Onyx Storm | Calm, Cool, Crazy Jealous

Welcome wonderful listeners to Episode 25 of the Shadow and Starlight Podcast | Calm, Cool, Crazy Jealous! As we continue our Onyx Storm deep dive, time to discuss a very sexy professor, ex drama with the tables turned, and the epic fail that is Quest Squad’s first mission.

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• This episode is based on Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Intro Music by Boomer, graphics by @reeseplantedesign. 
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Transcript

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Welcome, wonderful listeners, to the Shadow and Starlight podcast where two friends deep dive into popular fantasy and romance ebooks. We get into the stories, characters, worldbuilding lore, and so much more. So buckle your seatbelts for this wild rollercoaster of emotions, magical worlds, and laughs. I'm Kinsey. I'm Kena. And today we're covering chapters 12 through 22 of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Garros. First and foremost, please listen carefully to our content warning. These are adult books we are covering and neither of us have a filter, so this podcast is rated R, and for those 18 plus. Regarding spoilers, if you have not finished the entire Onyx Storm book, Please come back after doing so. While we are discussing this stretch of chapters, we will be doing so with the perspective of what happens in the rest of the book, for better understanding, to dive deeper into the theories, and appreciate the masterful foreshadowing of Rebecca Yarris. Going forward, all episodes on our show will contain spoilers for the whole series in question. Next black picture here today. You want more? Please come back next Thursday and next Thursday and next Thursday and next Thursday and every Thursday after that for a brand new episode. As a what? Did we agree on that we were now? Pubescent to podcast. No, don't say that. Um, adolescent, we're going through our podcast. Puberty as an adolescent podcast. We would love to hear your feedback to better ourselves to expand our book. Love and community. Please feel free to give us a few to reach out to us on social media and follow us on TikTok Instagram and watch us on YouTube at shadow and starlight pod. Well, drinking the pod is. It's a wine night for us girlies over here. So I'm having, I think it's Chardonnay. I don't know. My mother in law just handed me a glass of wine and I was like, cool. Cool. How did you anticipate what I wanted? Yeah, I got a cup of, what is this, like 18 percent wine? Taylor Port. Yeah. So if I'm making faces, that's why. Cause I have not, I haven't entered that stage of adulthood where I can take a sip of a drink and not make a face. Unless it's like super sweet. If I can taste the alcohol, I'm making a face. So, I can't. Weak. No, I'm just kidding. Maybe. That's why I hate tasting it. Well, shall we? Cross the purr pet. Yes. This stretch of chapters opens with Violet sucking on Zayden's face, who is rapidly losing his grandma's control. I'm sorry, but my head went somewhere else. Reading that sentence, I was like, where is this going? Oh, my bad. I got a little scared. What is it? You dirty little gutter rat. This stretch of chapters opens with Violet sucking on Zayden's face, who is rapidly losing his grip on his control, emotions, and possibly morals. Guess that's what happens when you sell your soul to keep your woman alive. After they set some boundaries and discuss that most of the freaking marked ones have second signets, like it's no big deal, business is back to usual at Bezgaeth. Battle brief, physics, homework, death roll, flight lessons, the whole nine. After finding out her man has a burned out, channel from the source, while it goes to Get answers from teen pop sensation Justin Bieber! Sorry folks, it's actually Jack Marlow. This sadistic, greedy, little, venom piece of shit. Using her conduit as the carrot for this little pig, she gets three answers before Imogen wipes his memory. Violet and the gang of frogs hop on over to the archives to visit Sawyer's girlfriend, who has some rather interesting information about the second croveland uprising being connected to an isle kingdom and feather What? Yes, it's time for Violet to finally go get her father's research, or in this case, Dane's time to betray his father. Battle brief later is a triple whammy. One, the Venon are advancing rapidly. Two, Sages and Mavens can and do wield signets and Zayden is now a professor. Oh no! The relationship is over! Yeah right. These people have been emotionally married since they laid eyes on each other, and definitely married after threshing. After Zayden quickly denies the end of their relationship, Violet heads to put the fate of what we think is plot altering information in the hands of Dane Atos, who Kenzie thinks is a hottie now and I will never let her live it down. After that is handled, Zayden reminds Violet that they have been emotionally married since threshing, and a code of conduct is nothing to them. Before they can get an exemption from the Venon Trader, aka ViceCommandant Pancheck, General Atos comes to inform them that that ain't gonna be happening. Flash forward to the following week, and the OG Quest Squad is struggling under Professor Grady's leadership, who won't do anything right. Or listen to anybody who knows anything. On the bright side, these useless meetings are one of the few times Zayden and Violet can see each other. With supervision, of course, from Bitch Ass Bonhaven, and Eeeew and Faber, and Caroline Asshat, of course. Their mission, defined in Darn is Kind, is laden with political and egotistical refusal to listen to the only person in Dragon who might have a clue of where to start. Not like the fate of the continent rests on this mission or anything like that. Later that week, it's time for class with Professor Ryerson, not that kind of class, get your minds out of the gutter at myself. Cue Zayden proving once again, that he is the most powerful, most ruthless, most strategic, most hottest bad ass in the military. Last up, it's time for Violet to spar with her boyfriend. Who's really her husband. They just haven't tied the knot for a couple hundred pages an exercise in Cygnet sparring is actually a safeguard as Zayden is making sure Violet knows how to kill him if the worst should happen, which it might. After that