Dire Bound: From Street Fights to Crown Rights (Deep-Dive)

This month, we’re diving deep into Dire bound, the first book in the Wolves of Ruin Series, by Sable Sorenson. This is a world full of magic, direwolves, siphons, and political intrigue. 

In this episode, we’re breaking down:

• Deadly bonding trials (aka survive the mountain or don’t)
• Direwolf bonds that come with… attitude
• A kingdom built on control, cruelty, and chaos
• Political games that get increasingly unhinged
• Betrayals, power shifts, and secrets that keep getting worse

Expect:
Dark fantasy, high-stakes tension, morally gray chaos, and a story that escalates fast.

If you love fantasy with a magical bite, this one delivers!

So scribes, pour something strong and lets get into it!

New episodes & cocktail pairings monthly.
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Watch the full video deep dive on YouTube @SaucyScribesPod
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Then descend deeper into the shadows with us and get extras on Patreon: patreon.com/SaucyScribesPod

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to the Saucy Scribes Podcast. I'm Alex, your resident book psycho. And I'm Ashley, your crystal loving cat lady, and happy to be back.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Yay! I'm Allie, your aspiring author. We're so happy you're back, Ash. Let's go. Woo-woo! And today we are diving deep into Direbound, the first book in the Wolves of Ruin series by Sable Sorensen. This is a world full of magic, dire wolves, siphons, and political intrigue. And for those who don't know, Sable Sorensen is a pen name for best friends Eliza and Annie, who we were lucky enough to meet at the LA Romanticy BookCon, as well as hear an entire podcast panel interview on the writing process of this book, which is so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

And because some stories are best unpacked with a drink in hand, on this podcast we pair great books with even better cocktails. Today, we're giving you a quick rundown of the drinks we've lined up for this episode. So keep an eye on our Instagram at Saucy Scribes Pod, where the full recipes drop every Monday. This month, our cocktails are inspired by the direwolf packs of Direbound. Each drink channels a different pack, its power, its loyalties, and the kind of energy that says, I'd kill you or kill for you. Expect bold flavors, sharp edges, and a little bit of chaos in every glass. These aren't just cocktails, they're allegiances. Choose your pack wisely.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

First up, meet Strategos. In the Dyerbound pack, the Strategos are the minds behind every move, the leaders who don't rush battle, but design it. Precision, patience, and control are their weapons. This mocktail is crafted in their image. It's layered, intentional, and deceptively simple. A clear drink to keep a clear head, made for thinking three moves ahead while everything else is still catching up.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Next we have uh demos, the fighters, the protectors, the ones who don't hesitate when the pack is threatened. This cocktail doesn't ask permission, but it hits. Tequila and triple sec bring the heat, lime cuts through with a sharp edge, and pomegranate bleeds that deep, unmistakable red of the pack. A tahine rim adds grit, while a hint of jalapeno or habanero syrup turns up the danger just enough to remind you that they don't play fair when it matters.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

And next up, meet Phyllax. If Damo strikes first, Phyllax is already braced. The shield of the pack controlled, unshakable, and far more dangerous than they let on. This cocktail is all precision and restraint. Gin and lemon laying down a clean, defensive line, softened by strawberry, but never sweet enough to be mistaken for weakness. A touch of Kampari adds a quiet bitterness, the kind that lingers like a warning. And the egg white a smooth, impenetrable barrier, soft to the eye, but built to hold.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

We also have the cryptos. You won't see them coming, but that's the point. The spies of the pack, moving through shadows, slipping between truths, always watching. This cocktail is cool, quiet, and just unsettling enough to keep you guessing. Indigo gin sets the tone, but dark, inky, shifting, while cucumber soothes everything into something almost too clean. Ginger creeps in late, a subtle heat that lingers like a secret you weren't meant to hear. A touch of sweetness keeps it balanced, but never fully revealed.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Four packs, four allegiances. From the sharp minds of Stratigos to the unbreakable shield of Philax, the fire of Damos, who fight and protect, and the shadows where Kryptos moves unseen. Each cocktail carries its own kind of power. Together they tell the story of the pack: loyalty, strategy, defense, and the secrets that keep it all standing. So whether you lead, guard, strike, or disappear, there's a drink with your name on it. So choose wisely. The pack is always watching. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I think we're all actually drinking the demos today. It's delicious. It is very good. Our Patreon is live. If you love the show, consider becoming a first-year Skybe for just$5 a month. You'll get early access to our ad-free episodes, a digital cocktail booklet for each book we cover, and an exclusive printable dust sleeve designed to mimic the look of vintage leather bound books. I actually have mine today.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Look at it. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

It's stunning. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll get a printable version of this. Mine is actually bound like this, but the printable version looks just as fabulous. So gorgeous. This membership is also a way to support the show and help us continue bringing this magical, messy, and swoony content to life. And if you've got a moment, we'd love if you rated and reviewed the podcast wherever you are listening.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Before we dive in, we need to give a spoiler warning. We will be discussing all of Direbound and anything Sable Sorensen has said in interviews. If we reference another series spoiler, we will give a spoiler sound in the episode so you can skip ahead.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

And before we step into the trials, a quick note: Direbound does not pull its punches. The story leans fully into its dark fantasy roots with graphic on-page violence, heavy emotional themes, and explicit romantic content, including moments that blur the lines of consent. There are also threads of mental health struggles, self-harm, and abusive dynamics woven into the narrative. So consider this your velvet with a bite warning, know your limits, take care of yourself, and step in when you're ready. With that in mind, scribes, let's step into the world of Direbound. Alex, take it away and walk us through how this journey begins. Gladly. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

So we meet Marin and she's out here illegally fighting grown men for cash because healthcare is non-existent and she's trying to support her mentally unwell mom. Already we've got a rough start. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

It's a good one. Let's go. That's not even putting an edge on it either.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Like, that's just literally what it is. At the same time, kids in her area are being abducted by these mysterious nabbers, who everyone is pretty certain are siphons, aka vampires. Totally normal neighborhood problem.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Marin's already dangerous world gets a lot more real when she witnesses what we call a bonded soldier, someone bonded to a direwolf to protect the kingdom, casually dragging off a man she recognizes from the fighting ring, only to execute him without hesitation. It's a stark, get it? Reminder that power here isn't just about survival, it's about control.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

And when her sister Selah is taken by the nabbers, Marin decides no one is going to go after Sayla but herself. So she enlists in the army with one goal: get strong enough to get to the front lines to get her back. But when she thinks she's just going to enlist as a foot soldier, surprise! This year is the bonding trials, a competition to bond a direwolf.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Enter the ascent, aka climb a deadly mountain, survive of the recruits trying to kill you, and hopefully bond a direwolf. Marin starts the day by trying to team up with Alessandra, another commoner, who surprisingly rejects her after they shared a tent and bonded the night before. That's rough girl. So Maren immediately pivots to accidentally adopting two bonded-born twin sisters by saving one of their lives from a psychopath named Jonah. Isabel and Venna are like, we won't let you die either, which in this world counts as bonding.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

After a harrowing journey, they reach the mountaintop where people start bonding with direwolves and their hair changes color like emotional highlight reels you can't opt out of. Marin, against her will, bonds with a wolf named Anasa. And instead of a subtle magical glow up, her entire head of hair turns silver. We love that for her, but she is not a fan. Anassa also does not love Marin's attitude, so their relationship starts off extremely rocky, as in, Anassa is the only wolf unwilling to take her rider down the mountain and almost causing Marin to die. Rocky might be an understatement.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah. Once inside the castle, things somehow get worse. The king literally forces recruits to kill the weakest among them in the rest of the trials for entertainment. The political structure is deeply unhinged, and oh, Marin discovers her boyfriend Lee is actually Prince Killian, who has been lying to her the entire time. How romantic!

SPEAKER_00 8:35

As training continues, Marin struggles to connect with Anasa, survives multiple deadly trials, and starts experiencing strange visions tied to her mother in something called nocturne. Meanwhile, the Nabur mystery deepens. Turns out they're not even siphons themselves, just people working for siphons or someone else, which is honestly more concerning.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Marin's doing her best, this is fine, routine, by forgiving and sleeping with Killian. Then, immediately waking up to mysterious screaming, only she can hear. So now she's questioning whether it's supernatural or just her family's signature brand of mental instability. On a break from training, she visits her lucid mother, gets emotional support jewelry for the upcoming ball, and Anasa casually suggests the monarchy might be not great, which is putting it mildly.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Also, for Setball, Marin is gifted a mystery dress that she assumes is from Killian, dances with Stark, who studies her opal necklace like it owes him bunny, then dances with Killian before officially being introduced and approved by the king. So I guess we're going public now.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Then things escalate, because of course they do. Marin and Anassa are named Alpha of the Strategos pack, excuse me. And literally no one understands why this is happening, including Maren. Stark puts her through, we'll quote definitely say quote unquote here, Alpha lessons, aka weekly humiliation sparring. Woo! Her nose gets broken and fixed in the most concerning way possible, and Killingen keeps appearing in her room, refusing to explain literally anything important while he keeps pretending to be dreamy.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Then the missing children are found in Grunfall, and Marin immediately insists on going. Stark and Anassa refuse, but Stark eventually gives in, which is always ominous. They stop in Lynn's Fall at an inn where a bard is literally singing Stark's hero origin story. Also, there's only one bed, because of course there is.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

In Grunfall, Edith is already there and reports that the children may be at a siphon outpost. She shows Marin, Lucian, Brightbane, the siphon king, and Marin has a very suspicious, I know this guy, moment. Stark leads the attack on the outpost, but it's an ambush. They fight through it, win, but no children are there. They capture a siphon guard. Marin interrogates him, then kills him, and loses pieces of her humanity in the process.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

And back home, they stop by Marin's family home, and Igor drops the worst news possible. Marin's mother had an episode and the guards were forced to kill her. Marin goes looking for Killian for comfort and instead gets blindsided by a proposal. In peak emotional instability fashion, she says yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

At the funeral in the Garden of Eternal Rest, Marin gives a eulogy and later finds her mother's hidden journals and photos. Anasa tells her to hide them from Killian and start investigating the kingdom's history herself, refusing to explain why. Marin reads Stark's books and discovers the truth about Nocturna's past rulers and a mysterious crown from her visions, starts making her question the royal bloodline. But then Stark also refuses to explain any of her questions. Marin presses him and Inassa for answers, but they stay vague, pushing her further into doubt.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

During the Unity trial, chaos erupts. Marin mercy kills Henry, RAP, and afterward, Venna helps her uncover something absolutely horrifying under the arena: hidden cells full of children, including Sayla, who reveals that the king chooses children who never return. Marin escapes, tells Killian, and he suggests taking down the king at graduation, while Anasa is like, You sure about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

At the graduation ceremony, Marin successively kills the king, only for Killian to immediately betray her and have her arrested. Because of course he does. From there, everything escalates fast. While in a cell, Marin learns she's actually the rightful queen of Nocturne. Her visions are real, by the way, and the crown buried under the arena confirms her lineage. Killian, not just a liar, he's a siphon, also hosting an ancient siphon king, literally, what the fuck? Has been manipulating everything from the start and even orchestrated her mother's death to unlock Marin's power.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

With help from Stark and Inasa, who have been hiding these major truths due to a magical curse, Marin starts to reclaim her power and begin to step into her role as queen. Killian escapes because villains never stay put and leaves absolute chaos behind him. And just when you think it can't get worse, Marin finally reunites with Sela, who has now been turned into a siphon, thanks to fucking Killian.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

So yeah, we started with Fight Club and ended with secret royalty, betrayal, ancient bloodlines, and vampire sister?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

So now we head into Threads of Theory, aka this segment where we take everything we think we know, spiral a little, and start connecting dots that may or may not emotionally ruin us later.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

We're digging into foreshadowing, suspicious behavior, weird little details the author definitely put there on purpose, and asking the most important question: is this a clue? Or are we just losing it?

