#And they said we were the ones only showing Gwynriel for Gwyn Week!?

[sadiegirl2021]

Love all this Elain appreciation.... so great to see the fandom celebrating her as her own person....

[stargirlie25]

so many people say that Elucien and Gwynriel would be boring but Vassien and Elriel would be so much fun!

NAURRNAURNAUR

There is nothing forbidden abt elriel lets be honest. The only reason rhysand forbid them is not because he hates them its because he saw that it is just lust. Not some emotional bridge between them. Do we remember when Feyre went into luciens mind and she sensed what he was feeling towards elain? Its safe to say Rhysand did just that with azriel and then forbid it because his feelings are not even serious!! Do you seriously think Rhysand would forbid elriel if Azriel was falling in love with Elain? No. If he saw that they were in love, he would accept it and protect them because in ACOWAR he said that Elain would be supported if she decided against the bond. If later in the series Azriel said, ''i love Elain and she loves me'' Rhysand would 100% be supportive. The only thing in the way of elriel is Elain herself.

Now that we got rid of the fake forbidden aspect, what about Elain and Azriel. No forbidden love. Just Elain and Azriel. They are both accepting each other with wide arms. There is nothing interesting about that. In real life sure. Although now you have to think. In a book that only has words and leaves everything up to your imagination how would Elriel be interesting besides plots? No in real life your partner does not have to challenge you. Although in a high fantasy novel with these specific characters, they do nothing for each other. Elain would not help Azriel grow and Azriel would not help Elain grow. Lets be honest they both need growth. Azriel would just try to protect her and push down the idea of Elain doing big things. Not that its her fault but his shadows would continue to hide from her. They are apart of him! Elain and Azriel do have an understanding between each other but so does cassian/feyre and nesta/rhysand. I never thought they were romantic until ACOFAS. Also reading about another sister finding herself in the night court and a bat boy will bore me to death. Elriels have no other reason to say they are interesting other than forbidden love and plots. Its gone so far to say Elain will be a spy like azriel. ''The hewn city troubled her'' and so will every place Azriel tends to spy in.

Why do i think Gwynriel will be more interesting?

Well first off the fact that we figured out facts about Azriel when he was with Gwyn. Eg, He sings and sleeps with a dagger. Obviously yes his shadows! Although his shadows have been intimate with others but they do something they have never done with anybody, they dance and sing. They lighten around Elain AND Mor. SJM made these two women take away the darkness of Azriel. Then she inserts another, who embraces this darkness and smiles at them. There is multiple times where his shadows are out and he is not happy or he is stressed. I see some people say this is a bad thing. No not really. Azriel is aloud to be upset without there having to be a deeper reason. Also his shadows hid from koschei but who cares about that! Its important to note that he is happy/calm with Gwyn PLUS his shadows are out. That is growth. Not only for Azriel but for Gwyn also. Cassian AND Azriel made Gwyn feel stronger. In the start of ACOSF Gwyn says shadowsinger but towards the end she says Azriel. After the traumatic event, she feels comfortable around him. A man. That is growth. Not to mention after Azriel showed her how, she was able to cut the ribbon and become the first Valkyrie. She had been trying for weeks but after that one little lesson with Az, she cut the damn thing. Lets also note the fact that Azriel likes his space (got that from gwyn) and he isnt ever really taken by suprise. Although can you just imagine all of Azriels walls are up yet Gwyn makes her way in? It makes sense! Azriel said he is never really taken by suprise but Gwyn does that. IMO Azriel showed no personality for a lot of the books till he is with Gwyn. Now i can make a little bit of sense of who he is. Gwyn can simply answer a question and he can simply answer. It's easier on him.

Now Elucien my babies!!!!!!!!!!

We know that there is canon proof that Elain does not belong in the night court and that it sucks the general life out of her. Lucien has been struggling to find a home for so long and yes he has found friends eg,jurian and vassa although i highly doubt the human lands are his home. Elain has also made friends (nuala and cerridwen) although the night court still sucks the life from her. It makes sense though, darkness does suck away lightness. Now ive said before that the day court makes sense for both lucien and elain. For lucien, He can live in a place full of light (which is what he needs) and he can have a proper father figure and find a place where he is fully excepted. For Elain it also makes lots of sense. The day court helps people grow and Elain helps flowers grow. Not to mention it is still connected to the night court because feyre says that rhysands full beats form is helions beast forms are parallel and perpendicular at the same time! So she would still be connected to her sisters and friends. Besides all of this, Elain and Lucien have not yet found themselves. They have tried to find a physical home but there is still something missing. IMO i think Elucien will have the bond in which ''Home is not a place, it's a person'' They have always been the light in dark families so them together? Perfect! I also think Lucien would help Elain blossom. The buds in her mind are closed but light can help them grow! I think it's important to remember that Elain likes to help. She would help the servants at her home back in the human lands and she would help nuala and cerridwen. Although as if right now, every single member of the ic (except maybe amren) coddles her. It always, Elain doesnt go near- or Elain shouldn't- as if she does not have a voice and choice. HAHAHAHA IT RHYMES anyways given how Lucien acts, i feel as though he would help her be stronger in a gentle way. He himself does not like to be coddled or underestimated and says safe is boring. He would for sure understand elain!

Anyways there is much more deeper reasoning but this was all i had energy to write!

[nightcourtreader]

ACOSF Interactions/connections without the bonus chapter. Elriel vs gwynriel.

Elriel

• “Because of the shit with Elain?” Azriel stilled. “What happened to Elain?” Cassian waved a hand. “A fight with Nesta. Don’t bring it up,” he warned when Azriel’s eyes darkened. Cassian blew out a breath. (Page 221)

• Azriel stiffened, an outright sign of temper from him as he said quietly, “there is an innate darkness to the dread trove that Elain should not be exposed to.” (Page 311)

•She threw a nod towards Azriel. “including Elain, who is more than capable of defending herself against the darkness of the trove, if she chooses to. don’t underestimate her.” (Pg 311)

• she said nodding to Cassian, and then, a bit more shyly to Azriel. Azriel offered her a small smile that Elain quickly looked away from. Cassian tucked away his puzzlement. (Pg 467)

•Then his gaze shifted to Elain, and though it was utterly neutral, something charged went through it. Between them. Elain’s breath caught slightly, and she gave him a shallow nod of greeting before brushing past. (Pg 597)

How is there any Elriel build up in acosf when they didn’t even talk to each other in the entirety of the book without the bonus chapter? All they did was look at each other. Azriel himself has been avoiding elain the entirety of the book, that was HIS choice. No one told him to do that. But they’re suppose to be endgame?

Gwynriel

•Gwyn had been distracted today—one eye on the other side of the ring. Cassian could only assume she was watching his brother, who had given Gwyn a small smile of greeting upon arrival. Gwyn hadn’t return it. Cassian cursed himself for a fool. He should have asked her if she’d be comfortable with Azriel here. Perhaps he should have asked all the priestesses about including another male, but especially Gwyn—whom Azriel had found that day in Sangravah. (Pg 406)

• She said nothing about it during the lesson. Only glanced every now and then toward Az, who remained dutifully focused on his charges. Cassian couldn’t read the expression on her face. (Pg 406)

* Gwyn let out a high pitched noise that was nothing but pure excitement. Azriel, on the other side of the ring with the rest of the priestesses, half turned at the sound, brows high. (pg 464)

* Gwyn snickered, her attention fixed on thing a length of white silk ribbon to a wood beam jutting from the side of the pit. Neither the ribbon nor the beam had been there a week ago, and Nesta had no idea how they’d even anchored the wood into the stone, but there it was. (Page 513)

I added this because it only makes sense that Azriel anchored the beam for them while Cassian was gone.

* “Done.” Gwyn declared, the white ribbon fluttering in the wind where it hung from the beam. Behind them, a few of the priestesses working with Azriel had turned to see what the ribbon business was about. The shadowsinger crossed his arms, angling his head, but remained in his half of the ring. (Page 514)

* But Cassian cleared this throat. “Explain,” he ordered Gwyn. Gwyn squared her shoulders. “This is the Valkyrie test for whether your training is complete and you’re ready for battle: cut the ribbon in half.” Emerie snorted. “What?” Cassian made a contemplative noise, gesturing to the other half of the ring. “Az told me you also started preliminary work with the steel blades while we were gone.” He nodded to Gwyn and Emerie, the former glancing toward Azriel, who watched in silence. “So show me what you learned. Cut the ribbon in two.” (pg 514)

* “We slice the ribbon in two,” Emerie asked Gwyn warily, “and our training is complete?” Gwyn again glanced to Azriel, who drifted closer. She said, “I’m not entirely sure.” (pg 514-515)

* Azriel had winnowed her and Cassian here after training, but hadn’t lingered. Apparently, Gwyn wanted him to go over dagger handling, so he’d left them with a promise to return in an hour.(Pg 561)

* Cassian glance over to Az, but his attention was fixed on the young priestesses, admiration and quiet encouragement shining from his face. (Pg 621)

* 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 hundreds 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, we’re aware that far larger forces peered into the training ring as Gwyn moved (pg 621)

* Gwyn asked Az, her teal eyes bright, “what do we get if we finish the course?” Az’s shadows danced around him. “Since there’s no chance in hell any of you will finish the course, we didn’t bother to get a prize.” Boo’s sounded. Gwyn lifted her chin in challenge. “We look forward to proving you wrong.” (Pg 623)

* Gwyn threw Azriel a withering stare as she strode past him. “See you tomorrow, Shadowsinger,” she tossed over a shoulder. Az stared after her, brows high with amusement. When he turned back, Nesta grinned. “You have no idea what you just started,” she said. Az angled his head, hazel eyes narrowing as Gwyn reached the archway. “Remember how Gwyn was with the ribbon?” Nesta winked and clapped the shadowsinger on the shoulder. “You’re the new ribbon, Az.” (Pg 624)

* Propelling Gwyn to push her group harder. She wanted to be the first. Wanted Nesta and Emerie and her to be the ones who wiped the smirks from Azriel’s and Cassian’s faces. Especially Azriel’s (pg 624)

* And when Gwyn reached the finish line, bloody and panting and grinning so wildly her teal eyes glowed like a sunlit sea, she only extended her battered hand to Azriel. “Well?” (Pg 625)

• “I kept to the trees the first two nights, watching the beasts, and I spotted that horrible male and his companions this morning. Saw they’d found my nightgown and displayed it, and I knew they were hunting for you. I thought I’d take them out before they could find you.” “You lead the beast right to them.” “I learned where the beasts sleep during the day,” Gwyn said. “and that they get very angry when awoken.” she pointed to the cuts on her face, her hands. “I barely out ran that one as I led it toward the camp. My timing was just good luck, though.” (Pg 682) & Azriel sharpen truth teller. the Black Blade absorbed the dim sunlight trickling through the forest canopy above. “it seems you’ve forgotten how much of spying is waiting for the right moment. people don’t engage in their evil deeds when it’s convenient to you. Cassian rolled his eyes. “I stopped spying because it bored me to death. I don’t know how you put up with this all the time.” “It suits me.” (page 688)

* “There are plenty of other unspeakable things that could be happening to her,” Cassian said, voice thickening. “To Emerie and Gwyn.” The shadows deepened around Azriel, his siphons gleaming like cobalt fire. (Page 688, ACOSF)

• “Azriel slaughtered all of them within moments. He didn’t hesitate. But I could barely move, and when I tried to get up…He gave me his cloak and wrapped me in it.” (Page 695, ACOSF) & “sloppy I realized. Rhys had been sloppy in killing them. Normally he would’ve kept them alive for Azriel to question. But he’d taken what he needed, quickly, brutally, and ended it.” (Pg 331, ACOWAR)

We see how Azriel usually takes people into questioning when it comes to things like that and he didn’t even do that. The same thing with Rhys. I just thought it was a connection.

We see that Elriel had zero interactions or connections with each other after the bonus chapter, because the bonus happens the night of winter solstice. We see many gwynriel connections after the bonus chapter and there’s suppose to be zero gwynriel build up in acosf and people are not understanding why they are being shipped?

How can you claim 4 books of build up when the only thing I see where you can ship Elain & Azriel is in ACOWAR, but even then it’s canon that Azriel was still in love with Mor up until ACOSF.

[acourtofthought]

I think the moment WE all found out the whoever runs Elain week was banning ships we knew the week would not really be about Elain.

And it is now an even bigger shit show watching how they are ignoring the problematic and racially insensitive comments the artist made. The art ITSELF was fine, but what she said and how she's doubled down is NOT, and then for the mods to support her and allow other elriels do encourage those comments should honestly be called out. I know they don't care, they are already refusing accountability and trying to make it about Gwynriel, when Gwynriel is not even a part of this fucking shit show. The truly can't help themselves in finding ways to turn this on Gwyn stans.

Anyways, here is what I think, El/riels are paranoid that the fandom will perceive their ship as the minority and that is why they make everything about Elriel, they can't even celebrate Elain as ELAIN without some passive aggressive, OUT OF CONTEXT cheesy caption that reads like a school girl writing in her diary for the first time about a crush on a boy who only thinks you are hot but could care less about your personality, and because you have no standards for yourself or too naive, find that attraction is all it takes to win you over. Even if the boy never bothered to ask you once, how your day was, or bothered to get to know you, because like who cares, he is a cute boy right?

