#safi/merik

[andromeda3116]

idk, upon rereading truthwitch, i wonder if safi and merik actually aren't going to be endgame like i'd originally assumed. like, when iseult is thinking about the heart-threads, it's always in a potentiality -- like they are forming, but not formed. they could be heart-threads. but they were parted, and life goes on. there was a possibility there, but it fizzled out with time and distance.

idk if safi is going to end up with anyone at all, tbh, and at this point, i don't think i really want her to. maybe it ends with her and merik re-introducing themselves to each other, to see if there could be something there, after the events of the story? or maybe it ends with her and caden reaching out to each other now that the hell-bards are free? (i do believe that caden is either in love with safi or on his way to it, and i'm on the fence as to whether or not he'll survive the finale.) or just with safi finally free to choose her own fate, no longer someone else's pawn or ace up their sleeve.

i'm not of the opinion that safi and/or iseult will die -- i don't feel like this is the kind of story where one of them die, and i don't feel like aeduan will, either. i definitely think aeduan and iseult have suffered enough and it would be a betrayal of the narrative to kill either of them when they're finally starting to come to peace and find love. if one of the main four is going to die, i think it will be merik, in killing the fury -- he and kullen, thread-brothers to the end.

idk, truthwitch set up safi/merik but the rest of the series kinda dropped it, and i'm not sure that wasn't intentional. like, it's one of those almosts, you know? the guy you met over the summer, felt a connection to, had a few deep conversations with over a case of beer in front of a fire pit, imagined that he might be the one for you... but then the semester started up and you went back to college and lost contact with him, and... that was that.

i just don't see it actually happening anymore, at least before the end of the story. it's an almost. a could-have-been. at best, the ending may give them a chance to start again, but i just don't think they're the same people anymore. what they had was ended by circumstance and they've spent three books (well. two, for merik) changing and growing totally apart from one another. i don't think they're incompatible now, i still think they could connect with each other, but the connection that they had formed was between two people that they aren't anymore. they'd have to start over.

idk, i just really like safi/merik as a whirlwind could-have-been romance that got torn apart before it could become something that would have survived the distance.

[lilithsaur]

Safi+Merik

Iseult+Aeduan

[dark-giver]

How all the characters in The Witchlands know so many languages like I'm not sure about my native language and in the series everyone knows more than THREE

[everythingunderthestarsthings]

Heyyy everyone!

I love reading books but never seem to have a bookmark. I can actually remember the page numbers where I stop reading and have no problem going back to the correct page, but bookmarks are fun!

And though it's a very simple one, I made a bookmark for myself with my absolute favourite phrases from the Witchlands series by Susan Dennard!

[tealeavesand-roses]

Status: read Rating: 4.5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (The Witchlands, #1) 🗡️👁️📜🫴🏻🧵 It's a travesty that I was unaware of this series until recently. I just finished the first book, and I'm hooked—wow. Dennard's world-building in the Witchland Series is intricate, beautiful, and, above all, magical.

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard is the first book in the Witchlands series. It is a story about two unregistered witches, Safiyah, a truthwitch, and Iseult, a threadwitch, who are on the run from various opposers, such as empires and mercenaries. Both Safi and Iseult must navigate a tense and scary political landscape. Along the way, they encounter allies and foes, including Prince Merik, a windwitch, and the bloodwitch Aeduen.

To give a little backstory, I had begun rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and as with every rewatch of Avatar, my heart swooned for Zutara. Listen, the first season came out when I was 13; I fell hard for Zuko and never looked back. I also immediately questioned why he and Katara didn't end up together once the series concluded, as their chemistry and scenes were *chef's kiss* 🤌🏼. Moving on, I wanted to know if any books/series exuded similar ATLA attributes/were identical in any way. I ended up finding A Clockwork Reader's BookTube video that recommended books for fans of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Thus, I was introduced to the Witchlands series. 🌬️ Side note, I love that A Clockwork Reader is a shameless fan of Zutara like myself, and she mentioned how she got a chance to chat with the author, Susan Dennard, and apparently, two characters in the series were inspired by the dynamic between Katara and Zuko, which of course piqued my interest even more.

