Onyx Storm (Chapter 53 to Chapter 56)
STATS
Title: Onyx Storm
Series: The Empyrean (Book 3)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: January 2025
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Rating: 1.5 / 10
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entirety of The Empyrean up through the end of the content covered in this part. Mild spoilers for elements later in Onyx Storm may be provided, but I will keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible. Heavy spoilers from later in Onyx Storm will be confined to clearly labelled sections.
STORY
Leothan speaks with Andarna, claiming that he has been watching her for some time and that he feels she has admirable qualities despite her warlike upbringing. He offers to take her back to the rainbow design island with him. Andarna is reluctant to go, but Violet gives her blessing, and Leothan helps to sever the bond between them. Violet lapses into a catatonic state out of grief.
After four days of bedrest, Violet gets over her grief when Mira arrives. Xaden helps her bathe. She emerges from the bath to find Mira and Brennan fighting. It turns out that Violet was dedicated to the temple of Dunne as a child, and there's a prophecy of doom on her. Mira assumes that this prophecy means that Violet will become a venin, but Xaden reveals that he is probably the one referenced in the prophecy. Mira storms out upon realizing that Violet and Brennan kept Xaden’s venin nature from her.
Chapter 55 is filler drama.
Chapter 56 opens with Violet using dream-walking to help Xaden wake from a nightmare. Said warning features a cryptic message from Berwyn, who addresses Violet directly, telling Violet, “You come or she dies” (a rare moment in this series where the pronoun actually makes sense). Garrick then hammers on Violet and Xaden’s door, announcing that Draithus is under attack and that Mira has been captured by Theophanie.
PLOT
Losing Andarna
I want to like both Andarna leaving Violet and the subsequent period of recovery. I sincerely do.
There is palapable emotion here. Earned emotion. We’re not being asked to divorce ourselves from the reality of the story to feel what Violet is feeling here. This is a moment that has genuine weight to it, at least briefly.
It’s just undermined by everything Yarros has previous established about bond between riders and dragons.
Choosing to Live
Rainbow dragons can just … sever bonds.
Fine. They are clearly the most magical dragons. Their telepathy group call trick also seems at least adjacent to a bond, and they were able to kick Violet, Ridoc, and Xaden out of said call when they were done.
What this explanation doesn’t justify is Violet surviving the severing of the bond.
Yarros knows it should kill Violet. We know she knows this because she feels to compelled to explain why it doesn't. As is tradition, she tears open another plot hole in the process.
Leothan shifts his focus to Andarna. “Humans should only be capable of bonding a single dragon, and yet you forged a second connection where there shouldn’t be one. Only an irid can do that. Your instincts are excellent, but you need instruction. Break the connection and come with me.”
My heart thunders like hoofbeats in my ears.
“But Violet…” Andarna’s tone shifts from denial to… Amari help me, is that worry?
I blanch as it hits me. She wants to go. Of course she does. He’s her family—the only dragon of her kind willing to accept her. I’m the one holding her back.
“Her other bond will sustain her life,” Leothan states like that’s all there is between Andarna and me. “Should you choose to return, you can always reforge the bond.”
Do you know who also has another bond to sustain their lives?
Every dragon who is both bonded to a rider and mated to another rider … so all of the drama about Xaden dying if Violet died, or vice versa, was nonsense. If one of them died, their dragon would be kept alive by the mate, so the domino effect would never reach the other rider. The same applies if either dragon died - only the rider of that specific dragon should have been the only one to die. The dragons just needed to “choose to live”.
For that matter … this means Violet was never in danger if Tairn died, because Andrana would keep her alive.
Normally, this would be something we could write off as a limits of in-character knowledge. I don’t think Yarros was lying this time. This is just a retcon that breaks the plot, world, and characters.
We know that Tairn and Sgaeyl are not the first mated pair to both have riders. We know this because past books established that the precedent is that mated pairs bonds to riders in the same year. It means that the second bond preserving life is something that should have been discovered long ago (or, at the latest, when Tairn’s last rider died).
What’s more, Violet, the “rational woman” chosen for her “intellgience”, supposedly the only person of cutting through her father’s nonsensical puzzles, never figured this out during … say … all those times in the past books when her bond with Andarna would have severed due to distance. Yarros is once again making a lie of her self-insert Mary Sue’s supposed brilliance to ram in a retcon.
This is all bad enough, but Yarros then chooses to directly address the mechanics of how a broken bond kills riders.
“I think I know why riders die when their dragons do.”
His fingers pause before he continues. “Why?”
