“She knew it was a stupid thing to contemplate. That she had way bigger things to consider than an intergalactic garden. ”
Happy Day 2 of @elainarcheronweek 🥀🔮🥐
The second Bryce said the above quote in HOFAS, my mind immediately went to Elain running an intergalactic garden, welcoming all types of beings from SJM’s worlds. My hope is that we see Elain with some type of Life powers, a direct contrast to Nesta’s power of Death, honing her abilities in gardens throughout Velaris and beyond.
I love to think about who all may show up to Elain’s Intergalactic Garden… a cute white cat who seems to be suspiciously aware of their surroundings, a certain dragon and rider that has a fondness for wildflowers. I know Elain will welcome them all with open arms. After all, she believes the world(s) need more gardens 🌸🌹🪻🌷🌼🌺
I had the absolute pleasure of working with @/moridi_art on this piece and they did such a beautiful job making this idea come to life!! Thank you so, so much 💕💕
These two need a longer page time for anything to actually happen. But there is potential! And that's what I tried here.
Relationships: Nesta x Aidas
No TW and SFW
Read on AO3
Snippet :
"Who are you?", she demanded. She'd never seen him before but his presence felt familiar. Like a long forgotten book from her childhood.
He turned around but did not look at her, instead he looked to the shelf to her right, continuing his perusal as he said, " I'm no one you need to concern yourself with". His voice commanding yet with an intoxicating lilt to it. The flickering candlelight cast shadows across his sharp features, making him look regal yet dangerous. His eyes flicked from the book to the shelf and were rapidly moving along the spines. He was searching for something—she could tell that much.
" It does concern me, considering this is my house."
He arched an eyebrow as he said , "This is a Public library."
"That's in my house" , Nesta shot back.
For a moment, the air between them crackled with unspoken tension, as if the Library itself held its breath. "I knew you were a lot of things, Nesta Archeron, but I did not reckon you for a Vermithrax." ,he said clearly irked.
"You know my name." Nesta replied, a hint of suspicion in her tone. "And you got into our Library. What- What are you?"
Theory: A God of Darkness gifted Az his Shadowsinger abilities
+ This gift is 100% good (no evil, no shadows bad!)
+ He is the key as to how Bryce is going to get back to Lunathion: “winnowing”
This is a long one besties, and something I actually stumbled upon when I made this post. Originally I just wanted to share a cute hc and now, three days later, my thoughts have spiraled to here 🤪
I believe that when Bryce went looking for Aidas, she was not brought to Azriel by mistake. The canon connection SJM made was that between Truth Teller and the Starsword, but I believe there’s a bit more at play here. Much more under the cut:
☞ Azriel’s Shadowsinger abilities are a gift. A good gift.
It’s pretty blatant, the similarities between Az, Cormac and Ruhn’s powers. But this spiral started when I noticed the similarity in appearance and movement between Az’s shadows and Lorcan Salvaterre’s powers:
Lorcan flipped his axe in his hand…A chill wind edged in black mist danced between the fingers of his other hand.
Azriel remained behind me, shadows wreathing his knuckles.
So Lorcan flung out a net of his power behind them, an invisible barrier wafting black tendrils of wind.
Another impact struck the ice behind us. Shadows skittered in its wake. Azriel.
There are some discrepancies, Azriel’s shield being blue like his siphons, for one, and Lorcan’s ability to kill with his magic, but I weigh the similarities enough--especially as Lorcan’s wind is often chill or cold, and Azriel is frequently associated with icy or frozen rage. And, we know the cold is associated with the demons of Hel in CC, and the coldness of death in ACOTAR--not only through Azriel’s depictions, but that of Nesta’s power as well.
Ice formed in the room. No clothing could protect against the cold this demon brought with him.
“I don’t like this,” Feyre said. “Wherever she is, it feels deadly.” The cold kept dropping.
