in-starlit-nights

[in-starlit-nights]

okay but how can you not absolutely froth at the mouth over the angst and yearning between azriel and elain?

they hadn't gone further than the occasional brushing of fingers? bitch, i am melting. something charged passed between them??? sister i am gnawing at the bars of my encloser. he's willing to die just to save her??? god damn someone fetch the defibrillator because i'm flat-lining over here. he compares her to the sun at dawn???? she communicates her silent offer and permission because she's been waiting for this moment, for his touch, for only gods know how long??? best bury me six feet deep because i am DECEASED.

i need them biblically.

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I started this like a year ago, but only finished it like five or six months ago. I never posted it because I thought it wasn’t good enough but then I realized that’s fucking stupid. So I was planning on posting it, but never did, so I forgot I did a whole ass anime. Anyway here it is now.  

[in-starlit-nights]

This is such an underrated Elriel moment.

I dragged a hand over my face before going to Elain and touching her too-bony shoulder. ��Can I set you up in the garden? The herbs you planted are coming in nicely.”

“I can help her,” said Azriel, stepping to the table as Elain silently rose. No shadows at his ear, no darkness ringing his fingers as he extended a hand.

Nesta monitored him like a hawk, but kept silent as Elain took his hand, and out they went.

Elain is given the option to have either Feyre or Azriel take her to the garden, and without saying a word, she takes Azriel’s hand and they go out together.

SJM better give us flashbacks to these little moments in the next book.

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the second panel was originally going to have words but I decided it was better without them

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So I have a friend who’s reading through acotar for the first time and is not a part of the online fandom. She just finished acofas and all I did was ask her what she thinks about azriel. & this is what she said…

It’s funny how supposedly there is no build up for elriel yet new readers always catch on to it…

[in-starlit-nights]

“𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆”

Elriel Series — Part 3

••••••••••••••••

“Yes” Elain breathed, like she read the decision. Just this taste in the dead of the longest night of the year, where only the Mother might witness them. 

Azriel’s hand slid up her neck, burying in her thick hair. Tilting her face the way he wanted it. Elain’s mouth parted slightly, her eyes scanning his before fluttering shut.  

𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯.  

He nearly groaned with relief and need as he lowered his head toward hers. 

𝘼𝙯𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙡.

Rhys’s voice thundered through him, halting him mere inches from Elain’s sweet mouth. 

𝘼𝙯𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙡. 

Unrelenting command filled his name, and Azriel looked up. 

Rhysand stood atop the staircase. Glowering down at them.  

𝙈𝙮 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚. 𝙉𝙤𝙬.

Rhys vanished, and Azriel was left standing before Elain, who still awaited his kiss. His stomach twisted as he pulled his hand from her hair  and stepped back. Forced himself to say, “𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆.”

She opened her eyes, hurt and confusion warring there before she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t— Don’t apologize,” he managed to say. “Never apologize. It’s I who should…” He shook his head, unable to stand the bleakness he’d brought to her expression. “Goodnight.” 

Azriel winnowed into shadows before she could say anything, appearing at the doors to Rhys’s study a heartbeat later. His shadows whispered in his ear that Elain had gone upstairs.  

••••••••••••••••

I apologize for a sad post on a Monday, but I promise the next and last part of the Elriel series (October 15) will be a happy one 🫶🏻

————————————

Art by the amazing Insta nicki.li_

Commissioned by me (old username g0nz023r1n)

*🚫No reposting (likes/shares appreciated). There have been many repostings w/o crediting the artist/commissioner unfortunately. This is posted on both Instagram & X where it can be shared via the original post 🫶🏼

Text & characters from ACOSF Bonus Chapter by SJM

🚫NO SHIP DRAMA PLEASE🚫

@elrielmonth

[in-starlit-nights]

if j*rian made a gang rape joke about elain in front of azriel, he would no longer have a tongue.

instead, he made that joke in front of her mate and now they’re besties living in elain’s ex’s house.

funny how that works.

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Azriel has a breeding kink.

Prove me wrong.

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LOVE would trump even a mating bond. Only through LOVE and mutual acceptance do the threads of true fated mates bind together.

"Sometimes, the bond is nothing more than some … preordained guesswork at who will provide the strongest offspring. At its basest level, it’s perhaps only that. Some natural function, not an indication of true, paired souls.".

LOVE is what makes the mated pairs important. Elain and Azriel can have something more than a mating bond and I can't wait for their book.

