ACOTAR: The Library Deep Dive - Bryaxis, Priestesses, & What's Lurking at the Bottom

0:00 Reece stepped into a hall at the foot of the stairs, revealing a wide passageway of carved Redstone and a sealed set of Obsidian doors. Beautiful, terrifying, like some great beast was kept behind them. If you stop thinking of the library as a library and start thinking of it as a as a prison, it becomes very interesting.

0:33 Absolute chaos. How are you for three hours last? Night tis the holiday season and we were at a we were at a Christmas party of a mutual friend that we have. So the Christmas party started at like 7:00 PM and it was in Annapolis, MD, which is a very classy place. And literally it's seven O 1. Someone rang the doorbell and I was like, wow, this is incredible. This is going to be a grown up party and there's all this food and the person who rang the doorbell was her grandma. And I was like, this is fucking awesome. I love this.

0:57 This is such an adult party. We're going to be in bed by 10:30. Yeah. And what happened was that the adults left by 10:30. Yeah, the like the IT was like a parental generation left and then. And then you proceeded to get Yeah to karaoke. Started and with the karaoke machine. Yeah, she has karaoke machine.

1:20 You're last susceptible to those. Derek was like, don't do this, don't do this. And I was like, all right, I really want to sing Falling by Alicia Keys. He was like, you can't do that. And I was like, I know that I can't do that, but I have just enough alcohol in my system to not care that I can't do it.

1:36 Yeah. Like I knew it wasn't going to be good. I will try. But I did try, and it wasn't good, but everyone sang along. So that was fun. And it was like we were among friends, you know? So it was like, OK, whatever, casual. But I being in my 30s, basically my mid 30s at this point, at 1:00 AM was like, I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable time. Went upstairs, tried to go to bed, forgetting that karaoke was happening downstairs.

2:02 And then I was like, OK, I just have to wait for this to be over. It turns out I can't go to sleep while everyone's singing karaoke downstairs at like 2. AMI heard closing time. And I was like, I know what this means. It's over. Yeah, yeah. Wow. She slept over at her place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank God.

2:21 I see how this happened then. Yes. I thought that perhaps you were exiting at some point, but if you were never exiting then you never actually had any hope. No, no, no. It was a, it was a sleepover party situation at which point you're just kind of in, you're in it for the ride. You know there's nothing to be done. You take a lot of risk when you sleep over at the venue of the holiday.

2:43 Party. That's the only thing that could be done. Yeah. So we're a little sleepy today, guys, we're a little cozy, but you know, it's the holidays. We're still going to give you a great episode. We're excited to be here. How are you? I mean, other than so I also have a chaotic weekend, but a different kind of chaotic weekend and that people came into town.

3:02 To me, and there's just a lot of work happening in this apartment this weekend. Yeah. Work chaos. Family chaos. It's my dad's 60th, so my parents came into town for their his 60th, which is fun. It's fun. It's good. Happy birthday, Name. Happy birthday, Dad. Happy birthday, Dad. Happy. Birthday Ronnie's dad.

3:23 Happy birthday, dad. So that's like chaotic but fine. But like man, this morning I'm like in my element. Like this is my element. This is episodes. No, no, no. I mean no. My prep for these episodes, to be clear, was also chaotic. Everybody can see the title of these episodes. So this is the library episode. There's too much that was chaotic, so we'll get into that. But I woke up this morning to like 4 inches of snow outside, which is my element.

3:51 It's so pretty, and it's winter and I, like, we have a, like, balcony and there's snow. I mean, my dog hates it. Rory hates it. He's very upset. He's curled up in his donut bed. I took him outside this morning to just like, you know, do his business, and he stopped dead in the door frame. Like what?

4:14 The fuck? Are you? What's up? You need to do? Do you think you are? Yeah. Excuse me? He, like, had his coat on. He had everything. He was equipped. I didn't. It wasn't like I was asking him to go out into the wild with no equipment. With nothing, yeah. Yeah, he was prepared, but it was still, like, actively snowing.

4:31 And he was just like, right, no, what are you doing? I was like, it's going to be OK. And he went to the bathroom literally faster than I've ever seen him, sprints back inside. We tried to get him to go out, like to play on the patio, hated it. He's just like, curled up as small as he possibly can be. He's a summer boy, a summer baby boy. He's not even really summer.

4:51 He's just he's fall. He's exact. He's what's what's the word for, like, exactly the right temperature? Temperate. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds right. My brain is not working. Temperate boy. Can't be too hot, Can't be too cold. Needs to be just right. Yeah, he's called Middle Toy. The middle. Yeah, Middle Baron Goldilocks.

5:12 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so chaotic, but happy that it snowed and that it's white and pretty outside I. Wanted to show you my shirt. Manana, I saw you posted this on insta. Yeah, it's actually so good. Do you like it? I like it and that it's interesting because that I imagine it's a Wyvern. The thing on it reminds me of that.

5:38 I know, I know, I doesn't. It look exactly like for everybody. I'm holding up the like the coverless or cover of Alchemized which has. I believe this. Show ever came first. But yes, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. I mean, this was like a remade fan fiction, so I'm sure that the shirt came first. Guess what?

5:59 I got one for you too. Oh my gosh, my favorite character in all time. I know. I mean. Christmas, she's fucking sick. At some point I'll give it to you in person. But I saw them. I was like, I have to, I have to. It's so good. I mean, they are the two. Gosh, I can't even choose. There's so many amazing female characters.

6:26 Yeah. Sarah J Masses. Yeah, yeah. I can't even. I don't think there was one for Farah. I don't think there was a Farah shirt. I don't remember. No, but I don't even think that Farah. I mean, I love Farah, but I don't even think she's stacks top three like Elena. Like she's amazing too. Yeah, yeah.

6:43 So many good ones, So many good ones, So many good. Yes, but anyways, all right. So that's how I am. Real mixed bag over here. I think this will be a funnest at the very least, I think it'll be a loopy episode because I was going through my notes before this. I'm like, what the fuck did I write?

7:02 All right, hello everyone, I'm Abby, I'm Ronnie and this is drags in the details where we pick apart your favorite, sorry, our favorite, your favorite too, Hopefully fantasy series because of course, everyone's favorite, the internet's favorite fantasy series over the course of an undetermined number of episodes this season. You guys know this by now, but if it's your first episode, we are covering a court of Thorns and Roses series, also known as a guitar by Sarah J Mass disclaimer. These episodes will contain spoilers for the entire a guitar series.

7:35 We will announce any other mass versus spoilers ahead of time and we keep them to the end. We have an actor section and we have a mass first section, so we will keep those to the end. Other disclaimer This podcast is rated R Do not listen with your children. Each week we dive into a specific topic in depth. This week we're focusing on you put in a very lengthy sentence here this week I wanted to clarify there's a lot of libraries.

8:01 There's a lot of libraries. We're focusing on the capital L library, or as Roddy put it, the library carved into the mountain beneath the House of wind, also known as the home and refuge of many priestesses of souls in need. Home of free access. Home of a deep, dark, mysterious pit. Well, not a pit.

8:19 We'll get into it. The library, guys. We're covering the library in the House of One in the Night Court. The Night Court in the Night Court. Helium's library, to be clear. In Valeris, in Prithian, in the book Acatar. We're going with receipts. We'll have quotes to back up any theory so you can follow along if you're skeptical.

8:36 Or Ronnie, do we have any announcements? We've just got the usual deep dive music brought to you by. Schwoodley, SCHWOODLEY, he's a great artist. He's real artist, real person. Check him out on Spotify if you like our deep dive Jingle. I don't think I have any other announcements like rate, comment, subscribe.

8:56 It really helps us out. We put that at the end too, but we know that not all of you have read the entire mass verse. I'll also just throw in here another standard announcement. I'll add this to our weekly outlines. Read the mass verse. It's great. Read Crescent City. Read Throne of Glass. No, but seriously, like great comment.

9:12 Subscribe on whatever channel you listen on. We don't really care which one it is. We know you guys ask that sometimes too. It does not matter to us. But wherever you do listen, if you don't follow us already, it would help if you did. And we always love to hear from you. We always love it. If you like an episode, like it.

9:28 If you have something to say, please comment. It helps a lot. We're a small podcast, but we are trying to grow. Thanks. And if we like your comments, we read them out. Sometimes we. Read them out sometimes. Yes, yeah, Cool. All right, Ronnie Cosms. Corrections, omissions, social media shout outs.

9:44 I don't have any for a guitar only. OK, I have a couple fun ones. OK. As I predicted, as I thought might happen, and what did happen is that you guys went fucking wild for our Heiress posts on social media, which was super fun. A number of you, a number of you commented about Heiress and Azrael being mates and you categorize yourself as Heiress and Azrael shippers, which I did not even know was a sub genre, of course, within this series. But I fucking love it.

10:17 I'm so here for it. I mean, I don't think it's going to happen, but like I said, and you guys were like, why didn't you talk about this? I'm like, I want to be clear, I didn't know about this. Like I don't, I don't know if you guys know this, but Ronnie and I kind of try to not actually Google things related to this series because we don't want like other people's theories to influence ours.

10:34 So we kind of try to stay pretty like out of it. So I did not know that this was a corner of the Internet, but I love it. I'm here for it. Brought a huge smile to my day. So thank you for everyone who is out here commenting about your love for Aris and Azrael. We're all for it. I totally think Aris could end up with a man. I could totally see that happening. Yeah, he is very, he's, you know, I'm not going to stereotype any behaviors out there, but he is better at clothing that I am.

10:58 I will put it that way. He's going to, I mean, I just his whole romantic preferences have been such a mystery at this point that like I would whichever direction she wants to take. Yeah, I mean, I won't lie, He has proposed marriage in some way, shape or form to women two times. So. Yeah. But I never thought it was a romantic connection. Yeah.

11:18 And he has made clear that he wouldn't have touched the first woman. Yeah. So I feel like the door is open. The door is very open. I do have. I mean, if we're in the vein of fun social media shoutouts, I've got one. I replied to a fun comment that was in also in response to Aeris posts. I didn't recognize how much of A reaction the Aeris posts would get.

11:39 And I made a post that was just like, who's Team Eris out there? Because we, you know that I am Team Eris, big Eris man over here. There are people out there who are Team Eris. Like we got, we got probably like 25 comments of people saying like team Eris. Until the day I die. Our friend Morgan put a I'll I'll flash it to the folks who are watching this on video.

12:00 A photo with the caption. I've said this before but I'll say it again of fan art of Heiress by Enchanted Chapters Art. It's beautiful. I don't follow them but I'll find their page. And I'm shouting that because this isn't actually beautiful fan art, but it's a fan art of Heiress with SpongeBob overlaid licking it. Just flash it there.

12:21 I've said it once and I'll say it again. My God, everywhere make that. Or does that image? Exist out? No, I think the the art existed like the image of Eris but the SpongeBob. The SpongeBob was overlaid. Well done, Morgan. That's that's some good art right there. That's some good, good fun humor.

12:39 Yeah, it was. Great. So yeah, we've got some pro Eris fans, some pro Eris fans, some pro Eris people and Eris fans out there and I love it. I think you still. Love it too. Cool. That's it. All right, so this week's fun question Ronnie, what genre of book do you think was each bad boys favorite growing up?

12:58 OK, so bad boys, Reese, Azrael, Cassian. That's how I answered this question. And I know we kind of have an answer for Cassian, but we haven't met Cassian as an adolescent. So I answered as an adolescent. Called bullshit on that genre of being Cassian's favorite growing up, but yeah. Well, yeah, I don't think it was his favorite growing up.

13:16 He's now a mature adult. Yeah, totally agree. For Reese, epic literature like Lord of the Rings. I think he would fuck with Lord of the Rings if he lived in today's society. I also think he would love like Les Miserables, like epic tales of like, long journeys and heroic acts where like love is found, purpose is fulfilled.

13:37 Like I think that's what he like dreams of and dreamt of as a child. Yeah, I buy it. You buy it, I bet. Even though he was, you know, kind of like a warrior brute growing up. Yeah. I mean, I could see Reese being very into, like, war and peace and like, Tolstoy, which I have not read. I want to be so clear, but like, kind of fitting into what you've said, like big epic stories about big questions and like, just like, you know, war.

14:04 Yeah, peace. That kind of. War and Peace. War and Peace, yeah. Like, you know, big fancy, big fancy books, basically, yeah. I could see Reese being into that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree for Azrael I feel like. I would love for him to like shock everyone and be into like chick reads. But I, you know, I think he'd be into like tragedies and tragic romances, but I could also see him into like mystery thrillers. So examples I picked out for him. I think this man would love Wuthering Heights. I know I won't shut up about Wuthering Heights, but I think he would fucking love Wuthering Heights argue with the wall. I also think he would love like Dan Brown, Robert Langdon style books.

14:45 He's a spy master, like he loves unraveling a plot. I think he love them. What? Popped into my head immediately for Azrael and I don't really have an answer for why is I feel like he'd be very into manga and that would be primarily what he reads. I could see that. Like situation. Yeah. Just like he hasn't really read books. He just reads Japanese comic books. It's kind of like his whole sad boy vibe that he has going on. I feel like that's a real manga thing. Yeah, I don't know.

