Snark for my Sanity

Two voices said into Hunt’s mind, We’ll kill you and then breed your mate until she’s—

You know, it would not surprise me in the least to find out the author has a breeder fetish. That's the only explanation for why this is the only consequence of sexism it can come up with.

But yes, the twins are there, doing unspecified evil things with their minds to Flynn and Declan. Morven tells Bryce that she's a fucking idiot for thinking he wouldn't investigate what happened to the Autumn King after she rocked up with his notebook, and rather than realise that yeah, that's kind of a good point, the book just has Bryce keep up her 2cool4u routine and sweet jesus I am over it.

Hunt could only gape as Bryce feigned a yawn. “My mistake. I assumed you’d want a leg up on this asshole here.” She pointed with her thumb at the Autumn King. “But I didn’t bargain on you being too dumb to interpret what was in his notes without his help.”

That's not even remotely close to what he said, and I can't help but read it as Bryce attacking his character because she knows she fucked up. Is there a name for that? I feel like there's a name for that.

(there is, it's "ad hominem", I googled it)

And just. The whole "feigned a yawn" thing. Who does she thinks he's fooling? No one acts like that. No one. It is cartoonish in the extreme and makes this whole exchange feel fake af.

Morven’s affronted look was a little too forced—Bryce had clearly hit home.

Er....... isn't that usually the opposite of what "forced" means? Like, if he was "forcing" affront, then in my mind, he's not bothered by Bryce's comment at all, and thus has to force himself to look that way (which he's doing presumably to make Bryce feel like she has the upper hand). Book, do you understand how interactions work? I'm fucking autistic and I understand that this is not how it works, what's your excuse?

Morven threatens to kill Flynn and Declan if Bryce won't go back to the castle, and Bryce says to go ahead.

Yet Bryce smiled mockingly at Morven. “But I know you won’t kill them. They’re too valuable as breeding assets. Which is what all this comes down to, right? Breeding.”

I mean, those are your words now, book, not mine...

Also, wasn't the whole breeding thing meant to be because sexism? Wouldn't it stand to reason then that he doesn't view men the same way? Oh, what do I know.

There's more trite and cringe-worthy snarking, from both sides, and then Bryce uses her new laser beam power to collapse the tunnel ceiling.

Naturally, this means it's time to switch to Ruhn. He was going to go look for his missing friends, but he's decided it's far more important to walk back to the bedroom with Lidia. But, they're just talking, for now. Mostly just Lidia angsting over her double life.

She huffed a laugh, and it was so much like Day that he couldn’t get a breath down. “You’re the defiant, partying prince. You have all those piercings and tattoos. I didn’t have you down for being a rebel.”

You didn't have the defiant prince pegged as a rebel......... all right. I mean, yeah, the partying part I would consider a greater point against him, but maybe don't use the word "defiant" in there? Throw in something like "arrogant" or "self-centred" or something instead, it would be both more accurate and not inherently contradictory.

Lidia's voice wraps around Ruhn's cock, apparently. No, it doesn't go anywhere, the book just seemed to think it was very important that we know this, so I'm passing it along.

“Why risk [being a rebel]?” “At first?” [...] “Cormac blackmailed me. Said he’d tell my father about my mind-speaking abilities. But then I realized it was … it was the right thing to do.”

Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me how every one of our protagonists needed to be blackmailed or otherwise pressured/bribed into helping people last book. Really paints a shining picture of what good people they are. Just to make sure we know Ruhn's a good person, Lidia tells us so, because I guess the book was worried that reminding us of the blackmail might make us think otherwise.

Then, we segue into talking about her sons. Pollux isn't their father, their father is some other random stag shifter from some sort of sex ritual. Ruhn asks if she was with Pollux then, and Lidia decides that it's time to infodump about how much of an asshole her father was before answering the question. The answer is no, btw. But she was working for Sandriel when the ritual happened, and started freaking out about what to do with the babies. Because she didn't want her father to know she was pregnant, because he's an asshole.

“I knew that within a matter of days, Pollux or the others—Athalar was still with us then—would scent the pregnancy.

See, this is something I don't get. There's an arbitrary line for when they're able to "scent" the pregnancy. But, that line isn't crossed even though, by this point, Lidia not only knows that she's pregnant, but that it's twins, as well. So what exactly is it that they smell? The pregnancy hormones? Those will already be buzzing. It's all just so stupid and arbitrary and obviously "as the plot demands." I hate it so fucking much.

So, Lidia staged her own kidnapping by Ophion and went to the rebels. Apparently, she learned of rebels saying "the ocean" would come and help them, so she just walked into a rebel base and asked to be taken to the ocean.

“Their highest commanders understood, and got me onto the Depth Charger.

And........ not one of those commanders thought it would be a bad idea to let a public agent of the Asteri, one known for being an adept interrogator who has captured and tortured information from many rebels, onto their ship just because she knew the code word? Are they fucking stupid? I mean, it's just more convenience, but still.

And, yes, this is when Lidia turned double agent, because the Ocean Queen basically took her sons hostage and thus forced her too. Oh, the book tries to phrase it as if it's Lidia's choice and the queen was just protecting them, but that's essentially what this is. *sigh* Remember how I said this book has a weird thing about non-selfish motivations? Well, the trend continues. Sure, Lidia goes on to say her "eyes were opened" and that she chose to help rebels, but she wouldn't have done it at all if she wasn't threatened into it in the first place.

It's honestly really, really concerning. Like..... the book just can't imagine that legitimately altruistic people exist, and it doesn't see anything wrong with making everyone a selfish asshole. Worse, it doesn't even see them as selfish assholes. Lidia's not a hero for turning rebel to save her sons - she's a normal person for turning rebel to save her sons. She's an asshole for choosing to serve Sandriel because, in her own words, she wanted to spite her mother by turning out exactly like her father (i.e. an asshole). That's it. Everyone in this entire series is just an awful fucking person. Except for the sprites. Sprites are the only good people. Only the book wants us to see them as cute accessories instead of people, and fuck that noise.

And, I mean, it doubly sucks because Lidia's situation could be a legitimately interesting one, full of conflict. She goes on to say this, for example:

“...And while I had to play the part of interrogator and loyal servant, I did everything I could to mitigate the damage. There were agents who were about to talk, to spill vital secrets. Those, I had to kill. ‘Accidents’ during torture. But I gave them swift, merciful deaths.

And that's a pretty brutal call to have to make - do you kill your fellow rebel deliberately in order to protect the entire rest of the rebellion, or do you stay your hand and risk losing everything? Hell, apart from spying on the Asteri, that could even be part of the reason the Ocean Queen recruited her - make sure our secrets are safe, by any means necessary. It's just...... sometimes, there's really good ideas in these books, and it makes me very, very sad to see them so utterly wasted.

Well, small mercies, at least - Lidia seems to be aware she was basically an asshole until her sons were threatened.

She lifted her gaze to his. “I’m not wholly innocent, you see,” she said. “Had it not been for my sons, I might very well have become the person the world believes me to be, forever ignoring that small voice whispering that it was wrong.”

And then of course it's time to talk about meeting Ruhn and how wonderful that was.

"...I could talk to you as I hadn’t spoken to anyone. You reminded me that I was—I am—alive.

........that stilted-ass banter made you feel alive? Okay, Lidia.

There's a bit of shmoopy talk, and then they kiss. And it looks like they're going to have sex. Joy.

Or... maybe not?

...he grabbed her wrists in one hand and pinned them above her head, settling more firmly between her legs. She flinched. It was barely more than a flicker, but he felt it. [...] That fucker. Ruhn let go immediately. He’d kill him. He’d rip Pollux limb from limb, feather by feather for putting that flinch there, for hurting her—

I feel like you're jumping to conclusions there, Ruhn. I mean, obviously, stop if she flinches, but maybe check and make sure she didn't just get a toe cramp or something before you go envisioning bloody murder on people? I mean, of course, he's right, but still.

And then they don't have sex, but just lie there naked holding each other. Cool. Whatever. I just wish Ruhn wasn't a fae-flavoured version of the same possessive jerkiness Hunt has when it comes to sex scenes. There's just no damn variety in these books.

Then we switch to...... honestly, I'm not sure. We open with Tharion talking, but then later in the scene makes me think we're in Hunt's POV? Someone's POV, at least. Bryce lasered the ceiling, causing a cave in that cuts the party off from the fae kings, the ghouls and Flynn and Declan. Sucks to be them, I guess. Then, Bryce jumps into the river instead of teleporting everyone across. No, she doesn't tell them why.

If Bryce had chosen to cause a cave-in, to block the kings but not kill them, to opt for going downriver instead of teleporting across … she hadn’t told him why, likely due to their fight. She hadn’t told him, which meant his mate probably no longer trusted him, and he had no idea how to start fixing that—

And..... much as I thought I'd never say this (esp given how much I hated him for being a lying, possessive, manipulative asshole in the first book), but.... I kinda feel bad for Hunt here. No, Hunt, it's not your fault that Bryce is Like This. And it really sucks to be second guessing and blaming yourself because someone else is being a jerk.

Rhys dismisses most of the court, but calls for Mor's father, whose name we finally learn (Keir).

Keir bowed again, his face lined with icy resentment as he took in Rhys, then me—

Yeah, gee, can't imagine what reason he could possibly have to resent Rhysand. Real mystery, that one. He's just such a stand-up guy.

Cassian gave Keir a slow nod that told him he remembered—and would never forget—what the Steward of the Hewn City had done to his own daughter. But it was from Azriel that Keir cringed. From the sight of Truth-Teller. One day, I realized, Azriel would use that blade on Mor’s father. And take a long, long while to carve him up.

There's a lot of this kind of shit going on. Posturing. And yet, I am 999% sure that nothing ever comes of it. It's just posturing and wasted ink. The villain shaking their fist and saying "you'll regret this!", only you know the hero never will.

But, Rhys sends Mor, Cassian and Azriel away. Special attention being paid to Azriel, since he's now off to do... whatever the fuck the reason was they came here. I've legit raged it out of my head.

“Greetings, milord,” Keir said, his deep voice polished smooth. “And greetings to your … guest.” Rhys’s hand flattened on my thigh as he angled his head to look at me. “She is lovely, isn’t she?”

Why is this necessary? Why is this necessary? Would Rhys and all his terror-inducing theatrics not have been enough to distract Kier on his own? Why does he need to make Feyre re-enact her trauma from Under the Mountain??

Keir says it's all been quiet lately.

[R]“No one for me to punish?” A cat playing with his food. “Unless you’d like for me to select someone here, no, milord.” Rhys clicked his tongue. “Pity.” He again surveyed me, then leaned to tug my earlobe with his teeth.

And yet, a mere few lines ago, the book expected us to believe that Keir looked like a "sullen child" compared to Rhys. This is an actual fucking joke.

Well, Rhys begins feeling Feyre up again, and it's all very focused on the sexy feelings she gets from it............ you know what? For my own sanity, I'm just going to assume that SJM has an exhibitionist kink and is fundamentally incapable of understanding that most people don't actually like it when this shit happens to them. It's a lot more palatable than the horror-fest that's been the rest of this chapter.

Keir began mentioning people I didn’t know in the court, bland reports on marriages and alliances, blood-feuds, and Rhys let him talk.

You know, just all the stuff that a ruler is meant to actually care about.......

Seriously, can you imagine being Keir here? His High Lord finally blights graces them with his presence after god knows how long, and all these issues that need to be brought to his attention have been piling up. And then, as you're trying to report them to him, he doesn't even bother feigning interest, just feels up his latest sex toy in front of you instead. Again, why is the book treating it like it's just so strange/unfair that Keir resents this guy? I sure as fuck would in his place.

We get more description of Rhys feeling her up. It's standard Maas fare, with tightening breasts and aching cores and whatnot.

But Keir said at last, as if his own self-control slipped the leash, “I had heard the rumors, and I didn’t quite believe them.” [...] “But it seems true: Tamlin’s pet is now owned by another master.” “You should see how I make her beg,” Rhys murmured,

...........................I don't even know. There's only so many times I can say the same thing over and over again. He's not even trying to deny that she's his pet. Because she is. That's all she is. His pet, to play with as he sees fit, to give treats when she does as he asks her.

Keir clasped his hands behind his back. “I assume you brought her to make a statement.” “You know everything I do is a statement.” “Of course. This one, it seems, you enjoy putting in cobwebs and crowns.”

Tell me this doesn't sound like a completely done adult indulging the latest fancy of an annoying child. Except the child is allegedly a grown-ass man, and his fancy is literally assaulting a woman in front of everyone. None of whom consented to watching this little display, btw.

And I said to Keir in a voice that belonged to another woman, “Perhaps I’ll put a leash on you.”

"A voice that belonged to another woman." Dissociating, or Rhys's mind control? You decide! I don't know which one is worse, actually!

Rhys’s approval tapped against my mental shield,

Seriously, what the fuck is the shield meant to do if he can still convey exactly what he wants even when it's up? I mean, I know it's a stupid question, I've already said many times that the shield is pointless. But seriously, I think it's only there as a token excuse for why it's okay for Rhys to invade her mind. "No, but, he taught her to shield! Yeah I know the shields have never actually stopped him from doing anything, but he still taught her! That makes it okay!" No it doesn't. Sit down and shut up.

Rhys didn’t dare break from his mask, but the light kiss he pressed beneath my ear told me enough. Apology and gratitude—and more apologies. He didn’t like this any more than I did.

And where are you getting that from, Feyre? Is he beaming that into your head, hmm? Also, much as I've been ranting about how much I don't like it, there hasn't actually been all that much from Feyre about what she actually feels about this situation. It's all been either me projecting reading between the lines, or SJM's exhibitionist kink slipping through. Very little about what Feyre thinks at all. Which is, if you'll recall from last post, my chief complaint in this whole situation.

And yet to get what we needed, to buy Azriel time … He’d do it. And so would I.

Again, Keir has to make all his reports to Rhys regardless of whether or not Feyre is there. Why is she necessary to "distract" him? What does her presence accomplish that Rhys's presence on its own wouldn't?

I wondered, then, with his hands beneath my breasts and between my legs, what Rhys wouldn’t give of himself.

Bruh. Shut up. Shut the actual hell up. I. What??? What the fuck has Rhys actually "given" in this situation? All he's done is power trip all over the place and grope Feyre. Bitch hasn't "given" shit. "Ohhh but he just hates doing that so much" well, maybe don't do it then???? Literally no one is forcing him???? The people at Hewn City might even like him more if he actually listens to their reports and stops making them kneel and watch while he feels up helpless women in front of them. Just a thought?

Anyway, yes, if you guessed that this is the lead-in to another segue in which we're expected to pity Rhys, you are 100% correct, because that's exactly what happens.

Wondered if … if perhaps the arrogance and swagger … if they masked a male who perhaps thought he wasn’t worth very much at all.

In fairness, narcissists rarely do have actual self-esteem. That's why they aggrandise so much, to compensate for it.

And I said into [his mind], You are good, Rhys. You are kind. This mask does not scare me. I see you beneath it.

Please just fucking kill me. End it now. I've written the equivalent of a doctorate by now on how this just objectively isn't true.

Feyre wants to know why he stopped his groping. Fuck me, I thought we were done.

I let go of the part of me that heard their words—whore, whore, whore— Let go of the part that said those words alongside them—traitor, liar, whore— And I just became.

Whatever the fuck that means. Probably that Rhys has crushed the last of her self-esteem, and now she no longer wonders if maybe this isn't the best idea for her.

Feyre starts thinking about how she's totally going to catch on fire. Rhys's groping is just that hot, I guess.

Easy, he said with wicked amusement through the open sliver in my shield. If you become a living candle, poor Keir will throw a hissy fit. And then you’d ruin the party for everyone. Because the fire would let them all know I wasn’t normal—and no doubt Keir would inform his almost-allies in the Autumn Court. Or one of these other monsters would.

Er, no, I don't think it's that deep, Feyre. It's just that you're sitting in Rhys's lap, and he doesn't want his peepee burned. Also, I'm pretty sure the only one who has done anything monstrous in the whole time we've been here is Rhysand. Show, book, don't tell. We're going to believe what we see.

More groping, now with added grinding from behind.

I had been so cold, so lonely, for so long, and my body cried out at the contact, at the joy of being touched and held and alive.

I'd like to remind everyone, because the book sure as fuck isn't going to, that this is taking place while Feyre is Under a Mountain, dressed and paraded around in the same skimpy outfits she was drugged and assaulted in for two months straight Under the last Mountain, being groped and felt up just like what happened Under that Mountain, by the very same guy who did all this back then no less. And this is after we've spent the whole book so far absolutely fucking WALLOWING in Feyre's Mountain-related depression. And no, no, it still has not acknowledged that maybe this is something Feyre needs to have a reaction to. It's kind of acknowledged that it happened, in the most roundabout ways possible - by pointing out that the dresses are the same, and by saying that people "expect" her to be Rhysand's whore (presumably because of what he did to her last time - the book is very careful not to say he did anything, though).

It's like when you see those corridors full of lasers in spy movies, and the spy just pretzel-cartwheels their way through it. That's this book with acknowledging that Rhys is a fucking rapist. It'll acknowledge that something happened to Feyre. But it will never actually blame Rhys for it.

More details, and more of insisting that this is totally to distract Kier. He's standing nearby, holding the wine Rhys sent him to fetch earlier.

I think he’s so disgusted that he might have given me the orb just to get out of here, Rhys said in my mind,

Says enough about what Rhys is doing to her, honestly. Remember, this is meant to be the Court of Nightmares, that den of evil, decadent, hedonistic depravity, where women are just objects to be used by men. And Keir is the one disgusted by what's going on. But, what does Feyre have to say to that?

You and I put on a good show, I said back.

This book has the self-awareness of an actual turnip. This is literally just SJM projecting her exhibitionist kink onto her SA-victim main character. It never even occurred to her that maybe this isn't the context for it.

