ACOTAR: Rhysand Deep Dive Part 2 - What Drives our High Lord Illyrian Baby?

0:00 Abby and fuck Mary kill Cassie and Azrael resend. Do you know my answer? I can guess your answer and I think I'm going to be so mad at you and you're going to be so mad at me, right? Why don't we do that? Why don't we guess for each other? All right, so you ready? As I'll ever be. They put out a request on Instagram a couple weeks ago, maybe a week ago. I said, hey Instagram, I'm about to finish Kingdom of Ash. This is the second time this year I'm about to finish Kingdom of Ash.

0:44 I know what's coming for me. I know the emotional hangover is going to be real and I don't want to deal with it. Please recommend a fun spicy book for me to read where I don't have to think too hard. Please give me something. And I got like I got a lot of responses. I got like 50 responses, but like the biggest one was kiss the most frequent one, the people.

1:04 The one that people recommended most was Kiss of the Basket list by Lindsey Straub, I think is her name. Apologize if I got that wrong. Kiss of the Bass list. OK, so I bought it. I was like guys, this fucking book. This fucking book, OK? I have never, I want to be clear, I read it in a day and a half, OK? I was cemented to my couch.

1:26 I did not move. I have never read a book like this before and I will admit I don't read like super duper spicy shit, but this book was fucking unhinged off the wall. I loved it. I really did love it. It is not smart. I mean it's kind of smart. I I actually think it's smarter than people like give it credit for like and I do think that the characters are provoking at all.

1:50 Yes, I would say it is. I would say it is, and I don't want to give too much away, but this is not a book where like sex is like sprinkled in like sex is the point of the book. Like it is a sex based magic system basically and I don't want to give anything else away from from that but like it is an integral part of the book. Interesting.

2:11 It's really interesting and I thought it was. I actually people hate the female main character. They think she's really dumb. I understand why they think that. Like she makes dumb choices. And by the second, like the back third of the book, I was like, Oh my God, like, like I cannot keep reading all this fucking basically, like I can't keep doing this.

2:31 But I do think it set has really interesting things to say about like sex and like female empowerment and like what like how you kind of grow into yourself as a woman when you start having sex. I think those ideas are in there and they're good, but it is not necessarily deep or anything like that. But Oh my fucking God, it is so fun. If you are looking for a mindless, spicy book, I really do highly recommend it.

2:52 And you're going to know by chapter 2 if you love it or hate it. So if it's if you've read chapter 2 and you're like, this is not for me. This is true out there. And I and I openly admit that this book gets really fucking depraved. And like really crazy shit happens. OK? Like it is only like, not even in my wildest dreams, OK. But like if you are looking for a fun, spicy book, OK. Thank you and everyone who recommended. It to me mindless reads list.

3:19 Yeah, yeah. And I don't want to really give anything away because she even says, like, you know how some really spicy books will have trigger warnings? I actually don't even think this had any because there's really. But there's not. There's not. It's not like there's nothing. It's not like that question.

3:34 No handcuffs. There's no like BDSM stuff. It's not like that. There's just a lot of facts. But she's like, it's best to go into this not knowing anything. So like I'm, I don't want to say anything more, but like you will know quickly if you like it. I, I liked it. I thought it was too long. I thought it could have been probably 100, your page is shorter and it would have been fine. But like, I really liked it.

3:53 I've just put that up there and now you can judge me however much you want cuz some people hate this book and think it's really fucking dumb and I hear you and I see you. But it's fun. It's really fun. Can I just tell you that I just searched it on my Kindle and you left out the second part of the title, which is?

4:11 A split or swallow novel, Yes. So apparently, apparently this book. I had heard about this book before. It was originally published as split or swallow. That was the name of the book and she published it independently. I might be wrong here. I didn't do any research on this. I mean, it sounds just.

4:27 The name of the series. It got picked up by a publisher and they were like, you can't call that that. You have to change it like. So she's like, I'm gonna name the series that. Yeah, so she was like, okay, I'll write a sequel, I guess. I don't know. I really, I actually don't know that that works based on how the book ended. But yes, I don't I don't know if you are looking for intense spice as a person who doesn't like I don't read any of those. I don't read those motorcycle novels. I haven't read lights out.

4:55 I would. You're looking at me like, what is that? Like? Do you not have this on your algorithm? Like the motorcycle, like helmet guys do not have this. No, no, just my algorithm. Okay, no, I think there's like a whole sub genre of like, I don't even know if you'd call it romance. I think what happens on Instagram is people will literally just like take pictures of their Kindle of the spicy scenes and then like white out, like the like the bad word. And I'm like, yeah, well, obviously I'm going to fucking read this.

5:24 And Instagram knows what it is, right? And they're like, OK, now you get motorcycle guys, you know, and like the hockey guys and like, it's this whole world out there anyway. Yeah. Read Kiss of the Basilisk is what I say. If you're looking for that. If you're not, it's not going to be for you. Mindless.

5:41 Spice. Perfect, mindless spice. Yeah. I feel like in the discord you said it well, which was it was following up a post for a book recommendation that was like you will like this if you will not like it if you don't like and you were just like you will like this if you like spice. Yeah. And that's how I feel about it. That's how I feel about it.

6:01 Great, you heard it here first. Kiss her back first. Yeah, I mean, it is on Kindle Unlimited, so probably. And the sequel's coming out shit in three days. I think good timing, good timing, good timing, good timing. So it will be out by the time. It'll be out by the time this is published. Dang. Well, if you want.

6:19 A sequel is 2 books between 2 Kings, I cannot stress that. I see. Yeah, you should see. Yeah, I see. Anyway, OK, All right. Well, hi, I'm Ronnie. I'm Abby. And this is Dragons in the Details, where we pick apart our favorite fantasy series over the course of an undetermined number of episodes. We are covering A Court of Thorns and Roses, the series also known as Akatar by Sarah J Maas. The full series, all 5 published books at this point. As an aside, I really, I really want an Aqatar 6 announcement this year.

6:55 I don't know if we're gonna think we're getting it. I think we're gonna. I feel like we are. It feels like the signs of the universe are pointing that way. Yeah, well she took what like I'm not OK to say that I'm not a conspiracy theorist would be like I was straight up bald faced lie. But I'm not about things in the real world, right? Yeah, so, but all the I don't.

7:13 Know all the questions about Avril Lavigne? I won't lie. All the girlies out there who like, follow this stuff are like, oh, Bloomsbury took down one of their pinned posts because they're going to make room for another pinned post. And I'm like, I don't know if you say so. I I just want it to be true.

7:29 So I'm choosing to believe you, but. I want it to be true. I also am shamelessly just consuming information on social media about people who are saying that in the book industry like Q4 is a good time to announce a new book, Q1 is a good time to release a new book, Q1Q2. Oh my God, you think we could get this as early as the next early next year?

7:51 I think Q2, early Q2 is realistic if if they announce in Q4. All right then we might be going back to Prithian real soon. We this podcast. Yeah, I don't know. I think 6 to 9 months is typical. I don't know how much she would she in particular would give us because do you think like do you think she thinks about us? Do you think she knows?

8:11 Like if I knew them? No, no, just all of us collective, we everybody here is listening. Do do you think she thinks and says if I give them nine months, they're going to do depraved things on the Internet. They're going to lose their mind if I give them nine months to contemplate what's going to happen in this.

8:29 Book I don't know, I don't know because I too also like you know, this and we're just on a total challenge here, but it's fine like. I'll get back to the intro in a moment. I'm new to romanticy, so I don't know what it was like when ACOTAR came out. Like was, was social media, was book talk even a thing when ACOTAR came out? Or was it like that didn't really happen till later, right? So we're in like kind of this whole like uncharted territory here, right?

8:52 Yeah, I don't think so. Yes, I'm just waiting for books in general. When you're in the middle of a series like we're waiting for Empyrean, we're waiting for Agatar, we're waiting for many, it's horrible. It's horrible, I know. I cannot tell you. Just to bring it back to this, how happy I was to read Kiss of the Baseless and then find out that the sequel was coming out in like 10 days. I was like, yes, yes.

9:15 Yes, and like, there's nothing quite as uplifting as knowing that a book release is coming like I'm, I am. I enjoyed Quicksilver. I thought it was super fun. I am pumped that Brimstone is coming out. I'm like new content about a world and a magic system and characters that I know about and I'm aware of.

9:33 Excellent. Yeah, excellent. In time for me to reread it during Thanksgiving. Excellent. 10 out of 10. Anyways, disclaimer, these episodes will will contain spoilers for the entire A Court of Thorns and Roses series, the entire series. We will announce any other masks for spoilers ahead of time and we will keep them to the end. If you're new here, we keep the second-half of our half is a loose word.

9:59 We keep the masks for section second. So we'll announce when we're going to talk about other series by Sarah J Masks. And if you're not new here, you know the drill. Other disclaimer, this podcast is rated R. You've probably figured that out by now based on our conversation. Do not listen to this podcast with your children.

10:18 Don't do it. Abby likes to say do what you want. I'm saying I'm saying don't do it. Each week we dive into a specific topic in depth. This week is a Part 2 of two. We are focusing on the poor baby high Lord himself. Resand go listen to Part 1 if you haven't yet. Well you honestly these are pretty standalone.

10:39 I would suggest you listen to Part 1. You don't really need to, you have free will, but it would it would be good if you did and we came with receipts. Part 1 was bigger theories. These are kind of like smaller moments with Reese. So, you know, they're kind of more specific things I would say. In my head and I actually, we never really know how we're going to title these episodes until we actually do all the show notes and everything. But in my head, my notes for the last episode were what is Reese? And for this episode, it's like who is who is Reese? Yeah.

11:09 I like that. I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you're more curious about what is recent, you haven't listened to that episode yet, pop on over there, come back later. We're coming with receipts. We have quotes to back up any theories so you can follow along if you are skeptical. You also don't have to. We don't judge Abby announcements. Right, so as always our deep dive music is brought to you by Schwidley.

11:31 That is SCHWOODLEY. They are a real artist that is not AI generated. Other than that, as per usual, please tell your friends about us. Like rate, comment, subscribe, review, etcetera. That helps us out a lot. We are a baby podcast, but we are trying to grow. I don't think we have anything else. Think so?

11:52 Nope, I'm good. Corrections, omissions, social media shout outs. Abby, do you have any to share with the class? I do. So there is an account on Instagram that I just want to shout out. She follows us and she DM Ed me and it was like I was talking to myself I was so fucking excited. So the account is named Diary of a night lizard.

12:14 I don't know if she actually listens to the podcast or she just follows us on Instagram. Her name is Liz but she does a lot of what we do. So she has very receipt based quote based posts. She does more carousels, less real and I will not tell you what she DMD me because it is a maths first theory, but basically she was like, I think this is what's going on. And I was like, Oh my God, I think that's what's going on too.

12:35 And it was like we just like chatted for a while and it was like talking to talking to you, which was awesome. So she and both this theory and my masters Cosm are going to be from from Diary of a night Lizard. So I'm just paraphrasing here, but this is about Moore once again. And it was about, we talked about the possibility that what Moore was seeing was Bree Axis in the in Athawood, the the like sleeping figure or the sleeping shadow that she sees that could be Briaxis.

13:05 And I said, well, isn't it interesting then that Moore is seeing Briaxis in his true form potentially and no one else sees him? And why would that be? And she made a really good point. She said Moore's gift is truth, right? So if she is seeing Briaxis, is it just because she sees things as they truly are? I don't know, but I thought that was an interesting idea. It could be a good way to tie that up if that was re access. I would like that because that's still such a conundrum in my mind.

13:31 It's like, what is what is more truth? Truth power, honestly. And how is that actually going to end up being useful? But if she can see beings in their true form, I can think of a lot of beings who don't exist in their true form. That would be very, very useful to see. Well, yeah, I mean, how does she see Amrin, right, If that's true, I don't know, maybe it falls apart pretty quickly. Yeah.

13:56 It doesn't work at all, but I like the idea. She Amrin bound her. Well, Amrin bound herself to a mortal body, so maybe she just saw more of what was within Amrin. I don't know. I don't know. I like it. That's why I cause them. Did you have any others? I don't have any actor, only Cosmes, no. All right, moving right along then we have a fun question this week we did this for the Archer on Sisters and thought it was super fun. So we're bringing it back for our final episode on the Bad boys.

14:24 Abby Fuck Mary Kill Cassian Azrael recent. Do you know my answer? I can guess your answer and I think I'm going to be so mad at you and you're going to be so mad at me. Why don't we do that? Why don't we guess for each other? OK, OK, I'm into that. I think you are going to marry Cassian, you're going to fuck Azrael and you're going to kill Reese and. No, I'm going to marry Cassian.