They are shallow and their lack of depth and understanding to how SJM actually wishes for her couples to be equals, and fully themselves is their downfall. But jokes on them, it does not matter how much they push Elriel, Sarah does not give a fuck.

We don't have just one book of contextually evidence of the type of romance Sarah prefers, not even two, three of even 10, we have 16 books of fated mates as endgame, because that IS THE TROPE. Have they ever read any other books? You read enough romance books, it is easy to pick up on basic set up like this:

Character A is not wholly herself around Character B. Boy wants to only protect fragile FMC, they hold back who they truly are, especially their ugly side, maybe they trauma bonded when FMC was too scared and fearful of her destiny, but eventually when the FMC starts to embrace her fate, the relationship is doomed because the boy can't handle who she is becoming.... like where have I read that before? oh in several other popular series, from Fourth Wing, Shatter Me, The Mortal Instruments, like babes, the writing is on the wall, it's the most basic set up there is, Tamlin and Chaol also fit the bill of this archetype doomed romance, and they refuse to see it.

I bet good money if they read other books they would be team jacob, team adam, team stefan, team simon, team dain...I can go on and on. I bet they were team tamlin and chaol before the next books if they were even around then. They lack depth and understanding of the most basic romance types in a vast majority of books.

Az wanting to keep Elain away from danger is not romantic. It is sniffling her. Just like Dain did not want Voilet to train. Just like Tamlin did not want Feyre to train. Just like Adam wanted to keep Juliette from fighting. Stefan refusing to accept Elena for who she was becoming, wanting her to be the girl he first met, to Simon wishing things would have been what they once were, only to realize Claire never would be and learning their love was never meant to be romantic.

Like this is not hard.

I'll see your thoughts and raise you one.

I think even before the banning of ships we knew this wasn't actually going to be a true Elain week based on the history of Elain Weeks. Most character weeks reserve a day for relationship prompts but instead, this week has always been E/riel Week 2.0 run by E/riels who limit the amount of other content that's featured.

And I agree, it is sad to see that the sum total of many of these posts are simply fanart of e/riel with a quote from the book (i.e., how handsome they would be together) and that's the entire thing. Because Feyre thinking what she did back in book 2 (though she clearly was encouraging Elain to get to know Lucien in the novella) somehow is important to the ELAIN Home Prompt. Because Feyre's words should somehow dictate where Elain will be most at home, not Elain herself when the text in SF (the most recent book) clearly shows that despite Elain's attempts at doing her best to fit in, she really doesn't.

I was talking to Luna earlier and we had discussed how Sarah set up Nesta's story like this:

Nesta was in the NC but she refused to try to acclimate to the NC. She hid herself away, would not interact with the IC, would not engage with Velaris outside of the bars and taverns she visited, did not want to participate in the NCs holidays such as Solstice (and the exchanging of gifts). She was in the NC but kept herself removed from what made it the NC. It wasn't until her book that she began to try fitting in with the things around her she found her home.

In comparison Elain is in the NC and she's trying to fit in. She's trying to interact with Feyre's found family, trying to show interest in an available NC male within Feyre's circle, participating in the holidays and traditions of the NC, trying to make friends and find a purpose there. But despite Elain doing everything she possibly can to fit in, the text supports that something still isn't working. Cruelty still bothers her, the others still don't rely on her for anything, nobody is asking her about her trauma, nobody is asking her to train her powers, she's constantly sitting by the sunniest windows and losing her color in the winter, she barely laughed in SF. Elain is doing her best but no matter how much she gives, it's not going to be enough because she's NOT where she belongs. Versus Nesta, who finally gave in and began trying and realized she was where she belonged all this time.

But as you said, they are so fixated on such surface level things (they wanted to kiss!! Feyre said they'd be handsome together!) that they forget about the deeper, more meaningful aspects of Sarah's endgame pairings. And you're right, it will not matter how many fanarts they make, how loud they are within the fandom, it's not going to change what Sarah writes. Sarah has spoken time and again about what a toxic relationship looks like to her (Tamlin / Feyre), what a true connection for her looks like since she feels she has that with Josh, and she set E/riel up to look exactly like the Feyre / Tamlin romance did. Ignoring what kind of author she is and what relationships she prefers isn't going to help them. I think I'd have more respect if they said, "yes, I see where Az's behavior with Elain is problematic but I believe Sarah will have him made amends". But instead, they insist Az is so romantic towards Elain, that they share in true love. ?!$!$%#% WHERE????? You said it above but he does not have faith in her, he does not give her credit for anything she did in the war, he was not there for her during any of her arguments with Nesta in the last year. That is not love, not in any of the books you mentioned above and definitely not in a Sarah J Maas book. It's even more noticeable because of how she wrote Az reacting to Gwyn through the book, thinking on how far she's come, showing pride and admiration for her, believing in her. He isn't in love with Gwyn yet but those traits are a much more beautiful and solid foundation to build a real relationship on than talking about seeds, appearances and wanting to eat her out after avoiding her for a year.

Side note, I know you were saying Az is "stifling" her but the typo reads Az is sniffling her and I can't stop smiling because it's so funny when you read it that way.

[yennas-stuff]

An E/riel said that “Emerie and Rhys have a better chance at being friends than Gwyn and Rhys - he already flies her to and from Illyria” and while it is possible that Rhys and Emerie will become friends, I still believe that Rhys and Gwyn are going to become very good friends for many reasons, but that’s a whole different post.

And while we’re on the topic of Emerie, E/riel’s only bring her up when they want to put down/make Gwynriel’s, Gwyn stans, and Nesta stans look bad (I stated this in another ask). That we don’t care about her and we forget about her. Emerie week was announced not too long ago and the majority of them were dead quiet. “Emerie deserves better” they say and then it’s radio silent from them. It honestly feels performative. I have a lot to say about this actually.

The majority of Gwynriel’s/Valkyries fans have made so much fanart of Emerie (and Emorie), short fics, headcanons, little blurbs of how she inspired young girls in Illyria, theories of her getting green siphons or even getting Truth-Teller, and praise her for being brave and hardworking. I’ve even seen some say how it would be cool if Emerie got a little camp of her own for the woman who want to be a Valkyrie and it would be like a safe haven. And if E/riel’s have the Gwynriel, or Gwyn, or Nesta, or Valkyries tag blocked then that’s probably why they don’t see some of it. Even without those tags there is still lots of love for Emerie, so when I see them talk about how we don’t appreciate her or only care about Gwyn because we ship her with Azriel it makes no sense to me.

And also, a lot of E/riel’s bring down the Valkyries by calling the sleepover and them making friendship bracelets childish, how the three of them aren’t really friends because all they’ve done is hang out a few times and read books and had a sleepover (?), saying the Blood Rite was lackluster/stupid, “the power of friendship”, etc. So how exactly is bringing down those girls and their friendship being supportive of Emerie? (I think they only do this because they don’t like Nesta or Gwyn).

This topic really makes me heated and annoyed. Like I said it just feels performative from E/riel’s. @yazthebookish actually made a very good post talking about this a little bit ago, but I think it’s deleted now. (Apologies to Yaz if I made you uncomfortable with tagging you❣️)

🍒 anon

Helloo 🍒 anon,

sorry for responding late. There's a heatwave, and I'm just barely surviving it.

Every *feminist*, girls girl take from E/riels feels performative and fake. They always end up saying something indirectly misogynistic.

It is funny when they ridicule Valkyries but pretend to love Emerie. Do they know she's also a Valkyrie? And she loves Gwyn and Nesta. And she's a cool character with lots of potential. Especially considering the Illyrians plot.

Unfortunately, as it's a romance series, we are interested in speculating about romance. Hence, the ship wars. I don't particularly enjoy Mor, and that's why it's hard for me to think about the possibility of Emorie. I think Emerie deserves better, but at the same time, I need at least one wlw ship. (Pls sjm, give us something sapphic.) So when there is not much to fight or speculate about... there are just fewer discussion points. We still show appreciation for the character, tho.

I think we would all as a fandom have more energy to discuss Emerie more if we didn't have to debunk more and more unhinged E/riel theories and block trolls every day.

[aldbooks]

Gwynriel Week 1 Day 4 - "You're the new ribbon Az"

Vaguely inspired by this lovely artwork.

---

Rhys approached the small crowd that had gathered in the training ring, having been summoned by Feyre, who had been training with the Valkyrie that morning. The tension and concern quickly drained out of him, morphing into bemusement, as he observed what was happening. Unsurprisingly, he spotted Mor and Amren perched on lounge chairs nearby, glasses of wine in hand as they observed the show. 

Cassian stood a few feet away, arms crossed over his massive chest, shaking his head as he watched. Beside him, his mate and Emerie were half hunched in silent laughter. Rhys carefully made his way to his mate, who stood next to Cassian, also clearly amused. The priestesses still lingering to watch, quickly bowed out of his way as he passed them and he greeted them with polite nods.

He had a better view once he joined them and nearly burst out laughing himself. Gwyn and Azriel stood across from targets, blindly firing arrows as they glared at each other. Or, more accurately, Gwyn was glaring, and Az was smirking. It did not escape Rhys' notice that the Shadowsinger's shadows would stealthily snap out on occasion to either straighten the path of Gwyn's arrow, or knock their masters' slightly off course. A small group of nervous looking acolytes stood behind them, dumping arrows into their quivers as they emptied and the targets were littered with arrows, some broken or split in half and he was half surprised they hadn't fallen from the weight. 

"How long have they been at this?" he murmured. 

Feyre snorted. "Oh, about... a quarter hour?"

He blinked, somewhat startled. Cassian shot him an amused grin. "They started with daggers." He nodded to the opposite end of the room where Rhys found a pair of practice dummies riddled with an alarming amount of knives. 

Brows lifted, his attention turned back to the dueling pair who were still glaring at each other. "Have they even looked once at the targets? Who's keeping score?"

"Oh, we gave up on that about 5 minutes in when they started throwing daggers too fast for us to tell who landed what," Emerie explained, still laughing. "They kept trying to hit each other's targets, as well as their own."

"And, of course, the more Az goaded her, the more determined Gwyn became to beat him. Hence that truly impressive scowl," Nesta's silver eyes flashed with vicious delight. 

He flashed her a grin. "Do you think they're even aware anyone else is still here?" he asked no one in particular. "Or do you suppose they think their quivers are being magically refilled?"

"Who knows," Feyre chuckled. "I'm not sure they've said a word for at least ten minutes. And I'm afraid if she glares any harder, Azriel will burst into flames."

Just then, Azriel's crooning voice drew their attention back to the spectacle. "Give it up, Berdara. You can't beat me without cheating. Admit it." Casually tossing aside his weapon, Azriel's smirk turned condescending. "Your aim has improved, but you're still leagues behind me, sweetheart."

Emerie hissed quietly and winced as Gwyn bristled, tossing down her bow. "Don't call me sweetheart," she said through gritted teeth. "You- decrepit old bat."

The acolytes carefully backed away from them as Azriel let out a menacing chuckle and stepped closer. To her credit, Gwyn didn't back down, just balled her fists at her sides and continued glaring up at him. 

"Well, this old bat is still kicking your ass, little one." 

A snarl curled her lips, and Rhys could've sworn her hair seemed to glow a brighter shade of red. "Yes, that's quite the boast, Spymaster. A female with barely a year of training, nearly bested your centuries worth. Perhaps you should practice more, your skills are bit dusty- sorry, rusty. Oh, ancient one."

This time, it was Azriel who bristled, even as he tried to play off his pricked pride with a scoff. "You only hit as many targets as me because my shadows decided to help you out."

Gwyn's snarl slid into a smirk as she taunted, "Because they like me better." As if in confirmation of that bold fact, Rhys saw- to his astonishment- a few brave souls dart out to wreath the priestess' shoulders. 

At that point, the argument devolved into childish bickering. All the while, the two gradually inched closer until they were nearly chest to chest, their faces a breath apart. Mor, he noticed, was on the edge of her seat, watching intently and he swore he spotted gold changing hands between Cassian and Feyre when, instead of the kiss that seemed inevitable, Gwyn sniffed and shoved past Azriel, ignoring them all. The remaining priestesses quickly scattered.

For a long moment, Azriel stared at nothing, looking vaguely disturbed, as Nesta and Emerie burst into laughter and Feyre tsked in annoyance. Mor fell back into her seat with an annoyed huff. And Cassian... grinned while counting out ten gold coins. For his part, Rhys just observed, caught between confusion and amusement. 

He'd noticed Azriel's protectiveness towards the young priestess before, particularly after she'd been taken into the Blood Rite but, at the time, he'd written it off as concern for one of his students. He was not unaware that Azriel was the reason Gwyn had been brought to the Library, but she was certainly not the only female he'd had a hand in rescuing over the years and, unlike most, she seemed almost bizarrely unfazed by him. Utterly unafraid to challenge him.

An admirable quality to be sure.

Now, he wondered if perhaps there was more going on up in the House of Wind than he'd previously been aware of. 

To round out the strange morning, he watched his brother startle when Nesta sauntered over, and slapped a hand on his shoulder. Like he'd been snapped out of a daze, Az blinked and shook his head before glancing down. "I told you Az," Nesta teased. "You're the new ribbon." 

At that curious statement, Rhys glanced towards his mate who shrugged. With one last contemplative glance at Azriel, Rhys turned back for the house. "Where are you going?" his mate's voice spoke in his mind.