The person who said that, husky and sultry—I’d never heard that voice come out of me before. Even in my mind.

Feyre over here just casually developing DID in response. God, could you imagine the clusterfuck if the book actually tried to do something like that?

I ground against him, trying to shift those hands away from what he’d learn—

Bitch, he can literally read your mind.

But the she finds out that... Rhys has a boner! Dun dun dun! Because obviously this book is the kind of trash that immediately assumes boner = ready and willing, and not just the physiological response to stimulation in the area, wanted or not.

Every thought eddied from my head. Only a thrill of power remained as I writhed along that impressive length.

That.... is certainly an image. I see it's not just Crescent City where we fail to understand what "writhing" means.

Keir just watched and watched and watched. Rigid. Horrified. Stuck here, until Rhys released him—

And Rhys wonders why they all hate him. Most people don't like having this shit forced on them against their will. Especially not when they're just trying to make their reports.

—and not thinking twice about why. Or where the spymaster had gone.

No. Stop. You'll never convince me that this bullshit is necessary, book. Surely, Keir isn't the only person in the city capable of wondering what Azriel's up to, or who has eyes on the orb? It's a fucking stupid justification. Piss-weak. Less than piss-weak.

His arms tightened around me, and my face burned—perhaps a bit from shame, but— Rhys sensed my focus, my fire slip. It’s fine, he said,

Yeah, nah, can't help but read this as him sensing his mind control slipping and jumping in to correct it. Sorry, book.

Anyway, Feyre randomly thinks of Tamlin and decides she's now nauseated that she's had another man's hands over her... so soon after dumping him, presumably? She cuts off before she specifies.

Fighting my nausea, I pasted a sleepy, lust-fogged smile on my face. Right as Azriel returned and gave Rhys a subtle nod. He’d gotten the orb.

Bruh. This literally just undoes any feeble "distraction" that was meant to provide. Keir will just be there like "hmm, Rhysand was happily feeling up that woman until his spymaster came back and nodded. Wonder if he was up to anything."

Mor starts feeling up Azriel as well, and apparently that's meant to make everyone think that he'd been there the whole time? Whatever, book. I just want this chapter to be over already.

Rhys finally allows Keir to deliver the wine he asked him to fetch... several pages ago, now.

Rhys set it on the ground beside the throne, a stupid task he’d thought up for the Steward to remind him of his powerlessness, that this throne was not his.

And yet, Keir is the one who's meant to look like a "sullen child." Ngl, I'm getting low-key (well, no, lies, it's high-key) Joffrey vibes from Rhys. This is exactly the sort of thing that he would find amusing, power plays just for the sake of it. Except this book expects us to think it's sexy, instead of pathetic and cruel.

But wait! Possible Rhys criticism detected! Quick, bring out the pity parade!

Maybe—maybe for all our teasing, after Amarantha, he didn’t want to be touched by a woman like that. Didn’t even enjoy being wanted like that. I had been tortured and tormented, but his horrors had gone to another level.

Gee, if only he had the power to just like, not make plans like this if it bothered him. No one held a gun to his head and told him to tell you that he had to make a plan that involved groping you. And also, uh, while I don't disagree that your two torments were on different levels, I suspect I'd disagree strongly about what those levels were. Remember, in an earlier chapter, I flagged that the book made sure to word things so that Rhys still maintained agency in his service to Amarantha - it framed it so that it was a choice, a sacrifice he made, to (allegedly) protect Velaris. Feyre was given no such dignity. Then or now.

Feyre hops off Rhys's lap and goes over to Cassian.

But as I passed Keir, even with the High Lord at my back, he hissed almost too quietly to hear, “You’ll get what’s coming to you, whore.”

*sighs* Oh, Keir. You were actually doing so well as a trapped underling to an evil master. But the cartoon virus went and got you too, huh? Anyway, this is all just an excuse for Rhys to posture and go apeshit violent on him, and, uh...

Bone cracked. Keir screamed. And I watched—I watched as his arm fractured into not two, not three, but four different pieces, the skin going taut and loose in all the wrong spots— Another crack. His elbow disintegrated. My stomach churned.

I can't help but feel the punishment is a teeeeeensy bit disproportionate to the crime. You know, like how tyrants execute people for speaking ill of Dear Leader.

Rhys chuckled. He said to his Steward, “When you wake up, you’re not to see a healer. If I hear that you do … ” Another crack—Keir’s pinkie finger went saggy. The male shrieked. The heat that had boiled my blood turned to ice. “If I hear that you do, I’ll carve you into pieces and bury them where no one can stand a chance of putting you together again.”

And presumably, this is meant to convince us that Keir would never dare disobey, even once Rhys leaves. So, I ask again - why is Rhys, the Most Powerful and Uberscary High Lord Ever, completely incapable of affecting change on this place?

Because he doesn't want to change it. He's happy with it how it is. He is choosing to leave Hewn City in this state. That is his decision as its leader. It benefits him. He's willing to let every person in Hewn City, people just like Mor, on whose behalf he's allegedly so offended, suffer, just because it benefits him to have them as shields for Velaris. This guy is actual, proper, villainous scum. Irredeemable scum.

Instead of sleeping, she muses on things and stuff, amongst them how she's ignoring the obvious hints from the Starsword and Truth-Teller, but also why sexism is a thing.

Such fear of females—such hatred. Why? Because of Theia? Pelias had been the one to found the Starborn line here on Midgard. Had all the bans and restrictions stemmed from his fear of someone like her rising again?

Dear god, no, don't try and pin it all on one person, book. That's not how sexism comes about in real life, and it should not be reduced to something as simple as that in a book. Why is that, you might ask? For the same reason you generally shouldn't give complex social issues a single, punchable face in the form of your villain. Solving these things takes work, because they are, by their nature, complex, and reducing it to one person just makes it all too easy for people to go "see, we got rid of that one tyrant, that means sexism/racism/whateverism is solved forever, yay!" When it is really, really not that simple.

She then moves on to thinking about her starlight blood, and wishing Danika were there. You know what that means, right?

Light it up. But maybe the Fae and their bloodline didn’t deserve Bryce’s light. Maybe they deserved to fall forever into darkness.

Yes, we still think this is clever. And oh wow, really? Is "light it up" really the thematic throughline of these books? Legit, I would never have guessed. They're too much of a mess for any throughline to really make itself apparent. Also, I get the feeling the ending is going to be Bryce realising the fae are worth saving after all, because light it up, or something. She'll probably say it as she steps on to the now-vacant Asteri throne or something. Ugh.

POV switch to Ruhn. The book has conveniently moved Flynn and Declan somewhere else so it can focus on shipping. Well, no, my mistake, apparently we're going to focus on redeeming Lidia. A random fae man walks into the dining room (he doesn't even get a name, or any explanation for why he's just walking around the King's castle), says to Lidia "you totes saved me ten years ago and some others, here's a photo, kthnxbai" and then he leaves. The whole encounter takes maybe a page. Literally that random.

Naturally, Lidia can't look at the photo because it's Too Painful.

The male at last noticed Lidia’s discomfort and said, “Perhaps it is too soon for you to acknowledge all you have done, the lives you saved, but … I wanted to tell you that we are grateful. We owe you a debt.”

First of all, how do you know that's what she's thinking/feeling, random guy? Are you psychic? And second, it's all just very... I don't know. Maybe not bad in a vacuum (or rather, a better written book), but given that it's in this book, it's all just far too... easy? Like, the Hind was meant to be one of the uberscariest and most sadistic of the Asteri's minions, though of course we've never actually seen her do that on-page. And now we're getting all these revelations of how she was actually a good person all along. Which, again, it's not bad. She joined the rebellion against the Asteri, obviously she's got an interest in saving people. But, just... something's off. Trying to put my finger on what.

“It was either risk my identity being revealed to the world, or let them die,” Lidia said quietly as they headed for the door. “I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d chosen the latter.” Ruhn arched a brow. “Not to sound totally callous, but why? There were only seven of them. It wouldn’t have made a difference in the rebellion.” “Maybe not for Ophion as a whole, but it would have made a difference for their families.” She didn’t look at him. “Partners, children, parents—all hoping for their safe return.” [...]“I guess I hoped that … that if my sons were ever in a similar situation, someone would do the same for them.”

Ohhhh, wait, never mind, I worked it out. It's cliche as fuck. That's the problem with it. Proceed.

Well, with that, we POV switch to Lidia later on, thinking back on the whole event.

Maybe Urd had sent [the random fae dude] to her, to remind her that her choices and sacrifices had, in fact, made some difference in the world. Even if they had gutted her.

No, it wasn't Urd, it was the author, trying to make us feel sorry for you. Also, typing out "the random fae dude" there made me realise that yes, once again, this is a Vanir being saved when the primary victims of all the oppression is meant to be the humans, and Ophion is meant to be a human rebellion. *sigh* Ah, well. I should be used to it by now, right? It's not like the book has ever treated humans with dignity.

She only thinks about it briefly though. She and Ruhn are in the archives, with Flynn and Declan conveniently disappearing again, because I guess shipping is more important than the time crunch to find information? Lidia is horny and thinks Ruhn is hot, btw. We spend many paragraphs establishing that.

They randomly decide to go looking for coffee, mostly to rag even more on how terrible Avallen is. Do either of them even drink coffee?

“This is like some bad medieval cliché,” [Lidia] said, approaching the filth-crusted cauldron in the darkened hearth. “Is this … gruel?”

Book, you wrote the fucking cliche. Pointing out that it is, in fact, a cliche does not make it better. All you do is highlight how shallow and cartoonish your villains and worldbuilding are.

A mouse had made a home in a box of stale crackers, but at least there was a sealed jar of tea bags. “I should have known there would be no coffee.”

Fun fact - both tea and coffee arrived in the UK at around the same time, the mid-1600s. One source reckoned coffee was there even in the 16th century, but it was the only one that said that, so take that as you will. Also, it seems that coffee was actually more popular initially, until the East India Company started doing some shit because they couldn't get the monopoly on coffee like they had on tea, and they basically slammed tea propaganda until it became more popular. At least, according to google.

My point is, a "medieval cliche" (well, medieval UK, at least) would have had neither coffee nor tea, and when they did finally arrive, coffee was actually preferred in Ye Olde Tymes. Which just leaves the uncomfortable impression that Avallen is not just medieval stereotypes, but UK stereotypes, and given their nature of cartoon villains... well, that's pretty par for course for US media, actually. Doesn't make it a good thing, but I don't know what else I was expecting. Especially in *this* book.

They spend time discussing the book's plot holes (yeah, Rigelus/the other Asteri really should have been at least a little bit suspicious of Avallen's mist) while Lidia ogles Ruhn.

She dipped her eyes to his forearms, where the childhood burn scars were now mostly gone, but a few shiny pink streaks remained, untouched even by Pollux’s ministrations.

This does beg the question. Vanir uber-healing can regrow limbs, fill in torn throats (unless your name is Sigrid) and bring one back from being splattered across the ocean after being shot in the heart........... but Ruhn still ended up with burn scars? How? Wouldn't they just, you know, heal? I mean, I know why, it's because then we wouldn't be able to angst over his scars, but still. It doesn't make sense. Uber-healing fixes everything, until it doesn't, and the things it doesn't fix are completely arbitrary.

There's some shmoopiness, and then we switch to Ruhn later in the day. Wasn't there a cave being explored somewhere? Can we go back to that? Especially since...

They found nothing new that day.

...there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of importance happening up here, so.....?

Well, silly me, of course not. We don't have enough plot bunnies yet, so Lidia pulls out a scroll about earth magic because something something it's important now, and starts talking about how it was earth magic fae who scouted ahead when they first came here. They found all the best building places for the Asteri, but chose Avallen to be the place just for the fae, which is weird because Flynn and Sathia (who I guess use earth magic?) both say this place is rotting. Yeah, great, but

“What does that have to do with defeating the Asteri?”

Ruhn has a really excellent question here that nothing in Lidia's subsequent infodump answers. And, look, sure, earth magic might end up having something to do with defeating the Asteri. But nothing our protagonists have found so far suggests as much. Investigating why Avallen sucks is completely tangential to investigating how to defeat the Asteri, but the book has just decided they're connected now and expects us to roll with it. This is not how you research. All this does is show that characters have been able to peek at the script.

But, no, it's all a conspiracy, so now they're going to investigate why the fae would rot their own land but also leave the mists intact. To defeat the Asteri. Because these two things are clearly connected.

It's the same issue I have with the whole Starsword/Truth-Teller wanting to touch thing, but in reverse. It's fine if that's not the answer, but the characters should at least try the obvious. Here, it's fine if earth magic is the answer, but it's not fine for the characters to just randomly assume so and roll with it. Something has to lead them to think it might be related first.

But, we do switch back to Bryce after this. She's standing at the bank of yet another underground river. Are tunnels and rivers the only thing the book can think of to find underground? What about some caverns or chasms, or, hell, even lava or something. It's a fantasy book, after all, I'd forgive some lava if it meant some god damn variety. They have to teleport across this river instead of fly, because shut up.

She kept her starlight blazing bright, the ghouls a whispering malice around them.

Book, enough. You've made sure the ghouls are a non-issue. You don't get to milk danger from them just existing. They have to actually do something before I'll find them dangerous.

Baxian takes his turn at putting Bryce on a Save the Fae path, first by talking about how Danika was the same with the wolves, and then...

“Maybe.” Baxian glanced to her. “But what of your brother? Or Flynn and Declan?” A nod to where Sathia, Tharion, and Hunt sat together. “What of her? Do you think they’re all a lost cause?”

And, I'm kind of torn about this. Because, on the one hand, yeah, the fae are all individual people who should not be painted with a broad brush of sucking just because Bryce doesn't like them. However. Given what we've already seen from this book and its weird aversion to non-selfish motivations, I can't help but read this as "these specific people whom Bryce happens to like would be hurt" rather than any kind of message about how, hey, people are people.

They argue a bit, with Bryce taking the place of stereotypical racist.

“You know every Fae on Midgard?” “I can judge them by their collective actions,” Bryce snapped. “How they locked people out during the attack—” “Yeah, that was fucked up. But until Holstrom defied orders, the wolves weren’t helping, either.” “What’s your point?” “That the right leader makes all the difference.”

Uuuuggggggghhhhhhhh, there it is, folks. The fae suck unless Bryce is the one in charge, then they magically don't suck even if they behave the exact same way, because Bryce is the protagonist and can do no wrong. Also, is every single fae some sort of wealthy aristocrat? Because otherwise, I think I'd be safe in saying that the vast majority of them were with everyone else in the bunkers, not in fancy manors...

Also, this is why I have such a hard time believing that the book is in any way serious about its anti-bigotry messages. It pins all responsibility for the way things are on a singular leader. That is simply not how it works in reality. There's a reason most of the -isms people face are called systemic issues. It's because it's a problem with the system, not whichever person happens to be in charge of it at the moment. And while, yes, that person can enact change, it takes time, and many, many other people going along with and helping the change, because, again, it is the system that ultimately needs to change. There's more than one person in a system.

Pinning things on a singular leader also takes the burden of change off everyone else. "Oh, if we just put the right person in charge, then racism vanishes forever, right?" No. Wrong. A black president didn't fix racism in the US. A female prime minister didn't fix sexism in Australia. Those kinds of things help, and are signs of things improving, but they are nowhere near close enough on their own. Joe Average has to do his part as well by choosing to not be a racist anymore. Every single system we have in place needs to be examined and reworked. That's an everyone job, not just a leader job.

And, the best thing about things like this is that, sometimes, change can be affected even despite a shitty leader, because the picture is way, way bigger than any one person. That's why the rich and powerful hate things like unions, or protests. Power resides where men believe it resides, after all, and no amount of screaming "but I'm the leader" will change shit if people decide they aren't having it anymore.

Ahem. Yes. Anyway. Where were we?

Baxian ignores everything I just said and talks about how it's all about the leader, and that's totally why Danika was killed, because she was going to be such an awesome leader and the Asteri hated that. Wait, hold up, you say, wasn't Danika killed because she was snooping around the Asteri's weaknesses and doing rebel shit? And you would be right, Bryce is confused too.

“Rigelus told me they killed her to keep the information about their true nature contained,” Bryce said. Baxian cut her a look. “And you believe everything Rigelus says? Besides, why can’t it be both?

Sure, book. Just admit that you thought of a theme halfway through this book and are trying to retcon everything else into fitting. Well, no, that's a bit unfair, I distinctly remember complaining about this whole "it's the leader" thing in the past. But mostly in the context of "no, it's not oppression that's wrong, it's just that the wrong people are doing the oppressing." We'll see how that goes.

But, yes, Bryce is unconvinced, Baxian says that Danika totally knew what Bryce could be for the fae, and my eyes are rolling out of my head over how self-congratulatory this is. No, book, Bryce will not be a wonderful thing for the fae, Bryce would be an awful thing for the fae. Put Sathia in charge, tbh, she's the only one who's been asking real questions.

Also, Bryce's star is being a quest marker, btw, she talks about it dimming when she faces the wrong way. So we don't even have that feeble excuse for tension.

Anyway, they're currently flying, going to enact whatever plan they have for going Under Rhys's Mountain today. We don't get to hear what it is, but Feyre not only assures us that she's not frightened of it, but also that she definitely agreed to it, even though Rhys looks Haunted for asking it of her. Give me a break.

Naturally, the perfect thing to break the tension is dick jokes, so Feyre gives us our first instance of wing-dick comparisons, equating wingspan to length. And apparently Azriel has the biggest wings. I am perfectly willing to accept this.

Oh. We're also going one step further, as some contrivance makes Feyre accidentally brush one of Rhys's wings, and she touches it again because it feels like silk-wrapped stone (v different to velvet-wrapped steel, donchaknow), and Rhys tells her that it's very "sensitive" there.

“If you want an Illyrian male’s attention, you’d be better off grabbing him by the balls. We’re trained to protect our wings at all costs. Some males attack first, ask questions later, if their wings are touched without invitation.”

