Onyx Storm: Chapter 2

[penwalla]

The rarest of signets—those that rise once in a generation or century—have manifested concurrently with an equal twice in our records, both critical times in our history, but only once have the six most powerful walked the Continent simultaneously. As fascinating as that spectacle must have been, I would rather not live to see it happen again.

—A Study on Signets by Major Dalton Sisneros

So of course one of these six most powerful signets will be Violet's lightning/energy shit, I assume Xaden's is one as well. Curious to see what else is on the roster.

Violet and co. run into battle from the infirmary, where they discover the hallway is full of dead bodies where the venin drained the injured. There are overflow beds full of patients in the hallways outside the infirmary, which is a nice realistic touch. They quickly run into a venin, who Violet kills with one throw of her dagger. At this point we learn two things:

1. The venin have been creeping around disguised as scribes, which is why no one has caught them.

2. The alloy in the daggers that kills venin apparently runs out of juice. How a piece of metal can run out of juice, it's not clear to me, unless the alloy is only good because it holds runes or something? But that has not been explained earlier in the series and we are on book 3.

They rush down to the chamber where Jack is imprisoned to find four venin trying to get him out. Said venin pivot to trying to grab Violet as soon as she arrives, though Violet does take one of them out immediately. Not sure how I feel about venin getting one-tapped now, considering what a problem they were to deal with earlier in the series. It kind of makes sense, between the practice the rebels have had and the fact the wards will limit the venin's powers.

Side note: I get that the alloy is presumably made into daggers because that gets you the most weapons per kilo of metal, but having your weapons be thrown seems like maybe a bad idea. Because the venin are superhuman in their speed and can do magic. So you might want to hang on to your weapon.

Rider weapon training is really lacking, actually, I don't recall there being any classes for weapons, just hand to hand combat drills where you can randomly be killed or poisoned. Seems like a missed opportunity, and also like spears or other polearms would be more useful than daggers. But whatever.

The fight is going poorly until Xaden shows up out of nowhere and takes out all the venin by himself. Violet is all hot and bothered about it.

His eyes flare in confusion for all of a millisecond before shadows explode around us, immediately devouring every speck of light in a sea of endless black I instantly recognize as home. A band of darkness wraps around my hips and yanks me backward, then brushes my cheek gently, steadying my galloping heartbeat and quieting my power.

Screams fill the chamber, followed by a pair of thuds, and I know without a doubt any threat to my life’s been extinguished.

Next scene. Violet and co. have been debriefed, and Violet now needs to head to the Senarium. But first she and Xaden steal a little time alone, which has been in short supply because Xaden's rebellion kids all know about him and have been keeping him supervised so that he doesn't fuck up and do anything else evil. Violet reminds Xaden that she still loves him and will cure him, even if no one else believes it. It's a sweet moment. Xaden being a venin is actually a good reason for him to want to stay away from Violet, so this particular conflict feels realistic enough, and we have had the set up of the venin existing for long enough that Xaden becoming one feels okay too as a plot element.

As she heads to the Senarium, Xaden tells Violet how he found her during the fight--because prior to the fight, Violet mentioned more than once that Xaden had blocked off their mental bond.

“I sensed them,” he finally answers. “The same way they sense me.”

My stomach pitches, and I reach for the wall, splaying my palm over the rough-hewn stone to keep my balance. “That’s not possible.”

“It is.” He nods slowly, watching me. “That’s how I know I’ve changed, how Garrick and I have managed to slay more than a dozen of them this week. I can feel them calling to me, just like I can feel the source pulsing beneath my feet with its incomparable power…because I’m one of them.” His eyes narrow. “Scared yet?”

Oooo. Spooky.

I hope that we will learn eventually why channeling magic directly from the earth makes you evil.

And with that, chapter over. See y'all next time.