A Torch Against The Night!

We're already halfway through June, soon we'll be in July and then in August. 
And at the end of that month something pretty awesome will happen.
...
A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT, THE SEQUEL TO AN EMBER IN THE ASHES WILL BE RELEASED!
Specially for that I've been rereading the book and today I'll share my rambling thoughts and predictions on how this book may turn out...

The Future of the Empire

Map of the Empire
Source: tor.com

I suppose this is the most obvious question to ask - what will happen to the Empire now?

That Snake, Marcus Farrar, is the Emperor now and has Helene, the new Blood Shrike, at his mercy. That won't do any good for the Empire.

In fact, under the reign of Marcus, terror only awaits. And rapes. Lots of rapes and whores. With a Helene watching with gritting teeth, probably forced to become his whore as well. I shiver as I'm writing this and I really, really hope she'll get raped by him. Nope, I don't want to believe that.

Puppies, unicorns and rainbows...

Anyway - that's not the only threat to the Empire. I feel like the Resistance won't do much good either, with their stupid leader who's called Mazen. The asshole.

Betraying Laia, betraying his own fighters. Ugh. Blegh. Raarrgh. Ugh.

He's so focused on fighting the Martials and "saving the Scholars" that he would lie and cheat to do it.  I can understand, though, he's simply desperate - if he waits too long and doesn't take the chances he can get, doesn't eliminate to blocks in his way, he won't get there. But is it worth the cost? Is it worth his humanity?

Won't he be just the same as the Martials then?

I do think that we won't get to see a lot of what's happening in the Empire. It'll probably serve as the background to our story, the world through which our protagonists have to wander but will not affect them too much. They'll be too focused on getting to Kauf.

To Darin.

Darin and Kauf - YIKES!

DARINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

The whole reason why Laia got into all of this, this mess, this torture; the reason why she stepped out of her comfort-zone and became as strong and courageous as - well, she tries - the Lioness herself. Will it be worth it?

And even if he's alive, how alive will he be? It gives me the shivers.

Other than that - I do hope that if Darin will be saved, it'll happen quickly, because I really want to feel the brother-sister-reunion feels and I really REALLY want to see the look on his face when he hears about Mazen - tsk - and what he's done to his little sister. And of course, I hope he doesn't freak out when Elias is with her. And I want to see the look on his face when he hears about the love triangle, hehe. O, that's going to be fun.

In Ember, Darin is painted as one who is willing to do everything he can to save his people, the Scholars, to get them to fight. I think that this part of him will become important to the story and will drag Laia and Elias into a big revolution, against the Empire, against the Resistance, for the Scholars. Laia will most likely follow her brother into this revolution - she's been fighting for him for so long, she won't back off now.

Elias - I'm not too sure. All he wanted was freedom, now that he's got it and repaid his debt to Laia, there's nothing that will stop him. He was never interested in this Empero-crap or the Empire - he wanted to be free of it. Besides he'll probably be worrying about Helene a lot, too - he won't want to fight as much as to save her. Perhaps he'll do that instead of joining Laia and her brother?

Or maybe it's his guilt that won't allow him to join them - he has been a Mask for so long; the Scholars won't accept him even if he manages to save them.. Maybe he thinks it's better to just stay away from all of it.

Or maybe I'm wrong altogether and there won't be any kind of revolution. I doubt this even when I'm writing this, but hey - maybe other cool stuff will happen?

Something with the jinns and ghuls?

Jinns, Ghuls and other mystical creatures

Yeah, what about our magical creatures?

How important will they become?

Will they eventually become so powerful and our enemies?

Or - ooh, I'm getting pumped at the thought of it - will they aid the most-likely-to-happen-revolution Darin will probably start? Or - even better - maybe Darin was already in league with them, with a few of them at least... Maybe they've saved him before Laia and Elias could and these two then stumble on a portal in the middle of nowhere, end up in this weird, surreal tunnel lit by glowing crystals and with curious, tiny and shiny bugs that fly through the air. When they reach the end of the tunnel, they find a door and end up in this massive throneroom. And Laia gasps because in the majestic throne, which seems the be made out of dark branches Darin sits with a crown on his head.

It's unlikely, I know, since the ghuls and all hate the Scholars and have sided with the Martials against them, but it'd be pretty darn cool, don't you think?

But either way, I do hope that Tahir won't let them remain as our enemies in book two - I think it'd be cooler if they end up being kind of good.

Elaia or Kaia or Helias?

Okay, I'm terrible at making shipnames, but then - who will be shipped in this book?!

I don't even know who I want to be shipped with who!

I mean, Keenan is this hot, rough rebel who really likes Laia, loves her even, and has given up his position at the Resistance for her, but then we also have Elias who we know better and who has a kind soul - and is HOT too - , so kind that he doesn't even think about killing Laia when he could have, maybe should have and could have gotten his freedom.

But their kiss - it seemed to me that they were just desperate, desperate to feel free for just a minute. Laia even notes how he seemed to scream Let me forget Let me forget Let me forget - there's no actual love behind it.

But what if that love will come in this book? Because Elias already mentioned a few times after the kiss how he can't stop thinking about her body against him and all... (*wink* *wink*)

And we also have Helene who has been in love with Elias since forever, and she shares such a close bond with him. She knows him like she knows no other. The same can be said for Elias, but we also know that when Tristas told him about Helene's feelings for him he said he couldn't, he couldn't love her that way. Although he said that, his thoughts do slip to seeing her that way, even before he said that - will Tahir do something with these feelings?  It may not be the strongest argument for Helias, but I won't say it's impossible.

Personally, I don't really know where I'm standing, although I do feel that Helias probably won't be my OTP - they are just BFF- material to me, honestly. But who knows - maybe Tahir can make it work. If she'll make it work.

WHAT WILL SHE DO?

Helene

A Tumblr meme of Helene
Source: penguinteen.com

So I found this out just recently, but...
HELENE GETS TO SAY STUFF IN TORCH!
I'm really excited to see what we'll learn from Helene's perspective. We all know that she's one to always follow the rules, but after being named Blood Shrike of Marcus, I don't think she'd like to do that so much anymore.
Especially her love for Elias might be in the way of that - what will Elias think of her if she'd mercilessly would go kill innocent people just because the new Emperor says so?
I'm pretty sure she will come back to Elias and join him, eventually, in whatever he's going to do. 
But first we'll probably get to see how the Empire will change and where she stands in all of the chaos.
But other than that - I really have no clue how crazy this book is going to be when we get to see Helene's perspective too!
IT MAKES ME SO EXCITED YAAAYYYY!

Well, that's all I got to say for now. I am curious to find out which of my predictions are right! I guess we all will have to wait till the 30th of August!

Until the next blog post, then! :)