Summary: Nesta Archeron has earned herself banishment from Velaris and a one-way ticket to Illyria, courtesy of her little sister. Tired of having her agency stripped away, Nesta decides the time has come to strike out on her own and runs from the Night Court without a backwards glance.
Cassian has bided his time with Nesta on his High Lady’s behalf. When he realizes that Nesta had set off without him, Cassian decides to take matters into his own hands. He is going to bring Nesta home. He’ll just have to find her first.
It felt like someone had taken an axe to his head; the sharp, pulsing pain was so acute that it sent him collapsing back into bed the moment he tried to rise. Nausea quickly accompanied the ache, rolling through his body the second his head hit the mattress. It took every scrap of self-control to not vomit all over himself, and he wasn’t entirely sure he’d conquer that particular battle yet. The acidic contents of his stomach still sloshed around, threatening to spew out of him like a bolt from the blue.
He rolled onto his side, dragging the pillow over his head in a pathetic attempt to block out the sunlight. His mouth was dry. His too-thick tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. Water. A sip of water should help.
Cassian blindly reached out towards the side table, grasping around in search of a glass of water, anything to rinse out his cottonmouth. His hand landed onto an empty bottle of whiskey - the very same bottle that started it all - and a wave of nausea came crashing back. He moaned pathetically, the sound muffled by the pillow and barely audible over the throbbing in his head.
I really need to get it together, he thought feebly.
“It’s just Cassian,” said Cassian, “and I’m not one for pretty flowers. Although truth be told, your daughter-in-law did help me appreciate the more understated benefits that a garden can possess.”
That was the moment we started to like each other. Eris had realized, all those years ago. That was the moment we became friends.
But sometimes Nesta would reach out and clasp his hand, squeezing it in a show of solidarity.
It was around that time Eris realized his feelings for his wife had grown beyond simple friendship.
We still have a little more time together.”
What I’ve been trying to explain, Prince of Bastards, is even though Nesta may become distracted by the occasional flight of fancy, she always returns home to Autumn.”
OMG THIS WAS AMAZING. THANK YOU. like y'all know I’m a massive nessian shipper but man does ErisxNesta make me feel THINGS I live it. I just love them so so much. Ugh is it wrong that I’m dreading Nesta and Cassian getting together???? This was just perfect. The courtly passive aggressive taunts. The bat boys taunting Cassian. ERIS and Eris falling in love and not just lust and omg he doesn’t know Nesta and CAS and mates and my poor boy is going to be HuRT omg. This is exactly what I needed after acosf
So you know how we call Rhysand, riceman or in my case any object that starts with an R, people have started to call Elain, Eplain or Explain. I’m trying to stay neutral on her but you all don’t make it easy
i have to believe bullying works, (riceman, rhysoup, ricecake etc)
tbh the WHOLE IC needs to be put on notice!! what’s mor’s nickname? or amren’s???
lol sometimes i’m fine until i remember riceman told nesta to her face that she’ll always have a choice in his court… as if he didn’t destroy her sanctuary, threaten to kill her and pre-plan her public lashing and then used it as foreplay…. who thought he’d make a good high king again??
i think what’s missing in nesta’s aesthetic is her possibility to be a ballerina,,, like hello? the woman is beauty, grace, and will punch you in the face,,, she’s just always portrayed with dark colors and all that her being a ballerina is like, being neglected,,, for cauldron’s sake she has her hair in a bun and strict posture,,, her aesthetic is feminine, romantic, AND strong,,, i will be incorporating it more bc nesta’s art of dance is just wow,,, maybe that’s why she hated her friends in the mortal world (aside from the obv) but like they were her dance partners as well??? never forget nesta’s identity as a dancer
some of you have never had an unpopular female character as a hyperfixation and been forced to scroll through pages upon pages of bad hot takes about how terrible her character is while trying to peruse her tag for actual fanworks and it shows
tell me you’ve loved nesta from acotar without telling me you loved nesta from acotar
I need a straightforward reason from Elain haters why they actually hate Elain!!
Cause I, can’t find one logical explanation for all this hate!
