Trying to re-read to understand everything that went down in those last chapters of Onyx Storm BUT MY GODS I CANNOT READ IMOGEN AND QUINN AGAIN I just bawl my eyes out every-time BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE THING IN THAT SCENE HURTS
Onyx Storm Chapter 63 Analysis & Theories. (because I must know what it all means & what happened, so here’s my fresh out the final chapters thoughts… this is of course FULL of MAJOR book SPOILERS): Part 1
*Orange equals book highlights, Purple equals good/important quotes, Pink equals my notes.*
Bodhi’s in trouble. —Where did Bodhi go off to… if he’s missing could he be the one that goes with Xaden?— I grit my teeth. He doesn't get it. If we lose both him and Riorson, Tyrrendor falls to whomever the king appoints. I'd rather die than see a Navarrian aristocrat on the burned throne Mom and Katrina died defending. —Is it that Bodhi truly wants nothing to do with the throne… is that the confusion that leads to him going with Xaden?— The flame of perpetual rage that lives in my chest burns hotter. Fuck that horde. Fuck the venin who ride them. Fuck that unholy vortex of a tornado at the end of the northern field, —yes I kept a map of where everyone was— and fuck the orders to stay grounded in these winds. We're not losing Bodhi. —Rebecca this better be true— There are still too many wyvern despite the inhuman amount Sorrengail just dispatched, and where the fuck is Riorson? —Where did he and Sgaeyl go off to? Were they already kidnapped?— He'd better be helping in the northeastern tower, —that damned tower— because I haven't seen a trace of a shadow in the last twenty minutes. "Cruth reports we did not bring a sufficient supply," Glane warns, relaying Quinn's message from the armory in the turret below. Godsdamn it. "We brought two cases!" Enough to start a war within our own kingdom, considering Riorson has been withholding our forge's weapons from King Tauri. —Was there a side mission here for the daggers? Was that among the reasons Xaden would not trade them?— "Nuirlach says they've sent for more." She doesn't sound hopeful. "From four hours away? How—" —Oh shit. Felix knows about Garrick. Gods, he has to be nearing burnout at this point. —Garrick is the one jumping… and Garrick will be burnt out… and maybe have to draw from something else; my bet is him or Bodhi— "Then we hold out and pray Sorrengail can stop that fucking storm." —Which she cannot… especially because “the storm” becomes Xaden— Blue fire —that’s not the weird Liam signet right? That’s just Wyvern fire?— engulfs Cuir from snout to horns, and Bodhi ducks his head as the remnants of flame roll down Cuir's —remember how this book told us which dragon is which? I think this is why… it’s telling us who’s in trouble and who’s not— neck, extinguishing to smoke before they reach him. I inhale swiftly to dispel the sudden tightness in my chest. That was way too damned close.
"You are to defend the tower from the walls with the wingleader," —They don’t mean Xaden… damn— Glane relays with a disagreeing snarl, banking left for a parallel approach. "Great. Get me on the wall, now." The dark wielders are less than thirty feet from the door of the turret, and the two remaining guards in the cross-bolt launch platform above look ready to flee. Damn it. They were supposed to be safe. No one was supposed to know, but the purposeful strides of those dark wielders prove they know what's happening in that tower. —WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THAT TOWER?!— "Your death would annoy me." Glane slows just enough so I'll survive and extends her foreleg as she flies along the northern wall. "Same." I race down the scales of her unwounded leg. —the injury count got too high— Commotion erupts from the base of the tower, but I focus on the dark wielder and the staff he carries in his right hand. "There evacuating the weapons on foot," Glane says. Good. My lungs burn, but I breathe a little easier. Quinn will be safe. Another set of footsteps joins mine, and a flash of metal sparks in the corner of my eye. Aetos catches up on my right, half his face drenched in blood, —What’s up with Dain… where has he been?.. we need a Molly Weasley moment esp. with the upcoming ending— bearing his own dagger and a shield half his size. Shit. That's not good. I channel my rage, rejecting any notion of fear, and draw one of my alloy-hilted daggers from the sheath at my arm in preparation to strike. We're almost there—The dark wielder pivots, whipping to face us with an unnatural speed even I can't match, and swings his staff in our direction. Fire erupts, barreling toward us in a deadly stream, and I weigh our options for all of a millisecond as we skid to a halt. It hits? We die. Jump? We die. "You will not burn!" Glane demands. Fuck, I really didn't want to have to do this, but I mentally open the door to my childhood home and flood my body with her power. —I know the door is just a place… however to me it almost sounds like somewhere she intentionally does not go… does she have a second signet? Is that how she survives this?