Secrets buried in the land: Forbidden secrets of the sacred sisters • Blooming dreams • Bright as the dawn • Ramiel: Heart of the Night Court • The healing land: secret, slumbering • Summoning magic • Rot and bloom and bone
Weaving Wyrd: Stone Mother • Her language of creation • Some tapestry of fate • The flower of life • All the world is a song • Through love, all is possible • No gods, no fates • Stones and bones
Three sisters (Archerons, peaks, caves)
Peak parallels: Three sisters for the faces of the Mother • Three stones and three sisters • The third sacred sister peak (Ramiel and Elain)
Witches and witch glass: Three sisters witches • Sister caves
Immortal light and weapons: Marked by Wyrd • Dreams that are answered • Forms of light • Starborn light
The third sister (seer, wise woman, witch)
Roses: Rose symbolism • Hidden depths • A rose in the thorns
Dreams: A quiet dreamer in Velaris • Blodeuwedd • A new kind of Suriel • Owlish Elain
Rebirth: Life itself, Life herself • A promise of spring • Like a moth to a flame • Blooming hope part 1 and 2 • Lovely darkness • Such powers
Witches, oracles, mystics, and priestesses: Witches • Oracles and mystics • Using the high lord’s orrery • More priestess than warrior
Travel: Space between • Peering into a pit of Hel • River to Hel
Shifting: Shifting forms of fate • Balthazar • Wraithlike • Wraiths wear bodies • Glamour me
Spying: Spy and courtier and ambassador • A different strength • The Hind and the Fawn
Seeds Sarah planted for Elain: Seeds Sarah planted for Elain in acosf • Elriel’s cover art • My favorite predictions for Elain’s story (bingo) • Elain’s unique perspective
Bound together (with love)
Court of Dreams: Rhysand and Elain
Secret, lovely beauty: A thing of secret, lovely beauty • The absolute poetry of Elain and Azriel • Gilded with the dawn • Lingering looks • Quiet understanding • Get each other • Forbidden oracle
Where light and dark meet: Void and Chaos • Flame and shadow • Dawn and dusk • Two sides of the same coin • Twining souls • Perfect blend
Newfound boldness: They rescue each other • Newfound boldness • Why I ship Elain and Azriel
Tortured poet: Guilty as sin? • Elain is a member of the TTPD
Important: Maasverse spoilers abound in essentially every post, so please avoid if you do not want to be spoiled.
When I first saw pictures of the Alex + Ani Elain bracelet and looked closely at the watering can, I thought it was saw what might be a music note (purple) and the bottom curl of a treble clef without the line through it or a bass clef (cobalt), and @offtorivendell and I both also saw what looks like a bass clef on the other side (pink), and @offtorivendell and @psychologynerd saw these too and confirmed I was not crazy 🤣:
And then look at the handle of the watering can—is that shaped like part of a treble clef (upside down) without the line through again?!?
Are these intentional musical references on the watering can charm on Elain’s bracelet? Is it possible this is a hint that Elain is a Singer like I theorized here and @wingedblooms and @offtorivendell theorized here? Or is this possibly a hint at Elain’s future use of the Harp? Has @wingedblooms been right all along about Elain’s connection to song??
Whatever it’s hinting at, I think we have been on the right path all along 🥰🎶🎼🎵🎤
And not just Singing/the music of the land, but if the musical note is intentionally a quaver, which is an eighth note, could it tie, thematically, into the symbolism of the eight pointed star, Wyrd, and how, possibly, eight of them may need to come together to unchain and heal the land, as you and @wingedblooms have posted?
And the fact that musical notes appear on a watering can, could @lovelydreamlight be correct in that water nymphs and Singers are related? And what does it mean for other forms of water, like Prythian's underground waterways? Does the rushing music of that water source help to fuel the Song and magic of land? And the pool of starlight in Spring, what of that? Will the Archeron sisters and their bat boys sail the Void to free their world? Is the watering can actually a gardener's Cauldron, evoking the art Feyre saw back in book one?
