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ONYX STORM

Book 3 of the Empyrean Series

January 21, 2025

My thoughts on the title so far…

Xadens eyes are described as onyx with gold flecks.. becoming venin turns eyes turn red. He also wields shadows which is dark obviously. I think a large focus will be on Xaden and his battle in becoming venin.

Rebecca also said old enemies are coming back, does that mean Xaden?!?

Are we going to get a lot more Xaden Pov?

I have so many questions but I am so excited for this next book!!!!

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Colonel Mairi Theory **Spoilers**

So, we learn a little more about Liams and Sloanes mom Colonel Mairi in Iron Flame. After learning about his family crest being on a very unstable material in the battle of Resson which was hinted to be Maorsite. We know that his mother created the protection Runes for the rebellion children.

Does Liams family have an ancient kind of magic? Maybe something tied to the land like the stone Maorsite without becoming Venin?

We learn that she is the only one who could forge the protection runes that protected the kids of the rebellion. We also learned that most aristocratic families serve in the Infantry for a few years so they can take their families seat on the council when done. It's very rare that aristocrats become riders because of the lifelong commitment.

Turns out Xaden has known Eya since they were ten, according to the letter. Her mother was active in the government of Tyrrendor, holding a council seat even though she was a rider, which is uncommon. In fact, most of the aristocracy chooses to serve in the infantry, just like Xaden’s father, because riders are discouraged from holding their family’s seats. Not only are our commissions lifelong instead of the few years an infantry officer can agree to,

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean) (p. 228). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

However, Runes are made by pulling from your own magic, in order for Liams mom to make those runes she would have had to pull from her Magic. Now the simple answer to this is she is a Rider, but there is no mention of that, and Rebecca puts easter eggs in everything (swifties get it) so her casually bringing up that most aristocrats are Infantry means something more than a history lesson. This also can play into how powerful she was, there is no one else who can replicate that particular Rune.

“Yes, a complicated one at that.” He sits up and reaches for the little gray stone, then offers it to me as he stands. “There’s not a person alive who knows how to replicate this. Colonel Mairi was the last.” Liam and Sloane’s mom. I take the palm-size stone and study the intricate lines of the rune.

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean) (p. 633). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

I think it is safe to say that Liams mom was extremely powerful (rider or not) and if she was in fact not a Rider, could she have been something more? Does this also explain why Liam was wielding ice at Resson?? I think Liams family line will be a bigger factor in piecing together the many questions we have!

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Spin-offs I want after the Empyrean Series is finished.

I know this is getting ahead of myself, but these are books I would like Rebecca to write after we finish the Empyrean Series.

All 5 books in Xaden's POV.

I also want Xaden's first two years at Basgiath. Starting with the execution of his father and deal he made with Lilith. I would love to see more with his relationship with Cat and how toxic a dynamic that must have been, also the intricacies of that arrangement. Starting from the beginning we could see him navigate Basgiath before threshing, including when he kills the prince. Then we can see him get his powers and how he handled hiding his signet(s). There is just so much. I know we can't get this though until the series is finished because he's full of secrets!

The first rebellion - I want to know all the parents, and how the rebellion started. The feud between Fen and Lilith (because you know there has to be more history there). More about Liam and Sloanes mom and their family history, she had to be extremely powerful (I also have a theory which I will make another post about). Also, I think we will learn about Xaden's mom but if we don't get much I want backstory about her and Fen, same with Violets parents. I also want this in maybe Fen and Lilith's POV. Also, little Xaden, Liam, Bodhi, Garrick, and Imogen likee yess please.

The First Six - There is DRAMMA there, probably steamy romance and the Great War. Need I say more?

I want a whole book on Garrick and Imogen - starting from the beginning - slow burn, friends to lover trope, she falls first, Garricks to dense to notice. They're endgame, you can't change my mind.

Some Novellas I think would be fun/interesting to read

The Book of Brennen

The codex (edited and unedited version)

The rules of the Dragon Empyrean

Rhiannons POV love story with Tara and her one tryst with Sawyer.

Sawyer and Jesinia Dual POV

Ridoc - just everything, his conversations with Aotrom, his relationships with just about everyone.

Liams first year at Basgiath

Mira and Drake (because we all see that enemies to lover story from a mile away)

Lastly, because I personally LOVE Bodhi - just anything involving him.

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Violets Second Signet **Spoiler Warning**

Ok, after a long time thinking about this, and reading Iron Flame 4 times I think I am ready to theorize my idea for Violets second signet.

Let's start by summarizing what we know.

I have seen that some people have speculated that her signet is Distance wielder because she asked Xaden if that was his. While I don't think that was just brought up without a purpose, I don't think that would be her signet. (I think Aaric might end up being that).

I also think Violet's signet is going to be something that either we have never seen before, or very rare. This power comes from Andarna, she's a special breed of Dragon that has been basically extinct for 650 years.

Signets are based on the rider, and what they need most at their core. Violet needs information, Facts.

