M: Welcome back to Just Read It, MCKay? So secrets are surfacing, alliances are shifting, and the chemistry is undeniable. Somewhere beneath all of the banter, there's also a killer still walking free. This is episode three of our Crescent City House of Earth and Blood review of chapters fourteen through twenty. On today's episode, Bryce avoids her feelings by solving murders, Hunt discovers that sarcasm is definitely his love language and And the plot begins plotting so hard you're gonna need a board for your own conspiracy theories on top of what we go through. Grab a tea, soda, coffee, something caffeinated so you can keep up with all the mind boggling spinning, and let's jump into it.

C: Woo Perfect. chapters 14 through 20. So we ended last episode with Bryce agreeing to look for Danika and Maximus's killer with Hunt as her bodyguard. And she was asked by Micah himself to look into this. And if they're able to do it by the summit, then Hunt gets his body count lowered to 10. that he has to kill to get his freedom. and if Bryce can find it, she doesn't get anything special, but she gets taken off of the list of suspects. So she wants that. Okay, we didn't actually get any interactions between the two of them yet. Okay. So we switched gears starting into chapter fourteen. Now we have a Ruhn episode. So Ruhn is Bryce's half brother. He is The crown prince of the Valbaran fae He is the Autumn King's son. Not autumn court king, the autumn king's son. You know what? They're just they have to be the same, okay? They have to be.

M: It has to be.

