LPN Deep Dives: HOFAS / Episode 11: Queensmaxxing

Summary

LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City

Episode 11: Queensmaxxing
Released: August 4, 2026
Hosts: Natalie Jean & Jackie Zebrowski

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Episode Overview

“Queensmaxxing” marks a centerpiece in LPN’s Crescent City coverage, as hosts Natalie Jean and Jackie Zebrowski bring their signature chaos, irreverence, and deep fandom energy to one of the saga’s most lore-heavy stretches—focusing on pivotal sequences in House of Flame and Shadow (HOFAS). The discussion pivots between brutal torture and intergalactic backstory, while lampooning fantasy royalty, recounting syllable-by-syllable what makes a “queen,” and untangling the mythic web of Sarah J. Maas’s universe. As always, the pair filter high-concept worldbuilding through pop culture references and their outrageous personal flair.

---

Comedic Cold Open & "Queen Energy" Banter

[01:25 - 08:08]

• Theme: Queening, thongs, and hygiene hijinks
  The show launches with an extended, improvisational riff about “denim thongs,” Canadian farmers’ cleaning habits, and the proper way to clean all body “holes,” segueing seamlessly (and shamelessly) into “queen energy” as a brand: confident, irreverent, and inherently deceptive.

  “You didn’t realize when you’re talking to a queen, she brings queen energy. And that means lies.” - Jackie [03:48]
  “Almost to the point where they don’t even know what’s true.” - Natalie [04:04]

• Lampooning the monarchy:
  The hosts joke about Queen Elizabeth and her corgis and ponder if large turtles can be trusted.

• Meta humor about horror and anatomy:
  Discussions spiral into tangents about harps, plastic crowns, and “groin boards,” before circling back to the episode theme: women, power, and lies.

---

Diving Into the Book: Setting the Stage

[10:17 - 12:23]

• Recapping where they are in the story:
  Natalie explains that they left Bryce, Nesta, and Azriel in the mysterious prison room, learning that the eight-pointed star on the floor is actually a 3D map of the Midgard solar system.

• Commenting on the book’s density:
  Both hosts emphasize how much "lore and exposition" this stretch of the series contains.

  “There is just so much lore and so much exposition... So I’m really glad that we take the time.” - Jackie [09:25]

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Genre Talk: What Even Is Urban Fantasy?

[12:23 - 13:34]

• Comparing Maas's work to other urban fantasy:
  Jackie considers whether Crescent City should even be called “urban fantasy,” comparing it to Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels.

  “I guess technically Crescent City is an urban fantasy. And then I was like, but is it?” - Jackie [12:40]

• Natalie clarifies “urban” just means city; technical correctness prevails.

---

Dungeon Escape & “Saw” Moment

[13:37 - 26:22]

• Torture recap:
  The narrative quickly shifts to the male leads—Hunt, Rune, and Baxian—barely surviving in a dungeon. They're chained, brutalized, and out of options.

• Desperate escape planning:
  Rune attempts to swing himself across the room, trying to reach torture tools and devise a circus-worthy breakout, but it’s impossible (“Even Fae...can’t reach across the room without their magic turned on.” - Natalie [21:07]).

• The "Saw" moment:
  When all else fails, Rune begs Hunt to bite off his hand to get free:

  “Rune asks Hunt to chomp his hand off so that he can get out of the chains far enough to reach the thing.” - Natalie [21:52]
  “SJM, you’re asking a lot from us. All right?” - Jackie [21:56]

• Emotional swerve:
  Baxian volunteers to take on the brutal task to ease Hunt’s guilt, surprising them with compassion:

  “Hunt looks over, expecting Baxian to look at him with anger and disgust. But instead, Baxian’s sort of looking at him with compassion and says that he’ll do it himself.” - Natalie [25:02]
  “No, it’s a hand, Baxian. It’s not a shoulder. So you should probably understand that before we get into this.” - Jackie [25:23]

• Gallows humor:
  Jackie and Natalie undercut the intensity with riffs about the “lack of floss” in torture chambers and bone shards as makeshift dental tools.

---

Lydia & Pollux: Subterfuge and Dread

[28:02 - 30:41], [39:00 - 41:49]

• Manipulating a monster:
  Lydia is using her period as an excuse for time away from Pollux, who returns bloodied from torturing Rune. She keeps her mask on, extracting information while enduring his predations.

  “He’s fine with any blood except for woman’s period blood. It sounds about right.” - Natalie [28:32]

• New threat—The Harpy revived:
  It’s revealed the Asteri are experimenting on the Harpy, potentially waking her from the dead as a new obstacle.

---

Exposition Dump: The Dread Trove & Deep Lore

[31:42 - 54:15]

• The Big Lore Drop—Backstory via Hologram:
  In a pivotal sequence, Bryce triggers a hologram that downloads the true history of the Fae, the Asteri, and the Dread Trove. The projection, Silene, tells her origins and those of her mother, Thea, the last Starborn Queen. The hosts riff on the name's Greek myth connection.

  “She tells them that they were ruled in her world by the Daglin for 5,000 years. Daglin equals Asteri, for your memory.” - Natalie [34:15]

• Thea & Fion:
  The origin of the Trove items (the Mask, Harp, Crown, and Horn), the series of betrayals, succession drama, and Pelias’ role in triggering disaster.

• Queen Power and Corruption:
  The hosts gleefully perform Thea’s descent—turning "girlboss" into "tyrant," and noting the uncomfortably direct line from chosen queen to colonizer.

  “Absolute power corrupts absolutely... The Star Sword and Truth Teller now belonged to her. All those along with the Dread Trove surrounded her on her new throne. And look, she’s out of control. Her treasures, her precious even. Oh, I think I’ve heard this tale before.” - Natalie [64:00]

  “I’m queen maxing.” - Jackie [65:12]

• Comic relief:
  As the harrowing saga unfolds, Jackie dons a pigeon mask for visual gags regarding the Dread Trove’s mask, declaring herself the “reverse harpy.”

• Pop culture commentary:
  The lore-heavy section is categorically compared to Twilight (“It’s Twilight Island. Whoa.” - Jackie [56:26]), and the feeling of “watching tennis” given all the POV and timeline shifts.

---

The Real Cost of Power: Thea, Colonization, and Slythea Revelations

[63:54 - 78:43]

• Hard truths:
  The tale reveals Thea as an imperfect, sometimes monstrous ancestor. Bryce’s inherited “star” comes from someone who slaughtered humans in the Asteri’s name.

  “Her ancestor was no better than the Asteri... The star in her chest, it was the light of a butcher.” - Jackie [77:37]

  • “Are we the baddies?” - Natalie, channeling a classic meme [65:41]

• Bryce’s emotional arc:
  She wrestles with disgust and responsibility: Can she use this “bad magic” for good, or is her bloodline “as corrupt as the worst of the Asteri”?

---

Threading Multiple Storylines: Ethan’s Fight & Viper Queen

[41:49 - 43:34]

• Viper Queen’s pit:
  Ethan faces off with Sigrid in the pit, after Ariadne is conveniently “sold.” Jackie and Natalie only briefly touch on this subplot, emphasizing the chaos and emotional toll it takes on Tharion, who internally blames himself for their predicament.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “They really never trust a [bleep] in a crown.” - Jackie [03:59]
• “What if you sneeze while you’re driving? That’s cyanide, I’m gone.” - Jackie [19:01]
• “I would never think of something like that. I’m really not inventive enough to either get into a torture chamber or get out of one.” - Jackie [17:45]
• “I don’t think I have a lot of self preservation.” - Jackie [18:01]
• “Imagine Nesta with that pigeon mask on… Still hot.” - Jackie [48:40]
• “Are we the baddies?” - Natalie [65:41]
• “Slythea. I’m Akilia… I’m powerful, but I’ma kill you.” - Jackie [77:50]

---

Key Timestamps & Segment Highlights

• [01:25 - 08:08]: Opening jokes, “queen energy,” dirty thongs, anatomical absurdities
• [10:17 - 12:23]: Series recap, exposition on current events
• [13:37 - 26:22]: Dungeon escape, “Saw” hand-chomping moment, gallows humor
• [28:02 - 30:41] / [39:00 - 41:49]: Lydia’s tense maneuverings with Pollux; “the harpy” twist
• [31:42 - 54:15]: Massive lore dump via Silene’s hologram; Dread Trove explained; masks, pigeons, and meta references
• [58:24 - 74:27]: Political infighting, Thea’s collapse into madness and power-hunger, Pelias’ plotting
• [76:03 - 78:43]: Thea’s legacy; Bryce’s horror at her ancestor’s crimes

---

The Road Ahead

The episode closes with the hosts reeling from the dark revelations—a “queening” gone awry, questions of fate and blood, and Bryce’s burden of knowledge. Jackie advises listeners to read up to chapter 22 before next week’s wild ride. As always, costume malfunctions, meta-lore, and high comedy guarantee you’ll never confuse LPN Deep Dives for a dry book club.

