I am so excited to finally be able to show this piece!!
When Thia sent me the finished art I was tempted to post it right away, but decided to wait to post it on a special day, and what better day than one dedicated to romance in Elain Appreciation Week!
Obviously I'm a faithful shipper of Elriel, their interactions throughout the saga drive me crazy and I'm looking forward to reading more of their story.
I am extremely happy with how well this piece turned out, I think it shows the exact amount of sensuality and tenderness that Elain and Azriel share in the books.
I hope you enjoy it and like it as much as I do!
Art by lovely @/thiaperezart on instagram
Commissioned by me 💕
Muchas gracias @leiaamidala por ayudarme con la traducción ❤
“Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection…that knife.”
I, and many others, have theories that Elain is a symbol of light. While her book and story is yet to be told, I believe there is a lot about her power we have yet to discover. I think her power is going to bring balance to the world. Whereas Nesta’s powers were of death, I feel like Elain’s powers are going to reflect light, life, and healing—something that the quote above begins to hint at.
That is what I wanted to have represented in this piece, and @/luxury_banshee did not disappoint. 💕 I’m so grateful that she took my idea and brought this beautiful artwork to life. Thank you, lovely, for creating this gorgeous masterpiece! 💙🌸🫶
A lot of people have theorized that Mor is gonna play a part in bringing them together but here is my silly little take.
Ok so first…
i don’t know about anyone else but this reminded me a teensy bit of when Rhysand’s bond with Feyre snaps into place. he says he had to winnow away immediately or he would have acted out. My unhinged theory is that this is what happened with Azriel and Elain.
i say unhinged because even after this Azriel still shows attraction to Mor but hey 🤷🏻♀️ sjm might bring a whole new perspective on that situation with the next book or she might do a little retcon-ing here and there as she is prone to doing.
NOW,
originally I thought that Mor was watching the space where Azriel had been standing because she was upset with him. if i’m not mistaken a few pages earlier is when Rhys decides on working with Keir and Eris. Mor is understandably feeling betrayed and Azriel doesn’t back her up. but on a brief reread of the scene I wonder if maybe it’s something else.
her gift is TRUTH.
we can see in this scene that Mor’s gift works by sort of looking (seeing?) and sensing. she can sense the truth by using her magic to look at someone who is right in front of her. what if, rather than watching where he’d been because she felt betrayed, she was watching because she felt the truth of Azriel’s bond with Elain. Azriel left abruptly, his eyes churning, because he knew something changed.
or maybe he left to research what was wrong with Elain because later he discovers what’s wrong with her after Madja said only a mate could do that. it’s possible he knows something has shifted, but doesn’t realize that they’re mates. idk idk it’s all crack. it’s canon that he doesn’t know whether they’re mates or not but that he has been questioning the cauldron for (what we can safely say has been) a whole year.
perhaps he has been questioning the cualdron longer than that? and perhaps this is when it started and he never mentioned anything because he thought it couldn’t be possible. maybe he only brings it up once it starts to become unbearable?? idk, freshly brewed crack.
Okay, let’s fast forward to acofas. the famous potato scene.
now, ever since i first read this scene i could not, for the life of me, understand why Mor tensed. she couldn’t possibly be afraid Azriel was going to hurt Elain so it had to be something else. i thought again, maybe some jealousy? but Mor likes women. maybe she’s jealous that his attention is shifting? i don’t think so.
if Mor knows that they are mates, and has known for sometime, maybe she gets nervous about Elain and Azriel accidentally accepting the mating bond. we know that it’s accepted by the female offering the male food. maybe she was scared for a minute that Azriel and Elain were going to get into something neither of them understood well enough to make a decision.
i know Rhys explains it all away saying that it’s Az getting worked up over how his mother was treated but idk, i just don’t buy it, not completely at least. and i thought his explanation was a little weird and unconvincing with the whole “it can strike at odd times”. maybe he’s trying to cover the feels to avoid the blood duel and also stop feyre from “playing match maker”.
an aside, i think it’s obvious Rhys knows that something is going on with Azriel when it comes to Elain with the whole garden window scene + when he asks if he’s has been spying on lucien. “the shadows hid too much” or whatever he said. i think that despite what he said about pleasure halls in the BC, Rhys knows that Azriel’s feeling are deep and true. i suspect that he is trying to protect Elain and wants her to make a choice about the bond independent of Azriel and Lucien.
also, earlier in acofas Mor basically tells Feyre to stay out of it about the elucien bond. she says it’s best to let them figure it out on their own. before that though, she reminds Feyre that Azriel only ever gave truth-teller to Elain. idk idk. who knows? i’m smoking crack.
i think for sure Mor knows that something is up. whether it’s that elriel are mates or that the elucien bond is off idk. i’m absolutely positive she knows that Azriel is in love with Elain bond or no bond. writing this out is making me think there is less crack in it than previously mentioned.
also please excuse my atrocious highlighting and abhorrent over usage/misusage of the comma. we are in a committed relationship. also forgive me if you didn’t understand any of this, i am not very articulate ever. happy elain week 🫡
For @elainarcheronweek Day 3 — Family & Friendship: Elain and Vassa
Elain only turned toward the sunny windows again, the light dancing in her hair. “Will I hear the earthworms writhing through the soil? Or the stretching of roots? Will the bird of fire come to sit in the trees and watch me?”
