Warning! All spoilers for previous books in the Cradle Series are UNMARKED!
Now that Lindon and Yerin have been adopted by the Arelius Family, they have the resources to train and advance properly. Eithan drowns them in pills and elixirs, promising them power and prestige. They'll need them, too, because Eithan still intends for Lindon to fight Jai Long in a year.
To that end, Eithan leads Lindon to the Path of Black Flame, the legendary Path that founded the Blackflame Empire. It is incredibly powerful, but dangerous in more ways than one, and Lindon will have to tame a power-mad sacred beast if he even wants to get started. Then, he and Yerin must pass the Blackflame Trials, the basic lessons that every member of the Blackflame Family learned when they started their Path.
Meanwhile, Jai Long has his own journey to walk. With the Ancestor's Spear, he can finally get revenge on his family, carving through the Jai and gaining power at an astonishing rate at the same time. So long as the Jai Underlord doesn't decide to try and stop him early...
Blackflame is the third novel in the Cradle Series by Will Wight. It is the third of the Foundation collection.
This novel provides examples of:
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Path of Black Flame is designed for overwhelming power and absolutely nothing else. Furthermore, the imperial family insisted on using Iron bodies and cycling techniques that would increase that power further, rather than using bodies that would handle the flame more safely. The end result was that Blackflame sacred artists were often crippled by age sixty, and eventually the family faded into irrelevance while their servants took the throne.
- Training from Hell: Cassius tells a story of how a girl ran from Eithan's training into a forest full of two-headed bears. She begged him not to take her back. In particular, Eithan seems fond of implying he's giving his disciples something easy, when it is... not. Case in point: The training course he gives to Lindon (an Iron) is a Lowgold course, and the Blackflame Trials that he puts Lindon (Jade) and Yerin (Lowgold) on were designed for five Lowgolds.
- The Wonka: Eithan reveals that his in fact the Patriarch of the Arelius family. He's still exactly as irreverent to his family as he is to everyone else, to the exasperation of Cassius.
