K: Welcome back to just read it MCKay

M: I'm M

C: I'm C.

K: And I'm Kay. We have officially closed one chapter of our journey and are opening the gates to a brand new world. Today we're kicking off our deep dive into House of Earth and Blood, the first book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome. And if you've been with us through Prythian thank you for coming along for another adventure. It's time to say goodbye to the courts for now and hello to the bustling streets of Lunathian. A city where the magic is modern, the world is massive. And the first hundred pages might have you wondering if you accidentally skipped a chapter. Don't worry, we promise you didn't. Grab your drinks, your snacks, and maybe a notebook because Sarah J. Maas has once again decided that names, places, history, politics, and emotional trauma should all be introduced before chapter three. We'll do our best to keep up and hopefully help you keep up too. Let's head into Crescent City.

C: Well, that's perfect.

M: Okay, I love that

C: That was perfect.

K: Out of breath.

C: That was a lot, but it was perfect. Okay. We are in a completely different world. A lot to unpack. So we are discussing the first seven chapters in the first Crescent City book, A House of Earth and Blood. I don't even know where to start.

M: you

C: There is so much to the beginning. There is so much in this whole series. I mean, the book is bigger than all of the ACOTAR books individually. There are more words on the pages in these books than there are in the ACOTAR books. So there's just, there's a lot. So we are introduced to an entirely new world set with all new characters that we have not met before. As far as we know. some things are similar, some things are not, other things are crazy different. So let's, let's just break it down as much as we can. So in this world, we have another world similar to the other ones where we have fae humans, but we also have other types of beings So in throne of glass, we have. some very specific types. people. Species. We have very specific species. We have humans. We have fae. We have witches. We have valg which is not from that world. It's from a different world. But that's pretty much it. And the fae in that world can shift into a different form. So for instance, we have multiple fae that shift into different birds or different wolf types, different cat types. Those are primarily the different types that we see throughout that series. We don't know if we get fae who shift into horses or mice or other weird creatures. Whereas in this book, we have... shifters that shift into pretty much every type of animal. In ACOTAR we had humans and fae and there were just different types of fae but they were all under the fae branch. In Crescent City we have the humans and the vanir and the vanir encompass all the different species that aren't human or normal animal.

K: Aren't they pureblood though? I feel like I just reading through it this time, it made me just think that because that's the way that Bryce was describing them, 'cause she doesn't consider

C: So I think.

K: herself, right?

C: Yes, but I think that's an instance where we've talked about an acotar where someone was using specific terms to determine whether they think they're part of that species or not. Because vanir, the term is described as all magical non-human beings. So it does technically include Bryce, even if she doesn't feel that because she's half human, half fae. But vanir itself encompasses every being. So in this world, we have everything from shifters where they can have two different forms, whether it's cat, dog, bird. I mean, we got some snake-like shifters, not quite shifters, but they're actual snake people. We have humans, witches, angels. fae elementals, sprites, merpeople, waterbeasts, nymphs, kelpies, nokks whatever that is, daemonaki reapers, wraiths, vampyrs draki, dragons, necromancers, and many others. So that is just a rough idea of the different types of vanir we have in Midgard, which is the world that Crescent City is in. In Midgard, all of these different types of species belong to four different, one of four different houses. So we have the House of Earth and Blood, which is the name of this first book. This is for shifters, humans, witches, ordinary animals. and many others to whom Cthona which is one of our gods, who Cthona calls, as well as some chosen by Luna, who is our second god. Then we have the House of Sky and Breath. This is going to be your malakim which is the angels, fae, elementals, sprites, and those who are blessed by Solas, who is our third god, along with some who are also favored by Luna. Now we have a little asterisk for this house. because it does talk about the sprites being included in this house. However, the sprites were kicked out of their house as a result of their participation in the fall, which was essentially a rebellion that took place about 200 years ago. So because of that, they are now considered lowers, though many of them refuse to accept that. Then we have the house with many waters. This is where the river spirits, mer water beasts, nymphs, kelpies and the nox. and others watched over by Ogenas which is our fourth God. And then we have our final house, which is the House of Flame and Shadow. This includes Reapers, Wraiths, Vampyrs Draki Dragons, Necromancers, Daemonaki, and many wicked and unnamed things that even Urd herself cannot see. So Urd is our fifth God. So those are the five main gods. over Midgard that are considered gods in this series. We got many different gods in Throne of Glass, just depending on the different people. We got no gods, absolutely none in ACOTAR. And now we only have five gods so far in Crescent City. So Bryce herself is a half-fae half-human woman. She is 23 years old. She technically belongs to the House in Sky and Breath. And that was only because she was essentially forced to. It was part of the bargain she made with her father. If she was going to become a citizen of Lunathian, which her father had to petition for her to become a citizen, That's the only way he would do it is if she agreed to be officially a part of the House of Sky and Breath, which is where most of the fae belong. So Bryce herself, she has the pointed ears of the fae. She has wine red hair. She is a voluptuous woman. So she has lots of curves. She's not itty bitty like Aelin and Feyre. She is, she has more of a figure. Her best friend is Danika Fendyr Danika is a wolf shifter. She is on the thinner side, but she is all muscle, very similar to Aelin and Feyre later on the books. But Danika is the alpha of her wolf pack. Her wolf pack is called... The Pack of Devils. She and Bryce have been best friends since they first room together freshman year in college. So this entire world is very similar to the world we live in now as far as the technological advances, but there is still magic. So it is a combination of technology, science, and magic. So Bryce and Danika both went to college together in the city of Lunathian. and they became best friends pretty much immediately. Danika also happens to be the granddaughter of the Prime. The Prime is the head guy in charge of all of the wolves. For Lunathian and kind of this territory, he is the alpha of all the wolves for this area. Danika and Bryce have been through a lot together, so their friendship has grown because of everything that they've gone through. We'll get into a little bit more of their relationship in a couple minutes. Bryce currently works at a antiquities shop, so it is called Griffin Antiquities. She's worked there for about the last year. This antiquity shop is. owned and run by Jesiba Roga Jesiba is a 400 year old enchantress who'd been born a witch and defected and she had joined the house of flame and shadow and now answered only to the Under-King himself. The witches are initially from the House of Earth and Blood. So, Jesiba defected from being a witch and then joined the House, she switched over to the House of Flame and Shadow. The House of Flame and Shadow is ruled by the Underking, who is also the one in charge of the bone quarter, Lunathian is broken into different groups and different sections. And each group that lives primarily in that section has their own leader or person in charge. So the Under King is the one in charge of the Bone Quarter, which is also like the city of the dead kind of area. The antiquities shop where Bryce works has a combination of spell work that keeps it operational as well as preserves the many books that are in the archives as well as protects from outside forces. It also has technological advances in it. So there are cameras, there are locks on all of the doors, there are no windows in this space whatsoever. So the only way to get in is to either have a key, have the handle keyed to you. So it's kind of like a handprint to open it or be let in. Those are the only ways to actually make it into this antiquity shop. And we're going to find out why in the later chapters, but it is essentially because of the amount of old, nice old stuff that some fae and other beings pay a lot of money for. And so that's one thing that Bryce does is she facilitates the sale of different pieces, ancient artifacts, that kind of thing. She also helps to find different artifacts if they go missing. And she also kind of takes care of the space when Jesiba isn't there. But it's essentially just the two of them who work here other than the guarders of the books. we have two in the basement, which is where the archives are. And we have a Chimera, which is kind of like a small lion slash dog thing that we're going to get description of later in the book. And then Lehabah is a fire sprite who lives completely in the archives, does not leave the archives. It is her job to protect all of the books. Which is interesting that a fire spirit is the one guarding books, but the books are spelled to stay on the bookshelves for the most part, but there are also other spells throughout the entire archive space to keep anything from burning and all of that.

M: So I'm going to throw this out there since we're kind of getting into it. During my first reread or my first read of this book, I hadn't been part of the Sarah J. Maas world at all. So going through hearing her talk about the books later on and describing it, I was like, it'd be so cool to walk through that and learn the history of the world. Now, after reading the other series and knowing there's something somewhere connected, but still not knowing what it is because I haven't read that far, I'm like, Now I really want to go in there and just walk through and look at everything and see all of that. Like I was sitting there and I thought back listening and I was like, I remember thinking, I think we were sitting where it was snowing one day. And I remember sitting there thinking that would be so cool to walk through and see all of the, like it's described so well. It's such a heavy chapter, but the description of everything just had me being like, I want to go walk through all of it and just be there for days.

C: And we don't even get crazy descriptions on the archives yet.

M: But even just in the beginning, it's so, I'm telling you, the description's in this book.

C: there's more. Just wait. Just

K: I knew that was coming. I could see the

C: wait.

K: look on your face that there was more that you were you were just trying to be quiet and I saw it.

M: Of course there is.

