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City of Brass: Lies, Devastating Choices, and How We Still Love All Of Them
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Join us as we process the end of S.A. Chakraborty's fantasy book, City of Brass. The devastating choices and huge reveals in the ending left us reeling. Finish the book before listening to this episode! We talk spoilers!
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Transcript
Introduction to Mythic Mirror and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Who's lying? Who isn't? Who's dead? Who's coming back? And what the heck even are these people?
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome to Mythic Mirror, the podcast for lovers of fantasy and myth who want to live deep and magical lives. I'm your host, Mary C. Kehoe. And I'm your co-host, Carolina
Spoiler Alert: City of Brass Discussion
00:00:28
Speaker
Carter. All right, we will be giving spoilers. So if you have not finished City of Brass, stop, turn around, go finish, come back.
00:00:38
Speaker
ah We will be talking about all of it. We need to talk about all of it. I need to process Yeah, I'm traumatized. aha I will say i think the previous episodes I admitted to being a squeamish reader and said that this book was fine. um I will say these last couple chapters certainly ramped it up. If you are a squeamish reader, definitely don't listen to it on tape.
00:01:07
Speaker
or on whatever, i am able to read it by, I skim. I skim, like if I see a part that's going to make me squeamish, I just skip like a paragraph. and um So just to my fellow squeams out there, first of all, I apologize for calling you squeams. Second of all, don't listen to this last part of the book. Read it if you can. Skip or just listen to this podcast. We'll spoil it all for you.
Character Analysis: Dara and Ali
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, there's times I didn't realize how much how many times I'd skim a book until I was listening to, I can't even remember what book it was, but i you know when you're running over to the phone, no, stop, stop, I can't.
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah. i There was one part where I was like, I don't remember this at all. And then I was like, that's because you didn't read it. You skipped this part. Yeah. Skimming is a great gift.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. So where do we even begin? First off, going from what we talked about last week, that we love all these characters. And it's amazing that we can love all these characters. That they've done terrible things, some of them more than others.
00:02:20
Speaker
So it's like nobody's, like Dara has, ah you know, led an atrocity. It could complete horrible things going on.
00:02:32
Speaker
And yet we're meeting him way later. He has so much regret and his soul is just torn apart by this that he did and had to go through. And then the war that happened,
00:02:49
Speaker
And he was asked to do it it. He was under orders. And his whole entire worldview and and religion is formed around obeying these people, obeying the Nahids.
00:03:04
Speaker
And if he didn't obey, he'd be going against his religion, his like bone deep beliefs. and i i loved the one of the scenes one of the lines that was most powerful to me in this book is when dara is fighting with ali in the training ground they're dueling or sparring yeah and uh and he says dara says to ali
00:03:35
Speaker
Something about, you know, being a privileged young warrior, so firm in your beliefs. and And he draws the parallel between who Ali is now and what Dara was in the beginning and how they were the same.
00:03:49
Speaker
And Ali says, you know, I'm not like you. I'd never do what you did. And Dara turns and says, pray you never that pray that you're never asked to. Mm-hmm.
00:04:01
Speaker
And it's I just the mirroring of it's like Ali is who Dara was before everything happened.
Royal Family Dynamics and Exile
00:04:09
Speaker
And Dara is who Ali could become very easily.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and the And how the king sees that. he you know He loves his son. He loves Ali. He believes that he wasn't trying to be a traitor and that he wouldn't. He you know he believes that Ali truly believes he would never betray his dad or his brother.
00:04:33
Speaker
And yet he sees Ali's beliefs and how firm they are. And he knows both of his son's weaknesses. And he knows when he's gone, there will be forces trying to manipulate Ali into fighting his brother.
00:04:48
Speaker
And that those weaknesses are there in both of them. here The scene where at the end, when the king...
00:05:00
Speaker
tells Ali what's going to happen to him and his future. I don't know. i I haven't read the rest of the series yet. And I've only read a little bit of the second book, which I don't remember very well. So I don't know what happens.
00:05:13
Speaker
But I think that moment when when the king has to give up his his favorite son, the son who is the son of his heart, and he knows he's sending him to his death.
