Let’s all drown in The Demon Tide, with all the dragon divorce and tree grudges that entails. Together.

★★★★★

(4.5 stars)

The Black Witch Chronicles is my special little beast. Despite being (with this book) a bestselling series, I never see anyone talk about them, or acknowledge them- good or bad. Yes, there was the ridiculous fit when book one came out, but the series has been developing now for five other books without much vocal discussion.

That’s where I come in, evidently: my most viewed reviews on this blog have always been of The Black Witch books, and I’m on some twisted mission to draw every single of the too many characters in this epic YA fantasy quintet. It’s my burden, one I deeply enjoy. Actually. Can you imagine that? Me, noted hardass, loving something? But I do.

For all its weird lore additions and cheesiness and too-much-romance and dragon marriage, I greatly enjoy The Black Witch Chronicles. It’s earnest and imaginative and all about love. It doesn’t rely on ‘Fantasy! Real country’ like so many others, living entirely in a very magical, weird world. It focuses on culture, religion, and social divides, with a message clear about the need for empathy across all of that. It’s about love in a time of a fascist reign that doesn’t care about infighting, only hate, and how we need to stay together and fight that. Yes, it’s ‘that book about fantasy racism’, but it’s really ‘that book about fantasy hate, and fantasy love and fantasy war’. And Dragon bereavement.

Especially now, four books in, this series has come into its own, able to tell a compelling story with nuance and care that at times before it faltered against. It’s a really fun book that never left me bored, despite being a veritable brick at 700 pages hardcover. It was a joy, and I loved it, I really did.

Okay, who wants to now get spoiled on every aspect? Ready?

Plot & Too many cooks & too many cooks & too many cooks & too many cooks…

I’m not kidding about spoilers. I do this every time- I know when I read reviews I always want to know all the twists, especially about books I’ll never read- but some big stuff happens here.

The book is split into many POV chapters. I can’t be bothered to count, but it’s well over ten, probably over fifteen. Unlike the last book which had this weird thing where only the very beginning and end introduced other POVs, this is throughout, with Elloren again coming in at the middle to be the main-est POV. This is actually good! It’s really so much nicer to see all these other interesting characters outside of Elloren’s life. Some are first person and most are third, which is odd. They mostly sound same-y, overall, but they’re in unique enough situations and lives it doesn’t really matter.

Most of the plots are continuations of what they were in book three, which always was a bit at odds- book three added a huge amount of subplots, from Tierney River Kin Drama to Vothe/Trystan slow burn bodyguard romance… then left them all hanging. As the characters approach Xishlon, the love festival in the Noi lands of the East, these stories all get to resolve. So I’m going to tackle most of these threads, then Elloren, then the climax.

A lot of it will be kissing.

Trystan is new and hated at the Noi WyvernGuard, the military academy. As everyone prepares for evil guy Vogel’s invasion with his shadow army, tensions are high. Trystan as a Gardnerian knows the sort of wand-based magic they’ll be up against and is used as training practice, getting constantly beat up as he devotes himself to it. He’s however hated still for being the enemy, being the grandson of the fabled Black Witch even- attacked, bullied, and constantly belittled with the ever-silly anti-Gardnerian slurs of ‘Roach’ and ‘Crow’. Still, he stays resolute, desperate to help and be seen for that despite everything. Especially as he’s gay, which is illegal in the West but not in the East.

Vothe is a lightning-Wyvern shapeshifter who is assigned to guard him. He started against Trystan but has come to see his sincere desire to fit in and fight back, which leads also to romance and attraction feelings. He struggles against the pressure from his family and friends to hate Trystan, and struggles to admit he’s into him, even though they both know it.