1. They can’t hate on Nesta anymore
2. They ship Azriel with someone else
2.5 coz poor Lucien for some reason
3. They finally realize how she failed her sisters in many ways too and for the longest time Nesta (or Feyre) is the only one getting blamed while Elain gets away with everything coz she’s nice and quiet and she’s being held accountable now (I fall into this camp and IMO the only valid reason to criticize Elain on)
nah before acosf we knew nothing about her, she barely had any lines or appearances in the books so we couldn’t really judge her on her motives. everyone was indifferent to elain until acosf
her treatment towards nesta was gross— nesta made sure elain had the time and the space to grieve UNBOTHERED to then spit on nesta for falling apart?? THEN HOMEGIRL punishing nesta b/c she supposedly co-opted her trauma when in reality elains suffering is one of nesta’s triggers. yet no one understood that?? elain deserved that loyal dog comment and much more. where tf was elains loyalty???? what’s even worse is the sjm isn’t even going to ADDDRESS this in the following books.
apparently only nesta can be held accountable for her actions. god this book makes it so hard to re read
I guess I’m the only one who sees Gwyn being a best friend to Az.
Like she could become a little sister to him because she reminds him a lot to what happened to Mor so he would want to protect her. And what happened to his mother.
He’s the one who rescued her three years ago so he’s happy that she’s finally moving on from her nightmares and seeing her overcome her fears and become a warrior must make him feel proud of her.
But that’s all. I dont see them romantically involved. Everyone is making a big fuss because his shadows danced with her. Yes, they dance with everyone they’re curious about, we know that his shadows can sense people’s emotions and tell him who’s friend and who’s foe. Hence why he’s a goddamn spy.
His shadows act as an entire entity. They report to him, they whisper to him. They are his friends, his companion. Sometimes said shadows act as a buffer and he uses them quite a lot to hide his feelings and emotions. (Hence why he’s so good at playing card games). They always appear when he’s angry, or want to hide his feelings or he’s about to get into fighting mode.
Let’s remember that he wasnt born with them, but being in that dark cell during his childhood… they were born out of necessity. They were his sole companionship, the reason why he didnt go mad. The shadows helped to take care of him, to nurture him and I think they act as protector. They will always keep him company, specially when he feels alone.
I feel like Gwyn might be the friend that would make Azriel grow from his shadows… to make him realise he doesnt need them anymore and give him the realisation to fight for Elain.
Is funny because it’s mentioned all the time throughout the books how his shadows dont like bright sunlight, how they tend to disappear when light surrounds him.
“In the blinding sun off the turquoise water, his shadows were gone, his face stark and clear. More … human than I had ever seen him”.
“His shadows lingering in the archway, as if fearful of the bright sunlight in the ring”.
Also… Azriel’s shadows do show up in front of Elain. But they dont do it often because he doesnt need them when he’s with her.
“Shadows gathered around Azriel, Elain at his side, wide-eyes at the spymaster’s display.”
“I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulders. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of two.” (I dont think we talk about this scene enough. When Azriel gave her Truth-teller. Not just the fact he gave her his most priced dagger but how the picture of them together looked like).
Also… this little pearl here. During the last battle with Hybern, Rhys speech to the Inner Circle. Towards Cassian he said: “If I had not meet an Illyrian warrior-in-training, I would not have known the true depths of strength, of resilience, of honour and loyalty”. After reading ACOSF, we know that was the main theme of the book. We know now not only Cassian but also Nesta showed that to us.
And then he said to Azriel: “If I had not met a Shadowsinger, I would not have known that it is the family you make, not the one you are born into, that matters. I would not have known what it is to truly hope, even when the world tells you to despair.”
Which is funny because this is how Feyre describes Elain: “Elain had always been gentle and sweet —and I had considered it a different sort of strength. A better strength. To look at the hardness of the world and choose, over and over, to love, to be kind. She had been always so full of light.
“What now?” Elain mused. That smile grew, bright enough that it lit up even Azriel’s shadows across the room.
Elain is not afraid of darkness or shadows. She works and is best friends with Nuala and Cerriden who also have their own darkness/shadows powers and use it wuite a lot in front of her.
Let’s also not forget that his shadows literally burned when he walked to Elain to wish her “Happy Solstice”.
“He still wore his Syphons atop either hand and shadows trailed his footsteps, curling like swirled embers, but there was little sign of the warrior otherwise.”
Not adding the little detail that Azriel has indeed kept for more than a year that little glass bottle Elain gifted him, without using it just so he could look at it every night before falling asleep.
Also.. he literally told Clotho, “If there’s another priestess here who might appreciate it, give it to them. But I’m not taking that necklace with me when I leave”. So he gave the necklace to Gwyn because he knew her more.. but he couldnt give two shits who the necklace ended up with as long as he didnt have to take it back.