Still, the parallels between Azriel and Lorcan extends beyond their power’s appearance. To the masks they both slip into:
Lorcan
There was nothing of the male she’d come to know on his harsh face…No, this was the mask she’d first seen in Oakwald. Unfeeling. Arrogant. Cruel.
Az
Azriel donned the frozen mask he’d perfected while in his father’s dungeon.
He glanced to Az, but his brother’s face was stone-cold
And another, in their retrieval of information:
Lorcan:
It had taken him two hours to get the Yellowlegs witch to break, hidden so deep down the throat of a cave that even her screams had been contained. Two hours, and then she was singing for him.
Did you know those ilken beasts love to talk with the right encouragement? And they told me some very, very interesting things.
When he wanted to stay hidden, few could find him.
Azriel:
Az knew where to slice up a male without letting him bleed out. Knew how to make this last for days.
These ten minutes had only been the opening movements in a symphony of pain that Azriel could conduct with brutal efficiency.
Az said. “I can keep hidden well enough.”
In TOG, it’s canon that the other’s accept Lorcan’s powers as a blessing or gift from Hellas, the God of violent death & the underworld:
Lorcan’s magic was that of will - of death and thought and destruction. There was no name for it. Not even his queen had known what it was, where it had come from. A gift from the dark god, from Hellas, Maeve had mused - a dark gift, for her dark warrior. And left it at that.
The wind in the grasses died; the campfire far beyond their tent flickered, the people around it huddling closer together as the night time insects went silent and the small, furred creatures of the plains scampered into their burrows. Marion either didn’t notice the surge of his dark power, the magic kissed by Death himself, or didn’t care.
And he is not the only SJM character to have his powers referred to as a gift from/by dark gods, as we see with Hunt and Elide:
“A Fallen warrior with the power of ...” Aidas’s groomed brows lifted in surprise.
“Why do you not use the gifts in your blood to free yourself, Orion?”
But Apollion said, “You’re wasting the gifts that were given to you.”
Elide
Making people see and hear what they wanted to: one of the many weapons in her arsenal. A gift from Anneith, the Lady of Wise Things...the only gift, Elide often thought, that she’d ever received
There had been so many nights in Perranth where only the wailing wind had kept her company s when she could have sworn it sang ancient songs to kill her to sleep.
And in both TOG and CC, we have seen these gifts, or the dark forces who watch over characters, working in favor of the gift bearer. Very clearly with Elide and Lorcan in TOG, and Bryce and Hunt in CC:
Lorcan
Lorcan could have sworn an invisible hand touched his shoulder. He knew that touch-had trusted it his entire life. It had kept him alive this long. A touch on his back to go forward, to fight and kill and breathe in death. A touch on his shoulder to instead run. To know that only doom waiting ahead, and life lay behind.
Elide
She often prayed to the Clever Goddess to bestow another gift...death, and not the gentle sort. No, deaths at Anneith’s hands--at the hands of Hellas’s consort--were brutal, bloody and slow
But today, this time…Watch. See, a small voice hissed in her ear. Listen.
“I think she’s in Doranelle,” Elide cut in. “Anneith told me to listen that day. She didn’t the other two times.”
Elorcan
“Hellas guards Lorcan,” Fenrys murmured. “And Anneith, his consort, watches over Elide.
Bryce
When I was crying my little heart out on one of the park benches outside the temple, this white cat appeared next to me...He told me to stop crying. Said it would only satisfy those who had wronged me. That I shouldn’t give them the gift of my sorrow.
Aidas had known. Had watched her all these years
“The Starborn Queen?” “Yes. Aidas’s great love.
“They were not enemies. We were allies. She and some of her Fae forces allied with us—against the Asteri.”
Hunt
Aidas said at last, “I think Athalar’s father would have been proud.”
Ithan said slowly, “Hel is our enemy.”
“Is it?” Aidas laughed, ears twitching. “The Asteri fed their lies to your ancestors.”
Hunt stepped in. “What about your eldest brother, with his armies?
