#the shadowsinger and the fawn

[starswhogaze]

Happy Elriel Month 🩷💙✨️

Week 1: New Beginnings

@elriel-month

Instagram

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please don't repost without permission 😗

[duskcowboy]

Azriel and Elain 💛

🎨 by @/mftfernandez on insta

[azrielzelain]

I don't remember where I read it, probably on tiktok but someone said,

the stark contrast of emotions between:

"I'm getting her back."

and

"we trained them well, Cassian. Trust in that. It's all we can do."

Is more than enough proof that gwyn is not Azriel's mate.

And I agree 100%. No. further. proof. required.

The way Az was being snarky about how restless Cassian was the whole time, saying, "I have no interest in explaining to Rhys and Feyre why you died on my watch." Like... my guy is chill. No worries in the world.

But when it's Elain who's in danger:

“I’m getting her back.”

Nesta slid her gaze to the shadowsinger. Azriel’s hazel eyes glowed golden in the shadows.

Nesta said, “Then you will die.”

Azriel only repeated, rage glazing that stare, “I’m getting her back.”

Again, no further proof required.

[a-court-of-lust-and-stardust]

*taps microphone* Is this thing on?

I'd like to give my perspective on something, from someone who started out in the ACOTAR fandom as part of the general audience, and who has a sister that is not apart of fandom but has read the books.

I read the series back in November 2023 in about 2 weeks. I stayed off of social media for a bit until I decided to make a Tumblr account.

After reading the books, I wasn't sure if the series was complete. It didn't feel complete. The first three books focused on Feyre. Nesta had an entire, almost 800 page book dedicated to her. For me, it was natural to assume, "Oh, Elain is next!" because logically, that was the only thing that made sense. Why would two sisters have books, but the third wouldn't? The series would seem incomplete.

Flash forward, and I find out that yes, there will be more to come in the series. However, at this point, I was still unaware that a bonus chapter for Silver Flames existed until a friend casually mentioned it. I asked where to find it and I began reading.

The first part of the bonus chapter confirmed what I already believed from reading the books. Azriel and Elain share mutual feelings. Truly, I didn't need confirmation in the bonus, because there were moments in the books that I already had picked up on. The bonus was just a nice surprise. Something fun.

But imagine my shock when I decided to insert myself into fandom space as a casual reader, and see folks who are 110% convinced that the next book's main character is going to be a secondary side character that was introduced about 40% of the way into the 4th book.

You don't have to imagine my shock, because I'll tell you. The moment I set foot into this fandom, I have been beyond confused. Bamboozled. Befuddled. And honestly, a bit gaslit.

Prior to this bonus chapter, I assumed everyone thought it was obvious and picked up on the pattern. The first sister gets a few books to explore her powers, heal, and fall in love. The second sister gets a book to do the exact same thing. The third sister would get a book...to do the exact. same. thing.

There was a week where I had zero idea that the bonus chapter existed. There are STILL people who have no idea that the bonus chapter exists, and may never end up reading it. These people are not on Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram, or Discord, discussing in depth theories and potential love squares. They are solely relying on canon text.

So, genuinely, what do you think their reactions are going to be, if the next book does not focus on Elain, the third sister, but rather a priestess, who was part of someone else's story, who was only just introduced in the very last book, who does not have any ties to the plot? Yes. They will be lost, too.

My sister, who is part of the general audience, and is not present in fandom spaces, has the same opinion. The idea of Azriel and Elain not ending up together doesn't make sense to her. Prior to showing her the bonus, she had already assumed Azriel and Elain would be the next pairing in the next series. Because she had only read the canon text. The canon text that is available to everyone. The bonus is not.

So, essentially, what I'm trying to say is, if the next book does not feature Elain as the main character, and Azriel as the main love interest, with sprinkles of Lucien here and there because he is still important because of the mating bond, then there will be a gigantic chunk of casual readers, who are not involved in fandom spaces, that will be utterly confused at the direction of the story. Because for people who are not on social media, they are only using the canon books. Their information is only coming from the canon books that are available for all readers. If information in bonus chapters is supposed to be important, then it would be featured in books for everyone to read.

[offtorivendell]

Elain Archeron Week, Day 1: Visions

I've theorised before about how I think Elain's powers - specifically her Sight, but possibly other aspects of her magic, too - might work, with regards to her murky realm/the Void, the effects of light and even magical medicinals (could witchberries play a part instead of bloodbane?) so today I want to talk a little about why I think having such a useful power could be so meaningful for Elain.