SPEAKER_02 13:54

So grab your corkboard, your conspiracy energy, and whatever shred of sanity that you have left.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Because we're about to overanalyze everything.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Let's get into threads of theory.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Okay. I mean, we know we open the book with fighting rink, and Lee is by her side. What are your guys' first impressions of Lee? Forget what you know about the ending. I hated kitten. Oh my god, ew. Hated. Ew, ew, ew, ew. I think it was like, to me, that was like their their clue that he was not it. You know what I mean? Like, I think they purposely picked the most awful pet name they could think of. That's either. It was so ick.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

It's so ick. I hated it so much.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

She was like, yeah, I'm an Ally cat. And he's like, Come here, kitten.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Come here, kitten. Come here, kitten. Stop it.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I hate it so much. But obviously, I think once you get to the end, it's on purpose. Of course it is. Yeah. Of course it is. But I mean, at first, my first impression was like, okay, he can't possibly be the FMC she ends up with at the end of the story because they're already romantically linked, right? You never really start the story with your romance already being there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Not traditionally.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Not traditionally. But they did a really good job of making him seem like a decent guy in the beginning. We are kind of like, oh, is this gonna be a love triangle? Like, what is this gonna be?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, we were definitely trained to like trust him from the very beginning. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

And I think it's especially her verbiage around him. She used a lot, she uses a lot of the words we normally associate with an FMC about like trust and protectiveness and like lighting up when he's near and feeling warm, all of those like buzzwords, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:45

And I can relax around him and be myself. Uh-oh, the dream.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Exactly. I think they did a really good job of tricking the reader because we you also have to remember, and they have said this in interviews when asked, she is a very unreliable narrator. The most. Yes, this is her POV. We're not an outsider to the story. If we were, I think it would have been a very different story. Completely. Right. And I think Killian Lee would have come across very different if we were not in her POV. Yeah. Yes. But because we are, she sees him through these very rose-colored glasses, and so do we as the reader. Yeah, totally. I completely agree. We then meet Marin's mother and her sister, and we hear her first ramblings about Lumina and her mental health issues. So even once we get to the end of the story, obviously we find out that the visions are fairly real, right? But we still don't know who Lumina is at the end of this story, right? And she says things about how there's twins who have been terrors and that they're trying to find her, but they never listen to her. That Nocturna is trapped and he escapes. He's going to tear the world apart. So who do we think these people are? I think they're obviously the gods of this world. And yeah. You didn't think, okay, so give me your thoughts then.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Well, because I feel like you were like, whoa, gods. Yeah. No, I mean it's possible. I just kind of took that as like foreshadowing. I didn't even consider it the fact that it could be the gods. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I think it's definitely the gods. There's a lot of talk in this book about how like a god granted the powers to them and how a god gave them the dire sword, right? The dire blade, that's what it is. For those who don't know who have the indie version of the book before it went trad, they changed the name of the blade. So if you're wondering? Yes. Um, they chose this like old English word originally for the blade that was like really hard to pronounce and really random. And there was like no other, you know, old English-y type words they used throughout the book. And they were just like, Why are we doing this? So they and when they went trad, they changed it.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yeah. Um That's right. They said that in the interview, and they were just like, We're not even gonna say it because it's so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah, they were like, it's so ridiculous. But if whoever's listening happens to have the indie version of this book, if you're like, What are you talking about? That's what we're talking about. Wild. Why, very wild.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I think that they they're not confirmed gods yet, but they're definitely written like like mythological forces, right? Like Lumina traditionally, light, divinity, identity, maybe. Like, you know, I feel like when Marin's mother says Lumina, it likely isn't casual. It's kind of like it literally evokes the idea of light, illumination, creation, or like remembering mother, any of those things. Yes, exactly. It's a it's definitely a divine force, right? It could be a god or goddess, it could also be just like a power source of some kind, like metaphorical light bulb, whatever that is. So it's a it's very interesting to also think about could Lumina also be a person like Marin, maybe, who is like the spark of change? She could be a person.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

I don't think so, but I think she's a god, and I think Nocturna maybe could be her twin. Maybe those are the twins that they're talking she's talking about.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Right, because the light and dark, right? Yeah, yeah, because Nocturna obviously means darkness, destruction, chaos. It's clearly the dark counterpart. And uh, the mom's line was like, he is trapped, and when he escapes, he's going to tear the world apart. So that reads like very mythological. Yeah. Yes, very godlike. I mean, it's definitely like a fantasy trope. Obviously, it could be, but doesn't have to be separate from like the system that's created, like the root of the bond or the origin of siphons, like the thing that corrupts magic, or you know, the duality is obviously intentional. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Who did create the siphons? Obviously, they're like this evil in this world.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Feels like nocturne. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Are the siphons though the ones who buried the gods and are the reason that they're trapped? Could also be. And that could also be like really the more overarching part of the story. You remember we're only in book one. And there's three, right, of course. And there's three. So, you know, it's like that scope of sometimes. I think in the first book, we get little breadcrumbs of what like the bigger story could be here. And I think these could be all little hints that there's really actually going to be a god war at play, which I think is gonna be really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yeah, I agree. Because it because the twins are really like the weirdest one, right? So the the whole idea that like they've been terrors today, the twins, right? Could be so many things. It could be gods, it could be um two characters we haven't really fully met yet. It could possibly be like the light and the dark, just you know, all these things, or it could even be like choice versus fate or control and freedom. Like it could literally be the light and the dark within the individuals. Like it could even be her mind. The twins were we're terrors today. Like the what is it?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Uh angel and devil on your shoulder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Like, look at me. But to me, it's like because everyone thinks her mother has mental health issues, they brush off. That's what makes me feel like it's not an internal emotional debate. I think she's talking about real people.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

I that people think that she's as and she's not because she has this connection to the gods, because the gods are probably the ones who gave the dire boum and the wolves all their powers, all of that. Yeah. I think they're actually like real people that she has a link to and she's like seeing visions of them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah. It also just occurred to me while you were talking about the duality that that is also Inasa and Kratos, the light and the dark. Uh secondary duality. Interesting, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yes, like I wonder if these gods, if they have certain like pack allegiances, like are they both in charge of the direwolves in a sense, and like certain packs lean towards Nocturna, certain packs lead towards Lumina. Is that a whole thing? Who knows? Is it Gryffindor? Yeah, is it Slytherin?

SPEAKER_02 21:55

That's where my head went too.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

They're definitely giving Hogwarts houses that. That's for sure. The packs are definitely giving Hogwarts awesome.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Even the way that they're sorted. Yeah. So who sorts it? The colors.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

I think it's that Philax is pink. I'm still struggling with that. Yeah. That's still. So me and Allie went down a path where we were making the cocktails. We were like, what was Philex's color? Like we couldn't figure that out. And all of the branded items for Philex across the internet are pink. But in the book, she does say it is a tawny streak in their hair. So I don't totally understand how those two things are supposed to be the same. Tawny, like a tawny port. Yeah, tawny is not really pink to me.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

So it's a little odd, but it's all but also at the same time, it's like having a tawny streak in your hair wouldn't really like show up.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Show up a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Like what if you're already brunette?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Like it would just be like, here's my hair. Yeah. But I do remember reading this a thing where it was like, depending on the coat color of the wolf, also was what pack you wore. So like tawny coated wolves were part of Phyllax.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Okay. Yeah. Like a strawberry blonde.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

And how Anassa has like this silver fur, which is why Marin has silver hair. So I get the tawny part of it because there obviously are no pink wolves. But I just don't really totally understand how the crest of phylax and things that you see when you go on Etsy, that is, you know, stuff that they have been licensed from the actual authors is pink. But you know, whatever, we're going with it.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

We're going with it.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

We're going with it.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

We're following the suits. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

I mean, maybe it was one of those things where they got into it and like the sword, they were like, oh, now that we have to create merch, Tawny's not really a color you want to make. Yeah, let's just make it easy.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Maybe they were just like, we both like pink. Let's do pink. And I, you know what? That's fine. I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Each their own.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

We prefer black over here, but like it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

So we find out about the nabbers and the siphons. And I think it was a very deliberate choice they made to call them siphons and not vampires. I agree. And I do think it actually really affects the story because I think these mystical beings we'll call them do differ from actual vampires. And I think they were trying to make that distinction of like, yeah, just because you know typical vampire lore does not mean that's going to follow what's happening here, even if they drink blood.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Right. And I think it's like, you know, vampires are hot. Vampires are sexy. That's not what this is.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

I mean, they technically are.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Although it does say that they're very like very attractive. I know. But but what they're doing is not sexy. Like, let's break the trope. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah. They're they're a symbol of yeah, draining from the weak. Yeah. And also like draining power, not necessarily just life force in that it's blood.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah. Right. I think siphon was a very specific choice that they made. Because I think in a lot of romanticy, you see the word vampire all the time. And you automatically get this preconceived notion in your head of what these beings are going to be like. And I think they were trying to step away from that, even though these creatures drink blood. Because there are a lot of things already we know about Killian and the Siphons that I'm like, that's not really vampire.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So I do like that they consciously made that decision so that the reader didn't have that stereotype in their head as much. Yeah. Like you still get it a little bit because they drink blood and they have fangs, and actually your brain is like, ooh, a vampire.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

But I think they did their best to kind of like separate it.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah. I agree. I think it's a good thing. Yeah. Good point. Okay. So we need to talk about Stark because when we first meet him, it seems like he very clearly does not like Marin, like outward disdain. What is happening here?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Right. Because at the end we know that he knows way more than he's letting on, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, there's an intentional distance happening for sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

I mean, at the end, he does literally say, because she confronts him with that, like, why do you hate me? Or why did you hate me? He's like, I was so mad that I was waiting for you all this time. You're dating this horrible prince. You have to remember the whole story until at least after she bonds with Anasa. He can feel the mate bond, even though she cannot. And he's just watching her make a fool of herself with this guy over and over again, making horrible choices. I mean, Marin is also one of the most naive, idiotic FMCs we have, where you're just all the time just like, girl, what are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I honestly could kind of hate her too, if I'm being honest.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah. There's yes. Yeah. She's very unlikable.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