14:47 I'm going to marry Cassian, but I'm going to fuck Reese and kill Azrael. OK, OK. Azrael doesn't seem very fun in bed so far, right? Like, you're pretty fucking Moody. He has shadows. Reese has Shadow. That's true, yeah. But I'm, well, you know what I'm doing with Reese. Yeah. I definitely marry Cassian. Cassian has my heart and soul because I'm just going to say it, my number one book husband #1 for sure, across all books is Cassian.

15:13 I think that's true for you. Yes, I agree. From from conversations not on this Not on this podcast as well. Can confirm, never as passionate as she is about Cassian. Reese, I love him too. I love him too. I would love to fuck him. That would be super. Akamaf Reese, 11 out of 10. Akamaf Reese. So good yeah, Azrael just seems like, I don't know, he's kind of a wild card so far.

15:38 I don't know that much about him. He seems pretty Moody, did not like the way he behaved in that bonus chapter. So yeah, I'm not saying I don't like him. I'm just saying in this game he is the one that I'm. Asking in this game, you're putting him last, yeah. All right, You are marrying Reese. Always and forever.

15:53 Every single time. I think you're going to fuck Nazreel. I think you're going to kill Cassian. Well, I kind of gave you that, but yes, that is what I'm going to do you. Can't be mad at me. Yes, yeah, yes, yeah. That is, yes, I mean, I will be marrying Reece always and forever, and you can hate me all you want in the comments.

16:11 That's going to remain true and we'll talk about in this episode. We will, we will. And the Cassian and Nazreel thing was not personal. To be clear, I love them both. I really do love them both. But when I think about stylistically how I like how each of them. Are what it was. Yeah, yeah. Not into a long hair guy.

16:31 Yeah, You know me. Clean and neat, like it's as real. Yeah. And he's also just, like, darker and moodier and that, that works for me. It works. Does it? Would be so funny if at any point people saw us with our real life partners because they would be like, yeah, Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We both like Cassian like it was going to be like Cassian is just another marriage material man for me, right? So if it, it was going to be either Mary Reece or Mary. Cassian.

17:03 So that's I. Understand. It's tough. I understand and I'm sorry. And Azrael is Azrael is you're drunken mistake when you don't know what you quite want and then you realize you want Reece. Azrael is the drunken mistake. Yeah, you're so right. As is the drunken mistake. And then you end up with the better version. Sorry, as that's really sorry as we can't wait for your story, though.

17:23 We're very looking forward to it. And we might eat our words. We might. We might eat our words. We are a podcast where we are OK with that, you know? Yep, totally. OK, we said this. A lot in the Imperian season, and I've never said it once in this season. We reserve the right to change our minds, by the way, like we're. Wrong often.

17:40 All the time about theories about everything, like we could be. We're wrong about all of it and we recognize that and we're OK with it. Guys like. It's for fun. It's for fun and we might change our minds as we realize new things, we might change our minds. We've already kind of done that this season.

17:55 So just a friendly reminder that we're people and we are wrong. All right. Yep. OK, that's fun. I enjoyed that. That was fun. Can we do that with the death gods when we get there too? Yes, I have. I think I can come up with the answer right now. We're not going to, but I think I could. Yes. And we're keeping that in to be clear. All right, shall we deep dive?

18:17 Yes. OK, Abby, why has Reece failed to trap the cereal twice? OK guys, this is a very specific thing, but I think it's interesting to talk about so early in Akimath, when Reece is trying to recruit Farah, he says to her, You have a skill set that I need. Rumor has it that you caught a cereal. It wasn't that hard, he says. I've tried and failed twice, but that's a discussion for another day.

18:47 Yeah. But that other day has not yet come right? But she says I've tried. I've tried twice. It seems like one of those things you're supposed to pay attention to this entire answer is could be something, could be nothing. But there are some interesting things that occur with Reese and the cereal that I think is worth is worth talking about.

19:03 S 1st kind of general question. Why would Reese need to trap a cereal right? What kind of questions would Reese have for cereal based on what we know about him? So I just kind of have a list of speculation and then I'll get more into theories. He's already a De Mahdi. He has a lot of powers. He can read people's minds, as we discussed at length in the last episodes.

19:21 Like what would he want to know? And we also talked about this in the Elaine episode, the serial not very good at telling the future, much better at telling the current situation rather than things in the future, right? So what would Reese want to know from the serial? One of the things that we know that Reese has is an oriree, which is basically a mechanical model of the universe in his study. So.

19:42 So the quote for that is Cassian says it could track not only the sun but also tell time, and it's somehow allowed Reese to ponder the existence of life beyond their own world and other things Cassian had again, instantly forgotten. That's in 1/4 of Silver Flames Chapter 3. So could one of the things he wants to know be about existence beyond their own world? Right.

20:00 We know that Ameren came from somewhere else. We know that Reese knows that he has built this or he is thinking about it. Did he want to trap the cereal to ask about questions beyond their own world? I don't know, that's speculation. Or things get really weird with Reese and Farrah and the cereal when the cereal tells Farrah that Reese is her mate.

20:21 Did did he, did he want to trap the cereal to ask questions about his one day mate? Did he want to know what has happened, What was happening? We've kind of speculated that Tamlin might have tried to trap the cereal to figure out how to break in Marantha's curse. We know that Reese was having these dreams about this woman who was painting, right?

20:37 So did he maybe want to trap the cereal to find out about who that was, what was going? I think that's possible. So that's two instances when he could have tried to trap the cereal. Yeah. There's there's conversation that Pharaoh has with the cereal about Reese being her mate is kind of weird. So what happens is the cereal tells Pharaoh that that Reese is her mate. Pharaoh comes back to The Cave, confronts Reese, and he says you, you ensnared the cereal how he'd pieced it together. I didn't give a shit.

21:06 Right. So something about Pharaoh knowing that Reese was her mate made Reese think of the cereal, right? Yeah. So I feel like there's some story we're not being told here with Farrah, and then a couple weird things happen when Farrah traps the cereal and has that conversation with the cereal. So yeah, she asked the cereal how much blood she needs to cure Reese and the cereal. The cereal cocked its head, the bone gleaming in the light. Your blood.

21:32 Give him your blood, Curse breaker. It is rich with the healing gift of the High Lord of Dawn. It shall spare him from the blood Blain's wrath. That's it. I pushed how much blood? A few mouthfuls will do. A hollow dry wind, not at all like the misty cold veils that usually drifted past brush my face, right? So usually when Feyra's talking to the cereal, it's misty cold veils.

21:52 But for some reason, when she's talking about giving Reese her blood, a hollow dry wind brushes past. We get one other example. And again, this is a whole. Could be something, they could be nothing. There's another example of a hollow dry wind happening in this book, and only one other point as far as I can tell.

22:07 But it is when Feyra and Reese are outside the Weaver's cottage and Reese is teasing Fey Terra about sleeping with Cassian. So Feyra basically says we'll tell Cassian that I'm open to his advances. And Reese says good. A bit of hollowed out air pushed against me like a flicker of night. That power along my bones and blood stirred an answer. And that's an Akimaf Chapter 20.

22:28 So outside the Weaver's cottage, this seems to be like Reese's power, like kind of being jealous, kind of rising up, like not liking the idea of Feyre and Cassie and sleeping together obviously because they're mates. But in this case, Reese is like a dying in a cave. So I don't really know that that is Reese's power. I don't really know what that works like. Like is this the cereals power?

22:47 And then we also have the quote when the cereal dies, Fey returns back and says, I could have sworn that pile of ashes was stirred by a phantom wind. So we have hollow dry wind with both Reese and the cereal. And then we have this idea of the phantom wind stirring the cereals acid. And Reese, I feel like Reese definitely floats things on Phantom winds. Feel like that's been a thing.

23:08 Yeah. I can't remember a specific example of that happening, but yeah, yeah. Neither can I, but feels right. Yeah, I feel like he did it with an orange or something at one point. He definitely missed something orange. Yeah. Well, yeah, I think he does do it with a drink. Yeah. Can't remember exactly. So Farah also speculates when she catches the cereal to find out how to cure Reese, that the cereal let itself be caught this time.

23:32 So that quote is some primal, lingering human. Part of me trembled as I took in the snare around its legs, heading it to the ground. Perhaps this time the cereal had let itself be caught and knew how to free itself, had learned that the moment I'd spared it from the not a. So she's saying the cereal let itself be caught.

23:47 And then the way that's the cereal just offers up the meat, the mate tidbit like for free, basically. Like fair is just like, how do I cure him? And he's like, yeah, well, it's like, oh, who your mate? And it's like it. Fair is like what? Yeah. So like I mean. It actually says it in passing. Like, yeah, it could be argued that the Surreal didn't even know that Farah didn't know.

24:12 Except for that the Surreal knows everything, everything, everything, right? So says if he if he wish to speed your mate's healing. Yeah, but we are getting kind of like threads of the cereal and Reese both having this hollow wind, the cereal telling Pharah for whatever reason, offering up this mate tidbit earlier than perhaps Reese would have, right?

24:35 And we also were told like, maybe the cereal let itself get caught. Ameren says at one point that the Cauldron lays all the pieces on the board basically, right? The Cauldron lays the pieces out on the board. She's talking about the blades that Nesta has imbued with her power, the death swords. Is that kind of what's happening here? Like is the serial acting as an agent of the Cauldron or something?

24:56 Like why is the serial other than the obvious, like we obviously know we want recent favor to be together, but like, why does the serial want recent favor to be together? Like what is the? What is the tie there? I don't really know. I didn't have an answer. Do you have an answer? I have thoughts, but I did focus on why Reese, why Reese in particular might not be able to capture the surreal, not as much about why the surreal was the one really for saying brought. Wasn't that the question?

25:22 Well, yeah, I mean, it was why, yeah, I guess that failed. I was interested in why he was going after the cereal, why he failed to trap the cereal I think is. Also a great question. Yeah. I mean, to respond to what you brought up, I do think it's interesting that the cereal has said many things that seem to be egging Reece and Farah together. Like, it seemed to your point, like almost an agent of the Cauldron.

25:47 If the Cauldron does indeed determine mates, stay, stay with the High Lord, which we later get as an allusion to priests, not Tamlin. Yeah. The surreal tells Farrah that Reese is her mate. The surreal keeps Reese alive, actually on 2 occasions, which is kind of noteworthy. What's the second one?

26:07 Reese is dying as Farrah says Day, I want you to stay. Yeah. And thinks of the surreal in that moment when he says stay with the High Lord. Right. And it will be righted. Well, yeah, so I guess it was kind of in that way. The surreal has saved Reese's life twice, right? Because. Because she tugs on that bond.

26:25 Right, if Farrah, OK, so just to to tease this out here, the first time we're talking about is in these caves when the surreal tells Farrah to have Reese drink her blood and it was safer from the Favane from the blood bane. The second time is when Reese dies after the cauldron. Farrah stays right? And that's what you're saying, like Farrah says, stay. Like Farrah's mating bond, Farrah's clinging to that mating bond seems like it kept for when the High Lords all contributed. Kind of their kernel that brought Reese back. Yeah, we'll talk about that later. I took a different approach and chosen Stead to think about why Reese might not have captured the cereal. Because to your point, it seemed

27:06 like the cereal was happy to give favorite information beyond the first book. So in Agatar, it did seem like the cereal was pissed off that it was caught. Like shrieked, did not want to be captured, gave favorite information. Kind of a lot of information, actually. Probably more than than she needed and was still talking when the not a arrived.

27:25 I've just it's been A to be. Yeah, after that, like you said, kind of like willingly walked into Phares Phares trap and in the middle I'm not even sure it was trapped. I think it was just talking to fair. It wasn't so, yes. Loves fair. Why would the surreal be so much better at evading Reese, who is quite smart? Well, and I think we should say that Phara that surreal loves Pharaoh because Pharaoh freed it from the not a, right. Like that's that was kind of the. Pharaoh did a good deed here for the surreal, but Pharaoh also trapped him her.

27:59 Yeah it yeah it whatever it is yeah it so a few interesting things about the surreal. We learned from Lucian that the surreal are rare but not unique. I have interpreted the surreal in this series to be the same surreal. Me too. So I'm just laying that out there. I understand there are multiple.

28:19 I'm interpreting this to be 1. Surreal seems to recognize favor each time. Is it a hive mind? I don't know. They're old and wicked. Are they wicked? This is the quote. But they're old and wicked and not worth the danger of going out to find them. Let's like Lucian's lore people we can assume have captured a cereal.