ACOSF suggested that Elain was raised by Mama Archeron to have no independent thought; no dreams of her own, no goals bigger than her garden. She was to be the family's pawn on the marriage mart in their quest for power. Valued for her looks alone, not for what she could do.

Elain is pleasant to look at, her mother had once mused while Nesta sat beside her dressing table, a servant silently brushing her mother’s gold-brown hair, but she has no ambition. She does not dream beyond her garden and pretty clothes. She will be an asset on the marriage market for us one day, if that beauty holds, but it will be our own maneuverings, Nesta, not hers, that win us an advantageous match. Nesta had been twelve at the time. Elain barely eleven. She’d absorbed every word of her mother’s scheming, plans for futures that had never come to pass. - ACOSF, chapter 17

And then Azriel said this...

But Azriel asked softly, taking a single step over the threshold and into the sitting room, “What other?” Elain’s brows twitched toward each other. “The queen—with the feathers of flame.” The shadowsinger angled his head. Lucien murmured to me, eye still fixed on Elain, “Should we—does she need …?” “She doesn’t need anything,” Azriel answered without so much as looking at Lucien. Elain was staring at the spymaster now—unblinkingly. “We’re the ones who need …” Azriel trailed off. “A seer,” he said, more to himself than us. “The Cauldron made you a seer.” - ACOWAR, chapter 32

Besides the fact that Sight must be an incredibly difficult power to navigate at the best of times, I will always wonder how much it meant to Elain to hear she was needed for a skill. Something she could work at and contribute that went beyond the looks she was born with. Something that could - and did - allow her to prove her mother wrong when her own "maneuverings" saved lives at the end of ACOWAR.

Even before Elain understood what was happening, while she was still lost in her murky realm, she tried to use her visions to warn/help her family. One of her biggest contributions being her untrained doe eyes peering across the world, leading Feyre to the Suriel in ACOWAR, then of course everything that followed when she ignored orders to return to camp and ended up killing the King of Hybern and saving Nesta and Cassian, and massively weakening Hybern's army.

Our trembling fawn has a backbone of steel, I can't wait for her to shine and grow in her own book. 🌿

@elainarcheronweek

[lunaduskxo]

This scene alone tells me that Elain can most definitely handle Azriel’s darkness. Baby girl will light him up.

[briaberri]

I think Elriel are carranam. I don't think SJM is the most profound writer for character depth and world building, but she's indisputably intentional. Not a breadcrumb dropped without a reason. How giddy were we all when we pieced together Lucien's paternity because he cleaved in the Hybern throne room?

Elain and Azriel have these hints in spades. His naming of her Seer gift lifted the spell of murk from her mind. She emerged from his shadows to do what he does best: knife in the dark assassination (unless we really think she traipsed, lollygagging across an epic battlefield -- even Frodo couldn't do that, y'all -- and intuitively found exactly where Hybern was about to kill Nessian in the woods on the other side). Feyre imagines a painting of a bridge between them, linked by a sharing of power via Truthteller.

They instinctually trust and mind each other's needs. There are a dozen breadcrumbs about their attunement. I'm imagining this saga is about to get so real -- imagine the world-shaping possibility of a team who can See and Hear into the Unknown. Between Elain's mysterious Cauldron might, Azriel's ages of contextual knowledge keeping secrets of Prythian, and their ability to traverse unnoticed as no others can... worlds are about to change.

[whatisamettafor]

Over on the ol instagrams I got 2000 followers, so if you want to participate in the celebration, you can check me out https://www.instagram.com/whatisamettafor/

I'm pretty sure the prize is going to be an acrylic standee of this drawing if that entices anyone. ;D

[sc11vb]

HELLLPPPPP why are so many gw*riel posts popping up on my fyp? I haven’t liked any other their stuff. I don’t follow that tag

SOMEONE SAVE MEEEE

[duskcowboy]

the Seer and the Spymaster

“𝑰𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆, 𝑰 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑨𝒛𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕…𝑷𝒆𝒓��𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒉𝒆, 𝒕𝒐𝒐, 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝑬𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅.”

♡ 🎨 by @/chicca_art on insta ♡

♡ commissioned by me ♡

One of my favorite theories is that Azriel and Elain share a different sort of bond, whether that is as true mates or a carranam bond 🖤 the way that it was Azriel who figured out she was a Seer—the only one who truly listened to her and freed her from the murky realm she was in—makes me confident they share something very special, whatever that may end up being!