She's very unlikable. And I think in the beginning, even before he bonds with Anassa, you know, he was charged with protecting and watching over her. And I've seen a lot of Reddit comments of like, why wasn't he doing a better job? But it's like, you have to remember for generations, his family has shifted in watching these women go mad. Like, I don't think they were really like necessarily taking it super seriously, if you know what I mean, after you know, 200 years of just like, okay, I'll make sure she doesn't die. But here's another one I'm just gonna watch go crazy. And I feel like he was just mad at life. You know what I mean? Totally. Just resentful. And taking it out on her, even though he didn't really know her.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

There's so much resentment. He had no real like agency in his own like anything.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Yeah, I feel like that's probably the key word for it, right? Like, I think it's resentment and less hate initially, because like he couldn't have hated her because like he didn't know her. He looked at her from across the crowd and was like, Uh, you? Why are you here? You shouldn't be here. Yeah. Why are you fighting? Why do I have to watch you do this? But also, he had the blood bond, so it's not like he could say anything or really intervene in any way. Exactly. I would hate her too. I'd be like, oh bitch.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

But seriously, on her on the reread, once I knew everything I knew, I was really looking for it this time through of like, well, is she misinterpreting his hate as like protectiveness or whatever? And like, no, he like legitimately does not like her in most of the book.

unknown 28:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Like, I don't think it's a misinterpretation. I think it is him taking out his anger on her, and it isn't misinterpreted at first. I think it does change along the way, and then she does misinterpret it. Okay, yeah. I could have that. Yes, but in the beginning, it's a scene where he makes eye contact with her when he kills the person from the fighting ring or whatever.

unknown 28:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

And she's like, oh, disgust and loathing like drips from him when he makes eye contact with me. I think that that was legitimate. Like I really think that he hated it.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Yeah, it's resentment. He's like, look at this. He had to do it because he's like, Look, I had to do this because of you. If you weren't off gallivanting in the fighting ring, I wouldn't have gallivanting. Yeah. Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

It is interesting because I feel like we see the trope all the time in romanticy where it's like he fell first, enemies to lover. She thought he hated her, blah, blah, blah. And it was like a ruse the whole time, and he was like always in love with her. But I think in this instance, it really he actually did not. And I kind of love that. It was kind of refreshing to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah, I agree. It's almost like an enemies to lover slow burn. Yes. Which I like.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Very slow burn.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah. Yeah. It still hasn't burned yet, but uh I think we'll get there.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah, which honestly made sense with the trick of trying to make you think it was a love triangle when it was really the villain. I think it all makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

If they didn't have such a slow burn, then the whole Killian thing wouldn't have made sense.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because yeah, it had to be this way. Also, I love I like a slow burn these days. Same.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

I mean, I think it's kind of boring when they get together in the first like five days.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah, like this is a little more, a little less fantasy, a little more reality.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

It is. And I I will say that's one of when I was looking on Reddit, one of the main reasons people were saying they didn't like this book is because they felt like there was no romance between her and Stark, and it was so obvious he was the FMC. But to me, it wouldn't have made sense if there was the journey she goes through emotionally and how attached she is to Killian. If she all of a sudden was hooking up with Stark at the same time, I'd be like, What? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Because then they would be towing a wide shoes, and that's not what the story is.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

A hundred percent. It's that's not what the story is. And also, a lot of people kept saying, like, I don't get this, like blah, blah. And I'm like, I'm sorry, but in Avatar, she literally doesn't even look at Reese twice until book two. So why is it okay in Avatar, but okay, in Direbound? You know what I mean? Yeah. I think it's because we're only on book one and you don't see what's happened in book two yet that people are like, I can't believe we didn't get more spice between her and Stark. And it's like, uh, I don't know. Cause when you look at the story, it kind of makes sense that they didn't have any spice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah. There shouldn't have been spice. No, it would have been super weird.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

It would have been super weird, especially because they had to get over hating each other. Their spice was legitimately hating each other's ass.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah. Yes. Dangerous. Danger.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

So then Sayla's taken. Do we think that Lee slash Killian, whatever we want to call him at this point, purposely had her taken, or was it by chance and he used that to his advantage later on in the story?

SPEAKER_02 31:34

That is a question that I have deeply pondered over now over two reads, and I don't have an answer.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

I'm gonna be totally honest, neither do I. I think we will get the answer in book two. Yeah. But I honestly I don't know either. I can't get a feel on it. Same. I part of me because he is a little, I think, also mentally ill himself, because at the end he claims to actually still be in love with her and that he like really cares about how you're like, wait, what the fuck? You just completely screwed her over. What is going on? Part of me is like, would he have kidnapped her sister? I don't know. But also at the same time, he's so evil and like messed up. I'm like, maybe he did, but he couldn't have also known that her response would have been to go into the army. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I I think I think like obviously there's two options. It was planned by him, or two, I think is the stronger option, which is it's more interesting too if he didn't plan it, because it's like he adapts and he he uses chaos to his advantage, which makes him more dangerous in a way and less godlike, kind of, right? Because if it were planned, then nothing in in the story at all is accidental and it's just less interesting. Yeah, I I lean towards it not being planned. Me too. Yeah, that's what I I think that's the stronger take. But I I don't, I guess maybe we'll find out. I think I think it was just like convenience.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Because there's a lot of conveniences in the story. This is one of them that I'm like, I don't think he actually had anything to do with it, but I also can't get like a hundred percent feel for it.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Okay, so the other part of me thinks that he absolutely did plan it. This is my feelings on it now that I'm really thinking about it. Okay, okay, because when he talks about at the end how he like loves Marin and how he has plans for them and a future for them and all these things, and he is stealing and siphoning her power, he knew all along he was gonna be a siphon one day and all these things, and he knew about her line. He literally seeked her out purposefully to win her over, which makes me think she never would have come into her powers had she not bonded to a direwolf, right? She would have gone mad just like her mother.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

So if I'm him and I need access to her sane magic, right? And her actual magic, she needs to bond a dire wolf. How could I force Marin to bond a direwolf by taking her sister?

SPEAKER_02 34:06

By taking her sister and making her need to also again though, it's convenient that the trials just happen to be happening that next week. I don't think it was convenient. I think he waited planned.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, I think he waited until the trials were happening before he took her sister because the sister, the children have been disappearing for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

I also just feel like we're giving Killian a lot of credit.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

I mean, we should though. The man is a master actor, okay? I'm sorry. Like, give him an Oscar. Like at the end of reading that book, I still was like, oh my god, this man. Like, I know she has rose-colored glasses, but give him an award.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

He can definitely play a long game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

He plays a long game.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

I'll give him that.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Boy.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

So she enrolls in the military. She's like, sign me up for tomorrow. I'm gonna go. And so then she starts like her little hikety hike up the mountain.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

I love that our books back to back. We have an ascent. I know me and Allie realized that when we were trying to think of names for the cocktails and stuff. And at first, I was gonna do the cocktails based off of the different trials and whatever. And the first one's called the ascent. And we had for Crescent City an ascent because that's what part three. Part three is called the ascent. So we had a cocktail called the ascent. Yeah. We were like, we can't do two ascent cocktails in a row.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

I mean, well, there are no rules.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Let's switch to the ascent two. The ascent part dire bound cocktail.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Which I feel like the ascent is just a classic, you know, trial making up a mountain. Like there was nothing really of note here, in my opinion, that was like just a lot of death. A lot of death. It was very like Hunger Games vibesy.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Like it's here we are with the method of control and like the assimilation. That was what it was.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Yeah. I think mostly what it was for is for us to get to know the twins, for Marin to get to know the twins, and for the twins to adopt her into that.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

I did think the whole Alessandra thing was interesting of like, oh, we can be friends one minute, but the next minute I'm like, no girl. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yeah. I mean, I think that was just to instill like the volume of fear that she was feeling and like how much like terror she was feeling.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

And also just like different people, different personalities, like humanizing the whole thing. Like some people.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

It kind of reminded me of um what's his name and spoiler for fourth wing. Did you say some people are bitches?

SPEAKER_02 36:39

It took me a second. I was like, wait, is that like it's some people are bitches. Some people are bitches. That's true. It is true. Some people be bitches. Anyway, fourth wing.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yes, spoiler for fourth wing. It reminded me of what's his name in the beginning of book one, where you think they're gonna have this like epic friendship because they're talking on their way up to the parapet. Yeah, and then he ends up falling off immediately, and you're like, oh shit, just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah. He got he got barlowed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

It kind of reminds me of that like storytelling-wise, though, where it's like you think you're getting introduced to this like really important character, and then you're just like, oh, nope, they're dead. All right, bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

You know what though? I gotta give it to authors who just like have no qualms killing people off in the first couple chapters. No attachment, don't get attached, ladies.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Seriously. So then obviously she gets the top. Anasa chooses Maren, even though she's like, Don't choose me, don't choose me, don't choose me.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

God I just picture her like literally kicking rocks up at the top, and she's like, God, when can I leave? And then like locks eyes with Anasa and she's like, Not me, not me, not me, not me, not me.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, please no, please no. No, no, no, no. God damn it.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

No, yo. Which I feel like is an interesting twist on some romanticy tropes. Usually our heroine, you know, wants to bond the dragon. They want to have gain that magic or that bond or whatever it is. And I find it an interesting twist that she's very much like, I don't, I just want to be normal. Just leave me alone.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Yeah. But also, it's kind of a play on relationship in a way, in general, in her life. It's because she rejects the one relationship that's actually safe for her, like looking back on it, right? And so is she therefore more comfortable in chaos than stability? Because is she more comfortable in how she is and what she how she knows how to like move through the world? She's more comfortable where she's at with what she knows. And and what she knows is wrong. And what she knows is wrong. And trauma things. So, like trauma, conditioning, or just like she's become hyper fixated on being hyper-independent because she doesn't want to end up like the other women in her line or whatever. But really, the thing that's going to save her from that is the thing that she's literally saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, about.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Which she doesn't realize. I think looking at the world as a whole, you really have to get into her psyche in this book because it's really hard watching her and Anassa fight this whole book, right? Because I think we all compare it a little bit in our heads, spoiler for Fourth Wing, to Violet and Terran. Yeah. And you're just like, why can't they get along? Why isn't Anasa helping her? Why isn't she being open with Anassa? Yeah. And you really have to take a step back and look at how she's been conditioned her entire fucking life. Like she thinks the bonded are not good people. Yeah. She thinks that they're overly privileged. She doesn't want to be them. She doesn't want to be anything like them. So automatically she has this sense of distrust that is her whole life of distrust to get over. It's not like one conversation with Anassa is automatically gonna make her be like, oh yeah, now I'm a dire bound.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Woo-hoo! Right, totally. And and she has to be in the right frame of mind to receive anything like that from Anassa anyway. Which she's not, yeah. And Anasa knows that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

