Sagas & Sass began covering the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown in September 2022; this is our summary of Lysander’s POV through chapter 64 in “Tempest”, part 3 of book 6 – Light Bringer – as it was written to introduce Sagas & Sass Episode 85.
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Let’s find out about those “GORGONS IN THE GRASS”…
Three and a half weeks into their journey to the Rim, Diomedes pays Lysander a special honor by inviting him to the bridge of the Dustmaker. It turns out that Helios is elsewhere, running dark, leaving Diomedes to wear the God Glove and control the ship.
After watching Diomedes and his men fight a virtual battle, Lysander is invited to dinner as well, where he finally receives updates on what Helios has been up to, as well as exchanging stories of his past being “haunted” by the Goblin of Mars for Diomedes’ tales of the Ascomanni.
The concern is that the Obsidians will try to take the Garter, though Diomedes kiiinda refuses to believe that can be done…however, the Rim forces still mean to be careful, meeting up with Helios at Kalyke and ghost sailing to Io, where they hope to take Fa by surprise.
But everything goes awry when they meet up with Helios – or rather, a man who they believe is Helios, but uhhhh TOTALLY ISN’T! While he certainly looks like Helios, gives the correct answers to the security questions, and even passes the CAPTCHA – oh, sorry, is even able to don the God Glove and pass its DNA test – both Lysander and Diomedes realize, almost in the same moment, that something is off.
Diomedes suddenly grabs for the God Glove and pushes up Helios’s sleeve to reveal, errr, one arm attached to another?! But before he or Lysander or anyone else can make a move, the imposter’s armor shoots out a shit-ton of poisonous spines and the bridge turns into a scene of carnage.
Once the enemy has control of the ship, a call comes in from none other than Fa himself, and it’s then that Lysander realizes the Helios imposter is none other than Atlas! Who obviously isn’t aaaaany of the places everyone speculated he might be, but is, well, obviously here, in the Rim, and working with the Ascomanni!
Meanwhile, the Rim ships have gathered close around the Dustmaker to begin their ghost sail, for which their shields (kinda conveniently, let’s be real) also had to be down. Which means that when Atlas fires on them, they’re taken unawares AND unprotected…and the cherry on top is that Fa’s forces are actually hiding nearby and swoop in to finish them off.
Lucky Lysander, however, has a leech that he’s been wearing since he was poisoned, and it’s doing its work on this new poison, too. Knowing that he has mere moments to act, and wanting to make a difference, he bundles Diomedes into an escape pod and launches it from the ship.
While his Gorgons want to waste Lysander, Atlas insists they bring him along as they evacuate the Dustmaker. Along the way they’re confronted by a group of Dustwalkers – who are about to stand down when Lysander shouts that it’s not Helios, but Atlas…only before they can change tactics, they’re taken out from behind.
And when the dust clears (buh-dum-chhhh), Lysander realizes yet another hard truth: the squad he thought of as “his” Praetorians were in fact Atlas’s Gorgons the entire time!
Big, Huge, MAJOR, OOPSIES.
It’s soon revealed that Rhone was the one who poisoned Lysander on Phobos, despite the Gray’s insistence that he doesn’t want Lysander harmed…Atlas just didn’t want Lysander going with Diomedes. Because while the Rim alliance means everything to Lysander, Atlas and his Gorgons believe it’s past time for the Rim to suffer for its past betrayals.
Rhone brings Lysander to see Atlas, who has his own eyes back but is still waiting on his arm transplant…or rather, RE-transplant?
Either way, Atlas Tells It All – he’s been working on this attack for a dozen years or so, he made Fa into the Obsidian Darrow and pushed the Rim into war with the helm cam footage, and while Atalantia planned on being the Rim’s savior, Atlas is now eying Lysander for that job.
Lysander attempts to refuse, but Atlas makes it clear that his refusal means death…and, err, probably not a CLEAN one, at that. Feeling like this isn’t much of a choice at all, Lysander closes his eyes and imagines Rhone, Atalantia, and Atlas dead at his feet before relenting and agreeing to be Atlas’s savior.
This means that he gets to go meet Fa, though both he and Atlas have to play dress up as Obsidians to do so. It’s only once they’ve joined Fa’s Kinshield that Atlas reveals Lysander’s real name, and while the Obsidians are confused about his presence, Lysander is perhaps MORE confused that OH MY GOSH THESE OBSIDIANS ARE LEARNÈD AND WELL SPOKEN AND SHIT!
When Fa arrives, he brings three very specific captives, embraces Atlas like a brother, and removes whatever it is that makes him talk in RAGNAR BOLD, revealing a soft and sensitive voice. While Atlas congratulates Fa on a job well done, he isn’t too happy that his niece Thalia is one of the captives…rather than dead, like she’s supposed to be.
Atlas wonders if this is Volga’s doing and clearly means for Fa to kill the girl, but Lysander stops them by claiming him marrying an ancestor of Akari might help the Rim accept him as Sovereign.
Once Lysander is alone with Atlas and Fa, Atlas reveals that Lysander’s presence will shorten Fa’s fake reign, which makes the Obsidian way happier than Lysander expected. Unfortunately this doesn’t leave enough time for Fa’s forces to sack all of the Galilean moons, so instead they will destroy the rest of them via bombardment.
Well, except for Ganymede that is, which Atlas pretends will be spared because Lysander spoke up. Oh, and while Fa is taking care of the other moons, Atlas will be off on his own adventure…because he’ll be attempting to acquire a very special bioweapon that can be assigned to any one of the fourteen Colors, infecting that group without effecting the rest.
Because, ya know, OF COURSE this is a thing that exists and wasn’t destroyed immediately when it was discovered. LE SIGH.
With Lysander’s fleet well on its way, Atlas casts him and some of his Praetorians as survivors of the Kalyke massacre. They are welcomed back onto the Light Bringer with open arms, though Pallas – a client of Lady Bellona – clearly doesn’t believe everything adds up. Oh, and she’s eager to return to the Core, but Lysander insists that they will remain in the Rim to defend the Raa’s worlds.
He holds himself together until he finally sees Pytha, who insists that he tell her what happened – only Lysander doesn’t want her to look at him differently, so he gives her the same tale he gave to everyone else…though he does break down at the end, knowing that despite Pytha’s assurances, nothing is all right…it never was, and never will be…
