Spark of the Everflame Recap | Diem, Luther & Our Honest Reactions

A new Romantasy obsession officially begins. This week on FanCastic: The Fan Casting Podcast, Loretta and Emyli kick off their next fan casting/recap series with the Kindred’s Curse Saga by Penn Cole and we already have a lot to say.

In this book club style recap of Book 1: Spark of the Everflame, we share our honest reactions to the story, our growing obsession with Luther as the newest fantasy book boyfriend, and all our thoughts on Diem as the series’ bad a** FMC. We also talk through the moments that surprised us most, our true feelings about Henri, and the fantasy world-building that immediately pulled us into Emarion.

Outside of the book, we share our current favorite TV watches, and Emyli completely shocks Loretta with a surprise reveal about what she is currently reading.

If you love romantasy recaps, BookTok fantasy favorites, slow burn tension and honest fangirl discussions, this episode is for you.

FanCastic is the perfect podcast for fans of Fourth Wing, ACOTAR, The Plated Prisoner series, and readers searching for their next bookish obsession.

🎙 Subscribe to FanCastic for weekly episodes about fantasy books, fandom culture, and dream book-to-screen adaptations. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah, let's start it off with sports again.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Sports! Take it away, Emily! So, in sports ball.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

In sports. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Fancastic the Fancasting Podcast, where we fancast all your favorite fancy, romancey, and fiction and not sports this week. I am Loretta.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

And I'm Emily.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

And we're here today with a brand fucking new series.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

It's all day.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

We've shed our golden ribbons and wings and shadow dragons, and we now are made of fire and light.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Also dates to not be wearing crowns.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Oh my god. Well, I guess we can do it for the next one. We'll do it for the next one. Yeah, guys, we're here to uh kick off our next series, which is the Kindred's Curse Saga by Penn Cole. Uh we're gonna kick things off with book one, Spark of the Ever Flame. But first, quick life update. What you got?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

What do I got? What am I doing? I okay, I finished Daughter of No Worlds, the trilogy. Oh my god. Phenomenal. It's so that third book is a chonker. It ends perfectly. It ends exactly the way I wanted it to end. It's amazing. It's so good. I'm so happy to hear this. Uh just really great. 10 out of 10. Loved it. Cannot recommend highly enough. It's great. Um, I have moved on to something totally different.

unknown 1:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

You're gonna really you're gonna laugh really hard at me and you're gonna be a lot when I say what I'm reading. It's not fantasy. It's a book which is already kind of a shocker. Um, it's the first like non-fantasy book I've read in a hot minute. Palette cleanser? Hello. Um both you and I have looked at at a book fair and said, no, that's not for me. That's a little much. Um it's lights out. And it's so good. I have to report back that this book is hilarious. It's Loretta, it's so funny. It I it's hysterical. Amazing. I am like kicking my little feet. I am like openly giggling in the car. I a friend of mine told me to read it, and I was like, I don't know. And then she was like, no, no, no, it's not dark, it's funny. And I was like, but I think it's dark though. And she was like, it's not, you should read it. And let's be just be abundantly clear. He is stalking her for sure. For sure, like for sure stalking, but also she is so into it and like has every opportunity to tell him to stop. He asks her, Do you want me to stop? And she says no. So, like, this it's not, there is nothing non-consensual happening here. And because you get POVs from both of them, you they are both so deeply concerned with issues of consent with the other person because what they're doing is like breaking into her house and like handing her a loaded gun and like she's holding a knife. Yeah. But like it's so funny. It's it's so good, and it's just a delight. And I did not think that I was gonna be delighted uh by this book. Holy shit. It's a delight. Wow. I was gonna tell you I started, and then I was like, no, this will be funnier to tell her live on camera.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Oh my god, yeah, because we we were like, we're never gonna read that.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

We're never gonna read that. Like he stalkery, it's not that at all. Like, again, to be clear, he is stalking her. So if that's like a hard no for you, like he the premise is he is one of the like shirtless masked content creators on TikTok that we all know and have never saved content on. No. Um, and she is an overworked ER trauma nurse. Oh and she texts, I know, and she texts her former hookup a screenshot of one of masked men's videos and says, Hey, do you want to come over and reenact this video? And he says, No, I'm not really into it. And then turns to his roommate and is like, She wants me to reenact this video. This isn't really my thing, isn't that funny? La la la. Or like, not funny, or whatever. But somehow shows his roommate and his roommate's like, Well, this is awkward because this is me. Uh, I thought I know who his roommate is with me, and you don't know that I do this, and you have no idea that this is me. And she obviously doesn't know that, like, I like they met once, but obviously they have no idea. She has no idea who he is. He knows who she is, and immediately starts stalking her and like breaks into her house to set up cameras. It's fine. Am I on the edge of my seat right now? Yeah, but like I'm into this. And he does. And then he like stalks her bank account, probably, I don't know, and figures out where she gets breakfast from and like orders her breakfast to her house, or like watches her on the security cameras at works and is like, you're too tired to drive home. I'm gonna show up at the hospital in your car and drive you home because you're too tired.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

It's so this feels like how I stalk my husband. Like when I'm like, is he anywhere near a Trader Joe's? I need some protein pancakes. Kind of like so I look at his location and I'm like, can you stop?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yeah. But like she has no idea who this person is. She's actively trying to find him. In her head, she's like, Well, this is real stupid. Like, this man could murder me. But she she does at least know that it's the guy from the like from the TikToks that she like obsessively follows, but she does not know that she's met him in person. She's the point where I'm at, she's sort of starting to piece it together because he won't ever talk to her in person. So she's like, obviously, I know his voice, otherwise, he would just talk to me. So he just like texts her, even if they're in the same room. Uh so they're about to like interesting IRL as like Josh and Allie, not as masked man and Allie for the first time. Very intrigued to see what happens in this moment.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Okay. This is gonna be a show too. Wait, it is? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Holy shit, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Dude, it's gonna be a show. Okay, you know, Coasted Angelo, who I keep casting and everything, and I want him to be Henry. Yeah. Okay, I he's actually probably would be pretty well suited for this one because he's real morally gray, dark romance boy.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Uh yeah, and then I think what hold on. What channel service com w where is it happening? I think it's gonna be Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, Nevassa Allen.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

First scene where they interact together, she gets too distracted while giving him roadhead and accidentally stabs him in the hand. So, like, if that doesn't really happen, I it's fantastic literature.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I because I feel like you had me and maybe you lost me.