C: Right? Like, I'm glad you mentioned it now, but we're going to talk about it again later.

M: Who's shocked?

C: Right? before we go on, I need to know how much information do you want me to give versus how much do you not want me to give? Because when we went through ACOTAR, anything that was going to relate to something coming, I'd bring it up then and again once we got there. But since you guys haven't actually read all of Crescent City, I don't want to spoil things. So I figured if there's anything that's going to hint at something, I would just say foreshadowing and we'll leave it at that. If that's okay. Do you want me to even not say that?

K: I don't know.

M: I don't

K: really just wanna be like punched in the face with it when I read it. So I don't think I

M: Like,

K: want to know.

M: I have to second that going back to our Throne of Glass conversations of the, no way! Like, I would

K: Mm-hmm.

M: rather get some of those actually real

K: Mm-hmm.

C: Okay, so then

M: reactions.

C: this deep dive is gonna be a little different than it was when we did ACOTAR, because in ACOTAR, we talked about future things and foreshadowing and different things that we were gonna see that were going to tie into what we were reading at that point. Whereas this go around, I will try very hard, very hard not to include spoilers since the two of you have not read through the entire series. I will only say something if I know that you guys at least have a hint of what's coming or if it stays within book one. We'll put it that

K: You just have to make sure and like put a pin in it so we know to come back to it later.

C: Right? Yeah, I know. We're gonna have... whole book's gonna be filled with pins. Okay, so we have Bryce, Danika, Jesiba. There are multiple members in Danika's... her second is Connor Holstrom, which we get to see just a little bit. He is kind of like Bryce's what if. Then we have... Nathalie was Danika's third. We have Thorne, who is the Omega in the pack. Not that we get a whole lot of information as to what that means for this series, at least not yet. Bryce kind of describes them as they orbit each other, kind of hinting that there may have been a future relationship between them, but we don't know for sure. And then we have the twins. Zack and Zelda, both Snow White, but we do have a set of twins. They are considered the ghosts. and there is one more.

K: Wait. Yeah, Bronson.

C: Bronson is the other one.

K: Yeah.

C: Danika, Connor, Natalie, Thorne, Bronson, Zach, and Zelda. Those are the seven members of her pack. They are kind of the top of the food chain in regards to the wolves in Crescent City Okay, so it's five years ago that they were freshmen in Crescent City University. CCU. So those are some of our main characters, some of our characters so far. So the book starts out with Danika visiting Bryce at work. Danika has come from a patrol because that is one part of Danika's job is patrolling the city and protecting certain areas. She has come to shower at the archives and borrow some clothes from Bryce because she has a meeting with the heads of the city to discuss a human criminal who has been behind bars and is now most likely being set free under a technicality. Bryce and Danika. We have some mention of Bryce. and a tattoo that she had recently been talked into getting by Danika. They had gone the night before to get them. Bryce had gotten a fairly large back tattoo from The Sounds of It, whereas Danika had gotten a smaller tattoo, but it was a matching tattoo. Danika's is already healed because of the benefits of being full-blooded vanir. Whereas Bryce being half human, she is still healing from the tattoo, but they got drunk the night before and went out and got matching tattoos. Danika's mother is Sabine. We do not like Sabine. She is a total B word. She is the daughter of the prime of the Valbaran wolves, which Valbaran is. like the continent, this little continent that they live on is Valbara. So the prime is over all of the wolves in Valbara. So Sabine is Danika's mom. She is the Alpha of the Skyth Moon pack. She was the chief among the shifter units in the city's auxiliary. So each area of the city that has a head of the household, a head who is in charge, also has a piece of like the police force for the city. And that's called the auxiliary. And so each different species has a group. that is in the auxiliary just depends on where you rank in that auxiliary. So Danika and her pack as well as Sabine and her pack are at the top of that hierarchy for the auxiliary, the police. Sabine is the prime apparent, as in she is the next person in line for the prime's spot. Danika then would be... the next one in line, but because the amount of power Danika has, there are whisperings that she should be the next in line and not her mother, which is probably why her mother seriously dislikes her because her mother comes off as a very jealous woman. And because of Danika's power, the Prime, her grandfather actually gave the heirloom sword of their family's house to Danika by passing Sabine. So Sabine is also very upset that she doesn't have this sword either. But the Prime said that because the blade called to Danika on her 18th birthday, that was the reason he gave for giving it to Danika instead of to Sabine when he passed. We have some discussion between Danika and Bryce about this human who is being set free. His name is Philip Briggs. Most of the time he just gets referred to as Briggs. He is a rebel or is trying to start a rebel movement on the continent of Valbara, specifically in the city of Lunathian, because there is already a rebel movement happening in Pangera, which is the continent above, like northward of Valbara. Pangera is where the Eternal City is. That is who our rulers of the whole world live, as well as some other things that are up on that continent that we'll get to later on. But there is already a very large rebellion and war that's been happening. it's been going on for a while. The reason he is in jail is because he has bombed multiple areas, killed lots of people in an attempt to get a rebellion to start in Lunathion and Valbara. However, he has not succeeded yet. That is why he is in jail, but he is being set free on a technicality. The reason the humans are rebelling is because they are oppressed. Very similar to what we saw in both Throne of Glass and ACOTAR, the Fae kind of come in, take over, and then make the humans their slaves, their manual labors, their sex workers, that kind of thing. That's what the humans are good for. So just like in this book, we have a definite difference in hierarchy, society-wise, between the vanir and the humans. And the humans are at the bottom of the hierarchy. so in Crescent City, the actual city, there is one governor over the entire city, over this entire little continent territory, and that is Micah Domitus. And he is an archangel. So he is on the angel hierarchy and he is kind of at the top. He reports directly to the Asteri who are in charge of the entire world. rule the entire world. Under Micah are the seven heads of the city. And so that's each area in the city. It has its own leader. So the areas in the city are broken up based on essentially what lives in that space. So Micah, the archangel of Crescent City, he is also over. you the central business district. So he rules over all of Valbara this continent, but he is also specifically over the central business district with which is known as CBD, the central business district. So we have that and this whole the city, Crescent City, Lunathian is a big circle. The central business district is on the left side or the west side of it. And then we have the prime of the wolves controls moonwood. which is opposite side of the city, the eastern side. Then we have the Fae, Autumn King in five roses. So we have a Fae who is called the Autumn King, which we've seen before. His description is also eerily similar to the Autumn Court in ACOTAR But he is in five roses, which is directly north of Moonwood. Then we have the Underking over the Bone Quarter. The Underking is also the leader of the House of Flame and Shadow. He is like the southern third of the city is taken up by the Bone Quarter and the Istros River. You have the Viper Queen rules the meat market. The meat market is directly south of the CBD, the central business district. So, Southwest. And then we have the old square, which is the center, the very center of the city, kind of center north a little bit. the head of that space is the Oracle. And then you have the River Queen. She represents the house of many waters and her blue court far below or far beneath the Istros River's turquoise surface. we have the the Istros River that runs through Lunathian Crescent City. The bone quarter is the south side of that river and the rest of Crescent City, Lunathian is on the northern side of that river. And then there is also Asphodel Meadows. This is where all the humans live, primarily where they live, where they work, but there is no head for the humans that is a part of the council like all the other heads for the different other different areas. So that is just another way that the humans are oppressed in this world is that they don't have a lot of rules or laws that support them and they don't have a lot of people in the government who support them either. but we'll get more into that later on. Okay, after Danika showers, they take a stroll through the city. Bryce is on the hunt to find Luna's horn. What we find out in this set of chapters is Luna's horn is a magical object that was from the Fae. It's part of their ancestry. However, it no longer has any magic and therefore it was located in Luna's temple. But a week ago, there was a blackout throughout the city and during the blackout, the horn was stolen and it has not been seen since. So, Jesiba, Bryce's boss, has asked her to attempt to find the horn. So Bryce is leaving the antiquity shop to try and find the horn or find out any information that she can on it. Danika is leaving because she has to go meet with the other heads of the city to discuss Briggs being let out. So as they are walking through the city, they're chit chatting a little bit about the horn. I think it's interesting that Danika tells her not to dig into it. too much, she says, make it look like you're looking into it a little bit and then tell Jesiba that you couldn't find it and move on from there. So she does try and kind of push Bryce away from looking for the horn. as they are walking through. They do decide to go up to... the gates. So we just talked about the layout of the city in each section of the city that we just talked about. There is a gates. So there are seven gates total, one in the center and then six around the outside. So they come up to the gate in the old square. This is called the Heart Gate because it is in the heart of the city. So there are seven in this city, all carved from enormous blocks of quartz, hewn from the Laconian Mountains to the north. So the map that we actually get in these books is only on Crescent City, only on the city. We don't get a map of the full worlds or the other continents. but she does give us descriptions on roughly where they're located that we can kind of piece one together. But we have some mountains in the north. So the old square is where the heart gate is, because it's located in the center of Lunathian with the other six gates located equal distance from it, each one opening onto a road out of the walled city. So they do walk up to it. There is a line of people waiting to go up to the city or go up to the gate. Because the neat thing about the gate is that when you stand at one of them and you put a little bit of power into it, you can actually speak to someone at another one of the gates. You can be heard. So this was originally created to be able to talk to the different sections of the city. they were being patrolled and that kind of thing. If something was happening and they needed to get a message to the other, another area, they use the gates to do that. However, technology has grown so much that now everybody has a cell phone in this world. So there is no longer a need for these gates. So because there is no longer a need for them, they have now become a tourist attraction that it is just so neat to be able to come to these things and see a piece of history is essentially why people are coming. So. What happens if you step up to. The gate, the archway, which is just a large archway, there is a pedestal of quartz about four feet off the ground that kind of just off beside the archway and on that pedestal is a solid gold disk in the center. That's what you put your hand on to put the magic into the gate. And then around it are seven different gems and each one represents the different gates. with an insignia for each district etched beneath it. So we have the emerald and a rose for five roses, which is where the fae are. And we talked about it in ACOTAR Whose gem and coloring is an emerald? The King of Hybern His dais was made out of a very large green emerald and his banner is a emerald background. So not sure there's a connection there, but the fae in Crescent City are the green emerald and roses are their symbols. And we talked about Hybern being a green emerald and Tamlin's spring court having a crap ton of roses in it. for the CBD.

