Threshing Day: The Brutal Trial Where Dragons Choose Their Riders

On Threshing day at Basgiath War College, there is only one rule: don’t die. Cadets in the Riders Quadrant who have survived the opening months of training walk into a valley full of dragons. Some will be chosen. Some will be passed over. Some will not walk out.

Threshing is one of the defining set pieces of Fourth Wing, the first book in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series. It packs the whole series into a single day: fierce loyalty, deadly rivalries, and dragons as unpredictable as they are powerful.

Where would-be riders earn their bond

Basgiath trains Navarre’s soldiers, and the Riders Quadrant is its most dangerous path. Cadets compete in ruthless conditions, and the rivals around them are often as dangerous as the dragons. At Threshing, the dragons do the choosing. Strength alone does not decide who is bonded.

Readers follow Violet Sorrengail, who was raised to be a scribe and is pushed into the Riders Quadrant by her mother, a commanding general. Around her are cadets whose names are now familiar to millions of readers: Xaden Riorson, Rhiannon Matthias, Dain Aetos, Liam Mairi, Ridoc Gamlyn, Imogen Cardulo, Bodhi Durran and others.

An interview with the story’s spirit

Yarros has a gift for blending heart with high stakes. Her stories put love and danger side by side, and they insist that the fight for a better tomorrow often begins with the hardest choices. Threshing is about more than dragons. It asks what we are willing to risk for the people we love, and what it takes to keep going when the odds are impossible.

From romance to a global phenomenon

Before the Empyrean, Yarros was known for contemporary and military romance, including The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. Fourth Wing was published in 2023 and became one of the fastest-selling fantasy debuts in years. Iron Flame followed later that year, and Onyx Storm in January 2025, each building on the world of Navarre and its riders.

She lives in Colorado, and her blend of romance, war-college grit and dragons has helped define the “romantasy” boom. Readers keep coming back to Threshing because it captures what she does best: a story that is epic in scale and personal at its core.

Some bonds are forged in fire. For new readers, Fourth Wing is the place to start.