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pen-paper-and-ink · 3 years

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Good Karma

Rowaelin Month- Day 5

“I accidentally hit you with my car”

The first time someone told Aelin that they had seen her boyfriend with another girl, she didn’t think much of it. He had girls that were friends, she trusted him, and she wasn’t the jealous type anyway.

The thing was, people continued to tell her that Chaol was seen out with other girls. In the beginning he had good excuses. That they were just friends, that she was his lab partner and they went out after a long day of studying. Stupidly, Aelin believed him.

That was until Aelin got a call from Lysandra. “Babe, I’m at the bar.” That much Aelin could tell. It was hard to make out Lysandra’s voice over the thump of the bass and the myriad of other voices. “Chaol’s here with another girl, and they look... friendly.” There was some more slurred speech, and some mumbles that Aelin couldn’t make out, before the voicemail ended.

With that, Aelin didn’t know what to think. Should she confront her boyfriend? Should she get more proof than a grainy voicemail left by a drunk Lysandra? Well it turns out she didn’t have to do either. The girl Chaol was with came to her.

Apparently, intoxicated Lysandra had enough presence of mind to question the girl in the bar bathroom. That was where Nesryn found out that Chaol had a girlfriend. Nesryn was nice enough, and very pretty. Aelin could definitely see why Chaol liked her.

Nesryn confessed everything to a pissed Aelin. It seemed Chaol had never mentioned to Nesryn that he had a girlfriend, and it was a nasty shock when she heard from Lysandra that the man she had been sleeping with for two weeks, was already taken.

Nesryn apologized before leaving, Aelin reassuring her that it wasn’t her fault, as she exited Aelin’s dorm room.

It was ten on a Friday morning, Aelin knew Chaol would be on campus until late into the afternoon. On a mission, Aelin walked out of her dorm and drove to her ex-boyfriends apartment.

When she first arrived, she thought about all sorts of things she could do to piss off the man who cheated on her. Switch all his coffee with decaf? Unplug his fridge so all of his food spoiled? Steal his flat screen, which Aelin always loved more than him, anyway.

In the end, she decided she wouldn’t do any of that. She would gather her stuff and leave. Just when she had placed the last of her belongings in her car, she got a call from the piece of shit himself.

“What?” Aelin snapped, more harshly than he was probably expecting. Besides, he wasn’t yet aware that Aelin knew he had been cheating on her.

“Hey…” He sounded hoarse. “Can you pick me up from the hospital, somebody hit me with their car.” Aelin couldn’t help it, she laughed loudly. This was the first piece of good news she heard all day.

“I would say to ask your other girlfriend,” She said when she had finally calmed down from her laughing fit. “But I heard, she already broke up with you.” Aelin promptly hung up, before he could protest what she just said.

Suddenly she was pissed again. How dare he cheat on her, then ask her to pick him up from the hospital. She drove back to campus through muscle memory alone, fury still clouding her mind. She was almost to the dorm parking garage when she hit something. Shit.

“What the fuck, Aelin?” Well, she hit someone and not something. This day could not get any worse.

Aelin put the car in park, and ran to the front of the car where a very annoyed Rowan Whitethorn was laying on the road.

“Shit, Rowan. I’m so sorry.” She offers him a hand, which he takes, as she assesses him for injuries. He seemed fine, if a little ruffled. She may have taken a little extra time looking him up and down, she would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy looking at him. Rowan Whitehtorn was the hottest man she ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. He stood at 6’4, had striking silver hair, piercing green eyes, and a dark tattoo that sprawled down his tanned arm in the old language. He was exactly Aelin’s type.

“It’s fine.” He brushed her off, cringing as he got to his feet. They had first met in history class two years prior. They worked on a group project together and Aelin got to experience first hand how smart and funny Rowan was. They collaborated well together, and he always put up with her teasing.

It turns out they had some mutual friends, so she saw him on occasion. It used to be a lot more frequent before she started dating Chaol, they used to be friends, now they were at most acquaintances.

