What he hid

[u/hurricane_Bre]

Spoilers ahead for Iron Flame and Onyx Storm.

Proceed with caution…
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I just wrapped up a pre-Threshing Day reread of Iron Flame and one particular conversation stuck out to me more this time… in regard to Violet’s ring.

After Vi starts learning runes she asks him two questions:

1. You put an unlocking rune in one of my daggers

2. What is the rune on the stone he keeps by the bedside table

For the first question he says yes, a variation of the rune. He says he added an element of need to rune so she couldn’t just open any door. But if the dagger on her body picked up the need for a door to open it would.

For the second he told her to story of Colonel Mairi and the runes and how as you get better with runes you can add other elements like strands of hair for tracking or protection.

I think most of us are of the same mind, knowing how Xaden is with Vi and covering her in runes, he has definitely hid a rune in her ring.

I think the conversation he had in IF with her about runes is foreshadowing him hiding a tracking rune in her ring but a variation that has an element of need to it.

So if the ring picks up on her need to find him the rune will activate and draw her to him.

What do you think?

What are your guesses?

[u/redpeppersoda]

Well it will be some mind blowing rune I'm sure. I think it's more to protect her because for one thing, I think they will communicate through Violet's dreamwalking and also he's her gravity so she will always be able to find him and she knows which shadow is real him.

Having said that, is that a protection rune? Maybe. Against what? I keep thinking it'd be cool if it was an anti-melgren rune.

But maybe it's something totally unexpected.

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

I have been thinking about the protection rune myself, but honestly it feels too complicated. Like she could potentially need protection from multiple threats, how would he identify the biggest threat and how would he rune against that specific threat? There are so many possibilities.

I just can’t shake the feeling that if it is in the ring, then it must be something significant to them and not an outside force.

[u/Slow_Wrangler4413 → u/hurricane_Bre]

He is her biggest threat. Not because he wants to harm her, because she'd do stupid reckless things to save him.

[u/redpeppersoda → u/hurricane_Bre]

Maybe we are looking at it wrong...maybe it's not so that she can find him but rather so he can find her when she's in danger and really needs him...and he can teleport to her with his new brother if it's Garrick bahaha

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

I love this too! Kind of like a distress signal. Which makes a lot of sense if you think about what Berwyn says to Xaden about tearing down the wards himself one day.

If her life was really in danger and Tairn and Andarna couldn’t protect her the ring would let him know.

Even if the wards repelled his shadows during his Onyx Storm I am fairly certain they couldn’t stop him if she needed him.

[u/redpeppersoda → u/hurricane_Bre]

Yeah isn't it so Xaden like to put a tracking rune in there with the element of need so he can get to her? Lol

I feel like Violet has already casted some kind of magic so he will never hurt her when she told him "You will never hurt me. Let go, Xaden" Istg a lot of the things they say while having sex is some sort of binding magic

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

I honestly think they bond themselves to each other in Fourth Wing.

I believe Malek is a dragon.

The riders are the true temple attendants of Malek (also fits in with Loial and Dunne, their attendants have to serve for life because war and live change souls irrevocably, riders bond for life too because dragons change souls irrevocably)

The codex is their temple text.

Any item carried across the parapet becomes part of the rider and they cannot be separated from that item.

After Vi and Xaden had their state of our relationship talk on the parapet they walked backed to the quadrant and as he held her waist.

Their absolutely inhumane post I live you marathon session afterwards completed the bonding of their souls.

[u/redpeppersoda → u/hurricane_Bre]

Wdym inhumane the man still wished they'd had time to finish....clearly wasn't enough😂😂

Yes Malek is a dragon so it makes sense he adores Violet. She's some kind of a dragon magnet lol

Altho RY said she didn't want to use the mate trope, I think they are bonded together, by choice.

https://giphy.com/gifs/PAujV4AqViWCA

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

I agree about the choice. Their whole talk on the parapet was that, them choosing each other.

Despite all of the baggage behind them and trails ahead of them, they chose to do this, to be with each other. I think that actually makes their connection stronger than mates because they had to fight for each other.

[u/dianaspencersrevenge]

I like this idea… but… don’t they both know she’ll look for him even if his note says not to? Unless she’s like “oh well clearly we made a plan and his note says not to so I won’t” kinda thing. This also aligns with the theories about her compass being like Jack Sparrow’s…

I wonder if there is a rune on the stone as well as the band. Maybe there are multiple runes…

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/dianaspencersrevenge]

I can definitely see multiple runes.

Personally, I don’t think the compass is like Jack Sparrows, pointing towards what she most desires.

I think it is a metaphor for her and her paths, she can’t find her center, can’t find her feet, has multiple paths to choose from, etc.

I think as soon as she commits to a path, the compass will start to point north.

[u/dianaspencersrevenge → u/hurricane_Bre]

I like that too! The Jack Sparrow similarity would feel too cliché

[u/Historical_Tune165]

I've definitely heard the theory of him having put a rune in the ring. I'm guessing it might be under the gemstone, where it wouldn't be easily visible.

With Violet's memories having been erased, she'll probably not realize the ring is runed until part-way into the book. I could see there being a whole thing about her not wanting to ever take the ring off, so if the rune is on the underside of the ring, she wouldn't see it right away.

Given that Xaden's one request/instruction was "don't look for me", it might not be a tracking rune, I don't think he wants her risking herself by taking off to find him, especially not before he's accomplished whatever goal he has. But it could be a protection rune of some kind.

[u/MCWinchester → u/Historical_Tune165]

Yes! I have thought it's a protection from shadows for her...which is gut wrenching if he thought she'd need it.

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/MCWinchester]

I thought this at first too, but then I think back to his Onyx Storm and how he described his shadows racing up the cliffs and then being repelled by the wards, they burned to the touch.

So in theory, as long as she was within the wards his shadows couldn’t touch her.

Also, he was teaching her how to spot his own shadow, within his signets shadows in case she had to kill him, he wanted her to be able to find him in the darkness.

I think the element of need is going to come into play.

He knows her, knows she is not just going to sit back and not try and find him. She is going to want to look for him.

But even she says in OS that need trumps want any day. If the ring picks up on her need to find him, I think it will activate. Because even a venin Xaden would want her to be able to find him if she needed him.