M: effectively.

C: What's that?

M: of speculation.

C: I did not say foreshadowing. I didn't say anything.

M: It's an interesting thought though. So was

C: It is.

M: thinking about the autumn king. So.

C: Right? Considering the King

K: suspicious.

C: of the Fae is called the Autumn King and he has red hair, And we just saw the autumn court with Beron and Lucien and Eris and all of his brood all have red hair. And we even find out that fire magic is a common magic type with the Fae from the autumn King. Not specifically the type of magic that the autumn King's son, the crown prince has, but we'll get to him in a little bit. But yes, it's, it's very interesting. I like it might tie in a little bit, but who knows? Okay, the CBD is represented by an opal, so a white stone with a pair of wings, obviously, because this is for the angels. A ruby and a heart for the old square, which is the heart gate, if that makes sense. The sapphire and an oak tree for moonwood. Amethyst and a human hand for Asphodel meadows, Tiger's Eye and a serpent for the meat market, an Onyx so black it gobbled the light, and a skull and crossbones for the bone quarter. they step up to the gate. I think it's interesting because Bryce even, or the narrator, because this set of this series, unlike ACOTAR, is there is a narrator narrating through this book instead of it actually being from one person's perspective. So I think it's interesting that the narrator mentions that there is a superstition that grew in regards to the gates claiming that they could make wishes come true and that to give over a droplet of your power was to make an offering to one of the five gods. So the gates started out as a communication system. Then a rumor came and now people think that they can actually grant wishes. So what tourists come to do is they come to give over a little bit of power to the gate in an attempt to get a wish. It's like wishing upon a star kind of thing, but they're actually giving a little bit of their power to do it for those of them who have power. And then most people talk through the gates so that they can hear it in other areas. So Bryce and Danika walk up to the gate. I think it's pretty funny that as soon as they do. They hear somebody from another gate say titties because I mean, right?

K: my favorite part.

C: It cracks you up because that is that is teenagers right there. What else are you going to say to a gate that someone else is going to hear you and you don't know who that is?

M: Everything else would be on that list.

C: Right? So Danika says, I've got too many things to wish for, but I will wish for her friend to win his sun ball tournament, Let me pause. Let's talk about that real quick. So we have never actually gotten a sport in or any type of sporting event in the other two series, but we do have a sporting event in Crescent city series. called Sun Ball, which is from what I can understand is like rugby or football, maybe soccer, something along those lines. But it is called Sun Ball and. We have one additional character who plays Sunball because he is still in college at the Crescent City University. His name is Ithan He is Connor Holstom's younger brother. He's not officially a pack member for the Pack of Devils, but he is kind of like an honorary member. When he comes of age, it's just assumed that he will join their pack. So Danika wishes for him to win his Sun Ball game later that day. Bryce jokes around and says that she wishes Danika would get her manicure fixed because her nails are chipped. That is what she wishes for. But we get in this scene, we get a little bit more information on one of the major things that happens to all magical beings in this world. And that is they make the drop. So they get to a certain age. I think they have to be at least 18. Maybe it's 21. You have to reach a certain age to be able to take the drop And that means. that they plunge down into their mature power, encounter whatever lays at the bottom of their souls, and then race back up to life before the lack of oxygen renders them brain dead or just plain dead. So it is essentially an internal task that they do inside themselves, but it has to be done with an anchor, someone to anchor you to this world so that when you dive down into yourself, You have that tether to someone to be able to come back up. So Danika and Bryce both have not made the drop as they call it. When you make the drop afterwards, if you survive it, your immortality as a vanir is kind of set in stone So the vanir still age, but compared to humans, they age very slowly because For the fae, they could live to be about a thousand years is the average for fae. For shifters and witches, it's usually about five centuries. And then for the angels, it's somewhere in between humans obviously don't make the drop because it requires magic and they don't have any. and that once you make the drop, you will stay looking the way you are when you made the drop for a very long time. And Bryce and Danika have both planned to do it together with those from the Pack of Devils as their anchors, and they've decided that 27 is the perfect age to do the drop. So they're both 23, they have five more years before they're even going to discuss doing the drop. We do get some info on in regards to how much power Bryce and Danika are looking to gain when they make the drop because after you make the drop then you have access to your full powers, your full mature powers. Bryce will inherit barely enough power to do cool party tricks because she is half human half fae Danika was expected to claim a sea of power that would put her ranking far past Sabine's mother, likely equal to that of the Fae royalty, maybe even beyond the autumn king himself. foreshadowing. the narrator does mention that Danika has the potential to be the alpha of all wolves, not just Felbara or the prime, but of all wolves in this entire world because of how much power she is set to gain when she makes the drop. She already has a crazy amount of power, but she will gain even more when she takes the drop. As they are still walking through, there are a couple other things that they kind of talk about and touch on as they're walking through the city. So one of them is a pendant that Bryce wears. It is an Archesian amulet, barely the size of her thumbnail, but it was gifted to her by Jesiba on her first day of work. Danika calls it a hazmat suit in a necklace. So it is essentially a crazy protective talisman that Bryce wears. to the point where it costs a lot more than Bryce's salary with the antiquity shop. and it is a tiny gold pendant, a knot of three entwined circles. three circles. Where else have we seen three circles? And it was given to her by a witch. Technically, she's a sorceress now, but she was a witch. potential other connections,

M: foreshadowing.

