2.4.44
on May 26, 2025
at 3:00 am
man that was wild it feels like I just spent five months as a rock or something
Chapter 4 is officially done! Chapter 5 will start in a few weeks.
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
man that was wild it feels like I just spent five months as a rock or something
Chapter 4 is officially done! Chapter 5 will start in a few weeks.
First?
Also, why is the first thing everyone thinks about the damn boat?
Because last time they were on it it was on fire and burning, (wait. No. Those are the same thing 😅) and everyone else was on it, and now they are not on it. I think its shorthand for ‘what on earth HAPPENED?!?
Also congrats on being actually first! 😀
Thank you 🙂
It’s also worth noting that the boat was on fire and burning partially because of him, so I can imagine he’s worried that he sank the boat
It’s possible that Dainix literally doesn’t know how he got here or what’s going on. Last time after Zuurith he said his memories of transforming are vague and in fragments: it’s possible for him he remembers getting attacked on the boat, and then suddenly re-awakening in a literal volcano.
Good memory there (and even better username lol). Sadly, this means the world-shaking loredrop of the true nature of LD and VD likely remains a mystery. Poor Erin will have to figure it out the hard way (and score two for two on making a huge scientific breakthrough on something the audience figured out ages ago lol).
To be fair, Erin didn’t have the benefit of seeing the prologue where the Void Dragon is foiled by his intended minions gaining the ability to think for themselves.
Honestly, its because that panel immediately made me think of a ship
Because it was an excellent boat.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: most important part of the body to rebuild first: hands with which to hold kitty
Image source: what
Then the poncho. Kitty needs something to play with.
I can think of something else for the kitty to play with 😀
Important Bluesky Text: and that’s it for chapter 4! as usual I’ll be taking a few weeks between the chapters to get chapter 5 all sorted
At last, I finally know what the “or something” is in “rock or something”!
https://i.imgur.com/i0NNzGo.jpeg
That’s really funny, what XD
tumblr text: mission complete
I have never seen someone so wide-eyed looking directly at a fire. Danix princess-carrying Falst was not on my bingo card.
10/10.
If anyone could look directly at an open flame, it’d be someone with slitted pupils, like our local Catboy.
As red said in a previous chapter (probably), in this world, it’s princess carry or be princess carried.
MY BOY IS BACK
And he’s back!
The volcanic ignans must be going “Oh shit! That’s a demon!” Meanwhile, Falst is probably berating himself internally for not trying to question Caliban and Dainix is understandably out of the loop.
So now, the Crustables have a fireseed shard that they don’t know what to do with. The Ruunasibs are Planning™, Kendal is having a chat with Rakhn, and Alinua is… well, presumably having grand ol’ time Under the Sea (cue the song).
I totally forgot that Danix was a demon and that everyone except the squad is terrified of them.
And also, I LOVE PANEL 3. That looks SO PRETTY and SO SWEET and I forgot how much I missed Danix he the best.
Not everyone just Ignans
Love the last two panels. Falst is looking at the shard like “Why the hell did I need this if tossing him in lava would’ve worked just as well?” and Dainix’s first words as a reconstituted person is asking for a Sit-Rep.
Oh, wait. This is more of a “How much did I hurt everyone?” question, isn’t it? Well, at least Falst can say it was a Deep-Sea monster rather than a Fire Demon.
He should safekeep it for later when Dainix gets cold again and they don’t have a handy volcano nearby.
I actually called this! Good God! A theory of mine was correct!
Maybe naturally occuring Fire WOULD have work after all, but Caliban wanted them to interact with Rakhn for a different reason. Fascinating. Fascinating indeed…
Maybe using the Fireseed would have permanently enhanced Dainix somehow.
Maybe a normal fire wouldn’t be enough but a volcano would?
I’m thinking perhaps that piece of fireseed is something Caliban really wanted, and this situation just happened to give them the perfect excuse.
My first theory is Caliban wanted the Dainix restart to happen away from Rakhn.
My second theory is this, yes, Caliban could use a fireseed shard, thankyouverymuch.
But I’m leaning towards theory one, since it was unpredictable that Dainix would get dunked in lava.
I’m wondering if Falst being about to die was what really reactivated Dainix. But I don’t think Red would do that, I get the feeling that kind of trope would really annoy her.
Oh, it worked! Could’ve just thrown him into lava!
Somebody owes us an explanation why we were trying to steal from a god…
Also, Falst’s face and pose as he’s being carried. Awwwww
I knew it! Dainix remanifesting and catching Falst was the only way I could see Falst getting out of this.
Love the parallel between Dainix and Erin asking about the boat. “Yes, while you were out…” cold, that is.
Cue some fairly stunned Ignans. And I’m willing to bet that the reason Caliban wanted them to steal a shard of fireseed and not just dunk Dainix in lava has to do with Caliban not wanting to reveal Dainix to Rakhn. I have no doubt Rakhn’s going to be Very Interested in our Crucible — and I bet he has information about Crucibles. If anyone’s going to know about Crucibles, it’s going to be a fire god, and Rakhn doesn’t want to use Dainix as a tool. Perhaps Dainix might just get information from a neutral party?
oh that’s a good point. I figured it was just Caliban being chaotic and making things more difficult than they needed to be.
Caliban’s chaotic, that’s true, but they also demonstrated a lot on impatience with Tahraim when it seemed like he was wasting time. So I think when it comes Caliban’s plans for Dainix, nothing is random. That’s my read on Caliban anyway.
My read on Red is she loves subverting the readers’ expectations, and the last thing we expect is Rakhn to prove helpful. Therefore….
I have to add, that panel with Dainix remanifested, holding Falst, is breathtaking. What a treat for the holiday.
Yeah ok we are way past handholding at this point, you might as well kiss him, buddy
Tactically, of course
Of course
There is no other way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
THE BOY IS BACK!
Oh the shippers are gonna have a fun time with this one. Also Danix is beautiful in this page
Yes, yes we are. Panel 3 just about did me in, lol
I immediately went to AO3, but it seems I need to give a little bit of time for the *squeeeeeeee*s to settle down before they can start writing /lh
I feel like that third panel may be the most adorable we ever see Falst be in this comic, and also that he’s learning things about himself (which I cannot blame him for, as I too would be learning things about myself in such a situation).
