- Rebecca Yarros explored Violet Sorrengail’s second signet power in “Onyx Storm.”
- Violet’s second signet comes from her connection with Andarna and manifested in “Iron Flame.”
- Warning: There are major spoilers for “Onyx Storm” ahead.
Rebecca Yarros’ “Onyx Storm” was released on Tuesday, continuing the author’s romantasy series about Violet Sorrengail, a dragon rider studying at Basgiath War College.
The third book in the “Empyrean” series was full of romance, magic, and plot twists, and the story is set to continue in two additional books.
In “Onyx Storm,” Yarros answered lots of questions that “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” raised, such as how turning venin impacts Xaden and what type of dragon Andarna is. And to the relief of Yarros’ fans, the third installment also revealed Violet’s second signet power.
Heads-up: The rest of this article contains spoilers for the “Empyrean” series.
Violet Sorrengail has two signet powers
In the “Empyrean” universe, all riders have a signet power that manifests after they bond with a dragon. Every rider can do lesser magic, such as opening doors without touching them, but a signet power is unique to each rider, and some are more powerful than others.
Violet’s signet manifested as lightning wielding in “Fourth Wing,” a particularly powerful signet. Her lightning comes through her bond with her dragon Tairn, with Violet often describing his power as a flood that comes through their connection.
In “Iron Flame,” Yarros introduces the idea of second signets, explaining that riders directly related to their dragons’ previous riders can develop two signet powers. The text also suggests Violet could have a second signet since she is bonded to both Tairn and the younger dragon, Andarna. She is the only rider in known history to bond with two dragons.
Yarros confirmed Violet’s second signet had already manifested in “Iron Flame” when speaking to Variety after its release in 2023. However, it’s not until midway through “Onyx Storm” that Violet becomes aware of her additional power — dream-walking.
Violet is a dream-walker
Yarros finally reveals Violet is a dream-walker in Chapter 50 of “Onyx Storm.”
Throughout “Onyx Storm,” Violet has a recurring nightmare of confronting a venin Sage in a field. In Chapter 50, she realizes during the dream that her hand looks like Xaden’s, not hers. After she wakes and speaks to Xaden about it, he realizes Violet was in his dream.
They first suspect Violet can enter Xaden’s dreams because of the mental bond they share through their dragons. However, as they discuss it, Violet reflects on a different dream she had earlier in the book. In it, she fled a fire at Cliffsbane, the gryphon flier school, and couldn’t hold onto a portrait of her family as her friend Cat dragged her away. Violet wonders aloud if she was experiencing her friend Maren’s dream, as Maren and Cat are best friends.
The confession makes Xaden realize that Violet is a dream-walker, a powerful form of an inntinnsic, or mind reader, who can enter other people’s dreams while they sleep. After Andarna confirms the signet, Violet realizes she must have developed her dream-walking ability when Andarna was in a deep sleep. Andarna grew from a juvenile to an adolescent while sleeping for weeks, and Violet’s power was looking for a way to connect with Andarna while she was unconscious.
Xaden, who has kept his inntinnsic ability to read people’s intentions secret from everyone but Violet, explains to her that her signet is particularly dangerous because riders have no defense against it.
“I can only read someone while they’re awake, and I’m limited by their ability to shield,” he told her in the book. “No one can shield while they’re sleeping.”
He adds to her that she could enter the dream of even the most powerful general in the Navarre army without his knowledge, telling her many would kill her because of her second signet.
Although her dreams in “Onyx Storm” reveal her second signet, Violet was clearly dream-walking unknowingly in “Iron Flame” as well. In the book, she repeatedly dreamed of confronting a venin Sage who told her she would turn for love. Violet didn’t turn venin, but Xaden did to save Violet, indicating that the Sage was speaking to him in the dreams, not Violet.
Violet hasn’t mastered dream-walking yet
By the end of ” Onyx Storm, ” Violet doesn’t know how to use her new signet intentionally; she only accidentally enters other people’s dreams.
In most of the dreams she inhabits throughout the book, Violet views the scene from the perspective of the person sleeping, though she can sometimes recognize she is dreaming and attempt to wake herself up.
However, in the final dream of “Onyx Storm,” Violet realizes she is in Xaden’s dream. She then appears as herself in the dream alongside him and confronts the Sage. The Sage hints that the venin have taken Violet’s sister, which proves true when Violet wakes up. Violet is also able to end the dream by summoning a knife and stabbing herself with it.
The interaction indicates that the Sage can communicate in the dream world as Violet can, and it gives clues as to how she may operate more deliberately when dream-walking, such as using pain to wake herself and actively recognizing the dream as someone else’s to become herself.
Xaden also tells Violet he believes she can “meddle” in people’s dreams, as she stops him from channeling power from the ground in one of his nightmares. Violet hasn’t fully explored that ability yet, and it may be difficult for her to learn to wield her dream-walking signet since she must be asleep to practice.
Andarna also says Violet has been “mostly drawn to” Xaden’s dreams since she manifested, though maybe she will spend more time in other people’s dreams in the fourth book.
Fans had other theories on what Violet’s second signet could have been
There were multiple popular theories about Violet’s signet before Yarros revealed it, including distance wielding and communicating with the dead.
As Yarros writes in “Iron Flame,” distance wielders can “cross hundreds of miles in a single step,” and there hasn’t been one among the riders for multiple centuries when Violet enters Basgiath.
Readers suspected Violet may be a distance wielder because Andarna told her at the end of “Iron Flame” that she waited 650 years before hatching so she could bond with her specifically, and there seemed to be instances where Violet moved faster than the average rider.
However, it turns out Garrick Tavis, Xaden’s best friend, actually has distance wielding as his second, secret signet, which he uses to help Violet and their friends throughout “Onyx Storm.”
The idea that Violet could communicate with the dead came from her interactions with what she believes is a hallucination of her friend Liam Mairi, who died at the end of “Fourth Wing.”
Liam appears to Violet when she is held hostage by General Varrish in “Iron Flame.” He speaks to Violet throughout her imprisonment and even touches her shoulder at one point, though no one else can see him. When Violet calls him a hallucination, Liam makes an offhand comment about the possibility of Malek, the god of death, sending him to her.
Perhaps Liam was just a hallucination, or his appearance could be related to Violet’s connection to the god Dunne that Yarros slowly revealed in “Onyx Storm.”
The fourth book in the “Empyrean” series will likely explore how the gods affect Violet’s fate, though neither Yarros nor her publisher, Red Tower, have shared a release date or anything about the next book’s plot.
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