warned Khan, Elwin had so much pain and suffering that Rave cannot face. You know, for someone telling her brother to ease Rave into this, Veya sure isn't walking the talk herself around Rave. Just going to say she's not emotionally diving into the deep end. She is emotionally easing her way in and by easing her way in, I mean, she is literally not moving a muscle, but I do agree with you on some of the other. When Rave pushes her away once again, saying that she doesn't know her, like I just burped in the right direction. Veya vows that she is going to figure this out, meaning I'm going to get your fucking diary. I'm going to figure out how the hell you're alive and how to get your memories back. How I'm going to save my basic sister. I love how Rave is like she's nuts. And then she strolls out with her golden candlestick ready to take on Dom. It's so good. I also love how she's soon accompanied by a tour guide, Pyrok. Yay, let's go run errands and Dom with Pyrok. Before we go to the curly quill, let's take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. As far as Rave has known, the burn is a dangerous place that people do not return to because it's so horrible and run by a tyrant king. So for Rave at this point, the whole tyrant king part of that might have been called into question and you know what, she's been washed and cleaned and fed and she might still have an iron cuff, but you know what, she is free to roam around. Anyway, what's going on here? Where's the burn that she's heard of? People are educated here, given opportunities for life improvement. No one is starving or homeless or have clips in their ears. Children are giggling in the streets. What is this happy place? I've wondered about why the burn has a bad reputation, at least in the fade, where Rave's picked up on it being a bad place. And I keep coming back to thinking it's twofold. One, that is how it used to be under King Austrian, the burn was not a good place because he was a cruel king who would make his dragon run people across the plains if they displace him at all. And two, yes, it is better now under Khan, but his twin brothers are peddling propaganda of how terrifying it is. They want their strength and people away from the burn, away from their enemy. The burn is a bad place, which feeds into the high likelihood that once the war is called, Tyroth and Coddux citizens will willingly go to war and fight the burn because once again, the burn equals evil. We can gather by the little mentions here and there that the liveliness and the happiness of Dom and the burn all over is entirely Khan's handy work. He let people stay in the imperial home because he didn't like it when it was just the family and so quiet and closed off. He pays his inner circle very well, even when as Pyrok puts it, he does fuck all. He cares for those around him and that has transferred to the burn as a whole. People who can hear the creators and wield their songs and that's normal here, but it's not a hierarchy like it is in the fade and we assume the shade. They can go to an academy to learn how to wield the creator songs, not to the military where they learn to kill people who can't hear any songs. The nulls, they can see if they have an affinity for runes. Anyone can do this, not just those with wealth. And if they don't want to work with runes, they can choose something else or gain an apprenticeship. There is life here. There's learning. There's betterment, not just oppression and military might. Again, I would live in the burn in a fucking hard beat. After sightseeing around Dom, it is finally time to pawn off that candlestick that Rave's been carrying around in a little sack that she got. So she goes to the curly quill where she meets Vron. Vron is a mind weft with milky eyes, kind of like souls from the Jakul clan. Which pause, does this mean that all mind wefts have milky eyes? If so, so was she reading the minds of the creators when she quote unquote read their will or was she reading the mind of the fate herder? That would that even work? I don't I never thought about that. I was wondering about that, too, with that similarity between the milky white eyes. I did not get the impression that soul was a mind weft. Me neither. But darn it, that would be a good question to ask Sarah. Vron also has white and blue beads in his hair, which means he can wield air and water. And I want us to remember that, especially about water wielding for a few moments later. Anyway, the curly quills odor Vron. His eyes feel like they are looking right through Rave, which makes sense because mind wefts have the power to be mind readers. They are extremely rare and they have the unique ability to dig deep into another's mind, not just read their current bots to find a mind weft just working a regular job at the curly quill is also extremely rare because they were hunted down and forced to work for the Imperial families. I bet he is protected under Khan's reign, especially when he is like, yes, I am painfully aware of mine wefts being hunted down and used this way. Maybe King Austrian used him in his services and Khan released him to do whatever his heart desired. I think you were so right. He's like, I want to be a shop owner. He is the cozy fantasy story in this world. He is the Wendy of this world. Before Rave can tell him what she needs, he's already telling her that he knows she's here to knock off that candlestick she stole from the Imperial stronghold. Oh, and he even knows her name. Wonderfully efficient, sir. This is one of Rave's favorite things. Except, yep. That's not the only thing he finds in Rave's mind. Say the least. Oh, no, no, no. He can pick up that there is, quote, a hidden depth packed with more hurts and secrets than he can count. And while Rave insists she manages it by ignoring it mostly, hello, icy lake metaphor, this mind weft is beginning to cry, presumably feeling these complex emotions and the suffering that Rave refuses to touch. He tells Rave that she is missing something, quote, so dot dot dot special, but she doesn't know what and the answer is within her icy lake. Is he talking about Kazari? So let me explain myself a little bit more with Selatra, because we know that she is within that icy lake. I say we know we very strongly assume from our deep diving skills that she is within the icy lake and this connection that she and Rave share is indeed special, even if deadly with the other. This, I will say, doesn't really work with Ron mentioning Rave does not know what she's missing. No, I guess she does know that she's missing her spiritual connection with her old dragon there and does kind of go back to what you were saying with the memories and all of that. I will say another thought that I had is if this something special that's missing is her refusal to embrace that she can wield all four elements, although she does know that she can do that. But no one else can do this except her daughter. The only the Navan bloodline is as powerful. But Rave refuses to acknowledge his ability because it means having to listen to all of the creators and she doesn't like what rain and ignos, especially have to say, as we'll see when she cries in the rain soon. I don't think as an accident that rain scene happens pretty soon after this one because Rave has to look inward face her own demons to truly listen and learn from the other creators besides Clode. She has to get uncomfy and she refuses to do that. Throughout this book, she's always dropping all those uncomfy emotions into her icy lake. But guess what? The lake is getting lower and lower. It's starting to drain on its own because she cannot hide from her truth anymore, especially when it is in her face over and over again. Ever since she saw Khan again, I believe this is going to be her huge character arc in book two. This book one is Rave being exposed to the truth of who she used to be and what she's capable of and invalid will be when she has to lean into it. Self healing journeys are my personal favorite when it comes to these fantasy books. And I believe this one will be especially heartbreaking and beautiful and moving and emotional and personal for us readers. That's kind of what the vibe I'm getting from Sarah's posts. Yes. As she's been talking about her experience writing this book. Oh, God, I can't wait to get my heart ripped out and stomped on. Vroom goes on to say that the answer is within her in a place where she hides everything and he can help her drain the before Rave cuts him off. So again, I go back to Slotra once when it is drained. I think that once when she recognizes this connection with Slotra, she will become even more