C: Okay. He is the autumn king's son. We also find out that he is the starborn heir, the chosen one. We have zero idea what that is. We're gonna find out a little bit more from Ruhn In this set of chapters. Obviously, we're going to continue finding out more and more about him as the books go on, but we don't know what any of that means just yet. But we do know that because he is the starborn heir, that he carries the star sword. Again, no idea what that means, but the sword belongs to him, at least for the time being. Ruhn is coming to his father's study to talk to him about a couple of things. and I'm gonna point out a couple of interesting things with the dad because we talk about this world being very different from Throne of Glass and from ACOTAR because magic and science and technology are kind of melded into one. So we have a head of the household, the Autumn King, who has like some interesting side projects going on and things that he's researching and looking into. So Ruhn comes and he actually comes into the space and talks about an orrery which is a model of the planet system, but it moves similarly to how the planet system actually moves in their space. So we find out that there are seven planets. Midgard is one of seven planets. And so this orrery in the far back. section of the room that Ruhn has walked into is a working model of their seven planets, moons and sun. It's made from solid gold, and then it's been in this space for most, if not all, of Ruhn's life, and then it's been a source of comfort for him when he's been in this room with his father. He'd only asked his father once what his father was looking at because in this room, this is his study, there are multiple tables with different kind of experiments going on in each one. and his father only asked or gave him a simple answer and said patterns. He is looking for patterns. and so currently as Ruhn walks in, the Autumn King is looking at a foot long prism ensconced in some delicate silver contraptions. And it's one of the multiple odds kind of experiments that the Autumn King has going on in his workshop. Ruhn kind of ruminates at the fact that the Autumn King, who is the head, one of the the six lower heads of Crescent City, that it's kind of odd that this is how he spends his day looking into or trying to find these patterns. So at this point, Ruhn talks about the six lower heads, Micah being the governor and the seventh. but Micah was not elected by any democratic process. There were councils within councils. So Ruhn is just kind of talking about the government and the hierarchy that is the republic. that there are councils upon councils set up and that the republic and the senate it's set up to kind of give the illusion that there is a republic in this world, but that's not really the case. It is the Asteri at the top, then the archangels as the governors, and then the heads over the cities. And Ruhn is talking about this because he mentions that it's very difficult to run the fae division of the aux which we talked about, was like the police force in Crescent City. It's hard to run it that he and his a couple of his close friends are the ones who head up the aux and it's hard because each area in Crescent City has their own aux division and everybody thinks that they're the ones in charge. The wolves and Moonwood think they're ch in charge. The fae Ruhn and his buddies and the aux they think they're in charge. So it's it's difficult to claim and divide responsibilities because of that. But that Ruhn had been set heading up the fae division of the aux for 15 years now, that his father had given the command and he had done it. So this is just another instance where we talk about the jobs that people have aren't jobs they necessarily chose. It's more this is part of the hierarchy and the society that they live in, the government system that's set up is that when you are born, sometimes even before you're born, these jobs are chosen for you. Danika dealt with the same thing that Ruhn is dealing with. Bryce is one of the very few who got to choose her job. And that's because she's not super powerful. She has not been claimed by the Autumn King as his daughter. If she was, then she would have a long list of rules she would have to follow, very similar to Ruhn. So just kind of reiterating that most of the people, at least in the higher up, Do not get to choose what they do. but that Ruhn being a part of the aux now and knowing he would have to take over that at some point, has been training his entire life to be lethal and efficient at killing. We do get a little information on the ordeal that Ruhn went through prior to his drop when he made that fifty years ago. Ruhn went through his ordeal, which is often associated with the drop. They don't always happen at the same time. Sometimes the drop happens because of the ordeal. Sometimes you go through your your ordeal and then you'd make the drop days, weeks, or years later. But the ordeal is essentially just a time where you have to overcome something. And what you're overcoming is different for each person. And it can be something super small or something crazy big that you have to overcome. For Ruhn, it was on the big side, crazy big side that he had to overcome. He had been visiting their family in one of the other main fae areas in on this world, which is the island of Avallen That he had gone into the cave of princes in Avallen to retrieve the star sword. that he had to stand among the long dead star born princes asleep in their sarcophagi and was deemed worthy to pull the sword from its sheath. And that's pretty much all we get of his ordeal. We find out what happened with Ruhn and the ordeal later on. So we'll talk about it then. Ruhn does mention that his father is five hundred years old, that he had worn the golden crown of the Autumn King for most of that time, and that because he was only five hundred years old, that it was probably gonna be a while until he passed and Ruhn took over the Autumn King crown. Ruhn also mentions he's about one of about a dozen fae princes princes across the world, across the planet Midgard. he'd met most of them over the decades, but he stood apart as the only starborn among them, among all the fae So he is the only one with the starborn power. But it's interesting because he has a very, very little bit amount of it. so we're gonna get to that in just a minute, though. We also get that Ruhn has his father has paid for most of the things in his life. So he is definitely the spoiled rich kid. when he won the star sword, his he came back. His father gifted him a villa in FIRO, which is Five Roses, where the fae live. he also has an office above a dive bar. That Ruhn never stayed in the villa, but he'd chosen to live in a house that he shared with his two best friends that was near the old square. But his father had also purchased that. officially the money came from a salary that Ruhn received from his father for the fae aux patrols, but he still felt like he was relying on his father's money. Whereas Danika had taken jobs outside of the aux. And what she had to do for her pack, she took on additional jobs for security with Redner industries. So she was able to make some of her own money on this side, whereas Ruhn he has not done that at this point. Ruhn is there to tell their father, one, that Bryce had a meeting with Maximum Tertius right before he was murdered, that he was murdered, which the Autumn King already knows about because he got the report that morning. He also kind of ruminates that Bryce is always called that girl by their father. their father doesn't call her Bryce. that he did once when Bryce came to visit for the first time when she was thirteen. She finally came to meet her father and his people and to meet Ruhn. He had been intrigued in finding out he had a long lost half sister, more than 60 years after being an only child. and that The Autumn King had insisted the visit be discreet, which really just meant that he didn't want anyone to know about it until the Oracle whispered of her future. And we don't find out what happened with her in the Oracle. At this point, we will find out later on. and that he was still a little upset with what he had said to her the last time They had really argued after they had become friends because he mentions after she visits at 13, then he went to visit her very often she lived with her mother and stepfather, to the point where they became close friends and then she moved to Crescent City to go to school and they continued to be friends. But then at one point he said some things that he didn't really mean, but said them anyway and felt bad for them immediately after. But because of that, Bryce now is no longer wants to be friends with him. Again, we're going to find out what all that was, what went down later on, but we don't know just yet. and again, Ruhn talks about his power and how it is different from what the Autumn King has and what most of the Valbaran fae have. So he has the starborn gifts, but the bulk of his magic skewed towards his mother's kin. And this is the little, the very little bit of of info we get on Ruhn's mother. Herkin were part of the fae who ruled Avallen, the mist-shrouded isle in the north, the sacred heart of faedom That Ruhn did not possess his father's flames, the flames of most of the Valbaran fae, that he instead possessed Avallen abilities more than Ruhn ever let on. So he has more than he's told anybody. to summon and walk through shadows is the main one. he goes on to tell us a little bit about his mother that she wasn't a queen. She actually lived in a villa not far from his villa, so his mom and dad don't live together. She wasn't even a consort or mate. No, his sweet, kind mother had been selected for one purpose, and that was breeding. The Autumn King had decided after a few centuries of ruling that he wanted an heir, as daughter of a prominent noble house that had defected from Avallen's court. She'd done her duty gladly, grateful for the eternal privilege. and in all of Ruhn's 75 years of life, he'd never heard her speak one ill word about his father or the life she'd been kind of conscripted into. Even when Ember, Bryce's mother, and the Autumn King had their little affair and Bryce started coming around, his mother was never jealous, and she had actually been kind and doting towards Bryce. And he even goes so far as to say that his father had slept and had multiple different affairs, he never married, and his mother didn't seem to care, was just kind of happy with what she had. his father asks him to use a little bit of his star born power and put it into the prism that he is looking at. Direct a beam of your starlight through this. Ruhn wants to know why. And his father says, I'm studying how light moves through the world, how it can be shaped. So arguably not just light, but in this case starlight, since that that's his starborn gift. so Ruhn kind of explains gathering up his starborn, that little bit of starborn magic. Past the churning well of his shadows to the little hollow beneath them, there curled upon itself, like some hibernating creature, lay the single seed of iridescent light. Which kind of reminds me of the little seeds of power that the High Lords give to bring someone back to life in a Court of Thorns and Roses because they talk about it being a little seed, a little kernel of power. In in Feyre describes it as being iridescent light as it's being dropped onto Rhysand's body. So very similar in the description. Not necessarily that they're tied to each other, just the description makes them sound similar. But Ruhn does mention that this starborn part of him was the only warm and lovely thing about him. The only thing that he liked. He doesn't like the shadows, he doesn't like all the other darkness inside of him, but it's this part, this starborn magic that he actually likes about himself. he also mentions that his father Records everything in the old language of the fae It's a half forgotten language of their people that had been used when they'd first come to Midgard through the Northern Rift. Foreshadowing Okay, so he puts a little bit of his star power or his star born powers into the prism. Like I said, it's not a whole lot, so he isn't able to do it for a long period of time. But his father jots down some notes, and then when it runs out, Ruhn has a bad headache because he always gets a bad headache after he uses his starborn power, which is weird because you shouldn't get a headache using any of your power. And the only other time we've seen that happen is an ACOTAR When they were being fed faebane because Feyre was mentioning using her power caused a headache. his father then also brings up that it is time to discuss fae males and an appropriate marriage, that he owes it to their bloodline to produce an heir and expand on their alliances. And the oracle, according to the Autumn King, had decreed that he would be a fair and just king, and that was producing heirs is taking the first step in that direction. at this point, Ruhn tells us about the Oracle that every fae, male and female, had to visit the city's Oracle at the age of 13 as one of the two great rites which is interesting because we had another great right in ACOTAR that is completely different than all of this. But interesting that they're both called great rites And this is one of two great rites to enter adulthood. First the oracle and then the ordeal a few years or decades later. So the Autumn King goes on to tell Ruhn that he needs to get married to form an alliance because war is raging overseas and it worsens by the day and it could very well spread here and the Autumn King wants some insurance that they're going to continue to be in power at that point. and the king tells him he wants to set Ruhn up to marry the new witch queen. So we find out that Queen Hecuba died last month, and her daughter Hypaxia has been crowned the new witch queen of Valbara. And that we we learned from Micah in the last episode in the last couple of chapters that she will be formally recognized at this first summit. And Ruhn tells us. Hypaxia Enador is her name, she was young, no more than twenty six, and there were no photos of her in existence because her mother had kept her cloistered in the mountain fortress. Ruhn goes so far as to say, Well, you don't know that she'll agree to it. And the Autumn King says, Well, my spies tell me she will heed her mother's old friendship with us and will be skittish enough as a new ruler that she'll need to accept a friendly hand that's offered to her. So he thinks she's going to agree to it. And then out of the blue, the autumn king tells Ruhn that he needs to look for Luna's horn. Luna's horn is the one of the objects, the object that went missing out of Luna's temple during a blackout about a week before before Danika and the pack of devils. murdered. the Autumn King says it still remains out there. No one knows where it is, and enough time has passed that the in the public's interest in retrieving it has waned. So now is the perfect time to obtain it. So he wants Ruhn to go find it because his father has been looking, the Autumn King has been looking for like two years now, the time it's been missing. He's been looking, hasn't been able to find it. So he thinks that because the horn, even though it no longer has power, because it was a fae heirloom and it was tied to the starborn power, he thinks that the horn it was originally the in the possession of Pelias Who we haven't heard of before, but he is was the first starborn prince. You may find that like calls to like. Merely researching it could reveal things to you that were hidden from others because he is a starborn prince, just like the first prince who owned the horn. So this is the first time where we get like calls to like, which we have gotten similar. Either that exact phrasing or very similar phrasing in both other series by Sarah J. Maas Ruhn kind of digs in with his father as to why. Why does the Autumn King want to look for the horn now? Why does he want to push Ruhn into a marriage for an alliance? What is going on? And his father reveals to him that one of the things he had on his schedule earlier today was a meeting with Micah, and that Micah kind of challenged the Autumn King, said some things to make the Autumn King want to sure up their defenses a little bit more. So a couple of the things that he says is that the fae's power has been waning. It's kind of being diluted. that it it wanes with each generation like it's watered down wine. The first starborn prince could blind an enemy with a flash of his starlight. You can barely summon a sparkle. And that Micah went so far as to say the fae, they had given up the horn, let it be lost two years ago, but also let it be placed and used as a cheap tourist attraction for years prior to it being stolen. And Ruhn says, Well, the horn doesn't have any power. What's the point in trying to find it now? And The Autumn King says it is a symbol and symbols will always wield power of their own, which is also a theme that we've talked about, that symbols have power. so the king wants to make this alliance with the witches in an attempt to keep them at the top of the food chain, at the top of the hierarchy, even if war comes. Ruhn doesn't really agree to look for the horn, but he doesn't really have an option. He has to look for it. And this is when he actually mentions he's thinking as he's leaving his father's villa that he lied to his father after he saw the oracle, and that the oracle told him that the royal bloodline shall end with you, whereas he told his father that the oracle said he would be a fair and just king. So complete opposite from what the Oracle actually said. next chapter we move back to Bryce She's come home from that that day meeting with Micah earlier that day and Hunt and Isaiah, and it's been a rough day, and she just wants to veg out. You know, like most of us want to do when we get home from work. We just want to chill on the couch, watch a crappy reality TV show, and just relax. But Syrinx, her chimera, is scratch on the glass. of her large floor to ceiling windows. we get a little description of what a chimera is. It's essentially like a small lion slash dog animal. It's about the size of a terrier. He has a golden coat, long tail tuft with dark fur at the end, and kind like a lion's and kind of has a a little mane to himself around his neck as well. And then two big paws which ended in bird like claws or bird like talons, which he is currently trying to scratch the grass. And the reason he is doing this is because because Hunt is on the roof of the building across the street. And the chimera wants to see Hunt. For whatever reason. But this is gonna be a little theme that we see is that everybody around Bryce just wants to see Hunt and hang out with Hunt, and Bryce doesn't want to. So she just wants to watch her trashy TV show. She doesn't want to deal with anything else. So she gets up, closes the curtains so Hunt can't see into the apartment, to which he calls her and tells her to open the curtains, uses the excuse, I want to watch the show. He doesn't really want to, but he's bored and on the the roof and she says in he's doing it because he has to protect her, yada yada yada. They have some back and forth, which is what we we start to get some of their banter. and it will continue on, but they we they do have a little bit of a back and forth. It's not the loving back and forth that we got with Feyre and Rhysand in ACOTAR, but it is more of a you're really pissing me off kind of banter between the two of them that just makes us laugh. But Bryce essentially ends it or comes close to ending the conversation with I was asked to head this case, you're the backup. So leave me alone until I figure out our next steps is essentially what she's saying. Hunt makes some comments in regards to her apartment and her chimera being very expensive and that she must be paid very well by Jesiba for her to be able to afford them. She is just egging him on, yes, yes, so so expensive, that kind of thing, even if it isn't necessarily the truth, but she's not the type to discuss what is the truth because she doesn't care what his thoughts and feelings are towards her. He ends the conversation by telling her you have my number now, call if something goes wrong or feels wrong or if you need anything. And her response is like pizza and says you would be a good delivery boy with those wings. To which he is not thrilled with her request. And then she closes the curtains because she's a brat and then hears something bang on her window as soon as she goes to sit down. It is him. He has flown across over to her window and is banging on her window. And yeah, he's like, I know you don't appreciate being watched or coddled or whatever. Neither of us gets a say in this arrangement. So instead of just wasting our breaths arguing about boundaries, why don't you make a list of suspects and Danika's movements? And that way we can keep things moving. But I love this part because again, we get their banter, but it is quite amusing because he says, I'm going to be straight with you. And she says, goody. And his nostrils flared because he is mad. He's not happy about this. He's pissed off at her. And he says, I will do whatever the heck it takes to solve this case, even if it means tying you to a chair until you write those lists. She just smiles and says, Bondage. Nice.

