TOG Fantasy FanGuide Episode 3: Empire of Storms & Tower of Dawn

Prime Video offers the best in entertainment. The end of the world continues with the season 2 of Fallout. A worldwide phenomenon, inbegreed by Prime. I heard you about what to do in this situation. Look at the epic end of the unwritten story of The Witches of Oz. Buy or buy? Wicked for good now. I'm taking you to see The Wizard. There's no going back. So whatever you want to look, Prime Video. Here you look at everything. Prime is a good idea, especially to buy or buy. Inhoud can advertise 18+. All the rules are of use. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fangirls Podcast, where two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore, character themes, theories, and more. I'm Lexi, older sister and fantasy lore nerd. And I'm Nicole, younger sister and romantic at heart. And today is Throne of Glass fan guide episode three as we continue our four-part fan guide journeying through this epic fantasy series. Please listen closely to our spoiler warning because it's very specific and different for each of these fan guide episodes. These Throne of Glass fan guide episodes are split into two parts. This episode three, part one, contains plot spoilers for Assassin's Blade, Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, and Queen of Shadows. Spoilers for those books of the series only. If you have not read Beyond Those Five Books, this part one is for you. This is all about laying the foundation as the world expands more and more and our characters are separated. Then part two includes whole series spoilers. Remember, this is the case for all of these Throne of Glass fan guide episodes. We'll give you an obnoxious spoiler warning so you know when we move from part one to part two in case you have to jump off. Part two discusses character journeys and our biggest highlights from Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. I cannot believe that we did both of these books in one episode. While we're on spoilers, these Throne of Glass episodes do not include spoilers for ACOTAR or Crescent City. If you want our mass-first conversations, we have a three-hour compilation for you to listen to from our 11 months of deep-diving ACOTAR. Link to that episode is in the show notes. So with all of that said, if you know that Erewhon is alive and well, but nothing else, then you're safe to listen to part one, but not part two. Like Lexi said, we will have a huge spoiler warning for you to know when we are moving into whole series spoilers. Next, we at Fantasy Fangirls are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R. Much like these books kicking it up a spice notch or 12 spice notches, we will too. So please be mindful of those little listening ears. Additionally, we are so excited to see you at upcoming live events. On April 8th, we are partnering with the Denver Nuggets and Rebecca Yaros for a fourth wing themed basketball night at Ball Arena. Plus, we are so excited to do a live show at the Neptune Theater on April 19th in Seattle. Tickets are on sale for you to dive deep into how to train your dragon with us. Check out our website or the links below for more information and more events, plus a promo code for dreamers and readers. In case you missed it, the Fantasy Fangirls Network be bopping. First up, Fantasy Fanfellas has officially launched their season two where Book Talk star Stephen Walker and our very own Hayden Sanity Manager are diving deep into Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, The Well of Ascension. Season one of Mistborn, Deep Diving the Final Empire is out now on the Fantasy Fanfellas feed and season two is only available on the Fantasy Fanfellas feed. Be sure to give them a follow. Link is in the show notes. And we've got another new show coming to you in late March. Fantasy Fan Reads will be hosted by the delightful Jess of Lost Books of Jess, where this podcast will be all about celebrating the joys of reading with author interviews, cozy coffee conversations, and so much more. Go ahead and give her a follow at Fantasy Fan Reads. We cannot wait to share more details with you soon. Last thing before we jump into Throne of Glass fan guide episode three. If you love Fantasy Fangirls and want more events, more content, more community, and so much more, so, so, so much more, please check out Fantasy Fan Club, which just grew to add media network offerings. We have six network tiers you can join. Holy moly. Our three original Fantasy Fangirls tiers, the Hive Mind, the Spice Watchers, and the Feral Fans, which includes access to our Boppin' Discord, live community events, promo codes, early access to ad-free episodes, our full episode outlines, behind-the-scenes privileges, so much. And then also that for the network. So be sure to check out fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club for more information. And really and truly, friends, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts as we've turned this podcast, this media network, our author journeys into a dream come true. It's all because of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And now to whatever end, big sister. Oh, because we are covering Empire Storms and Tower of Dawn this episode. It only feels right for us to kick off this no spoiler section with to tandem read or to not tandem read. Quick TLDR on what is a tandem read. Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn are actually happening at subsequent times. They're just following two different crews in two different parts of the world. So people have put together this masterful chapter by chapter breakdown of bouncing back and forth between the two books. So you read it as basically one big book versus two different books. You might be like, huh, why would anyone want to bounce between these two books of considerable length? Since the first, especially to become one gigantic book that's more like monster genre, but anyway, since the two books take place over the same timeline following different characters, it actually makes a lot of sense and is a super unique reading experience. So let's go through the pros of the Tantam Read first here. Number one, you don't have to completely abandon half the cast of characters in the series when you do the Tantam Read. Empire of Storms follows Aelin and her court, Dorian, Manon, our crew on the continent of Aurelia, while Tower of Dawn follows Kaol and Nezarin as he goes off on his mission to get healed, splitting up from the main group to travel to the southern continent. So the tandem read lets you stay with all of your favorite characters while falling in love with new ones and going on major character arc journeys. Pro number two, you are able to experience everything as it chronologically happens, especially since there are quite a few references from Empire of Storm's events in Tower of Dawn. In some of the hindsight or knowing what certain characters know as things play out in real time on the combined book pages is downright fun as a reader. Like Cale in Tower of Dawn thinking, Aelin would never do such a thing. And then you switch over to Empire of Storms and she does it. There are some really cool reveals in each book that make the extra context that much better when going between storylines. And pro number three, Empire of Storms is known for its dramatic cliffhanger. And it can be very hard to finish that ending and then rewind in time and begin Tower of Dawn, where it's a whole book before you find out what happens next to the main group of characters in Kingdom of Ash. On that note with the ending, I've only recently heard of what's called a partial tandem read, where you first read the majority of Empire of Storms up to Chapter 51, and then you stop reading Empire of Storms and start reading Tower of Dawn up to Chapter 58. Once you've read up to Empire of Storms 51 and Tower of Dawn Chapter 58, Then you go back to Empire of Storms, finish it through the end, and then finish reading Tower of Dawn. Ta-da! I have never heard of that. That's brand new in my mind. Somebody had commented that they did it in our Discord. And I started looking into it more. And I was like, well, that's the best of both worlds. Oh, gosh. That was not on to however that song goes. It's sick. That's okay. What about some cons, though? Con number one, carrying around two giant books everywhere flipping back and forth is not ideal for some people. Now, some people have found ways around this. You can put sticky tabs in the chapters that you're focusing on so then it's easy to know where you need to stop and where you need to flip back and forth. Or if you're like me and you did it on audio, you can make your phone background the chapter by chapter breakdown and then you're able to easily check where you're at in the tandem read. Now, I'm going to add this as like a con 1.5, because in my opinion, it is much harder to do the tandem read on audio unless you are actively paying attention to what chapter you're on. And for me, consistently having to check chapter numbers just made it way more difficult for me to immerse myself in the story. Con number two. Holy God, there are a lot of POVs if you do it this way. Aelin, Rowan, Dorian, Manon, Elite, Lorcan, Aideon, Lysandra. And that's just one book. It's already a lot. Then add Kaol, Nezrin, and at least two more characters you meet in Tower of Dawn. It's a lot to keep track of, and it can be overwhelming trying to remember where a character's storyline is when you bounce back to them after being away for a while. And con number three. In my opinion, the pacing is so different in these two books. Empire of Storms is action and sea adventure, while Tower of Dawn is a very character-driven romance. It's a lot, and sometimes immersing yourself in the story can be way harder when they feel wildly different. Plus, they were published separately, so they are intended to be different styles of stories. So again, it ultimately depends on the reader whether you want to tandem read or not. I will say I was very team tandem for your first read. That is how Nicole and I both did it, although I know that I pretty much raw-dogged tandem read. But once when I did my reread, which doing these fan guides is my first time rereading Throne of Glass, I'm reading each book on their own, and I'm finding that I personally prefer it that way. But still, the tandem read really is its own kind of experience that we don't get that often with book series. So if you're curious, go ahead and give it a try. Or you could compromise and do the partial tandem read where you get the best of both worlds with each book's intended pacing and immersion. Then the endings are broken up so you can survive that Empire of Storm's cliffhanger and have some of that extra a good context for both endings. I feel like the most common way to do it is the tandem on your first read, and then if you ever decide to reread the series, which I'll be honest, most people do, you read each book in their entirety, Empire of Storms first, then Tower of Dawn. Though I will say, once when you know what's going to happen in both books, I personally don't think the tandem read has as much impact as it does on a first read. I've seen the question too about reading Tower of Dawn first. Please don't, because it has too many spoilers for Empire of Storms, including literally the ending of Empire of Storms in Tower of Dawn. So whatever you do, and I cannot believe I even have to say this, but apparently I do because I had to say it to one of our team members, and you know who you are. Do not skip Tower of Dawn. It doesn't have to be your favorite of the series, but the fact that a lot of people do love it when they didn't expect to, like both Nicole and I, it speaks volumes to what this book is capable of. In fact, right before we started recording, Nicole and I were gushing about how much we love Tower of Dawn and how it was a reminder on this reread with exploring a new continent with new cultures and characters and histories. The vibes are vibing. It makes this world and this whole series and the characters that much richer. I think Tower of Dawn is my second favorite in the series right behind Queen of Shadows. It is so well done. It is a character arc to end all character arcs. Like, I just, there's so much you learn about the war and about the main players in the war, even though we're not on the same continent as them, that you have to read it. Like, it's so important. All right, friends, who's ready for Nicole to recap the last two books? Gather round as she highlights what happened in Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows. Heir of Fire. Zelena goes to Wendland where nothing says healing retreat like wine and stale bread on a rooftop. What are you looking at, bird? But who are you people? Oh, you're witches. We'll come back to you in a moment. Prince Rowan Whitethorn, a.k.a. Buzzard, is assigned to train Selina to meet the queen of the fae Maeve's standards. Imagine Gordon Ramsay, but immortal and hotter. Selina, however, terrified of her magic, has zero control, doesn't feel worthy of being the queen she is, is mourning her friend, and is deep in her tortured poet's department era. Don't worry, life at the showgirl is just a book away. Meanwhile, in Rifthold, Kael, Adian Ashriver, and the rebels begin playing 4D chess while pretending they still like the king. They investigate how magic was wiped out and quietly help the rebellion while maintaining their nothing-to-say-here loyal soldier cosplay. All the while, annoyed that he's left in the dark, Dorian continues his magical awakening, experiments with controlling his powers, and teams up with Sorsha, a castle healer, to help keep his magic hidden. But remember those witches? It's okay, you're not supposed to, and you're supposed to want to groan when they come on the page. The witch clans are readying for the How to Train Your Dragon not made by Dreamworks. Manon, witch leader of the group called the Thirteen, calls dibs on the biggest, baddest wyvern of them all. It didn't work for JFB, and it will not work for you. Instead, she bonds with Abraxos, who wants to frolic through the flowers on his way to war. Manon's grandmother, the leader of the Blackbeak Witches, hates flowers like a grumpy puss, and she is not pleased with all of this brooding. And back to Miss Word. Communicating with negative emotional intelligence, Rowan throws Selina into deadly scenarios in the hopes that she, Aelin, will use her powers to shift into a fey. God damn it! Skinwalkers? Skinwalkers will help. But through mutual suffering, forest yelling, and a giant cave fish with a sword, plus emotional shared baggage, Selina and Rowan slowly heal, grow stronger, and form a ride-or-die bond. Bestie tattoos, anyone? Love is in the air. Because Dorian and Sorsha begin falling madly in love in their forbidden romance montage. K.O. is still scheming. Our girl Selena is ready to confront her decade-long shame spiral over wasting Lady Marion's sacrifice. And Aelin decides she's done being emotionally constipated. She chooses to fight for a better world and claims her worth. and absolutely obliterates Norik and the Volg princes using her fire magic and the Karanon bond. The continent of Aurelia hears about this and collectively goes, Oh, she's that girl. That girl with the Karanon bond. Meaning she and Rowan can share power and go full Avengers assemble when needed. With Rowan's approval unlocked, Aelin goes to Aunt Maeve, who immediately starts gaslighting and fishing for word key info. Excuse me, ma'am. Aelin says counteroffer and trades Maeve the ring of her dead lover in exchange for Rowan's freedom from his blood oath to her, in which she says, she went to Jared's! And Maeve breaks Rowan's blood oath, and Rowan immediately decides to swear it to Aelin, because free will is hot! Meanwhile, over at the Ferry and Gap, it's war games, and they're looking for a wing leader. No, not you, Zayden. It's not a shadow daddy who wins the title this time. It's Manon who, despite saving Petra Blueblood's life, yes, despite, who wins the title of wingleader in the war games, ready to lead the wyvern army for the King of Otterlyn. Back to Rifthold. Yes, we are definitely in a Sarah J. Maas book now. The King confronts his son about his forbidden love and unveils her secret. Sorsha is a rebel spy and literally goes all Anne Boleyn off with her head. Grief stricken, Dorian is then slapped with a wordstone collar, getting possessed by a Volg Prince, worst spa treatment ever. And Adian is thrown into prison for treason. Dorian's last act of autonomy yeets Kaol to safety because someone in the castle has to survive with a conscience. Queen of Shadows, Aelin is back, baby, in Rifthold, running approximately 12 secret plans, trying to save her kingdom, locate the word keys, and not screaming at everyone who wronged her. Or who's just being an ass looking at you, Kaol. First order of business, break Adian out of prison because family loyalty overlaws always. Convinced her old master, Erebin, is holding onto one of the word keys like a cursed Funko Pop, Aelin puts on her toxic ex-employee mask, smiles through her teeth, and quietly plots his downfall. Meanwhile, Kaol and his fellow rebel slash ex-lover, Nezrin, are out doing vigilante work, hunting the Vogue, rescuing prisoners, heading for demon experiments, and doing all their darndest to save the city. What else are they saving? Information. Kaol's distrust of his ex this time Aelin has him gatekeeping critical world saving information like it's his emotional availability high in the glass castle Dorian is going all golem being fully possessed by a val prince and living his worst possible timeline trapped in his own body while the demon joy rides him through the dungeon torture sessions Kaol is in full we can save him optimism mode while Aelin is in her and his suffering realism mode and the