"To have a chat with a priestess."

[shadowisles-writes]

Side By Side (Part 2) [Gwynriel]

A/N: You can find the series masterlist here and read on AO3 here.

Word count: 1471

.

Azriel didn’t show up in the library the following evening, nor did he show up to train Gwyn before sunrise. She took out her frustration on the targets, alone, but she found no satisfaction in it. Gwyn hated herself for her reaction. Why had she gone from joking with the shadowsinger to running away from him? She had made his shadows dance, gotten him to smile, but yesterday… yesterday his eyes had darkened and she might as well have landed a punch straight in his gut based on his expression.

Azriel wasn’t a male she needed to run away from, but her instincts were always screaming at her to do so. She had come so far during her time in the library, and she was even comfortable around males during training. She was comfortable training alone with Azriel too, but anything more than that… Her annoyance must have been written all over her face because even Merrill didn’t bother adding to her workload that day.

Gwyn was surprised to find him in the library later in the evening. She almost walked past him, invisible behind a swirl of shadows in a corner, but the way they moved when she was close gave him away. His hazel eyes met hers, cleared up of the shadows that curled and retreated to his shoulders while she walked up and stood behind the chair across from his.

“I’d like to apologize,” Gwyn said, focusing on the pen he placed on the table rather than his eyes.

The shadowsinger’s voice was low, smooth as silk as he replied. “What for?”

“My reaction,” Gwyn shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “The other morning, I-”

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” he cut her off before she could say more. “I should be the one doing that. It was my fault, I overstepped, it won’t happen again. I would have apologized earlier but I preferred giving you space,”

“There’s no need,” Gwyn pulled out the chair and sat down in front of him even though he hadn’t invited her. “You did nothing wrong,”

Just like that, things felt normal again. She reached for a book from his pile and opened it, Azriel sliding a sheet of paper and a pen towards him a second later.

It only took her reading the same paragraph four times for her to know she wasn’t done with their conversation.

She took a deep breath before she opened her mouth again, but even then her words trailed off before she could finish her thought. “I just can’t…”

Azriel gave her a second, waiting to see if she would continue, but Gwyn found herself stuck until he was the one to speak. “You don’t need to explain anything to me, Gwyn.”

“Can we be friends?” She managed to ask.

Azriel’s shadows fell from his shoulders and down his arms into swirls. “I was hoping we already were,” a smile appeared on his face.

Their training sessions began again the next morning. They fell back into their routine of training, working, doing research and repeating that again the next day. It would have stayed that way if Cassian and Nesta hadn’t come back at the end of the week. Gwyn didn’t want the obnoxious couple to break their bubble, and she would miss the one on one training sessions (though she would enjoy not having to get up extra early anymore) but she was thankful to have Nesta around again. It also meant that Emerie would return, and the reunited trio was stronger than ever as they fought side by side and against each other under Cassian’s careful eyes. Sometimes, he would get a little too close to Nesta, and Gwyn was able to catch Azriel’s eyes to exchange an exasperated look.

Gwyn liked it. It was loud and messy, but she still had her quiet and private moments in the library with Azriel, which were most important to her. Nesta and Emerie had of course been updated on the situation of the past week, and they didn’t miss an occasion to tease her about it. Cassian seemed to be doing the same, if the way Azriel retreated into his shadows was any indication. Cassian only shut up when he began to teach the priestesses how to use a bow and Gwyn hit every target dead center at a speed he couldn’t have expected.

“Okay, I take it back,” Cassian crossed his arms over his chest as he supervised the lesson from a distance once everyone was set up. “Maybe you did more than look at her like a lost puppy when we weren’t there,”

Gwyn bit back a laugh at what she overheard while Azriel replied with a snarl. She wondered if the general always got what he wanted simply because he was an absolute pain in the ass. Mercifully, Nesta picked a fight with him by the end of the lesson and the two disappeared into the house before everyone else. Gwyn could only hope that they’d make it to their bedroom before anyone else had to walk through the house.

She lingered in the ring while the other priestesses filtered out to regain the safety of the library. Gwyn used that time for extra stretches, and she found herself alone for a few minutes when Azriel winnowed Emerie home.

“Cassian’s face was priceless,” Gwyn grinned when he appeared in the ring again, shadows trailing after him.

They caught up and stretched ahead of him, curling at her feet. “I’ve never been prouder.” Azriel’s chest shook with a chuckle.

“Any other skill I could learn to shut him up again?”

“Apart from flying? I’m unfortunately out of ideas,”

“That’s too bad,” she breathed out, a strand of hair falling into her face.

For a second, Gwyn thought he would step closer and push it back for her. It was almost imperceptible, the way his body moved in hesitation and stilled again, his eyes locked on hers.

“Nyx will be a year old next week.” Azriel broke the silence before it could get uncomfortable. “We’ll be celebrating at the River House, and I’d like it if you could come.”

Gwyn weighed the pros and cons of leaving the House. She had always wanted to, thought about it several times in the past few nights, and Nesta would be there too, along with Cassian.

“I would like that.” Gwyn gave him a smile before she turned to leave. “I’ll see you this afternoon, shadowsinger.” She pretended she couldn’t feel his stare as he trailed her every step until she had disappeared into the House.

.

“Well then I guess he just beat me to it,” Nesta announced when Gwyn told her that Azriel had invited her to Nyx’s birthday celebration. “I was going to invite you and Em today. Mor can winnow you,” she added the last part for Emerie.

The valkyries were having one of their weekly sleepovers in the house library. There had been no more bubble baths since that first night, but they still indulged in all the chocolate and cake they could eat while the mini pegasus lounged by the window.

“I’d love to be there,” Emerie nodded before she continued, “and I would love to know what exactly is going on with Azriel.”

Gwyn felt blood rush to her cheeks as they looked at her with expectant looks. “We’re friends,” was all she could get out.

“Mmh, is that really all you have to say?” Emerie teased when she noticed Gwyn blush harder.

“Pretty suspicious,” Nesta agreed, and the Pegasus neighed, as if in agreement.

Gwyn sighed, her expression turning sad before she looked down to avoid Nesta and Emerie’s eyes. “I can’t give him what he wants.”

“Can’t, or can’t yet ?” Nesta pointed out softly.

“It took me over a year to even step  out of that library, do you really think he has that much patience?”

“Yes.” It was Emerie’s turn to butt in. “A lot more patience than you’re giving him credit for.”

“Either way, it doesn’t matter. I asked him to be friends, so that’s what we are,” Gwyn insisted.

Neither female really knew what to say to that, so the House intervened instead. A pile of books was dumped beside her, waiting to change her mind.

“If we can’t convince you, I think a few romance novels might do the trick,” Nesta chuckled.

Gwyn was glad her cheeks were still flushed so that her friends wouldn’t notice the reaction she had to those books being piled next to her. She was sure some—if not all of them—contained smut and she wasn’t ready to reveal that Azriel was the one on her mind every time she stumbled upon one of those scenes. No one was ever going to find out—especially not the shadowsinger himself.

.

Tags ( Add yourself to my taglist here ):  @dealfea​ @chosenfamily-valkyriequeens​  @em---r​ @sv0430​ @silverflameataraxia​ @gingertaylorswift22​ @shisingh​ @trashforazriel​ @gwynethhberdara​ @ruthieluvsbooks​ @a_little_disguised @earthofemily @halaberdara​ @sydney-fae25​ @meher_sumedha

[hlizr50]

Gwynriel Week - Day 1

Favorite Moment Together (let's be honest, there are too many)

"I can't sleep without my favorite dagger."

"A comfort to every growing child."

In honor of meeting in the training ring, here's a little ficlet:

Reunion

Read on AO3

Azriel was surprised to find her in the training ring.

The Blood Rite had only ended two days ago. Training was postponed, both for recuperation and preparation for Nesta and Cassian’s mating ceremony. And yet there the priestess was, heavy breaths sending clouds of steam into the frigid night air. His shadows wriggled in response to the sight, and he was able to breathe for what felt like the first time since that day they realized the three female trainees had been dropped into the brutal war game.

She was here. She was whole. She was unharmed.

He had glimpsed her that afternoon. He knew that she had survived – had won the damn thing. But with the madness of his High Lord and High Lady’s near death, the birth of their child, everything… he hadn’t gotten the chance to settle. But seeing her in the training ring, like so many evenings before she was stolen away, filled him with such a sense of pride and bone-rattling relief.

He stepped out of the shadowed stairwell, the darkness trailing him like a cape. He would have expected a scathing remark by now about him observing without greeting, but Gwyn simply continued beating the padded post senseless.

“Even Cassian said you could take time off, priestess,” he mused. “I would take advantage. It’s not a privilege often given.” The Spymaster took her in as she turned to face him, chest rising and falling from exertion. Her cheeks were pink, freckles darkened over the flush, and sweat sparkled on her brow. She gave a smile – he could always depend on her to do that – but bruised circles under her eyes betrayed her.

“Can’t sleep?”

Gwyn rolled her neck between her shoulders and flexed her fingers. “Surprising as it may sound, Shadowsinger, being kidnapped and dropped into the most brutal warrior initiation in Prythian can be quite nightmare-inducing.”

Azriel regarded her, tilting his head. Of course. He was a fool not to realize it, mind too preoccupied with knowing that she was safe, and knowing that she had conquered.

He hadn’t shared with anyone how terrifying that week had been for him. Cassian probably suspected, but Azriel made a living and a lifestyle of keeping his expressions schooled and his emotions carefully locked behind several different doors. Knowing there was nothing he could do hadn’t made the fear easier to bear, but it had made the imperative focus on finding Briallyn in that time easier to deal with. His mind had often drifted, though. Far more than he was comfortable admitting. The Blood Rite was appropriately named. It was less an initiation and more like a war. It was brutal and bloody, and knowing the caliber of warriors that Gwyn would have to face made his insides twist.

But knowing the Illyrian opinion of females, and knowing what could happen to her if even one entitled brute got ahold of her and had a taste for flesh…

The blood had frozen in his veins as soon as it was confirmed that she was gone.

The world had not been kind to Gwyn. Their first meeting had not been under pleasant circumstances. In his mind he could see her on that table, trembling and sobbing, as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. He had sworn to himself that if anyone touched her during the Rite he would hunt them down afterwards and show them exactly what the Spymaster and his dark blade were capable of. But in front of that vengeful bloodthirstiness was the stark realization that she may not even survive.

There would have been no more meetings like this, time together that he had begun to crave.

“And what of you, Shadowsinger?” She flashed that teasing grin. “If you say you’re in search of another dagger I might start thinking you’re just making excuses to see me.”

Something inside Azriel snapped. There were no thoughts, no words. He strode the few steps between them and pulled the copper-haired priestess against him, snaking an arm around her back while his other hand pressed her head gently against his shoulder.

“Surprising as it may sound, Berdara,” he breathed, his lips brushing against those soft chestnut-red strands, “sitting and waiting for a week, not knowing if someone you care about will survive the most brutal warrior initiation in all of Prythian – and being powerless to do anything about it – can be quite nightmare-inducing.” He breathed her in, the scent of her and the feeling of her body against him the final confirmation that she was alive and breathing and here. Gwyn breathed in against him, as well, winding her lithe arms around his lower back.

“Az…” she whispered.

“I nearly went mad, Gwyn. When I thought about never finding you out here again…” That was exactly what had gone through his mind. Without his realizing, she had become quite an important fixture in his day-to-day life, and when he had thought about not experiencing her competitiveness, or seeing her triumphant grin when she perfected a new skill, or hearing her call him ‘Shadowsinger’ as scathingly as she could manage – it had shredded him. When her arms tightened around him he felt his heart might burst with warmth.

“It sounds as if you didn’t have confidence in my skills, Shadowsinger,” she snickered against his chest. His shoulders shook with a laugh.

“Never. I know you were trained by the best.”

The priestess snorted and pushed away from him, fixing him with a skeptical look and raised eyebrow. His scarred hands came to rest on her hips. “It must be tiring lugging that enormous ego everywhere.”

“I’m a strong and powerful male. It’s nothing.” He flashed a crooked grin. “I appreciate your concern, though, priestess. Or shall I call you Carynthian?”

“It has a ring to it.” Gwyn gave a nose-crinkling smile. When Azriel looked into her eyes they were soft, a thin sheen of wetness reflecting the glittering stars. He tentatively raised a hand and tucked a stray copper strand behind her ear before tracing those callused fingers over the freckles splattered haphazardly over her cheek.

“I am enormously proud of you, Gwyn. And impressed. And relieved beyond words that you’re home safe,” the Illyrian admitted, not at all ashamed of the honesty.

“There was a moment,” she began, reaching up with her fingers to caress the hand at her face, “when I was hit with that arrow. We were so close to the end, and I hadn’t allowed myself to think until that moment that I might not survive. So many things flashed through my mind in a rush. I… I saw your eyes, and your smile, and heard you laugh. I remember wishing I’d had more time. You’ve become… quite important to me, Shadowsinger.”

Her words were a salve to a heart he once thought broken beyond repair, a tonic to an aching soul. He smiled wider than he could ever remember, grateful that they had been given this chance. The shadows seemed to agree, twirling around their arms and into her hair. Gwyn giggled, a melody made of hope and starlight.

“Sorry about them,” Azriel grimaced, lowering his hand to find his way to her hand and catching a few of her graceful fingers between the mottled skin of his own. “They’re drawn to you.”

