Crescent City: Asteri Deep Dive | What Powers do they ACTUALLY have? (Quite a few, it turns out!)

Dragons in the Details: A Romantasy Deep Dive Podcast

The hosts conduct an in-depth analysis of the Asteri, the parasitic antagonists of the Crescent City series. They explore the various physic

Key takeaways

• The Asteri can inhabit non-true forms, such as Rigelus appearing as a teenage fae or even a cat.
• Their magic is described as a 'blunt, wicked tool of destruction' compared to the more refined Starfire.

Main topics

• Asteri physical forms and transformations
• The mechanics of power absorption

Notable quotes

The Asteri's power is a blunt, wicked tool of destruction.

Conclusion

A comprehensive breakdown of antagonist mechanics that provides fans w

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Were you fascinated by mummies, Greek gods, and Atlantis as a kid? Two kids like you grew up to co-host a podcast called Spirits, Mythology, Legends, and Folklore. Do you remember when we recorded our Koschei episode, which we actually just re-released, and I said I listened to a podcast episode on Koschei the Deathless, like the actual figure in Slavic folklore? I do. Because I thought, oh crap. Ronnie did so much more prep than I did. It was very passive prep. It was passive prep. But Spirits, fun fact, does have an episode on Caché the Deathless for our ACOTAR fan listeners. Seems very relevant at the moment. Very relevant. Check it out. Spirits is a weekly podcast where mythology buff Julia explains a different story from ancient myth or modern folklore to her childhood best friend, Amanda. They examine these stories through a queer feminist lens, drawing parallels to modern life and asking why these stories still matter to us as human beings. It's like a cocktail party where you get to learn something, laugh a lot and think about death, but like in a fun way. I have fun. Once a month, they also tell spooky stories from listeners' hometowns. So listen to Spirits, Mythology, Legends, and Folklore in your podcast app. Every Wednesday, you can search their archive. They have over 500 episodes out. And as they say on Spirits, Speaker 1 (1:25) stay creepy, stay cool. What Meryl says here is, it might be possible for worlds to overlap, occupy in the same space. but separated by time and a whole bunch of other things, if they are at the same place, then the power of a volant would also be dusk, right? So it's possible that Hesperus has absorbed that power, and that is why she is also calling herself the evening star, the way that Vesperus is calling herself the evening star. Speaker 2 (2:03) So Speaker 1 (2:03) I've realized that we are currently at a very, very unique time in our lives that will never happen again. Speaker 2 (2:10) And Speaker 1 (2:10) that unique time is that you are currently married and Speaker 2 (2:13) I Speaker 1 (2:14) am not currently married. We have a three week period where you are married and I'm not married. So you are now my married friend that I get to ask all my questions to. You Speaker 2 (2:23) have so many married friends. Well, but you're the most recently married. I am the most recently married. And by the way, I texted you this, but I mean it. If you buy one single white article of clothing without asking me whether I have it first, I will kill you. I have. One, so many things. Two, almost all of them I didn't wear. Speaker 1 (2:44) I had white things. I wanted to get married in a jumpsuit. Like, I've had the things. The things I have. The things I don't have, which I just discovered. And we're getting personal here, but that's how this podcast always is. So I just did my first wedding dress fitting. It went well. She was very lovely. I was like, oh, okay, this looks very good. I'm happy with what she's going to do with the dress. Speaker 2 (3:03) I was worried about you after the last Speaker 1 (3:06) discussion. No, she was delightful. And I cried. Speaker 2 (3:09) Yeah, but she was delightful. Had a moment. Well, Speaker 1 (3:12) I feel like everything that I always felt was going to come to pass is coming to pass, which is the people around me are having last minute breakdowns. And I am like, the decisions are made. We are on the plane. The plane is in the air. All we have to do now is land the plane. There's nothing that can be done, which is why I'm a very Zen person in airports and on airplanes, by the way, guys. I love an airport, but that can be a different conversation for a different time. I'm at the