Far larger forces
The rebirth of the Valkyries has destiny written all over it. But there is one phrase in particular that makes me wonder, especially after reading HOSAB (CC2).
Emerie said, “Nothing can break us.”
The world seemed to pause at the words. As if it had been following one path and now branched off in another direction. In a hundred years, a thousand, this moment would still be etched in his mind. That he would tell his children, his grandchildren, Right then and there. That was when it all changed.
Azriel went wholly still, as if he, too, had felt the shift. As if he, too, were aware that far larger forces peered into that training ring as Gwyn moved.
Azriel’s heightened senses seem to pick up on another presence. The question is, which larger forces are peering into the training ring? There are endless possibilities, but three stand out to me: (1) farseeing and benevolent Urd; (2) Princes of Hel; or (3) mystics of the Asteri. Since “forces” is plural, it could also be all three interested parties.
Farseeing and benevolent Urd
Urd is the goddess of fate and most associated with the House of Shadow and Flame in the CC series. We learn more about this mysterious goddess in HOSAB through various characters, particularly the Under-King:
No statues ever adorned Urd’s Temple—no depiction of the goddess had ever been made. Fate took too many forms to capture in one figure.
The Under-King rose, black robes drifting on a phantom wind. “I thought the Fae bowed to Luna, but perhaps you remember the old beliefs? From a time when Urd was not a goddess but a force, winding between worlds? When she was a vat of life, a mother to all, a secret language of the universe? The Fae worshipped her then.”
The goddess of fate is quite elusive; she is described specifically as a force, a vat of life, a mother to all. I talked about this in a post connecting fate’s shifting forms to Elain, but it also reminded me of what Gwyn says regarding the worship of priestesses in ACOTAR:
Nesta knew she could let the conversation end there, but she asked, “And what do you do with the time you’re not in the library? Practice your … religious things?”
Gwyn huffed a soft laugh. “In part. We honor the Mother, and the Cauldron, and the Forces That Be. We have a service at dawn and at dusk, and on every holy day.”
That sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?
Mother = mother to all
Cauldron = vat of life
Forces That Be = a force, winding between worlds
The Forces That Be mentioned by Gwyn may be synonymous with the Fate Rhysand references when he tells Feyre who determines mating bonds:
“I’m serious.” I turned toward him and crossed my arms. “What decides it? Who decides it?”
Rhys straightened his lapels before plucking an invisible piece of lint from them. “Fate, the Mother, the Cauldron’s swirling eddies …”
It would make sense if these sacred three were connected, and perhaps even parts of the same whole as the Under King suggests. When Nesta scries for the Cauldron, the language hints at this sacred, interconnected force as well:
It had taken a few moments the first and only time she’d done it. To let her mind go empty, to wait for that tug through her body that had hauled her toward an unseen force. She’d been whipped across the earth, and when she’d opened her eyes, she’d been standing in a war-tent, the King of Hybern before her, the Cauldron a squatting, dark mass beyond.
The Cauldron. Yawning emptiness answered. Nesta furrowed her brow, clenching the items harder. Pictured the Cauldron: the vast bowl of darkest iron, so large multiple people could have used it as a bathtub. It had a physical shape, yet when that icy water had swallowed her, there had been no bottom. Just a chasm of freezing water that had soon become utter darkness. The thing that had existed before light; the cradle from which all life had come.
Sweat beaded on her brow, as if her very body rebelled against the memory, but she made herself recall how it had sat in the King of Hybern’s war-tent, squatting atop the reeds and rugs, a primordial beast that had been half-asleep when she’d entered.
And then it had opened an eye. Not one she could see, but one that she could feel fixed on her. It had widened as it realized who stood there: the female who had taken so much, too much. It had narrowed all of its depthless power, its rage, upon her, a cat trapping a mouse with its paw.
The Cauldron seems to be an unseen force of Urd, and as I have discussed both here and here, it may be intimately connected to Void: the cradle from which all life came, including our Princes of Hel and Under King.
If Urd is indeed this sacred three, then it is even more likely that her influence truly winds between worlds. In HOSAB, we learn that both shifters (who may descend from fae in TOG) and fae (who descend from fae in ACOTAR) have similar concepts of fated mates, one that is explicitly connected to Urd.
There were several definitions of the term mate—though Bryce supposed that to Ithan, to a shifter, only one mattered: one’s true lover, predestined by Urd. The Fae had a similar concept—a mate was a bond deeper than marriage, and beyond an individual’s control.
And yet, in the CC series, we learn that there might be an even more powerful force than fate:
It was the ancient Prime of the wolves who answered, his withered voice rising above the pinging of the graph. “With the strength of the most powerful force in the world. The most powerful force in any realm.” He pointed to the screen. “What brings loyalty beyond death, undimming despite the years. What remains unwavering in the face of hopelessness.”
That powerful force is love. Through love, all is possible. As the Prime confirms in HOEAB, love is at the heart of loyalty and hopefulness, and that is what we witness between the Valkyries when they are reborn as a fighting force. That love may have altered fate, which branched off into a different direction than was planned. And this deviation may have caused Urd—the Mother, Fate, Cauldron—to sit up and take notice. It is that very love and devotion between the Valkyries that will be needed to weather the other forces that might be at play in this scene.
