Elantris Ars Arcanum: The Researcher

Ars Arcanum: The Researcher

So some mysterious researcher has travelled to the planet Arelon is on (it's called Sel) and seems to know a lot more about everything (including that there are other plantets with other magic systems). The researcher seems to think that the Aons pre-date the people of Arelon and were taught to them. I always assumed it was some ancient technology that people knew how to use but did not understand.

Before the magic can be used, one must undergo some process called Investiture. For example, waking up one morning with glowing skin completely at random.

There is something called a "full Shard of Adonalsium". Presumably this is some space-travelling tech that powers the magic.

Also, all the gods are dead (including Domi and Jaddeth, presumably) and no-one knows this, but the corpses of the gods are somehow powering the magic.

Fascinating!

Elantris epilogue: Sarene

Sarene arrives to speak at Hrathen's funeral. We learn that Raoden has set up court inside Elantris. I am not sure this is the best idea: wouldn't the people prefer the king to be a little closer to them, not some aloof god-like creature? Maybe not. Then we learn that Raoden has arranged for the nobility to distribute food to the poor. This seems a bit socialist to me. Who will produce the food if there is no profit in it? Then again, I suppose the Elantrians can make free food again now. It's a post-scarcity economy and people will mainly be making YouTube videos from now on.

Sarene makes sure everyone knows that without Hrathen's efforts to save Arelon, Teod would have been overrun, Raoden would be dead, and Arelon would have been taken over by Fjordells.

But thanks to Hrathen, everyone lives happily ever after.

Elantris 63: Raoden

Raoden and Sarene get married. They live happily ever after, though, even as his bride walks up the aisle, Raoden is troubled that Wryn is learning to tap the Dor in another way with his super powered monks. Luckily, Shuden also seems to be able to tap the Dor by doing a fancy dance. Probably there are all kinds of new magics to rediscover. What about those Mysteries?

Elantris 62: Sarene, Hrathen, Raoden and Dilaf

Sarene has a chat with Hrathen, wondering at his change of heart but not learning much. Then Fjon, the priest Hrathen expelled when he arrived in Arelon, turns up out of nowhere and sticks a sword in Hrathen. Turns out he ended up being trained as an assassin. So that's the end of Hrathen. Then Dilaf turns up.

Meanwhile back in Arelon Raoden finishes healing people and then decides he has to teleport to Teod to rescue Sarene. At least he's surprised she got there so fast, I was beginning to think it was only me. Anyway it's really dangerous to teleport without typing in the correct distance, and this is where Adien finally comes in handy: he know exactly how many steps it is! Also since becoming an Elantrian he has regained is full mental faculties.

Raoden turns up just in the nick of time to save Sarene but he only slows Dilaf down. He can't teleport them home because the magic is weak this far from home. Dilaf has hundreds of monks attack them. Just in the nick of time Galladon turns up with hundreds of Elantrians. The Elantrians win but Dilaf escapes to attack Sarene's father. Raoden pursues and fights Dilaf but is injured. Just in the nick of time Sarene turns up to help but she gets injured, too. Just in the nick of time Hrathen, who is apparently not dead and has a bionic arm, turns up and snaps Dilaf's neck with his bionic arm before dropping dead for real this time.

Just in the nick of time Galladon shows up and heals Raoden and Sarene. They live happily ever after.

Elantris 61: Hrathen, Raoden, Lukel, Sarene, Galladon and Dilaf

Dilaf is about to stick his dagger into Sarene's neck, but Hrathen has finally had enough. He's realised he's a baddie, and doesn't want to continue. So he punches Dilaf in the face and fights off another ninja monk and grabs Sarene and runs off. It turns out the superhuman ninja monks are not as formindable when they don't have the element of surprise and you do, and when you know what you are dealing with and its weak spots, and when you are wearing armour that looks like ceremonial armour but is in fact real armour.

Hrathen and Sarene make their escape.

Meanwhile Lukas and family are watching as the Fjordells set fire to the Elantrians and Raoden is climbing back out of the lake, becuase luckilky it doesn't dissolve you unless you want to be dissolved, and Raoden has changed his mind. He goes running off down the hill and Galladon and Karata follow. They realise Raoden must be doing something important so they fight off some guards who would otherwise have stopped him. Karata gets her head chopped off and Galladon gets a sword stuck in him.

Just in the nick of time Raoden draws the right Aon in the right place and reboots the Elantrian Magic Machine, complete with a cinematic light show. Hurray! The Elantrians now turn into proper Elantrians and instantly heal. It's probably too late for poor Karata, though. Raoden goes into the city and tells the Fjordells to leave within the hour.

None of this is going to help Sarene much, because she is in another city still on the run. And Dilaf is in pursuit.