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣⤞ art by pinkykei.art

⤞ commissioned by me

⤞  @elainarcheronweek Day 5: Connections

⁣⁣⁣⤞ Please do not repost without permission

⁣⁣⁣⤞ Instagram

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

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A voice in the void, a secret and a quiet dreamer

Rowaelin:

"But I sent you to Wendlyn for the healing. And so you would ... find him. The one who had been waiting so long for you." Aelin's heart cracked. "Rowan." Elena nodded. "He was a voice in the void, a secret, silent dreamer. And so were his companions. But the Fae Prince, he was..." Aelin reined in her sob. "I know. I've known for a long time." "I wanted you to know that joy, too," Elena whispered. "How- ever briefly." “I did,” Aelin managed to say. “Thank you.

And we have Elriel:

The golden necklace seemed ordinary -- its chain unremarkable, the amulet tiny enough that it could be dismissed as an everyday charm. It was a small, flat rose fashioned of stained glass, designed so that when held to the light, the true depth of the colors would become visible. A thing of secret, lovely beauty. 

She arched a brow. He explained, “They pull people together. And bring them joy. They are a time to pause and reflect and gather, and those are never bad things.” Shadows darkened his eyes, full of enough pain that she couldn’t stop herself from touching his shoulder. Letting him see that she understood why he stood in the doorway, why he wouldn’t go near the fire. His secret to tell, never hers. Azriel’s face remained neutral.

And I will explain the "a voice in the void" part.

Elain was lost to the murky realm after the cauldron and being made. We now know it is because she was a seer.

Azriel had been the one who "freed" her from that murky realm.

But more importantly...before she was even freed from that murky realm, Azriel had focused her in a way if you look at these two scenes:

Rhys gave her a sharp look. But Elain said quietly, “The queen might come.” Silence. Elain was staring at the unlit fireplace, eyes lost to that vague murkiness. “What queen,” Nesta said, more tightly than she usually spoke to our sister. “The one who was cursed.” “Cursed by the Cauldron,” I clarified to Nesta, pushing off the archway. “When it threw its tantrum after you … left.” “No.” Elain studied me, then her. “Not that one. The other.” Nesta took a steadying breath, opening her mouth to either whisk Elain upstairs or move on. But Azriel asked softly, taking a single step over the threshold and into the sitting room, “What other?” Elain’s brows twitched toward each other. “The queen—with the feathers of flame.” The shadowsinger angled his head. Lucien murmured to me, eye still fixed on Elain, “Should we—does she need …?” “She doesn’t need anything,” Azriel answered without so much as looking at Lucien. Elain was staring at the spymaster now—unblinkingly. “We’re the ones who need …” Azriel trailed off. “A seer,” he said, more to himself than us. “The Cauldron made you a seer.”

Let alone this is the "you are a seer" scene which freed elain from the murky realm. The "unblinking" part is quiet important. Whenever Elain has a vision or talks in riddles she is blinking rabidly. A few examples...

So as you can see...she is looking at Azriel "unblinkingly"

Another scene is this:

But Elain shook me off, heading back to the stairs. She said as she climbed the first steps, “I can hear her—crying.” I gripped the bottom post of the banister. “Who?” “Everyone thinks she’s dead.” Elain kept walking. “But she’s not. Only—different. Changed. As I was.” “Who,” I pushed. But Elain continued up the stairs, that shawl drooping down her back. Nesta stalked from Cassian’s side to approach my own. We both sucked in a breath, to say what, I didn’t know but— “What did you see,” Azriel said, and I tried not to flinch as I found him at my other side, not having seen him move. Again. Elain paused halfway up the stairs. Slowly, she turned to look back at him. “I saw young hands wither with age. I saw a box of black stone. I saw a feather of fire land on snow and melt it.”

Feyre asks and asks...nothing. Azriel asks and she stops to look back at him.

And this whole parallel hits even harder when you think about how Rowan had a mate...but it was fake and there are MANY parallels with elriel and rowaelin. Such as these BANGERS.

So yeah...I think this is my top parallel find. I'm retiring. I cant top this.