“It’s not just the deficit of power,” I muse, cupping the bathwater with my hand, then letting it flow out between my fingers. “In that moment, I didn’t know who I was, where I belonged, or why I should bother breathing. If Tairn hadn’t grounded me, I think I would have willingly floated away. I still can’t comprehend the enormity of her absence. I don’t know if I ever will. I can’t see past it.”
“You don’t have to yet.” He moves to my side and sits on the edge of the tub.
“Yes, I do. I’m pretty sure I just heard my siblings say the western line is crumbling and you have thousands of people fleeing into your province.” I tilt my head. “Is there more?”
“Yes,” he answers without hesitation. “But no rider has survived what you just did—”
“Except Jack Barlowe,” I interrupt.
“Glad to see your sense of humor is intact.” He lifts his scarred brow. “No one expects you to be anywhere close to fully functional.”
“I do.” Keeping busy will prevent me from falling back into that bed. I lean into Tairn and try to ignore the gaping void where Andarna should be.
The fact that “it’s not JUST the deficit of POWER” means that the deficit is a factor … so every rider in the rainbow dragon hunt (and, for that matter, every gryphon) should absolutely have died. Furthermore, Liam should not have died within minutes of his dragon back in Fourth Wing, instead dying on the same timetable as what Violet expected when the link is severed by distance.
Fine, though. Yarros wants to say it’s a matter of emotions? She hasn’t demonstrated that this truly matters. Both Pern and the Inheritance Cycle took time to explore the emotional value of the bond for rider characters, but here, the bond just means Violet can talk to her dragons. How is Andarna cutting the bond any greater of a loss than when Violet was under the serum, or what any of the riders faced when they left the Continent? Simply claiming earlier in this book that a dragon is a rider’s first love doesn't fix this, especially since, right after Andarna disappears, Yarros confirms the Xaden is Violet’s first love.
“What happened?” Someone hits his knees beside me, and my gaze swings, meeting amber-flecked onyx. Not someone—Xaden. “Violet?” Worry and fear slide down the bond that tethers us, and the connection anchors my heartbeat.
I exist for Tairn, but I live for Xaden.
Literally any rider with friends or family should be able to survive the bond breaking.
Lastly, Violet just … gets over … this supposedly crippling lost in four days. She doesn't get talked out of her grief. She doesn't go on some sort of spirit quest. There’s no growth. She just lays in bed for a few days, then Mira tells her to get up, and she does. Lazarus underwent more character development during his four days as a corpse than Violet did here. It makes the grief feel trivial, as if Yarros only acknowledged it because she wanted to showcase how her self-insert Mary Sue can overpower grief that no one else could bear.
Back on the Bus (Heavy Spoilers)
Almost the instant that Andarna vanished from Violet’s life, I realized that Yarros had once again benched her so that she wouldn't have to write two dragon characters for Violet.
This is absolutely a circumstance of Onyx Storm being damaged by being a sequel. After Andarna was in the background for most of Fourth Wing and then was shoved into the bench twice in Iron Flame, it’s clear that the only reason Andarna lasted as far into this book as she did is that Yarros found an excuse to make her relevant to the plot. Now that the climax of the book is approaching, Yarros needs her out of the picture again so as to have one less variable to worry about.
… until the very end.
At the end of Chapter 64, Andarna just … returns. No explanation is given. She’s just there at the final battle, appearing out of nowhere to distract Theophanie for a brief moment so Violet can deliver the killing blow.
Even without the context of past books, this return ruins the departure on a reread. Yarros never intended this departure to have consequences. It’s emotional key-jangling that is ruined for the sake of a Deus ex Machina, one that’s arguably not even needed for Violet to finish Theophanie off in that climactic scene.
The Annointed One
As soon as Violet snaps out of her grief, she intervenes in a fight between Mira and Brennan, at which point she learns that she is the Chosen One.
Remember that aftershadowing about Grandma Niara that we covered back in Chapters 29 through 33? Here’s where it comes into play. This relative we never met and whom Violet has no emotional connection to cut ties with the family because Asher took Violet to be dedicated to the temple of Dunne. The only reason it was called off was that a temple oracle warned that Violet’s future was not yet set.
“Then they went to Poromiel to do it!” Mira shouts. “You will believe me, Brennan, because it happened! It’s why she refused to speak to either of them. The priestess started the process, then told Mom and Dad that they only accepted children whose futures are certain, and Violet still had paths to choose from—”
…
“—and one of those paths…” Mira runs him right over, shaking her head. “They refused to take her. And I’ve been requesting temple records for months, but of course none of them would list a child, let alone a Sorrengail.”
Well, great to know that the self-insert Mary Sue is also one of the only people in this setting with free will.
But wait - there’s more. The oracle also foretold that either Violet or Xaden would become a venin.
