'Immortal Longings' Book Club Readalong Day 4!

Amber and I are BACK this August for a fun new readalong! We're about to start our monthly discussion for our July Adult book (recommended by those 18+), Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong!

As a reminder, from now on, our monthly discussions will be both here on the OwlCrate blog AND on The Nest! Go check out Amber's discussion that will be full of fun extra content!

On each day we'll read a section of Immortal Longings, both on the blog and in The Nest's group, and then discuss in the comments our theories and predictions. This means there will be spoilers for each section! Beware! 

Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for chapters 10-12 of Immortal Longings, so make sure you read or are finished this section before continuing.

Welcome back to the 9th season of Game Of Thrones, sorry, I mean the fourth day of our Immortal Longings readalong!

But for real the Game Of Thrones vibes are everything. 

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Chapter Ten: 

August stands on the top of the city wall in the early morning speaking with Galipei and getting updated on the games, unnoticed by anyone. They speak about a councilman's daughter who was injured in the games. 

They consider who may be targeting people but come to no conclusion. 

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At that moment, August enters in a borrowed body and asks Calla to come with him. Outside, Calla fills August in on who stole her wristband and admits that she will be teaming up with Anton for the games.

August tells her about how Anton, himself, Otta and Leida once tried to escape San-Er by stealing from the vault. They backed out but Otta and Anton tried again and were caught. Otta became ill from yaisu sickness trying to jump into Weisanna's bodies that immediately rejected her qi. Then Anton's birth body was taken from him and Otta has been on life support in a city hospital since.

Calla realizes that all of this is Anton's motivation for the games. August warns her to expect that Anton will stab her in the back.

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In the surveillance room at the palace, Pampi  is following her assigned game players on a monitor. 

One of her colleagues asks for everyone's attention and they see that a player, Number Five, isn't moving. A person,,not a player, in a hood that pulls on Five's arms as Five decays away in front of them from yaisu sickness. 

The observers in the palace realize that the killer of Five is holding up their arms in the Sican salute. 

Pampi suggests that it's time they call for the palace guard. 

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Calla awakes from a nightmare and realizes she is safe. Falling back, she plans to rest, but in the morning she will find Anton and turn the games into a frenzy.

Chapter Eleven:

Yilas goes to the Hollow Temple, a place she is familiar with. At the entrance, she tells the attendant that she isn't staying, but only dropping something off. She enters and tosses her brother the lunch she's packed for him. 

Her brother, Matiyu beckons her to come see something and she joins them. Matiyu wants Yilas to look over some numbers that look strange to him but she's hauled off by a Crescent Society member and tossed out of the temple.

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Elsewhere in the city, Anton is scrubbing blood from his skin when Calla shows up. They confirm that they have indeed teamed up for the games and walk together. A player jumps on them outside the pharmacy, throwing a pole-like weapon at them. Calla twists up and shoves her sword through the player's stomach while Anton slits the player's throat. It's player 13. 

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The reels replay footage of Anton and Calla on repeat. They have become the crowd favorites. August watches them from the palace and suddenly gets up, walking to the door. Galipei asks him where he's going and he replies that Otta needs to die. 

Galipei does not react but he's obviously shocked. He asks August why, as she cannot wake up and August replies that they can no longer take that chance. 

August is tossed back into a memory of Otta where she's sneering at him, and threatening to tell King Kasa about August's plans of regicide and the real reason they were looking to leave the city - to find a place to build a palace and then wage war on San-Er. 

August snaps back to the present and demands that Galipei kill Otta. Galipei refuses, but August pleads and eventually responds "As you wish, Your Highness". 

Chapter Twelve:

Another week has only thirty contestants remaining as Anton and Calla have been hunting them down. Calla and Anton are in the financial district where there is a fight already happening between players. Calla comes into a room where a player has almost slashed a schoolteacher in half. A schoolteacher that Calla recognizes is actually another player.

Anton moves forward to slice the throat of the player while the schoolteacher jumps into a student. Calla pauses with her sword at the boy's neck. The schoolteacher asks her if she will spare the innocent schoolboy but Calla calls her foolish, and she takes his head off.

Anton and Calla go to wash off and they talk about the four deaths in the games that have not been attributed to other players and speculate about it. Calla tells Anton about the time earlier on in the games when someone attacked her and she attacked back but the body was an empty vessel without qi, and there was no light from a jump.

They consider that it could be Sicans or a different skill. They continue to speculate before breaking apart to rest before the next day.

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Galipei ducks into a pharmacy that his Aunt, another Weisanna works in. He asks her for cinnabar and she's confused of his need for it as it's a highly toxic material.

She hesitates giving it to him and suggests that Galipei can always leave the palace but he refuses. His Aunt tells him to use caution.

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See you tomorrow, book owls!

 Questions:

1. 👀 Immortality elixir, pottery or poison? What does Galipei need the powder for?
   

2. ❓ What do you think will happen to Otta?

3. 🔪 Do you think Calla will ever find a need to jump?

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