M: Mm.

C: And he's just like practically brimming with anger at this point. She even mentions that she could have sworn she tasted ether as he growls at her. Do not mess with me. And she's like, Yeah, yeah, you're the Umbra Mortis, whatever. And he's like, I don't care what you call me, as long as you do what you're told. By the next morning he is not calmed down. whatsoever. And it's only gotten worse. He wonders how much trouble he would get into if he chucked Bryce into the istros he calls Isaiah because he needs to talk to somebody about this because she is driving him insane and it's been less than a day. Like it's been less than twelve hours and she's already driving him insane. Isaiah doesn't answer with hello. He immediately says, Please tell me Bryce is alive And Hunt's response is for the moment. And Isaiah says, Do I want to know why you're calling this soon? Because at this point it's before 9 a.m. the next morning. then Isaiah says, And why are you on Samson Street? Because arguably they can track his phone, but also this is another chance for Hunt to tell us that people someone is always watching. There are cameras everywhere. Even if the entire city was bombed. With the Asterian Guard's brimstone missiles, the cameras would keep rolling because they are spelled and warded against bombs. And at this point, Hunt tells Isaiah, Are you aware that chimeras are able to pick locks, open doors, and jump between two places as if they're walking from from one room to another? And Isaiah's like, No? How would I know this? and we find out that the lowers, which is the class of Vanir to which the chimera belonged, had all sorts of interesting small power powers like that. It was part of why they demanded such high prices on the market and why even a millennia later the Senate and Asteri had shot down any attempts to change the laws that branded them as property to be traded, because the lowers were too dangerous, unable to understand the laws with the powers that could be disruptive if unchecked by the various spells and magic infused tattoos that held them. And because it was too lucrative to not have them on the market for the ruling powers that profited from their trade. And so Isaiah's like you've watched Quinlan for one night. And hunts like ten hours to be exact, right until her pet chimera just appeared next to me at dawn, bit me in the butt for looking like I was dozing off, and then vanished again right back into the apartment just as Quinlan came out of her bedroom and opened the curtains to see me grabbing my own butt like an idiot. Do you know how sharp a chimera's teeth are? And Isaiah says no and Hunt can swear he can hear Isaiah smiling, 'cause of course he is. And he's like, when I flew over to explain to her what happened, she blasted her music and ignored me like a brat. this is when we find out that he has actually been testing out her apartment and the enchantments that kind of protect it. And that it would keep a host of angels out. So he'd been forced to glower through the glass, returning to the roof only after she'd emerged from her bedroom in nothing but a black sports bra and a thong. Her smirk, as he his backtracking wings, had been nothing short of feline. And then he tells Isaiah, I didn't see her again until she went for a run. She flipped me off as she left. So we're starting to see the relationship between the two of them. And so Isaiah was like, So what, you went to brood on Samson Street? Like what's the emergency? And Hunt's like, The emergency is that I might kill her before we even find the real murderer. And he's like, You're just pissed because she's not cowering or fawning. And Isaiah's like, where's Quinlan now? Hunt says she's getting her nails done because that's such a Quinlan thing to do. And then Hunt says I'm gazing through a window of a nail salon like a stalker. Isaiah does push him a little bit and says I'm hanging up now because you've faced down enemy armies, survived Sandril's arena, gone toe to toe with archangels. Surely a party girl isn't as difficult as all that. And then he does hang up on him. And Hunt decides that he's going to give her another five minutes before he storms in there because the Draki female who's doing her nails is putting on another coat of polish and he's not sure why she needs so many coats of polish on her nails. Exactly, right? Like it's such a process to get your nails done.

M: This is where I realized in when I first read the book, these chapters going into what we're seeing the next couple chapters too is what really made me start to love the book and love Bryce. I'm clicking on the fact that we now have A third female main character that you see and you start to see, I'm gonna do my own thing. I don't care if you're watching me, I don't care if you want to know the plan, I'm gonna have a plan of my own. And the male, that has to fit his mindset into hers as opposed to being submissive with her. Cause even with him

C: The other way around. Yep.

M: watching her, he's not interfering with anything she's doing. So you're already getting that. You're already getting that Rhys with Feyre letting her do her thing, or Throne of Glass. Rowan with Aelin, where

C: Rowan and Nailin.

M: he's right there watching her do her thing but not interfering, as frustrating as she can be. And I love

C: Right.

M: that. Because that was what drew me to, like I said, the whole series in the beginning. And now to realize it's clicking that all of her female main characters have that. And it's such an admirable trait because Yay, woman power, like go. Like take

C: Right.

M: care of your own.

