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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

Sooooo the intro to my previous post is now a tad ironic. In related news, getting floodwater out of your car stinks. Literally.

But fear not! No mere water-logged weekend could keep me from your eyes, my lovelies. Behold, a RROK, just for you!

This blog series will be covering The Ruin of Kings, the first novel of a five-book series by Jenn Lyons. Previous entries can be found here in the series index.

Today’s post will be covering Chapter 48, “Family Dinner”, and Chapter 49, “Critical Lessons.” Please note that from this point forward, these posts will likely contain spoilers for the entire novel, so it’s recommended that you read the whole thing first before continuing on.

Got that? Great! Click on for the rest!

 

Chapter 48: Family Dinner (Talon’s story)

[In which Kihrin pwns various father figures, to an unwise extent.]

“I’d give it a little time,” Darzin said. “Give people a chance to forget that his mother was a common whore.”

“Don’t you mean common slut, sir?” Kihrin corrected.

All conversation stopped at the table.

Darzin stared at him. “What did you just say?”

“I said she was a common slut, father. Lyrilyn was a slave, right? So she couldn’t really sell her body. It wasn’t hers to sell. Thus, she couldn’t be a whore. But she could be, and frankly, was probably required to be, sexually willing. And she was almost certainly a commoner. Thus, my mother was a common slut.” He stopped. “But you had to free her before you could marry her, didn’t you?”

Darzin glared. “Yes…”

“Then I apologize, father. You were right. She was a common whore.”

Me: *hands Darzin some lotion for that burn*

*then takes it back because abusive dickfaces don’t deserve burn lotion*

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The Name of All Things

The Name of All Things

Yeah, it cannot be denied that Kihrin got in some absolutely brutal verbal jabs on both Darzin and Therin in this chapter, for which we must salute him, but he is also being a terribly teenagery idiot about it, for which we must mentally shake him.

Of course, most teenage rebellion doesn’t result in a literal paternal de-thumbing attempt, but as usual Darzin has never yet met a hill of crazy he wasn’t willing to make other people die on. But Kihrin really should know that by now. As satisfying as the above exchange was (and it really was), it wasn’t worth the risk of Darzin’s retaliation. Or at least I think so; Kihrin, apparently, disagrees. Youths.

“Laying low”, however, does not appear to be a part of Kihrin’s constitutional makeup in any case, so really we should just marvel that he has survived anything in his whole life so far.

Some more backstory here, on why Pedron D’Mon went down (and Darzin should have but didn’t) for an attempted coup twenty years earlier, based on the belief that the prophecy Kihrin saw in Galen’s hiding place referred to him and his friends:

Wizard, thief, knight, and king, the children will not know the names of their fathers who quiet the Voices’ sting.

Obviously, they were wrong, and the prophecy refers to Kihrin’s posse at the end of the book. So that’s fun.

Less fun is why Therin has not put down Darzin like the rabid dog Kihrin (quite accurately) names him in his furious rant to Therin at the end of this chapter. And I have to say I don’t remember whether there turns out to be a more compelling reason than “but he’s my son,” but I hope there is, because frankly familial sentiment is a pretty poor fit on this particular family.

 

Chapter 49: Critical Lessons (Kihrin’s story)

[In which not-so-secret identities are revealed, not-so-awesome magic jewelry is explained, and Kihrin tries to do something stupid.]

Must be Tuesday.

Seriously, was he actually intending at the end of this chapter to go get himself killed by the Old Man so he would become a dragon?? That’s… extreme, Kihrin. Like, I get it, being a human (or vané/human mix, whatever) hasn’t exactly been a picnic for you so far, but let’s not be outré here. What would you do as a dragon, c’mon.

(Okay, you would fly around and look awesome and live forever, sure. But I bet the lack of opposable thumbs chafes eventually!)

Anyway, also Doc is really ex-King Terindel of the Kirpis vané, but thanks to body/soul switching magic rock shenanigans, is now wearing the body of the Manol vané what killed him, but is also disguising himself as a regular human dude with a different magic rock which does illusions instead of body-snatching. Cool, cool.

I’m not clear on why Terindel’s killer just happened to be wearing one of the other Cornerstones, but that is a particularly stinky coincidence if you ask me. Also not sure whether his wife Queen Valathea was executed or turned into a harp, but I wouldn’t put it past these people to do something like that.

Also I note we have neatly slid past the issue of teachers drugging their students, but honestly if I were Kihrin, once I realized it would let me learn a lifetime’s worth of fightin’ trainin’ in a few hours, I would get over it. But I am demonstrably not Kihrin, who apparently thinks trying to trick a dragon into murdering him is a better option than playing the coolest battle simulator ever and becoming a badass human instead.

Youths.


And that’s the story, mornin’ glories! For now, anyway. Stay dry, me, and y’all come back for more next week, yah? Yah!

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Leigh Butler

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