28:36 Farrah, Lucian and Alice. I don't know that we can assume anyone else has captured a cereal cuz Lucian and Alice both know how to. Yeah, a way to do it. Right, The cereals themselves are pretty freaky beings that are kind of skeleton like and look like they're effectively crafted from bone. I can read the quote but it's it's exactly that. Crafted from dried weather worn bone. It's skin either forgotten or discarded. A lipless mouth and two long teeth held by blackened gums, slitted holes for nostrils.

29:06 I'm picturing like a Voldemort with some flaking skin. Yeah, and the cereal directly says I am a member of no court. I'm older than the High Lords, older than Prythian, older than the bones of this world. It is also implied, implied, not concrete, that the surreal is related to wind. We've talked about this, right, which we've drawn a parallel to death Lords like the Bone Carver, Koche, etcetera.

29:30 And the surreal is found by Elaine to be in the middle, pretty close to Strega the Weaver. Who's the trifecta of that, that trio of siblings And. And Elaine says it moves through the world like the breath of the western wind. So we're back with that western wind, the surreal. Yeah. The surreal being of this family of beings.

29:53 So why can't Reese capture the surreal? I'm not really sure how he tried, but we know that the surreal can see when Elaine is looking for it. It can see doe eyes peering at me from across the world. So Elaine has a very like for like take power with the surreal, it seems we've discussed this. Is Lane becoming a surreal? We think so.

30:16 I don't know whether Reese was looking in this way, but I think it calls into question, like, does the surreal know that it's being sought when it's being sought? It would make a lot of sense if it did, seeing as it knows everything else that's happening in the world and therefore doesn't know what like when it's being captured.

30:32 And it kind of then does choose like it kind of chooses who it's being captured by and when. And the nature of the information that it gives Farrah is is interesting, right? So it gives her information on Reese being her mate, information that keeps Reese alive. It also gives her the answer to the spell that Amrah needs to unbind herself and. None of that was part of the question. To unbind yourself.

31:00 What was the answer to like defeating Hyburn was I think that the what the surreal was trying to give what I hypothesize, and it's not really an answer, but it's a question response to a question is like, maybe there's a reason that Farrah can be trusted with that information and it and the surreal for some reason thinks that Reese can't or the surreal recognizes Reese as some being that it can't trust.

31:23 And we have already talked about Reese's potential ties to Shriega, the deaf Lords, etcetera. The Bone Carver is terrified of its siblings. Maybe it just doesn't want to interface with another of its kind. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. And we talked about what we think Reese has ties to the Weber because his mother left their ring there, her ring there.

31:46 His mother left their ring there and Shriega's mirror was an heirloom. And Moore's family and Moore and Reese are related. Yep, agreed. So maybe the surreal doesn't want to be caught by Reese. Yeah, maybe it doesn't trust him. Yeah, right. Because Shirley Reese would know how to do it. Like Shirley Reese would know how to, like, leave a cloak. Like, it's not that it doesn't.

32:08 It's curious, right? Who has this information and who doesn't? Because, like, if it truly is as simple as leaving out a cloak, we know I am. The also caught a serial, caught the stereo, Right. Yeah. But then it wouldn't tell her anything, right. Yeah. So it is always a choice, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

32:24 Interesting. Yeah. So why wouldn't it talk to Reese? I think that's a really good point. Why wouldn't it talk to Reese? What does Reese want to know? These are the questions. Why wouldn't it talk to Reese but like also is willing to help Reese? Right, wouldn't talk to him, but seems very involved in making sure that he has a happy ending. Don't know.

32:39 Cool. All right, Ronnie, why doesn't Reese like to use his De Madi powers? My main answer to this one is just trauma and goodwill, but we can talk more about it. Reese definitely harbors a bit of, we'll call it disdain for his De Madi powers. I think he he is somewhat Machiavellian in the sense that he recognizes their use and uses them when he needs to as like a chip of power to help the people he loves.

33:10 But he does not like to use them for his own gain and is pretty careful with who he uses them on and why and when he also it's it seems like he may have seen some things he didn't want to see. I think that's because his second role, we talked in our last episode about his first role. He only has two roles of being a Damati per Farah.

33:32 His first role was don't go into anybody's mind without holding the way open because they can trap you. His second role is be prepared to see things you don't like. So he being Damati seems like it's a pretty heavy cross to bear. You have this mind reading power. A lot of people probably don't have mental Shields. He specifically says when he's explaining to Farah what being a Damati is, that a lot of people want to use Damati, Yeah, for knowledge and for gain.

33:59 And so I think he definitely resents the power a little bit. He has also just been, we've seen with our own two eyes reading this book, we've seen him used as a weapon in that sense and forced to do really terrible things under the mountain. And we see some of this in a court of Thrones and roses when Amarantha asks him to do pretty unspeakable things. We only see a couple that happened over the course of the books.

34:26 He holds Lucian's mind. We talked about this when Amaranth asks asks him to like like a dog. Basically, Amaranth the the quote is Amarantha flicked a finger in recent direction. The High Lord of the Night Court lifted A groomed brow. Hold his mind, she commanded. My heart dropped to the floor. Lucian went utterly still, sweat gleaming on his neck as recent bowed his head to the Queen and faced him. It's as good as imprisoning him at that point, like the the equivalent to just holding his mind and being able to shatter it with.

34:56 A thought that's I didn't read it as Reese actually did it. I read it. I read it as like Lucian was terrified and Reese was about to do it and then favorite gives up her name but I don't know it could be either. Oh, I'll go back and read it. I thought that. I thought that he actually was because Farah gives it up in a panic. I don't know.

35:14 Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's kind of unclear, I think. I think it's a little ambiguous. She. Does, however, have him shatter the mind of a Summer Court person. And the quote for that is? Amarantha rolled her eyes and slouched in her throne. Shatter him, Reese. And she flicked a hand at the High Lord of the Summer Court again. Kind of like, kind of like a dog. She's flipping her hands around.

35:36 You may do what you want with the body afterwards. So again, telling us that shattering your mind is basically like leaving you brain dead. Like it's not even really killing you, it's it's worse. The High Lord of the Summer Court bowed as if he'd been given a gift and looked to the subject, who had gone still and calm on the floor, hugging his knees.

35:52 The male fairy was ready leave. Re slipped a hand out of his pocket and it dangled at his side. I could have sworn phantom talons flick and flickered there as his fingers curled slightly. And then actually he just kills them. So Amaranth is kind of annoyed with him for this actually. Just like a little extra rebellion. Yeah.

36:10 So like, I mean, why does he not like to use his Damati powers? I think he's had really terrible experiences using them. And he's very clear in the inner circle and with everybody in the Night Court that he, with the exception, I guess, of the Court of Nightmares, that he is not going to use them for personal gain, is not going to use them unless given permission, and mostly just uses them for communication.

36:31 Yeah. That's really all I had to say here. Yeah. Do you have anything more interesting? Yeah, I mean, I said the short answer is because he has a moral, A moral code, and he sees it a violation as a violation. He is willing to do it, right. So when Phaera goes into Tarkin's mind in the Summer Court, she feels really guilty and she's telling Reese this. And Reese says if you hadn't taken care of Tarkin, he went on, the odds are we'd be knee deep in shit right now. It was my fault anyway.

36:57 I was the one who asked about the temple. I was only cleaning up my own mess. I shook my head. It doesn't feel right, he says. It never does, or it shouldn't. Far too many Demati lose that sense. But here tonight, the benefits outweigh the cost. So he is willing to use it sometimes, but he he needs a a good enough reason to do it right. He needs he needs it to be good enough, basically. And then we get us another similar conversation with Feyra and Reese about when she goes into Lucian's mind, He says what's done is done.

37:25 Agonizing over it won't change anything. You realize it was a line you didn't like crossing. And so you won't make that mistake again. I shifted in my seat. Would you have done it reconsidered? Yes. And I would have felt just as guilty afterwards. So we're getting from his mouth, right? Like he feels guilty about it. Guilt is a perfectly good motivation. So I had a couple other there's there's a couple other instances where we know he like won't use it. So one of them I have this quote later on, but we can talk about it now in his own point of view in Frost and Starlight. Like kind of the 1st chapter we get of Reese's point of view. He's out in the Illyrian war camp and he's talking to Devlin and Cassian about getting the

38:04 girls to train. And he says something like, I have the quote later again, but like it had occurred to me that I could just RIP into his mind and make him agree, but like I wouldn't do that, right? So we know he won't use it all the time. We know like we this is literally from his point of view from the horse's mouth.

38:18 I don't want it could make my life easier to do this, but I don't want to do it. Yeah. We also see the way Reese kind of behaves after people have been violated by Damati power. So when the Twin Ravens come to the library from Hyburn, they use their Damati powers to force their way into the library. And what we get about Reese kind of reacting to that situation, This is Akwar chapter 34.

38:42 The priestess who had let him in, who had let them in for whatever reason, Hyburn had left her alive. She allowed Reese into her mind to see what had happened once the king had sundered the words with that fleeting spell. His Ravens had appeared AS2 old scholars to get the priestesses to open the door, then force their way into her mind so that she'd welcome them in without being vetted.

39:01 The violation of that alone recent spent hours with those priestesses yesterday. More to talking, listening to the ones who could speak, holding the hands of the ones who couldn't. So he's specifically like comforting women who have obviously been violated before being violated again now. And he's like, really taking the time to make sure that they're OK and be there for them and be a support system for him. I'm going to go into wild speculation territory here, but you mentioned this last episode.

39:27 You said, what if his father was a de Monti, right? What if this power was genetic? What if his father was a de Monti? I think that's a fair question to ask. And we know that Reese's parents had a really unhappy marriage, right? Yeah. So the quotes, what we know about Reese's mother is that she was headstrong and defiant.

39:45 She did everything she could to stop her wings from being clipped and she literally fed, fled from like full blown Illyrian warriors to try to escape. And then what we find out about her is that she is an in an unhappy marriage to a high Lord and she basically doesn't try to do anything about it, try to change it or anything.

40:03 Yeah. The quote we explanation we're given about that is my father was cold and calculating and could be vicious as he had been trained to be since birth. My mother was soft and fiery and loved by everyone she met. She hated him after a time but never stopped being grateful that he had saved her wings. But he allowed her to fly whenever and wherever she wished.

40:24 So kind of like the explanation we're given is that she's thankful to him because obviously he saved her wings from being Cliff because that's when he went out into the camp and saw her. But like is it possible that Reese's father was de Madi and was using his de Madi powers on his mother and just Reese? Maybe not know, but maybe suspect that that was happening? I don't know.

40:44 This is just honest to God's pure speculation. But if it is genetic, we're given this story that doesn't quite add up, with Reese mother being both headstrong and defiant, but also staying in this marriage that is really that. Certainly make sense. And I wouldn't at all expect that Reese's father has the same moral code based on what we've learned about him.

41:03 So would he use it on his own wife? Like, I don't know. But not not far fetched at all in that opinion. And Reese doesn't necessarily even need to know that. He could just, like, suspect it. I mean, we haven't ever been told this, right? So like, yeah, it's like fucking wild speculation. We don't know. Yeah, but.

41:20 But I'm sure if Reese's father was Samadi, I'm. He saw it wildly abused. Yeah, right. No matter what. Right. Like whether it was her, his mother specifically, or soldiers, or what. Yeah, and I mean it. Powers are genetic in this world. Like Reese's father certainly could have been Damati. Like Reese has. The Reese has a line to Pharah right about a more powerful Damati could trap you in their mind. And Reese is the most powerful Damati. How would he know?

41:47 How would he know unless his father? Did it? He also comments on techniques and like how quickly a Damati can and can't learn and like where else is he? Yeah, where else is he learning about other Damati if? Not right, because like even OK, let's say even if Amran is a secret di Madi, she's not going to be a secret di Madi in the same way Reese's right because she's not fae. So like it's got to be something else. So like, where is he learning all this from? Yeah, I don't know.

42:15 This feels like an Empyrean episode where we're like, what is up with the Yeah, that's my two cents on that one. I don't know if it makes much sense. I don't know if it will plant pan out but. Yeah, it's a fair question to ask. Generally we just, and again, I think that's part of the rationale for some of Reese's POV's is he does care about ethics. Generally he doesn't want to abuse his power. Generally he just wants to exist with his mate and his friends and supposed.

42:52 To be a guy, baby, you know, supposed to be a guy. Just wants to be a dude. All right, Abby, why does Reese suddenly want to kill Tamlin and a Court of Frost and Starlight? OK, so. Speaking of Reese's POV chapters, I'm not going to have, I'm just going to preface this now. I'm not going to have a hard and fast answer here. This is going to be more of kind of interpretive about character motivations and whatnot.