Or you could just, you know, tap them on the shoulder like you would for any other humanoid-shaped being? I do not understand the fascination with contriving ways to make men behave like brainless animals. I really don't.

Anyway, there's more banter about wing-dicks, including officially canonising the concept of wing-dicks, but then, all of a sudden, someone shoots ash arrows at Rhys! But it's okay, he and Cassian and Azriel can all conveniently make shields, so they're fine. They land, and Rhys is Mad. And also immediately gets snarly and tries to send Feyre on to the moonstone palace with Cassian while he looks for the attacker. You know what this means.

“Take me with you,” I said. I didn’t want to go to that moonstone palace to pace and wait and wring my fingers. Cassian and Azriel, wisely, kept their mouths shut. And Rhys, Mother bless him, only tucked in his wings and crossed his arms—waiting to hear my reasons.

Yup! Just another way to shoehorn in that Rhys is Better than Tamlin. Why even have him get snarly about it in the first place then? Having him just automatically assume that Feyre would be participating would have been both a better and more subtle way to convey what the books wants to show us here, rather than clunkily and obviously shoving it in our faces like this. Especially since Rhys locked Feyre in the moonstone palace twice before Tamlin locked her anywhere.

“I’ve seen ash arrows,” I said a bit breathlessly. “I might recognize where they were made. And if they came from the hand of another High Lord … I can detect that, too.” If they’d come from Tarquin … “And I can track just as well on the ground as any of you.” Except for Azriel, maybe.

Can't be better than all the men, after all.

Also.... why would you recognise where the ash arrows were made? I don't know that fletchers really signed their work the way blacksmiths sometimes did? And also, why would you recognise where faeries get their ash arrows from? I doubt they buy them from the humans. And, actually, that raises a good question..... do faeries have to use ash wood to kill each other? The existence of these arrows, and the fact that Amarantha made Feyre wield an ash dagger in the first book, suggests they do have to. And yet, they also seem to use generic swords and daggers that appear to kill other faeries just fine. So, what is it? Is it only humans who have to use ash wood to kill faeries? The world building in this book is so haphazard, honestly.

Also...... why would a High Lord go to personally try and assassinate Rhys themselves? That's what assassins are for. You know, like Azriel. Honestly, the only thing that's feasible here is that Feyre is a better tracker than the boys, because she was a hunter, after all. And that's the part that the book undermines by randomly deciding that Azriel is better at it. Okay, book. Whatever. I really should not be surprised at this point.

Rhys gives some orders to Cassian and Azriel that would probably be a lot more meaningful if the worldbuilding weren't so shallow.

[R]"...We keep this contained. We don’t tell anyone inside that court what happened. If anyone mentions it, say it was a training exercise.” Because we couldn’t afford to let that weakness show, even amongst his subjects.

Because all his subjects, except the ones in the privilege-bubble of Velaris, are actually his enemies. Can't say I blame them, tbh. I'd definitely be his enemy.

Anyway, we can't have Feyre being competent on-page now that Rhysand is around, so we scene-break past all the tracking, and she tells us they found nothing.

But that was twice now that they’d known where Rhys and I would be.

.........................is it? When was the first time?

About the only thing I could think of would be the incident with the Attor, but 1) you have absolutely no evidence that this attack has anything to do with it or Hybern (there's plenty of other people who'd happily shoot Rhys, as evidenced by you not wanting to show weakness in front of them) and 2) the Attor didn't "know where you were", it had apparently been following you for some time and Rhys used you as live bait to draw it out. So I can't tell if this is a retcon or characters peeking at the script or the book gaslighting us. Perhaps all of the above.

Mor found Azriel and me after twenty minutes, wanting to know what the hell had happened. We’d explained—and she’d winnowed away, to spin whatever excuse would keep her horrible family from suspecting anything was amiss.

.............but earlier, Rhys said you had an hour before you were expected at court. Why does Mor need to make an excuse?

But enough of that, time to go Under the Mountain. Oh, but not really, don't worry. Feyre is very quick to assure us that this is Different and therefore Not Traumatic, and therefore Rhysand hasn't done anything bad.

My body clenched as soon as the darkness, the scent of rock and fire and roasting meat, hit me. I had been here before, suffered here— Not Under the Mountain. This was not Under the Mountain. Indeed, Amarantha’s court had been the work of a child. The Court of Nightmares was the work of a god.

Fucking shoot me.

And also, doesn't that just mean that this Under the Mountain is even worse than Amarantha's Under the Mountain? God-tier cruelty instead of child-tier cruelty? And thus should be god-tier traumatic? It stands to reason. But, alas, that would make Rhys look irresponsible and as if he's poking at her trauma, and we can't have that. Even if that's exactly what he's doing, the book will do all sorts of cartwheels to avoid having Feyre look at it and therefore have to acknowledge it.

Feyre describes it to us, and it sounds like every other inside-a-mountain city you've heard of in fantasy.

Music was already playing somewhere, and our hosts still did not come out to greet us. The people we passed—only High Fae—were clothed in finery, their faces deathly pale and cold. Not one stopped us, not one smiled or bowed. Mor ignored them all. Neither of us had said one word.

Okay, a few things. Firstly, you don't think the fact that you're completely ignoring them and not saying anything might have something to do with the fact that they aren't saying anything to you? No? And secondly, isn't Mor technically the queen of the Hewn City, or something like that? So isn't she, technically, your host? And you're already with her? Also, note that the only time the book wants to acknowledge stuff like proper noble procedure, it's only in terms of displays of power that the protagonists aren't being given. So that they can feel slighted about it.

It's just... the entitlement in these books is truly staggering. It's just so deeply embedded in them. Yes, of course there must be an ostentatious greeting waiting for them, and if there isn't, that just means that their "hosts" (which is... Mor, technically....) are just being mean ol' poopyheads, and not giving our poor protagonists their dues. Wait, what, wdym that if they want the privileges of the ruling class, they actually have to do the work and rule as well, and Mor spends all her time dagging around Velaris bc she's "too traumatised" to run the city she's meant to be in charge of? Why put her in charge of it if she's refusing to do the work? Because she's "entitled" to it because they were mean to her, and this is meant to "show them"? Seriously, how would this kind of arrangement ever work? Why hasn't the Hewn City straight-up revolted?

All these questions and more will never be answered, because this book is far too shallow for that. It honestly reads like a high-school revenge fantasy sometimes. Shallow and nonsensical.

Mor led me down the avenue toward another set of stone gates, thrown open at the base of what looked to be a castle within the mountain. The official seat of the High Lord of the Night Court.

And no one is even remotely suspicious that he spends literally no time here whatsoever?

There's some fancy gates that get a paragraph of bland description.

The Gates of Eternity—that’s what I’d call the painting that flickered in my mind.

Book. Stop. It isn't clever. Either your description is good enough that it makes us think this ourselves, in which case you're probably a skilled enough writer to know that pointing it out like this is amateur af, or it isn't, and pointing it out like this just makes it look like you're one of those people who thinks they're hot shit but actually haven't got a fucking clue. Stop telling us what we should think of your lacklustre descriptions. It's cringe-worthy in the extreme.

We get a paragraph devoted to what Mor is wearing.

A queen—a queen who bowed to no one, a queen who had faced them all down and triumphed. A queen who owned her body, her life, her destiny, and never apologized for it.

A queen who's only queen because Rhysand says so, and spends all her time actively avoiding the place she's meant to be queen of. Stop it, book. You wrote what you wrote. And, honestly.... if you want to do a "yaaas queen girlboss slay taking charge of your destiny" moment, you're probably better off doing it with someone who isn't meant to be a literal, ruling queen. Part and parcel of actual governing royalty is service - you need to look after the place you rule, otherwise they'll decide they don't want you to be queen anymore and revolt. It requires sacrifice. Yes, it also comes with a lot of power and luxury, and some rulers indulged in that at the expense of the service aspect. But that's why things like the French and Russian Revolutions happened. People will only put up with their rulers fucking off and living in luxury while leaving them to rot for so long.

But, enough of that I guess. Time to move on to Feyre's clothes. And... uh...

My clothes, which she had taken a moment in the pine wood to shift me into, were of a similar ilk, nearly identical to those I had been forced to wear Under the Mountain.

........................but.................... don't worry guys........... it's not traumatic.......... because.................. er................ because........................................................................................................................................................................

Yeah, no, I've got nothing, sorry. This is the first time the book has directly acknowledged anything Rhysand did to her Under the Mountain (the only other time being when he was going Rage Mode for her alluding to it and only stopped because Mor was about to walk in). And literally the only thing we get from it is a re-description of the clothes, and the information that this one is black, instead of brightly coloured. Absolutely nothing about how Feyre feels to be wearing it again, at the behest of the very same man who made her wear it the first time as he drugged and assaulted her for months, while she goes Under another Mountain. Not. A. Fucking. Blip.

Honestly, I've transcended rage and can only laugh at this point. This is why we had to open the chapter with "I'm not frightened, and I totally agreed to this." Because the book knew this was coming, and rather than have Feyre engage emotionally with it, it tried to take preventative measures so it could just scoot past it as if it's nbd. Like, seriously.

You know what? I'll quote everything we get about Feyre wearing this dress again, because I think it's very telling:

My clothes, which she had taken a moment in the pine wood to shift me into, were of a similar ilk, nearly identical to those I had been forced to wear Under the Mountain. Two shafts of fabric that hardly covered my breasts flowed to below my navel, where a belt across my hips joined them into one long shaft that draped between my legs and barely covered my backside. But unlike the chiffon and bright colors I had worn then, this one was fashioned of black, glittering fabric that sparkled with every swish of my hips.

That's it. We then summarise her makeup and then go back to walking into the city. That is literally it. Two months of Feyre being painted and drugged and assaulted, and the most important thing the book thinks it needs to do is remind us exactly what the dress looked like. When really, that's the least important part of the whole affair - the only thing that mattered about it's appearance is that it was degradingly revealing. The specifics of how it went about that are supremely unimportant.

What should be important is Feyre's emotional reaction to this. We're in first person, for fuck's sake. We are in her fucking head. And literally the only thing she has to say about this is a bland, emotionless description of what it looked like. And, I must reiterate: this is our payoff for two fucking months of Feyre being drugged and assaulted while wearing these dresses. Two. Fucking. Months. After we spent pages and pages and pages wallowing in all the non-Rhysand induced parts of her trauma, after we watched her trauma be used as an excuse for her and Rhysand grow closer, as an excuse to demonise Tamlin. And there is NOT. A. BLIP. from Feyre about any of it. Nothing. Just fucking nothing.

Just........................... I really don't have any words. Wow. Just, wow, book.

And note, because this book doesn't understand how to do tension, and thinks it's the same thing as just hiding shit from the audience, we still have no idea why she's dressed like this. Why is it necessary to dress her in the exact same kind of outfit that she spent two months being traumatised in Under the Mountain? Why????? What does it accomplish that literally no other outfit could???? Surely, there's more than one design of skimpy outfit in the Night Court, if she just needs to look like a harlot for some reason??? Why does it need to be the EXACT SAME ONE????????

Rhysand is trying to retraumatise her. There's literally no other explanation. All of this has been the classic narcissist pushing boundaries, seeing what he can get away with. He's been poking and prodding the whole time she's been with him. Now it's the ultimate test. Can he dress her up like his sex slave again, and take her Under a Mountain, while not only having her not run away from him, but actively agree to it? Just. There is literally no other explanation.

Actually no, I tell a lie, it could also be mind control. I don't know whether that makes it better or worse, tbh.

Well, we have to move on at some point. Just assume I'm banging my head against the wall at the sheer a;fkldg;jghdfjkhgjksdfhgjdfhlgjdh of it all for the rest of this chapter. Actually wait, scratch that. I just thought of something else that I can't believe almost went by me. This:

...nearly identical to those I had been forced to wear Under the Mountain.

Uh huh. Yup. And who forced you to wear them, Feyre? Hmm? Go on. Say it.

Yes, that's right, it's fucking RHYSAND! WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING SAY IT, BOOK??????

This is a very deliberate omission on the book's part. Much like the pre-emptive "I'm not afraid" from before, this is the book doing it's absolute damnedest to absolve Rhysand of responsibility. Look at it! It's even using passive voice just so it can syntactically avoid having to use his name, and thus distance him from his crimes. Fucking pathetic.

Anyway, yes, we'll actually move on now.

Mor and Feyre keep walking into the city (for some reason, Rhys and the others are coming later).

Some [of the people watching] looked like Mor, with their gold hair and beautiful faces. They even hissed at her. Mor smirked at them.

Seriously, tell me what part of this isn't just high school mean girl caricatures and the boss-babe "showing" them. It's so utterly fucking juvenile.

They reach the throne room, there is much description.

A crowd had gathered—and for a moment, I was again in Amarantha’s throne room, so similar was the atmosphere, the malice. So similar was the dais at the other end.

And so similar is the outfit you were forced to wear by fucking RHYSAND! DO NOT TRY AND PIN ALL OF FEYRE'S TRAUMA ON AMARANTHA WHILE YOU IGNORE TWO FUCKING MONTHS OF HER BEING PAINTED AND DRUGGED AND ASSAULTED, WHERE WE ONLY HAVE HIS WORD THAT HE DIDN'T FUCKING RAPE HER, BOOK! NONE OF THAT HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH AMARANTHA, IT WAS ALL OFF RHYS'S OWN BAT! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO IT, AND YET, HE CHOSE TO, AND NOW THE BOOK IS SNEAKILY TRYING TO FRAME IT AS THOUGH THAT, TOO, CAN BE BLAMED ON AMARANTHA!

Fuck, it's just so fucking insidious.

Honestly, at this point I'm not even mad that Feyre has "forgiven him too easily" or anything like that. In order for her to forgive it, the book would have to acknowledge that there's something to forgive first. And it simply refuses. Does it think the people reading it are fucking idiots, that it can get away with just ignoring it like this? Does it think they all have the memory of a goldfish? It's actually so fucking insulting. Legit thinks we're stupid.

Anyway, Mor's father is waiting in the throne room for them.

His brown eyes were like old soil as he said to her, “Where is he?” No greeting, no formality. He ignored me wholly.

Yes, no formality, because this book doesn't actually want to be about nobility. Also, why wouldn't he ignore you, Feyre? You're dressed like a sex slave, and they tended to not be given the same courtesies as high nobility. Don't be all affronted that you're not getting your "dues" when you allegedly agreed to this munted-ass plan in the first place.

Her father surveyed my face, my body—and where I thought he’d sneer and ogle … there was nothing. No emotion. Just heartless cold. I followed Mor before disgust wrecked my own icy mask.

You're............ disgusted that he's not sneering at and ogling you...........?

...........................I honestly don't know what to make of this. The book and I obviously see the purpose of her sex-slave outfit very differently. Feyre seems to think that he should be ogling her, and is disgusted that he isn't. How do you know he's not all icy-faced because he's disgusted that his High Lord would do this to a woman, hmm? That his daughter would allow such a thing to happen to someone else? Obviously, with the power of hindsight, we know this isn't the case, but Feyre doesn't. Just goes to show how well all the prep-work Rhys did telling her about how eeeeeeeevil everyone in the Hewn City was has done it's job.

But even then, it still doesn't explain why Feyre finds the lack of ogling disgusting, specifically. What, do you want him to ogle you? Somehow, I feel like you'd complain about that too. Guy just can't win.

Once again, the book just simply cannot empathise with its characters. It wants Feyre to be a sexy, sexy queen here, and the fact that she is once again being paraded around in front of strangers, wearing the same skimpy dress she was forced to wear UtM while Rhys paraded her around in front of strangers...... well, it's just a complete non-factor in the book's mind. Something it doesn't need to account for at all, except as a convenient means to remind us of the specifics of what the dress looked like.

I really feel like I should be raging, but... it's kind of hard to describe. Like you open a door expecting a certain ordinary thing, but actually, it's just cavernous void where a great honking monster is staring back at you from. And you're just kind of frozen looking at it, with no idea what to do. Or like, that moment in a serial killer movie where the main character starts to realise that actually, maybe they're alone in the room with the killer, and there's no way out. That's what contemplating this situation feels like. Something is deeply, deeply wrong with this book in ways I don't think I quite understood before. Something utterly soulless and empty about the writing. Just..... it thinks disgust is a perfectly natural reaction to have when people aren't drooling over you in the sex-slave outfit you've been forced to wear again, the one you spent two months being traumatised in. Not even a flicker that maybe there's slightly more that needs to be unpacked here. It's actually quite scary.

Again, it's not that Feyre's fine with it that's the problem. It's that the book doesn't think it needs to be acknowledged at all. Like, not even to tell us that Feyre's okay with it.

I... okay. Okay. We'll just move on. What the actual fuck.

Feyre describes a grand feast laid out on the nearby tables.

It might have made my mouth water … Were it not for the High Fae in their finery. Were it not for the fact that no one touched the food—the power and wealth lying in letting it go to waste.

Or..... maybe it's a feast for the High Lord, and they have to wait for him to get there.......? Or maybe it's laid out for after the ceremony/audience? Also, get the fuck off your high horse, Feyre. You were bragging just a chapter or two ago about the "generous" salary Rhys pays you. Remember, if he's High Lord, all of this technically belongs to him. He's the one allowing it to be wasted.

It's honestly a really strange situation with the Night Court. The book wants Rhys to have this bad-guy "mask", so Hewn City is needed for that. It wants them to be his shit-scared underlings, so he can posture and look powerful for Feyre and the audience. It wants them to be his subjects, so he can say that Mor is in charge of them so we can have the "boss-babe" moments I pulled out before. And yet, in so many other respects, it wants them to be an independent power that he can wash his hands of. Here, they're being painted as decadent and wasteful - completely overlooking that any decadence and waste must, by definition, happen with Rhys's approval. He's the Most Powerful High Lord Ever, and as we're about to see, they're all shit-scared of him. If he wanted it to stop, he could stop it. They can only collect as many taxes as his laws (or his enforcement of his laws, if they're breaking them) allow them to. If they can display such "wasteful" decadence, it's because Rhys fucking allows it. If they're all backstabby, sexist assholes, it's because Rhys allows it. It's a city in his Court. He is responsible for what does and doesn't happen there.

