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silverflameataraxia · 2 months ago

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Nesta Reawakening Dusk Court

(This is an incredibly long post, but these are my reasons for why it will be Nesta who awakens the Dusk Court.)

Starborn

Nesta had the Starborn logo (the eight-pointed star) tattooed on her back. Her magic chose the design, just like Bryce's magic marked her with the Starborn scar after she drew the star out of her chest. Starborn hail from the Dusk Court.

Starborn, like Bryce, have starlight, and I think the end of ACOSF might have foreshadowed that for Nesta.

A home. The House of Wind, Velaris, this court...they were her home. The thought kindled a kernel of light in her chest that had not extinguished, even in the days after the Rite.

Her mate. Her love. Her friend. The light within her chest brightened to a radiant sun.

The light was coming from her chest - had been pulled from inside it. Like it had dwelled inside her all along. Bryce's eyes were closed, her face serene.

The ground slid out from under Hunt as the light between her hands, the star she'd drawn from her shattered heart, flared as bright as the sun.

Right into the eyes of the asp shifter. He screamed, clawing at his face. Blazing bright as the sun, Bryce moved.

Dusk Court

Nesta found the chamber in The Prison with the Harp and the eight-pointed star when no one else knew it existed. Bryce's star found the tunnel in the Hewn City that no one knew existed and also led her to the chamber in the Prison.

Nesta awakened the Harp while scrying, and since the Harp is on Dusk Court land, she could awaken that too.

Nesta reawakening the Dusk Court was forshadowed in ACOSF.

The very land seemed abandoned. Like something great had once existed here and then vanished. Like the land still waited for it to return.

Nesta and Bryce were both able to get through to the chamber where the eight-pointed star was, but not Cassian or Az. Az could only enter when Nesta opened the wards for him.

Nesta noted feeling drawn to the chamber with the eight-pointed star.

She had the creeping feeling she'd been brought here.

Not by the Cauldron or the Mother or the Harp. By something vaster. Something that stretched into the stars carved all around them.

It's cool, light hands guided her wrists as she picked up the Harp.

When Nesta left the chamber with the eight-pointed star, she felt beckoned to return.

The words tumbled out as Nesta waded back through the ward-heavy cavern, feeling that center spot, the star at its heart, like a physical presence at her back. Those vast, light hands seemed to pull at her, trying to make her return, but she ignored them, explaining to Cassian what she'd heard from the Harp, and what she'd seen in the vision with Briallyn.

Obviously, Nesta wouldn't have turned back in ACOSF because Bryce needed that information in HOFAS, but if Nesta had turned back around and returned to the chamber, everything that happened with Bryce would have probably happened with Nesta: finding out the truth about Queen Theia, finding out there's a fourth item of the Dread Trove, gaining Silene's power, being able to reawaken the Dusk Court, and finding the Asteri buried beneath.

Bryce mentioned that Silene left everything in the chamber for a Starborn to find.

Bryce gazed at the eight-pointed star, the very heart of this chamber, of this map of the cosmos. "Someone put your Harp there for a reason."

"It was left for someone like me."

"Helena left this here...Just as Silene left everything in the caves of her home world. For someone to find. Someone who could bear the Starsword, and whose starlight would lead them down here. Someone who might also have learned the truth...and known where to look."

The Harp was buried beneath the Prison for a future Starborn (Nesta) to find. Someone who could wield Gwydion, which now, thanks to Bryce, was gifted to Nesta. Someone whose starlight would lead them there: we don't know if Nesta has or will have starlight, but she still said she felt beckoned to the chamber by forces that stretched into the stars all around them, so there's a good chance Nesta was led there because she's Starborn. Because she's meant to reawaken the Dusk Court.

The Bone Carver and Lanthys have both heard about Nesta (and it's implied that the other Prison inmates have as well). I don't think this is because her power is Death, but because they are the only beings who live in the former Dusk Court. And I think they heard about her because the land recognized her as soon as she came out of the Cauldron, as the one who would reawaken the land. Rather than her power being rare amongst the High Fae, is it possible that it could be very old magic that is tied to the Dusk Court?

"Whose fire burns silver in your gaze?"

"You know whose fire," she stalled.

But it struck true, somehow. Lanthys's skin drained of color. "It is not possible." He looked to the Harp beside a stirring Cassian, and his eyes widened again. "We heard about you down here. You are the one the sea and the wind and the earth whispered of." He shuddered. "Nesta." He grinned, showing teeth slightly too long. "You took from the Cauldron itself."

Nesta has been referred to as the Queen of Queens. Bryce was also a queen in Migard (until she ended the monarchy). Could both be descended from Queen Theia? It's no coincidence that both have or had the sign of the Starborn; control items of the Dread Trove, which Theia stole from the Asteri; and both wielded/currently wield Gwydion, the sword of the Starborn, and they are the only two females besides Theia to ever wield it. There's a reason both were brought to the chamber with the eight-pointed star in the Prison, which is on Dusk Court land, which is the land of the Starborn people. And both wield the Horn or the Harp, which were last used by Helena and Silene. Queen Theia said that she and her heirs were the only ones worthy of tending the Dusk Court.