It is also mentioned many times that Violet has a mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider. I think this is important, more important than we know yet.

I think Violet can process events and information in slow motion. I think she can see everything around her happening, giving her time to process and record the events within her mind. While this doesn't seem significant, to Violet its everything. There are a few events that's stood out to me that made me think this.

First, when she reviews what Aiofe wrote and admits she missed some things. Also, Jesinia mentions that stories can change depending on who is transcribing them. Violet is mad about the amount of information that has been forgotten or changed due to scribes hiding the Venin from Navarre. She would want to recount everything correctly.

“Absolutely.” I nod, then take the notebook and skim Aoife’s neat handwriting. It’s amazingly accurate, with little details I’d missed, like the two infantry cadets who’d offered to be the healers’ aides because that’s their job for the squad. They have designated roles for each mission. I set it down on top of the book I’m returning to sign. “This is incredible.” “Glad to hear it’s accurate.” She glances over her shoulder, as if checking to see if we’re alone, which we are. “The tricky thing is to capture the truth and not just an interpretation. Stories can change depending on who tells them.”

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 224). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Second, the way some of the events and wording were portrayed made me suspicious that these were written a specific way. They were very detailed catching events that were happening in seconds or described as happening in slow motion. I think we see some clues to this being her signet once we get to Part 2 of the book and Andarna is awake and Channeling. We know Violets first signet showed up right after she started channeling with Tairn (that first kiss with Xaden), so it would make sense that she could have been showing signs of her second signet without realizing it. I don't think she was fully able to wield until the final battle though. My reasoning for this is if she was, even if she was unaware, Tairn would have sensed her pulling power from another source and wielding. If he did during the battle, we won't know that until the 3rd book since we don't get much info on events once battle has ended.

Examples of her signet showing up prior to final battle as follows...

Time slows to sluggish heartbeats as I watch him reach for the ground.

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 567). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Everything somehow slows and yet happens at once.

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 597). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Time slows to heartbeats, my breath freezing in my heated chest. Then the wyvern crosses the invisible barrier, and my heart stops beating altogether as its wings flap once. Twice.

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 745). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

During the battle, two events really stood out - when Violet was waiting for the Venin to come upon them and worried about her friends. She says they have 10 seconds maybe. It is then described in detail all the events taking place a second at a time. Shes following this dagger being repaired while simultaneously aware of everything and everyone around her. She is able to gather copious amounts of information in a short, small amount of time.

One. Ridoc waves his hands at my right, holding a dagger that’s been snapped in two. Shit, if his only remaining blade is broken—I blink when the pieces disappear. He wasn’t waving at me. Two. Snapping my head to the left, I find the pieces already in Rhiannon’s hands as Feirge dives to where Sliseag hovers beneath. Three. Feirge flies alongside Sliseag, and Rhiannon tosses the pieces. Four. To Sawyer’s credit, he catches them. Five. Sgaeyl rises to take Feirge’s place, and I lock eyes with Xaden only long enough to see that he’s unharmed. Blood both drips from Sgaeyl’s mouth and runs in rain-driven rivulets down the side of Xaden’s face, but I instinctively know it’s not his and focus on the imminent threat. Six. Breathe. I have to breathe through the firestorm in my chest or I’ll burn out. It’s not that I don’t recognize the signs: the trembling, the heat, the fatigue. It’s just that they don’t matter. Everyone I love is on this field. Seven. They’re almost on us, and I look down at the ward chamber, where Marbh stands watch with a Blue Clubtail I don’t recognize and a vague shape I hope is Andarna, and when a flash of sunlight reflects on the dagger in Sawyer’s hand, it disappears again, Feirge already on the move. Eight. “Dajalair is frustrated by the unflyable conditions,” Tairn relays as Feirge rises alongside Aotrom. Nine. “Tell them they’re more efficient guarding the courtyard and incoming wounded than struggling with waterlogged wings,” I note. “They’d be a liability up here right now, not an asset.” The dagger changes hands, and Ridoc is once again armed. I grin at how seamlessly we work as a team, then face the coming tidal wave. Ten. “You’re beginning to think—” Tairn starts. “Like Brennan?” I suggest as the wyvern enter our airspace. “Like Tairn,” Sgaeyl answers,

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (pp. 827-828). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

The last scene that made me think this was when Sawyer and Aotrom was being attacked by multiple wyverns. Violet is able to assess the situation, gather the information, which gave her the opportunity to save her friends. I think this speaks directly to the battle at Resson, her world had been so turned upside down with the realization that everything she knew was false she was unable to fully piece together the information she did know about how wyvern is made from Venin, she feels responsible for Liam.

We’re almost there, but everything happens so fucking fast that it’s as if the rest of the world slows down. In one heartbeat, the closest wyvern opens its jaws. In the second, it blasts green fire across Sliseag and Sawyer dives backward out of the seat, narrowly avoiding being burned to death and rolling down Sliseag’s spine with a smoking boot. In the third, it completes its assault, snapping at Sliseag’s exposed side. Sawyer kicks at the gaping jaws to save his dragon from the bite, but in the next, he takes it himself, his leg disappearing between the wyvern’s massive teeth.