Aelin knew him well enough to know his pain threshold was out of this world. She had heard from multiple people that he walked on a broken leg for two days before getting it checked out when he was a highschool football player. So she knew that Rowan cringing meant that he was in a good deal of pain.

“Get in,” Aelin said, slinging an arm around his waist as she helped him get into her car. He was leaning into her, it was worse than she originally thought. “We’re going to the hospital.”

She felt Rowan tense beside her. “Can we not go to the hospital?” He asked, his voice slightly strained.

She gave him a once over before making the drive to the hospital. “Why?” She asked, not taking her eyes from the road.

“Um, I may have thought you purposely ran me over.” Aelin couldn’t help but look over at him now.

“Why would I have done that?” Aelin asked exasperatedly, “And don’t you go thinking that that would get you out of going to the hospital.”

He chuckled nervously. “I may have hit your boyfriend with my car earlier today.” Aelin burst out laughing, this time a lot less bitterly than when Chaol had called to tell her he was injured. This was near joyous full bodied laughing, tears began to stream down her face, she was laughing so hard.

“Aelin? Aelin.” Rowan called cautiously. He was treating her like someone who was facing the gallows, it now made sense why he was unsure of her earlier. “Are you okay?”

“More than okay.” She finally replied, “And that’s ex-boyfriend by the way.”

“Ex-boyfriend?” Rowan asked.

“Oh, definitely ex-boyfriend.” Aelin was still angry, but nowhere near her blazing inferno of fury she felt earlier that day.

“I’m sorry?” Rowan apologized, although it sounded more like a question. Aelin just shook her head silently, silently telling him that he shouldn’t be. “Well I was starting to feel like you hitting me with your car was karma for earlier today, but maybe I shouldn’t feel bad.”

“You shouldn’t. I think the hottest man I know plowing down my cheating ex is some good karma, don’t you think?” Aelin asked cheekily, as they pulled into the hospital parking lot.

“I didn’t plow- the hottest man you know?” Rowan asked, finally catching up on what she said.

Aelin flushed and turned away, she hoped he hadn’t heard that part. Rowan put his hand over hers, drawing her attention back to his face.

“Now I definitely don’t feel bad, I think me hitting him was karma for cheating on you. I think you hitting me was fate.” Aelin rose a brow, wondering how the fuck getting hit with a car was a good thing. “The most beautiful girl in the world is taking me to the hospital, and I finally get a chance to ask her on a date after two years of waiting.”

“Two years huh?” Aelin asked, bringing her head closer to his. He brought their lips down, they were almost touching. She could feel his warm breath on her face.

“You had a boyfriend.” That was all he said before he kissed her. His lips were soft and warm, and she felt herself come alive in a way she never had while kissing Chaol. Maybe Rowan was right, this was fate.

They finally pulled away, catching their breath. “Let’s get you checked out.” Aelin said, as she made her way to help him out of the car.

Rowan placed a kiss on the top of her head as they made their way through the hospital doors, just in time to see Chaol being rolled out on a wheelchair. Oh, good karma indeed.

#Rowaelin month #rowaelin fanfiction #rowaelin #rowan whitethorn #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin galythinius #chaol westfall #lysandra ennar #tog #throne of glass #cheating #nesryn faliq

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escapingtheconstrictingboxes · 7 years

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Untitled (For Now)

This is a fic I wrote after a lovely anon sent me a request for a fanfic about Chesryn as parents. This is what has happened.

Tagging: @jennifer2430

Please read my notes which can be found here. These are some things I wrote about my characters because it will give you a better understanding of what I’ve written here. I highly suggest you read them and they will be worth looking at.

If you can’t click on the ‘keep reading’ link because you’re on mobile or something, just click on my url and I’m pretty sure it’ll take you to my story.

