It goes without saying that THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. If you haven’t read this chapter of Onyx Storm, please go read it first. Please note that some mild spoilers from future chapters will be found here.

Well, the epigraph is pretty great. Colonel Agatha Mayfair is informing the royal that no law overrides the Unification Scrolls. A past agreement, the Provincial Commitment under Queen Alondra the Bold, had temporarily unified provincial armies under the queen’s command for the conflict. However, this commitment ended with the Second Aretia Accord, meaning control of the armies was returned to their respective provinces. Basically the Duke of Tyrrendor: Xaden, has a third of the troops as we’ll soon learn.

The importance of this chapter is that we know the date: “Mira and Garrick are released back to the front on March twenty-eighth.” I cannot stress enough just how important these dates are when we are looking at the Onyx Storm ending and trying to understand more about… well, brothers. (Trying not to give out spoilers here.)

There are pieces of history here too: “Braevick absorbing Cygnisen under Porom the First.” Much like Navarre, it seems like Poromiel has its fair share of unsettling history too.

Braevick absorbed Cygnisen. And we all know that Krovla tried to break away twice, seeing as there were two Krovlan uprisings. Feels similar to how Tyrrendor is trying to break away from Navarre too…

And wow, “an army of forty thousand soldiers from an alliance with Zehyllna.” That is a lot of people on an isle. I would love to understand how many people are in Navarre. How many in Tyrrendor? It feels like they barely have riders. Around 100 or so per year willing to bond. That’s not very much, seeing as the whole continent is at war and losing.

There is talk in Battle Brief about the army and where the leadership will decide to place it. Interesting. I wonder if Tecarus and the Senarium will be able to have a say in this at all.

We’re now discovering Suniva. The dragons in question (the four of them) were there, and one of them made it out alive. And there we have it—Suniva had 25,000 lives. All of a sudden, 40,000 soldiers don’t feel like so much…

Again, going back to that epigraph where Melgren promised weapons to Queen Maraya, we learn just what happened to them. We have venin in the high ranks. Someone is feeding venin information they can use against Navarre and Poromiel. This is how they knew how to strike.

“Right there.” Devera points at me. “The answer is too many. We have traitors in our ranks.”

Chilling, is it not?

“No reasonable rider flies within a thunderstorm.” But Violet does, and then she explains why. “Which means I could theoretically control the natural strikes and move a riot within a thunderstorm with relative safety… after about twenty years of practice.”

Are we getting chills during this Battle Brief? It feels an awful lot… darker. The Iron Squad knows exactly what needs to be done, and yet, they are all protective of each other.

“Then Sorrengail needs to be the better of the two.” And I think, again, that’s going to be foreshadowing for us. And no, not just for Theophanie, but for when we learn of her second signet, given Rebecca Yarros’ Q&A. Remember, she said only one person alive knows how to train her. And something tells me it’s another venin. Which means, we might have to use Violet’s lightning against Theo. But also use her second signet… against another maven.

SO Dark: “One day, Battle Brief is going to cover how a shadow wielder took out Cordyn, but you won’t be sitting in your seat because they will have already killed you to stop him.”

Question to the audience here: Could it be that Lynx will be that shadow wielder and perhaps not Xaden?

Towards the end, we learn about Sawyer and how he needs to adjust his expectations to be able to ride again. I quite love that Violet picks up on his emotions. She definitely is an empath.

The chapter ends with Violet telling her squad about Xaden.

Well, the cat’s out of the bag.

Onyx Storm Read Along

• Onyx Storm Read Along: Prologue
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 1
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 2
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 3
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 4
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 5
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 6
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 7
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 8
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 9
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 10
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 11
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 12
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 13
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 14
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 15
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 16
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 17
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 18
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 19
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 20
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 21
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 22
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 23
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 24
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 25
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 26
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 27
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 28
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 29
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 30
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 31
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 32
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 33
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 34
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 35
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 36
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 37
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 38
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 39
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 40
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 41
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 42
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 43
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 44
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 45
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 46
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 47
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 48
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 49
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 50
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 51
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 52
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 53
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 54
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 55
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 56
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 57
• Onyx Storm Read Along – Chapter 58