So many questions! I need to stop word vomiting.
But mainly, I just love how the imagery that appears to be present seems to confirm that Elain being a gardener is not accidental, and could actually be central to the plot.
I would love for this potential seed to come full circle in Elain’s story. This is crack (meant to be fun), but there are only two references to quaver in the entire series, and Elain’s voice is one of them:
I do think we’ll see more of Elain’s quiet voice and strength in the next story.
She’s so connected to the land, and the land is full of magic. It has its own natural symphony:
All the world is a song. In the crossover, we learn the slumbering land’s awakening is compared to song:
Love me, touch me, sing me.
In acosf, Nesta Makes her own trove of swords, the act of creation accompanied by a song only she could hear. Feyre’s words in the original series foreshadowed this moment:
It’s a matter of months until we see what this means for Elain’s own acts of creation, but if I had to guess based on all the clues, it’s connected to awakening the land and making it sing—bloom—again.
The word twine or twining is used to refer to things that are woven together—two things that combine into one. Sarah uses this word to describe powers, vines and flowers, serpentine beasts, and romantic pairings. Is it possible she will weave these elements together in the next book through Elain x Azriel? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Azriel’s shadows twine around him, as Mor and Rhysand note below. They also behave like serpents, ready to strike when threatened.
Much like Elain’s vines of flowers twine on her dresser…
Or her Sight twines dream and reality, forging a connection between the two.
The carvings in Hewn City blend these elements together—serpentine beasts twine and devour one another as vines of flowers flow between them. A beautiful balance of life and death.
Like the serpentine beasts, the souls of mates entwine when they accept the bond. The threads of their bond weave together and their scents merge, or blend, to create something at once ancient and new. Something harmonious.
And so, perhaps this iconic scene is truly prophetic: there is already a bridge of connection between Elain and Azriel, one where life meets and merges with death.
It seems it’s only a matter of time until we see blooms of spring twining with Death’s slithering shadows, creating something both ancient and new. Light and dark endlessly devouring one another. A beautiful balance where they meet.
Like the second half of the Book of Breathings sang:
Life and death and rebirth
Sun and moon and dark
Rot and bloom and bone
•
Love me, touch me, sing me.
•
And as Feyre concluded, this was Chaos. The force the Princes of Hel would never defile with violence.
The Starsword and Truth-Teller unlocked the land’s ley lines and unleashed its pure, inherent magic. Like other parts of nature, it communicates through song: a symphony of life and joy and beauty. The stones bones of the earth move in perfect harmony with that earthly music, and its skin blooms with life once again.
The official Illyrian jewelry reminded me of Nephelle again and one of my theories and headcanons (1, 2) related to earthen magic for the next story.
Nephelle was dismissed and forgotten due to her small frame and wings, so she made herself indispensable as a cartographer. She found the geographical advantages in their battles (and her small frame and wings were exactly what was needed to save Miriam, outrace death).
Two years ago, that reminded me of how those with earthen magic are used to find the best geographical (and magical) locations because they could sense ley lines.
Does Nephelle have earthen magic, and does that magic make her invaluable as a cartographer? Could she help Elain hone her earthen magic, if she also has the gift? And is that why she is so affected by another place that is dead and rotting, as @offtorivendell (here) and @deathsweetblossoms (here) theorized?
I would love for Elain’s journey to come full circle and ultimately lead to Cretea (where the Cauldron is hidden), and for this moment in the text to reinforce the Night Court’s Nephelle philosophy:
What we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength.
When Nesta uses scrying—an ancient form of divination—to locate the Cauldron, we learn the stones symbolize the three faces of the Mother, and we’re left to wonder what the four bones mean. Some of us have theorized the Mother may go by other names, such as Chaos and Cthona, and Chaos in particular gives us a clue about what complementary force the bones might channel. Apollion refers to Chaos as his dam (translation: mother) and this seems to be the same force that speaks in threes as the second half of the Book of Breathings. Her magical counterpart is Void (nothing, darkness), and we’re told this force existed in the beginning. Before.