unknown 7:25

What?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Because why wouldn't she be holding a sharp knife? Is he on a bike? Does he drive a car? No, he's in her car. This is when he drives her home from the hospital.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Because she's too home from the hospital. He's a ma so he's wearing a mask the whole time. How does he?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

He's leaning back, dick out. Yeah, accidentally stabbed him. But then she stitches him up because she's a nurse. How does she why does she stab him? She has a knife in her hand. It's unclear. She's like really into it. I I don't really know. I you're in his POV at the time, and she doesn't really realize that she did it.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Don't have the fucking weird dreams. Listen, I'm not judging you, dude. I would didn't want to read it because I genuinely was like, is this scary? Exactly. I thought she wasn't into it. I thought it was like he was stalking to her and then like falls in love with him eventually.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

It is not she when like her biggest thing is her being as like scared of how into it she is, and also planning, how can I figure out who he is so I can show up uninvited in his house with a gun? Like she is he's very into it. Good for her. I know. And then when he ships her the cameras to protect her house better, he also sends her a camera, a hidden camera detector to find the hidden cameras that he hid so that she knows that the like it's very like he she knows everything that he's doing and she has full control over what he's doing. So it is very it's oddly consensual for this stocking.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

But so is it like like good writing or is it like a vibreed? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

I would say it's a vibreed.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Thank you. If you want something, if you so normally when I read romanticy, I like more on the plot and the fantasy and romantic, good romanticy, good spice, but like a little like a couple layers down. This is right into it. We are like masturbating in chapter two. Like we're to each other. It's great. Um, we dive right in.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Oh my god. Okay. So this is like when you're like, I'm reading smut. This is it. Okay. Okay. I mean, listen, I'm pretty sure we had told Brie from Tea and Tropes that we would read it when we saw her at RomanticyCon.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Great. I forgot about that. But yeah, perfect. Already read it.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

And I was afraid to. And we may or may not be hosting a dark romance panel. So I actually think you'll like it, Loretta.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

It's not um I feel like I know your trigger warnings a little bit. I think you'll be into it.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah. So each one of her books is lights out, caught up, game on. Yes. See, I know all about them. I'm just a little scary.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

I had to ask my friend, the friend who told me that I would like it, and she said that they are not sequels, they're interconnected standalones. Like the guy in book two is like Ali's cousin or something.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Okay. And so they all kind of like connect somewhere. Okay. And then this third one that came out, the the main girl is like yaded up in kind of emo. And I feel like that's the one I'm going to like.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

But it's three books away, and now I have to get there, even though I don't have to, but like I do like to read standalones.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Yeah, I was gonna say, I can ask my friend if you have to read them before.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

I feel like I should. My guess is Navessa Allen's gonna take a lot more liberties in the third one. Probably. But than the first one, and so maybe I should warm myself up to that.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Really funny. I think you'll like it.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Okay, I might get Are you audiobooking it?

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yes, and the audiobook narrator is so good. It's um the guy who has two names, like he has one name for when he does smut and one name for when he doesn't. You know this hand is really sweet, actually. He doesn't want it to like affect his job. Like everybody knows that it's the same. Jacob Morgan is his sputt name. Yeah. Jacob Morgan. I was listening to it on 1.5 and I had to switch it back down to one because I was like, I feel like I need the full Jacob Morgan experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Okay, I normally listen to audiobooks at work. I don't think I can do that one.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

So maybe I'm absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

This is this might be a a home.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

This is a home or car. Home or car.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Okay. Home or car.

unknown 11:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

I can't believe you're reading it.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

That really is like the last thing I would have guessed. I know. I'm glad you saved it. I love that for you. Um I will probably dip my toes in because I am intrigued now. Now I'm intrigued. Before I was absolutely not, but thank you for uh thank you for taking that first.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

No problem. Every book uh my friend Mary has recommended to me, I've loved.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

So Thank you, Mary, friend of the pod. Friend of the pod. I love you. Thank you. I'm gonna have weird dreams probably. Anyways. No comment. What am I what am I doing? I'm what are you doing? I'm I am still uh working my way, wigging my way um through uh heat downtown. Working my way through heat of the Everflame. Um, so I'll be done, you know, by the time we get to it. But I'm uh a little bit pissed off at some characters right now.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah, I've started I'm starting part three. Um I had a crazy week, so did not get to it this week, but I've been watching hacks.

unknown 12:57

Ah!

SPEAKER_01 12:57

A delight! The final season, and I'm very sad that the show's gonna go away. I like truly. Hannah Einbinder, she does dynasty typewriter stuff all the time, and so does Meg Stalter, and so does Paul Downs, and I want to go see them.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

We should go. We should go. Little like very typical LA name-droppy story in the most random happenstance possible. A friend of mine from high school, so not LA, is like best friends with Meg Stalter. Crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I think she's so fucking funny.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Fucking delight. She's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

She's so funny. She just did uh um Seth Myers and was wearing the outfit that Madonna got stolen from Coachella.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

I'm obsessed with everything Meg Stalter wears. I hang it in the Louvre, a picture of every one of her outfits. She deserves an exhibition at the Met Gala.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

She literally just trolls everybody. That's all she does.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

The Kendall Jenner, Timothy Chalamet situation. Yes. Obsessed.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

God. Oh my god, yeah, or her and Paul Delton.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Marty McFly jumpsuit thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

God, it's such a funny show. I've been watching that because it's been bringing me joy and laughs. Um, and then, you know, I've I tried to watch a couple episodes of this new season of Euphoria. I watched one and I was like, I don't think I can do it. I watched the second one and it was a little bit better. And then I like started this third one, and I was like, uh, and I think I'm an episode behind. I can't finish it.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I will say I did not vibe with season one, and I know a lot of people did. It was not for me. And football husband loves it, or likes season one at least, and he keeps wanting to be like, let's watch season three. And I'm like, I everything I have learned about this show has been against my will, and I don't like any of it. Everything I don't like Sydney Sweeney, but I also don't like how Sydney Sweeney is treated in this show. I don't like how any of the women are treated. Like, I just I it makes me also watching the cast on every red carpet, I've never seen a cast so clearly over what they're there to promote. Like so clearly they're out of contractual obligations, and I was like, Yeah, oh, you hate this. Yeah. And I don't want to I don't want to watch a thing that you hated maybe.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