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 833). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

With that I leave you with this blurb from Xaden

“You have to find your center again, Violet. I can’t do it for you.” He holds my gaze, letting his words sink in, before adding, “You are a creature of logic and facts, and everything you know got turned upside down and shaken. You’ll never know how truly sorry I am for that. But you can’t just sit there and hope. You want it to change, then you have to figure it out, just like Gauntlet. You’re the only one who can.”

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 663). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

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**SPOILER WARNING*** Iron flame realization!!!

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I am re-reading Iron flame (for the fourth time) and I came across this realization.

Tairn says that dragons cant sense wyvern otherwise they would not be in the position they are in now.

Yet later Andarna says that wyvern smell like stolen magic!!!

ANDARNA CAN FIND THE WYVERN!!!!!

I think i love this series so much because of the fact every time i read it, i learn something new.

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Am I delusional??? Iron Flame Theory

Maybe I'm Delulu but I felt like Grass was described ALOT in Iron Flame.... Like to make me think it means something.

Grass is brought up 43 times - and I felt like when grass was being described then something big happened.

What made me think it had any meaning was I thought it was an odd placement of this description here ...

“Nope, just dumped my stuff on the ground.” My gaze catches momentarily on a palm-size gray stone with a decorative black rune on his nightstand before I spot a piece of grass that made the journey here from the flight field and flick it off my arm. “Did they search Sgaeyl?”

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 182). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Then after this it continues to be brought up or described in ways that is noticeable. Again, this could mean nothing, but It's been eating away at me.

And then Rebecca made a post about fourth wing on her IG and wrote that she "Desperately need to touch grass"

Am I crazy?!?

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Spoiler warning!!

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The foreshadowing in Fourth wing was insane. Some things i picked up on before Iron Flame (like Xadens second signet, pretty proud of myself for that one). But the amount of times in Fourth Wing and Iron Flame the number 7 was used!!! The Harry Potter in me should have known 😫

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Can we just take a moment to appreciate and admire Jesinia… she not only lead an uprising within her own quadrant (which arguably could be headquarters for the secret venin society at Basgiath) but she might be the only person on the continent that rode a DRAGON and GRYPHON.

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Iron Flame Theories **Spoiler Warning**

This is my first post, but I need to get this theory out there...

I think Andarnas parents are the ward stones .... hear me out.

When Violet first sees the ward stone in Aretia this is how she describes it.

"The shimmering black pillar rises to over twice the height of Xaden and would take all nine of us holding our arms outstretched to surround it. Etched in the very center, at least six feet across, is a series of circles, each fitting within the next and boasting a rune carved in along its path. It’s almost the same pattern as on the pages of Warrick’s journal. I move toward it, soaking in every detail. “Is it onyx?” I ask Xaden. It’s massive. Too heavy for even a dragon to carry. They had to have carved it in this very chamber. “We can’t say for certain, but my father thought it was polished iron,” he answers."

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 523). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

When she sees the ward stone at Basgiath she describes it as this.

"The wardstone is twice as large as the one in Aretia, as is the chamber that houses it, but unlike Aretia’s, the rings and runes carved into it are interrupted by a diamond pattern."

Yarros, Rebecca. Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) (p. 794). Entangled Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

We also learn that the allure in the daggers is made out of a few materials but one of them being Dragon Eggshell, which consist of Metal and Magic. This makes me believe that the dragons or dragon scale could be a type of metal, which would explain why Violet's armor is so effective against daggers. The wardstones are also an unknown metal...

The wardstones are also placed in specific locations yet described as too big to move even by dragons. I think because both wardstones are in locations that are large open "cave like" areas open to the sky but hidden from everything else makes me think that these were designed for this, therefore the wardstones had to have been moved there.

We know that Andarna is a special type of dragon, she also effectively killed a Venin with fire (and by ripping his head off) which in the battle at Resson Tairn was unable to burn any Venin.

I think that Andarnas parents sacrificed themselves to become the wardstones. I think that the one in Basgiath is her dad and was able to be "fired" because her mom was one of the 7. Then when her mom became the second wardstone in Aretia, they needed Andarna to fire that once she was able. This would explain why they only ever activated one stone. It also could explain why they look different. I also think "diamond pattern" reminds me of scales. We also assume the wardstones are Iron because that what Fen Riorson thought, but it's never confirmed.

I think Andarna is the Key they are looking for to beat the Venin, Brennen mentioned that something took out the Venin 600 years ago and they are searching for that. I don't think Venin were completely eradicated obviously because they are still around. I think Andarnas parents were the only dragons that could stop them, and they thought becoming the wards would be their only defense. We also know that Andarna is 650 years old (or waited that long to hatch) meaning she was around before the unification of Navarre. So, her species could have been killed off during the great war (which we learned little about but was obviously against the venin within the Barrons). I think there's more to Violet and Andarna and potentially a prophecy, but I will summarize that another time.