C: maybe. The other things that we find out is as they're talking about Briggs, there is mention of Like I said, Micah is the governor of Valbara, also the head of the CBD district. The 33rd Imperial Legion is essentially his personal army, but he also, as an archangel, has a triarii which is like Maeve's cadre in Throne of glass It's like his personal guard, and it is made up of five people, It's made up by a couple of very strong beings. So we do find out one of them is the Umbra Mortis is the initial name that we get. This is also Hunt Athalar but he is Micah's personal assassin. He has the rare gift of lightning in his veins and he can eliminate almost any threat. So we're to get more information on him later on in this section. But we also get a picture that Bryce walks by and it is essentially a piece of propaganda in this city. It is a poster of the Asteri who run the entire world. And it is the sixth enthroned Asteri tacked up on a wall with an empty throne to honor their fallen sister. So we have one Asteri that is supposedly dead. That's why there is an empty throne. So instead of seven Asteri there are six that rule this world. The gates of the city are each set along a ley line running through Lunathion. So what is a ley line? a ley line, those are natural underground channels of raw magic that travel beneath the city of Lunathion. So that is why there is a gate, city, one of these gates, the seven gates that is set along each of the ley lines that run through the city. And Bryce finds it interesting that there is a plaque attached to this gate that says, the power shall always belong to those who give their lives to the city. we also find out that Bryce and Danika have an additional close friend. Her name is Fury Axtar. She is, we don't have a whole lot of information on her. In this first set of chapters, we find out she's essentially like an assassin. She has a license, she's James Bond, female James Bond. She has a license to kill in many countries, according to the angels. They don't want to mess with her. She is a mercenary because she does things for certain people. We're gonna find out. later on in set of chapters that Micah, the governor, has actually told Hunt, who is the Umbra Mortis, twice to kill Fury. And in the end, Micah rescinds that order because the fallout would be too much because of the people that Fury works for. We don't know who it is. We get some mentions, maybe there's somebody in the Senate because there is a Republic in this world. that the Asteri kind of roll over and they put the Senate in place to make decisions. But all of those decisions are still in line with the Asteri and their choices. But there is talk that fury has worked for one of the senators in their world for the city heads, she has enough friends high up that she is also protected. But that Fury had made the drop when she was 21. She hadn't chosen that for herself. It had just happened or had been forced on her. No one really knows. They met Fury at CCU when they were in college. However, Fury wasn't there for college. She was there on an operation, and that Fury most likely had a crap ton of money because of how good she was at her job. We then shift scenes from Bryce and Danika walking through the city to later on that day after Bryce is done working and after Danika goes to the meeting with all of the heads to talk about briggs They are back in the apartment that Danika and Bryce actually share. There's talk about the apartment itself. It's not a great apartment. It's not in a great location, but they agreed. More like Danika agreed to live in a not nice place because this was the best that Bryce could afford and Bryce wanted to pay her half. it's not a great apartment. It does have a door that opens the exterior door for the building opens with a code and then there are keys to the actual apartments. There's only two apartments on each floor. But the landlord hasn't replaced a lot of the cameras. They're not up to code as far as what the government requires for buildings like this. So we're going to find out at the end of these chapters that none of that has been upgraded. in a long time. So it's not, it's definitely not the most up to date building. That this night is the pack night for the pack of devils that Danika and her entire pack is in the apartment spending time together because it's something that the pack has to do. It's mandatory pack night once a week. And it is the one night off that they get from patrolling, policing the city. So Bryce is coming home to this, to the entire pack, being in her living room, commandeering her TV and all of the seating. She does mention that the pack is very nosy. Everybody's in each other's business, which is very much like the Inner Circle in ACOTAR. But Bryce does mention that she sometimes felt bad for Danika's future mate. Whoever that would be, the poor man wouldn't know what hit him when he found himself bound to her. Unless he was Wolfkind himself and kind of understood pack life. But She mentions that Bryce and Danika both would prefer not to be with a wolf. And we find out in a little bit that is because the wolves are territorial with their females. Very similar type of posturing that we've seen from other very strong males in the other Sarah J. Maas worlds. Bryce likes to call them alpha holes, which I feel like is something Aelin has called them or something very similar that Aelin has called Rowan and Aedion in the past. Bryce also calls Connor in alphahole She calls Danika in alphahole They're pretty much, she uses the term for those who feel that they need to be overprotective with their mates or the people in their lives. so the entire pack of devils is in their living room. Like I mentioned, Ithan Connor, younger brother is not there. He did win his sun ball tournament, but he is actually partying with his teammates instead because he's not an official member of the pack yet. we do get a little hint of some of the restrictions in this world. So Danika. Isn't giving Bryce a whole lot of information after she gets home in regards to what happened at the meeting with Briggs, but Danika is kind of saying to Bryce, well, what's the point in complaining about my job? Danika says there's no choice in joining the auxiliary, which is the police group for them, because all predator born shifters were destined for certain auxpacks before they were even born. So if you are born into any one of the predator shifters, you have to be a part of a pack that is a part of the police force. And we're going to find out that that's very similar in other areas, the different species as well. So they're very strict. You have to do certain things. but Danika's does tell us that no matter what they tried, they couldn't find a way to actually hold Briggs. So they did have to give him to let him go free. However, Sabine had ordered her entire Skythmoon pack to watch him tonight. Along with some of the 33rd, which we talked about the 33rd Imperial is over that's Micah's personal army over the CBD. And Bryce can tell that there's something Danika isn't telling her. She isn't sure what, but Danika just kind of brushes it off. Danika does mention that there were also two CCU Crescent City University students who were killed near Luna's temple last week during the blackout. And Danika found this out from Sabine who kind of broadcasted it to make her daughter look bad because it happened on Danika's watch. They don't know who killed them. In fact, it took them a while to actually identify them because they were shredded apart and partially eaten by whatever had attacked them. Danika does mention as they're chowing down on some pizza that doesn't Bryce have a date tonight and Bryce realizes that crap. Yes, she does. She has a date in an hour. We find out that Bryce because she has such an aversion to alphaholes as she likes to call them She selects humans to date because they don't really know what to do with her So they're not going to force her into a mold, which is what she's seen other alpha type males due to other females. So that's why she specifically chooses humans because she can overpower them. So she is specifically dating Reid Redner and Reid is part of a family. Very few human families have money status in the social the social hierarchy. Reid is one of the part of one of the few families who does have this. He and his family own a technology company that kind of has its hands in quite a bit of things. a massive family, a massive human owned Magic Tech. So they combine magic and technology in the central business district. his family started Redner Industries. does, like I said, it is Magitech and Danika is actually the one who set them up because Danika does some part-time security work for Redner Industries. Danika does it because she makes a little extra money doing it. Also, it annoys her mother. So it's just an extra reason to do it. And we're going to find out later on that there are additional reasons why she has that connection to Redner Industries. But that's all we get at this point. So it is because Danika set them up that Bryce is now dating him. They've only been dating for about two months at Reid has a ton of money. But Bryce doesn't really care to date him. They don't have the best relationship. They're both super busy and the sex is not that great. she gets dressed up, but she doesn't put on a whole lot of makeup to go out to this date. She does put on a very skin tight gray dress that has a nice high slit up the leg, her red colored lipstick. which I think is why she reminds me of Mor because she's got, because red is one of her colors, red lipstick, red hair, and Mor wears red all of the time. So I think that's why I connect the two of them. But we do find out that the reason why Bryce does not like alpha type males is because that's how her faith father is. We don't know exactly who he is yet in this set of chapters. We are going to find out soon. But as of right now, we just know he is a full fae and that her mother, Ember, at 19 had been pursued by her fae father, pursued, seduced, and then tried to keep her and gone so far into possessive territories at the moment Ember had realized that she was carrying Bryce that she ran before he could send it and lock her up in his villa. So that is why Bryce does not like possessive males. So that is exactly why she has not agreed to go on a date with Danika's second, Connor, who has been pretty much in love with her for the last five years. Since they met, since she and Bryce met in college. Connor does ask her, just let me take you out on one date, even if it's just a trial date to see how it goes, just let me take you on that. Bryce kind of goes out of her way to try and pick a fight with him so that he doesn't quite get to ask her, but he does because she doesn't want to. She doesn't want to say no again, essentially, which is also why it makes me think of more. she leaves Danika tells her light it up because that is their little saying. Bryce says light it up back and then Danika replies with love you. And then we get a little paragraph explaining that this was something Danika didn't say very often and that it took Danika a while to actually say those words to Bryce that Bryce said it often because she explains to Danika that in her world, if you didn't say it often when you didn't when you were leaving or saying goodbye to someone, you didn't know if that was going to be the last time. And I think it's really interesting that we get that and Danika says it and Bryce doesn't say it back. And that is the last time that Bryce sees Danika before Danika dies. But Bryce does go to her date with Reid. Along her walk there, we do get some additional information in regards to the world. The only major thing that I'm going to point out before we get to the date is she's talking about the malakim which are the angels in their wings, mentioning, because she's walking past a couple of bored looking patrol of angels. mentioning that to touch an angel's wings without permission meant that you were lucky if you only lost a hand, which I think is funny because we talked about that in ACOTAR as well with the Illyrians, you don't touch their wings, you ask first. So very similar when it comes to the different winged beings in each world. So Bryce does go to a very upscale restaurant to meet Reid. It is called the Port Pearl and Rose. Before she leaves, Danika actually bets her that the bouncers won't let her walk in She is too scandalously dressed. And so they're not sure if she'll be let in. However, she walks right at the steps. neither bouncers says anything. But. She does get glared at and growled at and sneered at by all the other people around her. Reid is late by 45 minutes. As she is waiting, again, we get some narration on different information in this world. So we do get a description of the time frames or the time, like the year in this world, which is not something we've ever gotten before. We didn't get it in throne a Glass, nor did we get it in ACOTAR as far as what year in the world we're on. get it when we the four houses of Midgard are described to us that the four houses are decreed as of 33 VE and VE stands for Vanir Era. So we get a very, very brief overview of how the fae came to Midgard, to this world, that they came through a rift called the Northern Rift, like a rip in the world. They'd come through the rift, overtaken Midgard eons ago, and now they identify their calendar system by HE, which is the human era before the Vanir, and then VE, which is after the Vanir came. So that's how they determine what year it is. So now we are at some point in the Vanir era. because Bryce is wondering what it would have been like before the Vanir came. And I think it's interesting because this is a world where humans were first and then the Vanir came. And we also get some description in the very first ACOTAR book where Feyre is going through Tamlin's study and notices the murals on the wall and they talk about how the world was made. And then it shows that there were no humans there initially. So it almost sounds like the fae was there on that world first and then the humans came, whereas it's the opposite on this world. The humans were there first and then the vane near or the different magical beings came. Whereas we don't get that information in Throne of Glass, at so finally Reid shows up 45 minutes late at this point Bryce's Yeah, Bryce's drank quite a bit of wine expensive wine because he can afford it and he's made her wait We do get a little bit of information in regards to the asteri and The the rebellion that is happening, that the human resistance was prepared to wipe themselves out rather than submit to the Asteri and their elected Senate and its rule. And for 40 years now, the war had raged in the vast Pangerian territory, wreaking havoc on wrecking cities, creeping towards the stormy sea. And so they're talking about Since Pangera is up above them, there is a chance that the rebellion will come across that little sea that's in between Pangera and Valbara. That is why Briggs is trying to start a rebellion in Lunathion and on Valbara. Because at this point, the humans have been... in essentially like in near slavery for 15,000 years. That's how long the Vanir have been here. And the humans have been in close to slavery the entire time. They've either been food, prey, or sex workers. And so it makes sense that they are trying to rebel because they've been oppressed for 15,000 years. Even while on the date, Reid is paying attention to his phone. However, when Bryce gets a text message, he gets annoyed when she looks at her phone. So it's very one-sided and it gets to the point where Bryce gets up and walks out. She's not interested in dating him anymore. The mediocre sex is not enough to keep her in this relationship. So she leaves. She kind of stirs up a little bit of trouble with some others who were sneering at her in the dining area. but she does end up leaving with a bottle of very expensive wine. And then when she gets out there, she knows she can't call Danika because Danika is doing her pack night. She's not going to leave the pack and Bryce doesn't want the pack to come to her. So she wants to go out and party and have some fun. So she calls up Fury, which is one of her other close friends we already mentioned to kind of hang out with her. She goes off and buys some mirth root. which is a type of drug that they can smoke. Fury meets her at one of their favorite bars. But I think it's interesting because Bryce calls her and Fury tells her she's in the Five Roses, which is where the Fae are primarily located in Crescent City. And Fury says she can come, but she needs to finish up a job first. So it makes you wonder what kind of job she's doing in Fyro. she goes off and buys some drugs, she also calls Juniper, who is their other friend in their little four-person square. And Juniper... Is a ballerina. She is also a fawn species. So she does look humanoid from the waist up and then she has horse-like legs ending in hooves. But she is an actual ballerina and she is the very first fawn ballerina to actually have a job and perform on the main Crescent City Ballet. Juniper is also kind of the anchor in Bryce's life in regards to she's gonna be the nicer, less, she reminds me a lot of Elain She really does because she just seems like she's super nice, super sweet. She's all about the dancing when they come to the club. She doesn't do any drugs. She doesn't drink because she has a performance the next morning. So she's really just there to dance and spend time with her friends. But while Bryce is buying her own drugs, she does mention that the female she's buying them from was trying to sell her a new party drug called Synth that will make you feel like a god. So we are going to see Synth pop up later on in this book, but that is our first mention of it. As Bryce is waiting for Fury and Juniper to get there, she does agree to go on a date with Connor. So she texts him back that We can meet on Saturday, get pizza at six. If you're late, it's over. He is super cute. I'll never make you wait. You looked delicious when you left the apartment earlier. yada yada yada. So super sweet and he's very excited to finally get to date Bryce. Too bad it's not actually going to happen. she is also texting Danika through all of this. What are you laughing at?

