Remember when Madja told us that the Cauldron made its mark deepest in the mind? And then Sarah showed us this:
The gates to her mind … Solid iron, covered in vines of flowers—or it would have been. The blossoms were all sealed, sleeping buds tucked into tangles of leaves and thorns. (acowar)
Her flowers are described as sleeping buds that are tucked into tangles of leaves and thorns. Feyre describes her mental gates this way just before Elain uses powers that might be connected to mystics. And then, as others have pointed out, Sarah shows us this in the next book:
But Mor scented nothing, saw nothing. The tendril of power she speared toward the woods revealed only the usual birds and small beasts. A hart drinking from a hole in an iced-over stream.
Nothing, except -
There, between a snarl of thorns. A patch of darkness.
It did not move, did not seem to do anything but linger. And watch.
Familiar and yet foreign.
Something in her power whispered not to touch it, not to go near it. Even from this distance.
Mor obeyed.
But she still watched that darkness in the thorns, as if a shadow had fallen asleep among them.
Not like Azriel's shadows, twining and whispering.
Something different.
Something that stared back, watching her in turn.
(Mor's pov, acofas)
A shadowy watcher in the woods, as if it had fallen asleep in the thorns. That imagery is eerily similar to Elain's sleeping buds. As a seer, she can find and watch others from afar.
"This time, you sent the trembling fawn to find me. I did not expect to see those doe-eyes peering at me from across the world." (Suriel, acowar)
Mystics seek a higher consciousness, to become one with the divine. In tog, beings of a higher consciousness are what characters referred to as gods. And what did we learn about them from the memory in the witch mirror?
They had no forms. They were only figments of light and shadow, wind and rain, song and memory. Each individual, and yet a part of one majority, one consciousness. (eos)
If mystics become one with the divine, then this might mean they become part of that greater consciousness, travel like figments of light and shadow. This could explain why Elain is paired with the half-wraith twins and it’s possible her mystical travel might mimic how Feyre moves when she is connected to the Cauldron through a living bond.
I could not remove my hand. Could not pry my fingers away. I was being shredded apart, slowly, thoroughly.
I flung my magic out, desperate for any chain to this world to save me, keep me from being devoured by the eternal, awful thing that now tried to drag me into its embrace.
Fire and water and light and wind and ice and night. All rallied. All failed me.
Some tether slipped, and my mind slid closer to the Cauldron’s outstretched arms.
I felt it touch me.
And then I was half gone.
Half there, standing silently next to the Cauldron, hand glued to the black rim.
Half … elsewhere.
Flying through the world. Searching. The Cauldron now hunted for that power that had come so close…And now taunted it.
[...]
Time seemed to slow and warp. The dark power of the king speared toward us. Toward that clearing where I was neither seen nor heard, where I was nothing but a scrap of soul carried on a black wind. (acowar)
Feyre’s connection to her form is shredded and her tether to the world slips as she is embraced by the Cauldron. She travels with it across the battlefield, a scrap of soul on a black wind, and is forced to watch tragic events unfold. Trapped by the Cauldron, Feyre was not able to step out of its black wind shadow to help, but Elain was.
For a moment, I thought the Cauldron had answered my pleas. But as a black blade broke through the king’s throat, spraying blood, I realized someone else had.
Elain stepped out of a shadow behind him, and rammed Truth-Teller to the hilt through the back of the king’s neck as she snarled in his ear, “Don’t you touch my sister.” (acowar)
And this is probably why Elain’s rose is half-hidden in shadows next to the Mother. Her Cauldron-blessed powers might allow her to be half-there, half-elsewhere when she becomes part of that greater, divine consciousness.
Her gaze shifted to the carved wooden rose she’d placed upon the mantel, half-hidden in the shadows beside a figurine of a supple-bodied female, her upraised arms clasping a full moon between them. Some sort of primal goddess–perhaps even the Mother herself. (acosf)
It’s possible she used this power to locate the Suriel, which was practice for the main event: answering Feyre’s pleas and taking down Hybern in place of the Cauldron. Her Sight—a truth teller itself—likely activated Truth-Teller, guiding her to exactly the right place at the right time. The question is, since she is not bound like Feyre, did she then winnow (ie, travel like Hope through the Void, light cutting through the darkness) to save her family? And has she continued to help them in this way?
Islands of grass dotted the expanse, some so crowded with brambles that he could find no safe place to land. The tangles of thorns were a mockery of what might have been - as if Oorid had ever produced roses. Not a single flower bloomed.
[...]
Run, a small voice whispered. Run and run, and do not look back.
The voice was female, gentle. Wise and serene.
Run.
[...]
Run. Was that voice merely all that remained of her human instincts, or something more? She gazed at her reflection as if it would tell her.
Something rustled in the thorns of the island, and she snapped up her head, heart thundering as she scanned for that familiar male face and wings. But there was no sign of Cassian. And whatever was in that bramble...She should find another island to head for. (acosf)
This small voice warning Nesta to run also reminds me of Elain’s warning cry to Feyre before she is Made by the Cauldron.
My sisters were shrieking over their gags. But Elain’s cry—a warning. A warning to—To my right, now exposed, Tamlin ran for me. To grab me at last. I hurled a knife at him—as hard as I could. (acomaf)
Sarah planted Nesta’s questions in the Oorid scene to make us wonder. Is this voice something more? And is Nesta’s reflection, her own flesh and blood, a fun hint? After all, who is even better than the spymaster at keeping secrets, and who would’ve known where Nesta was headed? Elain might have defied her sister’s order (like we knew she would) to stay away from the Cauldron and help yet again, a rose bloom half-hidden in the shadows among the thorns. And I bet she will learn a ritual to help focus and ground her movements.
The reason why I love Elain so much is because I am Elain. I am often seen as quiet and meek and mild. I’m told I don’t have a backbone or “it’s a good thing you’re pretty gabby”. I get taken advantage of because I am kind and considerate.
I’ve have lost somebody that I loved because somebody else interfered and said I wasn’t good enough for that person it made me feel like I was worthless.
And I think most of the people who love her are the same
So yeah, I love Elain because she’s relatable. because she proves that you can be kind and still stand up for yourself and others and not let other people push you around. It’s not about a ship war. That’s not why I want her book. I want her book because I am her. And I want to see her grow while I’m growing myself.
When I say spy Elain, I don't mean the stabby stabby girlboss who loves knives and kicking ass sorta spy.
I mean the sort of spy who tucks little messages into the hidden pockets of her ballgown. The sort of spy who wears a jeweled stiletto in her hair and hidden drops of poison in her rings. A spy who gathers her intel in flowering tea gardens and gilded parlors and in the corners of lively ballrooms. Who masks herself with saccharine smiles and demure looks, listening all the while to anything and everything. A spy who uses her stone cold manners and her social savviness to move the pieces around the board to get what she wants.
Why didn’t you let come home for Christmas break? — Oh, Will, trust me, things here were very complicated. — I was the only kid left at school, and then when I come back here, dad’s in the middle of making some movie. — It’s a documentary, it’s…
there is a radio personality named vesper fairchild. she knows everyone in gotham and I know her. She was doing an exposé on white collar crime back in the day, and I wanted to persuade her that queen consolidated was above board. so you slept with her? No. I— don’t know.
Are you kidding me right now????? He thought about cheating on his wife, the only woman for him, with his friend’s wife??!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Or is this because if it were the other way around, you’d be touching Felicity, Larry?
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