Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
I certainly hope that she’s just hidden away somewhere, and Nektas and Sera will be reunited with the sweet girl again so they can help her heal.
When Ires is rescued, he says that she’s somewhere in the Willow Plains. Hopefully, Poppy, Cas and their allies can locate and save her if she is.
HOLLAND (A.K.A SIR BRAYLON HOLLAND)
A Spirit of Fate. One of the Arae.
Hair: Closely cropped.
Eyes: Hickory-hued.
Facial features: Brown, smooth skin.
Personality: Gentle. Kind. Compassionate. Honest.
Other: Appears to be in his forties. In a relationship with Penellaphe—a goddess.
Background: Posed as a Knight of the Royal Guard from the time Sera was seven, teaching Sera how to deal with her anxiety and taking care of her in each decade of her life. When Sera healed her cat Butters, he told her she did nothing wrong but urged her to be careful. Tavius sent him off on a ship to the Vodina Isles the day after the King died.
HOLLAND’S JOURNEY TO DATE:
Holland first appeared in my visions as Sir Braylon Holland, a Knight of the Royal Guard in Lasania. He wasn’t, however, present on Seraphena’s birthday when the Crown presented her to the Primal God of Death.
When the Lords of the Vodina Isles arrive, Holland is shocked by their refusal of the Crown’s deal and bothered by how they look at Sera. The Queen’s order for Sera to deal with them angers him, even though he’s known for Sera’s entire life what she’s been trained to do…to be.
Still believing that the Primal God of Death will come for her, he carries on, training her as best he can while also protecting her as much as he is able—the Arae are forbidden from directly interfering.
Seeing—and possibly knowing—that Tavius is a threat, Holland warns her. He also asks what’s going on with her. When she says she’s unworthy, it surprises him, and he tells her that isn’t the case at all. He says that she carries the ember of life inside her. Hope. And the possibility of a future. When he said that, it seemed he meant the deal and the Rot. However, we now know that he was being literal.
When Sera asks him why he isn’t married, he responds that he just hasn’t felt like doing it. The romantic in me thinks it’s because he has Penellaphe. The realist in me knows it’s likely because he can’t.
After Sera witnesses the seamstress rising after dying from an attack, she asks him what happened. He replies that he has no idea what such an abomination would be and asks her where she heard about it. I wonder if that’s true. He’s an Arae. Wouldn’t they know all about the Revenants and Craven?
Ezra tracks them down in their hidden spot while they’re training, and Holland is a bit annoyed that she is aware of their activities—especially since he knows that Sera let the Princess follow her. He questions Ezmeria as to why she and the orphanage need Sera’s aid and is irked that his training with Sera is cut short.
Sera is attacked, and Holland checks on her, then later attends Odetta’s funeral. A couple of days later, he learns of Sera’s headache and stomach issues and asks her if her jaw hurts. When she tells him it does, he brings her something for it. We later learn it was a tea that helps a god get through their Culling. He also tells her about Sotoria and says she reminds him of the woman. Reminds? She shares a soul with her.
After all the details were revealed to me, it was interesting to look back on the things I saw happen between these two and their discussions. Holland really was skirting the line of propriety when it came to interfering.
Once Sera is in the Shadowlands, she sees him as he enters the throne room. After her shock, he admits that he’s known her for most of her life. That he trained her. He tells Sera to call him Holland and explains that he’s not a viktor, saying, “That honor is not mine.”
He goes on to explain that he knew his time in the mortal realm was over when Tavius reassigned him to the Vodina Isles. He didn’t go because he knew Sera and Nyktos would want to talk to him. When she asks him how he’s stayed so young, he tells her that he’s ageless because of the whiskey he drinks.
I think maybe I can claim that, too.
Later, he says that he never directly intervened. He couldn’t tell her the Rot wasn’t tied to the deal or the pointlessness of her endeavor, though he was pushing it with the healing tea.
When asked why he got involved at all, Holland confesses that he knew Eythos when he was the Primal God of Life and considered him a friend, though he didn’t know what would become of him. He insists that if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to stand by, and would have intervened, even knowing the punishment for such an act is final death.