So, I believe that after Amren says, “Three stones for the faces of the Mother,” it should be followed by, “and four bones for…the Father.”
Or even better, because these seem to be witchy tools, and different creatures have different terms for the same forces, “and four bones for…her heart of Darkness.” A nod to the Eye of the Goddess sacred to witches in Erilea.
Invoking those opposing forces (Void and Chaos) creates the necessary balance to access the place where they meet:
The space between, where reality and dream entwine.
•
Accessed through real and invisible doors and pathways. In Erilea, they are called Wyrdgates and they can be summoned and accessed through a secret language called Wyrdmarks.
•
These pathways in the Wyrd are also called Ley Lines. Wyrdgates, the black spaces where life can pass through (where Void and Chaos meet), are known as Thin Places.
Those with powerful sight seem to access these pathways and places, as I (here), @offtorivendell (here), and @merymoonbeam (here) have suggested, and they are connected to the Cauldron.
Wyrd.
She is many things: a mother to all, a force winding between worlds that constantly shifts form, a language of creation, and a cauldron brimming with life.
The Cauldron is older than the Suriel and they are ancient. The Suriel tells us they are older than Prythian, older than even the bones of this world.
•
But Silene said the Cauldron was of the fae’s world, their heritage—is this simply a retcon from hofas, or did the Cauldron come from an even older world of fae? While it wasn’t known broadly in Midgard (Bryce had never heard of it), the Under-King knew what Wyrd was and described it in the various terms I mentioned above, including a cauldron of life. He also just happens to be from what he refers to as the old world (Erilea). Did the Cauldron come from Erilea or an even older world, like the realm of the gods? Is that why the Asteri/Daglan (near gods), feared it and sought to warp it to their advantage?
I cannot wait to learn more about this hidden history in Elain and Azriel’s story.
Cassian was near death and Nesta was sprawled over him, shielding him from that killing blow, and Elain—Elain—had taken up Azriel’s dagger and killed the King of Hybern instead.
“My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.” (Apollion, hosab)
When these words spilled from Apollion, my first thought was of the Cauldron and Book of Breathings. Higher beings like Void and Chaos are forces—and might be part of the Forces That Be. Their union is described like a cosmic marriage, reminding me of another romantic scene:
I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection…that knife. (acowar)
@offtorivendell (here), @psychologynerd (here) and I have discussed how Elain and Azriel are opposing forces coming together in this scene (and let’s be honest, every scene they share together; it’s an established pattern). Throughout the Maasverse, when opposing forces meet in the space between, they create balance and harness power as @silverlinedeyes reminds us here. Azriel and Elain (and the three brothers + three sisters) represent cosmic balance when they come together, and are poised to help restore the current cosmic imbalance impacting their world.
Nothing (Void) into something (Chaos)
In acomaf, both halves of the Book of Breathings (and other Made weapons, namely the Mask 👀) repeat the same cycle that involves Void and Chaos, with pointed differences:
Unmade and Made; Made and Unmade—that is the cycle. Like calls to like. (acomaf, the first half—void)
-
Not as the voice of the second and final piece of the Book filled the room, sang to me.
Life and death and rebirth
Sun and moon and dark
Rot and bloom and bones
Hello, sweet thing. Hello, lady of night, princess of decay. Hello, fanged beast and trembling fawn. Love me, touch me, sing me.
Madness. Where the first half had been cold cunning, this box…this was chaos, and disorder, and lawlessness, joy and despair. (acomaf, the second half—chaos)
They express the same cycle but begin and end differently: Void begins and ends with unmade, and Chaos begins with life and ends with rebirth, which aligns with their roles in creation.
