After Rebecca Yarros' cryptic comments regarding Onyx Storm revealed quite a bit about the venin, including that they could hide in plain sight in Basgiath and have been doing it for a while. That raises questions about whether they could have infiltrated other high-ranking institutes of Navarre, including the people around the royal family, but for the time being, it was enough of a shocking reveal to learn they are implanted in Basgiath.
However, I never thought while reading Onyx Storm's ending that revealed Panchek was one of those hidden Basgiath venin along with Jack. Panchek might have been a Commandant at the college, but he wasn't all that powerful or highly placed - not compared to others. And Jack was just a first-year rider, a meaningless blip in the grand scheme of things. So I finished the book fully certain that there is one more big venin reveal, and I think I know who it is – and apparently, I'm not alone in my guess.
Rebecca Yarros itted The Scribe Quadrant Has Been Infiltrated By Venin Before
Jack Barlowe Wasn't Lying
In an interview with the Fantasy Fangirls podcast, Rebecca Yarros confirmed what Jack Barlowe had teased in Onyx Storm: there are more venin installed at Basgiath than the riders realize. "Was this the first time venin have infiltrated Basgiath disguised as scribes?" the interviewer asked. Yarros responded simply and left no room for debate: "No." Then the question was asked, "Have we seen a scribe who is actually a venin on the page previous to Onyx Storm?" to which she gave a coy, "No comment." The exchange happens at about the 27:00 mark in the below video:
So we now know two things: One, Jack and Panchek weren't new aberrations for the venin; they've infiltrated Basgiath before. And two, she's confirmed that there is another character yet to be revealed as venin. Let's be real: no one ever uses "no comment" unless they're avoiding confirming something we already pretty much know to be true (or at least strongly suspect). It's always a very deliberate choice to use "no comment," which threads the needle between giving a plot point away but also acknowledging you know the audience isn't stupid.
I'm Convinced That Markham Is A Venin After The Author's Onyx Storm Comments
He's In The Perfect Position To Spy
After that confirmation-without-a-confirmation, I'm more convinced than ever that Professor Markham is the other venin hiding in plain sight, and it seems I'm not the only one. Right after the question about the named character being venin, the interviewer jokingly asked, "Is it Markham?" before laughing and saying, "I know, I know...", obviously knowing that Yarros can't and won't answer that question. Still, there are so many clues that all point directly at Markham being the venin hiding in plain sight.
Onyx Storm's Scribe Quadrant Reveal Was Inevitable After Previous Twists
The reveal regarding the Scribe Quadrant in Onyx Storm's excerpt was inevitable after the previous books executed many twists regarding the Scribes.
In truth, I used to think it was Colonel, now General Aetos, who was a venin. His over-the-top hatred of Violet and any of the breakaway rebels is cartoonish in its intensity, the way he goes out of his way to antagonize her simply comical in how unnecessary and extreme it is. The only way I could explain it, aside from him just being a poorly written, moustache-twirling stereotype of a control freak villain, is that he was venin, and it was his venin nature that kept bubbling to the surface every time he saw Violet. After all, she's the key to leading the rebellion that is aiming to stop the venin threat.
If a venin had been tasked with spying from within Basgiath, drawing attention to themselves by being unbelievably antagonistic to the most important rider in the college would be a really foolish way to do that.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that theory was stupid. If a venin had been tasked with spying from within Basgiath, drawing attention to themselves by being unbelievably antagonistic to the most important rider in the college would be a really foolish way to do that. A much better position for a venin plant would be a quieter, more unassuming role – say, a role in the Scribe Quadrant, but high enough in rank to actually do some real damage in of intelligence-gathering. That leaves Markham.
Markham Being A Venin Could Explain Lilith & Asher Sorrengail's Actions
They Trusted No One By The End
If Markham were a venin, it could explain a lot about the still very mysterious, frustratingly opaque actions of Violet's late parents. Through bits and pieces, mostly through epistolary letters and journal entries, it's been revealed in the Empyrean Series, especially in Onyx Storm, that Lilith and Asher Sorrengail knew more about the venin conspiracy and cover-up in Navarre than they let on and prepared their children accordingly. Especially in the most recent book, it's made clear that both Asher and Lilith knew that something was amiss in Basgiath and knew they couldn't trust anyone.
Fourth Wing: Every Quadrant At Basgiath War College Explained
Fourth Wing's Basgiath War College is broken up into four separate quadrants, in which all provide Navarre's military with varying degrees of skills.
It's never been adequately explained, for example, why Lilith suddenly pulled Violet out of the Scribe Quadrant, where she'd been pre-training to become a scribe for years, and forced her to enter the Riders Quadrant instead, a role that Violet had no training for and seemingly was completely unsuited to her. Even before she died, Violet's mother didn't fully reveal the reasons for this, still being as tight-lipped as ever. But there was obviously a reason she did it, believing that Violet would either be better off in the Rider Quadrant or in danger in a venin-infiltrated Scribe Quadrant. It's also telling that one of her and Asher's letters stated that Violet needed to stick close to her sister, Mira, for them to survive.
Considering Asher's keen observational and research skills and Lilith's ability to suss out threats, their actions could be explained by them suspecting Basgiath was compromised.
Asher's letters and journal entries on Onyx Storm also revealed that they had both become suspicious of those around them. Considering he was a high-ranking scribe, one would think he'd have trusted Markham implicitly, but he didn't, and there had to have been a reason for that, just as there was a reason that Asher had trained not just Violet, but also Dain, in very specific skills that would be needed to recover his journals. Asher had always pushed Violet to see the truth of things, just as he did. Considering Asher's keen observational and research skills and Lilith's ability to suss out threats, their actions could be explained by them suspecting Basgiath was compromised.
The Empyrean Series Needs More Of Markham To Pull Off A Big Venin Twist
It Can't Just Repeat Panchek's Incredibly Underwhelming Venin Reveal
That said, if Markham is to be revealed as a venin in an book, he has to see more page time. Panchek's venin reveal at the end of Onyx Storm was so incredibly anticlimactic because he'd been an entirely unimportant and forgettable character thus far, to the point that plenty of readers had to even look up who he was to refresh their memories. It wasn't exactly the impactful reveal that a high-ranking professor in Basgiath is venin should have been, and the next reveal simply has to be better.
Onyx Storm has already caught some flak for repeating so many of Iron Flame's plot lines, including the cliffhanger ending of someone turning venin, and repeating another plot twist certainly won't help that criticism if it's handled poorly. In truth, the most impactful reveal of Markham being venin is already impossible. It would be far more emotionally resonant if Violet had love and respect left for him and if the two still had any vestige of a mentor-mentee relationship. However, their relationship has been trashed, and it's unlikely that will change in the next book. Even so, Markham needs to be a bigger player for a venin reveal to hold any weight.
- Genre
- Fantasy
- Publisher
- Entangled: Red Tower Books
- Publication Date
- 2025/01/01
- Franchise
- The Empyrean Series
- ISBN#
- 1649374186
- Author(s)
- Rebecca Yarros
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