The Wyverngard and the whole Noi army are overwhelmed by the threat of war. Refugees from the west are pouring in nonstop, many of them bringing a deadly plague. Pressure among the council is to close the borders, which they do, condemning many of the refugees to death. Among the common populace, the influx of Westerners has sparked tensions, particularly against those of Gardner, Kelt, and Alfsigr birth, or those of mixed heritage (as they’re the main populaces of the West). A movement of ‘Noi for the Noi’ is taking hold, refusing service and making threats against foreigners.

As much as many are sympathetic to the plight of refugees, the amount of money and care required, as well as space and the disease, means few want to directly help. When Trystan and Vothe volunteer for a patrol of a river where many refugees are crossing, they witness firsthand the violent deaths the stormy water and monstrous krakens bring, a trauma that bonds them and their resolve to help. They link storm powers together to quell the dangerous undertow, but it’s only a symptom of the problem.

As Xishlon approaches, Trystan finds new hope under the Noi religion, converting to their loving dragon goddess, and gets a makeover to look less Gardnerian- he actually goes very punk and sounds like one of those edgy disney edits. Like, blue hair, thick eyeliner, lots of piercings, a sick tattoo… He and Vothe finally kiss and start dating for Xishlon.

Tierney is a powerful water fey, an Asrai, settling into finally getting to be herself and open with her powers. All asrai have a kin, a body of water they are magically tied to, and Tierney has bonded with the river Vo- the largest river of the continent, which protects the city Voloi where the book takes place. However, her commanding officer at the Wyverngard Fyordin has also made kin with the Vo. This draws them together as like-magic people, but they also don’t get along. Meanwhile the very goth Death Fae Viger also is quite into Tierney- the two are quite keen on each other, in fact. Also some guy named Or’myr is also very into her. Tierney it turns out is extremely hot. Tierney is keen on protecting the Vo from the coming shadow monsters, and between her boyfriends, that’s about all she does- checking the water and protecting the water. For Xishlon she kisses Or’myr but it doesn’t go well, then kisses Viger.

These two make up the bulk of the plot in the book, with Elloren- the rest fills in the between with many, many POVs.

Cooks overload

Sparrow the Urisk ex-slave and Thierran the washed-up Gardnerian have made it to Noi, with young geomancer Urisk Efferey in tow. They’re into each other and kiss for Xishlon. However, Sparrow is captured and taken away by the shadow forces.

Alfsigr elf and Icaral (secret dragon) Wynter, my fav girl, is hanging out in the Amaz lands. The Amaz lands are the first stepping stone to the East, and as she worries her Zalyn’or necklace will allow Vogel to control her, the Amaz city falls and she is captured. She gets very little this book, sadly, not even a resolution of her magical forced aroace mind control necklace stuff we only just learned last book. While she’s in the amazon lands we see Valasca also get captured.

Aislinn the Gardnerian has made it to Noi lands. After being forcibly married to an evil guy, she has a lot of trauma and scars as she reunited with her Lupine love Jarod. She gets turned Lupine and heals slowly, eventually kissing and having sex with Jarod by Xishlon. Briefly seen too are other characters who were big in books one to two: Diana, Rafe, and Andras are all hanging out not being important to the story.

Once bully Urisk Bleddyn is now working as a smuggler helping refugees flee the West. Very noble. She works with Mora’lee, a Smaragdalfar (snake elf) new to the series who has a sick flying restaurant and has the affections of Fyon, a snake elf who actually was one of Elloren’s teachers from the start of the series. They get together for Xishlon.

Teachers Lucretia and Jules, who I’d really forgotten about, are also in the Noi assisting refugees. They are into each other and get together for Xishlon.

Raz’zor the white dragon is free from his bonds and now a huge white dragon. He mostly flies around psychically yelling ‘death to Vogel!’. Lovely guy.

Vogel is the big bad evil guy and is busy being corrupted by evil. Et Cetera. Like he had a good heart to begin with.

Hanging in the underground we have Gardner Sage, Elloren’s fled childhood friend, and her snake elf husband Ra’ven, as well as their son Fyn’ir the Icaral. There’s also a very fruity Alfsigr named Rivyr’el. These guys are all really more in the prequel which I have yet to read.