It completely like colors it for me too. Like I started to watch the season and knowing everything that's going on. When you have a main character die in real life, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you force these actors to have fake phone calls with that person. Yeah. Oh no. Yep. He made uh Zendaya have a uh phone call with Angus Cloud. Fez, I think his character is. Um he's in prison for 30 years. He's not dead. No, he's in prison for 30 years. It's so disrespectful.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

This show gets made fun of a lot, but Glee handled that the best. Like the way they handled Corey Monty dying was so emotional, but also so like honoring of him and what he brought to the show. And it was very sad, it was very hard to watch, and like I will never re-watch that episode, but I feel like it was so cathartic for all of the people involved and all of the people who watched it who loved him. Like it's a very sad and tragic thing, but like I you can't just pretend it didn't happen. That's awful.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

And you're doing nobody any favors and nobody any honor by so traumatic for Zimbabwe too. Yeah, it's horrible, horrible. And you could just tell, like, of course, she's acting her face off, but like I was like, what a fucking I she probably went to her trailer after that and just sobbed. Yeah. Because I was her real friend. Like, what in the hell is wrong with you? So yeah, I have skipped that and I'm only watching hacks right now. Um okay, I'm watching one other thing. I started The Real Housewives of Rhode Islands. Okay. I've never watched a Real Housewives before. Me neither. But Ashley I from The Bachelorette, who used to cry all the time, is on there, married to the man she used to cry over. She's on it. And like some of these girls on there are like, oh my god, you're not even hard. Like, you're not even hard. You're not tough. You're not hard. Like, that's how they're talking the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah. Well, it's like Rhode Islands, and everything's like Rhode Islands, and like everything's like, you're not even. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, I didn't I thought it it it feels like an elevated jersey shore. And I was like, Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

I think I like this. You want another show to bring you joy. I have started watching Running Point on Netflix during Kate Hudson. It's about basketball, but not really. Like, it's about uh she was like the mess up younger daughter of this like basketball dynasty family, and she ends up the president of the basketball team, which is like clearly a stand-in for the LA Lakers. They're called the LA waves, and she ends up the president, and she's a boss bitch, and she wears a bunch of suits with like her bras out, and it's amazing and chicken. And it's produced by Mindy Kaling, and so it has a similar, there's no like direct to camera, but it has a similar like workplace comedy mockumentary vibe. Like she even says in the beginning, like, but this TV show is not about them, it's about me. So like she says that in her voiceover. It's a delight. Ah, that does sound good. What's that on Netflix? Netflix. There's two seasons.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

It's been a minute since I feel like respectfully, Netflix has released anything good.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Well, apparently season two just dropped in April, and I had no idea that there was a season one. So I don't know what promotion they did for it.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

But my god, I thought it was like a brand new show, and that's why you started it. Oh. Yeah. Oh my god. I know. Well, yeah, there Netflix has got some stuff coming, I guess, that we're working on our work.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

We talked about this. We talked about the Prindle from Sweet Life and Zack and Cody, uh, chief of staff of the LA Waves, is played by Brenda Song. She's amazing in it.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Oh my god. Well, her and Macaulay Cogan like really love going to uh Lakers games and Rams games.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

She said in a press junket for this show that her dream job is like defensive coordinator for the LA Rams, which I think.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Oh my god, I love her. I just recently like saw her picture of her doing like the LA like courtside thing, and I was like, You're so she's so cute and trendy. Oh I would love that. Maybe I will start that show.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Well, it's pretty funny. Little little 27-30-minute episodes, it's a delight. Yeah, it's neat.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

We've well, we we finished uh Paradise. We're watching Mandalorian for the first time. Oh I had never watched it before, so I'm half we're halfway through season two right now because the movie's coming out.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Yes, and you can finally understand that I would like to see the baby.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

It's so cute. He's so cute. Um we just finished the episode with the frog lady. Um, and he gives the eggs. He's so naughty.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Yeah, he's so naughty.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

He did the baby and he was hungry and eat the spiders and he woke up all all the other spiders. Oh like he's so cute. He's so cute. And there's a giant billboard right by my house with him on it right now that I'm like, I'm Google. Goo goo. Yeah. Um, yeah, that's all we're like reading, watching stuff. It's recap time. Dive in.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

My hair's getting up, so I don't have to pull my hair up for us.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Hair is up, hair's back up, my hair is out of my face. Uh I feel like I don't remember what happened in this book, but it'll come back to me.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

For people listening, we write ourselves little outlines so we can remember what to talk about. And I wrote this one and I told Loretta not to read it in advance, and we're gonna, she's gonna read it cold.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

We're gonna read it cold so that I can go, oh my god, that's right. Oh yeah.

unknown 20:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yes, please do. I did not assign sections, so we'll just wing it. Yeah, um, but I'll start with the popcorn. Okay, welcome to the kindred's curse, spark of the ever flame. All right. We are in the mystical mystical world of Imarian. Uh nine realms infused with divine magic are ruled by our powerful race known as the descended. The descendants, and they are the descendants of immortal beings called the kindred. Uh, we follow a mortal protagonist, Diem Bellator, who lives in the shadow of the suppressive system and is torn between her identity as a healer and her growing resentment towards the descendant's dominance. Uh, she lives just outside of Mortal City, which is outside of the city of Lumari. Lumarian? Lumarian? Lumarian.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I think in my brain I read it as Lumarian. Lumarian.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Lives just outside Mortal City with her mother, Aureli, her father, Andre, and her younger brother, Teller. Uh, their lives are simple but fulfilling. And though Diem is not a warrior like her father, she is trained well enough to defend herself. And she and her mother are healers, and her father is a former military uh leader. All good things as a setup. Yeah. Take it away. With the plot, Loretta.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Plot-wise, here we go. Here we go. Here's where we get into it.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