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On a sunny afternoon in the City of Starlight, Elain and Azriel sit together, enjoying a peaceful picnic, their laughter filling the air. There's something so heartwarming about imagining them playfully decorating each other's hair with flowers and leaves, lost in the simple joy of the moment. 🌸🦇

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣⤞ art by @evaroseart

⤞ commissioned by me

⤞  @elainarcheronweek Day 5: Connections

⁣⁣⁣⤞ Please do not repost without permission

⁣⁣⁣⤞ Instagram

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

[in-starlit-nights]

I don't know, my thing -- I guess -- is that I think it's intellectually dishonest to say that every ship (Elriel, El.ucien, Gw*nriel) has the same chance of happening. Based PURELY on the canon we have, it's very clear to me that only one of these ships has the actual story and emotion basis to be considered truly likely (Elriel). One of these has absolutely no setup that's related to the story or tied to any emotional beats between the characters (Gw*nriel). One of them is theoretically possible, if not likely, based - - again - - on canon precedent (El.ucien). This isn't to say that these other ships don't deserve to be shipped. Crackships are a necessary part of fandom, if you ask me. Go wild, have fun, ship whatever you want. If you relate to Gw&n and like Az and you just want to ship them together for the vibes or the self-insertion or whatever else, who am I to stop you?

It's when you start getting into the "buildup and foreshadowing" arguments that I lose my patience. Because only one of our "potential" couples has that thus far and, to me, it's dishonest to try to truly argue that either of the other couples has anything even remotely equal.

It's ALSO dishonest, in my opinion, to say that there's only one certain and irrevocable ending when we don't yet have a published book in our hands. These are, at the end of the day, SJM's dolls. We're watching her play Barbies. They're her dolls, her universe, her rules, and she gets to do whatever she wants with them. Not to Schrodinger's cat this whole situation, but all of the cats are both alive and dead at this particular point in time. But it's almost more like we're putting one perfectly healthy cat and one very sick one in the box at the same time. One is more likely to emerge from the box in the end than the other.

The LIKELIHOOD of Elriel is simply higher than that of either of the other "ship war" ships. I'm saying that not as a shipper but as a reader whose entire education has been built on analysis. Looking at the setup and foreshadowing and the extended storyline we've been given, there is ONE likely ship based on setup, emotion, storyline, etc, and multiple THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE ships that are possible only based on the characters existing in the same universe.

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Antis trying to downplay Elain’s friendship with Nuala and Cerridwen while simultaneously expecting her to become besties with Jurian and Vassa will never not be pathetic. They’re just jealous that Elain chooses to share her time and passions with the wraiths and Azriel instead of her ✨mate✨, his girlfriend, and one of the shadiest characters in the series.

Sorry that she doesn’t OWE your boy her time or affections, but CHOOSES to share them with the ones she feels seen by. The twins who helped her reignite old, and find new, passions in the faerie realm, and the male who ACTIVELY pulled her from the darkness in multiple ways instead of asking others to do it for him. The same male who has gone from a dear companion to the one that she now wants panting on top of her. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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I am obsessed with this

New insanely beautiful elriel art by insta 🎨 Gdeliarte

Go like and follow

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Imagine sitting in a garden with her, she looks at the flowers and i look at mine.

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a few of the potentially elriel inspired pins from SJMs pinterest board 💜

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the more I think about it, the more I wish sjm would have saved that bonus chapter scene for their book. like the tension in that scene ugh, one of the hottest things sjm has ever written.

and ELAIN? sweet little shy elain WHERE? first she made a sex joke with that gift😭 and then she knew why he was trying to keep his distance, stay away and rarely came to family dinners, she knew WHY and she still went for it. my girl LEAD that scene. “put it on me?” “pivoted into his touch like basically TOUCH ME” and I repeat SHE KNEW.

and all it took was like touching her neck and the man went hard, aching, hyperventilating, he COULDN’T even think anymore. he was literally praying she didn’t understand the effect she had on him, the effect this little simple touch had on him. *dies*

and then he was like well I’m ready to risk it all right here right now. from a little touch of her skin? he was like yeah I’ve done unspeakable things dadada but I can have this and she was like yes you can. my girl. again she could read him without needing any words. and I know very well she knew the “effect” she had on this man.

then bam he took control, that’s all he needed. his dom side came out. he buried his hand in her hair, tilting her face the way he wanted it, taking control of that kiss of that situation. we all know he was about to devour her.

and my girl closing her eyes after scanning his, parting her mouth. (like do whatever you want to me, cause I want it too.) pretty sure, soon she will be in full control of their “situations” and my boy will switch for her, he will be like yes, please. we all know it. please sarah listen to me, don’t make it cringe when you already excelled with that tension and THAT scene. channel that sarah you were when you wrote this.