Elloren has family over in Noi- a cousin named Or’myr who is Gardnerian/Urisk, a goth uncle Wrenfir, an aunt-in-law Li’ra. She also as part of her journey to the East travels with a desperate family- Urisk mother Emberlynn, her young daughter Tibryl, and teen daughter Nym’ellia who is half Gardnerian and looks mostly like one. The family is ill and winds up with Mora’lee, where Nym’ellia in particular faces a lot of discrimination. And befriends Urisk Olily, a teen from earlier in the series who now lives with Mora. Olily befriends the son of a rival restaurant owner, who is racist, and they kiss for Xishlon.

Other characters without notable story effect: Min Lo, a friend of Vothe; Heelyn, a racist friend of Vothe; Vester, a death Fae who literally doesn’t have a line; Sylla Vuul, a spider death Fae I’m in love with; Ung Li the hardass commander; Kam Vin and Ni Vin, the Vu Trin warriors; Fallon and her brothers Damion and Sylus Bane, busy being evil; Cael, Wynter’s brother, is chilling underground while Rhys, Wynter’s brother’s BFF is with him; Naga the Unbroken shows only at the end, barely. Oh, and there’s also Fain, Lucretia’s brother, and his dragon husband Sholindrile.

Not in this one: Elloren’s Aunt Vivian, Childhood friend Gareth, Selkie Marina, Tierney’s new friends Asra’leen and (nonbinary) Ra’in…

So many cooks

Hey, um… Has anyone uh… noticed there are a lot of characters in this series? Could it have been me?

Yeah.

I really do like the cast. The very, too big cast. Like, I really know who pretty much everyone is very well, what they look like, how they act, what they can do, their personal story… But Jeeeeeeeeez. It can be hard to keep track of everyone (especially the Vu Trin, who all have similar looking and sounding names like Kam Lin). This mixed also with lots of place names, magic terms, and bits of other languages… I adapted, but I still felt a bit guessy at points when it came to minor characters and phrases. There’s a lot of words like ‘Xishon’vir’ and ‘Vo’khin’ and ‘As’Lorion’. Lots of apostrophes, as it’s not fantasy if you don’t use twenty. I only turned to the wiki once, and the wiki- while better than it used to be- isn’t really up to date or that useful.

At the very least by now we should have like, a cast of characters page at the beginning for reference. If you’re going to go this high fantasy ridiculousness. Like it helps make the world feel more full than a normal cast of like, ten important people, but it is just a ridiculous amount of names and lore to track at all times.

I love drawing them though.

Arial

Bleddyn

Diana

Effrey

Elloren

Fyon

Heelyn

Jarod

Lukas

Mora’lee

Nym’ellia

Olilily

Or’myr

Rav’en

Rivyr’el

Sparrow

Thierran

Tierney

Trystan

Valasca

Viger Maul

Vothe

Goth Uncle Wrenfir

Yvan

Back to plot

So, everyone’s making out at Xishlon. Cool.

Elloren has been traveling East and arrives in time for Xishlon, being saved by her brother Trystan and Vothe crossing the dangerous river. Elloren is wanted dead by much of Noi as they see her as a threat or possibly aligned with Vogel. She is chased down by guards but Yvan, her main love interest and dragon husband, shows up back from the dead and saves her. He actually faked his death last book, as we kinda knew, and has finally returned to her. She goes with Fain, who brings her to her distant family. Or’myr is a powerful geo wizard who has his own secret hideout, so he offers to hide Elloren there. Yvan goes off, I can’t actually recall where- I think to find Naga and her dragon army.

Elloren and friends go underground, where Sage and a bunch of others do a fancy rune spell to fix what the trees did to her last book. The trees basically tangled all her magical affinity lines so she can’t use her power. They do a whole ritual of balance and infusing her with their power, giving her equal dominion over all five elements. I’m not really sure if this is a ritual they can do on anyone- like… seems like a great idea to just infuse everyone with max power if you’re capable? Elloren is given a rune that acts as a progress bar for her power, as it’ll take a few hours before the magic is balanced and ready to use.