The rain was coming down hard and the General of the Night Court armies skipped over the puddles like a ballerina, throwing a suspicious glance, to make sure that he wasn’t seen. But the weather was atrocious and the street was empty.
He opened the wrought iron gate, jogged over the soaked cobblestone path and then knocked on the door. The wards around the townhouse remained impregnable, and he couldn’t just barge in. Now that Elain was living here full time, only she had additional permission to enter, though Mor’s has been pulled.
He heard a patter of steps and the door opened up.
“Oh shit!” Cassian the fearless General squeaked in fear, taking a step back. A monster!
“Evening Cass!”
“What the hel is on your face, petal?” he finally got his bearings back, but he was so shocked by her appearance, that he forgot to even greet her properly.
Elain was barefoot, her toes in some kind of weird contraption, which made them separate widely. Her face was black, and shiny. But charcoal black.
“It’s a charcoal mask,” she explained, looking at him in confusion. “Why are you here? Is Nesta alright?”
He was dripping water everywhere, the rain soaking his cloak and his massive figure was flooding everything around him on the porch.
“Ummm, come in then,” she invited, uncertainly lacing her voice. “But, can you,”
“Yeah, yeah,” he tore off the cloak and left it on the little bench on the porch, before entering the familiar confines of the townhome.
Not much has changed in the décor--same black marble fireplace, bookshelves, and even the furniture was the same, though Elain had upgraded to a new sofa. But there was also something different about the place too--fresh flowers in crystal vases, the smells of baking truly delectable, the scent of Elain’s delicate perfume. Certainly wasn’t the same as when a bachelor of a High Lord lived here.
Cassian removed his boots, prowling inside, and was stopped in his tracks.
Nuala and Cerridwen were on the rug, seated around the coffee table, which was laden with bottles of wine, a cheese and sausage spread, all kinds of biscuits and chocolates.
“Ladies,” he greeted the wraith twins. Nuala sported a blue mask on her face, while Cerridwen had the same as Elain. All three women were wearing pajamas. On the floor, there were a few magazines, half of them depicting male Fae in various states of undress.
Elain scrambled, when she noticed his amused look, and tried to push the magazines under the table. Her spread toes didn’t allow for a graceful, unnoticed movement and she failed.
The Handsome Fae of Velaris
Faebook for the Ladies
Males of FaeGram
One of the magazines was opened to an article titled ‘How to Make Him Give You the Orgasms of Your Life. Every Time’.
“I am intruding,” Cassian whispered, unable to stifle a smirk.
So that’s what these girls got to when they were alone.
“No, it’s alright,” Elain said, “we are having a girls’ night in.”
“I can tell...”
“How can we help you, Cassian?” Nuala inquired, sipping her wine, watching him squirming a bit.
“Umm...well,” he rubbed his wet hair and sprayed droplets everywhere, causing the women to shriek and throw pillows at him. “Sorry! Sorry!”
“Illyrian brute,” Cerridwen muttered under hear breath.
“I need a favour,” his voice turned pleading and Elain nodded. She went to the powder room, and brought him a towel, along with a male shirt. He took the shirt, puzzling over it--it didn’t look like one of Rhys’s tunics, though it was large, made for wings and definitely well-tailored. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed it was Azriel’s! Haha, that was funny. Him wearing Azriel’s shirt...Though obviously it wasn’t Azriel’s, because why would it be?
He dried himself, while Nuala poured him a glass of wine, and all three females stilled a bit, breaths hitched, when he removed his sodden tunic and stood in front of them bare-chested.
Elain blushed, because she always blushed, which he found cute, and he noticed how Nuala bit her lower lip, as she watched him wipe himself and then tug on the new shirt. Hmmm, it fit him well. Also, smelled nice, of cedar and chilled night air.
He accepted the wine and then helped himself to the cheese and the bread.
“I have a cat,” he announced.
“A cat?” all three cooed, surprised.
“I found him in the library. And I love him,” he declared fiercely.
