Naolin Theory

marking it as OS just in case of spoiler territory in the discussions but something just occurred to me...

I've seen multiple people go on and on about Naolin being Venin (most think Naolin is actually Berwyn).

I was firmly in the camp that was "No Naolin is just dead and burnt out, he essentially traded his life for Brennan's, otherwise Tairn wouldn't be able to bond Violet"...

But as I'm re-reading IF, the part where they talk about runes and the marked ones relic, and we know Brennan has a rune shaped burn mark on his hand...

I still think Naolin didn't turn Venin, but I do think he used the rune magic to resurrect Brennan... but he had to siphon someone else to make the rune work...

and I think Tairn basically lost it... Naolin used Tairn's magic to do the most horribly unnatural thing, which offended Tairn greatly and I think it was Tairn who killed Naolin... not burn-out... that's why Tairn refuses to talk about Naolin or even say his name...