M: delivery was just a meh. Anyway, we're good. Let's move on. Like it was just the

K: No, no, the first time I read this, I was so torn up and she was like, it's not even that big of a deal. And I was like, what do you mean?

M: I was so heartbroken for poor Connor!

K: And and I and then I was like, wait, this is like this is like

C: Sam.

K: being super upset over Tamlin, isn't it? And she's like, Yep. And I was like, no.

M: I wouldn't say it's quite to that level, but fair.

C: No,

K: Well,

C: and I would change my answer to

K: that's what we compared it to.

M: No.

C: this is like everybody who loves Sam Cortland from Throne of Glass, who's like Aelin's

K: Yeah.

C: first love. I can't stand him. I can't stand him. I am so glad he died.

M: I mean, I wasn't a Sam Stan. I know.

C: because I'm a Rowan fan. And I don't particularly love Hunt in the book, so I don't have a preference for him or Connor. just, I feel like the first seven chapters are like the prequel. just like Assassin's Blade is the prequel. They're just

M: I'm Spare.

C: there to set the stage.

K: It was so devastating though. I cried the first

C: I'm sorry.

K: time. Yeah.

M: I was so, because he was so cute about it. He's

C: He is super sweet.

M: all, yeah, it's been going on forever. Like, I've danced around this. Yay, I've been.

C: Right? you want to like him.

K: Yeah.

C: I just feel like there wasn't enough time for me to get emotionally invested in him. But that was because I was trying

M: butt.

C: to read really fast just to get through the book.

M: go. But.

K: I was still super surprised though even it even already this was the third series and our I wasn't expecting it. It was still Bam. You know, out of nowhere.

C: Especially coming after ACOTAR because like nothing happens in the first like four chapters of ACOTAR.

K: Yeah.

C: And then all of sudden you get a little something,

M: This is.

C: Tam Tam comes, but then we get a whole bunch of blah in the spring court. I mean, it's definitely more than that, but the city jumps us right in. Right?

M: where this series goes. Hey, you get some world building? Bam! You

K: Yeah.

M: got some world building? we'll make you love people. Ha ha, not for long.

C: Now we're gonna kill them all not just one but all

M: feel like our level of seriousness

K: Yeah.

M: has just ebbed into flow to all nights.

K: with the flow.

C: Okay, We do get some mention as Bryce is waiting for Fury to get to the club that Danika, Her degree in school was history. So Danika is big on list looking back into the different histories. It's why she likes coming to the archives where Bryce works because she likes looking through all the different books. And Bryce mentions that Danika had spent countless hours looking into the history of the dominant shifter packs in other cities because she's trying to figure out how the shifter lines, like how it works. Whatever power Danika has is actually a rarity. And so she's trying to figure out how she got it. And if there were any ancient bloodlines that explained it. So Danika is looking into a lot of the Shifter pack history in other cities trying to find this. Why lions had come to rule in a city called Helene? Why tigers ruled in a city called Corinth? why falcons reigned in a city called...

K: I think if I remember Oya, I think is the pronounced one.

C: Okay, in the city called

M: I know.

C: Oya. Whether there was a dominance that determines the prime alpha status passed through families or if it skipped around. If the non-predatory shifters could head up the city's aux they could, but it was rare. And then honestly, most of it bored Bryce, so she didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it. Darn you, Bryce. But if Danika had ever learned why the Fendyr family had claimed so much of the share and the dominance pie, as Bryce likes to call it. She had never told Bryce. So Bryce is kind of ruminating on that while she's waiting for Fury. She is texting back and forth with Danika. Danika is yelling at her for going out to have fun without her, but Danika is having pack night, so she'll just have to live with it or die with it, you know, whatever. That was a really bad joke.

M: I think I'm rubbing off on you now. That's like every level of the new goal. Bye.

C: told myself I needed to be careful doing this series and not be super cynical. That's going downhill real fast.

M: say much but you can already see your lack of love for this series.

C: I'll get better at pretending. I'll get better.

M: Just read it, okay? Just don't die, okay?

C: Okay, let's try this again. while Bryce is waiting, she is also ruminating in regards to Fury because there is not a lot of information we get on Fury. There's not a lot that Bryce knows about Fury. All she knows is that Fury is Vanir. She's not sure what kind or what house she even belongs to. She says it wasn't polite to ask, which if Nesta was here, she would just ask right out because she already did with Amren she knows that Fury is a full citizen and that her skill set probably means she belongs to House of Flame and Shadow, but it's not confirmed. Bryce kind of rules out the daemonaki vampyr or even a wraith just based on how Fury looks. But outside of that, she has absolutely no idea. But Fury is, she has long onyx hair tied in a high ponytail that brought out the sharp lines of her light brown face. She has deep set chestnut eyes. And she wears black. She wears black, you know, like so many other people in all of these books. She has in black leather leggings, skin tight velvet top and some Butt kicking boots. So that is about all we get from Fury. So they go in and enjoy their time together. They smoke the mirth root. Fury has also brought a white powder drug called Light

M: Star something right?