To help you with the pronouns:

ae/aer/aers/aerself

he/him/his/himself

Without further ado:

Chaol hadn't exactly been happy when his son had announced that he had met someone. When the couple had heard, they had instantly peppered him with questions, pausing in their daily routines they sat Darius down and peppered him with questions. Darius had only laughed and had told them to sit down with him so that he could explain everything. Slowly, Chaol's worry seemed to intensify and yet he calmed down as he saw his son talk about someone named Sylvan. He watched as his son's features softened and his eyes shone, his voice conveying all his emotions.

Now, neither Chaol or Nesryn had been too affected by their son's sexuality. Sure it had come as a shock when Darius had told them with nervous eyes that were on the brink of tears but by the end of the night their son was practically radiating happiness. Everybody else had seemed pretty accepting when he announced it at a family dinner. The proud smiles on the couple's faces had left them aching by the end of the night. They'd even watched as Darius got into a couple of relationships and had comforted him after they had ended. So when Darius started talking about this Sylvan, Chaol hadn't been too shocked to hear about another man entering Darius' life.

Then, things got a little confusing for him and Nesryn. Thankfully, their son had endless patience as he tried to explain how Sylvan wasn't a man. Sylvan had been born as a male but was not a man or a woman didn't like being seen or regarded as either and apparently used pronouns like ae and aer. Chaol and Nesryn had tried to ask him how Sylvan couldn't be a man or a woman and how anyone could possibly know this. Darius had only shrugged and had asked if they could respect Sylvan and accept aers pronouns. Him and Nesryn had exchanged a glance which resulted in them sighing before looking back to their son and finally nodding. The giddy grin on Darius' face had caused a smile on their own faces and the parents had to beg Darius to let go when the hug he gave them was a little too tight.

Later that night, in bed with the blanket of the dark tucked around them both and with each other tucked safely into each other's arms, they discussed about Darius and Sylvan. It seemed that their son was happy with Sylvan and the only real problem appeared to be getting adjusted to the pronouns. Later, the bigger problem (to Chaol at least) had been their age difference. After Darius' counter point of Chaol and Nesryn's own age difference also being two years apart, Chaol's argument had turned into incoherent grumbles under his breath.

Nesryn had tried to reason with Chaol too, telling him that he was worrying for nothing and that their son was fine. After all, he was the son of two Captains. Chaol had grinned, kissing Nesryn softly before agreeing to tone down the over-protectiveness. After that, the couple had asked when they would get to meet this Sylvan. Darius had admitted that Sylvan had only really talked to him a few times before and the two hadn't really done anything. To which the couple just told Darius to introduce Sylvan to them whenever the time felt right.

Then, three months later, Darius came bursting into the room, shocking both him and Nesryn and almost causing Chaol to drop the dish in his hand. His son was grinning from ear to ear as he told them how Sylvan had asked him to go to the theatre with aer in a week's time. From Aelin's influence, Darius had a large interest in the theatre but had still chosen to follow his parents' paths of becoming a guard. The couple had congratulated Darius with wide smiles and they watched a week later as Darius fretted around the house, changing his attire several times until he finally left when Nesryn pushed him out the door.

Chaol and Nesryn watched with small smiles as Darius came back from dates and small chats in the following two months and then finally asked if Sylvan was ready to meet the two. The next day, Darius had agreed to let the couple meet Sylvan when ae came to pick Darius up for their date tomorrow. Chaol and Nesryn had stared at each other and then at Darius, asking him to go over the pronouns again. The rest of the day was spent in going about their work while lecturing and correcting each other since they didn't want Sylvan to be uncomfortable.

Chaol was surprised the next day when the door rang and he saw Darius' face break into the largest grin. He watched his son run all the way to the front door and followed him with Nesryn's soft laughter trailing behind. He raised an eyebrow as he turned around the corner to see his son greeting his datemate with a long kiss. Chaol cleared his throat and the couple broke apart immediately. His son was grinning brightly and had his arms happily around Sylvan's middle who was fidgeting and had a light blush on aers freckled cheeks. His eyes zeroed in on the arm that was around Darius and he could see that Sylvan had noticed but held in a slight smile when Sylvan still didn't withdraw the arm.