Looks like someone didn’t need a piece of a fire seed after all… Is its actual use even related to Dainix or was Caliban just multitasking in having them steal it for some other project of theirs (maybe as payment to Tahraim?) while also ensuring Dainix got de-rocked?
HE’S BACK!!! also someone add another tick to the bridal carry count
What’s it at now? xD
i n f i n i t y
Huh, I was expecting another person’s comment suggesting that Falst was going to bubble up briefly to be correct.
I will says *damn*, but that’s a fast reaction time. Wake up, start transforming, analyze that there is a cat-boy that needs safe catching, and complete the process while using a fire powered jump/brief flight.
Falst would have been only 1-2 seconds behind the stone form of Dainix.
I was thinking about his fast reaction time too! It would make sense that he was unconscious as a rock, but now I’m second guessing that. This looks like the fastest transformation he’s had, and the furthest transformation too. Coming out of it (i.e. after Tynan fight), he seemed disoriented. Has he just gotten more accustomed to transforming since then?
Or maybe the fact that Dainix is literally surrounded by fire this time of might have helped? Like a magical boost of adrenaline or something?
I knew it ! I knew Dainix didn’t need the shard ! It was just for the plans of those two little trickster deities. Ooh, Caliban, if I catch you in the streets, it’s OVER for you !!!
If I was them I’d visibly ditch the shard as I got the hell out of there. They don’t need it any more, and the gods can go kick rocks.
Looks like we didn’t need the primal fire. Just magma is enough
Aurora Question #49: Which character dynamic in Aurora is your favourite?
On an unrelated note: BRIDAL CARRY BRIDAL CARRY BRIDAL CARRY
Aughghhh! How can I decide? I love them all so much. Here are some highlights!
Kendal + Alinua: very sweet, love how they aren’t pushed to be romantic
Alinua + Falst: chaos buddies
Erin + Tess: siblings. They are so siblings. I loved that bit where tess told VD that Erin isn’t more trouble than he’s worth ‘even on is worst day’. And then, when he wakes up says that he’s almost worse than VD 😆
Falst + Dainix: hilarious, sweet, enough said
Hear me out: Kendal and Vash. I’ve previously laid out my analysis of their dynamic on page 40 of this arc (the one where kendal drops the one-liner), but I’ll give a quick summary. Basically, Kendal and Vash are very similar personality-wise, but the reason you don’t notice it that much is because Kendal is much more subdued than Vash. They both want to make sure nobody dies for them, which is why Vash and Kendal fight each other at the end of the Collector’s interrogation scene. Kendal isn’t as outgoing or as confident as Vash, but they hold a lot of the same beliefs and will behave similarly when placed in a situation of life and death. Kendal was ready to die before any of his party got hurt. Vash was willing to do the same for his city.
whoops that wasn’t much of a summary
I liked it! (put tinfoil cap on head). That was concise. (smile)
I am biased heavily in favor of Falst and Dainix because I’m a sucker for the big warrior sweetheart cutting through the clever, tough little angry dude’s emotional defenses (with mixed results admittedly) and the ride-or-die way they’ve backed each other up since the torment slime dungeon. But honestly, all of them are so good.
This is a tough one, because “all of them”, but also “the less common ones, like Tess and Kendal, or Alinua and Erin, or Dainix and Kendal, or Erin and Falst”, because I tend to resist the same characters being put into the same groups (Tess and Erin, Alinua and Kendal, Falst and Dainix…although it makes perfect sense!)
But…I’m going to say Erin and Tarren. Maybe it was just because that’s where I came into the comic for the first time, but Tarren was only on the page for like, 20 pgs, but I saw someone who knew Erin very well, could both challenge him and give him space, and who cared about him. Likewise, Erin obviously had great faith in Tarren’s engineering, was concerned about them pushing themself too far (pot, kettle?) and looked like he came *very* close to telling them what was actually going on.
Plus, every line of dialogue suggested these two have gotten into enough shenanigans to have reserved chairs in front of the Academy Board. The amount of possible “noodle incidents” delights me.
Sorry for the essay :p
you don’t need to aplogise for a paragraph long comment. we like them and even if we didn’t we would get mad at someone like Evil Tree several chapters before we got mad at you ( I don’t remember seeing anyone aplogise for an essay before so I assume this is a first offence)
Honestly what I like the most is that there’s a ton of variety. Like I like this traditional Ship-Tease Relationship between False and Daniel. But I also like Kendal and Aliuna’s non-romantic friendship and Tess and Erin’s Sibling dynamic.
I kinda want to see some new combos more. Like when Aliuna and Erin were arguing about different methods to use life magic. That was fun XD. I feel like Kendal and Dainex would be straight up those bros who hang out and say absolutely nothing the entire time but when someone asks about it they just look confused and go “Wait huh? we’re having a great time?”
Fellas, is it gay to carry your best bro bridal-style and stare deep into his eyes as you return in fiery glory out of the lava pit of an active volcano?
No it’s just beautifully drawn!
Yes, but it’s decidedly Not Very Gay to do all that and then have the first words out of your mouth be, “What happened to the boat?”
T’was a good thoom 😀
The look of suddenly being bridal-carried is priceless.
…I completely forgot that the last time Dainax was here there was a boat. It must be wild to go unconscious in the middle of the ocean and wake up in a volcano, with your kitty friend falling into lava
well, to… nobody’s surprise, really, Caliban is a liar and Dainix did *not* need that Primordial Fire to wake up.
next theory: Caliban convinced Rakhn to huck meteors at the boat because It’s an Interesting Thing You Like Interesting Things Right?
I would not be surprised by “I’m playing both sides to come out on top” but unfortunately Caliban’s perfect plan of letting the Very Mortal Falst go on the resurrection mission because You Have No Choice backfired because he’s still holding the Fireseed Hunk. But now I suspect we will either have a “Sacrilege” chase/fight out of the caldera or things will get much less tense to match the outside temperature. The only heated relationships here are gonna be with Caliban.
btw i am open to discussing the theory I put forth in 2-4-42 because it’s a really interesting angle to examine the narrative thus far with.
I think, if I get it correctly, you’re saying Falst uses his own soul to affect the world around him in magic-like feats.
