#som kosika

[badassbutterfly1987]

Skimmed through Threads White London chapters for fic reasons and noticed some tidbits:

Kosika has two ominous dreams regarding the city's heart, the second with Holland bleeding out for it but the heart still dying

throuple hints: Nasi implied to crush on Kosika, Lark is generally flirty, and Kosika is developing some feelings she can't yet name

Holland mostly reads as genuinely himself but there is an early interaction where he reads as more manipulative, asking her to trust him completely. also gets a little shifty when asked how he found her. either he doesn't know and that worries him, or he does know and doesn't want to tell her for unknown reasons

an early chapter identifies Kosika's brown hair and pale eyes, but later in the timeline her normal eye is called light brown (people gain more coloring with healthy magic)

huh, a fatherless girl born before or soon after the Danes gain the throne (her mother calls her birth a bad omen, which could be cruelty about Kosika herself or referencing the timing), who is later identified with brown hair and eyes.

listen, I know it seems a random theory that she's secretly Vor's kid, but I'm shooting my shot before the next book comes out. and i doubt she is Holland's kid because he's had exactly one confirmed romantic/physical relationship when he was 18, as well as just being too cliche.

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: A light brown-skinned teenager standing in a forest of birch trees. The viewpoint is from the ground looking up at the girl. Her brown hair is pinned up and braided around her head. She wears a white suit with a white furred cloak that is wrapped around her and extends into the foreground. There are splotches of blood on her upper body, on the knife in her right hand, and drenching her lower legs and entirely covering the lower half of her cloak, resembling a river of blood extending from her. End ID.)

The child queen of a world born anew!! What will she do!

[clockworkbee]

Holland: I never wanted to be a King

Kosika: Well, guess what? You're a saint now.

[purplebass]

Threads of Power final thoughts/review (SPOILERS).

I want to start by saying - if that wasn't clear already from my previous posts about some bits of this book - that I enjoyed it really much. I've been waiting for years for ToP, at some point even thought Victoria decided not to go further with this project anymore, and I was overjoyed that in the end she decided to continue. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. This book came into my life in a difficult moment and it helped me go through the last week (that's why I took my sweet time reading it).

I want to start from the characters we already knew from Shades. Loved seeing all of them and take a peak into what happened into those seven years after the previous series.

This series was about threads of power as magical bonds, but also romantic and platonic bonds and how people can manipulate those threads. Each of us has power over those he loves or hates.

It was a delight to see Kell and Lila again. Loved their evolution as single characters but also as a couple. It wasn't banal at all, and I know I've already written enough about them, but I still have a lot to say about their development in this book. I was glad that the storyline about Kell's power was solved in this book because I couldn't have waited anymore. lol. Something tells me that now that Kell is better, they might travel to the other Londons because I'm sure new trouble will happen.

Loved Rhy and Alucard in their daddy era. Ren is adorable! A lot of thoughts still plague them and their union, and somehow, when Alucard talks to the nobles at the wedding, I just knew one of the enemies would be his brother and someone of those he spoke to on that night. I'm satisfied that Berras is dead, but ofc, if you cut a hand, there are other hands. I wonder how Alucard will react to that and how Ezril the priest will deal with Rhy, who is too naive and trusting towards the woman.

I was surprised to see Holland as a ghost but it makes sense that he would not want to leave his world until it was healed, and he chose Kosika because she was there when he died. It wasn't possible that Kosika just knew how to use Antari magic, but at least it was explained how she came to have that power. I'm curious about Holland's plan to bring magic to White London and whether he is the Holland we know from SOM or a fake!Holland.

I didn't like Nadiya when I first met her, and so did some of our mains. I have to admit she's interesting, though. She is a morally grey character and I think she's ace rep too from the things she says, plus, the flag of her royal house has the color of the ace flag, so. She has character and she's definitely one of my two guesses when it came to who was the woman with Berras at the Veil party. I had my guesses between Nadiya and Ezril and I'm a bit relieved such a powerful person like the queen isn't with the Hand, but you never know. Nadiya is also from a family who is next in line to the throne, I think, and even if she is ON the throne as queen, she might want to get rid of her husband and consort. We'll see. Still have my suspicions about her.