And Anassa and Stark both make that point at the end of the book of like, would you have listened to us? No. And the answer is no.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

No, not.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

I think as the reader, we get so frustrated with it, right? Like I know we all do because it's so obvious to us that they are trustworthy.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

But it's hard in this book. You really have to take yourself into her shoes and be like, if I was told my whole life that these people were basically like overstuffed peacocks who suck, you know what I mean? Like, and it's all over the book. It's not like one sentence, it's all over. Every time she has this entrance into the castle, everything's dripping in wealth. Why aren't the people getting this? She hates literally everything about the dire bound. Yeah. And I think you really have to remind yourself of that while you're reading it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Some people are bitches. But I think that's a lot of people's frustration with this book, at least with the comments I see on Reddit and everything. They're always just like, I don't get like why she can't trust Anasa. And it's like, it actually really makes sense for her character if you sit back and think about it.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

I think if you're reading the book just to like be a passenger princess and have a good time, obviously you're gonna be super annoyed. And even if you're not, you're a little annoyed. But like you really have to remember all those things about her actual life and what has built her character up into this moment.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Yeah, you know what? I'll give you this for 70% of the book.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

I will say I agree. The last 30% where she starts to really dig in her heels and still not trust them is annoying. But I will say, if I already had all those issues and I started to trust them, it would be really easy to fall back on not trusting them.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Yeah, that's a commentary on growth and evolution in general. You don't just it just doesn't happen like that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

And I I do think it's annoying that she can't read between the lines at like towards the end when they're like, we literally can't tell you, and are like wink winking at her. Uh ask the right question. It feels so obvious to us, but I think if we were really her, our We'd be pissed at that. Our fallback would be not trusting them, not listening to literally what they're saying. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Yeah, because if you're just asking a question and someone's like, ask it a different way. Or so or they're like, you know what, ask me a different question. You're like, fuck off.

unknown 42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Especially because you just if you just started to trust that person, I would also be like, fuck off. Like, are we really back to square one? Like, fuck off. Yeah. I don't not understand the frustration, but I also deep diving it and really read doing my reread and stuff. I was like, oh God, but her character really makes so much sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Yeah. Yeah. She's an imperfect person. And that, and that is, I mean, that's fine. Yeah. That's real. It is real. But annoying when you're looking for like a little fantasy, quick little romance escape.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

A hundred percent. This is not to me like a quick fantasy romance. Like it this is not a passenger princess book. No. No. So let's move on to finding out that she finds out that Lee is Prince Killian. And obviously she's upset. What did you guys feel when you find out he was the prince?

SPEAKER_02 43:23

I mean, it kind of felt spot on. Like he definitely felt like he had some sort of like something happening to where I was like, you're not who you are saying you are. Like I just're too good to be true. You're too good to be true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

Yeah. It's like every protective moment was calculated and every intimate moment was strategic. And you're like, it's not romance anymore. Okay. So this is manipulation and copy its finest.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

You know, I will say though, by revealing him as the prince, my brain immediately was like, oh, maybe this really is a love triangle, then, right? Because we always think the prince is going to be the love and. Interest. Interesting, yeah. But it's like in spoiler for Shield of Sparrows, it's like the FMC for some reason isn't the prince, but there's a prince around, and you're kind of like, I mean, he's gotta secretly be the prince, right? Because this is so when I found out he was the prince, my first thought was not villain, it was love triangle.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

Yeah, fair.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

I don't know how you guys felt.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

I wish I would have made a note about that. I definitely remember thinking, like, oh yeah, this was predictable. It was predictable.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Thinking love triangle, because I was like, Yeah, I don't remember thinking that either. To me, of like, okay, if he's the prince, how does he fit into this story then to me? And because he was the prince and she used all those words around him about trust and warm heart and feelings and blah blah, I was like, okay, so maybe this is a love triangle then. I would say, at least recently, there are less love triangles out in the romantice universe because it is a trope people don't like as much. Not that it doesn't exist. There are plenty of romanticies that have a love triangle, but I would say it's not like enemies to lovers, where it's like every book is enemies to lovers. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 45:08

Right. This is actually the exact opposite. It's lovers to enemies.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Right. Um, shout out to the crimson moth. Spoiler. Please read that if you love uh lovers to enemies.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

I haven't done that one yet.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

It's one of my favorite series, actually, of all time. If you love a duology, everyone listening, get into the crimson moth. It is Crimson Moth. It is enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers to enemies. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

So let's talk about mate bonds. We learn that mate bonds allow communication, emotional amplification, like all of it. Do we think that Stark can already feel her emotions this early on in the book?

SPEAKER_02 45:46

I think so. I think it probably keyed in like right when she bonded Anassa. I think so too. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Like I know Anassa shields her from it, but I don't feel like Kratos would do the same in reverse.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Completely agree. He's like, nah, don't be a bitch.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Yeah. And I feel like it's part of the reason why Stark hates her still so much throughout the first half of the book.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Mm-hmm. Right. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Because that means he has to like feel every time she looks at him and is like, ew. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. When he's feeling like I want to be with her. Like the way she describes once Anasa finally opens the mate bond is very like almost out of her control with like, oh, I have to be with Stark, even if I'm not even sure I want to.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

So if he is feeling even a hint of that and he's watching her be with Killian Lee, whatever we're calling him, I feel like he can at least feel it. We do know that it also leads into they can hear each other's thoughts, you know, fourth wing style. I don't think he can hear her thoughts quite yet. I think that has to be an open, like agreed.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

Yeah. Like that pathway needs to be like agreed upon almost. But obviously he can talk to Anasa. Yes. Obviously. And they can communicate.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Because I did look for it on my reread. I was like, does he ever answer her question? She doesn't say out loud or anything like that. And he doesn't. And I feel like if he could re hear her thoughts, they would have put that in there to give that clue. And they didn't.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

You know who she can talk to though? Marin. And they barely pass the voice trial. They sure do.

unknown 47:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yes. They barely pass it. And I love how Maren's all like proud of herself. Like, ooh, we did it. And I'm my bond's getting better. And then I guess is like, uh, yeah, you suck. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Yeah. She's like, I could tell you guys were barely holding it together out there. She's like, oh man. I thought we really did great.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I thought we nailed it.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Right. It's a good thing. Which does lead to their first open talk, which okay. I feel like obviously this is a comparison against Fourth Wayne because bonding dragons, bonding direwolves, it's a similar relationship and process. I do feel like if you were at odds, it would take you a hot minute to finally open up and have a discussion with said being. And I do like that Maren in her head keeps being like, Whoa is me. I'm trying so hard. Why isn't Anasa like working with me and just like telling me things? And when she finally talks to Anasa about it, Anasa's like, I'm sorry, you've been rejecting me at every turn. Why would I be like, here's a platter full of secrets?

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Yeah. But I mean, it's not even just that because she is actively just like, I don't want you. Why did you pick me? And she's just like, uh but then you expect me to help you?

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Like, yeah. I mean, look, I think the real emotional arc of this book is not romance. I think it's trust. And I think that goes for every relationship in this book. And then, you know, like what happens from there on.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Yeah. That's a really good point. I do agree completely.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

Yeah, I don't think this book is actually the romanticy, emotional, like romance like first book that we usually get. I do think it's more about trust and the relationship between found family, between bonded animal.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

And these things take time. They do. It's one of those things where this is such a realistic story, right? Where you get frustrated that it takes time. But then when you get a romantic that jumps too into it too fast, you're like, well, that's not believable.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

Yeah. Where's the balance? Yeah. How do you yeah. That's so true. It really is. It's really difficult to nail the balance.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

It's one of those you're probably never gonna win as the author. It's like you either did it too fast or it like took too long.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

I do feel like this, unfortunately, the story is more realistic as much as it is annoying. Yeah. I agree. I mean, it kind of reminds me of Iron Flame a little bit, right? Like Iron Flame's kind of annoying, but it is a little realistic of like trust issues take time.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

Definitely does. Let's talk more about the trials. When Marin questions the trials, everyone looks at her like she's insane. Like even Anasa. So what does this mean? Why is no one else questioning it? If the trials are actually part of like a bigger hidden system, why does no one else have anything to say about this? What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 50:26

I think it's because she's a commoner. And so she hasn't been brought up around the like environment of knowing why these trials exist or how they came about, or the fact that the direwolves are the ones that chose to do the purging and stuff like that. But they didn't.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

So we find at the end that they didn't. That it's all the kings doing to keep the direwolf numbers down so they never get too powerful. Right. So she's actually correct to question this. She is what they were told is that. Yes. But this is the only part on my reread, once I knew the truth, that I was kind of like, so why is Anasa not annoyed with her in this part? Because she she very specifically says Anasa even like looks at her like, ugh, like, why are you asking this? Like you should know better. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

But I would also like to pose that, like, maybe it was her perception of Anasa seeming that way, but maybe it was actually Anasa looking at her, like, oh, you know what? Maybe you can live up to your name and we can actually figure this out together. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

So on my reread, when I was reading this part, I was like, okay, this almost feels like a plot hole to me. How would I explain this if it's not a plot hole? Right. Yeah. Um, and my thought was Anasa is annoyed with her, but not because Marin is wrong, but because Maren's not being smart enough to not ask this to a room full of dire bound.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Yeah. I think that that's stop drawing attention to us. Because I think it's because clearly she's not reading the room. Obviously, there's a there's evidence of very, very deep existing conditioning with everyone. So she's just like coming in here, not reading the room. Read the room. Not reading the room.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

It's not that she's wrong, because I think now at the end we know that she was right. It's Anassa's annoyed that she's not being smart enough to not be an idiot. Yep. And that's how I explain that. That makes sense to me because otherwise it feels like a plot hole because obviously Anassa knows that they didn't create the trials. So it's like, why would she be annoyed by this questioning?

SPEAKER_02 52:36

So pretty much anything that I've questioned, like situations like this, I default on her being an extremely unreliable narrator. So I'm like, okay, what is the alternate perception? Because what you are perceiving is not always true. A hundred percent. Which must always have said.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Yes. Yes, it's almost always wrong. The authors have been like, she's the most unreliable narrator, which I think really helps when you're reading the book.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Yeah. I mean, if you can't pick that up though, like seriously, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:08

Put the book down. If you can't pick it up, put it down. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

So then we go into the purge trial, and Maren gets another kill, and Stark comes to her to tattoo her kill. And she keeps assuming he's disappointed she hasn't died. She says that so much throughout the book. But we must remember she's just like another example of why she's an unreliable marriage. And he is really annoyed in this instant that that is what she thinks. Yeah. And I think this is one of those turning points where it went from he hates her to like he's hearing and feeling those thoughts from her, and that's why he's annoyed. And it's sad.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Yeah, he's hurt. He cares. Yeah. He actually does care despite his lack of autonomy on his choice to in any of this. He cares. And he just refuses to communicate, which we know why, but like it's sad.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

And he's like, this is the part where he explains, he's like, the tattoos aren't like something to be proud of.

