the hills have daddy issues (Silver Flames ch. 45-53)

DTFae

The hosts conduct a deep dive into chapters 45-53 of the Silver Flames series, focusing heavily on Nesta Archeron's psychological state and

Key takeaways

• Liv Zander's Crown Me Dead features a kingdom suffering from 'the rot,' a plague that causes crops and people to decay.
• Nesta Archeron is experiencing intense self-loathing, projecting her insecurities onto characters like Feyre and Amren.
• The tension between Nesta and Amren stems from the Inner Circle keeping the true nature of Nesta's magical abilities secret from her.
• Cassian demonstrates significant vulnerability by allowing Nesta to enter a dangerous, warded chamber alone.
• A mysterious harp is found in a hidden hall, featuring an eight-pointed star that matches a tattoo on Nesta's back.

Main topics

• Silver Flames character analysis
• Crown Me Dead book review
• Nesta Archeron's magical development

Notable quotes

Either I'm a warrior and you trust me to make this choice, or I'm a caged animal.

Conclusion

A detailed analysis of character trauma and magical lore within contem

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:18) And we are down to May, the opposite of AI. It takes us an hour to write an email and we've had no water today. Speaker 2 (0:25) We're continuing our Silver Flames deep dive this week with chapters 45 through 53. But first, I have a short spoiler-free review of Crown Me Dead by Liv Zander. And Speaker 1 (0:34) if you don't give a shit, you can skip to the deep dive using the chapters or timestamps in the show notes. But Crown Me Dead... is one I was really excited about because I've seen it all over BookTok, specifically videos of people crying. So I am interested to hear if that was genuine or performative because some people post so many videos of people of crying while reading books. And like, yeah, I've had books that affected me like that, but it's rare for me to cry like out loud. Like a lot of times you would not know looking at me that I'm reading something devastating. I did not cry. I teared up a little bit. You're Speaker 2 (1:18) a hard Speaker 1 (1:18) cry, though. Speaker 2 (1:18) Am I? I mean, I sobbed with thrown a glass and ACOTAR has gotten me a few times. So I don't know. Maybe I'm more cold hearted. I don't think it should leave you sobbing. But maybe there's certain subjects that just didn't hit me the same way. I liked it. It just didn't make me sob. So I don't know. Speaker 1 (1:37) It was probably more for me, based on the way that you have described it. It sounds like more my thing. Speaker 2 (1:44) Maybe. That's just like aesthetically. I think it might be more like what you would go for. But the actual storyline, it's not. We'll get into it. It kind of has Speaker 1 (1:54) like horror. The aesthetics are horror vibes. But Speaker 2 (1:57) the overall Speaker 1 (1:58) romance Speaker 2 (1:59) is not dark romance. I think the romance itself could be for anybody. So I did really enjoy Crown Me Dead. But I had to push through as we're talking about the first few chapters because there is some pretty graphic imagery. When Speaker 1 (2:13) you say graphic, like sexy graphic, triggering graphic. Never have I said Speaker 2 (2:19) sexy graphic is a problem for me. Yeah. I Speaker 1 (2:22) should have known better. It is Speaker 2 (2:24) called a dark romance, but it's not. It is a gothic horror and it's very similar to Beauty and the Beast. But the gothic horror aspects, it's kind of. gory in the beginning. I Speaker 1 (2:36) think people get dark and gothic mixed up because I've seen a lot of you should read these books for spooky season videos and it's books like The Ritual or God of Malice or Lights Out and like nothing about those. our spooky season. Right, maybe a mask, Speaker 2 (2:53) but that's about it. Speaker 1 (2:54) Yeah, but like, give me dark and gothic aesthetic. Give me anathema, her soul to take, unless Killian is hanging Glendon off the cliff outside of a crumbling Victorian manor while a ghost is watching, or Josh would have to be stalking Allie through a fog-covered cemetery instead of watching her through hidden cameras. It's not an October read. Speaker 2 (3:19) Right. This is actually gothic horror. So this does work for spooky season. Our FMC, Alara, is a gravedigger's daughter. Her family lives next to the cemetery as the gravediggers. And they live in a kingdom that is literally rotting. What Speaker 1 (3:34) did we read? I think it was Blood and Ash or Flesh and