Davide

Those things you found about Dolly Parton are why I'm sad she died. Not because of her music, I'm not a fan of country. Because of her as a person.

The Unspoken being bigger than before is concerning because it could means there are multiple creatures. Maybe this big one and some number of offsprings, but also maybe a whole species. It could easily get out of hand to the point where they can't complete their goal. Aleela is also a concern, we saw The Unspoken show up out of nowhere and then it was dangerous for her to leave, the same thing could happen again. This also got me thinking that Kalloh will always prioritise Aleela's safety, as they should, but I wonder if there could come a point where that puts him at odds with the opinions of the rest of the group. I also get Rhaelce's fear of going with a large group. He was one of the people in his family whose role was to protect them, so his instinct is to see that as it being his role in this group too. And he already lost Naivres, he doesn't want to lose anyone else under his care. But there's too many people for him to protect them all. It won't be Rhaelce fault if someone dies, but I think he'll still blame himself if they do.

Here's a quote from Malik in the previous chapter that could support Jason's theory: It has a cry like what Kalloh sounds like when trying to speak, but worse. A thousand times worse. So far, only Malik, Rhaelce and Shuza have seen it. Kalloh hasn't and they weren't told what the creature looks like. Although the sound comparison above happened while communication through Kalloh, so they know that if they were paying attention.

I agree with this. A younger creature who strayed from the best would explain both the size difference and it traveling that far.

I should have seen this coming, Rhaelce feels bad about reacting to Malik's power in a similar way than people of Kalloh's species reacted to Aleela's power. But Malik is right, there are two huge differences, Rhaelce didn't try to hurt Malik and he later felt bad about having those thoughts. And Aleela deciding to show that vision to Rhaelce probably means she also no longer blames him for what he used to think about people with powers. That conversation leads to Malik saying he loves Rhaelce. I like having that out in the open and him blurting it out almost by accident saves him the agony of wondering whether to say it or not. Rhaelce is jealous of Chihiro, but I'm not concerned because there's nothing between Malik and her, plus that jealous is proof that he also loves Malik. At the end, Rhaelce saying Naivres was also Malik's sister was deeply emotional, I love that moment. While Aleela can use her powers if they're attacked and she knows how to climb to try to get herself out of danger, she's also young. So I'm concerned about what could happen with her going with them, even with their idea of her retreating because it could be too late by the time they try. We've also seen Rhaelce compare her to Naivres and that means it would devastate him and Malik if she dies too. I get why she still wants to go, but I'm worried for her.

Does Shuza have a special gift? What did I miss?

Malik's fire power has evolved, now he can create it, which is huge. But I like that there are still significantly limitations that reduce how effective it can be in battle. You can't make protagonists too powerful, and that gives him space to improve without risking that. Then there was the question about Malik and Rhaelce's relationship. I googled it and homosexuality is illegal in Aleela's country, which is concerning, but we don't know if she agrees with that. When Aleela wanted to show Malik and Rhaelce something, I was curious about why just them and not the others. The story, which was very well told, was about the horrible way she was treated because she has powers. They would have probably killed her if it wasn't for Kalloh. So I think she picked Malik because he also faced a negative reaction to his powers from a friend, and Rhaelce because he changed his mind and apologised after reacting in that way. Towards the end of Aleela's story, Kalloh says "I know what it is like to be different". That seems to imply he also went through difficulties because of his mind reading powers, and that's why he's helping someone going through the same. I love that about Kalloh and Rhaelce for saying "We are family now." and pledging his life to not letting anyone hurt her. He was definitely thinking about Naivres when he said it. Malik, of course, joined the Rhaelce's pledge.

Things worked out for Chi-Chi, thankfully, but the conversation about which medical things work for a different species was an interesting point. Waiting was the right decision, Rhaelce was right that there was a risk of Chi-Chi pushing herself too much if they had left earlier. I like that Aleela was depicted as an actual 12 year old, with the Old Town Funk dance and the sweets, sometimes writers forget to make their actions age appropriate. There was a lot of progress between Malik and Rhaelce. That fight was intense, fuelled by Malik's fury, but it led to a needed conversation. Malik felt bad because he liked the fight, but Rhaelce made the important point that this isn't bad because it was a fight to protect people. And things between the two of them are good enough that they were going to have sex, Malik didn't pull away. But Chic-Chi cockblocked them, damn you, Cassie. The conversation about what happens after the mountains was the most interesting part. Rhaelce can't go back to him family, and it makes sense that he'd want to see more of his world now that he saw how much more exists that's different from what he knew. Of course Malik used to want to return home, but now he realises there's almost nothing left there for him. But here he has Rhaelce, and they seem to have feelings for each other, it's not just physical.