43:16 And I know that there's a lot of people out there who are like, oh, Reese has changed. Reese is different after Apple or I guess after Frost and Starlight. Like Reese is not who we used to be. I think it's really hard to know if that's true because we are getting Reese from a different point of view and we are also getting Reese. So we've gone from Farah, who is his mates first person point of view to Cassie and Nesta, Nesta who hates Reese, Cassian who loves Reese but like also loves Nesta, right? So that's hard to know right off the bat. We are also dealing with the Reese whose mate is in mortal danger for the entirety of the book and there is nothing he can do to see her, right?

43:52 So like those are obviously very mitigating circumstances. So I cannot say, I cannot judge and say if Reese has changed or not, right? However, we do get a scene in Frost and Starlight where Reese seems to be behaving differently and he he says, I don't know why I'm doing this basically. So I think it's kind of worth diving into.

44:12 I have a lot to read from here, but just kind of breaking it down. And that scene is where he when he goes to Tamlin's estate, because Aris said that Tamlin was no longer enforcing his borders with the human lands and that the autumn court was going to basically just March right through spring and go into the human lands and start conquering. So to set the scene, full estate is in shambles, right? There are claw marks, everything is destroyed, everyone, there is no one there.

44:36 Tamlin answers the door himself itself. Tamlin looks like shit. Every room is trash except the library, which is the room that they sit in. And. Reese says, justifiably. This is all because of Tamlin's temper, right? Tamlin's temper was always going to be his downfall. Yep. The quote for that is standing on the top step of the marble staircase that led to those front doors, I surveyed the brutal gashes.

44:58 My money was on Tamlin having inflicted them after Farrah had duped him and his court. But Tamlin's temper had always been his downfall. Any bad day could have produced the gouge marks, which is like really terrifying to think about, right? Because Farrah was with Tamlin like this could like at any point in time, kind of right, Like Tamlin had a temper. Who knows?

45:18 Would have set him off. This is kind of always been Tamlin's thing. And if you're so like now, you now are mates with the woman who used to be with Tamlin. Like I imagine that's pretty like triggering and pretty stressful. I can't, I have never been in this situation myself. But like, if I went to my friend's boyfriend's apartment and he had like gouge marks in the walls, I would be pretty concerned for her safety, right?

45:39 Or ex boyfriends, I would still be concerned for her safety, right? However, Reese does kind of start goading Tamlin as soon as they get into the Manor, as when he's seen the claw marks. So. A beat of quiet, then Tamlin gestured towards the door Reese has thought about. Reese is like, why aren't you enforcing your borders of Talon Gesture towards the door.

45:58 Do you see any sentries around to do it? Even they had abandoned him. Interesting. Farrah did her work thoroughly, didn't she? So she he's bringing up Farrah and then tambling gripped the curve arm his chair. I thought the high alert of the night court couldn't be bothered to brag. I didn't smile as I countered with I suppose you think I should be thanking you for stepping up and assisting and reviving me. So like Reese is not de escalating. Reese is escalating.

46:21 Reese is like, I'm here and I'm going to fucking needle you until the cows come home, right? Yeah, at this point, Tamlin's claws come out right? So a soft, a soft snarl rumbled from Tamlin and a hint of claws gleamed at his knuckles. I'm not letting your ilk on my lands. My ilk, as you call them, fought most of the war that you helped bring about. If you need patrols, I will supply the warriors. We talked about this at length in our Tamlin episode. Tamlin's claws coming out is kind of like the rage monster coming out, right?

46:50 This is where Tamlin is basically losing control, giving in to his baser instincts. He's about to explode, kind of basically. What's interesting, though, is that when Tamlin's claws come out, Reese's shadows come out, so my hands ached to wrap around his throat. Indeed, shadows curled at my fingertips, heralds of the talons lurking just beneath. We've talked about this before, the shadows kind of being tied to his beast form.

47:12 But here it's like very interesting because we've talked about Azrael shadows and how they act when he's being attacked. This is kind of different. This is kind of Reese's shadows behaving the same way that Tamlin's claws do, right? Like. Right. I'm angry and I'm going to fight you. So my shadows are coming out.

47:28 It's just kind of information. He's also in the house where his father died. He's in the house where his mother and sister's wings were pinned to the study, right? There's a lot of like external factors here that could get Reese riled up and then Reese basically thinking about all this, taking this situation and loses his temper.

47:46 So the quotes are, I'm not allowing one Night Court route onto my lands. And at that word brute, I'd had enough dangerous territory for me at least to let my own temper get the better of me. At least around him. You won. He spat, sitting forward. You got your mate, isn't that enough? No, the word echoed through the library.

48:01 You nearly destroyed her in every way possible. So again, this is getting back to Klaw Marks. The estate is destroyed. Like, just like the fear for the situation that Farrah was in could have been in, I think is weighing heavily on him. Yeah. And then he really grips into him. He says you deserve everything that has befallen you.

48:19 You deserve this pathetic empty house, your ravaged lands. I don't care if you offered that kernel of life to save me. I don't care if you still love my mate. I don't care that you saved her from Highburn 4000 enemies before that. The words poured out, cold and steady. I hope you live the rest of your miserable life alone here. It's a far more satisfying end than slaughtering you. Farah had once arrived at the same decision. I'd agree with her then, still did, But now I truly understood. I braceford it readyford it wanted it. So he wants to fight Tamlin, right? For him to explode out of that chair and launch himself at me, for his claws to start slashing.

48:51 My blood hammered in my veins, my power coiling inside me. We could wreck this house in our fight, bring it down to rubble. And then I turn the stones and wood into nothing but black dust. And then Tamlin tells him to get out, right. Tamlin says get out. And he realizes how broken Tamlin is. And he windows out. And then him and Farrah have this really interesting conversation.

49:10 Farrah Reese is saying. Reese is telling her what happened to Tamlin's estate. She contemplated my words. Did you go because you were concerned about the wall or just because you wanted to say those things to him? Both. I couldn't bring myself to lie to her about it and perhaps slaughter him. Alarm flared in her airs. Where is this coming from?

49:27 I didn't know. I just World's words failed me. So that's Frost and Starlight Chapter 11. Personally, I don't think it's that crazy that Reese wants to kill Tamlin, but both him and Farrah are like, acknowledging that this is kind of out of character for him that like, this is not really usually. Yeah, how he reacts, you know, his MO. Yeah, his MO.

49:46 So we kind of already talked about the the shadow thing, but I think it's really interesting. We have only seen Reese really up to this point with the exception of 1 prologue chapter from Farah's point of view. So like, is this actually out of character for Reese? This is kind of the first time we're seeing anger from Reese's point of view.

50:04 Or have we just not really seen it because he's kind of good at hiding it for Farah? Like Reece says he would kill Amarantha if she came back, but I think that's understandable, right? Yeah, I mean, he was. Yeah, she was, she was a huge threat. But Tamlin isn't a threat anymore, right? So like, I don't know, I don't know, like, yeah, I understand his anger, but like killing him would obviously be strategically a bad move. And then what I think is really interesting is the shadows starting to gather, right?

50:31 Because I think it's such a distinct comparison to Tamlin and then also shows you how he's different than Tamlin, right? Because we shadows starting to gather is so similar to Tamlin's claws coming out. So it's like they both have this like undercurrent of rage in this moment. And like Tamlin's claws come out and Reese's shadows come out.

50:49 But we know that Reese is like normally able to to manage this, right? Yeah, and we do have a couple other instances where Reese's shadow seems to come out enraged. So the first one is Miss and Fury, Chapter 7. I think you read this quote last time. But he's when he's feeling angry about what Highburn did, I believe to the priestesses and Cesare. He says Reese, though first the shadow started clues of them from his back.

51:14 And then as if his rage had loosened his grip on that beast he'd once told me he hated to yield to, those wings became Flash, Right. So that's the rage in the shadows. And then when they're discussing the plan to get the book from the island in summer court, it says tonight I said we note the guards rotations tonight at low tide, figure out where the watchers are, who we might need to take out before we make our move.

51:36 You think like an Illyrian? Reese murmured. I believe that's supposed to be a compliment. And we confided. Reese snorted and shadows gathered around him as he loosened his grip on his power. So this is Farrah being in danger, right? That this is a situation of being Farrah putting a danger. So Long story short, I think it's really interesting because we're getting these parallel character traits between Reese and Tamlin, right? They both want to protect Pharah, like they both want to keep her safe.

52:01 And they both have this like undercurrent of like rage and danger. But then we have the difference in the way and we see that through like their powers coming out. But then we see the differences in the way that we they treat her. And then obviously in Frost and Starlight, the differences in the way their lives end up, right?

52:17 Like Tamlin ends up alone in his manner and Reese ends up with Pharah because he is able to actually control his emotions and like be an adult and think strategically. All that being said, because this is brought up by both Reese and Ferret, like is he starting to lose some of that control on his rage? Maybe on his power?

52:33 Because as we've talked about his, he refers to his power as dark power, right? And we know that we have these quotes in Frost and Starlight. The flicker of my power had a fire roaring in the hearth, the small downstairs warming swiftly. It was barely a whisper of magic, yet it's release ease that near constant strain of keeping all that I was all that dark power in check.

52:53 So we have dark power. We have a near constant strain and we have him almost giving into his base. Her instincts with Tamlin, right. So is this kind of is he starting to lose some control? Is he starting to give in to his like worse instincts? I know there's a lot of evidence that in Silver, or there's a lot of speculation that in Silver Flame, he's changed, he's different again. I don't know about that.

53:15 But he has this dark power. We have this moment in Frost and Starlight. We have the differences, but also similarities between him and Tamlin. And maybe that was a whole bunch of word from it, but I was trying to get to a point. Yeah, I think it's fair. I mean, I think it's interesting to think about the possibility of Reese devolving. I mean, that would point to a different wreath in a court of silver flames.

53:40 Then then the Reese that we have in the first three books, which I think is where many people think he ends up. Yeah. Is a very different, well, the same. Reese but like, like struggling maybe, but I don't know. Yeah, it's hard to. Overwhelmed by by like have it, having it all, almost. And like his power, Yeah. Yeah, well, I, yeah, yeah, I'm just trying to think because like, obviously he was under the mountain for 50 years and like he didn't have his powers, but maybe when his powers were given back to him it was like, yeah, maybe, I mean. He's 5, he's like 500 something.

54:14 So he's been, he's been with them for a long time, but it's interesting to think about. Yeah, I don't know what would be causing it. I don't know like. What would be to that or anything? Yeah, I went a different direction, but that's OK. It's shorter. So you you already kind of set the context for the situation. But when when Reese went to visit Tamlin, I think the big the thing that stood out to me, and this is not deep or hard to find right.

54:38 But he's just met with a very dejected male and multiple times it is pointed out how it is too easy of a target, an easy mark, too easy of a mark to mock the once fine clothes desperate for a wash. It's brought up multiple times. Another another instance of it too easy. It was far too easy to bait him, rile him.

54:58 He also calls the Manor a tomb, He says a tomb. This place was a tomb. And so you, you read it out right? Reese finally started to snap. At one point he has that long tirade where he says, you know what, you deserve it. You deserve everything and you're kind of a piece of shit and you deserve to die here.

55:15 And at the end, when Tamlin does just tell him to get out, Reese comments on it being as if he's just waiting for someone to walk in and end his life. Yeah. And so. He doesn't have any wards around the Manor. Anyone. Could win awards, yeah. And so whether there, whether there was something or someone interfering with Reese, trying to rile him, I read it as a suicide attempt, honestly.

55:42 Oh, you think Tamlin was fucking with his emotions? Oh my God, that's so much more interesting than what I said. Forget everything I said. I don't know that it's that complex, but I think Tamlin probably believes that he can be killed by a pretty finite number of people, and Reese is definitely on that list. And this man seemed pretty ready to die. Fuck, that's so dark.

56:01 Yeah. I mean, that would make sense because we don't have. I'm not going to say that people will come after me. I was going to say we don't really see evidence of that, of his, like, dark power spilling over in silver flames. But people will say that we do. Yeah, I mean, I think both of them, I think the dark power spilling over is is interesting. And I think the outburst of Nesta is honestly the closest we get.

56:22 Yeah, yeah, closest. We get to him losing control. I think he's yeah, like his mate is dying so. Well, right, So that's the reason why, like I think we're not talking about the silver flames thing because like we try to keep it objective here basically. And it's just like hard to know. What Nesta did was like really terrible. What Nesta did was bad.

56:41 What Reese did was also really fucking bad. So it's like, is he changed or is it just a different point of view? I don't know. Was he like, you know what I'm saying? And we also just don't know what we don't know. Like we're not in their heads, so I don't know, Right? Cool. OK, OK, that concludes our actor only section. So if you have not read Crescent City, all three books published at this point and Throne of Glass all published, all 8 published books at this point and you do not want to be spoiled, you should lickity split on out of here. We love you.