Fire, the prequel. It was like the rot. Speaker 2 (3:42) Yeah. I mean, because it's a kind of an unknown plague. There's no name for it besides the rot. Literally, the crops are rotting. The people are rotting. The plague is everywhere. Is there like Speaker 1 (3:54) pestilence? Is pestilence here? Because I loved that book. No, Speaker 2 (3:58) no, we don't have Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It just is an unknown plague that's hitting everything. And there's not general magic either, by the way. The average person doesn't have or think about magic. Speaker 1 (4:10) Okay. There's Speaker 2 (4:11) no cure. So the people are really just doing the best they can to slow it down. But if the crops are also rotting, people are starving, and even the wealthy are now poor, and just everything is kind of imploding. But Speaker 1 (4:23) it's kind of good for business if you're a gravedigger? Right. It's good Speaker 2 (4:29) for business, but a lot of the things they might have previously used to make a funeral look nicer or clean up a body, they're running out of everything. They're doing the best they can, but... There's not a like resources that are coming back to reuse. So the rot does keep them busy, but there's only so much you can do. It's very, very basic burial preparations. And honestly, the graveyards are filling up. If everybody is dying, you run out of places to put bodies. You Speaker 1 (4:59) know, what's weird is in the new Ryan Murphy, the monster about Lizzie Borden. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:06) It, Speaker 1 (5:06) the. father is played by Charlie Hunnam, first of all. You know what I saw? They Speaker 2 (5:11) put Speaker 1 (5:11) him in a bad wig. Like, I'm still going to think he's hot. Speaker 2 (5:15) Respectfully, I saw side-by-side photos of the real people, and he actually looks like the father. Does Speaker 1 (5:20) he? Speaker 2 (5:21) Yeah, the way that they, like, dressed him up. Because the actual, the actress that plays Lizzie does look... similar to Lizzie Borden or the photos? Lizzie Speaker 1 (5:28) was kind of a unit. She was not a little waif like the actress. But it is funny sometimes when an actor is, so there's this scene where a guy comes to court Lizzie Borden. None of this is real. Like the whole, like it barely got even the most basic details. correct or accurate but this guy comes and he starts crying and she's like oh my god what's wrong and he's like i can't marry you it's like everyone said you have a horse face but like imagine being cast in that role like he had to say that to that actress that's like Speaker 2 (6:03) oh my god what was it the tutors Where there was the one queen? Yes, Queen of Speaker 1 (6:08) Cleves. Yeah, from Germany. And it was Joss Stone? Yeah, that was so mean. Sorry, that was a tangent, but I just finished Lizzie Borden, and I just watched the first three episodes of American Horror Story 13. Speaker 2 (6:23) Is this in any way related to bodies piling up or gore? Speaker 1 (6:27) Yes. Okay, I Speaker 2 (6:28) was trying to figure out how we got here. No, Speaker 1 (6:29) we can... No, go ahead. Sorry. Speaker 2 (6:31) No, please continue. No, Speaker 1 (6:32) it reminded me of it because the people rotting and everything. The first episode is basically... An Speaker 2 (6:38) American Horror Story? Speaker 1 (6:38) Yes. It's this really gross old man who I think is probably the devil or pestilence getting a sponge bath. Ew. Speaker 2 (6:46) Did you say something about hooves? Speaker 1 (6:48) So I think the main guy is the Antichrist that we met at the end of Apocalypse. Okay. But he has to give this guy a sponge bath and he'll hear something. And like, it's the guy's tail. Cause like, obviously he's the devil and he looks over and he's like, what's that? And then he hears something else. And it's his little hoof coming up and he's like, what's that? But he keeps missing it. Speaker 2 (7:10) That's hilarious. And also Speaker 1 (7:12) disgusting, but Speaker 2 (7:13) makes sense. Back to our, our main character here, Alara, her father, the original gravedigger. has to come to the rot. So he's not passed away yet, but he is bedridden, which means that Alara, her mother, and her brother Darren are out doing the work without him. And when the story begins, they are in the process of cleaning up a body. It is gory. It's pretty gross. And they move on to the next body because that's their night, is basically prepping bodies before they can go home for bed. So again, the