Ultimately, what we learn from these quotes, is that creation, or what Rhysand calls the chaos of Forming (acomaf), involves both nothing (Void) and something (Chaos). The mural in Spring reflects this union in vibrant color:
It began with a cauldron. A mighty black cauldron held by glowing, slender female hands in a starry, endless night. Those hands tipped it over, golden sparkling liquid pouring out over the lip. No—not sparkling, but … effervescent with small symbols, perhaps of some ancient faerie language. Whatever was written there, whatever it was, the contents of the cauldron were dumped into the void below, pooling on the earth to form our world… (acotar)
So does the Night Court insignia.
"The silver thread," Elain asked. "What is that called?"
The weaver paused the loom again, the colorful strings vibrating. She held my sister's gaze. No attempt at a smile this time. "I call it Hope."
My throat became unbearably tight, my eyes stinging enough that I had to turn away, to walk back toward that extraordinary tapestry.
The weave explained to my sister, "I made it after I mastered Void."
I stared and stared at the black fabric that was like peering into a pit of hell. And then stared at the iridescent, living silver thread that cut through it, bright despite the darkness that devoured all other light and color. (acofas)
And so do Azriel and Elain.
Void, icy and devouring darkness
People often made the mistake of assuming Cassian was the wilder one; the one who couldn’t be tamed. But Cassian was all hot temper—temper that could be used to forge and weld. There was an icy rage in Azriel I had never been able to thaw. In the centuries I’d known him, he’d said little about his life, those years in his father’s keep, locked in darkness. Perhaps the shadowsinger gift had come to him then, perhaps he’d taught himself the language of shadow and wind and stone. (acomaf)
Azriel’s black hair seemed to gobble up the blinding sunlight. (acowar)
Azriel silently faded into blackness—until he was my own shadow and nothing more. (acowar)
Azriel tucked in his wings and left without another word, stalking through the house and onto the front lawn to sit in the frigid starlight. To let the frost in his veins match the air around him. Until he felt nothing. Was again nothing at all. (Azriel’s bonus chapter)
The pain that last quote delivers is so brutal every time. But it reinforces Azriel’s connection to Void, and it brings us to Elain. The person who makes him feel awake and alive and hopeful, to ask sacrilegious questions he has never dared to utter before. He is not nothing in her presence—he is more, he is something.
Chaos, blooming light and life
She loves to garden. Always loved growing things. Even when we were destitute, she managed to tend a little garden in the warmer months. And when–when our fortune returned, she took to tending and planting the most beautiful gardens you’ve ever seen. Even in Prythian. It drove the servants mad, because they were supposed to do the work and ladies were only meant to clip a rose here and there, but Elain would put on a hat and gloves and kneel in the dirt, weeding. She acted like a purebred lady in every regard but that.” (acotar)
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)
If Elain was a blooming flower in this army camp, then Nesta…she was a freshly forged sword, waiting to draw blood. (acowar)
The Cauldron seemed to realize what she’d done, too, as his head thumped onto the mossy ground. That Elain…Elain had defended this thief. Elain, who it had gifted with such powers, found her so lovely it had wanted to give her something…It would not harm Elain, even in its hunt to reclaim what had been taken. (acowar)
Her sister’s delicate scent of jasmine and honey lingered in the red-stoned hall like a promise of spring, a sparkling river that she followed to the open doors of the chamber. (acosf)
Soft steps padded from under the stair archway, and there she was. The Faelights gilded Elain’s unbound hair, making her glow like the sun at dawn. (Azriel’s bonus chapter)
It was Elain who was gifted something by the Cauldron in the chaos of her own (re)Forming. And now that their fortune has returned—ie, they’ve been blessed by Fate—Elain may garden on a far grander scale. And she’ll have the help of her love interest and friends (and maybe her entire family).
Which brings us back to the beginning, to the Cauldron and Book of Breathings. In his bonus chapter, Azriel wondered if the Cauldron was wrong and he learns in hofas that it was, in fact, warped. But how was it warped, and for what purpose?