⭐️⭐️SLIGHT SPOILER⭐️⭐️

Overall, I loved this book! I haven't read a YA fantasy in a while, but it's such a good read. I'm starting book two next week; I'm swamped with homework, so I need to put that first 🙃 Also, um, I'm sorry, the phrase Aeduan said to Iseult in her native tongue quite literally tugged at my heartstrings and nearly brought me to my knees. Like-are you kidding me?! I gasped when she divulged what the phrase meant, like...that's something heartmates say to each other, not a girl you swore you'd kill the next time you'd cross paths. Lmao. They've had such minimal interactions, but I'm obsessed with them.

[lottiesoka]

Safi, Merik, Iseult, and Aeduan from Susan Dennard’s Truthwitch (and her Witchlands series in general)

[eilonwiiy]

Bookends ; A Witchlands AU

Chapter 13

After spotting Iseult with Leopold at the library, Aeduan has decided to walk away from their tentative friendship. But a weekend with his sisters (and the impending doom of Valentine's Day) puts his resolve to the test...

Summary: Iseult det Midenzi never expected to go to a top university, so when her mother falls ill and she is forced to drop out to make ends meet, life has never seemed so unfair. But when she starts working at the local library and is unexpectedly assigned in the Children’s Room, a certain monosyllabic man and his thrice-damned demon child start showing up and Iseult begins to wonder if the threads of fate have a plan for her after all.

Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Ships: Iseult/Aeduan, Safi/Merik, and more… stay tuned!

Tags: modern AU, college setting, family, friendship, humor, fluff, slow-burn, romance, eventual smut

Read on AO3: here

*   .   *   .   *   .   *   .

From inside the car, Aeduan felt as much as heard the muffled thud of the trunk being closed.  A moment later, the passenger door swung open and Libset and Cora piled into the backseat, wearing matching school uniforms that were barely visible under heavy winter coats.  

“Do you have everything?” Aeduan asked, closing the book he’d been reading and setting it on the seat beside him. 

“Oh it’s nice and warm in here,” Lisbet said a little out of breath.  She tugged at her seatbelt and snapped the buckle into place.  “Yes, we have everything.”  

“Sketchbook?” Aeduan asked.

“Yes.”

“Colored pencils?”

“Yes.”

“Snow pants?”

“Yes.”

“Extra socks?”

“Yes.”

“Pickles and Rook?”

“Yes!” Lisbet and Cora replied in unison. 

Aeduan twisted around to look at his sisters.  After picking them up from school, they’d stopped at their house long enough for them to grab their belongings for the weekend.  Owl, nestled between them in her car seat, was still napping from the car ride to Ponzin.

“You’re sure you have everything?” Aeduan pressed a third time.  As he said this, his gaze lingered on Cora.  Once, she’d forgotten to pack her favorite pair of pajamas and Aeduan would never forget the shitstorm that followed.  However, today Cora only flashed him a toothy smile and nodded, hugging her stuffed elephant to her chest. 

Aeduan looked at Lisbet for confirmation.  She nodded.

He turned forward in his seat and soon they were pulling onto the sleepy street his childhood home lived on.  He glanced in the rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of the climbing rose growing on the side of the house.  Once upon a time it would blossom with roses, white with the faintest tinge of pink, its vines climbing higher and higher with every passing year so that its limbs eventually reached the window to Aeduan’s bedroom.  

Then his mother died.  Now it clung to the side of the house like a long-legged spider, naked and dead.  

“He wasn’t home,” Lisbet said as they passed Covent Academy.  Less than 20 minutes ago the place had been swarming with children, the air thrumming with excitement for the weekend, while cars sat bumper to bumper on both sides of the road.  Now all that was left was a tangled web of footprints immortalized on the snowy lawn and a few cars sitting in the teachers’ parking lot.  Lisbet waved to the familiar crossing guard packing up their gear into the trunk of his little hatchback.  He stopped, freeing a hand to tip his baseball cap in recognition.  