As Elloren chills on Xishlon, she feels Vogel trying to take control of her. Vogel has Lukas captive and is using the fastmarks that link them together to try to insert his shadow power. He starts to take control and she flails, knowing she can’t shake him off for long and that she would be a weapon of mass destruction in his hands. The magic wand of legend rolls away from her and is caught by a random bird because even it is like ‘I’m not taking the risk, girl’.

Everyone who was busy kissing/having sex on Xishlon is interrupted as suddenly the mountain over the city explodes with a wave of dark magic. Vogel was hiding here the whole time, ready to strike. Waves of demons and Gardner forces sweep in, causing max desolation. Vothe, Trystan, and the Wyverngaurd unite to put up a magical barrier. Mora’lee and the kids escape via flying ship, as only snake elf magic is immune to the shadows.

Elloren is taken by Vogel. He infuses his demonic energy into her to take control of her magic. Specifically, he taps into her fastlines with Lukas and her Wyvernbond with Yvan, replacing himself as the link in both of them. Yes, this does in fact make her technically married to him, twice- the chapter headings with her name even now say her last name is ‘Vogel’ to match, and Vogel expresses a desire to control her as a weapon of prophecy and cleanse her, including kissing her and promising to have sex with her to fully mark the Fastlines. Wild! Vogel is like, 30 at least and she’s 19 max. Him kissing her though is bizarrely more of a magical warfare thing- kissing and the power of making out is a well-established canon fact by now, with Lukas last book using kissing to cast shield spells around Elloren, and Vogel kissing her mostly solidifies his shadow power inside her.

This does envision a world though where the best military strategy is making out with your comrades to fuse your power together. Considering things like dragons being able to make people they kiss fireproof, this seriously is a world where strategic makeouts 100% should be a thing. “It’s not like I like you or anything… idiot… I’m just kissing you because it’ll double our power!”

Elloren is corrupted and under Vogel’s control, attacking Yvan when he comes to save her. She uses her magic to prepare a devastating attack on the city, striking at her allies and summoning a gigantic evil tree out of the forest. She impales Yvan on this tree, shedding his wings, but he grabs her and kisses her, forcing his power into her and burning away at the shadow. She breaks out of control temporarily as they kiss.

Their kissing is so intense and powerful it travels from Elloren and Yvan into Lukas, through Elloren’s Sealing lines (separate from Fastlines, they show up when you have sex and seal you to your partner, enhancing the Fastlines- Vogel only stole the Fastlines) (yes the lore is wild). Lukas breaks out of his shadow bonds with the power of his wife making out with a dragon.

A molten look passes between us. One look that conveys everything better than any words ever could- our complete and utter surrender to the greater good, the three of us aligning in one unified force.

603

Seriously, the two-page three-way dragon makeout is just. WHO ELSE WOULD DARE….

In my mind’s eye, Lukas’s eyes lock with mine, blazing with passion as Yvan and I roar as much magic into him as we can, the three of us melded into one conduit of burning revolution.

604

Just as I’m telling everyone I know about this turn of events and my heart dares to dream we might actually get the good poly love ending, Lukas sacrifices himself and explodes to bring down the shadow tree and Vogel’s base. This seems to help turn the tide of battle, but Vogel escapes. Everyone named but Lukas actually seems to escape fine.

I do think there’s a nonzero chance Lukas could return in book five- it’s not the first time someone has apparently died and returned, Lukas himself having done it last book along with Yvan. But since Yvan has ‘main love interest’ written all over him, it does feel very likely he’s actually dead. Elloren definitely calls him like, ‘destroyed’, quite sure.