group chat is officially on mute Rowan rolls into Rift Hold because Lorcan, Maeve's second, is hunting Aelin and the word keys. Bad news bears. But at least the emotional support Faye boyfriend not a boyfriend is here. But in a plot twist no one saw coming, Lysandra and Aelin speed run from childhood enemies to besties who commit murder together. They absolutely obliterate Erobin Hamel. And by ending the slimy crime lord, Aelin inherits his entire fortune. Proving once again, killing your abuser is fiscally responsible. money for armies, check! We get a big bad name drop. The Volg's king name is Erewhon, and he's probably hiding out in Morath, assembling a demon army like it's a startup who just cashed in big on Kickstarter. Over in Morath, the place where Erewhon is totally not hiding at all, Manon and the witches are stuck in a nightmare work environment with Erewhon. I mean, Parrington. Watching demon breeding experiments that somehow keep getting worse. The vibes shift when Manon witnesses Kaltain's terrifying shadowfire glow up. That girl is on fire! When the 13 witches learn about these experiments, the group chat starts questioning the mission and looks like someone invited a new member. Enter Alid Lachan, fragile but fierce, who immediately gets adopted by the witches for protection and her own witchy heritage. Back in Rifthold, the clock towers are revealed as the king's ultimate doomsday device, magical edition, and Aelin and crew decide it's time to take him down. Heist highlights include Kaol getting critically injured and paralyzed because the universe said, character development now. Aelin ripping the Vogue Prince out of Dorian like an exorcism speedrun, Dorian and Aelin combining their magic, killing the king right after a not-so-evil villain monologue that we will absolutely be going over, and literally shattering the glass castle because subtle symbolism is for cowards. When magic comes Aurora and back, Kaltain chooses a final act of defiance. She gives Alid the word key that was in her arm, and nuclear-level revenges the mountain at Morath with shadow fire so Alid can escape. Tragic! Iconic! No notes! The book ends with Kaol and Nezrin heading to Antica for healing, Aelin securing Rifthold in Dorian's name, and then finally setting off to Tereson to reclaim her home. Thank you so much, Nicole. That was fantastic. Round of applause. We'll dive into this fan guide setting up what's next in the series, with no plot spoilers, after a quick word from our sponsors. It is time to turn to our Throne of Glass cheat sheet, a.k.a. what this fan guide is all about. Once again, we are preparing ourselves for what we need to know as the world continues expanding in the Throne of Glass series. As always, reminder that due to the nature of this fan guide, we are sharing basic information from Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn about the world, the state of it, magic, cultures, and introducing new characters. This is intended to help you get your footing as you keep reading these next books in the series, no matter if you tandem read or not. To be honest, that does not factor into this fan guide. Let's see what the political landscape looks like at the end of Queen of Shadows going into Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. The glass palace in Rifthold was destroyed. The wall of glass from Aelin's save is a physical reminder of her power to the world. The savior of the city, or to others, a threat. Magic is free again. Huzzah! After the clock tower was destroyed, magic is restored in Aurelia for the first time in 10 years. Magic can be wielded again on this continent. Aelin just announced herself to the people of Rifthold, declaring that she killed the king of Otterlin and his empire is over. Slaves are now free people, and Dorian will step into his kingly duties once when he's ready. So as we enter Empire of Storms, Dorian is back to himself without the Valk possession. Yay! I'm so happy for him. His father is dead, and he is king alone in Rifthold as the rest of the crew heads north. and we readers are not quite sure what the rippling consequences are of magic returning the evil king's death and aelin's declaration about slaves being free of course we have to do our where's the word i said a word word word where's the word is that a word word where's the word i said a word word word where's the word stop it you get that joke no what is that family guy i said a bird bird where's the bird i said a bird bird bird where's the bird anyway never mind. All right. And when I say word, I mean word keys. Where are the word keys and who's got them as far as we readers know? A lead is traveling north toward Terrason. Nicole, are you okay? That was like the longest. Where's the word keys? And I loved every second of it. Never change. Oh my God. I love you. I had that stuck in my head for days. So you're welcome, everybody. A lead is traveling north toward Terrace and looking for Salina Sardothian and Aelin Galathanias, not realizing that they are the same person. She has one word key after Kaltain gave it to her from being implanted in her arm. So Aelid has one word key going north. Aelin is traveling with another word key inside the amulet of Orenth, which she received from Erebin, who had taken it from her when she washed up on shore as a girl. Lorcan thinks he's traveling with this key that Aelin actually has. In Queen of Shadows, she tricked him into thinking that he has it. Aelin bets that Lorcan is on his way toward Morath, the most likely place where the other two keys are under Erewhon's control. We don't know the location of the third word key, but we did think that the King of Otterlyn and Erewhon had two previously. Now, since Elid has one of those word keys, the bad guys have one word key. Real quick on this third word key, Based on the riddle in Elena's tomb, we can determine that one of the three word keys was hidden in a volcano. Back in Era of Fire, Adian spoke with a man who had traveled farthest in a tavern, and he had been in Null, where there are active volcanoes. And he told Adian that 10 years ago, the king of Arlen took a legion into the volcanoes and sacked the temple. What if that is when the king used the first word key he found in Elena's tomb to access the second hidden thanks to Brandon's fire magic in a volcano? That's canon. Like that is canon in my head. That makes way too much sense. That feels so intentional. You're brilliant. I don't know if it's like supposed to be a really obvious thing, but I was like, I started word searching volcano and I was like, oh. With Queen of Shadows, we get a huge download from the king of Otterland right before he died. The Dark Lord is alive, and worse, he's Duke Parrington. Or more so, was Duke Parrington hiding in Duke Parrington's body? So hello, big bad villain alert. We finally meet you. This is one of those things that on a reread of the series, you see these little tiny offhanded lines here and there about Parrington having an onyx ring, how his eyes are obsidian, and very off conversations that he's having with the King of Otterland about possessing Kaltain. And it's like, oh my god, the whole time! Or even if readers guessed that Parrington was being possessed by a Vogue, the extra big twist is that he is the big bad, the Dark Lord. And it's like, ah! Yes! In Queen of Shadows, Aelin and Co find wordmark etchings on the wall telling the story of Erewhon and his two other Vogue brothers leading the first Vogue war. But only Erewhon was kept here in this world, and he was destined to get his brothers back here for reasons unknown. So years later, it was Elena and Gavin who slayed him. Or so the story said, it turns out that they did not kill him at all. Only put Erewhon to sleep, only put him to sleepy-bye in an iron tomb under a mountain in Morath. Gasp! So when the king of Otterlyn found the first word key in Elena's tomb, he brought that key to Morath. And Parrington, not possessed or at least not fully possessed yet, brought him down to the crypt under the mountain and had the king open up the iron sarcophagus, freeing and waking Erewhon. Bad, bad, this is bad. Who then took over Parrington's body and used his little like minions assemble to possess the king of Otterlin. For years, the king of Otterlin has been just another victim of the Valk. But when Dorian was born, he sensed his son's magic. So the king built a triangle of towers to rid the continent of magic in order to protect his son. Oops, because he used his own blood and didn't know that by doing so, accidentally allowed for any of his direct bloodline to use their magic. Hence why Dorian has been able to use raw magic since it awoke in Crown of midnight. So this whole time as the Duke of Parrington has been in Morath, beginning demon breeding and building up his army, using Vernon Locken as his minion, it has been Erewhon, not Parrington. This is so bad. So luckily, our girl Kaltain, in pure feminine rage, blew up Morath, not stopping, but putting a major dent in the Demon King's plans. Now that Aelin is on her way to Tarasen, along with Aideon, Rowan, and Lysandra, let's talk about this northern kingdom in Aurelia. First, there's a lot of politicking here in Tarasen, so I'm going to walk us through some good-to-know politics as we head into Empire of Storms. After the Otterland Conquest 10 years ago, Tarasen has been ruled by the noble houses, including Allsbrook, Darrow, Gunner, Ironwood, Locken, Sloan, and Suria. Darrow was King Orland's lover and the current primary steward for the territory. Remember, King Orlon was Aelin's uncle, and he never had any children, and that is why she is now the heir and queen of Tarasen. So upon Aelin's arrival in Tarasen, she will most certainly be meeting with Darrow and the other nobles of her homeland. Because Tarasen is the major target for our crew, let's do a quick overview of some of the most important places in this nation so we have it as we're going into Empire Storms, face and top of mind. If you get nothing else from this section, please at least get that Orenth is the capital of Tarasyn. It's where the royal family's home was prior to Otterlin's invasion, and the remains of the stronghold, using that term loosely, it is in Orenth. Then we have Paranth, which is the second largest city in the kingdom. This is where Elid is from, and a bunch of other little cities and towns also are scattered throughout Tarasyn. All of the cities are surrounded by two big mountain ranges, the Staghorns in the north and the Anaskals to the west. And the Oakwalled Forest makes up the majority of the kingdom in the north. Tereson is known for its beauty. Think green forests and flatlands. Just dial that saturation up. And Tereson is rich with lore, like the sun stags were brought to the land by Brannan. And the Lord of the North, which is the White Stag, is an ancient spirit tied to the royal bloodline and a symbol for the kingdom. The Lord of the North is a guardian of the Oakwalled Forest with this constellation always in the sky to help guide people home to Tereson. King's Flame is a rare, sacred flower that blooms only when there is true peace in the kingdom. And then I also want to talk about a few objects that are tied to Tereson, like the Amulet of Orenth. It's a round disc with a white stag carved on the front. It has a burning crown of gold between the antlers with the immortal star that watches over the Galifanius family. It's an honored family heirloom passed down to those who need its guidance. Aelin was wearing on the night of Tereson's fall and the amulet protected her when she escaped into the river. She realized in Air of Fire that Brannan had hidden a word key in there. So there is a word key that she now carries in the Amulet of Orenth. Before we move from Tarasen, let's discuss the main sword that is very special to people of this territory, the Sword of Orenth, which is currently being wielded by Aedion and has been for years. Previously, when he was general of the King of Otterland's army, Aedion was allowed to keep the sword as a mockery. of the traitorous man he's become. But he held onto it for what it symbolizes to him and the people of Tereson. The owner of the sword is seen as the current protector of Tereson and the general of its army. Seems pretty appropriate for Aedion. You might be asking, why doesn't Aelin wield it now? Well, because she is wielding Goldrin. Goldrin is a large gold-hilted sword with a ruby the size of a chicken egg set into the hilt. Feels rather apt for our fire-breathing bitch queen. Back in Era Fire, when Aelin was at the lake training gone wrong, Goldrin is found and used to fight off the deadly lake giant creature from killing Luka. It then becomes Aelin's go-to sword ever since, especially when she uses it against the Volg princes, and they're quite surprised that she's wielding it. Especially when she's not Athril or Brannan of the Wildfire. Skrrt! Who are you people? Athril, Maeve's beloved, was a dear, dear, dear friend of Brannan Galathinius, who was Aelin's ancestor, Athril had been blessed by Mala Firebringer and the sword along with it. We learned that Maeve killed Athril after he and Brannan refused to let Maeve steal the keys for herself from the Valk. But after killing Athril, Maeve was weakened enough that Brannan then took the keys from her and he took his friend's sword, Goldren, with the ring in its hilt, into the cave where Aelin then finds it. It's important to note that the ring that is in Goldrins' Hilt would have been Maeve's if, you know, she hadn't killed her husband. It is this ring that Aelin returns to Maeve at the end of Ere of Fire in exchange for Rowan's freedom from the Blood Oath. But Aelin takes the sword, claiming that Brannan left it for anyone but Maeve to find. Unfortunately, as Lorcan states in Queen of Shadows, that ring she did not want just for sentimentality. She wanted it because the ring grants immunity from the Vogue powers. So now Maeve is immune to ever being enslaved by the Vogue or wordstone collars. Oh, dear. Okay, while we're deep on swords, my favorite is that in the outline, Lexi just writes. Let's go ahead and round out the final notable sword, which is Damaris, also known as the Sword of Truth, which is currently with our Terrace and crew. And this sword has been with us basically since Book 1, when Selina found it in the tomb of Alaina. After it's in Selina's possession for a while, it is then passed to Kaol, who grabs the sword on his way out of the palace after Saoirse's death in Ere of Fire. It's not until Kalina's shadows that we learn it's been called via legend the Sword of Truth, and that Gavin Havelyard was rumored to be able to see, or rather feel, truths when he wielded the sword. It is Aelin who suspects that there was a god of truth, a sin eater, so to speak, who blessed Gavin with this sword and its powers. Thank you for that overview of the swords. I know that can get a little bit confusing. I know I learned a lot when I was doing this section, and I've read this series more times than I can count. All right, now let's check in on Maeve across the great ocean where she reigns over Doranel, because we always want to keep an eye on this immortal fae queen. So as of now, Maeve is a wild card who is known for only looking out for herself. And she does have a great enough army that can either aid Tarasen or join Erewhon. But according to Aelin, the Ash Rivers are at Maeve's beck and call. So if Maeve does not send aid, then neither will the Ash Rivers. Doesn't matter that Aelin and Aedian are of that bloodline. Lorkhan, Maeve's second in command, left to come to Rifthold. He now thinks he carries a word key in the amulet Aelin gave him in exchange for the Valg immunity ring to get that back. What he does not know is that the word key amulet is actually a replica Aelin had made. Womp womp for Lorcan. But it's also very important for us to note that Maeve did not actually send him after Aelin and the word keys. Lorcan knows that his queen, Maeve, will do anything to obtain the word keys. And with the three keys power, she would make herself a god. Well, Lorcan says that kind of power would destroy her. So he's gone rogue. The only way he's able to do this with his blood oath tied to her is emphasizing he is searching for the keys to destroy them to protect his queen from becoming a demon herself. I'm going to repeat that one more time. Lorcan has gone rogue because he has convinced himself that he is doing what is best for Maeve and that is how he's able to create this loophole in his blood oath under her control. It will be interesting to see how Maeve takes her second in command disobeying her in a twisted by the rules way. The rest of the cadre, as far as we know, are still in Windland at the mercy of Maeve, including Gavriel, who takes the shape of a lion and is Aedian's, surprise, fey father. His mother kept Aedian a secret to protect him from the clutches of Maeve. Father does not know son exists yet. Aedian found out from Rowan, who knew right away that Gavriel is his father and queen of shadows. Also important to remember the twins who turn into wolves, Fenris and Connell, where one of them must always be anchored to Maeve's side. and then there's Vaughn too, which he's always just kind of out there. And then there's Vaughn. And then there's Vaughn. All right. So that's Tarasyn and that's Dorinel slash Wendlin. Now let's move over to Morath where the witch clans are hippity happening over there. Morath is at least a third in rubble thanks to Kaltain's explosion, which both Erewhon and Vernon Locken survived. Manon's grandmother, the High Matron of the Blackbeak, is not happy, but she doesn't necessarily blame directly Manon for what happened in Morath. She's more just not happy about it in general. But the plan for the witches to be the Aerial Legion and prepare for war is still underway, and Manon and her matron are the top advisors