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For Next Time:
Read up to chapter 22 for the next installment—promise more pigeon masks, hot takes, and possibly some answers hidden in the histories of queens with questionable moral compasses.

Transcript

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

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[Jackie Zabrowski]

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[Narrator/Ad Voice]

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[Jackie Zabrowski]

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[Natalie Jean]

Place a little tune.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Bring

[Jackie Zabrowski]

that thong. The thong, thong, thong. I like it when the beat goes. Baby. Oh my God, they call me Cisket. I'm just like Cisco. Ah, yeah, but I'm not from Saskatchewan.

[Natalie Jean]

A that'd be. They'd be cold there wearing thongs.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, but I bet those Canadians, they wear them denim.

[Natalie Jean]

Denim thong. Ouchy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, but maybe it's like the seam, maybe this. Maybe they want the seam for down. Yeah, sometimes I feel like, you know, like when you go to a beach or like when you're just like living your life covered in dirt, that sometimes you gotta really get in there. Get that zhang right up into your front.

[Natalie Jean]

So you think farmers have the gene thongs for cleansing purposes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Someone must get in that hole. Whether it's the little hole on top or the big hole that makes the babies.

[Natalie Jean]

As you can tell, we know farming.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, more than that, we know anatomy. And I tell you what, you gotta get in all the folds and you gotta really scrape it out. Although I hear that that's not what you're supposed to do.

[Natalie Jean]

Scrape out the holes. Yeah, I mean, you should keep them clean.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're right. And sometimes the only way to do that is to really get in there.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, I don't know if we need to use it like a sink scrubber.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That John

[Natalie Jean]

Gene thong.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Gene thong. Thank you, Natalie Jean.

[Natalie Jean]

Thong.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, that would. Oh, it's better than a dip thong. It's not. I think they would be fine.

[Natalie Jean]

What's it. What?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Diphthong.

[Natalie Jean]

What's a diphthong? Well, it's.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, usually when you dip. Dip your jongs inside of, like, some sort of Febreze or some sort of fabuloso. And then once it gets gritted down there as it cleans out your holes, I think that's kind of where it is.

[Natalie Jean]

Is that something you just meet up?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, is it not?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. No.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, it is.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know about some sort of. You didn't realize when you're talking to a queen, she brings queen energy. And that means lies.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, a lot of lies.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That is one thing we heard.

[Natalie Jean]

Seem to tell a lot of lies.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They love to lie. They really never trust a in a crown.

[Natalie Jean]

Almost to the point where they don't even know what's true.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I bet Queen Elizabeth loved onions. And I bet she hated her corgis. No, kick those corgis right down the royal stairs.

[Natalie Jean]

Did they get buried with her?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, with their little butts hanging out of the sand. I imagine she's buried on a beach somewhere.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, they just put her right in the shore of the. The British Isles.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Whatever one they own, you know, they own a new one at every step. So whatever the newest one was, I bet she was like, put me there.

[Natalie Jean]

Maybe in the new Kushner Island. Maybe that's where she's buried.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Whoa. Whoa. Is that what Madagascar is called? I always wanted to go to Madagascar.

[Natalie Jean]

But you can't now.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel like the turtles are too big to go there. I think that I don't trust them. Anything that's been a low alive that long and anything that lives in its own home, I don't trust it if I can't see it.

[Natalie Jean]

Wait, are you thinking of the Galapagos?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think they got big turtles in Madagascar.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, they probably do.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think those big turtles, they are

[Natalie Jean]

swimming everywhere, I assume.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I bet they're down there. I bet they're up on that. I bet the from under. And that comes back. Yes, right back to the jones. Right back at it.

[Natalie Jean]

That was a Henry Senior joke.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It was.

[Natalie Jean]

Heard him.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

There's something about fromunda cheese that really still you know, I'm not like the other queens. And from Monday, he's grosses me out from underwear under the sea. Oh, I don't think it is, though. Oh, is that what we're calling it?

[Natalie Jean]

C Cheese? Oh, sorry.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Because it sounds like what you're getting out with the Jongs. Because it just sounds like you're making it short for the C word. Oh, it's my cgs. This is Where I go down now. Anatomies.

[Natalie Jean]

We're spiraling in the first five minutes here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

But you look. You look great. You're killing it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you. And yes, you have asked me if I know who you are yet. And I don't.

[Natalie Jean]

I guess. Cigarette, which I actually forgot that. That could be. That. That's actually a good guess. It could be cigarette.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

It's not cigarette jar. I think it's going to come too. I wonder if some of the watchers already figured it out.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, and write in the comments if you do be like, Jackie Jacker stupid. And I'll be like, dream.

[Natalie Jean]

And then you'll be like, drink. Yes. She'll harp here. She'll harp your ass.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah. Like are always doing.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, harping.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Always harping.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. I mean, that should.

[Natalie Jean]

That should say thank you. Harps are beautiful. So that sounds. That sounds beautiful. If you're harping at your party.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're right. Yeah. So it's good. So it's music to your freaking ears, isn't it?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Take out the trash. Don't forget your kids at the school. I'm gonna cut off the tip of your penis so you can't put more inside of me.

[Natalie Jean]

That is one way, I guess.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't think it is. I don't think that's what happens with circumcision. But no, it's definitely not what happens.

[Natalie Jean]

But it's not what happens. They don't come in. They cut the. The ball.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The baby out.

[Natalie Jean]

They don't cut it off.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I say start from there. I said get to them Vaz deverens. I knew a word. I think that's where the babies are really, somewhere in those eggs that. That men have down there that they sit on with their nests. Because I do kind of view the balls as eggs of the body. So I guess. Why do they get so upset when they sit on their eggs? Birds are fine with sitting on their eggs for real. So think about that ass.

[Natalie Jean]

Answer that.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Yeah. Ball.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Havers, how tendy are your balls if you want to crack them to make a bone?

[Natalie Jean]

All right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, now you want to start the episode?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Is it because I've got. It's. I've got royal energy today. And I'm gonna be a Royal Sea cheese for the rest of this episode.

[Natalie Jean]

Great. Royal Sea Cheese it is.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Especially as I start bringing out all my many things. Well, I already have my crown on. You know, I have my crown. You know, I have my harp.

[Natalie Jean]

I thought maybe that was your. A prison for Your vagina do not

[Jackie Zabrowski]

get in these balls. Clang, clang goes the trolley. Ding, ding, ding goes the puss. I'm gonna use some. It would be great if my vagina were a harp so I could play it. Or a washboard. And then your clothes are clean and you have a good time while you're doing.

[Natalie Jean]

Doesn't look like that. Doesn't look like what you were just doing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Washing my clothes with my groin board.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, good. My computer's frozen.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yay.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, I can read the first few chapter paragraphs.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's all we need. So I'll fill in the rest. I remember. I'm the queen.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, boy. This is not a good one. This is not a good episode to try to remember because we have what we'd call a lot of exposition.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Certainly position exposition. I. I got. I got there by the second time around. I think that this is really where. And again, I'm so glad that we're getting into the nitty gritty of this book because, let's be real, I read it very, very quickly. This was the only of all of her books. I think that I have been a fan when the book came out. So I read this book so fast that, like with Crescent City and in this third book, there is just so much lore and so much exposition and like, especially like with the tunnels or. This all gets real murky in here. So I'm really glad that we take the time. Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

You're marking.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, why is my merkin so scratchy? I think that it re. It's really why I got lost. And I'm glad we're going over it again.