“Those armies have always been to help you. Not to conquer.”
Quinlar
“Why are you not yet master of your powers? I was very clear: I told your mate you must both explore your potential.
It’s also quite interesting to note that while Hellas and Anneith protect Elorcan, their absence is noted during the times Lorcan and Elide are facing internal conflict—most notably in their relation to each other and the greater forces at play.
Lorcan ignored her, that truth. He hadn’t felt Hellas’s touch since the Stone Marshes. As if even the god of death was repulsed by him.
Despite being Lorcan’s guard, Hellas will still withhold that guidance when he sees fit. When he disagrees with Lorcan, or even is disappointed in him. The gift is sentient, as are Azriel’s shadows.
☞ This is also a parallel where the god of the underworld (Hel) was working against the Valg (the Asteri) and disappointed in his Blessed Warrior not taking up arms against that force (Aidas and Apollion badgering the shit out of Team Fuck You).
It is a canon pattern of SJM’s to have very important character’s blessed by dark powers, and for those dark powers to be loyal to each character’s cause. Azriel’s origin story with his shadows, and they way they behave, is replicated in all of the above. And I’d be very surprised if SJM decided to divert from that pattern with Azriel’s shadows.
Shadowsingers are rare—coveted by courts and territories across the world for their stealth and predisposition to hear and feel things others can’t.”
Even the shadows and wind told Azriel nothing, as if our enemy had been hidden from them as well
My brows rose. “You hear it?”A shake of the head. “No—but the shadows, the wind ... They recoil.”The Cauldron sang again.
Az snickered to himself, to the listening shadows around him. Sleep, they seemed to whisper in his ear. Sleep.
His shadows skittered back at the sound. They’d always been prone to vanish when she was around.
the shadows that Azriel had indeed been subtly weaving around himself vanished.
The shadows deepened around Azriel, his Siphons gleaming like cobalt fire.
One of his shadows darted out to dance with it before twirling back to him.
The shadows gathered around his shoulders, like they were indeed whispering to him, shielding him, perhaps.
A shadow curled around Azriel’s neck, the only one brave enough to face the sunlight
Azriel had sealed them in…Perhaps those shadows that now slid and eddied around the shadowsinger hid him from the wrath of the binding magic
Azriel shook his head, shadows twining around his wrist
“I am a shadowsinger- it’s not a title that someone just made up.”
The shadows kept him company, as they always had, as they always would
But most crucial, I believe, is how and where that relationship developed. That he found and bonded with the shadows during that time he was living through hell in his father’s dungeons:
His shadows were different. Born in a lightless, airless prison meant to break him. Instead, he had learned its language.
I believe a God of darkness saw Azriel breaking, and offered a way for him to find companionship in his prison. In his own way, he was told You do not yield, and that he shouldn’t give them the gift of his sorrow, and I cannot wait to learn more about it.
☞ This gift is how Azriel will be central to Bryce’s journey in CC3
I think Az will be the key to Bryce traveling through worlds because of where Apollion spoke to Hunt:
Hunt sat in a simple folding chair at the bottom of an abyss, nothing but blackness around him, the only light coming from the faint glow cast by his body. There was no beginning or end to the perpetual night
“I am not in your mind….You and I are in a place between our worlds. A pocket-realm, as it were.”
I couldn’t see Azriel, but I could feel him….He dwelled in every pocket of shadow, darting ahead and behind.
There’s so much mystery surrounding how Az has the ability to winnow all the time, and what might be the cause of that—especially as it relates to his parentage.
“Azriel can winnow all the time, though.”
“Az is different. In many ways”
I think the answer is actually quite simple.
>>>He isn’t winnowing. Azriel is traveling via those pocket-realms in between worlds <<<<
When Rhys is teaching Feyre how to winnow, he says:
“Winnowing? Think of it as . . . two different points on a piece of cloth. One point is your current place in the world. The other one across the cloth is where you want to go. Winnowing… it’s like folding that cloth so that two spots align. The magic does the folding and all we do is take a step to get from one place to another.”