SPEAKER_02 54:08

Like he's like, Hello?

SPEAKER_00 54:09

Yeah, what's wrong with you, girl? Who hurt you? Yeah. Like, why did you think we were proud of these? And like even in the beginning of the book, when she sees all his tattoos, she's like, Oh, he's a killing machine. He's so proud of all the people he's killed. Yeah. Your trauma is showing. Yeah, you're looking at these totally wrong. These are so we don't ever forget the people that we have had to kill, which is so different. Yep. So, so different. Yep. It's right. I think this book is really almost like a masterclass on perception, right? Yeah. Of like the way you view something really changes the narrative.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Yeah. Completely. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

I that's also why I'm so excited for Fury Bound. Same. I just feel like this book, you almost have to deep dive it. I think if you're a passenger princess who's not as into fantasy, this is not the book for you because it does feel like a masterclass and all of those nuances of just trauma and perception and trust. Like it's really not just like a oh, I'm reading it at a surface level and going on my merry way. Which you can do.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

You're probably just not going to enjoy it as much. And also, I do think that those are probably the people who are saying that, because I've seen this a lot, I'm calling you people out, that they're just like, oh, it just wants to be fourth wing. It does not want to be fourth wing. It does not. Nothing about this book is fourth wing except for the fact that they're bonded to another animal that they can respect to. Like I don't see the correlation in any other aspect virtually at all. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

And I will just I will just say to point this out also when I was doing all my Reddit research, is another one of the call-outs, is they're like, oh, they're just trying to be like Game of Thrones, like dire wolves that come on and stark. They didn't even try that hard. Well, for all of those who are thinking it out there, sometimes it doesn't have to be as nefarious as it seems. In their interviews, that is actually what inspired this series. And they were trying to give a happy, like we love Game of Thrones nod to the inspiration for their series by calling him Stark. It doesn't have to be a negative, right? You can love something and have it be your inspiration and have do your due diligence of saying this is what inspired me and it made my life better, right? It doesn't have to be like a steal, like nefarious thing.

SPEAKER_03 56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

They they said in the interview we saw at BookCon that they literally read and watched Game of Thrones, and they were like, the direwolves were the coolest part of that, and he did nothing with it. Yeah, no, that's true. That is true. He didn't pursue that storyline at all. And they were like, What would a book look like look like if it was all about the direwolves, which is the coolest part of Game of Thrones? I'm here for that.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Which I mean, that's what inspired this part. You can take facets of things and turn them into your own thing. There's not an original idea out there. Like, there really isn't.

SPEAKER_00 57:11

There really isn't. Not at this point. Not at this point. So they get a day off then and they go and see Marin's mother, and she's lucid. She looks like her.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

She is suddenly lucid.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Which now we know is because she's bonded and the magic is no longer building up in their blood, etc. etc. And she gives Marin the necklace and says it needs to be seen. And I think this is where you really start to get the clue that her ramblings could be more premonitions or whatever's happening. Yep. Yeah. And who sees it? Stark.

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Stark.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Sure does.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

Who knows the fairness? I do know who also sees it. Killian. Mr. Douchebag.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Absolutely does. Mm-hmm. So I am curious to know. I it doesn't really ever get explained, like obviously what her mother meant by that. Mm-hmm. But I I feel like it was more towards Stark than Killian. Killian knows who she is and has all his evil deeds going on.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

Yeah. I mean, I also think it could just be like it needs to be seen for many reasons. Like it activates something in her, in other people who see it, other people like it's an awakening of some kind. Because the visibility of that maybe is is, you know, clearly there's a storyline that's been right kept at bay. Yeah. And the visibility of that is kind of her power.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's also just like here's this one heirloom that we have. Wear it with pride to keep you safe.

SPEAKER_00 58:47

I think this big moment in a way keeps her safe. I'm curious why her mom isn't wearing it, but and also like remember who you are.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

Yeah, why is her mom not wearing it? I don't know. Maybe safety. Maybe she doesn't want to get robbed. Yeah, and doesn't and doesn't realize it would protect her. Yeah. Or she didn't trust her mental state, like what she could have done with it. I mean, there's that too. No, I don't know. Very valid. Okay, but Stark and the dress.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

I know. When we find out at the end of the book that he's the one who gave her the dress, it's like, oh, dagger to the heart.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

To the literal heart. Him orchestrating things behind the scenes but refusing credit is like his entire personality. Which also kind of pisses me off. He just, and at the same time, refuses to be emotionally available.

SPEAKER_00 59:36

Yes. But also, would she have believed him?

SPEAKER_02 59:40

So the first, the first read-through of this, and she was like, Thank you so much for my dress. I was like, that bitch did not give you that dress. Like, I don't know who did, but I know it wasn't him. I was like, I just, it's it's not Killian. I know it's not. That bitch did not give you the dress. My God. I was so mad. I was like, uh-uh. Like, so I think you know what? That marked my very my true marker for my distrust for Killian.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

I think interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:09

So I was like, no, me either.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

I just thought it was like such like uh he's trying to flaunt his wealth and like whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

Yeah, possession, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:18

Possession. Yeah, I definitely didn't catch that it wasn't from him.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

Cause I think it was his line that he said to where he was like, Oh, wow, that dress looks beautiful on you. It almost felt more as like he was seeing it for the first time. It didn't have the same like inward inflection. It was like an outward inflection. Do you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I don't know. Something about the way it was written. Just I was like, oh, it wasn't you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:44

I love all the different things that we all catch differently.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

Yeah. I mean, for God's one is, yeah. I'm like, whoa, I didn't know. I'm like shook by that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

I felt like it was so obvious.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

You're like, obviously, we all, and we're both like, what?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

I know. I'm still shook.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

I'm like, wait, am I like seeing things that aren't there? Am I her mother? I'm also over here, like, could it be a moon? You know, like who knows? It's a star. Okay, so she becomes alpha. This should feel empowering, but it feels a little rushed. No, I mean it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

This is a wild thing because not only does she become alpha, but while her old alpha, quote unquote, who she never met, is dying, she's like closed off her connection from the wolves because she's like privacy and everyone's super pissed at her, and the whole thing is chaos, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

Yeah. They're like, fuck you, Marin. And then she comes back and she's like, Well, unfortunately, I'm Alpha now. Unfortunately for all of us, I also do not understand. I quit.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:53

And obviously, it's unprecedented, but also they've never had, you know, the royal rightful queen bond to a direwolf. So it is a weird choice to me. Even in hindsight from authors, I'm like, would a direwolf pack have chosen a novice to be their alpha, even if she was queen? Like, I'm thinking, like, if the kingdom was running the way it should have been, and her mother was still queen and all those things, and she was a princess and growing up in this kingdom, whatever, when she bonded a direwolf, would she become alpha?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

Okay, so I my quandary with this went towards Anasa, not to Marin. So I was wondering if perhaps somehow it has to do with Anassa's lineage. That makes sense to me. And not Marin's. Like, maybe she has been in the alpha line for a long time. So everyone's like, no, obviously it's gonna be Anasa. Like, I don't know what she's got going on right now, but like that's who we're choosing.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

But I love that like she's bonded to the human who's struggling the most, and there's still like the equivalent of like a spaghetti right now. Yeah. But they're like, you know what? That's what the best move. I mean, maybe they thought it would force Marin to finally like embrace her destiny.

unknown 1:03:13

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

Like they were like, we're trying everything that we can. She's still being a little shit, she's still not trusting us. Maybe we need to make her alpha.

unknown 1:03:21

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

Yeah, we we really gotta lock her in, you guys. Like irrefutably locked in.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

It's one of those things that was like surprising, but also it's like, okay, obviously, like Anassa and her have this like storyline that's important. So sure, I guess they're alpha now, sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:41

But then to even double down on like the outrage, she's like, okay, so now I'm alpha, and now I'm so sorry I'm gonna leave you guys a note that I'm going to the front.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:53

Which they don't let her get off with, thank God. But it's just like she is so stupid, like one of the dumbest FMCs ever that I've ever read, but it's realistic.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

It is kind of but in this scene, going back to Killian's line of thinking, because obviously he's planned this out like six steps ahead because he's like, All right, so now she's alpha. I'm gonna send her to the front, I'm gonna kill her mom. Like, I'm gonna keep the birds one stone.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

I don't know that he had anything to do with her going to the front. I think he You don't think it was a setup? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

You don't think it was a setup at all? I don't think there were kids there. I don't know, there wasn't. No, like I don't think there were ever kids there.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

No, I don't think there was either. Or there were, but they were for the siphon kingdom and had nothing to do with their kingdom. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:42

Okay, so you don't you don't think that Killian set up a plan to get her away so that she couldn't be there for her mom dying?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

No, because she wouldn't have been there either way. She would have been at that. But she could get there quicker. Yeah, but it her mom still would have been dead. It sounded like it was like a very quick, like she made a scene in a public square. Like Maren would never have gotten there in time. No.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

But also I want to know why she was there making a scene. Well, uh, if she was bonded, she shouldn't have been having her moments anymore. So was she actually having a scene?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

Did they say did someone witness it? I doubt it. Yeah, I don't think so either. I think that was just the story that was told.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

Yeah, I think I mean Killian admits that he killed her. So, like, I don't think she was having a scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

I think I don't think so either.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

He planned that scene. I think he maybe hit a guard and made it look like it was the mother or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:39

Like Yeah, I don't I don't think uh yeah. I mean, I don't I don't believe that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:44

So again, he was relying on convenience of her being gone, or it just they coincidentally happened that the master of taking what's at hand and using it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

I think that that's just his thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:55

He's like I think this one was definitely he was like, Oh, she's gone. This is my chance to move.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

Yeah, I think he's just really great at being present and figuring out how to be terrible in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

Because you have to remember he has this twist and sense of loving her and needing her to fuel his power. I don't think he would send an untrained alpha to the front to chance her being killed.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

I accept.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

So I accept. So they go off to the front to try and rescue these children. Sure. And weird. She's acting childish. That Stark insists on coming. So they stop at a town and she finds a statue of a faceless deity that no one remembers. Could could this be Lumina? They call her the faceless goddess.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:43

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:44

I think so too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

That one I did pick up on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

Yeah. I do think that is Lumina. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:50

It comes back into the whole god conversation where I think the gods are actually a way bigger player in the story than and it makes sense to me that it's a female goddess because let's think about the way in which the society has been conditioned.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:05

Totally. She is more of like the common goddess that the wealthy people don't acknowledge. Well, of course they won't, because it challenges their version of. Well, yeah, because I mean matriarchies are the popular taking care of everybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:22

