Sagas & Sass began covering the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown in September 2022; these are our summaries of Virginia, Lysander, Darrow, and Lyria’s POVs through chapter 42 in book 6 – Light Bringer – as they were written to introduce Sagas & Sass Episodes 83 and 84.
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
We begin with “AFTERMATH”…
Victra might have returned triumphant from her own battle on Mars, but after two weeks of fighting over Phobos, Virginia is meeting with Lysander for a parley…and upon seeing him, comes to the unfortunate realization that the young man in front of her is not [merely] a spoiled, entitled princeling.
They exchange barbs, but ones that are focused on Darrow – Lysander’s previous encounter with him, his current absence, and the giant statue of him that reigns over Phobos. Unfortunately for Virginia, the most pressing matter right now is that Lysander has her by the proverbial balls…but thankfully it sounds like she has some of Rat Legion waiting in the wings to wreak havoc if need be…an idea that does in fact bother Lysander.
But let’s be real – Atalantia is probably the bigger problem for both of them, and that’s what led them to set this meeting in the first place. Both of their forces are bleeding over Phobos when the real prize is Mars, and so Virginia agrees to give up the moon for a chance to regroup and defend her home.
…After all, Lysander might have ships and docks, but what he won’t have is helium…
However, that’s not quite the end of their negotiations – Lysander requests two Oracles and Ajax’s head, but hey, at least he agrees to trade Kavax for Cicero!
As the last Republic ship leaves Phobos, Lysander hosts the battle honors, rewarding a Red from Gamma with a Lune phalera and the promise to make the severely wounded man whole, and giving Pytha the Civic Crown, the highest decoration he can bestow. The Golds receive custom razors, but Lysander himself chooses not to receive any honors.
They then topple the statue of Darrow and hold a party, though Lysander is too busy mourning Ajax and thinking about their next steps to enjoy himself. He tells Julia au Bellona that he wants to launch an Iron Rain on Mars in just three days, but also insists that they need to have a better relationship with the Rim. Dido agrees with Lysander, even admitting that Diomedes has been championing him, at which point Lysander goes to find his friend in the gardens…
But just as we’re having what seems to be another “everything’s coming up Lysander” moment, his EYES start bleeding? What the whaaaat?
Okay, the ‘what’ is that he’s been poisoned, and as Kyber disappears to find help and Diomedes asks what he can do, Lysander withdraws into himself, feeling nothing but the agony and loneliness caused by a poison named the Lament…
And as Lysander’s celebration is cut short, Virginia’s seems to be kicking off, as she receives a call from the Archimedes! She’s overwhelmed to be seeing and talking to Darrow, and makes sure to give him the good news first – Pax is safe, the important people are alive, and his friends who were on the trashteroid made it back to Mars.
Unfortunately, she also has to admit that she surrendered Phobos to Lysander…and that there’s no safe passage back to Mars – at least not for him, not right now.
Instead, Virginia has other orders for Darrow – to find Quicksilver and return at the head of his armada, if it does in fact exist. Obviously Darrow wants more than anything to come home immediately, but he agrees to his Sovereign’s request, then brings Cassius and Sevro in to hear Virginia out. (Because he knows that Sevro wouldn’t accept this news from him.)
Darrow isn’t certain that he’ll be able to convince or even make Quicksilver return to the war, so he tells Virginia about Athena’s offer to Sevro. She reminds him that he of all people can’t go to Ilium – not after what he did to secure peace with Romulus – but he avoids outright telling her he won’t go, and as he’s trying to give her a message for Pax, their communication is cut off.
So the Archi moves away from Mars and toward the Belt, while back on Phobos Lysander is awakened from an induced coma to some bad news of his own. Not just that he shouldn’t have been woken up for at least 9 more days in order to make a proper recovery…but that his recovery was cut short because the Rim is abandoning them to return home, where Volsung Fa and his combined Obsidian/Ascomanni forces recently took out the Ilium Guard and are surely on the path of full-on war against the Rim.
But Diomedes has more than just bad news – he also has a request! He wants Lysander to sail with them, and in return they will give him the Shield of Akari, a military honor not given to a Core Gold since Lysander’s ancestor Silenius died.
Lysander’s Core allies don’t think he should go, but Lysander insists that he must. And so he, Rhone, and nine other Praetorians board Helios au Lux’s ship, while the rest of his forces and some of his friends lumber along behind on the Light Bringer to eventually meet up with Lysander in the Rim….
And so time passes, eventually leading to some characters having to do a Volte-Face…
Thirty-six days after Virginia ordered Darrow to pay Quicksilver a visit, the Archimedes is creepin’ up on the asteroid where they hope to find the armada they need. They’re met by what seem to be drones before Matteo hails them and gives them permission to land, then greets them in the hangar…alone.