particular exercise that makes me question whether it is foreshadowing to a future book, the Iron Squad finally made it to Shintaro and we get like Two pages. That's it. Whatever. It's not like I've been like looking forward to the scene for two entire books. It's fine. Over some ales, they discuss religious temples and if their squad mates will explode. Aric won't, because dude has definitely manifested his signal by this point. At least I'm convinced. By the next chapter, Dane has come through! Surprise, surprise. Redemption arc solidified. The great news is after waiting two books, we're about to find out what her father's research contains. Bad news is that we have to wait for her to unlock it with a six letter passcode or risk a giant explosion. Could it be her first love? Halden? Ugh, speak of the devil, here this mofo comes to wreck the day and try to get back his ex girlfriend that he never deserved. With his slipping control, Zayden accidentally sends him flying into a wall after Halden has the nerve to ask Violet on a date. Halden, we know and hate, shockingly doesn't have a temper tantrum, and even more shockingly gives Violet the key to her father's passcode. The first initial five minutes of reading produce more mysteries, and the plot thickens. And then Zayden shows up, demanding a debrief of Violet's relationship with Halden, followed by a little makeout sesh and plans to Retrieve a fancy gemstone. Quest Squad's first mission is an epic fail, mostly. They did retrieve the gemstone, but thanks to a jumpy wing leader, Grady and Ora are no more, and the drain town of Anka is now toasted, roasted, and scorched, and everyone nearly died via wyvern. Couldn't have gone any worse, honestly. With the princeling dangling in a basket like the little bitch he is, the new and improved quest squad heads to the Isle Kingdoms. Their pit stop and courting consists of Taryn attempting to parent a wildly rebellious and very hungry Andarna on this field trip, and Zayden tricking Halden so he can finally have a night with his brilliant fucking woman. Spice free, of course. Crossing the edge of the coast, magic leaves the squad. Nothing but emptiness to fill this massive hole that has become a part of each and every one of them. Thank you, Rebecca, for allowing Violet to communicate with her dragons because I would die without their commentary. On the bright side, Navarelli is a spectacular sight. While they wait for Halden to meet with his majesty, time to recover from a grueling flight. Or in Zayden's case, appreciate the relief of not being able to channel, even if you wanted to. And that's it. We get a lot of new characters this book, I realized it. A lot of new everything, characters, dragon names, drama, some old faces too, ages. Well, now that we have crossed the parapet, it's time to head into our Hello? Now that we have crossed the parapet, it's time to head into our battle brief section Where we will discuss all notable things in this chapter, including foreshadowing, theories, and our favorite parts. How's that Taylor Port hitting? I've only had a couple sips, man. Like, I can't talk already. Yeah, well, sometimes a couple sips will get you there. The first thing we're gonna talk about foreshadowing wise, speaking of a father, Father Atos, let's talk about traitors in leadership. And honestly, I did not see it coming that Panchak was going to be the traitor revealed at the end of this book. I probably would have bet Father Atos or Mel Graham before I bet him. Cause honestly, Panchak, I just. Forgot he existed most of the time, like, I know he's an important part of important part of this guy, but like, all right, anyways, since we're talking about traitors, I think there is foreshadowing to confirm that Atos is what we have been saying he is a Venon or complicit in helping the Venon with his nasty ass. this might just be a throwaway line, but when Violet is talking to Dane, he notes that his father is quote, just a few rooms down with Pancheck right now. So I know, you know, they're in the military, they got to have meetings and shit, whatever, whatever, whatever. But this is right before Atos comes to deny the exemption for the relationship. And it may not mean anything that they're together. I might be reaching just a tiny bit, but it does sure seem suspicious. And I'm going to be watching everything Pancheck does the rest of this reread like a hawk, because I think we may learn some cute, some other clues to other traders and leadership, because from what Rebecca keeps saying, like. And even Violet's father, like, you can't trust anyone. There's gotta be more traitors. I actually thought that more traitors were gonna be revealed within the military in Onyx Storm, but we didn't get that. But I'm sure it's gonna be a thing in future books. Yeah. I honestly now, like, after learning about Panchik, I wanna go back and re read Fourth Ming again. Just to, like, pick out the clues. Cause, like, I, yeah. He was so undercover with it, like, I never would've Guess, cause I don't really, he's like sort of a background character. I never really paid that much attention to him. I think that was kind of smart on Rebecca's part because obviously Milgren and Father, Father Atel are like obvious villains. So I wouldn't be surprised if like further on that line, we were like, we found out that they were also like traitors too, but I think Petchik was a good like start cause we weren't really paying that close attention to him. And I'm pretty sure she like included those little tidbits and passbooks that we didn't pick up on. I think she was trying to get us to think Melgrim was a traitor and he possibly could be. I actually have a feeling that he's, he's maybe not now. But I think she was like throwing the signals in Melgrim's direction so that we wouldn't ever suspect Panchic. And it worked! I had no idea. I saw somewhere where, I don't remember if it was on TikTok or Reddit, but somebody was saying that they don't think that it was, it could be Milgram because they don't think that his dragon would support, um, the whole Benin thing. Same. I mean, we don't know that much about Kodob, but I just kind of have a feeling, because it doesn't sound like Tairn really hates him necessarily. Yeah. And he's also the elder of their den, so that would be pretty shocking, I think, if a member of the Empyrean, like one of the elders, was a Benin supporting Yeah. Little