Chaol's eyes scanned the thin and taller figure, noticing the white hair and opal blue eyes first. The clothing seemed a little ragged but appropriate and Chaol wondered about aers social status. From all the rambling that Darius had done, Chaol had a rough idea of what Sylvan was like.

" Dad, this is my datemate, Sylvan," his son said with a large smile but with a warning in his eyes. Darius then turned to look up at Sylvan with his smile changing slightly as he said, " Sylvan, this is my dad, Chaol Westfall." Chaol softened when he noticed the puff in Darius' chest and then an amused smile appeared on his face when Sylvan looked down at Darius with a soft smile and then back at Chaol with a tinge of fear in aers eyes.

" It's nice to meet you, sir. Dar talks a lot about you," Sylvan said with a polite smile and an extended arm. Chaol grunted at the nickname, an expression of mock severity on his face as he stared at aer for a moment before nodding and took a few steps forward to shake his hand. He made sure to add a little extra strength as he grabbed aers hand and squeezed it one last time while staring aer right in the eyes. Aers smile died slowly and Chaol internally grinned. Good. At least ae was intimidated.

He knew that Darius was rolling his eyes at him as Chaol turned around to walk back to the living room. Darius was used to Chaol's ice at the start of the relationships and knew that he often made his opinion on Darius' partners' visits on the first meeting. Nesryn was a little more lenient and demanded at least one dinner with them until she could form an opinion on anything. But of course, the couple valued Darius' opinion much more and tried to respect his thoughts.

Chaol sat down on a couch and then looked up at couple expectantly and gestured for Sylvan to do the same. Darius looked up at aer with a ridiculous smile as he wrapped his two arms around aers waist and tugged aer closer. Sylvan stumbled slightly closer and the blush on aers face grew as ae bent aers head down to whisper with embarrassment, " Dar, your father is right there."

Darius only grinned and lightly kissed Sylvan on the lips and said, " Sit with my dad. I'll just change my shirt and do my hair."

Chaol looked at Darius and asked teasingly, " Again?"

He grinned slightly when his son blushed as he walked out of the room. " Not in front of aer, dad!"

Chaol held back a chuckle and he turned back to face Sylvan and his smile faded away at the sight of aers beaming grin. " Yes?" He asked, his face once more turning into it's fearsome mask.

He watched aers smile drop as ae began to fidget after taking a seat opposite Chaol and then nervously said, " I just didn't know that Dar...ius uses my pronouns at his home too. I wasn't even sure if you knew about me."

Chaol raised an eyebrow and glared slightly at aer as he asked, " Are you suggesting that my son is disrespectful of people's wishes?"

Ae began to fluster, opening and closing aers mouth several times before Nesryn entered the room with a tray of her new batch of cinnamon and ginger cookies. She placed the tray down on the coffee table in the middle and took a seat while gesturing for Sylvan to take one.

" You know that's not what Sylvan meant to say," Nesryn said with a stern tone but with amusement dancing in her eyes. Chaol suppressed a grin as he loosely wrapped an arm around her waist.

Nesryn turned back to face Sylvan and watched aer pick up a cookie and bite half of it off in one go. " These are amazing, ma'am," Sylvan groaned happily with aers eyes closed in bliss and finished the other half immediately. Ae went to grab another one but then paused and then looked at Nesryn nervously with those big wide eyes, the cheerfulness in aers voice disappearing. " May I have another one?" ae asked after a moment, his hand slowly withdrawing.

Chaol knew the woman was on aers side the moment she said, " Please don't call me ‘ma'am’ and of course. Take the whole tray if you want, Sylvan." Sylvan flashed both of them a wide smile before literally picking up the whole tray and placed it on his lap.

Chaol tried not grumble when he saw aer devours the cookies at an alarming rate and instead tightened his grip on Nesryn's waist. Compliments poured out aers lips as half the cookies disappeared almost instantly. Nesryn looked up at Chaol with a small smile and then quietly said, " Don't worry. There's another batch in the kitchen." He sighed slightly and nodded before focusing on Sylvan. He studied aers clothes and then studied the way ae ate. Chaol opened his mouth to comment on it but in that moment Darius had decided to enter the room.