fitting and my sister-in-law is with me. She came, which was very sweet of her. But she's like, by the way, like, what underwear are you going to wear? And I'm like, well, I was hoping to wear the underwear I'm currently wearing because I did get like a no-show underwear specifically for the dress. But she's like, I can see it. Speaker 2 (3:51) OK, Speaker 1 (3:52) great. So now I have to find a last minute underwear and I don't know what I'm going to do, but we'll figure it out, hopefully. Speaker 2 (3:57) But if you already are wearing no-show underwear, like, can you even wear underwear Speaker 1 (4:01) with this? How much more no-show can it get? I don't know. Like, I don't know. But I'm not really clear. I might just have to go Commando. But she, the tailor, actually recommended a brand called Commando. There Speaker 2 (4:13) you go. Speaker 1 (4:13) We'll see. We'll see. Speaker 2 (4:15) I Speaker 1 (4:15) don't know. But. Speaker 2 (4:17) Yeah. I'm trying to think. I definitely didn't have, none of my dresses had any underwear risk. No, because Speaker 1 (4:24) your dresses were like big at the bottom, but mine is sleek. Skinny. It's a silhouette dress. Yeah. So we'll see. This episode is going to come out far too late for any advice. But if you guys have any advice on where to Speaker 2 (4:38) get wedding day underwear. Speaker 1 (4:41) Yeah. We could just comment underneath this episode, just the name of the brand and people will figure out what we're talking about. People will be confused. Some people will be confused, but it's, you know, I'm at this place right now where I'm like, it's just going to be what it's going to be. Like yesterday, Speaker 2 (4:59) remember, Speaker 1 (5:01) we had, for those of you who are on Dragons After Dark, you will know we had a whole conversation about hiring an Etsy witch for my wedding for the weather. The weather today, the weather forecast today looks fantastic. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day. So I'm like, it's just maybe somebody else hired an Etsy witch for your day. Speaker 1 (5:18) Maybe invoking the Etsy witch. I was actually on a group chat with my mom and Derek and my mom was like, oh, the weather looks great now. And I said, it's because of the Etsy witch. And she went, what are you talking about? I was like, Etsy witches. I don't know how to explain this to you, but it's, I'm feeling, I'm feeling shockingly zen. I'm feeling shockingly zen. I'm like, whatever. It's just going to be what it's going to be. I Speaker 2 (5:39) was also surprised at how, with respect to the events of the wedding. that my life aside from the wedding not sin just because I was not able to get everything done that I need to get done outside of the wedding for my life but regarding the wedding I was just like I Speaker 1 (5:55) just need to get there I just need to show up yeah Speaker 2 (5:58) at this point anything Speaker 1 (5:59) that's Speaker 2 (6:00) not Speaker 1 (6:00) planned it's not going to get planned and Speaker 2 (6:02) anything that is going to go wrong you're not going to find out that it's wrong until right It's happening. And Speaker 1 (6:10) as long as people are fed and, you know, have drinks in hand, I don't think anything's going to be that big a deal. I think it's just going to be fine. Speaker 2 (6:17) I think it's going to be fine. Speaker 1 (6:18) That's what I'm choosing to believe. Speaker 2 (6:21) It's going to be great. It's going to be great. Can't wait. Can't wait. Speaker 1 (6:24) And then it's going to be over. And I so badly can't wait for that. Speaker 2 (6:28) Truly can't wait, Roy. We are excited. We are excited. For the wedding and for after. And for after the wedding, yes. Yeah. That's Speaker 1 (6:39) it. That's all my banter. Do you have any banter? Speaker 2 (6:41) Every time I drink chamomile tea now, I think of Adam from The Love Hypothesis. Oh, my God. I watched a new trailer today. chamomile tea i haven't been able to watch in your trailer i find chamomile Speaker 1 (6:54) tea delightful personally but i am a tea girl i really just don't like like very strong black Speaker 2 (6:59) teas but even then i don't know i had a phase i had my phase of black teas i'm drinking it out of my Speaker 2 (7:07) Prithian. Speaker 1 (7:08) That's your Prithian mug? Oh, I love that mug. It almost looks like a camping mug, which I didn't realize. Speaker 2 (7:13) Yeah, it's like a, it's a ceramic. It does look like a ceramic camping mug. Speaker 1 (7:17) Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:18) I'm Speaker 1 (7:18) quite sick still. I'm seem to be getting Speaker 2 (7:21) sicker. I Speaker 1 (7:22) don't know how this is happening. Speaker 2 (7:23) You're going on Speaker 1 (7:24) a plane tomorrow. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. Speaker 2 (7:27) So I also don't know what's going to happen with that. Speaker 1 (7:29) Well, I hope you don't throw up in a bathroom over the Atlantic the way that I did. It's not throw up sick. It's like. Speaker 2 (7:36) throat aches Speaker 1 (7:37) i'm sorry Speaker 2 (7:38) and at this point it's been eight days so like yeah it's the can't imagine the viral load is very heavy at this point but god knows hopefully Speaker 1 (7:46) you're on the up and up Speaker 2 (7:49) Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to do about this. I'm not usually what I'm I don't usually get really sick that often. And if I do, it's like a day and I just like don't exercise and I drink like for emergency and then it's over. But I think because I was like a recluse and then I saw like 90 people. I don't know. There was an interesting post that I came across on TikTok today that I have been thinking this for like basically almost as long as we've been talking about Agatar, but I haven't been able to appropriately put it into words. I'll have to find the post. But this person, this woman was making the point that, well, she called it a literacy crisis, but I don't necessarily think that I agree that it's a literacy crisis. She was saying there's like a crisis in the fact that people refuse to read literature that contains things that they disagree with, which is the antithesis of the point of literature. And it didn't used to exist. This didn't used to exist. Literally in school, we were made to read like as part of our education and people who study the English language and people who study literature and study classics. The whole point. Part of the point of reading is like reading about things either that have happened or beliefs that have been held or about characters that you do not like or concepts that you do not agree with. And there's so much discourse specifically in the book talk community about whether you're OK with a character or a concept in a book. Right. And whether it's OK that you read that because of what's in it. And that really that really made me stop and think. She did a great job articulating my thoughts. I'm doing a terrible job. Speaker 1 (9:36) I haven't seen it, but I do feel like at some point it became reading something is an endorsement of that in real life. And it's like, no, books are a way to like explore ideas without real life consequences, right? Like you can think about, oh, what would it be like to be in this mindset of this person, right? Speaker 2 (9:56) Right. Speaker 1 (9:57) Without actually being that person. Speaker 2 (10:00) Right. I Speaker 1 (10:00) saw the post. I didn't really have time to scroll through it, but I was like, oh, that does seem really it seems like a really interesting idea. Speaker 2 (10:06) Yeah. And I think there was some good commentary. The commentary of this generation struggles to like literature that they don't agree with or that they can't like insert themselves in or where they don't like the characters of the concepts. Like if you, for example, are like, I hate the great Gatsby because like Gatsby sucks. Like the whole point is that Gatsby does Speaker 1 (10:25) suck. Like Speaker 2 (10:27) that's Speaker 1 (10:27) the whole point. That's like what you're supposed to. You were supposed to take away that, like, Gatsby and Daisy suck. They both suck. Speaker 2 (10:34) Like, Speaker 1 (10:35) that is the whole Speaker 2 (10:35) point. I like that we are maybe starting to discuss these things. Or maybe we won't. Speaker 1 (10:39) I don't know. We'll see. Maybe we'll start an intellectual book podcast where we actually talk about the classics. Who Speaker 2 (10:45) knows? Connor started reading Infinite Jest. And then Maude was like, do you want to read Infinite Jest? And then I didn't answer. So I Speaker 1 (10:54) might be reading Speaker 2 (10:54) Infinite Jest. Speaker 1 (10:55) Derek has all these books he wants me to read. Like, he's like, oh, like, Hyperion is one of them. He just, like, they're these sci-fi books. And, like, they're good. I know they're good. But all I want to read right now is Allie Hazelwood, if I'm being quite honest. I don't even really want to read Onyx Storm. I'm going