Rhysand said, “I heard a legend that it was written in a tongue of mighty beings who feared the Cauldron’s power and made the Book to combat it. Mighty beings who were here … and then vanished. You are the only one who can uncode it.” (acomaf, Rhysand to Amren)
As @merymoonbeam and I have mentioned before, the Asteri created the Book of Breathings to control the Cauldron. The Cauldron was sacred to the Fae, and it likely gave them power the Asteri could not initially control. It made them a threat. Remember, the Cauldron is Wyrd, and Wyrd governs the forces of creation (Void and Chaos). She is a Mother to all, a Cauldron brimming with life, and a weaver of Fate, according to the Under-King.
Mother, Cauldron, Fate.
She is not an actual goddess, but a force. And certain beings, like the Archeron sisters, are bearers or vessels of her magic and can wield it when needed.
When the Asteri claimed the power of Wyrd through the Book of Breathings, they were able to gain control over life and fate. And they used that control to feed their insatiable appetite for power. They twisted the natural cycle—life and death and rebirth—into one that served them.
In hofas, Azriel and Nesta learn that this control was never wholly uncovered or addressed. The Asteri’s secrets were buried in the land, forgotten. And so it is fitting for us to return to the beginning with Azriel and Elain, to unearth the remaining secrets and unravel the Asteri’s control over life and fate. To truly change fate, though, their union cannot just be one of magic, it must also harness the strongest force:
Through love, all is possible. It was an ancient saying, dating back to some god he couldn’t remember. Cthona, probably—what with all the mother-goddess stuff she presided over. Hunt had long since stopped visiting temples, or paying much attention to the overzealous priestesses who popped up on the morning talk shows every now and then. None of the five gods had ever helped him—or anyone he cared about. Urd, especially, had fucked him over often enough. (hoeab)
Love. It’s possible their union was always meant to alter life and fate through love, as so many (@icedflames, @elriell, @silverlinedeyes, and @offtorivendell) have theorized. Together, they might be able to swear something between their bodies and hearts and souls, binding the threads of gold that control their very fate, and make the impossible, possible. A cosmic love that restores balance and honors the joy and beauty Void and Chaos created when they first came together and formed the world.
Life and death and rebirth.
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Thank you for reading my rambling love notes about cosmic forces and Elain and Azriel. Happy Elriel Month, friends! 🌸🦇
Like the second half of the Book of Breathings sang:
Life and death and rebirth
Sun and moon and dark
Rot and bloom and bone
•
Love me, touch me, sing me.
•
And as Feyre concluded, this was Chaos. The force the Princes of Hel would never defile with violence.
The Starsword and Truth-Teller unlocked the land’s ley lines and unleashed its pure, inherent magic. Like other parts of nature, it communicates through song: a symphony of life and joy and beauty. The stones bones of the earth move in perfect harmony with that earthly music, and its skin blooms with life once again.
My mind has been swirling with the various clues we’ve been given (can’t be helped, I love clues). Sarah joked about being inspired by the mystical vortex in Montana. What came out surprised her, and offered various insight into things. The story that came out demanded time and space, explaining why it is so long. She had a vision from the start of what it would be and how she would deliver it to us. And so now, when we think about a story told in four movements (something that may be inspired by classical music like a symphony), what we might see is a poetic progression that feels like…
Prophecy.
A dream given form, like the Völuspá (meaning prophecy of the völva, a term for seer, wise woman, witch) in Norse mythology, as both @merymoonbeam and I have discussed. The Völuspá is a vision of life and death and rebirth that involves the gods and mortals and earth.
Völva used songs in their rituals to travel outside of their bodies and influence fate, which might have inspired the trance Nesta entered during the dusk ritual in acosf. They were also believed to able to touch, shift, bind, and unbind the threads of fate. While the dusk ritual involved singing, Gwyn suggests dawn rituals might involve a set of ancient movements instead.