Princes of Hel
Was it Urd Azriel felt in the training ring, or another force entirely? Hel might also have its reasons for witnessing, or even influencing, the events taking place in Prythian. According to Apollyon, Prince of the Pit, Hel has been preparing its armies to return to Midgard and defeat the Asteri once and for all. Both @offtorivendell and @silverlinedeyes have theorized that Hel may have found a way to access Prythian through cracks between the worlds, one of which might be in the Night Court library. They also believe that the Illyrians may descend from relations between fae and Princes of Hel, such as Apollyon, who seems to bear the leathery wings that make the Illyrians distinct among winged fae in ACOTAR. Is it possible that a Prince of Hel could have nudged certain priestesses to learn about other worlds and the Valkyries, just like they have been nudging Bryce and Hunt in Midgard?
At the same time those pieces are being put into place, the Trove has resurfaced for the first time in centuries. The Trove, when united, can do a few important things:
Nesta forced herself to ignore the nauseating thought as Amren continued, “If you were to gather all three objects, you could use the potency of their combined Made essence to track down the Cauldron, no matter where it is.”
“Not to mention gain three objects of terrible power,” Azriel added grimly. “Capable of granting even a human army an advantage against the Fae.”
“Raise the dead,” Cassian mused, his face tightening, any trace of that approving smile gone, “and you’d have an unstoppable force, able to march without rest or food. Open any door, and you could move that army of the dead wherever you wished. And with unrestrained influence, you could make any enemy territory and its people bow to you.”
So, to recap, we now have:
a reborn female fighting force combining Valkyrie and Illyrian methods,
an existing Illyrian fighting force that might descend from Hel, and
three objects of terrible power that can locate the Cauldron, raise an unstoppable force, and take them wherever the bearer wished.
It seems no coincidence that we now also have one returned Starborn princess who is searching for the Princes and armies of Hel—in Prythian. What if the armies Apollyon referred to weren’t exclusive to his world? If my friends’ theories are correct, Apollyon and his brothers (particularly Aidas) may have found a way to influence their theoretical descendants into preparing for a war against the Asteri, including raising an unstoppable army of the dead. If they have access to the Void—which is where all souls return—through the Cauldron, could they bring back long-dead warriors, such as the fierce Valkyries, to fight alongside the living armies of Prythian, Hel, and Midgard? Are we in for a Return of the King moment of ghostly battle, like @silverlinedeyes and @offtorivendell brilliantly suggested? Or would they be mere reanimated corpses like Nesta’s experience at Oorid? Either way, this would ensure that Hel has the forces to face the threat of the Asteri again and come through victorious this time around. But given their past betrayal of the fae, it is possible that the defeat of the Asteri would simply lead to the rise of yet another conqueror: the Princes of Hel.
Mystics of the Asteri
Urd and Hel may not be alone in their influence. The rifts are closed, which @offtorivendell, @silverlinedeyes, and I suspect is related to the protection the death-god siblings may have offered. Like the interlocking circles of the Archesian amulet, the death-god siblings together may have kept Prythian from enemy detection and access that weakened with each sibling’s death. Hence, the arrival of not one, but two beings from the worlds of TOG and CC after the Carver’s and Weaver’s deaths. @offtorivendell theorized that Koschei’s demise could unlock the rifts entirely and give Asteri access to Prythian after centuries of being thwarted. They desire to return to Prythian above all else:
“So that star will lead us back to that world. Through you. They overthrew our brethren who once ruled there—we have not forgotten. Our initial attempt at revenge was foiled by your ancestor who also bore that star on her chest. The Fae have still not atoned for the deaths of our brothers and sisters. Their home world was rich in magic. I crave more of it.”
Even if they are cut off from the cosmos physically, the Asteri have a host of mystics to spy across the cosmos for them.
“In the Eternal City, I heard they have a thousand mystics in the palace catacombs, mapping farther and farther into the cosmos. Speaking with creatures we shall never know.”
Rage rippled through his every word. “Your Starborn ancestors shut the gates to stop us from invading their realm once more and reminding them who their true masters are. And in the process, they shut the gates to all other worlds, including those to Hel, their stalwart allies. And so we have been trapped here. Cut off from the cosmos. All that is left of our people, though our mystics beneath this palace have long sought to find any other survivors, any planets where they might be hiding.”
These mystics aren’t mere spectators, either. According to Rigelus, they can pry into and influence minds, similar to the daemati gift Rhysand possesses. Can that ability expand beyond Midgard, as their exploration does?
“We were eventually notified by one of our mystics here, who learned it from prying into the mind of one of Ophion’s Command. So we did a little tugging. Pointed Micah toward synth. Toward Danika.”
“You think Micah acted alone? He was a brash, arrogant male. All it took was some nudging, and he killed her for us. Had no idea it was on our behalf, but it played out as we planned: he was eventually caught and killed for disturbing our peace. I thank you for that.”
Could they be one of the larger, unseen forces that Azriel sensed? Are they capable of not only watching, but also manipulating characters in Prythian? They crave access to Prythian for revenge, to show them once again who their conquerors are. By locating the Trove items, someone might also be able to open the gates—either as part of, or a back-up plan to, using the Horn tattooed on Bryce. Is it possible for someone who isn’t Made to use the Trove if they wear a powerful amulet, like Bryce did in HOEAB? Is that why Elain’s necklace, described as an amulet, made it’s way into someone else’s possession after Azriel found himself at the library, despite his every intention otherwise? Was that fate or another unseen force that influenced his behavior? Was he nudged in a different direction, like Micah, when his defenses were weakened? If the Asteri are at play in this scheme, they would need to create discord and instability to weaken a powerful enemy, including the most powerful court in that world. This influence might also explain the conflicts arising from multiple directions: Koschei, Autumn Court, the human territories, continental fae territories, Illyrians, Day Court, and even within the inner circle of the Night Court. Are these issues a coincidence, or an intentional unraveling by the unseen force of the Asteri and their mystics?
As always, only time—and Sarah J. Maas—will tell.