“Who can blame them, really?” the priestess – the Carynthian – tittered with a sly grin.

The shadowsinger chuckled. “I certainly can’t.” Pink bloomed over Gwyn’s cheeks – spring roses under freckle constellations – and his grin grew smug. Oh, yes. He liked how it felt to be the cause of that.

Keeping their fingers entwined he pulled at her again, wrapping his other arm around the middle of her back before pressing his lips into her hair. And she didn’t flinch or freeze, which was a consideration he should have had perhaps before he chose to do so. Her fingers fidgeted with his and her shoulders lifted before a contented sigh brought them impossibly tighter together.

“I look forward to our evening training sessions continuing far into the future, Carynthian.” Voice deep and hushed, Azriel leaned his cheek on the soft pillow of silken copper. He wasn’t used to being so forward, and he still found it intimidating to outright speak his heart. He was a man of action, and he could only hope that those helped his cause.

“Maybe a nice dinner or two, as well, Shadowsinger.” He smiled, wide and bright and so unlike the spymaster most knew.

It seemed they heard each other loud and clear.

@gwynrielweek

[meher-sumedha]

Gwynriel Headcanon - Yoga

sooooooo - yoga, fluff not smut at all alert! and not Azriel totally falling for Gwyn

Stop staring at her, stop staring at her, she'll think you're a perv, stop staring at her. Azriel tried to remind himself, but his body was frozen. He couldn't move his eyes away from the woman who was doing 'something' in front of him.

Gods those fucking pants hugged her ass so beautifully. And that damn top, it accentuated her curves so much. He could even see her breasts dangling-

"Stare much shadowsinger?" the red haired priestess asked, which brought Azriel out of his trance. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! And the way her cheeks were red and she licked her lips, send blood rushing straight to his cheeks, and his cock.

There was amusement in her eyes when she spoke and a challenge in her tone, "My eyes are up here shadowsinger," and Azriel realized, he'd been staring at her breasts. He mentally kicked himself, repeatedly.

Azriel cleared his throat, hoping Gwyn wouldn't see his pink cheeks, or the huge bulge in his pants. But by the way she chuckled and shook her head, he knew she'd seen both of those things.

He then cleared his throat and asked, "No "people openers" (Gwyn referred knives to people openers weeks ago, and he'd still remembered) today Berdara? Not in the mood to kill?" he knew the challenge that he'd started, and the way her eyes tinkled, he knew she'd accepted it.

Gwyn just smiled at him, a smile full of amusement, "Actually no shadowsinger, I was trying something new today, it's yoga, ever heard of it?"

And Azriel couldn't hide the confusion on his face, at which Gwyn smirked and continued, "It's a method of exercise for the mortal humans. Even the valkyries used to use it, when they needed to calm their mind, or kick some ass."

"I didn't know you cursed Berdara," Azriel said, trying to change the topic so that he could buy some time to search his mind for whatever the hell yoga was. His heart was proud that Gwyn knew so much about so many things, but his ego was slightly, and by that I mean a lot, bruised.

"Looks like you don't know a lot of things shadowsinger, " Gwyn said with a smirk, knowing that she was adding salt to the wound. Azriel sighed when he couldn't recall anything about Yoga. He walked towards her and motioned her to continue.

She didn't. Instead she grinned devilishly and said, "Not until you say the word shadowsinger." And Azriel scoffed at that. Then Gwyn said in a sing-songy way, "I'm still waiting shadowsinger."

And Azriel scoffed at that. He was not gonna yield in front of her. Gwyn patiently waited, not saying anything. Fuck. He'd taught her to be patient and now she was. Way to use my own antics against me Berdara.

"Fine. Will you teach me Yoga?" Azriel asked, getting ready. But then Gwyn grinned from ear to ear again and said, "What's the magic word Azriel." And just the way she said, Azriel, had him undone. Gods he would fall on his knees before her, if he just said his name once more.

"Will you please teach me Yoga, Gwyneth, " Azriel said, not being able to hide his smile. 1 Gwyn, 0 Azriel. Gwyn then started tapping her chin, as she was in great thought, "Hmm, I'll think about it." And Azriel raised his eyebrows in a comical way, which made Gwyn chuckle.

"I'm kidding, we can get started right away." And then Gwyn told him about it. But he wasn't listening to her. He was, but he was only focused on the beautiful sound of her voice. He'd hoped she'd never stop talking, he could listen to her all day with the wind flowing in her hair-

"Got it shadowsinger?" And then Azriel suddenly realized that she'd been talking since 15 minutes, and he hadn't heard a thing she'd said. So, he did what most stupid teenage boys do, nod dumbfoundly and hope for the best.

Gwyn started with some simple stretching, and that was fine. But then she started getting into some "positions". Such as the up-side down dog. She first showed him how to do it but he could only focus on her perfectly carved ass.

The up-side down dog wasn't much of a problem though. The real problem was the "cow" and "cat" positions, gods all the things he could do with Gwyn in such positions. Fuck, he needed to snap out of it. She was a priestess, and instead of being a student, he was being a creep.

But he thought these positions had weird names, but then Gwyn explained that these were just the western names. The sanskrit names were actually difficult to pronounce. And Gwyn was still learning that language. She also used these names as she didn't want to mispronounce the words, and anger the gods.

"Gods? As in plural?" and Gwyn nodded her head. "There are a lot of gods in the Hindu culture. Yoga is also believed to come from the Hindu culture. Vishnu ji, Krishna ji, Ram ji. There are also many festivals which are celebrated to celebrate these gods. There are many folktales about them. Many of them signify the winning of good over evil."

And Azriel just nodded at that, already forgetting half the information she'd said. But he couldn't be more impressed. It was like Gwyn was an encyclopedia full of knowledge. It was like she was a book, some pages filled with beautiful chapters, and some with heartbreaking ones. But most of all, he loved the way she never gave up.

Loved the way her brows creased in confusion when she couldn't understand something. Loved the way her nose scrunched when she was trying out something new. Loved the way she smirked devillishly at him when she won at sparring, which had happened quite a few times now -

"Azriel- Azriel, AZRIEL," Gwyn had to literally shake his shoulders to bring him back to this world. "Gods what is up with you these days. Its like you black out and suddenly come back. But anyways, we'll have to end our yoga training right now as I'm too hungry and dinner in the library is only till 9pm."

Gwyn then got up and started walking to the door. Azriel didn't want her to leave. He wanted to spend some time with her and suddenly the words just flew out of his mouth, "Do you wanna have dinner with me?"

And Gwyn turned back towards him with her cheeks as red as her hair. She then replied, "I- I'd like that. A lot actually." and Azriel's racing heart finally calmed down a bit when she said that, "I'll see you at 8pm tonight then?" He said and continued, "We could go out to a nice restaurant. Maybe the one which overlooks the Sidra, the one that you love?"

And that made her blush even more, "To- Tonight?", "Yeah, tonight, IF you don't have a problem that is and even if you don't wanna go-" Gods he was babbling now and- "Yeah that's good for me. See you tonight shadowsinger." Gwyn said with a wink and didn't wait for Azriel to reply, not wanting him to see her red cheeks, she left the training room.

Azriel then suddenly smiled. Smiled and Smiled and Smiled. Couldn't stop from jumping in the air and hitting his hand in the air while saying, "WOO HOO" and then he looked around, hoping no one had seen him. With a smile on his face and his hand nervously massaging the nape of his head, he too left the training room. For he had to get ready for their date.

[shadowsingerspriestess]

I'm so tired of el/riels shaming us, Gwynriels ans Eluciens, for simply liking these ships. They come up with so much bs like "Gwynriels have no respect for SA survivors" "Eluciens support abuse" "Eluciens and Gwynriels support rape culture"

Gwynriels were called ped*philes because some stupid el/riel created a crack theory that says Gwyn is a child and that side of the fandom believed it and saw fit to shame Gwynriels. Sarah literally laughed at that theory and confirmed that Gwyn is an adult, yet there are still some people who shame Gwynriels and pull out the dog age card.

El/riels are ready to wear the red cape and come into the Gwynriel and Gwyn tag to shame us for "stealing" Emerie's role and give it to Gwyn, which is false. No one ever said that Gwyn will lead the Illyrian females and "reform" Illyra with Azriel and I'm 100 % sure that every Gwyn stan is against that. But like it or not, since Gwyn won the blood rite and is wearing an Illyrian title the Illyrian males will not just leave Gwyn and Nesta alone and go only after Emerie just because she's the only Illyrian. Gwyn and Nesta are connected to the Illyrian plot, not like Emerie but they are. Saying that Gwyn is connected to Illyria is not saying "Gwyn will reform Illyria and lead the Illyrian females". It provokes me so much, because they only every bring up Emerie when they want to shame Gwynriels. NONE of them took part for Emerie's week. Remember the artist who drew the inner circle, Lucien, Elain, Nesta and Gwyn? She explained that the artwork isn't exactly the 'inner circle" and the reason Emerie wasn't there was because she hadn't drawn Emerie at that time. El/riels just came in and shamed the artist. The artist isn't a Gwynriel stan, nor is she in the acotar fandom! What made me so angry is that none of them said "Oh where is Emerie?" but said crap like "Uhm?? Why is Gwyn her and not Emerie", which shows that it was not at all about Emerie.

Then we have el/riel constantly disrespecting SA survivors by saying Gwyn shouldn't have sex, suggesting that a SA survivor is evil and lures man and more crap and then shame us for shipping her with Azriel. As if they care about Gwyn. Where was this protective energy for Rhys, Feyre, Nesta and Lucien? Lucien is a SA survivor and yet they want him to bang Vassa. It was never about Gwyn, they just love to make us feel bad- putting us in a bad light. Again: it is up to Gwyn if she wants to heal and have a sexual relationship with someone. It is up to her if she wants to take her choice back, which was stolen from her. Same thing goes to every SA survivor in a fantasy world and in the real world.

Then they shame Eluciens and claim that we are supporting an "abuser", just because Elain felt uncomfy beside Lucien. Either they really don't know what abusive relationships actually are or they refuse to know. Lucien has been nothing but patient with Elain. Not once had he forced her to anything. He's staying far away from her. Even when the mating bond screamed at him to kill or at least hurt Grayson for hurting Elain, he didn't and rather left him alone, exactly like Cassian left Thomas alone and Rhys left Tamlin alone. Elain has already stated that she does not want a male nor a mating bond. If the cauldron chose Azriel, like it or not, she would have ignored his existence. Elain doesn't know Lucien, why would she hate him? Her problem is the mating bond! She had the chance to say "I don't want him and I can't stand to be anywhere near him" or something similar, but she said "I don't want a mating bond. I don't want a male". Besides, we do not have her PoV. Many people assumed that Azriel has some deep feelings for Elain and then when we finally got his PoV, he showed as that there are no deep feelings for her. So, we cannot just assume that Elain hates Lucien. It is also not Lucien's fault that Elain shows discomfort. He already lets her have all the freedom and time she wants and needs, he gives her the choice to reject the mating bond or accept... he does bring her gifts that is on winter solstice, where he brings gifts for EVERYONE. Elain being uncomfortable is on Elain. Also, how can you accuse us for "supporting" an "abuser" and then the next day say that Lucien (the one you call an abuser) will bang Vassa. Hypocrisy at its finest.

I won't even talk about the "Gwyn is a child and Gwynriels are ped*philes" crap. If they want to pretend like Sarah didn't confirm this theory is not true then that's their problem.

And then claiming that Gwynriels and Eluciens are supporting rape culture for "romantizing" the day Gwyn was raped and the day Elain's life was taking away from her. I have no words for this. I really want to know which Gwynriel or Elucien ever romantizes their trauma... I have yet to see one doing that. But if they have seen one doing that, why are they going at the entire Gwynriel and Elucien fandom?! We are not related or something and we cannot control what others say! Why shame everyone and make everyone feel bad for shipping Gwynriel and Elucien? But I swear- if this was just a lie told by an El/riel to make us look bad I'm going mad.

Don't even get me started on them playing the goddamn victim and cry whenever an Elucien stan gets mad, when they bullied off so many Elucien stans from literally every plattform before acosf. Creators left the fandom because they couldn't stand the bullying. They came back after acosf.

And the fact that I haven't seen at least one of them calling the el/riels from Twitter out. They are really THE WORST. I have seen Gwynriels calling them out and then el/riels in the comments defend themselves by saying "it's not only El/riels and Gwynriels have said worse things 🙄"

I'm so tired, so tired. Just let me enjoy my ship in peace.

This was long, but every single thing was on point. One of my favourite things you wrote was:

Elain has already stated that she does not want a male nor a mating bond. If the cauldron chose Azriel, like it or not, she would have ignored his existence.

They ignore this aspect and claim Azriel is her true mate. How can they not see that, if the Cauldron paired El/riel as mates, she would've had the same reaction? That the problem is not the person she is mated with, but the freaking bond itself? At this point, it's obvious those toxic El/riels only care about their ship. They don't even care about Elain or Azriel as individuals. They just love the aesthetics they got from the max. 10 pages they've read in 4 books worth of build-up. All they can do is shame other characters and people. They don't have enough or strong enough arguments to support their ship, so they go for bullying. Shipping is something that should be fun and a great experience. It used to be, for me, in other fandoms. But in here, I constantly have to defend the ship I support, the character I freaking adore, and even myself. I don't have to justify why I love Gwynriel. I don't have to sit and read vile things said about something I love just because some people who lack a certain level of maturity and common sense can't support their ship with solid arguments. If their ship was as strong as they claim, they wouldn't have those aggressive reactions and would've ignored people who ship Gwynriel and Elucien.