This chapter points more towards queen of blue balling the readers.

We've previously seen Aleela do watch duty together with Kalloh, because she wanted to participate and no one was going to have a 12 year old do it alone. So I assume the same thing was happening when she came saying "They are in the trees" in Swahili (thank you, Google), which makes me suspicious of Kalloh. He was gone at the same time as the attack was about to start, instead of warning the group, and only showed up when they were starting to fight. But maybe I'm just paranoid, we'll see. We got an upgrade in the Malik's firebending, he was able to pull fire from 10 feet away. But that's nothing compared to the upgrade in Aleela's earthbending, she was able to cause a freaking earthquake. Holy shit!

I like that things between the Malik and Rhaelce didn't magically go back to how they were before quickly, it's a lot more realistic for it to take some time. But they have been progressing in important ways. Rhaelce saw theMalik firebending and didn't freak out. It's one thing to accept it in theory and another to see it in practice. He doesn't understand it, but he doesn't have to, what's important is he accepts it. The Malik accepted returning to fighting with Rhaelce. Sure, Aleela was the reason, but he still did it. And that's meaningful because it's how they initially bonded. Finally, they cleared the misunderstanding, with explanations of both the importance of the amocava custom for the tailies and process to get redemption from our human ways.

RHAELCE! I feel The Malik's pain early in the chapter when he thinks about how the remaining four people in the group are in pairs of people who are close to each other, while he doesn't have the person he was close with. Then Rhaelce returns and I'm relieved he did, but of course things don't return to what they were like immediately. I like that Chi-Chi's objection is based on not wanting The Malik to hurt again as much as he did the first time. But I'm glad the group accepted him, although the flimsy majority can make things a bit tense. Rhaelce leaving hurt The Malik, that can't be undone with a simple apology. It requires time and him proving that he changed, that he accepts The Malik as he is, with his powers. I'm glad The Malik told Rhaelce the truth that he didn't have powers on Earth, honesty is important, even if it can Rhaelce more weary. The amocava situation is an unfortunate misunderstanding between different cultures, but thankfully Rhaelce realised this. My guess is it will take seeing Rhaelce's reaction to The Malik using his powers for good for them to trust him again.

In this chapter, Cassie somehow decided she hadn't yet made things hard enough for herself, so she added a character that can only communicate in a specific way and yet another new language. Although at least this one isn't a fictional language, the main language of Tanzania is Swahili according to Google. And Aleela's word, "asante", at the end of the chapter, means "thank you". The Malik seems to already trust Aleela, but not Kalloh, which are the reactions I'd expect towards a 12 year old and a mind reader. From my reader point of view, I believe Kalloh when they say they can only read the thoughts pertinent to the conversation, but I'd be worried about them hiding the ability to read more if I was on The Malik's position. We have fire, water and earth powers coming from character from different parts of Earth. That obviously makes us expect someone with air powers and, judging from where these three characters are from, I'd bet on a potentially fourth one being from Latin America.

The Malik (I figured I'd join the bandwagon on calling him that) thinks that he probably shouldn't have fought those guys, but I'm not so sure. They may have come after him again if he had run. Him holding his own, despite the injuries, may have kept them away. But now traveling will be harder for him in this state. The Malik and Chi-Chi had a bonding moment, but it seems clear that both of them can only control one element. As expected, you can't make the protagonists OP. I'm curious about how they gain these abilities, it would appear maybe traveling on those machines did it. But I don't know why.

Malik keeps losing people, by them dying, them leaving him or him being separated from them, and that has to take a toll. He lost his father a long time ago, he effectively lost his mother at the same time in the sense of her caring about him, he lost his friends without knowing if it will forever when he got sent to this world, he lost Naivres who he cared about after the time he spent with that family, he lost most of the rest of that family when they blamed him for her death, plus now he lost Rhaelce and this one is particularly hard because he had feelings for him. So of course this time is difficult for Malik. But it may actually be worse for Rhaelce. He seemed to also have feelings for Malik and he found out something that makes him think Malik is dangerous. If Malik had actively done something awful, maybe that could help Rhaelce move on from him, but he didn't. Malik allegedly being dangerous means Rhaelce needs to stay away from him, but it doesn't stop the feelings. And, unlike Malik, Rhaelce has to deal with it alone, which means more time dwelling on those thoughts. As for Malik wanting to give him a chance to return, Rhaelce can track them without them noticing him if he wants to, he has the skills.