to read Onyx Storm. But, like, all I want to read is Allie Hazelwood and just be, like, nice and cozy. But, like, I do think it's important for me to not. I think I need a break. I do think I need to read a more, like, intellectually stimulating book. All right. I'm Ronnie. I'm Speaker 2 (11:25) Abby. And this is Dragons in the Details, the podcast that helps you better understand your favorite fantasy books through a series of deep dive episodes. This season, we are covering Crescent City. Disclaimer, this episode will contain Crescent City and ACOTAR. Spoilers, all eight published books as of September 2026. That's three Crescent City books so far and five ACOTAR books so far. Another disclaimer. This podcast is rated R. So these are spicy books. There's curse words. We curse, etc. Suggest caution when listening with your children. I know a lot of you do. I saw a comment the other day that was like, I can't wait for my child's first words to be kosher and then like the F-bomb. Which, you know, if that's what you're going Speaker 1 (12:12) for, I can't. I think this disclaimer absolves us of all responsibility on that front, personally. Speaker 2 (12:21) We've made our suggestions. Do with it what you will. Each week, we dive into a specific topic in depth. This week, we are diving into the intergalactic parasitic enemies of the massverse, the Asteri. We come with receipts. We have quotes to back up our theories so you can follow along if you are skeptical. Announcements, Abby. All right. Deep Speaker 1 (12:42) dive music, as always, brought to you by Shwoodley. You guys know this by now. You also know our next announcement by now. So we are doing a live show on October 30th. It is an ACOTAR 6 reaction show. It is at P &T Knitwear in Manhattan. Tickets are on sale now. I don't actually know how many tickets we've sold. Anecdotally, they seem to be going. If Speaker 2 (13:05) you're planning to come, I would buy those tickets Speaker 1 (13:07) if Speaker 2 (13:08) you are able to. We Speaker 1 (13:08) would love to see you. We're very excited to have you. Tickets are $10 up until October 15th when they will become $15. So if you're going to be there, let us know. We're very excited to see everyone. We're very excited and very nervous Speaker 2 (13:22) about the live show. Mostly nervous. But Speaker 1 (13:24) it's going to be Speaker 2 (13:24) a good Speaker 1 (13:25) time. Speaker 2 (13:25) It's going Speaker 1 (13:26) to be a Speaker 2 (13:26) good time. It's going to be a good Speaker 1 (13:27) time. All right. Other announcements. All right. So Threshing Day is coming. ACOTAR 6 is coming. We are wrapping up our Asteri... Sorry, our Crisis City season. Not our Asteri season. So... Our plan right now, and this is tentative, things may change because we do not know the contents of these books that are coming out. Our plan right now, we are going to bring you one more official Crescent City episode as part of this season. The topic of that is TBD. Then we are going to switch to Threshing Day. We are planning to do two, maybe three Threshing Day episodes on the main feed. But that third episode might actually be an ACOTAR 6 Crescent City Book 4 Predictions episode. So we're going to do Crescent City. Then we're going to do Threshing Day. And then we are going to go into our ACOTAR 6 coverage. Anything we don't cover in Threshing Day on the main feed, and we are hoping to do kind of an episode per POV, that is going to be on Dragons After Dark on the Patreon feed. So we're going to try to bring you guys as much as we possibly can on the main feed, but we have two back-to-back releases, very tight, so some of that is going to have to live on Patreon. So if you want to continue the journey with us, we hope that you will join us on. patreon that is it for announcements ronnie you want to do fun questions fun question fun Speaker 2 (14:44) question all right fun question this week is from i'm gonna butcher your last name and i'm sorry jackie fugate Speaker 1 (14:54) that's Speaker 2 (14:55) how Speaker 1 (14:55) i would say it Speaker 2 (14:56) f-u-g-a-t-e-o-7 Jackie asks, where would Bryce and Hunt choose to go on vacation? You could tell that we didn't have any Asteri-specific fun questions here. So, fun question. Where would Bryce and Hunt choose to go on vacation? Abby, where do you think they would choose to go on vacation? Speaker 1 (15:14) Oh. Is this our world or their world? Speaker 2 (15:18) I did it as our world, but I'm open to either possibility. Speaker 