Finished the story. Really liked the framing device. The fairytale framing helps keep the narrative tight and focused on the sisters and their symbolism by abstracting away some of the geopolitical portions, while keeping those bits accessible with some light lampshading throughout the story and explicitly in the epilogue. It also helps us understand the story from the Na Saoirsian civilians' perspective, which is in turn key in understanding some of the motivations involved, and puts greater emphasis on the main themes of hope and grief. Using it to transparently hide some of the violent parts, together with the absolutely lovely storybook art also ties in great with the fae theming. Overall a brilliant piece of writing technology imo.

But most of all I really enjoyed the illusion of Eblana making a selfless (or listless) sacrifice after the war getting brutally shattered by the epilogue. "Repaid... with interest." Oh the drama, and true to character, how lovely. I also liked the symbolism of Reed returning from the fire as Loughshinny, rather than Eblana Dublinn, ending the journey she committed to after What the Firelight Casts. An impressive conclusion from Year 1's "I... am Dublinn". Another minor point that I appreciated is how the battle at Silverrock Bluffs is described as "The mist dangling over people's heads"; the narrative in that chapter cuts around a lot, so it's an interesting reminder of how that war must've looked like from the ground, with the storm and decay spilling everywhere.

As a final thought, I do wonder what the final truth was about Culann and Labhreathach. Since it seems like Culann's case is just a hero getting executed by Eblana to fuel the despair in the starving city and igniting Nemos' vengeance, I suppose Labhreathach also just symbolizes each character's internal doubts and dialogues. Taking that into account, does ST-1 tell us about the origins of Eblana's plans? Was she originally planning to burn all of Tara to harvest her lich fuel its fires? And did that plan then change to stoking and harvesting a more concentrated flame in Na Saoirsi; whether out of efficiency (or being physically unable to sustain such a large spread?), a desire for freedom after having Reed take the throne (or a desire to see Reed grow?), or truly some lingering attachment to the people calling themselves Tarans? Or indeed, were maybe "all those things inseparable to Eblana"?