Aria, Lyrikos & Verse investigate the Palace of Storms
Symphony of Awakened Gods is the third book in Leilani Rae Wilson's Elancia Chronicles saga. It was published in 2021 through the now-defunct Goal Publications. Illustrations were done by NightlineZ (Cover art), and Renz (interior art).As the Palace of Storms mysteriously takes to the skies, Kerlynzia finds itself directly in the eye of where yet another storm's brewing. The Empire grows more and more unstable by the day as increasingly corrupt leadership cracks down harder than ever upon disillusioned protests, which are now threatening to become full-blown Coup d'états! Gods begin to take direct action in the wars, Basil & Cecelia along with the entire Ironclad fleet have disappeared without a trace, and Lyrikos is still nowhere to be found...
All of this happens while Verse has to face her toughest lot yet: Re-connecting with her broken emotions, including her biggest fear of all: love- an emotion that has brought poor Verse nothing but heartbreak and tears. She must also learn to embrace her biggest insecurities, accept her importance in the next page of Elancia's history, and confront the friends she abandoned, along with many unsettling truths about her heritage. As the bleak cloud of death looms ever closer over Elancia, all eyes are on Verse, as her actions can decide the fate of a world in dire straits.
Symphony of Awakened Gods contains examples of:
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Verse, upon regaining her memories from Lyrikos, learns some very disturbing things about her past. Her mother is Lamenth, who stalked the McDowell family for generations to have their babies and purify her bloodline, imprisoned Cliff after he learned the truth about her and tried to escape with Verse, And then Verse grew to be a bloodthirsty tyrant. No wonder Lyrikos hid all those memories...
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Verse and Karina secretly had mutual crushes despite being very nasty to one another. Their relationship slowly got more tender, though.
- Bermuda Triangle: The Bajandrus Triangle- an area somewhere between the B'yadan & Baskerian continents coastlines where ships are go missing under mysterious circumstances. As the crews aboard the Bella Muerta & Ironclad fleet discover, this is the resting place of Lamenth & defended at all costs by a dragon.
- Cave Behind the Falls: Derrick, Basil, and Cecelia hide in one to evade Anath's group.
- Co-Dragons: Torrent & Rouge, who both work together under Syrrko, and combine eachother's Wind & Fire powers
- Colony Drop: After the final battle, the Palace of Storms, and Temple of Lamenth drop back to the ground. The Palace lands up north in the Frontier, and the Temple in the lake on Banaude's former property.
- Coming-Out Story: This is where Verse finally comes to terms with her gender identity, and starts presenting as a woman full-time! Even when being transgender is a completely alien concept to most Elancians.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Verse & friends hijack a tea-merchant's carriage in order to get through a guarded checkpoint.
- Fan Disservice: Banaude fondling Verse's feet... at gunpoint.
- This almost made Verse lose her interest in feet
- French Maid Outfit: Verse & Atherton disguise as maids to infiltrate Banaude's manor, and gather incriminating evidence about him. Accompanied by an illustration of Verse excitedly bending Atherton over to tighten his corset, complete with a Panty Shot of the latter.
- After the mission, Verse keeps her maid outfit to entertain Karina.
- Hate Sink: Banaude- A lecherous, old Dog-Kin nobleman who is trying to manipulate the political landscape for his own personal gain.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: A long time ago, Verse was stabbed during sex by an ex-boyfriend after finding out she had a penis.
- Hotter and Sexier: This book is notably saucier than it's predecessors, with Verse's relationship with Karina being a major plot point, and other characters referencing their sex lives much more often than before.
- While not explicit, the illustrations are also significantly hornier than before, with Karina kissing Verse while the two appear to be nude, and Verse dressing Atherton as a maid.
- Identical Grandson: Verse apparently bears a striking resemblance to her mother Lamenth, being called "The Copy" by several villains.
- Internalized Categorism: Eau- A gay man who had his homosexual nature tortured out of him by an Elian "Health & Wellness Camp", now has a wife and children, and works for the same institution that irreparably damaged him.
- Love Triangle: Basil, Karina, and Verse all have feelings for each other, and others outside of the love triangle.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Syrrko turns out to be Verse's brother.
- Misplaced Accent: Torrent, the ancient goddess of wind who has a petite, dainty figure, and sparkly fairy wings, amusingly talks like a 1930's Gangster.Torrent: No. Ya do da woik first, or ya don’t get nothin’ from me!
- My God, What Have I Done?: Luen's accidental killing of an Orange Army rebel from what was meant to be a non-lethal bullet caused her terrible grief, leading to her eventually taking her own life.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Verse discovers that she's not the only trans character, when she gets held up at gunpoint by a shirtless Fiend, who is binding his chest. This leads to a Heel–Face Turn for Fiend.
- Lyrikos also reveals that Gods can change genders at will, and that she did.
- Recursive Cross Dressing: When Fiend & Verse discover the truth about each other's genders, Verse reveals that she used to bind her chest so her peers would think she was just a woman in disguise as a man.
- Right Through the Wall: Verse and Karina's sexual relationship turned out to be a very poorly kept secret, when it was revealed that everyone could hear them through the walls.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Tefferyn's remains can be used to gain some terrifyingly powerful magic abilities once his corpse falls out of the void.
- Took a Level in Badass: Nirin. After Verse's meeting with her at the Health and Wellness Camp, Nirin runs away and joins the EDF, where she confronts Wahl, and deflects Luen's bullet after he orders her to shoot Nirin.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Lyrikos's long-time friend & God of Storms, Gale, dies in battle very shortly after being introduced.Lyrikos Oh, Versikins… I wish you could’ve met Gale. ‘is sense of ‘umor wos somethin’ to be’old.