Darius had entered, buttoning the last button of the shirt he had finally chosen to wear as he stepped into the room and Chaol noticed how his son's focus instantly went to Sylvan before going to them. He held back a grin and watched as Darius walked over to sit beside aer and then stared curiously. " Why do you have mom's tray of cookies?" He asked as he wrapped an arm around Sylvan the same way Chaol did with Nesryn.

" Mrs. Westfall said it'd be okay. You want some?" Ae asked after swallowing another cookie. Ae looked over at Nesryn and grinned again. " Thank you so much, Mrs. Westfall. The last time I ate something like this was when Dar brought the cake on his birthday last month," ae said with a cheery grin before passing a couple of cookies over to Darius as ae spoke. Darius was kind enough to give one of his to Chaol and he grinned at his son in thanks.

" I remember that," Darius said with a wide smile. " I gave you the first slice."

Chaol could see the guilt in Sylvan's eyes when ae realised that ae hadn't given out the cookies aerself. Before ae could say anything, Nesryn broke the silence by asking, " What do you mean? You haven't had anything like this to eat in the past month?"

Aers smile died slightly and he took a small bite of a cookie as ae thought about aers answer. " I live alone, Mrs.Westfall. I work two small jobs to keep my small apartment and to manage everything else. Cookies don't really come up in the shopping list," ae said with small sad smile.

" Why?" Chaol asked, raising an eyebrow, softening a little but didn't let it show on his face. His question earned him an elbow in the gut from Nesryn while Darius threw him a glare before turning to his datemate.

Darius instantly looked up at Sylvan while placing a hand on his arm and said, " You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, Sylv."

Ae shook aers head, finishing off a cookie and then said with a small smile, " It's fine, Dar. It isn't anything to be embarrassed about." Ae then looked over to the couple and when ae spoke, aers voice had dropped lower. " My mother kicked me out of the house. I came out to her last year and she didn't take it well. She refused to use my pronouns and we fought a lot about all of it. It got to a point where she just packed up my bags and left them outside the house."

When the family noticed how the mood had dropped and aers eyes had gotten distant, Darius slowly removed the tray from Sylvan's lap but still handed aer a cookie to pull him back to the present. Sylvan seemed to snap out of whatever trance ae had been pulled into and gave the couple a small smile before leaning slightly into Darius, who instantly pulled aer closer by the waist.

Chaol's heart gave a slight twist as Sylvan looked at the both of them and said, " Sorry. I didn't mean to say so much on the first meeting."

" No, Sylvan. I was the one who asked the question. You were simply giving an honest answer," Chaol said, letting some sincerity enter his voice and expression. Ae seemed to understand the apology and smiled in acknowledgement.

There was a pause until, " What about your father?" Nesryn asked tentatively with worried eyes.

Sylvan smiled with more energy as ae sat up properly and said, " During all the arguments, my father stayed silent. A few months after being kicked out, he'd found an apartment and bought for me. Told me to move in the day after and I could fend for myself after that."

" And after that?" Chaol asked, pulled into Sylvan's story and world.

" I haven't seen him much since. And now I live in my home with two jobs and hopefully a bright career ahead," he said with a small smile.

" Career?" Nesryn asked. The couple already knew about aers ambitions from all the rambling Darius had done but they still wanted to hear it from Sylvan aerself.

The sudden smile that appeared on aers face eased the ache in Chaol's heart slightly. " Oh, I'm a dancer. I'm attending the academy in the city."

" The academy?" Nesryn asked with slight awe in her voice. They both had known that ae was a dancer but to know that ae was that skilled..." Florine's Academy?" She asked again.

Sylvan grinned and nodded with excitement. " Yes, I've been there from a very young age. It's might as well be a second home. The headmistress even let me stay in the building before I got the apartment."