dude. Little dude. I was gonna say piece of shit, and I was like, I can't call a dragon a piece of shit. It goes against everything I believe. Yeah. I don't know why. Well, next thing I want to discuss is Zayden's inevitable slip of his control. Now, we've known ever since book one, Zayden's like His thing was like, that really sets him out was his control. Zayden has such good control over his control. But, since we started this book, up until this point, Zayden has lost his control twice now. Once when they were trying to get Spicy, and he accidentally channeled, and then second when he was on the front lines. So, and one of those times was outside the wards and one was within the wards. And at this point, like, I think we're starting to realize that it's a little bit more serious than we imagined. And he has a little bit less time than we would have guessed. And there's really only so much time at this point before he actually fully transitions into what's the next step after initiate? Ace him? Ace him. Yeah. And we also know that, um, he will also slip, slip during their trip to the aisles. Have something to say He's gonna slip right into that couch. Oh my gosh Am I right? I was like he's gonna slip and slide But he's gonna eventually slip somewhere like slip and channel I have to be specific. He can accidentally slip and channel where there isn't really any magic. And he literally still finds, like, the smallest piece of magic to channel from. So, at this point, he's kind of fucked. Yeah. Basically. I thought it was interesting the stretch to how many times, like, not even just Violet and Zayden, like, other people were realizing how strong his Signet is, and Violet was trying to, like, explain it away, like, yeah, our, our Signets develop over time, it's insane, everything's fine, but we know that the Venomness is making his abilities stronger, but it was kind of hot and intriguing how strong he is, because we already knew he was so, so strong, but now it's like, um, See, and if he continues to progress. I can't even fathom how powerful he's gonna be. feel like, I don't know. I feel like his dream, nevermind. I'm gonna ahead of myself anyways. We'll save that for later. It's so hard not to I know. Even the stretch, I was like, I was starting to write some stuff on the outline. I was like, no, I need to save that for when it actually happens in future chapters. Anyways, I do get to talk about my favorite person to hate, which is Brandon. So obviously. I'm still convinced that Neon and Brennan are in a relationship and he is a sage and Brennan is a traitor. Especially since we're kind of learning that sages have some measure of control over their initiates and I think the Asims as well. So that's interesting. So he could Possibly be controlling Brennan if he's a sage, maybe, possibly. Maybe that's what the mark on his palm is. Anyways, in book three, we do actually get a specific reference to what I think is Naolan and the confirmation of his relationship with Brennan. So when Riddick asks about Brennan's first love, Violet recalls, quote, I do remember Mira saying he'd been in a relationship with a writer a year or two older than him. Well, that's suspicious. And if I'm not mistaken, I think in, in. 4th Winger Iron Flame, we did learn that Nalen was just slightly older than Brennan, or was in the Quadrant at the same time, but maybe a little bit older. I'll have to look and actually pull that quote, but I'm pretty sure? And then, also, something else I found suspicious is that in the letter that Violet's father wrote to her, he says, quote, trust only Mira. Why just Mira? Why? Why? Why not Brennan? Well, I know he was, I think, I actually think Hot Take that Violet's father knew Brennan was still alive somehow. Wait, what? I actually think that Violet's father at the time of writing her this letter knew that Brennan was still alive. Possibly. Hot take. I don't know. I just think it's suspicious that he said, you know, like why would he advise his daughter to trust only one of her siblings unless obviously he knew that Brennan had passed and didn't think he was still alive. But I don't know. I just, I just found that a little suspicious and maybe I'm just like really reaching for every little crumb because I hate Brennan so much. No, I actually thought the same thing. I thought the exact same thing. Okay. Thank God. I was going to piggyback off of what you said when you finished. Yeah. And I thought that maybe that was to keep his research hidden for more than just Navar and the Scribes, possibly his own son, who he may or may not have known was being controlled by a Venom or what's a Venom, I don't know, but regardless, I think both of these two things, it's just the evidence. I think that, like, after reading. Three Rebecca Yarrow's fantasy books at this point that we've learned to pay close attention to the fine print and I had the same reaction when I read Trust Only Mira, I was like, I literally wrote my book. I was like technically Brennan is dead at this point, but like why? So specific, like why only Mira? Very specific. I'm like, and I was In that same letter, he was also like saying, if your mom has joined me, so like he didn't know. So why wouldn't she say like, trust only Mira and your mom, if it was like a family thing? Yeah. That too, I don't know. It sounds like, if both me and your mom are gone, met Malik, only trust. Yeah, and it's just like, this is what kind of started my speculation and honest storm about Brennan. Yes About bringing because at first I was like, I don't really see it But then when I read this part of the book, I was like, okay I can kind of see Brennan being a traitor and obviously at the end of the book. I was like interesting. So yeah Hmm. I wonder if I was the same arc. I wonder if arc is Precog that um, that Brandon is a traitor or if Andorra knows anything. I want to know how much control Ark has over his precog. Or if it's something like Violet where, well I guess right now she can't control it but in the future she could. That's a whole nother thing, but. I don't know. I'm just, I've been seeing a lot of theories too that Brennan possibly is the brother who turned at the end of Onyx Storm, which I don't necessarily agree with because I think he already has, but I've seen some really good reasoning as to that theory, so I don't know. Oh, I never thought about Brennan. Because they, they have, I