#the mortal queens

[dragons-library]

ACOMAF thoughts:

THOSE FILTHY MORTAL QUEENS 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

[texaschainsawmascara]

Mini vampire hunting kit

[floweroflaurelin]

I would have been lost without you. Thank you for guiding me, and always protecting me.

I don’t think you ever needed me as a guardian, though it was my life’s honour to do so.

—

Baby Emhira having a bright moment with her guardians Purvan and Galdric! I can’t stop thinking about Purvan helping to raise the Raven Queen as a baby. The mortal who became a goddess who became a mortal, and he’s there to watch her grow up. It makes me so emotional 🥲

[shizzlesisntevenaword]

Cardan not going after Jude during her exile always makes me cry because the only reason he wasn’t is because he wanted to respect her wants and autonomy so bad. He didn’t want to make her come back if she didn’t want to, didn’t look for her because he genuinely believed Jude would come back if she wanted to be found. And again it’s just so in-character of him to automatically think she’s just found something better than him because no one ever willingly picked and stayed with him when they had a choice so why would she?

[illustratinghan]

cardan is convinced the bubbles in boba tea are magical and of course jude supports his beliefs (even if it’s just to tease him about later😅)

another little chibi cardan and jude enjoying boba tea in the mortal world @hollyblack 🧋✨

follow me on instagram! @/illustratinghan

[hughmanbean]

How Do You Do, Fellow Humans?

Now, Fright Knight is a very experienced ghost. He's served millennia, gone through the whole ordeal that was Pariah Dark, tolerated the Observants, and generally has a large area of competence.

But perhaps he should expand his skillset.

As he was guarding an outing of the Royal family, his Queen had inquired of his pastimes. He had answered with his duties.

"I mean, you should definitely get out some more, dude. Chill a bit. Not in the Far Frozen sense."

The Princess had agreed, saying that traveling would be quite the eye opening experience for him

His Queen assured him that the royal family could suffice without his presence "for a year or two, just make sure to visit."

So the Knight of Autumn sets out to find a mortal settlement that will work. He comes across Gotham City and its respective city spirit, Lady Gotham. She graciously invites him in, and he vows to remember her contribution. She merely gives an amused smile.

Within Gotham City, Fright Knight comes across a mortal woman controlling plant life, and even if subconsciously, follows her due to the familiarity to another ghost the Queen had "known."

She has a rendezvous with another mortal woman, and they go inside a house/haunt that radiates their love. Fright Knight stands outside of it for a week straight, attempting to deduce a way for him to meet them.

Harley, on the other hand, had just opened the door at like, 2:48 in the morning and her hyenas shoot straight out the door and around the house, barking. They jump around the legs of- a giant suit of armor? Really? Just staring at the wall, is it?

Gotham, truly, is delightful.

[helenofblackthorns]

I'm constantly thinking about this passage & I need other people to talk about

like "here is someone you already know"????????

[cusswordsbutmakeitgay]

My favorite thing that Holly Black did with Locke was having him be obsessed with stories, convinced he was the main character and puppet master and then killing him off in a footnote

[viceandmature]

#She tore

[stardustedknuckles]

Listening to the Matron talk about the previous god of death cements for me the idea that Vax was always meant to have more time before she made good on their deal. She didn't mean for him to know the same eternal separation and grief she had taken upon herself - that she had chosen with eyes wide open. He was supposed to have time and happiness with Keyleth. Maybe even time beyond a natural lifespan, though that's probably pushing it a little. To the max of said lifespan at the very least. She didn't want for him - or for keyleth - what she had been through, but her hand was forced, and the only way to give him back in any capacity was to take away what should have been. His fate was to become her champion, yes, but there was time to live first. That fate was changed as a gift. It was all she could allow as the keeper of her domain and arguably, her mortality is what led her to give it at all.

Yes. She hears the sounds of grief and loss unending, unceasing. Death is less than nothing to her and the sum of who she is. She is synonymous to death in many ways, though she refers to herself as its steward and rightfully so.

But I think what sets her apart is that she never grows numb to it. That mask is to hide the fact that all of it still affects her. It's to hide all of it - her loneliness, yes, but also that she feels every death. She hears every cry, every curse, every regret. She stands before every soul individually and does what she must, and she wears the mask so that she can do so without giving anything of her mortal feelings away. The dead do not need to know that she cares, that she understands. Death is not about her. It is about who is standing in front of her waiting to be ushered into the beyond. She is the great reuniter, forever separated from the one she loves.

So yes. I believe that Vax was always meant to have more time, right up until time was the only thing left to barter. His fate was to die after a long and happy life, to go peacefully and take up the mantle at her side when he was done on Exandria.

But that had to change to save the fate of the world, and nobody in this realm or any other knows better the loss and the grief that came about from cutting that time short. Vax wasn't meant to understand it either. She wanted better for him and, by extension, keyleth.

[californiannostalgia]

the matron of ravens and sarenrae, observing their blorbos: Baby. Bestest child. I want you to have everything.

sarenrae: actually pike should get another blazing pillar of light

raven queen: vax'ildan will appreciate these visions

[cromulentreader]

Do y'all also think about how Cardan went from telling Jude she was destined to and deserving of death to being like Jude dies over my dead body? Or are you normal?

[lulila-safu]

old man is too innocent

[junkanimate]

Janet my beloved

[green28go]

Parabatai indeed.

[gorgynei]

thank you laura bailey and brennan lee mulligan for this scene. they get it. they get it