“What did she say?” Brennan asks Mira. “What were the priestess’s exact words?”
Mira twists the bracelet, then looks me straight in the eye. “She said the heart that beat for you—or within you—would do the wrong thing for the right reason, reach for unspeakable power, and turn dark.”
My lips part.
“Within her or for her?” Brennan asks.
“Isn’t it the same thing?” Mira challenges. “Violet’s at risk of turning, and with power like hers—”
“Stop,” Xaden says, and my head snaps in his direction. “It’s not Violet. It’s me.”
So … yeah. Violet is ordained as the Special Snowflake by a literal god.
This is all done just to make Violet seem more special. Yes, it does technically foreshadow what she does in the climax (I will remain spoiler-free here, though we did cover it last week), but Yarros didn’t need to slap a prophecy onto her to do that, just hand her a dagger that going to get handed to Violet anyway. There’s no weight to it.
Also, this is where Yarros tries to untangle the nonsense of what Asher was doing with the second Krovalan uprising.
“They did.” I nod sluggishly. “It just wasn’t here. They must have taken me to Unnbriel. It explains why you think my hair grew in like this, and the wild things that priestess said to me before she sliced my arm open.”
…
Oh gods. They’d never seen dragons until our squad arrived.
“Mom didn’t take me.” My eyes sting at the unexpected betrayal. “Dad did.” A horrified laugh bubbles up through my throat. “It’s why he told you that little piece of history, Brennan. In case you needed to put it together. It’s why he sent me there with those books.”
I mean … what?
Asher went through all the trouble with multiple locked journals, with safety questions left with an elderly bookstore owner in another country, just so Violet could figure out she was partially dedicated to a temple?
A bit of lore that has been irrelevant up to this point is that it is illegal in Navarre to dedicate children to the temples. I can understand Asher not broadcasting the information. However, surely this crime is not taken as seriously as the conspiracy to keep the venin hidden. If Asher felt safe writing about that in a vague letter that he stuffed into Violet’s lore book, why couldn't he think of a similar cryptic statement to add, “Oh, I tried to get you dedicated illegally, and you may be chosen by the gods”? He could have just given her religious text with this second letter inside it and made her promise to study it!
And even if Violet had to go to Unnbriel to learn this information, Asher failed to convey the information. Violet didn’t figure this out in Unnbriel. Mira learned it from their grandmother, and Violet verified it with facts she could have easily gotten at any temple of Dunne.
Nothing Burgers
Yes, Xaden’s identity as a venin is revealed to Mira here.
Yes, Violet has a prophecy of doom hanging off her, once again dipping into the idea that she is dangerous.
Also, while I haven't quoted it, there’s a brief passage about whether Violet’s parents took her to the temples because they thought she needed “fixing”.
None of these ideas are explored. The first resolves quickly with Mira just storming out, and the latter two are just forgotten by the end of the scene.
Nothing Matters
Yarros opens Chapter 55 with two juicy paragraphs that really encapsulate how pointless and contrived the conflicts of this book are.
First, she updates us on the current political situation between Tyrrendor and the rest of Navarre.
Navarre is one step away from declaring war on Tyrrendor for defying the Senarium. Halden has troops stationed along the Calldyr border, just waiting for his fatherto give his order, which prompted Xaden to cut off shipments of Talladium until KingTauri confirms their alliance stands without the Provincial Commitment and the Aretian riot is safe at Basgiath, all but stalling the war college’s forge. The only positive is that I find myself back with my squad during the day and in Xaden’s bed at night.
Remember, way back in Chapter 8, how I established that the Second Aretia Accord was nonsensical power fantasy? This is why.
There is no way that Navarre’s leaders, as they has been characterized, would not forsee the possiblity that the son of the man who led an uprising, the man who openly spites the throne at every opportunity, would pull this. By giving Xaden the ability to do this, Yarros makes Navarre ever-less credible as a threat. The fact that she just handed Xaden the power to do all of this makes it impossible to believe that what she’s threatening as a consequence will actually come to pass.
Then, in an effort to remind us that Quinn is a Token Queer character, Yarros dismissed the idea that Violet and Xaden ever had an obstacles to their sexual relationship because he was a professor.
Turns out Panchek doesn’t actually care where anyone sleeps. Quinn spends every night with her girlfriend, too, since Jax happens to be stationed here.
Just a reminder than Panchek is the second-highest authority figure at Basgisth, and that he has previously intervened to save Violet from punishment (in Chapter 29 of Iron Flame). He could have, at any point, gone behind General Aetos’s back (something he apparently does for other things, as we will soon learn) and at least reduced the pressure on Violet and Xaden, if for no other reason that he has been characterized as not bring particularly invested in his job (and, this, would not be motivated to keep them monitored at all hours).
