Trial by Fire (The Introduction to Threshing Day)
Hello, all. Welcome to the review of Threshing Day, a supplemental anthology for The Empyrean.
Rather than diving right into the stories, Yarros chose to kick this anthology off with an in-world document to reintroduce the concept of Threshing Day to the audience and provide a framing device for what follows. This is a good example of how Yarros is perfect capable of re-introducing concepts to her audience such that one doesn’t need to reread the previous books to understand what’s going on. It’s also a fantastic example of Yarros willfully ignoring continuity when it suits her and establishing information that’s fine in concept yet falls apart once one applies the internal logic of the series (let alone real-world common sense).
Buckle into those Special Snowflake dragon saddles. It’s time to purge some initiates.
STATS
Title: “Trial by Fire: Threshing Advice for Dragonkind Professors”
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)”.
CONTENT
As indicated in the full title of this introduction, “Trial by Fire” is presented as an in-world instruction document for professors of the Dragonkind subject (the class Professor Kaori teaches in the mainline books). It provides significant detail about how Threshing (and, to a lesser extent, Presentation) works, what is expected of the cadets, and what the Dragonkind professors are expected to do to prepare the cadets for these events. Most of these details are rehashes of information provided in Fourth Wing, while new points of information to foreshadow (or excuse) developments to come later in the anthology. The story ends with the implication that all the stories to follow were collected by a modern-day professor of this class (I assume Kaori).
ANALYSIS
Yarros can’t even get to the first story without doing damage.
To give Yarros an amount of credit: you could come into Threshing Day with zero context about this series and fully understand the concept of this anthology just by reading “Trial by Fire". If you have not touched this series since Onyx Storm a year and a half ago, you will be fully refreshed. And, while I’m going to criticize the new information Yarros added that wasn’t originally presented in Fourth Wing, the way in which it is executed here is subtle enough that you only notice it is important if you remember enough to notice the changes.
The problem, as has been the problem with every book since Fourth Wing, is that continuity is something Yarros keeps treating as optional. That simply does not work in a series where stories are all meant to occupy the same universe and timeline. The Empyrean is not a series of standalones and what-if timelines. Yarros is beholden to the previous books.
“Trial by Fire” doubles down on lore that was contradicted, sometimes to the point of opening plot holes, as early as Fourth Wing. The new lore either clashes with Fourth Wing as well or simply makes no sense. As for the framing device, because of the particular characters who get POVs in this stories, we can’t actually apply the framing device without tearing over multiple plot holes.
Written for Dragonkind Professors (?)
The first couple of paragraphs of “Trial by Fire” define Threshing Day and provide pretty basic information that makes sense to share with an audience reading fiction, yet makes less sense for the in-world target audience. Riders, especially professors, should already be intimately aware with what Threshing Day is and how it works. I do actually feel this bit is realistci. It’s common for these sorts of instructions documents intended trained professionals to open with clear definitions of terms to ensure no misunderstandings or differing interpretations down the line. Governmental entities like the military are not an exception to this.
Where I do take exception is that the DRAGONKIND professor is getting this lecture.
Not Kaori’s Responsibility
Later in this introduction, it is established that other professors are the ones actually responsible for the welfare of the cadets going into Threshing. Additionally, the closest we’ve ever seen Kaori come to preparing cadets for Threshing was showing them some holograms of dragons, and that was limited to introducing the dragons who would be at Threshing (which really means it was just an excuse to foreshadow Violet bonding with Tairn). He did not give them detailed briefings on how to interact with each dragon - and in fact, also later in this introduction, it's acknowledged that his role is limited to helping riders visually recognize dragons. So what, exactly, is the point of this instruction manual? This would be like claiming the pictures of Pokémon I drew for my students was me fulfilling a duty to train them in veterinary medicine.
The Prep Work is Pointless
The idea of a Dragonkind professor having any role to play gets even more contrived when, later in this introduction, Yarros points out that riders seeking out a dragon comes down to vibes.
Instruct each cadet to listen deeply to their instincts when they enter the valley on Threshing Day. Those who a dragon has already taken interest in may feel a tugging sensation, which they should be encouraged to follow. In some cases, a chosen cadet may actually hear their dragon calling to them if they made a sufficient impression during Presentation. Cadets should also obey their instincts regarding retreating from dragons who aren’t theirs to increase their lifespan.
What is the point of the Dragonkind professor actually educating cadets about the dragons if it comes down to a sense they do or don’t belong together? After all, from what we saw in Fourth Wing, Kaori wasn’t giving the riders the equivalent to personalized interview prep. They aren’t going into Threshing to make elevator pitches to their desired dragon. They are wandering around until they either find a dragon to vibe with or die.
