#argosi

[thepathoftheazalea]

I have a question

What do tou think is your greatest talent Argosi ?

Have à nice day evryone !

[gentlemanjackthelass]

Please why aren't more lesbians talking about Ferius Parfax?????

[littledevilswaltz]

My Favourite Thing about the Argosi

(Spellslinger and the Argosi Trilogy Spoilers, obviously)

Okay, so I had my suspicions since Ways of the Argosi, and this feels stupidly obvious, but like...

The point of a teysan travelling with a maetri is that the teysan finds their path following their maetri's path.

Like, obviously you can draw parallels between Ferius and Kellen and Durral/Enna and Ferius because Rambling Thistle informed a lot of Ferius (I'll get to that in a sec)

That scene in Way of Argosi where Durral found Ferius outside the Jan'Tep Territories and then immediately started teaching her about the Argosi reminded me a lot of Spellslinger 1 and how Kellen kept worrying about the Shadowblack taking over him and Ferius kept giving him tough love about it, all "We all got ugliness inside us, Kellen. Yours is worse? Then fight harder. Figure it out. But don’t you ever pretend you don’t have a choice." And after seeing Durral fight off a curse like Ferius' Mahdek Collar, I get why.

Like, how can you not expect all men to be Durral Brown after he tracks you down from the compulsion to kill you and instead saves you and makes you his daughter? How could your standards in men not be that high after meeting Durral Brown??

Anyways, I digress.

Like, in these first moments, I kept thinking that Ferius wanted to pass on to Kellen what Durral gave to her.

For all the yapping on that Way of Water is about balance, i think it's a little more about enrichment. Yes, give 2 wedding rubies when you steal someone's finest horses, sure. But also, how do pay back the gift of a path to walk? Of a name to wear with pride? Of the chance that your people can be more than the arrogant Mahdek killers y'all were raised to be?

There's debts you pay for leaving some poorer than you left them (materially or spiritually), but I also think there's something like a debt in receiving a gift as priceless as an Argosi path, or at least some of those teachings. They make you exponentially richer in spirit than before you'd met the Argosi, and that kind of gift is impossible to pay back.

So you pay it forward.

Argosi training probably goes like this:

1) A teysan asks to learn and the maetri does that irritating test to see if you're really ready.

Ferius nagged Durral to teach her the Argosi Ways in Way of Argosi.

Kellen nagged Ferius to do the same in Spellslinger.

2) Once the maetri accepts them, the teysan walks the path of their maetri to learn the Talents and Ways.

Ferius walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral in Way of Argosi and, although she's running from Durral, continues to learn from Rambling Thistle's lessons in Fall of the Argosi and at the end of it finds the Path of Wild Daisies with Enna's explicit help.

Kellen walks the path of Wild Daisies in Shadowblack and finds himself, The Path of Endless Stars, under the stars of the Seven Sands.

3) The teysan, having found their own path, leaves their maetri's path to walk their own.

Fall of the Argosi is Ferius finding the Path of Wild Daisies. How she gets there, however, is her 'relapse.' Ferius still held onto and even revelled in her hatred of the Jan'Tep, and she not only almost killed Enna as a result, but almost sent Durral off the Path of Rambling Thistle (still mad no one else has thought of what his other Path could be, by anyways).

What differs between Kellen and Ferius, though, is that not only did Enna show Ferius her Path but they also gave her the courage to walk it.

In Sebastian's words: "Trying something new – something difficult which could really result in complete disaster – is easier when you have someone who not only believes in you but makes you believe in yourself." (Fall of the Argosi Acknowledgements)

Enna showed more than enough faith in Ferius for her to walk the Path of Wild Daisies on her own, so Ferius leaves immediately after dropping Binta off with Enna and Durral.

Kellen didn't get that. He only learned to carry those in his heart with him after reading Ferius' letter at the end of Soulbinder and only really internalised it by the end of Crownbreaker.

"Maybe it’s what we can’t change combined with what we choose not to. I thought about the things I’d done in my life. I thought about Reichis and how many times he’d kept me from running. I was a coward, but his courage had sometimes been enough to make me stand and fight. I was weak and foolish, but Ferius’s wisdom had sometimes been enough to make me clever. I was a liar by instinct, but Nephenia’s fearless honesty had taught me to be truthful, sometimes even to myself. Maybe that’s how it was with the queen. I was broken inside, but what if I didn’t need to be good? What if I could just … do good? Could I still be a coward and do the brave thing? Could I still be evil and do the right thing? Wouldn’t that be one hell of a spell?"

Without the self-confidence to walk the Path of Endless Stars alone (rudely ignoring Reichis), Kellen keeps (clumsily) walking the Path of Wild Daisies. That's why Durral and Enna have to intervene and help Kellen take the next step in his Argosi training and stop him from sending Ferius off the Path of Wild Daisies.

And he does.

4) The teysan learns why one becomes an Argosi and becomes a full-fledged Argosi themselves

Ferius in The Letter (the last chapter of Fate of Argosi)

Kellen on the last page of Crownbreaker:

What Started This Whole Post

Reminding me of Kellen's explanation of the Path of Endless Stars on that final page of the series.

But the thing that gets me, though, is that Kellen would never have found the Path of Endless Stars if Spellslinger was about him meeting anyone other than Ferius Parfax. He is the Path of Endless Stars because he (clumsily) walked the Path of Wild Daisies with Ferius for a while. Had Kellen been found by Rosie, for example, he'd never have become the Path of Endless Stars. He might still have become an argosi, but he'd be walking a different path.

Ferius Parfax is the Path of Wild Daisies because she (crudely) walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral and Enna.

Had Rosie Met Durral or Enna that night she was about to 'assassinate' those kids instead of Penta, she would not have become the Path of Thorns and Roses (or been nicknamed Rosie).

Everytime Kellen thinks of Ferius’ lessons, or Ferius thinks of Enna and Durral's lessons, it reminds me of

This sentiment gets me every fucking time and I screamed whenever I made connections between the two series around this theme.

I cannot thank Sebastian De Castell enough for giving me my own Argosi Path through these books. It's such a privilege to have read these books.

[siidequests]

CHARMCASTER

12/50 2025

"Not everybody hates you, kid. There are entire countries full of people who haven't met you yet."

[maryamaaaa]

okey Ferius Parfax

[pathofthewilddaisy]

im a spellslinger blog now. i just finished the fall of the argosi and ive successfully completed the entire series

I WAS RIGHT I WAS RIGHT I WAS RIGHT IM SURE OF IT I CANT FIND NAYTHING ONLINE CONFIRMING IT BUT? SHADOW FALCON? WIFE? YOUNG SON? COME ONNNN ITS GOTTA BE THAT

[thepathofjoyfultears]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[books-crooks-plants]

Oh

It came!!!