Tears to Tiara – 19

Summary:

After all the damage sustained during the battle, Arthur and his men have started rebuilding Avalon. Limwris and Ermin meanwhile start replanting some of the flowers destroyed, and Riannon is reminded of how she and Arthur used to play in fields of flowers when they were young. As it turns out, Arthur had been thinking the same thing. A short while later, everyone meets with Decimus who had just returned from the Empire, and he tells them about the chaos with the murders of several Senate members, leading Arawn and Ogam to think that the White Angels have begun to act. Decimus also reports that there are rumors of a dark force coming, and Ogam thinks that it’s the result of something called the Cauldron of Resurrection which can create armies from the dead. To combat this, they decide to remove a magic seal on the nearby mountain so that the ensuing avalanche will take care of the enemy force. In order to pull this off though, they need the help of some giants.

The night prior to everyone setting out, Taliesin admits to Riannon that he’s afraid because he knows that his fate hasn’t changed. He asks her to look into his future, and when she does, a part of her tells him that there’s a considerable hardship coming that he can’t avoid. When she regains control of herself though, Riannon notes that she thinks fate can still be changed. Epona then comes to call Riannon away, and Taliesin uses the chance to tease Epona again. He also tells her of a story of long ago when he got lost and had heard an elf’s beautiful singing, and that led him to become a minstrel. Epona gets embarrassed about this, but after Taliesin walks off, she starts singing herself, and he realizes that it had been her after all.

The next day, everyone sets out to visits the giants on the mountain, and they have to go through a series of caves. Along the way, Taliesin gets separated from everyone else because he hears something and goes to investigate. Taliesin soon finds himself in a dragon graveyard that is also the site of some dragon eggs. By chance, one of the eggs hatches, and the baby dragon that emerges takes a liking to him. It then leads him through a passageway that ends in an area which resembles a prison. Taliesin senses that this is not a good place to be but is overcome to the point where he collapses. He then hears a recorded voice welcoming him to this forbidden place. The voice and figure in front of him introduces itself as Lucifer, and it offers to teach him the true shape of this world.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Weeping alone 」 by 結城アイラ (Yuuki Aira)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Spoiler ▼

Since it’s so late in the series, I was surprised to see it get a new ending song, but I really can’t complain here because it’s a pretty good one with some nice images of the female cast to go along with it.

Preview

After all that action in the previous episodes, this was a decent way to put in some plot and character development prior to what I assume will be the final battle/arc. I’m a bit surprised though that Taliesin of all people is getting so much focus since I hadn’t pegged him as a really important character. But now he’s got a dragon sidekick and is about to learn everything about (what I assume to be) Arawn’s past, plus there’s still all that ominous stuff about his future, so it looks like he’ll be a major player after all. The Epona stuff was sort of random though, and I wonder if that has any impact on the story other than to show some of Taliesin’s past.

As for the new enemy force, I’m kind of disappointed that it sounds like it’s just another undead group, but at least Arawn and company are tackling the problem in a different way. They seem like a distraction from the real enemy though, and I’m still waiting to see how Arawn and Arthur are going to deal with the Angels. I don’t think there’s enough episodes left in the series to show them conquering the Empire and defeating the main villain, so I’m expecting something more unconventional. Regardless, the preview makes next episode look pretty interesting.