The problem for me is that souls can only control a being’s own body. Primordials have gigantic, weird bodies that make up everything in the entire world. Using a primordial soul you can control roughly one sixth of everything on the planet. Void I believe is only a tiny fraction because most of the Dragon’s matter is still within the adamant prison.
A mortal soul can control their own body and all the elemental matter within it, but nothing that hasn’t been incorporated into the body, usually by use of a bit void matter. (Possible relation to Dainix’ recent issue: he ran out of fire matter, but as a rock he cannot easily incorporate more of it into himself to un-rockify himself. Stabbing a shard of primordial fire itself into him would overcome that issue. Or dropping him into lava, I guess.)
Gods are special because they can freely decide what does and doesn’t make up their body at any moment, incarnating and disincarnating as they please from whatever elemental matter they please. (Alternatively, their entire domain counts as their “body” for soul-purposes. Counterargument: people gods don’t incarnate from their people). They can also do stunts like awaken starmetal if they treat is as part of their body (i.e. why Tahraim wanted Vash to make the ingot “his own”). Possibly, my spontaneous theory, why Kendal could only use starfire from the sword after stabbing himself, because he now sees Kendal the Sword as a part of himself and not Somebody Else’s Weapon He Happens To Have. Now his very unique quasi-god soul extends into the blade enough to awaken it.
But, point is, mortals can’t do that. Probably. Falst can’t just pretend his body was elsewhere and stretch his soul over there to do magic with that. Gods can do that because they can exist without their bodies. Falst’s soul would just fall apart, like all the other souls the Collector has taken to study in the past.
Hopping onto that, Red is very clear with her color-coding and palettes. Falst has very clearly used Light magic, and Light is connected to consciousness and will. How exactly this is possible, we don’t know. My personal theory is that Falst essentially brute-forced a soul channel, possibly not unlike how the Paladins’ initiation works.
Void and Light channels aren’t something one can be born with, but instead need to be artificially induced, see: Erin and the Paladins. Notably, this has precedent as Ancients had the ability to connect with LD and the Paladins also count ferin among their ranks.
See, now this is something I didn’t know. But I do have a different question: Do you need to have a connection with LD to be a Paladin? Further to that, if Falst has a connection to LD, why hasn’t the LD interacted with him? It’s very obvious that he’s done some of that stuff right in front of Tam, and we know LD can talk to any person with a channel open to her. It’s frankly rather strange. I’d also point out that the way that Falst has done his Difficult to Explain Thing has consistently been to do with hand-shapes, like pulling apart the Diadem or slashing the Glunk. It seems that leveraging the Light Dragon’s power is mandatorily connected to having a link to her, in all instances we have seen. Reviewing 1-22-37, I agree that the colouration of the slash is similar in style to the Paladins’ magic, but the way it’s invoked and how it appears is frankly different as compared to other Light Dragon abilities we’ve seen (the breath weapon, the Diadem in 2-3-9), and Falst’s eyes don’t whiteout when what is assumed to be Light powers are being used (2-3-13). The only similar moment is when LD uses Theia’s eyes without her permission in 1-17-29. So the dilemma is: If Falst has a connection to the Light Dragon and we know the Light Dragon’s motives are the destruction of Erin, why did Tam have to spend time finding them? Tam’s arrival on the boat makes it seem like LD and Tam were having trouble locating Erin. Couldn’t LD just leverage the connection she has to Falst instead? It seems more likely to me that Falst is leveraging an internal reservoir of energy to do his tricks as opposed to the Light Dragon, because otherwise we need to add the variable of “special connection because of some part of his character” and Occam’s Razor doesn’t like that.
I don’t know how he’s using it, but I’m pretty sure that it is Light magic – as per other people’s comments, red has pretty clearly said (often in external sources) that humans can’t really control soul magic. Besides, Ferin have a notoriously robust and sturdy soul – they may be the least likely to have such an ability
I wrote a longer comment that is currently “awaiting moderation”, probably for being too long or having too many Tumblr posts in it, but I’d like to point out here that 1.14.23 is probably the best comparison between a paladin using light magic and Falst using light magic at 2.3.13. Tam’s eyes are completely white when using magic because he’s her avatar, not because that happens to everyone when using her power. Theia’s eyes just glow a little white, if we zoomed in further it would probably look just like Falst’s eyes.
Re: Rai626, I also noticed that 1.14.25 has Erin’s eyes glowing purple when he uses Wind to compose the messenger-bird.
Re: AsTheLightFades, yeah, that’s my problem with this so far, because it creates what appears to be a flaw in a pattern we have observed: 100% of dragon-magic users were able to be contacted, or were directly subservient (debatable wrt Erin and/or other Void avatars) to the granters of that power. We know, for absolute certain, that every single Light user before Falst was subservient to the Lady, and every Void user was under the influence of the Void Dragon. Falst, as far as we can see, is in contact with neither dragon, which is what makes me wonder if he is using Light magic at all. I find it difficult to say that the Lady is unaware of her powers being used, especially considering how powerful they can be, and how this supposed Light magic has directly contravened her will.
@NamelessTruename
Changing eye colors started happening around the Zuurith arc whenever anyone uses elemental magic and has happened consistently since then. Probably a change in artstyle on Red’s part to add that detail.
And to your reply to AsTheLightFades, I disagree. Strongly. Take a look at chapter 0 of this arc: The Lady took a dragon and flew it for like two weeks straight halfway across the planet to deliver an urgent message to the head of the Paladins. If even a meaningful fraction, let alone 100%, of her magic users were able to be contacted at any time, surely Hornbearer Stefan would be among them, no? But she was only able to send him a direct telepathic message after he specifically asked her to show him Erin’s face.
My theory would much moreso be that Paladins can call out to the Lady at any time and she can reply if and only if they call out first.
Theia called out to her when she realized Erin was the void avatar, and only after that did she have a conversation with the Lady.
Huracan’s acolyte called out to the Lady as a part of learning to be a dragon priest.
Stefan “called out” to her during the conversation with the messenger dragon.
Tam is an exception here because he has a special “dragon avatar” link to her, which, just like Erin’s, lets the dragon communicate with him directly at any time.
That means, Falst has a weak connection to her from sometime in his mysterious origins maybe from his mysterious father, but he doesn’t know she even exists or how to use that link. He would never call out to her, therefore she can’t contact him.