But Azriel does not winnow into different locations. He goes into shadows first, and it is from them he emerges:
Azriel stepped out of a shadow
Azriel winnowed into shadows
Azriel silently faded into blackness—until he was my own shadow and nothing more
Azriel emerged from the deep shadows in the corner of the tent
And though we have depictions of Rhys also vanishing in swirls of black wind, we know that Azriel’s is different:
Azriel’s dark breeze was different from Rhys’s…It cut through the world like a blade
Considering Feyre has winnowed with both Rhys and Az, her pov is extremely insightful. I believe Az did cut through the world. That he actually leaves it, cutting in and out, when he “winnows”, as opposed to using magic to fold the world, and then stepping through it. If everyone else is winnowing on the X and Y axis, the Z axis is what Azriel travels through. A different plane entirely.
I believe Az is able to step into the in-between, the shadow pocket-realms, and thus travel through Prythian that way. I do not think he’s aware that is what he’s actually doing either. We know he didn’t learn to fly like most Illyrians. I’m thinking he learned or taught himself “winnowing” as well, and he’s never gotten to the root of how his process is different from others. And with Bryce, her ability to act as a conduit via the horn, is how together, they can enter other worlds. In truth, I believe Azriel + Bryce + the harp is likely the way.
Find what is in-between, Aidas had said.
Aidas said this after answering Quinlar’s initial questions about Hel and it’s reality, the composition of the universe and what bound their world to his. I know the end of HOEB suggests Synth is what Aidas was referring to, but I don’t think it was. Aidas had been speaking about worlds, and from what we know of world traveling, the pocket-space Apollion spoke of is the only thing that exists “in-between”.
Azriel is what is in-between. He is the only character we know--save Cormac rip sweet boy--with the ability to enter that suspected in-between. And thus, was who Bryce needed to find. Not just for Truth Teller and the reunification of the fae, but because he is a Shadowsinger as well.
Will they need to travel on Autumnal Equinox, when the veil is thinnest? Or will the strength of Azriel’s powers negate that need, in a mimicry of Orien bred receptive to [The Princes of Hel]? Will they be able to travel through ripples of space and time? These questions, and my suspicion that Az will just be learning of his true abilities in the book, will be really central to the story. And for what it’s worth, I also suspect a certain ginger priestess, her research, and the teacher-student relationship she already has with Az will be quite important to figuring all that out. 😉
I am certain there are many more examples to tie Az’s shadows to powers seen in CC and TOG, but these are the two main things I really wanted to share. Az’s shadows are not evil, and his identity as a Shadowsinger is integral to who he is and what role he will play in CC3, both in a positive way. I’m really excited to read what happens, and learn more about our Spymaster along the way.
+ a bonus, just for funsies:
Wings rustled nearby... something leathery. Dry… The Prince of the Pit. Apollion. The seventh and most lethal of the demon princes of Hel. This demon prince had killed the seventh Asteri. Had devoured the seventh Asteri. The Star-Eater.
[Apollion] reached out a hand, and Bryce flinched as it touched her. Truly touched her, ice so cold it ached.
My attention returned to Azriel, who took my hand...the scars were rough against my fingers, but his skin was like ice. Pure ice.
+ Bonus affiliation between Azriel and Cormac:
Shadows ran down Cormac’s arms, trailing like smoke from his shoulders. Like Ruhn’s shadows—only darker, more feral somehow. Some small part of her was impressed.
“It was once a gift of the Starborn. It was the reason I became so ... focused on attaining the Starsword. I thought my ability to teleport meant that the bloodline had resurfaced in me, as I’ve never met anyone else who can do it.”
A sexy blond demon from Hel, who turns into a fluffy white cat, drops wisdom on the unsuspecting audience, has a tragic love story and may be Azirel's great-grand-papa?