You know what *could* make this situation work, at least a little? Make it so that Rhys and Mor aren't cousins (because let's be real, nothing is actually done with that, except to make sure that Mor can never be a rival for Rhysand's affection, since they're relatives. Actually shit, that's a whole trope I've missed this entire time, the only women the protagonist is allowed to be friends with are relatives of the Love Interest, because everyone else is a rival. Fuck), and make it instead that the Hewn City and Velaris are separate political entities. Rhys and Mor (or Mor and a high-ranking person in Rhys's court, since I guess he needs to be available for Feyre) are in a political marriage that creates an alliance between the courts. Rhys can disapprove of the stuff they do; Mor can still hate it there. But they have to swallow it for the sake of what they get from the alliance - the troops and stuff we see later that Rhys says he so desperately needs. That way, the fact that they need to at least appear to play nice with HC despite Rhys being their boss and also the Most Powerful High Lord Ever at least makes a smidgeon of sense, while also allowing the book to absolve Rhys of their atrocities (since, in this version, he's not their boss, and thus has no say over how they run their court).

But, no. That's not what we've got. Instead, we've got.... this. Where Rhys is so growly and dominant and powerful and they're all so terrified of him, but also, uhhhhhh, idk Change Takes Time or something, and Rhys totally can't control what they do despite being their boss and his demonstrated power over them, so that's why HC is still such a shithole. Trying to have its cake and eat it too. It just makes Rhys look like a performative ass who actually gets off on leaving HC the way it is.

Mor stands beside the throne and addresses the room.

“Your High Lord approaches. He is in a foul mood, so I suggest being on your best behavior—unless you wish to be the evening entertainment.”

Remember. This isn't a "mask." This is how Rhys is choosing to treat these people. Nothing is forcing him to be like this. He's the Most Powerful High Lord Ever - what is he afraid they're going to do if he doesn't wear his "mask?"

And ohhh, this is why Rhys wasn't with them from the start, he needed to make a Dramatic Entrance. Much fuss is made of his rumbling power and all that nonsense. The usual.

Everyone in that room went still as death. As if petrified that their very breathing would draw the attention of the predator now strolling toward us.

And yet, there's just nothing he can do about the situation in HC, he has no control over them at all..... such a shame, you guys...

Seriously, which part of this is supposed to convince me that Rhys is just such a swell guy who is forced to do bad things, and not a regular old tyrant revelling in ruling his people through fear? He doesn't do anything with this power he has, just basks in it from time to time when the mood takes him.

Mor’s shoulders were back, her chin high—feral, wanton pride at her master’s arrival. Remembering my role, I kept my own chin lowered, watching beneath my brows.

So, her "role" (to which we are still not privy to details about ofc) is to be subervient... you know, like a slave............ again, I have to ask: why??? Why????? To retraumatise her? Yeah, let's go with that. Just another way for Rhys to get his jollies off by degrading people.

In true dramatic fashion, Cassian and Azriel enter first, and the book is positively creaming itself over how scary-scary dangerous they are. I want to pull so much out of it, but won't, because this post is way too long already and we're barely halfway through the chapter. It's just the same cringy performative shit as always. And also to remind us of Mor's trauma.

They had tried to sell a seventeen-year-old girl into marriage with a sadist

Hold up, Eris is a sadist? When did we find that out? I thought he was just a miscellaneous jerk and Mor just didn't like him? Or has Rhysand fucked Feyre's head so badly that she's now conflating the sadistic Night Court with Mor's former betrothed?

And these people now lived in utter terror of the three companions who stood at the dais. Good. They should be afraid of them. Afraid of me.

.............why? No, literally, why??? For starters Feyre, you, yourself, haven't actually done anything worthy of inducing their fear. So far as they're concerned, you're a meek little sex slave, and any shred of power you have in this situation derives solely from your master. And secondly, why, for love of freaking god why, are you so hell-bent on making people fear you??? This is literal tyrant shit! In any other book, the goal would be to depose this fucking regime, not wank off over how scary-powerful it is! And thirdly, why is it that the entire Hewn City is being blamed for something that Mor's family did to her? Seriously, what evidence do you have, apart from Rhys's word, that anyone else there is bad at all, let alone this level of cartoonishly bad? And yet, Feyre thinks this makes it perfectly justified that they should fear her. No. No, you and Rhysand are fucking tyrants, and nothing the book can say will convince me otherwise.

And then Rhysand appeared.

Ugh.

He had released the damper on his power, on who he was. His power filled the throne room, the castle, the mountain. The world. It had no end and no beginning.

Come on book, fap a little harder. I can't quite hear it through the page yet.

No wings. No weapons. No sign of the warrior. Nothing but the elegant, cruel High Lord the world believed him to be he was.

FTFY.

It's not a fucking mask. This is how he is legitimately choosing to treat those of his subjects not fortunate enough to be born in Velaris. He's perfectly happy treating them all like dirt instead of fucking doing something about the situation. His power fills the entire world, book! You literally just said it! Tell me again how he's just so helpless when it comes to doing something about this cruelty. His cruelty! I'll wait.

Here—here was the most powerful High Lord ever born.

Yes, yes, I know, I got it the first 700 times and have been memeing on it ever since. What is the Most Powerful High Lord Ever going to do about this situation that offends his poor, sensitive soul so much?

The face of dreams and nightmares.

Yes, yes, face of dreams and nightmares, because the Court of Nightmares is as much his as the Court of Dreams. What. Is. He. Going. To. Do. About. It?

Rhys’s eyes met mine briefly from across the room as he strolled between the pillars. To the throne that was his by blood and sacrifice and might. [...] Mor stepped off the dais, dropping to one knee in a smooth bow. Cassian and Azriel followed suit. So did everyone in that room. Including me.

Oh, right, he's not going to do fucking anything about it. Just bask in the adoration of his oppressed people, gloating over their misfortune, belittling and blaming them as if it's all somehow their fault. I cannot believe we're meant to think he's not a villain.

Has anyone written a fix-fic where the Hewn City has gone all viva la revolution on Rhys's ass? Because I would totally read that.

Rhys’s boots stopped in my line of sight. His fingers were icy on my chin as he lifted my face. The entire room, still on the floor, watched. But this was the role he needed me to play. To be a distraction and novelty.

Oh. Oh, so this *is* the part where he feels her up in front of his entire court? For some reason, I thought that came later, after they were mates. But no. Fuck, that makes it so much worse. I mean, it'd still be fucking horrible even if they were mates, but. Holy shit.

He led me the few steps onto the dais—to the throne. He sat, smiling faintly at his monstrous court. He owned every inch of the throne. These people.

He owns every inch of them, and yet........ he can't do anything about it being a shit hole..........

And with a tug on my waist, he perched me on his lap.

But then, maybe I'm being a bit unrealistic here. The people at Hewn City have clearly learned their cruelty from the best.

The High Lord’s whore. Who I’d become Under the Mountain—who the world expected me to be.

So. It's not enough to have her go Under this Mountain, on which the Mountain she was traumatised Under was modelled. It's not enough to dress her in the same skimpy outfits in which she was traumatised (by Rhysand) and parade her around in front of strangers (just like Rhysand did UtM). No. He has to fucking sexually assault her again too, in front of everyone. Just to make the re-traumatisation complete. Also:

who the world expected me to be.

No, no, that is not who the world expects you to be, Feyre. A mere few lines earlier, Rhys announced you thusly to his subjects:

Rhys’s lips curved upward. “Welcome to my home, Feyre Cursebreaker.”

The dangerous new pet that Mor’s father would now seek to feel out.

That is who they expect you to be. The badass human who slew the Middengard worm and literally fucking died in order to free Prythian from Amarantha. That's why Rhys announced you like that. Because that's who they know you as. And he wants them to know that he now has Feyre Cursebreaker herself as his own personal sex slave. It's just yet another fucking power play on his part, made at your expense. He wants the world to know that even Feyre Cursebreaker submits to him.

And also, Feyre, remember how at Spring you were bitching about how everyone and their dog knew you saved them, and the attention was just so uncomfortable and whatnot? Not a single fucking person expects you to be Rhysand's whore, and it's just proof of his peak fucking gaslighting that he's gotten you to believe it.

That, or proof of mind control. Just. Fuck it all. Fuck it all to hell.

Why would he give a flying fuck about who Rhys chooses to feel up in the throne room? Seriously. There was absolutely no justification for why Rhys did this to her the first time UtM; this is flimsy enough that I'm inclined to say there's no justification for it the second time, either. He just gets off on publicly humiliating people who are under his power. Words like "tyrant" aren't even strong enough. The guy is a fucking pestilence on every thinking being.

And then... we get to the actual groping.

Rhys’s hand slid along my bare waist, the other running down my exposed thigh. Cold—his hands were so cold I almost yelped. He must have felt the silent flinch. A heartbeat later, his hands had warmed. His thumb, curving around the inside of my thigh, gave a slow, long stroke as if to say Sorry.

Yeah, because that's really the fucking problem here!!!! I just. I can't. I can't. I cannot fathom how anyone could write this. It was incomprehensible enough the first time. Now, we have that first time for added context, as well as this entire book so far being devoted to Feyre's trauma UtM and just.... nothing. Nothing. The only acknowledgements we have that this has even happened before are that 1) the dresses match and 2) that Feyre thinks this is the role the world "expects" of her now, due to it happening before. But there still has not been one, single, solitary peep about how this is a fucking awful, inexcusable thing that Rhys has done to her, either now or UtM. Not ONE! It just... isn't even being acknowledged as something that needs forgiveness. Feyre just shrugs and goes "oh well, this is my life now, I guess." There's just no words. No words.

Rhys indeed leaned in to bring his mouth near my ear, well aware his subjects had not yet risen from the floor. As if they had once done so before they were bidden, long ago, and had learned the consequences.

But they've never learned the consequences for doing all the horrible evil things that Rhys claims to hate so much, uh huh. There's just nothing he can do, you guys! Keep digging your own grave, book. Rhys is the worst of them all.

Rhys starts telling her all about what the other men (sorry, males) in this room are thinking of doing to her, because the situation wasn't awful enough yet, I guess.

I waited for the blush, the shyness, to creep in. But I was beautiful. I was strong.

Again, just. "Beautiful" is presented as the first counter-argument. As if, if Feyre was ugly, then she'd be perfectly justified in feeling embarrassed here, but since she's beautiful, well, that makes it all okay. WHETHER OR NOT FEYRE ACTUALLY LOOKS GOOD ISN'T THE PROBLEM HERE BOOK, THE PROBLEM IS THAT SHE'S BEING GROPED AND PARADED AROUND BASICALLY NAKED IN FRONT OF DOZENS (HUNDREDS?) OF STRANGERS! AND NOT ONLY IS THAT BAD ENOUGH IN AND OF ITSELF, BUT IT'S HAPPENED TO HER BEFORE, UNDER THE MOUNTAIN, ONCE AGAIN AT RHYSAND'S HAND, AND WE HAVE SPENT THIS ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK SO FAR WALLOWING IN ALL THE TRAUMA SHE PICKED UP THERE! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, BOOK???? THE FACT THAT SHE'S BEAUTIFUL IS NOT THE PROBLEM! THE FACT THAT SHE'S BEAUTIFUL IS NOT THE PROBLEM! THE FACT THAT SHE'S BEAUTIFUL IS NOT THE ACTUAL FUCKING PROBLEM OH MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU????

Fucking hell, that soulless monster is back. The one that sees Feyre as just as much of a piece of meat as it wants us to think the HC people do. The one that just does not understand that what Rhysand did to her Under the Mountain was wrong.

I.... I'm actually at a bit of a loss here. I just cannot understand why the book doesn't understand that what Rhysand did was wrong. Even a fucking sociopath understands that they at least have to pretend to think it's wrong. Just say something. Say something about it. I feel like I'm actually losing my mind.

So I smiled a bit, the first smile of my new mask.

And look at that, she's fucking dissociating. Yeah, this totally screams "I 100% agreed to this and am thrilled to be here, and have absolutely no residual trauma from the first time this happened to me at all."

He’d apologized in advance for it—for this game, these roles we’d have to play.

Pics or it didn't happen. No, really. This is not the kind of shit you can handwave away as happening off-page. Feyre is being asked to relive the crux of her trauma on very, very dubious grounds. We need to see her emotional reaction to that.

But the book knows there's no way it can excuse it. It fucking knows. And so, we don't get to be there when Rhys "apologises" for this, because it knows there's absolutely no way it can spin this as defensible. So it just... breezes past it, just like that. And that's why every single thing it says about sexual assault after this, every bit of virtue-signalling with the priestesses and Nesta and whatever else, is an absolute, irredeemable fucking lie. It does not care. It does not care. Here, on full, exhibitionist display, we see what it really thinks of sexual assault victims. To the book, their voices aren't worth hearing. Their emotions aren't worth being understood. it gives us an off-page apology before the perpetrator assaults her again, and expects that to be enough.

Fuck that. Fuck everything about this book. It's worth less than the dust it will rot to 1000 years from now.

Fuck, why is this chapter still going. Why is it still going???

Hypaxia runs over with a vial of firstlight to help some humans (does firstlight even work on humans?), while Ithan gazes at his navel, I guess.

And with his Aux and pack training, Ithan could make a difference, too. Even though he was a wolf without a pack, a disgraced exile and murderer. He could still help.

......is that why this is here? To try and "redeem" Ithan for killing Sigrid? Fucking hell, book. This is interminable, and, I strongly suspect, completely irrelevant to the main plot. You can't just chuck in a bombing for some cheap angst. No, not even if the victims are disposable humans, in your eyes.

He's very helpful.

A snarl slipped out of him, and the girl, bleeding from her forehead, half-pinned under a chunk of cement, cringed away. She scrambled to push the cement block off her lower legs, and it was him—his presence that was terrifying her—

Er. Yes. Snarling at people does tend to terrify them. Especially when they've just been bombed by Vanir (either Asteri or rebels, it's all Vanir at this point), and also, we've been expressly told that Vanir hunt and kill humans in your world. Several times. This really is kinda a no-brainer, Ithan. Or at least, it should be. Why are you even snarling, anyway? Just because?

He does chill eventually, and Hypaxia comes over with some firstlight, but she won't have enough to help everyone.

But even if all the medwitches of Crescent City showed up … would it be enough? Would it ever be enough to heal what had been done here?

I'd probably feel the angst a bit more if we knew what had been done here. Or, more pressingly, why. It's just a random-ass bombing at this point, happening in a void. You're going to have to do better than that, book.

POV switch to.... I think Bryce. They are flown over the river with 0 problems, but the Middengard worm is mentioned again, for some reason. Probably a desperate attempt to pretend there's any danger here.

Bryce extended her bubble of starlight so they could all remain within it, which was about as much extra activity as she could be bothered with while she took in the carvings.

Yup. She can only be bothered with the bare minimum to keep her friends from being nommed by ghouls. Absolute legend of a leader we've got here. Really inspires loyalty.

She's looking at the carvings, but they're different from the ones in Prythian.

Just a river of starlight, into which the long-ago Fae had apparently dragged those pegasuses and drowned them. Yeah, the Fae here had been no better than the ones in Nesta’s world.

Why???? No, really, why??? Why did the fae randomly kill all the pegasi, and why is it so fucking important that we know this? This is like the third time it's been brought up since they came to Avallen. Was it for the lolevulz? Is this meant to be a clue of some sort? Is it because pegasi can fly to the disappeared islands and they don't want that? Who knows! Who cares! Fuck, I wish this book would just get on with things.

They walk for ages and ages.

The ghouls lurked in crevices and alcoves all around, scraps of malevolent shadow. They hissed with hunger for warm blood—and in abject fear of her starlight.

I honestly think the book just does not understand how tension works. Like, it has a fundamental lack of knowledge of what makes books actually exciting to read. That's why it relies on cheap mysteries like teasing us about pegasi without revealing anything new for 10+ chapters, instead of having a horde of ghouls actually stand between the protagonists and where they want to go. No, instead, we're just sitting here, waiting politely for the book to stop stalling and get them to their destination. And it is stalling, because we already know that Bryce's star power has removed all obstacles to their goal. There's no question of whether they'll make it now. We know. The book is literally just passing time for the sake of padding its length.

[The sword and dagger] burdened each step, locked in some strange battle to be near each other that intensified as she got farther into the cave.

If only Bryce had some sort of clue about how to bring the sword and dagger together. It's just such a fucking mystery you guys. If only the universe would tell her what to do. Or if only the sword and dagger would just bring themselves together for her! The life of a protagonist is rough indeed.

Bryce ignored them, and instead tracked the carvings on the walls.

But there's just no clues, anywhere. The search is long and hard and frustrating, because it's all just so arcane and unknowable. Why yes, I am slowly losing my mind right now, thank you for asking.

We get a description of some murals, and recap that Bryce has the Horn for Sathia. Because she has an important question.

Sathia’s throat worked. “You bear three of our most sacred artifacts. Yet you plan to … do what with the Fae?” “Nothing,” Bryce said. “You’re right: I want nothing to do with them.” The carvings around them only strengthened that resolve. Especially the ones of the pegasus slaughter. She glanced sidelong at the female. “No offense.” But Sathia said, “Why?” This really wasn’t a conversation Bryce felt like having,

Just......... such a great quality to have in a leader, not wanting anything to do with the people they rule. Not even being willing to talk about it. And, again with the pegasus slaughter. Why, book? Why invent this new thing to harp on? Was the slaughter of Midgard's humans not enough reason for Bryce to hate the fae??? Are the pegasi really considered more important than humans here???

Oh, who am I kidding. Of course they are. They have wings, after all.