In the beginning, they tell everybody like what's going on with those descended. And I was like, I don't know if I can do this. But then after the setup, I was like, oh, locked in. Super locked in. So, DM, after work one night, she is attacked by drunken men and uses her combat skills, of course she has those, to disarm them and continue her journey. Moment number one where I went, she's a badass. Mm-hmm. Check. Like, love that. Uh very um uh Ferah hunts by herself.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I love that she, we don't know this yet at the time, but I love that her character has an extremely valid reason for knowing combat and doesn't just like magically is good at combat skills. Like her father trained her from birth to be good at combat. Like it makes sense in the plot.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yep, exactly. And and it uh is a through line through all the books. Like if she didn't have that, she'd be dead, probably. Near home, she sees her mother, Arlie, in a suspicious meeting with a descended man, a mysterious woman. Make a point to note is really fucking hot. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that she does. That's right. She's like, this crazy guy with beautiful blue eyes and a beautiful scar and ooh, look at his hair. Anyways, who is he? Anyway, yeah, his jock could cut glass, like, uh, what's he doing? Yeah. Can I date him? Like, I thought that was very funny too, that it was like hilarious. He's so scary and hot. All the descended are very scary and hot. Hot. So hot. Uh no scars on them. So the mis uh, as she's seeing this, mysterious woman then confronts Diem, claiming she is also descended, and starts calling her the daughter of the forgotten. Diem realizes her mother has been drugging her with flame root powder to dull her mind and hide physical changes. That night, after she sees this hot, scary man. Hot scary man, her mother fucking disappears.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Up and disappears. Goodbye. It's a missing person's case book. I was did not I know we were like four pages in, but I did not. I was like, what's happening? What what do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Same. I was like, wait, feels like mom should be important. Oh, mom drives the story. Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Got it, got it, got it.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Uh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um uh do did we say why she is uh taking this flame root powder and how she looks different?

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Oh, we didn't. No, I'm sorry. Please take it away.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

So she she is taking this flame root powder that her mom is making her take this because she has had like psychic visions. She got really sick.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

And her eyes are gray. She has gray eyes and like snow white hair.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Which is very notable because all mortals have brown hair and brown eyes.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yes. And she stands out and she's got like very olive dark skin. It's very ambiguous. Um, and she got really, really sick and her eyes turned gray and all of her hair turned white, and she used to have like fever dream visions and think that she had powers and stuff, and her mom was like, Oh, we're gonna knock this shit off because you're about to get us in trouble with this crazy cuckoo sickness you have. So she was making her take flame root powder to like like Xanax her. Yeah. She was like, Here, take a Xanny, sit down, shut up. And questions. Yes. Yep. And so she's like, the uh lady that she runs into is like, hey, stop taking that shit.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

And she's like, Yeah, she's like, stop doing that. And she was like, why? She's like, just do it. So she does. Do you want to take this next section?

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Sure, yeah. Time jump, six months later, Diem learns that R Lee has been, uh her mom, had been secretly treating the descended king ulcer before she banished. And while it's not uncommon for healer mortal healers to treat descended, it is hella sus that she was treating the king and didn't like tell anybody or share that she was doing that. Um it took me a hot minute when I was reading this, to be honest, to realize why the descended would need mortal healers. The way magic is distributed is by like the cities and the air of what descendant of what kindred they're the descendant of. So Lumnos is the city of light and spark, light and shadow. Light and shadow. So Lumnos descended only have light magic or shadow magic, or sometimes both. And then Fortos either has like killing magic or healing magic. So in order to have a magical healer, you would need to be in Fortos, and we don't have any of those here. So they have mortal healers. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And they go to Fortos to get like a lot of supplies. Like the mortal healers go take get the supplies and bring them back if they're allowed to. Yeah. And we should say too that like the there's mortal city and then there's Luminose. Luminos. Luminos. And they're like they like hate each other. Like the descended are horrible to the mortals, and the mortals are terrified of the descended.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Yeah. Um, it's very it's very much an allegory. All of them descended have blue eyes. They're not described as Nazis, but you know, it's similar. And the one of them have blonde hair. Yeah, a lot of them are blonde. They all have blue eyes. All of the different houses have different colored eyes. So descendants of Fortos have red eyes, for example. I can't remember any of the other ones, but there's like green, turquoise, violet, pink.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Umbrose, I think is black. Montios is pink. Pink.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Yeah, we'll get to it. Um, but so it's very um allegoric, maybe not allegorical, very representative of classness and like class. Yep. Yeah. Um is off being a healer, and one day she's called to the palace because there was an explosion. Oh my god, that's right. And yeah, I know. I was I was writing this, I was like, oh yeah. Um and she runs over to heal a little girl who I say a little, but she's probably like a teenager. Um I feel like Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

I feel like she's actually like four.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Same. I well, I was thinking like eight. Eight or like ten or something.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

But then she's spoilers. But like Right. So I was like, oh how old is Lily? Human.

unknown 28:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Yeah. I thought she was like a a a child. The way she was acting and the way Luther was responding to her in this scene, I thought she was under the age of 10.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Same.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Uh she's not, apparently. Apparently, she's a teenager or whatever that means in descended land. Yep. Um she runs over to save this little girl, does not realize at the time that it is Princess Lillian, um, who is one of the descended royalty. And uh Princess Lillian is being consoled by a hot, scary man, who is obviously the same hot, scary man that was meeting with her mother. So DM, while very focused on her healing, is also like, I need to interrogate this man and be like, um, where's my mother? What's happening? Um, so she, okay, that's when we learned this is Prince Luther. Um, she manages to stabilize Lily and she realizes that she does it like in a kind of weird way. She's like, something has happened. And also descended are very strong. They have bones like granite. And so the fact that she was able to set Lily's bones on her own is weird. She shouldn't be able to do that with her puny little mortal strength. Uh, and she there's a moment where she's like, uh heal, and like suddenly Lily's fine. Um, and she's like, Well, that was strange, and then moves on with her life.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And Lily's fine, and everything's it's also like weird too. Like, uh, her mom didn't teach her about anything about the descended.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yes, her mom was super cagey about the descended, and the whole uh so much of the book is DM learning things about the descended where people are like even a mortal should know this. Like, why are you? How do you not know this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

And especially like they know who her mom is.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

So when she's interacting with any of the descended, they're like, isn't your mom like, didn't don't you work with your mom? Like, how do you not know this? So it's like very your mother? Like how Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Yeah. It's also important to note at this point that her brother Teller is a genius. And because of his genius, he has been invited to go to school at the descended school in in Lumnos City, uh, which is rare. Most mortals only go to school until they're like 12 or something, where descended go to school until they're 18. And so Teller was invited to continue his education at the school. So he's actually at the school where the explosion happens. Uh, he is fine, but we find out that he is friends with Lily, who's apparently not eight and is apparently a teenager very capable of dating.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

They like pass notes like, Will you play with me on the playground? Yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Like this is dangerous. Again, a little setting update because it is illegal to have children between a descended and a mortal. This would be a crime. Um, and so Lily and Teller really could never be together under the rules as they stand. Um, this is like 90% uh racism and classism invoking that rule, but also a little bit like it would really suck for the descended person to marry somebody and then they're gonna die like within 50 years, and the descended are pretty much immortal. Uh but the racism part is a big part of it because they're worried about diluting their mat.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Which is disgusting. And what do they do if anyone is made from they exercise?

