Morning Star

Darrow accepts Mustang’s proposal and invites her to their ship. Darrow tells Ragnar about the risks of what he did, but Ragnar is adamant that it was a leap of faith that the Rising needed. Darrow’s ship blends in with the stream of highColor refugees leaving Phobos. Mustang asks him if Phobos is intended as a trap, which Darrow confirms. Sevro and many of the Sons are hiding in assault shuttles that will capture the Martian navy ships being deployed. With the Obsidians, the Rising will have an army and a navy.

Eventually, the ship reaches the Martian atmosphere and starts to head toward the pole. An unidentified ship starts to tail them and soon fires at them. As Darrow’s ship is shot down, Ragnar heads to the rear of the ship and fires a missile before they crash through the ice on the Martian Northern pole.

Mustang and Darrow struggle not to drown while retrieving as much of their gear as possible. They grab some supplies and then swim up, finding Holiday injured on the surface. She tells them that Ragnar pulled a creature from the sea off her, but she has not seen Ragnar since.

Darrow wants to go down and search for him, but Holiday argues that he cannot risk his life. As they argue, Mustang dives into the water.

Mustang rescues Ragnar and the group takes stock of what they have. Few of the supplies they intended to arm the Obsidians with have survived, and so their initial plan has failed. They also have little to protect them against the cold and are roughly 200 kilometers from their intended destination. Making the situation worse, Ragnar tells them that tribes of exiled, cannibalistic Obsidians known as Eaters roam these lands.

They realize that the other ship was likely led by Cassius, who knew that Darrow was on Phobos. Ragnar tells them that he shot down that ship using a missile launcher, so the team decides to move toward where it crashed in the hopes that they can steal it. Mustang worries that Aja might be with Cassius.

When they reach the other ship, they see that it was split in half and most of the crew were killed in the crash. In the cockpit, they see Golds’ bodies being consumed by Eaters. The Obsidians attack Darrow, Mustang, and Ragnar, who manage to overcome them.

They search the rest of the ship and find evidence that Cassius was on the ship, but not his body. Ragnar looks at tracks and notes that roughly 15 people left the area several hours ago, taking many of the supplies with them. The group patches up part of the hull to act as a shelter and uses the ship pantry to make themselves a meal. Soon, Mustang asks Ragnar about his childhood and he tells them stories about life on the ice. Mustang and Holiday also share stories of growing up, forming bonds that make Darrow reflect on how naturally the people of the four colors are getting along.

The group sleeps inside the remains in the ship before setting out again. By midday they find the graves of two Blues (a caste of pilots) and a Silver who died from the cold and whom Cassius buried. Ragnar scouts ahead and locates Cassius, Aja, and a band of others. They were recently ambushed by Eaters and have more coming for them. Darrow thinks that this is their chance to strike. They follow the trail easily, as it is littered by dead Eaters and Grays.

Darrow’s team plans a trap for the remnants of Cassius’s unit. While Ragnar leads Darrow around a pass that puts them ahead of Cassius, Mustang and Holiday hide themselves in the snow, preparing to provide fire support. When Cassius’s party sees Darrow and Ragnar, they have been reduced to just four people: Cassius, Aja, a Gold, and a Gray. They all draw weapons as Cassius expresses surprise that Darrow survived. Aja tells Darrow that Ragnar was a monster while enslaved by her family. Ragnar responds that life as an enslaved person shamed him, but he was reborn with Darrow’s help. As Ragnar speaks, Cassius realizes that they are being ambushed and pushes Aja out of the way as Holiday fires. Holiday and Mustang (using a bow taken from a dead Eater) kill the Gray and the other Gold before Aja, Cassius, Darrow, and Ragnar begin a Razor fight (a weapon meant for the exclusive use of Golds). They pair off, with Darrow fighting Cassius and Aja fighting Ragnar. Cassius defeats Darrow, but Mustang shoots an arrow through his throat (though this does not kill him).

Aja outmatches Ragnar, and she soon mortally wounds him. She then sees something in the sky and tries to escape. Stepping backward, she falls into a crevice in the ice.

Mustang tries to see what Aja saw but cannot. Darrow rushes to Ragnar’s side. The wounds Aja inflicted were fatal but not immediately so. She purposefully left Ragnar to die slowly. Darrow tries to comfort Ragnar, but Ragnar knows that he will die.