15:12 I don't read much manga but I hear good things. This isn't book related, but if they lived in today's society, I feel like Azrael and Cassian, I don't know why this popped into my head, but I feel like they would play Grand Theft Auto for like 12 hours on a random Sunday. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I could see Mango.

15:29 That's a good one for Cassian. I did have I did have Ford piece on, but I also had more what's the word I'm looking for Like kitschy style Jack Reacher Mission Impossible like cool guy fighting crime shit. I just really don't think Cassian read as a child. I just don't think he was a reader. I'm being honest.

15:54 He. Didn't read. Just can't see it. Can't see it? He wasn't interested in in the Ori, and he wasn't interested in books. Not until, until he was like, oh, these books are relevant to to war, I'm all for it. But yeah, I can't, can't see him reading for pleasure. And so I just don't think that's what he would do for pleasure.

16:13 Yeah, reading helps me fight. OK, I'll partake. Right, right, right, right. Right. But I'm sure now Nesta has certainly got him into the steamy bromance novels. Yeah, and I'm sure they, you know, bookmarks and pages, tutorial purposes. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, I could see it. Cool. Great, that was fun.

16:33 That's a fun one. We shall see. Feel like we're going to get opinions so let us know. That's good. That's good. We love opinions, all right? Opinions. And they don't even have to be that informed for this type of question. So how about it? You know how we feel about the level of informed your opinion should be, but for this one it's fine.

16:51 All right, shall we deep dive? Let's deep dive. All right, Ronnie, question number one. What is the House of Wind? Wait, it's a 2 parter. How does it have a heartbeat? This was unexpectedly a bear of a question. I need you to know that my notes for this question, and I admit that I did not need to pull every single thing that the house did, ended up being 9 pages. I'm not going to read every single quote, but that's that's what ended up happening.

17:24 So I'm going to go high level and then we can click deep wherever we want to click deep. OK OK. All right. What is the House of Wind? Let's start at the top, What we learned about the House of Wind and then maybe what the wind House of Wind becomes over time. OK, so the House of Wind is at first glance, a home of Reese's, right? The home of the royal family of the Night Courts, a palace really built into a mountain.

17:48 And we first learned a bit in a court of missing fury in chapter 15. It's basically Reese's and now Pharaoh's. Well, I say now Pharaoh's then Pharaoh's now Nesta's will get there public home for receiving guests holding meetings. They host Starfall there. It's basically like a show home kind of until Nesta shows up and a place for holding like guests that team beyond the townhouse's capacity effectively. And so the description that we get of it and the mountain that it's in is in accordance and fury Chapter 15. I'll read the quote because I think the mountain that the way that the mountain is described is interesting, right. These mountains behind me, they were sleeping giants, somehow alive awake.

18:31 The middle peak reset from behind me, and I whirled, remembering he was there. He just pointed towards the largest of the plateaus. Holes and windows seems to have been built into the uppermost part of it, and flying toward it, bored on large dark wings, were two figures. That's my other home in the city, the House of Wind, and then it's references a palace in a court of wings and ruin.

18:54 Chapter 15 when Reese is talking about the sisters being there, they didn't leave the palace built into the upper parts of the Flattop mountain. The House of Wind was warded a long time ago and we don't know who it was warded by. It was warded against anybody, anybody from winnowing directly into it, including high wards, including Reese, right?

19:15 That means that your only options are flying directly in or walking up famously 10,000 steps since it is built into the top of a mountain. And that quote is the House of Wind is warded against people winnowing inside, inside, exactly like this house, even against high Lords. Don't ask me why or who did it. That's Reese.

19:32 So Reese doesn't know. And it's worded against Reese. So it's not like the prison, right, where there's an exception specifically for Reese, It's against everybody. Nobody specific has access. I agree with you a bit, but I think it is like the prison in that you can't, you can't winnow in like Reese can't winnow into the prison.

19:50 He's. Can't winnow into the prison. The prison, Yeah, but it's not like there's anything specific that's keyed to Reese within the house until we get to the library, where it does start to seem like there's something specifically to Reese, which I know you made fun of my long sentence at the beginning, but the library.

20:07 Is under the. House of Wind OK, so yes, we are talking about the house and the library here. So the House of Wind is built into this mountain that seems to be a lot live awake, asleep that was boarded a long time ago by someone we don't know who did not make any exceptions for anyone in particular. The library is within the House of Wind. So we're not going to really talk about the library within this question, but it's it's underneath the House of wind. So I'm going to just cover it when we talk about what the House of Wind is because it's kind of relevant to like ownership of the House of Wind.

20:41 So when recent Farah go into it, they descend underneath the house to reach it. That's in a court of wings and ruin. Farah saying, I've never been to a library. And they strode down level after level beneath the House of Wind, my words echoing off the carved Redstone. So the library is literally carved underneath the House of Wind.

21:00 Weather library is counted as part of the house or whether it's technically under the house. It's in the same mountain. So it's in the same mountain. The library doors are described interestingly, right? And Reese's behavior and how they respond to him are interesting, right? That quote is. Reese stepped into a hall at the foot of the stairs, revealing a wide passageway of carved Redstone and a sealed set of Obsidian doors, veins of silver running throughout.

21:26 Beautiful, terrifying, like some great beast was kept behind them. I'm just skipping a bit. He approached the doors, which opened on a phantom wind, as if the mountain itself lived to serve him. So this is our first hint, right when we get to the library, that the mountain of which the House of Wind is carved into actually does answer to Therese. It was as if the base of the mountain had been hollowed out by some massive digging beast, leaving a pit descending into the dark heart of the world.

21:56 Which is an interesting way to describe a library. Not like any library I've been. To around that gaping hole carved into the mountain itself, spiraled level after level of shelves and books and reading areas leading into the inky black. So it's not, it's not giving cozy reading nooks, it's giving a monster dug into the ground.

22:16 And we put a spiraling library into that space. And then the passage kind of concludes. Silent and yet alive, awake and humming and restless. Some many limbed beast at constant work. So this is all under the house. Long story short, Reese made this library refuge for the priestesses. And the only other noteworthy thing about the library is that it made its own rules, right? And we learned this when Reese and Phaera are starting to mess around and Reese winnows away from her and fair's like, what the fuck?

22:49 You can winnow inside the house. I thought you couldn't winnow inside the house. And Reese's. The library makes its own rules, apparently. So that's kind of the House of Wind and the library pre Nesta. Nesta shows up. Well, Nesta's forced to show up more accurately. And and changes some things. The house starts to change. We start to see it through her eyes and the house interacts with her, dotes on her, punishes her. It learns kind of her traumas, her interests. It also seems to have interests of its own. This house suddenly has a personality, which is not something that we saw through Farrah, through Reese and Nesta. And this house develop a relationship that becomes seemingly like more and more

23:26 sentient overtime and it kind of wakes up for her. You're going to say sensual, sentient, A sensual relationship anyway. Continue I actually went through and recorded every personification of the house, which is probably overkill, but basically like the house ends up caring for Nesta, right? Like the house cares enough about Nesta's well-being that it gets mad at her when she doesn't eat. It.

23:55 Learns that Nesta's traumatized by crackling fires. It helps Nesta save Gwen from Merrill yelling at her. And Cassian kind of like notes that the house is developing personality. He has been around for 500 years, has never noticed this, has never heard Reese mention it. And Nesta at some point says that the house might be her only friend.

24:19 She says, I think you might be my only friend. And the house is like, flattered. Like the house's heart is warmed. I'm picturing the house as a woman, I think. That's yes. So I just said she like she's got very maternal that. She's maternal, Yeah. She's the fussing nursemaid. I believe she's just arrived at some point like that and when the house is mad it punishes her. Like after Nesta lashes out at a lane it ignores her. She ignores.

24:42 I'm saying the house is a she. The house ignores her and forces her to hear fire. The house likes romance novels. They start sharing books. House gives her gifts for Emory like the house is Nesta's friend. It's very heartwarming. The house might be my favorite character in A Court of Silver Flames, which is saying a lot because Eris is also in A Court of Silver Flames.

25:03 Sleepover House. Sleepover House is my favorite version of the house. Yeah, it was so cute. And just as a refresher for everybody, Sleepover. House is my Nesta. I just named it sleep over house. That's not a real term. Sleep over house is when Nesta and Emery and Gwen are having a sleepover after Nesta and Cassie and have their big fight and Nesta calls in her bargain and says Cassie and go away don't talk to me until tomorrow. And they start asking the house for just absurd shit. They end up in like a bubble bath with no clothes and there's like bubbles with little birds fluttering inside. All of this aside, this house seems to have a heartbeat literally in the stone after 18.

25:39 And that quote is by by step 1000. This is Nesta gets pissed off. She decides to try to walk down the stairs. By step 1000, she had stopped entirely. There was only the spinning silence. Nesta closed her eyes and leaned her brow into the cool stone to her right, bringing up an arm to rest against it as if she were clinging tight to a lover.

25:57 She could have sworn A heartbeat thumped within the stone as surely as if it beat within a chest beneath her ear. It was her own pounding blood, she told herself, even as she clung to the wall. That heartbeat. She let her breathing saw in and out of her, let the trembling of her body ease the heartbeat and the stone faded.

26:13 The wall turned icy beneath her flush chic rough against her fingertips. So this house does have a heartbeat. Spoiler like the question, the questions at that, outright. And later, much later in the book in in chapter 58, right? The house reveals, in a very touching moment, that the house has a dark heart.

26:30 That is effectively the pit of the library. And that quote is in in the library. Nesta's walking into the bottom of the pit. Nesta lifted the Lantern in one hand and gazed at the darkness untouched by the light from the library. High, high above. The heart of the world of existence, of self, The heart of the house.

26:46 This. Her fingers tightened on the Lantern. This darkness is your heart. As if an answer. The house laid a little Evergreen sprig at her feet. A winter solstice present for me. The house is showing Nesta this pit. This darkness is my dark heart. I'm rambling here but I have a point. I promise, I promise. I have a say what?

27:03 I promise I have a say what? So the house has come alive right under Nesta. We have a heartbeat. Early on we have the house showing Nesta it's dark heart. Later on this pit of the library that is quote it's dark heart. Amron later tells Nesta that she made this house right. Amron says you made the house, and that quote is?

27:24 Amron grabbed Nest under the shoulder, hauling her up. The house sings. I can hear it in the stone, and when I spoke to it, it answered. Granted, it gave me a pile of romance novels by the end of it, but you caused this house to come alive, girl. I didn't do anything. That's Nesta. You made the house.

27:38 Amron said, smiling again, a slash of red and white in the glowing dark. When you arrived here, what did you wish for most? Nesta considered, watching a few stars whiz past. A friend. Deep down I wanted a friend, so you made one. Your power brought the house to life with a silent wish born from loneliness and desperate need.

27:54 So Ameren is explaining this to Nesta as you made the house and the house does end up Nesta's like buddy, right? Like Reese after the whole events of a Court of Silver Flames gives Nesta the house because the house seems to. I'm picturing in my head this is not Canon that the house is basically like I'm obsessed with Nesta, like don't you dare, like I belong to Nesta. Nesta is going to live here.

28:14 And it's interesting, right, that that ended up being the case because it's telling of Nesta's powers and destiny in this series, given Reese is supposed to govern this territory, that Nesta now has the House of Wind. Yeah, that didn't even occur to me. But what I think is interesting about this and about Ameren's explanation is from the very beginning, Pharaoh recognizes these mountains as sleeping but awake.

28:35 So I'm kind of hesitant to believe that Nesta like made this house. It seems more like she woke this house and that Nesta's powers seemed connected to this house all along. And what happened is actually not that she made this house. It seems more like the house was already asleep there based on how Farrah perceives it, like a totally different POV. And Nesta's being there and it's reaction to Nesta's powers just woke it up, which is interesting and I think says a lot about how Nesta's powers are connected to those mountains in the Night Court.

29:09 Yeah, I'm not sold that. That's to just like made this entire. House I'm 100% with you on that. I think that explanation does not work. I mean it works the way you said it. It works and that she gave the house personality. She made it into her friend, but she did not. I don't think she made the house alive.

29:27 There's actually, I, I think Sarah J masted something fucking genius here. So we, I want to go back to where you started, basically right where Farrah is first looking at the house. So the, this is like literally the first quote we get about the house. It's in chapter 15. It's the it's in the passage you read. And she's she's saying that she's looking at the house. The quote is as if an answer that undulating Slytherin power slid along my bones like a cat brushing against my legs for attention.

29:52 I ignored it. Right. So she's looking at the house. She's saying the power feels like a cat sliding between her legs in a court. Solar Flames Chapter 13. We have almost word for word the exact same thing, but it's from Nesta's point of view. She says. And then a thumb sounded on her cart as a Gray leather bound book with silver lettering landed atop her pile. Nesta's lips curved upward.

30:12 Thank you. A soft, warm breeze brush past her legs, like a cat wending between them in warm greeting and farewell. So it's like it's first of all, well fucking done. I think this is so good, Sarah. Like, Oh my God, you're using the exact same words to describe this 54 books apart. I love it. But that's in Mist and Fury, that first quote, right?