C: we do get just a little paragraph where Hunt is talking about the power that he has. that the Valbaran fae Like the Draki, who's doing her nails, their magic skewed towards flame and wind. In the northern climbs of Pangera though, he'd met Draki and fae, whose power could summon water, rain, mist, element-based magic. But even among the reclusive Draki and the fae, no one bore lightning. He knew this because he'd looked, because as a youth, he was desperate to find someone to help him master it and train it. And in the end he couldn't find anyone, so he had to teach it to himself. So we've found out that no one else in this current world during Hunt's life has lightning magic. No one in this current world. So Bryce comes out at that point and pops open an umbrella because it's raining. as soon as she comes out, he starts yelling at her because he's frustrated. So she pops the umbrella open in his face, nearly taking out an eye. And again they go back to their back and forth bickering. And it gets to the point where he asks if she has a problem with him and she says I don't really care about you enough to have a problem with you and his response is likewise and that actually annoys her. 'cause he describes her eyes really did glow then as if a distant fire simmered within. She surveyed him, sizing up every inch and somehow making him feel about three inches tall. Just from one look. And then she examines her nails. He asks if she's compiled the list for him. She doesn't respond, just examines her nails, now painted in some sort of color gradient that went from pink to periwinkle tip tips, like the sky at twilight. We like our colors. We talked about them a lot with all of the courts in the last book. And her response to him is no one likes a nag. At that point they get to her apartment building. And they part ways with additional bickering words. Bryce, we switched then to Bryce's perspective, and she thinks that going to the nail salon had been worth it on so many levels, specifically because it had made him made Hunt so mad. But now she is at work trying to do some research with Lehabah She's trying to work, actually work, but her mind keeps going back to the list of Danika's habits. From around the time that she had died. Lehabah is telling her that the angel Hunt is so handsome and that Syrinx says the angel can brush his coat if he needs something to do. They're down in the in the bowels of the gallery library. Bryce sighs at the painted ceiling because Lehabah is being tedious, and we get a description of what the ceiling looks like in this library. And it is the night sky rendered in loving care. The giant gold chandelier that hung down the center of the space was fashioned after an exploding sun with all the other dangling lights in perfect alignment of the seven planets. But it's a night sky with the chandelier is like a shooting star. Or an exploding sun, as Bryce calls it. we get a description of Lehabah that not a description, just a little more information on her because she is a sprite and all of the sprites are condemned to be slaves because of their participation in the fall and that rebellion. So as soon as she was born, she was stamped with the SPQM. Lehabah is essentially trying to get Bryce to let Hunt in so that Lehabah can hang out with him because she's a little bit of a crush on him. That Bryce tries to tell him tell her that he swears a lot, you're not gonna like him. And Lehabah says he led my people into battle and he is a member of my house. I deserve to meet him. And we get a little more information on the books in this library, that Lehabah was there to guard them, even though you would think logically that having a fire sprite guard books would not be a good idea. But about a third of the books in the place would like nothing more than to escape, kill someone, or eat them in varying orders. Having a little living flame, keeping them in line was worth any risk. we switch perspectives to Ruhn. he has just smoked a lot of mirth root as a way to relax after seeing his dad earlier that day. that it was probably more potent than his friend Flynn had let on. But Ruhn is fine to just chill in his room, relax, listen to music as it kind of took over him and helped him relax. so he is music blasting and he's just kind of floating off into the drug in his own mind. And then he sees a woman or scents a woman come into his room, manages to get his eyes open, even though they're super heavy, but he realizes that it is his sister. He can smell the lilac and nutmeg fills the room, but he can't hear what she's saying because he has his headphones on and he's super loud. And I think Sarah does a really good job of describing Like how he is trying to get out of the drugs. And we talked about it in our first episode for Crescent City when Bryce was trying to do the same thing. That you're trying to think through like the sludge and the slog of it. that his head was spinning and he's blinking his eyes a couple of times trying to look at her. notices that when he blinks at one point there's a halo of starlight that danced around her head and at her feet. Then he blinks again, it's gone, blinks a third time and it's back. So he's trying to blink multiple times to clear the auras clouding his vision. But it keeps blinking on and off. And then he notices where she is looking, and she is looking at a pile of dirty laundry that has the star sword on top of it, because he just kind of threw it when he came into the room. Which I love all the descriptions in this chapter about Ruhn and the house that he lives in. Because Ruhn is such a frat boy right now. He is such a frat boy. Like he talks about this house. They've been there for 20 years, and it has maybe two years left before it just like falls apart. He talks about when he comes downstairs the chandelier is handing hanging crooked because one of them tried to swing on it while drunk, and that the entire house is in disrepair and it's just getting worse because none of them care. So 'cause all they do is throw parties when they're not on duty. So the sword he mentions glimmered with starlight too, and he could have sworn the darn thing was singing while Bryce is there. But Bryce is blurring and then going in and out of focus for his eyes because of the drugs, and his vision surrounding the scene glinting with starlight. And Bryce is like, Well, you are in no shape to talk to me, so I'm going down to get you some water. So he does manage to get up and follow her. And again, he mentions that the light from the chandelier was bouncing off her red hair in the shimmering halo. So multiple times it looks like she has a halo around her head. And then He comes downstairs with her, mentions he his couple of friends, the two of his best friends that live with him. They have some friends over, they're drinking, smoking. Tristan Flynn is one of them, son of Lord Hawthorne. He's got one woman on his lap. And then Declan Emmett is the other one. He has a male in his lap because they're both having some fun. Declan is the tech guy. He always has a computer near him, is always doing something on it. he is making a ton of money because he has built a foundation of hacking into the Republican rub websites and charging them. horrendous amounts of money to reveal their critical weak weaknesses. and we find out that Flynn as a fae male, his magic is earth magic, which is also rare among the fire prone Valbaran fae. Ruhn goes to scold her for being out when she was given an order to lie low. And her response is, My Imperial Escort is outside, scaring everyone away, so don't worry about it. At this point, Ruhn does not know it's Hunt who is her her bodyguard, but he's gonna find out in a second because I don't think we've talked about it, but Hunt and Ruhn don't get along. and they try not to be in the same room with each other because they have gotten It's been so bad at times where they've actually physically attacked each other. and this is where we get a little bit more information on Ruhn and his ordeal, that he actually went through it at the same time as his two friends. they'd gone through their ordeals together, and that had cemented their bond. I'm gonna compare it to the blood right that Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel go through together, that their bond was solidified a little bit more through all of that that they went through together. Just like Flynn, Declan and Ruhn's companionship is solidified because they went through their ordeals together. and this is where Ruhn tells us that ordeals it themselves varied. Depending on the person. For some, it might be as simple as overcoming an illness or a bit of personal strife. For others, it might be slaying a worm, which is spelled W-Y-R-M, the exact same way that it is spelled in ACOTAR By killing a worm or a demon, the greater the fae, the greater the ordeal. Ruhn had been learning to wield his shadows from his hateful cousins in Avallen. his two friends with him when they'd all gone through their ordeal, nearly nearly dying in the process. It had culminated in Ruhn entering the mist-shrouded cave of princes and emerging with the star sword and saving them all. when he'd made the drop weeks later, it had been Flynn, fresh from his own drop, who'd anchored him. So we get a bond that's very strong between the three of them. Bryce then takes Ruhn back up to his room because she does not want to talk in front of everybody who's there. And Bryce brings up the Viper Queen. If Ruhn knows anything about her or if she knows anything about Maximus and the fact that he was killed on her turf. And the only thing that Ruhn knows is that he heard that she pulled the pe her people off the street. Something spooked her, but that's all. And he says, even if I knew if the viper queen had an alibi, I wouldn't tell tell you you need to stay out of this. I'll call the governor and tell him to take you off of it. And she gives him an icy look. And I think it's interesting because he compares her to their father. And s excuse me, an icy look, their father's look passed over her face, the sort of look that told him there is a wild, wicked storm raging beneath that cold exterior. And the power and thrill for both father and daughter lay not in sheer force, but in the control over the self, over those impulses. That the outside world saw his sister as reckless unchecked, but he knew she'd been the master of her fate since before he'd met her. So I like that description that he has of her because it's not something we get from anybody else. and again we get mention of the gold amulet that Bryce wears around her neck that was given to her by Jesiba And we don't get any a lot more information on it, but again, it is an Archesian amulet that they don't come cheap, especially not when there were only a few in the world. He tells her not to take that off ever. And she says, if you hear anything about the Viper Queen, call me. And he's like, do not provoke her. And she's like, Bye Ruhn Okay, we're done now. And she goes swaggering back out the front door. All his friends giving him inquisitive looks as he's standing at the top of the steps. And also has is like boiling over with anger, which is just kind of all the males that have to deal with Bryce at this point in her life. Boiling with anger. And so he leaps over the banister, lands on the floor, you know, further damaging the floor, and then goes walking out to follow Bryce. Both Declan and Flynn kind of fall in line beside him. And that's when he notices that Hunt is across the street waiting for her, and he is not happy about it. Tells Hunt. that he needs to find someone else to protect Bryce because Ruhn does not want Hunt to be the one to do it. And Hunt's responses is not an option, not when it plays into my expertise, because they're hunting a demon. But before they can get into an actual fight, physical or magical, Bryce has walked off. She kept walking past Hunt while they're having this little altercation. She has continued to walk. And it gets to the point where there she's about to be out of view. And that's when Hunt's like, I guess I gotta go. Cause he has to go follow her. And it's Ruhn decides that it's actually really funny and he's not okay with Hunt looking after her, but he knows Bryce is gonna give just as much as she gets. And so he Ruhn studies them as they're walking away. Bryce would speed up, Hunt would match her pace, so she'd slow down, he'd do the same, then she'd edge him right off the curb into traffic, he'd narrowly avoid a car and step back onto the sidewalk. I feel like that is the perfect definition of their relationship through at least the first half of this book, possibly farther, is just the push and pull between the two of them. But as Ruhn is watching them walk away, he gets a feeling that it felt odd, like Urd was whispering, nudging them all, and Ruhn planned to find out why, starting with finding the horn. So then we switch back to Bryce. She is again trying to push Hunt into oncoming traffic. and then she shoves a hand into her pocket of jeans, pulls out a piece of paper, and silently hands it to Hunt. This is the list of suspects and he's like, Well, when did you di th do this? And she's like, Last night, while I on the couch. And he was like, And you were gonna tell me when? And she says, Well, I was gonna tell you after I got my nails done, but as soon as I came out you bit my head off, so I didn't tell you then. She's like, Well, do you know what else I did last night? I looked up Maximus Tertian and find out that He had a girlfriend. And Hunt's like, crap, how did we miss that? And Bryce is like, guess where the girlfriend works? And Hunt's like, at the nail salon. Yes. And guess who did my nails this morning? And got chatty

M: Mm.