Could Elain master these movements in her book, helping her move through her own emotional, magical, and romantic progression? Will she need access to the wind, like Blueblood witches? And will each movement allow her to influence the threads of fate in different ways, or reveal secrets hidden across time and space? The possibilities are endless and so exciting, but I think this approach would intrigue me the most.
I adore how the term movements carries multiple meanings. It is connected to movements in a symphony, each section one part of the whole and various instruments working together in harmony. Sarah uses a lot of musical imagery in acotar: from battle to torture to spells to dreaming to creation. All the world is a song. I could see the next book having a consistent title, like @shadowyfawn has suggested, with subtitles that indicate the different movements in this next story.
I do expect that movement might be tied to the language or map for creation—
•
There is another map we glimpse in acosf when Nesta tracks down the Harp. It is at the center of an eight-pointed star, associated with four cardinal directions like a compass rose:
We know the compass rose is used for travel; it was once referred to as a wind rose or rose of winds (which might be why roses are connected to creation and movement in the Maasverse as well). In Greek mythology, the winds were the product of Eos (Dawn) and Astraeus (Dusk), representing different seasons and directions. North, West, South, and East.
It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that Elain’s first question to Azriel elicited information on Illyrian’s connection to the song of the wind. When she uses her untrained magic, Elain also notes how the Suriel moves like the breath of the western wind. And she begins to repeatedly move like an unseen force—like the wind—soon after this.
We know her magic, the murky realm she has access to, is connected to the Cauldron—the map for creation—and likely allows her to move beyond earthly rules and borders. Sarah takes it a step further in acosf and even ties her magic to the Harp. Look at these responses from Elain and the Harp to Nesta:
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I sound like a broken record about this at this point, but I think it’s likely a dawn ritual—one that inspires communion with the Mother, movement outside the body—could help Elain like the dusk ritual helped Nesta enter a trance. Could the four movements of her story reflect her exploration of pathways and doors, space and eons like we suspect? And will Azriel—a secret dreamer, his magic born in darkness—learn how to help her explore, his voice a quiet anchor in the void?
Previously, Sarah mentioned the forces that be in relation to fated mates, and in her most recent interview (while she’s been editing the upcoming acotar books), she reiterated her interest in free will versus fate and used the term nature instead. Sometimes, nature gets it wrong when it comes to mating bonds.
It got me thinking about the forces that be, their connection to nature, and it led me back to the chaotic part of the Book of Breathings. This part of the Book sings in threes as well as three parts (here, here, here). That pattern makes sense if this part of the book harnesses the creative magic of Chaos.
Part 1 describes the cycles of nature, specifically the stages of life (life and death and rebirth), solar and lunar cycles (sun and moon and dark), and flora and fauna (rot and bloom and bones).
Part 2 welcomes the three Archeron sisters with three distinct hellos; it’s also possible the first two are for Feyre, and the last one combines Nesta and Elain.
Part 3 gives instructions on how to bring the Book of Breathings to life and use it. This allows certain people (those not born of this world, including Made Fae) to control the forces of nature through things that channel it: the Cauldron, Made weapons (Trove, TT, etc), mating bonds, and even the land.
The Book welcomes the three sisters as though it knew they were marked by fate and have an important role to play in the grander tapestry. @psychee92 theorized years ago that this part of the song might even be a prophecy for the three Archeron sisters and indicate their alignment with specific phases of the triple goddess. @psychologynerd expanded this theory through the alchemical wedding. They certainly seem to be the three faces of the Mother in the flesh. I have wondered if their connection aligns with specific parts of the life cycle, but it is probably more fluid than that since their arcs seem to represent the progression of nature overall.