I ship whoever I want to, because of how they make me feel. I am staying respectful towards the characters and other people. Why can't those toxic El/riels do the same? Oh, I already answered. :)

[sadiegirl2021]

My submission for @gwynrielweeksofficial - Prompt: Warriors

And it's not just Gwynriel! We have Nessian and Emorie too.

The Heart of a Warrior on Ao3 - Sneak Peak

Rhys had to confess. Over the past few months, he had found himself increasingly distracted, neglecting his responsibilities as High Lord. But, that ended today.

Emerie, Nesta, and Gwyn sat in Rhysand’s office four months after the birth of Nyx. Between Feyre’s recovery, worrying about Nyx’s development, the interloper Bryce, and the mask incident, he’d been too busy to look at the report Azriel and Cassian had created about what the Valkyries had dealt with in the rite until now.

And it was clear, if they wanted to be a serious fighting unit, they had a lot to learn.

“I commend you on all your achievements, but nearly dying of hypothermia?” he exclaimed, flicking through the pages, “If Balthazar hadn't been there, that would have finished you both off. Simple survival training would have prevented this,” Rhysand sighed out.

It wasn’t enough that they had survived the Blood Rite; they had made near-grave errors, and only by the grace of the Mother had survived.

He was also trying to make amends with Nesta, again, on Feyre’s request. Although he knew she wouldn’t see it that way. This wasn’t a plan to punish them. He really did want to help them improve and grow. They would be an unstoppable force one day, a huge asset to his court. They already proved fiercer than most male armies he’d fought alongside. But to get better, they had to face their mistakes.

Rhysand continued through the list, “Gwyn, excellent work luring the beast to those males. Truly inspired... But when you got shot with an arrow, you were willing to let yourself give up so easily, rather than get across the bridge? A simple tourniquet made from a ribbon or belt would have given you enough movement to get across. Basic first aid.”

Gwyn sulked. She’d been happy to let Emerie and Nesta get an earful of their mistakes, but she thought she did pretty well! Sure… maybe she was a bit stubborn at times, and that maybe that put them in some danger, but they had won! That’s all that mattered. Azriel threw her a sympathetic look as Rhys continued to list her mistakes.

“...and when Nesta said you had to leave, and you refused, all of you could have died. We need to establish ranks and you will follow your commanding officer's decisions.”

Nesta swore he gave her a pointed look with that last statement.

Rhys continued, “To be honest, no one had to stay behind. With more survival training, all of you could have made it up the last part of the mountain that day…”

“Is there a point to all of this, Rhys, or did you just jump at the chance to knock me down a peg?” Nesta interrupted, giving him a withering glare.

Cassian cleared his throat. Nesta threw him an equally judgmental stare. It had been like this since she gave the mask to Bryce a few weeks ago. They got it back, tragedy avoided! She couldn’t understand why Cassian wasn’t letting it go.

Rhysand rolled his eyes at Nesta, “What I am going to suggest is starting survival training alongside your fighting. It’s just as important. You can’t defeat your enemies if you eat a poison berry or wield your sword if you can’t stem the bleeding on a simple wound. There’s a lot to work on, but I want you all to start today on some basics.”

He looked towards his cousin and brothers, “Mor is going to run through foraging for edible plants and berries, Cassian is going to train you on weapon improvisation, and Azriel will go through how to craft a simple shelter and survival knots.”

Emerie and Nesta smirked at each other and burst out laughing. They were sure Azriel had plenty of knots he could show them.

“What’s so funny?” Gwyn asked innocently. Cassian winked at Azriel, who managed to keep his face stoic and unreadable.

“We’ll tell you later,” Nesta whispered back, glancing at Azriel before letting out another little giggle. Gwyn was so confused.

Nesta cleared her throat, composing herself to ask, “So, what time do we have to leave?”

Rhys gave her a sly grin, “Wouldn’t be survival training if you had time to prepare! You’re heading out right now.”

“What? Rhys, I can’t leave my shop unoccupied all day!” Emerie protested.

“I’m expecting to sing at the evening service tonight,” Gwyn exclaimed next.

Nesta just sat quietly and glared at Rhys. Of course, he’d pull something like this.

He held up his hands in peace, “Relax! Nuala is going to look after your shop for the day, Emerie. The Illyrians are terrified of the wraiths, so nothing will happen in your absence.” He turned to Gwyn next, “And I’ve already told Clotho you will be away for the night. She wished you all the best on your adventure.”

“What if we don’t want to go?” Nesta asked with a scowl.

Rhysand didn’t falter, “It’s for your own good. You’ll thank me one day.”

Gwyn twisted her hands in her lap with nerves. She’d hardly left the library in the last few months. The Blood Rite had knocked the confidence she had been building, but if she wanted to become a serious warrior, she should listen to her High Lord. He knew what they needed.

Emerie just sighed and accepted it.

Nesta knew from experience that fighting with Rhys and the inner circle was futile. She looked at Cassian for support, but he just stared at his precious High Lord. She should have known whose side he was going to take. She sank into her chair, her mood souring.

“You’ll spend the morning and early afternoon learning everything needed to complete a trek and overnight stay in the mountains. Use what you learn to forage for dinner, build a shelter, and survive the night. Hike back to the rendezvous point in the morning, and we’ll reconvene here to go through what you learned,” his face softened a little, “I really think this will be beneficial. Your mentors won’t let anything happen to you,” he directed his gaze at Gwyn as he said that, trying to reassure her, “but they will also offer very little help, so please make sure you spend your morning wisely. Listen to them. Ask questions. Take notes. And I look forward to seeing you all in the morning.”

Nesta just scowled in annoyance, but Emerie and Gwyn nodded in agreement, resigning to the High Lords orders.

Gwyn raised her hand. “Yes, Gwyneth?” Rhys said softly. He always used a gentle tone with her.

“Is there a prize for the winning team?” Azriel let out a chuckle from across the room. Mor whipped her head around as if she’d never heard him laugh like that before.

“Bragging rights.”

Nesta chimed in next, “So, no monetary incentive?” If she was being forced to partake, maybe she could make it worth her while.

Rhys gave her one of his charming smiles that made her want to punch him, “How about 100 gold pieces to make things interesting? The first team to make it back to the rendezvous point tomorrow morning wins.”

The Valkyries perked up, chattering excitedly amongst themselves, each confidently announcing they were winning the money. Rhys smiled in delight that the prize seemed to motivate them.

He clapped his hands to get their attention again, “Teams are Emerie and Mor, Cassian and Nesta, and Azriel and Gwyn. Packs have been made up and left at the front door,” he instructed before giving them another charming smile that made Gwyn blush. “Have a wonderful time.”

With that, they were dismissed. Everyone filed out of the office, breaking off into their teams to grab their gear.

“I want that money,” Nesta said to Cassian, who grabbed both of their packs.

Mor had hers on her back and went over to them to winnow to the mountains. “I’ll see you there, Emerie,” she said sweetly.

“Ye–kay… See you…” Emerie stammered in response. Mor disappeared with Nesta and Cassian in a flash. Emerie made a disgusted face at her fumble.

“Smooth,” Azriel said behind her. It was no secret that Emerie had a huge crush on Mor. She scowled at him as she put her own backpack on.

Gwyn reached for hers. “Let me take that for you,” Azriel offered, reaching for it at the same time.

“No, it’s fine. I can carry it,” Gwyn countered, grabbing her pack and throwing it over her shoulder.

Emerie mouthed ‘smooth’ to Azriel while Gwyn was busy looking elsewhere. He gave her the middle finger, which she mirrored.

“Okay, are we all ready?” Gwyn asked gleefully. Azriel and Emerie lowered their hands quickly and nodded.

Azriel took both of their hands, and his shadows swirled around them. Within moments, they were somewhere in the Illyrian mountains.

The sun wasn’t quite high enough to make the day warm, but by the time they started their hike, they would be sweating in the autumn heat.

“Right, Valkyries! You’re with Mor for your first lesson,” Cassian commanded, and with that their training had begun. Emerie and Gwyn were feeling excited about the day ahead, but Nesta wasn’t sold yet. However, for her sisters, she’d get it over with.

[bookofmirth]

Man, it can be very tiring to be an Elucien or/and Gwynriel stan when you have people shaming you simply because you don't ship their ship. I hope the Gwynriel and Elucien confirmation will get them to realize how stupid and hurtful they were to us- especially to Eluciens, who they've literally bullied off the Internet for years before acosf. But then again- they contuined to spit the "gwyn is a child" crap around even after Sarah debunked it, so I doubt they will accept the Gwynriel and Elucien confirmation.... especially those on Twitter.

The good old times when El/riels called Gwynriels pedophiles, but then changed it to "Gwynriels support rape culture" because Sarah debunked it and they tried to find something else to shame them with. "Hey, why not shaming gwnynriels for 'supporting' rape culture too, when we have been doing that to Eluciens for years already? Come on let's do it!". So tired.

How were these years for you as an Elucien? I heard from some El/riels that Gwynriels have apparently destroyed everything and that El/riels and Eluciens lived in peace together before, which Is obviously false and the reason why no one was going off on them was because Eluciens were a small group and kept silence to prevent any more bullying. I wondered why I never heard much from Eluciens before acosf (I wasn't in the fandom back then) and I just kept on seeing only El/riel content (not even Vassien or Moriel, it was really just El/riel) I'm glad it changed at least.

Yeah no, we just kept quiet for the most part, especially after acowar came out. The few times that I received hate pre-acosf were because of my comments on Aaron and Erica, so of course I just shrugged and went on with my life because 1) there wasn't enough evidence to prove that I was right, like there is now, and 2) people who shipped elucien were in the minority compared to the other canon ships, 3) people could NOT handle even the slightest criticism of the bat boy, and 4) nothing was going to change my mind about what I shipped or what I thought would be canon, so why bother? I just wrote stuff for the ships I liked and said whatever.

I would bet $100 that I made a post in 2017 about elucien shippers not just shipping them because of the mating bond. That argument is so dang old. And now those arguments you mention, and the people saying if you ship elucien then you hate Elain or you are misogynist or you aren't respecting her choice (lol she isn't real what is there to respect) or whatever other nasty idea they've had. If certain people have to try to shame others about what they ship, then idk, feels like maybe they know their own ship isn't in great shape.

E*riels and eluciens did not live in peace together - it was a false peace in which eluciens just went about our business, and others were calm because they thought they had everything in the bag. Look at how some people have been acting since acosf came out, now that they know they don't. The only reason they were "peaceful" is because they thought they were right. Whoopsie! Now some of them are defensive as hell (see: reactions to Elain week) and it shows. Why act like that if they are so certain???

I have a post here that has a lot of comments from other people about what they witnessed or experienced.

[ialwaysgobacktoit]

idk how you'd write a one shot for this cause idk how to properly word it, but gwynriel being soft but in a way that almost domestic? reading books together all scrunched up together and then debating those books and their conflicting views because what's a good couple if not banter? and then agreeing to disagree, but not really because neither of their competitive asses can actually let it go

For Gwynriel Appreciation Week: Reading together

AAAAAhhhh!!! It's being some rough couple weeks, therefore I'm not as active as I wanted in terms of writing, but I'm loooving to read all your content. Gwynriel Week is awesome!

I know this is AU day, so I tried to make this as "freely" as possible, and it can (if you squint, I guess) be fitted in AU! I originally wanted to post this on day 3 (Identity) but life had other plans... Anyways, this is just a snippet, a little scene I loved to write and think about, and aaah what do l care, it's Gwynriel after all!!!!!

Hope you like my contribution to Gwynriel Week and remember, my ask is always open for prompts and ideas! <3 keep on rocking, keep on going :)

---------------

"This is absolutely ridiculous."

"What?"

Gwyn closed the book with a thud, shutting her eyes and massaging her temples in frustration: "There's no way this could actually happen. Not like this."

"Which page are you on?"

She opened her eyes and stared at him from across the couch. They were a confusion of tangled legs, sharing a blanket, lying comfortably in a C-shaped love-seat in Azriel's bedroom.

"One hundred and forty."

Azriel snorted and shook his head:

"There's still a lot of ground to cover." He said casually, returning to his copy of the novel, but that smirk on his face told Gwyn there was more.

"What do you mean?" It was her turn to ask, and she ignored how high her pitch was at the statement. "On which page are you?"

They started doing that the last couple of months, eventually borrowing two copies of the same book and reading it together. An amusing experience, especially considering how competitive both of them were. Not that they minded, anyway.

"Keep on reading." He answered, eyes darting from the page to her.

But his smirk only grew wider:

"And..." He paused, pretending to check. Gwyn saw right through him. He knew all too well in which page he was; they had the habit of tracking each other's progress: "Two hundred and thirty two."

"What?! That's impossible!" Her eyes widened "We started it yesterday, and got to the same page."

Azriel shrugged irreverently. "I'm a fast reader. And since we're on that... You should keep on reading."

Gwyn scoffed, feigning irritation. How was it possible he read so quickly already? They spent the day busy and that was only the second night both sat down to read. Unless...