1 (15:22) Okay, so I was at a wedding this weekend, another one, and the people I was at the table with, they were having a very good time and they were like, we got to go to the Dominican Republic. It's like ridiculously fun in the DR. They basically hand you drinks as soon as you get there and it's like this tropical island getaway. So I feel like Bryce and Hunt would enjoy that atmosphere. So I'm not saying they have to go to the Dominican Republic specifically, but I feel like some kind of tropical island vibe where, you know, all-inclusive resort drinks are handed to you as soon as you get off the plane. I feel like they, A, have earned that, and B, would enjoy a vacation like that quite a lot. Speaker 2 (16:05) Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I think they're beach Speaker 1 (16:07) people. Speaker 2 (16:08) They're beach people. I see them as beach people, like mostly because... Bryce definitely wants Hunt to be shirtless the whole time. And Hunt definitely wants Bryce to be in a bathing suit the whole time. Like they are those. Horny beach Speaker 1 (16:19) people. Speaker 2 (16:20) Kinds of people they are. And they're hot. And I get it. Like good for them. I'm happy for them. I said that I think. I think they'd enjoy like a tropical destination that's different from home. But like something sort of similar to Avalon. I. pictured them in the azores in portugal which i hear is beautiful i've never been i really want to go yeah i really yeah we've talked about wanting to go and i we should go let's do it Speaker 1 (16:47) let's go right now i kind of picture Speaker 2 (16:48) it as like tropical avalanche to be honest to be honest with you yeah and i think it works i think they'd have a grand old time so Speaker 1 (16:57) beach grade Speaker 2 (16:57) all right corrections omissions social media shout outs abby do you have any I just I forgot to do it entirely. I didn't do it. I don't know. Do you have Speaker 1 (17:08) any? I Speaker 2 (17:09) have one. Sometimes when people are on fire, they're on fire. I shouted just Nina at Nina Marie out last episode, but she posted an awesome video on TikTok that I saw literally this morning. And if you follow us on TikTok, you saw that I reposted it already. It's a really interesting concept. So she basically made a video talking Speaker 1 (17:30) about how Clotho. from Akatar has mangled hands and it's Speaker 2 (17:36) like discussed right and pointed out that Clotho has mangled hands and that Clotho is also the name of one of the fates which we've also talked about right yeah and there's many things in Prithian that would indicate that fate and the cauldron are corrupted so is the fact that Clotho's hands are mangled symbolic of the fact that fate like cannot be properly spun right now, which I thought was brilliant. And I actually commented in response. It had me thinking about how at this point that we meet Clotho, we're about to lose Striga, the weaver who was weaving something. And then we, after Striga's gone, we get Eranea who starts weaving the void and hope. So is Clotho's hands being mangled? symbolic of fate like halting like we're not weaving fate anymore or has fate and the weaving of fate been like stolen by two very I'll say spidery beings and you can interpret that based on whatever you've read yeah I thought it was I thought it was a brilliant video and I wanted to shout her out you should definitely check out her Speaker 1 (18:46) video made Speaker 2 (18:47) on September 15th at Nina Marie on TikTok that's Speaker 1 (18:51) today Speaker 2 (18:51) at Miss Nuna at miss underscore Nina Marie on TikTok. Just Nina. I thought it was great. Nice. I Speaker 1 (18:58) like it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope we get more clotho. I don't know how you say it. I hope we get more of her in the next book. Yeah. Speaker 2 (19:06) Very curious about her. Speaker 1 (19:07) Very curious. All Speaker 2 (19:09) right. Shall we deep dive? We shall. Speaker 2 (19:19) Okay, Abby, what are the Asteri's powers? Speaker 1 (19:22) I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked because I think they're actually, I think this is actually a very interesting list. I don't know if you felt that way too. So I did want to just remind everyone at a high level who the Asteri actually are before we dove in here because Rigelous is obviously mentioned frequently. We talk about Vesperus a lot on this podcast, but there are others. So we'll start at the top. Brigilus is known