30:34 Like it's way before Nesta shows up. And that's the cat like power. And obviously we also have later on, we have the cat like power that the pit at the bottom of the library feels like. But that power was there before NASA ever showed up. But I think it's exactly what you said. NASA gives it kind of personality and a purpose and she humanizes it, but she was not the genesis of this power in the house.

30:57 So I think you're totally right about that. The doors of the library, the only thing I had to add, and I had the same quote you did, re stepped into the hall at the foot of the stairs, revealing a wide passageway of carved Redstone and a sealed set of absurd Obsidian doors, veins of silver running throughout. Beautiful, terrifying, like some great beast was kept behind them.

31:15 There is a great beast kept behind them, right? I think there are so many similarities between the prison and the library. And for some reason Eris has this list of palaces, of mountains with palaces under them. And I don't know why the library is not on that list because it seems like to me and both of them we have we have deep dark recesses under a mountain, right? The mountains or I guess it's Romio that seems alive. But like the mountains seem very important. We get we get images of the prison with all these like symbols on them.

31:44 We don't know what those are. These mountains seem to be breathing. Both of them have creatures at the very bottom of them that don't want to leave their cages for whatever reason, right? Both the bone Carver and Briaxis seem hesitant to leave and for some reason heiress and no other characters that really made this connection yet.

32:03 And I don't really know why, but I in my mind they seem really, really similar. So I think, you know, we have to, we have to think about why, why the library might be here, why it might exist, why there are these crazy, crazy words on it. Was it to keep Briaxis in there? But we're going to get to that later.

32:19 That's just kind of a little teaser for now. Yeah, and I think the only I think we'll we'll talk about this, but we should talk about it a little bit now because I think we're going to talk about it more outside of this section. Like the the darkness in the library persists once Breexis is not there. Absolutely.

32:37 Yeah. So is that beast Breexis? Probably. Like, that would be the simplest explanation, but is Breexis capable of like Sarah's clearly tossing us something right Is it was as if the base of this mountain had been hollowed out by some massive digging beast. Because Briacs is a massive digging beast.

32:56 Maybe. Or is there something else? Is there something else? Was there something else? I don't know? Yeah, yeah. I totally agree with you. Nesta did not create the power in the house. That power, that power existed before she was there. We, the library and the prison seemed so similar. And yeah, that darkness, this is the last thing I want to talk about.

33:16 The darkness at the bottom of the library. Yes, we are given an explanation that it is the heart of the house, and that works. But it's also really similar to other things. And I think that bears discussion. So the quotes we have for that, and I don't know if I'm going to read all of them, but the darkness seemed to rise and fall like it was breathing again.

33:33 We're getting this imagery of it being alive. The hair on her arms rose. Brie Axis was gone, set loose into the world. Even Farah and Reese and Hunting hadn't retrieved the thing that was fear itself. And yet the darkness remain. The darkness remained. It pulsed, tendrils of shadow drifting upward.

33:48 And then we have There was night, and then there was the darkness of extinguishing a candle. And then there was this. Not only the true absence of light, but a womb, the womb from which all life had come and would return. Neither good nor evil, only dark, dark, dark, Right? So we have dark, dark, dark.

34:05 Yeah, I like this is so similar to the cauldron, right? This is so similar to the way that NASA describes the cauldron when she goes in, right? So the quotes we have for that the cauldrons famous favorite line in the beginning and in the end there was darkness and nothing more. We literally just got dark dark dark for how this, for how the bottom of the library is right. And then again, this is all in the Silver Flames prologue. When she opened her mouth to scream, when the pain ripped her very self into.

34:31 There was no sound. There was nothing in this place but darkness and agony and power. She tore into the darkness with talents and teeth, rent and cleaved and shredded, and the dark eternity around her shuddered, shuddered, bucked, thrashed, wrapped in black eternity and Nesta and the Cauldron twined, burning through the darkness like a newborn star.

34:48 So does she just like this dark imagery or does the darkness of the library have something to do with the darkness of the cauldron? It would kind of make sense, right? If they do, because we are told specifically, and we'll get into this later, but like, like calls to like, right? And that's why Nesta seems to be so susceptible to the power at the OR to whatever's at the bottom of the library. Obviously she has the power of the Cauldron, right? So if they are somehow linked, does that provide this explanation?

35:14 Yeah, Yeah, Those are my only additional. But yeah, if you stop thinking of the library as a library and start thinking of it as a prison, as a place to trap a great beast, it becomes very interesting. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Very interesting. Comes very interesting. Yeah, yes, It also, I mean, I know I've, we've already said this in a couple subtle ways, but I'll just say in a very overt way, it is shocking to me and I'm sorry to all the re stands. I'm a re stand, you guys know that. But he has ruled over this territory and this library for so long has had nowhere near this impact on the House, and Nesta has just brought it to life and effectively taking it over.

35:55 Like, not against Reese's will, of course, like Reese's handed it to her, but like, just makes Nesta's story to come much more interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think that's like it's done such an interesting point, right? Like, and maybe it's not about the amount of power, but the type of power, but like I think everything of power, type of power.

36:12 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Like if, if NASA is able to do this to the to the house, and if the house and the library do have a connection to the Cauldron, what, what will she be able to do to the Cauldron, Right. If it's, if it's a similar thing. I mean, we've had some interactions. They haven't gone great, but like, she's much more powerful now, you know?

36:32 Yeah, and to the prison. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Yep. Cool. OK. All right. Abby, will you take us through? Guide us through, please, a priestess deep dive. I shall. And guys, this will be kind of obviously a little shorter than our normal deep dives, but we wanted to give the priestesses their do and talk about them.

36:50 So just to set some context here, just so we all remember this as we're talking through through the stories of these priestesses, the quote we have a library is a temple of sorts, reset with a wry smile. But the priestesses here, as we entered the library proper, golden lights flicker to life as if Klotho had been in utter darkness until we'd entered.

37:09 They are special, unique. I don't actually know why I had that quote at all. That tells us absolutely fucking nothing. Good job. But I do. I actually could predict why you might have had that quote. These priestesses are incredibly different from iampi. Like yeah, but. Whatever. I Anthe has had no power that we have actually witnessed, right? These priestesses clearly have actual magic. Yes, Guafo has magic.

37:34 Merrill has also. Yes, Win has magic. Like they all have actual tangible magic that we've witnessed. Don't know what's going on with I Anthe. Are they real priestesses? I don't know, but these ones are. These ones are something. These ones are. These ones, yes, these ones, these ones have some magic.

37:49 And just as a reminder, all of them have gone through something terrible, which is how they ended up here. Except maybe not all of them. I don't know, get into it. All right, so let's start with Klotho, as you just said. So what we know about Klotho, she is the head of the library. She survived A horrific attack at the hands of some females that had her tongue cut out and her hands mangled as a result.

38:10 For Klotho, we feel terrible about that. As Ronnie just mentioned, she does have actual magic, Right? So what that means is she can actually move things without using her hands. Have we seen anyone else do that? I think we talked about reset one point floating in orange, but I don't. Yeah, so we've only seen Reese do it as far as I could tell.

38:29 So Klotho and Reese, perfect. So Klotho and Reese I and I think we see Gwyn do it at one point, which is interesting. So yes, that seems to be a priestess capability. The other thing, at one point it seems like she actually hears Feyre and Reese communicate mind to mind. I don't know if you caught this. When Farrah meets Klotha for the first time, she leads them into the stacks of the library and Farrah and Reese are walking behind her right, so she can't see them. The quote is Rove's wrestling.

39:00 Klotho aimed for the sloping walkway into the library and we fell into step behind her. Reese and Farrah then proceed to tease each other, mind to mind, and then Reese pitches her butt. All of which they're doing while walking behind cloth though. But then Farrah says I could have sworn cloth. Those shoulders shook with laughter.

39:17 How would she have known that unless she could hear? Like, they're teasing each other mind to mind. I now wish I had written down the actual quotes. I don't know if you did, but like, I don't know how she. I don't know why she would be laughing because she wouldn't have seen Reese Finch Ferrer's butt.

39:30 Like, did she hear what they were talking about? Which would be kind of wild. Yeah, Go ahead. I don't have anything else for. I have a well, I think she might have more. I think that that quote, plus another quote which was much more subtle, indicate she might have more magic than just this. Like telekinesis that she seems to have. And the other quote was with, with Nesta. And that quote was?

39:52 Clotho considered her again, like she could see the churning, roaring scene inside her that refused to leave her alone for so much as a moment, that refused to grant her a second of peace. Nesta lowered her eyes to the desk, forced herself to release a breath, but with its escape past her lips, that familiar weight swept in.

40:10 I am worthless, and I am nothing. Nesta nearly said. She wasn't sure why the words bubbled up, pressing on her lips to voice them. I hate. Everything that I am, and I am so, so tired. I'm tired of wanting to be anywhere but in my own head. She waited for Clotho to gesture, to do anything to say she'd heard the thoughts.

40:27 The priestess motioned to the library above and below, a silent dismissal. So not only does Klotho looking at Nesta force nest like seemingly like force these thoughts that Nesta has to the surface, but Nesta looks at her like expecting that Klotho had heard them. Somehow. I actually think that Klotho has something that allows her to like see into souls, like sense something more than just, you know, voices and like I think she has something more is yes, is what I'm sensing from that passage. And we talked about this in another episode, I can't remember which one, but Klotho is the name in Greek mythology, I believe, but it might be Roman mythology of one of the three sisters of Fate, if I'm

41:18 remembering that correctly. So she seems like a minor character, but if she is one of the Fates, obviously that's that's a big role. So we don't have very much on her right now, but we are looking forward to hearing from her more, in my opinion. Yes. Yeah, certainly. All right. So the next one is Meryl. So the reason I said we don't know, we think that all priestesses have had something traumatic happen to them. We do.

41:45 We do think that, but we do not know what happened to Meryl. So the quote for that is all have endured. This is Gwen talking. Sorry. We all have endured. She rubbed her temple. I hate dot, dot, dot. So I hate, I hate to even speak I'll of any one of my sisters here. But Meryl is unpleasant to everyone, even Klotho, because of her experiences. I don't know, Gwynn says.

42:05 So Gwynn does not know what brought Merrill to the library. No one knows what brought Merrill to the library. Her physical description is also pretty interesting. So white as fresh snow contrasted against the light brown of her skin and eyes the color of a twilight sky. Blinked once, twice. We don't really get ages, but like, is her hair white because she's really old?

42:26 We don't know how old cloth though is. We don't know how we know Gwen's pretty young. We don't know how old Meryl is, but is she like, potentially incredibly old? Or is her hair white for some other reason? No I think it's white for some other reason because the quote starts with Nesta was greeted with a surprisingly young face and a stunningly beautiful 1.

42:43 So I think it's more like a she just has like white blonde style. Hair, white blonde hair and eyes the color of a twilight sky. Very interesting. All right, Her research is very, very interesting, right? So the quote for that is, when she first came here, she was obsessed with theories regarding the existence of different realms, of different worlds living on top of each other without even knowing it. 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.

43:20 Some philosophers believe there are a in worlds like that, and some believe there are as many as 26. The last one being time itself, which Gwen's voice dropped to a whisper. Honestly, I looked at some of her early research and my eyes bled just just reading her theorizing in form formula. The last realm being time.

43:38 We know that the last string on the harp is time, right? So what the fuck does Meryl know? We need to be talking to Meryl Moore, is my thinking. That's I'll say about that at the moment. Last kind of really interesting thing about Meryl. And we have talked about this on this podcast before, but this is our official time to talk about it.

43:58 So let's talk about it. She has wind power, and she claims to be descended from the western wind. And I hadn't even realized this on my first reread or my second reread, but every time Meryl walks into a room, the wind follows her. It's like, pretty crazy. Yeah. So the quotes for that is for that are? Gwen winds turning slowly as the white haired beauty appeared from the gloom.

44:21 Her pale robes flowed behind her as if on a phantom wind, and the bluestone atop her hood flickered with light. Gwen bowed her head, face paling. I meant nothing by it, Merrill. Next one the wind whispers to me, even here under so much stone. Merrill said. It finds its way in through the cracks and murmurs the goings on, the goings on of the world in my ear. Merrill snorted.

44:43 Do you think you are entitled to do as you please now? Again, we've talked about this a lot, but the other characters that we know here, the Wind Whisper are the Bone Carver, Bree, Axis, Amarin, Azrael. So like a lot of powerful beings and then Azrael, which we don't really know what the fuck is going on with him. So what does Meryl have to do with these insanely powerful characters?

45:04 Later we get a silver haired figure stalk down the aisle, a cold wind at her heels and the others gave her a wide berth when snapping at her heel heels. Merrill stalked into the gloom. And then we have this quote which kind of explains it but really just asked a lot more questions. I am decide I am descended from Rabath, Lord of the Western Wind, Merrill Seeds. Unlike Gwyneth Birdara, I am no lackey to dismissed to be dismissed.

45:29 I have written in my notes. Who the fuck is Rabath? Maybe Robin, I don't know. Who the fuck is he? Yeah, I looked. I couldn't find anything in mythology. I did a like Google. So I I do not know who this is. I do not know what he's based on. I'm excited to find out more. Reese does tell us, though, that the faay were once more elemental beings, right? We have that idea of the faay and Prythian once being more elemental.