Yes, having a link to her without knowing about it goes against what VERY LITTLE we know about these links, but to me, that doesn’t point to “it’s not a link to the Lady at all” it points to “something’s weird about Falst’s origin that we or even he don’t know yet because he’s notoriously uncommunicative.”
The problem with that, I think, is that the Light Dragon isn’t, to our knowledge, mish-mashed together in the planet with all the other Primordials. As far as we know, she is alive and well, and not imprisoned. And that distinction between the form of an individual and their soul is important. There is fire and Fire, air and Air, life and Life. We know that you can drain the magical properties from an area without harming the area as given by the existence of spelleaters (1-10-14) so we know that the specific energies that people leverage to perform magic (ie parts of the Primordials’ souls) are distinct and separate from their bodies. We also look at gods like Vash, whose form is the crater of Vash and body the city. I frankly don’t like the concept of “gods can use whatever magic they like because their bodies are made of whatever they want” because gods are comparable in some respects to humanoids and we know it definitely doesn’t work that way for humanoids. We also know that Tahraim didn’t expect Vash to do what he did with the starmetal (1-17-17). I prefer the interpretation that gods are only capable of incarnating using part of their domain. Now, we know that using Primordial magic is akin to instructing a tiny part of that Primordial as they once did when they were alive, akin to how a humanoid uses their soul to tell their body to move. We also know that the souls of Primordials can be coaxed to do things that aren’t necessarily in their default purview, like Dainix’s transmutative properties which definitely aren’t only acting on the parts of him composed of Fire. So we know that souls can act on things that are not their forms. We know, from LD and VD being ostensibly not part of the rest of the world, that soul energies don’t have to be attached to the form of the user. So what prevents a humanoid from leveraging their own soul energies, as a god or Primordial might, save the lack of knowledge of how to do it?
If gods can only move parts of their domain, than how can gods of concepts like Tahraim or Caliban incarnate anywhere? How could Tynan use rocks to make his cool swords?
That’s the trick. If you look, Tynan’s swords aren’t made of metal. When he gets damaged, his swords turn to fog. He’s making them out of water and air. Tahraim has his Forge Pocket Dimension he uses (see Red’s tumblr), but more broadly, concept gods can incarnate anywhere that concept has power, so anywhere people know about it. As such, you could very much expect Caliban to show up anywhere people know about Ignans, and considering the diaspora of Ignans (like most other subspecies of Human), that effectively translates to anywhere relevant. Everywhere that the concept matters is their physical domain because their domain is more effectively in concept-space than realspace.
Actually, Nameless Truename, Red has said that Tynan uses tiny pieces of metal in his swords, collected from lightning strikes, to reinforce them!
That’s very interesting, AsThe. I must have missed that in my delving through the tumblr logs in search of additional lore. However, I do feel like the lion’s share of his blades, like his form, aren’t made of metal. I went looking, and 1-17-5 shows this. You can see his sword moving more like cloud. I imagine the swords are probably the most resilient part of that form, and requires the most effort to move, since metal seems to be partially under the purviews of Stone and Lightning, which distinctly would make it harder to move. Shrike, during the hunt for Tess and co, used metal objects to restrain part of the crew using her Stone magic. If Tynan is using metal particulates in his swords, it’s likely what takes the most effort for him to use, but he probably uses them because of its ability to induce fear. I still reject that Tynan is capable of using just any element, because otherwise his ill-advised dragon form would have been a lot more sturdy and a bit less (*insert Tynan screeching in pain whenever he gets a booboo in that form*)
@ NamelessTruename I agree with you that they’re not entirely made from metal, but i think that gods inability to move most of their domains is due to the fragility and inflexibility of said domains, not some innate block to it!
If you zoom in on his eyes on the pages were Falst uses Light you can see they do start glowing white.
I pointed this out in my reply to Mat 🙂
I think that the reason most gods can’t control most of their domain is that it isn’t built to move – Vash moving his city would have… well…destroyed it. The only powerful God with a fully flexible and mobile domain – Tynan – could move it with ease.
Hm, few problems:
To our current knowledge since Tahraims appearance one the boat, the Light Dragon is a part of the Void Dragon, who is very much part of the world. Every living being created by the twins contains void matter to be able to consume food (and probably do other things that are the Light’s deal). Both are transmutations of each other, i.e. part of the same element.
We also know, from Red’s tumblr and from VD’s statement “this is me, but I did not choose to bring me here” on the boat that the way he uses void magic with Erin is by pushing part of his physical matter through Erin’s soul link. (See these: https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/729474204562554880/im-not-sure-if-it-would-be-a-spoiler-to-answer and https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/739865890705768448/is-the-ability-to-be-a-mage-inherent-to-the ) Only a living primordial that is still in one piece can do that, like the Dragon. Both of them.
What a spelleater is eating is the primordial SOUL energy, not the matter. Which is confusing in the cases of fire, lightning, and life, because both life matter and life energy are some nebulous “energy”. Without the soul present, no mage can channel any of it to control the matter, but the matter that was once the primordial’s body is still very much there.
We know body and soul are separate because that’s what happens when something dies; the soul is disconnected from the body. Magic is the temporary reconnection of the two. Draining the soul makes magic impossible but doesn’t harm the dead body, because it was already maximally harmed in the form of death. This doesn’t mean you can remove a living being’s soul without hurting its body.
I think Red has at some point pretty much confirmed what I said about gods and their incarnation: https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/675615546091470848/so-a-city-god-and-nature-god-have-pretty-obvious
The limitation of location-based gods to just their own domain to take from is tautological because they can’t incarnate anywhere else anyway.
I’d strongly disagree that gods are essentially just fancy humanoids. Their souls are made of nebulous “soul energy”, but that’s where the similarity ends.
Tahraim didn’t expect Vash to turn the ingot into an arm after losing one, but he did explicitly demand he make it “his own”. He didn’t care how, “there’s no one way to do anything”, but Vash had to make it his own.
All the elements have certain special “higher” properties, like fire with transmutation. Dainix transmuting his body is not applying fire-soul energy to other matter in his body (he’s not using fire’s soul at all, he does in fact use his own soul, but only to control fire matter that was already part of his own body). Fire MATTER applied to any other element can transmute that element into other forms of itself if done properly.