00:05:30
Speaker
and that he he can't kill him cleanly. He has to do it in this in this banishment way that leads him open to any anyone coming to kill him. And he apologizes for that weakness.
00:05:44
Speaker
And I think that's the moment. I think it kills him. I think from here on out, he's dying. The king? Yeah. I mean, whether he actually dies in in this series or not, I don't know. But I think the moment. It just rips his heart out. Yeah.
00:05:58
Speaker
That was the part in the book that gave me the chills is when he said, when when Ali's like, why not just kill me then? And he says, because I can't bring myself to make that order.
00:06:10
Speaker
And for that, my son, for that weakness, my son, I am sorry. And I just... There are many sad parts in the book, but that that part, I think, made me the most sad.
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah. Because it's just, you see you see how he saw this future when Ali was born and did his best to avoid it and create...
Speculations on Ali's Supernatural Origins
00:06:34
Speaker
ah the best possible outcome and and you find out how he was yeah and you find out from the beginning from his very first breath you find out the king was his greatest defender yeah and that you know he killed people for coming to offer hey i'll get rid of him quietly and you know and that the mom thought he was going to kill him right then and there and he was saying that's when he knew we knew we we didn't know each other at all if she thought i could kill my son
00:07:03
Speaker
As I was counting your fingers. and Yeah. Oh, man. That whole scene just is heartbreaking. Yeah. But going back a little bit to how we got there, i need to know what you think. is Do you think Ali is alive and himself?
00:07:25
Speaker
Granted, if he is alive, he soon won't be because of his exile. But um so... He fell in the, we already announced spoilers. Okay. So he's fallen in the lake. He gives his real name to the, the Marid and something overtakes his body, shoots him back up. He certainly should have died from the wounds he received from Dara and drowning and drowning and creatures biting him to death. And so did he heal or is he not
00:08:01
Speaker
himself So here's my theory. There was a couple things before that point. I mean, they made a point about him swimming and how his mother's tribe swims. So they already have a connection to water. Then when he's fighting Dara, there's a moment like he feels like he's sweating, but that would be impossible.
00:08:24
Speaker
h And then when he's wounded and Nari is healing him, first she sees his blood and it's Shafet blood. Like it's not pure, right? It's not gin blood that she's seeing. might have skimmed that part. Oh, okay. Tell me. When she's healing him,
00:08:50
Speaker
It made some, it didn't say it, ah it said something about how his his b blood was not black. And then later, when she's healing him and and and working on him and everything, he's just, he when he wakes up, he's drinking tons of water. And she's like, I've never seen anyone drink that much water at once. You might want to like chill chill out a little bit. And then she looks down and water is pouring out of his wound.
00:09:14
Speaker
And then when he goes swimming, it heals him. Like it's way more healed than before. So he already has some connection to, and I think his tribe, his mother's tribe, having an, being allies with the Marid. So I think there's actually something he, either he's part Shafet or, he is Shafet or,
00:09:35
Speaker
I think he already had some connection to the Ma'rid already, like his tribe does, because then they also have that flashback with the sister and and him. Like he was able to do it too. Right. Able to do magic, like shape the water. So I think that's like a secret held by his tribe because all the other ones would think it's like an abomination.
00:09:58
Speaker
fascinating yeah so i think he already had a connection to the marid i think now he's i think he is him but he's definitely changed obviously but like in a in a fundamental way right so so far nothing is what it seems alizad is either part marid or shafit Nari, the king, is messing... We don't know if he's messing with her head or if he's telling her the truth for the first time that she actually isn't cursed, that she is Shafet and she doesn't look pureblood to him, that he just said that. But then I was confused because he said you... I thought he's still... i think she's still...
00:10:43
Speaker
looks less human than she does because why would he ever think a human looked like he explains it away in that scene where they're talking i know but i think i just i mean i was say i know i believe i believe when he said she has she does have human blood but it's not as like it's a little bit Like he he, anyway, I think she's still, there is something about her appearance.
Revolutions and Hidden Lineages
00:11:08
Speaker
I think.