powerful than she currently is. I think you're so about the snow here. OK, OK, I'm going to hold it up for a few seconds. Literally in a few chapters, she will think the line quote drain the lake. Yes, I think you're 100 percent right that that's what he's referring to here, especially when it comes to Slotra. She can drain this metaphorical icy lake where it represents her pain and suffering both from Eloin and Rave's early days in the fighting pits under the firework name. OK, new idea. What if Kailas somehow has to do with the answer? I always like to just like he's my wild card, you know, he really is. He's your gasping woman. So where are you going? Like he is literally the empty space. Yes, he's the one who is never thought of. So I am here like, because I'm thinking about him. OK. Oh, you know, I have learned. I bet some other people still think about the gasping woman. I still think. Nicole, you're the only one who still thinks. Callie Hart does not think about the gasping woman anymore. If I've learned anything from reading sequels, it is that the answer is always bigger, more expansive and new than we can possibly theorize. And who knows if Kailas has anything to do with that? OK, I'm going to move on to the next big line that the mindweft drops about rain, the goddess of water, rave only thinks of rain as tears and bloodshed, the snow that coats the fucked up world. But Rune challenges this belief. No, rain is power, quote, half a world coated in powdered power. No one is strong enough to wield, though you could. If you did not tuck sadness into that icy lake within you, along with and then he is cut off along with what? Her ignoces fire, her suffering memories. I think it's the dragon, though. It is her refusing to acknowledge her memories and all of this that would then allow her to connect the fact that she has slotra within her and they have this powerful connection. And I think that once when they are able to establish that and have that connection, then she is going to have extra strength and power and all of that from slotra. I know that the dragons are not like powerful with the elements, but they are still magical creatures. And what does slotra love? She's a moon plume. She loves snow. And what if rave with slotra's help can channel snow and wield snow? OK, so let's talk about how rave was just told. She is the only person who is powerful enough to wield snow. This is coming from a mind weft who can already wield water. He would know as a fellow waterbender who is not capable of doing such things. I cannot believe I miss this on my first read, because this right here is the faintest shit I live for. Again, the navan bloodline is the strongest. And here she is alive and without the ether stone. If she is willing to listen to the other creators, yes, which means facing the endless depths of sadness and fear that come with water and fire, if she can consciously connect with slotra, if she can hone all of that power, rave will be unstoppable. That's one of the reasons veya is so terrified of the twin kings finding out that she's alive. She's unchecked power who can perhaps turn the tides of a war. Water wielders cannot manipulate snow, which is an interesting fact to know about this world. We hadn't known that before. But like I said, who else do we know who finds comfort in snow, who is born of the cold? Who do we think has a moon plume's dragon spirit within them? I can't wait for her to learn how to use her magic. This has to be foreshadowing. I can't add anything to this that you have not already said. Real quick, though, pivoting at the end of the scene, I want to shout out the fact that Vrun bows basically. It's just this little tilt of his head. But he's literally bowing to his queen, isn't right, but he knows that Khan and Elowyn were connected. So it's kind of his queen. But also he's bowing to the queen of the shade. Like I have a bad theory. I don't think this is going to happen. But Ron knows a lot right now. Is he a liability? I don't think so because Khan really trusts him. And if you're right with a whole like him being like, what do you want to do? He's like, I want to be a curly quill owner. But this does make me very nervous. He knows a lot of shit. I had not thought of it that way because I do think part of his past is maybe that he even escaped or something like that. He has a bad past. I like to think that he is loyal to Khan. But I think that it's how he recognizes how special Rae is, that she holds power and possibility to make waves in this world. He might not see her as Kalu, but his own version of it, so to speak. But Rae is far from ready to face any of that. She is sick of everyone taking an interest in her life past, present and future. Which honestly fair. Yes. Exactly. She's lived on her own for however many years since she's been out of the scavenger kings. I mean, Lana, her own is is maybe a little generous, given Sareem's literal clutches over her. But still, she's not used to people knowing her business. Exactly. And I would feel defensive too. Rae than Pyrock hit up the tavern because that's exactly what one would do after that kind of harrowing experience where you just want to avoid your deep set trauma at all costs. Rae attempts over and over again to get her shackle off. She is so ready to not just physically leave the burn, but run away from the emotions and confusing memories that are starting to surface since being the city of the night, interacting with its people. Most major cities have a reserve of charmed Maltemaz that anyone can rent and Rae's goal is to hop on one of those and leave at the first chance she gets. Obviously, to go find Rex Zarros in the fade and kill him for what he did. While Rae's default is to always push people in her past away. I mean, it's worked for her so far surrounded by the burn where her past memories are literally coming in without warning like they did with the diary or the people she once knew. Her burping their names out. There's also this western section of the jungle that's luring her and she doesn't know why or this stupid king of the burn is becoming harder and harder to resist. Her usual tactic of shove it down, shove it away and compartmentalize is quite literally not working in anymore. In this chapter stretch alone, we go from make it work at all costs to cracking open just a sliver for her to lean in her past, but not not with the mind weft. Who could she be open ish with? Well, her plans of leaving are interrupted because Khan arrives and Rae gets completely lost in the sauce of just looking at him. I mean, fair. The last time she saw Khan and was fully conscious and not being, you know, threatened with her life or under a venom of a snake was on the couch when she was straddling him at Ma's retreat. Then, you know, he did that small thing of saving her life. And now she's just face to face with him and Ooglin, Ooglin, Ooglin. Rae is trying to ignore these emotions once again, but Khan reaches out and pins her shackled hand to the table, hot. And with a few quick taps, her iron shackle is free to which she promptly eats the shackle out of the window and into the loft, which is hilarious to me. Leaving Rae finally able to hear clothe again and Rae's smiles as she relishes and clothes, melodica giggles against his sister's better judgment, Khan trusts that Rae won't kill him, or at least he's like 80% certain she won't because he's saved her life like twice. But I do love this little tidbit that we get with him keeping the iron cuff on her. Not because of that 20% of you might kill me. Later, we'll talk about just how affected Rae is by Rain song. When Rain cries, aka when it rains, Rae feels everything the creator does and she cries with her. So part of him keeping that shackle on her was a mercy so she could tune out that heavy emotion she feels from the creators. In case you were wondering, Rae was 1000% an empath. But here in this sky view tavern, basically, she sees that trust that he has in her. And she's trying to convince herself that he's just as bad as his brothers. It's not really working out so well. So she latches on to the one thing she can. He might not be snatching children off the streets and forcibly conscripting them into the army, but from her perspective, he's certainly not doing anything to stop them. Again and again, we are seeing Rae consciously bring back her Khan is bad narrative. She did it earlier with Pyrok and here she is again, because this male seems to clearly be a good leader here in the burn. That's undeniable, even to Rae. And he saved her life again and again, taking care of her to the point she is scared to be around