Clearly, we have to start with the dragon fucking. The Forged souls had barely returned to the prisoners before Tintaglia and Icefyre were getting it on in the skies for all to see. They may be starving, beaten and bloodied, but the priority was clear.

And poor Elliania had to get a refresher on the birds and the bees from her fiancé, Dutiful, thanks to her confusion over what she was witnessing.

But honestly, it’s a real harbinger of how far we’ve all come. We started at the literal bottom, with Maulkin and his ragtag serpent followers, and now we’re here: Tintaglia and Icefyre, extremely ready to restore dragons to the realm.

Ok, clearly more to say on the reunion with Burrich. There is A LOT going on and Fitz is pretty preoccupied with the Fool’s fate hanging in balance, but he is also profoundly unready to process or discuss the past with Burrich, and does his best to avoid the conversation.

But Burrich didn’t trek blindly across a glacier to leave things unsaid. So he insists on a moment before Fitz’s next likely brush with death (hard to even find time between them these days), and we get this exchange:

“‘These words have been choking me since I was first told what I’d done. I’m sorry, Fitz. I’m sorry for all I took from you, without knowing I had taken it. I’m sorry for the years I can’t give back to you. But—but I can’t be sorry I made Molly my wife, or for the children and life we had together. Have. I can’t be. Because I was the better man for her. Just as Chivalry was better for Patience, when all unknowing he took her from me.’ He sighed suddenly, heavily. ‘Eda and El. What a strange, cruel spiral we’ve danced.’

My mouth was full of ashes. There was nothing to say.

Very, very softly, he asked me, ‘Are you going to come back and take her from me? Will you take her from our home, from our children? Because I know that you can. She always kept a place in her heart for the wild boy she loved. I … I never tried to change that. How could I? I loved him, too.'”

Sigh. The idea of their joint love and grief for Fitz hanging over them throughout their marriage. If I were giving Burrich notes, I might have cut the “I was the better man for her” line. That could’ve been left unsaid. Poor Fitz has literally been sacrificing himself to save the realm- and he’s proven himself a pretty devoted partner. (I could also point out some shortcomings of Burrich as a husband, but I’ll tactfully decline.) Regardless, Burrich wants Fitz to return home with him, and Fitz is extremely unready to go there.

So we leave their reunion with the promise of more talks to come. Unfortunately, those talks may be delayed, as Fitz is informed that Burrich is dying from his injuries inflicted by Dragon Rawbread. It looks like my dragon Skill-healing prediction was yet another flop- will we see it employed here instead? We know Burrich can’t be reached via the Skill; does that extend to healing? Answers await!

A quick “death looms” recap:

1. We get Burrich back in the mix for a handful of pages and he’s already on death’s door.
2. After a moment of post-battle forge-reversal hope regarding our Fool, Peottre unequivocally informs Fitz that he no longer lives. (I’ll believe it when I see it.)
3. Seemingly emerging completely unscathed: Chade.

Robin certainly chose an accurate title for this book, as I have found myself referring to the fate of the Fool approximately 800 times throughout my reaction posts. And it’s his fate that serves as the undercurrent of these chapters. Every character has their own motivations driving their choices, but while Fitz wrestles with competing agendas, it’s saving the Fool that dominates his every thought.

In a rare prediction gone right, it’s ultimately Fitz’s last-minute connection to Icefyre that brings clarity:

“As the Fool had predicted, the choice had passed to me. I had come so close to fulfilling the Pale Woman’s dreams. I set my own fingertips to the marks the Fool had left on my wrist. ‘Forgive me,’ I begged him. ‘Forgive me for doing what you hoped I would do.’”

Stunning.

There were a few humorous moments in these chapters that teetered a bit too close to overt for my taste. The funniest RotE moments, to me, are always of the subtler variety:

“Having so bravely immobilized my scrawny opponent, I craned to see what was happening below me.”

I hate to gloss over the important roles Nettle and Thick play here. Nettle keeps Icefyre alive with her own harrowing Skill-journey into his dragon consciousness. She’s almost lost to the Skill-abyss if not for Thick’s strong ability, paired with his familiarity with her, allowing him to bring her back to herself.

But I really appreciated circling back to Nettle’s supposed awareness of Fitz as her father. When Fitz first interpreted Nettle’s comments about “her papa going to slay a dragon,” I was a little leery. Even before we knew what Burrich was up to, it seemed odd that she would refer to Fitz as “Papa” instead of Burrich, whom she’s always called that. Now, did I express my skepticism at the time? Or did I lean fully into Fitz’s interpretation? Heaven forbid I get a correct prediction down in writing. (Serves me right for trusting Fitz’s reading of events.)

But! I did lament not getting to see that revelation play out on the page – hope is restored!!

Chade remains a colossal twat. I nominate him as Icefyre’s post-coital snack.

We leave Fitz at perhaps the lowest he’s ever been- which is saying something. Big shades of the end of Assassin’s Quest: he’s seemingly saved the day, but at what cost?

Allow me some highlights of the lowlights:

“The dying man. Burrich. He jolted back into my thoughts like one of Chade’s explosions. Yes. I would lose him, too. It was too much, far too much. I put my face down in my hands and curled up, rocking back and forth in the snow. Too much. Too much.”

And more:

“I just sat there, trying to die, trying to let go of a life where I failed everyone I cared about.”

And just in case that wasn’t enough, our closing note:

“I felt Forged. ‘I was lost a long time ago,’ I told him. Then I took a deep breath, stood up, and followed him.”

I don’t really fancy myself much of a prognosticator (obviously), but that won’t deter me from making predictions.

In Peottre’s blunt relaying of the Fool’s supposed death, we get this:

“Peottre nodded, and then said reluctantly, ‘Very sure. They had—’ He stopped speaking suddenly. When he resumed, he said flatly, ‘He was dead. He could not have lived through that. He was dead.'”

So when I read that, my mind filled in the blank of where he trailed off: “They had… ” with cut off his head. Anyone else? Or am I just dark? But that has me thinking…

Could it be rooster crown time?

(Now listen, I’m not sure how a rooster crown is going to mend a severed head, but I’m willing to find out!)