" And you'll be performing on stage?" Nesryn asked with a small smile.

Sylvan again nodded with a wider grin and eyes that shone with something Chaol couldn't pinpoint. " I'll be doing it soon enough. It hasn't been determined but I have been told that I have a chance to be in the next tour. " Darius looked up at Sylvan with excitement even in his eyes and pulled ae even closer by the middle. Sylvan blushed a red that covered his whole face but didn't move away from Darius.

Chaol held back from grinning even more and then said, " How long would you be gone for?"

Sylvan shrugged and said with a tilted head, " It depends. Usually just a few months but sometimes it lasts longer." Darius didn't seem to care that he would be away from Sylvan if their relationship lasted that long and this time Chaol couldn’t hold back a grin.

Chaol stood up, pulling Nesryn up with him and signalling the end of their conversation. Darius and Sylvan followed and Chaol led them all back to the front door. Him and Nesryn looked at each other, not caring if their son and datemate were there. A hundred thoughts and emotions seemed to flow between them before both of them smiled. Chaol looked back at the couple to see nervous expressions on the both of them and noticed how tightly they were gripping each other's hand. Chaol walked up to Sylvan and watched as aers expression turned more and more fearful.

" I think you're good for my son, Sylvan," he started off and Sylvan's face grew with hope. " You seem like a good kid and I can tell that you have a bright future in front of you. I trust you enough to be happy that you’re with my son. Above all, you make Darius happy and that's what matters the most."

" So you approve of Sylv?" Darius asked with wide eyes and giddy smile. Chaol nodded and then grunted when both of them pulled him into a tight hug. They gave him a grateful expression when they pulled back with a step.

Nesryn laughed then, a sound that Chaol still found beautiful to this day. She took a step forward and stood in front of Sylvan. She slowly took aers hand and held it gently with both of her own and looked up and into aers eyes. " Sylvan, I agree with my husband and I'm more than happy for you to be with my son," she said with a smile. " I also understand that the Academy is your second home. But I would like you to consider this house to be your third home as well." Chaol could have sworn there were tears in aers eyes as ae nodded and squeezed Nesryn's hand.

" Of course, Mrs.Westfall," ae said. " Thank you. I’ve never experienced so much kindness in one day before."

Darius came to wrap an arm around Sylvan's waist and pulled aer closer as Nesryn stepped back to Chaol's side. " Well, you'll be getting a lot more of it with my family. Dad is just a ray of sunshine once you get to know him," Darius said with a mischievous smile and looked at him.

Chaol rolled his eyes with a smile playing on his lips. "Don’t you two need to get going?" He asked.

The two of them nodded and Chaol watched with a pleased expression as Darius and Sylvan exited the house and down the street. He turned to face Nesryn once his son and his datemate had turned the corner and tugged her closer by wrapping his arms around her waist. She took a step forward and sighed slightly as Chaol bent down to touch her forehead with his own.

" That went well, don't you think?" She murmured as her arms went around Chaol, eyes closing. Chaol hummed in agreement. " They seem happy with each other."

" Let's hope they stay happy," he murmured, his own eyes closing.

Nesryn's eyes flew open and she looked at him with a teasing grin. " I've never heard you say that before about any of the others," she said, a hand now cupping his face.

Chaol leaned into the hand with a peaceful sigh and murmured, " There's a first time for everything, Nes."

" You really like this one, don't you?" She asked with a grin that was slowly growing on her face. When Chaol didn't respond she laughed and said, " You really do like Sylvan!"

He opened his eyes and sighed again. " With all that Darius has been saying about aer in the past few months, I wanted to see if our son was correct. And he was. Ae sounds like what Dar has been talking about. So yes, as much as I don't want to say it, I do like Sylvan." Nesryn grinned up at him with the bright eyes that Chaol had fallen in love with all those years ago. She pulled him down by his collar and kissed him, trying to convey all that she could.