“Alright,” Elain sat beside the twins on the floor and pulled out the foamy things from between her toes. It dawned on Cassian that it was something connected to a pedicure. He wasn’t sure exactly what, but Nesta and Elain and Feyre always had their toes painted. It was pretty. And he liked it.
“But I need to...slowly...introduce him to Nesta,” he explained carefully.
“Yeah,” Elain nodded, well-aware of what he meant. “Really slowly.”
“Sooo,” he bubbled his lips. “Would you care for him for a bit?”
“I’ve never had a cat,” she reasoned, chewing inside of her lip.
“He is very easy! Just give him fish and milk--well, I give him cream--and I buy the fish at the market--but he is not needy or anything,”
“Cream?”
“Yes, he likes cream. A lot.”
“What’s his name?”
Cassian got very excited talking about his cat. Apparently, it was white and quite hefty, and he wanted to call him Smoochy, but then decided on Enalius. And it was the smartest cat in the world, because he read books (yeah, right!) and he didn’t catch mice. The General rambled for a good ten minutes about the cat, without pause. He drank more wine, relaxing into the armchair, and Elain offered him a small plate with more cheese and sausage slices.
Once he finally stopped talking, Nuala chuckled and then whispered something into Elain’s ear. Elain snorted and nodded.
“What?” he demanded.
“I’ll do it,” she said simply.
“You will?!?!” he cried out excitedly. “Excellent! Thank you, petal. I knew I could count on you!”
“But,” she raised her finger. “Under one condition...”
>>>
Cassian was spread out on the floor, Cerridwen seated on his hips, her hands massaging his huge shoulders. He was oiled up like one of those hunky Fae males in the magazines that the girls were looking at.
“He is totally flexing!” Cassian complained, leafing through the magazines, looking at the buff models with bulging muscles, “and they are all oiled up!”
“So are you, big boy,” Nuala laughed.
Cassian was currently sporting a green mask on his face, with black undereye patches ‘to remove wrinkles’ as Elain explained, though he had no wrinkles because he was Fae.
Elain was lotioning up his rough, calloused hands, and damn if that didn’t feel nice on his fingers and palms. Cerridwen was massaging his back and Nuala was berating him for his dry skin, and lack of moisturizing, and something else that he couldn’t even discern. Exfoliation or something?
He was drinking a weird green drink that they had made for him, which looked awful but tasted pretty good. Like salad.
He was enjoying himself, and the girls seemed to be enjoying it too, even if he crashed their party. But the fact that he was now bare from the waist up didn’t seem to bother them at all.
“What in the blasting hel...”
His brother’s amused, condescending voice and tone jolted Cassian out of his pontification about what the male models were lacking.
“Shit!” Cassian jumped up, almost tossing Cerridwen aside, and catching her at the last moment.
“What are you doing?!” Azriel was standing in the foyer, arms crossed, observing the scene with mirth in his eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you are having a spa evening and wearing a facial mask...But that couldn’t be right? Right?”
“What are you doing here?!” Cassian demanded suspiciously.
“I just dropped by,”
“Well, so did I!” Cassian snapped defensively.
“No, no, by all means,” Az made a wide sweep with his arm. “Please continue.”
“Ugh, whatever. I gotta go anyway!”
Elain pouted and shot daggers at Azriel, saying, “it’s raining! You don’t need to go out now, Cass.”
“It’s alright, petal. It’s time to go. I’ll bring Enalius tomorrow,”
She nodded, while Azriel was laughing silently, watching Cass wipe the oil off his torso and put his shirt on.
“It’s okay, Cass. I don’t want to ruin your complexion,” Azriel told him and extended his hand to him. “I’ll winnow you home.”
“I’ll never live this down, will I?” Cassian groaned, scrubbing his face.
“Not for a while,” Az nodded sagely.
“Don’t tell Mor!” genuine fear sparked in the General’s eyes.
“I’ll consider it.”
After Azriel dropped his brother at the House of Wind, Cassian tiptoed into the bathroom, to wash off the remnants of his face mask and the oil. As he stepped into the bath, a thought occurred to him. How did Azriel winnow into the townhouse if he didn’t have permission?
My contribution to Elain Archeron Week.
Read the fic here on AO3 (I will not be posting it to tumblr)
_________________________________________
Prompt: Hobbies
Word count: 12.136
CW: Explicit sexual content.
This fic takes place two months after Pretty Little Angel.
Summary:
Elain wants to play a little game with Azriel and decides to tie him up and make him watch her while she bakes a lemon tart (while wearing nothing but lingerie).
Azriel is not a big fan of not being in control.
This fic contains: rope, baking, spatulas, dirty talk and two kinds of pie.
(Also, if you follow the recipe in the fic, you will actually end up with a wonderful french lemon tart)