C: Seeker, which they snort. So they are drinking a ton, smoking as well as snorting multiple different kinds of drugs. Juniper, like I said, is not drinking. She's not doing any of the drugs because she has stuff in the morning she used to go to, but she is dancing with Bryce. One thing that is mentioned, we get a little bit more information on the drop itself because there are people there that are celebrating a successful drop. And one thing that happens when you take the drop is that there is an amount of first light that comes out of you, which is like your magic. that comes out of you when you make the drop. And there is like, they bottle that first light and give a small portion of it to the person who made the drop so that they can make different things out of that first light. For instance, one of the things that they make are little glow sticks of halos. You know, like a normal halo glow stick where you put it together for a halo. Just like that, only it is made out of first light from this girl's drop. And so it's a small amount that then is given to all of her friends so that they all can wear these halos. Juniper joins this group of friends, ends up getting a halo herself. Bryce joins them a little bit later. And I like the way Sarah words this because we've already talked in previous books, both Throne of Glass and ACOTAR, that music plays such a big part in the lives of the other main female characters. And it's the same with Bryce, that the movement When she became the notes and rhythm and the bass, when she became song given form, that is how she is kind of letting the music out is by dancing. Like their bodies were full of sound they could barely contain, could barely stand it and only dance could express it. She does kind of mention that even though she's going on a date with Connor in a couple of days, she's going to enjoy herself, have some fun. We do get mention of this, the club that they're in, that it is actually the ruins of an old temple. It is called the Raven, but it was an actual temple or it had been, it was a building that encased the ruins, but the dance floor remained the original ancient stones. of some long forgotten gods temple. So again, we have long forgotten gods, just like we did in ACOTAR, and that the carved pillars throughout still stood from way back when. So on the temple walls are carvings of satyrs and fawns drinking and dancing and partying enjoying themselves. Bryce also kind of talks about Connor and that he, a relationship was with him was going to go far beyond the physical, which is why she hadn't taken that step with him because mentally she wasn't prepared for that. and that she had been a coward because she wasn't ready for it, but it's why she had avoided it from the moment she met him five years ago. And when she met him, she mentions that they just stared at each other. We do find out that she does actually have some fun and she sleeps with somebody in the bathroom while she's high and drunk. But she does end up going home shortly afterwards. She can't remember leaving the club. She can't remember how she got home or saying goodbye to her friends. Nothing. All she can remember is all of a sudden we're awake again and she is at the door to her building. She's trying to remember the code. It takes her a little while, but she finally does. She mentioned that the lights in the building were flickering. these are, so their entire technology system, all of it is powered by, well, I'm gonna call it electricity. It's actually first light, but I'm gonna compare it to electricity because the first light is controlled. by the Asteri and the government, just like electricity. And so you have to buy the first light for it to actually power your home, your light, your phones, your TVs, all of that is all powered by first light instead of magic or instead of electricity. It's the first light is essentially their magic. They just have an official name for it. Okay, she finally makes it up to their door. It's a very long battle for her to get there up the couple of flights of stairs. But I love how well Sarah words this because you can really feel like you're that drunk person trying to get home, trying to remember what your door code is, trying to get the key, dropping the key, trying to find it on the ground. At this point, she's taking her shoes off because she's in stilettos and they've completely mangled her feet from dancing. So she's just walking around in her bare feet. Sarah does such a great job of describing what it is like when you're drunk trying to really do anything. So Bryce gets up to her door, does drop her keys, and then realizes that when she picks her keys, up, they were actually sitting in a pile or a pool of blood and that her door is already open. The lock had been mangled. The handle wrenched completely off and that the door had been kind of swung open, but it also had kind of been crumbled up like a sheet of paper, which is interesting because it is an iron door. There is specific call out that it is iron and it is italicized. So there is something special about iron in this world as well. just like we've gotten in the other two worlds that iron has, it plays a part in this world as well, but that they had also had spells and enchantments to protect them so that people couldn't break in. So whatever had gotten into their apartment was strong enough to break those spells. And we get a description of a coppery of smell, which we talked about it a lot in A Court of Thorns and Roses and then sporadically throughout the rest of the series, but that there is a coppery tang of blood and a festering odor that she can smell when she walks in. and her apartment is completely trashed. Everything is shredded, including the pack of devils that are pieces of them are still throughout the space. Danika is in Bryce's bedroom, again in pieces, and Connor also in pieces on the floor in front of the bed as if he was protecting Danika. and that the heap of pieces beside the bed closest to Danika was Thorne Bryce then can hear a noise outside of the apartment thinking that this is the attacker. Somehow it had left the apartment when it heard Bryce coming up the stairs. So she goes outside, sees that there are some sort of footprints in the trash chute going into it and then also leaving it. So assuming that the attacker had gone into the trash chute while Bryce walked into the apartment and then left the trash chute before Bryce could come out of the apartment. she's determined to figure out who the attacker is. And I think it's interesting because she starts running down the stairs and mentions a glowing white haze creeping over her vision. And it blazed through every inhibition, disregarded every warning belt. So we talk a little bit about like the killing calm in Throne of Glass and something similar that Feyre goes into a couple of times. Rhys goes into a couple of times throughout ACOTAR. I'm going to compare this to that as well, that Bryce has kind of gone into something like that because she is now so focused on finding this attacker to at least be able to ID them so that she can tell whoever she needs to that it's the one that killed Danika and the pack. So she just needs to get a glimpse of it. She doesn't want to try and kill it, just wants to ID it. we did find out earlier in the set of chapters that Bryce is well trained, even though she doesn't have a ton of power. She has some of the strength and agility that comes with being a vanir or at least half of one. But we also find out that her stepdad trained her very well, not just in shooting guns, but also in some hand to hand combat. And she dances multiple times a week to keep her body in shape. And so she is going after this creature mentions that the creatures rotting stench is what she can smell. When she finally gets close enough to see what it looks like or catch a glimpse of it, she describes it as some feral thing with smooth and near translucent gray skin. It crawled on four long spindly limbs. but looked vaguely humanoid and it was feasting on someone in an alley when she comes upon it. She realizes that it is a Malakh which is one of the angels. And that the maw, the mouth of this creature that is ripping apart the chest of the angel is clear. It had crystalline fangs that easily dug through the skin and the bones. And Bryce runs up, she has in her apartment, she grabs the leg of the table that was torn apart and brought that with her as her only option for a weapon at the time. So she does come running up at this beast, smacks it in the head pretty hard. And so it kind of goes, it moves and is kind of thrown back a little bit. And as it whirls around, Its front legs or arms actually gouge lines into the cobblestone. So it has pretty decent claws as well. The creature had no eyes, only smooth planes of bone above deep slits, as in its nose. And the blood that leaked from its temple where Bryce hid it with the table leg was clear. So it's not red blood, it's clear blood, which is super weird. She does take a very bad bite to her thigh. It kind of shreds through her thigh, does sever an artery, but Bryce does manage to hit it again enough that it had actually potentially broken something in the demon. And so at that point it runs away, the demon leaves. And Bryce also now injured is trying to decide if she's going to stay and help the angel or if she's going to try and go after the demon that she's seen. However, the angel, she realizes that the wounds were bad enough that they were going to be fatal if she didn't do something. So she does go over to try and help hold the stomach in of this angel and the heart because his stomach and chest are pretty much shredded. the part where like his bones are broken, his wings are broken behind him. She does manage to get his cell phone out of his pocket and calls the emergency number, tells them roughly where she is, well, roughly where her apartment is, but she's a couple blocks from that. So she tells them just track this phone and, dispatchers can say, well, I need to know where you are. So she does find the phone number for this phone on the phone, gives it to them. and is screaming it to the dispatcher and the dispatcher finally looks up whose phone number this is and is like, holy crap. Okay, they're coming. People are coming. Well, the phone essentially falls from her hand because she is losing blood herself and the pain ends up taking over from her shredded thigh. But she does before she passes out, she does mention looking into the angels gaze that it was so full of agony she thought it was what her soul must look like because her soul is also being shredded because of the deaths of Danika and the pack of devils. as Bryce is going through all of this, there is also mentioned that the drugs are trying to take hold. Bryce is trying to stay conscious, even with the drugs and the alcohol in her system long enough to actually be able to do something. So there's kind of a back and forth throughout this whole section, but she is able to overcome it until the end. And then ends up passing out from one of multiple things, whether it's the drugs, the alcohol. or her shredded thigh, we don't really know. The next chapter is actually from, none of these are really from someone's perspective, but we get more, it's a little bit more from the perspective of Isaiah Tiberian. And Isaiah is, the leader of Micah's triarii And we mentioned earlier that the triarii was like the little personal guard of the governors of the archangels. Isaiah is also the commander of the 33rd, which is the army for the CBD, Micah's personal army. Hunt Athalar which is the Umbra Mortis is also part of the triarii. We also have mentioned a Viktoria who we're going to see in a little bit. She is a wraith. She is also part of the triarii. And then there are a couple other members of the triarii that we're going to get later on as well. But, so now we are from Isaiah's perspective. Bryce is in not quite a holding cell, but very similar to that and she is just sitting in a chair at a table looking at nothing and she's been that way for a while now. She