him because it makes her feel things Rae is not supposed to feel. So best course of action is to focus on the bad. Sexual tension aside, Rae asks this very valid question. Is Khan complicit in what his brother is doing in the fade? Because if he is, sorry, buddy, you got to die. But much like Rae, Khan does not agree with how his brothers run their kingdoms. According to Khan, his brothers, quote, deserve the same mercy his father received and it will be served. Oh, I can't wait. As we know, Khan fed his father's head to Rhaigon and took over the burn. So this is pretty nice to hear. But we also learn what he's been up to as king for the past 100 plus ish phases. He's been working in secret, slowly building up an army in the burn that is currently strong enough to take on both of his brothers. Thank goodness, which would have to be the size of two forces combined since the war with one brother is a war with both. And we know at least the extent that Caddo has been going to with recruiting all elementals and training them to be brainwashed military warriors. Khan clearly does not use the same methods. So he's having to rely on building his army through other more moral means. I bet a big factor of that is giving the tribes of the Botanic Plains on his side, which is another reason we took that Tuka trial detour. And I think, again, that the Jekyll clan and others will really come back into the story. Absolutely. Well, and something I want to highlight is just how different Khan is. In case we didn't know already, he mentions that this war, regardless of the prep he does, it is going to be costly. Not in money, though, like Caddoch is surely thinking, but in innocent lives. In case we needed one more reason to feel just how deeply Khan is wonderful. He cares about the people of his territory, not just the rich, not just the resources, their lives, protect Khan Vigor at all fucking costs. If Tyroth finds out that Eluin is here, he will be blowing flames upon their doorstep before they have time to prepare. Again and again, we keep hearing how Tyroth is not stupid. He is clever and cruel and evil. We better fucking watch out for this guy and whatever he's been up to. And of course, there's his brother, Caddoch, who is outright building a strong army and doesn't seem to care about anything else. A bad storm is brewing with her iron shackle off. Clod isn't the only creator that rave can hear again. Rain is back and whole boy is she louder than ever. Remember, in the burn, it is the only part of the world that gets rain. It does not rain in the fade or the shade. It only snows. Rave is an expert at blocking out rain's snow, which I want to quickly refer back to what the mind we've said about how she alone is powerful enough to wield snow. She says that it's easier to block out the snow frequency. But what will happen when she listens to it? Can any other water elementals hear the snow like she can? Or is that like such a fine tune to her connection with the creators that she alone is able to hear the snow unlike other water wielders? Again, think that this is another big easter egg of how different and powerful she is, especially after the conversation she just had with the mind left about her snow wielding potential. I wonder if because we know that rain's rain song is like mournful sorrow. It's tears. It's literally her crying. I wonder if snow is like falling pitter-patter or just like a little bit lighter because it's not tears. Exactly. It's not as heavy. But let's talk about this mournful song that we hear from every little raindrop. Justice for rain. Are you OK, girl? I'm worried about you. She's OK, because we know from the prologue that she has this unrequited love for Boulder. Is she crying because of Boulder? No man is worth crying over for more than five million phases. She needs a girl group of friends with a stupidly named group chat. To just talk her out of the craziest things. I do not speak from personal experience. Anyway, the creator song is overwhelming with each second that passes. The melody grows stronger and stronger as the rain falls harder and harder. And rave cannot tune rain's rain out. Rave is desperately trying not to cry, especially now that she's standing in the middle of the freaking street. Also, she does not know rain's language. But remember, the stronger one's emotional connection to the creators, the stronger they are and capable of wielding their songs. So rave, you're going to be a waterbending badass. But right now you're like, I'm feeling too many things and I can't speak what you're saying. Rain represents rave's sadness that she is always trying to escape. She is an expert at compartmentalization. But rain is the opposite, just letting all those emotions, all the suffering flow. Whereas rave is practically drowning in the onset of that pain. In rain's presence, she can't compartmentalize like she's accustomed to, which makes her emotional floodgates open and rave cries like she's never cried before. Not too long into rave's uncontrollable crying, is she yelling, stop, stop, stop, stop. And Khan arrives because of course he does. This reminds me of a later diary entry when Elwynne cries and cries like she's never cried before and Khan just holds her. He is always here for Elwynne or rave during her worst moments, holding her and comforting her. God, I love him. He shields her from the rain and wraps her hands around her chest, basically encasing her in a tight hug. As she's shaking, she asks him to give her anything else to focus on. And he obliges before even the question has left her lips. And he sings her calming song, humming it in her ear. Oh, now before we get into his POV and why he's doing this, I want to look at this act of kindness from rave's POV. Because have we mentioned that she is not used to this kind of treatment? Him coming up and hugging her is one thing, but he's doing it when she is so raw and vulnerable. It just gives that little nudge to crack apart the walls that she's built up for 23 phases out of sheer necessity. But when he starts singing her calming tune, it's like a blanket of comfort over her. She doesn't want to dissect why he knows her song and he's singing it to her. But her subconscious is already one step ahead of her. She knows that this song belonged to someone special from another wife. And suddenly she feels as if she's being cradled by this man, kissed at him. The icy lake is draining, you guys. But best of all, Khan can feel her leaning into the truth of her past. So real quick, in earlier episodes, we thought that the ballad of the Fallen Moon was her calming song. But it definitely sounds like we were wrong and her calming song is something different. This is the song Elywens Parents used to sing to her. And then Khan would and rave remembers it, the melody just being in her mind when she awoke 23 faces ago and found comfort in it while in her cell from Khan's POV. Like you said, he used to know a female who would cry with the rain and laugh with the wind and rave says, yes, that was Elywens. And Khan has been balancing the very difficult act of giving rave the space she needs, taking care of her when she's stubborn enough to be intent on the opposite and almost dying and easing her into who she truly is while trying to offer as much comfort as he can through the painful process. He's doing his best. I can so clearly envision a scene, maybe in ballad or even a later book, where rave is in the rain and she starts channeling its power, leverages the empathy that she feels from rain and uses it to manipulate the water and work with rain together. Can't you just envision that scene so clearly? That's so good. Oh, my God. I want to read this book. So fucking bad. Once rave has calmed down, Khan makes a decision to show rave slatra. The time is now when he started humming the song to calm her down. She started singing it with him. Like I said, Khan knew in that moment that she was as ready as he's seen her. She's starting to open up. It's like she knows deep down that she is tied to Elywens. So Khan decided that this is a good time to see if any other lingering memories under the surface are ready to come up too. And in his mind, that means throwing rave into the deep end and showing her slatra much to vey as dismay. I'm not berating this decision because of all the moments he spent with rave, this does seem like the best moment to share with her. And it could it maybe could have waited. We could have waited. Especially she's like, you know, my calming song. And he's like, yes, and there is a reason why. And I think you should know it. And she does say yes. Like she does give consent