#fragile threads of power

[indigoreed1]

(Spoiler for ADSOM)

Kell being the last person to figure out Lila was an Antari will never not be funny to me. Tieren, he could stomach. Alucard, that was rough. But I just know Holland sent him over the edge 😭 Like even the readers got here first, babe.

[oldowlshollow]

holland in the silver wood forest

[lilsciencequeen]

Kell Maresh is an absolute disaster of a man and I love him

[just-a-girl-who-likes-sharks]

Whatever they have, that’s what I want.

[happygirl2oo2]

background fanart credit: @kiranightart

[clouds-soup]

I just finished fragile threads of power im screaming crying and throwing up

I've read like ten of her books but the shades of magic world is so special to me

Idc what anyway says no one does it like ve schwab

[emilyrosecreatives]

finally got around to drawing these two 🥹

[bluecichlid]

Astrid Dane As the Master of the Veil

This post is putting the evidence together for my personal favorite Shades of Magic theory - that Astrid Dane is back in the new books as the Master of the Veil. It hit me hard on the first read, and on re-reads I've seen more. Nothing is conclusive, but here it is...

As far back as ADSOM, there are suggestions Astrid may come back.  

As much as he wanted to leave her there in the broken garden with her brother’s corpse, he couldn’t.  Magic, like everything, faded.  Spells were broken.  Astrid could be free again, one day.  And he couldn’t let that happen.  

Kell thinks he killed Astrid by shattering the stone statute, but Astrid was possessing someone in Red London when she died.  The first time Kell meets her, she is wearing the red pendant and already possessing Rhy, so we know she can act in White London without breaking the connection.  So when her body dies in White London, her spirit may have lived on in Red.  

Most of what we know about the Master of the Veil points to Oren Rosec as the only real viable candidate from the characters introduced in Threads.  From the White Rose, we know that he’s male, noble, and not Veskan (since the White Rose is Veskan and knows he’s not a native speaker).  He’s also a water magician, since he uses ice.  From Berras, we know he’s male, young, and has a claim to the throne (meaning Vestra). 

The only other young noblemen introduced in Threads are Hok, who is Vestran, and Nero, presumably Lady Nassaro’s missing son from Rhy’s wedding, who is a bone magician.  Oren is a water magician and he was in the brothel right before Alucard met the White Rose, and not long before she meets the Master of the Veil.

But Oren, by himself, is not a very interesting option.  Schwab doesn’t give him any real depth of character.  The only real point of interest in him is the mention of his sister in his conversation with Alucard.  

“Oh, Hanara?”  Oren waved his hand.  “She stayed with the estate.  She was the oldest, after all.”

Alucard’s attention snagged on that word.  Was.

Oren speaks of his sister as if she is dead, and doesn’t seem distressed.  Oren’s father was dying at Rhy’s wedding, five years before.  The Rosecs live in the far north.  So nobody is around and alive who knew the original Oren Rosec.

Then there is the Master’s meeting with the White Rose.  The language Schwab uses parallels the description of Astrid’s first appearance.

Kell’s POV from DSOM:  Astrid had draped herself over one of the two thrones… “  

Ciara’s POV in FTOP: She noticed the way he draped himself across the chair …

Kell in DSOM: ..her hand slid past the paper and closed around his wrist … lightning danced up Kell’s arm, followed almost instantly by pain.  

Ciara in FTOP: ... his hand closed around her wrist, his fingers burning cold.

Kell in DSOM: Kell did not realize she had risen from her seat until he felt her there beside him, running a finger down the silver buttons of his coat.  

Ciara in FTOP: …the Master of the Veil was right there, no longer behind the desk but in front of it, in front of her … [and later] It left an awful, eerie feeling, like his fingers sliding over her skin.

Schwab is too good and too creative a writer for this to be accidental.

Lila and Alucard together come to the conclusion that the Hand is not Arnesian.  

“Do you have no suspicions?”

“I have many-but that is all they are.”

“Care to share your strongest angle?”

“That for all their talk, they’re not Arnesian at all.”

Lila’s steps didn’t slow.  It had occurred to her already, of course.  “You think they’re being funded by a foreign power.”

“The best war is the one your enemy fights with itself.”

The Master relishes physical pleasure.  From Berras’s POV, he appears in the meeting at the Veil having just had sex, and bringing drinks. When Ezril doesn’t want hers, he drinks both.  This could be hedonism, or someone who came from a world of deprivation.