00:11:09
Speaker
He still thinks she's Maniza's daughter, but he claimed to all of Devabad that she was a pureblood djinn. Right. And he's telling her that she's not, that he just lied her behalf. Yeah, but think was half, you know, like I don't think her, I don't think her dad's human.
00:11:26
Speaker
We don't know. think everyone... Yeah, I have no idea. But I tend... I'm starting to wonder how many purebloods there are. Because with all of the stealing children and pretending they're pureblood, you know, right there's a lot more shuffet than people think. Mm-hmm.
00:11:45
Speaker
and And... Oh, so that was my other question. Is if... How... Okay, if... If... um Ollie's blood doesn't look totally... Like if...
00:11:57
Speaker
I was confused because if his blood doesn't look totally hum or totally gin, how did he go all the way through training? Because surely he's been cut before. and You know what i mean? Maybe not. like that's
00:12:11
Speaker
Maybe he's just that good. is that he didn't Or he was never this wounded. Probably he was passable, but he never had someone one like in his guts before.
00:12:22
Speaker
Yeah, maybe so. And then we have the biggest reveal at the end. Can I get into that now? Yeah, go. Where we find out that Jamshed is also Nahid.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah. That she is not the only one. That they have been protecting and hiding him and his lineage his whole life. So is that her brother or is he a different...
Alliances, Betrayals, and Moral Ambiguities
00:12:49
Speaker
Well, he could be a brother or he could be a cousin. Because remember it was the two Nahids. Right.
00:12:54
Speaker
The sister and brother. And is he actually Kaveh's son or not? Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
And are there other sleeper cells out there? Like how many? Right. How many are there? What's going on? And then. that Sorry. go good I was just going to say it. It's so like the very last scene of this book completely shifts your understanding of.
00:13:23
Speaker
what's going on like before it's the okay here's the tribe that's that's ruling and here's the tribe that used to rule hundreds of years ago hundreds of you know or a thousand years ago and now like okay they're occupied but this is pretty like stable static situation like it's volatile in terms of people having riots and stuff but like this family's been in charge for thousand years And then through the book, you know you learn about when the Giziri tried to kill hundreds of the devas when they're in the temple. like And that was only 600 years ago
00:14:09
Speaker
right So you're like, okay, so alright So it's been there's been continual violence since then And then at the very end of the book you realize Oh, ah Nari has just walked into a revolution That has been decades in the making Right, so then we find out Maniza is, deaf the if it were not lying She is alive and somehow in contact still with the Devas Mm-hmm.
00:14:40
Speaker
Which bring makes us wonder, are the Ifrit the bad guys? Or are they just like... They're in cahoots with Maniza, and she's in cahoots with the Devas.
00:14:50
Speaker
Yeah. Then who... <unk>s exactly And you're learning that everyone has lied forever. You know, the Giziri have been lying since they took over because they had the Marids help, which the rest of the djinn would see as a complete betrayal of their race. Then you've got the Devas right now working with the Ifrit, which is another total betrayal of everything they've been taught.
00:15:20
Speaker
And then you and you also have the Giziri with the, you know, keeping all of the Nahid's bodies entombed under the castle instead of burning them. Like, there's a lot going on here that's... Yeah, no good. just Yeah, this I was thinking about it last night, just after I finished the book.
00:15:40
Speaker
And it's if a war goes on long enough, there isn't a good side and a bad side anymore. Right. Like, sure, the rebellion in the beginning might have had, I mean, they had good reason with the way the Nahids were killing the Shafet.
00:16:02
Speaker
But does that mean the guy who led it, it was good? I don't know. Like, yeah you know, from Dara, you hear that he's this hateful fanatic who, you know, wanted to kill all the devas and tried to, you know, and then on the other side, he's the saint.
Dara's Flawed Decisions and Consequences
00:16:20
Speaker
Yeah. we haven't even talked about what Dara did. Should we pause for our Discworld Delight and then get into that?
00:16:31
Speaker
And now for our Discworld delight. I apologize. I was slacking this week, so I posted it pretty late to TikTok. So far, we have not had any correct guesses. We've had a few guesses. Uncorrect.