As Lukas explodes, Yvan falls with broken wings, as does Elloren. Elloren is suddenly caught in the air by another dragon- Ariel! Oh Ariel… I love her so. After dying at the end of book two, she’s actually fine, like we all hoped. This kicks ass because she does, as the very angry messed up traumatized gay that she is. Also, see Lukas: still a fair shot of returning. Maybe as a dragon thanks to all those hot makeouts? Hint. Hint.

Arial and Elloren flee to the woods, where Elloren is struggling against Vogel’s control again. They are attacked in the woods suddenly and dragged away through a portal into an unknown woods. Their saviours are Dryads, thought to be dead, who bring Elloren to their great tree III to be killed. Yvan shows up to save Elloren but she dives into the tree, too worried about her power hurting people. III and her merge consciousnesses and she understands it as the root of all magic and an ancient watcher, seeing various visions of history and how this demon tide has happened before on the lost continent. Rather than kill her, III purifies her and transforms her into a Dryad, awakening her Dryad blood. Some of the Dryads are pissed but she positions the need for the people of the world to unite to stop Vogel and the shadows once and for all. She and Yvan kiss and renew their dragon marriage.

Meanwhile, Wynter is given to her parents as a cursed Icaral, and they exile her to the sub land caves to die. She comes across the wand of prophecy and realizes she can use it, and that her Zalyn’or necklace of bonding is broken, freeing her power. Her brother and co immediately find her.

The end.

Plot Thoughts

More than Shadow Wand, this book felt connected and flowing. Despite the many characters and viewpoints. This is mostly down to the narrative being linked better, and resolved. In book three we had this weird thing where a huge amount of Noi plots were introduced, but only here does it seem like those plots really are expanded and dealt with. Plus, the plot is moving forward all around- Elloren isn’t thrown back yet again to the start, separated for most of the book- she weaves around other cast members and moves only forward. Everyone is in the same city during the same holiday. It works so much better.

Definitely though you can feel fraying at the edges of the story. There’s so much of it, even for 700 pages, it’s hard for there not to be. Sure, a lot of the mini-side storylines are just ‘will these two people who like each other kiss? yes? cool’, but those many stories rob the more important cast space to do anything. Vothe and Trystan have the most complete storyline, both a romance and character development all around, but Tierney doesn’t even settle on a boyfriend. Elloren, then, is the other most complete story, but she also feels quite bumpy, running around meeting so many new people before the climax.

I don’t think I’d call the story hazy. I think it’s paced fairly well for what it is, and there is a distinct feeling of going forward for most of it, but it definitely struggles over the number of plot threads and characters. The eight-chapter kissing montage on Xishlon got a bit repetitive.

Dragon Marriage. Dragon Divorce. Dragon… Bereavement (and the love triangle)

Okay okay so. So.

When Yvan first kissed Elloren, he basically married her. A dragon’s kiss binds them to their mate. She’s not a dragon, so it’s a one-sided loyalty compulsion, but it does give her ‘Wyvernfire’- a sort of magical bond of dragon magic that connects them and also makes her fireproof. We do not know enough about dragon marriage. Vothe, also a dragon shapeshifter, kisses lots of guys without dragon marrying them, but he’s also a different kind of dragon to Yvan. Considering Yvan dragon marries Elloren before she actually knows he’s an Icaral (aka part dragon), you’d think if he had any choice he would have just kissed Elloren without the dragon marriage. So I think it’s implied he doesn’t have a choice, and if you kiss someone you dragon marry them. Or maybe if you kiss someone you love, at the very least.

Elloren then thinks Yvan is dead and in book three falls in love with Lukas. Her making out with him so much actually transfer the Wyvernfire to him, like a cool STI. He has a bit of it in him and thus he’s fireproof. Again, not sure how this works totally, but kissing is definitely magic in this world, it’s established lore.