57:16 Bye and we'll give you a minute. And now we're going to talk about spoilers for the entire mass verse. So we're going to start off with mass verse specific cosms. Abby, do you have any cosms for the masters? So I. Wanted to shout out again Diary of a Night Lizard. This is not really a cosm in that it's nothing that we have talked about, but she had this really cool theory and she tagged us in it, so I wanted to bring it up. So the theory is about the jeweler in Valeris that Reese goes to to buy a present for Pharaoh for stol sis, and then she he ends up buying a present for Amarin instead. The jeweler who's named Neve.

57:55 Well, Neve. Neve, Neve, hold on. Hold please, since people yell at us about our pronunciations. I don't know. We're bad. Sorry guys. Neve, all right oh, it depends on the origin. Let's go with Neve. All right, so the jeweler who is named Neve is a Tartara and and the description for that is not a Wraith, but something similar.

58:15 Her people are all Master Jewel Smith's dwelling in the deepest mountains mind in our mind in our court, most of most of the heirlooms of our house have been Tartara made Ferris cuffs and crowns included. And she pointed out that when Ferra is picking out her crown in The Cave with the glow worms, she says she is called to it. So the quote for that is I'd let the crown call to me. I picked it for the draw.

58:38 I fell to it as if it were that ring in the weaver's cottage. We also know that there is a core of first light in the mountains of Night Court, specifically under the prison right and the Tartaras well and deep in the mountains. So basically Liz's theory is, is Ferah's crown actually imbued with first light from that first light core under the prison?

58:59 And is that why it called to her because she has Reese's kernel of starborn power? Is it a like calls to like situation which I thought was really interesting? I thought that was a really interesting idea. That would be fun. Yeah. So excited to go under those other those other mountains. I agree. So excited.

59:17 I agree. Thank you. What is her handle again? Diary of a Night Lizard. Thank you. Diary of a Night Lizard, which I love. That was a good one. Then I had more stuff about hollowed out air and the mass first, but I don't really talk want to talk about it. I don't really care. You're tired, basically.

59:33 Larkin has it too. I see. Yeah, yeah. One day we will talk about how death sang to Lorkin, but that day is not today. Lorkin will have his own episode, at least one on this podcast, at some point. Yep. But yeah, that day we'll get. His own all right, I had one and it is a it was a commenter on one of our videos about truth teller basically like Elaine truth teller using truth teller to potentially to the thing that's not winnowing that Azrael does and the comment was the truth teller is Demaris, right?

1:00:06 He touches it when Bryce is getting grilled and can tell when she is lying. This commenter is talking about Azrael. Megan Jean is the commenter. So no, I don't I don't think the truth teller is Demaris, but I think it's a very interesting question that you've brought up right. I think it's an interesting shout out because it raises a few interesting things one.

1:00:26 I don't think that truth teller is Demaris. Truth teller is is a blade and Demaris is a is a sword. We will talk about the fact that Demaris turned black because I think that's interesting. I do too. Turned black when it killed. That is fascinating, but Azrael specifically says that truth teller does not tell the truth, which is what Demaris does. It just gets people to do so.

1:00:49 But it does. It's an interesting question. Why is Azrael specifically able to discern from a distance that Bryce is lying? Is it his shadows? Yeah, I think. And is that kind of validating the fact that there might be a there, that there is a link potentially between truth teller and the shadows?

1:01:09 I don't know. I think it's fun. I. Need to think about it more so I don't think that Azrael touches truth teller to know that Bryce is lying. I think he just knows that Bryce is lying and I think he just shadows tell him. Yeah, which is probably what makes him such an effective torturer, because that's what he is.

1:01:28 Yes. He knows when people are lying, right? So he can get the truth out of them. I also had no mission from our more episode, potentially. So we never talked about, it's never really come up how Azrael got Truth Teller right, we ever talked about this. No, I mean, it's not. We don't know. Yeah, we don't.

1:01:46 Know. We don't know, and we only know one thing about Azrael and daggers, and that's Moore has given him a million. Yeah. It's like, did Moore give Azrael truth Teller that? Would be interesting. Would be wild because it was analysis. So how would Moore have ended up with it? Yeah, I don't know.

1:02:03 Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we don't know anything. How? Did he end up with it anyways? How did he end up with it anyways? We don't know. We do not know the origins of True Seller other than we think that it's probably from a Prince of Hell slash Valk. Oh yes, I think we have very good reason to believe that. I agree.

1:02:19 All right, shall we get into it? Yes. All right, So this is probably kind of like the heart of the matter of this episode. Once again, it's probably going to be a more mass versus heavy episode than ACOTAR heavy episodes. Sorry, guys. All right, Ronnie, how much does Reese know about other worlds?

1:02:35 Maybe a lot. So Reese built, you've already talked about this in this episode, right? Reese built a working model of their world, quote centuries ago, implying that centuries ago there was something to spur this thought. And that quote is at the far end of the room, a little Deus LED into a broad raised alcove flanked by more books, and in its center, a massive working model of their world, the stars and planets around it, and some other fancy things that had been explained to Cassie and once before. He deemed them boring and proceeded to ignore them completely, as of course had been fascinated. Reese had built the model himself centuries ago. It could not only track the sun, but also tell time, and it somehow allowed Reese to ponder

1:03:15 the existence of life beyond their own world and other things Cassian had again instantly forgotten. I love the because of my house. Cassian, not an intellectual. Not an intellectual, give him a sword. Not an orry. Love it. Obsessed. So Reese has been thinking about this for centuries, definitely dating back to when his father was alive. It seems he also.

1:03:39 This is heavily accepted, but I feel like we rarely look back at the quote. He slows down Aylan in Throne of Glass. So in Kingdom of Ash chapter 99, Aylan is falling. Great. This is after she's, you know, given up her powers, which I still actually get physically angry about and is has banished the gods to this hell realm and is falling through worlds trying to get back to hers, which Rowan has left a map to on her back.

1:04:05 It's all very chaotic and upsetting and she is falling through these worlds. She passed through a world of snow capped mountains under shining stars, passed over one of those mountains where a winged male stood beside a heavily pregnant female gazing at those very stars. Faye. They were Faye, but this was not her world. She flung out of hand as if she might signal them, as if they might somehow help her when she was nothing but an invisible speck of power.

1:04:30 The winged male, beautiful beyond reason, snapped his head toward her as she arced across his starry sky. He lifted a hand as if in greeting. A blast of dark power, like a gentle summer night, slammed into her, not to attack, but to slow her down. A wall, a shield that she tore and plunged through, but it slowed her that winged males power slowed her just enough.

1:04:52 So I think we can assume that this is Reese dark power, wings, pregnant Bay female, etcetera. It's feeling like Reese when mixes probably in utero. I also think this might link back, might link back to A Cord of Silver Flames Chapter 62, where we get a hint of a Red Star. And that quote is? The mood hadn't been helped by a rare Red Star blasting across the Sky One day, and I'll omen Nesta had heard the priestess muttering.

1:05:21 Cassian reported that even recently rattled by it, seemingly unusually contemplative afterwards. So that Red Star, probably Galen. We don't really get the exact visual of Reese doing that. That's probably a little bit too on the nose for Sarah Dumas anyways, so yeah, I. Was going to say, it's wild to me. I just take that as fact.

1:05:39 Like it's wild to me that that's not actually like, but you're right, of course it's not actually confirmed, but I thought there was more to it than that. Like something more linking it, but like it's got to be. Well, and it's interesting too, because it's a rare Red Star. So like when any is happening? Yeah.

1:05:54 So what else is this happening? Well, it lines up with favors pregnancy timeline too. Right, yes, which also means this isn't about, this is not what this question is about, but I think it means these worlds are happening in parallel with each other. A lot of people think that they're out of glasses first or after.

1:06:09 I think they're all happening at the same time. More about Reese's world knowledge. He knows that Amarin came from another world. And in talking about this, he of course knows Amarin and he's been talking with Amarin for a long time, but he also implies that his education was thorough. So I think he's also getting this knowledge kind of passed down somehow.

1:06:27 Reese on Amarin in Akamath. Of course, we talked about this in our our Amarin episode, chapter 18. There are legends that claim when the world was born there were rips in the fabric of realms that in the chaos of forming creatures from other worlds could walk through one of those rips and enter another world, but the rips closed at will and the creatures could become trapped with no way home.

1:06:50 And then Reese about those in the prison in that same chapter says I think they came from somewhere else. So he is not. He says these are legends, but he very much believes that beings actively in this world are from other worlds and this is accepted as fact in his mind that he knows this. He is also literally not at all surprised when Bryce shows up in prison at the end.

1:07:11 Yeah, I mean, kind of. None of them are, but especially not him. He just says hello. Hello, Bryce Quinlan. My name is Reese, and so from the last chapter of House of Sky and Breath, we meet Reese. The male blinked. His eyes were the same shade of Violet blue as Runes. His short hair. This is all just about him liking looking exactly like Rune. But the male continued to stare at Bryce, at the blood on her, the star sword and the knife, the blade still gleaming with their opposite lights.

1:07:39 He lifted his gaze to her. Stars in his eyes, actual stars. He doesn't go into The Cave systems with Bryce like he sends Azrael and Nesta, like he just seems very comfortable with the overall situation. But whatever Reese knows about other worlds, he probably doesn't know. I say probably because we know he's actually a very good liar, but he probably doesn't know the details of Midgard because he seems genuinely shocked by what Bryce showed with the Veritas orb. And that quote is it was worse is this House of flame and shadow.

1:08:12 It was worse seeing it as a sort of memory montage. The violence, the brutality of how easily the hysterian their minions killed, how indiscriminately. But whatever she felt was nothing compared to the surprise and dread on her captors faces. And then later says Reese and mastered himself a cool mask sliding into place.

1:08:31 You live in such a world. So he's definitely taken aback by the goings on going gone goings on goings on of of Midgard and the Asteri. And so again, I think there's not been exposure to what the Asteri are actually capable of or doing over there because he's not seen this to this degree. He seems shocked by what's going on there.

1:08:54 So. Yeah, so I mean, I think the interesting thing for me, I have a couple of interesting things. So with the Ori, he built it himself, right? We're told he built it himself. And we talked about this last episode. I brought this up a couple Times Now because it's really sticking in my mind. And I think I want to walk back something I said last episode.

1:09:11 We know that Saya had an annotated star map and we know that the Asteri had archives. I said maybe those archives are in the Autumn Court. I really don't think so. I'm I'm pretty sure they're in Night Court at this point. They're probably in the library. But the quote we have about Saya, the star map, was my mother had kept the star map that the Daglin had long ago annotated, and a world on it had caught her attention, a world like ours that had overthrown the Daglin. So this is in Prythian, right?

1:09:35 So where is Thea star map? Does Reese have it? Is that how he made his Ori? Bryce also tells us that the Asteria keep records on the planet that they've conquered. Midgard is only the latest in the long line of worlds invaded by the Asteria. They have an entire archive of different planets they've either conquered or tried to conquer.

1:09:54 I saw it right before I came here. And then she says when she's in or this is continuation. Bryce's gut churned. The Asteria must have kept archives and records on this world too, exactly like the room Bryce had found in the palace full of notes on conquered planets. Dusk they'd labeled their room as of out of all of the world's mentioned within this world remains their focus, this place. So I am thinking that there are Asteria archives somewhere on Midgard and that Reese might know about them if he built this Ori himself.

1:10:25 You have your idea face on. I'm so excited. That could also be why he's trying to capture the surreal. I could also, yeah, that's what I was saying in the beginning. Why he's trying to capture the cereal? Because he felt this Ori and has questions about other worlds. Yes, it's falling full circle. Yeah, sorry, I did not pick up on that. Yeah, well, that's because it was in our fucking actually. Yeah, but actually I don't know whether that because the cereal can't see the Reese.

1:10:49 Doesn't know. That yeah, fair. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, and what Ronnie was going to say is the serial can't see beings that are not from this world because the serial couldn't see the bone Carver just so we're all on the same. Yep, Yep, we. Spend too much time with these books. Yes, that was my thought.

1:11:07 That was my thought initially, that Reese is trying to capture the serial because he has access to these hysteria archives and he's like, what the actual fuck? And we actually will get that story. We actually will. It was set up to book. It was set up in Book 2. And maybe we will actually get that story.

1:11:19 It will come from full circle, but I didn't know that when I asked the question so I had to give it an acatar only answer so. Here we are, yeah. The other reason I think that these Asteria archives exist, but maybe people don't know what they are, is because of Meryl, right? We know that Meryl is doing all this research into other realms in the library.