00:16:43
Speaker
But the answer, if you still want to guess, pause and go guess. But the answer to last week's was Color of Magic. Nice.
00:16:55
Speaker
Now for this week's... He's not himself. You can see that. Who is he then? said Chitter. They splashed unsteadily down the street, not drunkenly this time, but with the awkward gait of two people trying to do the steering for three. Tepic was walking, but not in a way that gave them any confidence that his mind was having any part of it.
00:17:18
Speaker
It's beautiful.
00:17:22
Speaker
Oh, back to death, destruction, and what did Dara do? did Dara do? Do think he was justified over the whole time? Okay, so here's what Dara did. When he storms out of the bar to go steal Nari away in the middle of the night and run away with her forever.
00:17:36
Speaker
When I was reading this part, my heart was just sinking because I was just like, he's literally ruining everything. And there's no coming back from it. And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse until they've.
00:17:52
Speaker
And when then when he threatened Ali Zod's life, he was like, come with me or I'll kill him. I'm like. There has to be some part of introspection where he knows that that is not the right thing to do.
00:18:04
Speaker
That's not what the good guy does. and And Nari knows in that moment, she knows their relationship will never be the same, that that it's that he's fundamentally broken something that you can't come back from. And then Ollie knows the whole time that they're walking into a trap and he just lets them. But honestly, what choice did he have?
00:18:25
Speaker
was his best chance at living. Yeah. Coming from Dara's point of view, he's looking at a tribe that he thinks is just evil and manipulative. And you can't believe a word they say. They'll double cross you. Look at all the he knows the history, even though he was a slave. Like he's been talking to other devas. He knows what the rule has been like for his people. And he's coming from a time where there was no room for mercy or a gray area or love your enemy. You know, they they were in the middle of a war where both sides are decimating each other. And then now he's popped into modern time, you know, for the books, modern time.
00:19:13
Speaker
Where it is a lot more complicated, where people have been living. Yes, it's been, there's still been violence, but they've been living together as one kingdom in one, you know, in this little city for hundreds of years. Mm hmm.
00:19:32
Speaker
And that if you actually got to know the people who are ruling, they're not what you think they are. And it's a lot easier to make these absolutist decisions by making the other person, the other tribe, you know dehumanizing them, turning them into the absolute evil.
00:19:54
Speaker
And I think Ali does the same thing. you know, he, he's done the same thing with Dara. Obviously he just thinks he's an absolute monster, but you also see him do it with the Devas kind of grouping them all together as, you know, they would just kill off all the Shafet there.
00:20:15
Speaker
They'd burn them. They're all as bad as the Nahid council was kind of thing. Um, um
00:20:22
Speaker
Does that excuse what Dara does? No, it doesn't. And ah you're reading it just going, if you would just listen to her and trust her, that's all you needed to do in that moment.
00:20:34
Speaker
Like, yes, I understand running to a room and I understand the plan of like, we're getting out of here. This has gone way too far. This is crazy. And you didn't want any of this anyway. When she had just negotiated like the best deal in the history of deals for herself. Like, right. And he just ruins it. But in her mind, in his mind, he's thinking, i have forced her into a position where she feels that she has to sell herself in order to survive. I'm the ones who brought her into this position. Hmm.
00:21:07
Speaker
me That's because he just lied and was shady right like wouldn't talk to her. So now he feels guilty for that. He's shoved her into a position where now she is selling herself to the worst people possible because she thinks that's how she's going to survive. And i've already i've I know things now that there is another option. So now I just have to get her out of here and then I'm going to explain it all.
00:21:31
Speaker
But, you know, again, if you had just listened to her and trusted her... yeah and take it And I think, you know, who knows, if Ali hadn't walked into the room, they might have, you know. He might have had a moment of listening, but then it just, he's going into straight.
00:21:51
Speaker
Rage. Trauma brain. know And he does, she sees that he has regret as, even as he's holding the sword to Ali's throat, but he still does it.
00:22:03
Speaker
Right, and my question is too, where were they going and has he already made contact with Maniza and has he known that she's alive this whole time?