“Da works in Tirla on Fridays now.”  

“I know,” Aeduan gruffed out, though in truth he had not.  Lisbet said nothing else and Cora pounced on the opportunity to chatter away about her friend Marta and a game they had invented at recess.  Aeduan half-listened while the rest of him went through the motions of piloting the car home.  

Ragnor.  This was probably the longest Aeduan had gone without seeing his father.  It didn’t take much maneuvering on his part to avoid crossing paths (Ragnor made it easy by never being around), but what was less easy to avoid was the matter of his own absence, not when he shared his father with two other people.  For as long as Lisbet and Cora had been alive, they’d all lived under the same roof together.  Until, suddenly, they didn’t.  

“Do you have glitter?”

Aeduan blinked out at the highway, having lost track of the conversation.  “Do I have - ?”

“Glitter.”  The word came out hushed, almost reverent, even in Cora’s eight-year-old voice.  “I need it for my valentines.”

His sisters had made it very clear that their weekend plans would require craft supplies - not exactly something he kept on hand.  Owl hadn’t yet expressed an interest in expanding her artistic palette beyond coloring (thank god) and as for Aeduan, even with swaths of free time at his disposal, he had not been hit with the sudden realization that the solution to all his problems lay in a cross stitch.  His life may have detoured to new lows as of late, but he wasn’t that far gone.  

As far as he was concerned, February 14th was just another day in the year.  It took little effort on his part to ignore its existence, just another one of the many benefits of reaching adulthood.  When he was a kid he had no say in the matter.  He’d been forced to participate in every inane ritual the holiday called for, including handing out valentines to all of his classmates whether he liked them or not.  That kind of public humiliation was far behind him, but thanks to the exploitations of corporate capitalists everywhere, the spirit of St. Valentine was still very much alive, and unlike him, Cora and Lisbet were more than happy to participate in the annual brainwashing. 

“You’re eight,” Aeduan had said over the phone the night before when Cora finished rattling off her list of demands.  “How many valentines could you possibly need to make?”

“I have a lot of friends,” Cora had informed him matter-of-factly.  Then she’d asked, “How many friends do you have?”  

And so ended further discussion and Aeduan reluctantly resolved to stop at the nearest arts and crafts store before picking them up from school.  Currently, a sizable chunk of the store’s inventory sat in the trunk of his car, though there was one notable exception.  

“I didn’t get any glitter,” Aeduan said.  Cora’s crestfallen gasp was an arrow to his heart, but he otherwise managed to look diffident.  

“But my cards!”

“They’ll be full of just as much love with or without them,” Lisbet consoled her sagely before Aeduan could say anything.  

This was not what Cora wanted to hear.  She squeezed Pickles tight and directed a pouty glare to the window.  Aeduan reached next to him for a paper bag sitting in the passenger’s seat.  He passed it to the backseat.  “Sulk or snack?  Your choice.”

Cora only held Pickles tighter, expression deepening into a scowl that could rival Owl’s.

“She can do both,” Lisbet said, taking the bag and opening it in her lap.  “Oh.”

Aeduan glanced over his shoulder.  “What?”

“You got donuts.” 

“You like donuts.”

“I know I do.”  Lisbet pulled out a rainbow sprinkled donut and took a bite.  She chewed it slowly, like she was trying to deduce its molecular makeup from a single taste.  Then, “Did something happen to Jitters?”

Aeduan’s foot tapped down on the gas pedal and he pulled ahead of the station wagon in the lane next to them before veering smoothly into the open road in front of them.

“No.”

“This is the second time you’ve gotten donuts.”

The station wagon’s horn blared.  Aeduan sped up.  70 mph.  80.   

“You usually get Jitters on Fridays.”

“If you don’t want donuts anymore, just say so,” Aeduan said, lifting his gaze to the rearview mirror and giving Lisbet a formidable look that immediately transformed him into their father.  Lisbet barely noticed.  She picked at the sprinkles on her donut, imparting a pensive hm for him to ponder over.  