to Duke Parrington, aka Erewhon. In addition to the Aerial Legion and the armies being built up, Erewhon is building up witch towers with the help of the Witch Clan matrons. Bad, bad, this is bad. Because these hundred foot high battle towers are huge mirrors. Not ordinary mirrors, but sacred mirrors of the ancient. Quote, mirrors that were once used to build and break and mend. But with these towers, they will be amplifiers. For what, you ask? Aha! Shadow fire. Hence the reason Caltaine was here for the Duke slash Erewhon's source of shadow fire. And with her and these towers, quote, ailing Galathinius and her forces would be obliterated. I told you this was bad. But with Erewhon no longer having Kaltain because she exploded in feminine rage, he will now need another source of shadow fire in order to get these towers up and useful So let zoom now over to our crew of the 13 whose cracks in their loyalty to the matron of the Black Beaks is really starting to show While I not going to go into details, please know that I am about to talk about Asterin's story, so trigger warnings for stillbirth and as always, listen to your comfort level, but if you would like to skip, you only need to jump ahead about a minute. Asterin shared her story about how she fell in love with a human man, became with child and tragically lost that child, then was beaten by Manon's grandmother. Fucking duh. In witch culture, to lose a witchling is a disgrace, and thus Asterin dishonored the blackbeaks and she was branded with the word unclean on her stomach. Manon knew her grandmother was harsh. She's a blackbeak after all. But this level of cruelty, Manon's questioning whether or not she'd like to continue with this leadership. And it was a lot for her to learn that her second, her cousin, her closest confidant, didn't tell Manon this traumatic secret she's kept for 80 years. Manon's grandmother did something so cruel to Astrid and so outrageously and unnecessarily evil. Like we talked about in our part two of last episode, Queen of Shadows is where Manon looks inward and her obedience as a witch is getting beaten out for her loyalty to actual witches. It's really making Manon grapple with the reality of her grandmother's reign and what it's supposed to mean to be a black beak. Always that question lingering from what the crock and witch said right before Manon was forced to kill her at the end of Era Fire, her grandmother pretending it was a gift. Are monsters made or born? Abraxas is certainly not a born monster. He's a wyvern-sized teddy bear, though he's supposed to be this unfeeling, unintelligent, brute beast. Manon sees the love Cressida has for her daughter, and the love Petra had for Kili led to Manon saving Petra's life. She should have encouraged the death of a rival heir, but Manon's empathy won out. And of course, the experimentations with the witches and the demons has not sat well with Manon in the slightest, as it was getting harder and harder to avoid needing to plant her feed on one side. As of right now, Manon is back at Morth after Kaltain's destruction, extremely wary of Parrington and her grandmother's plans. A little more lore about the witches that we learn before we start Empire of Storms. Millennia ago, when the Volg entered this world to seize it for themselves, they wanted to ensure that their offspring could survive here too. So the Volg bred with the Fae, and the result was witches. The Iron Teeth witches take after their Volg ancestors more, hence why they're so wicked. There's more demon in them, and why Erewhon has been breeding his Volg with the witches to produce something new from these Volg origins. and the crock and witches get more of the fey traits, aka they're not as evil. And then I want to quickly introduce the magic that witches do have, which is called the yielding. And it is like this great magical burst where they yield themselves to the darkness. The yielding is basically a self implosion. It does mean that the witch will die, but it is very effective on the battlefield, for instance. Nicole did bring it up last episode, but it's worth repeating. After the first demon war, King Brandon gave the witches the Western Wastes, home of the glorious witch kingdoms where the witches lived until 500 years ago when the witch wars broke out. The Iron Teeth clans banded together to overthrow the peaceful Kraken dynasty. But with her dying breath, the last Kraken witch cast a spell to ensure that as long as Iron Teeth banners flew, no bit of soil would yield life to them. This Kraken curse on the Iron Teeth witches and the Western Wastes denied these victorious witches true possession of the land. The Western wastes are completely dried up now. No bit of soil is yielding life, and it's uninhabitable. Today, the Iron Teeth are no closer to breaking this curse than Manan's elders had been 500 years ago. Remember that getting to keep the Wyverns so that they can try to take back their homeland is the big driver for the Iron Teeth witches allying with Erewhon. The Kraken witch that Manan killed in Erewhon fire said that the Grand Kraken secret is not where they hide or how to break the Iron Teeth curse, because the Iron Teeth witches have known all along for 500 years that their salvation lies in their hands alone. But no, that's not the Kraken's greatest secret. Their greatest secret is that they pity the Iron Teeth witches. Let's talk about a character we're going to get a lot more familiar with in Empire of Storms, and that is Alide. As we learn in Queen of Shadows, Alide is suspected of having witch blood, which explains why Vernon, her uncle, trapped her in a tower with a life-altering ankle injury that deeply affects her to this day, and he also lined her up for the Valk pregnancy experimentation. He's the fucking worst! While Alid and the 13 were in Morath together, they began to take her under their wings, so to speak. Wing, get it? As a result, Alid begins spying on Vernon and Erewhon in loyalty to the 13, which brings us to where Alid's Queen of Shadow story ends. Manon, as repayment for the life debt she owes for Aelin for not killing Asterin, and because she's a good person no matter what she tells herself, frees Alid so that she can go to Terrason and find her queen, Aelin Galathinius. While simultaneously, Alid receives a word key that was trapped in Kaltain's arm and is told to bring it to Selina Sardothian. Oh my god, this dramatic irony is my fucking favorite. Alid has no idea Selenus Ardothian and Aelin Galathinius are the same person. So Alid is setting off on foot with an injured ankle to hit the road to her queen in Tarazen. I love so much how Manon helps her find the courage to go to Tarazen and do something with herself, make something of herself, while Alid is the one who teaches Manon about hope and the importance of clinging to it. Yes! Okay, so that is our Empire of Storms crew. We've got Dorian in Rifthold. We've got the Aelin crew in Tarazin. We've got the witches in Morath. And the lead is on the road again. Let's now move to the southern continent of Antica and switch over to our Tower of Dawn characters. The southern continent is home to the legendary Torre Chesme, an institute of magical healers. In case you're freaking out because the Torre Chesme sounds very familiar from Assassin's Blade, you are correct. But more on that in a moment. Kaol, at the end of Queen of Shadows, was paralyzed from the hips down. He would have died in that attack. However, Aelin slipped the eye of Elena into his pocket, protecting him slightly. So he's going to the Torre to be healed and on his feet again for the war. But as handed the king now to Dorian and the ambassador for Tarasen, he also has another motive. They need help, desperate help to win this war. So Kaol is hoping to convince the Coggin, the king of Antica, basically, to join the war as their ally. Easier said than done. But Kael is not going to Antica alone. Nezrin Felik is traveling with him. Quick TLDR on Nezrin. She is a former city guard in Rifthold who was introduced in Queen of Shadows as she was working with Kael to battle Volg, rescue prisoners, and sort of kind of distract each other on lonely nights. Despite now living in Rifthold, Nezrin's father is originally from the southern continent, and this journey to Antica is taking her back to her homeland. Growing up in Rifthold, she experienced prejudice and hatred because she was foreign and looked different from the people of Otterlin. Her mistreatment partly led to her joining the city guard in the first place. During her time as a city guard, she was constantly looked over for promotions because she was female, despite her incredible archery and battle skills. She is romantically-ish involved with Kale by the end of Queen of Shadows and is the new captain of the Royal Guard. Congrats, girl! Her duty and booty lead her to travel with Kale to the southern continent on his healing journey. And it sure does help that this is where she's from, too. You did not just say duty and booty. That was so good. Remember that the Tori Chesme sounds quite familiar. That is because we've met a character named Irene in Assassin's Blade. Quick TLDR about her in that story. So spoilers for Assassin's Blade. Irene is the healer that Selena met on her way to the Red Desert about two and a half years ago. After working at the White Pig Inn for a year with no end in sight, Irene is attacked by four mercenaries, robbing her of her knightly earnings. After killing three out of four of them, that sounds like Selena, Selena teaches Irene the basics of self-defense techniques. But the fourth mercenary confronts these two and Selena does not help Irene. Instead, doing some very in the lion's den style training, teaching, and Irene uses her skills to incapacitate her captor. And then Selena finishes him off. The short story ends with Irene returning to her room after Selena's departure to find a purse full of money and a note saying, quote, the world needs more healers. And it's thanks to that money that Irene was able to reach the southern continent and start her training at the Torre. Which brings us now back to Tower of Dawn. Irene has made it to the Torre. Yay! Thanks to Selena's funds and has studied her way to becoming the heir apparent of the entire Torre Chesme. This cannot be overstated. Irene's healing magic is incredibly strong. But Irene's not exactly happy that she's being called in to heal an Otterlanian, the Hand of the King, no fucking less. But as the healer on high, Hafiza, puts it, it will be her final test before Irene leaves the Torre so that she can then go back to Fenharrow and help in the war on Aurelia. Really quickly, let's highlight why Irene is so against helping Kaol. Irene is originally from Fenharrow, a territory that was conquered by the king of Otterlin. She was very, very close with her mother, also a gifted healer who trained Irene from a very young age. But Otterlinian soldiers burned Irene's mother alive when they conquered her home, in addition to all the other atrocities performed under the king's order. So Irene sees Kaol as an agent of this evil king and holds a grudge on behalf of her mother and her homeland. I mean fair. So fair. Zoning in now on the city of Antica, overlooking the city on the largest hill is the Tower of the Torrey Chesme. The Torrey Chesme is a worldwide renowned academy for healers. It's home to the best of the best mortal healers. And then Antica's spoken language is Halha. The southern continent has been under the rule of the Kaganate dynasty for over a thousand years, ever since the Kagan conquered the territory. Because this is a whole new part of the world, let's go through an overview of Antica and most specifically the Cogganate, because it's mighty important to this story. First, the Coggan is a term for the current ruler as they are seen as legend and godlike. A long time ago, when Antica was first forming, as a way to prevent civil war, the Cogganate accepted all the gods, the many, many gods, into the public religion. So there's like 36 main gods that they worship. Don't worry, you don't need to know them all. The city is seen as a utopia of peace and justice and is about as opposite of Aurelia as it gets. It's free from conflict, free from wars and exploitation by leaders. Wow, how nice. Citizens are free to practice whatever religion and culture they wish. The Cognate banished slavery. yes, Antica is pretty fucking awesome and quite peaceful. Unless you are a member of the royal family, because succession of the throne is determined by worth rather than birth order. The children of the Coggin will compete their entire lives to show their worth and slash or impress the Coggin with the intention of being named their heir. Once an heir is named, and bold highlight italicize underline, they have offspring of their own. The new Coggins' first task is to eliminate any other challenges to the throne, which is literally killing all of his or her siblings and all of his or her siblings' offspring. This tradition has created quite bloodthirsty rivalry between the Coggins' children. Tradition! A little bit of bloodthirst in there. Tradition! And distrust. Let's go through the current ruling family because we're going to get very familiar with them all in Tower of Dawn. The current Coggin is named Urus. His six children are, this is oldest to youngest, Argin. He is the politician. He is beloved by merchants and power brokers, anyone with money. They love him. And he is referred to as the Prince of Spies. Next oldest, we have Sartak, who is the commander of his father's Ruk-riders, the Rukin. More on them in a moment. Then we have Hussar, a princess you do not want to cross. She controls the Armada of the Seas. Then we have Caution. He controls the armies on land. So like the foot soldiers and the horse lords. Then we have Duva, who is married and currently pregnant. And lastly, Tumalun, who is the youngest. Is now a good time to tell our listeners that there's a quiz at the end of this part one? Absolutely. There's not, I promise. I didn't think so. Okay, did you write one? No, no. There's just so many names. So many names. But now is a good time to remind everyone that there is a trivia happening in the Fantasy Fan Club on February 28th. Let's go back to Rukin, who are the aerial cavalry, and they dwell in the Tavern Mountains with their Rukes. Rukes are enormous eagle-like birds, large enough to carry cattle and horses, and they are swift, nimble, and clever. I'm sorry. All I can picture is the great eagles from Lord of the Rings. Same! Yes! The Ruken are riders who favor archery, which is very exciting. Ruken are organized into different clans with a hearth mother leader. Before we move into our whole series spoiler segment, let's close out this part one with a question you know we're about to ask. What did we think of Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn? I have not been quiet about my love for Tower of Dawn, and I will continue to be loud about it. It is a beautiful book that feels quite removed from others in this series. We're in a new world with new customs, new cultures, new people. And it's so fun to explore a part of the world when normally we don't really get to do that in fantasy books unless it's in epics like this one. In my opinion, it is SJM doing what SJM does best. And that is character arcs on steroids. Plus there's mysteries, there's downloads, there's so many things that tie into the main plot back on Aurelia. It's just, it's awesome. It's so awesome. As for Empire of Storms, there are elements I love. The last 100 pages are just pure hold on to your butts territory. There's a side plot with a lead that's laugh out loud incredible. And have I mentioned this book in the series spikes the spice and the romance up like 10 notches. And as the romantic, I genuinely enjoy that. And all of this to say, Empire of Storms is actually one of my less favorite books in the whole Throne of Glass series. For a god tier series, that's not really saying it's a bad book at all. It's just that there are elements in this book that I always have to be like, wait, there's hundreds of pages in between that. And I don't remember anything that happened. Queen of Shadows and Air of Fire are where the character development shine. Tower of Dawn is where the character development shines. Empire of Storms is more plot driven and action driven. And for me, the characters just shine brighter in Air of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Tower of Dawn, Kingdom of Ash. And it's not that I don't like it by any means. Please don't get that. It's more just when I spend the most time thinking about the whole book, I don't really feel connected to anything versus I think about the last hundred pages of Empire of Storms and I'm like, oh, that was a wild ride. So I like the last little bit. The whole book is not my favorite. That makes sense. And I think you and I do have kind of similar opinions here. While Empire of Storms has some of my favorite plot lines and plot twists, I'm realizing for me it doesn't quite compare to Air of Fire and Queen of Shadows. Exact same as you. Empire of Storm feels very plot driven versus character driven. And there's just so much that's happening that you really need to be paying attention as you read it. That's not a bad thing whatsoever. It's just a totally different vibe than my two all-star favorites of the series that are more specifically character-driven. I think that's why Queen of Shadows is my absolute favorite, because it really balances the character and plot, while I think Air of Fire was very, very character-driven. Yes. Empire of Storms is still a phenomenal book, and I completely understand how it's a lot of people's favorite in the series. I said this in part two last week, but it's safe to say here now. Our characters achieve their own freedom by the end of Queen of Shadows, and now starting an Empire of Storms, it's time to free the world. Then there's Tower of Dawn. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up liking and appreciating Tower of Dawn. In case you haven't guessed, Kale is not a favorite character of mine, as much as I understand why he is the way he has been. Nicole, you've been very great about that. But I gained such a renewed perspective about him in Tower of Dawn, and by the end, I'm genuinely cheering him on. What an incredible character arc he does have in this book. I also love how different Tower of Dawn is from the rest of the series. The switch up is refreshing for the long series. And I love all the new world building that introduces. And then it still all ties back together into the bigger plot. And we get a new character who we recognize, Irene, and the way she appears in the story and the part that she has to play is absolutely fantastic. All right, friends, we are about to begin our Throne of Glass series spoilers section. So if you have not read all of Throne of Glass, all eight books, this is your time to say goodbye. But first, some housekeeping items. Next Monday will be our fourth and final fan guide. Let's get ready for the final of this epic Kingdom of Ash. Remember, part one will be spoiler free for Kingdom of Ash. It will include spoilers for every other book in the series, though. Then part two is just like this one. Spoilers for all TOG books as we wrap up this Throne of Glass coverage. We'd love to give the biggest warm welcome, welcome, welcome to our newest feral fans and deep divers in the fan club. Thank you so much for being here. Oh, buckle up, buttercups. Here we go. Thank you so much for joining Jordan C., Emily, Ashlyn, Shannon S., Molly R., Abby F., Juanita, Teagan, Caitlin L., Luzez, Amber, Karo P., Alani, Sammy D., Emily I., Josie, Jen V, Karen, Kathleen H, Liz H, Jen P, Sab M, and Darna's inner monologue, Anne Marie W, Crystal, Alicia G, Reed B, Raylan, Sammy, and Sarah's runaway guitar. Wow. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And I can already tell you right now, next week, we're going to have this a whole bunch more because that wasn't even everybody we could fit in here. Thank you all so, so much. We love how many of you are so excited to become deep divers and support all of the shows here in the Fantasy Fangirls Network. And if you're like, hey, I want my name shouted out on the podcast and we shout with all this love to go ahead and join our fan club at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club link is also in the show notes. We are very active on social media with many fan guides and lots, lots, 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 or you want to watch on YouTube, pretty please hit that subscribe button to keep following along. Also, while you're hitting buttons, don't forget to hit that rating and review button for the podcast and not just this podcast. Although, if you want to rate us five stars and write a little love note in the review section, that sounds amazing. But be sure to do it for any and all podcasts you regularly listen to. All right, friends, before we move into our spoiler segment, a quick word from our sponsors. friends and fellow readers this is our official warning that we are about to enter our throne of glass spoilers part of the episode where we discuss character journeys from empire of storms and tower of dawn and we'll be sharing our favorite highlights and moments of foreshadowing for the series so with all that said spoilers for the whole series if you have not read all eight books of throne of glass please respectfully kindly leave we'll miss you but we don't want to spoilers for you. Bye-bye! Okay, everybody, we got a whole lot to talk about. I can't believe we did this in one half of one episode. Like usual, let's trip right into the deep end with Aelin, because oh boy, is Empire of Storms an interesting book for her. Aelin has fully shed her Selina persona and embraces the responsibility of what it means to be Queen of Tereson. She is on a mission to save her kingdom, which involves a whole lot of decision-making, maneuvering, strategizing, Aelin is playing chess while everyone else is still learning to play checkers. Or she acts like no one else knows how to play checkers, which translates to not much delegating. Despite the trust and relationships she has with her court, Rowan, Aidy, and Lysandra, she bears the brunt of planning and executing each plan without much of their input. Yes, despite them wanting to help and support and be in on the plans. We see just how much Aelin has been working behind the scenes for two books now. Like back in the fighting pits when she used Ansel's name and had red dyed hair back in Queen of Shadows, this sent a message to Ansel to ready her armies, which began a whole domino effect where Aelin now has an ally readying to help her, but it's all been happening off page. And then in Empire of Storms, all the letters, calling in old debts, and she didn't tell anyone her plans, shouldering this weight of maneuvering and always thinking 10 steps ahead, all on herself, because she's so afraid of letting her inner circle down. The weight of the world is on her shoulders, and every action is putting the needs of others before herself, which is a huge change from earlier books. As everything Aelin does comes back to the question, will this ultimately help my people, help my kingdom? Even if it's insane in the moment, if she pulls it off, will it aid them, offer any political gain, or strategically send a message? Then it is worth the risk. Skulls Bay is a perfect example. Yes, she does put a whole town at risk, but it has a great payout. And she does gamble that. She's queen. From her perspective, she has to make these risks for the greater good, even if it makes her come off as arrogant, manipulative, and controlling. For her, though, that's what she feels she needs to be to be the leader that this continent needs right now. I also want to bring up that if we point out her upbringing, Araban Hamel taught her that you are better, you are safer, you are more controlled when you're alone. So it makes sense that her first instinct is to keep everything hush hush. The weight of the crown starts to show for Aelin in Empire of Storms, but that weight she doesn't show to just anyone until finally she allows for Rowan to see how much it is affecting her. For as much as I do struggle with Aelin and her decisions, especially at the end of this book, I do understand why she feels like she can't let this sweet show. She has been handed an uphill battle to end all uphill battles. This is no longer about destroying the King of Otterlyn, a tyrant who invaded her lands. No, he's not even the real problem. He's dead. We're now talking about a king of the Volg demons who is set on bringing two more of his kind back. And if she fails, it's not just her and her court dead. It is literally the end of the world as they know it. And we also can't forget she's 19 at this point. And yet, even with that weight and that youth, she still does manage to put one foot in front of the other day after day after day. And that is amazing. And as frustrating as Aelin can be to both readers and her court with all of her scheming, because I do definitely feel it as well, specifically in Empire of Storms, I will say that I love how we have a queen who has to be a little morally gray to succeed. Often, one of the things that we associate with FMCs is their moral high ground, not willing to endanger the innocent or risk the lives of those that she cares about. And Aelin certainly does not want to do any of those things and avoids it if she can. But I also think she's a queen who understands better than anyone that she needs to win for the sake of the world at any cost. And her upbringing as an assassin, hardened to be cold and calculating and cunning and ruthless, is absolutely an asset now that she is queen. But of course that's mixed with empathy, hope for a better world, a fierce determination to fight oppression because people deserve freedom and happiness. And so she has that morality with her mission, but she knows that in order to make that mission succeed, she might have to get a little creative. Well, and going back to Erebin and how he trained her, whenever he was on the page, she would always think about 10 different outcomes that he could possibly be wanting, like that style of thinking she learned from him. And just because Erebin is dead, it does not mean that she's just no longer going to think like that. Like that is ingrained in her. So put this ruthless and cunningness that she does have, along with her empathy and goal to create a better world, put the two and two together and we get Aelin Galathinius. And I do appreciate how the queen and get shit done leader we see in Empire of Storms is a result of all the books that lead up to this one. She loves her inner circle, but she still can't trust them with her plans because of her deep-rooted fear of failure that scarred her, specifically in Assassin's Blade. Every single decision she makes throughout this book is for Tarasen and the future of her kingdom, not her future in her kingdom. The foreshadowing for Aelin being ready and willing to sacrifice herself for the nation has been honestly there since the beginning, but specifically Queen of Shadows, which she's actually suspected for a while that the cost of putting Erowyn back in his place might be her life. She sees that as just part of her duty as queen. Which brings us to a particular plan Aelin and Lysandra have up their sleeves that they hid from everyone else, including Rowan and Aideon. That day Aelin was throwing up in the boat and asked Rowan to get Lysandra, it was not because she thought she was pregnant. It was because she knew she was going to die. And by getting Lysandra, it was setting a plan in place for when she died so she would not truly be leaving her kingdom. Because yes, Aelin has shared with Lysandra that she will have to die as the price to banish Erewhon and restore the keys. But no one would have to know because Lysandra could wear Aelin's skin, shapeshift into Aelin for the rest of her life, and pretend that Aelin is still alive. Lysandra taking on her identity when the real Aelin dies. Pretend to be married to Rowan, pretend to have his children, but they'd really be Aedians, who looks like Aelin. Therefore, Adian and Lysandra's children could pass as Rowan and Aelin's children. Can I just say poor Rowan, who gets the shortest stick of all, having to pretend his wife is actually alive while she is secretly with her real love. And the way Adian reacts to this, I'm sorry, I think he is just one big L in Empire of Storms, but that's to be talked about here soon. As much as I do sympathize with this choice being taken away that Nicole will get to shortly, what he's experiencing is valid and complex and tough looks all around yeah i know aelin is making this decision for terracin and the betterment of the future but i'm not gonna lie i've i fucking struggle with this one yes it means the power of terracin would still be in her court's hands because here's the thing if she and rowan don't have a child the power could go to anyone and that is terrifying. So with this plan, it still means that Lysandra, Rowan, and Adian are making all of Terrison's decisions. But to not tell anyone except Lysandra is, in my opinion, a L. L for Aelin, especially when it greatly, greatly affects Rowan and Adian's lives. So I am doing it L. L for Lysandra and for mostly for Aileen because Lysandra is following her queen's orders. But to not tell them? Okay, yes, this is a drastic solution and secret that the girls have kept. And I do agree with your L's. And I also do want to go into a little bit more about the genuine reason behind this less than ideal plan. Because yes, I agree that it is an L. It is a bad look. And I don't find it as unforgivable as other readers do. I know, right? All right, that's okay. Explain your reasoning. Explain your reasoning. So why did Aelin ask this of Lysandra? Why would Lysandra agree to be Aelin as Queen of Tarazen and wife slash mate of Rowan for the rest of her life, especially with holes in their plan, like Aelin never having fire magic ever again when she's now known for it, or their children having none of Aelin or Rowan's powers? Aelin is a symbol, a leader, and she cannot afford for the world to think that she's gone. She is the glue that is holding everything together, especially with all the allies rallying around her now by the end of Empire of Storms. They can't show up and Aelin be dead. She is needed as a leader. If they did that and she was not there, then I think that everything would crumble. To bring this continent and its people into a new era, leverage Aelin's connections and her reputation not only for the war efforts, but for a prosperous and peaceful time afterward. They can't show up and Aelin is dead. She is needed as a leader to bring this continent and its people into a new era, to leverage Aelin's connections and a reputation not only for the war efforts, but for a prosperous and peaceful time afterward. But now she also knows the truth that she will not survive this no matter what. In fact, in order to win this, she has to die. That is the price that must be paid. So when the real Aelin is gone, whether that's for the work keys or something else like what happens with Maeve, Lysandra is on standby to step in as Aelin and pretend all is well for appearances, more political stability, for hope among the people and authority among leadership, so that they can keep that peace that they've worked so damn hard for that Aelin literally sacrificed herself for. And yeah, the girls did not tell anyone, not even the two males directly involved in the plan. Because first of all, they couldn't risk the truth getting out. The secret it was too important and quite frankly, too insane. This is very much an ask for forgiveness instead of permission plan, because I don't think for a moment, Adian or Rowan would have gone through with it. And I'll say- But they should have had autonomy. They should have had a say in how the rest of their fucking lives are going to look. I agree. That was a bad look when it comes into the children's side of things and all of that kind of stuff. But you tell me for one second, if they had mentioned this to Adian. I'm going to say specifically Aiden because of how terribly he takes it. Like, it wouldn't have worked. See, I think Rowan actually would have been the one who would be like, absolutely. I think Aiden. He would not have accepted Aelin's death. Exactly. And that's where she's like, okay. That's another thing, though. It's like Rowan has to pretend like his wife is alive for the rest of his life. And like, I know that Aelin is doing everything for the betterment of Terrace. But he is her mate. He is her husband. You fucking communicate with those people in your lives. I'm so I do think that maybe this is just my character bias. But I think that, yes, Rowan definitely should have known. Yeah. But I also do understand why she did not tell him, because by telling him it wasn't so much about the plan. It was the fact that she would have to die for the plan to take action. And he's like, no, that's not going to work. And she's like, but that has to happen, though, for him to have to stare at someone wearing his wife's skin for the rest of his life after he lost Lyria years and years ago. Like, that's tragic. I get wanting to do everything for the betterment of Terrace and yes, but that is soul ruining for a person. And I'm sorry, if my partner ever pulled something like this with me, I would be not happy. I don't know if this is quite a relatable situation. okay but like wait okay but no actually let's go with this but would you do that to literally save the world i would talk to him about it and make sure we both saw the but what if he didn't what if he absolutely refused then i don't like this game yeah it's hard right but i think that actually goes right back to these very very difficult decisions that aelin is making on her own. And I'm not saying that it's right that she did this. I'm saying that I understand it. And she was between a rock and a hard place. And I do really think that Rowan, at least give him some kind of nugget of helpful. Like write him a letter of I'm sorry, or like, at least give him something after the plan is revealed. But I think that like, I totally get it with the fandom. And I think that this is the ultimate Aylan thing to do. I think I agree with you on that statement. And that's one of the reasons that I do struggle with her as an FMC. Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know if we're going to find common ground, but I will say this. I do see where you're coming from in their decision making. It's not the decision itself that makes me want to throw hands. it's the people whose lives would be absolutely irrevocably altered who did not get to at least know about the decision being made i agree with you while understanding why they did not they had time when it was just the four of them when they were both getting married like they could have absolutely and it could have been much much i still think she should have just left a note i think a note would have been fine dear Rowan dear buzzard dear Rowan I'm so sorry please but like really like to to to do to explain herself in the letter I I think that would have solved a lot of them saying the plan on the beach in front of Lorcan the Manon the 13th elite and everything is a lot more um uh they really they did not get so I think that's a lot more oh dear the secret might get out versus them saying it in the in the dark of the night on the ship when they got married yes that absolutely yes thank you okay we can at least agree on something okay no here's something else we can agree on adian adian gets an l here adian does i'm gonna now now here's the deal i'm now gonna put myself in adian's shoes and you have to listen to me explaining this now adian likes being in control and being in aelin's court is one big releasing of control to say is that that's an understatement but being on the back foot on plans for her to just go off into the sewers in rift hold that's one thing having to sire children of the royal line so they look like you while having to pretend that you are not the father of the future leaders of Tereson and your love pretends to be in love with another male. That's another thing. I'm sorry. I think Aideon should have known. I think Aideon should have known and Rowan. I'm saying both. Look, Aideon is not the greatest. He does not handle this well in the kingdom of Ash by taking out that anger on Lysandra. And in my opinion, that is an unforgivable act that he does, which we will talk about next episode. Yes. And I think his anger here is justified. As he puts it, when was he going to know about this? Before or after he thought he was taking his cousin to bed? He literally just saw her marry another last night. His anger is justified. But big, big but here. What he says calling Lysandra a quote lying bitch is not OK And that just the start of his atrocities So L ADN big L no bad And I will say this like I commend Lysandra for how she like I will not apologize to you I am serving my queen I agree. And the way that he is extremely angry with her and she is standing her ground, I commend her for that. Pivoting slightly, but don't worry, we're not done talking about that scene. That'll be later. Let's move into Rowan and his Empire of Storms journey. After Queen of Shadows, Aelin and Rowan say, okay, we're doing this with their relationship. And we see a shift in them in Empire of Storms. They're no longer just besties who nearly sense everything with each other. They now want to jump each other's bones hard, which thank God they get to do on a beach. Incredible scene. Okay, yes, and I'm going to be the one to say it. Beach sex involves so much sand. I don't understand how they were out there for so long. Oh my god. And with that full commitment to each other, yes, even without the mating bond, we see this unwavering loyalty to Aelin. That, in my opinion, it feels different than Queen of Shadows, where yeah, he was fucking loyal. But he still got mad at her for acting behind his back. So he also did shit behind her back too. To surprise her and to do things on his own to aid the cause. Aelin needs this in a partner. And I feel like that cunning and taking the reins takes a backseat in Empire of Storms. He's still loyal to his queen, like ungodly so. And I'm not gonna lie, I kind of miss the almond oil surprising Rowan. It's not to say he's just fully laid down to Aelin. He does coordinate with his cousins in the final battle to turn the fight on Maeve, their queen, and instead of fighting against Rowan and Co's army. It's like, yes, that Rowan. Yes. But going back to their relationship, they accepted each other into their whole hearts. And Rowan does not even know about the mating bond. I love this. I think that him not realizing there's a mating bond to accept and loving her with his whole heart, despite this mystical bond of the fates tying them together, it almost feels more romantic. Even though on a reread, you're like, oh my God, the signs are all there. Like when he uses the mating bond to prevent Aelin, who's possessed by Deanna, from destroying an entire peninsula. But that choosing to love each other, that's what makes the ending of this book of Where's My Wife so impactful. And also choice. We talked about this last episode. that theme is going to come up multiple times in this section as well. Even in a world where the fates and the gods and your ancestry are driving the forces of all of our main characters, there is still choice in the matter. Like their choice to get married in the dead of night to each other. And then him being told that they are mates. The last chapter of Empire of Storms hits so hard as he processes this confirmation. Because part of him didn't know that Aelin was his mate, but he turned away from the knowledge time and time again. out of respect for Lyria, not thinking it could be true that Aelin is actually his mate. And now here he is with the full realization that Aelin is his mate and she has been taken by Maeve. He will not let this happen. He will not accept this outcome. He's lost one of his loves of his life already. He will not lose Aelin too. The way he kneels in the sand, surrounded by her blood, just lost in his grief that his wife, his mate has been taken. Oh, my heart, the fan art for this just pulls at the heartstrings. But then I love how he pulls himself together, refusing to get lost in the despair and vows to find and save her. For instance, he doesn't really have much input into this whole plan that Aelin and Lysandra concocted, because he's like not going to accept that as an option that Aelin is gone forever. He's like, okay, you will do this. I'm gonna go find my wife. And then last thing on Rowan backing up a little bit. Overall, I really do appreciate how in Empire of Storms, Rowan demonstrates his loyalty not just to his queen and lover, but also to the kingdom of Tarrison. It is Aelin's kingdom, so therefore it is his too, and he will do whatever he can to help, like talk to his relatives of House Whitethorn about coming onto their side. Before the big battle at the end of Empire of Storms, Rowan flies to one of the ships and talks to his cousin Inda about Aelin, the woman he loves whose heart burns with wildfire. He tells Enda about Erwan and the threat of the word keys, and he tells her about Maeve's desire for the word keys too. So with all that laid out, Rowan gets on his knees and begs his cousin to not open fire on Tarasen's armada and to turn the tables and fire on Maeve's instead. Because this is their chance for a peaceful world, to not fight for the queen who has enslaved Rowan, but instead for the queen who saved him. Oh, and his cousin says that she'll consider it. Then Rowan flies to another cousin ship and gives the same spiel, and then to another Whitethorn ship, and another, begging House Whitethorn to commit treason and betrayal so great that they will never be able to return home to the Feylands where Maeve rules, that everything they have will be seized and destroyed. That is an extremely big and risky ask of Rowan. But of course he's doing it anyway, because it's for his queen, for a better world. So then during the big battle with Maeve's armada, the silver banner with the screaming Hawk, the sigil of House Whitethorn, flies without Maeve's black flag of a perching owl. And these Whitethorn ships start firing on their own armada, turning against Maeve at great cost to now side with Aelin and Rowan. So Prince Rowan Whitethorn might not have his own army to give his queen, but he won one over with powerful speeches, hope for a peaceful and free future, and belief in a leader fighting for that future. Three hazas for Rowan! Lexi, you know who does not get any huzzahs? I know exactly who. Going back to Aideon, more broadly, in Empire of Storms, he hasn't changed that much since Queen of Shadows. He whines more in Empire of Storms, which I didn't think was possible after the last book. I'm so sorry to the Aideon lovers. I'm so sorry. I know you all are here. I'm so sorry. Don't worry, I will get all into that. But for right now, we see that Adian is slipping back into the role of general rather than cousin in this book. I'm going to say actually, or at least he's trying to slip back into the role of general. Their situation may have changed. They're in Terrason, talking to the Terrason lords versus living in an apartment in Rifthold under wraps. And with that change, he is more in his element as liaison to Ren, Murtaugh, and Darrow. But Aelin is very much still in charge, which he's not mad about her being in charge. She is queen after all. It's just a shift for him. Like I talked about last episode, Aedion is used to being in the driver's seat in the rebellion. He is a leader of the Bane. He was undercover. He was working with Ren and Marta and Kaol and was definitely the one in charge in Air of Fire. While a general must be able to lead, they must be able to follow. And this is a lesson that he really struggles with throughout this series. And he has no problem making it other people's problems too. And now that Adian is not in all of the plans, it's really weird for him. I give him a book for adjusting to that because yes, this is looking completely different than he thought it would look. But his book was last book. That was Queen of Shadows. Adjust with the program, Adian. God. And we see how well that goes in the end of this book, as I previously discussed. We do get some character movement with Adian, who starts flirting more and more with Lysandra. And vice versa. She's not against it. And for both of them, this relationship does feel more like a distraction. There is attraction, of course. He thinks that she's his mate by the end of Kingdom of Ash. Although I don't think we ever get confirmation that I at least remember. We'll talk about the distraction it provides for Lysandra in a moment. But for Adian, it's a distraction from the war, the impending doom of Erewhon. But most importantly, it is a chance for him to feel special and needed. It's not that it's not prevalent in Aelin's court. It is. It's just not what he thought it would look like. And therefore, it's not good enough. I will say, though, I think that Rowan took that place. Yes, obviously, with the blood oath. We're not talking romantically, but he is her right hand. Adian always thought that was going to be him. And I think that without that, even though he is still very close in her court, he does not have much of a say. He is not informed of things. He's having to play catch up constantly. And as much as I get frustrated with his character, I completely understand all that. I would be flipping frustrated too. And I do think that when you're saying that with Lysandra, she gives him love and support and understanding and asks him questions that nobody else really does. And that makes him be like, I want to marry you. I want to be with you. The start of every healthy relationship. Well, and then on top of that, Adian's got daddy issues. An air of fire, he learned from Rowan that the King of Dorinel, the legendary Fae warrior Gavriel, is his father. Now in Empire of Storms, they meet for the first time. Backing up here to before Adian was born, while in Maeve's service, Gavriel traveled the world and at some point met Aiden's mother and fell madly in love. But he did not want Maeve to find out about his love because that would be bad news bears. And when Maeve ordered him back, they never saw or spoke to each other again, even though they both cared deeply for each other. In fact, Aiden's mother told him not to contact her and he respected that. But Aiden's mother spent her life and even sacrificed her life to keep Aiden's true identity hidden. No one except her cousin, Aelin's mother, knew who Aedian's father was. She was shunned by her family and fiercely protected her son from Maeve ever finding out who he was and taking him to be enslaved like his father. When his mother grew sick, she refused to seek help from the Fae healers because it was too big of a risk. So she sacrificed her life to keep her son safe and away from Maeve's claws. And understandably, that translates to a lot of tangled emotions regarding his father. We readers may see this as further consequences of Maeve's need to leverage love and wield it as a weapon to control those under her thumb and see how drastically it affects so many people. But Adian feels it was abandonment and blames Gavriel for his mother's sacrifice. And it's just so messy for Adian, who's already going through a tough time of figuring out where he fits by Aelin's side. He has spent the past 10 years secretly fighting for Tarasen while a general in the King of Otterland's army. He's a fiercely loyal person and betrayal cuts so deep for him. And it doesn't matter the intention behind it. If we're talking about Aideon, of course, we have to talk about Lysandra. I love Empire of Storms for one of my favorites, Lysandra, except for her relationship with Aideon. I can, I'm not personally a fan and think that she deserves someone who treats her better, especially for how supportive and there for him she is. Aideon feels selective in his affection for her. Here, here! Yes! but that's not what I want to talk about. I love how Lysandra gets to explore her magic and flaunt her badassery in this book. She is clever. She is loyal, but also her own person. She does not hide from her past, but she doesn't let it define her. For years, she has worn the mask of a courtesan with no magic and no true free will. Now she is free, free from her debt and a trapped life, free from magical constraints, free to be loyal to who she believes in. She gets to be herself and learn who she is in the process. I love how she's always turning into different animals. She's exploring what she can do, experiencing the world from every angle, every sense. She's savvy and cunning, and I love how she leverages her shape-shifting and battle on land or sea. Yes. All right, moving on to Dorian, who, remember, just got the Valga Prince out of him right before he killed his father and the glass castle exploded. Rifthold's not doing so great right now. He's a king without a kingdom. He's incredibly powerful magically, but doesn't feel an ounce of that power in the form of confidence. Confidence in the war, confidence in his place as Aelin's allies, and she was the one who stepped up after all hell broke loose last book, not him. Not to mention the first time he's been left alone in Rifthold. The city is sacked and Rowan has to save him. Yes, this is after Manon kills Zelda, the Yellow Legs Witch, and then Rowan saves him. But still, he feels like he's always getting fucking saved. And most importantly, Dorian's lost all confidence within himself. He's lost everything, including the only thing in life he truly cared for, Sorsha. Yeah, he has Kaol, but Kaol's an Antica. And Dorian just feels so alone and like an outsider. And it's so sad how multiple times he wishes Kael was there or that he could talk to his best friend. I know. Emperor of Storms is the book of Dorian getting his confidence back. Does he fully achieve that? No. Honestly, I don't think he does until he goes to Morath, next book in Kingdom of Ash. Once when he really starts tapping into his magic and discovering what he's capable of doing. Like shapeshifting, for instance. That's never been done before. And he works so hard to make it happen. But obviously, that's not this book. Well, and I'll be honest, Aelin kind of takes him down a few pegs by giving him, like, yes, he's lost, but she kicks him while he's down. I'm sorry. He has to remind others and himself multiple times throughout the book that he's a king. Yeah. And I'm sorry I'm giving Aelin an L for that, but this is not Aelin's character dissection. Dorian's confidence does get a little bit of movement, and there's one witchling who's to thank for that. So of course, we cannot bring up Dorian without discussing his situationship with Manon. But we have to rewind back to Sorsha, because I know I'm guilty of it. Their relationship and her character were only one plotline in one book, when there is so much else going on in the series, that I think that we can collectively forget about her a little bit. Dorian's love and loss defines him, though, as well as surviving the Volg's possession. Bottom line, he's been through some really dark shit. While I do wish we got a little bit more character development from him in Empire of Storms, he is beginning to harness and explore his own raw magic, finally having the chance to do so. But that's not the only thing he has the chance to do. Remember last episode where I said Manon was his light in the dark when Dorian broke the grip of the Vogue Prince possessing him to say, I'll bleed whatever color you tell me to. These two share this electrifying connection. She pulled him out of the darkness, even momentarily. And she checked in on him at the end of Queen of Shadows after giving Aelin the message that he's still inside. She gets to see him back to being himself and know that she played a part in that. He had his human love. He had his romance with Sorsha. He felt that deep, intimate, and gentle connection rooted in trust and love. That is the last thing Dorian is looking for nowadays. His heart is broken. He is mourning the loss of her now when he couldn't while trapped by the Volg. And on top of that, he killed his father after learning he's not all bad. There's some conflicted feelings there. But his father still had his girl beheaded in front of him and countless other atrocious things in the continent. So here we have Manon, a morally black immortal witch who even takes a little after her Volg ancestors, who has killed men for sport. But he's not just a man and she's not just a bloodthirsty witch. When Dorian says, quote, I have no interest in human women to breakable, it summarizes why he is so attracted to Manon in a nutshell. She meets his darkness, but not in an evil way, if that makes sense. She doesn't back down from it. In fact, she understands his darkness more than most with her own dark roots. And within that darkness in him is no breakable princelene. They've both got their own trauma and their own origins, but they aren't each other's break and their escape from themselves and the world beyond. and they just kind of understand each other in that way. Speaking of the witch herself, her confidence too is wavering, but not in herself, never in herself, in the system. After Asteran shared her story and Manon started to see glimmers of what