looks like death. Isaiah describes her as looking similar to soldiers who had crawled off a battlefield after fighting for long periods of time. That was the look she had in her eyes. Her gray dress was ripped, her left thigh was gushing enough blood that he wondered if she'd faint. And when they came and found her with the angel, she had been half wild, either from the sheer terror of what was happening, from the grief. of Danika and the pack of devils dying or from the sheer amount of drugs coursing through her system. And so it's difficult when they get there, it's very difficult to pull her away from the angel so they can attend to his wound and her wounds. But Hunt comes up to her and Hunt had cursed up a storm as he knelt before her and she'd bucked, nearly kicked him between the legs, but then he pulled off his helmet, looked her right in the eye and told her to calm down. She'd fallen completely silent, just stared at Hunt blank and hollow. She didn't so much as flinch with each punch of the staple gun. Hunt had pulled from the small med kit built into his battle suit. She just stared and stared and stared at the umbra mortis. So kind of a similar reaction she had to Connor when she first met him. we get a little description in regards to the relationship, a relationship between hunt and Isaiah, because at this point hunt has walked into the room. Isaiah is monitoring Bryce as she sits, that hunt had dark angular eyes. His hair is long enough that it kind of covers his forehead because he has a tattoo on his forehead. matches the one that is on Isaiah's forehead as well. that they were part of a rebellion. rebellion that took place 200 years ago, primarily made up of the angels. They were rebelling against the Asteir. Isaiah and Hunt were both part of that as well as Viktoria one of the other members of the triarii that we mentioned. They were all part of the rebellion and because of that, they were then punished with these halos that they put on their head. They call them halos. because it was a mockery of the divine aura's early humans that had once portrayed angels as possessing. And we just talked about another angel in another book who had a halo, at least from Feyre's description. So the angels rebelled 200 years ago, they were stopped. And instead of killing all of them, They have these halos that are put onto them by the witches and it's witch ink so that it actually represses some of the magic that they have. So where Hunt has crazy amount of lightning power that he could level a field, very similar to Rhysand he now only has a fraction of that. It's still a lot more than most other people, but it is a fraction of what he has. It is also mentioned in here that the Asteri had created the angels to be their perfect soldiers and loyal servants. The angels gifted with such power had relished their role in the world until Shahar, which is the archangel they once called Daystar, until she and Hunt and the others who were a part of Shahar's elite 18th legion when they rebelled. their rebellion had failed. And so now they have the halo on their foreheads. And then they also have the stamp, the tattoo of a slave on their wrist, is SPQM, which is the, signifies the Asteri That's part of. their letterhead for the Republic. The four letters encircled with seven stars and adorned the wrist of every being owned by them. Isaiah mentions even if he had chopped off his own arm, the limb that would grow back, which is interesting that his limb would grow back to begin with. But if it did or when it did, it would still have the tattoo on it because that was part of the witch ink. So that was what we learned in regards to the fall or the rebellion that took place 200 years ago. so it is hunt and Isaiah watching Bryce as she's in the other room. Isaiah picks up a folder that he has on Bryce, which I feel like is the perfect, like sweet and short little deck or little description of Bryce. Bryce Quinlan is her last name, which is actually her mother's last name. She's 23 years old, half, a half human. She is the blood test from years ago. say that she'll have an immortal lifespan. Her power rating is near negligible. She hasn't made the drop yet, but she is listed as full civitas. She was the one found in the alley trying to keep his heart from falling out with her bare hands. They realized that she is Danika's roommate and we find out that the 33rd calls Danika the party princess and That there are two folders that Isaiah has one is super thin and this is Bryce's folder and We find out That Bryce has done very little in her life to kind of get the partier name that she had one crime before this and it was for public indecency During a summer solstice parade, she got a little frisky against a wall and was caught. And so she was in a holding cell overnight, paid the fine, did community service to get it wiped from her record. But that's it. That's it. And then Isaiah has another folder that is super thick. And this is part one of Danika Fendyr's file. And it is part one of seven. because that is how much of a criminal history that Danika has. Petty theft starting from when she was 10 continues until about five years ago. Then it goes eerily quiet. And Isaiah says, if you ask me, it sounds like Bryce is the one who was led down the road to ruination by Danika. And then she led Danika away from it. So not a whole lot has happened in the last five years, thanks to Bryce. Like I said, we did get mention of the triarii that there are, it's a five warrior team. Viktoria is the third, so we don't know the two others yet. We do find out that Hunt's main goal is to actually trace and hunt demons. That is what his main job is for Micah. He also is kind of Micah's assassin, so he goes off and does other things for Micah, but that is one of the main things. Tracking down and eliminating any demons who crept through the cracks in the Northern Rift or entered this world through an illegal summoning. So we know that demons can be summoned into this world or they can come through the rift if there's a crack in it. We do find out that the 33rd Infantry led by Naomi arrests Briggs, but there's no proof for sure that he is the one who actually led this attack. Sabine comes barging in because she hates Bryce, saying that Bryce stole the sword, Danika's sword that was handed down from her grandfather, Prime, that Bryce is a wannabe wolf and the sword should be hers. So she doesn't come in asking who killed her daughter. She comes in demanding to know where the sword is. So we can see where her priorities are. she calls Bryce a slut wants to know what they're going to do to torture Bryce to get the information out of her because she's convinced that it could be Bryce who did it. She doesn't really care. She just wants Bryce dead because she doesn't like her. But eventually hunt does get Sabine to leave and then Viktoria comes in in an attempt to ask Bryce some questions. However, Bryce is completely checked out. She's in shock. We do get a little bit of information on Viktoria and she is a wraith. a wraith is a being that is able to take on an actual body and then shed that body for a different body. And so Viktoria, because she was part of the rebellion, her punishment is that she isn't allowed to jump into a different body to shed her current skin and find a different one. So she's been in this skin. for the 200 years since the rebellion and that it was starting to show that with the slow erosion of the body. But Viktoria is still the one leading. She is just asking questions, trying to get Bryce to give them some information. one of them does mention that Bryce is on a whole shopping list worth of drugs and alcohol, that it was enough to stop a human's heart and a lesser vanir's heart too. So they're not quite sure how she being a lesser vanir since she's half was actually still alive after it. Bryce does not respond to any of the questions that Viktoria asks. she's not being rude about it. She's just asking some questions and a normal voice, but Bryce is just staring at nothing. Eventually. Viktoria actually pulls out her phone and goes through some of the text messages that they downloaded from Bryce's phone because. Danika's phone and the pack of devils all of their phones were destroyed and so they are unrecoverable They do have some fuzzy footage of the demon as it's moving through the streets, but it's almost as if the demon one is faster than the wind and two, it had known how to keep out of the direct lens of the cameras. So they don't have a clear shot of it. That's why they need Bryce to answer their questions. However, she does not because she is just staring off into space. And then. Viktoria plays the recording. All they have is a audio from one of the cameras inside the building that caught part of what happened. It is more or less. Danika being ripped apart and begging not to be ripped apart. So not a pleasant recording to have to listen to because of that. And because of the headspace, it puts Bryce in she kind of has a explosion, kind of a mental breakdown. She throws the table and the chairs ends up breaking both, which is kind of crazy again with her only being half vanir Isaiah kind of attributes it to pure physical rage, an eruption of primal wrath. And then it was difficult. to halt an eruption like that. So they end up shielding themselves so that nothing happens. But as soon as Bryce flips the table and all of that, she then ends up bent over on her knees, throwing up, in her throw up, continually throwing up even more. And at this point, Hunt has come in because he knows he can tell Bryce she's in shock. She can't say anything. She can't think she's not going to be able to tell them anything. Nothing along those lines. Hunt has gone in to try and stop this because he knows they're not going to get anywhere. But before anything crazy can happen, Naomi calls and tells them that they need to let her go because Ruhn Danaan who he is the crown prince of the fae in Valbara. He is called, he is livid that no one notified the house of Sky and Breath, that they were bringing the girl in, that she does not have a proper escort and that she needs to be released immediately. And he's put enough power and weight behind that, that Naomi's response is let her go now. Don't ask her a single question more. Don't tail her definitely don't put hunt on her tail. Just let her go. And as soon as they let her go, Then we have our first glimpse at Ruhn Danaan who is my favorite character in the whole series. He comes in, most likely came in from a side door since he didn't pass Bryce on the way in and why they didn't know he was coming. He is dark haired, which is odd because the Autumn King has red hair. he has a dark haired fae with a silver hoop through his lower lip. Raven black hair, but it is buzzed. All one whole side of his head is buzzed. and then the other side is super long black hair. He also has some other piercings. He has tattoos. essentially sleeves on both arms wearing a leather jacket and you could tell he was Ruhn Danaan Crown prince of the Valbaran fae son of the Autumn King and the current possessor of the star sword. So we have another sword in this world that's powerful enough to be mentioned. have Danika sword. And now we have the star sword Fabled dark blade of the ancient star born fae. Proof of the prince's chosen status among the fae, whatever that means, because the angels don't know. We're going to find out later on. It is attached to Ruhn's back and it is a black hilt devouring the glaring first lights. Isaiah had once heard someone say the sword was made from iridium mined from a meteorite forged in another world before the Fae had come through the northern rift. Then he goes on to talk about the type of magic that Ruhn has, that fire magic was most common among the Valbaran fae and that the Autumn King wielded that himself. But rumor claimed that Ruhn's magic was more like those of his kin who ruled the sacred fae isle of Avallen across the sea. Power to summon shadows or mist. that could not only veil the physical world, but the mind as well, perhaps even telepathy.