45:54 Does Robath have something to do with that? Possibly the only other person we've seen with wind power like this, at least genetic wind power, which is what we think this is, is Tamlin, right? What would his connection to Merrill B? What would his connection to Rabath be? I have one other fun theory that I saw on Tumblr that I want to shout out.

46:15 So this theory is from Hi Lady Elaine on Tumblr. You should check her out. OK Meryl, we read this quote before. Mentions hearing the wind whisper to her. Yeah, hi. Lady Elaine has a theory that the 1 whispering to Meryl on the wind is kosher. So the reason for that is because when Vasa is talking about Koche, Vasa says that Koche whispers on the wind. Direct quote.

46:38 And both her hair, Meryl's hair and the feather of swan girls are described as white as snow. I don't necessarily think that is enough to go off of. However, we do not have Meryl's back story. No one knows. That's why Meryl showed up at the library. And she is researching the most interesting thing in this world, as far as I can tell, right? So like, we have some open questions about Meryl. We have some possibly loose, possibly not loose connections to Coach J.

47:08 She's definitely a bitch for sure. So like, she's rude. She's rude. No one's a fan of her, right? Yeah. So I think, you know, we possibly want to keep an eye on Meryl and ask ourselves what her motivations are, what she's doing, why she is where she is and how she got there. That's all I had on Meryl. What about you?

47:27 OK, yeah, I mean total, I completely agree. The wind the. I mean, I had all the same like general notes that you had. You mentioned that the youthful face, the Snow White hair. I think the eyes the I want to talk about a couple of things on the eyes. You mentioned the color of twilight sky. I looked up what a twilight sky looks like because I feel like that's a very interesting description, right?

47:50 And I seem to be something that we focus in this series. Like Reese has very interesting eyes. Fair is like the eyes of the Archer on sisters seem to be a trend. This is the color scheme that I got when I looked up Twilight Sky. And for anybody who's not watching this on video, it's got purple, pink, yellow, amber, orange.

48:09 So there's a gradient, but like largely, largely purple, right, Which is the color of Reese's eyes. And Reese's eyes are described also with sky imagery. With sky imagery. So what color are Merrill's eyes? Are they the same color as Reese's eyes? That would be very interesting. Is she from this court? I don't know.

48:28 But like, how did she get here? Where did she come from? We have no idea. But her eyes are said to be remarkable all the time. Like so many times she's said to have remarkable eyes almost every time we see her. Merrill's remarkable eyes narrowed. Merrill turned her remarkable eyes to Nesta. Like every time Merrill's eyes are said to go anywhere adjective remarkable is in front of them.

48:48 And so the fact that all were given about her eyes is that their twilight is strange to me. Like I feel like Meryl is going to come back as a meaningful character somewhere in some way. Twilight could also be described as dusk. Some people would describe it that way. OK. And then on the phantom wind, you talked about all the places that wind whispers wind come from phantom wind specifically, right?

49:09 Like Fair and Reese have phantom wind. They specifically have phantom wind, right? So Pharaoh, when she's tricking every with Iampi, she uses a phantom wind. Reese uses Phantom Wind all the time. Like Reese is the king of Phantom wind again with like if she has purple eyes that Reese has phantom wind. Like what's going on there?

49:26 Helion has Phantom Wind, so another High Lord who is Meryl. And then there's Phantom. Sparrow, Who is Meryl like? And why does she and two high Lords and a high lady have phantom wind? Who are you? And then there are phantom winds, of course, associated with the surreal and the surreal's death.

49:42 So you also mentioned the Lord of the Western Wind. We've talked about this. We've talked about the western wind in a few different, few different places now. And the only thing that we haven't talked about with the western wind, and this is admittedly a reach. I'm totally going to say right now it's a reach.

49:58 But one thing that I had not processed and we have not talked about yet related to the Western Wind is that the prison is part of the Western Isles, like West of Prithean. And so we have also heard from Reece. And then Cassian has also said that Reece has mentioned to him that the prison predates Prithean and perhaps was part of an 8th court. So is this Western Wind?

50:22 Is this Lord of Western Wind that Merrill's a descendant of clearly isn't around anymore? Like, is it from that region? Is it from the Western Isles? Are we going to go West Hyburn's also? West, so like Hyburn is West, Yeah, I don't know. And that's another connection to the cereal, right? You mentioned other places we've mentioned the western wind. It says the cereal moves to the world as if on a western as. If on a western wind, yeah.

50:46 No, I think Meryl put her in the one to watch category. Meryl. One to watch someone get a watch on Meryl. We don't have enough answers. We don't have enough right now to have answers, I don't think, at least not in this section of the podcast. But yeah, I think, I think Meryl's going to be a key player. Meryl, wish you weren't such a bitch. We have a lot of questions.

51:05 For you, I mean the research alone, she's going to be important. She's going to be important, totally. Yeah, but she also seems like creepy, powerful, creepy looking like just a formidable character. I agree for sure. I agree. Formidable and mysterious. Kind of like her in a weird. Way I could like her, I could grow to love her. I think I could grow to love.

51:28 She's kind of awful. I think I could grow to love. Her Is this not Sarah J Mass's bread and butter? Taking an online character making you love them. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Yeah. OK. OK. All right. That's enough about Meryl for now. I am sure we will discuss her again. All right, Quinn, big things about Quinn again, guys, we've talked about Gwen like many, many times in this podcast, even though we haven't had dedicated time to talk to her about her.

51:52 So I'm going to kind of glance over it, but she's taller than your average fae female. That's number one. So the priestess drew up to her full height, which was slightly taller than the average for fae females. We learned that is because she is 1/4 waternet. So just something to keep in mind there.

52:07 She has very flexible pliant bones. We don't know what that's going to be used for, but keep but just a fact about our friend Gwyneth Birdera here. Nesta's power responds to hers. So the quote for that is a crackling sort of energy buzzed around her and Nesta's power grumbled and answered. We know that like calls to like right? So Gwen has a crackling sort of power around her. Nesta's power is responding to that power like calls to like. Is there something about Gwen that is like Nesta Cauldron made?

52:37 Why would that be? We do not know. We will get to that later. She also you mentioned this about Eris last week, but I want to I want to point it out here. I think Gwen also seems to have an unusually good sense of smell. So Nesta asked Gwen how she can tell all of the different priestesses apart because they all wear robes and obviously Nesta is having a hard time.

52:56 So the quote for that is how can you tell with their hoods on they appeared nearly identical, safe with their hands, their sense. Gwynn said simply and turn to the book she left on the cart. Do you plan to shell these or do I need to take them elsewhere? I'd like Nesta is high Fay right? So I don't know why Gwynn would be able to send sent these people sent these priestesses and Nesta wouldn't. She uses her family name, Gwyneth Bardara. Unusual for these Faye to use their family names. Even Reese didn't use one as far as Nesta knew. But most common only Gwen.

53:25 Who else do we know who use it? Has a last name but doesn't use it? Lucian obviously right? And she glows right Last quote Gwyn Sang Chen hi A faint glow seeming to radiate her from her that's in sober flames. Chapter 52 We have an unusual good scent which ties her to the Vansera family, which ties her to heiress, right?

53:44 We have her using her last name and we have glowing which could tie her to Helion. So I'm pretty convinced at this point that Lucian is her father. I suppose. No, never mind. I was about to say, I suppose Eris could also be her father, but he can't because of the glowing. So yeah, I think it's Lucian.

53:59 I think Lucian's her father. I think that's what we're going to learn. I have here. Gives her air potential, right? Gives her air potential for both autumn and day potentially. If we we talked, we had we did our High Lords episode last week. If the air of the Autumn line is actually through the mother and does end up being Lucian somehow, right?

54:18 Like which is which is a stretch, but at least for Day, she has potential to be the heir for Day. Be a fun setup, be a fun setup. But yeah, I'm pretty sold. Pretty sold on the Lucian thing. Yeah, I mean, she glows. I mean she. Glows. The girl glows Who do who? Do you know the glows? Helium. Kira and Kira Helium, Yeah, and probably eventually Lucian. Yeah.

54:40 Anything else for Gwen? We talked about her lineage. I think the only other thing worth mentioning is that her singing seems noteworthy. Also, I have quotes for this and a different part that I could bring up but I'll just paraphrase it here. So her singing specifically, like her voice is what is highlighted, in particular when Nesta is dragged into her accidental scrying.

55:03 So something about Gwynn's singing seems very powerful and she glows when she sings. So she is powerful, she has power. Her power seems related to her light, her power seems related to her singing. And her voice above everybody else's seemed was called out as Nesta was dragged into this accidental scrying.

55:21 So what else is going on with Gwynn's power? Could it be related to the fact that she might have High High Lord, High Lady power? Yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe she's just super powerful. Maybe it's something else. Maybe she has some other power. Maybe it's a river nymph power. I don't know. I could see the river nymphs being siren Y. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of theories out there that she's a light singer, right?

55:42 Which sounds like a siren of this world. What do light singers actually do in this world? Don't they mention? Their pray and then turn into something hideous and then kill people. Yeah, they're mentioned exactly once. I got it. Lovely ethereal beings who will lure you, appearing as friendly faces when you are lost.

55:59 Only when you're in their arms will you see their true faces. And they aren't fair at all. The horror of it is the last thing you see before they drown you in the bog. But they kill you for sport, not food. Doesn't really seem like it. I don't know, she could be maybe 1/4 light singer instead of 1/4 river nymph, but she clearly doesn't live in a bog. She seems to be a pretty true friend to Nesta. If she wanted to eat her I would have thought the Great Right was probably a good opportunity for that. I like the High Lord theory a lot more personally, but now we've addressed it.

56:27 Now we've addressed it. Now we've addressed there we get it. The singing is powerful. Yeah, understood. Cool. All right, Anything else before we dive into Mass first? Cool, that was the end of our ACOTAR only section. I'm just going to plug again here. Like, comment, subscribe if you like us, if you listen to us, if you'd like to, we'd love to hear from you guys and it helps us out a lot. We are on all the socials.

56:51 You guys know where to find us and we are going to start talking about the mass first right now. Love you. Bye. Spoilers for Crescent City, The Round of Glass, all those books. Yeah, all spoilers to the mass first, all of them. All right, Do we want to jump into cosms for the mass first? Yes, OK. I have two minor cosms for the mass. First one is from a frequent commenter we have named. Linnea commented that when rereading Akawar they realized that Moore also had red nails and came back to common. Let us all know.

57:28 Let me provide some context. So Farah had a dream that a faceless woman with blood red nails was splitting her throat open and asking for her name. I said that Ameren was the only person in the series that I could find that had red nails and was already suspicious. We've already now been through our Ameren episode. We all agree that Ameren has things to hide probably. And Abby had said that Vesperous had red lips, red vibes, probably had red nails so maybe it was her. But now we've also been through our More episode, we're suss with more too.

57:59 So Alinea, this works. If Moore also had red nails, maybe we have reasons to believe that Moore is suspicious as well. And the quote, just so everybody remembers, is a pale, faceless woman dragging her blood red nails across my throat, splitting the open bit by bit. She kept asking for my name, but every time I tried to speak, my blood bubbled out of the shallow wounds on my neck, choking me.

58:26 It's an actor. Yeah. Yeah. It's pre. It's pre everything. So we had some theories on who we thought that was. I thought it was Amaran. Abby thought it was Vesperous. Now we're introducing a more possibility into the equation. I still kind of stand by what I said the first time around, but I think it was a fair, fair call out. I did not clock that.

58:43 Moore also had red nails. Receipt understood. Still think I didn't prep this so I might be misremembering. I believe in chapter 54 Reese says that he saw Pharaoh's dreams. We know that Reese was in Pharaoh's dreams, right? And he says he saw this woman splitting Pharaoh open and he didn't know who she was.

59:03 Which is why I kind of think it can't be Amaranth or more, but I might. I thought he just said it wasn't Amarantha. It's a faceless woman, that's true. That's true. No, that's true. It's a faceless woman. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Could be. Could be, could be. Yeah.

59:20 Cool. And OK, yeah, I'll leave it there. Because if I mean to that end, I mean, it was a faceless woman, but if it had been Vesperous, I think he also would have probably thought that it looked like his Vesperus looks like his sister. I don't know. Whatever. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You're right. Maybe it's maybe it's not, maybe it's nothing, but yeah, no, I like it.

59:38 It could be more. Moore also has red nails. That's all we're saying. Good call out, Linnea. Good call out Linnea. Thank you. Thank you for being such a good listener. We love you. We love you. And then one Cosm, it's a 'cause it's an omission on my part, just to actually correction omission. I can't remember whether I said we didn't have any favorite Queen references, but this dates back to.

1:00:03 A Reese episode when I had a crazy theory that maybe Farrah was everyone's heir, maybe Farrah would be high queen one day basically. And I would said we had more way more queen like imagery for Nesta than Farrah, which is still very much true. But we do have one moment where we have a queen reference for Farrah and I totally forgot about it. And so I'm going to read it here. It's in 1/4 of Wings in Ruin chapter 41, and it's when Reese takes Farrah to the crown room, jewelry room, like the room where all the jewels those are basically. Reese looks at her and Fair's POV of course, as if some small part of me had always known that this was where I was meant to be at his side as his equal, his

1:00:44 queen. Reese inclined his head as if to say yes, he saw and understood and his had always known. So this is I don't know whether like Sarah J Mass like changed her mind, whether this is still the tale that we're getting, whether this was just like a little slip in there and then she's going to be like just queen of queen, quote UN quote of the night court. But this was a moment where it was a king and queen situation, King and queen illusion for Reese and Farah. And then we got the high King question in a court of Silver flames for Reese.