Similarly, maybe, if I interpret her words correctly, the Collector is using massive amounts of life matter to control the rest of the primordials, not Life’s soul directly. Maybe. The Collector and her mechanics slightly confuse me, tbh. But that’s a property of life matter when brought to “life” by its soul energy, not a thing the soul energy itself can do.
And to your reply to Mat:
Paladins only forge their connection to the Light Dragon after they joined the paladins, so you don’t need one to be a Paladin, but I assume most have some connection.
We can only speculate why LD hasn’t communicated with him, but it seems fairlly likely to me that she just doesn’t know about him. Back in 2.0. she was spread too thin and unfocused, which means she’s limited in the amount of multitasking she can do. Tam notably did not notice that Falst broke his diadem because Kendal was distracting enough and then Dainix exploded, and then VD broke them all at once anyway. Tam and the Dragon never paid attention to Falst and just did not notice he did anything.
LD might not know Falst exists because she has links to many thousands or, I don’t know what the population count of this world is, millions of paladins that constantly invoke her power in little ways. She can’t pay attention to them all.
It IS weird that he has a link that otherwise has to be consciously forged without knowing about it. However I think it would also be weird to explicitly bring it up on the boat that Falst’s light stuff appears to be the same as Tam’s if it turns out to be a misdirect and it’s actually a pure coincidence that it’s the same color and works on light magic constructs.
As another note, what little we’ve seen of Falst’s dad looked suspiciously like a paladin’s uniform, which led to the common theory that his dad is a Paladin. Possibly, for drama purposes, a high-ranking one they’ll eventually run into as an enemy. This would offer the beginning of an explanation where he’d get this link from without remembering it. Then LD just lost track of this random, unimportant Ferin who never used his power in the years between his mother’s death and now.
That got a lot longer than I really meant it to be.
Hm. Okay, I’ll concede what seems to be more likely, after reviewing the evidence. I’ll keep this in my back pocket, though, mostly because of the Rule of Cool. This, of course, hinges on Falst’s Dad being a Paladin and/or Falst being intentionally initiated into the Light Dragon’s power. We know from title text and Red’s comments on pages that she tries really hard to keep all her magic colours separate and distinct (especially the Starfire/Light distinction which apparently caused her some problems). If it was an intentional misdirection play, she probably wouldn’t have had Falst’s inner monologue borrow some cues from the LD’s monologue.
It’s pretty obvious that when it comes to the relationship between VD and LD we’ve got a yin-yang situation going on. Whether they are two aspects of the same whole is different, though. The other instance where fire was used to transmute something was Dainix’s Speed Therapy. We’ve seen Light get transmuted into Void and vice versa, but I wouldn’t be straight up saying they are the same entity because of that. I don’t really have many points on the subject beyond “I don’t think that’s what’s Red’s going for”, though.
As an aside: I’d like to compliment you all on remaining civil in this discussion. It’s lovely to not get into flamewars over possible future plot-points.
To expand on this:
‘A mortal soul can control their own body’
Technically, yes, but its not common. Humans cannot directly control soul matter like they would elemental matter – which is why the soulshaper monks exist, who know how to indirectly do so.
‘Alternatively, their entire domain counts as their “body” for soul-purposes. Counterargument: people gods don’t incarnate from their people’
Actually – one does! The god of merfolk incarnates as a newborn merfolk, as Red says in this post. Very unusual, though. https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/628202822604931072/what-can-you-tell-us-about-merfolk-and-leviathans
Oh, very interesting!
Though to be clear, I didn’t mean the soul part like the soulshapers, which can control and manipulate the soul itself. To my understanding, the way people in this world make their bodies move at all is via their soul.
I went looking through Tumblr for something specifically stating this, and found this post that is very very interesting for this whole discussion:
https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/641853362010243072/if-you-were-to-use-soul-shaping-to-grow-a-new
I’d assumed that that wasn’t the only was the only way people move, that’s all : )
I wasn’t sure about it, but I’ve gone and checked some of Reds Q&As and they seem to imply the existence of a muscular / nervous system (eg. Lightning magic paralyses Erin’s *nerves* not the ability of his soul to control his body)
Still not sure about this, when I get Tumblr I’ll ask red directly 😄
HOLY SHITTT
We could have just dropped him into the volcano this entire time???
OH???
As much as it’s now obvious the fire seed wasn’t necessary and was presumably part of some different plan entirely, stealing it did result in Rakhn calming down. I doubt Caliban had that specific plan in mind but I bet they’ll claim that it had to be done for that reason.
Also IT’S BEEN FIVE MONTHS. I completely lost track of how long it’s been since they washed up on that beach.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I love this page so much. Beautifully drawn Dainix bridal carrying Falst. Falst’s shock and confusion, and him still holding the fireseed fragment. That (darkly funny) question at the end, paired with a heart-wrenchingly concerned expression from Dainix.
I am extremely happy that Falst gets to be carried after carrying Dainix this whole time. Little dude deserves it.
It looks like my prediction was partly correct: the lava was potent enough to restore Dainix. I had thought there might be some drawback, though, like a risk of him being less stable initially due to an overwhelming amount of fire, and that doesn’t appear to be the case. So this sparks the question: why did Caliban send them after the fireseed shard instead of suggesting the lava bath? Falst looks like he’s wondering the same thing. Typical trickster god, conveniently leaving out alternatives in favor of whatever they’re plotting…
I’m curious as to how the volcano Ignans are going to react to this as well. Maybe they’ll want to understand the situation, know something useful about soulfire, and be willing to help?
AAAHHH I’M CRYING ;__; ^__^
I know it can be summed up with “Magic” or “Plot” but… BLOODY HOW?!?
Okay so, if I understood correctly:
According to Caliban, what Dainix needed was sufficient elemental fire to rekindle himself and then detransform. The campfire wouldn’t have worked because it’s too small, whereas starfire wouldn’t have worked because it’s the wrong kind of fire. Dainix lost the fire in his body on the boat, and needed new fire. This, we have no reason to doubt.