[Natalie Jean]

And there is stuff. Some of this back story. You could feasibly read the whole book and not follow it utterly. But I think that we should understand the whole story.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. And we.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's what a deep dive is here for.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. We're going to break it down. I didn't bring a chart, but I probably should.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

My name is Jackie and I'm here to say I like this book in all expressive ways. I was breaking it down. Are you happy?

[Natalie Jean]

Are you happy with me? We last left Bryce and Nesta in Azrael in what is apparently the prison on this planet. And Bryce was stepping on the star. The eight pointed star in the center of the room, which they had just discovered was basically a 3D map of Midgard solar system all over the ground.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You'd think if you put that much time into it, you wouldn't want to hide it down in this tunnel.

[Natalie Jean]

It's a special secret. It's fun.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Our special secret.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, that usually does not result in something as magical. If somebody's telling you that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, but secret sauce will be provided. Ew.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Ugh.

[Natalie Jean]

Get out of here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Let me see. When the piggy tastes like you go

[Natalie Jean]

back to vagina prison. Could wash your socks on that thing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's why Jeff married her.

[Natalie Jean]

So they're in there. This world of Asriel's and Nestas in this. In this last piece of the last chapter we were just in. And it looks like that makes these books in the same universe. Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I was just talking about this on my recording of Sookie Stackhouse. True Blood's Sookie Stackhouse over on the page seven, Patreon. And referring to. Because Charlayne Harris refers to the Sookie Stackhouse novels as urban fantasies. And I think that's funny because I was like, they are in a small town. So of course I was making many, many jokes about that. And I was like, I guess technically Crescent City is an urban fantasy. And then I was like, but is it. And can we call it an urban fantasy now if we don't know? Because that's supposed to be, like, in a modern.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Time while this is modern.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

According to us. Is it.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, I would say the word urban just means city. So it is technically an urban fantasy because it isn't a city.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. But I also feel like if you call Bon Ton a huge Bon Ton, Louisiana. I don't think that's a huge. Like, I wouldn't call that. That's why I was like, Charlene didn't have the word romantasy yet. And it makes me sad for her.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, I agree. Because that is not an urban setting. It's an auditor of itself.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Louisiana. I don't think so.

[Natalie Jean]

So we are not actually in this prison room. At the start of this chapter. Chapter 18, we're first with the dungeon. I know, it sucks. Hunt is pretty sure this is kind of it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And that's crazy because he went through hundreds of years of torture. Like, he went through, and this is it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I think with his last torture, they really wanted to drag it out. And, like, I think he's con. Kind of concerned. They're ready to just kill them because they don't need. They don't want to use of him anymore. He and the other two are barely clinging to life and are roughed up beyond imagination. He's thinking about the future that he had wanted with Bryce and remembers the last time that he was in these dungeons. It's almost worse with something to go back to now. With Shahar, there hadn't been hope for a life after she was dead. And she was also kind of treating him like an fboy, like she didn't want to tell anybody they're having sex, which is really sad.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Very nice to him.

[Natalie Jean]

I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And it's sad that he's like, oh, it's my, like, great love. It's like that one that sucks.

[Natalie Jean]

Because no one had shown him love except for his mother.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, she's been gone a long time.

[Natalie Jean]

I know. So now he's imagining what he and Bryce's children would have looked like. God, they have little tiny wings. It'd be so cute.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Would they have ripped her to shreds, though, those wings coming out of her freaking yuty?

[Natalie Jean]

I would say maybe because they're not bat wings. They wouldn't have been as hard, I think bird. Because bird wings, when they first come out, they're probably pretty soft, right? They're like,

[Jackie Zabrowski]

yeah, I think there's a lot of that.

[Natalie Jean]

But the one thing that is keeping a kernel of life left in him is remembering the other fallen who had had been in here with him the last time. They had stretched out the suffering of those fallen for years and years and years. And then after they finally killed all of them off, Hunt had spent nine years alone. He's worried that they will do something like that to one of them to ruin or back scene. And he. He won't let that happen to them. This is perhaps now their last chance. Despite their wretched states, they had decided prior to this chapter beginning, they had obviously come to a conclusion that they were going to pull the emergency hatch. They are once again hanging from chains with their feet barely touching the ground. And Rune, who is semi conscious, begins to swing himself back and forth. So we're basically like, coming upon them after they had agreed upon this idea. So Rune, whose arms have been ripped out of their sockets like, a hundred times at this point, he's like, they're all in agony. But they're like, okay, we're gonna try this thing. So Rune begins to, like, swing himself back and forth. And they're trying to reach this rack of weapons that are used to, like, as torture devices on the other side of the room that they, you know, these bad guys use it for their administrations. Rune tries to swing, like, wider and wider with Hunt kind of kicking him with his foot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The harpy. Are you the harpy?

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Huh?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Are you the harpy? No. Damn it. Sorry not to. I wasn't that I was zoning out. It's just that, I mean, it's like

[Natalie Jean]

as we're walking on, she screams harpy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Not because I'm holding a harp.

[Natalie Jean]

It's because she's like, you're a shrill.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're shrill. Yeah, you look like a knife ass right now.

[Natalie Jean]

But so they're trying to swing back and forth and try to get. They want to get basically a poker so that run can do some aerial act, circus stuff. Pull the poker up in between, basically invert himself and then twist the poker through the chains, try to snap them. So that's the one idea they have.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I would never think of something like that. I'm not, I'm really not inventive enough to either get into a torture chamber or get out of one.

[Natalie Jean]

So, you know, you never know in those last moments, see what, what you might try to do.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't think I have a lot of self preservation.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You just be like, oops, guess it's my time. That's why I always say about horror movies too. I don't put me in a horror movie. I'm gonna give up fast. You, you're gonna win.

[Natalie Jean]

If I'm going into a torture chamber, I'm going to take my. Myself out beforehand. Yeah, no, you're not getting to do that. I know this is going to be like the thing you've been looking forward to, and that's the one thing I can do, is take it away.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I know that we should have to like undergo a lot of psycho psychological evaluation, but I feel like spies had it right, that we should all be able to. Once you go through the psychological evaluation that you're able to get like a cyanide trap inside of your mouth so that anytime you're in a bad place, you can like cyanide, I'm gone, you know? But then what if you do it too early and you're like, oh, they're out of everything. Bagels, cyanide, I'm gone, right? And then it's. And then it's all she wrote. That's what I'm saying. Psychological evaluation.

[Natalie Jean]

What if you sneeze while you're driving?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think you gotta make sure that, that it's. It's locked up tight in there.

[Natalie Jean]

How do you get it out?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I guess you have to figure out like tongue gymnastics.

[Natalie Jean]

We might need to workshop this plan with the FBI or whatever you just said. Yeah, we'll talk.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We'll talk to the government.

[Natalie Jean]

I'll hit up cash after this. So they're swinging Back and forth.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's hammered. He's like.

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[Jackie Zabrowski]

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[Natalie Jean]

So they're swinging back, swinging him back and forth. And then Hunt realizes pretty rapidly there's just simply no way he's going to reach. No matter how hard they push him. It's too far away. Even Faye. They can't reach across the room without their magic turned on. Oh, so then we get what we'll call a bit of a saw moment, which is never good.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Maybe I just flipped past this. Yes, I did.

[Natalie Jean]

The squeamish. If you're listening to Squeamish, we're not really going to go into detail here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

When they really get it, it's bad.

[Natalie Jean]

It's bad. When they realize run won't make it, they really. This is their very last resort. I don't know if you get more last resort than this. Rune asks Hunt to chomp his hand off so that he can get out of the chains far enough to reach the thing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The first Time getting to this. I was like, sjm, you're asking a lot from us. All right?

[Natalie Jean]

You crazy?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We already dealt with like Aylin. Like we already went through what we went through with Aylin. You all right? And now you're gonna do this to us?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And we read it. Oh, and we read it. And we were upset.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh yeah. So Rune asks Hunt this thing. Right? And Rune are in. Hunt is not expecting this because we're with his thoughts and he's like, what are you talk. I'm not. He's horrified. Even after all he's endured, he's never done that. So he's like, I can't do that. But Rune is insistent. He asks him to become the umbra mortis and be a badass. Which I guess you could call this being a badass. I don't know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What else do you call it? Being insane.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, being. And just being leather face.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean they really. But also they are being pushed to this.