K: Okay, pause. So

C: Yeah?

K: This reminds me of Rhys. Okay. So I know obviously you can't tell me anything.

C: It is not confirmed or not, but it is a theory that there is some relation.

K: Okay. Okay. But how does that make sense though if because the Autumn King part throws me off?

C: So the theory is, and this is without. Yeah, this is without spoilers for this book. So the theory is that Rhys' sister didn't die, that Tamlin actually spirited her to the Pole of Starlight that is apparently a portal. And she went through that and that she is actually the wife of the Autumn King and therefore the mother of Ruhn. So the theory is that Ruhn would be Rhysand's nephew.

K: Interesting.

C: Yes. Yep. Yeah. there's, that's what I mean is it's not confirmed. There's little to no description of Ruhn's mother other We do get mentioned that Ruhn is the head of the Fae Division of the Aux of the police. He, along with a couple of his friends, which we're going to meet them later on, they are part of the Fae version of it. they do ask if he knows anything about the killings because in the meeting that Danika had been to earlier that day in regards to Briggs, Ruhn did argue with Danika in regards to Briggs. And so that's why Isaiah is asking if Ruhn knew anything about it. Ruhn doesn't. they then ask, you know, Bryce was on quite a bit of drugs and alcohol when she came in. Is this something that she does often? And Ruhn says, yes, she has that crap in her system at least one night a week. Isaiah says, why? And Ruhn says she does what she wants. She always has. So there's a little bit of bitterness in there to suggest they have some sort of history, but at this point, we don't know what that history is. Ruhn does say to leave her alone, not to touch her, not to ask her back, anything like that, because she is his cousin. It's all he says. And then Ruhn leaves and we get just a little bit more interaction between Isaiah and Hunt. That there is actually a tracking device in the water that Bryce drank when she was here. And that the timeframe on it is three days so that they'll be able to actually monitor her or track her for the next three days. Not that it really matters because she spends the next like week in a hotel room by herself with well, with her mom and does not leave the hotel room. I think it's interesting that there is a tracking device that they put in the water. So it's small enough that Bryce wasn't able to detect it. And as they're discussing it, Isaiah does mention that Hunt is known as the shadow of death. Which is very similar to descriptions of Azriel He's described as shadows and death. They also talk about Danika being one of the strongest vanir in the cities, even without making the drop. and yet she begged like a human in the end. So whatever this demon is, Hunt doesn't know what it is. He hasn't seen it before. He's not sure what kind of demon it is. He actually went to hunt it after he calmed Bryce down at the scene of the attack, but he wasn't able to find anything in regards to it. And he doesn't know any demon that kills like that, that cannot be traced. And it's almost as if it had vanished back to hell. So we've had a couple mentions of hell throughout these set of chapters, and it is spelled with a capital H and only one L. And it is a definitive place in this world. So where we've talked about it in other worlds as not knowing what happens after life and death in ACOTAR, other than there is the other world for them. For Crescent City, there is an actual hell. And so that is where the demons most likely are coming from hell and then they're killing them. So our very last chapter is a page and a half. So we'll touch on it real quick. Bryce, like I said, is in her hotel. They flew her mom in. She stays in the hotel with her mom for a good week because there's nothing in her apartment to go back to. It's completely torn apart and it's an active crime scene. Because of everything that happened after Bryce agreed to go on a date with Connor and then she still had some fun, still slept with somebody in the bathroom. All of that is in text messages between herself and Danika. And those text messages have gotten out. We're going to figure that out a little bit later, but we start to get hints of it. So Ithan, Connor's younger brother, who was Bryce's like one of her best friends, he was like a brother to her. tells her he never wants to see her again, not to come to the sailing, which is essentially the funeral for Danika in the pack of devils the next day. And she doesn't listen to all of the voicemails or read all of the text messages from them because there are a lot and they're not nice. So she's been in this room for six days, but she does finally leave it on the seventh day. And she only leaves it to go down to the bone gate on the steps of the river. where a black boat is, she has paid the fee to be there. And she is there because she is attempting to do something as her last kind of gift to Danika. We don't know exactly right now what she is doing. All we know is that a creature that dwelt in the mist emerged and even the river at her back trembled. She opens her eyes to look at it and the chapter cuts off. So we don't know for sure what she has done. But we do get a little information on what happens at a sailing, like the funeral of someone who dies here. And what happens is their body or what's left of it is put in a boat and it sails across the river. If it reaches the other side, which you can't see because it's shrouded in mist, if it reaches the bone quarter on the other side, The bone quarter sounds a lot like the bone carver. So it's hard for me to say the different things. But if the boat reaches the other side, then the spirit or what is left of that person is welcomed into the bone quarter. However, if the boat tips, it signifies that that person was not worthy of getting to what we're presumably saying is the afterlife. So that is the end. Of the set of chapters. That was a long episode. Sorry. That was a ton of information, but that is all of part one for this first book. The next episode, we're going to jump into part two and it is actually taking place 22 months or almost two years after all of this happens. So we're going to discuss all of that next time. Questions, comments, concerns. What do you got for me? What else do you want to talk about?

M: One thing, and it was just a small note, I thought it was interesting when they were back in the apartment and everyone was giving her grief. So she went into her room and they were all laughing and Connor growls to kind of set him in her place. She specified that Danika's snarl was like death incarnate, soft and husky and cold. And we've heard growls, protective growls.

C: Mm-hmm.

M: being described as death incarnate in, I think, both series before. I know for a fact in ACOTAR, a couple things Rhys did, either the way he looked or the silence around him when there was darkness that was the safe darkness was described

C: Yeah?

M: as death incarnate. It was that dark. was that... I know there's been a few references, so I thought it was interesting. And again, my memory on the book is super, super shoddy, so I feel kind of like I'm... rereading after three years, which is basically what I'm doing. I want to say with what Danika's part plays later on, kind of gives, I don't want to necessarily say foreshadowing, but like it just, caught me as interesting because you don't see dark death described as husky. Like, you know how Rhys was described as welcoming in the darkness. So that kind of stood out for me with the difference of Connor being that full of heat, temper and feeling.

C: Right?

M: So was just the description, the juxtaposition caught my attention enough to literally put my bookmark in it and go back to pointing it out.

C: Yeah, no, you're correct. I did not pick that up. But yes, he is, Death incarnate is often described for Rhysand and the phrasing is often paired with growls or snarls by the character. So you are correct.

M: Not sure, like I said,

C: And.

M: if there's any tie with it, but I was like.

C: And it is a discussion point for the fandom across all three book series. This type of growling.

M: I'm just saying,

C: So I don't know that it's foreshadowing.

M: Amy, you know, we've talked about how there are some things that could just be how Sarah writes the word she likes to use. It's just it was so blatantly. Because we've been paying so much more attention to and I think that was at the point I was in the car listening and I was like, OK, I am going to catch some stuff in the audio that I wouldn't catch reading. Because I read the chapter and I bypassed it three times. First time I put the audio on, it was there. So I'm like. You know. So I just thought it was interesting. That's the only

C: I agree.

M: other thing that I had that you called out. You were thorough

C: Okay.

M: on this one. was for dang sure.

C: That's why it took me all freaking day to get through all the chapters because I had to pick everything out and I'm still convinced I missed out.

M: remember her making me laugh in my original read through.

C: Jesiba

M: Yes.

C: I like Jesiba. That's all I'm going to say. Because I don't want to do, I don't want to give anything away. I like Jessica's character. I think you can tell even through this book that she knows more than she's, I mean, you know, she knows more than she's living on. And it just makes you wonder what all she knows, like what's the extent of it. And Bryce has already mentioned that she reports to one person only and that's the Under King who's over the bone quarter. So like, what does she and the Under King know that they're not telling us, which I'm sure is quite a bit. Awesome. Okay. That is a wrap on our first official episode for Crescent City book one, House of Earth and Blood. I will remember the actual name of these books at some point. there's one thing we already know is that Sarah J. Maas has dropped us into a world that's equal parts fascinating, confusing, and impossible to put down. So much information in that first set of chapters. Whether you're reading along with us for the first time, or you're revisiting Lunathian, we hope you'll join us as we unravel the mysteries, meet the characters, and inevitably become way too emotionally invested in all of it. Or at least you too, Thanks so much for listening. Be sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss the next episode because things are only going to get more intense from here. Until next time, happy reading and remember in Crescent City, nothing is as simple as it seems.