Mira (A Tale of Threshing Day)
Hello, all. Welcome back to the review of Threshing Day, a supplemental anthology for The Empyrean.
Mira is an entity who has frustrated me because Yarros has seemed hell-bent on destroying her. Originally, Mira was a Cool Big Sister who supported Violet in any way she could. However, from Iron Flame Part 2 onwards, Mira has lost her purpose. She exists only to be Violet’s most rabid attack dog and to be damselled. If she had consistent characterization, I'd say she’d been assassinated.
Here in Threshing Day … well. Her story is far from great. It is, however, the bare minimum of what I'd hoped to find. I am more convinced that Yarros cared about this story than I am about her caring for anything after Chapter 16 of Fourth Wing.
Buckle into those Special Snowflake dragon saddles. It’s time to purge some initiates.
STATS
Title: “Mira”
Series: The Empyrean (Supplemental Anthology)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: September 29th, 2026
Publisher: Red Tower Books
SPOILERS & DISCLAIMER
This post will provide heavy, unmarked spoilers for the entirety the Threshing Day anthology up through the end of the story being featured. Mild, unmarked stories for later stories may also be provided, while any heavy spoilers for later stories will be confined to clearly marked sections. I will do my best to keep the first paragraph of every section spoiler-free.
Heavy, unmarked spoilers will also be provided for all mainline books of The Empyrean (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm) released prior to Threshing Day. I’m going to assume that you’ve read those previous reviews, but it won’t be necessary to understand this review, as I’ll be doing my best to recap or reference recurring issues or prior canon as it comes up.
For more information regarding the standards by which I’m going to be rating these stories, please see the post titled “Focus and Continuity (A Prelude to Threshing Day)”.
WHAT WE KNEW ABOUT MIRA BEFORE THRESHING DAY
If I only had Fourth Wing and Iron Flame Part 1 to go off of, I’d happily add Mira to the list of actual characters in this series.
Mira’s characterization is extremely simple, yet it is effective. She is the Cool Big Sis. Her motivation of protecting Violet drives her to support Violet in every way that she can. The relationship between her and Violet feels like a close familial bond that is distinct from Violet’s bond with Liam. She is also one of the few riders who convincingly comes across as a professional soldier, and this pairs well with the idea that Violet doesn’t know who she can trust in Iron Flame Part 1. Mira betraying Violet was not credible, but I believed that Violet believed that she couldn’t be entirely sure what side Mira would choose.
Then Iron Flame Part 2 came around. Suddenly, it was as if Yarros was afraid that people would like Mira more than her self-insert Mary Sue and started going out if her way to sabotage Mira. She shed any semblance of professionalism or discipline, violently lashing out at Brennan and becoming extremely petulant when dealing with her mother. Onyx Storm made things worse, with her assaulting and threatening people at every opportunity. Her fight with Violet prior to the climax of Onyx Storm read less like two characters behaving consistently in a stressful situation and more like Mira being angry just so Violet could wrong her hands over the possibility of Mira dying in the climax before they can reconcile.
By the climax of Onyx Storm, I did not care if Mira lived or died. The emotional tension that gave that climax life was entirely a matter of my believing that Violet cared about Mira. She was an object, not a character.
CONTENT
On Threshing Day, Mira seeks out Teine, having gotten a good vibe from the green dragon during the Presentation. Teine reveals himself to her and tests her willpower by nearly dropping a tree on her head and piercing her thigh with his claw. He is satisfied when Mira does not run away and insists that she is unbreakable. Then the pair return to the flight field.
ANALYSIS
Finally. Yarros passes the bare minimum and belly-flops into decency.
Plot and Worldbuilding
There is no actual plot here. Mira has a conversation with Teine that gets slightly edgy when he makes her bleed, then they are bonded.
Likewise, there’s not much of note on the worldbuilding front. Most of us it rehashed lore. The fact Teine psychoanalyzes Mira (something Marbh also did for Brennan) is noteworthy, but that is something we need to save a spotlight analysis at the end of the review. The same could be said of how Yarros uses this psychoanalysis to retroactively tie Mira’s Signet to her new characterization.
Mira
The way Mira is characterized here is not the best reflection of her identity from Iron Flame Part 2 onwards, but it does mesh well with who she was before she stopped being a character.
The Middle Child
Mira’s defining trait, as psychoanalyzed by Teine, is that she is neither of her parents’ favorite.
I’m curious. Your brother is your mother’s son, and your sister is your father’s daughter, so to whom do you belong?”
The words strike deeper than bone and hurt far more than the line he’s cut into my thigh. He hasn’t just found my one insecurity; he’s held it up to the light and poked it to watch me bleed. He’s right. Brennan is Mom’s. Violet is Dad’s. I am…no one’s.
But they are all mine, and that’s enough.
“I belong to myself.”
…
“True, I am no one’s favorite.” I look beyond the talon to his eyes to keep from focusing on the crimson substance that used to be in my veins. “But it’s only taught me to work harder at the things I can control.”