[Natalie Jean]

Right? How much do you want to survive? Just like that movie with the guy in the rock. It. The stuck in the rock.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ah, the rock.

[Natalie Jean]

Not the rock. You know, I mean the one that's a real story. It's a true story where his hand gets caught.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh yeah. Isn't that. What Frankinator. The creepy Frankenator. A thousand million hours. My arms. I think it's just called my arms. My arms hurt.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my arm.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

My arm.

[Natalie Jean]

I think so. Maybe it's him. So he feels sick. Hunt feels sick at the idea, but realizes it might be their only hope at escape. In his mind he thinks of it as another sin marring his soul. But he accepts it. I don't personally think this as of as a sin. It's not like you're doing it if you were chopping his hand off against Run's will. I could see that being a sin. But I don't know. I guess if you just hate yourself, self loathing will just kind of do that too.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I guess the. The idea of having to bring yourself to do something like that.

[Natalie Jean]

But it is to save your friends. Technically.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Imagine it going through your teeth and what would get stuck in your teeth? And there's no floss in the torture chamber.

[Natalie Jean]

She's the one making it gross on me.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm just saying it gets stuck.

[Natalie Jean]

Is that the. You're most worried about? The flossing?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, because then that's the torture in and of us. It's like it's in between my teeth.

[Natalie Jean]

Use bone shards.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, out of his arm. Be like, can I just use that little shard to get in there? That's friends helping friends.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, that's what it turns it into. Like a trauma movie is like, after that. Then they're like, I gotta use it to floss my teeth.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

All right. So Hunt doesn't want to do this, but he decides this is how he wants to help his friends. So he sort of nods in resignation. He will do it. Baxian shouts his name.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Hunt.

[Natalie Jean]

Hunt looks over and expecting Baxian to look at him with anger and disgust. But instead, Baxian's sort of like looking at him with compassion and says that he'll do it himself. Hun. This surprises Hun even through all of the pain. Baxian tells him to let he himself, Baxian, shoulder this burden.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, it's a hand, Baxian. It's not a shoulder. So you should probably understand that before we get into this.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, you know, technically, you could do it at the shoulder too.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Then I feel like you're just going too far.

[Natalie Jean]

It'll grow back.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes.

[Natalie Jean]

So we're not privy to Vaccine's thoughts at this moment, but I would guess he is asking to step into Hunt's place. From the guilt of participating in Hunt's imprisonment all those years as a member of Sandril's tr.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Do you think this makes up for it?

[Natalie Jean]

No. But I do think it's pretty nice. It's pretty. That's a big thing to do. It's a big ask for somebody.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Natalie, I love you, but I don't think that I'm gonna bite through somebody's hand for you.

[Natalie Jean]

I think that's fair. Because as humans, we would not be able to bite through the hand. So it would be in vain. And they're.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, yeah, they would be in between my teeth with the floss.

[Natalie Jean]

That's as far as you'd be able to get in.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

So he wonders who Vaccine was all those years. Was he hiding a decent person inside, similar to Lydia?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Maybe it didn't matter now. Hunt nodded to Baxian in acceptance and thanks. You are worthy mate to Danica, he said. Pain and love flooded Baxian's eyes. Perhaps the words had touched on a wound, a doubt that had long plagued him. Hunt's heart strained. He knew the feeling.

[Natalie Jean]

So just a bunch of sad boys.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sad boys chomping each other's hands on each other.

[Natalie Jean]

After their moment of connection, Baxian turns on the part of him that was present during those triari years. This sort of villain character. He tells run not to scream. Yes,

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I. It's just not for me, guys.

[Natalie Jean]

It's not for you.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Torture.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, we know. Really give in. Don't tell me any of your nation's secrets, because it's coming right out of his mouth. Even if they just took my harp away, I'd be like, what do you want to know? I need to make music.

[Natalie Jean]

You would with the plot. If they took the plastic harp, you would give away America's secrets. I mean, we don't really have any at this point. There's just like. They're just being let out into the public anyway, so.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. So.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Natalie.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, you're right. Cherish your harp.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay. Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

Cut over to Lydia, who was last where we left her before. You remember, she manipulated her cycle in order to get out of going to this dinner with Pollock so she could use the phone. She's trying to orchestrate all of these different things. And so she's still on her period during this time. And she is getting those moments of, like, time away from Pollux by having her period. Because he's grossed out by it. Because of course he is. It's funny. He. He's fine with any blood except for woman's period blood. It sounds about right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, it does.

[Natalie Jean]

So it's giving her this time to prepare, and she kind of excuse of being bedridden mostly. But now Pollux is returning to this room. And to her dismay, he's currently covered in blood. Runes blood, she can tell from another of his sessions. So this timeline is rough. Is running roughly concurrently with the previous section. So this would be when the boys were doing the saw scene. Before Lydia has time to ruminate on her emotions about scenting runes. Suffering all over Pollux, a cheerful Pollux starts to shower. Well, he starts the shower. He turns it on and announces that he has some good news. Oh, boy. Can't wait to hear what his idea of good news is.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Muscles rippling under his golden skin, Pollux stalked to the shower, where untold gallons of blood had washed away from his body. A wild sort of excitement seemed to pulse from him as he cranked on the water.

[Natalie Jean]

Rigelus and the others were able to fix the harpy. Excuse me. Oh. What?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Beamer.

[Natalie Jean]

So nobody dies? We didn't even know they could fix the harpy. That was not on the table before, Dude. So apparently we have another thing that's in the way of them surviving. There wasn't enough going on, I guess.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, man. Hop is back. All right.

[Natalie Jean]

Harpy has discovered Lydia's true allegiances in the last book, if you recall.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yep.

[Natalie Jean]

So right before she was killed, she saw the Heinz true identity being Lydia and she helped save them in the dungeon.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sound like somebody gots to go.

[Natalie Jean]

So now I guess she's not leaving. And this is a fun new obstacle in the road. But we don't know where that's gonna go because we cut back over to the prison. Not the dungeon. We're in a different dungeon, but the prison with the, with the tunnel. With the tunnel and the planets and the star and the worm and the star. These chapters are very dense, so just hold on.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's why I I to your memory retention. Oh yeah. That's why this really is a We hold on for all of us to make sense of. Of all this.

[Natalie Jean]

So we're back in Prythian. Bryce has just stepped onto the star. So we go from Saw to Star wars, which is sometimes what this book feels like. Which is why I think some people don't like it. I don't mind it, but I understand why people don't like the massive like swings of stuff going on in the book.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Especially from character to character too. Because I think what it is is that all of the people in this book are just going to so many different things too. So it is like, like a back and forth. Like it's like watching Dennis, you know, it hurts your neck.

[Natalie Jean]

I think the, the difference is is there's way more perspectives. I'm pretty sure I should count them out on this one too because there are a bunch in the last book, but I think this book has more. So there's, there's just more characters added to the POVs.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right.

[Natalie Jean]

So now we're back with Bryce and she has stepped on this star and for a moment nothing happens. And Nesta is about to interject when light explodes in the room and a flash of a projection of a female appears.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Light flared from the star at Bryce's feet, from her chest, merging and blending. And then the hologram of a dark haired young female high Fae appeared. As if she were addressing an audience. Bryce knew that heart shaped face, the long hair.

[Natalie Jean]

Silene.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce murmured. How did she remember that name? How did she remember what she looked like?

[Natalie Jean]

Who is Cylene? Your grade for the whole semester depends on it. Do you remember?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Brrrr. Came out of my pussy.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She came out of my pussy.

[Natalie Jean]

Good job. You get.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What do I get? Do I get a horn?

[Natalie Jean]

Wait, why are you blowing it with it upstairs?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Because I'm a queen. It came out of My ears. Because I guess I was picking it up like it was a phone. Like it was a phone. And then I still made the horn sound. There was a disconnect in my brain.

[Natalie Jean]

But.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, we all got to watch it.

[Natalie Jean]

Sort of like a toddler. That's.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Where do I put it? In here? Where does the hole come out?

[Natalie Jean]

Where's your eel? Where is it?

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Oh,

[Natalie Jean]

oh, she's cleaning. She's cleaning. Junkie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Gotta keep cleaning it.