Tes and Kosika are both interesting girls who can do different magic. Tes is more outgoing while Kosika is more closed off. I have to admit, the bits about Tes interested me more but maybe because Kosika didn't interact with the other characters, if not for the persalis door bit. And because, I don't know, the White London parts are a bit slow. But ofc, we needed them to see how magic was changing there compared to Grey and mostly Red London. I can't wait for Kosika to interact with the other Antari and see how Holland reacts to that, because I'm still not 100% sure the ghost is the Holland we know. Speaking of Tes, I don't think Maris' ship is the safest place for her to be. Sure, she can help fixing broken objects, but that is also a place where her older sister Serival could come to look for things to give to her father. Hope we see that in book #2 because Tes' sister might be involved with the Hand as well, who knows.

Last but not least... Bex and Calin. They had their own cards, and I suppose they are characters we will see in the future. They were funny enemies to lovers lol and I wonder if they really went to a void or maybe, Tes didn't know, she opened a door to Black London and they meet Kosika? I don't think we've seen the last of them and I believe an edition of the book contained a short story about them as well? Send it my way if you have it, I'm interested.

Overall, I would rate this book 5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though there were some parts (like Kosika's parts) that were slow. I can't wait to see more of this world even though I have no idea when book #2 is going to come out.

[badassbutterfly1987]

So there's some hints in Fragile Threads that Kosika/Lark/Nasi might become a thing. Obviously Kosika thinks of them like siblings or close friends but she does note that her affection for them has started to feel different.

Now there aren't a lot of supportive adults she can really ask about it. Half of her guards worship her and the other half call her Little Tyrant when they think she can't hear. She's not going to ask her maybe-crushes about her maybe-crush.

...are we going to see her ask Holland for relationship advice?

Holland, who has had exactly two positive relationships, one that ended in Talya betraying him, and the other watching Vortalis be murdered in front of him.

That could make for a fascinating conversation.

[badassbutterfly1987]

Hey! Yes, you need to have several different authors use a tag in order for it to become canonized. And even then, canonization is done by hand by volunteers who oversee thousands of fandoms, so it might take some time until they get to it sometimes.

Thank you for the clarification!

(This is in reference to my previous post about Shades of Magic's Kosika not yet having an official character tag yet. So anyone else planning to write about Kosika?)

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: Two young women preparing for an event. The one in the foreground is sitting at a table wearing a blue and white hanfu. On the table in front of her is a hand-sized wooden box that remains closed. She holds a hand-held golden mirror up to see what her friend is doing with her brown hair. The tan-skinned woman standing behind her is pinning the first's hair up with gold and silver jewelry. She wears a pastel-toned purple and green hanfu, her own honey-colored hair in a bun decorated with a single pink flower. End ID.)

Kosika + Nasi

base source: the c-drama, Serenade of Peaceful Joy

[badassbutterfly1987]

Domaystic prompt: mistaken identity

Fragile Threads, Nasi and Kosika

She knew that Nasi had been the only child in the castle before Kosika and Lark’s arrival but she didn’t think much about it at first.

Until the casual mention of having to hide or keep her head down whenever one of the Danes passed by.

Kosika had stared at her. “Why were you in the castle? Were you kidnapped?”

But Nasi had only shrugged. “I was brought there. I don’t remember anything before then and no one bothered to tell me. It could have been worse.”

Further questions hadn’t provided any more information. So Kosika pondered over the following week.

Fact 1: Nasi had grown up in the castle as a kitchen girl.

Fact 2: The Danes had allowed it without binding her.

Fact 3: The only other person in the castle with their mind intact had been Holland.

Oh, Kosika realized. She was Holland’s daughter.

Though she had no experience with it, she knew some parents loved their children. The Danes had killed Holland’s king and imprisoned him with a Soul Seal.

Why would they not use a discovered daughter against him? Why else bring a child that young to the castle?

What other reason could there be?