mean like he wasn't very specific. All he was like is that he's seen his struggle. Wait, did Brennan know that Zayden was Brennan? Yeah. Okay. So I mean, he, he could be a possibility and then Dorna was like, I won't let him burn you. Um, I just saw Rebecca Yaros. I think it was, did you see she, the fantasy fangirls got to interview her on her tour? Mm hmm. They asked her a question about the new brother and she said it was someone who always Wanted more than what they had been given or that's not the exact wording, but it was something like that Oh, yeah, I did see that one. That makes me think Bodie, but also could mean Brennan maybe I don't know let's talk about Broken Bonds, and I don't like this but I'm gonna talk about it. Okay. On the quest squad mission, Violet reflects in her internal monologue, quote, I have no desire to test the 3 4 day limit that riders and their dragons can be apart, nor to suffer the fatal consequences. So I don't know, is it just me? I caught this in my reread and I was like, what? Because I was like, you can't be apart from Taryn for 3 4 days or you'll die? Is that new information or am I just blanking? I don't think, I feel like this is something we would have known. That's what I'm thinking, well I don't, well she was in the interrogation chamber for a week and yeah they like muted her bond with Taryn so maybe that's why she didn't die for being apart from him that long but I was trying to think of like other situations where she was apart from him for more than three or four days without dying but I don't know. I couldn't think of anything right off the bat. I don't know but that's not even what I wanted to talk about I was just like what? But this kind of goes into what I'm talking to. So in our reactions episode, we theorized with Maddie and we think that, I mean, I think we confirmed, we think we pretty much figured it out, that Taryn and Sigail broke their mating bond with help from Andarna at the end of Onyx Storm. And that is in order for Zayden and Sigail to maintain their bond, since there's apparently this 3 4 day limit on how long you can be apart from your dragon or your old drop dead or whatever. So, Either this. I think, well, I think this is highly likely what happened. I would bet my money here and that this is foreshadowing to support. I think it's highly likely this happened at the end that Ori and Darna helped Zayden and Sigail break their bond since Zayden had to flee. So either Sigail would stay behind or she would go with Zayden, but either way a bond is getting broken. But I don't know. That's so interesting. And I'm really sad, but I do think that could be why Tarin is recovering at the end. I think we're right about this. I guess we're gonna have to wait a while to figure it out. But it makes me sad that Taryn and Sigail would break their mating bond. But I also know that Zayden means a lot more to Sigail than she probably lets on. So, I don't know. I don't like it. Bonds are broken either way. What if Andara didn't sever the mating bond between Sigail and Taryn, but severed the bond between Zayden and Sigail? That would make me really sad. Yeah, I don't know which option makes me sadder, honestly, because I feel like Zayden needs to go because I feel like if Zayden has to go back to the Isle kingdoms, she would suffer because of the magic, like the lack of magic there. I don't know if that's where Zayden is heading. Yeah. Unless he was just like, okay, I'm going full Venom. Maybe he's gonna go back to mommy. Mommy, maybe mommy has the answers. Mommy, mommy, mom, mom, mommy. Okay, but you know, I do think that that is a very valid reason as to why they would even need and Doronys help to even sever a bond. And I think that is because they didn't either way would go like, we'll have to leave because now everybody knows he's been in. So they're going to come after him, try to lock him up like JB. obviously he can't be, he can't be away from Violet. Because, you know, it means Seguel's away from Taron, and that's the whole thing, and he can't be away from Seguel, because that's the whole thing, so it's like, at that point, they didn't have any choice, so. Next, we're gonna talk about Violet's never ending knee pain. Have you noticed this? Dude, this bitch got bad joints. Well, I guess she has EDS or whatever it is. Yeah. Gosh dang, that knee really kicked it in Onyx Storm. Yeah, but like, I know, like, she has, like, She has EDS, so we know that her joints have always given her problems, but during reading, like, Onyx Storm, I realized that she always keeps that one particular knee wrapped, always, like, no matter how many times it gets healed or mended, like, it never stays. Um, healed for long, even like with her shoulder sometimes, but even in this book, her shoulder got stronger because she was doing certain things to strain that shoulder. And she would say how surprised she was that it didn't pop. So it's like her shoulder got stronger, but like, it's always like this need to not heal. And she even says like, quote, doesn't matter how often Brendan mends me, this particular joint never stays healed for long end quote. So I don't know. Like. I feel like this could be a part of your theory about her being touched by Malik, maybe, or it could be, it has something to do with, like, Venom, but, and we still don't know her full, like, childhood story, so I wonder why, like, this need just never heals, and she always has problems out of this need, has to keep it wrapped up, and it's always, like, the first thing to, like, give her problems. I never would have, like, looked closer at this unless you said something, but now, knowing what we know about Rebecca Yaros writing, I'm like, Is this knee gonna factor into the plot somehow? Right. Or, like, connect her backstory and, like, the Isles or whatever her dad did with her with the gods, I don't know. I think you may be onto something, because you're right, it's, like, excessive how she talks about that damn knee. Yeah. It's very excessive. Yeah. Alright, shall we talk about a theory, mate? Yaas. Great. Okay, so I'm going to talk about a theory about Violet and the Empyrean. So previously I have theorized that Violet was a dragon shifter, which was not right, but it was a fun theory to talk about, or I at least think she had a special connection to dragons. And I still continue to think this way, I'm just looking at it a little differently and I do have some evidence. So here is the evidence. I'm thinking maybe her father saved her with dragon feather tail blood, so she might be technically part dragon. I've mentioned that before. I've mentioned how she can also talk to other dragons without getting roasted. There's also the symbolism of her wearing dragon scales, the dragon scale vest from Mera. There's that symbolism. And then Violet is told by Avenant that she can control the sky to surrender all of its power. And, curiously, Empyrean means sky. And we know that Andarna's kind draws power from the sky, not the ground, like the other kinds of dragons. So, those are two very intriguing coincidences. And she's also able to speak to her dragons in a land without magic and wield in a land without magic. Pretty sure. And I think that's because she's drawing power from the sky and that's just crazy that the Empyrean means sky and in Darna's kind, draws power from the sky. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. Um, I do think that the series may be called the Empyrean and Rebecca has emphasized that it's a dragon politics book because It could be Violet's story to become the first human member of the Empyrean. And another thing from this stretch of chapter specifically, when Violet is just being her badass self at the Cenarium, she says to the General, quote, I speak with the authority of Taryn and Darna and the Empyrean. I was like, girl, are you going to go there? Are you going to be part of it? So that's a huge statement. It's not really necessarily strong evidence, but I think this could support the beginnings of this theory. And I really like it. So I kind of hope that maybe this would factor into the plot where we actually get to see inside the Empyrean a little bit more and Violet would get to participate in it. In some shape or form. Interesting, interesting. Very interesting. I just knew your favorite moment was going to be all the drama. How did you know? Because you're toxic. Of course. I do love that theory though. It makes sense. And it also makes sense that maybe she was with him from the sky. Which is why she could put magic on the isle's humans. I like the way you think, woman. I'm glad we have this podcast to do after we finish Onyx Storm. And I'm grateful we talked about it with Maddie. Yeah. I feel a lot less, like, hopeless and, like, frustrated with, like, all the open ended answers. Because I actually feel like we have some solid conclusions we're drawing, so I don't feel as lost. Yeah, because I know, like, the first, one of my first thoughts at the finishing of the book, I was like, where are my answers? I got no answers. But it's like, the way Rebecca Yarrow is here, like, obviously we're going to have to be between the lines. There's no way she's just going to give us an answer. Yeah, but that's part of the fun. As much as it frustrates me right when I finish, I do love digging into it and forming theories. It's so fun. This is random, but I just looked up and stared at my Christmas tree and was like, dang, it's February the 4th I wish I had a Christmas tree. Honestly, do whatever you want. Keep it up year round. It needs to go. I'm sick of looking at it, but I just don't have, I like, I like go back there to the closet to get the stuff taken down and I'm like, absolutely not. I just don't have the energy for it right now. You need a vacation to take down your Christmas tree. Literally. Alright, tell me about the drama. So, now moving on to our favorite moments. My first favorite moment was obviously the haul and drama. Cause you guys know how I feel about love triangles. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love triangles. And I was not expecting Violet's ex to be revealed. Like I knew they were having a conversation about the exes and all that. But I was not expecting them to pop up. I was like, Oh, he's here. And, um, I absolutely laughed out loud at the scene when like, like Zayden Knox hauled in on his ass and he like, his excuse was like, his excuse was he's going to, he was going to touch you. And then Violet's like, Oh, that's such a mature answer. Like what the hell? Like, and he was going to touch her on her braid, which is, which is like, nah, try again. But yeah, I just love when Zayden's like jealous and it's like, we know that Violet and Dane is, they're not a thing right now. I love the fact like in this book, like even though Violet is like crazy in love with Zayden and would never like live, can never live without him. She like kind of reminisces. About what her and Zane could have Zane? I just like combine their names. What Dane? Her and Dane? Right. Can I get his number? I'm sorry. I And she's like reminiscing on what they could have been and Zayden's like giving her the stare and she's like, what are you jealous? Sorry, wait, I can't wait for the next stretch of chapters because it's when they go to the merchant in Deverelli And there's that whole mix up. Oh my god Oh, I absolutely lost it I absolutely lost it I was like, what the heck But yeah, and then like my favorite, um, quote from Zayden the Stretch was quote, Don't worry and Dane do not belong in the same sentence. And I was like, bro, you're right. And then, I mean, yes. And then my last favorite part of this book was just daddy Zayden. Being Daddy Zayden. He's just, he's been so sweet. He's been so sweet and so selfless and just, ah, just beautiful. And like, my favorite quote, my other favorite quote is, quote, because you are the only one capable of killing me, end quote. Ah, love it. What if she actually has to kill him? That'd be crazy. Dude, I've been seeing theories about that. I'm not ready for it. I think it's very plausible, but I think she would find a way to bring him back to life. Obviously she would find a way around it. Alright. Time for the Riddick spotlight. Yep, it's here. Okay. Riddick, I too have trouble keeping my inside thoughts inside. But thank you for not doing that so I can have my laughs when I need them. So I was just so many moments, but. I laughed out loud when Garrick and Imogen were like, doing their weird flirty spar thing, and Riddick just blurts out in front of everybody, he's like, Oh God, just stop flirting and fuck already. I was like, my thoughts exactly. And then everyone's just like, staring at him. But, and then also in the stretch, I did love his little moment where he put his foot down with his squad, and his, set down like his reasoning for wanting, wanting to be part of the quest squad and just saying like his humor doesn't make him any less capable than they are, which is absolutely true. But I just love him. He's truly a gem and I will die if he does, or I, if he dies, I will never recover. I might just jump off a bridge. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that. Don't do that, but I'll be Chris forever. All right. Suck it, Markham. I hate you. Suck it, suck it, suck it. He got the verbal ass whipping we have been waiting for by his former protégé. And I'm gonna read this quote, it's so good. You don't speak, not to me. As far as I'm concerned, you have the credibility of a drunkard and the integrity of a rat. Geez. Dang. Violet really went in for the kill, not to mention that was in front of, like, the whole scenario, I think. Yeah, I think she just roasted his ass and absolutely very true. Very satisfying to read. Um, and this makes me even happier. I was thinking when she said this, like if Markham did kill her father, this is just even more satisfying that she's calling him a rat in the drunkard, but I hope he gets even more because he deserves worse personally. I think so. All right. Let's talk about Meera and Drake, who I am shipping religiously, but this was one of my favorite scenes in the book, and I feel like I say that about a lot, but for real, I loved when she met Drake, that whole interaction, she was like, you're Drake Cordella of the Nightwing Drift? And she, he's like, yeah, she's like, take this and I'm just like, I, if they fall in love, that's like the cutest story ever. Well, not cute. Well, it is. I don't know. But I just love her. I just love her for so many things, her big sister energy in this book and all the books and she has the audacity. I love how he's like all arrogant about it. He's like, oh yeah, you've heard of me? She's like, yeah, take this. And he was like, heard. Alright, folks, time to close out our battle brief and move on to the book of Ceia, where we'll dive into the mythology that inspired OnX Storm, as well as a breakdown on everything we know about runes. Up until this point, feel free to skip ahead to the flight field if you feel like you're already in expert. Nah. Okay, so for some of the world building stuff we're going to get into today, we're going to get into a deep dive of the Isle Kingdoms. Talk about a little bit of the history and a little bit about what we know about each one. So, the Isle Kingdoms is made up of five large and thirteen smaller islands that surround the continent in every direction. And also a fun fact, so on her Onyx Storm tour, Rebecca confirmed that the Isle Kingdoms are not on the Onyx Storm map because it was deemed too spoilery. What? Makes me think there's probably like an island there somewhere that's gonna, they're probably gonna revisit or journey to that they haven't been to before. That's possibly the Malak Island? Maybe? I don't know. But something spoilery is over in them aisles. Even on a map. So that's interesting. anyways. The aisles were allies to Nevar in the Great War. And one of its notable exports is Deverelli Silk. Which I think is what Zayden bought. Violet, right? Yeah. It's soft and transparent. Navarre's unification had many costs, one of which was travel to the isles became prohibited. So that cut off visitation and trading for centuries, which is why no one's been there for many, many, many years. And Cordon, which is where Viscount Takaris is from, it's the seaside city in the Krovla province of Peromia. I actually continued to trade with the Isles until the danger of Venon eventually slowed and stopped this. Queen Mariah Peromiel refused every marriage proposal from the Isles before eventually selecting Viscount Takaris as her heir. So, fun little history facts here. So, let's get into the Isles. Deverelli, the first one that we're going to visit in the story, the capital is Matias. Yes, and the isle is ruled by King Cortland, who is a royal asshole with large cats as pets. And Rebecca actually inspired this isle from Turks and Caicos, so thank you Maddy Morgan for that information. Yes. All right, Umbriel, the capital is Istil. It is ruled by Queen Marliss, who Violet will kick her ass, and this isle is dedicated to Dune, the goddess of war, and to enter, you must prove yourself a worthy fighter, and it's even way more toxic than Bezgaioth, which is Shocking. It's hard to do. he is another aisle. And the capital, the capital is est and it's ruled by a triumvirate. Oh, hmm. We know that word Uh, we know that one from Quicksilver anyways. Um, Ferris, Rosalyn and Nire. Mm-hmm Yeah. Those are the triumph for it. Um, and this. Aisle is dedicated to Haiti and God of wisdom, and they're actually really stupid there. Yeah. They're, turns out knowledge doesn't make you smart. All right. The next aisle is Selena. Uh, the ca. Oh God. The capital is what starts with an X. I don't know how to fucking pronounce it. No, I'm sorry. About, how did you say the city, the aisle, Selena. Hmm. How would you say it? I thought it was Zelda. Zena Zelma. I don't know. I thought it was like Zel. Anyway, it was close to Zelner or something like that. The, the capital is Zorra, yeah. And it's the God of Luck is, so it's dedicated to Zal and Lo is the. The Love Island, and we don't know the capital to this one, but it is dedicated to Loyal, God of Love, and it has guards with no army, hence why our squad didn't go there. So we're going to actually just do a quick room continuation. Cause we do learn every book we're learning more and more about rooms. And then our cadets actually, they learn a little bit more how to control rooms, a little bit more about rooms. So quick room recap, we've already discussed. Like rooms in detail in past episodes, but here's a quick breakdown. So rooms are strands of magic and they come in the form of shapes and each shape has a different meaning. And then you can put those shapes together, um, and combine them to create a specific room. Kind of like a sentence. You put different words together and make a sentence and it has a specific meaning. Same thing with rooms. Boom. So that was a flawless explanation. So in this book, we saw that our cadets were practicing Setting a group of rooms into objects and actually layering these rooms. And they also worked on imbuing power into these rooms. And, um, and like, they were also