[Natalie Jean]

So Nesta doesn't know who this is. But remarks that she was present in the carvings on the way here. And Bryce doesn't know who she is either. Had simply read her name hours or days ago on the wall. And so we haven't learned this name yet. And we don't know who this is. But then Azrael says something remarkable. If you're an Aki, which is. He says this production. The projection of this female looks like Rizan's sister. So that's what's up with that. We don't know. She sees Nesta looking at Azrael with compassion as he says this. But we don't know. She doesn't know. Bryce doesn't know the backstory like the act.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Not like us AES do.

[Natalie Jean]

Then the hologram begins to speak. And we're going to get exposition, so pay attention. She explains that she's going to tell them her story, but that it begins before she was born.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh my God. All right, everybody tuck in.

[Natalie Jean]

That she knows from her mother and father before she was born. She tells them that they were ruled in her world by the Daglin for 5,000 years. Daglin equals Asteri. For your memory.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

This Silene woman female disappears into a fog in the projection and is replaced by almost a film of her words that continue disembodied. So basically she's like showing them a movie. The first scene depicts the world they knew as Fae for 5,000 years. Fear, intimidation, sacrifice. Bodies being strung up. Much like Midgard. They are governed by these Daglands. This species that we that Midgard knows is a Starry. She explains that they were forced to give a tithe each year. One that dulled their powers, just like Midgard. In an effort to keep the Fae placated and docile, they gave them the humans to rule over. So the hysteria have been running this scam for millennia. The quote unquote movie in front of them shows a being taking a droplet of magic. And Bryce knows instantly that this being is an Asteri. Though it's one she doesn't recognize.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce's breath remained caught in her throat. Nesta still has death at her side. As the scene shifted to show a golden haired high Fae female standing a step behind the asterisk throne. Her chin was lifted. Her face as cold as her mistresses.

[Natalie Jean]

That's cold.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Coldness. Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I imagine if you or your face is cold, it's probably frozen. And I imagine it's frozen in something that your mother probably said. If you keep doing that, your face will freeze like that. And that's probably what happened to this.

[Natalie Jean]

Wow. We better hold that for the rest of the episode.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This one, I am upset because I'm a queen.

[Natalie Jean]

She's not at this point. She is a servant. Slave person.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. So think about that. It's. It's fine. Everything I end up doing because I was a servant slave at the beginning.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, exactly. Silene here reveals that her mother served this Asteri slash Daglan for 100 years as a slave.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. And I was good at it. Apparently Bryce knew who it was before Silene spoke again. Knew whose truth she'd been led here across the stars to learn at last. Theo. Hello Theo. Has joined the chat.

[Natalie Jean]

Hello.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Room in this tunnel.

[Natalie Jean]

For more

[Jackie Zabrowski]

let's send her back to the wall.

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[Natalie Jean]

Okay, so Thea. We know we have met Thea. At least in story. She was the last starborn queen and we heard all about her in the last book. Bryce has inherited her power. We know she had daughters, but only had learned the name Helena, which I've been calling Helena. But I think it might be Helena, her elder daughter, which I thought was maybe a reference to Helen of Troy, which in Latin is Helena. There's a very Greek mythology vibe to the whole Thea story and kind of also the like the Trojan War, like all that stuff. Also there are some historians who believe that Helen of Troy may have originated the. The name Ellen might have originated from the word Celine or Selena. Celine meaning the word for moon and Selena being the name of the first Spartan goddess. So the other daughter's name is Silene. So she's probably pulling from. From the Greek story. Cool. So anyways, it looks like we're going to get down to the brass tax of just what the F is going on in Midgard. But not now.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Gotta juke. Gotta get. Oh, you just finding something out. Gotta get away from the story.

[Natalie Jean]

Now we're going to go back to Lydia. At the beginning of chapter 19, Lydia, as the hind, is asking Pollux what he means by the harpy is getting fixed. From the shower, Pollux explains that the Asteri are experimenting on her to see if they can revive her.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ooch.

[Natalie Jean]

Why they are, we don't know. But internally, Lydia is obviously panicking. Yeah. Pollux explains that she's still unconscious, but they are close to waking her. Before she can process this, Pollux gestures to her, insinuating that she should join him in the shower.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

An order more than an invitation. With fingers that felt far away, Lydia unbuttoned her uniform.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, God.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Awful. Awful.

[Natalie Jean]

But she has done this for years, many years. So she maintains her facade even as she dissociates. She asks him more information. She plays her part as he grabs at her, the water scouting on her skin. She asks him when the harpy will wake up. As he bites at her throat. He only says another day or two.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Great man. I bet he's so good at pleasuring her. I bet she gets a lot of pleasure from. From that.

[Natalie Jean]

It's so hard to read those scenes out because it's just like. It's awful. Like she is technically consenting, but it's that kind of.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But on the inside. Not. Yeah, yeah, and. But although, you know, Pollux would love it even more if she wasn't consenting.

[Natalie Jean]

So it's like.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's like. I imagine through all of these many, many years, she's understood that.

[Natalie Jean]

So. Yep.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Puke all over my heart.

[Natalie Jean]

He'll get his.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And then. Will it sound like the Jong song anymore? Nobody wants a Jong sounding like that.

[Natalie Jean]

Nobody wants a Pew covered harp. Okay. You'd be surprised. You could get it on the world Wide web.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, Pollux might like it. I like it.

[Natalie Jean]

He's grosso. Then before we know what is next over there, we only know that they have already only have a couple days to pull off the impossible. So I guess it doesn't even matter if the harpy wakes up. We cut over to the Viper Queen's fighting pit. Did you forget that was happening? Yes. Ethan is being ambushed by basically being surprised by the Viper Queen's whims and fancies, whether or not he was going to originally be fighting Ariadne Are you Ariadne? No.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay. I was like, I think that you would dress more. You'd have more dragon flavor. I've seen you as an Ariadne.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, I'm rather bland looking.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Egg.

[Natalie Jean]

Yummy egg.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Your egg from Arrested Development.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, okay. So she is. So she's gone. Whether or not that was the original plan, Iran's gone. She has been sold to persons unknown. The last we heard in. The last time we were with these people was that Viper Queen had chosen Sigrid to fight Ethan, which is a big problem. The Viper Queen, though unruffled as always, seems to have taken umbrage with Sigrid's prior statement that she's no better than the Astronomer. So Sigurd had been criticizing her earlier, saying, you're keeping these people underground. You're no better than this scumbag. And Viper Queen, even though she's acting like she doesn't care, she kind of.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She. Of course she cares.

[Natalie Jean]

She suggests that this is a better offer than Sigurd ever received from the Astronomer. You can get your freedom if you fight your way out, little Fendi air. Tharian shouts in protest and demands to put him in Secret's place. Though Sigrid is clearly caught off guard by this offer, she growls that she will do it. We are with Tharion's thoughts in this section. And as he watches Ithan's agony and Sigrid's anger, he wishes he'd never been born, blaming himself for them being in this position in the first place. Before we find out the results of that little piece of this show. We're back with Bryce in the projection,

[Jackie Zabrowski]

same chapter. Yes, yes.

[Natalie Jean]

As she looks at the projection of Thea standing behind her master, the female Asteri Daglin person, she thinks about how similar Thea is to Lydia in both appearance and also in her deceptiveness, but technically for good. So Silene explains to them all about what her mother's plan was, as she is like working for this Daglin. But my mother, Thea used the time she served the Daglin to learn all she could about their instruments of conquest. Oh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sound comes out of her ears.

[Natalie Jean]

She's pretty, but she's not the brightest.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's why it took her so long to figure it out.

[Natalie Jean]

The Dread Trove, we called it in secret. The mask, the harp, the crown and the horn. Where are you going? And she is pulling something out. Okay.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Huh?

[Natalie Jean]

That's the mask. Oh. Why? Why did you choose that? Well, why did you choose that?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I just thought it was. I was gonna buy this really cool gold mask that was like a half mate. Like, it was. And it wasn't going to get here in time, but this would get here in time.