Let’s talk about the necklace though. He gave her a necklace with a small, flat rose fashioned of stained glass, designed so that when held to the light, the true depth of the colors would become visible. A thing if secret, lovely beauty.” Am I the only one who thinks this describes him? That once he’s not under the darkness of his shadows, his true beauty would show up?
Also but excuse me… you dont go to that depht of detail for a gift just for a simple night stand. Just because you’re horny for someone.
And just in case you missed it:
Feyre painted little roses on her drawer.
Elain’s father gifted her a small rose carved since it was winter and she missed the flowers. Which Nesta found before the solstice events. Which makes me wonder if Azriel might have known of it and took inspiration by it. Or maybe not and it was his own mind working to find the the perfect gift.
Azriel’s book would be about his healing, his journey. How he overcome his guilt, his actions, his past events. And I have the feeling by the end of it, we will see a side of Azriel where he wont need to hold onto his shadows anymore, where he wont depend on them because he finally walked towards the light.
Would Elain help in his journey? Perhaps… I just find such coincidence the whole build up between them. How we had zero scenes between her and Lucien and yet we had all these breadcrumbs between Az and Elain.
When Azriel asked why the cauldron chose three sisters and two of his brothers are mated to them but yet the third was given to another.. I dont think he spoke like he was entitled to her. More like sad… and frustrated because if he was Elain’s mate.. they would have been together already. It would have been so much easier for him to take the mating bond and say “She’s my mate and no one cant say we can’t be together”.
I think it was sad because things never come easily for him… he always thinks he deserves nothing. But, wouldnt be just fucking great if Elain breaks the bond and chooses him!? That someone broke the most holy thing for faes and chose to love him, to be with him, CHOSE HIM above everything!? Instead of just giving him a mate, someone to just be thrown at him? I’d personally find that fascinating. That Elain chooses him. She didn’t accept him because he’s her mate. But she chooses him despise everything, she chooses to love him.
Elain’s mother said to Nesta “Elain shall wed for love and beauty, but you, my cunning little queen… You shall wed for conquest.” And I can’t erase from my mind that the first time she saw his hands she called them beautiful, the first time she heard him talking about flying, she called it beautiful. And when his POV talked about the necklace “A thing of secret, lovely beauty.”
So yes, I thought it made sense his claim. He loves her… from the moment he met her as human he was curious about her, he liked her company. This is Azriel we’re talking about, if he doesnt want to be there.. he won’t. If he doesn’t want to talk to you, he won’t. He doesnt give a shit about ranks and he doesn’t give a shit who you are.
We have seen from Acowar and Acofas how he gets annoyed at Lucien… and Greysen. He hates it and he try to stay away but he cant avoid it because he likes her. And he knows she likes him too which makes things worse.
With Mor it was easier.. he loved her but she didnt. So he never tried, he never confessed his feelings, he was happy to stay in the shadows and let his love burn.
With Elain is a different story. She wants him too, she cares about him, she likes to talk with him, to spend time together and she’s reciprocate his feelings so that makes the whole thing dangerous. Because he knows if he goes to her… she would be there waiting for him.
But unfortunately… Rhysand had said no. One on side I understand his motivations:
If Azriel killed Lucien, it would give ammunition to Beron to declare war, for Vassa and Jurian to break alliances but mostly.. if Helion finds out Lucien it’s his son and someone from the Night court killed him, he won’t hesitate to declare war. And we know Helion is somehow now Rhysand’s best friend. We know that only Feyre knows about Lucien true paternity.
However… as Rhysand like to always boast about.. I thought the Night Court was all about having choices. But it seems choices are only accepted when they benefit him.
So I gess we will see what happens on his book.
But please dont tell me all of this will be simple erased after one conversation with a stranger. Come on now.
“Sit down,” Rhys snarled. The raw command in that voice, the utter dominance and power … Nesta froze, fighting it, hating that Fae part of her that bowed to such things.
But Nesta held Rhysand’s gaze. Threw every ounce of defiance she could into it, even as his order made her knees want to bend, to sit.
How it ended:
Then Rhys fell to his knees and took Nesta’s hands in his, pressing his mouth to her fingers. “Thank you,” he wept, head bowed.
Cassian knew it wasn’t in gratitude for Rhys’s own life that he knelt upon the sacred tattoos inked upon his knees.