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Babies They kill babies and they kill the mortal who is responsible for the baby, not the descended who also contributed to that baby. Just most of the time takes advantage.

unknown 32:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

It's probably unsurprising that most of the time it's mortal women that this is a problem for. Um but they are murdered.

unknown 32:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Because they have uh that uh Paradise Row is in Mortal City, it's kind of like a their brothel skid row, brothel type of thing. Um, and there's a lot of uh descended lurking around with some babies with blue eyes that shouldn't be there.

unknown 32:52

Oop.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Oh, uh one more political cure is that through this interaction with Lily and Luther, and also we learn more about Mora, who is the um senior healer. Oh my god, we love Mora, who's sort of a surrogate grandmother, I think, to Diem in this moment. Um, through all of that, we learn that Aurelie has struck a deal with the crown to care for the king in exchange for Teller's education. And if Aurelie does not do this, uh she would be executed. And so now Diem feels like she has to do this so Teller can keep being educated. Um which is very like it's a lot to take on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Wait, okay. You see you saw Mara as a grandma? I did, yeah. Okay. I didn't. Oh, no. How old is Mara to you? I have no idea. Well, I I saw her as like an auntie instead.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Oh, okay. Cute.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

I like it. Um but like it could be older. Who I have cast is uh um mostly based on uh she's got she has a cane. She walks with a cane. She also has a wife, which I love in the case. She has a wife. Yeah. Yes. And so I kind of I focused on those things, and I guess I didn't really pay attention to her age. Sh she does say something about like it's her like surrogate grandmother.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

See, I found one piece of character art for Mara when I was making the deck, and she definitely has gray hair. But yeah, take that as you will. This the scene that made me picture her as old, this is jumping way ahead. But it's when Mora has to ride Sarai, and she like gets off of Sarai and she's like, Oh dear. She's just like, that's right, for cut the spins. That's right. That's great. So I see her as a grandmother.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Okay, I might change mine. You don't have to. The thing looks so great because you can imagine whatever you want. Yeah, okay. Continue. Oh, I do you want me to jump in? Yeah, take away. Okay, okay. Where'd we go? Executed. Okay. Okay. During a trip, where did we go? Execution.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Execution.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Okay. Executions. Okay, so uh during a trip to Fortos with her friend, special friend. DM's special mortal friend, uh, Henry. Um, Diem kills a wolf by turning it to dust with a touch. Though she suspects hallucinations, Henry confirms he saw it too. Okay, so she has stopped taking the flame route because the lady said, stop taking that shit.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Okay, listen to advice from strange women in alleyways. I see no flaws with this book.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

And it feels like the best time to do that is when your mom has gone missing. And like clearly shit is happening with you. Yeah. For sure. And like all to be said, during this whole first book, I was obsessed with Diem.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

I like listen, everybody on Reddit hates Diem. I think Diem is one of the best female main characters that we have. I think she's incredible. I know she's pissing you off in book three because it's valid. Because she is preferable in that book. But overall, as an overarching female main character, I think she's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

She is so well written.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

The problems that people have with her were she's like, just like do the thing. And I'm like, she is unpacking her whole fucking life of what she understood and what she was responsible for. Give her a chapter to process this information. Yes. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Agreed. Totally agreed.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

And I think like this first book, it was like, I didn't hate her in this because we were also trying to unpack it with her. Yeah. And then in the second book, like I also didn't didn't. Now I'm like, we're in the third book, and I was like, okay, bitch, like we've unpacked this. Like, why are we lying to people?

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Is that she's dealing with all of the revelations about Rally that we'll get to that like true, true, true. I can imagine that would fuck you up. True, true, true. Also move it along.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Yes, exactly. It's like, okay, oh, we got some mom problems to be, bitch. This is a 900-page book already. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Um three is a lot. We need to get off a book though. You can't get off book three. Don't okay. Okay. Get off of book three.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

So her and her friend Henry, Henry, are going to Fortos to get supplies. Um, since her mom is gone, her mom would usually go. And Henry works for he works for like the post and he delivers things to the palace. Well, his dad usually does. And he will deliver things and pick up packages and go to Fortos. So they go together. Um, safety and numbers, I guess, or whatever. And they got a little, they got a little thing going on. They're like boring sex scene that's ever been written, which is valid because it's a boring relationship. But like they're like friends with benefits. They like grew up together.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

They're definitely not dating or like hoarding or whatever we're saying.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

And and it's very um, and this will come into play a little towards the end of the book, but like it's very weird because she's like, I like him, I don't like him, whatever. We fuck, it's nice. It's been a while since we've done it, whatever. And so they go on this trip. That's all Henry can like think about is like, I got her in the woods, let's get it on. And she's like, Holy fuck, I almost just got eaten by a wolf. Did you see that shit? And I poofed him into fairy dust. Can we play Slock on the back? I was like, Did you see that? And he was like, he was like, Yeah, yeah, I mean, I did see it. Like, you're not hallucinating. That was a real wolf, and you definitely did that. And she was like, awesome. And he was like, Can you suck my dick? Like, it's horrible.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Take your pants off? Yeah, it's really gross. My hot take is that I am big mad that Penn Cole said in an interview, live on camera, that Henry is her favorite character. Stage baiting. I swear to God. It's gotta be a lie. It's gotta be. I I hate him so much. Like, I understand his purpose. I understand why he's in the book. He is a he like the character serves its per serves the purpose of the plot that it needs to serve. I understand it, but like, holy fucking shit, do I hate that guy?

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

From the get-go, I hated him. I mean uh not one moment where I was like, cute, likeable. I was like, mm, boring.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

And not even just because it's the obvious romanticity trope of like, who is that terrifying hot stranger? And you know that they're end game. Like, it's not even because of that. It's because, like, we're gonna get into more of the shit that Henry does in this book, but like he just makes he's an asshole. Really bad decision. He's an asshole.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Yeah. Explain yourself, Pen Cole. Ugh. Explain yourself. Okay, anyway, so then he sees the wolf and he's like, whatever, go down on me, take your top off, whatever. So they get to get to four toes. Um, Diem receives a rare steel blade capable of killing descended and experiences a bloody vision of future war. Okay. Does that happen right then?