@silverlinedeyes, @offtorivendell, @merymoonbeam, @psychologynerd and many others have talked about their connection to Made objects. This unique kinship (as vessels) makes them similar, if not the same as, those who are Starborn. We see this kinship begin in the original trilogy through Feyre. She wields magic from nearly all courts (unless the sisters’ lineage is connected to Dusk and it becomes 8), restores the Book of Breathings, hears the Cauldron’s siren song like her sisters, touches the Cauldron to travel with it like a force of nature, and repairs the Cauldron and tear in the world with raw magic from Rhys.
This kinship expands in Nesta’s story, as she both uses Made objects and Makes them herself:
The Harp asks Nesta to play it, to let it sing again.
The House sings because Nesta Made it.
Nesta Makes weapons and it is accompanied by music only she hears.
The bond she weaves with Cassian sings after they Make it together.
The whole world, all of creation, is a song.
Nature can be influenced through song, as @silverlinedeyes and @offtorivendell suggested. This song is a poetic way to describe communication—different parts of nature working together in harmony. This communication is the secret language of Wyrd and in hofas, it is referred to as the language of creation. This connection deepens in the crossover:
The land of Dusk asks Bryce to reach out, open her heart to it, so it might sing again.
Love me, touch me, sing me.
Bryce does not free the land of Dusk due to the presence of the prisoners, but she does free Avallen and we get a glimpse of what that entails. She can hear the land’s quiet song, feel its joy when it is finally seen and freed from its magical chains.
These moments are seeds for the third sister’s story, bringing us full circle.
Elain has always been very connected to nature. She ended the original series as a promise of the future and feeling eager to restore the land.
In acosf, we see hints of how deep this connection might run. When taken together, we find Elain’s appearance reflects the land: in Hewn city, she looks as void of life as the land and in Velaris soon after, she is glowing with life again. This kind of earthen magic would mean that she can sense ley lines—the flow of life in the fabric of the world—and Make gardens. Is that what might happen when her sleeping buds bloom?
Will she need to fully embrace them and what they represent (all of her, including her forced change) to make her magic sing? Many of us believe she was given the vision and gifts to help restore the inherent, pure magic of the land. To free it from the magical threads of the Asteri: the magic they hoarded in sacred peaks and the division they wove into the land and people who inhabit it. This freedom would, in turn, restore the people and their magic. The land and its magic would be freed for all of them, not simply a powerful few. This plot extends beyond a single court and would certainly demand a big story.
It might also require behavior we don’t usually associate with Elain: using pure life, if she possesses it, to unbind warped threads (the opposite of what Feyre and Nesta did with their healing magic). She might even learn how to do this through her sight as she wanders with the Mother (that’s why her carved rose is placed next to her figurine). Will she come across a healer from another world in her travels? This particular healer may be the key to learning that pure life is world-making power. She can bind as well as unbind the very fabric of life, of worlds.
In this promise of the future, the world would truly be a song, one where the forces of nature exist in harmony once again.
The priestesses’ musical dusk ritual helped Nesta and we’ve been theorizing for years that the dawn ritual could help Elain. We have Gwyn to thank for hinting that the ritual might involve ancient movements that take them out of their bodies, in a way, allow them to commune with the Mother. Afterward, they do groundings to bring them back to the present. What, exactly, do we think Elain is doing at dawn, my friends?
Before there was "blatant, unrestricted touching", Elain and Azriel shared many quiet moments alone, walking through the gardens or sitting together in the peace and quiet of nature. Touch is not something Azriel is comfortable with many people, he hides his hands and avoids touching others for fear of seeing their disgust at his scars. However, from the very beginning of their 2.5 years of friendship, Elain never balked from him or his touch. That first day in the Townhouse, when he offered her his arm to show her the garden, Elain took it, looked at his hands and called them beautiful. From that moment on, Azriel kept reaching out, taking every opportunity to seek her touch.
This beautiful, Regency era inspired piece was created by talented artist pinkykei.art (in) who captured the essence of that blooming attraction and tenderness between Elain and Azriel. Thank you for bringing to life the scene stuck in my head.