Elloren and Lukas are Fasted, Fastmates, who are bound to each other magically in the Gardnerian tradition. Because Gardnerians suck, it’s a one-sided spell where if Elloren ever has sex with someone who isn’t Lukas, her Fastlines on her hands will attack her, mutilating her hands into a state of constant agony. So when Yvan returns this book, they affirm their love, but can’t have sex. They can kiss. Yvan is very understanding of the fact Elloren loves Lukas and what happened, even vowing to be her ally and help rescue Lukas. Yvan’s dragon marriage means that, however, he is still bonded to her in fealty and protection and loves her deeply- an unbreakable vow. It may be entirely monogamous, certainly it is one at a time, as dragons mate for life. So Yvan is forcibly but friendily cuckolded.

Later though Vogel uses demonic magic to break all this. Essentially this means the villain of the book forces Elloren to get a dragon divorce. In fact, he forces her to get double divorced. I don’t know why but this is extremely funny to me. “Forced into Dragon Divorce by the Evil Priest” is my new overly specific kindle erotica.

When Elloren and Yvan make out, they burn through the shadows of Vogel and into Lukas as well. The three of them are basically dragon making out. Getting triple dragon married, except this doesn’t marry them, and I don’t know if that’s because Yvan has other things on his mind or if dragon marriage isn’t just anyone you kiss (is you can control dragon marriage Yvan why did you dragon marry Elloren before she knew your deep secret dragon identity?). Anyways, the triple dragon makeouts are then ruined by Yvan dying- and because when a dragon’s mate dies the dragon goes into a state of shock from their bond, Yvan enters a state of temporary powerlessness. From his dragon bereavement of his proxy husband Lukas.

Yvan is now… a dragon widower 😦

This is all really funny to me.

Anyways, I appreciate the trio in this book. Elloren as a lead isn’t really that interesting, especially now that she is very powerful and can fight, but she has an earnest, bleeding heart hope that’s nice. Yvan is very nice and understanding, obviously hurt and a bit jealous about Lukas but also cares for her as a friend and just wants to see her happy rather than be angry about the Fastlines situation. Lukas is mostly away this book being shadow controlled by Vogel, but while he’s always been a bit jealous of Yvan… he’s also very nice and understanding of it. Like, they both love Elloren, and they respect she loves the other guy too, and they just want that to work out so she can be happy. It’s a great setup for polyamory, goddamn it. I just don’t know if the author would ever be bold enough to do that in this mainstream-ish novel. No matter how much I try to hint at her.

I pretty much always called Lukas sacrificing himself though. I knew he’d be like… Yvan… love her for me… and then die somehow, I knew it, and he did. The issue with an amicable love triangle is that if you don’t do polyamory, you have to kill the other guy or make him fall in love with a baby or something stupid. Otherwise there’s always an undercurrent of repressed one-sided love if they go to being just friends.

Other Romance

The romance in this book is… nice. I’m not a romance fan, pretty much the only book couple I’ve ever cared for is Tom/Hester from the legendary Mortal Engines Quartet. To say I like this book even with all the romance is a big compliment to the book. There’s so much romance.

The many other couples are all… nice. Fine. Charming to some degree. The issue really being there are too many of them. Everyone in this series MUST be paired off romantically. Not one person isn’t interested or simply isn’t. There’s more gay stuff in this book, the series in general exponentially growing in gay characters, but Vothe/Trystan are the only major gay couple. Still, all the romance feels the same. Everyone is hot and blushing and super attractive and deeply in love and kissing deeply. It all reads about the same and feels the same, whether it be a slow burn Vothe/Trystan or a defiant Sparrow/Tierran or a tender Aislinn/Jarod or the years in the making Jules/Lucretia…

Most romance feels the same to me anyway, but to have so many romance scenes back to back of so many couples really hammers it in. It’d be hard for any author to make each couple in the same city and same circumstances be all that different when describing their love and lust for their partner.

