Onyx Storm: Chapter 21
Mar. 12th, 2025 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaViolet and her new squad arrive at Tecarus's palace on their way to Deverelli.
Tairn wants to ditch Halden and his guard, who are being carried as well as all the riders/fliers and are therefore a burden. Frankly, it seems silly to send your heir on a dangerous mission where he could easily be killed and if I were the king, and had already had one son die and another go missing for a year, I would not be sending my remaining child off willy-nilly. Just appoint a Navarrian ambassador or at least send your kid with more than one guard.
Violet notes that she is in a combat uniform for the first time, which is black and has no patches, as opposed to the cadet ones, which have the identifiers that tell you more information (like if you have a classified signet, LOL). Did they not supply her with a real uniform while she was off rebelling? Or when she was on that mission earlier in the book as punishment from Aetos? Or during the war games?
As Tecarus greets them, Xaden and Halden immediately start a dick-measuring contest. Look, this jealousy shit was boring when it was about Cat and it's boring when it's about Halden. These aren't real threats to Xaden and Violet's relationship, they're just here to fulfill a trope. Anyways, Xaden needles Halden about his authority until Halden announces that Xaden isn't here as a professor, which is what Xaden wants so that he can whisk Violet off for sex.
Again: even if he and Violet break the code by fucking, who is going to do anything about it and why? Why does anyone even care this much? Sure, it's not optimal that two powerful rebel riders are in love, but making it illegal for them to fuck is not breaking them up! It's probably ensuring they'll stay in love out of spite!
More venin lore, I guess. I don't know why Yarros even bothered with the whole "I read intentions, not minds" bullshit with Xaden anyway--if you were going to give him a forbidden signet, just fucking give him the mind reading. It's not like Violet cares. And the fliers all primarily do mind magic.
Tecarus visits Violet and Xaden to give them some advice and to help them out--it'll look bad if Halden arrives in a basket, so he's going to lend them a ship and let them meet at another one of his estates further north so that Halden can travel separately and in style. Also so he can warn them in Deverelli that a dragon is coming, so that no one attacks them on accident.
Wait, okay. So the dragons have no way to communicate without magic and therefore can never go over water? I guess if they're native to Navarre, that seems like a reasonable restriction, and if they're inherently magical creatures, I guess it makes sense that magic is needed to communicate at all. But wait, Tairn still has his bond with Violet and Andarna...but not his mating bond? What?
That doesn't make sense, like, at all. But the chapter is over.
Tairn wants to ditch Halden and his guard, who are being carried as well as all the riders/fliers and are therefore a burden. Frankly, it seems silly to send your heir on a dangerous mission where he could easily be killed and if I were the king, and had already had one son die and another go missing for a year, I would not be sending my remaining child off willy-nilly. Just appoint a Navarrian ambassador or at least send your kid with more than one guard.
Violet notes that she is in a combat uniform for the first time, which is black and has no patches, as opposed to the cadet ones, which have the identifiers that tell you more information (like if you have a classified signet, LOL). Did they not supply her with a real uniform while she was off rebelling? Or when she was on that mission earlier in the book as punishment from Aetos? Or during the war games?
As Tecarus greets them, Xaden and Halden immediately start a dick-measuring contest. Look, this jealousy shit was boring when it was about Cat and it's boring when it's about Halden. These aren't real threats to Xaden and Violet's relationship, they're just here to fulfill a trope. Anyways, Xaden needles Halden about his authority until Halden announces that Xaden isn't here as a professor, which is what Xaden wants so that he can whisk Violet off for sex.
Again: even if he and Violet break the code by fucking, who is going to do anything about it and why? Why does anyone even care this much? Sure, it's not optimal that two powerful rebel riders are in love, but making it illegal for them to fuck is not breaking them up! It's probably ensuring they'll stay in love out of spite!
It feels so right to be in his arms.
“Because it is,” he says, holding me tighter.
I blink and pull back to look at him. “I didn’t say that out loud.”
His brow furrows. “Then you must have thought it down the bond, because I wasn’t pushing into your intentions.”
My heart races for a different reason. No. But… maybe. “Or your signet is growing.”
More venin lore, I guess. I don't know why Yarros even bothered with the whole "I read intentions, not minds" bullshit with Xaden anyway--if you were going to give him a forbidden signet, just fucking give him the mind reading. It's not like Violet cares. And the fliers all primarily do mind magic.
Tecarus visits Violet and Xaden to give them some advice and to help them out--it'll look bad if Halden arrives in a basket, so he's going to lend them a ship and let them meet at another one of his estates further north so that Halden can travel separately and in style. Also so he can warn them in Deverelli that a dragon is coming, so that no one attacks them on accident.
These seem like basic things Halden and his people should have thought of when making contact with a foreign power that has been cut off for at least a century.
“Excellent.” Tecarus nods. “A word to the wise…” He glances between us. “I may collect rarities, but King Courtlyn absconds with them. Do not wander off from each other, do not advertise what a rare jewel you are, and at all costs— do not make a deal you cannot keep.”And as they set out over the ocean on their dragons, it happens. Everyone's magic fades, including the dragons, and this also means no one can communicate. Including the dragons.
Wait, okay. So the dragons have no way to communicate without magic and therefore can never go over water? I guess if they're native to Navarre, that seems like a reasonable restriction, and if they're inherently magical creatures, I guess it makes sense that magic is needed to communicate at all. But wait, Tairn still has his bond with Violet and Andarna...but not his mating bond? What?
That doesn't make sense, like, at all. But the chapter is over.