The rest of Chapter 55 is hollow drama. Violet struggles with runes (which we have already been told don’t matter), practices with her Signet (she is growing even more powerful, of course), and is party to Bodhi resenting Xaden’s efforts to make him Xaden’s successor (which has come up once before but it ultimately filler within the this, and I’m not confident about Yarros paying it off in Book 4).
Violet Lost Her Second Signet, Yet Also Still Has It
I feel like I’m covering a lot of Worldbuilding in this Plot analysis, yet it is all relevant to Plot.
Violet should not have her dream-walking Signet. That power flows from Andarna, and she is no longer drawing power from Andarna. This fact was explicitly confirmed in Chapter 55, when Violet was struggling to weave runes.
A few months ago, I’d barely gotten by using the more delicate threads of magic from Andarna’s power, but Tairn’s is unruly and hard to separate. No wonder my signet ispretty much all-or-nothing. Tairn doesn’t do anything in half measures, and neither does his power.
And it was also heavily implied in Chapter 54. Yarros chose to retcon that Violet got her dream-walking by wanting to know what Violet dreaming. She is beholden to that lie. So when she tells us this …
I sleep, but I don’t dream.
Andarna is gone.
… it really hammers home that this gift supposedly borne of a desire to know Andarna’s dreams is gone.
So why does Violet still have the power?
“I shouldn’t have been able to do it.” My voice fades to a whisper. “Andarna’s gone.”
His thumb strokes the top of my hip. “Maybe the power’s gone but the ability still remains.”
“Tairn?” I reach down the bond.
“I have encountered this as many times as you have.” His reply is gruff with sleep.
Not helpful.
You’re right, Ms. Yarros. It’s not helpful. You couldn't even be bothered to try to explain this, could you? You benched Andarna because you didn't want to have to deal with her for a few chapters, but you also didn't want to follow through on the consequences, so this is the best you could manage for a scene you really wanted to have? (“Wanted”, not “needed”. Garrick’s arrival means the dream is not necessary for the plot to progress.)
Igniting the Climax
Finally - after more than 10 chapters of filler and side quests - we reach the climax.
I want to give Yarros due credit: threatening Mira was possibly her best option for creating meaningful, emotional stakes for this climax.
“We were on patrol when she found us.” Garrick’s gaze flickers my way, and the instant pity that fills his open eye sours my stomach. “I wasn’t strong enough. Or quick enough. She ripped us straight out of the sky like a pair of pigeons in a windstorm.”
“Who?” Xaden asks, steadying his friend’s arms when he wavers.
“Their lightning wielder,” Garrick answers. “She let me go to deliver a message.”
Theophanie.
“To me?” Xaden asks, his brow furrowing.
“For both of you.” Garrick retreats a step, then swings off his shield. “They’ve reached the walls of Draithus. She said if that isn’t threat enough, you have five hours to bring Bodhi and Violet or she dies.” He glances at me.
You come or she dies. Isn’t that what the Sage said? But why Bodhi? And who could she possibly—
No. I shake my head, and my stomach lurches. There’s no possible way the irids would let her put hands on Andarna, if Andarna is even still on the Continent.
“Who—” Xaden starts, then falls silent and stares at Garrick’s shield. “Fuck.”
I drop my gaze to the shield, too, and my heart drops out of my chest.
It isn’t a shield; it’s a green scale that matches the exact shade of my armor.
Not Andarna…Teine.
Theophanie has Mira.
Violet’s and Xaden’s plot armor is too thick for either to be seriously threatened. Bodhi might do the trick, but he has gotten so little development that it wouldn't have any weight.
Mira, though …
I don't believe Yarros would actually harm Mira. She’s also done a great job in killing my investment in Mira. What she has established firmly and preserved is Violet’s relationship with Mira. I do genuinely believe that Violet is worried for Mira’s safety. I can understand what she’s feeling here, again without having to divorce myself from the reality of the story. So even if I don't buy that Mira is really in danger, I can still follow along on Violet’s journey here. That gives this climax emotional substance that the climaxes of the previous books lacked.
CHARACTERS
Asher Daxton and General Lilith
The only point really worth discussing here is the fact that Asher Daxton and General Lilith Sorrengail tried to cure Violet’s disability by dedicating her to the priesthood … but as mentioned above, Yarros isn’t interested in actually digging into it.