"What did you do?" Her tone was accusatory. "You kept on reading after I fell asleep, was it? Or..."

He had shut down his copy now, but said nothing. Gwyn sat up straight, retreating her legs and crossing them, and ignoring the strange sensation of not having the weight of his legs against hers:

"You have read this already, haven't you?"

As he didn't respond immediately, she pressed: "Shadowsinger."

He straightened, features changing slightly as he blinked, looking at the ground.

"I knew it!" She leaned over to tap on his shoulder playfully. "I can't believe it! Why didn't you say so?"

"To be fair, Gwyn" He raised his hands in surrender "I only remembered I've already read this in the last hour. It's not like I don't have five hundred years on my back. "

She shook her head, but couldn't hide her smile.

As he watched her schooling her expression into a serious one once again, Azriel realized he didn't plan to tell her about it for two reasons. The first was that he really couldn't remember almost anything from the plot, so it wasn't that big of a deal. And the second, and that one was hidden deep within him, he didn't want the precious expression from the moment she first read the synopsis out loud to fade if he told her the truth. That excitement and pure joy only Gwyneth Berdara could express.

Besides, he was more than content in casually sitting beside her, feeling the smooth touch of her legs against his or her feet atop his knees, in comfortable silence as they both read; it almost didn't matter which book they were reading. Not that he would admit that.

Not just yet.

"Anyways" Gwyn's face was dead serious now, as she returned to the subject in question. "Since you read it, we might as well discuss it already. For Mother's sake, why did Aliana lie to Milfred?"

Azriel frowned in confusion, waving his hand for her to remind him, trying to retrieve the scene of a book he'd read over two centuries ago. "Again, Gwyn. Five hundred years on my back."

She sighed, and unconsciously fell back against the cushions, extending her legs to their previous spot. She didn't let herself dwell on how Azriel's expression softened at that, as if he'd also been missing their touch:

"They are best friends, and Aliana chose not to tell Milfred she knew about what she truly was, even if it could change the entire plot; and their entire friendship was based on trust! Cauldron, why do authors keep on doing that? She should have told her from the first time Milfred saw the Oracle."

"I can see your point" Azriel murmured after he drew on a breath, cocking his head.

"But?" Her eyes narrowed.

His expression was cautious for a moment, but when he spoke, he was assertive: "Sometimes we have to lie to the ones we love, even if it hurt us to do so."

"I'm aware of that, but that's beyond the point. It's controversial to Aliana's character. Not to say it would've probably reduced a lot of the drama and angst. They are stronger together, and this should be obvious to both of them."

They were in a dangerous territory, Azriel could feel.

Truth is a delicate matter, Shadowsinger.

His shadows coiled around his ear, whispering. He ignored them and studied Gwyn. Her copper hair in a messy braid, clad in her usual robes. The priestess he have come to call a friend. Best friend, even.

"Is it?" The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily as she crossed her arms against her chest, and he kept on "Controversial to her character? I mean, I know that they value trust above everything, but sometimes feelings may come in the way. And that doesn't necessarily mean they are controversial, just... Flawed."

Gwyn huffed, and something about the way the Shadowsinger averted his gaze at the last word, hazel eyes flashing a glimpse of pain, urged her to talk. Or hug him. Which she wouldn't do.

Not now, at least.

She opted for the former:

"If well written, yes. It does show complexity in a character. But I haven't advanced enough so far to determine that, so... To me, right now it only screams inconsistency." She shrugged, trying to lighten the mood.

To make the brooding Spymaster smile again.

"Ah, and lack of originality, of course."

It worked.

He chuckled and grabbed his book, that frown going away and almost making Gwyn sigh with relief:

"So you should keep on reading." He nodded to her copy, that crooked smile still on his face. "To confirm your opinions, that is. Not because I've said it three times already."

It was like Azriel couldn't control himself when he actually winked at her. But he enjoyed it, almost too much.

"I guess I should. Meanwhile, let's settle on agreeing to disagree." She opened her book once again. Her eyes glinted with mischief, but her blushing cheeks gave her away.

And damn him if the thought of making her flush didn't spread his smile even further.

"Besides" She added, brows high, eyes never leaving the page "It's obvious I'm reading for this sole purpose."

"Of course you are." His answer matched the tone of her statement, and they fell into comfortable silence once again. Effortless, like they could just be around each other, without second thoughts.

But the words she said before still ringed in Azriel's ears. Were echoed by his shadows.

They are stronger together, and this should be obvious to both of them.

And as he kept his gaze on her for a moment longer, who now was absorbed by the story, he realized maybe he should start admitting some things.

[gwyns]

i am genuinely SO tired of e/riels showing up in the gwyn tag and supposedly advocating about "emerie erasure." first of all, these same people were nowhere to be seen during emerie appreciation week. also, they only talk about her in relation to the shipwar - how gwynriels always forget about her, no one appreciates her, how we think gwyn will be the "white savior" of illyria w/ azriel (which no one actually thinks), etc. TO THOSE E/RIELS, STOP USING EMERIE AS AN ARGUMENT AGAINST GWYN STANS/GWYNRIELS. they literally don't acknowledge her in their theories or posts, they call the valkyries "background characters," yet they're suddenly concerned about emerie erasure...? where are their posts appreciating what a badass emerie is, how good of a friend she is, or just overall appreciation in general? where are their posts about emerie that don't have any relation to ships or how gwynriels supposedly forget about her?

first off let me say i am sorry that this ask has been sitting in my inbox as long as it has! sometimes i need a bit to gather my thoughts but by then i've forgotten about it and then once i remember the unanswered asks i have i feel like too much time has passed lol but! here i am!!

i agree with everything you said, anon! most e/riels don't care about emerie and only use her to try and show how superior they are 🙄 if they actually cared about her they wouldn't say the valkyries are just side characters and that they won't be important at all in the upcoming books which..... if you genuinely feel that way idk what book you read bc it certainly wasn't acosf.

and about them thinking we want gwyn to be a white savior uh no one wants that???? i remember in the pre acosf days i was hoping sjm wouldn't do that with nesta and i'm so glad she didn't so why would i want it now?? in my acotar 5 theories i think az would mainly deal with that conflict and gwyn would be involved with the autumn court somehow.

it's pretty ironic how they stan nuala and cerridwen who are very much background characters at this point yet say gwyn and emerie hold no relevance in the same breath. clearly making sense isn't high on their list of priorities.

[emilia3546]

Shadowsinger Part 5 - Gwynriel

ACOSF Spoilers! Do Not read this unless you have finished ACOSF and the Azriel bonus chapter

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

*****

Madja smiled as Gwyn followed her sisters into the healer's house,

"I believe you wanted to get a brace made for your wings?" She asked, gesturing for Emerie to sit, and she nodded,

"I can't fully draw a bow with the limited movement." She admitted, and nodded when Madja paused before reaching out to see exactly how far her wings could move on their own, and then with assistance. Gwyn and Nesta sat in front of Emerie, each holding one of her hands, and she squeezed each time something hurt, but never stopped Madja.

"How much higher do you need them to rest?" Madja asked,

"Not too much, I can't remember exactly what Azriel suggested."

"That's okay, I'll make one that's adjustable, so it can change as needed. Just so you're aware, bracing your wings higher than where they naturally rest will stretch the muscles, and might leave them a bit sore depending on how long you brace them for." Emerie nodded, "But it might also loosen the tightness that's come with the years, and if you want to, perhaps we can incorporate some physical therapy to improve movement a little."

"Physical therapy?" Emerie's eyes flashed with fear, "Not - not reopening the wounds to heal?" Gwyn gently squeezed her hand,

"No, nothing like that. You're not alone in wanting to avoid that, just stretches and exercises to improve strength and movement as your wings are. Perhaps with the right encouragement, your wings will be able to rest in a position suitable for archery without a brace at some point."

"That'll certainly be helpful," Emerie mused, "Okay, let's try it."

"Wonderful." Madja slowly released Emerie's wings, and pulled a sketchpad from under her desk, she sat silently for a few moments while Emerie turned to sit normally in her chair, "This is what I'm imagining," she explained, showing the females her sketch, "Does that look about right?"

"Yes. Thank you." Emerie grinned, and Madja smiled, her joy at helping a patient obvious in the way her eyes shone,

"I should have it made within a week or so, I will send word when it's done, and I'll let you know a potential schedule for your physical therapy."

"Oh. Um," Emerie started, "I don't live in Velaris, and I'd rather any letters not be found by my neighbors."

"I know," Madja said, smiling softly, "I meant, I'll send word to the House of Wind, I assume either Cassian or Azriel will help you when you come for training."

"Thank you," Emerie grinned, and turned round to Nesta, "Watch out, Nes, I'm coming after your title." Nesta narrowed her eyes,

"We'll see about that," she muttered, and Gwyn laughed,

"Oh please, neither of you stand a chance against me," she joked, and thanked Madja again before leading her sisters outside, to where Mor was already waiting,

"Well?" Emerie grinned and nodded,

"She says it should be made in a week!"

"That's great, are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, she also said that she thinks she can help with some stretches and exercises to eventually strengthen my wings so they won't need a brace." Mor grinned, and Emerie threw her arms around her, holding on tight as they winnowed back to the House.

Gwyn and Nesta shared a knowing look when they arrived, and slipped away, leaving Emerie and Mor alone for a moment,

"Oh, Gwyn, before I forget, there'a family dinner tonight, I doubt Emerie will be able to come, but you're more than welcome to if you want."

"A family dinner?"

"Yeah, at my sister's River House."

"You mean, a dinner with the High Lord and Lady?"

"With my sister and brother-in-law, my other sister, Elain, I don't think you've properly met, but she'll be there, and Amren and Varian, have you met them?"

"Briefly, but only for a couple of minutes,"

"And obviously, Mor, Cass and Az are all coming. It's okay if you're not comfortable coming though."

"No, I'll come, is it okay if I decide to leave early though?"

"Of course. Whatever you're comfortable with." Nesta didn't say it, but Gwyn easily noticed the pride in her eyes, pride for her, that she was willingly going to a gathering with people she didn't know well, or at all, in Elain's case. She smiled, Nesta didn't need to know that Azriel was the sole reason that she was comfortable with going,

"I'll see you tonight." Nesta grinned, before turning away,

"Oh, and my nephew will be there as well, at least for a bit." Gwyn smiled as Nesta disappeared off to whatever work she had to do.

*****

Gwyn was beautiful. There was no other way to describe her as she walked towards him, Azriel couldn't help the smile that sprung to his face, and his shadows shot across to her, not even waiting for his permission, dancing around her as she walked across to him. She had forsaken the robes of a priestess tonight, instead opting for a loose dress, the skirts not quite falling to the floor, leaving her shoes on display. The dress itself was midnight-blue, the skirts made from several swathes of fabric, flowing around her as she moved, and on her feet were a pair of flat shoes, matching the dress, elegant but practical. She had swept her hair onto her head, out of the way. She had dressed to look relatively formal, but so that she could still run, and fight. Azriel extended a hand, waiting for her to reach him, his shadows still surrounding her when she grasped his hand. They stayed with her as he flew her down to the River House, with Cassian and Nesta beside them.

Gwyn took a deep breath when Azriel set her down on the porch of the River House,

"You okay?" He muttered, and she nodded, but didn't step away from her side, going motionless when the door opened, and Feyre grinned at them,

"We're just getting sat down." She said, her gaze lingering on Gwyn for a moment, "Gwyn, I'm Feyre, we met briefly a few months ago." Gwyn returned her smile, and shook the hand Feyre held out for her,

"I remember," she faltered for a second, "I don't know what I should call you," she admitted, and Feyre smiled again,

"Just Feyre, no 'my lord' or 'my lady' within our family." Gwyn smiled, and,

"Alright, Feyre." Feyre grinned, and Gwyn seemingly opened up, her nervousness visibly fading a little at Feyre's friendly tone,

"Come on in then, you lot."

Azriel kept a hand on Gwyn's lower back as she followed Nesta and Cassian inside, and she flashed him a grateful smile, this was still difficult for her, but if he could make it any easier, he would.

Everyone else was already sat down when they reached the dining room, except for Mor, who was still sitting in an armchair across the room, playing with baby Nyx, her joy at his every giggle and squeal of delight plain for anyone to see. Were it not for Gwyn at his side, Azriel's gaze would have lingered, but he checked that Gwyn was still alright, and deliberately guided her to a chair away from the males she didn't know well. She was still close to Elain though, and Mor slid into the chair opposite Azriel after handing Nyx back to his mother. Gwyn kept close to him as conversations started around the table, casual conversations, no mention of work, or the potential situation in Illyria, not at family dinner. Gwyn was unusually quiet, mostly observing everyone around her, and talking politely to Mor and Nesta when she needed to. Every casual move was clear, calculated, her instincts for observation were perfect, had she been there to report back to someone, she would have been able to talk about everyone. A flash of pride shot through him at the realization that she was trying to figure out what to talk about with different people, and he cursed himself for not briefing her beforehand,

"Feyre tells me that you got some new seeds, Elain," he started, daring a glance at Rhys as her attention snapped to him, his brother wasn't watching, thank the Cauldron. Elain stared straight at him, and he tried not to squirm under her gaze as she excitedly talked about the new plants she was growing, exclusive to the Night Court. Was she still upset that he'd had to stop whatever had been starting to form between them? He almost winced at the intensity of her gaze, resisting to urge to ask his shadows what was up with her, but he wouldn't invade her privacy, even if she was mad at him.