layering, again, the objects and imbuing it so it serves many different purposes. And I feel like they can also maybe Tweak or adapt rooms because of the thing in the ward stone, but I took out rooms and then placed or like moved rooms around to make a different room so that the Flyers could actually build within the wards. So I'm actually still very confused on how these rooms work But this is like this is what I got from the book Because reddit and tick tock and and then premium wiki was not helping me with this. I was like bro. I don't understand This is hard. I don't know why that was like the funniest part of the episode to me. You like definitely like explained it as well as you could, that's all I'm gonna say. And I think you might be feeling the alcohol. Probably, this is how, yeah, yep, probably. I hope our, I hope our audience likes how increasingly unhinged our episodes are becoming because I feel like every episode I just get like even more goofy. Yeah, same. You never know what's gonna happen. Yeah, I don't know what's gonna happen. Oh no! Cleo! The condensation! I need to go back and watch H2O. We should just rename this podcast Inside Thoughts Outside. We'll be going top of the head to the flight field brah, where every week Kana and I will do two mini series unique to our podcast. They won't be the same every week. So keep tuning in for all the fun. First up, Kiss, Marry, Kill. And then we're going to do a small business spotlight brah. Can we do. Smash Mary Kill. I mean, yeah, that's cool. I don't know why we're doing like the PG version of this. Smash Mary Kill! Alright, first up, Garrick, Bodhi, Ark. What you got? Ark's kinda hot. For me, it's a smash smash smash situation. I'm just kidding. Smash Ark. Wait, no, Mary Ark. Smashable. Mary Ark, because I'm not going to smash him all the time, obviously. Oh my god! Mary, I mean, smash Garrick, kill Bodhi. Damn. I don't know, because Bodhi looks like Zayden, but like, I don't want no Zayden wannabe. You don't want no Walmart version of Zayden? I actually think it's very attractive. I mean, he can't be Zayden, so. Um, I'm gonna do a slightly the same thing. Bodhi, you're dead. Don't really care about you. I don't know why I'm sorry. Garrick, I'm gonna marry you because I'm obsessed with you. And Aric, smash. Smash, marry, kill. Dane, Halden, Courtland. Courtland's dead. And then I'm taking his cats. Um, I think I would like hate smash Holden. It'd probably be good. Let's be honest. Yeah. Um, and Dane, I'm going to marry him and I'm actually not upset about it. Yeah. Yeah. What would you do? Would you marry Dayton too? Same. Same. I feel like if we would have asked you this question a month ago, you would have been He was dead. Dead. I'd rather marry Cortland. Yeah. He was dead for sure. I mean, being married to Cortland would have been pretty entertaining. And hauling. It would have been pretty entertaining. Until he cheats on you. Or feeds you to his cats. Yeah. You're right. Nevermind. I'm just trying to be practical. What about you? Are you going to tell me? Yeah, no, it's the same. Oh! Yeah, I said same. I thought you were going to say, I thought you were saying same to Mary Dane, but I thought you were going to change the other two. And I don't know why I would have thought that. No, yeah, that was the exact same. Yeah. Yeah. All right, we're getting into the girls here, Violet, Rihanna, and Imogen. okay, here we go. Shit, I'm sorry, Imogen, but I just have to kill you because you're my least favorite out of the three. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Um, well, am I the only one that did not care for her point of view? I'm killing Imogen. I actually love Imogen. I'm killing Imogen, I'm smashing Violet, I'm marrying Rihanna, because why not? That's valid. I don't want to marry Violet for some reason. She's scary. I mean, Rihanna's scary too. And Imogen. They're all scary. Am I so bad for like, killing Violet? You're spicing it up a little bit. Okay. Well, I just feel like she'd Pissed me off this book a little bit, and I'm salty. Well, she pissed me off because I was like, Bitch, you need boundaries. You can't just ruin yourself for a man. Sorry. Not even if it's Zayden Ryerson. That's not why I wouldn't want to marry her. I just feel like we wouldn't make the best couple. Um, I would marry Rihanna because I feel like she would be a great partner. She's very dependable and grounded, and I feel like I need somebody like that. Yeah. And Imogen's super hot. And I feel like it would be super spicy, so smash. Nice. Nice. I'm sorry, Violet. I love you, but not enough to marry you. Not enough to kill Imogen. Alright, next, smash, marry, kill. Llewellyn, Brennan, or Grady? I'm trying to think of how was described, like was he ugly or fugly? I really don't remember. He had like gray hair. His name was fugly. Oh god, he's fugly. Kill. Ooh. I'm surprised notch was gonna kill Brennan first. I'll smash Brennan, only because I have to. And then I guess I'll marry Grady, cause like, he's annoying for sure. He's gonna die anyways. Like, he doesn't seem, yeah. He'll die anyways. I'll be married to him, what, two pages? It's fine. That was very difficult. I just hate Llewellyn's name. It makes me cringe on the inside. I'm not sure why. Am I weird? I might smash Llewellyn. Just to spice it up. Just to spice it up a bit. Uh, I put, uh, Mary Brennan, just to be close to the, the sword girl family, like, yeah. Well, that makes sense. And he has a dragon. Naturally. Yeah. True. And then Grady, just gonna go ahead and kill him. He's gonna die anyways. Yeah. So. I just, like, don't care about Grady whatsoever. Yeah. I don't have any particular feeling towards him, like, hate is giving him too much of my time. All right. We're getting really Yeah, here. General Atos, King Tori, and Commandant Panchik. Off rip, I'm killing Father, Father Atos, cause heck no. I don't really remember how King Tori was, but I think I want to maybe marry King Tori. He has a crown, riches, you know, maybe marry King Tori, I don't know. And, and then I'll probably smash Commandant Panchik, cause I want someone that been in D. I don't know how he's I don't remember how he's described either. I feel like he's an old man as well, but I mean you get that man in tea. He's Venon, so technically he, yeah, he's Venon, so he's not like, he's immortal now, basically. So maybe he can use his powers to make himself