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Yeah, the first vision.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

And he gets the knife from Henry's friend who's in The Guardians. Which we're about to get.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Yes, he's in the guard, they're in the Guardians when they're going to Fortos and she's picking stuff up to I really liked this part, and I am excited for something to maybe come back into play from this part. I've like mental noted it when she's getting the supplies from the supply lady that has like known her mom, and she was like, It's terrible that your mom's gone, whatever. Yep, hide your face. She sees the flame root back there, and she was like, Can I have some of that? And she's like, Don't fucking talk, touch it. Don't do it. Don't touch it.

unknown 40:43

Fuck.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

And it's like crazy. And I was like, wow, that's so weird. And we haven't talked about it since. But it's top of mind still for me.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Because flame root is secretly a boss. I don't know. My new thing is that I'm throwing out complete random non-segwalls to throw Loretta on the track because I can't control my face.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

We won't talk about book two in this one either, even though I've finished book two, but we won't talk about it. But we we know where it's harvested, so we're getting closer. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Onto the beans. The guardians are a rebel group who are trying to unseat the descended and shift the balance of power in Illumnos and all of Amarion uh to be more favorable to the mortals. Uh Diem is going about her business in the night uh sometime, and she sees a man attempting to kill his own child uh because he had a child with a mortal woman. Diem tries to stop this from happening. She is not successful, and unfortunately, the woman and I think the kid both. Yeah, it's really tragic. And the um guy tries to kill her, cut tries to kill Diem, and she again mysteriously uh disarms him and gets away. This man is a dick and he does come back into the plot, but we'll get to that in a minute. That's right. Um, because of this, Diem runs to Henry and she's like, I want in. I want to join the Guardians, I know you're in it, I know you're in this rebel group, I want in. And we meet shithole number two, Vance, uh, who, spoiler alert for next week, I was trying to find fan art of Vance for a deck, and I can't, which is valid because he doesn't deserve fan art. So he does not have any, and his slide is blank. Great.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Um his name is Vance, and you know who else is an asshole whose name is Vance? JD Vance. He can suck my dick. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

But he's in charge of the Guardians while their mysterious female leader is away on a mission.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

That sentence I went, clocked it.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

I was like, I didn't. Because again, nobody thinks that I'm stupid, but I'm just a vibes-based reader. I'm not trying to solve puzzles. Um, and I love being surprised.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

So like Penn wanted everybody to know it right away.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

I think Penn would be proud of me for going on the journey, but Penn wanted me to go on.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

She gets it. Well, I'm sitting there being like, like a bloodhound, being like, it's the mother.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Obviously, mother. Yeah. Spoilers. Um, R Lee is the leader of the Guardians. We don't know this yet. DM does not know this. It takes DM a long time to figure this out. Longer than me. I figured it out before DM.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

There's won't figure out until book three, the beginning of book three.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Uh but descended mysterious female leaders out of the country. Who could that be? So Father Vance is in charge. Father Vance is a dick. Father Vance loves violence. He is willing to do whatever it takes to further their cause. It does not matter what that is or who's hurt in the process. Um The first scene that made me really turn on Henry was he asks Diem to use her guise as a healer going into the uh going into the palace and helping descended to treat a little girl who got sick, who was a young descended girl. She was sick, and while Diem was treating the girl, she was supposed to see what she could figure out about the dad's armory. Like so she was in the house and they were like, see what you can find. Um turns out that Henry straight up poisoned this little girl, and everybody's just like fine with that in the Guardians. I think that is the he's done a lot of shitty things. I think that's a one of the worst things. And rightfully, DM is so mad at him, right? Which is not mad enough to like leave the guardians and divorce him, but um really mad, which she should be, because you poisoned a child. And what's even more infuriating is that when she comes back from that mission and she's like, here's all of this stuff that I learned about the armory, they're all like, oh, that was like a test. We didn't actually expect you to like get any information. I was like, so you poisoned the little girl for a test. For a test? Like you didn't even think she was gonna get anything? Like this was just She's worthless to you. She's like their hatred of descended is so insidious that like that that meant nothing to that. Like they literally didn't even occur to them that was like a bad thing that they did. Um hate. Anywho, she is um continues her journey as a healer and she is um sneak snorking around the palace. Hot sexy stranger man, Prince Luther. Um I love. He is one of my favorites. God, he's our ultimate boy boyfriend. So good. So great. Uh he catches her and is like the fuck you doing, bitch. Like what are you doing? But also, like, if you're gonna sneak snork around my palace, do a better job. He's like, this is embarrassing for you. What are you doing? But also Yeah. But then like lets her go. And she's like, Well, that is strange.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah, well, and then like when she has every time she has to come into the palace to heal people, the guards, like I was picturing like um Magic TSA, like was like giving her a really hard time, and he would be like, Fuck you guys, like Yeah, which is very uncharacteristic that this very He's clearly scaredy, hot stranger wants to help this mortal girl.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

He wants to help me weapons on your border.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Oh wow, so strange.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Important to know that we know now that Luther is very regimented and by the book, so this is like super odd that he is like letting her go and also being like she can have a gun. He gives Kylo a run vibes. He does. I don't probably would be good casting for him. That's not my cast. I cast by Luther months ago when I first there's one scene in book two where I was like, oh, I know exactly this.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Okay, we'll talk about it later. I went back and forth and I chose someone completely different. Well, I is perfect, and I'm not accepting criticism at this time. Even though he's blonde and it's fine. Um blonde. That's fine. Take it away with the armory. That's fine. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Um, okay, taking it away with the armory. Um, so after Luther catches her, he's like, get out of here. Um everything that she has found, she has unfortunately assisted the guardians in a very um V for vendetta gunpowder. Yeah, exactly. And um, an explosion rocks the city. She's home at Mortal City in her little woods or whatever, realizes this happens and she went, Oh fuck. This is my fault. Um, she there's a hole in the fence, uh, fence borders. There's like a whole a shortcut to the palace that she finds because the descendant that comes over to be like, Can you please help us with this explosion? Please, we need all the healers, says, take this shortcut because people's lives are at stake. She gives that information to the guardians and they use it. And so this explosion uh rocks the city. Um, the guardians have bombed the armory, which the guy that the descendant she was spying on runs. She rushes to help the wounded. She uh is ignoring Henry's attempts to stop her, dickhead.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