Aeduan knew that hm.  It belonged to his father and, by the laws of genetics or overexposure, it had been passed down to him.  Lisbet was far too young to be using it.  He jabbed a knob on the dashboard and music flowed from the speakers.  Aeduan recognized the song though he did not know the band.  It sounded like every other generic pop anthem played on the radio - soulless, but just catchy enough to get stuck in your head for hours after hearing it.  They rode the rest of the journey in silence save for the radio, each song bleeding into each other, as indistinguishable as the next, until the familiar skyline of Venaza City appeared.   

“Can we stop at the library?” Lisbet asked. 

Aeduan had to work to stop himself from visibly bristling.  He kept his eyes fixed on the car in front of them, a battered winnebago.  Thick exhaust clouds billowed out of its tailpipe, the engine rattled. 

“What do you need at the library?” he asked.

“A book.”

“Why didn’t you bring something from home?”  Aeduan’s next exhale came out heavy with irritation.  “I asked if you had everything you needed for the weekend before we left, Lis.”

“I’ve read all my books.”

Aeduan didn’t say anything at first.  It was a solid explanation.  She was an even more avid reader than he had been at her age, though her insatiable appetite for make-believe stories was thankfully less tragic than his at the time.  Aeduan rapped his fingers along the steering wheel. 

“Won’t you be busy making your valentines?” he asked, attempting to appeal to her with reason.  “I was led to believe you two had lots of friends.”  He eyed Cora in the mirror and caught the tiniest curl of a smile partially hidden behind Pickles’ big ears.  Lisbet, on the other hand, frowned.  

“Why can’t we just stop there on the way home?”

Why indeed.  

A week had passed since Aeduan had last seen Iseult and, to his annoyance, even less time since she’d crossed his thoughts, never failing to have Leopold fon Cartorra rudely in tow.  He didn’t know what he hated more.  The possibility that Iseult may share something with a moronic halfwit such as Leopold or how the plausibility of that possibility made him feel.  In the end, it didn’t matter.  He had decided to keep his distance, and with that choice came a strangely freeing sense of relief.  At first, he’d been angry with himself for resorting to such drastic action.  But then he’d realized what an unnecessary weight it’d been to carry around, that warring feeling he felt whenever he saw Iseult.  He barely knew her, and yet, she loomed so big in his thoughts.  It was too much.  Aeduan didn’t have room for her.  He had enough problems in his life, real problems.  Like finding a new source of income (he couldn’t stay unemployed forever) or what he would do if the adoption fell through (he never let himself entertain this scenario for too long).  Letting go of what he could only describe as a tentative friendship at best was the sensible choice.

But Aeduan wasn’t about to share any of this with Lisbet or Cora.  He was an adult.  He’d earned the right to not have his life choices analyzed by his little sisters, and someday when Lisbet grew up, she’d earn that right too.  He did not want to go to the library.  Therefore, he would not go to the library.   

“Let’s just go home,” he finally said.

From the rearview mirror, Aeduan saw that Lisbet was giving him a strange look.  

“What?” he demanded.  

“You’re being weird.” 

“Thanks,” Aeduan deadpanned.  She’d have to be a lot more imaginative than that to put a dent in his ego. 

“I don’t get why we can’t stop there,” Lisbet trudged on.  She waved a hand at the window, the storefronts lining the street leading to the city square slowly passing by.  “It’s not like it’s out of the way.”

“I’m the one driving.  I’ll tell you whether or not it’s out of the way.”

“We’re literally going to pass it in 10 seconds.”

“Lis.”

“I’ll be quick.”

The winnebago in front of them came to a sudden stop and Aeduan slammed his foot down on the brakes.  The car jolted forward, startling Cora and waking Owl.  Honks of outrage immediately sounded off behind them.  Lisbet only stared at the reflection of Aeduan in the rearview mirror, an unmistakable challenge in her bright, pale eyes.  Aeduan could feel the traitorous way his heart was racing.  He tried to tell himself it was from the near accident he’d almost gotten them in.