for him to take her to wherever he's going to take her in just a second. But so so I'm not entirely blaming him because he does get the green light from her. She just immediately turns it red. I can't. Like, oh, oh, we don't do this. No, no, no, no, no. I meant a little bit, not a lot of it. This shrine consists of a circular cavern with walls full of detailed carvings of moon plumes and a massive silver moon in the middle. It's really a place of love for Conn to remember Slatra and Elwyn. When Slatra fell, she shattered into thousands of pieces and got scattered across the kingdoms. Conn has been searching the world for her shards since then. Every time he found one, he would bring it back here and has been slowly reconstructing her piece by piece for the last 23 phases. For Conn, it hurt too much for him to know that she's not whole. So he is needed to do this for himself, for Slatra, and especially Elwyn's memory. He knows that it would break Elwyn to know that Slatra's impact zone was rated by scavengers and they scattered her all across the world. So he's here putting her back together and he's found every piece except a small crevice on her back, which here I am wondering if that will somehow come back into play. Like, does the scavenger king have these last pieces or like the big piece that has like the small crevice on her back? Because we know he had shards after someone from his crew scavenged the moonfall site. Conn must have already gotten the rest, but I think this one little piece is with someone important and might be a key piece. Ha, get it, for our characters. Everything in this cavern feels like home to rave from the freezing cold temperatures and the moon plumes carved on the walls. I think about how it was probably Conn who sang Boulder's song and they crafted together and carved this sanctuary out to honor Elwyn and Slatra. I love him. It just gives me chills to think of Boulder humming through this whole scene like a steady drum. I just like I can see it so clearly. I wanted to be adapted into film so badly. The cinematography and music would be epic. Oh my god, it would be so fucking beautiful. It'd be so melodic and just rave is especially drawn to this large moon in the center of it all at the base of the stairs, the second her eyes land on Slatra rave's heart drops and something fractures in her chest. She literally feels something deep within her settle, nuzzling her, curling up. It's literally like slashes going, it's me. I love how on our first read we're like, is Slatra maybe the other? It was like a big theory of ours. And on this deep dive, it's just canon. Oh, yeah, it's Slatra. We figured it out. I feel like in our conversation with Sarah, I do remember us being like, is it Slatra? And she's like, it's a beast. She had that look in her eyes of like, they're right. So I'm just going to hold on to that. The emotions of this moment are so overwhelming. It literally feels like her world is tipping her fingertips, ache with the need to touch Slatra with two hands. When Khan tells rave Slatra's name, she struggles not to cry and the banging inside her chest almost feels like her falling like a falling moon, you think? She knows instinctively that the opening in the moon plume was made for her. It was Slatra curling her and cradling her for a hundred phases. Rave can feel Slatra's breath on her forehead, her cold nostrils, the weight of her tail on her chest, on her chest, like where she was stabbed through the heart. Yes, you think you're right. Oh my God, try compartmentalizing that rave. Being here brings up a memory that rave discarded a long time ago. And unlike most of her other memory flashbacks that we get, this one is after she was extracted from the moonfall. This memory feels like it's from an angle of relative disconnect, as she calls it. So initially I was wondering if this is actually a Slatra memory that rave is remembering. It could be because Slatra is so close to the surface of her icy lake right now, because, you know, the connection is so close with Slatra's pieced together shards right here. And I wonder this just because we get descriptions in this memory of, quote, tired to work out how I fit inside my body, how it worked and moved. Another very new body eyes that can see descriptions. It could very easily be rave in that same kind of context too, but just wanted to throw that out there. OK, so in this memory rave slash maybe Slatra is woken from an eternal sleep. When she opens her eyes, it's like being born, but straight into a cage. She has no memories, no idea of how to move or use her body or even who she is. And her soul is shattering from the inside out so hard that she is physically trembling. I think that part's very important for us to note. The cart rolls past her cage and on it, she sees these beautiful jagged shards of silvery light. The creature pushing the cart refuses to even look at her. And she understands that even though she does not know what's going on or how she got there, she knows enough to understand that this place is not good. And when the shards disappear, she realized that in mere moments of her existence, she already knew what it was like to be trapped. Alert, alert, alert, because I want to talk about this for a second. This is one of the first long form memories that we get from rave after she and Slatra fell. So here we can gather this, the scavenger king, Leia, that his evil Leia is close, very close to where Slatra fell, which is on the northern part of the shade. I am going to throw out something crazy because I studied the map. Erythia is right next to where Slatra fell and rave says that she was dragged into a mountain. Erythia is right up against a mountain. So is the scavenger king in Erythia, which is where the shade palaces? Or is he even just close? It would make sense if he was because he mentions in his chapter later, he knows how much Kazari's paw dotes on her. Well, yes, that does make sense. If we look at the map, Slatra's crater is closer to the fades border. And in Rex POV chapter, we learn that rave was in the fighting pits of Kandard, which is the mountain area north of Erythia and Slatra's crater. Damn it. Damn it. I think you're right. That's where a Kazari is now, too. Yeah, OK, mountain area north of Erythia. Yes, all these shards being excavated. We have to remember, Khan has most of the shards, except for the small crevice on Slatra's back. There are way more shards here than you would imagine just being on the small crevice of her back. Once again, it makes me think that Khan might have raided this place somehow, some way to take these shards. I had this inkling that when he raided it, if he raided it, it set off a chain reaction that indirectly helped rave escape. Although I will say this, that he does say later on that Slatra's crater was raided and the thousands of shards were distributed across the world. So maybe the scavenger king sold the moonshards and that's the only way that Khan was tracking them down. As rave comes back from the memory, it's impossible to avoid the truth. The shards she saw when she first opened her eyes to the world, they were scavenged at the same time as her. She can't deny that this is her dragon. They fell from the sky together. Well, actually, she can slamming the memory shut, cutting herself off from putting the puzzle pieces together, because to do that means facing the truth. And have we mentioned that she's not ready for that? It's the culmination of what we've been saying about her character to admit that this is her past, to open the floodgates of her pain and suffering that she is repressed in her icy lake for a reason. And that reason is literally she needs to survive to mentally be able to get through each and every day. And rave has gotten damn good at it. And those walls are starting to crumble, but it's a long road ahead to coming completely down. Have we talked about Khan's very famous patience, because here is one of the only times we see him being very direct with rave about her past as Elowen. He sees the memory starting to fall into place. He sees how everything around him is familiar to her. And I do think that part of him has had it with this compartmentalization bullshit. I love this line here, quote, you look me in the eye, moonbeam, right in the soul and tell me you don't hear this fires hissing shrieks, look me in the eye, sharpen those words and don't fucking blink as you plunge them through my heart. What is this writing? This is so fucking beautiful. He's desperate to have her remember. Yes, that's all true. But more importantly, he's desperate for the love of his life to stop hiding who she