He she And also by attempts, they like try to kidnap her. Like she runs past them on the road and they like pick her up.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

And they have all like they have like like wagons full of weapons and bombs. And she's like, What the fuck are you guys doing? And they were like, see, we couldn't trust her. She's out. Goodbye. She sucks. And she's like, Henry, please. And he's like, I gotta go. Strike two.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

And they like take her bag of healer supplies, and so she has to run when she finally gets away from them. She has no supplies to run into fire.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

And she was like, I did this. She's like, I am responsible. This is my fucking fault. I have to go do what I can. She's like, I don't even care if I die at this point. And Luther and her don't have like a friendship, but there's like a respect because she's like doing this job at the palace now. So she runs up. Uh, he's like, Okay, go ahead, go in. And there's a commander there named Alex, who is like, she's really small, she could get in, let her go. And he was like, I don't think she should do this. Luther's like, oh my God. So he but he lets Diem run in so that she can she's can save people. And she sees uh there's already everybody in there was already dead uh by murdered. Uh so who could have done that? Oh, the guardians. This was already plotted. Vance did this. Maybe not Henry, but maybe some people. Um and she sees two, two, one guy, two, I two guys. Uh it's Perse and Party. That's right. That's right. Per that's right. Um It's perfect. And she like basically like puts them on top of each other and like scoots them out and like does whatever she can to save them, and she's struggling super, super hard, and she makes it to the end and she gets them out, and there's something that comes crashing down and she nearly dies. And a voice in her head urges her to wake up and rise and fight. Um, and she resists, but it persists. So she she resists and it persists.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

I thought it was a nice little I like it.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

I like it. Um she wakes up from this and is like, I gotta go, I gotta go. Make sure these guys get out. She sees Luther like at this opening and he comes in to rescue her. Now, when she sees Luther, she has another vision. It's a very important vision that I still don't know what it means yet. And I don't know if you do either. I don't know. He touches they are across each other, they're across a battlefield from each other with swords in their hands, and he's got the sword of Corbois in his hands or something, and she's got the sword, and he touches his heart, and she touches her heart, and then they come out of it, and she just like knows that like I can trust this person, and so she allows him to rescue her, and then she wakes up to the smell of woody timber, leather bound books or whatever, you know, the man smell from everything. Right. Like that's like that smells like musty man in here. Honestly, the descriptions of how men smell in these books is just like a watch. And she wakes up in the palace and she's like, Oh my god, who's Bedamayan? Crazy. Take it away with the assumption.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Well, she hears him talking to who we later learn is Eleanor. Um, and Eleanor's like, Why do you want me to care for this mortal person? Like, A, I'm not a healer, and like also, who this bitch, like who is this? Right. Um, and you hear Luther say, I think she's, and then DM's.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

Oh yeah, because um Diem's dad, um, Andre, that like Andre Bellator taught her how to, and he's like a commander of the uh descended army, and like kind of like was like played both sides, and like um he he's very well respected by both descended and mortals. Um and he's not her real dad. Um he is like her adapted father, and Arlie had her while they were in stationed in the war together, the blood war that happened. And he that's why he taught her to fight is because like she when she got sick and she looks different, and he was like, We're gonna teach you some strength. Uh and so hearing, yeah, hearing this conversation, she's like, Arf. Weird. Huh? Yeah, who my real dad?

SPEAKER_02 53:38

Who am I? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's actually really funny that that's what you thought Luther was about to say. Because I thought he was about to say, I think she's my mate. I think she's my is how far he gets, I think.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

See, and I thought for sure, like she he was gonna say something about who she is and her family. That's interesting. Fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Okay, yeah, I thought for sure he was about to say mate. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

I think I was so focused on the family stuff, this book.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

You're right. Like, we don't know who her dad is at this point. Do we ever find out? I don't know where you're at. We don't know who her dad is.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

I have uh I have a hunch.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

This is an immaculate conception. She's Jesus. Uh okay, so a couple days later, DM is magically fine. She healed remarkably fast. Weird for a mortal. It's so strange. It's so weird how fast she healed.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

She has so many like weird mortal traits. That sickness really got her. Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Um, okay, so then she's back to her regular day job as a healer, and she is tending it to King Ulter, uh, who's the dying king, who, by the way, does not have a role to play in this book. He is dying the whole time. And Luther, we haven't said this yet, is the heir apparent. Um, but important to know. I just realized that Ulter and Luther are the same. Same letters letters, uh I think Luther was like named after Ulthur. Like I think that was a thing. But it's important to note that um the transition of power is not directly hereditary. The kindred, so Lumnos in this case, picks the most powerful descended to inherit the throne uh when the current ruler dies.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

And it's like whoever, yeah, whoever has the most the power, and there's different houses, and it doesn't matter which house.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Could go to a Hanover, could go to a Gislaine, as we live in these houses. Uh, but Luther Corbois is the heir apparent. He is extremely powerful. He's in House Corbro Corbois, excuse me, which is the current ruling family. It makes a lot of sense. He's the heir. Whatever could happen. Uh okay, so Diem is tending to King Altar, and he wakes up in a panic. It's the first time he's been awake the whole book. Um, and he flips out at her and he calls her the devourer of crowns. That's right. And then he dies. She's like, What the fuck? Just happened. You're a bad person. You're gonna ruin it all. Yep. Dead. And she, because an old man is screaming at her, pulled a blade that non-TSA Luther allowed her to keep when she entered the palace. And so the guards run in after all the yelling, and they see dead king DM with a knife. It's a problem. They jump to some conclusions. Um, and even Luther is like, okay, this one you're gonna have to explain. Like, what happened? Okay, girl, this looks bad. Like this doesn't look great, and I'm gonna need you to start talking about what just happened. And she does not do that, she runs away. And Ruther Luther runs after her. I love how I wrote this. Um, in a moment of high tension, um, she like he's holding a blade to her neck or the other way around. Like they're in an alley and somebody's got a knife to the throat. And then because n literally nothing else could happen in this moment, they make out.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

She's got her she's got her blade to his throat.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