What Caliban then said was that the best way to get this fire was with a Fireseed. Fireseeds draw in fire energy, which is why they cause volcanos. A lot of fire, simply put, so basically a battery for Dainix. And they presented this as the only solution, but we now know that lava (fire-infused stone, I think) held sufficient fire for him to rekindle again. Maybe it won’t work as well, he might need a nap or something, but he got the fire back nonetheless. So Caliban seems to have lied by omission here. Or maybe just being near the fireseed was enough, because it draws in fire it presumably is surrounded by a lot of fire energy. Maybe it has an aura of fire or something?
I think that Red has said that lava is a fire-stone unstable fusion! (In the same way that adamant is a six element fusion)
I was more wondering how was it possible so fast but I do appreciate the theorizing (:
thank goodness he was rebirthed with his pants and poncho
I get what you’re going for and it’s very funny but that got my brain doing brain things and I’m pretty sure when he goes demon-mode his poncho and pants don’t burn up (the poncho can’t burn up because it’s made of wyrm silk) so I think they’re part of his form. Very clever play on Red’s part lol.
You just know that from panel 3 on Falst is blushing like crazy, if this happened to me I’d be SWOONING.
Scfeaming crying of joy spinning around in my seat
Caliban’s true intentions are revealed: to get Falst princess carried by Dainix in both his forms (called it) and to give our edgy catboi an edgy anime scarf (unless the scarf is getting reclaimed now that the heist is done)
Gently cradled by flames, Falst sees
Dainix reform with questions and pleas
I did not think I had a shipper in me, but OH MY GODS panel 3
Every. Single. Time I see panel 3, I die from Cuteness Overload.
dare i say… that’s hot
Boooooo
Tomato tomato tomato
He’s back! and so frickin’ cool!
Also, the fire seed wasn’t used? So, does that mean Caliban was setting them up?
Yes. Yes, they were.
think it’s less of setting them up and more of a guaranteed fixing danix with a fireseed versus gambling on a lava dunk
Now if Erin said that to Falst he’d get chewed out, but when Dainix says it to him it’s cute and endearing. Double standards much.
Dainix looks downright majestic in panel 3, almost like Phoenix from X-Men TAS with the fire wreathing. Honestly all three panels of the fire dying down and solidifying to become Dainix, all while holding onto Falst, is amazing. Dainix’s worried expression in the final panel is also on point; he might think he destroyed the boat while in demon form.
… They didn’t need the fireseed shard?! While it’s possible Caliban didn’t realise this, I’m doubtful; they and/or Tahraim should know enough about Crucibles to have seen this coming. Dainix also looks fine, so any argument that the shard would have made a cleaner/healthier transformation falls apart.
Maybe this was part of the “entertain Rakhn” scheme, and Cali needed to lie to the boys otherwise they wouldn’t have done it; maybe they now return the shard so that there’s no chance of bad blood between them and Rakhn. Maybe Caliban and Tahraim have a plan for this shard, either to enhance Dainix further, or make a weapon for him (he did lose his spear with the ship after all).
Ok, now the Ignan guards have me concerned again. If we’re lucky, maybe their culture regarding demons is different enough from Dainix’s, they’re willing to let them go, if they leave the shard behind. If we’re unlucky, and they also hate and fear demons … the boys better start running, because they’re outnumbered and have no weapons.
While Falst is no doubt angry at Caliban, I wonder how mad he’ll be at himself for not questioning this plan (not that Cali gave him a chance). One reason he chose to do this was because he “barely took a hit in that fight” on the boat; now he’s having to be saved by the person he was trying to save in the first place, after putting him in danger, while following the “wrong” plan.
Both Erin and Falst are going to be in foul moods at the end of this on account of their perceived failures. That coupled with how their personalities clash, and a potential boat blame-game, means things might get ugly after the gang reunion.
I’m not sure that Dainix’s people hate demons, though. Sure, they fear them, but not illogically – we’ve seen the damage that Dainix can do. They didn’t seem angry at him, just like they were making a tough descision for the good of everyone 🤔 But these ones don’t know Dainix, so they could react very badly. Silly me – i was thinking ‘oh! They’ll see that he’s an ignan and stand down’ 😅😭
Considering the story Red posted on Tumblr answering what Rakhn was like before he became a volcano, they might view crucibles in a better light because the preistess was one? She was able to negotiate with Rakhn and let the ignans live there.
can someone link to this Tumblr post?
This is the one I was talking about:
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/782917011370016768/what-was-rakhn-like-pre-volcano-fication
But I misremembered some of its, contents; this is where I got the rest:
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/782437472567246848/why-did-ignans-decide-to-colonise-the-volcano-in
I think they mean this one:
https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/782437472567246848/why-did-ignans-decide-to-colonise-the-volcano-in?source=share
“the Fireseed’s firemage priestess in the same moment had become a humanoid pillar of awakened flame. […] at the end of the three days, Rakhn’s eruption ceased and the priestess returned to her human form to tell her people that the Fireseed was safe, and its warmth would be theirs to shelter in.”
Not explicit-explicit, but fairly obvious that this priestess was a demon/crucible.
My theory is that stealing a shard of the fireseed would’ve enabled them to do a restart of Dainix out of Rakhn’s reach. That then would’ve kept Dainix under Caliban’s thumb where they could’ve doled out information as they saw fit. Rakhn of course knows about Crucibles — fire god? Yes, of course — and he might give away information Caliban would rather Dainix not have just yet.
Increment that bridal carry counter, folks
Wow. One of the most beautiful panels you’ve done in a bit, red. Congrats!
Also, my boy is back!
Dainix is back! What a wonderful gift to happen on my birthday!
This is a bit late, but happy birthday!!
No way, my birthday was on Sunday (may 25)!
Falst: ‘Let me explain! No, there is too much. Let me sum up.’
Now I’m imagining Falst with the voice Inigo Montoya. ‘Kendal is distracting Rakhn. We need leave the volcano, get him, find everyone else, and leave the island. After I figure out what to do with this fireseed that, as it turns out, we never actually needed.’ Thank you for putting this in my head.
In the scene where Inigo avenges his father, he says “I want my father back you son of a *****.” Some time before that scene was shot, Inigo’s actor, Mandy Patinkin lost his father to cancer. He didn’t have to act out the emotions in that scene. It was all right there. Two people said that line to two different things; Inigo was taking to the Count, and at the same time Mandy was talking to the cancer. It was just something your comment reminded me of. Side note, I wonder if/hope that scene was able to give Patinkin any closure.