Ragnar then points out the approach of Sefi the Quiet, his sister and the person whom Aja saw before fleeing. She has gained the name by not speaking ever since Ragnar was taken away. She and many more Obsidian women descend from the sky on griffins. Sefi slowly approaches Ragnar while he talks to her about their childhood. When she arrives at Ragnar’s side, both begin to cry as Ragnar says that he told her that he would return.

Ragnar asks for Darrow to kill him so that he will not suffer more. He also tells Darrow that Alia Snowspear, Ragnar’s mother, will never rebel from Gold. Ragnar was planning to kill her. Ragnar says that he will wait in the Vale for Darrow, and Darrow promises him that he will free the Obsidian. Sefi attempts to put an axe into Ragnar’s hand, which would let him go to Valhalla (a hall for slain warriors in Old Norse mythology) according to the Obsidian religion. He instead grabs her hand, saying that he lives for more than war. Darrow then stabs his heart.

Darrow rides on Sefi’s griffin to the city of the Spires. Before they left, Sefi and her Valkyrie warriors searched the crevasse Aja fell into but could not find her. Sefi also had wanted to kill Cassius but was stopped by her Valkyries, who were worried about killing a Gold.

As they land, another group of warriors approach and argue with Sefi. Darrow does not fully understand their thick-accented language but gathers that he is being called a heretic. Cassius is taken away to an unknown location while Mustang, Darrow, and Holiday are chained up. In a cell, they try to develop another plan. Mustang and Holiday doubt that the situation can be reversed and are focused on escape. Darrow is instead resolute in staying, intent on keeping his promise to Ragnar by freeing the Obsidians.

Hours later, they are brought in front of Alia Snowspear. She reveals that she knows that the Golds are not gods but still will not rebel from them, as they are too powerful. She decides to send them to Asgard, the Gold citadel, as captives.

Darrow’s group is imprisoned and flown away by Sefi’s Valkyries. As they land at the base of the stairs up to Asgard, Darrow speaks to Sefi privately. He tells her about Ragnar’s suffering when the Golds enslaved him and that it was Alia who sold Ragnar. Darrow asks her to believe in Ragnar’s final wish: for her to live for more. Sefi agrees to Darrow’s offer to show her how mortal her gods are.

The group climbs the stairs, with Darrow and Mustang disguised as Valkyrie. They talk with a person pretending to be a priest of the gods and tell him that they saw ships fall from the sky. Sefi then shows him a Razor.

The priest brings them through the temple where Golds who are acting as the Obsidian gods wait for them. The Golds ask them for information about the ships that fell and then reveal themselves to be “Freya” and “Loki,” Norse gods. Darrow tells them, using metaphors he thinks that Obsidians might use, that Gold corpses were found in the ship. Sefi then gives over the Razor. As the Golds ask each other if the Razor has a sigil, Mustang reveals her identity. Darrow kills Freya and they capture Loki.

Mustang and Darrow then take off Freya’s helmet to show the Valkyrie that she is just a woman. They give her Razor to Sefi, who accepts it. Soon they realize that Loki is the same man who once acted as Proctor Mercury during their time in the Institute. Proctor Mercury begs them not to free the Obsidian, whom he thinks are too dangerous, but Darrow ignores him and teaches Sefi to make her new Razor into a slingBlade. The Valkyrie set out to capture the Golds of Asgard.

Later, the Obsidian have captured five of the “gods” and killed two more. All Valkyrie now wear the high-tech armor, pillaged from the armories on Asgard. Sefi, Darrow, Mustang, and the Valkyries use a shuttle to fly back to the Spires with the Golden “gods” in tow. As they march through the halls, they gather a crowd who are curious about the people dragging their deities through the halls. They storm into Alia’s throne room and show everyone the Gold bodies. Sefi kills Alia when she expresses revulsion at this. Sefi speaks for the first time in 25 years, telling all present that “[s]he knew” about the Gold lies (265).

Sefi then executes all the captive Golds in a display that greatly worries Mustang. Sefi takes her mother’s throne and asks if her Valkyrie will answer Darrow’s call to war. They resoundingly answer yes as Mustang and Darrow share a glance, wondering what they have released.