Sathia, to her credit, keeps pushing Bryce.

[S]"...Once [the Asteri are] gone, do you keep these objects, when you want nothing to do with our people?” [B]“Are you saying I shouldn’t keep them?”

Well, they're just the most sacred relics of the people you want nothing to do with, Bryce. But go on. Wave about your fae heritage (that you don't want) as an excuse for why you're entitled to them. God, she really is insufferable in this one, isn't she?

Bryce keeps trying to dodge the question, bringing up sexism arguments for why Sathia should agree with her. But, again, to her credit, Sathia holds firm.

......please don't tell me this is "foreshadowing" Sathia turning out to be evil. The framing is neutral enough that it could go either way, at this point. But I'm not confident that the book actually understands that Bryce has flaws.

But Sathia ignored her taunts and said, “What are you going to do to the Fae?” “Do?” Bryce asked, halting. Sathia didn’t back down. “With all that power you have. With who you are, what you bear.”

You know, if you keep this up, Sathia, I might have to go ahead and like you. Put that entitled little shit in her place.

Sathia’s gaze simmered. An unbroken female, despite the life she’d led. “I was hoping for a Fae Queen. Someone who might change things for the better.” “Well, you got me instead,” Bryce said,

Ohhh, goddammit, Sathia. I actually had hope there for a minute. But, no. No, it's all just part of Bryce's arc leading to becoming Queen, and of course at this point she's still in denial that she's actually "perfect" for the role. No, no, no, that is the complete wrong thing to be taking from Sathia's questions. Bryce would be the literal worst possible queen the fae could have. Fucking hell.

Also, Bryce... if you hate the fae so much, and want nothing to do with them, then why the everliving fuck did you declare yourself their queen? No one held a gun to your head and forced you to do it, you know. Just for clout? I mean, of course that was it, but still.

Sathia let it drop. Hunt fell into step beside Bryce, putting a hand on her shoulder as if to offer his support, but she could have sworn that even her mate was disappointed in her. Whatever. If they wanted to preserve a long, fucked-up line of Fae tyrants, that was on them.

.........I really, really hope this is deliberate, and is, in fact, setting Bryce up on a villain arc. I'm 99.9% sure it's not, but dear god do I hope otherwise. Also, yes, I'd like to think Hunt is disappointed in you, Bryce. You're being an utter, utter bitch.

And, look, don't mistake me as wanting to prop up a line of tyrants. I hate evil dictators as much as the next person. My main problem with Bryce is her complete lack of concern for all the non-ruler fae. You know, the ordinary people, who presumably compose the bulk of the fae population. Her excuses for why she hates the fae are always things like "my dad's a dick" or "the rich people locked their manors that one time." There's more (or, well, there should be more) to faedom than the rich elite. Not that this book's ever understood that, about any group of people.

Switch to Ruhn. He and Lidia are returning to their respective rooms after dinner. He angsts about whether Bryce will be okay (leading to banter in which everyone is deemed a badass except Sathia, the only one with an actual spine). Also, whether Lidia has had contact with Hypaxia and whether she was actually going to meet him in the garden that one time. All very important stuff, you see. Absolutely plot crucial.

They head out into the garden.

We all found our seats in the white-painted iron chairs throughout. If only humans could see them: faeries, sitting on iron. They’d throw away those ridiculous baubles and jewelry. Perhaps even Elain would receive an engagement ring that hadn’t been forged with hate and fear.

Right, yeah, finding out that faeries have been lying to the humans about iron for hundreds of years will definitely dispel all the hate and fear, uh huh. Book, do you even think about what you write? Like, for even a second? Humans don't hate faeries because faeries are weak to iron, and all the hate would go away if the truth were revealed - humans hate faeries because the faeries oppressed them for countless centuries. The iron is fucking irrelevant, except as another way the faeries have lied to them.

Violet eyes lifted to hers. Cold, humorless. “The humans wish for proof of our good intentions. That we can be trusted.” Amren’s attention cut to me. “Feyre was not enough?”

...why would she be? All she proves is that, once again, faeries will only be nice to you if you abandon your humanity and join their side. It doesn't prove they'll be nice to actual humans at all.

I tried not to let the words sting. No, I had not been enough; perhaps I’d even failed in my role as emissary— “She is more than enough,” Rhys said with that deadly calm, and I wondered if I’d sent my own pathetic thoughts down the bond.

I don't know, something about this just feels extremely skeevy. Like yeah, if Feyre had said out loud that she thought she wasn't enough, and Rhys said this in return, fine, whatever. But again, the fact he's getting this directly from her head, without any will or volition from her... it just lets him pick and choose exactly what he needs to say to get her to do what he wants. That will never not be creepy, even if he's using it for nominally "good" things. And that's assuming she "sent" it at all, and it's not just him reading whatever he wants and he's just gaslit her into thinking it's her fault. Her shields can't stop him, remember.

[R]“They’re fools. Worse—frightened fools.”

No, they're just unwilling to trust the guy who's spent hundreds of years cultivating an evil image when he says "I'm really not evil, trust me bro" to them. It's the opposite of foolish. Seriously, Rhys, what did you expect?

Cassian said, “We could … depose them. Get newer, smarter queens on their thrones. Who might be willing to bargain.”

Lol, "smarter" queens. That's a funny way to spell "more compliant." And I love that the first thing they jump to is fucking murder/a coup. The human queens aren't unwilling to bargain, Cassian. They're just unwilling to bargain with Rhys until they get some proof that he's actually the totally swell guy he claims to secretly be, and not the sadistic asshole he's shown the world for hundreds of years. I don't think it's an unreasonable ask. Actions speak louder than words, after all.

Well, the main objection to the murder plan is that it would take too long, because morals are for squares. And also that little thing about how the book must be freely given. Mor suggests that she should go to their palace. Not sure why they didn't all go to their palace (because they all live in the same one? Seriously, what are they even queens of???) in the first place, but whatever. Azriel doesn't like it, because of course.

“No,” Azriel said again, [...] “They would string you up and make an example of you.”

Well gee, if only she were an immortal faerie that outmatched mere humans in every conceivable way...... and if only she were so uberpowerful that it made everyone in her home city hate her and she could also feasibly be like, Rhys's 3IC or something........ such a shame that none of that applies in this world, and thus we need this bullshit instead.

Well, turns out the palace is a death trap for faeries, because back in the day, the fae built it for the humans to protect them. Because of fucking course. God forbid humanity be clever enough to work out a way to protect themselves from the faeries, no. They'd probably forget to stop breathing if the mighty High Fae weren't around to remind them. Fuck I hate this shit so much.

“If going into their territory isn’t an option,” I cut in[...] “and deceit or any mental manipulation might make the magic wreck the Book … What proof can be offered?”

Seriously, why do you only consider being fucking honest if deceit is forced off the table?????? Why are you so fucking combative when you're allegedly trying to gain allies????? Especially when the reason they don't like you is entirely of your own doing, i.e. the hundreds of years of actively "pretending" the Night Court is evil! I do not understand!!!!!!!

Well, Feyre decides to ask who Miryam and Drakon are, because it's time for an infodump, I guess. She supposes they can be used as "proof", or that they can vouch for the Night Court. Again, I don't understand how that will help. All that proves is that they had to abandon their humanity to get along with the fae. It proves nothing about all the heinous shit Rhys has done since. Like "oh, I knew this guy in pre-school, we played with blocks together, he was p cool. Wdym he grew up to be a serial killer, that's just impossible!" People change in a hell of a lot less than 500 years, book. Miryam and Drakon saying they knew what he was like 500 years ago proves nothing.

Well, never mind that, it's time for an infodump. Rhys starts telling us about a fae kingdom far to the south that is definitely Not Egypt.

[R]"...There was no crueler place to be born a human—for no humans were born free.

...was this not the case for humans everywhere prior to the war?

Well anyway, Not Egypt was ruled by an evil queen who was Even Worse than Amarantha (because women in power are evil if they're not protagonists, donchaknow). And as for Miryam...

“Miryam,” Rhys continued, “was a half-Fae female born of a human mother. And as her mother was a slave, as the conception was … against her mother’s will, so, too, was Miryam born in shackles, and deemed human—denied any rights to her Fae heritage.”

..........................you know, there's something really, really disturbing about the fact that the tragic emphasis here is being placed on the fact that she's "denied her fae heritage" and not on the "all humans are default slaves" thing. Like, if Miryam was a full human, then this would be all fine and dandy, in the book's eyes. But the fact that people won't acknowledge that she's half white fae??? That's the unspeakable tragedy here! Weep for the poor little half-faerie! But don't worry about all those full-blood human slaves tho, we don't care about them. They're just in their rightful place, after all.

Like, the fact that humans, people, are treated so badly that even being only half-human is enough to automatically condemn one to a life of slavery should be the fucking problem here - but it's not. It's that being half-human means you can't be one of the special people. Not being allowed to be special is considered the tragedy, not all the mistreatment and oppression happening to the non-specials. It's fucking sickening.

Ugh. Anyway, turns out yeah, Miryam was half-fae, and Drakon was actually full-fae. Once again, no humans are allowed in the human rebellion, unless they're inexplicably designated as evil (Jurian, in this case). This just makes it even more baffling why the Night Court thinks these two would prove that humans and fae can get along, when only one of them has any human in them and that human part only came about because of rape, but whatever. What do I know.

Drakon was betrothed to Worse Than Amarantha, who gave him Miryam as a wedding gift. He was horrified, set her free, she ran off and met Jurian's army and fell in with them. And became Jurian's lover, because... I don't know, apparently this justifies him working with Hybern now? Whatever. This was all chugging along, until...

[A]"...Until a devastating battle found her tending to Jurian’s new Fae allies—including Prince Drakon. Turns out, Miryam had opened his eyes to the monster he planned to wed.

Right. So, all the filthy humans being oppressed around the world for millennia did absolutely nothing to "open his eyes", he had to personally meet a pretty half-fae slave girl before he realised that maybe treating humans like dirt was bad. Right. Once again, this leaves the very unfortunate implication that it only matters if someone with potential to be one of the special people is being mistreated. Drakon did not give a shit until he saw it happening to someone who was half-special, too. That isn't as heroic as the book seems to think.

Also, note that once again, whilst we were initially introduced to the idea that all of faeriedom enslaved humans back in the day, it is now being pinned solely on an Evil Woman who was in charge, and all the Good Men rose up against her. Much like Prythian being Bad and Dangerous for humans, except lolnope! It was all Amarantha and actually, all the (men) in charge of Prythian hated her. Just... the sexism in this book truly knows no bounds.

And then, Miryam and Drakon fall in love.

[A]"...Jurian had no idea that his new ally coveted his lover. He was too focused on winning the War, on destroying Amarantha in the North. As his obsession took over, he was blind to witnessing Miryam and Drakon falling in love behind his back.”

"Obsession." Right. Call me crazy, but I'm not inclined to see an "obsession" with winning the war to free humanity to be a bad thing. "Oh but he was obsessed with killing Amarantha" yeah, and? Amarantha was one of the faeries oppressing the humans, and this world is too shallow for fixating on just her to have any actual consequences. All this proves is that Miryam is the kind of person to take advantage of his distraction and cheat.

“It wasn’t behind his back,” Mor snapped. “Miryam ended it with Jurian before she ever laid a finger on Drakon.”

Whoops, my mistake, even half-fae can do no wrong in the Maas-verse. Obviously stinky human Jurian was 100% at fault.

Amren shrugged. “Long story short, girl,

That's the second time you've said that, Amren. You've only made the story longer each time.

[A]"...when Jurian was slaughtered by Amarantha, and during the long centuries after, she told him what had happened to his lover. That she’d betrayed him for a Fae male.

So... Jurian didn't even know that Miryam and Drakon were a thing? So, so far as he's concerned, he's fighting against his arch-nemesis in the war to free humanity from oppression, and then his girlfriend randomly dumps him for no apparent reason and disappears, and then he gets brutally slaughtered and turned into an eye-ring for 500 years by that very arch-nemesis? And we're expected to think he's a villain? Man, it's rough being the only actual human in a Maas story.

[A]"...Everyone believed Miryam and Drakon perished while liberating her people from the Black Land at the end of the War—even Amarantha.” “And they didn’t,” I said. Rhys and Mor nodded. “It was all a way to escape, wasn’t it? To start over somewhere else, with both their peoples?”

This is... an interesting take. If the war was won, why would they need to hide to "start over?" They won. They could literally do whatever they liked. The only reason I could think that would make them need to hide would be if the war was still ongoing elsewhere... which basically means they were perfectly happy to leave the rest of humanity to their fate, since they'd taken care of the bit they cared about. Lovely. Remind me again why we're meant to think they're good guys here?

Also note, "both their peoples" is used, but there's no actual full-blood humans in charge. Miryam is using her human side for sympathy whilst experiencing the full benefits of the fae side. Mixed race politics in the real world is a whole can of worms on its own, and is a lot more complex than what the book presents us here - of course, a mixed race person can identify with both sides of their heritage. But this book does not have the nuance for that. From Rhys turning off his mixed-race heritage at will, to us being expected to pity Miryam because people wouldn't accept that she was better than a stinky peasant on account of being half-fae, it's just a whole bunch of tone-deaf, insulting takes that do not deserve the dignity of being equated to real-life examples, frankly. The book just does not understand that, when an oppressed class is seen as a filthy, untouchable mass, that's actually meant to be a bad thing. It only seems to think it's bad if half-special people are affected as well. It is a fundamentally, inextricably racist take. It's only worth helping the peasants if it starts to cause problems for the special people, too; otherwise, there's nothing wrong with all the bad things that happen to them, in the book's eyes.

Ugh. I hate it when SJM's books try to tackle oppression politics. It never works, and it's utterly, utterly exhausting.

Well, there's a small silver lining, in that the book does seem to understand that telling the human queens about Miryam and Drakon proves jack shit about Rhys. So there's that. We still had to endure the infodump, of course, but, there's that. Small mercies.

Anyway. Rhys says that they're going to have to show the mortal queens Velaris. Because when a billionaire shows you the special play-city his granddaddy built in the desert for all his handpicked underlings to live in, that totally makes up for all the other people around the world that he ripped off and took advantage of to get the wealth to build it. Uh huh. Again, all showing them Velaris proves is that you've been lying to them about its existence for hundreds of years. And also that you *can* run a city that's not an oppressive shithole, but *choose* to run the rest of your cities as oppressive shitholes because it suits your purposes. How is that supposed to make them trust you?

“You can’t mean to bring them here,” I said. “Of course not. The risks are too great, entertaining them for even a night would likely result in bloodshed.” Rhys said.

Bloodshed. Who is causing the bloodshed, Rhys? The small human delegation that would come with the queens, who are outmatched in every way by even the weakest faerie living in Velaris? Or are you saying that the Velaris faeries would immediately attack the human delegation? Fucking hell. Your "wonderful" city that must be protected at all costs because it's just so damn special can't even host a delegation of foreign visitors without a bloodbath.

Actually, maybe that's why Velaris has been hidden from the world for so long. Not to protect it, but to protect everyone else from it. They're clearly all staggeringly, violently racist, if some (weak, outmatched by fae) humans being there for even a night would cause a bloodbath. The Most Powerful High Lord Ever can't keep outsiders safe for even one fucking night.

Again, why are they meant to trust this guy and see him as a valuable ally?

Azriel brings up the very valid point that seeing it through anything but their own eyes will probably be dismissed as Rhys playing mind tricks, but Rhys just gives a vague non-reply and then says that we're going to visit the Hewn City. Fucking finally, we get to see part of the Night Court that isn't Velaris.

My blood iced over. The Court of Nightmares.

Yes. Time to see how the rest of Rhsyand's court views him. Do they approve of the segregation? Of how he basically disappears except to come and terrify them every now and then, but still demands their firm and unwavering loyalty? Find out whenever the fuck the book decides to actually take us there, because obviously, we've got some stalling to get through first.

There was an orb, it turned out, that had belonged to Mor’s family for millennia: the Veritas. It was rife with the truth-magic she’d claimed to possess—that many in her bloodline also bore.

Mor "claimed" to possess the same truth-magic. So.... does she, or doesn't she? And if she does, why isn't that enough to "prove" to the human queens? Why do they need this orb, specifically? Also, do the human queens know about this orb? Do they have any reason to trust that it actually does what Rhys says, and isn't just a trick of its own?

Mor, Cassian, and I were mere distractions to make Rhys’s sudden visit less suspicious—while Azriel stole the orb from Mor’s father’s chambers.

............why would the rest of you being there make a sudden visit less suspicious? Why does Rhys need to go at all, if Azriel is just going to sneak in and steal the thing? If anything, it disappearing during a sudden and unexpected visit from you is going to be hella suspicious no matter what kind of distraction you cause. Just send Azriel alone and be done with it.

Ah, apparently the human queens do know about this orb, because the humans used it back in the war. Right. That means that it hasn't been seen in the human lands for 500 years, then. How will this lot of human queens, who weren't around 500 years ago, know that this specific orb that Rhys brings them is actually the Veritas, and not some other orb that he's just claiming is the Veritas?

...when we used it to show them—like peering into a living painting—that this city and its good people existed.

Right. Er, again, all this proves is that Rhys is nice to a specific segregated subset of his people. All the stuff that the queens are actually concerned about - the torture, the public-facing Court of Nightmares, the mind-crushing - all of that is still very much a thing. Velaris existing doesn't negate any of that. Rhys still does all those things, he just does them in places that aren't Velaris.

The others had suggested other places within his territory to prove he wasn’t some warmongering sadist, but none had the same impact as Velaris, Rhys claimed.

Because every other part of his territory (that we get to know about) hates him. He's let them stew in centuries of oppression and misery, because Change Takes Time, yet still fully expects them to be ready to line up and die for him. Velaris is literally the only part of his court (that we see) that he treats well. You have to show us things if you want us to believe them, book. You can't just promise us they exist, somewhere, off-page, where we'll never get to see them and they'll never be relevant to anything.

