The Rogue Guardian

Previously, Part One

This should probably be posted as a TRT extra but I don't want to, so whatever.

The simple fact is, The Royal Thief was 74 chapters and Phoenix Rising is about 30 chapters in. We've been at this for a while. There's just no way I can expect people to keep this stuff straight, not least of all, let's admit it, because a lot of it doesn't make sense. But hey, what are first novels for? So here's the plan. We're doing a recap. This is probably a bad idea that I will end up badly regretting halfway through but I have plenty of pizza and misplaced optimism, so get comfortable.

Our story begins with a dramatic duel! Our hero, the snarky and just a bit arrogant Morane Laerhart, introduces us to the realm of Solangia, as well as her talented BFF/Assassin Nemia, and resident asshole, Captain Joshua. In a pretty obvious Zuko-esque way, Joshua is obsessed with his HONOR, and Morane explains that they have a pleasant, healthy relationship of mutual disgust for each other. But wait! There's more! After humiliating Joshua in a second duel, Morane goes on to explain that she is the Thief, and introduces everyone's favorite mentor, by which I mean my favorite mentor, Jaden Eyro, whose last name is totally not a blatant reference to Uncle Iroh from Avatar. No guys, this book has absolutely no connection to The Last Airbender at all.

Ahem. Next, two complete filler chapters establish Nemia and Morane as Guardians and outcasts who spend their time with Auxiliary Guards Nick, Cara, and Sam. Nemia mentions, totally subtle and stuff, that the princess's birthday will be a masked ball, and dear god this writing is terrible why did any of you keep reading this? Morane's dislike of and contempt for Magali is also introduced. The only important thing that happens is that Morane gets a note from Jaden saying someone need to tell her about the other one. Who is this other one? Are you guys going to find out? No, because I'm mean like that.

Resident Asshole, I mean Joshua, makes his second appearance to warn Morane to stay away from the new ambassador from Englescroft, which is a your average threatening fantasy country from every fantasy novel ever. Does she listen? Hah. At the fancy dinner Iso's daughter Galatea takes a liking to Morane and this leads Iso to her. Was this planned on their part? You decide. But yes.

Iso goes on to question Morie about Guardians and in a badly-hidden info-dump everyone finds out that the Guardians are chosen by constellations in the stars, have possibly magical powers, are usually chosen three at a time, and are divided into light and dark, with the Assassin considered the most dangerous. Despite Solangians pretending to love all Guardians, most of them distrust Dark Guardians.

The next morning Nick tells Morie about a conversation he overheard between Joshua and the Sage, Tobias, which mentioned a fear of Englescroft getting involved with something, the other one, and being able to fix part of the problem on the night of the princess's ball. Later, Morie demonstrates her nearly-killing-people talents in another duel, prompting Joshua to exile her from the training yards. Again, why, you ask? "Because Tobias says so." When Morie tells Jaden about this he is unsurprised. What does he know that we don't? Once again, you're not going to get a satisfying answer. Really it's amazing you guys kept reading this.

Anyway, to the match house! We meet Gordon, Jaden's friend, and Wes is mentioned for the first time. He fought in the Glory Duels, a set of fights to the death held once a year at the match house, won, and then left the capital under mysterious circumstances. Are we ever going to find out why? Yeah, actually, within the next few chapters of Phoenix Rising. Within another few nights we meet Beck, who seems cool but is also kind of a jerk, and next we meet everyone's favorite tutor, Caer! Morane sneezes a lot, Caer laughs, it's a good time. Nemia is tired, which is probably her single most defining trait. We have that in common. Have I mentioned yet that I need more sleep?