Underground Networks and Generational Trauma
00:22:15
Speaker
See, so that's what it sounds like because he was saying, I i know you know things have changed. We will be safe from the Ifrit. Things have changed. and i And I was going to tell you at the temple and I didn't get to, because this is like that whole other thing with with you know setting her up with Jemshid happened.
00:22:35
Speaker
which now makes sense as to why they were doing that is because jam shit is also not heat but then do you think he knew that i don't i don't know or did he just feel like they told deva would be better than gazziri yeah i think he that's i think that's what he's thinking that it needs to be a deva but kava definitely knew and the um uh what's her name the woman who's helping her nisrine yeah who's very mysterious how did she get his ring
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah. They must have this wild network of devas who are in this quiet revolution because she somehow got Dara's ring and believes they can bring him back through that ring.
00:23:30
Speaker
And that was the other like part that hurt my heart when um they have to give up a deva. yeah Someone to admit that they left the supplies on the beach for Dara's escape and you know he they get a volunteer and like that.
00:23:49
Speaker
that is So you get this sense of that so many people are sacrificing so much for this underground movement that's and that because they know it's for the greater good of their people,
00:24:03
Speaker
And that is heartbreaking. and that's And that's something is because this whole time, this whole book, you've been focused on this underground movement of the Shafet and the plight of the Shafet and what are we going to do for them and how are we going to better their lives? And then you find out A, just casually, that it wasn't that many hundreds of years ago that they tried to burn alive hundreds of deva inside the temple.
00:24:33
Speaker
And for, I was thinking about this, generationally wise, for
00:24:40
Speaker
date for devas, that would have been like their great grandparents could have been alive during that. Mm-hmm. So that was not that long ago.
00:24:52
Speaker
No. Probably even grandparents. Yeah. So this is their, you know, so this is a people that are also oppressed and prosecuted, or not prosecuted, persecuted, persecuted, i prosecute you.
00:25:08
Speaker
and other P words as well. Yeah. And, and you hear so much about, because you're living with the Giziri, with Nari in the castle. So you hear so so much about all the things the Nahids were doing that were terrible,
00:25:24
Speaker
But I don't feel like my loyalties have suddenly flipped either. Like now I just understand both sides. It's like, okay, it wasn't great when the Nahids were in control because of how they thought of Shafet.
Peace vs. Justice: A King's Dilemma
00:25:39
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It's not great now with the Giziri in control. And the king wants peace and he wants to bring all the tribes together. And he understands that the Shafet are equal and should be you know treated as real life human beings.
00:25:58
Speaker
But he won't. He won't push that because he he values peace more. h And is that wrong? Well, because he's not going to get peace either way is the problem.
00:26:11
Speaker
Right. And it's interesting. What do you do? how Because with Ali thinking, because I totally understood Ali's thought process of, you know, if i go against my brother and my father now and completely turn traitor and, you know, join this Shafet movement,
00:26:32
Speaker
Now, it will lead to violence, but will it lead to good afterwards? Like, will it be worth it? Whereas if i do what I'm supposed to do and follow along and support my brother, can I, in the long run,
00:26:51
Speaker
make a more lasting change without the violence? Like, is it worth lives being lost in the status quo now with the status quo going longer than risking everything to try to end it sooner in a violent way?
00:27:06
Speaker
Well, look what I have. Oh, it's a kiki. to squimsh. Speaking of squimsh, it is sad because all Ghassan wants is peace. And he's just not going to get it. And all Ollie wants is just to squimsh by.
00:27:23
Speaker
And then someday be able to make the proper moves without anyone getting hurt. And that's not happening either. And all Nari wants is to learn and be able to heal heal people. That's, you know, like her wants are probably the simplest ones in this book so far. And it's like, man, that's not happening either.
Future Speculations and Series Commitment
00:27:40
Speaker
And Dara, I don't even know what Dara wants, to be honest.
00:27:44
Speaker
He wants his people to be free. and he was Right. Right.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah. And nobody. Which I'm like free. Yes. Great. Rightful place. That could cause trouble. Yeah. And just, yeah, nobody's going to get what they want. And it's going to be a very hard, long journey.