For his people, for the world, he’d offer the queens this slice of truth.

God, isn't he just so fucking generous for sharing the Treasured Secret of Velaris's existence with these human queens, nay, with the world! Seriously, what the fuck is this supposed to prove? All it proves is that Rhys has been hiding shit from everyone for centuries. How does that show he's trustworthy? Why is knowing about Velaris's existence so fucking special that it's considered such a great and generous deed to share it? This is so fucking stupid I'm actually having difficulty processing it.

Skip to Feyre going for a walk through Velaris at night, thinking about how fucking special it is.

But this place … Rhys would risk this beautiful city, these lovely people, all for a shot at peace. Perhaps the guilt of leaving it protected while the rest of Prythian had suffered drove him; perhaps offering up Velaris on a silver platter was his own attempt to ease the weight.

I just.......... I don't understand. Who gives a fuck about Velaris? Why is anyone else in the world meant to care? It's existence proves nothing about Rhys's character except that he 1) lied to people about it for so long and 2) is the kind of person who lets all sorts of horrible things happen in the rest of his court because, for some reason, he doesn't mind the rest of the world (correctly, but don't tell the book that) thinking he's an asshole. Again, I must reiterate: Velaris existing does not change anything else about the Night Court. Rhys still allows all the heinous shit in Hewn City to happen. He still allows the Illyrians to do what they do. All the public-facing things that the queens have a problem with are still fucking happening, even if Velaris also exists in the background! It is literally doing nothing except existing in a little paradise bubble, while the rest of the court burns. All it proves is that Rhys is willing to sacrifice the well-being of the many to give comfort and privilege to the few. I.e. the exact opposite of what a genuinely good, trustworthy person would do. It is just so utterly fucking stupid. And yet, the book expects us to just swallow it without question.

We angst, about various things, and get an update on how everyone else was angsting too. I don't care.

And Rhys … He had enough going on. And he hadn’t objected when I stated I was going for a walk. He hadn’t even warned me to be careful. If it was trust, or absolute faith in the safety of his city, or just that he knew how badly I’d react if he tried to tell me not to go or warn me, I didn’t know.

Personally, I'm inclined to think he just doesn't give a fuck if something happens to you, Feyre, but whatever. Go ahead and project altruistic motives on him. But I have to say, "absolute faith in the safety of his city?" After he assured us there would be bloodshed if the human queens spent even a single night there? Does the book honestly expect us to believe that the humans, the weak, pathetic, worse-than-fae-in-every-way humans, would be responsible for the bloodshed? That they would actually be physically capable of shedding the blood of the mighty Fae (who can only be killed by ash weapons, remember)? Yeah, fuck right off and die with that shit, book. You wrote what you wrote.

Anyway, the main angst here is that Feyre is debating walking through the artist quarter of the city, and I honestly don't care. I just don't. She outright says the only thing that stirred her artistic feeling was seeing Rhys naked and angsting on his bed. I just don't give a shit. It's too cliche to be worthy of comment.

Anyway, she leaves, and Rhys is waiting for her when she gets back. He says he's debating making her stay at home when they go to the Hewn City. Feyre starts freaking out, because fucking finally, Rhys isn't being excused for pulling the same shit Tamlin did. About fucking time. Oh don't worry, it's just so he can look Better for eventually allowing it. But still, it's something.

He ran a hand through his hair. “What I have to be tomorrow, who I have to become, is not … it’s not something I want you to see. How I will treat you, treat others …” “The mask of the High Lord,” I said quietly.

No, no, no, Feyre. It's not a "mask." That's just how he treats people who aren't part of his Inner Circle, or his special city. The people of the Hewn City are people too, and that is how he CHOOSES TO FUCKING TREAT THEM!

It's like how they say, you can tell a lot about someone's true character based on how they treat waitstaff. Exact same principle here. You judge a man by how he treats his lessers, not how he treats his peers. And this is how Rhys treats his lessers. It's not a fucking "mask." It's who he is when he knows he can get away with it.

Feyre asks why he doesn't want her to see it. Obviously it's because it means she'd see what he's truly like, but let's see how Rhys tries to spin it.

“Because you’ve only started to look at me like I’m not a monster, and I can’t stomach the idea of anything you see tomorrow, being beneath that mountain, putting you back into that place where I found you.” Beneath that mountain—underground. Yes, I’d forgotten that. Forgotten I’d see the court that Amarantha had modeled her own after, that I’d be trapped beneath the earth …

Ahhhh, okay, he's not going to give an actual reason, he's just going to subtly-not-subtly poke at her trauma in the hopes she won't go, right. Fuck I hate this guy so much. But, the translation: yeah, he just doesn't want all his hard brainwashing work on Feyre to be undone. Go die in a fire, Rhys.

I waited for the panic, the cold sweat. Neither came. “Let me help. In whatever way I can.” Bleakness shaded the starlight in those eyes. “The role you will have to play is not a pleasant one.”

...........hold up, is this the part where he dresses her up like he used to UtM and basically feels her up in front of his whole court? Or is that later on? Because if it is........................................... I have no words, honestly. "Oh, you want to come? Well, if you do, you're going to have to play my sex slave again when we go Under this Mountain. I mean, I don't want to traumatise you again, but....." Just. Bro. How would that do anything but fucking traumatise her again??? But, I'm getting ahead of myself. That may not be until next book or something, once they're actually mates, and he does something different this time. I legit don't remember.

[F]“I trust you.”

Big mistake, Feyre.

Anyway, Feyre decides it's time to ask why Mor looked so disturbed before, because I guess she missed the part earlier in the story when we got the infodump of Mor's Tragic Backstory.

I could tell it was rage, and pain, that kept him from telling me outright—not mistrust.

There you go, projecting motivations that have absolutely no evidence to support them again. That's the only reason Rhys is Better than Tamlin, tbh. Feyre just makes up a motivation for him that excuses it, even when he does the exact same shit.

Anyway, Rhys gives us the rest of the details of Mor's backstory (with neither her knowledge or permission that he's sharing this deeply personal stuff, mind), and the book once again fails to understand how arranged noble marriages worked. The new bits are basically that she slept with Cassian, and was subsequently dumped at the Autumn Court border.

[R]"...And it’s another long story, but the short of it is that Eris refused to marry her. Said she’d been sullied by a bastard-born lesser faerie, and he’d now sooner fuck a sow.

Hard to blame Eris, honestly. Mor is just as much of a terrible person as the rest of the Inner Circle. He's probably just glad it gave him an excuse to end the betrothal. He'd have had as much choice in it as she did, remember.

When they were done, they dumped her on the Autumn Court border, with a note nailed to her body that said she was Eris’s problem.” Nailed—nailed to her.

Yes, I got it the first time, book. You don't need to repeat it. Twice.

These books do that sort of thing a lot, honestly. It'll write something it's particularly proud of, and then have the text point it out to us, again and again, just in case we missed it or didn't appreciate how awesome it was the first time or whatever. And it comes across as kind of condescending to the readers, tbh. Like it doesn't think they're smart enough to have gotten it the first time. Of course, I don't think that's actually the case, I think the book is just that puffed-up on its own perceived awesomeness that it wants to wallow in its alleged brilliance over and over again, but still. It has that unfortunate side-effect.

I thought of that merry face, the flippant laughter, the female that did not care who approved. Perhaps because she had seen the ugliest her kind had to offer. And had survived. And I understood—why Rhys could not endure Nesta for more than a few moments, why he could not let go of that anger where her failings were concerned, even if I had.

................................what the fuck does Nesta have to do with anything? This is a reach, even by your standards, book. Is Rhys projecting his own failure to protect Mor on to Nesta? No, of course not, Rhys has never failed at anything, even failure. Instead, the book is... god, I don't even know. Trying to insinuate that Nesta is just like everyone in the Hewn City? Because she, a child a mere three years older than Feyre, made the grave mistake of thinking their adult father would take care of them instead of becoming the breadwinner herself? Seriously, it's just such a random, shoehorned-in way to bring her up.

Beron’s fire began crackling in my veins. My fire, not his. Not his son’s, either.

Keep telling yourself that, sweetie. You still said it was his first. And we know what bookverse you're in.

Of course, this is all just so Hunt can angst about how that, too, is His Fault. But then, they find an eight-pointed star carved on the wall. This marks the start of the carvings, where we learn that the early fae totally did hunt the pegasi to extinction (because... that's important to know?), and also the style is similar to the Prythian carvings. You know, because they were carved by the same people at the same time. Thanks, book. Couldn't have worked that one out myself.

Also, Bryce is probably planning something, but because we're in Hunt's POV we don't get to know what. Yeah, of course, now the book respects the rules of third person limited.

And then, ghouls in the shadows! But don't worry, they're all scared of Bryce's starlight and don't come any closer. Can't have the scary-dangerous caves actually be dangerous, after all. Also, Bryce scrapes some rock dust off the wall and licks it for some reason. I'm sure this will be revealed as all part of some brilliant keikaku later, but again, right now, we're in Hunt's head. At least it makes sense that we don't hear about it this time, I guess.

Both Sathia and Bryce insist that something is Very Wrong here, but all the boys are baffled. I'm going to be generous and say it's a fae thing and not a gender thing, until proven otherwise, of course.

They come to an underground river that must be flown across.

And there it was again—that gleam in her eyes. There and gone, but … he could almost hear her brain working. Connecting some dots he couldn’t see.

Probably the dots that link this section to her time in Prythian. It's literally the same! More caves and carvings and underground rivers! As if a full third of the book of it wasn't enough. Can't possibly have the caves be different or anything, no. Bryce might actually have to think then, and we simply cannot have that.

“Stay close,” Bryce murmured, leading them deeper into the cave. “I’ve spent a disgusting amount of time underground lately, and I can tell you there’s nothing good coming our way.”

Pointing out that you're recycling your plots doesn't make it better, book.

POV switch to Ruhn. Flynn and Declan have left the scene, so he's alone in the archive with Lidia. But then, the Murder Twins show up! Seamus and Duncan are their names, apparently.

Instinct had already kept his mind veiled in stars and shadows, but he did a quick mental scan to ensure his walls were intact.

Don't worry though, the gang's secrets are in absolutely no danger from the mind-reading antagonists. Wouldn't want the villains to present any actual threat, after all.

Duncan sneered. Our uncle sent us to make sure the female was behaving herself.

No, instead they're just here to harp on the cartoon sexism. Again, in case we missed it the first eight hundred times it's been mentioned.

Ruhn glanced at Lidia, still searching the catalog. Fuck, her mind was unguarded—

............is it? I seem to recall she was perfectly capable of keeping you out? Or maybe I just assumed she would be, given she's, you know, an allegedly competent spy.

It was second nature, really, to leap for her mind. As if he could somehow shield her from them. But on the other end of that mental bridge, a wall of fire smoldered.

Again, did you really think the villains would be allowed to present a credible threat? They're just a means to give Ruhn and Lidia something new to bicker over.

More cartoon sexism and posturing from Ruhn.

Seamus’s dark eyes shifted toward Ruhn once more. We can smell you on her, you know. Seamus’s teeth flashed. Tell me: Was it like fucking a Reaper?

..........................................really? Fucking really? Ruhn and Lidia have banged exactly once, and it was, quite literally, all in their heads. Their physical bodies have never actually touched, not like that, at least. How the actual fuck can they smell that??????

This is just ridiculous. Utterly fucking ridiculous. Right up there with being able to smell that power hasn't been used to its full potential.

Then, Lidia joins in so we can have even more cartoon sexism, and also witty put-downs from her (which, again, are a bit less tone-deaf than when they come from Bryce).

Ruhn’s lips twitched upward. But—she’d told him to act like the prince he was. So he schooled his face into icy neutrality. [...] “Tell Morven we’ll send word if we require his assistance,” he said to his cousins.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?!?!?!? A royal in an SJM book actually saying something vaguely diplomatic???? To a villain??????? I mean, it's hardly the most high-brow of political doublespeak, but at least it's not tone-deaf insults. I'll take what I can get.

The dismissal found its mark better than any taunt.

Yeah, it's almost like taunting does nothing except piss people off. Bet it won't stop the book from making Bryce do it, though. Yet another example of why she'd be a terrible leader.

Seamus said into Ruhn’s mind, You’ll get what’s coming to you. Ruhn kept his face impassive—princely, some might say. “Good to see you both.”

Book, Ruhn is doing okay here. Not good, not brilliant, but okay. Don't ruin it by wanking off over how princely he is. This is kinda the bare minimum for princely behaviour.

The twins leave, and then Ruhn and Lidia tepidly recap some plot points for us and talk about how awesome Bryce is.

“Knowing Bryce, she’s up to something. She always has a few cards up her sleeve. But …” He blew out a breath. “Now that she’s in the fucking Cave of Princes, part of me doesn’t want to know what those cards might entail.”

Ruhn, her starlight literally keeps all the danger away, she's fine. You will never convince me the cave is dangerous until I see some actual danger, book. But, that's enough to defrost some of the tension between him and Lidia, and then we POV switch to Ithan. Yeah, remember him?

He and Hypaxia are bantering about unimportant things. He recaps how the plan is to go to Avallen and find Sofie's body, because it's there for <404 reason not found>. But, that sounds suspiciously like Ithan is about to try become involved in the plot. Quick, distract him! We can't have his chapters actually serve a point!

A shudder rumbled through the black halls, clouds of dust drifting from the ceiling.

But, the book does go on to try describing them in a little more detail: one is Old, two are a set of mirror twins, one is Evil, and the last is Young and Beautiful and Good. Such wonderful depth of characterisation.

These were women who, despite their finery, did not care if they were young or old, fat or thin, short or tall. Those things were secondary; those things were a sleight of hand.

Well, in fairness, the only one you can really do anything about is that second one, and even then, it's not a fast process. You can't really change your age or your height. So I'd say it's less about not caring and more about having to learn to live with it? But, whatever. Also... I don't know, I find it very telling that the book chooses to fixate on these factors as something that people typically should care about, as if it's a matter of course, to the point that it's noteworthy that these queens don't, "despite their finery." Which is a weird juxtaposition as well. Are you saying that people who dress nice also must obsess over their age and weight and height, book?

We get another paragraph of description about how beautiful the young and beautiful queen is, and then talk about the guards and how scary-dangerous everything is.

Their guards casually, perhaps foolishly, rested a hand on the hilt of their broadswords—so large and clunky compared to Illyrian blades.

Large, clunky, and going to shatter the Illyrian blades to pieces in a fair fight. Alas, faerie strength means it's not a fair fight, but still. There's a reason you only see the little delicate weapons in mono-a-mono duels, where both opponents are using the same type of weapon.

Well, anyway, Rhys greets them, and then asks after the absent sixth queen, who is apparently unwell.

[The old queen, because you're kidding yourself if you think any of these characters are getting names] surveyed me. “You are the emissary.”

She has to ask, because you'd never be able to tell, given Rhys is doing all the actual talking. What does the book think an emissary is? A pretty bauble to wave around to show how good and inclusive you are?

My back stiffened. Beneath her gaze, my crown felt like a joke, like a bauble, but—“Yes,” I said. “I am Feyre.”

Whoa, look out, she's dangerously close to becoming self-aware. Yes, Feyre, your crown is a joke. You don't know shit about being noble, or being an emissary. The fact that Rhys indulges your delusions and uses them to manipulate you into doing what he wants doesn't make them actually true.

A cutting glance toward Rhysand. “And you are the High Lord who wrote us such an interesting letter after your first few were dispatched.”

Which is a polite way of saying he threatened them into coming after they, understandably, ignored his sus af first few letters. Lovely. Again, why couldn't they just meet the queens at their own damn court? This would be approximately 50x less stupid if they just did that.

Mor stalked toward us, her crimson gown floating on a phantom wind. The golden queen sized her up with each step, each breath. A threat—for beauty and power and dominance.

...............I don't know. I had to read it, now so do you. Ugh.

The black-clad queen placed a moon-white hand on her lower bodice. “Morrigan—the Morrigan from the War.”

And if you think we're ever going to get any more information on whatever the fuck being "the" Morrigan means, then you must be new here. We don't do shit like that in the Maas-verse.

The golden-haired queen smoothed her voluminous skirts and said, “I assume those are our hosts.” A cutting look at my sisters.

Because, once again, you'd never know it, because the faeries are doing all the talking. Again, why was it so damn important that they meet here, specifically? It really does beggar belief how contrived all of this is.

Nesta had gone straight-backed, but Elain bobbed a curtsy, flushing rose pink.

Speaking of things that beggar belief. This isn't how someone raised in high society would react to meeting royalty. Especially not in a world that still has ruling royalty as its main form of government. There would be protocols, courtesies, ways things are done, and Nesta and Elain would have been trained in how to do them. It might be something simple, e.g. bowing/curtsying while making an appropriately polite and deferential greeting, or it might be a whole-ass process like the prostration in Ancient Persia. But their actual reaction? This is how a lay person in our world reacts to suddenly having an unexpected interaction with a celebrity. There's no sense of any actual royal/noble status here at all.

And note, this isn't to condone the idea of royal/noble status. There's a reason it fell out of fashion in our world, after all - it's mostly bullshit. But, if you're writing a story set in a world where that is still very much a thing, well, you have to write your characters as though they believe it. When they react like ordinary 21st century Americans to everything, it kinda breaks the immersion a little bit.

Amber eyes slid to me. To my crown. Then Rhys’s. “An emissary wears a golden crown. Is that a tradition in Prythian?” “No,” Rhysand said smoothly, “but she certainly looks good enough in one that I can’t resist.”

Lol, the queen calling out Feyre's bullshit empty crown right in front of her. And Rhys isn't even trying to deny that it's bullshit he's only doing because it amuses him to dress up his pet. He's just displaying the book's ignorance that, once again, in a world where royalty is a thing, then crowns aren't just optional accessories, they're items of state that have meaning. And slapping one on a random commoner just because it looks good on her and then parading her before actual queens could very easily be taken as a deliberate insult.

