I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how venin can be killed. You know that moment when you have far too many thoughts running in your head, making it almost impossible to express yourself or explain what on earth is going on? That is exactly how I feel about this theory, so please bear with me.

How can we kill venin?

There are a couple of known ways to kill venin. We know that it can be vanquished by pure power or with the help of the alloy.

Now, alloy is not pure power. As we learn from Iron Flame, Xaden explains what alloy is made of: “An amalgamation of Talladium, a few other ores, and dragon eggshells.”

“Dragon eggshells?” Well, that’s… weird.
“They’re metal and still carry magic long after the dragons hatch.”

What about the pure power situation? If they absorb power from the ground, isn’t that pure power? Well, not quite. This is where it gets murky. We know that Violet is the only one who wields pure power (in the form of lightning). Even more, she actually wields it from the sky – and also… via Tairn.

When we encounter the venin in Fourth Wing, Violet is told that she can command the sky. When we meet Theo in Onyx Storm, Violet is asked who chose her first, “The one who gifted you the power of the sky? Or the irid?”

So we know for a fact that it was Tairn who gifted Violet the power of the sky. Hear me out: what if the power in the ground is somehow already corrupted? What if the only two sources of pure power are from dragon eggshells (feathertails are pure, right? They are babies, uncorrupted) and the power from the sky?

This would tie in with the idea that dragons are evil (well, not quite, but at least partly corrupted). It would also explain why, because they rely on magic from the ground, they experience difficulties—or even pain—when they are on the isles or in places with no magic.

But there is more…

There are two other ways to kill venin. One is with a special dagger from a God, as we have seen in Theophanie’s case. I believe that, somehow, some mavens are connected to other Gods too. They turned their backs on them, and now mavens can only be killed by power from Gods (or Violet).

There was one epigraph that stayed with me…

In the first twenty-four hours of removal from source magic, the subject—an asim—presented as even-tempered. But withdrawal quickly revealed the subject’s true nature, requiring the subject’s immediate transfer to stage two of the study. Her results can be found in group thirty-three B under the category: DEATH BY FIRE, and subsequently in group forty-six C under the category: DEATH BY POISON.
—A Study in the Anatomy of the Enemy by Captain Dominic Prishel

There have been experiments on captured venin. So far, from the study, we can assume that there are three types of death.

It appears that the testers progress through groups until they find a method that works. The asim in question was moved from the testing stage to the death stage: first to death by fire (which clearly did not work), and then to death by poison (which did work, as she was not transferred to a new group).

This tells me that there is a type of poison that can kill them. And this is especially interesting, as there are two individuals who are impeccable with poisons: Brennan and Violet. Plus the series is very set on poison uses and herbal remedies.

Could it be that our “weapon” from 600 years ago was some form of poison?