the other side has and their values, specifically referring to Aelin's choice not to kill Asteran in Queen of Shadows, Manon starts to wonder if her grandma's way is really the only way. And finally, in a brutal, epic fight, she breaks away from the matron, nearly getting killed in the process. When she was supposed to punish and kill Asteran, instead, she attacked her grandmother and still managed to escape. Fucking badass! Manon never had her parents as role models. They were dead, thanks to Grandmama Blackbeak. And her only maternal figure has always been the matron. It cannot be overstated how big of a deal it is that she is breaking away. Covens are everything to witches and you respect your leader full stop. But as we learn kind of early on in Empire of Storms, Manon is not only the heir to the black beak iron teeth. She's the last crock and queen. What? I remember exactly where I was when I read this for the first time. on a walk with the kids by mom and dad's house. And I just literally stopped in my tracks, like mouth open. Once again, I just love, love, love how her culture's history that we keep harping on in these part one segments come back in a huge way specifically for Manon. And now we have two queens destined to save their people representing the three species. Okay, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to this huge plot twist that Manon is part crockin and her grandmama is even more of a witch with a capital B than we already knew, which we didn't know what she did to Astra and she's bad to the bone. She's just, ee-haw! During the one-on-one showdown with her grandmama, the truth of Manon's heritage and parents come out. Turns out, Manon's mother did not die giving birth to her. Her grandmother ripped her mother's throat out and killed her. When Manon's mother was in labor, she confessed who the father was. Surprise! Manon's father was a rare-born crocken prince. Holy shit! Manon's father was a crocken? Ah, yes. And Manon's mother said that this child of the Iron Teeth and the crocken would be the key to breaking the curse of the Western Wastes. Her father, who never stopped loving her mother and the child she bore, searched for his daughter when she was young, until Manon's grandmother killed him too, but not before delighting in telling him what she did to his loves. Manon's grandmother tried to train the same weakness out of Manon to turn her into a force of nature, a warrior equal to none, a child of war, not the answer to peace. And then, because we're still not done, the Kraken witches had been spying on the Iron Teeth this past spring, so during the air of fire, because they finally learned the identity of their dead prince's lost child. Manon's half-sister, so her father's other child, was the one searching for her half-sister, and her name was Rhiannon, named after the last Kraken queen who cast the curse. Yeah, that was the Kraken which Manon was forced to kill at the end of Era Fire and take her red cloak, the Kraken who planted the seed from Manon about iron teeth being made into monsters instead of born. So this means that not only has Manon been killing her relatives, the Kraken's, all her life unknowingly, she also executed her own half-sister who was the royal bloodline. And now, Manon is the last of the Kraken royal bloodline, the last of the Kraken witches. Oh, how the tables have turned! Manon may have previously been internally struggling with the fact she has a good heart, but she at least held strength in her identity as an iron-teeth witch, heir to a brutal legacy. But this cranks it up a million notches and changes things. Her identity is far from simple now, and her whole origin story gets rewritten in one gigantic reveal. The Kraken represent what the Iron Teeth detest, but also what Manon has been gravitating toward for several books, empathy and compassion. And it puts a lot more responsibility for the fate of witch kind on Manon's shoulders. The Kraken queen who cursed the land on the Iron Teeth said this would break the spell, quote, blood to blood and soul to soul. Together this was done and only together it can be undone. Be the bridge, be the light. When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood, let the land be witness and return home. Little cryptic, huh? But the idea is that only when the two kinds of witches can come together, blood to blood and soul to soul, will they break the curse. Sounds like Banan being the most likely literal embodiment of both kinds of witches. And they will have to fight together in a war, Setting this up for Kingdom of Ash as Manon and the 13, Andorian, go to go find the Kraken witches and bring them to the cause. Ah, I especially love just these two queens, both two peoples. And between Manon and Aelin, they make up the humans, the Fae, and both of the witches. One worships fire, the other worships darkness. Ah, I just love it all so much. By the end of this book, Manon is fully on the, I'll say like good side, although she claw out my throat if I ever said that to her face. She goes into the witch mirror with Aelin, which by the way, that alone is just a showing of trust of how far these two women ago, is given the word keys sneakily from Aelin, gets back with the 13 who come in to save the day from Maeve's armada in the final battle. But at the end of the day, she just wants to fight on the right side of history that's right for both of her people, both Blackbeak and Kraken, and ultimately what's best for her land. Like in two and a half books, no, I'd say three books. In three books, Manon goes from, oh my God, why are you here? To, oh my God. Like her story is masterful. Masterfully done. I love how it just weaves into the greater story too. In so many different ways. Yes. Then we have one of the most unlikely duos in the series. That's an understatement. and Lorcan and Aline. I just love these two so much. And in our group chat with the girls, somebody was like, I just picture Lorcan really old, like saggy old man balls. And I was like, excuse me, defending my old man Lorcan. Their travels through Empire of Storms is low key, one of my favorite plot lines of the entire series. I love how their relationship evolves when they pretend to be husband and wife at the carnival, and how they seemingly are two opposites to end up being one of my personal favorite couples of the series. And they go through so much, especially at the end of Empire of Storms. Lorcan is bound to Maeve with the blood oath, and he is in love with her, though he holds no hope of a future with the queen. But his value is only measured in his usefulness and obedience. Enter Alid, a seemingly weak and unskilled human girl, who Lorcan comes to realize, respect, and admire for how unbreakable she is, how strong and cunning Alid truly is. Lorcan is a warrior, a destroyer, and as fate would have it, he winds up protecting this human. By the end of Queen of Shadows, Alid has this hope within herself that keeps her going on her mission to find Aelin and Selina, and she challenges Lorcan's entire worldview, straight up telling him that what he feels for Maeve is not love, and he deserves better than what Maeve made him. She shows him what he does deserve. Gentleness, kindness, choice, partnership. And he can't help but gravitate toward that and want that. Except everything goes to shit when Maeve comes back into the picture, aka the end of Empire of Storms for Lorcan. Lorcan thought he was preventing something worse. He thought he was doing right. And yeah, Maeve is the only solution that he ultimately knows. Instead of trusting the situation, he brings the control right back to them. And with that said, gigantic L for you, Lorkhan, for the end of Empire of Storms. And I will also say that the way that he wears those consequences and feels that regret and shame and guilt, and he cannot forgive himself for how much he knows that he did wrong. So I know he gets an L, but I also commend him for how he recognizes his wrongs and then tries to make it right immediately beginning. He is the definition of actions speak louder than words. Any sense of free will is stomped out as Maeve takes control over him immediately when she comes back into the picture, turning him back into a weapon of destruction, an instrument of harm, even on the lead being forced to restrain her, the one person he is dedicated to protecting all book before Maeve disposes him, dishonors him and breaks the blood oath, leaving Lorcan in shame and regret, but also gratitude that Aelin did what she did to protect Alid. Like he can't regret that part because Alid is at least okay. The way he weeps for the first time in centuries when Rowan is demanding to know where his wife is, this overwhelming culmination of the consequences of his actions, just like you're saying there, right, Nicole? And poor Alid feeling so betrayed. What a climactic, tragic ending to this book for them after everything they went through and their emotional journeys coming together, I'll book. Shifting gears, so 90 degree pivot hard. Let's talk about our Tower of Dawn crew, starting with my boy, Kale, who at the beginning of the story is at his lowest low. His entire life has been the guard, and being part of that, he's relied heavily on his body and movement to propel him forward. And suddenly, without warning, that part of himself has taken away. If anyone has undergone major injury that impacts your quality of life drastically, then you know what he's experiencing. I know when I had my knee injury, I couldn't stop laughing because of how my knee popped out. But literally, I couldn't walk for weeks. And then I couldn't get into a specialist's office for multiple weeks more. And my muscles around my leg were so out of use and weak that I literally had to learn how to walk again. Thank you, American Healthcare! But I was furious at my body for being so weak. I was furious at the world because things that were once so easy were suddenly impossible. Mind you, I lived on a three-floor walk-up in Chicago, and no, there's no elevators for that. I was angry for the people who were looking at me with pity or frustration when it took me longer to do something that was easy for them. This happened a lot more often than you think it would. And most of all, though, I was livid at myself for not healing faster, for getting into that position in the first place, for feeling my least favorite thing in the entire world, which is helpless. For Kaol, he's experiencing all of this and then add the stress of being hand of the king when there's a war on their doorstep. And it's Kaol who the entire time we've known him has been adverse to looking inward and facing emotions swirling around in him that that's what he needs to do to heal. It's far easier for him to just continue pushing on because there's things that have to be done. Damn it. And after all, quote, if he cannot protect his loved ones on his feet, sword in hand, is he even useful? Does he even matter? That quote right there sums up Kale. Yes. Well, and his lack of self-worth of feeling like he doesn't matter, it translates to him almost giving up on himself with getting healed. He doesn't feel worthy of it. He doesn't think that it can be done. But he is here for Dorian's sake, for his king's sake, so that he can return home to him eventually. But it's kind of a mission that he doesn't truly believe in himself. Exactly. One of my favorite scenes in Tower of Dawn is when Kaol is going to the Torre and Irene, in teaching the other students, has the other healers get Kaol off his horse and it's a fucking mess. Because in that scene, yeah, there's this fact that the Torre is all about teaching first. and that fact is so ingrained in their school's culture. But as admirable as that is, it makes K.L. feel like a study subject, not a person. And he regresses in his healing and openness as a result. He's mad, but most of all, he's embarrassed and he's angry with himself. I love how uncomfortable it is to read because we're in K.L.'s POV and you just feel him being prodded and barely held up and he can't do anything about it. It's a metaphor for his life. He feels like he's no longer a person, but instead his injury is all he is. And it's so human and I fucking love it. But that part of his journey is also what puts him and Irene face to face with each other. It's the first time she intentionally sees him as a person with Leia's. He's an onion. And she sees that he's ashamed and that there's deep trauma there. He's not just a soldier to Otterlyn. And that's it. ah but then he moves his toe for the first time irene and kale just had a moment of vulnerability after a healing session and his toe curls then more it's the first moment the two of them realize what they're facing with this healing process that irene and kale will have to face the darkness clinging within him the way he is able to do this to move his toe when he has doubted the possibility of that ever happening again, it lifts his faith up in Irene. It ignites a new sense of hope in himself. I remember like once you get to the next chapter, it's like he couldn't stop moving his toes. Like he is just so excited. And it's like he doesn't want to let it be too big of a deal because it's kind of like, well, it's only the toes. But the fact that that even was able to happen opens up so much more opportunity and possibilities for what could lay ahead. I remember just bawling reading that for the first time because, oh my god, it's so, so beautifully written. Now, around this time, we also see Kael shift from Nezrin to Irene. Let's be honest, him and Nezrin were never really more than friends with Bennys. They deeply care for each other, sure, but their sexual relationship was always out of convenience. She's part of his old life just as much as he's part of hers. When Nezrin distanced herself from him and he distances himself from her, it's because he's trying to pour himself into the healing process. And it's no surprise that these two start growing in different directions. Which brings us then to him falling in love with Irene. I'll talk more about why they make such a good match in a moment. But for Kale's healing journey, falling in love with Irene feels so beautifully natural. I just love the two of them so much. they're one of my absolute favorite couples in the throne of glass i think they're they're my favorite as well i think they just make sense i think they're my favorite yeah like nothing against aelin and rowan but like this elite and lorkin are also up there i love that for you i love that for you but i think that irene and kale just also their love story how it i love that they have a whole book to let it happen. Like just, I love it. I love Tower of Dawn. Me too. And Irene doesn't offer him a leg up. She does not coddle him. She believes he can do anything that anyone else can do. And this is a new feeling for K.L. since the injury. But most of all, the newest feeling is that Irene encourages K.L. to face his inner challenges head on. That's something K.L. has never experienced and we have never seen from him as he's always been looking at the outward threat. You don't have time for your inner healing when you're off in the sewers fighting the Volg and rescuing people. Which is honestly fair. But right now, when literally that is part of the process, it makes sense that it's so hard for him to tap into that. But it's when Irene encourages him to do that inner healing, that is when they're both able to go into his injury and not obliterate it, but get it down to the very, very dregs. They're able to peel back the layers. Yes. Like the injury is really and truly his trauma. And it's literally just peeling through all of it. And yeah. Well, and speaking of, so when we get to the final healing session, we see all that trauma and all the layers that it involves. Kale sees his father smug with victory after Kale practically sold himself back to Annie L in order to save Selena, the woman he loved, the woman he tried to save from Otterlyn. But his father has something over him. That man kept his oath. He got Selina to Wendland. But Kael did not uphold his promise to go back to Eniel. And thus, he kicks in his self-hatred in this healing session. Oathbreaker, traitor. For Aelin, he sacrificed his honor. And to him, she was fine with it. That he'd shredded apart the value that held his soul together and he hates her for it. Hates how fine she is with it. And not even fine, she seemed to even enjoy herself. Quote, for this haughty, swaggering, self-righteous woman, he had shattered parts of himself. And in the end, she'd gone to another, to Rowan. Quote, as if she were going from one room to another. It further cements for him this belief that he is worthless. He is not enough. But then as Rowan holds this version of Aelin in this vision, her scarred wrists, Kale sees this mask slip off of Aelin's. He hears her, I'm sorry, that she whispered to him on the dock in Crown of Midnight right after he said he loved her. He sees the guilt and the weight that presses in on this Queen of Tarasyn, and the hatred he feels for her softens, then disappears. So there's a few layers gone. Then we get a new shame layer, and we start to see the vision for what it is, a reliving of all the reasons he feels worthless, which then comes Dorian. The moment Kaol ran, leaving Dorian to the fate of the collar with Sorcia's blood on the floor. Who is Kaol to serve a man when he abandoned him right when his king needed him most? When the castle was destroyed and Kaol's spine along with it, he knows now what he feels deserving. He feels like he deserved that injury because of the choices he made with Dorian. But despite Kaol's anger towards himself and what he believed Dorian should feel towards him, which is fury and disappointment, his friend still remains in front of him in this vision. Because there's one promise that Kaol has not broken, and that is to save Dorian and