Elantris 60: Galladon, Lukel, Hrathen and Raoden

It turns out Galladon and Karata are nearby lurking in the shadows and they have been watching in horror. But all they can do is carry Raoden to the lake. There's no hope from anyone else in Elantris, either, because Galladon has seen that everyone there is already Hoed.

Meanwhile Kiin and his family are being marched off to Elantris with all the other nobles to be burned.

To be honest, this was always going to happen. Arelon had a warlike neighbour invading every nearby country and didn't even bother to maintain a decent military to defend itself. This is why pacifism doesn't work: sometimes the war comes to you. They had an effective defense in the form of Elantrian technology, but when that stopped working they didn't replace it with anything.

Aiden is counting the steps to Elantris. This has to be significant. I thought it was significant when we first found out that Kiin had an autistic son: he's either going to turn out to have some superpower or else some great insight that will kickstart the magic.

Sarene, Hrathen, Dilaf and some of the superhuman monks teleport to Teoras. Where did that ability come from? It's pretty expensive because, like all good dark magic, it requires a human sacrifice, but still, you'd think someone would have mentioned it. Or be more surprised if it had been kept a secret. Maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Dilaf is doing that other bad guy thing of smugly assuming he has already won; that Arelon and Elantris have already been defeated. But he's not in Arelon any more so anything could be happening there and probably is.

Galladon tries to give up hope but can't. He's carrying Raoden to the pool. He's just watched all his friends get hacked to pieces. Even I'm stuggling to figure out what hope there might be, though.

Aiden continues to mumble numbers, Sanderson tells us yet again. HINT HINT WINK WINK. Most of the super monks have teleported away so it's mostly just regular soldiers guarding the prisoners. Dilaf really is doing dumb bad guy stuff. Lukel is planning to start fihgting back and Shuden is there too but it's going to take more than two guys.

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Dilaf has a heart to heart with Hrathen. It turns out that his girlfriend was the legendary woman whose healing was botched once. That's why he has such a chip on his shoulder about Elantris. Dilaf is 70 years old but looks 20. Hrathen was confused earlier about why he seemed so wily for one so young. Probably we could have figured out he was a super monk back then.

Galladon and Karata reach the lake. They are going to wait a minute then kill Raoden and themselves in the lake. Something needs to happen soon to stop them.

Lukel watches as soldiers make a pile of Elantrian bodies. It turns out Aiden is an Elantrian and Kiin and family have been keeping this a secret for years. A soldier wounds him and Aiden goes and joins the pile of Elantrians. That would seem to rule out Aiden somehow saving everyone. Unless he can do some Elantrian magic at the last minute.

Hrathen and Dilaf realise they were at the monastery together, and Dilaf was in charge even back then. Hrathen left after Dilaf used a human sacrifice to teleport himself the distance of a short walk. Will Hrathen stand up to Dilaf now? Will it do any good? Wryn's ships have arrived and the Teo ships are all docked so Dilaf thinks he has won again.

Raoden, who has been dreaming, has a vision of his namesake Aon and realises it is the same shape as Elantris and the four surounding cities. He has a Eureka moment but we will have to wait and see what it is.

Lukel watches soldiers pour oil over the Hoed Elantrians.

Dilaf and Hrathen go to see Eventeo with Sarene. Dilaf decides to kill her in front of her father.

Raoden knows the answer. But we don't! And now it is too late because Raoden is in the pool! Argh! Can he do something in the last few seconds before he disappears?

Elantris 59: Raoden, Sarene and Hrathen

Raoden finds himself slung over the back of a horse and taken off to Kiin's house to lure Sarene out. He's not in a good way. He's been hit on the head and he's in a lot of pain and is dizzy. Which means he's going to be in a lot of pain and dizzy forever, magical miracle rescue notwithstanding.

Sarene is determined not to put her family at risk to save Raoden, but thinks the least she can do is go to the roof to see him and say goodbye. Unfortunately Dilaf and his ninjas overcome Kiin's moat and they scale the walls and snatch Sarene and family right off the roof.

Dilaf phones up Sarene's dad and tells him he's holding his daughter hostage. Dilaf tells him he's about to pay him a visit by private jet (or some other fast travel system, presumably, because I don't see how else he can get to Teoras in one hour. Nobody seems surprised by this but perhaps they are distracted by the ultimatum: surrender or the girl gets it. Dilaf then does the typical bad guy thing and explains the whole plan: kill the royal family and sink the ships, then use Teod as a demonstration of power.

Dilaf sticks his sword into Raoden's belly and Raoden is now Hoed. Turns out this isn't quite as bad as it might have been, since he does at least lose conciousness.

Dilaf orders his men to take all the people to Elantris and burn everytone.

It's not looking good, is it? Galladon or someone had better have someting up their sleeve.