1:11:38 She must have some sort of records for that. I think that's, I think that's it. It's she's, it's, I think it's Meryl. I think it could be Meryl. Yeah. So the quote for that is when she first came here, she was obsessed with theories regarding the existence of different realms, different worlds living on top of each other, living on top of each other without even knowing it.

1:11:58 Whether there is merely 1 existence, our existence, or if it might be possible for worlds to overlap, occupying the same space but separated by time and a whole bunch of other things I can't even begin to explain to you because I barely understand them myself. So first of all, this is pretty much just as a side note. This pretty much echoes what Baba Yellow like says about the world word when she told Aylan that she could be standing in the bottom of someone else's ocean and then not even know it because the word keeps things separate. So I think we are dealing with just overlapping worlds here. So the thing where this doesn't work is what you were talking about in our last episode with

1:12:30 Celine and Helena making sure that like basically Thea and the Daglin were like kind of wiped from existence. Obviously the Daglin were not, but like I feel like Celine and Helena would hide their, Celine would hide those archives if she knew about them, but maybe she didn't know about them and maybe they were just in the library. I don't know.

1:12:47 But I think I think there's a stereo archive somewhere. You still have your idea. Face on, I'm just thinking, I don't know whether I don't know how effective Celine would have been. And, well, we've got all these library burnings. Did we have a burning in Prythian? I forget. I don't remember. You just had the burnings of the temples. Well the Faye burned the humans books but we don't have any Faye book I think.

1:13:10 Maybe the humans have them. Maybe. They're going to come up at some point. They're going to come up. I'm almost certain about it. It just is it. I agree with you. It'd be weird to me if Celine would bother. Literally like erasing the memories of her mother and sister. And not covering up the paper trail. And not covering up well, all that would really do is cover up the existence that well, yeah, then everybody would just know about other worlds and get curious and go over there and then end up in the Osteris lap.

1:13:42 And that's the last thing she would have wanted. So she. Says, I don't know, not our Crescent City season, but I think there's a lot of a lot to think about with that one for sure. And then Aylan, it's not only that Reese slows her down, Aylan ends up in Irelia immediately after Reese does this, right?

1:14:01 Like she immediately goes back to her world. Could be a coincidence, could be nothing, right? Could not, could be that Reese knew where she was from and sent her home. I don't think, I, like you do not think that he knows that like the Esteria are out there and they're threat and knows that everything that's going on in Midgard, but he clearly knows about other worlds.

1:14:25 I am looking at my notes and instead of Alan, I wrote Amarin. And it's really fucking confusing for me. But he does know about Amarin, right? Like right off the bat, No, no masks for spoilers. Like he knows about Amarin, right? I don't know if he knows about like the Valk and the word gates and the Esteri and the horn and all that jazz, but like he clearly has some knowledge about all of this but not probably like the full the full scope of everything is where I'm leaning towards. Well, and I think we don't know how much time has passed between where we left off in ACOTAR and where we pick up with Reese in Crescent City.

1:14:57 Like we're not sure. But we know that at some point in ACOTAR, his version of history, like what he was educated with, was that the Daglin were the creators of the fae, which we know is not true. So do we know that Prithian? Prithian is said to be a fae world? Celine says it was ours. It was a thing of the fae.

1:15:18 Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Sorry, to be clear for everyone, Celine says that the cauldron is a fae item. Like it's a fae magical item. It is ours. Prythian was fae. And so the Daglin King, the Daglin, the asteri came and like basically told us, you know, we should, we should go somewhere.

1:15:36 It'll be fun. Or like we should, we should rule. It'll be fun. Yeah. We should roll. You should give us your we should give us our your magic. It'll be fun. And so the history was rewritten because we know the Asteria love to rewrite history so that Reese explains to Pharaoh that the Daglin created the thing.

1:15:54 The Daglin were their creators. Right. And you want to talk about gods, right? Like, yeah. Very God like. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Anything else on that one? So he knows some things he might know more than he's letting on because it hasn't been relevant up until this point. Only one more thing, and again, we've talked about this, but just to tie a bow on Reese and other worlds, Eris has called the prison a palace, which is weird because the prison was a palace, but Eris is not supposed to know that.

1:16:21 And Reese says that he has made a fool's bargain with Eris. We don't know what it's about, but it is feeling highly suspect that the High Lord of the Night Court and the heir to Autumn are conspiring in Prythian when we know that those versions, those two courts, the versions of those two courts in Midgard are crossbreeding. What's going on there?

1:16:43 What do you guys, what are you guys doing? What are y'all doing? Can't wait for a guitar sex, all right. Yes. All right, Abby, why does Amaran suggests Reese be High King? I think because the Asteria are coming and she might know is my guess. So what we know about the High King from guitar and all of this is from A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 42. The quote is the sword isn't Gideon Cassian said, well aware of the myths regarding the sword. It had belonged to a true Pay High King in Prythian, as there had been in Highburn.

1:17:14 He had united the lands, its people, and for a while with that sword, peace had reigned, until he had been betrayed by his own queen and his fiercest general and lost the sword to them. And the lands fell Into Darkness once more, never again to see another High King, only High Lords who ruled the territories that had once answered to the King. Isn't it so interesting that this story just leaves out the Asteria entirely?

1:17:35 Exactly what you were saying. Like Celine just erased it from memory. Yeah. But basically, like, Theon united the courts to overthrow the Asteria, right? That's what he needed to do and over to overthrow them. And Ameren certainly seems to know at least some of this history. We're not clear on exactly what she does or doesn't know what she's lying about, but she was there for it.

1:17:55 She survived it, even Reece says she went into the prison under Fian's rule, which would have been after after they overthrew the Hysteria. Right? So like, in theory, she was here for this. So what Amarin says is this is when Nesta's blade show up. With these three blades, you can make yourself High King.

1:18:13 The words cling through the room. Cassian slowly blinked, reset tightly. I don't wish to be High King. I only wish to be here with my mate and my people. Amarin countered. All 7 courts united under 1 ruler would give us far better odds of survival in any upcoming conflict. No bickering and politicking required to dispatch our armies.

1:18:31 Malcontents like Baron would have no ability to threaten our plans by allying with our enemies. You mentioned this last week but like what is this upcoming conflict? Because Koche doesn't seem like that big a deal. Like, yeah, he's a big deal, but he's not like that big a deal. He's at the bottom of a lake as far as we know and stuff. So the scale of the suggestion seems disproportionate to the threat.

1:18:53 It does. Sure does. There is the threat of the fae kingdoms on the continent marching on them, but they all just united against. I don't know, it just feels like a weird suggestion, right? It's off, Amarin knows. Amarin seems to know that Reese is descended from Pheon. Because what she says is. Reese demanded. Why do you want me to turn conqueror? Amarin shot back.

1:19:17 Why do you shy away from the power that is your birthright? I did nothing to earn that power. We said I was born with it. It is a tool to defend my people, not to attack others. He surveyed them. Where is this talk coming from? I just had a fucking crazy idea. OK, so this is talking about Pheon, right?

1:19:34 Like it is his birthright to be High King because Pheon was his descendant in theory. His ancestor, yeah. Yeah, Val kings, Val Kings just appear, right? And he's saying it is not like she says, why do you shy from the power that is your birthright? And he said I was born with it. It is a tool to defend my people. What if she's actually talking about him being a Val king and that is the power that he was born with and that is a tool to defend his people.

1:19:59 Anyway, that's way fucking tangent. What is the thing we think they're born with? Valk blood Val kings appear. Val kings are not born Val kings like they they are born, but it's not hereditary like the power, just the power chooses you like the power fucking chooses the high Lords, right? Because Aylan asks are the Val prince's going to become kings? And she said no, no one worthy has shown up yet. So it's not a lineage thing.

1:20:23 It's the power that you're born with, Yeah. But then the whole Celine conversation is like irrelevant. Were you just? Saying it's because he is Val, because he has Valg blood. Yeah, he can be chosen. He can be chosen to be a king. Yeah, yeah. OK, that's way off tangent, but fuck OK. Yeah. Anyway, OK, so let's assume let's get back to the High King conversation, not the Valg King conversation, right? Reese is descended from Thea and fee on. So that is the power that is his by birthright and that is a tool to defend his people.

1:20:56 Ameren knows that and Reese either acknowledges that and knows it too or thinks he's she's talking about his like power power, like his magic power like I was just talking about. But then also Ameren doesn't know how Gwidian was made. So again, it's like kind of iffy what she knows and what she doesn't know at this point in time. Bryce has not shown up, but I think Aylan. Wait, has Aylan showed up?

1:21:17 This is from 42. When does Aylan show up? 62 never mind 62. Yeah, so Amy shows up later. So no one has no one has shown up yet. Ameren points out that the cauldron are setting is setting up the pieces on the board. Like something is happening like these. These swords are appearing again, these star swords that have not appeared since the Astari. We have the three sisters that are equal and equal to power in Reese's power.

1:21:43 So even though I don't think anyone has showed up yet, I do think Ameren is saying, oh, fuck, shit's about to go down. Things are, I'm reading the tea leaves. Things are bad. Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's because the Asteria are coming, and Ameren knows that last time, what it took to overthrow the Asteria was having a High king and was having that centralized power. I don't know if that means we're still going to get a High king. Now, I don't know if Reese becomes High king. It seems like kind of a corrupt path. I don't know if that's the path that Saturday the Mass wants to go down.

1:22:11 Reese clearly doesn't want to go down that path, but that seems to be what the illusion is to. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that certainly makes the most sense. It would also explain this conflict that seemingly doesn't exist yet in ACOTAR, but we know is kind of coming. I had a very similar path. I would say my answer is more hopeful than something I think hopeful as in like, I hope that she would do this. I don't know that Sarah J Maas would actually take this path. It's kind of unlike what she would typically, right? I think what you said is most likely. What you said is most likely.

1:22:45 Ameren knows that she's she's like, shit, the Asteria are coming. Something is happening. Things are falling into place. We need centralized rule to prepare for this conflict. I wonder whether Ameren also like we talked about the possibility of Ameren being an an Asteri pet, right? That fits into this.

1:23:03 Theory. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. Could she like wittingly or unwittingly be helping like carry out a plan to like breathe the asteri into the ruling bodies of Prithian? Because Reese has this bloodline. We already know that we aren't done with the hysteria because at the end of House of Flame and Shadow, Bryce hands the star sword to Nesta and basically says OK, we're done with them now you figure out your shit. So the quote for that is you said you had an 8 pointed star tattooed on you.

1:23:36 Bryce explained. And you found the chamber with the 8 pointed star in the prison too. Nesta lifted her head. So. So I want you to take the star sword. Bryce held the blade between them. Gwitty and whatever you call it here at the age of the star born is over on Midgard. It ends with me. I don't understand, but Bryce began backing toward the portal, taking Hunt's hand, and smiled again at the female, at her mate, at their world as the Northern rift began to close.

1:23:59 I think that 8 pointed star was tattooed on you for a reason. Take that sword and go figure out why. So they allegedly just killed the last Steri on Prythian right? That is what is said when Vespers dies. They're like the last Asteria on Prythian just died. So why is Nesta being handed the Star Sword if the Asteria are actually gone from Prythian?

1:24:22 We know and we've talked about this. You know that this is like my crack theory of the series, but like the Asteria warped the Cauldron. So the Cauldron is still like a steri tainted, like some essence of their power kind of remains implicit in the power of the Fang. And so could Ameren be knowingly or unknowingly helping the Asteri kind of play the long game? And that's a great point because the she says the cauldron are putting the pieces is putting the pieces on the board. But if the cauldron is fucked by the Asteri, is it is that the asteris will?

1:24:54 If the Asteris couldn't remain in power there, but they could breathe themselves into the fae bloodlines to the point where they effectively ruled anyways, and maybe that one day they could come back and claim that maybe that's their way of survival. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I don't know because Bryce is clearly their downfall, but they're not very smart.

1:25:16 Yeah. And I don't think that Bryce, like, I think Bryce is kind of like a broken attempt. I think each world is a specific attempt, right? They track them that way. They're like Dusk is one, yeah. Or Prithian, we'll call it. Prithian is 1, Midgard was one, Hell was 1, and I don't know, maybe it's actually not nefarious at all. Like but if we're really getting double clicked on theories, like taking our theories and accepting them as right and then building other theories off of them. If we are right about Reese's lineage being both Valk and Astiri, and we are right about the prophecy of the sword and the blade being about Valk and Hell and the Astiri, maybe he actually is destined to be king.

1:25:56 Like maybe that is the union of those people. Again, like maybe Perthian is where it all happens and and he rules. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, yes, we have to think about that because it applies to Rune too, and Dorian. But really Rune, I mean really definitely Rune, which I've heard rumors that Crescent City 4 is actually going to be about ruined.