1:01:15 So my bad. We did get a moment where the Farrah Queen link happened. That's it. And then omission for Merrill. Obviously the whole Merrill thing that that woman is from Dust Court. Not only is she from Dust Court, I mean she if, if Dorian and Manon have a baby, right? Like I just, we got the wind, we've got the white. Hair.

1:01:35 We've got white hair. Eyes. Well, I don't know what she's. Tired. Well, I mean. Consuming for generations. But yeah, no, I know. But she feels witchy. She feels extremely witchy. She's witchy. Yeah. And we even have a quote. Nesta calls her a witch. She says to hell with this witch, To hell with restraint and hiding and the wind imagery, Right? Yeah.

1:01:55 I don't know. It seems like she's a witch. Yeah, yeah, a witch from Duskourt. Yes. Cool. So that's my Merrill. Yeah. So I my other Merrill omission from previous is, did she come to the library specifically to research the Asteri, Right. We've talked about the Asteri archives, talked about them potentially being in the library.

1:02:14 We don't know why she's there. Just as a reminder, we don't know why she's there. So does she know about the Asteri archives? Is she there to study the Asteri archives? Is she there on behalf of Coach J? Which would be really fucking terrible to study. Them for Meryl in the library and the meme needs to be what is the reason?

1:02:31 Why? What is the reason? Why are you here? Yeah, totally agree. Cool. I have a social media shout out from our listener, Maya. So this goes back to our Eris episode where I had the crazy theory that Eris is one of our missing Princess of hell. Maya wrote to us on Instagram. I just realized that in Greek mythology, the sisters of Phanotos are named Kir. It's spelled differently, but Kir and Eris? What if both Kir and Eris have connections to hell? So we have in Greek mythology, literally Thanatos has siblings named Kieran Eris.

1:03:09 I had not considered the angle that Cure might also be I, I. This is a confession on my part. I have not paid enough attention to Cure. I have not thought about the human city enough. I have not thought about the Dark bringers enough. I openly admit that they have not taken up enough of my brain space.

1:03:26 I'm sorry, I've been busy. We got a lot going on. But like, yes, the dark bringers are described so similarly to like the demons of hell and they have the shadows and they have all of that. So maybe at some point we'll dive into that more. But it's it's there's a lot of similarities there. And then we also have the Thanatos Eris connection. I'm still pretty sold on this idea that Eris is a Prince of hell.

1:03:48 I know you're more skeptical about it. It's OK. But yeah, that was a that was a super, super fun social media shout out. Thank you, Maya. Thank you, Maya. The other thing that I believe Maya brought to my attention is that Nix is their mother in Greek mythology. So Nix is the mother of Eris and Thanatos.

1:04:07 We talked about Nix being super powerful potentially in this world in our High Lords episode. We know that Thanatos and all the Princess of Hell were birthed from the Void and chaos. That's what we're told again. Will Nix somehow become the Void? I don't know how that would work. I don't know. I don't know, but I'm still on the idea that that Knicks is going to be a major player and we need to, we need to think about him and pay attention to him.

1:04:29 Whether that's in this series or in another series, I don't know, but certainly that's one crazy baby. Yes, definitely 1 crazy baby. That's a Jack Jack situation if I ever saw one. It's a Jack Jack situation. Cool. I'm Ronnie. First question of our Mass first section, one hour and 24 minutes into this episode. What?

1:04:48 Is Briaxis, what is Briaxis? So Briaxis, we first hear about Briaxis in a court of wings room chapter 20. We have talked about Briaxis on this podcast before. So we've talked about him. When we talked about Cassian, we talked about him. We talked about more like we've we've covered some Briaxis. So we'll go a little, we'll go at pace here, okay, but. We learn about.

1:05:08 We learn about Briaxis. I don't know what, I don't know what gender Briaxis identifies as. I'm just going to go with it until otherwise instructed. What's at the bottom of the pit Fair? Asks Reese. Reese once dared Cassian to fly down and see, and Cassian was basically traumatized. Reese. Vera asks.

1:05:25 Is it some sort of monster? Reese says I have no idea. They don't speak or write of it, so if they know they certainly won't tell me. This is Reese talking about the priestesses, which is interesting, right? Because the priestesses do tell Nesta. So if it doesn't bother us, then I won't bother it.

1:05:40 That is, if it's even an it. Cassian never said if he saw anything living down there. Perhaps it's something else entirely. So Reese isn't sure what's at the bottom of the library. That's what he tells Farah. Cassian has laid eyes on it, was absolutely traumatized. We'll not talk about it. And the priestesses won't tell Reese about it. Interesting.

1:05:59 We know Brie Axis his name because of Ameren. There is a creature belief beneath the library. Do you know it? Ameren shuts the book. Its name is Brie Axis. What is it? You don't want to know? Ameren's like, just don't worry about it. This is its name. How do you know its name? Ameren? These are questions that we we should be asking Ameren who has lived in the era of the Daglin slash.

1:06:18 The Osteri knows the name of Bree Axis, so Ameren tells us Bree Axis name. And then of course Bree Axis helps Farrah, makes a bargain with Farrah and helps Pharaoh when the King's Ravens come to kill her. And basically during this encounter, we learn that Bree Axis is another non corporeal being with a young and old voice. We are led to interpret its form as something that shows you your worst nightmares.

1:06:46 Farrah calls it the face of nightmares. And to just summarize, like the things that are important in this passage, because it's a pretty long passage, the Ravens are attacking Farrah. Farrah is kind of in a corner. She's like, I need help. And she's basically in a corner with re access. And she whispers to the quote lurking dark behind me. What is your price?

1:07:06 The Ravens footsteps sounded so nearby they couldn't have been more than 20 feet away. Who are you talking talking to one of them demanded. Briaxis says company send me company. And Pharaoh says to eat, which I think is a funny response but Briaxis laughs and says actually no just to tell me of life and so Pharaoh agrees and she says I could have sworn I felt it smile.

1:07:27 Briaxis says shall I kill them and Pharaoh says please do so. Then Briaxis and Reese kind of like team up and kill these Ravens, which is kind of cute. So so Briaxis seems in my mind, he seems it seems like a not a bad force, not a bad force so far, but a dark and kind of terrifying, terrifying force helps Farrah for a price, right for for the price of company to tell it of life described as a lurking dark fair calls it a face of nightmares, which is interesting.

1:08:00 Cassian says do not look at it. So the way that I interpret this, and to be clear, it's very much an assumption, is if you look at Brie Axis, you see bad things. Yeah. You see your worst nightmares. Basically, I see your worst nightmares. Cassian says don't look, don't look. It's interesting to me that Pharaoh calls it the face of nightmares. And she also says that about Reese's beast form. We've talked about how Reese and his beast form is effectively a hound of the Asteri like a guard like a guard dog of the Asteri in short, And we'll talk about more like what we think is at the bottom of the library.

1:08:33 But that's what I kind of think re axis is is a leftover pet of the asteri. The library we talked about right in the House of win question is predates predates courts seems to have been dug into the ground. Has this pit at the bottom. Re Axis does not harm the priestesses, and the language that's used to describe it is similar to the language used to describe the hounds carved into the human city that also are the hounds at the foot of the dais, Atlantis Vision that are Daglin pets.

1:09:11 So I think Briaxis is a pet of the history. That's it. I agree with you on some things and I don't agree with you on others, but I don't know if I answer that here or later. First of all, I'll just start with twice Axis is described as fear itself, right? And I think that might be, it is possible that Brie Axis does not have any mass first connections. It is possible that that is what's happening here. Yeah.

1:09:33 I just want to acknowledge that obviously I don't think that because of who I am as a person, but I want to acknowledge that he might just be fear itself. The quotes for that are the first ones from Frost and Starlight from Reese. I'd plan to hunt down Brie Axis down for months now to take Farah and let her track down the the entity first.

1:09:49 That, for lack of a better explanation, seem to be fear itself. And then the next one we get is Reactis was gone, set loose in the world. Even in Farah, even Farah Henry Sands hunting hadn't retrieved the thing that was fear itself. So we get fear itself for Reactis choice. So that could be it.

1:10:04 And then I wrote, But, you know, there's a lot of weird shit going on, so let's speculate. But what would fear itself mean? Yeah, I don't know. That's why I'm saying maybe there's no creature. Yeah, just like a creature of Prytheum with with no mass versus connection. But didn't Lanthus father a bunch of like boggy like?

1:10:21 Creatures did father the boggy, yeah, which never even occurred to me. Having a connection to Briaxis, you could be right. I'm not saying I don't think Briaxis is connected to the Steri, I think he might be. But I do think there is potentially another possibility too. And it kind of gets into what we think is at the bottom of the pit.

1:10:39 OK. But hold on, let me just look real quick because I don't want to go through all this. It's fine if you do, I don't care. I had a pretty short answer. Briaxis is a scary BLOB of darkness that turns into bad shit when you look at it. So. I agree with you. I want to talk about Briaxis in the battle and I want to talk about Pharaoh's bargain with Briaxis to actually fight in the battle of Hybrid. So first of all, much like the bone Carver, he doesn't really want to leave his home at first, right? He says, he says this is my home. I don't know if he means Prithee in there or if he means the library, right, but he says this is my home. He doesn't want, He doesn't want to leave. Why?

1:11:18 I think we'll get into that to the next question, but it's really interesting to me that both the Bone Carver and and Briaxis do not want to leave where they are. The next thing that Briaxis says when Farrah comes to him to strike this second bargain is will I be able to hunt without restraint on the battlefields? Drink in their fear and dread until I am seated right? Drinking in their fear and dread reminded me of two things. The first was the Valk Prince, an air of fire. So the quote we have for that is so gentle. Those icy fingers as his thumb brushed her neck as he tilted her face up to get a better to better stare into her eyes. And this is when Aylan first comes into contact with the Valc Princess and the Barrow with the

1:11:57 Barrow whites. He says your agony tasted like wine. He murmured, peering into the core of her. So we have reacts as saying will I be able to drink in their fear and dread until I am seated. And then we have a Valc Prince saying your agony tasted like wine. Then we have sanitary toast in House of Earth and Blood right? So the quotes for that is it has been a long while since Immortal Fly buzzed all the way down to hell. This is when the Mystic is in hell looking for Connor. I will taste this one soul as I once sipped from them like fine wine, right?

1:12:28 So again we have this idea of drinking someone's soul. Next quote is I do not care for my brother's agenda. I do not heed their rules and restraints and illusions of civilization. I shall taste all of you like this, you and your masters, once the war between our worlds is again open, starting with you, Star Warren.

1:12:45 So again we have this idea of like tasting people. Also very interesting to me, in this scene in the second Crescent City, the way that Thanatos is communicating is in italicized writing, which is the exact same way that. Yeah. So maybe it's. Bree Axis is communicating. Yeah. So I think we he might be hell creature.

1:13:07 When he shows up at the Battle of Highburn, he is described as a living nest of shadows. You've brought up brought up the originalist quote, which is kind of the nail in the coffin for this one. That one hunt is talking to the Princess of Hell. He says, have you been talking to shadows? The quote.

1:13:20 And then we have some more quotes. And through it all, Bree Axis, all it could make if it was a blur of ever changing claws and fangs and wings and muscles shifting and whirling within that dark cloud that struck and smothered. So yes, it does sound like the Esteri Daglin hounds also sounds pretty demon Y in my opinion.

1:13:35 Like a like a demon from hell, yeah. Which is so like the similarities between the two of them. I know. Really pissed me off. Both of them actually make well. We'll talk about in the next question. Creatures with leathery. Wings. But I think both of them also make sense in that. Yeah, I agree with you. Both of them make sense because there's kind of one of two things that could be happening here. We're going to get into the in the next question, but just to get back to the idea originally that this door to the library was constructed to keep a creature inside it. I absolutely think that is what happened and I absolutely think it was done by the Esteri to keep re access in basically and maybe other things as well.

1:14:16 Actually, I could. Have held as the answer in the next question so I don't know why. I guess I answered the next question after it answered re access. But it could, yeah. Yeah. Cool all. Right. So I think it's. Re access is either. I think we should probably just get into the next question. In conclusion, I think re access is either what you said, either in a stereo guard dog kind of like what we have, or some kind of Prince of Hell creature.

1:14:38 We also do have a Prince of Hell guard dock right in the Bone Quarter in Crescent City. I actually think I have an shepherd. The shepherd. Exactly. We have the shepherd, right. So is it a similar idea? Could be Yeah. All right, So that brings us to our next question, which I'm now thinking we probably should have asked before the Brie access question, but it's OK. We're.