All About Having POWER
Yarros chooses to establish here that Dragonkind professors are chosen because they have a projection Signet:
Although boasting a projection signet—the ability to conjure images from memory—qualifies us to hold this vital position in the quadrant, only those with a true passion to study the Empyrean while protecting the riders who serve it should accept the assignment.
Why is the projection Signet at all relevant? Again – later in this same introduction – it is established that riders suffer memory loss as they age, the same as anyone else. Seems like anyone who is a good sketch artists would automatically be more qualified by this standard. And LATER IN THIS SAME INTRODUCTION, it is confirmed that there is a visual reference guide to dragons:
You will have two reference points for this knowledge during your apprenticeship year under the retiring professor. The first is The Compendium of Dragonkind—our only visual reference guide to the active dragons of the Empyrean—which you will be responsible for updating during your tenure. Be warned: I have found that no artist has flawlessly depicted every distinguishing mark of a dragon, which makes telling descendants apart woefully difficult.
If artists creating hard-copy record cannot be trusted, by would the guy making holograms from fallible memory be seen as uniquely qualified? Surely, it would make more sense to use these illusion powers for combat applications and give this Dragonkind job to any rider capable of updating the book. If anything, it seems like the people with long-range vision would be more qualified, since they can observe dragons are extreme distance and thereby catalog them without needing to get close.
My point here is that, once again, Yarros tried to embellish her worldbuilding, only to make it clear that she has not thought through even the most basic details.
The True Power
This introduction decides to reinforce the original power dynamic from Fourth Wing. It is emphasized at multiple points that the Dragonkind professor serves the Empyrean and that the dragons are in charge. I like this dynamic and think it is the one that makes most sense if the worldbuilding of this story is to work. It’s just that Yarros has hinged far too much narrative weight on the idea that dragons need to conceal information from humans due to whatever threat humans are supposed to pose in that particular book. Doubling down on this now just calls most of the drama involving the rider leadership into question.
Retcons and Lies
Be warned: I have found that no artist has flawlessly depicted every distinguishing mark of a dragon, which makes telling descendants apart woefully difficult.
I want to like this. It could have worked to help explain how no one noticed rebel children were bonding to the dragons of their ancestors and getting more POWER. The problem is that the scribes document the names of the dragons, too. The dragon equivalent to growing a moustache is not going to cut it if they keeping using the same name that is on record.
Now, I have heard secondhand that Yarros has hinted at some interview about dragons lying about their names (and, sure enough, the anthology does double down on this). This does seem like Yarros is indeed giving herself an excuse to lie to the audience and force retcons by projecting blame onto the dragons. Much like with the last time we covered this, it doesn’t work within the story, because (A) dragons still lack the necessary character work to justify the dishonesty coming from them and (B) this introduction doubles down on dragons having such an overwhelming advantage in their dynamic with the riders that they don’t benefit from lying (or letting their fellow dragons lie). Even if we accept that riders can’t visually identify dragons, their dragons can and should be able to expose this deception.
Riders are Expendable
Again, this is a point that is doubled down upon in this introduction. It is nice in concept and would have produced more coherent worldbuilding. However, from the moment Tairn has been introduced, the exceptions to this rule far outweigh the evidence in favor of it, and the narrative has not justified the disconnect.
Group Dynamics
Stress the importance of cadets entering the Threshing Valley on their own. Though squad loyalty can be comforting at this stage of education, statistics show that dragons prefer the courage of those willing to walk alone. They have substantiated this repeatedly by reducing most cadet groupings to ashes. It’s unfortunate that those who do not survive cannot recount their experience, leaving us with only the ability to ponder the reasons behind their demise.
This lore is ultimately a device to allow Yarros to isolate her POV characters, cutting down the amount of characters she needs to juggle in any given story. That’s fine. The plot holes it opens, though, are not fine.
If this is truly the preference of dragons, why are the riders a military organization, especially one where the humans dictate the ranks? The whole point of a military is to provide organized application of force. D-Day was not the fruit of thousands of individuals happening to fall into boats that just happened to be floating to Normandy and just happened to encounter some Germans on holiday at a beach that just happened to feature fortifications and weapons emplacements. These were two “groupings” of people making coordinated efforts with logistical support. Militaries are, by their very nature, “groupings”. So if dragons prefer cadets who walk alone, the dragon riders should not be an arm of Navarre’s military. They should be a loose coalition of independent actors who, at most, are organized into a hierarchy dictated by the Empyrean alone.