is, to start embracing herself. No more fucking running rave, especially when it's physically literally right here in front of her. Khan never expected he would have the opportunity to show Elowen her moon plume put back together. He thought she was dead and this was for her spirit. But she is alive and he's brought rave here and she can't even acknowledge that she has any idea who this dragon is when it's all over her face that she does. Know this in her heart and he's ready to use everything in his disposal. This is his Hail Mary, give it everything he has. And finally, she will see the light, right? Little does Khan know the suffering that rave has endured by flame. He even recognizes her fear of it when he puts it close to her face to be able to see her. It's not like as a fear tactic. It's more of a like look at me kind of thing intensity. And he asks who hurt you. He sees that she does not like the fire for a very good reason. And of course, she will not tell him. She refuses to acknowledge that she hears Ignos's fire because for her, she hates fire for good reason. She refuses to listen to Ignos. It's everything we've been saying about how she cannot face her suffering and her pain yet, even though she can speak to him. So to make it painfully clear to Khan, rave throws it all back in his face. Even if she was this person who fell from the sky and he loved, Elowen is dead. And as much as we side with Khan most of the time, I'm always like to see both sides. I really do empathize with rave here. She is not this person he wants her to be. It's not even that she doesn't feel ready to accept that identity. It's that she genuinely does not know that identity. Someone who she does not know loves her and loves this old version of her. An old version who is a stranger to rave, who is dead as far as she's concerned. And going back to what we were saying during the mind we've seen to inspect who that old version is to try to get to know rave herself means resurfacing all of her suffering, all of her pain, all of her secrets that she has repressed deep down in her lake. She has every intention of ignoring all of that like she's always done. Just piling on top of all of this is rave's core belief to care for her means danger and death. The responsibility of someone loving her is too much for her to bear. So she pushes Khan away and throws all of this back in his face, running out of the comfortable nest of chill. You know what? I bet she will take solace in book two at some point in slouch's cocoon and Khan will like find her there when he's looking for her. And that's like her safe hiding place. I need to have just tissues constantly by my side when I read this book. Yes, not really. Me too. With this not having gone how we hoped and recognizing that rave needs to do her own thing, Khan offers her bloodstone, the currency that she will need and plenty of it when she crosses the border on her adventures. He's setting her free. In other words, he isn't here to hold her back to try to make someone love him the way he loves her. He's giving her space as much as it destroys his heart. She obviously does not want him around. So he's following her lead quote chase death moonbeam. And I pray your bloodlust brings you the same sense of peace. I feel just knowing you exist. Khan. Spoiler alert. Veya is going to be like you. I dot she could get recognized by either of the twins and they could use Kazari against her and they'll storm the burn. You literally just ruined everything. Rave getting her bloodlust is kind of high risk for starting a war before the burn is ready. I'm with Veya on this one. I'm sorry. I'm like that just it makes way too much sense. Even though I'm gone because he even sees that she will not leave. Well, let's talk about that because I'm very logical and I'm jaded like they are. Even though Rave is shoving everything down, she's pretending she has no idea what Khan is talking about. Something in Rave has shifted for the first time in the entire book. Homegirl is free. She has money in her hand. She has her shackle off. She can hear her song. She can leave. She can rent an Uber, Molten Ma and fly to wreck and skin him alive and make him into a rug, but she doesn't. Something yet. Something inside her is keeping her in the burn. Earlier this chapter stretch, as Rave is talking to Pyrok in the Skyview lounge, she asks him what's that to the West and his face completely drains of color. Just looking at that jungle area, it looks completely normal, but she's drawn to it for a reason she can't explain. But we can. In the jungle, there's a small little hutch where Khan and Elwin used to basically live together. Rave feels that emotional pull towards a place that was filled with so much love. Pyrok says it's walled off because a hushling lives there. Hushlings literally slurp your brains out while you sleep. So yeah, worth being walled off, but Rave can feel the lie. And now with a handful of bloodstone, not the currency of the burn, literally Khan handed her the fade currency so she could go back there. But she's hesitating after hearing four words, chase death. Elwin Rave. That name, not her full name, so conveniently she does not know her last name is Navan yet, but it triggers something in her. She decides to stay. Huzzah! So she even wonders like, oh, maybe Rave is actually my last name. And she kind of wants to know, but she doesn't want to know, right? She's still at the end of this book, does not know that her last name is Navan. She does not know who she truly is. Like she knows that she was Elwin, who was in love with Khan. She does not know anything else. That's going to be a hard pill to swallow next week. Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. Let's turn our attention to Elwin because things are thankfully looking up for our girl. Finally, finally, nobody needs this win so badly. She might not know it's a win, though, not long after her arrival to the burn and she's not having left Slatras side in the dragon's hutch. The biggest saber side she's ever seen has entered and a man, a tall, broad and beautiful man jumps off the dragon's back. Welcome, welcome, welcome. 100 plus phases ago, Khan Vigor. And this is truly a love at first sight moment. They both stop in their tracks. They stare at each other. Elwin is without her veil. The moment goes on and on and on until finally he steps forward and asks what happened to Slatra's eyes. Remember in the venture to follow Elwin to the burn, the sun has caused the moon plume to go blind. That just breaks my heart. He also asks if Elwin is living down here. He also asks if she's eaten anything. All he needed to do was ask if she wanted an iced coffee and then she would have fallen head over heels for him in a moment. Just a second or an iced dirty chai if you're Lexi. But regardless of the caring questions, which is the first she's ever really received since her family died, Elwin does not answer. And it's not because she's forbidden to speak to strangers as a princess. She doesn't have it in her to engage with this big, strong, beautiful male already caring about her. She's so tired of the things that she loves getting taken from her. She cannot risk stirring any kind of emotion for this person. She's tired of trying to rip their etherstone off so she can speak to the creators and use her power to get Slatra home and take her thrown back from a cruel, selfish, greedy male she wouldn't trust with her worst enemy. Everything is out of Elwin's control and feels hopeless. And here is someone entering her life and she doesn't have the energy to metaphorically open the door and let him in. Later, Khan brings Elwin into the Imperial stronghold and just throws her into a tub of water, fully clothed. Sound familiar from the waterfall scene with Raeve? You're so real. Oh my God, I didn't think of that. But that's when he leaves and Veya introduces herself to Elwin. Once again, the parallels because Raeve met Veya in this chapter stretch too and had kind of similar descriptions about her as well, although much kinder in Elwin's siren trees. Although Veya was much nicer to Elwin, apologizing for her brother's behavior. While Elwin's like which brother? One of them took my kingdom and my independence and apology is not really going to cut it. Veya was talking about Khan throwing her in the tub. She wants to kill Ty Rath too, obviously. Meanwhile, in the present day, Veya is full protective sister mode, right? Like, oh my gosh, this is the differences and yet the parallels. I love it so much. Khan and Veya may be the son and daughter of her greatest enemy, but the way they are treating her, not as this