1:26:15 So I mean, it kind of works. So I would love. We'll see. I don't know. So in summary, maybe it's something complex where there where Ameren is helping the Asteri play the long game and getting Reese into power where Reese already has some of this Asteri power. Maybe it's actually just just like the prophecy. Yeah, Reese is the convergence of. Reese's the sword and the knife.

1:26:39 Yeah. And if you don't know what we're talking about, go listen to our Azrael episode. Yes, sorry. Go listen to the Azrael episode when the sword and the blade are united, social or people be. Could be about the fae, could also be about hell and the Asterian. Yeah. And we think we have both of those bloodlines.

1:26:54 Yeah. So I don't know. I think it's interesting to ponder. I definitely don't think that Perithian is rid of the Asterian. No, no. They're coming. They are coming, they're coming. I really wish, I really wish Sarah J Maas hadn't lied about Maeve on the page, right? Because when Alan asked Brandon is Maeve Valk, he says no, right?

1:27:16 Which is kind of different than how she wrote Vesperus's death, because that's just the third person narrator saying the last hysteria on this world had died. Yeah. But the fact that she has ever kind of lied on the page just kind of makes everything a little more like questionable, you know, like, I kind of. I kind of hate that.

1:27:36 Yeah. But yeah. All right. Should we dive into this last question? All right, Ronnie, why are recent Farah the only first person POV's in the entire Mass first? Yeah. OK. So I think this is a fun question to ask. This is more just fun, fun to speculate on because I think not many people process it.

1:27:57 Like I'm not sure everybody realizes that Reese and Ferra are the only first person POV's across all of the books that Sarah J Mass has ever written. So let's talk about it. Usually the reason that first person point of views exist are I boiled them down to three things. Maybe there's more 1 so we can experience events through the PO VS eyes 2 so that information the POV does not know can be more naturally and easily concealed and three, so that we don't doubt the intentions of the of the POV.

1:28:30 Yeah. So like unreliable narrator is a classic like intent of a first person POV because they might not know everything right and. ACOTAR, Book 1. Yeah, Akhtar book 1, great example. So it's very interesting, right, that Sarah J Mass's selections here are Farah and eventually in Akimaf. She includes Reese as a first person POV.

1:28:55 The first POV that we get from Reese is the penultimate chapter of which confirms a few things. One, his intentions about Pharaoh. He says he thinks that his chest might actually be broken in half. His heart is shattering. He calls her his mate like it's like devastation all around. This is right after she basically gives herself up to go back to the Supreme Court.

1:29:17 Makes Highburn think that he broke the mating bond and he is devastated. And Amarin is like, go get her. And he's like, no, I respect her. And it's just a it's a heartbreaking chapter, but we admire him for it. We feel the mating bond from his perspective, which I think is interesting and important.

1:29:32 Right. And we also, this was just a comment because I I realized we never actually talked about it. We hear him say perhaps Lucian being Elaine's mate would help somehow. I'd find. I know we do say so. Yeah. Yeah. We might have been me texting you that being like, excuse me? So Reese is not Reese isn't the bomb. Reese is not messing with mating bomb. Yeah, at least it not this one.

1:29:54 Not this one, yeah. Seems like he's actively thinking about it. The second POV that we get from Reese is the penultimate chapter of Accor, which just continues to reinforce that he just wants to enjoy life with his mate. And then we get a bunch of PO BS throughout A Court of Frost and Starlight. And so she really piles them on here, right? We're jumping around everyone, Cassie and Morgan, Farah, Reese, but still Reese and Farah's are the only first person PO BS. So why?

1:30:26 I think there's two options? Honestly, there's probably many, but I think there's two options. 1 The simpler explanation is that Sergey Mas maybe just tried something new by writing. Just want to show everyone this is this is what my boyfriend looks like OK? Boyfriend reveal Do you understand? Do you understand now?

1:30:52 That's great. That's really good. All right, so there's a couple options as to why they might be the only first person point of views. The simple explanation is that Sarah J Maas just wanted to try something new when she wrote ACOTAR. And so then she wrote it in the first person. And then by the time she got to A Court of Frost and Starlight, she wanted to introduce other characters POV's, but didn't want to give away too much. So she just retained recent Ferra as first person because she already had, but then introduced other people in the third person.

1:31:20 I think that's plenty interesting because it does show that she wants to conceal other things. It's not like another author that we've recently read who just jumps around first person POV's. Like I think it's still interesting and totally feasible that she just started that way and didn't want to end with a bunch of first person PO VS But I also think that it could be, it could be intentional, right? Like what if they are first person because they are still so important to the story and even though it seems like we have moved on from them, like we just talked about Reese being high king.

1:31:54 Like what if Reese does end up high king? Like what if Feyre having everyone's power ends up really important? What if like the two of them are the convergence of like every race that we have met so far, like Fey, Val, Gasteri, human, all of it. Yeah, like maybe they are the main characters after all.

1:32:15 Of the mass verse, yeah. I don't know what do you? Think and it Well yeah, because I. Want to know what other people think on this honestly. Yeah, I want to know what other people think on it. It's interesting because we don't get Cassie and Anesta from a first person POV even though we get their whole book right.

1:32:29 I wrote here's what I had in my notes. Third person POV's let you hide character motivations. Looking at you Bryce Quinlan, but tell an objectively true story. First person POV's reveal character motivations but let you hide things about the world world you're building since you only know what the character notes. Which is basically exactly what you said, right? So Feyre is a great example.

1:32:50 It makes a lot of sense for why we get favors first person POV, especially in book 1, because we are learning about this world with her. When we get Reese's POVSI think he becomes a more complex and interesting character, basically right? Because there definitely is something too. We see him through favors point of view and he is good and he is perfect and he has everything.

1:33:08 And then you get Reese's point of view and you're like, no, he's not. He's not. He's still interesting and I still love him. But like, he's not 100% in line with what Farah kind of thinks of him as. Yeah, everything you like the people who are out here being like Reese's controlling Farah's mind and like and like doesn't love her.

1:33:26 I'm like, have you read his POV chapters? Because like, that's clearly not true. Like you don't lie in APOV in a first person POV chapter, right? That's just like, dishonest to your readers. That's just like, not a good. I would be very pissed off if she did that, right? That is just straight up lying to your readers. Yeah, I think we also get pretty much the clearest fucking terms we possibly could.

1:33:46 Reese's what Reese would and would not do with his powers. Right? So this is in Frost and Starlight Chapter 2. It's literally the first POV chapter we get of Reese in this book. Right? So, and I mentioned this quote before, but here it is in full. It had occurred to me during the years we've been waging the same battle with Devlin and the Illyrians that I could simply RIP into his mind, all their minds, and make them agree if there were some lines I could not, would not cross. And Cassian would never forgive me. He later says he literally wants to miss Devlin, right? Like he hates this guy.

1:34:15 He's really fucking annoyed with him. But he won't. I mean, I don't think he would literally miss Devlin. He also says he's like grateful to him for giving him a place in the war camp, but like, he won't do it. He won't do it. And like, that's like just like a clear, like he won't fucking do it. Like we have to know what lines he will draw. And these are the lines.

1:34:33 And he wouldn't use his powers to call an Illyrian rebellion either. He says not good, not good at all. We have to handle this carefully then to find out where this poison comes from and put an end to it peacefully. The poison is a metaphorical poison, not a real poison. About rebelling against Reese, I clarified when he lifted his brows.

1:34:50 We can't kill our way out of this one. So he won't kill them. He also won't do what you were saying before, which is we know he can use his Damati powers on multiple people at once, right? We know he can cast a why not? But he won't. He won't do it. He sees it as a violation, right? Yeah. And we also see him kind of like have doubts for the first time through his POV.

1:35:09 We already talked about Tamlin. I don't want to talk about Tamlin again. I think that was like an interesting. I think that's a really interesting chapter to read from Reese's POV. But how he treats the hunts, the human city, he says. Perhaps I had brought this upon myself by enforcing the human city's borders for so long. Perhaps they're horrible traditions and narrow minds had only grown worse while being contained. It was their territory, yes, but I'd give them nothing else. No wonder they were so curious about Valeris though. Cutest desire to visit only stem from one knee to torment his daughter.

1:35:38 It makes him more complex to give him this POV, right, to see Pharaoh's view of him and then to actually get into his own head. So I think what you're saying is totally right. I think like, it totally could just be that they end up as like, whatever king and queen of the multiverser, however it plays out.

1:35:54 I don't know if that's what it's going to be, but something like that, that's what it's going to be. But they could, they could end up being still important. It could have just been a writing choice. Yeah. I think on a character level it adds specifically complexity with those two to see how Pharaoh sees him and then to see how he sees himself and where that does and does not a lot. And by the way, the same thing for Pharah as well, like Pharah has a lot of self doubt, not not imposter syndrome necessarily, but like she struggles with herself a lot and overcomes a lot of it.

1:36:27 But he also sees her on a pedestal. He looks at her and she's perfect, right. And so it's it is an interesting layer to add. I think Reese definitely he's done. I mean, we all know that he's done some pretty pretty pretty terrible things. But I think one of the things that Sarah J Maas does really, really well across series is paint characters in different lights, whether they are good or bad. She has a way of making you doubt the good in certain moments and also empathize with the bad in certain moments. She's does this with me that more. I mean, maybe just like, holy shit, so good. Like you are, you are so with her, you know, like she's so terrible.

1:37:13 And you're like, she's, she's done unforgivable things, but like, you're happy for her that she got out of that marriage somehow. Yeah. So. And it's like if she hadn't as well. Fucking tortured, Ellen, you're like, OK, maybe you just let me live. Maybe it's like, you know, maybe. She's fine. Maybe she just goes to another world. Not this one.

1:37:32 Yeah, not this one and not any of them. Not this one. Maybe the hell realm? Yeah, Oh my God. Maven a Polygon fucking power couple man Fuck. But yeah, I think it's, I think it's one of her talents. I think she has many talents, but I think it's one of the best parts of her multiverse. I agree. And I think it's adds layers, it adds complexity, it adds perspective.

1:37:56 And just so you know, props to her. She's a fantastic writer. And I really start to realize how good a writer she is when I start to read other books. And I'm like. Oh, fuck, this is not the same. Yes. Yeah. Cool. All right. Precog corner. So if you are new here or also if you're not, precog is a word from the Empyrean series that means you can see the future. So precog corner is just our crazy crackpot. We think this theory might be true based on a shred of evidence that we have, but we're really not sure. We're going to put it out into the universe just to see. So that's what we do in this section. Abby, do you have a precog corner theory to share with us this week?

1:38:34 I do this isn't that crazy? We've talked, I've talked about it before, but I think it's a good place to talk about it. I want to talk about recent favors bargain and the wording around recent favors bargain. This is very on trend right now. There's been a lot of talk on the socials about recent favors bargain. So the actual bargain scene, what we get in ACA Wars Chapter 82, this is after they come back from the war and he and Pharaoh is talking about how or Reese is saying he heard her when he was dead and this the quote is but he wrapped his arm around my waist and squeezed, breathing me in. I heard you even in death.

1:39:07 It made me look back, made me stay a little longer before going to that place I had once tried to describe to the Carver. When it's time to go there. I said quietly. We go together. It's a bargain. He said and kissed me gently. I murmured back into his lips. Yes, it is. So this definitely seems like a death pact, right? When we go, we go together.

1:39:27 That's what the ACOTAR girlies are certainly going to read it as, and that's what the inner circle reads it as. Yes. However, when Reese describes the bargain later, Reese stared at the tattoo on Ferris, fingers interlaced with his his throat bobbed. Fair answered for him. We made a bargain after the war to only leave this world together.

1:39:47 Very different fucking thing right then dying together. OK so also interesting Alan shows up in silver flames 2 chapters before this right? So like Reese at least I think knows world walking is now on the table. The surreal. It also says to Farah in Akawar. Farah Archer on the serial set again, gazing at the leafy canopy, the sky peeking through through it.

1:40:12 A painful inhale, a request. Eileen, close anything. Another rattling breath. Leave this world a better place than how you found it. So we have now had two people talking to Farah about leading this world. Yeah, I think there's a couple things that could be going on here. So the original wording of the pact does seem to be about going to.

1:40:32 There is a death realm in this world, right? And we know it exists because we have talked to Connor Holstrom and we have talked to. How the fuck do you say NEHEMIAH? How is that actually said? And Nehemiah, Nehemiah, Nehemiah. Great. We have talked to Nehemiah there. So there is an actual death realm. So like, maybe that's what we're talking about. I think what probably happened is that she wrote it that way. And then she said wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.

1:40:55 No, no, no, no, no. I can totally, totally make this work for me. Yeah. I I think we're getting world walking from Pharaoh and Reese probably and I even have some ideas we have. We have some other quotes I want to talk about. So when Ailing closes the word gate to Aurilia, what it says is she was falling, falling and being thrown.