An annoyance, also: every single race in this world uses some form of ‘mate’. I hate mate as a term. I hate lifemates and soulmates and SJM… so it was annoying to realize not one person just seems to use marriage, no matter the language. This has been true from the start, but it really was brought forth here by all the various cultures sharing that term.

Also: lack of asexual, aromantic rep continues. Like… last book both were mentioned, as a positive normal thing, but when you have this huge a cast you’d really hope we’d get one person not interested in sex. Even Or’myr, a reclusive wizard who everyone thinks isn’t interested, has a deep love/want for Tierney in secret. Wynter barely being in the book means we also get nothing about the Zalyn’or’s forced aroace and how her removal of it may ‘cure’ her of hers.

Also not related but I was super hoping for trans/nonbinary rep. Last book there’s one minor character named Ra’in who uses they/them, and with such a big cast and multiple discussions of the idea of gay rights being good here, I was hoping we’d get something about gender too.

The World, the People, the… Fantasy Racism

The Noi lands and the city of Voloi are such lovely, vibrant places. More so than with the early books there’s a great sense of setting. The city feels alive with shops, cultures, and traditions- the holiday is a great set piece too. We see traditional foods and celebratory decorations, hear specific terms and traditions among the people, children, couples, religious types… everything is nonstop purple and alive. It feels really nice, actually, even if it means everyone is horny and into kissing all the time.

I’ve always really liked how the Black Witch Chronicles doesn’t rely on real-life cultures. Especially keen because it’s a series that is mostly shot at for being about Fantasy Racism, when extremely popular series like Shadow and Bone are not. (Shadow and Bone has every country and culture just like ‘fantasy dutch’ ‘fantasy Russia, and having fantasy racism too). The most we sort of have is the East being vaguely more asian, the Vu Trin using ‘killing stars’, and the Lupine having ‘tepees’, but despite these mild cultural intrusions they feel unique and more grounded in an entirely made-up culture rather than derivative.

I had a lot of fun with the world in this book. It’s full of little touches and small details that make everything more involved and alive. Rather than being plainly focused on the plot or main characters, there are a lot of small details simply about the world. I know that’s kinda a given… but I’ve read tons of books where that actually isn’t the case.

Many of the details though are increasingly anachronistic. It’s a weird fantasy concern, in truth, the timeline. To assume technology has a specific order is both true and false, and even more false when magic exists. Rune magic has been around forever, but especially in Noi it seems far more useful and powerful. Pretty much everything works on magic runes, which seem to be the most useful magic to have. Hot showers. Time-keeping orbs. Flying skiff ships. Decorative heart-shaped garland lights. A sewing machine. I like this sort of world, to be honest. If magic exists, why not have fun with it? What really is so bad about a fantasy setting where rune magic basically replaces machines? On one hand you can argue such magic power would be used then to do things like factories and mass production… but on the other, it’s nice to live in this nature-based magic world mixed with bits of modern convinience. Like how few books in fantasy worlds mention toilets.

Part of the filling out of this world extends to cultures. Each race has different cultures, from religion to tradition to opinions of certain things. While the East is more liberal- women have equal rights to fight, contraceptive plants are sold casually, gay rights exist- there are still ideas of more conservative beliefs too. Friction still exists for our characters who have fled here. If you think of Gardnerians as ‘white people’, then them facing discrimination in the East and slurs like ‘Crow’ becomes a sort of ‘reverse racism’ situation- where they exist as the oppressing majority who currently are doing all the atrocities. But Gardnerians… get this… aren’t white people. They’re a fantasy race of semi-dryads who do not have a history analogous to any real culture. Right now they’re led by a demonic fascist, and earlier books showed the rise of fascism in the country, but in their history they’ve been slaves, they’ve been minorities. They’re even a pretty young culture in the world, like only a few generations old.