warning, the trigger warning would be related to graphic and gory terminology. But it does ease up as the story moves along. Again, the first chapters, it's like she's trying to throw the worst at you. So once you get into the story, it's not such a big deal. While they're working, Laura notices that Darren is Speaker 1 (8:02) starting to cough. The Speaker 2 (8:04) rot has already affected several of his fingertips and she's terrified that it's spreading because it's like they start rotting from the inside out. Speaker 1 (8:10) Is it contagious? Like, should they be handling the corpses? They Speaker 2 (8:14) don't really know how it's spread. you would think handling infected corpses with your bare hands should come with a warning. But because it's everywhere, it's not like they are unique in having caught it. It's Speaker 1 (8:25) like, what if he fingers a girl? With those rotting fingers. Speaker 2 (8:30) Oh my God. I'm already, I was not ready for that. No, just about every person they encounter has some form of rot getting started. Except Speaker 1 (8:39) for her. Speaker 2 (8:39) Except for her and her mom right now. It's just, it's everywhere. If you can't even find fresh food, the fact that you work with a corpse doesn't even matter at this point. Everything is kind of disgusting. When they get home from their night of work, Darren lies down instead of eating, and it just shows Alara that he's getting weaker every day, and she has no idea how she can help him. She eventually gets frustrated and goes for a walk outside around the cemetery. She runs into a very well-dressed, gorgeous stranger named Vale, who happens to be the king's steward. Speaker 1 (9:13) A hot stranger in a cemetery? My dream date. Cute. Cute. Speaker 2 (9:17) Vale gives her information about the rot that almost no one knows. He tells her it's actually being caused by this cursed crown that the king is wearing. Speaker 1 (9:25) Wait, he's well-dressed in a city that's rotting? Speaker 2 (9:30) Yeah, but she also assumes that everybody related to the crown would be. She thinks it's mostly hitting the poor people because that's all she knows. Speaker 1 (9:38) So, yeah, there's Speaker 2 (9:40) rot around, but... In the distance where she can see the palace, everything looks nice from a distance. So none of it surprises her, but it should. But he tells her that the crown requires a blood sacrifice every 15 years, and when it doesn't get one, the entire kingdom suffers. And it can't be just anybody. The sacrifice has to be the queen, she has to be loved by the king, and her throat has to be slit so that her blood can feed the crown. The current king believes that he can break the curse by starving the crown, but everybody is dying. So the question becomes how many people have to suffer while he's trying to fix this? And is it even going to work? Is Speaker 1 (10:19) the king single or he's married and he doesn't want to kill his queen? He Speaker 2 (10:25) is single and he's trying to keep himself isolated so that he doesn't have to have a queen. I Speaker 1 (10:30) don't know if that's selfish or... it makes him a good guy because like he doesn't want to have to kill but in doing so so many people are dying it's Speaker 2 (10:39) unclear how long the rot has been affecting them because if you have to do this every 15 years i think things have only been really bad for the last couple of years so it's not been that long but it's at a really bad point so it sounds noble but it also Allara's pissed. She's like, are you effing kidding me right now? Speaker 1 (10:59) Only a man could be expected to fall in love, kill her, and then fall in love again. Right. Speaker 2 (11:04) Like, this is terrible. So Vale obviously has a solution, but it's not great for Allara. He wants her to come to the palace, get close to the king, make him fall in love with her, and become queen so that she can die. Speaker 1 (11:16) Why her? Speaker 2 (11:18) I'm not really sure because it's not like he knows her. Is she Speaker 1 (11:21) like the least gross? Speaker 2 (11:22) I mean, probably, but also. She's got this tough, sassy personality. So the king doesn't want people to get close to him because he's trying to not fall in love so that he's not tempted to break the curse. So I think Vale assumes that the king won't be able to run her off very quickly. She won't take his crap. But also she clearly doesn't fear being up close and personal with the rot because she handles dead bodies all the time. Oh Speaker 1 (11:46) God, is