Last Flight Read-along: Chapter 7 & 8

[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)
- Chapter 3 (13-Oct)
- Chapter 4 (20-Oct)
- Chapter 5 & 6 (27-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.)

[Chapters 7 & 8--Synopsis]Chapter 7 Synopsis
5:12 Exalted

In Wycome, Isseya is brought before another Warden-Commander, Seneste, who grills her on how she made her escape, smarting over the loss of the Antivan royals and Warden-Commander Turab. Seneste reveals that she knows the defense of Wycome is a lost cause and that, like Antiva, the people here all doomed due to an inability to evacuate them in time, and that their hope lay in marshalling Starkhaven and Kirkwall to the fight. Isseya argues that Tevinter and Orlais would make formidable allies, which Seneste agrees with, but then decides to send Isseya and Garahel to Anderfels to rally those people, where the ability to find the villages from the air will be useful and they would be less insulted that it's elves doing the finding.

Isseya wanders through Wycome avoiding the forced hope in the people's preparations to wind up at a tavern where her brother and comrades happen to be. There, she finds out Amadis is Amadis Vael, a cousin of the Prince of Starkhaven and likely head of the Ruby Drakes, a renowned mercenary guild, and Calien is an Antivan Crow. There, she comes to the decision that they are going to try to save the people of Wycome by re-inventing a version of the Dalish aravels to transport the people out via magic.

Chapter 8 Synopsis
5:12 Exalted

Miraculously, they do create aravels and after only a few days. Within a week, they have a small fleet of them. Garahel and Amadis turn out to be shit at helping with this, so while the rest build, she writes letters and he plays errand boy, rallying the political support the Grey Wardens will need to execute the war.

Then, they're making the maiden voyage of the makeshift aravels, nine each tethered in harness with one griffon to propel them and a mage to levitate them for the day long journey to Starkhaven. Upon arrival, Isseya roughly motivates a grandmother into fighting, and Garahel, witnessing it, teases her for it before reminding her that their next stop is the Anderfels, not a return trip.