1:14:57 Here, Yeah. What is at the bottom of the library? I'm asking myself this question. I want this question. So these are the quotes we have from Aquawar. We've kind of touched on them, but just to refresh everyone's memory, there was night. There was the darkness of an extinguished candle. And then there was this. Not only the true absence of light, but a womb, the womb from which all life had come in return. Neither good nor evil, only dark, dark, dark. We already got Part 1 of this quote. Here's Part 2.

1:15:22 Nesta. Her name drifted to her as if rising from the deaths of some black ocean. Nesta. It slid along her bones, her blood. She had to pull back, pull away the darkness pulse Becker the likes of which she'd not seen since she's been inside the cauldron, right. So we have again this cauldron link to the library and we obviously we know that the cauldron was corrupted by these story. However, let's take a step back here. Let's talk about the library itself. Let's talk about the first quote we get about the library right. So favorite describes the library and you already read this quote.

1:15:53 It was if the base of the mountain had been hollowed out by some massive digging beast leaving a pit descending into the dark heart of the world. And that is Mist and Fury Chapter 20. We have other places where the earth has been hollowed out by a digging creature, most notably in House of Flame and Shadow when AS and Bryce and Nesta are walking through tunnels to get from the Hewn City to the prison. So the quote for that is, and this is Bryce talking she said, if only to distract herself from the gross fauna of the stream. Did the Fey make these tunnels a few steps ahead? Nesta said nothing, but Azrael trailing behind used after a moment.

1:16:31 I don't think so. From the consistent size of them. I guess that a midden guard worm originally made these passages, made it. Maybe it even used these waterways to get around. So that is House of Flame and Shadow Chapter 12. We then later get a quote from our favorite bad bitch, Vesperus. Vesperus says that creatures like the Mid and Guard worm are drawn to places where the Esteri hid their power. Quote for that.

1:16:55 Vesperus backed up half a step, hissing at the gleaming weapon. We hid pockets of our power throughout the lands in case the vermin should cause problems. It seems our wisdom did not fail us. There are no such places as real counted boldly, are there not? That's first grin broadly showing all of her two white teeth.

1:17:13 Have you looked beneath every sacred mountain at the very roots The magic draws all sorts of creatures. I can sense them even now Slytherin about gnawing on the magic. My magic. There is much vermin as the rest of you. So just to back up for we're not even at the full picture yet, but just to kind of recap what we have.

1:17:30 We have Farrah saying that it looks like the library has been carved out by a giant digging beast because vest we're saying that giant beasts, vermin creatures are attracted to places where the Esteri have left their power in the lands. We know this is like a first light core basically right? We got this inflamed and shadow. We know that there's a first light core under the prison. Phasperus then goes on to tell Bryce that these are also thin places.

1:17:54 So the quote for that is. But why store your power here? It's an island, not exactly an easy pit stop. There are certain places girl, that are better suited to hold power than others. Places where the veil between worlds is thin and magic naturally abounds. Our light thrives in such environments, sustained by the regenerative magic of the land. She gestured around them.

1:18:14 This island is a thin place. The mists around it declare it so. That is House of Flame and Shatter. Chapter 25. Obviously the library has not been described as a misty place the way that the prison has. However, we have like a couple clues that it might actually secretly be so the quotes we have for this are Farrah saying the air thickens as she goes down. So the quotes for that?

1:18:36 Shelves and paper and furniture and dark, the smell turning musty and damp, the air thickening the darkness like dew on my skin. Right, so we have the darkness like dew. That's sounding pretty misty to me. We also have Nesta describing the darkness as so thick it's like a layer of fog. The quote for that is standing at the stone railing on level 6, clutching a book to be shelled, Nesta stared into the darkness mere feet from her, so thick that it hovered like a layer of fog veiling the levels below. When Feyre visits the in prison with Cassian, she describes the air similarly.

1:19:08 So she says I'd forgotten it. The weight of the air inside the prison, like wading through the unstirred air of a tome of a tomb, like stealing a breath from the open mouth of a skull. So we have mist like imagery being used to describe the library. So basically, and there's more to this, but what I am thinking is we probably have, I don't know how fully I want to get into the theory right now, but basically what I'm thinking is that there is certainly, or at one point was certainly a core of Asteri power at the bottom of the library. It fits our pattern of Asteri palaces right digging into or having hollowed out mountains with palaces on top. That is also what the Asteri Palace is like in present city. And then that would potentially

1:19:53 mean that this is also a thin place, right? So that would potentially mean that this is also a place where the world where the universe is thin between worlds basically. That's the beginning of my theory. Well, I want you to respond to that because you have a look on your face. I'm not necessarily, I'm not like disagreeing necessarily. I just, I guess I'm like, do we have direct parallels? Because I I have some direct parallels of like the darkness in hell, like pulsing and feeling the way that the darkness in this pit feels.

1:20:26 I think it's that I don't have a direct comp for what a core of a steri power feels like. And so I did not draw a parallel that this could be a steri power. It feels more the darkness feels more hell like, Yeah. So I mean, that's what I think it is, and I think I know exactly what coats you're going to read because I pulled them too. I think it's a thin place with hell. I think that's what it is basically. Like, I think what the bottom of the library is, is basically a mouth to hell.

1:20:52 Nesta literally calls it that at one point, right? We'll find the quote Vanessa literally calls it that is like she says, as if it were a gateway to hell, right? The only reason I'm saying there might be a core of first of a steri power there as well is because those two things seem to go together. They hid their power in the thin places. And that would have been what could have attracted the beast that would have carved out the mountain. But it might not be.

1:21:16 And even if it was there, it might be gone now. I don't know. But I definitely think it's a thin place. Pretty sure. OK, according to Silver Flames chapter 15, she says like it was an entry into some dark pit of hell. Yeah, she says that about the library. I mean, it seems, it seems pretty certain that it's a thin place with hell. So in House of Flame and Shadow Chapter 60, Adis actually confirms to Bryce that there are Ley lines basically between the Faye homeworld and Hell.

1:21:44 What he says is there are Ley lines across the whole of the universe and the planets, like Midgard, like hell, like the homeworld of the Faye atop those lines are joined by time and space and the void itself. It thins the veil separating us. The northern riff, the southern riff, both lie atop A tremendous knot of Ley lines. So we know that the northern riff and the southern riff do open directly to Hell within Midgard. I don't know why it would not be the case that we couldn't have something similar in protein.

1:22:10 Obviously this isn't a huge drift, right, but I do still think it's a thin place. We also have, and these are I think, the quotes you were mentioning. Farrah refers to the bottom of the library as a pit, She says. We already read that quote. What's at the bottom of the pit? I asked. His Reese came up beside me, his shoulder brushing mine down into the eternal blackness of the pit at the heart of the library. Obviously in Crescent City, the pit is the 7th and deepest level of hell, and Apollyon is the it's Prince. Nesta and Hunt also have almost identical descriptions for the bottom of the library and the pit in hell. Right?

1:22:42 So how Nesta describes the bottom of the library? The darkness seemed to rise and fall like it was breathing there in the heart of the black pit, like a tendril of smoke. Something moved. It seemed to expand and contract, throbbing a wild beat. And then Hunt, when he is looking at the pit of hell, in a House of flame and shadow, the quotas. Hunt had a feeling that the darkness in the pit before them was breathing.

1:23:05 So again, it's a breathing dark pit. It is like word for word the same. Yeah. And then, yeah, the quote you just read, Nesta literally says ahead of her, the darkest back and down the ramp, like it was an entry into some dark pit of hell. So. And then this is the quote that everyone loves. Gwynn says she feels something following her nest out of a nest, out of the darkness. No, but Gwynn swallow was audible. I can feel something like a cat.

1:23:29 Small and clever and curious. It's watching. Obviously. Adis. Here's to Bryce. Is a cat heavily associated with cats? Yes, so it seems like this is a thin place between Prythian and Hell, which raises questions about Brie axis. Is Brie axis guarding this this thin place or did he slip through this thin place?

1:23:50 That's kind of my question. Like was he because this this aligns with what you're saying, right? So if he's guarding it, I think he was made by the Asteri to guard it. But if he slipped through, and I think the library is essentially his prison, and the Esteri were like, OK, well, we can't deal with this motherfucker, we're just going to trap him in here so that he can't leave.

1:24:10 Right. And he was probably sent, if he slipped through, I imagine he was sent by one of the Princess to keep an eye on Prythian, the same way the shepherd keeps an eye on the Bone Quarter, which is another thin place, by the way. We know that that's a thin place. There is a gate to the death realm, essentially. Yeah, in the Bone Quarter.

1:24:28 That's my theory basically that this is a thin place with how free access is there either because he slept through or because he was guarding it and the whole library was constructed. Which kind of fits with the idea that no one can can winnow in or out right to the house. But I guess they can winnow within the library, so maybe never mind. To me that doesn't work.

1:24:44 Yeah, I think it actually does all still work together. I think it still works. I think the difference, the only difference is what was the like a steri attraction at the bottom. Why? Like to the core, you think it's a You thought it was a core of power because the worm was attracted to it, which I didn't even think about, but I still think.

1:25:03 You're talking about because Nesta, because Gwen says to Nesta, like calls to like, right? Well, like. Yes, sort of. But it's unclear, right? Because I do think that there is both hell and a steri at the bottom of that pit, regardless of whether it's Bri access and whatever it's at the bottom, because there's there's darkness independent of Braxis.

1:25:21 Like Braxis is gone and there's still darkness there. And Nesta is actually only called to it after Braxis is gone. Like Braxis is no longer in the equation when Nesta is feeling this pull and Gwyn says it's leftover from the beast. But like, I don't really. Nesta says it feels far older. Than the older yeah, yeah, right. So my thought, I like the idea.

1:25:42 I actually, I'm going to latch onto your theory that it's a thin place with help because that makes perfect sense. Let me start at the beginning. I do think that this is that this is the archives on Prythean, that this is the Asteria archives on Prythean. And the reason that I think that context for everybody, there are probably Asteria archives on Prythean as a quick refresher for everybody who doesn't recall every word of the tones that are the Crescent City novels.

1:26:06 Bryce discovers the truth about the Asteria being a parasitic world conquering race in the Asteria Archives behind a door named Dusk, where she learns that they have been conquering and in some cases losing worlds for millennia. Sarah sent us reeling when she dropped this quote into Gresen City when Bryce was on Prythian. Bryce is on Prythian.

1:26:30 Bryce has got churned. The Esteri 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've labeled the room as if out of all the world's mentioned within, this world remained their focus. This place. She's on Prythian at this point, so Sarah's basically tossing at her face.

1:26:52 Hey, there are probably a stereo archives somewhere on Prythian. So what libraries do we have on Prythian? We have helions that we haven't seen. We have the human libraries that have been largely destroyed, and then we probably have some libraries and other courts, and we have the library in the House of Wind that seems to be commanded by Reese guy we happen to think is very fucking a Steri. So I feel good about like the archives being in this territory and there's a library here.

1:27:18 So I think it can make sense independent of anything else. But this court was in a Steri stronghold and literally below level 7. And I know we'll talk about this, probably talk about it. I'll talk about it in the next question. Below level 7, they say they've found music below level 7, like deep in the library they have found music quote so ancient they predate the written words.

1:27:42 Some of them are so old we didn't even have them in Sangreva. Clotho found them in bookshelf below level 7. Hana, she'll be the one who plays the lute, figured out how to read the music. This is the music that's playing when Nesta accidentally scribes and sees the harp in the prison. So no matter what, whether it's these Steri archives or not, I think the books below level 7 are from the Daglin era. Like I think they're these Steri books, Asteri books. I don't know whether they're like the Asteri archives, but I think whatever shelf below those levels, there are books there. One, because we like know this from that quote, and two, I think they're probably the Asteri Archives. I thought that there were two

1:28:23 possibilities. 1 Briaxis was left by the Asteri to guard it, or two Avis left Brie axis or stationed Brie axis to make sure that nobody in Prythian, Asteri or otherwise, ever found that place and ever found out that other worlds were a thing. Daglin were a thing so that they just stayed safe. And he did that for Celine or something.

1:28:46 Or Thanatos. Like we Thanatos is definitely on Prythian. Hell was safeguarding Prythian because they care about Celine. They care about Prythian. Like they're keeping this place safe from the Osteria. They're basically like what does Bryce call them? Intergalactic saviors. Saviors. Yeah, Yeah. So I thought that they were just guarding them somehow if that was hell.

1:29:08 And I did think that it was hell because of exactly what you mentioned, right? The darkness feels similar, right? The darkness in the pit in hell was breathing. The darkness in the pit in the library was also breathing. Let me see if there's any other quotes. Yeah, the darkness in the library pulsed. Tendrils of shadow, Their shadow in this darkness. That's very hell.

1:29:31 A lot of pulsing, a lot of hell. It's giving hell. My theory for what was at the bottom of the library was this is archives left by the Asteri. Information left by the Asteri. The priestesses can get down there. Now. I don't know whether that was before Bri axis or just after Bri axis. The pulling of this information. This information clearly had an impact on Nesta specifically, and RE Axis may be just the darkness was hell or the Asteri protecting it somehow.

1:29:57 But I really like your theory that this is actually just a thin place. Maybe that's why the Asteri archives was stationed there and that thin place was hell. Thin place was with hell. It does make me kind of question why the Asteri Archives was put there, because like, hell is hell. Hell is the enemy of the Asteri, so it seems like a precarious place to keep your archives.