Matteo is warm with Darrow, embracing him and telling him how he grieves for all those lost…though when he gets to Sevro, he’s obviously surprised to be interrupted by that very man marching down the Archi’s ramp! Sevro reminds them all that they’re in a hurry, and so they head to Quicksilver’s study.
The man himself is watching holograms of the mess on Luna, and spends a moment whining over the state of “Virginia’s Republic” before inviting Darrow and Sevro to sit and talk with him – despite the fact that Quicksilver knows that they came to ‘drag him back to the slaughterhouse’, such as it is.
Of course Darrow insists this isn’t the case and that he just wants to talk, but in the end he requires Quicksilver’s help one last time – to give him the weapons he needs to fight back against the Society, uhh, remnant(s).
Unfortunately, Quicksilver no longer believes that the people of the Republic have the will to win, and when Darrow tells him that he can’t hide out in the Belt forever, Quick reveals what all of his money actually built…
Not an armada, not even a weapon of any kind – but a life raft of sorts, manned by robots and peopled by sigil-less children, Homo sapiens who have no Color!
Sevro is disgusted, particularly as Quicksilver and Matteo knew they were coming for a long while and let them travel all this way when he wants nothing more than to be back with his family. He stomps out (though not before getting in one last, dirty dig!)…but Darrow remains, and asks Quick to show him this “new world”, which was a dream of Quicksilver’s even before he started working with Fitchner.
Because here’s the thing – Darrow might be angry, but he realizes that he forgives Quicksilver for running away. However, he does ask – yet again – for whatever help Quick can/will give…and for the use of the asteroid’s obviously VERY long-range telescope, which shows him the Dust and Dragon armadas moving away from Phobos 20 days prior…and the Light Bringer following suit 10 days after that!
And then, more good news! (At least in Darrow’s eyes.) That being, they didn’t really see any Obsidians in the Belt because they’re off attacking Jupiter’s moons, and Darrow wants to use this chaos to accept Athena’s invitation and infiltrate Ilium. Problem is, Sevro won’t be coming along, and Darrow’s reputation among the Daughters can’t be all that good after he, ya know, gave up the Sons in the Rim…even if that was more than a decade ago.
But before they can head off to the Rim, some repairs need to be made – both to the Archi, and to Darrow himself. AND he happens to be receiving his glow-up in the room next to Lyria, who has been divested of the parasite – which she also destroys before going to meet the Reaper himself.
Not that the meeting goes anything like she wanted it to – while her anger at Darrow diminishes upon actually seeing him, it rises again when he tells her that she can’t come to the Rim with them. Feeling like she doesn’t have a choice, she boards her assigned ship, where she’s immediately greeted by her fellow passenger: The Goblin of Mars!
But in her awe and anxiety, Lyria does a biiiiig OOPSIES – she tells Sevro she’s sorry about Ulysses, only to immediately realize that he didn’t know about Ulysses! Sevro demands that she reveal what happened, and once he hears the whole sordid tale, he stumbles off the ship and essentially disappears. Left to herself, Lyria notices that the Archi is still in the hangar, with its cargo bay wide open, and she, well, takes the ‘hint’.
At this point Darrow is just about ready to leave. Quicksilver repaired the Archi with the best tech he had to offer and even outfitted them with ten new top-of-the-line suits of pulseArmor…and a special Ares helmet, to boot.
They say their goodbyes, but just as Darrow is receiving his parting kisses from Matteo, WHO STORMS INTO THE HANGAR AND RIGHT UP ONTO THE SHIP? Why, it’s Sevro! Darrow is glad to see him, but confused as well, and Sevro isn’t forthcoming with his responses. He simply tells Darrow he can’t go home yet and to drop it, and then the Archi leaves Quicksilver’s new world (such as it is) behind.
However, one thing it DOESN’T leave behind is Lyria! She squirrels away in the auxiliary reactor for nine days until she finally gets caught…while attempting to steal – of all things – a slice from a giant ham that Sevro left out as a trap (because of COURSE Sevro noticed some of his treats were missing and figured out they had a stowaway, ha!). Thankfully Darrow catches Sevro before he can airlock his sack-o’-Lyria, but he’s none too happy to have her aboard – though Aurae (and by way of her, Cassius) are a-okay with Lyria’s presence.
After all, Lyria does know Volga, and is even able to list off some other qualifications (like, she sorta might now how to fly a ship?). Granted, her stats might not be Gold-level impressive, but Lyria has learned a lot since we first met her…and anyway, they can’t afford to waste the time it would take to bring her, well, just about anywhere.
Darrow finally and reluctantly agrees to keep Lyria around, assigning her to Cassius and Aurae since they insisted on championing her. She gets a shower, a bunk, and some clean clothes, and then almost immediately gains a kinship with Cassius as he offers to fix her a plate and share some whiskey with her…though not before asking what her callsign is. He refuses to believe her when she says it’s “Red Banshee”, so Lyria is forced to admit that she was dubbed “Truffle Pig”, and honestly, y’all, clearly this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
