Don't worry, guys - it's nearly over now. But not before some more horror and Xtreme Sueness, unfortunately. And more of Axis being an evil monster. Naturally.
In the next chapter, Axis does what he should have done more than a week ago and tells Faraday they need to talk. Faraday is of course enraged, and when Axis tells her they should both be present at the celebrations, she of course throws it right back in his face. Axis sits there asking himself rhetorical questions like “ how do you tell the woman who has waited and suffered for you [snip] that you had fallen so deeply in love with another that you couldn’t give her up?”
Love? What love? Axis and Azhure are supposed to be in this deep l epic True Love relationship… and yet half the time it doesn’t seem like they even like each other all that much. It’s truly amazing how often writers overlook that sort of thing when putting fictional romances together.
Then again, this is Axis and Azhure we’re talking about. What the hell is there to like in the first place? Literally the only thing Axis cares about is the sex, and Azhure only seems to care about getting to "have" him all to herself like he's some sort of trophy. They never think about each others' feelings or offer each other comfort and companionship or anything silly like that. Nope, it's all just sex and other forms of personal gratification, with no regard for the other person whatsoever. This isnt' even a healthy example of friendship, let alone romantic love.
Anyway, Axis then breaks out the old “let me explain” chestnut, which doesn’t work, as Faraday very reasonably points out that she understands that during their long separation he might have had the odd dalliance with someone else, but what she very much doesn’tunderstand is the shabby way he just treated her.
Well, Faraday, you are completely right. But now it’s time for me to explain. You fell “in love” with this guy when you barely knew him, and you still barely know him. You therefore made the mistake of assuming that he’s a nice guy just because he flirted with you and made a few promises you had no way of knowing he would be able or willing to keep. Now it actually comes to it, you’ve just found out that he is in fact, very much not a nice guy, or an honest one. And yet you're going to keep making excuses for him like the doormat you are.
Axis tries to smooth things over by insisting that he’s still going to marry her, but this goes over about as well as you would expect, as Faraday flies into a rage and quite rightly screams that being married to Axis doesn’t count when he’s already all but married to Azhure, and treating her like his Queen. For once Axis doesn’t have a smug retort, and Faraday adds that he gave Azhure all the glory and absolutely none to her (correct), and that if he went ahead and married Faraday anyway she’d just be the mistress (correct) ring or no ring. Finally she points out that Axis just humiliated her.
Ridiculously, even now Axis doesn’t get it as he whines that he didn’t meeaaan to, and “Azhure was a friend when I needed one badly”, and it’s not her fault he raped her.
…no really. He flat-out admits that he raped Azhure. I mean how the hell else could you possibly read this line?
Uh....
Just to rub it in even further Faraday also lets Azhure off the hook, saying she knows “ how easy it is for a woman to fall in love with you”.
Yeah, no. Falling in love is not something you "fight to resist". Even less so when the other person fucking raped you.
Finally she asks if Axis is willing to let Azhure go, and he mumbles that he “cannot”.
Then – oh, this is rich – when he insists that he still loves Faraday and wants to marry her, Faraday thinks that he’s a liar… but only because he’s so honourable. No really. She thinks that “You want Azhure but, honourable man that you are, you feel bound by the vows you made to me.”
AXIS? HONOURABLE?
You fucking wot?
I just love how many authors write a violent murderous hyper-masculine douchebag of a "hero", then bust out the word "honour" to try and make them look good for being violent, murderous and douchey. Yeah, no. That's not how codes of honour work. Being "honourable" doesn't mean you get a free pass on being a horrible, cruel, violent person. And besides which, it has already been amply demonstrated that Axis:
- Is a serial liar
- Also an oathbreaker for that matter, in a time period where oaths were extremely serious
- Is a cheat (uses magic in what's supposed to be a fair fight)
- Has absolutely no respect for the rule of law, or due process, instead handing down abitrary punishments based on his personal whims
- Doesn't respect the rights of prisoners of war
- Has no respect for women
- ...or anyone weaker than himself for that matter
- Doesn't respect his elders, including his mother
- Disrepects other cultures
- Treats his (unearned) status as the Chosen One like a personal privilege rather than a responsibility
Faraday now thinks about how only the Mother hasn’t betrayed her and she just wants to go back to the Sacred Grove… but then Axis just starts undressing her and she’s all like “is he hoping to fuck it all better? Welp no point in resisting, lah dee dah”.
I’m not kidding. That line is actually in there. “…but she did not resist him.”
Dammit Faraday, you were this close to being completely awesome in this scene. The dude just betrayed you five ways to Sunday, and you’re just going to stand there and let him rape you? Which is very much how this reads. If someone initiates foreplay and it’s something you’re thinking about resisting, just how into it are you? And what would have happened if she had resisted him?