This information is delivered like it’s some bombshell that’s meant to redefine Violet’s perception of her parents, much like Dumbledore’s shady past did for Harry in The Deathly Hallows. Unfortunately, Yarros almost immediately forgets that. The focus sweeps right back to Violet’s prophesized future and Xaden begin a venin. The fact that Violet’s parents tried this is forgotten before the next chapter begins.
Another thing undermining this bombshell is that General Sorrengail made it pretty clear that she wanted Violet to punch through her EDS and POTS. Why is it a shock that she’d try to cure Violet? It would have been an issue of pride for her, especially since Violet’s condition was associated with a virus General Sorrengail had while pregnant with Violet (as established all the way back in Fourth Wing). The excuse given in Chapter 54 is that General Sorrengail didn’t associate with the temples, but for that excuse to work, she needed to have such overpowering prejudice against religion that she wouldn’t even exploit it for her own ends. Such prejudice has not been established.
Furthermore, this is another emotional beat that is divorced from the reality of the setting, not to mention our own reality. What parent would not try to spare their child the suffering of a chronic illness? Of course they would pursue every available avenue to accomplish this goal. This is especially important in Navarre, a society in a state of constant war which values physical strength. Curing Violet would be seen as a necessity for her long-term survival. This might work as a betrayal if Violet had been old enough to understand what was happening and protest to what they were doing, but she was clearly too young to remember any of this. Her moral outrage over someone trying to “fix” her really doesn’t make sense in this context.
This is yet another massive opportunity that was utterly squandered.
WORLDBUILDING
Most of the worldbuilding issues were already covered while discussing plot holes, but there is one other point worth discussing here.
Magic Beyond the Continent
In Chapter 55, we get this gem.
[Professor Trissa has] beenin a foul mood since spending most of yesterday afternoon with Mira, going over whichrunes did and didn’t work on our failed quest. So far the only consensus is that certainmaterials can carry magic beyond the Continent and others can’t.
It has been weeks (in-story) since the quest ended! What took this debriefing so long?!
More importantly … we are meant to think that no one has studied this matter and figured out something so basic in six centuries? Tyrrendor preserved this knowledge in secret, thereby allowing rebel children to master the art before they ever had magic (as is also confirmed in Chapter 55), but never passed the knowledge to anyone in the islands, despite also having someone from the southern islands marry into their royal family?
If anything in this setting functioned with logical cause and effect, then those southern isles should be overflowing with rune magic. Deverelli - the supposed people do science and trade - would have cracked the code to what materials sustained the runes outside of the Continent and then arranged trade deals in which they provided resources for the war on the venin in exchange for runes. Poromiel should be the wealthiest nation in the world, sustaining a Magi-Industrial Revolution for the entire world, with everyone relying on them to sustain their own tech levels.
CRASH LANDING
The climax of Onyx Storm is a strange beast.
For at least its first half, it is the best climax of the series thus far. Yarros finally steps beyond mindless noise and spectacle. She crafts a scenario with meaningful emotional stakes to anchor the audience in the midst of the chaos. There are many issues with the execution (we’ll get to those), but for the first time in this series, I wasn’t just waiting for the book to end. I was genuinely invested in what was happening.
Then, starting in Chapter 61, things get … odd.
Out of nowhere, Yarros suddenly decided to turn Rhiannon and Imogen into POV characters for singular chapters. Xaden also gets a POV chapter, and this time, it’s not an awkward epilogue tagged not the end of the book. That dubious honor instead goes to a Violet chapter.
And that last chapter … yikes. I’m pretty sure Yarros simply gave up on writing the ending. She just skipped from the climax to after the falling action, slamming a new status quo into position without explaining anything.
While we can analyze Chapters 57 through 60 (the good part of the climax) in one go, we can’t really do the same for the Chapters 61 through 66. The best way to cohesively analyze those will be to pull out the chapters that are in other POVs and analyze them separately from Violet’s chapters. This will cause us to skip around a bit.
In the interest of smoothing things out, and as an early Christmas present to you all, I’ve decided to present the last 10 chapters of Onyx Storm as a mini-series within this wider series, releasing them all on consecutive days:
Climax, Part 1 - Chapters 57 through 60 will release on December 19th
Climax, Part 2 - Chapters 61, 63 & 65 will release on December 20th
Climax, Part 3 - Chapters 62, 64, & 66 will release on December 21st
From there, all that remains will be the Final Retrospective, which will welcome in the New Year on January 2nd.
Buckle into your Special Snowflake dragon saddles. Our final ride (for the foreseeable future, at least) is upon us.
Thank you all for coming on this journey will me. I sincerely hope you’ll join me for this final boss battle. Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter for weekly e-mails with the latest post links. Please also share this review with others if you enjoyed it. Take care, everyone, and have a good weekend.