Yeah, and then they kiss, and it's magical. And then she's like, eh, and then she runs away. Um, before not before noting, literally the best kiss ever. Literally so hot. That was amazing. What the fuck? Uh, but then runs away. And he catches her. He Luther's trying to tell her that she's a descendant, and she's like, You're literally insane. I have mortal parents. What are you talking about? And then she runs back home. Um, back home. She's a really sad fight with her family. Um, basically, uh, you're not my real dad to Andre, which is very sad because he's raised her since birth. Um, and they have a really stressful fight, and she runs away. And this is when it this is actually when it's revealed that Henry that Andre is not her biological father. Consumed by rage, she runs away to like a pond, a lake. She's in water. Lake. A swamp. She's in like a marsh, like a swamp. It doesn't really matter actually. Um, but light explodes around her, her power fully manifests. She has a crown.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

She's got her little brother like over her shoulder.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Not yet. The crown has to fully manifest on her head before Teller pops up and is like, Hello? Are you the queen? He's like, she's the new queen of Lumnos. She is the most powerful descendant in the land. Luther is not. Diem is queen. End of book one. What a fantastic way to end a book. She's betrothed to Henry.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

Oh, I forgot. Because I in they get engaged at some point, but she doesn't want to. She doesn't want to. She's like, yeah, she's like, I like I don't really like you like that. We're not even dating, and you tried to murder a child, but uh perhaps. I don't know. We'll talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

Very much of this feels like what we're supposed to do, sort of thing. Um I completely forgot that possible. Yeah, but that's good. I loved how this book ended.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

Like I thought it was great. Oh my God. The ending of this. And well, and like I don't know about you. But I like knew this was happening halfway through the book. Yeah. And I was so excited.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

I wasn't quite sure like how it was gonna happen, but I was like, clearly she's the main character. So either like Luther is gonna inherit, but they're gonna get married, and like that's the plot, or like I don't I wasn't quite sure like what how it was gonna happen, but was not surprised that this was the one.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

I loved, uh, and I don't know if it was like this on purpose, but I love the fact that it's like it almost uh Penn wanted everybody to know so that when it happened, it would we were like cheering her on rather than like, oh my god, what a shock. Like it was like, yeah, bitch, it's motherfucking time. Yeah, you are the most powerful and like you got this. Um I yeah, I also really, really, really loved this book.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

When you first gave me this book, I was like, oh, sure, fine, I'll read it. Um, it's fucking great.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

It's so good. I gave it to my niece for Christmas because she's a big Avatar girly, and it was like, if you like Fayra, you'll like Diem. I know that she likes Avatar, so I was like, Yeah. And I got it for her for Christmas. She read it in two days and was like, I'm obsessed with this book, like obsessed with it. It's so good, you have to read it. So I was like, all right, and so I was like, I'll jump into it. I'm sure it's like very YA.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

No, I've and it is there's a little bit of like war and death and also fucking in the later books, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's slow, it's definitely a true slowest slow burn.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:51

I love a slow burn. This is the slowest slow burn. And I love a slow burn, and even I was like, take his pants off, put it in your mouth. Um, this is the book that did make one of my coworkers say the phrase finger banging in the office. Nobody called us we were like in a work setting.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Oh my god, that's right. Wait, that happened. Just happened in book.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

We're not on that book yet. We can't talk about that yet. Okay. Focusing on book.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

No, we can't. We can't.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

Thomas is a full burns. I just think it's phenomenal. I would actually argue when you were saying if you like Fayra, I would argue that DM is far more like Nesta, but also better. Um, but dealing with like Well, she can read. She can read it. But a lot like Nesta, she's kind of angry about like being in this other world and like is not into it, and is also way more powerful than anybody knew anything about, and has to unpack a lot of stuff and unpack a lot of her own trauma and like some of the death that happens to Nesta is appropriate for DM spoiler for book two. Yeah, I love this book.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

Yeah, she's dealing with so much in this book. Like she was sick, she her mom disappears, she realizes she doesn't really know who she is or who she belongs to or where she came from. That's confirmed at the end of it with a motherfucking crown, and she's now ruling people that she knows nothing about. And Teller, who like goes to this disc descended school, is her younger baby brother, is being like, all right, so here's what's gonna happen. There's this thing, it's called the challenging, and like it's teeing it up for the second book. And yeah, he she's sitting there going, huh? Like, I just screamed at my father. And now this just happened, and I saved, I killed a bunch of people, but I saved a bunch of people, but I did all it. Like, there's so much happens in this book, and this book is only like 400 pages.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

And one of the first things that Teller tells her is like, you gotta hide. Like, it's like not uncommon for other ruling houses to think that you are not strong enough and try to murder you so that the crown goes somewhere else. Like, you gotta go immediately.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:13

He was like, You have to go to the palace. Is this the beginning of book two where he calls in reinforcements?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

And like, there's a crown on my head, end of book one. That's all in book two.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:25

Okay, yeah. It's like, and scene, and then I immediately picked up book two because I was like, and gotta know what's happening now. Like, it's been a minute since uh book I read with my eyeballs made me do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:38

Yeah, I liked this a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

I loved this book. Any other hot takes?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Last thoughts? Henry fucking sucks. Yeah. Um sucks. So hard. No, I have more hot takes in book two, but I think that's for now. Okay, well then that's where we'll stop this episode, guys. Who are we casting next week? Um, we are gonna focus on the uh residents of Mortal City. So we are casting our girl Diem, her brother Teller, her dad Andre, her mom Aurely, Henry, well, Mara, who's a grandmother or not, Vance, who the fuck cares? Uh, Lillian Corbois, and Luther Corbois. It's a lot. We got a lot. I think we should share a fun fact that um last week when we were chatting, we were like, we'll just do like two book two episodes of casting because we don't really need anybody new in book three. And then we went back and we were like, oh no, we have like 30 people per book. What the fuck were we thinking?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

There's so many people in this book. And and they're so well written and described that again, popping right into my noggin. Like I was like, yeah, check, check, check. Uh, I love so much. It's gonna be such a good casting episode coming up because there's so many great characters. So um, we'll see everybody then next time. We did forget to do our call to action again in the beginning, so we're gonna do it now. Listeners, if you are here because you found us on uh YouTube or Instagram or whatever on the social medias, make sure other people know about us and like, share, comment, subscribe for the rest of the Kindred's Curse Saga, and go back to check out the series we just completed, which was the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy. And you can even check out some of our older episodes and our standalone episodes where we cast the Super Bowl, we do some Marge Madness, and we do some Dancing with the Stars casting because we're super fun. We have a lot of skills. Um, but okay, so we'll see you guys next time to all you he's, the she's, the they'd, the gays, the shadow daddies, and the thays. Bye bye.

unknown 1:05:55

Bye.