I'm not sure I want to know, and I think it's rather telling that no woman ever "resists" when Axis initiates sex. Because to me that implies that he's not just a rapist but a serial rapist, and the only reason it's not labelled as such is because any resistance that did happen went summarily ignored by both him and the author. Let us not forget how StarDrifter's act of sexual assault earlier on in the book was airily brushed off as just flirting, teehee what a rascal, etc.
Toxic Masculinity: The Fantasy Series. And in answer to previous bewildered questions about how this series was ever popular... well, turns out there are people who just plain enjoy reading about abusive hyper-masculine assholes and pathetic submissive women. And that's how you know society has a problem. Even more so back in the 90s.
The next chapter cuts to Azhure, who I predict will now indulge in even more self-pity. She thinks about how awesome it is that her kid is heir to the throne, and how she’s not jealous of Faraday any more because “somehow” she knows Axis will come crawling back soon enough. We also learn that after the ceremony there was a big party, during which – ugh – StarDrifter “competed for her attentions”.
Dammit fan artists, stop making that guy look cool!
Now Azhure gets out of bed and decides to explore Spiredore, where she’s now living. She telepathically asks Caelum if he’s going to behave himself, and we get a nauseatingly saccharine moment where he telepathically tells her he’ll be good.
Then Azhure picks him up and leaves without the giant murderpuppies because she’s totally convinced she’ll be safe.
I spy an upcoming plot point involving her not being safe. Just a feeling I have.
...with an anvil!
Cue some descriptions of inside Spiredore. Apparently it seems bigger on the inside than the outside, and… honestly, the description is really confusing. I’ll just quote it for you.
From the outside Spiredore was obviously very large, but it appeared ten, twenty times the size inside. She walked into the centre of the tower and looked up, holding her lamp high. Stairwells, balconies, overhangs, all swirled to dizzying heights above her. Rooms, chambers, open spaces, all opened off the balconies surrounding this atrium. None of the myriad floors and balconies were level or even, jutting out in irregular squares, triangles, circles. It was an amazing sight, and should have been an eyesore, but somehow it achieved a subtle harmony that gave the interior of Spiredore great beauty.
…the flip did I just read? Also note the return of the “somehow” cop-out.
Azhure makes a comment about how confusing it all looks, and is interrupted by “an Icarii birdman”. Thank all that’s holy, it’s not StarDrifter, which was my first assumption. Instead it’s someone else who is very glowingly described. His “face is vibrant with power”, whatever the hell that means, and his “great violet eyes laughed at her from underneath a tumbled crop of dark copper curls”. Also he has big golden wings. As in shiny, metallic gold. I think I've said this before, but personally I think a redhead with purple eyes and golden wings wouldn't look "beautiful" - the word I'm searching for here is "fugly as hell". I mean talk about a horrible clash of colours.
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to who this is?
Yeah, it’s WolfStar.
As it turns out, in this day and age "wolfstar" is a slang term for "Sirius/Remus". Please enjoy this adorable piece of artwork instead of looking at a drawing of some douche who has golden angel wings and purple anime eyes and writes horrible poetry.
Instead she just asks him why she hasn’t seen him before, and he gives an appropriately mysterious answer about how he’s been “away”, then asks to hold Caelum, who he of course praises as “beautiful”. Azhure hands the kid over to the total stranger who’s acting like a weirdo, and Caelum likes him for some reason.
She’s about to ask him what his name is, but then WolfStar tells her he’s going to teach her how to use Spiredore’s magic. Instead of pointing out that (as far as she knows) she has no magical powers, Azhure just laughs and listens while WolfStar explains that if you go up the stairs of this place having decided where you want to go, the stairs will magically ensure that you end up there.
Don’t people usually go up stairs because they want to get to a specific place at the top?
WolfStar starts touching her on the arm and then strokes her neck, which sounds romantic… unless you know in advance that WolfStar is Azhure’s FATHER. Back the fuck off, you creep.
(Yes of course Azhure’s Real Father is someone famous and important. Was that ever in doubt?).
Finally Azhure says she wants to see the sunrise from the top of the tower, and WolfStar tells her she’s so special that the entire damn tower was built just for her thousands of years ago. I know I keep going on and on about this, but just how much more of a Sue could this woman be? (Oh, we're not there yet. Trust me).
And then WolfStar kisses her.
On the mouth.
Then, to give a plot point away just slightly later than I did it for you, he says he shouldn’t have done that because it was “Unclean”… which if you remember what MorningStar said earlier on means that this guy is either Azhure’s sibling or her dad.
Genius foreshadowing, guys. Genius. And that’s two damn plot points blown in a single short scene.
Azhure looks away for a moment and WolfStar vanishes somehow. We then cut to his POV as he watches her leave and thinks about how “remarkable” she is and how amazing and special and wonderful Caelum is, just in case we’d forgotten about that.