broken thing with the ether stone on her head or as an asset to help them gain power, they are looking at her like a person. They're asking her questions or taking care of her in a way that no one really else did, except for her parents. These acts of kindness for a while while they're not met with words or responses. They're met with her absorbing, her listening, her taking in a presence that finally doesn't have ill intent until Veya says the magic words. She teaches lessons at Drock Academy and she'd love to extend the offer to Eloin to join. Boom. There it is. Exactly what Eloin needs to not feel so small, so powerless in this life where everything has been taken from her. One of the things I love is that the next diary entry after she agrees to take the lessons, she mentions that it's been a while since she wrote in the diary. This is a little nudge to us readers about how she's throwing herself into these lessons. It's eating up all of her time. While Veya is helping Rave get out of her head and into her body, it is Khan who ensures that she stays nourished. Knowing that she goes to slouch her hutch every single day, Khan waits outside. He doesn't speak to her, but a bowl of stew and a lump of bread and a key sitting next to him say enough, eat and then you can go be with your dragon. It literally kills me that Eloin mentions that the ether stone makes her feel so nauseous that she doesn't have an appetite. Like this, this sucks. Eloin may see Khan in this moment as being a hard ass, but we know Khan. This is not so different from how he acts with Rave when she's being all stubborn about the pin in her shoulder. It's basically tough nuggets. Sucks to suck. You have to take care of yourself and all be here while you do. So he sits and waits. He plays his guitar, his stringed instrument that I'm just calling a guitar. And I freaking love this. It's him saying, I'm here. You're not alone without him speaking a word to her. It's a way for them to fill the silence that's calming with music. God, when was the last time that someone did this for Eloin? While the first time may have ended with some too spicy food and a pretty explosion, which just makes I love that it's just like eloquent, beautiful. She's having explosive diarrhea. Like it's just killing me. The next time is her bells or water. Not spice watch. The next time I was with milder stew and coke milk. He's paying attention. And I love how the flavors even remind her of home. She's been so homesick for the shade. Like, oh, she wants us her home. And he somehow found a way to get some of that vibe into this food for her to give her some level of comfort and sense of home. Well, and she's starting to look forward to these interactions with him, which that's a huge statement for Eloin. She's been a husk of herself. She's been lost alone. Literally silent because she doesn't have the energy to speak. Getting up in the morning was not exactly something she was looking forward to every single day. But now, despite this horrific situation, her days are getting a little lighter and lighter and lighter. I fucking love this book. Oh my God. One last takeaway from these eloan diary entries is how much of her and Slatra's relationship we can feel beyond the pages. Slatra is in the only dragon hut she could make it into in her injured state. And Eloin refused to leave her side for a while. Then she puts up with Khan out of desperation to be with Slatra. And how Slatra doesn't growl or anything when Khan picks her up and takes her away from the hutch to be cared for. Slatra cares so deeply for her bonded and only wants her to be okay. She clearly trusts Khan, knowing that he is on the same side and here to help. I can just imagine Khan seeing this princess of the shade and recognizing a victim of cruelty who has suffered and he initially just wants to help someone clearly so desperately in need of someone to care, just to care. And I think he very, very quickly falls in love with her. Oh, I wonder if we'd ever get that bonus chapter, like from his POV of meeting her and how he courts her by nourishment and song. Let's step into our dragon site and turn our full attention to important foreshadowing moments for the rest of this book and speculations for book two, Ballad of Falling Dragons. We need to talk about what Rowan is searching for in bothame, the neutral city where the tri-counsel resides. Rowan is Pyrox's brother and the alchemist of Khan's inner circle. He is currently in bothame, quote, trying to get a look at that book again. He's certain there are more pages that have not been transcribed and released to the public. Um, what? A book? Our antennas are up. What needs to be released to the public? What book is this? Cause it's definitely not anything to do with Eloan, at least as far as we can tell. I think that this is Kailas' book with this language in it. I thought we were on the same page with that. I thought that that's what this is and he could hear Kailas' song. And so he's trying, he like, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. So you know what we did? We signaled a Sarah and here's what she said when we asked her about Rowan and the book and just all of that word vomit that we just said in some kind of said question. This is what she said, quote, I can tell you absolutely nothing about any of this fantastic pinkie, Sarah, but I can promise you're going to get these answers invalid. I accept that answer. I accept that too. Okay. No, Nicole, the way that you, the book of the void, right? It's the book of the void. It has to be the book of void. So what do you think that he's searching for? Like what kind of things do you think transcribed? Oh my God. The moon's falling. The moon's falling. The moon's. That's exactly what I think is happening. Oh my God. Okay. Okay. Moving on. Next thing. I'm too excited. We get hints of two other romances. It seems that Pyroc and Agni, the fleshed thunder, have a history and it also seems like they and Grime have been dancing around each other emotionally for a long time. I bet we will get their love story in book two, like a good old fashioned slow burn. You know, once if hopefully he returns from the Saber Scythe action. Don't you don't you curse him like that? Curse Grime. There is so much foreshadowing for Kazari. They are asking quote, so she doesn't know about and Khan cuts her off. Know about her daughter, I'm guessing. And how Ello and being back isn't just Khan's dream come true. It's also her daughters who needs her mom desperately, as Khan well knows after talking to Kazari at the Hungry Hollow and his niece, admitting that she's in love with a fucking stone. Quote, there's someone out there who needs her rave more than any of us do. And it's not our fucking brother. Who wrote a parchment lark that said, I need you. We get quite a bit of foreshadowing for how much untapped bloodstone there is in the burn. Remember, bloodstone is mined in the fade and we can assume the shade too. This is something that people crave. They're obsessed over it and they'll do just about anything for it. So for the burn to have untapped bloodstone makes me nervous for the ways that Kadok and Tyroth will try to wage war on that territory. All they need to do is for the wealthy of the fade and the shade to catch wind of this and they're probably going to relish in the fades armies invading. We get two foreshadowing bits with Pyrock to keep an eye out for as we head into the sequel. Number one, he overhears Veya tell Agni, quote, don't tell the king. And while he doesn't hear the part about, you know, L.O. and stab wound to the heart, he now has a little bit of leverage over Veya with knowing that she has some kind of secret from Khan. I think he might burt this out at some point that she and Agni are hiding something and it'll lead to Veya or Agni having to tell Khan the truth about the stab wound. And number two, don't worry, Veya, at least you have something else over Pyrock. She wins a card game and he owes her a favor. I don't think so, but she doesn't call that favor in in this book, right? Not in this book. Nope. I'm so glad you caught that. Yes. All right, Lexi. What is in Khan's jar of mist? I didn't even notice that. Are you serious? This is cutting me up at night. In Khan's room that clearly no one cleans. There is a jar that holds something misty. Khan instantly snatches it, not wanting rave to see his quote jar of mist. And I think I might have an idea for this. The wave from chapter one is back, baby. In chapter one, we learn that waves hunt drapes of mist where they nipple on souls in exchange for messages from the dead. I wonder if this mist was