as the bright hand of the Asteri. We'll talk about what he looks like. Some of them we don't even know what they look like. Hesperus is the evening star on Midgard. We know that Vesperus is also the evening star on Prithian, which we will talk about later. Polaris is the north star. Octardus. I don't know if that's how you say that. Octardus is the southern star. Eosferos is the morning star. And then we're told there's another one named Austrus, A-U-S-T-R-U-S. He's not given a star, but Austr, in Latin, I've been told, means the south wind. So this one's not associated with a star, but he is associated with the wind. And we've talked about a myriad of characters who seem to have wind-like power. So I think it's interesting. We are potentially getting an Asteria that's associated with the wind. And then Sirius, R.I.P. is known as the seventh star and also the wolf star, which we have also talked Speaker 2 (20:37) about on this podcast. So Speaker 1 (20:39) those are our Midgard. That's our Midgard roster of Asteri. And then on Prithian, we are told the only Asteri who is left is Vesperus. She is now dead. We don't know if we believe that line. We don't know if we believe that there are other Asteri, but that is what we are told. And there were other Asteri on Prithian, but we don't know their names. So that's just high level overview. So what are their births is the question. So let's start at the beginning. The Asteri we know can create forms for themselves, right? So all of the Asteri have a form, at least on Midgard, that is not their true form. With Rigelous, we know he's kind of the biggest example of this. We know he has taken on the body of a fae teenage boy. We have this quote in Crescent City 1. The Asteri again surveyed the room, none more haughtily than Rigelous, the bright hand. That slim teenage boy's body was a mockery of the monstrous power within. So he's taken on the form of a... fae teenage boy, but anyone who comes into contact with him knows that he's not a fae teenage boy. Right. Other Asteri, we have these other Asteri also taking on different forms. So Hesperus, who we mentioned is the evening star, she takes on the shape of a blonde nymph on Midgard. And then Polaris, the north star, wears the body of a white-winged, dark-skinned female angel. Right. So they're taking on the forms of creatures that exist. Well, I guess we've never seen any nymphs, but. I don't think it's crazy to think that they would exist on Midgar, but they're basically taking on forms of creatures that exist within the worlds that they're in. Vesperus, I think we can assume that this is not Vesperus' true form either, but we know that she looks humanoid. So the quote we have for that, this is Crescent City 3, Chapter 24, that crystal coffin revealed the features of the sleeping female, humanoid. pale-skinned and slender. Her silky golden gown accentuated every delicate curve of her body. So she, I don't know if humanoid here means includes Fae or not, or if she has like curved ears, and it would be interesting if she chose that for whatever reason, but basically we're given humanoid. We can also, I think, safely assume that the other Asteriopyrithian looked humanoid because of Selene's Insulene's carvings. We have Bryce looking at them. She says, she distracted herself by peering at the carvings etched into the walls. Fae kneeling before impossibly tall robed humanoids, glowing bits of starlight in their upraised hands, magic and offering to the crowned creatures before them. So we know that this is the Fae giving their magic to the Asterae for the tide. And we have that word humanoid again. So interesting to me, it seems like we don't I don't know that we really have enough, but we might be getting indications that they all chose similar forms on Prithian. But on Midgard, we know that they are different forms. I don't know why that would be, but it seems like maybe they're all uniform on Prithian. And Speaker 2 (23:22) it's interesting, too. I think their forms are really interesting. Rigelous takes the form of a teenage Fae. Fae typically age behind teenagehood. But Rigelous doesn't seem to. Like Rigelous seems to be like frozen in teenageness. We don't see them shift. It seems like they inhabit this form and then they're inhabiting that form until I don't know when. We Speaker 1 (23:47) get in House of Earth and Blood chapter 11, we get Speaker 2 (23:49) as if the Asteria weren't their emperors and empresses ruling over everything and everyone for eternity. Their