"I never thought I’d see the day when Chaol would actually approve of someone that Darius brought in," she teased him when they pulled apart. Chaol rolled his eyes and placed a light kiss on her collarbone. Nesryn laughed lightly again and started pulling him back towards the couch, ready to spend the rest of the day with him and to await the return of Darius and to fill the house with the feeling of home that the two of them loved to cherish.

And that marks the end of my first ever fanfic. I hope you liked it and feedback is always appreciated! Also, please let me know of any mistakes I’ve made in the pronouns department.

#syrius???#would their ship name be syrius?#chaol and nesryn #chaol and nesryn fanfiction #chaol and nesryn fanfic #chesryn fanfiction #chaosryn fanfiction #chaosryn #darius and sylvan #darius and sylvan fanfiction #tog #throne of glass #throne of glass fanfiction #lgbt #throne of glass lgbt

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rufousnmacska · 3 years

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Manorian Fanfic Master List

THANK YOU for reading!💙💛

All of my writing can be found on ao3 too.

Only You - from an anon request, Dorian is forced into an arranged marriage to save his kingdom while Manon garners interest from a surprising source.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

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Goodbye and Hello - Manon and Dorian say goodbye in Orynth. But for them, saying hello again is only a matter of time.

Part One: I Wish…

Part Two: Another Day

Part Three: Those Two Words

Part Four: Breakfast in Bed

Part Five: Waiting

Part Six: Confessions (nsfw)

Part Seven: Old Friends

Part Eight: Light in the Darkness

Part Nine: Not Even Close

___________

A Bard’s Tale - a manorian renaissance faire AU

___________

The Raven and the Queen - the result of two fic requests: one for Dorian saving Manon from the Matron, and one for Dorian defeating Erawan/Maeve at the end of KoA

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

___________

Museum Day - Completed modern manorian AU from an anon request

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

___________

Post KoA one shots

The Gift a very short scene between Manon and Evangeline towards the end of KoA

Witch Blade (set after KoA)

Still Here (set towards the end of KoA)

Lending Policy (set after KoA)

Healing Touch (set after the final battle in KoA)

___________

KoA and post-KoA headcanons and short fic requests - (“Manorian Shorts” on ao3)

Manorian first meeting after war

manorian wedding

modern halloween au

Manon-Rowan brotp

Manon learns about Erawan

manorian post battle

Dorian sacrifices himself

Manon meets Dorian’s family

Dorian in the final battle

Manorian witchling head canons (she is always named Rhiannon with a couple of exceptions):

Manorian finds out Rhia is in love

Rhia sees the Thirteen’s monument

Manorian parenting

Rhia learns about the spider silk

she’s given the Crochan crown

Manon pregnancy with twins

Rhia’s first heartbreak

___________

Child of Peace - Completed multi-chapter story set after Empire of Storms (all chapters written before Kingdom of Ash)

Part 1 - Good

Part 2 - Control (nsfw)

Part 3 - Hope

Part 4 - Smile

Part 5 - Stone

Part 6 - Magic (nsfw)

Part 7 - Knowing

Part 8 - Remember

Part 9 - Dessert (nsfw)

Part 10 - Worth

Part 11 - Unmade

Part 12 - Promise

Part 13 - Chosen (nsfw)

Part 14 - Distraction

Part 15 - Sacrifice

Part 16 - Interlude (nsfw)

Part 17 - Unmasked

Part 18 - History (includes a brief summary of the story so far)

Part 19 - Go

Part 20 - Surrender

Part 21 - Endure

Part 22 - Grateful

Part 23 - Allies

Part 24 - Remade

Epilogue 1 - Chaol

Epilogue 2 - Nesryn

Rekindled 1 - a Child of Peace story (Asterin returns!)

