#shadowsinger!elain

[propshophannah]

The biggest mystery in my life right now is whether or not Truth-Teller allowed Elain to travel through the shadows so that it could “strike true” or if Elain is a low key shadowsinger. More thoughts here!

[propshophannah]

woah wait - whats this about Elain being a lowkey shadowsinger, as well as her abilities as a seer ( which is badass enough at it is ) i may be being completely stupid but i literally cannot recall this being touched upon, or even hinted at, during the book ?? would you mind sharing your thoughts / the evidence youve gathered to back this up ? tysm xxx

Haha! So while I was reading, I thought it was weird that she wanted to be constantly bathed in sunlight. And we know she was in a dark place, and Feyre kind of explained that as her needing to get the sunlight she could no longer produce from within. And that makes sense. But it struck me that maybe she wanted the sunlight to keep the shadow away because her darkness was calling to them. We don’t know if Shadowsingers are born or made. And in ACOMAF Rhys mentioned that maybe the shadows came to Azriel when he was locked in darkness for all those years. So yeah. That played in my mind a bit. 

And then we got scenes of Azriel being HELLA attentive. He was the ONLY one in the WHOLE BOOK who saw Elain. And that was kind of her thing—no one saw her but Graysen, but now he won’t see her. But the entire book, when Azriel interacts with her, he knows exactly what she needs. He hides his shadows when he’s around her, he doesn’t ignore her visions instead he talks with her about them. He sits with her in companionable silence in the sunlight in the garden (like maybe he did, and needed, the same thing when he was released from the darkness). He is almost as much of a seer as she is in a way. He is the one who figures out that she is a seer. And I think he figured it out the day they all stood in the foyer after the Court of Nightmares visit. Also, she sees him. She doesn’t balk at the scars or his huge frame or anything.

Then she was downstairs with the Shadows making bread. I know it was daylight and Elain was healing, but it was kinda odd that she was handing out with the Nualla and Cerivden (I cant spell their names!). 

But all of that is scraps. But then…

Azirel hands Elain Truth-Teller, a blade he’s never given to anyone. Ever. And they have their weird moment where they’re both holding the blade and it reads like maybe some truth passed between them as they both held that blade. And I remembered that Elain predicted Cassian’s death. And I got the impression, that 1) Azriel remembers because he was standing in the room when she said it, and 2) Azriel knew she could handle the blade/needed to be able to trust herself with it, and that if Cassian was going to die, it would be after this moment. So because he knew Elain saw Cassian’s death, and knew when it might happen int he near future, it could’ve been a way for Azriel to low-key let her know that just because she sees death, doesn’t mean she can’t stop it. But it’s always her choice.

The wouldn’t you know Elain Archeron “stepped out of a shadow behind him” to stab the king. I mean she TOTALLY could’ve been in the area. She TOTALLY could’ve come running. She TOTALLY could’ve winnowed. And it could TOTALLY have been the magic of the blade that brought her to the person she wanted to kill so that it would always “strike true.” And that seems likely. that it was Truth-Teller. BUUUUT. Didn’t Azriel become Feyre’s shadow when they went to save Elain? Didn’t he then fold them into shadow so that they could run through the camp unnoticed?

We would be stupid to ignore that she very likely could’ve walked through the shadows regardless of holding the blade.