And this is not merely Told to us. Prior to Mira finding Teine, her mind drifts to Brennan (at that time, fighting to suppress the Apostacy) and Violet. Yarros sets a trait up and then pays it off in the encounter with Teine. This is exactly the sort of arc Brennan needed in his story.
Iron Will
Teine wants a rider who will not loose her composure under pressure. Having Mira stand her ground in a situation where she knows the the alternative is death amounts to a watered-down version of the pain box from Dune, but technically, it does prove this point.
This is a good example of where the anthology characterization overwrites the mainline series. Mira’s fracturing from Iron Flame Part 2 onwards is a mental breakdown, not willpower. However, Yarros is effectively demonstrating the trait here, so I'm happy to write the contradiction off as a problem in the mainline series, not this story.
Religious
At two points in the story, Mira offers silent prayers to gods other than Malek, once to Dunne and once to Zihnal. The Zihnal prayer is because she knows her father would “scoff” at her praying to Hedeon.
I would hardly say that this makes her a beacon of piety in this world. What it does do is show that she’s at least more spiritual than her siblings. Mira is at least open to acknowledging and giving credit to the gods even when they aren’t giving her the power of God and anime.
Devotion
Mira’s thoughts about Violet heap a lot of praise in her little sister. Unlike when Xaden does this in his POV chapters of the mainline books, this feels organic. The praise is an extention of Mira’s love for her family, and it’s balanced by acknowledgement of Violet’s weaknesses. The result is that Mira reads like someone who is very proud of her history, rather than just a sock puppet for the author to praise the self-insert Mary Sue.
Patriot
While reflecting in the fact Brennan and her mother are putting down the Apostacy, Mira thinks this:
I hope Fen Riorson burns for attempting to fracture our kingdom. The duke’s frustration over mining mandates for Talladium—one of the minerals we need to power our wards—is understandable, but that resource is only found in Tyrrendor. I even sympathize withhis anger over his province’s disproportionate conscription rates. But to risk the safety of all Navarrian citizens by seceding is unforgivable. Without the province of Tyrrendor, our enemies in Poromiel will overrun our borders and we’ll lose the war we’ve been fighting for centuries. Countless civilians will die if we don’t quell the rebellion.
This isn’t exactly nuance for the worldworlding. After all, the framing of the narrative is that Tyrrendor is unambiguously right. Mira is meant to be wrong (more specifically, ignorant) here. That said, it shows nuance for Mira. Unlike Violet, she is able to acknowledge the merits of others’ arguments. Her decision to remain loyal to Navarre comes down to her values. Her later decision in Iron Flame to switch sides do not betray these values, as it is a reaction to the new information revealed to her when the venin threat becomes more widely known among the riders.
Now There Are Four Human Characters
The character work in this story amounts to Yarros resetting Mira to the factory default from Fourth Wing, but at the end of the day, it is still character work. She is once again an entity with motivations that make her independent from Violet. Whether or not Yarros uses her effectively in the mainline series going forward is something only time will tell. For now, suffice it to say that Mira has regained her nature as an actual character.
Teine
Like Marbh, Teine is a violet sociopath who delights in putting his potential rider in potential harm to confirm his choice. The difference is that Tein doesn't come across like he is doing it for fun. There is an cold, humorless pragmatism to him that would not be out of place in an Astartes. He tortures Mira to be absolutely sure she can endure the fear and pain, and when he flies her back to the field, he is blunt about going back to grab a replacement if she falls.
I find it somewhat troubling that Yarros’s third dragon to be an actual character is so similar to the second, but I will hold off on commenting further on this for now. I want to see if it becomes a pattern.
RATING: 7/10
I’m not going to hail “Mira” as some kind of turning point for the entire series. What it represents is a step in the right direction. Reading this, I actually believed that Yarros cared about this story and this character rather than about the attention and Fame that The Empyrean brings her. Mira has a unique voice and a measure of agency, and she gets through her entire story without opening plot holes. Granted, that’s because the plot it too thin to damage (hence I don’t rate it higher), but this is a fine start. It’s exactly what I’d hoped to find in this anthology.
More of this, Ms. Yarros. Please.
THE SHADOW DADDY AWAKENS
After a pleasant surprise, we descend to an unwelcome reminder of Yarro’s worst literary qualities.
“Xaden” is a story that, initially, I was quite enjoying. Yarros took a shadow puppet and reiterated his qualities in an environment where Violet is absent, thereby forcing her to flesh out attributes that were originally written just to be brooding and sexy. Unfortunately, the story in which we get this snapshot of Xaden is also one where Yarros drives up the tension by establishing certain variables and then tears open plot holes by ignoring those variables. The result is a mess that can’t stand on its alone, let alone fit into the wider continuity of the series.
That’s coming your way Sunday, October 25th. In the interim, if you’re looking for more Romantasy content, you can also check out my free web serial, A Chime for These Hallowed Bones. It’s an Enemies to Lovers story that’s Alchemized meets Fourth Wing, featuring necromancers in a Desi-influenced setting. Chapters 1 through Chapter 11 Part 3 are currently available!
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