[cateyesinlove]

The ancient healer jerked her chin toward Lucien. “See what he can do. If anyone can sense if something is amiss, it’s a mate.” “The mating bond. It is a bridge between souls.”

The way I am feral about this moment in ACOWAR like!! *feral possum screams* how can anyone doubt Elriel after a moment like this.

We have been told repeatedly that if anyone can help it is a mate and Azriel is dedicated to Elain this whole book.

He is the one who gives clarity on what is happening to her, he gives her an answer and he gives the answer everyone ( including Lucien) has been looking for.

People love to say that Lucien is the savior and whatever not because he recommended sunlight... ( cricket noises) and while people love to use the; Elain is a flower metaphor so she needs sunlight to bloom and blah blah I will rebut by saying that, a flower not only needs sunlight and that too much sunlight can also kill a plant, they can get burn.. you know like that one quote by Feyre;

I shook my head, trying not to imagine Elain subject to that ... fire.

I just think it's crazy that there are so many things like this and people still would rather turn their heads and pretend their ships have better moments

[a-court-of-lust-and-stardust]

Elain Archeron is not going to let a pot dictate who she can and cannot be with. No one...nothing... will ever tell Elain who she can and cannot love.

[tswaney17]

Azriel’s Fantasy

“𝗪𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴—𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴.

𝗛𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲.

𝗛𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲. 𝗛𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀. 𝗛𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝘅. 𝗛𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗲.”

-𝗔𝘇𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗹’𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩 (𝗔𝗖𝗢𝗦𝗙)

I wanted to start off the Solstice season on a sexy note. 😏 When rereading Azriel’s bonus, it’s clear that he has deep feelings for Elain. Much like many of SJM’s other prominent couples, he wants to get on his knees for the woman he loves. To touch and taste her. And while I hate that Rhys stopped them from kissing, he has set up the perfect plot for a forbidden romance🌸 and I cannot wait to see it play out in the pages of Elriel’s book. 🛐

I’m so happy to have commissioned Azriel’s Fantasy from the incredible @/arielfriass. He took my idea and produced such a beautiful, intimate piece that I couldn’t have pictured better. Ariel, you were an absolute pleasure to work with. Thank you for bringing this piece to life. 💙

Do not repost.

[lunaduskxo]

Uh oh, antis are triggered over canon Elriels scenes acting as if we add more to the written text. We don’t add or embellish what’s already written. We see the difference of Elain’s rescue and Gwyn’s. Azriel didn’t hesitate to go after Elain. With Gwyn’s rescue, it wasn’t just her being saved that day. Hybern soldiers were attacking everyone there. The IC was there to help.

There seems to also be hate over the nsfw commissions for Elriel Month and that Elain would never! Sorry but I don’t remember Gwyn wearing sexy lingerie either. Let’s stop with the hypocrisy.

Say what you want but those Elriel commissions were 🔥🔥 Artists and the commissioners did so amazing and I can’t wait for next year 🤭

[wingedblooms]

Like a moth to a flame

Maasverse spoilers below. Proceed with caution.

When Feyre and Elain visit the weaver near solstice, we learn that there is a very specific kind of light that not only withstands the darkness, but cuts through it like a blade.

"The silver thread," Elain asked. "What is that called?" The weaver paused the loom again, the colorful strings vibrating. She held my sister's gaze. No attempt at a smile this time. "I call it Hope." My throat became unbearably tight, my eyes stinging enough that I had to turn away, to walk back toward that extraordinary tapestry. The weave explained to my sister, "I made it after I mastered Void." I stared and stared at the black fabric that was like peering into a pit of hell. And then stared at the iridescent, living silver thread that cut through it, bright despite the darkness that devoured all other light and color. (acofas)

That light is Hope. It is a living thread of iridescent light like the healing light that flows from Nesta:

Iridescent light began flowing from Nesta's body. Into Feyre. [...] Tendrils of light drifted between the sisters. And one, delicate and loving, floated toward Mor. (acosf)

I’ve always wondered if the tendrils of iridescent light between the sisters is a hint of what lies between them: raw magic.