C: about her terrible loss of a rich boyfriend. And he's like, stop with the questions, just tell me. Cause at this point he's realized he's made a mistake in judging her. And he's just like, crap. Now she's not as vapin as I thought she was. She might actually be a little smart, a little brash, but a little smart. And so she goes on to say, while examining her gorgeous new nails, Tertian's girlfriend didn't know anything about who might have wanted to kill him. she asked and then they brought sh Danika or not Danika. Bryce brings up that she had lost someone recently as well and brings up Danika and asks then if Danika and Maximus were friends. Their girlfriend says no. that she would have known if Maximus was because Danika was famous enough that he would have been bragging about it. And that what Bryce is finding is that there was no complete like connection between Maximus and Danika, but there was two degrees two degrees of separation in a connection with them, and that was through the viper queen. Who she who the girlfriend does her nails on Sundays. So she learned all of this from the nail salon chick, who was Maximus' girlfriend. And then Hunt's response is so Danika knew the Viper Queen and Bryce holds up a list and said Danika's job in the aux made her a friend and an enemy to a lot of people. Viper Queen was one of them. That's when she tells him the Viper Queen pulled her people in that night. No one knows what kind of power she has. She could have summoned the demon herself. And he's like, That's a big accusation to throw at one of the heads of the city. But we need to go through the right channels to be able to contact her, and it could be days or weeks before she deans deigns to meet with us, maybe even longer. And she's like, well don't be such a stickler for rules And he's like, No, we're going to follow the rules And she's like, Okay, fine. And then moves on. And then she goes

M: Mm.

C: so far as to say he asks about Ruhn and she says my cousin will be unable to resist the urge to inform his father that a member of the fae race has been commandeered by an imperial investigation. How he reacts, who he contacts, might be worth noting. And Hunt's like, So you want me to put a tracker on Autumn King to watch him? And she's Yeah, just to see what happens. And he's like that breaks about ten different laws, not to mention if the Autumn King notices he has the right to kill anyone who's stalking him. And she's like, Well, make sure they keep hidden, obviously. And he's like, Don't play games with me. Just tell me. And she's like, I'm getting really bored of you giving me orders and forbidding me to do things, which is very similar theme that we see back and forth with them. Bryce does mention a little bit of information on the Autumn King and the fae Kings in general. That Autumn King was a courtesy title in addition to her father's rule as city head, as for all the seven fae kings. So we have seven total fae kings, just like we have seven Asteri seven planets in the world, like seven's a big number in this world. No kingdom was truly their own, even Avallen the Green Isle ruled by the Stag King, still bowed to the Republic, and that the fae had coexisted with the Republic since its founding, answerable to its laws, but ultimately left to govern themselves and retain their ancient titles of kings and princes and the like. So two things, because one, we have a fae king that is literally called the stag king. And we know that the stag, the white stag, is the symbol of Terrasen in Throne of Glass. And second of all, the court or like the the fae sounds a lot like the night court because he says the fae had coexisted with the republic since its founding, answerable to its laws, but ultimately left to govern themselves. Just like in the night court, the hewn city in the court of nightmares has to answer to Rhysand but they're kind of left to govern themselves. So it sounds very similar to the night court.

M: And I'm there's also seven courts in ACOTAR World, right? 'Cause you have day, dawn, night, and then the seasons.

C: Correct?

M: Well, I just had never put the sevens

C: It's just making me smile.

M: together even when I read it the first time. I

C: is something I am I'm picking up a lot more on this one too. And the seven being s that's why I'm trying to pick out numbers because three we know three is important. We talk about that a lot. And so I feel like we're getting seven is more important now. How many people are in the inner circle? Rhys Amren Mor Cassian, Azriel, Feyre, and Nesta That's seven people.

M: Yeah.

C: Aelin Rowan, Elide Lorcan Fenrys Aedion Lysandra, that's seven. So I think Maeve had six. Right? Because Fenrys and his twin, Connell, Vaughn, Gavriel Rowan, and Lorcan So she only had six. Well, unless you include her, then that would be seven.

M: I mean and you count Rhys in his court and you're counting so yeah, if you do count her

C: And I'm counting Aelin and hers. So yes.

M: then she would be seven and

C: So yes, seven is seven and three. Super popular numbers. But the star in Feyre's ring is six sided and not seven sided because I remembered there's a star in her

M: Mm.

C: ring and it made me question it. So I'm already partially down the rabbit hole. Don't worry,

M: Okay.