The golden queen didn’t smile as she mused, “A human turned into a High Fae … and who is now standing beside a High Lord at the place of honor. Interesting.”

Yes, I agree, it is interesting. The High Lord was certainly quick to collect her and force her on-side, wasn't he?

I kept my shoulders back, chin high. Cassian had been teaching me these weeks about how to feel out an opponent—what were her words but the opening movements in another sort of battle?

Excellent mindset to approach a diplomatic situation with. What could possibly go wrong? But seriously, what is it with this book and seeing every non-Inner-Circle social interaction as some sort of attack or threat that must be countered? It's really fucking weird.

Mor asks how the queens can teleport, and the answer is basically "just because." Just because the book simply could not bear to write about ordinary smelly humans, got it. Or it couldn't bear to even acknowledge travel logistics in passing, either/or.

[F]“War is coming. We called you here to warn you—and to beg a boon.” There would be no tricks, no stealing, no seduction. Rhys could not even risk looking inside their heads for fear of triggering the inherent wards around the Book and destroying it.

Yup. The only reason they didn't jump straight to thievery here is because they were literally magically forced into asking nicely. Seriously, why are they such unrelenting assholes?

Anyway, the humans already know about the coming war, because they're not fucking idiots like Feyre and co assume.

It seemed the three others were positioned as observers while the eldest and the golden-haired one led the charge.

I.e. the book can't be fucked characterising them, which begs the questions of why there needs to be six queens to begin with. Surely, they could just talk to the queen who ruled the human lands south of Prythian (and her daughter, if there really needs to be two of them), and we'd basically achieve the same thing? Without the stupidity the canon version brings to the worldbuilding?

“This territory,” the golden one explained coolly, “is a slip of land compared to the vastness of the continent. It is not in our interests to defend it. It would be a waste of resources.”

Speaking of worldbuilding stupidity. What, so not a single one of the queens coming to this meeting has anything to do with these unnamed lands south of Prythian? Why did they agree to go there and meet, then? Why isn't this taking place in their fucking court????? Because I mean yeah, how can you expect the monarchs of a completely different country/countries (unclear exactly what it is these queens rule or why they get lumped together like this) to defend an unrelated piece of land just because you asked nicely? Harsh as it is, things are a bit more complex than that. There's a lot of things to consider (e.g. troop numbers, supply lines, the diplomatic implications of foreign armies tramping all over the land, total resources, how much of the rest of the continent they need to defend, etc), and this book has of course considered none of them. Feyre wants the land defended, and in the book's eyes, that should be good enough for the queens, sense and practicality be damned.

Rhys drawled, “Surely the loss of even one innocent life would be abhorrent.”

Says the one who threw most of his court and all the rest of Prythian under the bus to save one (1) already-hidden city.

One of the queens points out that yeah, this tiny spit of land that none of them are responsible for is less of a priority than their own kingdoms on the continent. Wherever and whatever those kingdoms are.

I didn’t dare look at my sisters. Look at this house, that might very well be turned to rubble. I rasped, “There are good people here.” The golden queen sweetly parried with, “Then let the High Fae of Prythian defend them.” Silence.

Lol. "Silence." Yeah, Feyre, if it's so damn important to the magnanimous High Fae that this southern part of their island be protected, then why don't they do it themselves? Seriously, why even go to these queens to begin with, if none of them have anything to do with this part of the human lands? Who is actually in charge of it? That's who you should have gone to, not the queens of completely unrelated nations. And if no one is in charge of it... yeah. Just step in and defend it yourself. We already know that humans are vastly outmatched by the High Fae. Surely, it would make more sense to defend it yourself anyway?

But, no. No, we get "silence" instead, because it's just so galling that the Inner Circle should be expected to do any actual work themselves. How dare these foreign queens suggest as much!

But seriously, I am actually confused about what the hell was the point of this meeting. None of these queens are in charge of the human part of Prythian. You're concerned about the human part of Prythian. Just... ???????????????????????????

Nesta protests against the queens' decision and calls them cowards, but given her homeland is the one being abandoned by them, I'm inclined to allow it. Doesn't make the situation any less stupid, mind, but it is understandable why she'd be upset by it.

I interrupted before Nesta could dig us a deeper grave,

You say, as if your own approach was working any better.

[F]“For all that your kind hate ours … You’d leave the Fae to defend your people?” “Shouldn’t they?” the golden one asked, sending that cascade of curls sliding over a shoulder as she angled her head to the side. “Shouldn’t they defend against a threat of their own making?” A snort. “Should Fae blood not be spilled for their crimes over the years?”

Nothing but excellent questions from the queens. For some reason, the Inner Circle just cannot fathom why the queens of unrelated nations don't want to step in and clean up their mess for them.

And, honestly, I think much of it is to do with Rhys and co's approach here, because at the end of the day, Hybern is a legitimate threat that the queens should be worrying about (well, if we take the book's word for it). They're coming at it with this kind of "yeah, duh, of course you're going to jump in and defend this part of Prythian, because you're all humans and that basically makes you a monolith, right?" And also, they've yet to tell the queens anything about what the Night Court plans to do to help in this war. All they've said is that they've come to warn them and beg a boon. Well, they've delivered the warning, and based on everything that's been said thus far, the boon appears to be "defend the human part of Prythian for us, while we do, uhhhhhhh." They've said nothing about the book, or indeed, that they plan to do anything about Hybern themselves at all. The only ones surprised that the queens aren't immediately on board is the book and the Inner Circle. To them, this constitutes a perfectly reasonable argument.

A better way to go about it would have been to lead with the threat of Hybern, and just be upfront with how they think they have a way to thwart him. Tell them about the book, and honestly, don't even mention the human part of Prythian, or at least, not until later in the negotiations. The book is the top priority here, since it will (in theory) stop Hybern from invading in the first place - the human lands, if they're mentioned at all, should be more of a "just in case this plan fails" approach. And you certainly shouldn't be approaching it with the expectation that the mortal queens are going to shoulder the burden of defending the southern part of your lands. You can ask them to help with it, as part of becoming allies, but you can't just waltz in and demand it (while offering nothing yourselves) and be all Righteously Angry when they don't agree. Absolutely braindead approach.

But enough of that. What does Rhys have to say in response to this very reasonable question asked by the Queens?

“Neither side is innocent,” Rhys countered calmly.

Ohhhh, shut the actual fuck up. Do not start with this. What, I ask you, have the humans done that makes them "not innocent," hmm? Dislike the faeries that enslaved them for millennia, who still prey on them even to this day, and who outmatch them in pretty much every conceivable way? Yeah, nah, miss me with that, thanks. I said in Crescent City that the book did not have a "both sides" argument - this is even more true in ACOTAR, where you don't even have a human rebellion to make strawman villains out of. Absolutely boggles the mind that the book trots out this line without a shred of irony. Like it heard that this was a Deep and Meaningful thing to say about war that makes your book "intellectual", and put no further thought to its inclusion than that. Or, alternately, that it legit thinks being kind of mean is on the same level as oppressing a people for millennia, just because the people on the receiving end of the meanness are Main Characters. I don't know which is worse, tbh.

And then... I have to quote this in its entirety. Nothing but truth.

“Oh?” said the eldest, her wrinkles seeming to harden, deepen. “The High Lord of the Night Court asks us to join with him, save lives with him. To fight for peace. And what of the lives you have taken during your long, hideous existence? What of the High Lord who walks with darkness in his wake, and shatters minds as he sees fit?” A crow’s laugh. “We have heard of you, even on the continent, Rhysand. We have heard what the Night Court does, what you do to your enemies. Peace? For a male who melts minds and tortures for sport, I did not think you knew the word.”

Damn fucking straight. Like oh wow, when you cultivate a reputation for being vicious, amoral motherfuckers for 500 years, turns out the rest of the world might end up believing you. Fancy that. Who could possibly have foreseen? Won't stop the Night Court being all shocked pikachu about it, though.

Wrath began simmering in my blood; embers crackled in my ears. But I cooled that fire I’d slowly been stoking these past weeks and tried, “If you will not send forces here to defend your people,

They *aren't* their people though, Feyre. We've just been over this.

[F]"...then the artifact we requested—” “Our half of the Book, child,” the crone cut me off,

..........wait, when did anyone mention the book? I specifically complained before about how the Night Court wasn't being upfront with their intentions, because they had yet to mention it. But, they're talking about it now as if they've already asked.....?

..........no, I went back and checked, no one's mentioned it. Was it in the letters, then? The letters that could easily be intercepted and leaked (or even leaked by the queens themselves), and the information about the book in them "sold to the highest bidder", which was Rhys's primary justification for why he wasn't upfront with Tarquin? What the actual fuck?

Honestly, this book just hasn't got a clue. It just hasn't got a damn clue.

Well, the queens say no, Feyre says "please", the queens still say no, so Feyre launches into telling them about Amarantha and how awful she was and how Feyre was killed by her.

[F]"...And now their king plans to use a weapon to shatter the wall, to destroy all of you. The war will be swift, and brutal. And you will not win. We will not win. Survivors will be slaves, and their children’s children will be slaves. Please … Please, give us the other half of the Book.”

........and, again, you weren't asking for the book before this. You were asking them to defend the human part of Prythian for you whilst offering nothing in return yourselves. Was this two halves of two different versions of the scene that were just never edited together smoothly? We've literally generated outrage at the queens not wanting to defend Prythian, and transferred that outrage straight to them not handing over the book, without missing a beat, even though the book had never been mentioned prior to this. Feyre even says here that trying to fight will be pointless! So what was all the nonsense about defending human Prythian (really shits me that it doesn't have an actual name, such a pain to talk about it), then? If it was pointless to fight, why ask them to fight first before even mentioning the book? This scene makes absolutely no fucking sense.

It's almost like, the book knew there was no possible way the mortal queens could refuse to hand over the book, given the stakes. But it also wanted them to be meanie poopyheads so that our protagonists could be Unfairly Wronged by them, and bask in the resulting victim cred. So it made up something else for the queens to refuse, so we could get mad about it, and then just switched straight into "you're so mean for not giving us the book!" even though they never actually asked for the fucking book? Again, unless it was in the letters, and that just undermines the whole premise of "having" to heist the Summer Court. It just makes no fucking sense no matter how you look at it. What an utter, utter mess.

The eldest queen swapped a glance with the golden one before saying gently, placatingly, “You are young, child. You have much to learn about the ways of the world—” “Do not,” Rhys said with deadly quiet, “condescend to her.”

Yeah, only he's allowed to do that.

But, despite the book stroking itself about how badass and scary Rhys is, the queens still say no. True chads of humankind.

And then... Mor gets up.

And Mor looked each and every one of those queens in the eye as she said, “I am the Morrigan. You know me. What I am. You know that my gift is truth. So you will hear my words now, and know them as truth—as your ancestors once did.”

Okay......... what does that mean? The queens aren't worried that you're lying to them, so far as I can tell. They just think they'll be able to weather the storm without giving you the book. And also that Rhys is a dick and they don't want to work with him, which is a perfectly understandable take.

Anyway, Mor goes on for two solid, big paragraphs about how she was totally friends with Miryam 500 years ago, and with the queens at that time, and is friends with Feyre now, and that makes these queens poopyheads, so nyeh. Because they won't be her friends and do what she wants, I guess? It doesn't really make that much more sense in context, honestly. Oh, also, Miryam and Drakon (who... I think were both prominent (human) members of the human rebellion 500 years ago?) are both still alive and well today (so probably not human anymore), and totally live on a secret island somewhere, so nyeh, that makes these queens even bigger poopyheads! No, I don't know what the fuck this is meant to have to do with anything. It still doesn't address the actual issue, that the queens don't want to work with Prythian because Rhys is a dick, and believe they'll be fine without him. If anything, this would only convince them they're right, because it's so disjointed and divorced from the actual matter at hand that it couldn't do otherwise.

A secret, I realized, that perhaps had remained hidden for five centuries. A secret that had fueled the dreams of Rhysand, of his court. A land where two dreamers had found peace between their peoples. Where there was no wall. No iron wards. No ash arrows.

Just 500 years of island isolation and inbreeding. Truly, a paradise on earth.

Also, the forced parallels between this island and Velaris are painfully obvious, and... once again, I have to ask, what is this meant to prove??? How is this meant to convince the mortal queens that they should give up their half of the book? Honestly, the fact that Myriam and Drakon are alive after 500 years suggests that they defected and went faerie, not that humans and faeries found a way to live in harmony. The only way to live "in harmony" with faeries is to give up everything about being human, apparently. That's, uh, not the message you're trying to convey here, book. Or at least, it shouldn't be. Because holy shit. "There could be peace if you'd just bow to your oppressors and/or if humanity ceases to exist!" Yeah, nah, get fucked, mate.

Now, if it were Miryam and Drakon's descendants, then there might be a sliver of an argument. Maybe. Still don't know why it had to be secret, but whatever. But it's not their descendants. It's they themselves. Which means that in order to obtain this "peace," they had to give up their humanity. That's the opposite of living in harmony, book. It's like saying that all that needs to happen for black and white people to live together in harmony is for the black people to change their skin colour. And, uh. Yeah. I trust I don't need to say anything more about how utterly braindead fucked-up stupid that is.

The ancient one’s eyes were bright as she declared, “Give us proof. If you are not the High Lord that rumor claims, give us one shred of proof that you are as you say—a male of peace.” There was one way. Only one way to show them, prove it to them. Velaris.

Er, right. Velaris. Of course. ... ......... ..................call me crazy, but I'm not entirely sure how showing them the pet segregation project that you've been lying to the world about for 1000 years is supposed to prove that you're such a swell guy? All it shows is that you are capable of having cities not overrun with cruelty, but chose to let the others remain that way for hundreds of years for..... some fucking reason. Doesn't exactly scream trustworthy to me, ngl.

My very bones cried out at the thought of revealing that gem to these … spiders.

All they've done is ask why they should be expected to work with the torture-lord based on nothing but his "trust me bro." How does that make them "spiders?"

[R]“I shall get [proof] for you. Await my word, and return when we summon you.” “We are summoned by no one, human or faerie,” the golden queen simpered.

Do...... do you know what "simpered" means, book? The dialogue tag has to match the words in the sentence, ya know. People don't really simper when they're trying to flex.

Perhaps that was why they’d taken so long to reply. To play some power game.

Right. Definitely couldn't have been because the invitation was a hundred kinds of suspicious. That's just unpossible.

Lots of posturing about how scary-scary the faeries are.

Rhys barely inclined his head as he added, “Perhaps then you’ll comprehend how vital the Book is to both our efforts.” “We will consider it once we have your proof.”

Yeah, eat shit and die, Rhysand. The book does its best to portray the queens as petty here, using words like "smirk" and whatnot, but... seriously, they have absolutely no reason to trust Rhysand. The fact that they came at all is already plot contrivance of the highest order. And also, it gives this whole meeting such a high-school mean girls vibe? Really sucks the legitimacy out of the situation. The queens aren't acting like this for any reason, the book just wants our protagonists to be unfairly wronged, and therefore dogged underdogs. They're not, book. The "wronging" (if you can even call it that) was 100% deserved and earned.

Anyway, the queens teleport away.

And it was Elain—Elain—who sighed and murmured, “I hope they all burn in hell.”

And then, Tharion mentions that he's a wanted man.

She choked. “What?” “Surprise,” he said. Then added, “Sorry. I feel like … maybe I should have mentioned that before.” “You think?”

Yeah, you probably should have, it is a smidge on the deceptive side. That said, it's in-character for Tharion to conveniently not mention it. But, that also said, Sathia is of course conveniently amused by it, because we can't have any of them consequences around here, no, sir! This is a consequence-free zone! Being wanted by three allegedly powerful rulers is just a quirky character fact, not anything that actually causes tension!

Tharion summarises his situation for her, which also includes angsting over how Sigrid's death is His Fault.

“So this is some attempt at redemption?” Any amusement faded from her face. “It’s an attempt to be able to look at myself in the mirror again,” he said plainly. “To know I did something good, at some point, for someone else.”

While the honesty is nice, it's still kind of a colossal dick move. "Oh, yeah, I didn't actually want to marry you and thus bind you to me for life, I just wanted to do something to redeem myself and marrying you was the first opportunity that presented itself, soznotsoz." And this is being framed by the book as something legitimately nice/heroic, which I simply cannot agree with. Especially since she knew about neither this nor his fugitive status before agreeing to marry him.

It looks a bit like Sathia might be mad at him at first...

“You seem, uh … relatively cool with this whole marriage thing.” “I’ve grown up knowing my fate would lead me to the marriage altar.” The words were flat.

And, as I'm sure I've complained about before in the context of arranged marriages, the bitter tone really doesn't fit with someone raised to expect an arranged marriage in a world where they're normal. It sounds like someone from 21st century America dropped into such a world.

But, no, her being mad is a fake-out.

She gingerly took the offered hand, her fingers delicate against his. But her handshake was firm—unflinching. “It’s nice to meet you, too … husband.”

Sure. I still don't know why we had to see this.

Actually, wait, I think I know. This is about Tharion's character arc (well, "arc"), isn't it? Sathia's entire point of existing as a character is so he can heroically redeem himself by marrying her, isn't it? Ugh. Even if we put aside Tharion being unimportant enough that we could remove the bulk of his chapters from this book and the previous one and lose little of value (just make Cormac give the protags the plot quest, which would make more sense anyway), this is a really, really gross way in which a female character is yet again used just for the purpose of furthering a man's arc. This book is so awful it actually hurts sometimes.

And I think it's especially egregious because all this shit is so subtle. Insidious. The surface-level, in-your-face kind of stuff are the things like mouthing off at strawman misogynists, and people read that and point at it and say "look, feminist!" When, on anything below surface-level, these books are the absolute antithesis of feminism. It's honestly really worrying. And sad.

But, now it's time for a POV switch to Lidia.