[Natalie Jean]

Was it the only one that would get here in time? So this was just an artistic decision you've made? Chat. I don't know if you're going to guess the mask that she chose. I don't think that there's any sort of metaphor.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And I feel like if. If you're telling me I'm a queen, I show up in this. I show up in this and. And you're gonna be like, oh, I'm not scared. You're not gonna say that this is effective, that I control the dead as a pigeon.

[Natalie Jean]

So you're saying you're kind of going for. You're scaring them with the visual of it. Not as much the fear of controlling the dead.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, I just feel like back then. Did I destroy my hair? Yeah, I feel like back then, you know, maybe they weren't dealing with pigeons as much, so maybe they would think, oh, she cut off the head of some. Some large villain and now parades it upon her head like some sort of sick, deranged, reverse harpy. Technically, reverse harpy.

[Natalie Jean]

Bird head, human body. Oh, no, you're making this a lot worse. Oh, well, that's where that goes now.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It was worth. Was worth. Was worth it for the pigeon joke, was it? I almost didn't put it on because I knew that this was gonna happen. How did I destroy it this much? How did this happen?

[Natalie Jean]

The crown refuses to be back on your head.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, my God.

[Natalie Jean]

The shame of being a pigeon head.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Get back on my head. I'm a queen. All right. I'm not a pigeon anymore. I'm a queen.

[Natalie Jean]

Thankfully, that doesn't come back into play during this episode. But now we have a pigeon mask.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

For some reason, now we have a pigeon mask. So you say this, but last time when I bought a seagull costume for last year's 520, I thought I would never get any use out of this seagull costume. And now in my dnd, I'm playing an aarakocra who is a seagull. So I play D in the seagull costume.

[Natalie Jean]

It would have maybe been cool if you would have bought a mask of a character we could have used.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. Yeah, but you think pigeons aren't gonna come back? They're like sharks and cockroaches.

[Natalie Jean]

How? In which way that they're gonna show

[Jackie Zabrowski]

up with powers like sharks and cockroaches do. I mean, cockroaches can fly in some places. So how'd they get that ability to fly?

[Natalie Jean]

We're just gonna move forward.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm sorry that you're so upset because I'm so powerful.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, you're gonna be equally as upset when you find out who I am. So I guess even. Even Stevens.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, you get to be Shia.

[Natalie Jean]

Ew.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sorry.

[Natalie Jean]

Rude. So anyway, we're with the Dread Trove, which has become more dreadful today. The Dread Trove is something we ackies are familiar with. And we saw the mask used in action in this book where she pecked that skeleton to death.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Imagine Nesta with that pigeon mask on.

[Natalie Jean]

Still hot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Still hot. And yet. Do whatever you got to do. I'll get out your way.

[Natalie Jean]

Yep. Bryce has tentatively asked Nesta and Azriel, you remember when they were in the tunnel when they were talking about these items? She kind of goes like I just said this question about, I don't know, is there like maybe what a horn? Was there a horn in the Dread Trove? Just out of curiosity. I don't know. You know, it's all the other direction too. The way that you're holding, it's just like somebody blowing it into your ear.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's I'm imagining in my mind's eye. I am so powerful that the sound comes out of my ears as well.

[Natalie Jean]

Ah, yes. So Bryce has asked them that already. And apparently her instincts were correct. The tattoo in her back contains remains of the fourth trove object.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The horn. Cool.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce processes all of this information. Her power, this object now imbued into her skin, is from this world, not her own. Cylene explains that the Daglan in her world argued over which one of them should control this trove. And as a result they were not often used because they were always bickered over.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Man, you'd think that they'd figure out some sort of like checkout system. I feel like they could just like write it down and be like, I promise, like a library.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, yeah. I don't think that. I think they're all too selfish and. And like, you know, self centered and as the Daglin felt no real threat from the fae, Their mistake. The Trove wasn't guarded cleverly enough. Heart racing, Bryce watches the scene in front of her, showing Thea reach for these objects and disappearing with them through caves similar to where they had just walked. So Thea had made this long game plan of slowly taking the Dread Trove items and hiding them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I had the time.

[Natalie Jean]

Really. I know. I mean, what else do they need other. You know, you get them their tea, you wash their socks with your crotch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

You're just kind of sitting around. So the scene in front of them changes, and Thea is now on the top of a mountain. A bewildered Azrael mutters, ramiel. Silene explains that this is her father.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Fion

[Natalie Jean]

then explains also that Thea and Fiona had a secret tryst. And this is the first time we're knowing this name as well because we knew Thea being connected to Aidis when they fell in love.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right.

[Natalie Jean]

But prior to that, apparently she was with a man named Fion. And they had a secret tryst during the time the Daglin ruled. And they hid it because they were aware that if their love was known, that the Dag Stari would find amusement in ripping them apart, since Theia was merely a slave to them. Azrael mutters that Fion is Bryce's ancestor, and he's kind of deducing this from the story, but we're not sure what, why he's saying that. In the moment, an unamused Nesta looks back at Azrael and tells him he might as well go inside the wards, because if you recall, only Bryce and Nesta were able to get in on their own into the main chamber through these wards. Azrael still standing in the antechamber. Nesta uses her strange silver magic to create an opening in the wards for him to pass through.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Only when Azrael had passed through did Nesta release her power, the wards slamming back into place in a shimmering rush like a wave washing over the shore.

[Natalie Jean]

As Azrael joins them, Bryce asks him why he just mentioned Fiona. Who is he? Azrael replies with awe in his voice that Fjom was the first and last High King of Prythian.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Whoa.

[Natalie Jean]

This is significant for the Acotar series, but not really that important here. But there's a lot of discussion of the High King of Prythian and how there wasn't one anymore. In essence, they are learning that Bryce is the descendant of the most significant ruler ever of the Fae, the one who was able to push the Dag Starry out of this world. Cylene continues that her parents had stowed away these Dread Trove items, but knew they needed an even bigger advantage. That in order to really defeat them, they needed to have something beyond these Dread Trove items. Nesta shudders as the next image appears. The Cauldron. Silene explains that the Cauldron is of this world that the Dag Stari perverted it used it as not only a well of creation, but one of destruction. Her parents used this as to. They basically took this as their advantage.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Another shift of memory and pulled a long blade from the cauldron dripping water. A black blade whose dark metal absorbed any trace of light around it. Bryce's knees weakened. The Star Sword.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, her. Her sword is from the Cauldron.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cool. Cauldron mad.

[Natalie Jean]

Cylene tells them that her parents used these items, fought the Daglin, and won. And then Fion became high king of these lands. Cool. So her Star Sword is that powerful? Bryce is like, could you maybe. Could we backtrack just for a second? Can you maybe tell me exactly how they used them to destroy them? I'm pretty sure that's why I, like, got transported to another planet. But Silene's just. She's on one, and she's just barreling forward, so she keeps jabbering. She tells them that this very land they stand on, which had been considered a secretive place covered in mist for the Daglin, the few fey ever saw beyond. Thea was turned after the Daglin were pushed out into a sacred spot that was to be overseen by only Thea's lineage. So this island that they're on right now became this very sacred, magical, and beautiful place. For many years, centuries. The phase power no longer inhibited by the Daglan filled the land once again. We return to what we'd been before that time, too. Creatures whose very magic was tied to this land.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cool.

[Natalie Jean]

Thus, the land's powers became my mother's. Dusk. Twilight. That's what the island was in its long buried heart.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

What?

[Natalie Jean]

Her power bloomed into the lands. Rising with was, as she said, as if the island had a soul that had now blossomed under her care, nurtured by the court she built here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Inuit.

[Natalie Jean]

It's Twilight. The island. Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Is that why she's so shifty? Oh, my God. And why she's so nervous? Oh, wow. She's Bella. You are giving Bella.

[Natalie Jean]

It's Twilight Island. Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I should have been Jacob. I could have werewolfed your ass. And I could have been into your.

[Natalie Jean]

Your eggs. Did I put this on because I just got back from LAX and I didn't put a costume together.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes, but I like it. Oh, my God. Yeah, but can you imagine how twitchy she'd be if she got all of her magic back? Oh, my God. She'd be so twitchy. She'd be driving her truck. I don't know what to do.