he Speaker 2 (11:46) gross? Speaker 1 (11:47) Well, yeah. Everybody's rotting. It's gross. Speaker 2 (11:52) Alara looks at what's happening to her father and brother as she's like thinking this over and she's like, you know what? I'm going to have to Speaker 1 (11:58) fuck her way out of this. It's Speaker 2 (12:00) going to save them. I'll do it. So again, magic is not common in this world. So you're like, how is there a cursed crown? But nobody has magic to fix this. It exists because there was a bargain made a long time ago by a king with death, capital D. He managed to trick death, or I guess outsmart him into giving. the king a crown that would bring him power and prosperity? For generations, it worked. Laura had no idea that the reason the kingdom has flourished is because three queens have already died during the previous king's reign to keep feeding the crown. So like, yeah, well, that's the thing. This used to be a really prosperous, fancy kingdom. And like, it's gone downhill and everybody's like, I don't know, this plague has hit everything, but they don't know where it came from. Speaker 1 (12:44) Yeah, well, because... Speaker 2 (12:47) There's no magic, so why would you suddenly assume that there's a magic crown? So Allura assumes when she gets to the palace, she's going to find all these wealthy people living comfortably, and she won't mind having to manipulate them. But everybody is not doing well. She gets there, realizes the rod affects them too, including the king. Everything is just kind of nasty. I'm Speaker 1 (13:07) picturing Viserys when he starts rotting in House of the Dragon. Speaker 2 (13:11) Honestly, I think the king is described worse than Viserys. We're talking like milky eyes covered in pustules. No, you know what I'm Speaker 1 (13:18) picturing is Lord of the Rings when he was under the influence of Speaker 2 (13:24) Wormtongue. Yeah, what is that king? Not Gondor. Aedan? Rohan. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We'll get there. It's not pretty. He's disgusting. But he's Speaker 1 (13:35) rich. I feel like I can make it work. But then I have to die. You Speaker 2 (13:38) can't even tell he's rich. There's no point in having money if there's nothing nice to buy. Like things that shouldn't. be affected by rot or rotting. Like everything is just kind of decrepit and falling apart, including all their crops. So it's, it doesn't make sense, but there's nowhere nice and clean to go really. And the king uses his nastiness as sort of a weapon to keep people away. Again, he does not want to accidentally fall for somebody when he's trying to beat this curse. Is Speaker 1 (14:04) he actually hot? Is he like a baddie? Speaker 2 (14:07) Oh, yeah. Again, this is like a gothic Beauty and the Beast because... Speaker 1 (14:11) Yeah, but I was into the Beast. Of course you would be. It doesn't matter if it's Speaker 2 (14:15) fur or if it's gore. I'm listening. You would, though. Like all those horror movies and books where it's like, oh, it's just death. It's pestilence, whatever. Speaker 1 (14:24) Well, when he turned back into a man, I was like, oh, Speaker 2 (14:27) a Speaker 1 (14:27) man. Wow. Speaker 2 (14:29) Yeah, no, he's very good looking, actually. So right now he's let himself like let the rot took over as much as he can. But the crown won't let him die. The crown is literally like not glued, but it is attached to his head. Like only he can take the crown off. Somebody can't steal it from him. It never comes off unless he removes it. And the crown, of course, heals him just enough to stay alive. So he's living in this horrible, like self-inflicted purgatory. He's just a nasty, rotting mess. So now Alara Speaker 1 (14:56) not only has to tolerate him Speaker 2 (14:57) and help take care of him, she somehow has to make this man fall in love with her when he very much doesn't want to give over his heart or get to know her or worry about hers. The story gets into sacrifice, betrayal, and love while they're also racing to uncover pieces of the curse because it's been lost over time and Alara's brother doesn't have a lot of time. So it's a race against time for him. I really enjoyed the first book. The second book is very good, but it will... I guess makes some people cry. I mean, I teared up. There's some sad bits. I don't know about the sobbing. Maybe people just read it a little bit differently than I did. Everybody's different. It is very spicy, which is fantastic. It's creepy, but it's a really fun read just in time for