Plus, did Yarros forget that, in Chapter 12 of Fourth Wing, she had a “grouping” of cadets bickering at Presentation, right in front of the dragons, which included members of that group mocking a hatchling (a group Yarros will later insist are so precious that she breaks the power dynamic of riders and dragons to threaten them)? This just shines a spotlight on the fact that Violet did not die then and there. Saying, “Who knows why the dragons makes these decisions?” does not solve the problem. It is Yarros hiding her mistake behind her failure to make the dragons into actual characters with understandable motivations.
The Framing Device
In my retirement years, I have thought back fondly on my own Threshing. As my memory has become less reliable in the last decade, I find myself wishing I had ignored the customary secrecy that shrouds the event and recorded my own experience while it was still fresh in my mind. How can we learn to improve our chances at bonding if we don’t record successful methods? If I could offer one last piece of advice, it would be to gather the tales of those who survive and are willing to tell it.
Okay. This is our framing device.
It does not work, for a very simple reason: why and how are these stories being collected?
One of the POVs in this book is Liam, who is dead. So he, at least, needed to give his account of his Threshing Day experience between Chapters 16 and 36 of Fourth Wing. But then why didn’t Violet get interviewed in that book? Surely Kaori would have approached her, given how historic her binding to two dragons is?
And then there are the plot holes induced by the fact that, if some of these stories went on the official record, the mainline books could not happen, as several key characters would be executed.
“Xaden” spells out the immunity of the rebel children to Melgren’s future sight, the fact his betrothal (and future political alliance through marriage) to an aristocrat in Poromiel is still going forward, and the willingness of the rebel children to continue their parents' war. This alone should have gotten all the rebel children executed if it went on record. (And, as we will cover in “Xaden”, certain events in that story would definitely get them all executed.)
“Xaden”, “Garrick”, and “Imogen” all shine a spotlight on the fact that these riders were chosen by dragons who bonded with their ancestors, thereby exposing their double Signets.
“Liam” and “Sloane” expose the fact that their mother was a master of rune magic, which means Navarre would then be aware that their effort to snuff out rune magic (which is still nonsense, but that’s a separate plot hole) has failed and would be motivated to act against Tyrrendor again before the information can be shared with Navarre’s enemies (you know, the reason given for snuffing out rune magic in the first place).
This necessarily means that these accounts could not have been recorded until some unspecified point after Onyx Storm when the rider leadership no longer has any power at all over the rebel children. For this to happen, though, it means Liam could not have his story recorded, unless he wrote his own record of his Threshing that was later discovered … which then begs the question of how there aren’t more Threshing accounts just floating around (and, for that matter, is not supported in the text anyway).
The answer to this cannot be that the POV characters lied to Kaori. This would mean either that the story on the page does not match the story Kaori got (thereby invalidating the framing device) or that the stories we get are not the true versions (which could work is done very carefully, but given Yarros’s track record, the result would more likely be that this anthology is made completely pointless).
Once more, as with the framing of this introduction (or, for that matter, the framing device of the mainline books), Yarros has tried the embellish the story and only succeeded in making it make less sense.
RATING: 4/10
Despite the internal inconsistencies, this introduction would have been a 7/10 in a standalone book with no prior continuity. The problems that exist in such a perspective would not be impossible to work around. You could tell a good story with this setup.
Continuity is still a thing, though. Yarros can’t just selectively ignore elements used to generate stakes and tension in last books without invalidating those past books. She is beholden to the things she herself has established.
The only reason I do not rate this introduction lower is that it has no characters. It has no plot. It’s just a worldbuilding document. And while it does damage past stories, most of the damage it does is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. Yarros did this about as badly as she possibly could, but the bar for basic competence was so low that she did technically clear it.
I’m hoping things get better once we get to the actual character stories. This was not a great start. In laying the foundations for this anthology, Yarros has made it very clear that she still refuses to improve as a writer of Fantasy (not matter what kind of Fantasy she claims it to be).
“OBVIOUS REASONS”
Tomorrow, we’ll kick the reviews off properly with the first story, “Brennan”.
Brennan is a character in dire need of explanation. His entire entity up to this point in the series has been a surprise resurrection, switching sides in a war because That’s Good, and petty name changes. I’d hoped that putting his story first would be Yarros’s best foot forward. Sadly, it is not.
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 2 are currently available, and Chapter 11 Part 3 arrives this Friday.
Whatever you’re here for, thank you all for stopping by. Please remember to subscribe and share if you enjoyed what you read here. Take care, everyone, and have a good week.