C: okay, so at this point, Bryce is going to do something tricksy because this is Bryce, this is who we're finding out she is. she leaves the lights on, the television on, and the curtains partially open, just enough to block Hunt's view of her door. And then she le sneaks down the back stairwell and out the building through a small alley. and she hops onto her scooter. She is an all-white scooter. And she goes to the meat market. And she mentions noticing a difference from going from the CBD to the meat market, not by any street or marker, but by the shift in darkness. No light stained the skies above the low brick buildings crammed together, and here the shadows became permanent. And so Bryce Pulls in to an area of the meat market, lots of different warehouses around, vendors, shoppers alike that are eyeing her. she mentions that in the warrens below this warehouse are carved deep into Midgard's womb, lay three different levels just for flesh. So mostly human, mostly living. Though she'd heard of some places that specialized in certain tastes, every fetish could be bought. No taboo was too foul. Half-breeds were prized because they could heal faster, better than full humans. And occasionally, vanir were also enslaved and bound with so many enchantments that they couldn't hope to escape. And so she actually gets off her bike, takes her helmet off, and then leans against the bike, waiting. And we know exactly what she's waiting for. Because a second later. Hunt slams into the ground, cracking the cobblestones, rippling in a circle. And his eyes are practically glowing. I am going to kill you, he says to her. And so then we switch perspectives and get from his perspective, he storms towards her, stepping over the cobblestone fragments that he just broke. And her response is, You're two minutes late. And he's like, I'm going to throttle her. I am going to throttle her. And she smiles like she wants him to try to actually kill her. Saunters towards him, scooter and helmet left behind. And he's like, There's no way that scooter is gonna be there when we get back. And her response is, Well, what do you mean? You just landed, you made such a big entrance, no one would dare touch it now, not with the Umbra Mortis as my wrathful companion. So she totally used him. To scare people away from stealing her bike. Hunt mentions that even Micah didn't station legionaries here, that the meat market had its own laws and methods of enforcing them. And we find out the Viper Queen who rules the meat market is a serpentine shifter. So she is a snake shifter. Her snake form, rumor claimed, was a true horror to behold. And he says to her, I'm growing tired of your bull crap. And she says, I'm sorry if your fragile ego can't handle that I know what I'm doing. So she ends up going down into one of the lower levels of a warehouse. I think it's interesting because he mentions checking to make sure his weapons are still in place and that he has a cleverly constructed suit with sheaths along his suit for his weapons, which we've seen very similar suit in Throne of Glass that Aelin wears. and they come into a section of the market, rim shackled shackled stalls and vendors, food stands, smoke drifting throughout it. and on the opposite wall is a towering mosaic, the tiles taken from an ancient temple in Pangera restored and recreated here in loving detail, despite its gruesome depiction. Cloaked and hooded death, the skeleton's face grinned out from the cow. A scythe in one hand and an hourglass in the other. Above its head words had been crafted in the Republic's most ancient language Memento Mori. Rather remember that you will die. So it's kind of a remember that you will and die and enjoy each pleasure the world has to offer. But also none of this, remember you will die, and none of this illegal crap will matter anyway. And remember that you will die. So who cares how many people suffer from your actions? It's kind of what the meat market signifies, what their symbol is. Bryce continues through the market. And that's when Hunt notices what she's wearing. And it is actually Danika's leather jacket that says on the back. Also, from the Ang Ancient Language, as if Urd herself had chosen this moment to lay the two ancient phrases before him, it says, Through love all is possible. So complete opposites from the wall that he's reading and Bryce's back that's in front of him. He notates that Bryce knows her way around it and that she even knew a few of the vendors, and he marks which vendors she she recognizes: a metal worker, a fruit vendor for exotic produce, and then an owl-faced female who had lots of scrolls and books, bound in materials that were anything but cow leather. Bryce notices that he's kind of taking notice of who she looks at and who she knows. So she tells them the metal work metal worker helps me identify if an artifact is fake. The fruit lady gets shipments of durian in early spring and fall, which is Syrinx's favorite food. They stink up the whole house, but he goes nuts over them. And then she starts ascending up a rickety set of stairs to the mezzanine above. And he asks, What about the books? And Bryce says, The books are a story for another time. As they are going down a hallway, she's counting doors rather than looking at numbers, and that's when he realizes that there are no numbers on the doors. So she opens a door without bothering to knock and reveals flickering candles and brine, salt, smoke, and something that dried out his eyes. So they step in and it's a very dilapidated kind of space. The furniture is rotting, peeling apart, but All around it are multiple different white and ivory candles, as well as different cups, jars, bowls of salt. So he mentions that there's white salt, black, gray, in grains of every size, from near powder to flakes, to great rough hunks of it, salt for protection against darker powers, against demons, many vanir build their houses with slabs of salt at the cornerstones. Rumor claimed that the entire base of the Asteri's Crystal Palace was a slab of salt, that it had been built atop a natural deposit. We're gonna talk more about salt in just a minute. But Bryce tells him to stop snarling and rolling his eyes for just a minute and let her do her thing. And then she says, I'm here to buy, not collect, which makes me wonder, is she trying to tell him that Hunt isn't here to collect a debt? Or is she trying to tell him that she's not here to collect a debt where she has in the past? I don't know. But I think her wording is odd. The male who comes out is a Satyr And Hunt realizes that there is fear in his eyes and it's not because of Hunt. So Bryce tells him that she needs obsidian salt. Grade A whole rock obsidian salt, seven pounds, seven ounces. Didn't we just talk about seven? On top of that, we're gonna talk about salt in just a minute. So he the the Satyr says it's illegal. And Hunt is scanning the room looking to different kinds of salts and kind of giving us some more information on salt. White salt for purification, pink for protection, gray for spell work, red, he can't remember what that's for, but obsidian salt is for summoning demons directly. Black salt. were used for summoning demons, bypassing the northern rift entirely for various dark spell work. A salt that went beyond black, a salt like obsidian, it could summon something different. Hell was severed from them by time and space. And still ex Okay, so let's pause for a second and talk about the fact that we know there are Multiple worlds, potentially multiple universes in the Maas world, because we have Aelin at the end of Kingdom of Fire falling through a world that has a large city on it that she's never seen before. And then she falls through ACOTAR and is slowed down by Rhys. And now f she now fell through them. So the wyrd gate sealed behind her. As it closed, all worlds overlapped and she now fell through them, one after another. Worlds of water, worlds of ice, worlds of darkness. She slammed through them faster than a shooting star, faster than light. Worlds of lights, worlds of towers that stretch to the sky, kind of like the CBD in Crescent City, worlds of silence. A world where a great city was built along the curve of a river, the buildings impossibly tall and glimmering with lights. The Istros is a curving river with the CBD on one side. And then she passes through A world of snow capped mountains, under shining stars, that's when she passes over. Okay. So it's just those those two are the main ones that are mentioned. Okay. Hell was severed from them by time and space, but still accessible through the twin sealed portals at the north and south poles. So this world has a north and south pole, just like ours does, and there is a rift at each one that connects them to Hel. And that demons could be summoned through salts of varying powers. And The benefit of using salts was that only one demon could be summoned at a time, though if things went badly, the summoner could wind up dead and a demon could wind up stuck in mid guard. But that most of them had been hunted after those long ago war between realms. So we have mention of a war that happened a long time ago that raged between realms. But every so often a demon gets loose, reproduces, or is forced to, and that's how we get the daemonaki That they were a diluted, weaker incarnation and hybrid of purebred demons from Hel But that the lowest level of purebred demon, fresh out of Hel, could bring an entire city to a standstill as it went on a rampage, and for centuries now Hunt had been tasked with tracking them down. So Hunt wonders if Bryce is really that stupid to buy salt in front of him with Jesiba's money and kind of tell him that she and Jesiba can get salt just like that. So what's to say that they aren't the ones who did it? finally the Satyr says 50,000 gold marks for the seven pounds, seven ounces of the obsidian salt. Bryce turns to Hunt and says, Do you know my boss paid $50,000 to watch a pack of hellhounds rip apart a Satyr? She said it was the best minute of her miserable life. And so the Satyr reduces the price. So she's using some different tactics to get the Satyr to drop his price. And she says then I won't w don't waste my time with nonsense offers. He says I can't go below thirty, not for that much obsidian. And she says ten. Ten thousand gold marks. Hunt says that's still an outrageous amount, but for summoning salts, they were extraordinarily rare. And Bryce goes so far as to say in five minutes I'm expected to call Jesiba and say that the obsidian salt is in my possession. In six minutes, if I do not make that phone call, someone will knock on that door and it will not be someone for me. And Hunt says, honestly, I couldn't tell if Quinlan was bluffing or not. So I like that he can read her tells sometimes, but not all the time. Like there's still parts of her that are a mystery to him. And at this point he realizes that this entire assignment is either going to be a crap ton of fun or an absolute nightmare. And he's as long as it has the outcome that he wants, he doesn't care one way or another. And so the satyr turns to him and says, You're one of the Triari, one of the governor's men. You serve him. You protect me, right? From her. And Bryce pulls the focus away from that and shows up a couple pictures of some cute puppies that, my cousin just got some puppies. And Hunt's like, yeah, cute dogs, because he's learning he has to play along with her a little bit. And She's kind of count counting down the minutes that the Satyr has before supposedly somebody's going to knock on the door. so she gets down to 90 seconds. He says 20,000. She holds up a finger, texting and says she's writing back to her cousin. Give me two seconds. And the Satyr is trembling to this point enough that Hunt almost felt bad for him. Almost. And then finally the Satyr agrees to 10. And she's like, Good grief, no need to shout, 'cause he practically screams it at her. And so she presses a button, immediately Jesiba answers. And I think it's funny because I'm like 90% sure Jesiba has no idea why Bryce is calling, but she knows Bryce enough that Bryce says, call off your dogs, Jesiba laughs and just says, Done. And then they both hang up the phone. Like that's it. Cause she knows, she knows Bryce is doing something. It might be for her, it might be for the investigation. Jesiba doesn't really know, but she trusts Bryce enough that she just says, Okay, done, and they move on. But I think it's interesting that the Satyr then goes to get the obsidian and brings it back to them. Hunt describes it reeked of mold and dirt. And do you remember in the very first ACOTAR book, we talked about the smell that Feyre smells in the woods in the in the spring court? That it smelled like mold rotting dirt. So just makes me wonder, is there some obsidian salt in the spring court that makes it smell like that?

M: Seems like it'd be something Ianthe would be using.

C: Right? So we got the different kinds of salt. And where else have we heard of salt?

M: The mines in Throne of Glass

C: The king of Adarlan is having his slaves and rebels, criminals sent to two different camps to mine for salt. Do we ever get any idea on what that salt is being used for?

K: See, I was sitting here trying to I was googling everything, but I can't find a specific spot 'cause I could have swore that the demons were being summoned. Something was being summoned with it. Was it not?

C: So there is no no description that Cain is summoning the demon using salt. The assumption is he's using wyrd marks to summon the demon.

K: Mm. Mm-hmm. Okay.

C: So we don't know if it's coming from Hel or not.

K: Where is salt used though? Because I remember it being used in Throne of glass,

C: In Throne of Glass.

K: yes. I could have swore. No?

M: I don't remember it being used, just the that she was in the prison and then the other pris or the other set of mines was

K: Yeah.

M: devastated and taken out by the king.

C: The salt mines of Endovier is where Celaena is first found in the first book. Slaves, prisoners of war, and magic users mine rock salt in dark, dangerous shafts, suffering extreme conditions and near constant darkness until they perish from the harsh labor. So it just makes you wonder because we get no information on what the salt is being used for in the Throne of Glass world. And yet there are two separate camps. And we get we don't get numbers on how many people are in those camps, but we do get talks about how crazy it is when the king agrees to kill off everybody in both camps. And then the amount of people that they'll need to refill those camps. that it just makes you wonder what are they doing because that's a ton of salt that they are mining. What are they doing with their with the salt? 'Cause yes, they could be using it to summon demons from Hel, but we don't ever know that. We don't ever see that. So could it be happening and we just don't get the description until now that we're in Crescent City? Or is it being used for something else?