“Once, the High Fae were more elemental, more given to reading the stars and crafting masterpieces of art and jewelry and weaponry. Their gifts were rawer, more connected to nature, and they could imbue objects with that power.” (acosf)

We hear about the raw magic of High Fae when the inner circle learns about Nesta’s Made swords. And Sarah just happens to drop art, jewelry, and weaponry as objects that can be imbued with raw magic. Objects that make us think of the sisters: Feyre creates art, Nesta is compared to and actually forges swords, and Elain is gifted art and jewelry that embody nature. She is a blooming flower compared to Nesta’s freshly forged sword (acowar). And the two sisters who have had their stories told have used raw magic to heal (Cauldron; Feyre, Nyx), to create, like the High Fae once did. We will likely see the third sister exhibit rawer magic as well.

We're led to believe that the Mother shows Nesta how to heal Feyre with iridescent light when she agrees to return her magic. We also see a luminous hand (presumably the Mother's) prevent the Cauldron from taking all of Nesta's power, which may be connected to the hand on the mural in Spring that pours the contents of the Cauldron into the void to create Prythian's world. In Herbs she planted, I discussed Elain’s connections to witches and healers (and these categories often overlap, like witches and seers; since the sisters may all possess raw magic, it is not far fetched that Elain could weave sight and healing together as a mystical forest witch would). In that post, I also review how the being we call the Mother behaves a lot like the Other who appears to Yrene in Tower of Dawn. This Other is believed to be Silba, the goddess of healing and gentle deaths. Like the Mother, Silba is also associated with a dark womb, and her healing magic is referred to as world-making power, which brings to mind the hands of creation in Spring.

Yrene, the healer Silba appears to, possesses raw healing magic and it manifests as white light. She uses it to battle Valg magic, which is compared to darkness, void, and hell.

He’d roared around it. His bellowing had been almost as bad as the magic itself. It was a void. It was a new, dark hell. […] She’d hurled her magic against the wall, letting its swarm of burning white lights attack in wave after wave, but—nothing. (tod)

Like water, it seeps into Chaol's legs, and acts like a swarm of fireflies.

Closing her eyes, Yrene let her power seep into his legs like a swarm of white fireflies, finding those damaged pathways and congregating, surrounding the frayed bits that went silent during these exercises, when they should have been lit up like the rest of him. (tod)

Healers' lights are also compared to blooms, and together, they are a field of white flowers.

Blooming lights, along that broken interior. And where they shone... Flesh knitted. Bone smoothed. Light after light after light. [...] Yrene brushed herself along them, waded through them like a field of white flowers, the lights bobbing and swaying in this quiet place of pain. Not lights...but healers. She knew their lights, their essences. (tod)

Her power can also cut through the dark like a weapon, like Hope.

No way to stop Yrene as she plunged into his body, her magic a white swarming light around them, inside them. […] Yrene did not hesitate. She soared through him, down the ladder of his spine, down the corridors of his bones and blood. She was a spear of light, fired straight into the dark, aiming for that hovering shadow that had stretched out once more. That had tried to reclaim him. Yrene slammed into the darkness and screamed. (tod)

Healing magic is repeatedly compared to living things, and we often see Yrene’s raw gift swarm when it attacks the darkness. The term swarm is associated with flying insects, and in particular, honeybees. They swarm protectively when they leave the hive with new life.

“Fire is cleansing. Purifying. But amongst the healing arts, it’s not often used. Too unwieldy. Water is better-tuned to the healing. But then there are raw healing gifts. Like mine.”

“Light,” Chaol said. “It looked like swarming lights, against their darkness.” (tod)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Elain rose early to accompany Feyre and asked the weaver about the living thread of Hope, especially since this thread resembles the way raw healing magic—living light—behaves in the darkness. We learn that life, in the form of living light, not only pierces the void, but travels through it. Elain is consistently linked to rebirth and the dawn through imagery and her daily routine, rising with the dawn to tend to gardens or help the twins in the kitchen. Dawn is connected to healing magic, and ahappyhermit theorized that Elain may have even healed Cassian’s wounds as Nesta beheaded Hybern in acowar. @silverlinedeyes and @offtorivendell also theorized that Elain might be a Lifesinger, calling to living things around her as she creates. She is often (if not constantly) creating. Whatever happens in canon, it’s clear Elain is the epitome of living light, of Hope:

Beautiful - she'd always been the most beautiful of us. Soft and lovely, like a summer dawn. (acomaf)

She was a rose bloom in a mud field.(acowar)

Even in the middle of winter, she was a bloom of color and sunshine. (acofas)

Her sister's delicate scent of jasmine and honey lingered in the red-stoned hall like a promise of spring, a sparkling river that she followed to the open doors of the chamber. [...] Her sister turned toward her, glowing with health. Elain's smile was as bright as the setting sun beyond the windows. (acosf)

Her brown eyes were bright with tears, but she kept her chin high. (acosf)

Even on the longest night of the year, she glows like the dawn, when light pierces the darkness.

