This chapter covers a lot of chaotic events. First, Violet runs into an old friend–Jesinia. We love Jesinia. I love Yarros as an author for many reasons, but I especially admire her incorporation of characters with disabilities as well as different gender identities and sexual orientations. It’s not overdone either. This is the scene where I started to make connections between the first Battle Brief scene and the missing book of fables. When I first read this novel I was teaching Orwell’s 1984 in my English classes, and my oh my…the correlation. Obviously there’s information being censored, which ties into Violet’s dream with her father where he mentions that scribes have all the power. In Navarre, the scribes hold all of the history and information available. They have the ability to change and emit things to fit a narrative. Not only does this relate to most dystopian texts, but it’s also a hot topic in our world today. If you control the information, you can make people believe whatever you want. What are the higher ups trying to hide from the public? Why is getting rid of anything revolving around venin and wyvern important to them? This is where readers start to understand that sometimes, especially in fantasy worlds, that things may not always be what they seem.
We also see that even though Violet feels a sense of nostalgia when visiting the Archives, she is solidified in her choice to stay in the Riders Quadrant.
Sawyer is one of the first (if not the first) in the newly bonded riders to manifest his signet–metallurgy. I’m interested to know what aspect of his personality led to him manifesting this specific power. Caroline Ashton, Jack’s friend, bonded Gleann. Her mentioning probably suggests she’s going to become a more prominent character. Jack’s crew is dwindling, and consists of only men, so it’s only appropriate that more people bond with him over time, despite his sadistic nature.
One of my least favorite scenes in the novel is the confrontation by Dain about Violet’s inability to hold her seat. What rubs me the wrong way is how he shouts at her and grabs her elbow. Excuse me? That’s really yucky. He’s pretty brave for that little stunt. Tairn was right to threaten him upon arrival, and he’s lucky Xaden isn’t there to witness his aggression with Violet. It was satisfying watching Violet tell him off though. She finally calls him out for undervaluing her constantly. You can tell she’s finally hit her breaking point here. She tells him this is the reason why they won’t work out romantically, which he needed to hear in my opinion.
It’s kind of comical how she takes out this frustration on Xaden by flipping him off as she walks past. The manifestation of Jerimiah’s signet shifts the attention pretty drastically. It’s been mentioned that becoming inntinnsic is a death sentence, but now we got to see what that actually looks like. Jeremiah starts spilling everyone’s secrets. You can tell it’s driving him crazy. Professor Carr puts him out of his misery before he spills whatever was on Garrick’s mind, which I assume has to do with the late night sneak outs that occur with him, Xaden and Bodhi.
Like I said earlier, Violet’s dream with her dad solidifies that Navarre is hiding something from the public. His advice seems personal and relevant. When she’s awoken by the unbonded’s attack, it’s not much of a surprise. Xaden warned her this would happen. It was truly just a matter of time. She holds her own pretty well for 7v1. I’m curious to see who let them in the room, because Violet recognizes her, but does not name her yet. I don’t think she really has time to think about that. Tairn and Andarna won’t make it to her in time, and just as she’s about to die from Oren slitting her throat, time stops. Andarna screams “mine” which makes me wonder if this is Violet’s signet channeled through Andarna. Quite the cliffhanger!
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