In the thirteenth chapter of Street Magic, everything is adorable before it’s UNBEARABLY AWFUL. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens.Â
Why did I write that. WHY DID I WRITE THAT.
Lessons
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the beauty of Briar passing along what Tris taught him to someone else. It’s such a fantastic continuity to this series that I just wanna wrap myself up in it and have hot chocolate and I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. It’s also important to note how resilient Evvy is throughout this, which makes me a little sad. No one ever knew her potential for learning until Briar gave her the chance. And granted, she’s got a lot to learn. Like not sticking her entire face into Rosethorn’s jars just to get a sniff! THAT WOULD BE SO BAD.
Of course, she’ll learn through experience, but Evvy has always needed some sort of formal education. Not that I would call Briar anything resembling the word “formal.” But Briar offers her a chance, something she’s never experienced before, and she responds beautifully to the challenge. I suppose it’s time for me to project my own life all over Evvy because THIS IS WHAT I DO. But I relate to her perhaps more than any single character in Pierce’s books, y’all. Even more than Daine at this point. While I’ll always have complicated feelings towards my childhood (most of them negative), I’ll never forget what a joy it was to finally go to school. I’ll always cherish what that felt like for me. I mean, I devoured everything I was given, y’all. By the time I was in second grade, I was reading at a middle school level. A year later, I was reading Stephen King and Ursula K. LeGuin, then moving on to Clive Barker and Poe and Jane Austen, and then I read the entire young adult section at the Loma Vista library. The entire thing.
Watching Evvy respond so vibrantly to Briar’s lesson was like reading my own flashbacks. On top of that, Evvy’s excitement was also rooted in her appreciation for Briar’s kindness, and I don’t want to forget that. I know I’m being repetitive about this at this point, but poverty gives you a cynicism that’s hard to shake. In this particular instance, Evvy can barely believe that Briar has given her something that’s both nice and hers. I imagine she’s used to never being able to keep anything either. And what a gift, y’all. It’s no surprise that she treats the cloth and stones like her own child because it’s honestly the best thing she’s ever owned.
What’s fascinating to me about most of this chapter is how Evvy and Briar settle into a routine while Rosethorn is gone. It feels so comfortable and natural to read, which sort of surprised me because I expected there to be a bit more abrasion between the two of them, given how stubborn they both are. What I hadn’t accounted for was twofold: Evvy’s eagerness and Briar’s pride.
Under one arm she still carried her stone alphabet. Briar shook his head when he saw it. “Are you going to bathe with that?” he wanted to know, pointing at the roll of cloth.
Evvy smiled. “Probably. Look.” She got the slate and chalk and carefully wrote out each letter they had studied, both in capital and small form without mistakes. Watching her, Briar felt something warm and funny in his chest, something that made him want to clap her on the back and take her out for an expensive breakfast.
He was proud of her.
DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST AN EMOTIONAL MESS OVER HERE. Also, I love that Briar is constantly trying to say that only the women in his life are super emotional, and then LO AND BEHOLD, guess who’s a giant softie???
Distractions
I should have seen it coming. I really should have. I knew something had to go wrong eventually, and I suspected that Lady Zenadia would not be all that thrilled with being rejected multiple times. But I suspected nothing here because Briar had built up a rapport with Ayasha and Mai, so much so that I questioned nothing here. Plus, I knew that the battle between the Gate Lords and the Vipers was rapidly escalating, so Ayasha’s story fit perfectly.
Which is the point, of course. If the Vipers and Lady Zenadia were going to truly fool Briar, he couldn’t be suspicious at all, so they exploited his sense of loyalty to those who reminded him of his past life. It’s sad, y’all, especially Ayasha’s role in this. Briar helped her and her friends, and she sold him out for Lady Zenadia’s “protection.” I put that in quotes because we all know that as soon as Zenadia views a person as a risk, they lose her protection in an instant. Mai has certainly lost that already, which worries me a lot. What if the Vipers get to her before Briar can rescue Evvy? I hope the fact that Mai is in a Water Temple will keep her safe, but who knows? What will the ramification of her actions be? She sold out her gang to their mark, y’all! They’re not exactly going to be warm towards her, are they?
I’ll have to see because I honestly don’t know how this is going to end. There are too many variables. I imagine that the Watch is still trailing Briar, and they’re going to be alarmed when they see Briar enter the Viper’s lair. I hope that Evvy will survive this, but I also hate that I have to accept that she might not. I mean… Pierce wouldn’t do that, would she? SHE’S TOO YOUNG. So, I think Evvy will be relatively safe, but the major reason she might not be is her power. WHICH IS EVN STRONGER THAN SHE REALIZED. Holy shit, that scene where she causes the stone in the wall to EXPLODE OUTWARDS and strike Yoru??? GET IT, EVVY. FUCK ‘EM UP. It’s indicative of how evolved her powers are that she’s able to coax stone so old into doing something to help her, despite that she’s had so little training. This did not feel like Pasco’s work at the end of Magic Steps; Evvy had not trained for weeks and days under multiple teachers. Evvy hasn’t even had a week worth of lessons, has she?
Yet look what she’s able to do. Amazing, y’all. She amazes me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z67Wx9CzySQ
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