M: like to keep the valg going. Could it be some sort of food source or something that's not described that we don't know about until the story continues on. Because evil sustains evil. So therefore something that would call to a demon, why couldn't it nourish demon in a different world? Far fetched, but

C: Maybe.

M: Help them like sustain their astral body type thing. Or maintain, not sustained.

C: Right? I don't I don't know. But it just It's it's interesting that we get mention of salt mines in a world that we don't actually hear what the salt is used for. I mean, they're at war and arguably the armies would need a lot of like food and to make salted meats to make it last longer, you salt it. So that's one of the theories that that's it's just going to that. But I feel like that's a lot more salt that they're mining that they would But I don't know for sure. So two different worlds where salt is mined versus where it is incredibly valued. So she gets the obsidian salt. that was the other thing. the salt is obsidian, so it is the blackest version of black. And we've talked about obsidian a couple of times in a couple different ways, one of which is in regards to multiple things in the night court being described as obsidian. Nesta mentions that the place setting is ivory and obsidian in the night court. the doors into the Hewn City are a set of obsidian doors, veins of silver running throughout. There is a s obsidian chandelier hanging in the throne room of the Hewn City.

M: Isn't the shield toward Rhys's mind reference towards obsidian in the first time?

C: a couple of times. On top of that, Azriel's blade, the h truth teller, the hilt, is obsidian. yes, the bond between the two of them sometimes felt like a living band of light. It had now turned into a bridge of ice kissed obsidian. One of Feyre's dresses. the day two of the High Lord meeting, her dress is Shimmering Obsidian Gossamer. And then again we have the obsidian hilted blade in Azriel's Scarred Hand, which is the truth teller. And the power. From Rhysand is called Obsidian Power. Erupted from him a massive chunk of Hybern's army just misted And a third time we get it mentioned that truth teller's hilt is obsidian. So those are the mentions of Obsidian and ACOTAR. Okay, finally Bryce gets the obsidian salt. They go to leave. she mentions seven is a holy number in the Crescent City world or unholy, depending on who you are worshiping. Seven Asteri seven hills in their eternal city, seven neighborhoods and seven gates in Crescent City, seven planets, seven circles in Hel, and seven princes who ruled them. So they go to leave the they open the door to leave the salt cellar and there is a tall moon skinned woman dressed in a gold jumper or gold jumpsuit, emerald hoop earrings hanging lower than her chin length blank bob. Her lips were painted purple so dark it was nearly black and her remarkable green eyes. Hunt knew them by the knew her by the eyes alone. She's humanoid in every aspect, but Her eyes were green, not entirely, but they had marbles of vein and jade. A snake's eyes. And this is the viper queen. So essentially she doesn't she stops them from leaving immediately, has them come into her office or a version of her office. it's her, and then she has four fae males that are flanking her. Defectors from Bryce's father, the Autumn King's court. trained assassins and not just weapons, but the queen's specialty, venoms and poisons, which makes sense since she is a snake shifter. so she has them, like I said, come into the office with them. Bryce is like, Well, you wanted you were grumbling this morning because I wasn't doing anything. Now you're grumbling because I am doing something. Make up your mind. Which one is it that you want? And he says, I'll ask all the questions when we get in here. So they actually come in and it's more of like a dirty stock room than it is an actual office compared to the types of offices she's been in. But she does mention that the computer was about 20 years out of date and it sat like a fat rock before her, before the viper queen, and a little statue of Luna poised atop it, the goddess's bow aimed at the shifter's face. Not that that means anything. I just thought it was pretty funny the way she describes the little statue. she does mention that the serpentine shifter, the viper queen, her snake form was a moon white cobra with scales that gleamed like opals and whose power was rumored to be different. Something extra that mixed with her venom something strange and old. So no one truly knows what her power is. So Hunt tries to tell them that they're trying to get a clearer picture on Danika Fendyr and what happened around surrounding her murder. And she's like, Well, I'll spare you the BS. Danika was a threat to me in more ways than you know, but she was smart. Our relationship was a working one. Sometimes the aux and the thirty-third have to work with those of us who dwell outside or who dwell in the shadows outside of the law. She goes on to say that she pulled her people out as a precaution because they can taste when stuff is about to go down, like it's a change in the air. I can taste it now all over this city. So I warned my people, as long as trouble doesn't pass through my district, I don't care what goes on in the rest of Lunathian. And she hands them a flash drive, which is her alibi from the night Maximus was killed and from the days before and during Danika and the her pack's murders. and it essentially is during Danika's murder, she is on a at a party which turns into like a three day orgy. And that's the videotape that she's now given to Hunt. And she's like, Hunt, tell me if it gets you hot and bothered. That kind of thing. And Bryce is okay on is okay, let's let's move on from his bedroom prowess and asks the viper queen about the salt that she sells in the market. And the viper queen says, I don't use what I sell. Though I don't think you live by that rule over at your fancy gallery. You ev and she says you ever get sick crawling for that sorceress, you come find me. I have a stable of clients who'd crawl for you and pay to do it. Hunt gets protective of Bryce and says she's not for sale. And I love the Viper Queen's response. She says everyone is for sale. You just have to figure out the asking price. Give me a day or two and I'll figure out yours. And then she turns to Bryce and gives her a little bit of a tip, says, look toward where it hurts the most. That's always where the answers are. So towards Danika, which is again the second person who has told her that Danika maybe hiding secrets from Bryce. and as she does then let them leave. As they're leaving the Viper Queen cautions Bryce, don't underestimate the obsidian salt. It can bring over the very worst of Hel. And Bryce mentions a chill snake down her spine. But she merely lifts a hand and says, Well, at least I'll be entertained and walks out. Hunt's not quite sure how they managed to walk out of there alive and not in pieces. he does tell her that he believes that the Viper Queen did not kill either, that she's not the one behind it, and there's no way in heck that he is watching the video that she sent. He will send it to Viktoria and Viktoria can watch it to make sure that that is actually the case. Bryce agrees that she also doesn't think it's. The Viper Queen, Hunt says, Well, that brings us back to square one. And she's like, Well, not quite, but I might have something or at least the right in the right way to look. Not a lead, but a general direction. So then Hunt asks her what she's gonna do with the obsidian, and she respond responds with nonsense, saying, I'm gonna season my burgers with it. And he says, Well, I should have known that was coming. And he says, How do you afford the salt anyway? And she says, I put it on Jesiba's tab. She spends more money on beauty products in a month, so I doubt she'll notice. so the next day Bryce is back at work. She is now trying to compile a list of Danika's movement. She's kinda going back and forth between that and actually working. But every time she tries to work, her mind tries to pull her back to Danika and thoughts of Danika. Lehabah is back to her usual trying to get Bryce to let Hunt in because she thinks he's beautiful and wants to see him. Says he's dreamy. all while she is watching a show that Bryce likes to call Fangs and Bangs. So a reality show

