In the seventh chapter of The Will of the Empress<\/i>, Sandry makes arrangements to head to her lands, and Daja is reunited with an acquaintance from Kugisko. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Will of the Empress.<\/i><\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For mental illness, ableism, trauma\/PTSD, homelessness, gore.<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so in love with this book already. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO THIS.<\/p>\n
Courtiers<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, remember when I just<\/i> wrote about charmed I was by everything and I was worried about when this book would show me the side of Berenene that everyone was so afraid of? WELL, WELCOME TO CHAPTER SEVEN. The most ridiculous thing about this is that she barely does anything at all, and yet? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m terrified. This whole social arrangement is a nightmare<\/i>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unlike anything Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever had to deal with. FOR EXAMPLE:<\/p>\n
For a very long moment no one spoke or moved. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid, Sandry realized, listening for clues from the people around her. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid of Berenene when she loses her temper. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better keep that in mind. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all sweetness now, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remained the sole ruler of Namorn for twenty-odd years.<\/p>\n
Now I<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m<\/i> worried about the empress. How could I not<\/i> be? This woman is perfectly aware of how to use her court to her advantage. Like when she tells Sandry to bring along four courtiers to her lands. As Sandry puts it, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no easy way she could tell the woman no without upsetting Berenene beyond repair. So she agrees to let Jak, Fin, Rizu, and Caidlene accompany her. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very excited about Rizu, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise.) I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll provide a lot of entertainment, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a sucker for ensemble casts, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still nervous. When will Sandry meet the will of the empress?<\/p>\n
Zhegorz<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m genuinely surprised, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
I think Pierce does an okay job with mental illness, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear in both Emelan and Namorn, mental illness is viewed as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Other.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Both societies have some system to take care of these people, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not exactly caring<\/i> facilities, nor is there a system sense of welfare extended to them. The fact that Zhegorz has survived as he has is evidence that mental health is not a priority within these places. Even so, we can see some of the prejudice and bias against people with mental illness within the character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narration and their actions. Granted, Zhegorz frightened everyone when he lunged out at the group, shouting something that sounded like nonsense, but what about after<\/i> that? Shan is shocked that Daja even knows<\/i> someone like Zhegorz. The maids are horrified by his presence.<\/p>\n
At the very least, both Daja and Tris are protective of Zhegorz, as well as willing to listen to him and try to understand what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying. I appreciated that sympathy, just as I appreciated Daja\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kindness in getting him food and a bath. Those things matter, especially when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re homeless and desperate for shelter and a meal. But what hit me the hardest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and what I found to be the most significant part of this story \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was the fact that Daja and Tris, through kindness and understanding, were able to determine that Zhegorz has the same kind of wind scrying magic that Tris has. This man had gone thirty-seven years with a rare ambient magic, and instead of getting support and help for it, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been sent from one institution to another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the saddest things I can imagine. Because he spoke differently, because he was excitable, because he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy to categorize, this society utterly failed him. It was much easier for people to just write him off as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of giving him any help at all.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy that someone has finally taken a genuine interest in him, and I hope it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too late.<\/p>\n
Sandry<\/b><\/p>\n
So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got some bickering between the foster-siblings here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including one nasty little fight \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but this honestly feels like the first time they might all make it. Unified under their journey to Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s land, they might actually get along better. Now, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still got some kinks to work out, and Sandry messes up pretty spectacularly here when she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t inform her friends about the early morning trip to her lands until she announces it to Berenene. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a careless moment, certainly not the worst imaginable, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy for Tris and Briar to pick on Sandry for it. They just completed an exhausting trip to the city, and now they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about to begin another one?<\/p>\n
But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great that Sandry recognizes she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goofed here and then apologizes, admitting that her friends were right. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a start. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all of this, though? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re starting anew, despite that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been friends for years.<\/p>\n
Briar<\/b><\/p>\n
So, as far as I can put together from the tiny glimpses we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten, Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy were caught up in some sort of war in Yanjing, one that was so brutal and bloody that\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tough to describe. One of the common motifs we see in Briar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dreams or triggers is of him climbing through or over piles of dead bodies. Whatever the Yanjing emperor did, it was terrible enough to kill hundreds of people at once. Understandably, it was also a traumatic event for Briar, one that continues to haunt him daily, so much so that we learn that he can no longer sleep alone. His promiscuity is linked to that, only in the sense that he mostly wants someone in the same bed as him.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my guess, though. Since Tris discovered in this chapter what happened to Daja in Kugisko, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll learn what happened to Briar. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be through Zhegorz, since he can hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153secrets\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the wind.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M TRYING, OKAY.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153madness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crazy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153insane.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y4EFOXpEksQ<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>. In the seventh chapter of The Will of the Empress, Sandry makes arrangements to head to her lands, and Daja is reunited with an acquaintance from Kugisko. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Will of the Empress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,502,503],"tags":[482,250],"class_list":["post-3544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emelan","category-the-circle-reforged","category-will-of-the-empress","tag-mark-reads-emelan","tag-tamora-pierce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S. this summer and fall Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"