The you know what I mean? So, but it's interesting they call her the faceless goddess. I think we might be diving into a plot. I mean, I know we are because of you know the erased histories. They also erased the gods' histories, so they don't call her Lumina, they call her the faceless goddess. So there is gonna be that storyline, which is a little fourth wingy of like, you know, rewriting history. Sure. But that's just general politics. That is general politics. I know people will equate it with fourth wing, but it is general politics and happens in a lot of series.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

It happens in life also.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

And you know what also happens in a lot of series? That there's only one bed at the inn.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:04

Yeah, there's so probably one of my favorite tropes to be honest. Yeah, yes, but nothing happens in this one. No, of course not in this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

Long game. Other than some sexual just tension, yeah. The long game.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

Tension. Yep. Yes, and we get a who did this to you, my other favorite trope. But with a twist because no one did it to her but herself.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:29

Dun dun dun. Okay, while at the front, she gets shown a picture of Lucian Brightbane. Gee, whiz! He looks familiar, and she can't quite place why. Also, note his name is Lucian Brightbane. At the end, the king's name is Alstair Brightbane. Okay. Come on, we're not dumb.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:50

No, it's a good thing you pointed that out because one of the main topics on Reddit was like, why would a siphon king be sending out troops fighting against his siphon nation? It doesn't make any sense. This book makes no sense. Okay. Obviously, these are two brothers at war. Hello. And one of them is using the dire bound to get revenge on his sibling.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:20

Yeah, a fight for power within the family. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:26

Like, I almost hate that I have to point that out. But it's like Lucian Alistair, same last name. They are clearly related in some way. Yes. That is why he has tricked himself into this kingdom and is at war. Like correct. But it is a very common comment on Reddit. And it's like, you okay, uh, passenger princesses for the win. Like, and I don't get me wrong, I love a passenger princess. I love reading a book for a good time, but you do actually have to like mildly pay attention, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:59

This feels like a little bit of a I don't want to be a bitch, but I feel like I kind of need to be a bitch right now because it's like, come on.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

Like you can't blame the book if you don't want to do the work.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:09

Exactly. This felt like a very obvious call out to me. And it was just like, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:15

Did you read it? Well, you know what? I don't think anybody missed the fact that siphon magic has a smell. Yes. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? It's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:25

That's interesting. But like, do we think normal people can smell it? Yeah. Maybe not, though, because we only get it from Marin and she has like dire wolf-y, like enhanced senses.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

Interesting. I think it's like corruption is detectable, kind of. I think it's like a you know, you can't hide it because it freaks. I do think it's interesting it has a smell.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

I think that's a really good note that we are going to have to take into Fury Bound for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:51

So when Marin returns, she finds out her mother has been killed. What? Ooh. Fleek.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

And then Killian proposes. And so he does. Obviously, there were some red flags up to this point because, you know, through the book, their romantic scenes, he gets more controlling. And she still glosses over it with rose-colored glosses. But as a reader, you're kind of like, is this a daubler versus Dahmer situation? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which for those who don't watch How I Met Your Mother, it's like, you know, the romance of a situation depends on how you view the other person. Like a guy standing outside your window with a boombox, it's if you like him, is romantic. If you don't like him, he's a murderer trying to kill you. He's a fucking psychopath. Yeah. Right. So I feel like Killian's a great example of as the story kind of goes along, you're like, okay, some of the things he's doing, if I was into you, would be hot. But if I wasn't into you, I would be hot. Totally concerned. Guys, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:50

I think this is like the absolutely brilliant writing of this. Like, I think their writing is actually like not getting the credit that it deserves. This is one of the facets because, like, you're still kind of being struggled along on thinking that like Killian is like this good dude. And even if he's kind of doing these weird things, you're like, okay, okay, but like she still trusts him.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:13

And she's still into it. She's acting like she's like all hot for it still. So cool. She's still learning. She's still learning. She's got a lot to learn. Throughout the book, there are moments like that that you're kind of like, if I was into you, this would be hot. If I was not into you, this would be a little Exactly. Well, because it's like that there's a lot in the sex scenes where it's kind of like, okay, like if um, spoiler for Quicksilver, if Kingfisher was doing this, it'd be like, ooh, we're on board. If someone who's not the MMC, you're kind of like, do you feel like this way that you're taking control of the situation?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:48

Or not letting me take control when I'm like, hey, can I be in charge? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:54

But it does happen in other romanticy where it is like if the MMC is doing it, you're like, yeah. Like, sure, tie your rest. Whatever is happening. Like, oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

But again, I think it's a brilliant writing tool.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:07

It is a brilliant to get using tool.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:10

irksome. Yeah. I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

But I feel like the proposal to me is the head point of your you questioning, really, like, okay, we've really entered Dahmer territory. Yeah, that's weird as fuck. That's weird as fuck, and a huge red flag. And you should not be asking this woman to marry you when she's emotionally destroyed.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:31

And she is not in an appropriate headspace. No, it is manipulation to a T. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:39

And when he puts the bracelet on her, her shadows disappear. And she, because she's an unreliable narrator, is relieved because she thinks she's going crazy when really the bracelet's stealing her powers. She's a shadow daddy, and the steal the bracelet is stealing her powers. Yep, she's a shadow daddy. She is. And she doesn't know she is.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Yeah, but let's talk about the mother's journals because they're so important. So, so so important. They definitely are.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:08

I think we're going, I at least this is my hope. Okay. I hope we get journal entries. Even though Maren said it's just a bunch of her endless ramblings, but I'm hoping that perhaps we get journal entries. Yeah. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:22

I feel like they are and they aren't at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:24

Yeah. I think it's going to be there's truth in the rambling. Like I think it's going to be a code to decipher in a way, but I think there's going to be truth about like the blood curse, truth about Marin. I think truth maybe even about Lumina. Like I think there's going to be truths that are hidden within the chaos of her mom's mind at the time when she was writing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:44

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:44

Completely.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:46

And then we start. This is really when we start getting into the whole dance of Anassa and Stark, being like, I told you all I can. Ask the right questions. Oh my God, it's so iron flame. Ask the right questions. It's just like, and this is when it gets really annoying, I think, for the reader, especially because you're just like, it's so obvious. And Marin is so dense, and it's annoying. Just it's just annoying. But I do think unfortunately it is realistic.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:16

Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. I agree with you. Yeah. I agree with you. It just sucks. She's also like not listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:23

She's not listening.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

She's not listening. Like she's hearing it, but not listening, or like listening, not hearing it. Whatever, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

She's jumping to her conclusions without really listening because she has these preconceived notions of no trust because of who they are. Boom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

Yeah. Absolutely. And she hasn't put it down yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:40

Nope. Nope. Even though she thinks that she has.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:44

So one of my biggest call outs is regarding the shadows. Dark tells Marin that siphons are capable of making you see things that aren't real. What are they?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:54

So the shadows are part of her magic. She's a shadow daddy. She's a shadow daddy. So she wields shadows? She wields shadows, but be so think about if you thought you were losing your mind and things in the world were not concrete. Shadows you would think are moving, and you would think it was a trick of your brain, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:14

Yeah, it's literally it's like schizophrenia.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:16

Yes. Alchemized? Yes. And I think the whole book, she thinks it's like schizophrenia. But in actuality, it is her magic and she can actually move and wield the shadows. Because at the end, she even turns to Stark and she's like, Can you see them? And he's like, Yeah, like, duh. And also at the end of the book, Killian, when he has bonded to her and is siphoning her magic, he uses the shadows against her. He literally like wraps her up in shadow to get her away from him. And she's like, Whoa, what?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:48

Yeah, it's the dark and the light. He uses her shadows.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:52

Yes. Because he's siphoning them through the bracelet.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:56

I wasn't sure if he also had shadows.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:59

No, I think it's that's why her shadows disappear when she puts the bracelet on. Yep. Okay. Yeah. So Stark notices a mark that Killian left on her neck. And on a reread, I'm sure he's wondering if Killian has bitten her. Because at this point, Killian is a siphon.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:17

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:18

During their sexual scenes, he is very bitey. He is. I will say. And I think she gives him permission to do so, no? She's like She does. And I think this is the first where it's kind of like, wait. But that being said, because they have created this new siphon creature that is not exactly a vampire. What does it really mean to be bitten by a siphon in this world? We don't know. Right. Could she be taking some of I yeah, I mean, who knows? Yeah. Like was he actually drinking her blood? Would she I I don't think she would turn because obvious reasons. But do we actually know that that's what the siphons do? I think so. I think so. I feel like that's pretty clear that they do bite and drink blood. Yeah. Okay. And also things. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's clear that how you become a siphon. I don't think it's from a single bite. I do think this is the first point. It's towards the end where it is very noted that Stark is like staring at the bite on her neck. And I think it is for a reason. Yeah. I think he's just like, he knows Killian could be a siphon. He's questioning it. Because at the end, he does admit to her he doesn't know if Killian's a siphon, right? Before she definitely finds out. But I'm sure he's staring at that bite, being like, oh, what is he doing to her? Absolutely. I mean the uni trial, they find the children in the castle. And this is when the plot, I think, gets super obvious that at least the king is a siphon. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so duh. Yeah. And then, of course, the idiot that Marin is confides in Killian about them after NASA specifically tells her not to.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:56

At that point, I was like, bitch, trust the wolf. You know what I mean? Yeah. At this point, you should be questioning your coils. It makes sense she doesn't. Because she has trust issues. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:08

She's got major trust and mommy issues. And she thinks that the only person she could trust is Killian, ha ha ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:14

Literally lied to her about who he literally was. Fucking.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:17

Yeah, and then convinces her to fucking kill his father. Like what? But also, like, I mean, let's be honest. If the guy you were seeing lied to you about being a prince, would you forgive him? Probably. You'd be like, okay, you're a prince. Like, let's be real.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:34

Sitting up there on the throne like Tamlin. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:38

And of course, he convinces her to kill his father because why not? And then of course, yeah, he immediately turns on her. And I will say, this is the epitome of Marin being an idiot. Because anyone with a brain would be like their their questions to their boyfriend or fiancee would be like, okay, so what happens after I kill your father? Because I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be arrested for murder. Yeah. Especially if I do it in front of the entire court. She doesn't have the foresight.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:09

Which conveniently she's a strategos.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:13

Yeah. It's like way, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

And an alpha at this point? Pardon me what?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:21

I think we're chalking it up to emotions. It's just like when you're reading it though, you're like, girl, what do you think's gonna happen when you kill the king in front of the entire court? Questions. I got a lot of questions. She should have had questions. You should have had questions. And then you're surprised when you get arrested and your boyfriend's like, oh my god, I can't believe you killed my father. God daddy. Daddy issues. And here's the thing: even if he really wasn't like tricking her, in what universe do you think that the prince can 100% protect you from killing a king in front of an entire group of people? Ever.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

Yep. Yeah. I mean, and not be condemned as like a usurper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:04