rotted souls regenerating from one form to the next. Like what triggers a regeneration? We haven't really seen it, I don't think. Speaker 1 (24:04) Yeah. And you said they don't shift. And I would agree they don't shift. But at some point, Rigelous is a cat, right? So Rigelous takes on the form of a cat pretending to be Aedas. So the quote we have for that is, Your friend Aedas will be terribly disappointed to learn you couldn't tell the difference between the real Prince of the Chasm and myself. He's terribly vain that way. Hunt started with Bryce Seath. You pretended to be Aedas that night. Who else could break through the wards on your apartment? You didn't even suspect anything when he encouraged you toward rebellious activities. Though I suppose credit for that goes to me. I played his rage about Thea and Peleus quite well, don't you think? And I think what's Speaker 2 (24:40) interesting Speaker 1 (24:41) about this, right, he shifted into a cat, but could the Asteri shift into like, like we've talked about this with Tamlin, right? Like Tamlin can shift into other people. We know that Tamlin can shift into other people. Can the Asteri shift to look like anyone? Would that even work? Because we know from Bryce, like the Asteri have so much power that you can like sense within them that like you would know you're talking to an Asteri, even if they appear as a nymph or a fae. But then on the other hand, they didn't know that they were talking to an Asteri when he was disguised as a cat, maybe because they thought he was a prince of hell and they have similar like power markers. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (25:22) I don't know. Speaker 1 (25:23) So. They're definitely inhabiting some kind of body. They can definitely shift, or Rigelous at least can shift into animal form. Kind of unclear on whether or not the rest of them can shift and what that power is. Anything else to add on that one? Speaker 2 (25:37) All Speaker 1 (25:37) right. They have, I'm calling it Astari Starfire because we are told Starfire is a specific starborn ability, but what the Astari have is so, so very similar. And you guys know why we think it's so very similar. We first see this at the end of Crescent City 2, Chapter 76. The quotes are, Bryce's heart cracked piece by piece with each step she ran from that throne room as she sped down the long hall. The busts of the Astari damned her with their hateful faces. A tidal wave of power rose behind her, and she dared look over her shoulder to find Rigelous on her tail. He blazed white with magic, fury radiating from him. Right. So he's blazing white with his magic. Brigilus shot another spear of power and Bryce ducked, sliding low just as it shattered a marble bus of ostrich. Fragments sliced her face, her neck, her arms, but then she was up and running again, clenching the star sword so hard her hand ached. So basically they're using their power like a laser, which is how Bryce describes star fire later, right? But they have this white power. It emanates from them. They can direct it. They can aim it. It can cut through things. We know we have the quote about how similar this power is to Starfire. I'll read it real quick, but you guys already know this. I believe you've already begun to see some glimpses of it. Ada said, once you attain what Selene had hidden, Bryce considered the laser power. Ada's laughed. Thea called it Starfire. But yes, Bryce frowned. Is it? Is it the same as the Asteris? She hadn't realized how much the question had been weighing on her, eating at her. no Apollyon cut in scowling. They are similar in their ability to destroy, but the Asteri's power is a blunt, wicked tool of destruction. So Starfire, actual true Starfire can maybe be finagled a bit more, but the Asteri version of it is more blunt, which I think fits with what we've seen with Rigelous, right? Like he was basically just throwing power out. Other things they can do. They can create black crowns and in general, slave tattoos. So the black crowns, we've talked about them a lot on this podcast. They are typically administered by witches. But at the end of Crescent City 2, Hunt gets one from Rigelous. And he actually says it feels different, right? So the quotes we have for that, Rigelous laid his glowing hand on Hunt's brow and pain erupted through his skull, his muscles, his blood, as if the very marrow of his bones were being burned into mist. The Asteri's power slithered and spiderwebbed across Hunt's brow, piercing into him