to save the kingdom. And in this dark pit of hell facing the worst parts of himself, he still has that. So that tells him that this is not the end. And as Dorian and Aelin disappear, there is one person still standing in this vision, Irene, who says that it is his decision of what to do with this darkness, to shape himself with it or to give it power over him. And luckily, Kaol chooses the former. While Kaol's injury vastly improves after this healing session, the story ends with him regressing because of what happens with Duva, which he has to be able to go through later. His injury can still be suppressed. He can still walk, but it is limited entirely to Irene's magical well. There will be times, many times, where he'll need the cane or the chair. And while beginning Tower of Dawn Kael would have been furious and burrowed down within himself in anger, End of Tower of Dawn sees this as no difference. He is as much himself whether he is standing sitting or using a cane I going to say it This is the mother of all character arcs for Throne of Glass Kael is a deeply proud man who struggles very deeply with self because of how he let others down and broken oaths. This is his number one value. But we see at the end of this book that the oaths severed have no power over him anymore because he is choosing to forgive himself, knowing that Dorian and Aelin have long since forgiven him too. but now quote looking at her at that smile life he had a life to savor to fight for go kale i love that so much oh and we got a similar thing from aelin back in queen of shadows but she said to rowan how because of him she wants to fight to live kind of thing yeah yeah so they each they were what each other needed at the time, but they definitely are not what each other need forever. Exactly. Exactly. All right. This brings us to Irene. I love Irene. Like Nicole said in part one, we know her from Assassin's Blade. When she first came on the page in Tower of Dawn, I squealed like, what? So sorry, I guess we did spoil that for you in Tower of Dawn part one there, but we're going to go through the characters. Yes, we see other characters return from Assassin's Blade, but none with the same level of off-page development as Irene, like not even Ansel. And before we get into her and Kale's romance, may we just take a moment to give Irene the biggest round of applause for how much she has achieved in the past two years? She used the money the mysterious woman gave her to secure passage to Antica, and she has busted her butt learning everything she can since. She has seized every opportunity, every challenge with two hands. Just kidding. The text says both hands, but close enough. She has studied, she's practiced her skill sets and saved lives. She is particularly gifted with strong healing magic, and she has climbed to the very top of her class, scoring the best score anyone ever has on their exams. She is dedicated to saving lives and using the gift the goddess of healing, Silba, has granted her and the opportunity that a young stranger gave her that changed her life forever. She was not going to waste either of these gifts. So she's thrown everything into becoming the best of the best these past two years. You go, girl. This is such a fantastic introduction to her years after we saw her on the page last in very, very different circumstances. And it illustrates Irene's go-getter character and her devotion to her craft and her stubbornness to not give up. But before she leaves the Tori, now that she is a fully fledged healer, Hafiza has a final challenge for her. She is to heal a man who is not only from the rain that destroyed her home and killed her mother, but a man who dutifully served the former king, a.k.a. her enemy. And guess what? Irene has no interest in doing this. But she is a healer who made a vow, and this is her greatest challenge. Heal an enemy. As Kayal says when they first confessed their love to each other, he had a feeling he loved her since the first moment he saw her, which, remember, she was not nice. She even insulted his manhood, one of my favorite scenes. But it's because she looked at him as a person, not with pity for being in a chair, which is how he's felt since the injury, but instead she saw him, even if she didn't like him necessarily. Kale hates to be looked down upon. It's one reason it was so tough for him in Queen of Shadows because he felt like Adian was looking down on him too. Irene is the same way. Since her run-in with Selina back in AB, even though she didn't know it was Selina, she refuses to be a victim. She's climbed over mountains, traveled across seas, and yet somehow she still ended up at the Torre. And in just two years, she's become one of the best healers they have. She is a fighter. And she and Kaol's way of seeing the fight in the world is very similar. Irene looks at how she can heal, how she can see the best in someone, and how she can help. And in a time where Kaol's whole world felt like there was so little he could do to help, He needed someone to remind him that seeing a better world is as much an attitude as it is a skill set. And Irene needed to heal her view of Otterlyn. And seeing a man who was incredibly loyal to Otterlyn and chose Love of Thine to work against the king and country, that was all he knew. She was seeing someone who left the comfort of Otterlyn to fight against it. That is so healing for Irene and made her feel less alone with her own trauma and grief. For those of us who read Assassin's Blade before Tower of Dawn, so not you, Nicole. Wow. We know from Irene's introduction and mention of the young stranger and the note she still keeps that Aelin slash Selena has continued to have a huge impact on her life. And I love that throughout the book, there are so, so, so, so, so many breadcrumbs between her and Kale's conversations where I kept being like, oh, oh, is now the big reveal? Oh, like I was just on the seat of my pants. But that's not what I'm saying. But alas, we readers are just waiting and waiting and waiting as we know this reveal is coming at some point. See, this is why I love sometimes having additional information as a reader. It feels like you're part of the author's secret and like all giddy for the reveal. It's not until the very end, literally the last chapter for these character POVs, where Irene comments that she doesn't need this note anymore because she's not alone and she has found her courage. And finally, the moment we've been impatiently waiting all book for, Cale recognizing the handwriting of the note. And he immediately pieces together when Selina would have been traveling through Inish. And instead of feeling negatively toward Aelin like he previously felt, he recognizes this as a gift. Quote, a gift from a queen who had seen another woman in hell and thought to reach back a hand, with no thought of it ever being returned. A moment of kindness, a tug on a thread. What a full circle moment, not just for Irene's character arc, but for Kael's and his feelings toward Aelin. And Irene is not coming back to Aurelia to play a part in this war by herself. Oh no. With her, she brings 300 healers. And the Coggin has agreed to save the people of the healer who saved his daughter. And remember, her people are in Aurelia. So he answers with 1,000 ships and 1,000 Rukin to aid in the war efforts. Back at the beginning of the book, remember, he was like, no, that's not happening. We would not do that to Kael. But for Irene, after what she has done for him and his family, absolutely. All of this happening because Selenus Ardothian, years ago, answered the tug to help a barmaid. Last but certainly not least, we have Nezrin. Nezrin is the definition of charting her own path and returning home in this book. She comes to Antica and instantly feels more herself. She's surrounded by family and a culture that makes her come alive. And she finds love within that new life. I love Nezrin in Tower of Dawn. There's this self-discovery that feels equally subtle and rich all at the same time. And I feel like it's rare that we see something like this in books. We so often see a character finding their place in a foreign land, but to see someone retire to the land of their ancestors and find that peace there, it's like these little moments of her accent starting to come in because she starts to feel herself again. And all of that is before she goes with Sartak then to the Rookriders. I love their storyline, and I love how it leads them to the spider. Nezrin has spent her life trying to fit in in Rifthold. Her mother is from Otterlin, but her father left Antica to make a home for himself in Rifthold. And while Nezrin has visited her father's homeland several times in the past, immediately when she arrives in the God City, she is just soaking in everything about her homeland. She doesn't identify it for a while, but there is such a sense of belonging here that she has never experienced with Rifthold as she has to fight for her worth there. Here she is respected and she is welcome in a way Rifthold won't welcome her. Nezrin is the bridge between these two continents, a child of both lands who feels torn between them. But to save this world, the two continents will have to come together to fight evil, destroy it once and for all in this war to define history. And she is a literal embodiment of that. It's time to wrap up this episode with our top 10 moments from Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. Before we do that, though, hours, literally hours after we finished episode two, I literally sat up straight like, fuck, we didn't mention a really important one from last episode. So super quick honorary mention from Queen of Shadows. And yes, this is recording before episode two comes out. I'm very, very nervous for the comments that we're going to get, but I promise it's in here in episode three. Aelin visiting Sam's grave with Rowan accompanying her before she sets off the domino pieces for Erbin's death. And she gets this closure with Sam that she and her heart have needed, telling him she loves him for the first time. It's just such a beautiful scene. I cannot believe we didn't mention that. But yes, I agree completely. One of the most beautiful scenes in that book. Now to the actual books we're covering this episode. Number one, The end of Empire of Storms is Sarah J. Maas taking the last 100 pages and making it the roller coaster of your life. Since a lot happens at the end of that book between the Witch Mirror and Maeve and all of this, let's take a second to just go through what happens and it just, it deserves its own recap. In the Witch Mirror, which Dorian notes it's the power of knowledge, Aelin and Manon witness a memory of Elena sealing Erewhon in the Iron Sarcophagus. using the eye of Elena. Skrr! Surprise! That is the lock that they've been searching for. In this memory, we learned that the gods are pissed that Elena used the lock to trap Erewhon because the gods plan to use that lock to bind the word keys, open a word gate, and return to their god home, also banishing Erewhon from this world in the process. But with Elena's action to use the lock on Erewhon, the lock created in the iron psychophagus and completely drained in the process, it was thus, quote unquote, wasted. And since they only know this is a temporary solution, that Erwan will rise again, Elena is willing to pass on that responsibility to someone else. The gods tell Elena that her punishment for wasting this lock and wanting to pass the burden on to someone else whenever Erwan wakes up is that someone from her line, the line of incredibly powerful Brannon must forge a new lock by putting all of their power into it and die in the process. Because Elena's mother, Mala Firebringer, sacrificed her mortal life in order to create the lock, thus becoming Deanna. And Elena must guide this ancestor of hers to their death without telling them that their life will be the price. Elena does not tell Gavin this, though, only that she's going to help the next person forge the lock. Woof. So TLDR, Elena fucked up. The gods punish her by saying your fuck up means that you have to walk another person through this whole process. And you're basically going to wait around and see when it happens. Smash cut to the next memory we see in the mirror. It is Elena visiting Nehemia. Nehemia believes that she is called to die for the purpose of saving Aurelia. But Elena tells her that, no, girl, sorry, you're not the chosen one, or at least not in the way that you think. Instead, it's going to be a descendant of Brannan's, which either means it's going to be Dorian or Aelin who pays this price. So Elena instructs Nehemia to go to Otterlin to see these two, Dorian and Aelin, who would fulfill this curse from the gods. And how will she know who Aelin is? Aelin Galathinius is supposed to be dead. She will know Aelin Galathinius by her eyes and the bastard mark of Brannan. Because remember, nameless is my price. Ah, so this whole time Nehemia knew who Selina was. But as a result of going north, Nehemia also learns that she will not see the country of Elway again, and she will die in Otterlin. Next is not really a memory, but instead, Elena appearing in front of Aelin and Manon, where she tells Aelin that Aelin died in the river while escaping from Tereson. And Elena made a deal with the gods for Aelin's life, and to get Arab and Hamel over to go save her. But the cost is now that Elena is finally able to pass on when the new lock is created, but Elena cannot be reunited with her husband and her children. Whew! Whew! Talk about an info dump there, Nicole! No kidding! But now we go to part two of The End of Empire Storms, where Maeve is on the beach with a blade to Alid's throat. Lorcan summoned Maeve when he saw Ansel of Briarcliff's armada, thinking it was Erewhon, and he wanted Maeve to help and thus protect Alid from the Volg king. Well, she's here. Why doesn't she just start talking? And talking she does. She knew that Rowan was Aelin's mate, so she used her magic to trick him into thinking that Lyria was his mate before sending troops in to kill Lyria, in the hopes that it would break Rowan and make him swear the blood oath to her. Genuinely trash human, Maeve. This way, she could ensure that when Aelin and Rowan's paths did cross, she had them both eating out of the palm of her hand. Now, after that nice little download, Maeve then breaks the blood oath ties for both Gavriel and Lorcan, just as punishment for the two of them, but she keeps Fenris attached to her, and she takes Aelin with her in an iron box with an iron mask over her face. This is horrific. And I love the symbolism of covering her face, using that mask to again rid herself of the identity that she just got back. Oh my God, it's so fucking painful. But there's one bright spot in the vast, vast darkness. Aelin discreetly slipped the word keys to Manon. So luckily, Maeve will not have those in her clutches. Only the Queen of Tarasen and Cain to rip her to shreds. I'll also say another bright spot at the end of Empire of Storms. All of her allies are answering her call. Aelin has rallied an army to rattle the stars, even if she won't be here to see it. But she's done it. She fucking did it. Just when everything went down with Elena, then it's Maeve. And then we get her download on the mating bond and how Lorcan called her here. Then Aelin is taken. Then we get Manon having the keys. Thank the gods. And that's when Rowan arrives. And you're so, so worried for him finding out about Aelin. Her blood is on the floor. And we get this iconic line. Where is my wife? The hammer in the iron coffin to all of our hearts at the end of this book. Sarah J. Maas, masterful. Oh my God. But then we get the plan of Aelin and Lysandra pretending to be Aelin. Rowan being married basically to Lysandra Aelin and then Adian fathering their babies. And I want to talk really quickly about Rowan's reaction to this plan. He is stunned because he's not mad because it's not really the top of the things that are at his mind right now. He's grappling with the fact that his mate, his wife is Aelin, not Lyria. He's been a part of a huge lie and manipulation from Maeve. and that weighs heavier on him. The truth is he's not angry, at least not like Adian, at this new plan because he has no inclination to follow this plan. He is only determined to get his wife back. Exactly, because accepting this plan would be to give up on his wife, his mate, his fireheart. And hell no, he will not even consider that option. My heart breaks for Rowan. and this type of reaction is far more Rowan versus anger like we see with Aedion. He is going to jump into action and control what he can control. He is not one to just lay down and take Aelin's plan as law, which is another reason why I think he's so good for Aelin. Okay, that was all number one. Number two, if we go through the end of Empire of Storms, it would not be right if we did not go through the end of Tower of Dawn 2. Have I ever told you how much I love you? You, on your own, took on both of these in this episode. It was twofold. One, I knew you were stressed. And two, I wanted to understand these better because it all happened so fast. And I've read these books so much, but I still feel like I didn't get it until laying it all out like this. Starting off with a download from the Stygian spiders, the Karen Kui. We learn from them that Maeve is queen of the Valk. Le gasp! Ah! What? What? I will say, I really wish this wasn't spoiled for me. What an insane reveal. Yeah, I'm, I'm, a lot of this book was spoiled for me and I'm very sad. Okay, the Karen Kui are actually also Valk princesses. The spider shares the tale of when they, as Valk, were ruled over three brothers. the Valk kings, for thousands of years until a dark queen with even darker magic emerged. She was pursued by all three of the Valk kings, but she was desired only by Orcus, the eldest. After they wed, Maeve