Like I got a lot of questions for you, girl. Love is blind, okay? And love is very blind. She's blind and dying. She's blind to it. She is blind to it. But I mean, and to like Killian said he loves her. So she said, me too. Sure, I'll do whatever you want. I'll kill your father. I'm not gonna think about any consequences. What are consequences? Uh, you love me.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:30

Everything's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:32

Yeah, give me my own reason. But you know what? It's okay because it leads to the downloads of downloads, right? Totally. Yeah, absolutely. We we find out she's queen, she gets a crown. Kratos is Anassa's mate, meaning Stark is Marin's something or other. Yeah. Yeah. Which we love. We also find out the reason that Stark and Anassa could not tell her any of this is because they're under a blood curse. Interesting. Now we get to the actual plot. Yes. And the curse stole the memories of her entire royal family line from the general public, except for Stark's family, because of their relationship to the dire wolves.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:17

It didn't just erase her memory, it erases truth, which is wild. Which I will say a lot of people were like, they pass it down from a book, you know, in their family. How come other people couldn't have found books to find out about it? I'm going to assume that when they erase the entire kingdom's memories, they also took away their books. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:37

I mean, hey, that is something that happens, is it not?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:40

Yeah. I I'm assuming Stark's family and he said hid their book and it's been like secretly passed down. Correct. Like it's one of those things where it's like, I do think you have to do a little bit of assuming here, but I feel like it's very logical assuming. I don't think it's a stretch by any means.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:56

No, I don't think it's a stretch either. I mean, how are you gonna condition a whole group of people to believe your version of truth unless you write down a new Bible? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:05

Right. I mean, the thing about it though, that is weird to me is like, okay, so you can't talk about it, but you can read a written word about it. So like, why couldn't he just like write well down?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:17

Didn't didn't he say, didn't he say, I you can't read those like you can't go near that, don't go near that. No, he said those aren't mine to loan you. Yeah, they're his family's. And so it like kind of opened up the door without telling her that the answers were in there to go figure it out yourself in that thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:38

I can't let you do that. I will say it doesn't specifically say like he could read the book that had already been written. I don't know if Stark himself could write down the things. You know what I mean? My assumption is that listen, the wolves can't write that Anasa knows.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:54

So, like, how did Anasa know? Because they tell they can be a good one.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:57

Because she's also I yeah, and and Anasa's Kratos' mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:02

So, but again, but it's it's it's a weird knowledge passed down, though.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:06

It's passed down. I think Anassa is more of a like we said before on how Anasa magically is the Alpha. I think she has the same kind of like link to the royal line that Stark and his family does, where it didn't erase their memories because it didn't erase their memories because they had this like and also Anasa is older.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:28

Anassa's not a young little wolf, no hub. Like she's older, they acknowledge that and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:34

But I do think you know, once she gets the tiara on, the blood curse is lifted, and that's when they all start kind of freely talking about it. Um can that's like the end that gives them Ray permission to which also leads to them telling all of the other direbound what has gone on the whole time. It like unlocks their memories because I think a lot of people for that end too are kind of like, How is she like all of a sudden gonna be in charge of this kingdom? And it's like well, all the dire bound are gonna know the know the truth at the end of this and have known it's been now a trick from siphons all along, and they're basically the enforcers of law in this kingdom.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:11

You know, at the end of Sleeping Beauty, for sure, where like all of the power just kind of like washes through the whole kingdom.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:20

Okay, so like that's kind of how I pictured it, and I'm like, so does now everybody know? I think does everybody kind of remember?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:29

I know the Direbound do because they literally say a natural thing. That was a mind-to-mind thing. Share the memories and whatever with them.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:37

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:38

I don't know about the people though. I don't think the people are magically going to know.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:42

No, I don't think so either.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:43

There's probably like an old grandma somewhere who is just like awake who just a grand awakenings. But I do think we've seen in this kingdom that they're kind of sheep, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:53

Nobody is questioning anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:54

I think when the Direbound tell them that this is what's been going on in their kingdom, they're just gonna be like, it has. I believe you. Yeah. It's just gonna be as simple as that. Which is I also think why Killian flees at the end. Like, obviously, he's not gone for good, but I do think that's why he's like, bye, peace.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:12

We'll be seeing more of him. For certain.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:14

So anyway, Killian disappears. He disappears. We've already talked about his delusions about loving her and like whatever the hell is going on in his mind. Yeah. And we've talked about Alistair and everything at this point, which him living inside the King's line is also super creepy. But one of the main complaints also on Reddit about the ending is a lot of people, and I feel like this is such a wild jump, is like this bracelet thing is so dumb. Why doesn't she just cut off her hand?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:45

Okay, I think you take a minute from Reddit because these people aren't on your level, Alex.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:50

But it's also it's all it's a lot of people. This is not like one person. Like, right when I go to scope Reddit, I'm like, what are the main themes people are talking about? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:58

And I get their point though, but I don't. In this sense, on a surface level, it's like, oh, okay, just chop off your hand and then your diarrhea wolf just can heal it for you. It you can't.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:13

No, there has been no indication that a NASA can regrow or reattach a hand. And in fact, there's been a lot of no, there's been a lot of injuries.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:26

I understand where their perceptions are coming from.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:30

I don't agree with but like there's been a lot of injuries in this book where it has been pointed out that wolf magic only goes so far in healing.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:39

Sure, which is why I think that's also why they go to the point to where like the carotid artery is cut, and she's like, There's only so much that wolf magic can do. That's why that's inserted in there. She cannot regrow her hand. She cannot regrow or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:56

That maybe if they kill Killian, that then it's just like my. Magic. Well, yeah, duh.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:02

But also, I would also like to point out that say your qualm is like, okay, does she need a hand? She could just be a one-handed FMC. How is she gonna stay on her wolf, guys? She can barely hold on with two hands.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:17

Her shadows, Alex. Her shadows.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:20

Like, I'm I'm sorry. I just think it's so insane to jump to, well, she should just cut off her hand. What is that energy?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:28

They're like, chop it off.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:30

Just chop it off.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:31

I feel uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:32

Oh my god. It's such an insane jump. Yeah, I mean, it is. I would be terrified that I wouldn't be able to remove it or even like try and mess with it because it keeps getting tighter. Right. Um, that would really freak me out. I would not do well.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:49

It would freak me out as well. I wouldn't maybe try and figure out how to cut my hand off.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:56

Anasta. Oh my god. Maybe she just needs some butter.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:00

Yeah, exactly. She just needs the what's the theory where you like put a chain in it and whatever, and then all of a sudden you like whoop and it's off, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

Also, maybe, maybe in Fury Bound we learn that she can break out the shadows.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:14

Exactly. The shadows will be like I bet also there has to be like also maybe a distance thing, like once Killian is no longer in the castle, like how far does his power be able to leech from her? No, you gotta kill Killian. There's gonna be rules for sure. Yeah. Yeah. There's gotta be. Well, and then Killian leaves her the best worst present of all. It's like, surprise you got back your sister, unfortunately. She's a siphon, which opens up a whole different trope in this book to me, right? Like, I think up until the last page, you're kind of like, siphons are one note villains, right? And I think this opens up a whole different thing of can siphons be good? Can we learn to live alongside siphons, right? Like, there's a lot of obviously romantic books out there that have this trope with vampires specifically, of like, does it have to be good versus evil, right? Or is it like we're we just been conditioned to view this group of people this way? And now that a loved one is one of these people, are we gonna change our minds?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:27

I mean, this one, this one's there. We've got fourth wing, or I'm sorry, Empyrean, not fourth wing specifically, but we've got Empyrean, we've got Quicksilver, we've got Crescent City, we've got Metal Slinger. So there's so many that play with this, and I think it's so interesting, and I think it's fun because I'm excited to see what they're gonna do with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:50

Same because it wasn't something I had on my bingo card for this series because it felt very black and white up until like literally the last page. And then you're like, wait, now that her siphon's a sister, is this a whole different sit series?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:04

Well, and also then it really, if you many of the listeners have only done one read of Direbound, which is fun and it's an adventure, but go back and do a second one because that interrogation scene, you have a different lens on it once you get to the end of the book. When you're thinking about how she interrogated the siphon, and he's like, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, you crazy bitch.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:28

Yes, which like could be true, but also it does like with a different lens now. It's like, okay, are siphons all evil? The way that you've been conditioned the whole book. Because I have a feeling when her sister wakes up in the next book, she's not all of a sudden gonna be this evil, I'm gonna try and kill my sister person.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:48

And that also brings to point if there's two brothers fighting, that means there's two factions of siphons. Yes. The twins. And what are they fighting about? The light and the dark.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:57

And I do think what are they fighting at about is a key thing here because we get the whole little backstory of Alistair and Lucian. He literally says, Your bonded will be my instruments of vengeance, which makes you think Lucian maybe used to be a bonded. Like, yeah, it's like one of those things of like, what's actually yeah, like what is actually going on here in terms of good versus evil. I definitely don't think it's black and white. I mean, it never is. It never is. It never is, and that's what makes a great book. Agreed. Which I think moves us right into our roses segment, aka the segment where we celebrate what we love and gently, or not so gently, drag what we didn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:45

It's our highs, our lows, our this changed my life moments and our respectfully why takes. So grab your bouquet. Because it's not all roses. There are definitely some thorns. Alex, what are your roses?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:59

Obviously, the wolves. We love a magical creature.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:03

Yeah, it's my it's my rose too. Surprise, surprise. Surprise, we love the creature, surprise, surprise. We like the creatures, we love a bonded creature. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:11

I really love the way these authors played with the tropes. Of tricking, of thinking there's a love triangle trope. I mean, even just the siphon thing, they even played with what is a vampire. Like, I I really loved all the way they poked at all the different things that come up in romanticity, to be honest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:30

Yeah. No, I completely agree. There were a lot of really interesting like twists and turns and surprises. And even though there was some predictability to it, I don't necessarily think that the predictability was a bad thing because they almost relied on your predictability to then kind of like turn it around and be like, haha, but then there's this. And I really like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:54

Yeah. I agree. And like uh a book can't be completely not predictable, otherwise, they're not doing foreshadowing right. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:02

I mean, they need you to be able to foreshadow something.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:05

Yeah. Like, I kind of hate when that's people's critique of a book is like, I predicted so many things. And it's like, well, kind of shouldn't you? Otherwise, they're not a very good writer. Like, not everything can come out of Lutfield.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:17

I mean, I wish I kind of lived in a world to where every book or movie or everything was that way. Like, I would be so surprised all the time. But you'd also be like, How did they get there? It's like a level of like ignorant whimsy. Yeah. Hey, it's safer there sometimes. Fair. Um, another of my roses was Stark. Yeah. I loved Stark. Yeah. I loved his character development. I felt like his layers were mysterious in a lot of very good ways. I feel like it was a really good setup for him for the next book.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:51

I agree. I agree. We love a slow burn. I feel like a lot of the criticism is that they people are like, we didn't get enough Stark. We didn't get enough of the relationship, blah, blah. But like I'm like, Holding horses. I feel like it makes me more excited to read book two.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:04