Nesta has already started cleaning up the Prison. One swipe from Ataraxia binded Lanthys into physical form. Beheading him with it killed him, an unkillable being, contemporary to the Asteri. Truth-Teller was used by Silene to throw monsters into the Prison, but it can't kill them. Az even said that Truth-Teller can't kill the unkillable. And considering Az has had that dagger for centuries, and he has put monsters in the Prison, I would think he would know if it could kill them. And it can't. Only Ataraxia (and maybe Gwydion) can. Nesta also beheaded Vesperus, the last remaining Asteri in Prythian, while Bryce defeated the other Asteri on Midgard, and Theia and Fionn defeated the Asteri back in the day. Once again, could it be that both Nesta and Bryce are from Theia and Fionn's bloodline?

All she needs to do now is use Ataraxia, and maybe even the Harp, to finish clearing out the rest of the Prison. There's no point in giving this plot to another character when she's already started doing it, and the Prison inmates already fear her and Ataraxia.

Screaming began throughout the mountain. Petrified, pleading screaming, fists pounding. Not on the rock or the doors that held them, but on the opposite walls of their cells. As if they were begging the Prison to spare them from her and that sword.

Lanthys had fallen. And the occupants of the Prison had felt it.

Prison/Ramiel

Like Bryce, who felt the land of the Dusk Court, Nesta has also felt the Pass of Enalius like it was alive.

No - not someone, though she could have sworn she felt warmth and breath. She'd hit the archway of stone. They'd fallen all the way back down to the Pass of Enalius, dangerously close to the males who pursued them.

If both the Prison and Ramiel are barren, sister peaks, then could Nesta maybe reawaken both?

The Mother

Nesta has a connection with the Mother, and Az said this about her in HOFAS:

"All life came and comes from it," Azriel said with something like reverence. "The Mother poured it into this world, and from it, life blossomed."

Since Nesta has a connection with the Mother, there's a good chance that Nesta will be the one to bring life back into the earth, mainly the Dusk Court, but maybe even Ramiel and some other barren lands.

Queen Theia's Scion

Everything seems to point toward Nesta being a descendant of Queen Theia, thus making her Starborn, thus making her the heir to the Dusk Court.

To leave this account for one whose blood will summon it, child of my child, heir of my heir. To you - I leave my story, your story. To you, in this very stone, I leave the inheritance and the burden that my own mother passed to me.

This place, this Prison and the court it had once been, was Bryce's inheritance. Hers to command, as Silene had commanded it.

And in that moment, the mountain - the island - spoke to her.

Alone. It was so alone - it had been waiting all this time. Cold and adrift in this thrashing gray sea. If she could reach out, if she could open her heart to it...it might sing again. Awaken. There was a beating, vibrant heart locked away, far beneath them. If she freed it, the land would rise from its slumber, and such wonders would spring again from its earth -

Like called to like. As if her star knew this magic existed and drawn her toward it, as if they were sister powers -

And, once again, Nesta felt beckoned to return to this chamber in the Prison, so if she had, or next book if she returns with Gwydion then everything seems to point toward her reawakening the Dusk Court.

Dusk Court was an Asteri palace before Theia had claimed it. Considering Nesta killed the last Asteri on Prythian, who was imprisoned on the Dusk Court land, it would make sense for to reawaken and claim the land after she further rids it of evil.

Truth-Teller

Bryce needed both Gwydion and Truth-Teller to reawaken Avallen, which she did by fitting them into an eight-pointed star. Nesta now has Gwydion, but if Truth-Teller is needed to reawaken the Dusk Court, then Nesta can wield it, as Bryce can, because it will answer to her.

Theia extended her hands toward the water, the offered blades. And on phantom wings, sword and dagger soared for her. Summoned to her hands.

My mother returned that day with only Pelias and my father's blades. As she had helped Make them, they answered to the call in her blood. To her very power.

Bryce summoned both Gwydion and Truth-Teller, and both flew to her hand. They chose her over Az because she's Starborn. Good chance Nesta could summon Truth-Teller too, not permanently but just to reawaken the Dusk Court, if it is needed.

Rebirth

Nesta's entire story arc revolves around the concept of rebirth. Something old becoming something new. Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie are Valkyries reborn, not entirely Valkyrie, nor entirely Illyrian, but rather something new. Nesta Made the first magic weapons in 15,000 years. She named her magic sword Ataraxia, a name in the Old Language, which hasn't been spoken in 15,000 years. Nesta found the Dread Trove, which has been missing for 15,000 years. She helped to defeat the Asteri, who had enslaved Midgard for 15,000 years. Nesta now wields Gwydion, the last Made sword, which hasn't been in Prythian for 15,000 years. All signs seem to point toward Nesta being Starborn, which Bryce describes as a gift of the ancient Fae - reborn again. Following this story arc, it would make sense for Nesta to reawaken the Dusk Court, which hasn't been a court and has instead been this barren, desolate island for 15,000 years.

Even when Bryce and Nesta talked about the relief of the Dusk Court, it parallelled Nesta's healing in ACOSF, about her learning to live with the darkness, and to focus only on the good.

Bryce examined the relief. Took in the dancing, the stars, the idyllic islands in the background. And she said softly, "It means that there was once joy in this world."

Bryce kept her eyes on the dancers, the stars, the lush lands. Ignored the darkness beneath. Focused on the good - always the good. "Isn't that all that matters?"

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