Azhure goes up onto the roof and watches the sunrise, and it’s all very dramatic and probably “beautiful” as well. We’re reminded again that she’s “lithe”… despite being heavily pregnant.
Oh hey, turns out there's bad fanart of that too.
Then the tower starts “humming”, cue unwelcome Saphira flashback, because “Azhure had come home”. Because you know, Azhure is really special and important etcetera and so forth ad nauseum.
The next chapter returns to Axis, who, yup – has just finished fucking Faraday some more. He leaves her sleeping and goes to talk with StarDrifter, who I think we’re supposed to infer he has some sort of close relationship with now. StarDrifter asks if he’s going to marry Faraday and the answer is yes, but he’s still not letting Azhure go, because somehow Axis STILL hasn't cottoned on that this isn't going to work. Despite Faraday, y'know, telling him to his face. This guy is even dumber than Eragon (hey, at least Ergs has the excuse of being a 16 year old kid with no life experience).
Then the pair of them spy on Azhure using their “enhanced vision”, and StarDrifter wonders why they both find her so irresistable. Axis speechifies about how she “contains the Star Dance”and how every time he fucks her he feels like he “ hold[s] the very Stars in my hands”. Basically it just boils down to “Azhure is Special”.
StarDrifter is “astounded” (told not shown, naturally) and thinks about how Azhure is really Special. You know, again. In fact she’s so special that he literally does a jawdrop.
Cut to a gryphon’s POV. Where the hell were that lot during the battle with Borneheld? Gorgrael had a prime opportunity to send them in and fuck both sides up but good, and he did nothing! This guy is the most ineffectual villain since the red-eyed dude who took on the Care Bears. Except with a slightly less absurd name.
The gryphon (no I will not capitalise that word) is on a scouting mission, and apparently she can communicate with Gorgrael, though it’s not explained how. Then… oh no, she spots Azhure and Caelum.
I say “oh no” not because Azhure is actually going to be in danger, of course. I say it because I already know this is going to lead to her pulling out some amazing new ability, probably magic, right out of her ass. This book has so far failed to surprise me even once, and there’s no way that’s going to change now.
See, that's the thing with Mary Sue stories. "Terrible danger" is really just a code for "opportunity to introduce more Sue abilities".
And yeah, just as I expected, we get some subtlety-free clues that this is going to happen because the gryphon thinks about how Azhure is alone and unarmed and she’s “confident of success”. She psychically asks Gorgrael’s permission “to ravage”, and “Gorgrael could see no harm in it”.
Cut to Azhure’s POV. She sees the gryphon coming, hunches down to try and protect Caelum, and we cut to Axis, who’s all “oh no mah girlfriend”.
He teleports over there, only to find Azhure mostly unharmed and the gryphon being ripped to shreds by “dark music”… which Azhure is somehow using. Surprise!
Axis asks wth is going on, and Azhure answers in a weird voice and ZOMG she has like… stars in her eyes and stuff.
...no, not like that.
Axis and StarDrifter now get a shared POV as they both think about “every piece of evidence that indicted Azhure”. Wow, how amazingly clinical and emotionless. We get a completely pointless recap of all the incredibly obvious clues that Azhure = WolfStar, and as predicted Axis is mortified. Oh, not that Azhure is EVIL, but rather that he’s been screwing WolfStar.
This of course causes him to hulk the fuck out, because anger is his only reaction to anything that happens ever.
Azhure snaps out of it and isn’t sure what happened, whereupon Axis “hisses” that she’s dead fucking meat.
Yup, he’s just that ready to believe his One True Love is eeeevil. No questions asked or anything. Because in case you haven't noticed, Axis is a horrible violent hyper-aggressive monster who doesn't care about anyone other than himself and only ever saw her as a fucktoy. And might I add, has repeatedly demonstrated that he has no concept of the phrase "innocent until proven guilty".
This “[tears] Azhure’s soul apart”, boohoo, and as Axis violently snatches Caelum off her she “ dissolve[s] into the welcome blackness that had always served as a refuge during her childhood” when her not-actually-her-dad dad beat her up, and now Hagen isn’t dead after all – he’s Axis now.
This has to be the clunkiest example of "I haz daddy issues" I've ever seen, and not just because it comes right the fuck out of nowhere.
Cut to Gorgrael. The Dark Man, aka WolfStar, is yelling at him for trying to kill Azhure because killing her would’ve ruined everything. And either way she’s “exposed”now and may “very well be dead”.
Hahahah, no. There is no way in hell Azhure is actually going to die. Pull the other one, it hath got bells upon it. But with that said... prepare for the true horrors of just how evil Axis truly is. You have not seen anything yet.
Yes, it's worse than Borneheld. By a lot.
And yet he's still supposed to be the hero. Why? Because the author says so, shut up.