BRIDAL CARRY HELL YEAH
on another note I found this comic a few days ago and read through it pretty quickly. Glad to be along for the ride now!
The Twoom was Good!!
Falsty my angsty cat boy- congratulations on getting a bridal carry by a man on fire. I feel like this should be a milestone of some sort.
Man, Dainix rules
“What happened to the ship?”
“…it’s never been stronger”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Alright, that was a good one. Well played, sir.
WELCOME BACK!
I wrote that because you reading this will come back to this page because you ship these two and love their relationship. This page will always be stuck in your mind. So if you just came back to feel good, that’s why I say “welcome back!”
There once was a rock dropped in fire.
With a THOOM Dainix rose from the pyre.
Out of the fiery tide
He carried Falst like a bride,
And Tahraim is proven to be a liar.
I already thought Dainix was gorgeous, but panel three takes it to a whole ‘nother level.
Caliban.
Yay, the lava was good for him!
Caliban: “Whoa whoa, hey. First of all, can you honestly tell me that if I’d shown up and said ‘just toss the rock into the lava and hope for the best’ the catboy here wouldn’t have tried to swipe my head off? This way you got to feel at least a little in control of the situation pretty much all the way through. Second of all, do you know how astronomical the odds are that *next* time Dainix burns out it’ll be a literal stone’s throw away from an active volcano? Now you have a fully portable battery-charger for Crucibles, which you’d have never bothered to pick up without the proper motivation. You’re welcome.”
Actually a good reason why they might not have told our boys about this option. I hope it’ll have been something like this
That 3rd panel is doing things to me. Red how dare you making them so beautiful???
He just needed to retreat inside his gem for a while so he could reform.
What do you know the Trickster God misled us.
As an aroace, who feels no attraction, Dang fire boy
Same here.
Boyfriends back!
in the wise words of monty python:
GET ON WITH IT
Yess, he’s back!! 😀
Just took a hot shower after waking up sick and cold. Felt pretty good. I hope that’s how Dainix felt getting thrown in the lava after being a cold rock all day
Just took a hot shower after waking up sick and cold—it felt nice. I hope that’s how Dainix felt falling into the lava after being a cold rock all day
Let this be a lesson for you—if you comment on this site and your comment doesn’t immediately show up, wait a few minutes before you comment again, as it’s likely your comment is, in fact, posted, but it is invisible
Wow, this is our first time seeing normal Dainix since November 1st 2024. He’s been a fiery boi for a while now lmao
Oh my, that just made me simultaneously very sad (at how long its been) and Very happy at us finally being able to see his glorious face and voice again. I had no idea it’d been that long irl!
I’m having the best time of my life right now.
HELL YEAH
I am predicting which panel people will be asking Red to add to the RedBubble shop next, lol.
(Dainix’s fire-hair looks amazing! I WAS wondering why we couldn’t just yeet him into the volcano and be done with it…but then, maybe we’ll gain a new ally if we promise to tell him stories?)
In this world… it’s bridal carry or be bridal carried!!
Wait, did he reconstruct his entire body, but he’s still only got one eye?
To my understanding, he can only reconstruct his body as his soul “remembers” it. The injury is permanent because his soul already adjusted to not having an eye there.
Falst: “Hot…”
Dainix: “Yeah we’re in a volcano.”
Falst: “Ha ha yeah.”
Lead Guard: ‘Hold! There’s PLOT happening! We dare not interrupt!’
Who needs fire seed when you have the power of friendship and/or shipping?!
YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HEEHEEHEEEEEEEE
Just Dainix! He looks amazing, ethereal, fantastic. I missed him. And the way Falst is looking at him is the way I’m looking at this update.
On another note… What are Caliban’s true intensions if the fireseed wasn’t needed??
My theory is that Caliban was wrong about the Fireseed. Not lying, just honestly mistaken.
Or maybe Tahraim needs it for something. Either way, good kitty!
*Inhales*
YEEAAAAAHH BOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!
LOVE PANEL 3!! 😍😍 OMGOODNESS!!! Perfect heroic moment, and I’m now seriously doubting that I’m not bi, and Oh my goodness, I love that picture!! Eeeeeeeeeh!! I was originally against this ship, but that bomb just blew all my arguments out of the water (pun intended).
Fangirling aside, did anyone else notice Falst was barefoot? …In a fricking VOLCANO!?! (…and did anyone else think it was way too fricken adorable as well?)
He once told Erin that only someone very important to him could make him wear shoes – i would have thought that it would be dainix, but they’ve just been shipwrecked- there were no shoes available xD
OMG TRUE. Silly me, here I am being raised by Gilligan’s Island thinking he can casually get shoes after being ship wrecked hahahah bc obviously he’s gonna wear shoes into a volcano bc Dainix is so special to him XD
😄
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Can I kindly ask for a vertical wallpaper of panel #3? I think it’s the most beautiful panel in the comic, and I’d love to keep looking at it.
Dainix’s hair in panel 3 is the prettiest thing I’ve seen in my life
I do love seeing the wheels turn on Falst’s head, immediately clocking they got played.
Ayyyyy he’s no longer a rock. Indigo will be happy
Goddamn that’s beautiful
I love how he’s looking at that fire shard like ‘i didn’t even need this? i could’ve just thrown him into the volcano and been done with it?’.
I wonder if Caliban knew the fireseed was unnecessary.
I was thinking the same thing!
HE CAN FLY??!?
Hot dam thats a pretty man
my gay ass is so happy right now
Gods, he is so beautiful
Majestic!
“Dainix… it’s… It’s so good to see you, but… we’re not supposed to be here. I’ll explain later, we gotta be tactical rn”
OMG Panel three made my fuckin day. THESE TWO ARE SO CUTE! And Danix is SO COOL!
Be still my gay heart
LMAOOO REAL!!
YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
HE’S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chokes and dies can they please just kiss already
oh my god dainix just got like WAY hotter
So… Did Dainix use up all the fire the lava had? it seems to be water now…
I think that light blue bit (I’m assuming that’s what you meant about the water) is one of the bridge things leading to and from the heart of the volcano, but yeah now that I think about it, it does look a little like water.
