#it is yet again 1am and i just finished rewatchcing bridgerton

[yourlazykitkat]

I propose to the azris council tonight that up until the official announcement of Cassian and Nesta's mating ceremony- Eris and the IC decided to continue the charade of Eris' courtship of Nesta as a cover for the exchange of intelligence between the Autumn and Night courts. Intercepted by any other party, it seems that Eris sends heartfelt confessions of love, declarations and promises from a place of kindness he thought he had lost. But to the discerning eye- there is code in the poetry Eris writes to impart the time and place of his father's secret meetings, promises to take a lover to beautiful Spring Court fields where Beron happens to be testing borders and innuendo of an empty, lonely bed as to hide conspiracies vesting for autumn's seat of power.

And who receives these letters, stamped and sent to the House of the Wind? Surely not Nesta who wants nothing to do with Eris- she has allowed him to use her name but draws the line at anymore. Absolutely not Cassian who detests the situation in the first place. Well, there's one other resident of the House. One in need of reading material to distract himself, one trained in infiltration, intelligence-gathering and code.

Why not Azriel? At first he's frustrated- because it's fucking Eris. Azriel would very much prefer to never have to be in contact with Eris. He rolls his eyes at the superfluous poetry "You remind me of the star of the blue sky, the world will end when you leave." and scoffs at the unnecessary adjectives "My most adored lady". He takes on the habit of a weekly, a monthly letter- scratching out the fluff and jotting down the intelligence and then, before he writes his response to every correspondence, he thinks about how he should burn the letters in the fireplace and then is too reminded of Eris that he just begins a pile of buried letters in his drawer. One day, Azriel catches a line which he swears references a queer fey poet and the shadow-singer spends all day in the library to be sure. What could he mean? What could Eris have possibly meant by that?

And why does Azriel care? Why does he get excited for a new letter? Why is there a pang of his heart when he reads Nesta's name but can practically hear Eris say Azriel's name in the words? Why does Azriel start pouring over poetry books? Why does he keep forgetting that each word is meant to be code, a disguise for intelligence? When did the cruel Eris, ugly to the heart, learn how to write so elegantly? Why does Azriel see a lovely line of poetry and think of Eris? Why does Azriel, in his spare time, keep going over old letters just in case he's missed something?

Why does, when Azriel's eyes meet Eris' across the ballroom of Nesta and Cassian's mating ceremony, does he feel like he's lost something? There's no longer a need to keep the charade but when Eris walks away with a drunk smirk (it's an ugly thing. it's a pretty thing)- Azriel needs to something, he needs to say something but where are the words-