look younger? Maybe like a rune that makes him look younger, and then we can make that work? Yeah, true. Yeah. Well, if he's, if he's Venon, if he progresses, he'll look real frickin scary. Uh, I'm gonna marry Panjik. Yeah. Mmm. I'm gonna That's a concern! So I can get that Ben and Dee, frequently. And I'll, um, smash the king, because I don't want to marry him. Actually, you know what? Never mind. I do want to marry the king, because I want to be queen. That's more important than getting Ben and Dee. Okay, I'll smash Pancheck. We'll just smash them together. And then General Itoshi's dead. Gone. Wouldn't even consider it for a second. So, instead of, I'm never gonna say vitamin D again, I'm really gonna say just Ben and D. Just to confuse people. Like, yeah, I need some Ben and D. I need some Ben and D. You're gonna go up to Cam, I want that Ben and D. You're gonna be like, huh? I'm gonna go outside to get some Ben and D. You're gonna just say that and then he'll be like, what? And you're like, I said vitamin D. What are you talking about? Yes. Oh my God, I'm so dead, bro. Okay. I threw some ladies in here too. So we got Smash Mary, kill Quinn, Sloan, cat Um, I'm going to Mary Sloan'cause she seems like a real sweetheart on the inside. Yes, and I'm gonna. Smash cat because I love her and I'm sorry, Quinn, but you die anyways. And I was just never that attached to you. I was, I only liked her because she was friends with Imogen. So actually same. Yeah. Same. Yeah. Yeah. I love Sloane. I can't wait to see her keep growing and her and Jane. Don't get me started. I love that. He's like, she's like, I'm going to hurt you. And he's like, Oh, don't, I know it. I was like, what? Dang eyes on me. A toes. Are you dating a younger cadet? That's against. Code of, what the fuck is it called? Code of, code of, no. Code of Codex! I was like, I was like code of codex. It's against the codex, bruh. Ain't no way. Because of where Dane started in the Sloan is a Child of the Li Li Li Li Librarian, what?! Li Li Rebellion. Librarian, what the hell? I drink wine every episode because this is iconic. Um, Child of the Librarian, I just think it's like, it's like a four letter verb trope almost. Hmm. Yeah. I don't know where the Librarian came from. Okay, um, Next miniseries. Okay. It's a small business spotlight and I wanted to highlight a brand that I came across on Tik TOK and they're also on Etsy shop, which will be linked in our show notes. So go check them out. So Imagine Area Co makes stained glass bookmarks that are so beautiful. They're really colorful and the way they like. reflect on the page and you can see through them to the pages. It's just so pretty. If I wasn't broke, I would have bought them all. If I was a billionaire, I would have bought them all five times. Um, anyways, they have lots of different kinds of them. They have Lord of the Rings, Fourth Wing, Throne of Glass, Coraline, Akatar, and just more generic ones. They have like a stained glass one with just dragons, which is my favorite. When I do have money, I want to buy one. Um, but yeah, they're really, really pretty bookmarks and definitely unique. So go check out her. And where her I actually don't know, the Etsy shop and the show notes, they're really pretty. Before we close out our episode today, it's time to spar. So each week, Kenzie and I will give each other and our listeners two trivia questions, and at the end of our Onyx Storm coverage, we'll see who has the most points, and the loser will have to do, hmm, something, something, something embarrassing, funny, weird. I don't know, we'll see. And you guys are more than welcome to suggest, uh, punishments or consequences for the loser, which will be Kenzie! Oooo! Hmmmm. Just kidding, I actually have been sucking at trivia. okay. What was the name of Halden's red headed guard? Anna Winshire. How the hell do you know her last name? I only got her first name on here. What's wrong with you? Okay. I almost asked you that question. That's why I think. Okay. Um, right. Um. I'm scared. Okay, what is the name of the rare gem Quest Squad is sent to retrieve for Viscount Dacarys? The hell? Ruby? What? Not even close. I don't know. It's two words. Two words? It rhymes with Bedelia Petrine. Damn. It's um, it's the Amelian, Amelian Citrine. Yeah, nah, I would never have ever, ever, ever gotten that. Oh my god, okay, I'm ready. What number? Duke is Zayden. Ah, shit. Um Fourteenth. Nah, bruh. Fuck, am I like way off? Are you gonna tell me what it is? Oh, I thought you were gonna guess again. Okay. Oh, no. I give up. It's the sixteenth. Damn it. So close. Alright, my next question is pretty hard, I'm not gonna lie. Shiiiit. Which aristocrat in the scenario was the first to propose a betrothal between Zayden and her daughter? Ma ma ma ma Mariah, Mariah. I'll give you a hint, it's a duchess, and it's not, it's not a name necessarily. The duchess of Shit! The duchess of Dude, I literally did this last week. I literally did. I listed the people on the scenario and I said the duchess of, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm mm mm. I don't think I can Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma The Duchess of Ma Ma Oh no, what is it? It's the Duchess of Moraine Oh shoot, I would have forgot that That was literally gave me the most hits That was Well, the good news is you have four more episodes to catch me. What's the score? I have two now and you have one, so Okay. It's light work. That is a wrap on yet another Extremely goofy. Deep Dive into Onyx Storm. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We're so happy you're here. Join us next Thursday as we continue our deep dive into Onyx Storm, um, where we will be going over chapters 23 through 33. word. It means the world to both of us to have feedback, especially right now in the form of reviews. We are growing a lot in the midst of our Onyx Storm deep dive and would really help, we would really love you guys to help us capitalize on that. So leave us a review, give us your feedback, or message us on social media at shout out and starlight pod. We can talk about books. You can give us feedback, whatever, whatever. We love to talk to people that listen to our podcasts. So reach out to us and then make sure to subscribe on YouTube and all major podcast platforms for a freshly baked episodes. We deliver directly to you next week. Bye friends. See you next week. Bye friends.