00:28:04
Speaker
And it's impossible for everyone to have a happy ending. Right. Which is what draws you in. And I was devastated when he died.
00:28:17
Speaker
Well, I was and I wasn't. I was kind of he had done so many horrible things right before. Mm hmm. That when he does die, you're kind of like a little bit relieved. But you're just like, good lord.
00:28:31
Speaker
You know, like. It was Nari's wish. On accident. Right. ah Right at the end there. He is totally not in control.
00:28:42
Speaker
Which makes me concerned about what he'll be when he, if he's brought back through his ring. Which it sounds like that's what happened last time. That he's still in some sense a slave.
00:28:54
Speaker
Right. Which is terrifying. Which, how who brought him back and how did they do it without being his master? Because it's kind of like he's an open... His code is left open.
00:29:11
Speaker
And like, could it... Is it because she's a Nahid? So was it her mother that brought him back? And that's what... That's why her... With her intensity and using, you know, the wish...
00:29:27
Speaker
That that worked, I don't know. I don't know. We just have to keep reading. Yeah. We're locked in now, right? This is our... We're doing this series.
00:29:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. we're locked in now, and this is... Okay, great. We're locked in. Great, because I'm locked in. I am, and I'm also... It's just, you know, when you look ahead and I don't know what's going to happen, but I am trepidatious and I just, I feel a little tired already from like the heartache. I have like heartache already for these characters. We could insert a light one. Hmm.
00:30:05
Speaker
Or is that just prolonging? Do a Terry Pratchett palate cleanser or whatever you want. This is your podcast. Nobody's going to make you miserable on your podcast.
00:30:17
Speaker
Except for me. Except for me. You know what? Let's just continue on. We'll get through this together. Yes, we will. And it'll be okay.
00:30:30
Speaker
It won't. It won't. It won't be okay. We'll be okay. Yeah. Yeah. So is there anything in this book that we can, is there anything in this magical lies and revolution that in our own lives? We can bring into our life? Yeah.
00:30:49
Speaker
Tell the truth. Communicate clearly. Don't practice rituals that you don't know the meaning of. Listen.
00:31:00
Speaker
You know, sometimes it's nice to read a book like this and then like you put it down and you know, you love the characters, you're so intrigued and then you're like how lovely it is that I don't have to deal with those problems in my life.
00:31:12
Speaker
That's true. That's used to love watching Orange as the New Black. I would, speaking of being squeamish, it was far too squeamish for that show. i don't know what I was doing. But as soon as the credits would roll, i would just have this euphoria of like, I'm so glad I'm not in jail.
00:31:30
Speaker
And it would just like give me a great rest of the day. was like you were purposefully giving yourself the feeling you get after waking up from a nightmare. Yeah, I was just like, the i was i world is my oyster. I can do whatever I want. I'm not in jail. I'm not going to jail.
00:31:47
Speaker
I can do whatever I want.
Moments of Kindness and Personal Growth
00:31:49
Speaker
Within the law so that you don't go to jail. Well, right, yeah. Well, because I will not be going to jail. It looks terrible. Oh, one other random thing I love from this book, it doesn't have to do with you know our own lives.
00:32:03
Speaker
can. Is that the high priest is actually kind and wise when she goes to the temple and is just having this moment of overwhelm, kind of to be expected.
00:32:16
Speaker
Dara did not expect it. He's like, isn't this great? um yeah And the priest cut cuts in and is like, oh, let me, there's something here I want to show you and takes her into like a quiet, calm room and shows her the original altar, which also helped the reader because then we're seeing this but you know, worn altar that's super simple and super battered. and You're like, okay, this is what the devas came from.
00:32:46
Speaker
Like all this finery and everything came, you know, the huge altar out front, you know, that that was built up through the empire time. But this is what they came from, you know, with this, the founding deva. This was her original altar and it's battered and it's small and been through it.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah. And that, you know, and he's pointing that out to Nari, that everything starts small and it starts imperfect. Nobody, yeah, nobody's grand and perfect to begin with.
00:33:19
Speaker
And then giving her the quiet time and actually being really kind, to understanding. And I feel like he might be the only one in this whole book who's not manipulating anyone. That's a good point. He really was just like, take the time you need and know that we are here for you.