1:30:18 So. We're. Always enemies. Bryce is able to change. I have so many thoughts on what you just said. We could talk about this for fucking hours. As far as I'm concerned, Bryce is able to change where the Northern rift lands, right? So the Northern rift is like pointing towards hell and then Bryce with the horn changes it to point. To Pritiant, so maybe it was pointing to the scary home world at one point.

1:30:41 Right. So maybe it was pointing somewhere else, but the last time the horn was used was hell, and it's just been on hell since that. Yeah, and maybe this station reacts this and then was like. Yeah, maybe Adis was like, oh, this is a great opportunity for me because we know there are cracks. We have to, we we have been told that there are cracks in the rift, right? That's where the demons come from. That's how Adis is able to slip in. There are cracks between the world's. Yeah.

1:31:05 So I think this could be either a full rift or one of those cracks. The I love the idea of the music being a staring music and that being what triggers Nesta to do the scrying. That makes me talk about that. Yeah. I'm going to read word for word. Great, great, great, great, great, great, great.

1:31:21 The Yeah. So the reason I have the Asteri first light power, the Asteri power being in there too, is because that they yes, they say that they the worms, they say that they put their power in thin places. And because Nesta's power, we're told, reacts to it, which we're going to talk about a bit later too.

1:31:39 But I'm still so it feels so Cauldron esque still. And so hell ask. I'm still really getting back to the idea that hell also did something to the cauldron, whether to combat the Esteri or before that I don't know. But like Nesta's power reacts to this. We are told it's a like calls to like situation.

1:31:59 And it seems so hell like, I just think I just want to put that back in everyone's idea again that the hell at some point interfered the same way the asteria interfered with the cauldron or with something. And that's why. And that's why Nesta seems so similar, seems to have all these hell moments as well as the staring moments.

1:32:17 OK, amazing. I love this question. And I, I think all of these things work. I think, I think it works in place. I think the archives are there. I think there could be a core of first light power there. Yeah, yeah. Because I guess back in Midgard to like the cores are very close to the archives as well. The core is under the archive.

1:32:36 Yeah. Yeah, it's under the Crystal Palace. Yeah. Which is where the archives are. Yeah. They're it's all there. Yeah. OK, cool. So like, are we in agreement that the House of Wind was clearly built by the Asteri and was at one point an Asteri palace like that? Just scenery. Yeah. Yeah, that just seems obvious. OK, cool.

1:32:53 Yeah. And that's kind of what I was getting. Yeah, hopefully that was clear. Like warded by someone way Four courts. Yeah, yeah, worded by the stair. Yep, we're in agreement. OK, cool, cool. All right. Anything else for this monster? Of a question? Nope. OK, OK. All right. Ronnie, what is the prison's connection to the library? OK, so we've got some vibes and then we've got a, in my opinion, direct connection.

1:33:17 So the prison and the House of Winds slash the library. I'm going to throw the House of Wind in here, have several parallels. And then we have it, in my opinion, just straight up link. The difference being we seem to know more of the prison secrets so far. I think that's the main difference. So parallels. The prison has wards around it that prevent anyone from winnowing directly inside it or even too close. We have the same notes in the House of Wind, right? The House of Wind is warded by who we don't know. The prison is keyed to Reese's blood by an ancestor who he doesn't know.

1:33:49 But we later learned that Celine, so he has access to this place, the ability to grant access others as well. The House of Wind in the library are built into a mountain that seems as if it lives to serve him. So these places seem to bend to Reese, who is, you know, high Lord of the Night Court. The prison is said to be law unto itself. The library is said to make its own rules. So there are parallels between the prison and the House of Wind in the library in that they are these places that seem to have been different things before they were what they are today. And they have these predating kind of ancient words, don't know who put them there.

1:34:28 We don't know how they came to be. They seem to be created by a different magic than what exists in the world of Prythian, or the least the fae magic that's there today and kind of have these self governing laws. The main difference is that we just know the prison's big secret, right? Vespers is at the bottom of it, and it was in a serious stronghold.

1:34:46 The library's we've not learned yet. We've not gone to the bottom, we've not seen what's down there. The prison was made into a prison filled with inmates disguised to be something it's not. When in reality it was many things. It was the it's the ruins of the Dust Court. It's concealing a chamber in which one of the items of the dread trove, the harp, was sitting at the bottom. It was concealing A rotting Astiri was concealing desperate. Did at first absolutely think that there was a dead or not a dentistry, but an entombed hysteria at the bottom of the library?

1:35:14 But I think, I think, I'm assuming we're done with that question and neither one of us think that, right? Yeah, I mean, to do that twice would be odd. To do that twice would be odd, she said. Third person narration of like the last hysterian exactly gone. But just to reiterate everything you just said, yes, the prison is many things, which is why the library can be many things too, right? Like just yeah.

1:35:38 Yeah. So I think if you're drawing all of these parallels between the prison and the library, like the library has been built into a library, built into a refuge, built into this like show house, what else was it? I think we're going to find that out. I think that's what the whole last question is about.

1:35:54 But we shall find out anything like literary parallels before we talk about the direct connection. In my opinion, what the direct connection is. No, I basically just have a theory for this one. But yeah, no, keep going. The direct connection in my opinion, that we have is that Nesta is in a cave in the library when she inadvertently scries and sees the harp in the prison. Everyone go read A Court of Silver Flames chapter 52. Again, if you want to understand this better because I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but it's a good one. It's a good one and we'll pull a few quotes. So Nesta attends a service at Gwynn's invitation. Right at the service, very old music is played that was found at the bottom of the library by

1:36:38 cloth that we'll we'll just quickly recap this quote. Some of the songs you'll hear are so ancient, they predate written words. Some of them are so old we didn't even have them in Sangreba Klotho. Found them in bookshelved below level 7. Getting very dark below level 7, right? Level 6? Is where shit gets weird guys.

1:36:56 So. Level 7, a lot of people can't stomach being like, even at level 5 is when things get like we're. Nesta starts getting pretty uncomfortable. Hannah, she'll be the one who plays the lute, figured out how to read the music. How did she figure out how to read the music? I'd like to meet her. I don't know.

1:37:12 When Nesta hears the music, we don't necessarily clock it until a little bit later, but she is effectively taken to the prison right in her mind's eye. So the music took form behind Nesta's eyes as the priestesses sang lyrics and languages so old no one voiced them anymore. She saw what the song spoke of.

1:37:31 Mossy earth and golden sun, clear rivers and the deep shadows of an ancient forest. The harp strummed the harp, and mountains rolled ahead as if a veil had been cleared with a stroke of those strings. And she was flying toward it, toward a massive mist veiled mountain, and the land barren save for Moss and stones and a Gray stormy sea around it.

1:37:53 The mountain itself held two peaks at its very top, and the stones jutting from its sides were carved in the in strange ancient symbols as old as the song itself. So the prison that Nesta sees even has the same notes of the lingering darkness that she experiences in the library. I won't read the full continuous quotes.

1:38:12 This is now Nest is still hearing the music in the prison, right? Darkness so complete. It was primordial darkness that was full of living things, terrible things. Pulsing is used many times similar you words used to describe the darkness in the library, right and the prison in the library. We talked about this. We're both places occupied by the Esteri and today continue to conceal secrets of theirs.

1:38:33 So nest is in the library next to here's music that was below level 7 kept below level 7 of this library and is suddenly accidentally scrying and is taken to the prison and literally shown the harp like scries the harp, they're connected and it's by the and it's by the Esteri. So that's it. Yeah, I pretty much had the same thing, but I had AI had a interesting theory based off that. But yeah, I mean, they're connected by the Asteri. This gets back to my idea that there's a core of first light under the prism too, right?

1:39:05 Because if those two things exist, or it could just be that they're both thin places. Like, yeah, we know that the Esteri carved the portals basically that can quickly take you through Prytheans. Like, there's this idea that thin places doesn't necessarily need to be between worlds either, right? It can be within the same world that you can like quickly hop from point A to point B either corporeally or non corporeally I suppose.

1:39:28 Yeah true, I guess they go to hell as non corporeal. Yeah, they sure do. They sure do. Well And when nest adjusted right with the scrying like that's also non corporeal. Yeah, and what? So I was in her dream. Yeah, yeah. OK. So you mentioned Celine a lot, justifiably so with the prison. My only, my only thought for this really is like Celine is high lady or sorry, she's not high lady, but she's lady of the night Court, right.

1:39:55 So like I assume she lived in and around Polaris and possibly probably at the House of Wind because this seems to be the the. Like ancestral Palace for the high Lords and ladies of the night Court. And Celine certainly seems like Reese's ancestor, right? Yeah. If she knows that there's a core of a steri power hidden at the bottom of of the House of wind.

1:40:20 Like basically, did she do something similar here as what she did with the prison? Did she build the library to try to cover up the core of the first light power and like put pre axis down there to cover up that that feeling of evil, right? Like I'm guessing if there is a core first light power, it's nowhere near as strong as what was in the prison. But like we've we've talked about potentially Briaxis slipping through.

1:40:42 We've talked about Briaxis being stationed there by a Prince of hell. But we know that Celine haunted down monsters and put them in strategic places to cover up the Esteri, right? And we know that these doors to the library open as if on a phantom wind to Reese, pretty similar to what happens at the prison, right?

1:41:00 So is this another piece of Celine handiwork is basically my question. Like did she kind of put re access there as part of her cover up? Obviously we didn't get that as part of her story. Why wouldn't she mention it? Because she wants all traces of the history forgotten. Like is this part of the cover up? Basically?

1:41:21 I don't really know. I don't know if it would work story wise for it to be once again, a saline cover up like that might be pretty lame. But again, just I just and it's just kind of an out there thought out there theory. But like if you look at the parallels between the police, like was the library once basically a mini prison?

1:41:37 Like is that what it was? And then I think Reese said he was the one who kind of came in. We know that there used to be scholars who worked at the library, right? So one point it was truly a library, and then Reese came in and kind of made at the sanctuary that it was, which lines up so well with this idea of the house, by the way, being neither good nor evil. Like it kind of has evil roots, but now it's doing good things. Like, I just really like that from a literary perspective. Like, it can be both.

1:42:03 Yeah. So it's my only thought that maybe this is Celine's handiwork once again basically. Yeah, I don't know who else it, who else it would be. Not within Perthian. Right. Like unless truly, unless it were Thanatos. Like that's the only other person I could think of who is who seems to still be around. OK.

1:42:23 All right. We have our last question now. And that question is, why are Nesta and Emery susceptible to the darkness in the library, but Gwen is not? I'm going to tell you guys right now, I don't have an awesome answer for this. But just because we don't have an answer doesn't mean we're not going to ask the question, right? Still a very valid question.

1:42:44 It's still a very valid question. So the have already read this quote where Nesta hears the darkness of the library calling to her. We get a later quote from Emory that that implies she hears something similar. So the quote from that is Emery's eyes turn bleak. It's. I swear I can hear my father yelling down here.

1:43:02 Her hands trembled as she lifted one to brush a strand of hair behind an ear. I can hear him screaming at me, can hear the furniture breaking. And that's in 1/4 silver flames Chapter 56 again. This is so Valk, right? So Valk Prince. Like, this is exactly what they did to Aylan in air fire. Yeah, air fire.

1:43:20 But Gwynn, strangely enough, doesn't seem to feel anything. Right. So the quote for that is? Nesta waited for the chiding, the ridicule and disbelief, but Gwynn only asked gravely. What did you see? Why? Nesta asked. Do you see things in that darkness? Her voice was thin. No, but some of the others do.

1:43:36 They say that the dark has trailed them right to their doors. Gwynn shivered. I saw darkness. Nesta managed to say. Her heart would not calm. Pure darkness the likes of which she had not seen since being in the culture. And we read that already. The explanation that we are given is that the reason why Nesta and Emory are susceptible to this but Gwynn is not is because they have been through trauma. However, Gwynn has been through horrific trauma, right? Like when has probably had it worse than either of them. Was assaulted.

1:44:04 Lost her twin sister. And yeah, like, her twin sister was literally beheaded in front of her. So this is pretty bad. The valve, just to get back to the valve Princess. Like they do seem to feed on your worst moments when Selena encounters them in air fire. The quote for that is blackness, a wave of it slamming down on her. Not oblivion, but actual dark, as if he'd thrown a blanket over the two of them.

1:44:28 And then we find out what she is seeing, although we do not know at the time, is kind of her parents death and her finding their body. So it's like very similar to what happened to Emory, right? Where it's like the worst moments being replayed. But it seems like everyone is susceptible to a Valk Prince Darkness.

1:44:44 So I don't know what Gwen would have in her that would make her not susceptible to this. Obviously, we've talked about the potential for her being Starborn at this point, right? Her being a descendant of Helion or her being a granddaughter of Helion would make her Starborn. But Nesta is Starborn too, so that would not necessarily be. Like Helion, we is it a descendant of Thea? We think that Helion.