“Fine,” Aeduan gritted out, sounding like he was using a very different f-word.  

Lisbet leaned back in her seat, smug satisfaction written all over her face.  Tugging sharply on the steering wheel, Aeduan swerved the car around the winnebago, sending a venomous look to its driver as they passed.  

He didn’t feel much like the adult anymore.

[safifonhasstrel]

I was going to say it was bold of you to assume she’s still writing the final witchlands book, but I just checked IG and apparently she posted a snippet in her newsletter recently…

On a serious note, I feel the same as you do: I probably won’t read the final book. It’s been 3 years, and Witchshadow was a mess. When I started it I had to double check that I hadn’t somehow missed an installment because I was so confused. The weird retconning of Vivia’s feelings for Stacia (how she described her in earlier books is not how you feel about a sister, yikes). The big bad is now a ferret??? Where is Merik?? I could go on and on.

All this to say I love pre-Witchshadow Safi but I don’t blame you for wanting to change your URL.

When I started witchshadow I honestly thought I was reading Esme’s pov but no! It was just ooc Iseult! And omg don't even get me started on the retconning of Vivia and Stix's relationship. Aeduan and Merik being barely present despite being MAIN characters! Because gotta focus on side characters more because reasons!!! Iseult and the Nomatsi barely being the focus despite it being HER book!

I could go on forever. And yeah, I did read these snippets and idk how to feel about them.

I will forever keep the series pre- witchshadow and especially truthwitch close to my heart because it meant so much to me and I still love these characters so much but if the last book is as awful as I fear it will be, I gotta distance myself from the series a bit.

And yeah, it's been 3 years! It's actually insane how long it has been. I personally feel like the author herself has lost interest in the series because all we see are updates about her new series. Which I am not planning on reading BTW, because i associate it with the decline of quality in the Witchlands. Like come on, safi and leopold again backwards???? What the hell was that?

[eleftherian]

can already tell merik & safi are meant to be romantic partners asdfghj I just want some homosexuality guys

[sxfik]

Omg dud you finally get around to reading witchshadow?? What are your all over thoughts??

omg hello!! and yes i did! i actually ended up rereading the whole series because it's been literally seven years (saying that outloud makes it so much more real wtf). it took me a while bc my god are those books a l o t to get through for me now.

i mean idk if i need to preface this since you were literally there but like... i was one of like the 10 people that was active about this series on here when it started back in the 2016-2017 era. like i love this series, and to this day i've kept the username and all the stuff i wrote for it, so just like idk a disclaimer: im not here to hate or anything, just truly mourning something i really loved.

overall thoughts: witchshadow was so disappointing. like resoundingly disappointing. there was so many things i had issues with, and idk if i even have enough time and words to describe it. i feel like this whole series suffered from having too many complex plot points and too many characters introduced five books into a six book series. not to mention the amount of lore and words that is dropped into the books with little to no explanation of what they mean and what they indicated in this world? like how is it book five and i still don't understand what a domna truly is?

i feel like the complexity balance was really held well up until witchshadow, when it literally just got so confusing that none of the characters felt like themselves? also the weird timeline for this book did not help. like jesus christ this book is complex as it is, how are you making it harder for us??

like a) iseult. i felt like she was overshadowed in her own book, i wanted to know about her nomatsi heritage and literally so much about her like the other books did for the main characters, but this felt so disappointing. where was all the worldbuilding you set up for this moment? why did esme just get downgraded all of a sudden? and also just... she doesn't feel like she made any character improvement/her arc went backwards?

b) safi was just? stupid in this book? how did she have a negative character arc. like i know she's supposed to be reckless and making impulse and stupid plans, but her character felt reduced to just that. like first and second book safi: i knew why she was making these decisions, even if they backfired, but this just feels like a mockery of her character. and i love safi, and i wish she had a way better arc than she did, and got treated with the same book time as isuelt and aeduan.