00:33:36
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I'm really glad, really, really glad you brought him up because you were talking about mirroring at the beginning of the episode and we haven't talked about the mirroring at the end where she gives her speech that Ghazan makes her give and that the Devas, like, so what do they do, Mary? Because it's the the main priest who does it first.
00:33:57
Speaker
So she is forced to say the terrible things about Dara, saying just painting him as this completely... villain crazed violin, you know, he he just lost it and was attacking me and you know, painting him as is a loose cannon, so to speak, which he's a little bit, he has a loose cannon, but dishonoring him completely and and separating herself from him. And she doesn't know how the devas are going to react. Are they going to hate her now for saying this about a their hero?
00:34:33
Speaker
Even though it's clear that she doesn't want to, she's still doing it. So she kind of expects them to hate her. And then the high priest bows to her and, you know, gives her the deva.
00:34:45
Speaker
think he He touches his head or something. He does something, you know, a sign of respect right And then everyone else just is totally silent and just bows to her. And it's this moment of cohesion with the devas.
00:34:58
Speaker
And she looks back at Ghassan, the king, and sees the fear in his eyes. And this part i terrified me. And I also loved it where she says, and Nari smiled.
00:35:09
Speaker
Nari always smiled at her marks. And that's, I got chills. And that that's so she did, this was the first chapter. She smiles at her marks and it says Nari always smiled at her marks in the last chapter. And you get this sense of
00:35:27
Speaker
That she's found herself again. That, you know, at the beginning of this book, she knows who she is. She knows what she's doing. She's taken on this incredible journey where she doesn't know anything, doesn't know what's going on. And then in that final chapter, she's back, baby.
00:35:43
Speaker
Yeah,
Closing Thoughts and Sparks of the Week
00:35:44
Speaker
for much, much bigger stakes. Higher stakes. Bigger and higher. Stakes. That's what I'm having for dinner. Oh, I'm coming over. Want to?
00:35:56
Speaker
It's a BYOS. It's a BYOS. I don't have any steak. Carolina, what was your spark of the week?
00:36:07
Speaker
Just happened. i My spark of the week is that I am not in jail.
00:36:16
Speaker
Feels good. Feels right. Carolina, do you have an actual spark? My actual spark... Although I do It does spark joy that I'm not in jail. But sat and watched... I have a... You know when you find a new artist and you just fall in love with them? So my musical spark this week is Rae. I've been watching her live performances and I'm just totally blown away.
00:36:42
Speaker
i love her music. I love her as a person. And that it's has been a major spark for me this week. Nice. I'll have to go listen. Mary, what was your spark of the week?
00:36:55
Speaker
Okay. My spark of the week is a book that I've been listening to. It's called Jane Austen's Bookshelf. It's nonfiction and it's, ah it's a written by a rare book dealer who started a whole journey of finding the, all the women writers that Jane Austen read.
00:37:15
Speaker
And in that book, led her into discovering why and how they were popular and were considered classics. some Most of them were considered classics. And then how that got kind of washed away.
00:37:31
Speaker
But she said, the cool thing is, is that this author is reading all these books and, and finding out that they're not subpar, like how the we've been kind of brought to believe like Anne Radcliffe. Oh, it's just going to be melodramatic and, you know,
00:37:47
Speaker
super uh I don't know. Califragilisticexpialidocious. Yeah and how it isn't and and uh and especially when you learn about the times and these the lives and what the lives of these women in the times that they're writing in and how these books fit into that and uh how the it's kind of also about the creation of the modern novel which is pretty cool.
00:38:15
Speaker
So if you're a nerd, it's a good book. Love it. So if you want to continue on with us next week, we will be talking about the beginning of Kingdom of Copper.
00:38:27
Speaker
And if you want my free short story, you can check out the link below. Get to dip into the world of my upcoming epic fantasy series about ancient secrets, lost gods. And and it's really good.
00:38:44
Speaker
so read it. Thank you. We're so grateful to be spiraling through the universe with all of you. It's not always easy, but no good story ever is.