1:45:09 I'm sorry. You're right. You're right. You're right. OK, So we think that Helion has the potential to be Star War. And because he said that, the mask Rakes its cold claws down his senses, and he thinks perhaps an ancestor of his wore it. And obviously he glows, right. He seems to have Starlight, at least some facet of Starlight power. If Gwen is Lucian's daughter, which we went over on the top of the episode, that means that she is Helion's granddaughter, which would explain why she flows right, which we think is potentially all Starborn power that leads back to Thea. So if she is Starborn as well as Nesta and guys, there can be like varying levels of this, like she might be starborn the way Rune is Starborn right?

1:45:48 And not as powerful as as the way the Bryce is. But I would think that her and Nesta would have the same reaction to this darkness, and that doesn't seem to be the case, so I'm not really sure. Yeah. And even if not, like let's set aside for a moment the thought that because we don't need to take as law, right, the idea that that nest is is starborn necessarily.

1:46:13 Like she could have something else. She's got death power, like she's got Deanna. Like that doesn't necessarily need to be starborn, although the 8 point and star is hard to argue with. But even if that's not the case, like Aylan is still susceptible to to Valg visions and she's got straight up flame that can destroy them. Yeah.

1:46:32 So what Gwen would have, would have, would have to be pretty crazy if this is like like Valg darkness, unless this is like you said, unless this is like more Prithian than we are understanding that it's truly just light and darkness. Like if she has like light of day and this is darkness and it's truly like something more simple than we are real realizing. Almost certainly, then sure.

1:47:00 I don't really think the invoking stone is an explanation, even though Gwen seems to hold it up and use it to deflect. I was trying to go down a path of like what the darkness could be like if it's a Steri versus hell. I mean, I think it's hell. I think it's held hell slash valve darkness. Right. Yeah, the short answer is we don't know what this is. It's odd.

1:47:23 It's odd. I would agree that it's odd and hopefully we get some explanation for it because the explanation, like Gwen has not suffered trauma the way the Emory and Nesta has is bullshit. And like common, common things between Nesta and Emory that Gwen does not have our they are from the night Court. That's about it, seemingly.

1:47:45 But like Nesta's, Nesta's not even really. Not even really. Yeah. Like Emory's Illyrian, so she's not even really high Fey. Well, like So what I was thinking was if so many ifs, so many ifs. So stick with me. If Hell has corrupted the cauldron the way that the Esteri had. Nesta has hell power, right?

1:48:02 So then she feels susceptible to it. If Hell, as we've talked about, had some part in creating the first Illyrians. Emory is descended from Analysis and the 1st Alerians, right? Then that would also be a susceptibility to hell and this hell power. But Alien is where it falls apart because we don't have a connection between Alien and hell and she seems if this is the same type of power, another if she seems susceptible to it as well. Yeah, the Alerians also like canonically have a stereo or like made by the Asteri.

1:48:33 Correct. Yeah, we don't know this one. Sorry guys. We don't always have answers. Sometimes we just have questions the. Question is a good one. Questions are good. The answer is unclear. OK, All right. You want to go first? Sure. OK. I don't think you're going to like this one, so I'm apologizing to you in advance.

1:48:51 Maybe you'll like to me. Specifically. You specifically because I know how much you well, it complements your theory, but it is not, it is in technically disagreement with one of your theories. So OK, that's fine. I apologize for that. All right, so you brought up the theory which everyone loves and is really good theory, that Heiress is a true Prince of hell. I don't know.

1:49:11 That everyone loves it. Make sure you don't love it. I I like it. I'm totally down for if the if the series goes that way. I think it's super fun. I think I would be sort of surprised, but again, also very down if there were a second occurrence in this universe where somebody ripped into a bunch of siblings minds and was like, here I am. Hello.

1:49:33 But but I am I'm like 80%. I'm like 80%, which is crazy high for like the theories that we come up off with on this podcast based on the evidence that you put forward. And then a thing I came across on research for this episode, that heiress is the son of hell. Like 80%. OK, plus, OK. And I think it's I think it's Thanatos. I think Thanatos made him the same way that Napoleon contributed his powers to hunt.

1:50:01 Thanatos has hounds and the same exact sniffing force that Eris has. Like the same exact ones and hear hear the receipts. So Danitos has hounds and Eris has hounds. That's the point here guys. He saw them then. This is the quote from from from Crescent City. The dogs, their Milky eyes glowed from the gloom behind between the pillars.

1:50:24 They will not harm you. Ada said, nodding toward the hounds that looked an awful lot like the shepherd that Bryce and Hunt had fought in the Bone Quarter. They are Thanatos's companions, skipping past some stuff. My concern exactly. Bryce said, not taking her attention off the hounds. She nodded to Thanatos.

1:50:40 He eats souls, then. Napoleon says we're not going to defile this temple with violence. And I'm going to skip some stuff. Thanatos sniffed towards Bryce, almost as canine as the hounds in the shadows, and said. Your Starlight smells fresher. Bryce said nonchalantly. New deodorant, no. Thanatos said, missing the joke entirely.

1:51:01 I can smell it on your spirit. I am the Prince of Souls. Such things are known to me. Your power has been touched by something new. Thanatos sniffed the air once more, savoring it, and earned A glare from Adis. From the beginning, Eris demonstrates his kind of canine sniffing power. As a reminder, Harris has these smoke hounds. They're his companions, if you will. And Eris sniffed the night's breeze. How he detected Moore's lingering scent, Cassian didn't know.

1:51:27 Perhaps Eris and his smoke hounds had more in common than he realized. Like these are the same powers. So, Paulian power, why do you think you're so adopted? Hunting demons? It's in your blood. Part of me is in your blood. Like apollyons, lightning arcs to meet hunts. These books were published a year and a half apart. It would be really weird to me if Apollyon had given a deluded version of his power to hunt and Thanatos and Heiress were one, written this way, so close together, and two, Thanatos and Eris are written in the same fucking paragraph and have the same fucking power.

1:52:02 So Eris with his slender hands, with his hell like qualities like your toe. I think you're totally totally right about all of that. But I think Eris is Thanatos's quote son. I think you're I love it if you've. Not like the name stuff which I understand like the mythology names are. Like they would be a fun hint if that were the case, but like to have the same power as a brother.

1:52:28 I don't know. I love it. I love it. It's full stop. I love it. I think that works because I, I just think if Thanatos is Eris's father, they are actually they are. I think Eris knows way more than what happened, right? Like Eris knows. And they're in the same. World. They're in the same world. In theory, yeah.

1:52:47 Maybe, maybe. Yeah, that's this is all of hearing, obviously all of hearing. Where my mind went is OK, then who the fuck is Thanatosa's daughter, right? And then my mind went to Danica with the sniffing but. And that what bloodhounds are. Yeah, it's just Thanatosa's. Mind, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

1:53:09 Danica is dead. We're told Danica is dead. What death is in this world, I do not know at the moment. Yeah, Yeah. No, I really, I I like that. And that might work a little bit better because Iris doesn't seem quite powerful enough to be a Prince of hell. I I think no matter what, he's in cahoots with them.

1:53:24 So like, it just seems like he knows way too fucking much. Yeah, I just can't get the Danatos sniffed, almost sniffing as his as the hounds in the shadows like. That's Eris, bitch, that's Eris. Are any of the sons of the High Lady of the Lady of the Autumn Court, Barons, Any of them? A single one? Because like with Hunt, his dad was still his dad. So do we think Baron is still his dad or do we think. That Eris could be an heir and a son of hell. Yeah, Which would be could be a lot of it. And I also think we'll talk about this maybe next episode. But if if Celine is Adas's are heiress and Reese. Cousins.

1:54:09 Which would make sense. Which would make sense. Which would make sense. Yeah, OK, I love that. Love it. So maybe. He's full Prince of hell. Maybe he's Sanatosa's brother and just has the exact same powers, but they have the exact same fucking. Yeah, no, it's great. That's what I love. That's why I love this universe.

1:54:27 Yeah. My precog is also about a Prince of health. Great. It's not a theory as much as it is a question that leads to other questions. And the question is, what the hell are dreams in this universe? The reasons why I am asking this question. Well, I'll just start with the question, the quote that sent me down the spiral. So in House of Sky and Breath chapter 62, we have a Polygon talking to Bryce in a dream.

1:54:55 Keep that in mind. That's the part we have a Polygon talking to Bryce in a dream. He actually appears to both Bryce and Hunt in dreams. When he appears to Bryce, she asks him if they're speaking in a real world or a dream world. What he says is dream world or what you consider to be dreams dot dot dot.

1:55:12 Then we get she wasn't going to touch that one. What do you mean what you consider to be dreams? So then I kind of started thinking about this. We've already talked about what Nesta kind of is able to do in a dream, right? She basically when she's crying, she says it's like a dream. She the quote for that is she never heard such music like a spell, a dream given form the entire room saying each voice resonating through the stone.

1:55:36 And then she scries for the harp and she finds the harp, right? So like this is a real place, right? This is the prison. We know this is a real place, but it seems like she's visiting it in a dream, and we have other characters that are able to do this in dreams. So we've talked about this a lot.

1:55:51 That's where it's dreams of the middle, right? The quote for that is they have a place in this land for creatures like me, the unwanted. It is called the middle. I have dreamt of it, seen it long in my slumber. So we know that Vaspers can do this. We know that Reese can do this because Reese sees Pharaoh's life through her dreams. I am now throwing a polygons name in the ring as well because we have a Polygon visiting both Bryce and Hunt in these dreams, right?

1:56:16 So this is like an I think this is an actual power, like people can actually traverse whatever this dream world. Is well and Aylan does it. That's how she gets the eye of Elena. Aylan does it. That's how she gets the eye of Elena. Wait, doesn't she go through a oh oh you're fucking? Right, that's the only way she goes into Elena's tomb.

1:56:32 Holy shit, you're fucking right. And then? She do it physically, Physically gets the amulet. That way, Yeah. Holy shit. OK, So what are dreams in this universe? What is this power? Who can do this? That's fucking wild. The so. So that's basically the main theory. The main question here is what are dreams?

1:56:50 The only other note I have for this is Bespher says she goes to the middle in her dreams, right? We later find out, well we find out in silver Flames that the mask is in the middle, right? The mask is in the middle. Vespers dreams of the middle, nested dreams of the prison where the harp is. Eris says in Silver Flames that the Trove might be reaching out to others, right? So the quote for that is if the trove has a sentience like you suggested, if it wants to be found, I fear that it might also be reaching out to others as well, not just Brie, Allen and Koscheck.

1:57:22 We now have a Polly on who we know can traverse dreams basically right? Is the trove also reaching out to the Princess of Hell? Is this dreaming basically the way that the trove reaches out? I don't know, just a theory, but the dreams we, I, we might have to at some point do a bonus episode on on the dreaming because I think it's fucking wild and I think it's going to be important.

1:57:42 I love the alien thing. Hadn't even occurred to me. You're so fucking right. Yeah, I think, I think we need to get deeper into the math first before we do dreams. But I certainly, certainly maybe a Crescent City season, maybe even a Throne of Glass season. Yeah, cool. All right. What? I agree, though. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy love.

1:58:03 It I love it. OK, what do you? Think re. I'm still rereading Brimstone at a snail's pace and I am also reading Alchemist at a snail's pace. Those are the things that I'm reading. How's the Brimstone reread going? Are you liking it more? I am OK. I'm liking it more. I think slow is the way to go with this book.

1:58:24 It is. It is just chaotic. I think the people who liked it were the people who liked the chaotic read. And there are things laid out that I missed, but they were laid out very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. But there are things I missed. There are things I missed or there are things where you go back and you're like, Oh yeah, got it.

1:58:45 Well, probably read it at some point. I just decided that now was not the time because I was kind of too annoyed. Yeah, no, like I, I get that and I understand where everybody, where everybody's at. But yeah. I'd see what you're saying, yeah, but I'm are you liking? I'm enjoying the reread. Are you liking Alchemist? I'm liking Alchemist.

1:59:04 Yeah, I think I told you I I did like for the 1st 100 pages. I was like, I can't separate what I know were the Harry Potter parallels because I did know the plot of Manacled. So that has been kind of challenging is the wrong word because it's not making the book worse. It's just like it's. Like. Reading something in code almost.

1:59:26 Yeah, I do feel like I'm reading in code, yeah. And for those who don't know, like the the context behind Alchemized is it's basically a RE formed version of a Harry Potter fan fiction, a very famous one called Manacled. And it's Germany for those who like Germany fanfic, which I definitely did. But it's been interesting, It's been good. So I feel like it's been a good one to read low. I think Alchemize.

1:59:50 I both read it faster than I wanted to and also took my time with it. So it took me about a week is what I'm trying to say. Because I loved it, because I wanted to devour it, but I also knew I was missing things. And I am rereading it now in conjunction with a different book and I am taking my time with it.

2:00:07 And it is, it is so much clearer on a reread in in a great way, in a great way, in my opinion. Like, like it's a It is a puzzle that you piece together as you read, and in the best way. Yeah, I know. Like part of me, I had to convince myself not to just read Mango. Yeah. So I was like, wow, I have to like work to understand a new magic system.

2:00:30 But I'm excited to work to understand the new magic system. It's I enjoy doing that. So it'll be. Fun. Yeah, that's what that's what we do here. Cool all right, we are drags in the details pod at on all social media channels. We are on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, oh we're on Facebook. I made us a Facebook. We have 3 followers.

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