was not so happy. She was bored. And so she spent long hours pondering the riddles of the world. That's a way to spend your time. And she found a way to use her gifts to travel between worlds. So one day when Orcus was gone to see his brothers, she stepped into a new world, taking the spiders with her to this very place where the Caronquille is telling the tale. And she told them to stay behind and guard this gate, this rip in the world that she made, because she did not want to go back to the other world to her husband. But the Caronquille, they heard musings through this rip about Orcus and his brothers finding ways to control the gates between worlds with forged keys. So the three brothers hunted from world to world, destroying these realms in their wake, mind you, until they reached this one. But they didn't find Maeve because she'd gone to Dorinel. She'd ripped into Mab and Mora's minds and convinced them that she was her sister. So when the three Valg kings got to this world, they had no idea what armies they faced, but they also had no idea who Maeve was because she was in a fey body. So once Maeve realized how they got here with the keys, she then wanted them for herself to banish them and kill the three kings and also to use the keys as she sees fit between this world and others that she could go to. She managed to get the keys. She sent two of the kings back to their OG realm, but before she could get Erewhon sent back too, the keys were taken from her by Brennan Galathinius. So in the meantime, Maeve has been building up her own defenses, her own armies, her own healers surrounding her in case Erewhon were to rise again, realize who she is, and thus she would be protected from any incoming fog. I've always found it such interesting storytelling that it's Nezrin who gets this big download about Maeve. She's one of the more detached characters from the Fae. She's on a continent away and accidentally comes across this info from the Valk princess Spider, who is all too happy to tell her dinner a story. I love how this creates another obstacle for how to get this extremely vital information to the main crew in Aurelia. Like, Maeve being the Valk queen completely changes the game. And I love how we get this right before Kingdom of Ash, where it's like, okay, characters have to connect and catch each other up with all that they've learned about the bad guys. But again, that's just download part one. Because now we have what Irene, Hafiza, and Kael learn from Duva, the pregnant second youngest daughter who's been pretty in the background throughout this entire story, until we encounter her in the tombs of the palace and realize she's been possessed by Valg princess. Parrington sent a wordstone ring to Duva as a wedding present, which she's been wearing for months. The youngest royal sibling, Tubaloon, suspected that something was off with her next eldest sister, and Duva, possessed, pushed her youngest sister out of a balcony. Woof. But why are they here in the first place? Parrington, Erewhon, caught wind of a healer who is Silva's heir with the power of healing humans with Valg hosts, literally healing the Valg out of them. This is why Maeve surrounds herself with healers in Doranelle. The Valg intend to take Irene back to Erewhon with a wordstone ring on Irene's finger. And if she does not comply, Hafiza, Irene's mentor and motherly figure is dead. So a huge big deal alert. Irene can cure the Volg out of humans. Ah, this is perfectly preparing us for what she does with Erewhon at the end of Kingdom of Ash. It's how he goes bye-bye. Well, and he's so scared about these gifted healers being in the continent. Yes. And so that was his reasoning for magic being outlawed, as I understand it, at least. Yes. Is that it was like, nope, we got to get all of my risks off the board here. And then he started really looking at the Tori Chesme because he knew that there was going to be a healer who could potentially stop him. And that's what Duva was doing here was as a spy. Not actually Duva, but the Valk princess within her. Yeah. And can we just take a moment of appreciation for the fact that the healers are actually the greatest threat in this world? Like, I just fucking love that. Yes, I love that. But when Duva aims a huge blast of Valk magic at Irene, it is Kaol who takes the brunt of it and shatters Kaol's spine all over again, making those wounds absolutely fatal. But thanks to Selina's defense training, Irene is able to get the Vogue down and Hafiza is able to put Duva into a deep, deep, deep sleep. While Irene rushes to heal Kael, making a deal with Silva. He's healed, sort of. His ability to walk is directly tied with Irene's strength of magic. Also, their lives are now tied together too, should one fall, the other will too. This is such huge foreshadowing and oh my god how this comes into play when Irene becomes pregnant and Kale is literally fighting on battlefields in a war. Oh my god. Ah, the story! So good! Number three, Lysandra's sea dragon battle was just the definition of badass. I just love how the sky is the limit for her and how brave and strategic she is. The foreshadowing in Skull's Bay and the lead up to is just chef's kiss with her studying images of the sea dragons to understand how to turn into one and Aelin ensuring that she gets access to sea said images. Our crew having a shapeshifter on our side is a really big deal. And we see just how impressive that is and how much that can really change the tides of a battle here. The symbolism of the sea dragon for the Mycenaeans, the impact this message sends of a sea dragon fighting to protect Skull's Bay, again, that's Aelens really masterfully thinking strategically five steps ahead. Okay, how can this make the biggest impact, including positive impacts to give people hope? I love it so much. And then following up with that, really just the whole time in Skull's Bay, it is packed with good character interactions. the appearance of two Aylens at Skulls Bay also great foreshadowing for the end there and then Selina revealing herself as Aylen to Rolf and him having that whole reaction the arrival of Gavriel and Fenris I love them coming back into the series and finding a way to work around Maeve's orders to be able to be with this crew because they believe in Aylen and they especially by the end of it learning the heartbreaking story of the price Rolf paid for the magical maps inked on his hands. Oh, and then being the heir to the Mycenaeans as well. The show of fire magic, where Aelin's been burrowing into her magical well for three days to put on that fire sky explosion, proving how strong and powerful she is. And this is a warning to her enemies that she is not someone to mess with. Well, and it makes its way to Antica. Like, that's how big of a deal this is, that they're like, whoa, this is, we're not just dealing with a normal person here. Yeah. Number four, I would not be me if I did not mention this in the top 10 moments. Sex is in the house. Multiple scenes. Hello. We get Rowan and Aelin on the beach. Finally, multiple times going at it. Irene and Kay all together. I legit cried for the first time. They were in the tent on Irene's birthday. It was so beautiful. And then, of course, Daddy Phantom Hands. Wow. That is that's a different side of Dorian. That's for sure. I know it is completely destructive friends with benefits situation, but thankfully it worked out in the end. And I don't think it's destructive. It is two mutual parties that are like, you know what? The world's on fire. Let's do this. That's fair. I think Dorian needs a little healing before he goes straight into that. But to be honest, I can't even be mad because excellent use of your magic, sir. And I love how Manon, who eats men for breakfast, is like, this is new. I love it. Okay, number five, while I'm on my romantic high horse, allow me to just gush over my favorite Kael and Irene moments. When Irene tricks Kael into walking for the first time, and then he kisses her on his feet, and it's just so beautiful. At Irene's birthday, just honestly, full stop, but specifically when Hussar makes fun of Kael and Irene literally tackles the princess into the water. And it's Reina and Kashen who defuse the situation, making it so Irene does not die. And when Kael gives Irene the locket for her note from Selena, oh my god, the whole couch running joke bit and how Kael brings it to Otterlin. Kael and Irene going on a date for dinner, when Kale helps her with self-defense classes. When Irene realizes that making Kale angry is the best way to get him walking, and then their fighting just turns into playful banter. Oh, I love it. At the party at the castle where it's to Holmes Day, and it's like the two of them are in a crowd, and they're all heady from the smoke, and they're getting closer and closer. Oh, I could go on and on. I love them. Number six, the Tory Tesme in general. You all know me. You know how much I appreciate a learning institute with a library and lots of books for research and secrets to discover. It's literally the premise for the book that I'm writing. I love the Tori Chesme's history, how it stood the test of time and reigns and conflicts because it is deemed valuable as a healing center and it is honored. I love how it is a symbol of the God City on the highest hill and visible from every angle of Antica. I love the role the Tori Chesme plays in the plot, offering bits of information for characters as they piece together new and old mysteries. That's another thing I really love about Tower of Dawn is it's a mystery book, kind of like Throne of Glass book one. I love how important the owl symbolism is, which is the symbol of Silba, and how owls are everywhere at the tower. Actually, owl symbols are everywhere in the city. There may be 36 gods here, but Silba reigns unchallenged as the most celebrated. And then how the owl was also in the tapestry back in Selina's old room that led to Elena's tomb. That owl represented Athril, and his sigil of the owl meant his loyalty to Silba. TLDR, Silba made the ring of immunity, not Mala, which protects the wearer from valg possession. Also, Irene Towers, blessed by Silba, heir apparent healer on high at the Tori Chesme. Tori means tower. The Tori Chesme is a giant tower. That's not a coincidence, and Hafiza doesn't think so either. One of my favorite things about the series and one of the most difficult things that I didn't realize would be so difficult until we started doing these things was that things are presented as one way, like Atheril's ring being forged by Mala. And then it's like, nope, psych, it's actually Silba. Or like, Maeve is one of the third sisters. Nope, psych, she's a foul queen. And I'm just like, ah! No wonder it made it so hard with you all. It's so hard to keep these spoilers straight in part one. We've had to edit a lot out on the cutting room floor because we realized later on. All right, number seven, the new characters we meet in Tower of Dawn. We have Argen, who's a shady fuck, and he's got all the I'm the future Coggin in the bag energy. Then we have Sartak, who will become the future Coggin. He lives with the Rukin, and he's so happy in the skies. And I love, I know we didn't get to talk a whole lot about him and Nezrin and him bringing her to his chosen family, the Aerie. He gets to introduce her to his hearth sister, Borte, and his hearth mother, Halun. And also when Sartak turns up at Nezrin's family home with Kadara, his rook, and all of the kids start climbing over Kadara, and he's like, it's fine. I love it. Then we have Hussar, who somehow I both enjoy her as a character and also cannot stand her. She is such a headstrong personality. She has no problem talking down to people, whether it's her siblings or Irene or Kaol, in my opinion. But with her partner, Reina, Reina is the perfect counterbalance to her. Quote, if Hussar was pure flame, then Reina was flowing water. Beautiful. And then we have sweet Caution, who's just so in love with Irene, but also so respectful of her that he has no ill intent towards Kaol when they clearly become a thing. He is caring to all. He sits with the servants at their bedside when they fall ill. He hates the double talk of court. Instead, he decides to live among the soldiers. I wish we got to know caution a little bit better, but there are so many things happening and there is no time. I have another one for the characters we meet in Antica, the healer on high, Hafiza, and how she mentors Irene and has all sorts of wisdom up her sleeve. She brings humor and lightheartedness that I love. Like when she meets Kale and it's like, oh, Irene said you were handsome. And Irene is like, no, I did not. Or when she tells the long ago story when she got someone drunk to spill her secrets and how she was disappointed three bottles of expensive wine she purchased with all the money she had didn't help her get more info. Like I love the elderly woman and her stories. Yes, same. Number eight, piggybacking off a new character in Tower of Dawn. But this one gets his own because of how he fits like a puzzle piece into the story. Falcon, another shapeshifter, and Lysandra's uncle. His father and brother, Lysandra's father, were also shapeshifters. And we learned that Lysandra's father abandoned her and her mother. When Falcon grew up to become a merchant, he searched for his niece. He found Lysandra's mother dying already. and she was able to share with him that she threw her daughter out and described her, but then her mother passed away before he could get the girl's name. Besides, the description of the girl he had wouldn't match Lysandra's body she got stuck in 10 years ago. She shapeshifted into a new face and now doesn't remember what she used to look like, the description that Falcon had been given. But that's not his only connection to the bigger story, because a year before he went to the southern continent, Falcon sought the Stygian spiders and bargained for a hundred yards of spider silk in exchange for 20 years of his life. To his surprise, the spider took the age off his current age. So he looks 20 years older than he actually is. So if you're like, wait, this sounds familiar. It's because we met him in Assassin's Blade. Selina purchased six inches of spider silk from Falcon in the Red Desert and had a strange conversation with him. And Manon met the same spider who shared the bargain she struck with this merchant before Manon stole spider silk from the spider. That was Falcon about the 20 years off. Yeah. Number nine. This actually goes back to Empire of Storms. The endless annoyance that Aelin and now Manon have toward Elena. We kind of touched on it earlier, but Elena made her choice a thousand years ago to use the lock's power to encase Erewhon, which is the equivalent of putting a bandaid over the problem. My favorite is when she's like, I didn't think I'd like you so much. When Aylan was like, you've known all along that you're like raising me for slaughter, basically. And Elaine is like, I'm sorry. She is actually sorry, but it is so funny how she's like, I didn't think I would actually get to know you as a person and like learn to care for you. And it's like, rain it back, girl, rain it back. Oh, gosh. And then all the rest that Nicole highlighted there in the download. There's a part where Manon is wanting clarification. And Aelin's like, yeah, now you see why I'm so annoyed with Elena all the time. There is no such thing as clarification with her. And to be honest, I would be very frustrated with her as well. I would be livid. Elena would not fit in to the FFG vibes. No. We're a little too type A. Just a tad. And number 10. Lastly, the epilogue of Tower of Dawn as we head into Kingdom of Ash. To us readers' surprise, it's a POV switch and more like an epilogue for Empire of Storms titled Fireheart. Which, oh, twist the knife! I absolutely love, though, how this is in Tower of Dawn instead as a reminder of Aelin's situation. Now, with the knowledge we have that Maeve is actually the Vulg Queen. This makes Aelin being in her clutches even worse, if we thought that was possible. And so many nuggets in this epilogue allude to what we've learned about Maeve. Aelin is nameless, trapped by the vulg. Nods to the darkness that Maeve brings. And she gives Aelin a spider's smile. Oh, it was a spider who told us about it! SJM's all like, oh, this is all happy right now at the end of Tower of Dawn. Well, remember this devastation we're coming back to? Literally setting us up for the final book with Maeve's chilling words. Let's begin. There we have it, friends. Episode three of our Throne of Glass journey. That might have been one of the hardest episodes we've ever done. I'm not going to lie. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in to this Throne of Glass fan guide. Friendly reminder, next Monday is episode four, where we are covering the final book of the series, Kingdom of Ash. Part one will not have spoilers for Kingdom of Ash. And part two will somehow fit into one episode where we will discuss the finale of this epic fantasy. Thank you to our Throne of Glass content researcher, guest researcher, Sammy, for all of her help with these fan guides. And of course, our executive producer, a.k.a. our sanity manager and co-host of the Fantasy Fanfellas podcast, Hayden. Please give us a follow on Instagram and slash or TikTok at Fantasy Fan Girls Pod and Fantasy Fan Fellas and Fantasy Fan Reads. Oh, my God. That's so cool to hear. And last but not least, share this episode with your fellow Throne of Glass friends. If they are like, where are the word keys? Who are these people? I don't know what's going on. Word, word, word. Word, word. Where is the word? Word, word, word. Where is the word? Is that a word? Word. This is a great episode. Where is the word? Is that a word? Word. Where is the word? Goodbye. Bye. And for both of them, this relationship. I swallowed a pistachio the wrong way.