Last Flight Read-along: Chapter 3

[tersa]

THE READ-A-LONG

What is this? The read-a-long is an opportunity to do a long distance book club with other Dragon Age fans, where once a week one chapter will be discussed in Liane Merciel's tie-in novel, Dragon Age: Last Flight

[Official book teaser blurb]The Grey Wardens are heroes across Thedas once again: the Archdemon has been defeated with relative ease and the scattered darkspawn are being driven back underground. The Blight is over. Or so it seems.

Valya, a young elven mage recently recruited into the Wardens, has been tasked with studying the historical record of previous Blights in order to gain insight into newly reported, and disturbing, darkspawn phenomena. Her research into the Fourth Blight leads her to an encoded reference scrawled in the margins of an ancient map, and to the hidden diary of Issenya, one of the last of the fabled griffon riders. As the dark secrets buried in Isseyna's story unfold, Valya begins to question everything she thought she knew about the heroic Grey Wardens. . . .

If you've read it and have Thoughts or Feels, comment to discuss! Discussion can be serious or snarky, but please keep it constructive and not destructive.

- Chapter 1 (29-Sep)
- Chapter 2 (06-Oct)

(If the first person who gets to this post can start a comment thread entitled 'Serious Discussion' and a second one for 'Snarky Discussion', I would greatly appreciate it.)

[Chapter 3--Synopsis]Chapter 3 Synopsis

5:12 Exalted

Isseya and Huble fly out on Huble's griffon, Blacktalon, to scout the escape routes determined from local maps and intel against the enemy positions. She reflects on ogres and their ability to take out a griffon, their number, and how even how many there are being dwarfed by the seething mass of genlocks and hurlocks. While flying over the horde, she hears a song that enraptures both of them, but she breaks out of it, then breaks him out. Huble identifies it as the Archdemon's calling, and it scares the pants off Isseya even through dinner later that night.

Despite the arguments from the Grey Wardens, the royals of Antiva refuse to evacuate the city and therefore seem to lose it anyway. With the news the previous night that they were doing nothing, the merchant ships have been bleeding away from the docks, leaving only the dregs and a few loyal captains and crew behind, not nearly enough. Warden-Commander Turab and his senior Wardens, along with the royals, have designed a plan to evacuate personnel important for the war effort, mages, templars, and the like, and to the disgust of one female mage and griffon rider, Dendi, nobles who can help provide armies and supplies. The King and Queen would be evacuated the next day griffon-back, while the riders in training would be getting their own mounts to help in the effort.