"Did you ever find any night-blooming lilies?" It was the first question Gwyn had asked all evening, "We had some at Sangravah when I was young, but I've not seen them since,"

"No," Elain sighed, "I can't find them anywhere, it's as if all the seeds vanish the moment I try looking for them. I'll get my hands on some eventually. Excuse me," she muttered, standing to go and fetch the food, returning with Nuala and Cerridwen a few minutes later, leaving Gwyn hanging, and Azriel almost glared after her, but turned to Gwyn,

"Well done," he whispered, just loud enough for Gwyn to hear him, and he noticed Rhys glancing towards them for fifth time that evening, "If you're okay, I think Rhys wants to come over,"

"Oh?"

"You're a part of the family now. But he'll understand if you'd rather not tonight."

"No, it's okay," Azriel jerked his head slightly, and Rhys made his way slowly towards them, claiming the seat across from Gwyn, and smiled at her, "Hello, my lo-, sorry, Rhysand." He chuckled softly,

"Just Rhys is fine, Gwyn, we don't reinforce rank here."

"I know. Feyre mentioned, it's just a bit of a surprise," she glanced across to Azriel, just for a moment, wanting that little reassurance that he was still there,

"How's Nyx doing? You getting any sleep now?" Rhys rolled his eyes, and snorted,

"Sleep? What's that?" Rhys groaned, but grinned, and Gwyn smiled,

"Nyx is your son?" Rhys nodded,

"He's almost four months old now," he turned to see Feyre making her way across the room, Nyx in her arms, grabbing at her hair, and giggling when she passed him to Azriel,

"Say hi to uncle Azriel," she crooned, and grinned as she returned to her seat, Nyx stared up at him, and he reached out for something, grabbing at the air, the shadows,

"He's beautiful," Gwyn whispered, "I've always loved children, I used to look after the younglings at Sangravah."

"Do you want to hold him?" Rhys asked softly, and she nodded, giggling when Nyx hiccuped, staring up at her with wide eyes, then back at Azriel, "I hope we might see you around a bit more, Gwyn," Rhys said as he too left, following Feyre back to their seats. Gwyn looked around in a panic,

"Doesn't he want his son back?"

"You're fine, Gwyn, look, Nyx loves you." True to his words, the child had fallen asleep in Gwyn's arms, his little wings flopping down, and she carefully gathered them up,

"It's been ages since I held a child," she whispered, "I miss it." She smiled down at the sleeping child in her arms, "Babies don't ever judge, they see the world exactly as it is, and don't apologize for it." Azriel couldn't help but smile as she look back at him, laughing when Mor swooped back in to steal her nephew,

"My turn," she demanded, and grinned when Gwyn relinquished the child, his chubby hands pulling on a golden chain around her neck, a necklace, the necklace, oh shit, Elain was going to see it. He had to distract her attention, if Elain saw it, she'd mention it, and Gwyn, he never wanted her to think herself second best, if he'd been thinking he would have returned it, and bought her a different one, but it was too late now, shit. He could hide it, with his shadows. It was too late, Elain had already turned back, her gaze landing on the necklace,

"That's a lovely necklace, Gwyn." No. Shit, shit, shit.

"It was a gift from a friend at solstice, I never found out who." Gwyn smiled and touched the charm,

"I'm glad Azriel found someone who wanted it after I gave it back to him." Gwyn turned to face him, and he wished he could just vanish,

"What? Is that true? Did you give it to Elain first?" Tears were shining in her eyes, and devastation marred her beautiful face,

"Yes, but -" she didn't give him a chance to speak, running out of the room immediately,  "Gwyn!" he called after her, and glared at Elain, "What the fuck, Elain?" he almost shouted,

"She deserves to know. No one wants to be second best."

"She's not. I didn't even tell her it was from me! I just wanted someone to be happy with it, not using it as an escape from something else!" He snapped, following Gwyn out of the room before Elain had a chance to answer.

*****

He had just given her the necklace because Elain didn't want it. Azriel thought she was just someone to pass off unwanted gifts to. She would have been thrilled to learn it was from him, if he hadn't just been passing it on to her. She paused at the door, hearing Azriel's angry words to Elain, and debated going back, but ran outside, into the gardens, finding a bench to sit on. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, but couldn't stop the tears from falling. She had thought he was different, better, but he had only thought of her when Elain had given it back, of course he wanted Elain, his brothers were with her sisters, so of course they were, whatever they were. She was foolish to think he'd ever want her. She buried her face in her hands and cried, letting out the sobs that she had hidden earlier, tears falling freely down her face.

Footsteps sounded on the marble floor at the entrance to the house,

"Go away," she muttered,

"Gwyn, please." Azriel. He thought he could just follow her out here, as if he had done nothing wrong,

"Why don't you run inside and find Elain!" she snapped,

"I don't want Elain." He said, not coming any closer,

"I won't be someone you just use to replace her. If you cared, you would have bought me a present for me, not just because the person you bought it for didn't want it."

"Gwyn," his voice broke on her name, "I never meant for you to feel second best-"

"Aren't I?"

"No! I just wasn't thinking."

"Obviously!" Gwyn glared at him, her vision still blurred by tears, "You were supposed to never lie to me! You're the first male I trusted! And you didn't even prioritize me!" She shouted, "I just wanted you to trust me, to not hide from me like you do with everyone else, and you lied to me."

"Gwyn please, it wasn't like that, I do trust you, I just, I was going to tell you, but then it was so long, and I thought it would just upset you to bring it up. Yes, I bought it for Elain, but it didn't make her happy, and I just wanted someone to be happy." He took another step towards her, something like devastation crossing his face when she shifted away, ready to run, and he stopped, "Elain didn't want to face her mating bond, either to accept or reject it, and she used me as a way to avoid it. I thought I wanted her, that she wanted me, but she wanted an escape, and thought I could provide it. I bought the necklace because I thought she would be happy, but I, Gwyn, there is nothing with her, and she gave it back when she realized that. I just wanted it to make someone happy. Clotho never told you it was from me, because it doesn't matter, I just told her to give it to someone who would be happy." Tears were shining in his eyes as he spoke, "I know I'm an idiot, you don't have to tell me that, and I know I can't fix it, but I'm sorry, I should have taken it back and bought you something different, but I wasn't thinking, and," he stopped, "I'm just sorry." It had made her happy, and she didn't know what to say. Perhaps she was overreacting, it was true that Clotho had never told her it was from him, and she supposed it didn't matter, but she unclipped it from around her neck,

"Then take it back now." A tear slid down his face as she passed the necklace to him, and he dropped his head, but before he could apologize again she continued, "Return it, and let's choose something different, together."

"You're not mad?"

"Oh, I'm furious, but not just because of you. I understand, I know what is to want to make someone happy, but you do make people happy, Az, you are more than just your job. I don't care what you've done, I just care that you're honest with me. You lied to me. That's what upset me, that, and I thought you preferred her."

"No, never."

"Let me finish. But mostly, I'm angry at her, she saw that I liked the necklace, that you had made someone happy with it, and she tried to ruin that. You should have got a different one, and you should have told me, but Elain shouldn't have tried to upset me with that, she was jealous, Az." Azriel smiled, and dropped to his knees in front of where she was still sitting on the bench, clasping her hands in his,

"I swear to you now, I will always tell you everything, always, Gwyn. No secrets." He gently kissed her hands, and she smiled,

"Thank you, that's all I ever wanted." The necklace was left on the bench when they returned to the dining room, where Elain was nowhere to be seen.

"Gwyn!" Nesta shot to her feet the moment they stepped through the door, glaring daggers at Azriel, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, Elain, she was way out of line, I don't think she'll be coming back, I was pretty mad," Gwyn laughed at Nesta's explosive temper, but reassured her,

"I'm fine, stop it, it's not his fault, it was a misunderstanding, it's fine." Nesta narrowed her eyes at Azriel once more before relaxing,

"Don't ever pull that kind of shit again," she said,

"I have already sworn to never keep secrets from her." Nesta nodded,

"Good,  I won't have to cut your balls off then," Gwyn snorted and sat back down, apologizing to everyone for making a scene, but Mor just laughed,

"There's always something that goes a bit wrong, at least you two made up." Gwyn laughed, and stayed for the rest of dinner, her hand still clasped in Azriel's as they finished dessert, she didn't let go until they were in the air again.

"Where are we going?" The House was behind them as they flew,

"You'll see." Azriel chuckled, gently setting her down outside a shop, still open, even at this time, and pushed the door open, "Let me at least try to fix my mistake,"

"You don't have to. You apologized, and took responsibility, you're forgiven, it was a mistake."

"Let me do this." he repeated, "Neve! What do you have that would suit Gwyn?" A female popped her head up from behind the counter, studying her quickly,

"Perhaps something in emerald, one moment," Azriel led Gwyn to the counter,

"Pick whatever you want." Neve returned moments later, a pair of emerald earrings in hand,

"These are new, one of a kind, perfectly suited to your lady,"

"Oh, she's not-" Azriel started, but Gwyn smiled, stopping him before he could finish,

"They're beautiful, but they must be expensive?"

"That's alright." Azriel insisted, "Rhys massively overpays me."

"No, Azriel I can't accept this, I'll pay you back."

"It's a gift. For you. Please." Neve held the earrings up as if Gwyn were wearing them, and Azriel's breathing hitched, almost imperceptibly,

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. We'll take them."

"Excellent, I'll put the charge on your tab,"

"Thank you, Neve." Azriel helped her to put the earrings on, and grinned at her, "You look beautiful," he whispered before guiding her out of the shop, and flew her back to the House. Gwyn felt herself drifting off to sleep and buried her face in Azriel's shoulder, she was asleep within moments.

*****

Gwyn was asleep in his arms when he landed, and Azriel unconsciously hugged her closer, setting her down in her bed, stopping when she mumbled his name. He turned back, but she was still asleep, reaching across the bed to where he had been sat moments before. He was still there when she opened her eyes,

"Az?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you stay with me? I don't want to be alone tonight."

"Yeah, okay."

"Just turn around a moment, I need to change into a nightgown." He did as she asked, and quickly returned to his own room to grab a set of sleeping clothes and to move a few of his weapons into her room. When he got back, he made to pull the chair he had slept in before to the bed,  and Gwyn was already asleep, his shadows swirling around her,

She's fine, get some sleep,

They whispered, and he settled down in the chair, sitting next to her all night.

[meher-sumedha]

Gwynriel Headcanon : Shopping takes an "unexpected" turn

I have wanted to write this one SINCE SOOO LONG. Hope you like it!

"Hayley you have to decide your prom dress soon, it's this week!" Gwyn told her daughter as she was shopping. "I knowww mom, ", "This one looks nice." Gwyn said while holding a blue dress against her body.

"Ehh I don't think it'll suit her body." Said her Nephew Nyx. Gwyn raised an eyebrow at him playfullly and then Nyx blushed. You seem to know a lot about her body, Gwyn said in her mind. And by the way Nyx blushed, she knew he'd heard her.

And then Nesta groaned, "Can we please goo, I'm so fucking tired, " And Cassian acted like he was hurt, "Oh.my.god. Nesta Archeron is tired of shopping? I'd never thought I'd live to see that way."

And Nesta swatted his hand and rolled her eyes. Gwyn just chuckled at their playfullness and said, "Alright kiddos, we'll go, " And her son groaned and muttered beautiful curses under his breath. Gwyn pointed at him playfully, "Hey! Watch that mouth Klaus." And Klaus just rolled his eyes and said, "I'm 19 mom, I don't need to be told to watch that mouth. I'm not a boy anymore. I'm a man. "

Gwyn literally glared at him before saying, "Oh really? Then act like one. Just look at your cousin Nyx. He at least curses in private and not in front of his parents." And Klaus chuckled at that. Nyx just became even redder.

"Alright let's goooooo" Nesta said and went out the door and took flight. Oh yes, the Valkyries had wings, real wings. They were light coloured and off white. Like the wings of angels. Even Gwyn had them.

And well all of them had wings. Klaus had his father's illyrian wings, and Hayley had her mother's valkyrian wings.

They walked out of the shop after 5 hours of shopping. With literally nothing in hand. "Wow, we really do know how to waste time." Cassian said while chuckling as he took flight. Gwyn could see Nesta followed him, and that they weren't going home any soon. It looked like some action is gonna take place in the sky this evening.

Nyx sighed and said while looking up, "They're gonna do it aren't they?", and Hayley shivered and said, "Ew Nyx, don't stare up, don't wanna find our aunt and uncle doing this. Mom can we please take the stairs? I would rather walk 10000 steps of stairs rather than accidentally see them."

Gwyn chuckled and said, "Hayleyy, it's okay. They're not doing anything now-" Gwyn then looked up mid sentence and saw them doing it and then suddenly looked down, "You know I think we should take the stairs too, let's go yeah let's go" Gwyn said and wrapped her arms around her twins, with Nyx walking on her side.

They walked till the house in silence until Gwyn said, "Alright I'm not walking ten thousand steps, Klaus, can you use your shadows to hide us. We'll fly to the house and MAKE SURE to not look upward AT. ANY. COST. Alright?"