and also god, the weird emperor/safi bs was so unbareable. she's literally like 18 in this book (i actually thought she was closer to 19/20 but whatever i guess she's 18 here). every scene with them was so werid and uncomfortable. (especially that weird one where she walks in while he has sex what the fuck was going on there) why was she desperate to have sex with what i assume to be like a 60 year old??? i had to force myself to read through these parts and not skip them

and god the hellbards. i loved them at first but im getting sick of them taking over the story. why are they so important that they essentially replace both merik and practically the whole main cast of characters. why are they mentioned at every turn? if they were this important, why didnt you introduce them sooner?

c) why does safi and iseult just not have any interaction. its literally been five books bro the seperation arc is enough (and yes i fully consider them separated) !! why have they had 0 character development together?? they're arguably the center of this series, and what started this whole chase, and yet we've gotten maybe one book and a half of them actually growing together. how is this gonna turn out for the final book when you have maybe 600 pages and 6 characters to get through?

d) where the fuck was merik. hes literally a main character how did he disappear??

e) the whole vivia/stix to vivia/vaness makes me. upset. i dont understand the decision to make them threadsisters when they were vivia was gay panicking about her 24/7 in windwitch. literally 0 buildup for something that feels like it came out of nowhere. why are they like siblings now, it feels so so so weird. i honestly have so much more to say about this and yet im still upset

now this might seem like such a hateful rant, and i promise it's not hate, it's just frustration at what seemed like such an excellent book series. and honestly, up until bloodwitch i was doing fine and then this book was just... so different to the rest of the series. i know susan was forced to combine the books into one, and so maybe that's why, but idk man, this felt so disappointing.

i love foreshadowing and worldbuilding when it's done right, and i think it was doing great until this book. a lot of stuff felt like plot twists out of nowhere, with no rhyme or reasoning to it. it just didn't feel like a witchlands book if you get what i feel. honestly, out of love and time for this series, i think i'll be reading the final book as well in the series, hoping things get fixed and we get to see characters that were beloved back again.

(p.s. how are you? its been so long!!)

[thebitchlands]

Round 2 Match 2

Both men Safi finds attractive, how interesting

[editoress]

Windwitch - 2, 3, and 7 3:)

Oh the beloathed sequel to a fine font of potential.

2. At what point did you know you would hate the book?

It was almost certainly when the book tried to gaslight me about Merik. He had a ruthless streak in book one but was overall fighting for the safety of his people. Book two insisted he was blinded by arrogance and didn't know or care about his people. It's not like I would have minded if that were the case, but you cannot change your entire character between books and expect me to go along with the hate train. That's an SJMessy move.

3. What is the book's biggest problem?

No plan, just vibes. I don't remember any real plot happening in this book. It was mainly an exercise in establishing who Dennard's new favorites and punching bags were. Maybe if there had been an outline, she would have realized that it wasn't consistent with book one.

7. Who is your least favorite character? What did they do to deserve your ire?

It's always going to be Safi.... To be clear, Aeduan is also terrible to read about. But he's terrible in a bland way. There's an utter lack of characterization in there that makes his narration both boring and frustrating. But Safi is actively obnoxious. She's stupid and impulsive, constantly wrecking things for those she claims to care about; but because she's the narrative's special favorite, she's always forgiven and things end up going her way.

[dark-giver]

[culturevsnews-blog]

Witchlands, tome 2. Windwitch: Windwitch de Susan Dennard

Alors que la guerre se profile dans les Witchlands, Safi, Iseult et Merik se retrouvent séparés et en mauvaise posture. Chronique : Susan Dennard continue de nous emporter dans l’univers captivant des Witchlands avec “Windwitch,” le deuxième tome de la série. Cette suite envoûtante plonge encore plus profondément dans la magie, l’intrigue et les relations complexes entre les…

[moonlitglen]

am currently rereading windwitch and i badly needed to get this out of my head... ch 31 you're welcome

[explodinghouse]

Logically I know Caden and Safi won’t end up together but unfortunately I suffer from the disease called