[Natalie Jean]

And she'd go like, oh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah. She'd fall. She would definitely fall down. With all of her magic, it's. I can't stand so much. Yep. This is Twilight coded,

[Natalie Jean]

but for real. This is the missing court, y'. All. Dusk's truth, anyone? Silene continues that over the course of the many centuries of flourishing, her mother and father ruled, but did not conceive. Whoa. Then many, many, many years later, as Fion was aging and Thea, being much younger, was still centuries old, but in her prime, had two daughters within five years. Silene and her older sister, Helena. Helena. Helena. Which one do you think it is?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Probably Helena. Helena.

[Natalie Jean]

This was to be celebrated, but it also caused an impasse between Thea and Fion. Fion did not want Thea to be the successor to the kingdom when he died because he was likely to die far before her. He instead wanted one of his daughters to take the throne, namely, the eldest, Helena.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Baking powder again, I'm sorry. I kind of was, like, doing a couple of things with, like, all this that I gathered up for your ass, so. And now you're just gonna take it away from me?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Do you see how tight this face is? And I feel like that's what she would do at him, and he'd be like. And his dick would fall off, and he'd be like, you're right.

[Natalie Jean]

From being too horny.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, from being too scared. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, you were giving, like, sort of a. Like a seductive glare.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you. That's just the queen in me. Yeah, that's just me.

[Natalie Jean]

Thea was, again, still young in Fayers, and us was of sound mind and body and didn't agree that she shouldn't rule. We don't know exactly why he didn't want her to rule, but he didn't. Celine continues so it was just as it had been before. Those behind the throne worked to upend it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's almost like nobody should have the throne. Wait, I can't say those things.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, you shouldn't be saying that. You can't learn a lesson.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, there you go.

[Natalie Jean]

Just go ahead and you play with the horn. So not a happily ever after. This is what usually happens after the grass credits roll in these kind of fairy tales, because you don't just kind of live happily ever after.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Every.

[Natalie Jean]

The images change to what AES might recognize as the Bog of Urd. So they're showing. Seline is showing them this image of her parents going on this, like, hunting trip. So basically, in her time period, they had this. This. This little scrap of land where they would hunt. They had put all these, like, wretched beasts in there to hunt for fun. And then we find out years later, if we read the other books, that it's the Bhagavur. And it. In this image, Bryce is horrified to see that there is a creature that looks quite a bit like the knock which we had talked about. Looks like this other creature that had been in a court of silver flame and sees this creature dragging Fion into the bog water. So basically, Fion had been ambushed by his wife on this hunting trip.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I didn't mean to.

[Natalie Jean]

They had. What is it called? What are they calling it? A hiking divorce or what do they call that thing?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, oh, oh, you mean when. Yeah, take them up. When you take them up a long cliff and then push them off.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, now, the. The trend online, or it's not a trend, but people talking about. What is it called? Wait, I gotta look it up. It's. It's. It's really of the moment.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It is the idea of husbands going on hikes with their wives and killing them, though, right?

[Natalie Jean]

Alpine divorce.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Alpine divorce.

[Natalie Jean]

It's not necessarily killing them, but like, being abandoned by their partner up in the hiking trail or whatever.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Are you threatening me right now, Natalie?

[Natalie Jean]

I'm not.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

I'm.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm Bella.

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. Oh, yeah, I think she's gonna come up with that plan.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, Bella get Alpine divorce. Ain't nobody. She's like, oh, do I kick him off the cliff?

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, I guess I'll just wait here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, I don't like music, so I hate the snow. I don't like fun or music, rain or smiling or.

[Natalie Jean]

So in this. In this projection that Celine is showing all of them, we're watching Fion be murdered essentially by his wife. And in this projection, there is another male standing next to Thea. And we've heard this name before

[Jackie Zabrowski]

because you. They were standing by watching had happened.

[Natalie Jean]

Fion technically be the cuckoo as a partner.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I guess. But I think you can bring in a cuck.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, I do think he got kind of cucked by this guy and his wife taking him into the swamp for show.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, photo.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, he got swamp cooked.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, no, that's the worst kind.

[Natalie Jean]

So this is Pelias. We've heard about Pelias because we. In the lore that we learned in the last book, he is known to have forced his marriage onto Helena. So this is one of Thea's generals of her army, and he has been working in collusion with Thea to kill Fion.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Why? Because he's my pet.

[Natalie Jean]

I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes.

[Natalie Jean]

We don't know for sure, but basically Silene says in this moment, it's because Pelias agrees that Thea should rule and not one of the daughters, who are very young still. So that is the reason that he is giving. They watch as this creature in this memory projection lifts out the Sar. The Star Sword and the Truth Teller. So basically pulls Fion down and then, almost as if striking a deal with Thea, lifts both of the weapons that were on Fion's hips. Because apparently they're very special. Right. So pretty worthy trade.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Fion should be happy that he was worth that much.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. It's like, thank you. Actually, I'm flattered.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Wow.

[Natalie Jean]

So whether Fion or Thea was in the right about who should rule, we don't know. But when Thea decided to kill him for the crown, well, we all know that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Star Sword and Truth Teller now belonged to her. All those along with the Dread Trove surrounded her on her new throne. And look, she's out of control. Her treasures, her precious even. Oh, I think I've heard this tale before.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Should I bring the pigeon mask back out? Okay. I can. Want to destroy my wig again?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You know, it's not really worth it for. Twice unchecked, limitless power set upon that throne. Obviously, Bryce could barely get a breath down.

[Natalie Jean]

This is horrifying news to her. She doesn't understand. Aidas had explained that he and Thea had been in love. This is who he fell in love with. This Gollum.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

[Natalie Jean]

Maybe he was impressed by her girl bossing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ah. I'm Queen Maxing.

[Natalie Jean]

You are Queen Maxing. Silene explains to the room that the Fae bowed to her. All of them. They had no choice. She held every one of their powerful items.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

But Silene tries to justify there weren't any wars during this time. Because they were all under the thumb of my mom, see.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Like, couldn't have started a war like North Korea.

[Natalie Jean]

Like, they don't have wars.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. So that's good.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce begins to feel sick. Who are these ancestors of hers? Are we the baddies? Silene says that as she and Helena grew older, they were kept secluded by their mother. Real fundy homeschool vibes where she hammered into them over and over again to be cautious of the evil of the Daglin, who are still hovering near somewhere. They didn't kill them. They merely pushed them out. And they're always around the corner. And in this. In this, you know, getting smaller and smaller, keeping all of her treasures closer and closer, not letting her daughters be in the world, she was unable to see that she herself had become the thing she hated the most.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

A pigeon.

[Natalie Jean]

A pigeon. Pigeons get a really bad rep. There's. It's not their fault.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. We showed up.

[Natalie Jean]

They were. There were dubs.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. But I do feel like if the pigeons were this big, at some point, I wouldn't trust them.

[Natalie Jean]

I'd want to learn how to ride one. It's too big.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They ain't letting you out.

[Natalie Jean]

I think they would. You couldn't tame paint pigeons.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You think? Well, that's just true. Yeah. You know, we'll start fighting them. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

All right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Then we'll. We can finally be more like the Viper Queen. Like we always wished.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, exactly.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So I'm not taking the crown off either. You can rip it off my cold, dead head.

[Natalie Jean]

I didn't ask for it. But it sounds like you might have started to golem up a little bit.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, am I getting defensive?

[Natalie Jean]

Look at him.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Don't even look at him. Don't even look at him.

[Natalie Jean]

So Silene realized during this time that as her mother aged away and died, eventually Helena would be likely to be the one who inherited the throne. And Silene was fine with that. But Helena didn't have any interest in the crown either. Only Thea seemed obsessed with the. With unchecked power.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, me.

[Natalie Jean]

It was not enough for my mother.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Nay.

[Natalie Jean]

Possessing all she had ever wanted was not enough. Classic stage mom.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce muttered.

[Natalie Jean]

Which is funny, but yes. So stage.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But also. Yeah, but also. Babies didn't want it.

[Natalie Jean]

Babies don't want.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sorry. Babies don't want it. So Mommy's gonna keep it?

[Natalie Jean]

Yep. Thea, who had gone quite mad at this point. Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Judgy much?

[Natalie Jean]

No, I'm not just saying it's a natural. It's occurrence. That's what happens once you keep your objects near you. You go mad.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, because I'm so great at it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. So they had gone crazy. She remembered the Daglin talking of other worlds in this time period as she's getting closer to the end of her life. Well, she has two daughters. That should equal at least two planets, right?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Slap them out there.