spooky season. I Speaker 1 (15:40) know we like to divide and conquer so we can review more books, but now I really want to read that. It Speaker 2 (15:47) sounds right up your alley. It does. Speaker 1 (15:49) I finished Floricentia by Ivy Ophelia, and I'll talk about that next week. And I was between. It was very weird, by the way. I liked it, but it was weird. It was like a monster romance. And I was between The Sweetest Fiend by Raven Kennedy and The Emperor's Enemy by Jasmine Mass. And I fear I chose wrong. I loved Blood of Hercules. And I really like Jasmine Mass's writing and her sense of humor. It isn't for everyone. It is for me. So I went with Emperor's Enemy. But when I tell you, I don't know what the hell is going on. I literally went back like I started it. And then I went back and I made sure that I hadn't started book two because it feels like you start in the middle of a story, which you do eventually get flashbacks, maybe like 30 % in that I was like, okay. But I don't know if I'm stupid or if I'm, I don't know. It just seems like the world isn't really. Clicking for me because there's a scene where dragons are attacking this commune. This is during a flashback where the FMC lives and then a helicopter flies overhead. Okay. And you're like, what? And then they're using magic, but she also snowboards. And the MMC's name? Tarantula. That's not his actual name, but that's what everyone calls him because he has a giant spider tattoo. And he talks medieval. He uses thou and thee, but no one else does. Okay. So they have this forced proximity, which I don't truly understand why there's forced proximity. I don't know why he's helping. He's chained to her side, and they're like, he's going to train you in magic. Because she went through some tests for magic. And I was like, wait, there's a test where you get magic? Things keep popping up that I'm like, I guess I just need to roll with it. But I don't know. I'm going to keep going because I do really like the author. But it's feeling a little chaotic. Speaker 2 (17:56) I cannot decide what I want to do next. I mean, I keep looking for my new like smutty but good world building book. I Speaker 1 (18:02) saw a really interesting looking when I say interesting, like really spicy artwork. It looks like a reverse hair. What you Speaker 2 (18:10) sent me looks like the boyfriends could be boyfriends. Yes. If I saw that dirty, not safe for work clip correctly. I'm listening. I need to look into that. I would also love to find something like really good with witches or vampires. I feel like I haven't read vampires in forever. You Speaker 1 (18:24) need to read Immortal Dark. It has, it's a single narrator, which I don't love. It's just, I think it's just a woman. I think that's, I don't think I've Speaker 2 (18:34) heard of that one. Speaker 1 (18:35) The cover looks very like throwback vampire book. Speaker 2 (18:40) Okay. I'll investigate because I feel like I haven't read vampires in way too long. I did just finish a reverse harem trilogy. And it was actually really good. Damn, that Speaker 1 (18:49) was fast. Speaker 2 (18:50) It was good. It was good. And there was really good world building and the storyline made sense. But she ended up with nine. Nine. Speaker 1 (19:01) Nine MMCs. Are they boyfriends with boyfriends? No. Everyone's on me. And one time they doubled her vagina. I was like, what about her butt? Speaker 2 (19:09) Like at least DP for doing this. Speaker 1 (19:11) God. They didn't even use all the holes correctly. Nine feels like I can't keep up with everyone's birthdays. Speaker 2 (19:19) What I mean, you have two hands. Like the most you could accurately cover would be five. I'm going to have to ski. Speaker 1 (19:23) And everything else. No, that's too much. Speaker 2 (19:26) So yeah, it was really good. It's actually called The 13th Zodiac. If anybody wants to look it up, it's actually a really good read. The magic is pretty cool because they're technically aliens. What? Well, because they're from another planet, another world. Their magic comes from the Zodiac, but she actually is this unique, obviously, Zodiac they haven't seen in like a thousand plus years. So she's the 13th Zodiac with... A very unique magic that might help her to make portals back to their original planets. But they have a big bad that's been chasing them that like chase them from their planets to Earth. So it's interesting. And there's like training scenario. So it's kind of an academy setting, but it's because they're training