Onyx Storm: Chapter 19
Mar. 9th, 2025 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaViolet and the irid-searching squad are setting out to retrieve the citrine they need to meet with the Deverilli king. Tairn reminds Violet as they set off that she can't be separated from Andarna for long, and that she'll start to feel the pain in about twelve hours.
Wait, what? Since when? I don't remember this ever being a plot point, and I also don't know what the distance is, since Violet didn't see Andarna the entire time she was in the dreamless sleep.
They arrive in Anca, which has been drained and ravaged by the venin, meaning it's deserted and magic is scarce. Xaden is on this mission, which seems insanely dangerous to me, considering how much Violet was trying to get him behind the wards where he wouldn't be tempted to wield dark magic. The team all hate each other, which seems like a recipe for success to me.
Xaden keeps chanting "Calm. Cool. Collected." to keep him under control. I hate it.
Oh, yeah, they're going to get into a fight here. Finally, we get to see the hand to hand combat instead of being told about it in between bouts of Xaden and Violet macking on each other.
Aura, one of the riders on this squad who hates Violet and therefore probably shouldn't have been on it, is very nervous and keeps threatening to wield her powers, even though wielding will draw the venin to them and they've all been Onwarned not to do it. And then she gets freaked out by a creaky door and does in fact start throwing fire around. Aura, I believe, is the hater rider who Dain was going to fight earlier in the book and then Violet got involved.
Oh, it wasn't a door. Aura panicked and attacked Grady, aka the commanding officer running this mission. And there's no one with the power to put out fires on their squad, so he just has to die. And then the entire fucking village starts to burn down, because--
Wait, hold the fuck up, they built the entire village so dragons wouldn't have space to land (even though we've seen dragons crack stone with their talons when they land so wooden buildings are probably not cutting it) but they built everything out of flammable wood?
Turn on your location, editor, I just wanna talk.
They're forced to flee for the town square, the only place wide enough for dragons to land, but as their dragons arrive, so do the wyvern. Aura is killed, and Sgaeyl is locked in combat with a wyvern, leaving Tairn to rescue both Xaden and Violet. Violet fries one of the wyvern as Xaden straps her to his body using his shadows. They all manage to escape and reach Basgiath, but the citrine they needed has been destroyed.
And with it...
And with that, chapter end.
If the towns are meant to be dragonproof, it's probably more important that they be fireproof than too tight for dragons to land. Because they could land in your bigass town square and just set the whole place on fire. Or they could fly overhead and set the whole place on fire. Or they could fly overhead and bring some riders who control fire or lightning and have them set the whole place on fire.
I'm just saying.
See y'all next time.
I have no desire to test the three-to-four-day limit that riders and their dragons can be apart, nor to suffer the fatal consequences.
Wait, what? Since when? I don't remember this ever being a plot point, and I also don't know what the distance is, since Violet didn't see Andarna the entire time she was in the dreamless sleep.
They arrive in Anca, which has been drained and ravaged by the venin, meaning it's deserted and magic is scarce. Xaden is on this mission, which seems insanely dangerous to me, considering how much Violet was trying to get him behind the wards where he wouldn't be tempted to wield dark magic. The team all hate each other, which seems like a recipe for success to me.
Xaden keeps chanting "Calm. Cool. Collected." to keep him under control. I hate it.
Ironic that they built these so tight to keep dragons from fitting between them, and yet it’s dragons that might save us,” I remark, studying what’s left of the architecture.
“A gryphon would fit with no problem as long as its wings were tucked,” Mira notes.
Oh, yeah, they're going to get into a fight here. Finally, we get to see the hand to hand combat instead of being told about it in between bouts of Xaden and Violet macking on each other.
Aura, one of the riders on this squad who hates Violet and therefore probably shouldn't have been on it, is very nervous and keeps threatening to wield her powers, even though wielding will draw the venin to them and they've all been Onwarned not to do it. And then she gets freaked out by a creaky door and does in fact start throwing fire around. Aura, I believe, is the hater rider who Dain was going to fight earlier in the book and then Violet got involved.
Oh, it wasn't a door. Aura panicked and attacked Grady, aka the commanding officer running this mission. And there's no one with the power to put out fires on their squad, so he just has to die. And then the entire fucking village starts to burn down, because--
Wait, hold the fuck up, they built the entire village so dragons wouldn't have space to land (even though we've seen dragons crack stone with their talons when they land so wooden buildings are probably not cutting it) but they built everything out of flammable wood?
Turn on your location, editor, I just wanna talk.
They're forced to flee for the town square, the only place wide enough for dragons to land, but as their dragons arrive, so do the wyvern. Aura is killed, and Sgaeyl is locked in combat with a wyvern, leaving Tairn to rescue both Xaden and Violet. Violet fries one of the wyvern as Xaden straps her to his body using his shadows. They all manage to escape and reach Basgiath, but the citrine they needed has been destroyed.
And with it...
“It was sitting next to the necklace,” Mira says as I open it, and Xaden tenses at my side.
Violet, Just a reminder that while I want you to come of your own free will, I’m capable of taking you whenever I wish. Why do you not ask me for the answers you so desperately seek?
—T
“Theophanie.” My stomach hollows.
Either she knows I’m looking for Andarna’s kind…
Or she knows I’m looking for a cure.
Xaden stiffens to the point of statuary. “She knew we’d be there.”
And with that, chapter end.
If the towns are meant to be dragonproof, it's probably more important that they be fireproof than too tight for dragons to land. Because they could land in your bigass town square and just set the whole place on fire. Or they could fly overhead and set the whole place on fire. Or they could fly overhead and bring some riders who control fire or lightning and have them set the whole place on fire.
I'm just saying.
See y'all next time.
