onyx storm the launch is getting closer and, to celebrate, Rebecca Yarros revealed a new onyx storm excerpt from the winter edition of Cosmopolitan UK. After almost 15 months of waiting between books, the public is dissecting every detail of its latest teaser. The three-page excerpt was also posted on Yarros’ Instagramgiving the public the best look at what’s likely to happen next Fourth Wing book.
From the few pages released, it seems that the new onyx storm reveal picks up exactly where Iron Flame stopped. And from what is described throughout the events, Yarros gave his characters a short period of rest before they began. onyx storm moving plot. While the excerpt provides clues to many future book possibilities, clearly suggests an important plot involving the scribes of Basgiath and the venin.
The Venin have infiltrated the scribe quadrant of Basgiath
It’s possible that Venin has existed since the first book
The excerpt begins with the knowledge that the venin managed to get inside the walls of Basgiath, and it turns out they were disguising themselves as scribes to do so. Although Violet warned others in the Archives, this raises the question of how many scribes were involved in Venin’s schemes to begin with. In order to sneak in and find enough robes, the venin either had an internal mole to coordinate or had been infiltrating Basgiath for much longer than Violet could imagine.
How the Fantasy Fangirls Podcast pointed in their Instagramchapter 25 of Iron Flame can help prove this theory. During this chapter, Violet notices a scribe walking around the knight’s quadrant, which she finds strange – not only because they shouldn’t be there, but because she can’t see his face with his hood pulled so far forward. Yarros writes:
A cadet scribe passes by, but I can’t see who it is with the hood up. This is strange. They’re usually just in the quadrant for the kill list or whenever Markham needs extra people.
Yarros’ inclusion of this passing comment cannot be a coincidenceand it is likely that the scribes’ involvement with venin will be the main focus in the next Fourth Wing sequence.
The Scribe Quadrant may have been founded by General Venin
The Venin could have originally been scribes
Yarros made sure to add a lot of story and world-building throughout Iron Flameand with the foundation now established, venin should have a stronger influence on the plot of onyx storm. As the excerpt shows, the Venin have been infiltrating the scribe quadrant to sneak into Basgiath. Operating under the idea that they may have been there all along, one theory suggests that the venin general may be the one who founded the scribal quadrant and the archives. If that’s the case, Basgiath was built on something far more nefarious than originally believed.
Adding to this theory, Andarna tells Violet in Iron Flame that she waited to be born for over 650 years to find the one who would have the heart of a knight but the mind of a scribe. Assuming Andarna was left behind in her lair to help combat venina, Violet’s scribe experience could come in handy in finding a way to defeat them. As large amounts of Navarre’s history are still missing from the archives, finding the truth will be a challenge for Violet – but there is a fable her father left behind that may help in future books.
The fable of the backlands will have a more prominent role in Storm Onyx
Violet is prepared to discover her father’s research
The idea that General Venin was once a scribe may also connect him to the Fábula dos Sertões – a forbidden tome of children’s folktales mentioned throughout the series. The fable includes the story of three brothers who fought to control magic in an ancient kingdom: one of whom bonded with a dragon, the second with a griffin, and the third, who became jealous, drew magic from the fountain. Given the little information surrounding the venin and how they started, there is a likely possibility that the original venin knew how to extract energy from the Earth because they were scribes.
Although the reason has not yet been disclosed, Violet’s father made sure his children knew these stories. Violet had trained with him as a scribe, and she watches in Iron Flame that he always encouraged her to read between the lines –and theories suggest there is some truth hidden between the pages of the fable. Given that her father’s research is still missing, Yarros is preparing Violet to discover what key the Fable of the Barrens might hold to defeating Venin and finding a cure for Xaden in onyx storm.