Dawn broke over Avallen, though Lidia had never seen such a gloomy sunrise.

Because Avallen is the home of Evil McEvilface, so absolutely everything about it must suck all the time! No exceptions! We don't deal in nuance round these parts!

Fuck, and it's not like letting the sunrise be nice would be actual nuance or anything. It would just make it slightly less cartoonishly un-nuanced. But we can't even manage that much.

We spend a couple more paragraphs musing on how Avallen sucks, including a mention that all the people are shunning them because Morven told them to.

She’d always known Morven ruled with an iron fist, but this submission was beyond what she’d expected.

Well, you clearly don't know what books you're in, Lidia. Even the buildings are expected to be submissive here.

She spends about half a page angsting over her kids. Have I ranted yet about how Lidia called Ruhn out for finding her "acceptable" after finding out she was a mother, but the book didn't realise that's exactly what it itself has done with her? I feel like I have. Can't remember. She sees the others gathering in the courtyard below in preparation for their respective tasks, and waves goodbye to them. Not sure why she's not going with one group or the other, especially since they're on a time crunch to find anything, but whatever. Like, I know she's meant to be spying on them but told them all about it or something, but surely that doesn't preclude her helping them? Especially when, if the Ocean Queen were to find out she'd been dagging around the castle instead of watching them, she'd kinda realise Lidia wasn't actually spying? Ugh, what do I know, right?

Then, Morven comes up behind her.

The Stag King, they called him. It was an insult to deer shifters. The Fae male had no affinity for the beasts, despite his throne, crafted from the bones of some noble, butchered beast.

Because fake is bad and Morven is evil, remember! He can't have anything legitimately to do with stags, because then he wouldn't be fake and therefore not bad, and remember, we don't deal in nuance here. God, even for NA, this is embarrassing. Calling it puddle-deep is an insult to all the respectably-deep puddles around the world.

Morven calls her a traitor, she calls him out for abandoning his son.

There was nothing more important [than one's children]. Nothing. She was here today, on this island, back in the field once more, because there would never be anything more important than the two boys she’d left on the Depth Charger.

Which is naturally why you left them on the Depth Charger. Admittedly, there's not a whole lot Lidia could do to look after them directly, given the situation, but even so. Pointing it out doesn't exactly make her look better than Morven.

I feel like this would work a lot better if it were framed more like "he had the chance to help his son, a chance I never had, and he threw it away" rather than "I totally care for them even though I've interacted with them like twice in their whole lives and am totally doing a better job than you by leaving them on a submarine, so nyeh." A bit more true-to-situation and a perfectly understandable reason for Lidia to be mad at him.

But, alas. We are in a book where the protagonists must be showing up the villains at everything all the time, even if it doesn't make sense, so we're going to pretend that leaving them on a submarine is actually a grade-A mum move. Sure, book. Whatever.

There's a bit of taunting from Lidia, and it bothers me a bit less than when Bryce was mouthing off, because at least as the Hind, Lidia was at a level where she actually could mouth off to the Asteri's subordinates and avoid the logical consequences. It makes sense that power dynamic would stick. You don't just unlearn those overnight.

Morven says she knows nothing of loyalty.

Lidia let out a low laugh, and glanced [...] Toward the red-haired female in the center of the group [of protagonists]. “I’ve never had a leader to stir the sentiment.”

Ugggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Wasn't Ruhn pointing out reasons last chapter why she'd actually make an awful leader? Have we forgotten about that already? This book, man. Once again, it doesn't matter what Bryce does or what she's actually like as a person, she's the protagonist, and therefore she's the perfectest leader no matter what. Kill me.

Morven noted the direction of her gaze and scowled. “You’re a fool to follow her.” [...]“You’re a fool not to,” she said quietly, [...] “It will be your doom. And Avallen’s.”

You know what? For my sanity, I'm going to pretend that Lidia is perfectly aware of what kind of leader Bryce will be, and is just making sure she's on the winning side so she doesn't get genocided. Sorry, "righteously punished" or however the book decides to spin it. I'm sure this illusion will be shattered before long, but let me have this for now.

It's a bit unclear at first who we switch to now, but it's Hunt. They're whinging because the Cave of Princes doesn't look cool enough, or something. I don't know, it's pointless banter. Also, more harping on how Morven is a conservative stereotype who hates change, in case the previous instances were too subtle for us.

Hunt swapped a look with Bryce. That was precisely why they’d come. If there was a place any bit of truth might be preserved, it was here.

And, see, we could say interesting things about it. It's right there, waiting to be explored - where is the line between the importance of conserving past knowledge and traditions, and embracing the new as they come? But, no, this is the only instance of it, the rest is just bashing Morven for being stuck in the past. *sighs*

There's a bit about how Hunt totally hates being underground because he's a creature of the air, which I'm sure will amount to nothing more than extra words for us to read, before he asks Sathia if she knows anything about Avallen's mists. Why he thinks she would when she's a Lunathion native who's been here only slightly longer than they have is beyond me, but whatever. To the shock of no one, she doesn't know anything.

“Well,” Tharion said, gesturing dramatically, “ladies first, Legs.” “Such chivalry,” Bryce retorted. “You’re the one with a built-in flashlight,” Hunt reminded her. She rolled her eyes and said to a wary Sathia, “Word of advice: don’t let them push you around.”

She says, as she lets them push her around. Though I agree the light thing is a good point.

“I won’t,” Sathia said. For some reason, Hunt believed her.

"For some reason," yes. Also known as the book saying "I can't be bothered showing that Sathia is a Strong Independent Woman who don't need no man, bc it would get in the way of her forced marriage subplot and being pushed around by the guys, so I'll just tell you instead and then carry on showing the exact opposite. But she's totally Strong, trust me bro."

They stand outside for a bit to assure us that this cave will be Totally Dangerous, No, Really, So Scary You Guys, including a bit where we slip into Bryce's POV for a line, because this book is trash. And then we distract ourselves by hinting that "something happened" with Sathia and the Murder Twins (do they actually have names? I feel like the book dropped them once in passing and has refused to use them ever since), and I don't fucking care, book, move on. It makes me wonder if Sathia is going to be our token Heroic Sacrifice for this book, it's really going to great pains to try and make us like her.

If Sathia did indeed prefer to face what lurked in this cave over the Murder Twins, maybe Bryce owed it to her and females everywhere to kick some ass when they got back.

We're still in Hunt's POV, by the way. Is this yet another POV slip-up, or is Hunt deciding for Bryce what she's going to do on behalf of womankind? Sorry, female-kind.

If they got back.

Yes, yes, it's very scary-dangerous, can we please just go inside already?

Wait, no, we have completely switched into Bryce's POV now. I'm going back looking for the scene break to switch, but there wasn't one. Literally swapping mid-scene now. And it was definitely Hunt's POV before, we were getting his train of thought and everything.

Book. You are not third-person omniscient, and never have been. You can't pull shit like this now.

Bryce ignored the twisting in her stomach. She’d gone to another world, she’d faced an Asteri—she could deal with a few ghouls and wraiths. She had three badasses with her. Plus Sathia. She could do this.

And despite the book's previous assurance that Sathia was, in fact, a badass, turns out she actually doesn't count. Only men can be badass, donchaknow?

And after a cringy moment of Bryce being tone-deaf and everyone else realising it, they go into the cave. Which naturally means it's time to POV switch to Ruhn. God, if all the shit in the cave ends up happening off-page, I will actually have to scream. I wouldn't put it past the book.

Morven corners Ruhn after breakfast. He wants to know why Bryce is here.

“Bryce told you,” Ruhn said tightly. “She wants information.” “On what?” “The sword and knife, for one thing. The rest is classified.” Asshole, he didn’t need to add.

You also didn't need to add the bit about the rest being classified, either, Ruhn. Now he knows you're up to something the Asteri probably aren't going to like. Just tell him you're looking for info on the weapons and on general starborn shit, all of which is perfectly true and a lot more defensible.

Then, Morven asks if Bryce plans to claim Avallen for herself.

Ruhn burst out laughing. “What? No. If she did, I wouldn’t tell you, but trust me: this place …” He surveyed the dark, crypt-like hall. “This isn’t her style. Just ask my father.”

Again, Ruhn - adding that "I wouldn't tell you" kind of undermines your previous statement. Just say no and move on. Especially since the style of the place is something its new ruler would have the power to change i.e. not something a would-be conqueror would give two shits about, because they'll just, you know. Change it.

And then, Morven insists Bryce has done something to the Autumn King.

“If she has, it didn’t involve trying to claim his crown. She’s said nothing about it.” Ruhn glared at the king. “And again: If she was planning some sort of Fae coup, why the Hel would I tell you about it?”

She literally teleported onto the submarine and declared herself Queen of the Valbaran Fae. If that's not claiming the crown, Ruhn, what is? And yes, he adds the bit (again, when he shouldn't) about how he wouldn't tell Morven even if was true, but I'm pulling it out anyway, because I'm not convinced the book understands that she's already done this. Something in the framing is off.

They bicker a bit, mostly so Morven can show off that he's a racist too (because he really needed more stock villain traits heaped on him). Ruhn takes a paragraph to recap how he tried to tell Bryce about his own journey through the Cave of Princes, but how it was too chaotic to really be helpful.

Bryce hadn’t seemed too concerned, despite her comment last night about time running out.

Probably because she knows her star is going to be a quest marker like it was in Prythian.

“Yes,” Morven sneered, “and what has your sister done with her Starborn heritage except show contempt for the Fae?”

No, no, Morven is right here, she's done nothing but show contempt for the fae. They don't deserve to be united, remember? Of course, because he's a caricature, Morven is more concerned with her mixed-race marriage/mating/whatever-the-fuck with Hunt, but still. He's not actually wrong here. Especially since, mixed-race allegory aside, that whole marriage thing would be a major diplomatic incident in a better book. It was Morven's own son she spurned, after all, his family she betrayed and publicly humiliated. This is literally why the Red Wedding happened in A Song of Ice and Fire. But, again, because he's a caricature, Morven can't be angry for legitimate diplomatic reasons. It's gotta be about racism.

...........wait, is that why he's such a caricature? Because otherwise we might think he's got a point and Bryce may have actually done something wrong? Fuck me, that's the reason, isn't it? Again, this book would drown in a puddle.

Oh, he's also a religious fanatic, too. Because of fucking course he is. This is America, donchaknow?

Morven tries to convince Ruhn that he (Ruhn) is the fae's only hope, and Ruhn shows true SJM-protagonist maturity by flipping him off as he walks away. You know. Just in case Morven had any shred of credibility remaining him as a villain.

Ruhn goes back to the others, but doesn't tell them what Morven said.

[Lidia] added, turning toward Ruhn, “You could learn a thing or two from your sister.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruhn demanded. [...] “You’re a prince,” Lidia said coolly. “Start acting like one.”

Dear god, no. Bryce's behaviour is the exact opposite of what a royal should be. Ruhn isn't much better, mind, but at least he's not so in-your-face abrasive.

..............you know. It honestly reads like the book thinks the definition of "queen" is the whole modern "yaaas queen girlboss slay" and not, you know, an actual historical administrative role with responsibilities that require people to be diplomatic above all else. And that ruling royalty are just quirky celebrities instead of, you know, the people running the fucking country. I know that's kind of what they're like in our world, where the remaining royal families are more figureheads and the actual country-running is done by parliament, at least for Commonwealth countries (can't really speak for the others). But Bryce and co don't live in *our* world. They live in *their* world. And the book just doesn't seem to appreciate that at all.

So. The Alexander Trilogy (idk if it's the official name for the series, I've seen "Alexandriad" posited as well) is a historical fiction series by Mary Renault, which follows the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, as well as the aftermath of his death. I'll start off by saying that my experience of this series was somewhat atypical, as I didn't realise it was a trilogy when I picked up my first entry (which was actually the second book, The Persian Boy, which I've reviewed separately here), and thus read the books out of order. I read the second first, the third second, and the first last. So. Continuity of the tale between entries isn't really something I can comment on, alas.

But, honestly, I feel like that isn't really an issue for this series? The three tackle very different segments of Alexander's life, and in different ways. Fire From Heaven is the first book, which focuses on his early life up until the age of ~19 or so. The POV is third person omniscient, but for the most part we're focused on scenes that Alexander is in, or where characters are actively discussing things that relate to him and his early story. The Persian Boy switches it up, being told in first person from the perspective of a Persian eunuch named Bagoas. We follow Bagoas through his early life, where he's hearing stories of distant Alexander and his conquests across Asia, before he finally meets him in person and joins his entourage, where he remains until the time of Alexander's death. Then, the third book, The Funeral Games, picks up from there, moving back to third person and following the various key players in the absolute shitstorm of politics that followed Alexander's death.

So, in reading out of order, while you might lose track of things like names more easily, and perhaps not feel the impact of certain elements as strongly (e.g. I gathered that Hephaistion was a Very Important person to Alexander quite easily during The Persian Boy, but Fire From Heaven has a lot of context and groundwork laid for their relationship that I was missing), the central threads of each book stand well enough on their own. I'll probably read them again in order eventually, so we'll see what I think then.

But, really, the plot beats of these novels is kind of only a tangential point, I feel? It's just history, after all - you can find out a lot of the big ones just by reading Alexander's Wikipedia page. For me, at least, the strength of the book is in the immersion it creates for us, in the world and setting, and in the myth of Alexander. How did people see him? How might such a person have thought? What qualities and events made him so much larger than life, while understanding that, whatever the various ancient peoples might have believed about godhood and the like, he was, ultimately, just a man? If looked at through the lens of modern fiction, then Alexander's kinda just a Mary Sue - he never lost a battle, and everyone loved him, except for a handful of villainous sorts. But, well, from what we know of him... it was the truth. And Renault has managed to craft her story in such a way that we can believe such a thing ourselves. It's easy to understand how people were drawn to him, and why his exploits were so successful. Was there really a divine hand involved? Like, of an actual god, not the author-god? Science and reason says no.... but if you told me that there actually was, I'd probably believe you. That's how well Renault plays it off here.

On the topic of immersion, this time about the world. As I said above the cut, the books really do a superb job of bringing the ancient world to life. So many things that fail in other works that try to emulate historical things - how pagan religions actually worked in the day-to-day lives of practitioners, for example, or any of the Dark and Gritty things that many authors are fond of including - are managed with a skillful hand in a way that really captures the way such things were lived and experienced in that society. Or at least, it seems that way to me, though I am admittedly just a lay person and not a scholar of Ancient Mediterranean studies or whatever. A lot of debate I see about things like fictional morality seems to boil down to one key issue - do you judge a character's morality by our standards, or their world's standards? And the issues mainly arise when the book in question can't commit to one or the other. Whether that's a protagonist-centred shitstorm like ACOTAR, or allowing anachronistically modern views for protagonists like in Spark of the Everflame, or even just a general unwillingness to embrace the concept of "alien" morality beyond allusions, due to the author's own discomfort with the topics. It's something I struggle with myself, in my own writing - knowing that such a thing is unquestionably wrong, by our measure, but needing to get into the head of a character who simply would not see it that way, without them being considered a villain for it in their world or in the narrative. It's really, really frikking hard.

But that is not a problem in Renault's works. We are in the ancient world, with all the good, bad and ugly that entails. People do horrible things to each other as a matter of course. Slavery is as unremarkable to them as employment is to us. Racism is rampant, with everyone thinking everyone else are all just stupid barbarians, and they aren't afraid to voice such opinions to us. Conquest and colonisation are treated as par-for-course, and rape the right of a soldier after battle, just one of the many spoils of war. Women are basically non-entities in the thoughts of most of the men, and limited primarily to their role as wives and mothers when they do show up. We don't get much insight into the thoughts of the women themselves until the third book, and it's fascinating watching the interplay of what we know to be true (that people are people and have their own thoughts and ambitions and etc) with the world these women were raised in, and what they believe about things as a result. We do see quite a bit of Alexander's mother, Olympias, in the first book and, er... she is quite a character, to say the least.

All this to say, some of the topics can be quite confronting, particularly in book two with poor Bagoas. But, I feel like the topics are handled very... hmm. I want to say respectfully, but with the caveat that it is respectful in terms of the role and understanding of the various matters in their context of the ancient world. It is respectful in replicating how the people involved might have thought and felt about such things, based on their world, their knowledge, their experience, their biases - even if such thoughts would be completely unthinkable to even entertain to us. It is not respectful in terms of what we, modern readers with modern sensibilities, might consider respectful, necessarily. If we are in the POV of e.g. a character involved in buying/selling slaves, we more than likely aren't going to hear anything from the POV of the slaves themselves, because in the book's world, there's no reason for it to even occur to the slaver that they are people with POVs in the first place - they're just property to be bought and sold, and the book reflects it. Slavery is not and never is a moral issue for the ancient people, but an economic one. It's quite brutal, in a lot of ways. But it is honest about what it is, and doesn't shy away from reflecting things faithfully even in characters we're meant to find sympathetic. Honestly, respect to Mary Renault. It's not an easy thing to do.

But, I should probably wrap things up. I said above that it was hard to think of flaws that aren't just matters of taste. Probably the two biggest matters of taste that leap out at me (apart from the above approach to morality, which is very much a YMMV thing) would be that of pacing and plot. It is a very slow-paced work. And in terms of plot, there isn't really a central "goal" that we typically expect from fiction plots - we're just following Alexander's life, watching him become the Great, and seeing what happens when the man that held it all together dies. Individual characters will have various goals at different times, which may or may not succeed depending on what history says. But the individual events can all feel a bit disconnected, or lacking in narrative "drive", so to speak. Kind of like, if standard fiction plots are like a landscape painting with a central focus, e.g a cottage or a rock outcrop or whatever, these books are a landscape without a specific central focus. Beautiful, but without the same direction we might be used to. Neither this nor the pacing were really issues for me, because I was mostly enjoying the atmosphere - but if either of those things are important for you when reading, these books are probably going to be a slog.