for a wave and Khan was having a wave nipple on little bits of his soul so he could try to talk to Elwin, which holy fuck, she was dead, like dead, dead because of the stab wound for 100 phases. Did he actually talk to her via a wave? I need to know the answer to this. I'm covered in chills. I need more lore information on waves before I can intelligently contribute to. That's the most enneagram five thing about this. It's so. Oh, my gosh, while also in Khan's room, the fact that his guitar like instrument is one of the only things that's not dusty. This is the instrument that he would use to sing to Elwin and he's keeping it clean. My God. But it's also not been played in a long time because his strings badly need replacing, so he's been holding it or ensuring it doesn't get dust like most everything else, but he isn't playing it because it probably reminds him of Elwin all also in his room is a map of the world with thousands of tiny black crosses, most of which are south of Gore, the capital of the fade. These are the moon plume shard locations that he's been hunting. We find out that King Austeran's dragon was named Gron and he was unsurprisingly a sabersite. Now I want to know what kind of dragon the twins have because being from the burn, one would think that they have sabersize, but they're in the fade and the shade where sabersize can't whistle in the cold. So I would assume they have fade and shade dragon, so Baltimore and moon plume, but that's a good question. Yeah, baby. Back to Grom, King Austeran's dragon. Is he dead? Either a moon or not a moon. I could see Ragon having killed him during the takeover. Like it would be almost weird if he is still alive and con for whatever reason, doesn't have to worry about this dragon taking revenge on on his ex-king. So I'm leaning towards dead. I think so too. I have a feeling Ragon has something to do with that. Probably. Oh, I'm sure. Sneaky bitch. While in the curly krill, two more things to note here in the foreshadowing section. Number one, Rave says that she wants the fear to ask to continue believing she's dead for the time being. I wonder if she's brewing plants to get back at Sarim or to free the others that Sarim has on a tight leash. And also number two, he gives her a diary with a moon plume on it and it's like, here's a nice journal for you, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, which she will start writing in next episode, not understanding why she's drawn to journaling because Rave has never journaled before. Ah, but this mindwarp purposely gives her this diary, which I think is to help her find herself and connect more with who she truly is. Rave thinks to herself how she should have explained to a hurting con why she was turning him and his mom her down. She thinks how maybe she should have told him the last day who saved her life did it to her detriment. So this could be Essie who ventured to the under city to get an ingredient that would help protect Rave, but I can't help but wonder if this is actually Fallon that she's referring to. So I think that Fallon stood up for Rave, butted in during a torture session or something led to her getting so beaten and tortured that she was then thrown back in the cell and she ended up dying from this. And that is why Rave says that she never woke up in that cell. And Rave knows that Fallon took the fall for Rave or something like that and saved her life in that moment. I think you're 100% right that the ambiguity there is very purposeful. Like where we're supposed to wonder if it's Essie, but it's actually Fallon or it's both of them really. Oh God, that's so sad. I simultaneously can't wait to learn more about Fallon and really am terrified for my emotional well-being. Also, wait real quickly. If Kazari is there with the scavenger king right now, does that mean that she is like, is she in the cells where potentially like Rave and all of them would have been? Yeah. That's exactly where she is. That does not bode well for Kazari. It doesn't, but also remember Rave drew, like they drew the, they had coal and they drew things in the cells. Okay, I'm going to go back to Dragon Bloodstone for a second. This is money in the fade in the shade, but we learned in this stretch of chapters that it has medicinal purposes, which I was so curious what that means. So we signaled a Sarah asking what kind of medicinal purposes Bloodstone has. And she answered, she said, quote, if consumed regularly, it can prolong life and stem terminal illnesses. I liken it to an adjustable steroid in parentheses, not the sort that make people muscly. Awesome. Now it is time to infiltrate the tri council where each episode lets you guide us through a world building topic to help us better deepen our understanding of this world and its magic. Today's infiltrating the tri council topic is the burn. We're becoming quite familiar with it as we spend the second half of the book in the burn kingdom. So let's dive right in. The burn is a northernmost third of the world and closest to the sun. This is the third of the world that is always sunny and very hot, hot, hot. People here have special clothing to protect their skin from the harsh sun. Some even use a sun deterrent poultice to add extra protection to their skin, which is their version of sunscreen. I love it. The burn has rainforests, sandy plains and large bodies of water. This is the only territory that gets rain and its storms here often as poor rape discovered this episode. Let's talk about the royals both past and present. The previous king of the burn was Austrian Vigor, who is bound to Covina Vigor after she died giving birth to Vaya, the youngest and only daughter of the four Vigor children. The three Vigor sons are the eldest Khan and twins Kaddak and Tyroth. But let's not forget King Austrian had a secret son, Arkan with an unknown female, a bastard. This hidden son is the scavenger king and wants the burns crowned for himself as he believes it is his birthright. In other words, he has a target on Khan who he believes took Arkan's revenge for himself. Austrian was a ruthless power, hungry king who manipulated, threatened and killed. For example, he blackmailed Elwin, Navan into bonding with his son Tyroth and forcing her to keep who the father of her child is a secret or else Austrian would kill his own daughter, who is Elwin's best friend, like a sister to her. And Austrian wouldn't sure Khan would be hunted down. Due to his scheming, he was also able to successfully put his bloodline into the royal families of all three kingdoms. This ruthlessness also applied to his own children as well. He was cruel. He hated his daughter. He sent Khan at age nine to grow up in the harsh to cool clan because he was not powerful enough. Austrian believed in a more traditional approach to the kingdom where females should be seen and not heard. I could go on and on, but you get the idea of what a terrible guy King Austrian was. Thankfully he's dead. The current king of the burn is Khan Luke Vigor, who took the throne after he killed his father, Austrian. Khan rules without a queen for now. He is the eldest son of Austrian and Covina Vigor and sibling of Kharak, Tyrof and Veja Vigor. He has a daughter, Kazari with Elwin Davon, but due to his father's manipulations, Khan believes that Kazari is his niece and the daughter of Tyrof and Elwin. Khan's imperial court includes Grime, who is his second in command, Pyrok, a not so helpful member who has a love of drinking and flirting. And then we have Pyrok's brother, Rown, who is an alchemist. And lastly, we have Agni, a talented rune and trusted flesh thread with dragon sight. Let's go through the different areas of the burn. We have Dom, which is the capital city of the burn and second largest city in the world. I assume the first largest is Gore. Dom is sheltered between the shore of the loft and a steep cliff face. The city is made up of rounded clay buildings with plants, trees and vines climbing all over the city. In Dom, there is the imperial stronghold where the king and his family lives. The imperial stronghold protrudes from the mountain and has stained glass windows, open archways covered in vines heavy with the black uke blooms that Khan's mother loved. Next up, we have the Botanic Plains, which are a large stretch of land in the burn that has been home to many warrior clans for millions of phases, one of which is the Dekul clan, which we covered in depth in episode four's dry council infiltration. There's little access to water as the planes are very, very hot and dry. And to give you an idea of the planes is distance, it takes Ragon, the largest sabersight we know