M: It's like

C: about falling in love and, you know, enjoying yourselves, that kind of thing. But Bryce is having a really hard time getting the list written because it's hard for her to remember Danika and to deal with some of that grief. So she asks Hunt to come in because she wants his help in figuring all this out. of course Lehabah after Hunt comes in, she starts banging on the door, wanting to know if Bryce is okay. Bryce is like, Yes, I'm fine, leave me alone and Lehabah's like, I need to see you with my own eyes to make sure that you're okay. All an excuse to see Hunt because she knows he's in there. Finally, Bryce is like, Okay. She turns to Hunt and says, one, just don't don't pay her any attention. And two, very few people are allowed downstairs. So if you report to Micah about it, we are done. And he says, I promise, though Micah can make me talk if he insists. And she's like, Well, don't give him a reason to ask. Then a lot of stuff down there is contraband, isn't it? He asks. And she's like, Surely you've realized most of the stuff in here is contraband. Some of these books and scrolls are the last known copies in existence. A lot of people suffered and died to preserve what's in the library downstairs. More than that, she wouldn't say she hadn't been able to read most of the books since they were in long dead languages or in code so clever, only highly trained linguistics or historians might decipher them. You know, like Amren deciphering the Book of Breathings. But she'd finally learned last year what most of them were, knew the Asteri and the Senate would order them destroyed. Yes, there were normal books in there that Jesiba had acquired mostly for her own uses, or possibly the Under Kings, but the ones that Lehabah guarded, those were the ones people would and had killed for. So she opens the door to the downstairs and they go walking downstairs. Lehabah gets in between them, right in Hunt's face. And he's trying to observe her while she's a foot away from his face. So she tells him why well, aren't you beautiful? I love Bryce's response because she says his voice was low and soft in a way that made every instinct in Bryce sit up straight. Like, ooh, okay. Listen to this voice. And of course, Lehabah is absolutely thrilled with the compliment that he's that he's pent paying her. He actually lifts a finger for Lehabah to perch on as they're walking down and Lehabah's like, He's so nice, BB. I I don't see why you can complain so much about him. And Bryce just scowls over her shoulder at Lehabah. So we find out that other than Jesiba, Syrinx, and Lehabah, only Danika was the only other person who's been in the library at the same time that Bryce has been. Syrinx stirs from his nap on his little couch and Lehabah says, Siri says you can brush him now to hunt. And Bryce's response is Hunt is busy. And so Hunt turns to Lehabah and says, Siri talks, does he? And Bryce says, well, according to her sh her, he does. And Hunt is just kind of looking around at what he assumes is thousands of books that are in here. And Lehabah talks a little bit too much, says half of these are Jesiba's private collection. Some of the books date all the way back to. And then Bryce interrupts before she can say anything else. And Lehabah then says, BB is cranky because she hasn't been able to make her list, the list about Danika. And she says I'm cranky because I'm hungry and you've been a pain in the butt the whole morning. And so Lehabah says BB pretends to be mean, but she's a softy. She bought Siri because Jesiba Jesiba was going to gift him to a warlord client in the Farkin Mountains. And Lehabah then goes on to say Syrinx was stolen from his mother as a cub, then traded for ten years around the world, then Jesiba bought him to be her pet, then Bryce bought him his freedom. She even had proof of his freedom certified, no one can ever buy him again. Hunt twists then to look at Bryce because he's surprised that she actually bought the Chimera's freedom and she's like, What, you assumed all on your own? You didn't ask. so then Lehabah sends to says to Hunt, How much do you cost, she makes up her own little nickname for him, Hunt Athelar, calls him Athy. And Bryce tries to tell Lehabah that it's rude and to not call him Athy. Lehabah's response is He and I are from the same house. We are both slaves. My great grandmother fought in his 18th place. Legion during the rebellion, I am allowed to ask. So he walks over and pets Syrinx gives him a little attention, and then tells them that Micah bought him for 85 million gold marks. Lehabah responds by saying I cost 90,000 gold marks, and Siri was 233,000 gold marks. And Hunt is surprised that Bryce paid it. And she's like, well, I got fifteen percent employee discount. And Lehabah then jumps in because Bryce is not the one to explain it. And Lehabah says Jesiba takes some out of each paycheck. BB will be paying it off until she's three hundred years old. Unless she makes doesn't make the drop, then she'll die first. She's so matter of fact about it. And Hunt is completely surprised that she has agreed to take on this much debt to free someone. But he does drop into a seat and his wing brushes her arm. And he mentions that his her her skin was softer than velvet, smoother than silk, and he snaps his wings in tight as if he couldn't bear the contact. And he asks why she bought the Chimera's freedom. She says because that warlord wanted to hurt and break him until he was a fighting beast, and Syrinx is my friend and I am sick of losing friends. And that's when he mentions, I thought you were loaded, your apartment is and starts to say really nice. And she says that's Danika's apartment. She bought it as an investment, had its ownership written in our names. I didn't even know it existed until after she died. And I would have just sold it, but it came with top notch security and grade aid enchantment. So he's like, Well, I get it. He notices that Lehabah is watching the Fangs and Bangs show and calls it that. And Lee Lehabah's immediate response is that is not what it's called, and then turns to Bryce and accuses her of telling him to say that. And she's like, no, I did not tell him to say that. That's just what everybody calls it. And so Lehabah goes off to pout, says, I'm taking a nap with Syrinx and when she says that, then a book thumps somewhere in the distance. and so she yells at it not to wake up or not to bother her during her nap. And she turns to Hunt and says, Don't let the book sweet talk you into taking them home. Which I feel like like we heard some of the talking that the Book of Breathings did to Feyre in the inner circle. And I feel like that could be very similar to the types of books that she has here, just based on the sweet talk that Lehabah mentioned. And she goes so far as to tell them that the books will do anything to get out of here, sneak into your bag, the pocket of your coat, even flop up the stairs, they're desperate to get into the world again. And Hunt is like sliding his hands within easy reach of his weapons just in case. And then another book smacks down onto the ground, and he notices that invisible hands kind of lift it, drift it up to put it back on the shelves. And there's a humming. The book is humming once with golden light as if in annoyance. So then Bryce tells them that it's been difficult for her to remember the things that Danika did during the the week leading up to her murder. So she is asking Hunt in here to ask her questions to help get the memories flowing. He before they start that, he does ask if he if she studied antiquities at school. She said I took a few classes. I learned most I liked learning about old stuff. I was a classical literature major. I learned the old language of the Fae when I was a kid. We find out she did it because she wanted to impress her father. Then when her father turned out to be a butthole, then that was the last language she actually ended up learning. But knowing the most ancient of fae languages had been helpful for this job because there were a few fae antiquities that had been hoarded in their glittering troves. and that after she got after she graduated she couldn't get a job anywhere because she didn't have enough experience, but that it was actually Fury who was friends with Jesiba. Well, not friends, but they worked together in Pangira at one point. Fury basically shoved Her Bryce's resume in Jesiba's face, getting her to look at it, and then eventually give Bryce the job. Hunt tries to kind of i ask questions about Fury to Bryce, what she does, and Bryce's response is I don't know, I don't wanna I've never asked. My dad told me enough stories about what it's like over there that I didn't wanna I didn't wanna know. And that's when we find out Randall is who she calls her dad. That's actually her stepdad. He is fully human and that it is a mandatory condition for non lowers, so all humans. That they had to serve in the military for three years, which essentially they're there to kill their own. They're there to kill other humans because it's a human rebellion. And that to refuse meant that you forfeited your lives, the lives of your family, and any survivors that they had would be slaves forever. But she mentions that Fury's enemies were Danika's enemies. So Fury is not the one who killed Danika or anything along those lines. She then asks how much how old Hunt is. He says 233. that means that he had been thirty three years old when he commanded the legions that he led for Shahar in the Angel Rebellion. So then he finally asks, What's one happy memory you have with Danika from that week? Bryce tells him about the tattoos that they got. That they got matching tattoos that week. They'd both been stupid drunk when it happened. So she didn't remember any of it until after she got over her hunk hangover. and then he continues to ask her different questions. She goes through multiple things that they did when they made the wish at the old square gate. They got pizza together at a corner shop. swigging from bottles of beer, getting her their hair done at a hair salon, going to a grocery store, the various things. that they did during that week leading up to her murder. And then Bryce gets a text message from Ruhn telling her to meet him at Luna's Temple in thirty minutes. And she responds with why and he says because that's one of the few places in the city without cameras. And right? Exactly. And Bryce turns to Hunt and says, Should I tell him that you're coming with me? And Hunt grins. Hunt's grin was pure wickedness. Heck no. Bryce couldn't keep herself from grinning back. So they're both gonna, you know, pull one over on Ruhn that the Umra Mortis is going to come with her, and Ruhn's not going to like it, but they're not gonna tell him that it's happening.

K: And that's where we'll leave things for today. Every time we think we have a handle on what's happening, these chapters hand us another clue. Another mystery and about a dozen more questions. At this point, we're all just trying to keep our conspiracy boards organized. Thanks so much for spending part of your day with us. If you're enjoying our Crescent City deep dive, don't forget to follow or subscribe, leave us a rating and a review, share the podcast with a fellow fantasy lover. We'll be back next next episode to see which theories survive another batch of chapters, overanalyze every conversation, and inevitably convince ourselves we've solved the mystery. Right before Sarah J. Mass reminds us We absolutely have not. Until next time, keep your theories wild and your notes organized. Happy reading.