I think fire in the world of Aurora is still fire and stone, so if he’d used up the fire it would just be stone, not water 🙂
New favorite panel just dropped
Bridal carry! We got a bridal carry ya’ll!!!!
Falstix or Dainalst?
I think the ship names that have been used so far are Ferinheit and Crustables.
Cue Falst attempting to fight a god the next time we see Caliban. He’s gonna be soooo pissed he went through all that for nothing. Could have just dumped rock mode Dainix in the caldera, woulda been fine. Also, this chapter has been an absolute banger for Falst exspressions, and obviously wet cat chibi face gets the number one spot, but I’d say today’s panel three comes in at a close second. Lookit him! He is so startled (but also maybe, crushing just a bit, maybe? Might be my imagination)
My favorite ship is back, and with the princess carry to boot!
False probably: Hot, Hot, Hot, literally Hot AAAAAAA!
*clears throat* Now Kiss
If Falst x Dainix wasn’t in my OTP box before, they definitely are now! Also, someone said they saw Falst blushing, but I don’t think I see anything so in regards to the Falst Blush Counter, I’mma give this one a Maybe
Its so hard to tell under the scarf and the fire effects xD
I’m sure he will be blushing soon if he isn’t already!
Agreed, hands with which to hold kitty are indeed the most important part! :333
I need panel 3 as its own poster, hanging in my room SO BAD!
Gorgeous page. The colours, framing, use of visual tropes… well done.
Also, this is the most romantic thing I’ve seen in a while. This is the good kind of romantic subplot.
It makes sense with the established rules that the direct run-off of the Fireseed might have the correct impact to reignite our demon. Apparently demons transmute their clothes in the process, unless that’s a new power and he’s manifesting a familiar body complete with familiar clothes (which seems like something a Light-capable demon might be able to do). There may have been some Power Of Love in this, but only a little – and entirely literal if speculation about Light being Motivation is accurate.
I think those guards know what’s in front of them is outside their level range – I wonder how Rahkn will react to a demon in his home though. That might be a real threat to him, unlike almost everything else out there. Can a demon eat a fireseed in full? … Actually, maybe Dainix can give him new experiences. Transmutation of elements combined with a direct source of Flame to power it and Power Of Love to keep his mind… maybe he can make the island something different, with help from Erin’s instructions to avoid breaking things and Alinua to make it bloom. Terraforming the bleak rock might cheer up the depressed volcano god. Also, wow, this is a HIGH level party – I’m pondering the logistics of them casually reshaping a landmass as a thanks/apology. Well done making the story work at these power levels, it’s not easy in my experience.
Of course Dainix’s second thought (after stopping the kitty having a lava bath) is what happened to the others. Dainix is afraid HE happened to them. The guards aren’t even a consideration for him yet, he’ll get to them later. Or maybe if they try to stop him.
…is this the end of the chapter?
I don’t think so, but I did an F5 refresh of the page, and I did not get a new comic page either. I’m not sure what happened.
It is indeed the end of the chapter- one of the earlier comments wrote the Bluesky text, which mentioned a post chapter hiatus.
Yeah, I send OSP a message on Bluesky. I hope not too many other people pinged them. >.<
It was a bit confusing at the time; she hadn't put in the text stating that this was the end of the chapter like she normally does.
I'm glad she edited that in now. 🙂
Have I missed the announcement of a break? If so, Red I hope you get some much needed rest.
It is the end of a chapter, red said so on tumblr. As for the break she said it’s gooing to be short, becouse she just neeads a little time to finish the chapter and that its already storyboarded
And our firey king is back!
Wait up, I can understand star fire not working cause it’s not elemental fire, but if the volcano worked, would a campfire have actually worked too? They never actually tried it.
A campfire is apparently too small, but the lava shouldn’t have counted. I’m guessing that either Red forgot, or if there are going to be problems for using a mixture of fire and Earth to reignite Dainix
Thing is, lava is still Fire, so the implied problem was much the same as the campfire—it would be too weak. Alternatively, there is the possibility that lava was too risky—if Dainix hadn’t blasted out like fire-superman, things could have got tricky.
More likely, however, is the apparent general consensus that Caliburn was simply lying—or at least deliberately leaving parts of the truth out. Here are some good theories that I have seen in the comments:
1: Caliburn has other plans for the Fireseed, so she wanted them to get it even though they could just revive Dainix by dropping him in lava. This one seems pretty likely to me—we still don’t know what exactly their plans for Dainix are, but this seems the sort of scheming thing that a trickster god might do.
2: Caliburn didn’t want Rakhn to know about Dainix. With the Fireseed, they could have revived Dainix outside of the volcano, so as to not draw attention to him. If this is the case, I imagine we shall find out when the next chapter starts—or when we next see these guys, if it starts with some other characters.
3: Caliburn knew that lava could revive Dainix, but still wanted them to get the Fireseed for future occasions when a convenient volcano is not available.
4: Caliburn thought that Falst wouldn’t react well to being told to just chuck Dainix in a volcano, so they wanted to give him a situation that he could feel more in control of.
Given the puzzled and frustrated look that Falst gave the Fireseed that he just risked his life getting, I doubt that Red has forgotten what Caliburn says, I just think that Caliburn may be an unreliable source of information xD
As for the fire-earth mixture theory, that’s really interesting! Lava is indeed a mixture of Fire and Earth, known as a ‘fusion’. Fusions are formed when two or more elements, well, ‘fuse’ into another substance with unique properties. This is distinct from an ordinary mixture, such as soil, in a similar way to how compounds and mixtures are distinct in our chemistry. Fusions include adamant, a perfect, stable fusion of the six primordials; demonheart, a substance made from all but fire, and the rock-thing that Dainix has been lately; and lava. Now, lava, clay and some others are what is known as *unstable* fusions— if you leave them to their own devises, they will eventually separate. This might make it less risky for Dainix, as they do not require unusual conditions or a mage who can control both elements to pull them apart, meaning that there is a chance that Dainix could have just absorbed the Fire 🙂
I am at a cafe when I looked at this comic and the speakers started playing the song “We are young” and the lyrics “So we’ll set the world on fire, we can glow brighter” and “I’ll carry you home tonight” are really hit home.
I love that song!!