I agree. Completely because he not everything happens in book one. Yeah, exactly. Because it also makes you it makes it that every interaction we have with him feels more loaded and more intentional and like intentionally restrained to certain parts and certain ways that make you want more. So that's uh a rose for me as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:25

And I will say something that the author said in the panel we saw at BookCon with them was like, basically, we are getting love scenes between her and Stark. Yeah, of course. Hello. Yes. They they confirmed it without confirming it. They were basically like the male character she might get with, but they were trying not to spoil it, obviously. Right. But it was they were like wink-winking. And they did say that those sex scenes are going to be quite different from her and Killian in an obvious way. Which yeah, of course, because the shadows are involved.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:59

But also to that point, one of my roses was the spicings, not necessarily because that they were in there, but I feel like they used the spicings as a very good tool to make us distrust Lee slash Killian. Like they got increasingly more cringy as they increased through the book. And I feel like it was such an interesting take on like sex scenes and using spice. And using spice because it was a manipulation tool. And I think we they really locked in on it and did such a good job on like utilizing those scenes in a way that it really pulled you towards the corruption of his character. And I thought that was really good.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:47

I totally agree with, but it is actually one of the things people don't like about this book.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:53

Yeah, but I think that's the thing, right? It's everybody has a different opinion, but it isn't really a love story per se. It's a story about control and a girl slowly realizing that she's been a part of someone else's plan the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:08

Yes. And like that was one of the biggest things I saw when I was perusing Reddit was like, ugh, I hated this book. I wanted to DNF it because I was getting all these sex scenes with a guy who clearly wasn't the MMC. And I'm like, but to me, they used those spice scenes in such a unique and different and cool way to me. I thought it was so much more interesting than just like another romanticy with spice. I enjoyed it personally.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

The spice scenes moved the plot forward, but not in the typical stereotypical way. Yeah, in a dangerous way. In a dangerous way. And the fact that you could pick up on it is even more cool. Yeah. I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:50

Yeah. I mean, I think that it's really dealer's choice, right? Like some people want to read it. It doesn't make a book good or bad. It's just your taste or not. It's just about taste. Like, what are you looking for? If you're looking for that, then like this isn't the book for you. If you're looking for this, then like that's not a book for you. But I found it interesting because I mean, I think again, the book is less about romance and more about systems of control and more about the games that are played in that. And I think more about trust and finding trust, whether that's self-trust or that is trust of others as a form of romance. I think that that is kind of honest. And I think, you know, that's what kind of what the book is doing overall.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:33

And to that exact point, if you want to read a spice book, go read a spice book. But this is fantasy. It's it's a fantasy. This is a high fan. This is a high fan. Like, I'm yeah, that's hell I'm gonna stand on. And like that's where we are. Yeah. It's not like a spicy. I mean, I feel like maybe this is a too chili pepper ish. Too chili pepper. Maybe if that, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:55

And I mean, we've talked about this so much on the podcast before, but this is what the issue is with the romanticy label, right? Because you just lump all these books into this category because they're basically written by a woman, and readers then pick this up thinking, yeah, it's very smart, it's fine, blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, this was a fantasy book. This was a straight up fantasy book.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:16

I also this is a commentary. I think romanticy is like a commentary on rebellion. I think women wrote this shit to talk about these male-dominated systems, to add some romance in there as the secret way to get these messages to all these other women who love sex and love and fairies and dragons. And really, there is a system that is established in every one of these books. That's a system of power, control, identity, something about growth, something about love, something about trusting yourself, finding your power as a woman and agency as a woman. So I think that like it's it's so dumb. It feels like we dumb down our definition of this when we're explaining it to people because it's like fairy smut, which is like us apologizing for liking this shit because it makes it easier for a man to fucking like understand. Yeah, it's fairies and it's dragons. So like, men are the ones who have labeled it. Correct. Like men are the ones who have labeled it that way. Correct. And so it's easier for us to be like, yeah, it's just this little thing, but also men don't read it. This is like coded secrets for the rebellion. Like, let us have it. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:27

Hell yeah. Let's talk about thorns. I think we can all agree as much as it is realistic for her character, her idiocy and naivete is just it's a thorn. Yeah. It's a thorn. Towards the end, you're just like, I cannot believe you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:44

Yeah. It's twofold. It's like there's an over-reliance on miscommunication that that I was like bugged by, but it's her decision making, not because she's flawed, but because she repeatedly ignores clear information in a way that feels frustrating instead of like intentional. It's like this general lack of discernment that it's like, all right, third time's charm, fourth time's a charm. All right. And if I was a Nassau, I would also be very frustrated. Yes, absolutely. You're like, I've been around for a very long time and you are dumb. You sweet sum a child.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:22

Like the way that I was like throwing the book every time she was like, and I locked the wall into place. And I'm like, you dumb bit. Stop locking the wall into place. Yeah, exactly. Woof. Take your wall away. You don't, you don't get the wall anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:37

It was definitely a bit of a struggle. But it is honestly, if you think about a young woman in her 20s, like think about yourself being that age or being a teenager with like your parent, and you think you know so much more than them, right? Like it really did feel realistic in that way of like when she wants to go to the front and is acting like she's hot shit because she does fist fights in a basement, and they're like, no, this is war. Like, you don't know what you're doing. You know nothing about it. You know nothing. You're gonna get yourself killed. Like, we've actually been at the front and we know what we're talking about, and for some reason you think it's okay to ignore us. Like, but it just it does feel so realistic of like a 20-year-old trying to talk to their parent, right? Like, yeah, it's just annoying as a reader. Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:28

Well, and also like how you were saying, like, give her credit because like she's coming from this perception and things like that, and to that exact point, she basically had to grow up very quickly. And so maybe she never really learned a lot of these things. And she's I don't know, she's operating from a standpoint of like still being a child, thinking that they understand the world, but doesn't, which is a child who had to grow up too quickly, right? Yes, and one with a lot of trauma. Yeah. One of my thorns is for them being there for four months in this like bonded school. I feel like there wasn't enough insight into their like raw bond training and the classes that they went to. I just feel like it was like, oh my God. So we had a trial and then there was a party, and then oh my god, we had a trial and then there was a party. And like, yeah, it just felt like, where are your classes? Like, what are you actually learning? What are you doing that is actually making any of you being able to do these things? Because it's like all of a sudden it's like, oh yeah, we've been in training, and then all of a sudden, like we can all communicate. And I was just like, wait, but like, yeah, where did we discuss that in the book? Cause I don't really feel like we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:44

I think that that like some of my trims were some of the is like the repetitiveness sometimes of the trial like structure same. Cause it it's just like once we understand how it works, we don't need to see the same things over and over again. Like I want it to escalate or move on move on. If we could trim anything, it would be the sort of like repetitive nature of trials.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:09

Yeah, and I agree. I guess you see that, and I agree. I would have taken less trials and more classes. Yeah. Where things happen in the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:16

I would have wanted to know. Yeah, what like what are they teaching you?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:19

I think the romance went on a little too long with Killian. And I think we could have intercepted that a little bit with some of these interjections with Stark actually like doing the dress thing or like getting her the room thing, you know. Like, I just feel like it went on a little too long. And my only reason that I have that as a bit of a thorn is because I feel like the ending was a little bit too rushed. So I feel like it was like a good 80% of the book was that like Killian dynamic, and then that last 20%. And it was like, oh my God, and then there's all these revelations and an info dump and all of the stuff, and then I get the crown, and then now I'm in power, and then all of this. Like, I don't know, it felt just a little too rushed at the end, and I think they could have just like moved the timeline back a little bit. That's fair.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:10

Yeah, as much as I say, like, I think too much of a stark romance would have not made sense because she was so rose-colored glasses with Gillian. I do wish we got a little more hint of them liking each other so that when at the end, when we got this like rush of a bond of like it feeling out of her control, it felt a little more like it was her choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:32

Because we did get some of that with like the licking. Yeah, so it was there.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:36

We could feel like we needed a little bit more, yeah. A little sprinkled sprinkled in a little bit better, so that in book two, we don't feel like all of a sudden she's in love with Stark, which we might not feel that way. It might start off very slow in the beginning, and I feel like it probably will. But yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. That's my bud, though. Yeah, it's definitely a bud.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:55

My trim is please stop saying that Maren has good instincts because she doesn't, and it's so weird that she's in a pack known for being smart and strategic when she is neither of those things.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:11

Yet, yet, yet, yet. She has to, she has to get there, friends. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:16

Yeah, I agree. I agree. She is like the least strategic person ever. She's so like just flying by the seat of her pants.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:25

She's just impulsive instead of, you know. Yeah. She doesn't think much through. No. She sure doesn't. The buds. It's but the buds. I mean, filling in some of these gaps. I mean Stark and and Marin Dynamic. I want to learn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:44

I want to learn about their bond. I want to learn about siphon magic. Yeah. I want to learn about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:48

The siphon magic is big on mine too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:51

Yes. Yeah. I want to learn about trust, how how it builds. Yes, her shadows and her magic. I want to learn about history. Yeah. Yeah. The lost history. Larger mythology. Yeah. The lost history. I want to know about Lumina Nocturna. I know I want to know about that. There's so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:09

I need more wolves, please.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:11

I want, yeah, I do want more wolves too. I want more wolves. Like we only kind of know Anasa, and that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:17

We're gonna we're gonna get bigger picture. So I think the bud for all of us at this point is like bigger picture, an understanding of the bond, the history, the mythology, the lore, and what it all actually means and why she is where she is and what we have to look forward to.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:31

You know what? I'm really hoping Marin is gonna grow up a little bit. She must. I think she does. She must. I think she's had some humble pie by the end of the year. Where do we think that Fury Bound is gonna drop us off? I think right where we left off. We're gonna pick up right in the room.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:48

I actually think they said that in the interview. We saw that it starts off right where we left off.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:53

All right, scribes. That is direbound. We've got betrayal, wolves, trauma, one wildly timed engagement. We've got secret prisons under arenas, a new king who is deeply suspicious, and Marin accidentally speedrunning her way into overthrow the monarchy territory.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:14

And somehow it's only gonna get worse from here because next month we're diving into Fury Bound, where the stakes are higher, the alliances are messier, and all of Marin's choices come back to haunt her. If direbound was survival, Fury bound is consequences.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:30

Before we spiral into that chaos, don't forget to rate, review, and follow the podcast wherever you're listening. It helps us out so much and lets us keep bringing you unhinged wolf content on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:41

And if you want more Saucy Scribes Energy, who we're casting, themed cocktails, our thoughts on other books we're reading, and all of the extra chaos, come hang out with us on Instagram and TikTok at Saucy Scribes Pod. We'll see you next episode for Fury Bound.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:58

Where things are absolutely not going to be okay. Saucy Saucy Scribes out.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:06

Love you guys.