[Natalie Jean]

Because she's just not satisfied with ruling this entire planet. They remembers that the harp and the horn were used by her former master all those centuries back to open gateways. She presented her idea. Her idea to her kingdom. Oh good. Our queen's gone insane.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. What do you mean? I've got two daughters. Send them to two planets and we're gonna overlook of them. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

She's like, what if we just. She's like, let's just take Greenland.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Let's go. This is definitely. Yeah, it's. It's. It's given that kind of energy.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. A lot of her kingdom was unmoved by this idea. Like we don't. We're. We don't need to. There's literally no reason to do that. They had removed their captors in order to live in harmony and peace.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But she would not be deterred. There were enough fae throughout her lands. Along with some of the fire wielders from the south who supported the idea merchants, who salivated at the thought of untapped riches in other worlds. And so she gathered a force.

[Natalie Jean]

Pelias helped her cast her magic net using the Daglan's old maps of the stars. So Pelias is. Is collaborating, colluding with her on this idea.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Somebody's sniffing some power.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, that's what she doesn't realize because she's so, you know, gone. Far gone. And can. Can only see what she wants.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So tight. I'm just so tight and so beautiful.

[Natalie Jean]

Exactly. That she didn't realize at the time that he was setting a trap for her. All these man, he wanted Thea's power. And he seemed to understand that they need. They would need more power than this stuff, that the. Than the Dread Trove, than the swords. He'd need to find more power than that to take her seat.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This is like a lot of power though, to turn.

[Natalie Jean]

Ducking of power.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

He could summon the remaining Daglin using ancient ritual magic. And so his idea becomes to unbeknownst to Thea that he would contact the very creatures who had enslaved their planet to try to strike a deal.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's like not a good idea either.

[Natalie Jean]

It's not a good idea and unfortunately, you know, and you need the Siglieri.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They need somebody to be. To be running this by.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Nope. So he. He tries to like. Like find. Use this ritual magic looking for the Daglan. And the Daglan had already been using mystics the way that they do on Midgard, seeking out planets. And so they made contact. He struck a deal with them secretly. Pelias and this Daglin plotted to open a portal with Thea. Thinking he was going to help her conquer the world he directed her towards. So basically he's like they listen, girl.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

So I've been studying these maps and I found the most fire ass planets. And so if you just listen to me. You put the gate up here. Oh my God, you are going to die.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So I just put it up right here? You just me to put it up right here.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my girl. We're going to slay this world.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I love to kill.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, serving so.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay, all right, great. If I'm queens maxing, I may as well. Yeah, put a rip through it.

[Natalie Jean]

You don't even know what queen's maxing is yet. So he tells the to drop the gate here. I'm taking you to the best planet. And he directs her towards it. She did not question how and why. He knew that this island, our misty home, was the best place to do it. She simply gathered our people, all those willing to conquer and colonize, and opened the doorway.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So you gotta look through the keyhole first, man.

[Natalie Jean]

No. So they went to this very room to open this gateway, this studio right here. Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And we've got Daglin here for you right now. Come on in. No.

[Natalie Jean]

They watch this gate open and the other end. At the other end is Rigelous. No smiling and impish, saying, hi. Hello. Come on in. Welcome to my planet.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, my God. I bet it smells like chocolate chip cookies. But he doesn't have any chocolate chip cookies. It's just a candle that smells like chocolate chip cookies.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, it's like the gingerbread house bastard. Rigelus pretends to be a fellow fay, but Pelias knows. Thea, however, doesn't and tells Thea that guess what, girl, we got the Daglin out of here too. This is a fun land for everybody.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

God, girl, you're just so full up a power, you can't see that this twink is lying to you and that

[Natalie Jean]

it's a little too easy. That they're going to be like, yeah, you want to conquer, conquer here, come on in. Bryce realizes in this moment that her ancestor had opened the door willingly and brought the trove directly to the Asteri. Because of the blinding of the need for power they had. Still too greedy though. Even though she's like kind of falling for this, she doesn't trust fully. So prior to them walking through the gate, she had hidden the horn in the harp in a magical space. Space. The space where you go when you teleport. I guess like in a pocket.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And it's not up her butt. And stop asking.

[Natalie Jean]

Could be under her jean thong.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This would be very difficult to get up There, Just throwing that out there. Any kind of horn. Put it in the back.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, she might have a liminal space in her butt.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, see, man, that would be pretty awesome. And then it's. You never have to pack a suitcase, ever. You are your own suitcase.

[Natalie Jean]

Yep. So instead of killing her outright, the Asterian Pelias played a long game with her. Pelias knew she had hidden these objects and they were going to pretend like it was all good. Come on in. Bring a bunch of people with you. Yeah. I love this. It's great. Days or years were a blink of time to the Asteris. So they bited theirs, waiting to set a trap to get the harp and the horn back from Thea.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This is a real long con. It really is.

[Natalie Jean]

Silene, who was a teenager at this point, is describing the experience firsthand now, because this is her actual memories, she didn't know all of this at the time. And looking back, she realizes how it all seemed too easy, this transition. And then Silene explains to them, looking back now, she realizes that the Daglan had not only drawn in the Fae to this world, that they had tricked other species and other lands and other worlds to come here too. Which is something that we already learned about Midgard, that the assumption stereo turning it into one big golden corral. And we're luring these different beings there when they first arrived. Silene's projections show Bryce that there were human built cities there already existing. It wasn't an empty planet. There was people. That human beings were there. I think it's Earth, y' all is Midgard Earth.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh my God. Then why aren't they here?

[Natalie Jean]

I say bring them in. I'll take the D. At this point,

[Jackie Zabrowski]

honestly, as long as I have the power, at least. You're just taking some of my power. I at least have more power than I have now.

[Natalie Jean]

So we are now watching the Asteri alongside Thea. Even though she doesn't know there is the Asteri, she is still working side by side with them to come to this other place planet. And there were people that were already there. The humans were not happy about this. There was a massive battle the humans fought against them. She sees these huge legions of soldiers preparing to protect the walled city, which is something that we've also heard a little bit about how those books that were left behind that Bryce had been guarding this whole time were from this like protected city. It was the only thing left from the old history this, the Fae.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And of course Jesiba got her beautiful Hands on it.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, she did. The Fae, led by Thea, alongside Rigelus and his armies, sacked the human cities in front of Bryce. As she watches horror and sorrow fill her. Her famous queen ancestor was no better than the Asteri. Oops. She feels disgust towards Aidas. How could he have loved Thea? Certainly he knew what she had done.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That star in her chest, it was the light of a butcher. Her ancestor. Slythea. Slythea. I'm Akilia.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm powerful, but I' ma kill you.

[Natalie Jean]

It's only because she is such a good queen.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I have to do this.

[Natalie Jean]

She doesn't know what her star wanted her to know. Whether there was still some greater good out there, hoping to help something inside of this magic. Or if her bloodline was as corrupt as the worst of the Asteri and this light is just trying to, like, get her to kill people again. But she. She now knows the past. She now knows her own history. And she can't unknow it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The thoughts sliced her heart like shards of glass. And Bryce might have walked out right then and there. Might have told Silene's memory to fuck off with her history lesson. But if this unbearable history could offer some hint about how to save Midgard's future. Bryce kept listening.

[Natalie Jean]

So that essentially says that this idea of this Starborn queen coming and saving the fae and the humans and all this stuff is not true. Her ancestor actually just like, decimated human cities. She was. She was working alongside the Daglan. Even though she didn't know it, she was still committing those acts of colonization.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cover girl, work it down. Begatois, do your thing. Cause I'm Queensmagg And Bryce understands that as a fellow queen on the inside. She knows sometimes a girl got to do what a girl gotta do.

[Natalie Jean]

She seems pretty upset about it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Personally, I think she shouldn't be. She should be excited. You're welcome.

[Natalie Jean]

At least Bella wasn't there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay. Yeah. I have died every day Waited for you Darling, please I have loved you and you your.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm just gonna hold. I'm just gonna lay on the ground.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Get on the ground. Please read up until chapter 22 for next week.

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