Klaus just shrugged and said Alright. His shadows wrapped around them. In winters, even at 7pm it looked like it was 1am. But alas, his shadows wrapped around them and they were hidden from the world. They all took flight and all landed on the balcony.

Gwyn just chuckled when she saw Klaus stumble while he landed, "You need to work on that landing boy." She said but then saw he was frozen. And then she then looked at Hayley and Nyx.

Everyone had frozen now. Silent tears were coming from Hayley's eyes. And Klaus was just frozen. Gwyn knew this affected him much as it did to Hayley, he was just too proud to show it. Nyx was looking at Gwyn, and he was in her mind.

It was his silent gesture of showing that he was there for Gwyn. But Gwyn didn't understand what was happening, until she followed Hayley's gaze.

Gwyn's smile disappeared in an instant when she saw her mate kissing Elain.

Suddenly Cassian and Nesta landed on the balcony, Azriel broke their kiss, and Klaus' shadows faltered.

And then Gwyn met her- not hers, she reminded herself. She met Azriel's gaze. Gwyn didn't realize tears were coming from her eyes until Nesta came up to her worriedly and asked what was happening.

Azriel just stood there, not able to say anything when he saw Gwyn, and their kids. When Nesta followed Gwyn's sad gaze, she saw Azriel and Elain standing together. And it immediately clicked, Nesta started to walk towards Azriel, furious but Gwyn stopped her.

Nesta was about to argue but she saw Gwyn shake her head, and Nesta's heart broke at seeing that. Gwyn took a shuddering breath, and said, "Kiddos" And her voice broke. She then closed her eyes, trying to register what was happening, hoping that this was just a bad dream.

But when she opened her eyes, it- it wasn't. It was just endless sadness. Gwyn tried to calm her racing heart, but she couldn't. She then tried to regain some composure, and cleared her throat and said, "Kiddos, I think you should go to your room." And Klaus started to speak something but Gwyn cut him off with a command, "Now".

Klaus obeyed as he understood the intensity of the situation. He then picked up his sister who was sitting on the floor crying silently, and took her to his room. "Aunti Gwyn I-" Gwyn cut him off with a pleading look. Please. She said in her mind and then he froze for a second, before going to his room.

Nesta was about to speak when Gwyn cut her off, "Please take care of the kids until then" And Nesta was about to say something, but Cassian took her out of the room, and into the kids' room. He gave her an apologetic look before doing so.

And now it was just them. Gwyn wasn't able to meet his eyes, her heart was too broken, and she- she couldn't look at her. So she did the only sane thing she knew, she took flight out of the house.

She knew Azriel followed her, "GWYN" He shouted once, "GWYN" He shouted again but he was too slow, for Gwyn was already in the townhouse.

She met Feyre in the way but she slightly shoved her to go to Rhysand's study, only to find it empty. Then Gwyn came back to Feyre, only to find that Azriel was already talking to her. "RHYS" Gwyn shouted, "RHYS" she shouted again. She then went to Feyre, right beside Azriel.

Azriel then turned towards her at the same moment Feyre said, "Gwyn are you okay?" Worry shown in her eyes but Gwyn- Gwyn couldn't deal with this right now. "Gwyn I can explain-", "Do you have the divorce papers? The one that people sign when the want a divorce?" And at the same moment Rhysand came down the stairs.

As soon as he saw Gwyn's sad face he asked her, "Gwyn are you okay?" Gwyn again ignored the question and tried to ask him with a cold face but failed miserably, "Do you have divorce papers?"

And Rhysand nodded, "Can you give them to me?" And Azriel suddenly said in a deathly voice, "You are not giving her divorce papers. Gwyn I can explain-", "Please" Gwyn said, letting her broken self be seen in that one word. And then Rhysand understood and went straight to the study.

Gwyn, Azriel and Feyre followed him. While Rhysand looked for the papers. He had looked into Gwyn's mind. He knew how wrong it was but he needed to be sure, and after seeing what she had seen, he was sure.

"Gwyn I can explain-" And this time, Gwyn snapped. "What the hell is there to explain Az? You kissed her and our kids saw that. Do you even know how much it hurt them to see their father like that? Do you know how much it hurt me-", "Gwyn I was just confirming-"

"Confirming WHAT Azriel. We've been together since 25 years. Married together since 23 years and have had kids in the last 19 years. And if you really needed confirmation, you should have done that before doing all of that with me."

And this time, Azriel had no words, he simply looked down. And then Gwyn laughed bitterly with tears in her eyes, "I guess 25 years for a fae don't really matter now do they? It's just one percent of their life and-", and even Azriel shed one tear. Gwyn felt guilty about saying those words but- "Don't say that Gwyn. Don't.say.that." And then Gwyn said, while looking him straight in the eye, "But it's the truth Azriel. And like you said, ugly truths are better than pretty lies. "

And then Rhysand found the papers and slammed them on the desk. Gwyn signed them as soon as possible, her tears making the page wet. This was it. She was ending their life together. Their 25 years. Their 25 years. But it's fine, it's fine.

"Gwyn what about our kids?" Azriel asked, with a broken voice, and Gwyn didn't look up. She swallowed that huge gulp in her throat, and said, "I guess you should have thought about them before kissing Elain." And signed the last page.

She then shoved the papers in Azriel's chest, "Sign the papers Shadowsinger. It's just like another deal. " Gwyn said with sarcasm dripping from her voice, she tried to smile, she really did. But she couldn't. "I'm not signing the papers Gwyn.", "Yes you are. ", "I.am.not." Azriel said, with some sense of finallism in his voice.

And then Gwyn said with a defeated voice, "Please sign the papers. Please.", "What about our family-", "Our family is still gonna be there Az. I am not taking our kids anywhere. You'll always be there father and they'll stay right there. Don't think for a second that I'll let my kids live without a proper father like you had to.

You may be the shittiest person I know Azriel but are a great father. Sign the papers Azriel, we aren't meant for each other anymore. I'll even leave the night court just please sign the papers."

Gwyn said and looked up to him with bloodshot eyes and begged him with those eyes. And then Azriel squared up and said, "I'm sorry Gwyn- I- I can't sign the papers, I- can't let you go." And that was the moment, when Gwyn lost all hope in him.

She then left the townhouse without saying a word, and this time, Azriel didn't follow her. She was now standing outside of her kids' room, she kept taking long breaths. She cleaned her eyes with the back of her hand but whenever she's tried to open the door, she moved back.

But then Nesta suddenly opened the door from inside and as soon as she saw Gwyn, she caught her in a bone crushing hug. "I'm sorry." She whispered in her neck.

Gwyn then moved back to look at Nesta's face and smiled sadly, "It's not your fault Nes. It's okay." And Nesta hugged her again.

And then Cassian came out of the room, even he looked guilty, as if he was the one who had done the deed. Cassian then looked at Gwyn apologetically and Gwyn just rolled her eyes and waved it off. Cassian was stupid, but not stupid enough to miss the pain in her eyes.

"I need to talk to the kids Nes." Gwyn reminded Nesta and Nesta moved away, she then looked at Gwyn, apologetically and pitying her. And Cassian and Nesta left.

Gwyn then took a long breath and went inside the room, only to find Hayley still crying, and Nyx and Klaus comforting her. Gwyn then closed the door and went towards them, she sat on her knees and took Hayley's hands in hers. But Hayley didn't wait a second to hug Gwyn. She kept crying in her neck, Gwyn closed her eyes, don't let the tears come, don't let the tears come.

And then opened them and massaged Hayley's hair slightly. "shhh, it's gonna be okay love, it's gonna be okay. " She kept repeating as long as it would take to stop her daughter from crying.

It didn't work and Hayley moved away. Gwyn's heart broke when she looked at their sad faces. She then got up and sat on the other bed, with her hands still holding Hayley's. "Hey, look at me." She whispered and Hayley didn't, "Hayley, look at me." And then Hayley did.

And the sight of that broke Gwyn's heart even more. She wiped her tears with her hand and said, "it's gonna be okay love, it's gonna be okay. " And kissed her hand. Klaus then said, "Don't worry, we'll take revenge Hayley." And Gwyn rolled her eyes and said, "no revenge needs to be taken Klaus, you can calm down."

"Mom but-", "No buts, Azriel may be a shitty husband but he's not a shitty father. And you will not treat him like one either. He's always been there for all of you, even you Nyx. So any plans you've made for killing him have to be cancelled. Come on, hand them over Nyxie" Gwyn said, trying to lighten up the mood.

But then Nyx actually gave her a piece of paper guiltily and Gwyn chuckled and asked, "You actually made a plan to kill him? Wow" And then Hayley sobbed and asked, "Mum are you divorcing him?"

And then Gwyn looked down guiltily before shrugging and saying, "It's what parents do when things won't work out.", "What about our family?" Hayley asked. Gwyn scoffed and said, "Hayley, we'll still be a family. We'll always be a family. I would always be your mother and he'll always be your father. Nothing can change that. The only change is that I'm retiring him from the job of being my husband. But he'll still be your father. "

Gwyn said, and then continued, "I- I just may leave for a while, until things become a bit, controlled." And then Nyx said with anger laced in his voice, "Why do you have to leave? Why can't he? And why can't we come with you?".

And then Gwyn said, "Number one, because I need to get away. Number two, someone needs to take care of you kiddos, and number three I am not mentally or financially stable to support you right now. I always want you to live your best life and the only way to do that is by living in Velaris. And besides, you have your prom coming up, be a little excited!"

She tried to lighten up the mood but it didn't work, she sighed and said, "Wow you guys really are downers. But you can't be like that you know. Life has its own ups and downs. Sometimes its great and sometimes its shitty."

Klaus just scoffed at which Gwyn glared at him and then decided to take him out of the room. They entered the room's balcony and immediately Gwyn said, "Listen mister, you gotta stop being a downer for at least your sister. And Klaus you do not need to feel bad for me. I am a 50 year old adult and I can handle myself. Also, I caught you checking out that guy in the mall today, what was that about? "

And as soon as Gwyn said that, klaus reddened. But then he huffed and said, "How long have you known?" Gwyn just pretended to file her nails and said, "some 5 or 6 years, when I caught you doing my makeup in the bathroom. And then you saw how hideous you looked and immediately decided you wanted to be a masculine gay."

And then he tried to hide his smile while saying, "stalker" Gwyn acted like she was hurt but then said, "Am not! Now come on, your sister needs you. Go watch a movie with her and I'll think about giving you that guy's number."

"You have his NUMBER?!?", Gwyn winked and said, "I have my sources" And then took him inside. "Hayley, come on let's watch a movie and stop crying." Gwyn said and then pouted, "Pweaasee Hayley" Hayley cleaned her tears and said, "Alrighttt mum"

..............

(After watching a movie and saying goodnight to her kids)

In the balcony, with Nyx while stargazing :

Nyx scoffed and said, "Why did you forgive him Gwyn?" And Gwyn waited for a long time before answering, "Because I love him. And love makes people do fickle things. And also, who the fuck gave you permission to call me Gwyn?" And then took a long sip of her cheap beer.

"That is not the point. And also, I was trying it out but it didn't stick. But-", "No buts Nyx, when you're in love, you'll understand." And Nyx was about to say something but he shut his mouth.

And Gwyn understood. "Ohhhh but you've already been in love haven't you? 2 years with Hayley?" And the way Nyx reddened at that statement, made Gwyn chuckle even more with hiccups.

"That's right Nyxie, I know alll about your little thingies. I know all about yoour secret relationship-", "Please don't tell anyone-", "I know I know I would never.", "It's just that-", "Oh i know that you both enjoy the secrecy and having each other to yourself. By the way have yoou told her that she's your mate? I mean you should cause you already know her and-"

"YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT TOO??? MY GOD, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE SPYMASTER OF THIS DAMN COURT" Gwyn chuckled and said, "Language Nyxie, wouldn't wanna disappoint dad."

And Nyx just scoffed at that. After a few minutes, Gwyn got up and said, "Go home Nyxie, it's like 10pm now." But before leaving she didn't forget to pat him on the back and saying, "Don't drink little guy" And took a huge sip of the beer, finishing it. Nyx just chuckled at that.

Gwyn then went to her room. Not hers anymore, she realized. Gods, she was really drunk and all she wanted to do was break down and cry, but not today, she said, not today. And then she decided on doing a crazy ass thing. She decided to wear her ex husband's t-shirt and sleep. While she was changing in the bathroom, she noticed this weird tattoo forming on her hand.

It was full of flowers. Full of thorns, and roses. Gwyn thought she should get it checked out by Rhys, and so she did.

She then went to the townhouse, apologized Feyre for her behavior earlier and then asked to see Rhysand, to which Feyre told her that he was in his study. Gwyn went to his study, only to see that his face was dead serious, and that he was examining a box carefully.

"Sorry to interrupt Rhys but I suddenly got this tattoo and- OH MY GOD IS THAT TAMLIN'S HEAD!"

And Rhys nodded, she then went to look at his face. It was in its half beast form, but then Rhysand's eyes didn't move from her tattoo. And then Gwyn covered it up with her hand and said, "Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt, you already have better things to do." Gwyn was about to leave but then Rhysand said,

"It's the same tattoo I saw when Tamlin became the high lord in front of me-", "Ohkay?-" Gwyn was officially confused as to why Rhysand was telling this to her right now, but all her confusions were cleared when he said,

"You're the High Lady of the Spring Court."