to be warriors. Speaker 1 (20:08) That actually sounds really good. Speaker 2 (20:10) It was fun. I enjoyed the read. I was annoyed because the sexy parts were sexy, but I love if we're doing a reverse harem. When we eventually get to a sexy with all the boys. That's the whole point. We're building a unit. Speaker 1 (20:23) There's no way that nine men are hanging out in a room while a couple of you take turns with me. That's Speaker 2 (20:28) so Speaker 1 (20:28) awkward. Unless they're like jacking off, I guess. Speaker 2 (20:32) Yeah, but that comes to like a limit. It's almost, it's too many. It's not fair for everybody. You know, like we have to do it in groups at this point. Speaker 1 (20:39) I'm probably going to do Sweetest Fiend after Emperor's. But then I want something spooky too. But I think I've read all of the good spooky. I did. No DNF. No asylum here. It just got, it's so crazy. Speaker 2 (20:56) You know what I really, I really liked the Bone Witch that I read a couple years ago. I think when we were doing Crescent City, I did a review. That's Speaker 1 (21:02) the underwater. Speaker 2 (21:03) No. No. You're thinking of the Siren series I read. No, the Bone Witch, it's like she uses bones for magic, but the magic system is like necromancy and then blood magic and something else. I need to look that back up because that's a fun, like spooky read. Speaker 1 (21:19) Yeah. Let us know if you have any spooky season recommendations. Help Speaker 2 (21:22) us out. We pick up in Silver Flames chapter 45 at the training session where Cassian has started incorporating techniques that Gwen found while researching the Valkyries. You Speaker 1 (21:31) know, one day Cassian's going to look around this group and be like, did we get a new priestess? And it's just as in a wig and robe. I want Asriel's POV so badly because if there's one thing that was clear from that bonus chapter. that we're going to talk about next week, and the quote-unquote leaked audio that was on the official website, it's how much Az hates the Illyrians and how much of that hatred he has internalized because he is Illyrian. What's interesting is his hatred doesn't seem to manifest the same way Cassian's does. I don't even know if you would say Cassian hates the Illyrians. He hates some of the Illyrians. But he looks at what's wrong with that culture. And however slowly and unsuccessfully sometimes, Cassian does try to change it. And Az is the opposite. And I don't know if that's a red flag or just understandable because of his trauma. But in Akifas, we're told that he would rather disband or destroy the Illyrians entirely. than bother trying to save them. I want to know why. Is it because Az genuinely thinks there's nothing worth saving there? Or is some of that because he hates the Illyrian part of himself so much that he can't separate the culture from what he sees when he looks in the mirror? Like, I think he is going to be so interesting psychologically. Speaker 2 (22:58) Yeah. I mean, from the outside, it seems like there's a few things that are wrong here. To hear the inside of it, I'm very curious as well to hear about the inside of that. I'm also really interested in what's going on in his head with Mor. Me Speaker 1 (23:12) too. I really want to know how he's been interpreting her rejection this whole time. Does his self-hatred bleed into that? Is part of him thinking, of course she doesn't want me. I'm a bastard born Illyrian. Look at what I am. Look. Just look at me. me or is it something completely different psychologically what has he been telling himself for 500 years and when we finally hear it is it gonna make me more empathetic toward him or give me the ick because with Cassian I get it a little more because that bastard brute chip on his shoulder Still being an insecurity after centuries of being one of the most powerful people in the Night Court. It makes sense because he still has to go back and deal with the Illyrians. And he's still, they are disrespecting him openly and reminding him how they see him. But with Az, it's going to be interesting how, to hear how he sees himself. There's only so much emo, of course she doesn't like me, I'm a nobody that I can take from a male, a beautiful male, walking around with the most siphons any Illyrians ever had. And he's one of the five most important people in the court. I can only take so much of that from him before we start crossing from... tortured emo bat which I would love to females never pick the nice guys and he's like posting