#the mother

gotta doodle some More.

~25 ACOSF Days of Solstice~

“I gave it back to the Cauldron in exchange for the knowledge of how to save them.” She swallowed. “But a little remains.I think something else—someone else—stopped the Cauldron from taking all of it.And I made some changes of my own.”The Mother. The only being who would see the sacrifice Nesta had made and give a little back. Perhaps it was she who had peered out at them through the Mask. // “But I adjusted myself to match what the Cauldron did for Feyre. For when the time is right.” He couldn’t tear himself from the quiet joy lighting her face.

—ACOSF Ch. 78

Ok so me grabbing this passage from Chapter 78 might appear as though I’m gonna focus on the fact that Nesta made it so she can safely bear Illyrian babies someday.

That ain’t why I am quoting this part.

For me, this little admission from Nesta gets me so giddybecauseshe used her power to make a change, successfully, after seeing how the same change was accomplished by the Cauldron to save her sister.

It does appear that, while Nesta asked for the knowledge of how to save Feyre with her magic, the Cauldron accomplished this by showing Nesta.

Then Nesta, our quick study, went ahead and accomplished on herself the same thing she just saw, on the first try.

I think back to when Nesta studied so hard with Amren in ACOWAR to understand and use her powers.

It’s also confirmed here by Nesta that not all of her power left her, that “someone else—stopped the Cauldron from taking all of it.”

The Cauldron had a personality in ACOWAR that was So Extra. Also in the prologue to ACOSF of Nesta’s POV in the Cauldron.

That the Mother done stopped the Cauldron from taking back all the power Nesta took from it makes the Mother my new best friend.

I’m telling you,

Nesta Archeron The Mother

25 ACOSF Days of Solstice Masterlist

~25 ACOSF Days of Solstice~

And the death that Nesta felt around her sister, around Rhysand, around the babe in Mor’s arms—she bade the Mask to halt that, too. Hold it at bay. In the beginning / And in the end / There was Darkness / And nothing more / A soft, familiar voice whispered the words. As they had been whispered to her long ago. As it had warned her in Oorid’s darkness. A lovely, kind female voice, sage and warm, which had been waiting for her all this time. // She reached inward, toward the power that had made deathless monsters tremble and wicked kings fall to their knees, but … she didn’t know how to use it. Death flowed through her veins, yet she did not have the knowledge to master it. One wrong move, one mistake, and Feyre would be lost. So Nesta held her sister tightly, with Time halted around them, and she whispered, “If you show me how to save her, you can have it back.” The world paused. Worlds beyond their own paused. // “I give it back,” Nesta said, one more time, and Mask and Crown tumbled from her head. The light exploded, blinding and warm, a wind sweeping past them, as if gathering every shard of itself out of the room. And as it faded, dark ink splashed upon Nesta’s back, visible through her half-shredded shirt, as if it were a wave crashing upon the shore. A bargain. With the Cauldron itself.Yet Cassian could have sworn a luminescent, gentle hand prevented the light from leaving her body altogether.

—ACOSF Ch. 77

We are up to some of my fave stuff in ACOSF. And I surprise myself with that because it happens alongside a Pregnancy Plot ™️ I could care less about.

I am, of course, talking about Nesta’s bargain with…the Cauldron? the Mother? Both?

The sacrifice of the power she took from the Cauldron so that Feyre might live and not die is powerful and meaningful, and certainly lends healing to their relationship as sisters.

But I’m way more into all the things we learn or confirm about Nesta and the Mother through this exchange between them. Such as:

• Yes, it was the Mother’s voice in the Bog of Oorid who urged Nesta to run to safety, and possibly also to run away from the Mask.
• The Mother had been “waiting for her all his time” [and omg the Frozen 2 vibes here ✅].
• Nesta doesn’t have the knowledge to use her power to master Death. The offer she makes to the Mother and the Cauldron is to be shown how to use that power, not to save Feyre.
• I repeat, Nesta asked for and was given the knowledge to use the power inside her to save Feyre through physical healing. She didn’t ask the Mother or the Cauldron to save Feyre, she asked them to show her what she needed to know in order to do it herself .
• And then she does it, and offers that same power back in return for the knowledge of how to use it.
• Except the Mother, according to Cassian’s understanding of what he sees and how he interprets it, “prevented the light [Nesta’s power] from leaving her body entirely.”
• And Nesta now has a tattoo on her back to mark this bargain struck with the Cauldron, a tattoo I absolutely interpret from the text to be in the image of a wave crashing against her back.

HERE’S WHAT I THINK BASED ON ALL OF THIS ☝️☝️☝️

I think it was incredibly deliberate on SJM’s part that Nesta did not ask the Higher Being of the story to save Feyre.

Instead she asked to be shown how to wield the power inside her, that she’s struggled and grappled with since being forced to become Fae, in order to heal the physical trauma in both Feyre and Nyx caused by a traumatic, premature birth.

I think Nesta’s possession of this knowledge is key to the Mother’s decision to prevent all of the power in Nesta from leaving her.

(It REALLY has me interested in the faith/religion/mythology world building around the relationship between the Mother and the Cauldron only she can hold and tip so that the world can be formed and created by that which pours from it. Mother and Cauldron seem a little at cross purposes here and I’m here for it)

I also think this knowledge, and the power that remains in Nesta, will be an important element in the future books.

As will the bargain Nesta made with the Cauldron here. Though it begs the question, is there a condition under which this bargain might be fulfilled, resulting in the tattoo disappearing from Nesta’s back?

I don’t have a confident answer to that question, but it merits asking.

But my biggest takeaway from this incredible scene is that Nesta asked for the knowledge of how to use the power inside her in order to heal her sister and nephew, she was given that knowledge, used it, and then was gifted back some of that power by the Mother for future use.

I can honestly say I deeply love where Nesta lands with her power at the end of ACOSF more than where she starts with her power in this book.

25 ACOSF Days of Solstice Masterlist

~25 ACOSF Days of Solstice~

A hand slid into Nesta’s, and she found Elain there, shaking and wide-eyed. Nesta squeezed her sister’s fingers.Together, they approached the other side of the bed. And when Elain began praying to the Fae’s foreign gods, to their Mother, Nesta bowed her head, too.

—ACOSF Ch. 76

This chapter is a heavy one. Pregnancy plot coming to its fruition, etc. But more important to me, Nesta wielding all three Dread Trove items.

But my passage isn’t directly about either of those.

It’s this moment at a dying Feyre’s bedside, between Nesta and Elain. It’s a moment really between the three of them, and if I may be so bold, the Mother as well.

I softly gasped when I reached this moment during my reread. To have a vulnerably strong moment of openness and care between the Archeron sisters in this room where Death hovers to take one of them away from the others…

To have Elain, who has perhaps struggled most of all with her forced turn to Fae, invoke the Fae gods including the Mother in a prayer for Feyre, and for Nesta, who we recall has been attending the priestesses’ evening worship services to fill the part of her that loves music, to join in that prayer…

Nesta who has also been blessed and favored in some way by the Mother throughout this story…

I just think this is a really meaningful and powerful collection of images when considering the series-wide character arcs of the Archeron sisters, as a family and as individuals.

I also think (predict) that this moment situates our thoughts of the three sisters in a way that sets up for what will come in future books.

25 ACOSF Days of Solstice Masterlist

wherewolf:

wherewolf:

Who are you in this haunted house story?everyone is either hauntedorhaunting…

if y’all don’t take my quiz i’m gonna walk into the woods and never come back