The point of the books, and the fantasy racism, is not to make a statement strictly on any specific real-world issues, and to interpret them from that point of view is incorrect. Rather, the point is pretty simple: hate is bad. Hate is born from ignorance and fear. Hate is born from reactions and stress and leaders who lie. Let’s all love each other and try to understand where each other is coming from. Let’s help people change and grow and know they can become better if they only knew better. Everyone comes from different roots. Let’s talk and not let small differences divide us in the face of true evil.

It’s… a very nice viewpoint, actually. It’s earnest, but I like it. I feel the same way a lot of the time. Not to be political, but look at how the American left devours itself in discourse as the right simply uses that anger to feed itself. That’s the real-world analogy the Black Witch has always been about: that history repeats itself as long as people are ignorant of it.

With other viewpoints, it only helps cement this point. It’s not just Elloren going ‘oh, I was raised to hate but actually everyone is different and that’s okay!’. It shows a lot more complexity than you’d probably bet from the book that has magic dragon kiss marriage.

Trees of RAGE

“They’re here!” I cry out. “The trees are coming through the walls!”

Elloren’s beef with every single tree in the world continues to delight me. The whole notion is the same as it’s been throughout the series, yes, but… c’mon. Every tree in the world hates her. Can you imagine if every time you saw a tree you got a psychic message in your head that called you a bitch? Elloren can, because Elloren has that happen. And that is simply funny.

Yes, she winds up becoming a Dryad by the end. Cool. No more tree hate. Tragic.

Also the ultra tree is called, uh… III? Three? W-why….?

I’m going to take the magical tree god being named Three to mean Lukas/Elloren/Yvan is endgame, as the three person pairing has been foretold by the tree itself as the saviours of the world. Imagine my conspiracy chart.

Facing the End

The series will end with the next book, currently named the Dryad Storm. I’m pumped. Even though it took me so long to finish this book- it’s a big book and a big commitment. Especially since I want to always draw every character. And I will. Watch this space.

I’m excited for the end. Even though the story at this point is quite simple, not many twists left, I love the world and characters. I can’t wait for like thirty people to die tragically. Maybe I’ll even cry. Who knows?

This is such a fun series, and honestly part of that is how much it feels like this series is a secret. Like I’m the only fan and this is my silly dominion. I am the lord here. I am in charge.

Anyways, here’s my hot takes on what is to come.

+Wynter and Ariel will be in love and endgame. Living lesbians. Maybe Cael is implied to be into Wynter, so we might have a love triangle- author loves those. If I send enough psychic signals to the author Wynter may remain asexual.

+Elloren and Yvan survive and live happily ever after.

+Better, stronger ending: Lukas survives, now Icaral as part of that magic kissing scene, returns in the nick of time, and he, Elloren, and Yvan survive and live happily ever after.

+We get a magic break where we learn the True History of the world, about the Void and the Light and how the Wands came to be, etc etc. Confirmation too that all the gods/goddesses of the world are one entity since it’s already pretty obvious every religion in the world shares the same base.

+Vogel is a winged Icaral, the Icaral of prophecy, so the prophecy can still happen but now instead of Yvan being Elloren’s fated rival, it’s Vogel. Makes sense.

+Gareth and Marina arrive suddenly with an army of selkies at the nick of time.

+Most of the book will be about trying to unite everyone to the power of III the tree and shooting their magic into the world at the last second. Thinking about LOVE.

+Lots of Yvan sex scenes

+Dead pool: Naga. Jules. Lucretia. Or’myr. Rafe. Marina. Andras. Pretty much any Vu Trin. Raz’zor. Ra’ven. Fyon. Fyordin. Wrenfir.

+Living: I don’t think we’d see the #traumaGRLZ Aislinn, Sparrow, Ariel die, or their partners, because at this point they’ve really suffered enough.

+Every single character will have an explicit fate, which will take like ten pages of epilogue.

+Wynter will wield the sacred wand, maybe even at the end, with Elloren instead just drawing on her extreme tree power. Maybe.

+Elloren losing all magic by the end. Very common trope.

+Elloren losing almost all her power- and being turned into a dragon afterward.

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