1:41:16 The word gate sealed behind her. And yet she was not home. As it closed, all worlds overlapped and she now fell through them. So like, it kind of seems like whatever was keeping the world's apart when she closed the word gate is maybe now closing them. I know we don't know when Bryce shows up in Prithian, but I think we can assume it's within the same calendar year, right? Because Feyra is heavily pregnant and then Nick's is probably young.

1:41:41 It's not that far apart. So like, is Prithian kind of back on the map now that Aylan has closed the word gate? Was there like something, because we talked about this, right, The Asteri cannot find Prythian. Was there something that was hiding Prythian? And then Aylan closed the word gate. And in closing the word gate, Prythian is now accessible again to people from outside Prythian. And is that how the Esteri kind of get back? I don't know.

1:42:06 But we're getting a lot of world walking imagery or language with Feyre and Reese and we have now had two world walkers in Prythian within a span of a couple a couple months to a year. I would say I. Hope we're going somewhere other than fucking Midgard. Seems like a miserable place, but yeah, I mean, I mean.

1:42:26 It's leave this world together. It's not leaving this world together. Leave this world together means something entirely different now. Like my kind of open question about this series is like what is death like? Is death death? Because also when they die, like was describing dying as going to that place, like to that other world, and so is dying just going to another world. Right.

1:42:51 We know there is a death room. We know that Connor. Yeah, is there. Nehemiah is there, right? We've talked to both of them from it. They can't leave, seemingly, but like world walking is on the table. And Maeve, Maeve opens a portal to the death realm, right? Because she talks to the world walkers, right? So.

1:43:08 So what is death, really? Yeah, Like, are we just all going to meet on the other side? Is it really that bad? Yeah, there's a death realm, all right. I have a kind of dual, it's kind of two theories and 1:00, but it like gets to the same place. And one is again, a social media shout out, but it's too good. Like it's we have to include it because I love it so much. I'm so excited about it.

1:43:32 It might be nothing, but I just really like it. And then one is just mine and it's probably wrong, as per usual. OK, so the punchline is, think Farah. Forget Reese for a second. Reese can come, but I think Farah might become High queen. OK? I think Farah might be everyone's heir. OK. And that's because of the line in Akimaf when she says I don't have any powers. She's trying to hide her powers.

1:43:56 Still, it came out so fast that there was no chance of it sounding like anything but denial. Reese crossed his legs. Don't you? The strength, the speed. If I didn't know better, I'd say you and Tamlin, we're doing a very good job of pretending you're normal, that the powers you're displaying aren't usually the first indications among our kind that a High Lord's son might become his heir. If she's displaying air like power, and she has all 7 High Lord's powers, and we're also like, kind of airless in a lot of places.

1:44:25 With the exception of the autumn. Is something going to happen here? There's one more queenly moment, and I say queenly because another queen in this universe has done it. This is a theory from a Tik toker named Delaney Kristek. You might have seen it this week. I think a bunch of people were sending it to us.

1:44:45 I think they were might have also inadvertently had Reese take the blood oath. I did say this, yeah. From instruction by the cereal, who I said who was in league with Ameren because the surreal was telling Ameren how to unbind herself. That is the moment. I do think that is the moment that the hollow wind pushes past Pharaoh, though, is when. Yeah, that is how much blood a few mouthfuls will do a hollow, dry wind push past my face.

1:45:16 That is the moment. That is the moment. So to recap the theory, I went back to the book and just pulled the quotes to summarize her theories. I didn't write down everything that she said in the video. So Delaney, I hope I'm doing you justice. I'm sorry if it's not right, but this is Delaney's theory.

1:45:31 When Reese is shot out of the sky and poisoned with blood Bane. We talked about this. Pharaoh tracks on the cereal, asks it for the cure. The cereal says it is her blood. How much blood? A few mouthfuls. Then it also says chew this weed if you want to get better faster. We all get distracted because the cereal also reveals that Pharaoh is Reese's mate. At this point Pharaoh goes back and gives Reese the the weed 1st and then says OK here's my blood, drink this now. Reese blinked again, brows raising, but I didn't give him the chance to object before I gripped the back of his head, lifted my arm to his mouth and shoved him against my skin. He paused as my blood touched his lips, then his mouth opened wider, his tongue brushing my

1:46:13 arm as he sucked in my blood. 1 mouthful 2/3. When Rowan takes the blood oath from Alan, he also takes 3 mouthfuls. So does Henrys. So those quotes are with surprising gentleness. This is Rowan. He took her wrist in his hands and lowered his mouth to her skin for a heartbeat. Something lightning bright snapped through her and then settled a thread binding them tighter and tighter with each pole Rowan took of her blood. 3 mouthfuls, his canines pricking against her skin. And then he lifted his head, his lips shining with her blood, his eyes glittering and alive and full of steel. Reese's lips were also shining with with blood. I didn't include that part of the quote. And then Fenris also took the

1:46:50 blood oath also took 3 mouthfuls. 3 mouthfuls. That's all Fenris took before he laid his head back And then Allen mouthed a short Kurt short Kurt word. Fenris did not respond. She spoke again that Queens face on faltering lives. So Allen has Fenris take the blood oath, commands him to to live, and then he lives when Reese dies. This is the punchline of Delaney's theory in my opinion. I think the whole theory kind of works without this, but like this to me was kind of what cemented it. When Reese dies, the high Lords do each give him a drop of power, but Pharaoh also orders him to stay before and after the high Lords give him this drop and he comes back unchanged. So did the power save him or did

1:47:29 the blood oath save him? Well, or maybe both. Like maybe he had to stay, as in he had to not go to the Death Realm, but he still needed the power. Like, Fenris isn't dead yet. Reese's dead. Yeah, Yeah, I like it. I remember when I saw it thinking, oh, but there was no oath involved. But I think maybe for a Fenris there wasn't an oath involved either, was there? I think Fenris blinked, so it's a good point. Fenris blinked.

1:47:53 Which means yes, yeah, I love it. I love the idea of this because it does feel like the cereal is being very manipulative in this conversation. Yeah. Like, first he's like, oh, yeah, 3 mouthfuls, and then he's like, oh, he's your mate, by the way. Like it's very. It's a very strange conversation. So I do like it.

1:48:16 I have this question about Fenris, and I guess I'll have it about Reese too now. Like, will Fenris ever die? Aylan told him to. Live and he break it and also do they die if. If Allen dies. If Allen dies. I don't know. We don't know enough about this blood oath. I think it could. Now we would Who's checking on?

1:48:36 Where's the? I'm generous. No, no, no, Vaughn. Vaughn Jesus. No, because Fenrus is with Aylin, right? Mavis. Vaughn was still like Vaughn was still well, Rowan says Vaughn is still out there after Mavis dead, but he doesn't know that. Yeah, like I need someone to lay eyes on Vaughn because we don't have Gabrielle.

1:48:54 Gabrielle broke it, too. Oh, Lorkin is dishonorably. Borkin and Gabrielle and Fenris. It's all. They break them all. Oh, yeah, they broke them. They break them all. Except Vaughn. Yeah. Someone find Vaughn. Someone find Vaughn, please. All right, Sarah J Mask clearly. Where is Ersten? Where is Vaughn?

1:49:09 What was our third one? I don't know but. It was good. Fuck, I don't forget. We'll find it somewhere in this file. Somewhere in this file. All right, all right. So fair. Might be everyone's heir. Reese might have a blood oath to Pharaoh, but seemingly didn't really promise anything, so who knows.

1:49:26 It would be really fun. It would be really fun. I would love it. It would be fun. Good theory. Delaney Kristek, everyone go look at her theory on TikTok. All right, what are you reading? Yeah, so here's the deal guys. We're going to do a slightly different what are we reading corner because we've only been talking for five hours, so we want us to talk for longer.

1:49:46 No, honey. And I I am halfway through. I'm not going to go for that long to be. Clear. I am halfway through one dark window. Ronnie has recently finished the Shepherd King duology, so we thought what might be fun for this week is to do a little kind of review of that series. It won't be very long. It I can't promise like absolutely no spoilers, but we'll try to keep it spoiler light, obviously, because I'm only halfway through this book, so it will be more high level. But if you don't want any spoilers whatsoever for One Dark Window or the Shepherd King duology, I would recommend signing off now.

1:50:20 And for our quick social media shout out, we are dragging us in the details pod on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. We are dragging.usinthedetailspod@gmail.com if you want to e-mail us. And we are dragging us in the details server on Discord. And we have a website draggingusinthedetails.com so you can reach us to us that way too. If you want to get in in touch, there's lots of ways to reach out to us.

1:50:38 We love hearing from you guys, really brings a smile to our days. We really love it. So that's it, love you, bye. If you don't want to hear about the Shepherd King, if you do, feel free to stay, OK? So where are you in the book? I'm 250 pages in and it is 400 pages long. No what? What is happening? Like do you want?

1:50:59 To know how deep do you want me to get into it? She has just figured out what I think is probably like the big secret of the book, which was let's just go at a higher level. Let's just let's just talk at a higher level, I think with this. OK so for context for all of our listeners, I mean Abby just said it, but Shepherd King duology 2 books, one dark window, 2 twisted crowns. Abby is a little over halfway, a little one dark window and it is a story about a woman and a magic system that's based on. Cards, yes.

1:51:33 So what I really like, what I think works very well is the setting. I'm very into this, this town or this city or whatever it is that is shrouded and missed. I think that's very cool. And I think the magic system is very interesting and I like the way it's written. You pointed this out. There's all these little like poems and stuff. There's like the, the language is pretty like evocative of place.

1:51:59 You have like a good sense of the mood, the setting, the tone. What I'm struggling with is the magic system is too complicated. The the proportion of complexity of the magic system does not line up with the amount that I care about the characters. So I am not like willing to do the work to learn the magic system because I don't feel attached to any of the characters yet. Like I don't know who else Beth really is outside of the fact that and she has a monster living in her head. I don't think that's a spoiler.

1:52:33 That's like part of the promotional material. There's a monster living in her. The monster is really interesting. The monsters like the most interesting character. But like Elsmith herself, I find slow, like she's not, she doesn't pick up on things. She's like not smart, she's not brave. I don't really get what I'm supposed to be like into with her. I I'm going to finish it, but I'm like, it's cool, but I'm like struggling to care, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And maybe that's coming off too harsh because we're on our five podcasting, but like, that's how I'm feeling about it right now. Yeah, I think it's fair.

1:53:08 I think honestly I felt similarly in terms of my attachment to the characters. And as per usual, like I am unfortunately reacting to a series that we're always in the situation, like I have completed it and you're 1/4 of the way through it. And so I am thinking things that I cannot tell you. Yes, I'm sorry, but I think I felt a little bit unattached to the characters as well.

1:53:34 I liked the magic system and was willing to like, I'm happy to do the work to understand a magic system. I think the main character, we, we don't get to know her very well. I'm I'm just not going to. But you're giving me help. You're saying it's worth it? Basically, I'm like, I don't know, I'm more saying this to me was not a a series that I would ever podcast about.

1:54:01 It was just like a nice bedtime story. A nice bedtime. Yeah, that's. I'm not feeling like compelled to read it. Like I'm not like, oh, I have to go read this book now, right? It's not like calling to me from another room basically. There was a point that I got to where I did RIP through it. OK, well, that's good to know. So that might be still to come for you, or maybe not. Like maybe we do have diverging tastes in books at some at some points.

1:54:23 That's OK. Yeah, I really like the trees. I like the trees. I like the cards. I really like the magic system, even though it's complex. I just can't remember what all the cards are supposed to do. And sometimes she'll just like offhandedly refer to one of the cards. Honestly, and this wasn't really a spoiler like you'll just remember the ones that matter.

1:54:43 I wouldn't. Stress out. That's what I figured. I do like it and I definitely will finish it. And I think it's unique and like, I really like the monster. I think the monster is really good. I love the idea of her having this monster in her head. I just, I don't like it when the main character is like the dumbest one in the room, you know, like when, when it's obvious what's going on, but she hasn't like put it together yet, you know what I'm saying?

1:55:10 All right. Well, this concludes our two parts, Reese and Deep Dive. I'm sure we're not done with him, but we feel like we got pretty deep. We are on social media, Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube. As Dragons in the details pod, we are on Discord. Dragon Dragons in the Details is our server. We have a website dragonsinthedetails.com and we also have an e-mail address dragonsinthedetailspod@gmail.com.

1:55:39 If you want to reach out to us, please like rate, subscribe. It really helps us out. We're a small podcast, but we want to grow and. That's all I got. Thanks for listening. Love you. Bye.