Then, there is a sadistic element to the Master:

Ciara: She flinched, but his grip tightened, seeming to enjoy her discomfort.  She’d handled enough patrons to recognize the ones who took pleasure in another’s pain.

Berras:  “We can say he fled, and left his family to the wolves.”  The humor in his voice was clear.  “I do wish I could be there. It is only so much fun to watch.”  He rolled his empty glass.  “I take it no one should be spared.”

Finally, there is the man at the door of the Veil when Lila, and then later Kell and Alucard, arrive.  

A host stood waiting to greet each guest as they arrived.   He was dressed head to toe in white: a fitted suit beneath a pale, pearl cloak …

White being particularly associated with the Danes.

The man seems to have been the one to have recognized Lila and alerted Berras that she was there.  Nobody else had a good opportunity to see her face because she put the mask on immediately after speaking to him.  Berras says she isn’t as anonymous as she was, so it could have been chance.  

But then man also seems to recognize Kell, and he behaves strangely.  

“Walk away,” said Kell softly, and perhaps the host caught the glint of his black eye, and guessed at the identity of Alucard’s companion, or perhaps he simply did not think it was worth dying for, because as soon as Kell withdrew the point of the knife, the host turned, and strode down the stairs, tearing off his mask and casting it into the bushes as he went.

Kell’s eyes don’t seem visible from the earlier description of his mask.  But Astrid would be able to recognise his voice.  And she’d have reason to avoid Kell, the one person in Red London who knows her well enough to realise it is her.

Finally, and bringing things back to the Doylian rather than Wastonian analysis, there is Holland.  In ACOL, he makes it very clear that he is mad that he does not get to have the chance to take revenge on the Danes.  There is unfinished business there.  Why did Schwab make such a point of it, when she knew Holland was going to die?  Just to rub our noses in the tragedy of Holland’s life?  But she’s said she always planned to come back to the world … if Astrid is still around, and so is Holland, then he has the chance to take her down.  

And Holland deserves nice things. 

[chaoticmiserablelover]

RIP Rhy Maresh; you would have loved watching TikTok edits of you.

[evenstarfalls]

So my first guess was wrong about Nadiya...

SHE'S FUCKING AROACE HOLY SHIT THIS IS SUCH A WIN

I knew V.E. Schwab wouldn't let us down like I figured she'd be some flavor of queer. And while lesbian was my first (clearly wrong now dkdjdjabfb) guess, aroace was my second and boy did she deliver!! Seeing her find a family and a place to belong and even thrive while being very clearly aroace (she may have lacked the words for it for it's obvious she's aware of it) was so wonderful. And as an asexual who is not sex averse, it was really lovely getting some representation in that regard.

Also the Loreni colors being purple and gray... I see you!! I see what this is!! 💜🩶

And like even beyond representation, she's such an interesting character! Her relationship with Alucard is really nice, and I'm excited to see where her and Lila's relationship goes, especially after Lila was hurt by the stolen invention. I think they're actually quite similar characters, which is definitely part of what makes them clash. And her inventing is probably also going to be important. I hope she continues to cook up dangerous shit I...hope she has fun :) I'm also curious about her and Rhy's relationship—I mean they're married of course, but we didn't actually get a lot of them together and I'm quite interested in that dynamic.

In short: all hail our aroace slightly unethical science queen

[sylveaugust]

I was looking at some Dead Boy Detectives art and realized Edwin and Charles give off a kinda similar vibe to Kell and Rhy from Shades of Magic. Both externally and internally. I mean, look at any single given art of them. Anyone else agree?

[indigoreed1]

I wonder if VE Schwab knows that Kell’s outfit when he’s Kay in my mind is literally just Westley from The Princess Bride. I wonder if she knows how much it plagues me.

[oldowlshollow]

finished book 3 of the darker shades of magic series and, of course, alucard emery is my favorite. this is my take on the sea captain of the night spire.

[unmaker-unmaker]

obsessed with the fact that even though kell and lila are literally partners he somehow has no idea she wears that ring around her neck for YEARS. no visibility during sexy times no slipping out during their hourly duels they literally sleep together and yet nothing

[orions-garden]

KELL!!!! DON’T DETERMINE YOUR WORTH BY HOW USEFUL YOU ARE TO OTHER PEOPLE!!!! THAT’S AN UNHEALTHY COPING MECHANISM!!!!!! KELLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

[happygirl2oo2]

background fanart credit: @kiranightart