that on reddit you know what I mean respectfully Speaker 2 (24:38) are you the nice guy or are you just quiet it's Speaker 1 (24:40) a thin line but I'm especially interested in hearing what he was thinking after the bonus chapter which again we're going to talk about next week because it goes after chapter 58 and we just learned that in a court of splintered harmony the bonus chapters are going to be in there. So I don't Speaker 2 (25:00) know Speaker 1 (25:00) if that's them finally giving up on having to buy special editions of the other books, or that means they're especially relevant. Speaker 2 (25:09) Right. The minute that came out, my first thought was like, oh, all the people that didn't know that there were... Bonus chapters floating around. Like I had never read as his bonus chapter. That's crazy. Speaker 1 (25:19) Well, I think I didn't know it's Speaker 2 (25:20) floating around out there, but I think some of this information is going to be relevant for the book. And that's why they're including it. Like, finally. Well, Speaker 1 (25:26) you need to know when Elaine sees Gwen wearing a certain necklace, why she's going to be like, oh, yeah, that's going to matter. Yeah. Speaker 2 (25:35) Out of nowhere, Cassian's like, if you were to name a sort, hypothetically, of course, what would you call it? Gwen. Bless her heart answers, Silver Majesty. And Emery laughs and says that she would call it Foe Slayer, which actually made me think of The Hobbit because... Isn't one of the weapons that kills the Goblin King like faux hammer? Yeah. I was like, wait a second. Speaker 1 (25:56) Cassian reveals why he's asking, explaining when Nesta hammered the three blades, she imbued them with her power, the cauldron's power, essentially capital in making a new trove. Casually adding, we don't know what manner of magic they have, to which Nesta asked, who the fuck is we? Speaker 2 (26:16) I can't tell if I love or I'm cringed out by the fact that Nesta does not care about making a scene. Speaker 1 (26:21) I know all the priestesses. I would be so into this drama. Speaker 2 (26:25) As long as they're not like, oh, this is bad. When it comes out that Reese, Farrah and quote the others know Nesta asked exactly how long they've known that she can make magical weapons. Speaker 1 (26:38) Cassian tries to make it better. Like we voted and it went in your favor. Yay. which is not as comforting as he thinks it is because all that confirms is that there was a very real possibility. We were one vote away from Nesta potentially never being told. Speaker 2 (26:55) Nesta is asking, who voted against me? And when Cassian fumbles and answers, not just honestly, but you guys said this better. He's like, Reese and Amarin, she's not exactly shocked about Reese. Speaker 1 (27:07) Yeah, that one's like, of course. But Amarin? Who had been... Nesta's friend and I use friend loosely even if this whole thing pisses me off I was reflecting on popping off last week I do think there is a fair argument for not just for not giving magical blades to Nesta when no one including Nesta herself understands her magic because she won't train because she's scared but they don't understand the magic of the blades And they don't understand her magic. So I can understand it like looking like a dangerous situation. But that isn't the same thing as deciding whether Nesta gets to know what Nesta can do. That's just, that's stupid. Right. Speaker 2 (27:54) You don't have to put them in my hands, but you should probably still tell me that I'm doing this because that seems important for safety. Speaker 1 (28:00) What if Nesta went to the blacksmith and was like, I'm going to make Gwen a cute little friendship dagger. And then she blew her up or something. Someone should probably know that they can make a new trove. Yeah. Where Amren loses me, though, because I understand part of it, but you don't trust Nesta enough to tell her about her own power, but you trust her when that power is useful to you. Speaker 2 (28:26) Ooh. Speaker 1 (28:26) Especially after what Amren just said about Rhys becoming High King and these weapons somehow being destined for him, I think it's fair to at least... ask whether part of the issue here is ownership. Because if Nesta knows, she might reasonably go, those are mine. And Amren wants Reese to use them. Speaker 2 (28:50) Right. Those are Nesta's if you ask me. The revelation sends Nesta into a complete spiral. She starts thinking about Gwen and Emery and wondering when they're going to realize