— "Get—" Aetos starts to yell. "Get behind me!" I shout, ripping the shield from his grip. His eyes flare wide, and he lets go. We have seconds, so I flip the shield, then slam its flat top between the row of stones at our feet and drop behind it, keeping my hand on the leather strap. Aetos jumps behind me as power rushes into my fingers so quickly I clench my teeth to keep from screaming. Heat surrounds us and the leather hardens in my grip as the shield turns to stone. —Imogen is fast, and can erase memories… that is the powers we know of… what is missing here?— Fire roars, blazes, flows around us. We are the rock in the river, demanding the water part. The heat dissipates as the blast ends, and Aetos dives to the left and throws. An alloy-hilted dagger sails from his hand and I rise, clutching my own. The dark wielder's expression of shock remains permanent as he desiccates —see end chapter people; it wasn’t ALL Xaden!— a few feet away and falls off the wall. One down, but the guards are missing from the top of the turret, and I see a flash of purple disappear into the tower. Worse, another dressed in crimson strides along the eastern wall. Aetos jumps to his feet and draws his remaining dagger. "I'll take that one. You get the one in the tower. "And we're going to talk about whatever the fuck that just was later," —Whatever it was is big enough to be added to the “list of things Dain will talk about later” which is primarily second signets— he shouts over his shoulder, but l've already passed him, using lesser magic to boost my speed. —So, lesser magic is the speed booster… meaning room for a second signet—
I stare at the other side of the staircase, locked in the memory, watching as the stones begin to pale, then lose their color one by one, each loss higher than the last. —Is this Xadens channeling moment from another view point in time— My heart somehow continues to beat, marking what I used to think of as time, and color disappears from the stones in the bend beneath us so gradually that I can't help but wonder if Quinn simply took the color with her. "Quinn!" someone bellows from above, and footsteps thunder. —but no lightening— "Where are you? We have to go—"
I notice the circles beneath his beautiful eyes, the unusual pallor of his complexion. —He’s Venin isn’t he…— He's exhausted, and for the first time in my life, I don't care that he's seeing me at my weakest, because he's right there, too. My chin tips in a nod. "All right." He moves quickly to the step beneath us, kicking something out of the way —what?— and gathering both of us into his arms. I lock mine around Quinn so she doesn't slip as we're lifted off the floor, and the landing beneath us loses its color. "Let's get you out of here." He takes a single step. Heat and light force my eyes shut as my stomach careens. When I open them, we're somewhere else. Rain falls through an open doorway, and the scent of smoke and sulfur fills my lungs. —a forges flame?—
"Are you weaving?" he asks Trissa. "We're starting." Her gaze darts over me. —more of those runes?.. did they plan the forge? How did they know Andarna would show… what other Irid came?— "They'll be weak until we can bolster with more power, but they're our best shot." "It's still not enough." —he seems like Xaden did last book— Garrick's head hangs as he stands. "I can't..." —until he does doesn’t he… dammit it’s Garrick— He sighs and strides through the door. I obey the simple instinct to follow, shoving myself to my feet and forcing my body to move. There's a battle. We're in a war. Malek might claim more lives. —I do not like this foreshadowing— I follow him past the little room where Felix works beside cases of alloy-hilted daggers, all imbued, all humming with power. Then I step outside into the rain and stare. Cruth sails through the sky and takes a wyvern straight to the ground. Bodhi is on his hands and knees across the town square, retching. —What happened to Bodhi? Is he on his hands and knees draining or what?— If dark wielders are draining the city walls, we're next. —Xaden didn’t… even as the ultimate dark wielder cause shadow Venin— "Where are you going?" —GOOD QUESTION— I shout at Garrick's back. "I can't walk again. Even if I made it to Aretia, I'd never be strong enough to get back," —either he’s lost… — he calls over his shoulder. "So, I'd better find some fucking way to do something." —… or he found the way… as Venin—
I unsheathe my last alloy-hilted dagger and stare up at the wyvern-filled sky. Then I make my way back inside, slip Quinn's last dagger from her thigh sheath, and reach for Glane. "Tell every rider within the walls to get over here and disarm. —why would they disarm???— It's the only way we're living through this." Outside, the sky darkens further. —Is that Xaden?— Sorrengail better take their leader all the way the fuck out, or this will all have been for nothing. —all of WHAT?!—