But even the silence weighed too heavily, and though the shadows kept him company, as they always had, as they always would, he found himself leaving the room. Entering the foyer. Soft steps padded from under the stair archway, and there she was. The Fanlights gilded Elain's unbound hair, making her glow like the sun at dawn. She halted, her breath catching in her throat. (Azriel's bonus chapter)

Nesta placed her symbol, a bloom made in the icy darkness of winter, next to the Mother's figurine on the mantle. The Mother who showed Nesta how to use her raw magic to heal. We learn in tod that healers sense Death nearby when they are called upon to heal someone’s wounds or ease their passing (hence the reference to gentle deaths). And as @psychologynerd reminded me, Elain uses her hands to bring joy and beauty to others, even in death.

Elain quietly washed his face. Combed out his hair and beard. Straightened his clothes.

She found flowers—somewhere. She laid them at his head, on his chest.

We stared down at him in silence. “I love you,” Elain whispered, voice breaking.

Nesta said nothing, face unreadable. There were such shadows in her eyes. I had not told her what I’d seen—had let them tell me what they wanted.

Elain breathed, “Should we—say a prayer?”

We did not have such things in the human world, I remembered. My sisters had no prayers to offer him. But in Prythian …

“Mother hold you,” I whispered, reciting words I had not heard since that day Under the Mountain. “May you pass through the gates; may you smell that immortal land of milk and honey.” Flame ignited at my fingertips. All I could muster. All that was left. “Fear no evil. Feel no pain.” My mouth trembled as I breathed, “May you enter eternity.”

Tears slid down Elain’s pallid cheeks as she adjusted an errant flower on our father’s chest, white-petaled and delicate, and then backed away to my side with a nod. (acowar)

I can’t help but wonder where she might’ve found those white flowers on a blood-stained battlefield. Did she actually find them, or did she will them from the soil with her own magic? I love that she does not balk from death and finds a way to nurture life amid bloodshed.

And like a moth to a flame, Azriel—Death incarnate—is repeatedly drawn to Elain, whose light seems to be able to cut through his shadows. A match in power for the darkness.

Elain looked up at Azriel, their eyes meeting, his hands still lingering on the hilt of the blade. I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection...that knife. (acowar)

Truth-Teller, a Starborn heirloom, is the bridge between them. It is a bridge of power, where dark and light blend together, creating the harmonious contrast of dawn and dusk. Dark light. @offtorivendell wrote beautifully about how this scene hints at their future, and @psychologynerd suggested it represents an alchemical marriage. I have also wondered what might happen if their powers are joined like their hands in this scene. In one hand, Elain creates joy and life, and in the other hand, Azriel inflicts pain and death. They have also traded roles when called upon, usually in response to the other. This might explain why Azriel’s power also behaves like a dark counterpart to Elain’s, shadows gathering information as her Sight does, twining like her prophetic vine of flowers. They also swarm like the living light of healing when Azriel—or someone he cares about—is threatened.

"Because of the shit with Elain?" Azriel stilled. "What happened to Elain?" Cassian waved a hand. "A fight with Nesta. Don't bring it up," he warned when Azriel's eyes darkened. Cassian blew out a breath. "I take that as a no regarding the meeting topic, then." "It's about what I discovered. Rhys said he requires you both there." "It's bad, then." Cassian surveyed the shadows gathered around Az. "You all right?" His brother nodded. "Fine." But the shadows still swarmed him. Cassian knew it was a lie, but didn't push it. Az would speak when he was ready, and Cassian would have better success convincing a mountain to move than getting Az to open up. (acosf)

Elain had a mere fight with her sister and cold-as-death Azriel nearly lost his shit. His eyes darkened and his shadows swarmed him, promising pain. He wasn’t even there to witness the fight, he just heard about it after the fact. Death clearly has it bad for the lovely fawn. And I fully expect to see her living light bring him to his knees. Like a moth to a flame.

[briaberri]

Elriel give me a whole new feel about the phrase 'what we do in shadows'. Yes loves, what you do. Please. Do. 🦋🖤🌸🦇