of, three whole days to cross the plains. Of course, we have Gondra, the nesting grounds of the sabersight dragons, who are of course the dragons of the burn. This is the area directly beneath the sun where it is very hot and pretty much uninhabitable for most people. It is rocky with lots of volcanoes and rivers of lava, the sabersight nest within the nooks and hollows of these volcanoes. And it takes about a week to get here from the Fades capital. The coin in the burn is different from the other two kingdoms because they use gold as their currency instead of bloodstone. The burn does not support the mining of fossilized dragon blood as mining it promotes spilling it. With the caveat that if bloodstone were to find its way into the kingdom, folk are allowed to use it for its medicinal purposes as long as it was not mined under the burn's protection. The hierarchy of magic users and nulls is again different in the burn than the other two kingdoms. In the burn, elemental beads are worn in hair, beard or on clothing. And their treatment of nulls is completely different from the other two kingdoms. Here they are treated as equals to the elementals and not as lessers. Young elementals attend Drogh Academy to train and learn to speak the creator's songs while nulls are given the option to discover if they have an affinity for runes. If not, they have the option to study something or take an apprenticeship. I do want to add that this is a more recent change as Ellen notes in her journals that the previous king, Austeran, had little care for anyone who could not hear the elemental songs. Khan once again making life better here. And that friends is the burn. Let us close out this episode with shopping at the curly quill, just like rave did, but let's have it go a little bit better. And let's discuss our favorite moments from this stretch of chapters. Khan's ma used to love the black ooka plumes that love to overgrow here in Dom. And while Khan's paw made sure to hack them all back, Khan let some grow all over the city would let them grow all over the kingdom. And it's such a sweet tribute to his ma. It's another F you to his paw. I love that little detail that we get. I love to put Veya's just entire character here in favorite moments. I love her. I love how feisty she is her relationship with Khan, her big personality. She has such little sister vibes when she goes, Khan, Luke, Vigor, tell me who that is, or I will fill your palate with hulky bugs every slumber for the rest of your long miserable existence. So fucking help me. Can I also point out that his middle name is Luke? Why does that work so well? I got such a good chuckle when Pirak is like, are you sure you didn't bring home some poor girl who looks like Elowen? And Khan is offended. Like, no, I would not do that. I mean, knows it was Elowen when she told the high counselor of the fade at her own execution sentence that he has a micro cock, which makes Pirak go, how toast to that? No wonder he and Ravel get along. It's so funny. And it's also so sad. Because when Khan's like, no, I wouldn't do that. Everyone's like, oh, but you kind of would, my guy. And it's like, oh, he's been such he's been in a bad place for 123 phases. Rave, when she first tries on one of the hooded robes of the burn, she checks herself out in the mirror and then she says, this is adorable. I just love that. That's so clear in my head. While I'm on rave, she just throws out zinger after zinger. This entire episode, when we've seized Khan's paws, Saber's side, painted on the ceiling for the first time, she thinks, quote, Khan needs to fire the decorator before someone dies of a heart attack. And when she comes upon Pirak and Grime playing Scrippy, she takes their snacks and candlestick and is like, so do you need me to kill anyone for you in exchange for this? These males who knew Elowen are like, um, like what? I can only imagine what is going through their mind with this different but same swaggering person. Now former assassin offering to kill anyone they need us, you know, just a one time favor. They're king, you know, that guy Khan. Well, he saved her life a few times, so she's feeling lenient today. Or one of my favorites is when she talks to the guard and she's like, do you have any weapons? I don't really like this one too heavy. What about that one? She's like shopping off of their guard and she literally has a shackle on and she's like, this is a good day for me. And they're just staring at Elowen, the Vaad and they're like, oh, when she gets the iron cuff off and she hears clothe for the first time, she thinks, quote, welcome back you crazy bitch. That's something I would say. I love that. And of course, when she's storming out of the tunnel and she thinks, quote, when has following someone into a dark tunnel to the words it's just down here ever been a good idea? I love, love, love game to meet. They have a stretch of chapters, but it also arose the question, how old are Khan and they are? So we signaled a Sarah and here is what she said. They have long lives in this world. If you were to compare them to human years, Khan would be in his early 30s and they would be in her early mid 20s. The twins are pinched between them both. Just a few little things about Dom. Like I love all the little tidbits about Dom, like you were mentioning with the blossoms, but I also love that they get quote dollops of something creamy looking that's cradled within a coiled black cone. This is ice cream. And if I need any more reasons to go live in the burn of all places, it was this. It was you have ice cream. That was all they have. Dairy free ice cream for you. Nicole, I would eat dairy ice cream. No, I wouldn't. I'd have a rave moment and blow up for it. I'm not a baby. Khan's line quote, don't lie to me, moonbeam. Lie to the world, but please don't lie to me. I melt like ice, dairy free ice cream and a cone for this man. And last but not least, we have not talked about the most important part of this entire fucking episode. Skrippy is played for the first time on the page because I had to know how this works. Within the pages of a book, we signaled to Sarah to ask her how do you play Skrippy? And she said quote, I'll hold off on answering this because it'll take me forever without my binder that's tucked in a packing box in Australia about to be sent off in a shipping container to the UK. But I'm actually planning on having this made into a proper board game at some stage. That's so cool. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode five of our When the Moon hatch deep dive next week. We are taking a quick detour from this deep dive and we are doing reactions to the rights of the Starling by Devney Perry. Lexi, you have finished the book. I'm almost halfway through it, but you will not shut up about this book. I am obsessed with this book and I cannot just talk all about it in this reactions episode. Yes. But then we are going to be back with When the Moon Hatch the following week on April 27th with episode six covering chapters 58 through 75. Oh, that's a big chapter stretch. We love to give the biggest warm welcome, welcome, welcome to our newest Feral fans and deep divers. Thank you so, so much for being here. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Alexandria B and KC D. Welcome. And if you're like, Hey, I want my name shot out on the podcast and be shot with all this love to join our fan club at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club link is in the show notes. Thank you as always to our own mind weft aka our content researcher, Brooke, and our executive producer slash sanity manager slash co-host of the fantasy fanfellows podcast, Hayden. We are very active on social media with weekly trivia, book guides, lots of event announcements coming up and lots more. So please be sure to follow us on Instagram and slash or TikTok at fantasy fangirls pod. And if you're watching this 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 are listening on. And if you feel like going the extra mile like Khan does this episode, write a little love note in the review section. Give us a little snowflake for slotra. You know what I mean? And last but not least, share this episode with your fellow moonfall friends. If you and your best friend were texting about the mind weft saying, oh, this would be super efficient. Oh, this would not be super efficient. This is really scary. This is the perfect episode to send their way. Thank you so much for joining us today, everybody. Bye. Bye. She teaches combat lessons at drunk. Drunk. At drunk. Drunk. It's like a, yeah. At drunk. I can never ever replicate that, but yes. Okay.