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: Highlighted text says '"Do not despair. If we light the fire here, if we restart this source, our world will burn agains, brighter than it ever has. You will not have to choode which tree to water. Our people will not need to bleed to thaw the winter chill. Everything I suffered. Everything I lost- it will have been worth it." In that moment, Kosika saw Holland as he must have been, before the Danes had bound him. She saw the boy who dreamed of healing a dying world. She saw the king, who gave everything to see the power restored. Saw the saint, who even in death could not rest, could not leave his task unfinished.' End ID.)

The Fragile Threads of Power Spoilers below:

Not sure why but Holland is on my mind (the sad man haunts me).

I just really hope ghost Holland is actually Holland. For a fair chunk of The Fragile Threads of Power I had a sneaking suspicion there was some black London tomfoolery going on with him, but by the end I changed my mind.

Maybe it's blind hope but Kosika feeling as if she saw pre Dane twins Holland made my heart explode because it reminded me how much good there is at his core (I've put a picture of the quote below).

If it really is Holland, then despite everything, dying not once, but twice, he still continues on. He refuses to rest until things are set right, because he cares so deeply about his world and his people.

This sad fucker of a man has helped me get through so many long days so I swear to god Victoria if ghost Holland isn't actually him I will perish.

[badassbutterfly1987]

Okay so, in Threads of Power we meet Kosika, who is 14. We know 7 years pass in the time skip, making her 7 during Conjuring of Light.

Gathering of Shadows/Conjuring of Light occurs in like a week I think? And then there's a few months between book 1 and 2.

And you know what happened 7 years before that? Ros Vortalis is murdered and the Danes take over. The math checks out for Kosika being born around that time, which is interesting timing.

I don't have a big conclusion for this. Kosika probably isn't Holland's literal daughter, considering I feel like there would have been a mention of a relationship around this time if there was one (also he spent 90% of his time guarding Vor, I doubt he had the time to get laid). Slightly higher chance of Vortalis being the parent honestly, I could imagine him having a casual fling.

So not super relevant for canon theorizing. But for fic purposes...

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: A dark-haired man dressed in casual grey pants and hoodie is seated in a chair. He is attempting to give baby food to his toddler daughter who is sitting in the high-chair across from him. End ID.)

Holland + baby Kosika, modern au

base source

[badassbutterfly1987]

Summary: It’s his turn to get groceries. He had insisted he could handle it, even when he’d felt the way his hands were cramping up in the morning. He can do this.

Modern au, chronic pain, Holland + Kosika

[badassbutterfly1987]

So I read through Fragile Threads of Power and the Kosika scenes are fascinating. Obviously she wants to heal her world but she's the right mix of ruthlessness and naivete to cause problems. Which considering well-meaning but problem-causing is half of Holland's brand, feels very fitting for his successor.

Now regarding Holland: I know the fandom's split on whether this is really ghost Holland or an entity pretending to be Holland, and I cand definitely see it both ways. There are enough moments that feel off from original Holland that makes it a possibility and I do think that ambiguity is intentional.

But there are also key moments of emotional reaction that feel genuine. Yelling at Kosika for crossing into Black London makes sense, last time he was there he brought Osaron into his world and nearly caused a magic apocalypse. He's cautiously curious when he first properly speaks with Kosika. He's wary when they later visit Black London and relieved when they realize Osaron's influence is gone. If this is an oshoc like Osaron, it's doing a very good job at acting human.

Holland refusing to answer her question about how his ghost/magic connected to her is suspicious, which in my mind means either he doesn't know and that worries him or he does have an idea and for whatever reason doesn't want her to know. So there's probably some kind of shenanigans afoot.

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: A black-haired man dressed in gray holding a sleeping baby in his arms. He is smiling softly down at her. The baby is brown-haired with pink cheeks, She is swaddled in a blue blanket. End ID.)

base source

Holland with baby Kosika (shh don't worry about context or timeline)

[badassbutterfly1987]

(ID: A young dairk-haired woman wearing a dark red dress. Over that is a long white cape and blue arm bands. A sickle hangs from her belt. End ID.)

an older Kosika design

source base: Marco Polo (2014)

the sickle is a reference to Beacon of Hope :)

[badassbutterfly1987]

Potential Kosika faceclaim

Miya Cech