Rekindled 2 - a Child of Peace story

Rekindled 3 - a Child of Peace story

Rekindled 4 - a Child of Peace story

Rekindled 5 - a Child of Peace story

Epilogue 3 - Home

Epilogue 4 - Nerves (nsfw)

Epilogue 5 - Legacy(final chapter)

___________

Manorian drabbles - (”Not Even Close” on ao3) These are short, unconnected stories. I’d call them variations on a theme. The theme being Manon and Dorian figuring some of their shit out in those first weeks of traveling together after EoS. Fair warning - I’m slightly obsessed with things like sleeping arrangements. And one letting something slip that reveals how much they like the other. And them fighting their attraction… and failing badly. (written before Kingdom of Ash)

one - Sleeping Arrangements (nsfw)

two - Excuses

three - Home

four - Tell Me

five - Proof (nsfw)

six - Happiness

seven - Touch

eight- First Kiss

nine - Sword Play

ten - First Flight

eleven- Dance Lessons

twelve - The Wyvern

thirteen - Challenge (a little nsfw)

fourteen - The King (modern au, nsfw)

fifteen - Time

___________

Modern Manorian AU - (”Meet Cute” on ao3) a modern AU based off this post

one

two

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All Dressed Up - A fluffy, post-EoS manorian mini-fic where Manon and Dorian finally find the Crochans. They also find themselves in over their heads. In more ways than one.

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#manorian #manon blackbeak #dorian havilliard #manorian fanfic #throne of glass #throne of glass fanfic #throne of glass fanfiction #manorian fanfiction #posting in order to do some housekeeping #my writing #aelin galathinius #rowan whitethorn #chaol westfall #yrene westfall #asterin blackbeak #nesryn faliq #glennis crochan #sarah j maas #manorian fanfic master list

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rosegoldannie · 4 years

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Tell Me No Lies - Chapter 5

A sharp tapping on her window awoke Aelin with a start, her hand flying to her keys. She only relaxed when her eyes settled on the silvery hair of her roommate, who was watching her with a mixture of curiosity and indifference. “Let’s go,” He stated impatiently, green eyes darting to his car, which was parked a few yards away.

“Right, right sorry!” She muttered, scampering out of her car, bag slung over her shoulder. As soon as she stood to her full height, her back gave a painful twinge, causing her to yelp and her hand flew out to grip the hood for balance. “Shit!” She hissed through gritted teeth, fingers curled into a fist.

Rowan gave her a confused glance. “You good?”

No, not in the slightest. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Rowan shrugged, and started off towards his car at a slow pace, pausing every few steps to allow Aelin to catch up.

The inside of his car was leather, sleek, clean and modern. Surprisingly, he held the door open for her, before sliding into the driver’s seat.

He merged onto the empty roads, staring stoically ahead. With no signs of him acknowledging her, Aelin leaned her head against the tinted windows, and allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

When they pulled up to their building, Rowan surprised her yet again by taking her duffel bag, and opening all doors for her. Aelin eyed him suspiciously, keeping several steps behind him, and taking in his impeccable suit, and leather shoes. “Okay… Who are you and what have you done with Rowan Whitethorn?”

He settled onto the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table. “You said you wanted to talk.”

Aelin perched carefully on the armrest of a loveseat, mindful of her mercurius back. “Right, I do.”

He ran a hand through his neat, silver hair. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say it has something to do with this morning, and all the fights? And, my uh-” He cast a glance towards the overly full sink, something akin to sheepishness alight in his features, “-refusal to do the dishes?”

She gave a simple nod. “Then you would be correct.” Allowing herself to relax further into the chair, Aelin crossed her legs. “We need to set up some ground rules.”

Rowan braced his elbows on his knees. “Yeah, um. That sounds great. Rule one, I’ll do the dishes?” he offered.

A small smile spread across her lips. “Sounds good. Rule two: No more fighting, we’re not five.”

“We talk things through and come to an agreement. Rule three: We trade off cooking meals.”

“Great. Rule four: We each clean up our own messes.”

“Mmhmm. Do you always have the same shifts?” Rowan murmured, as he stood, heading over to the kitchen.

Aelin followed not far behind. “For the most part, yeah. I’m usually on the swing shift. Through, sometimes I might add on a graveyard shift.” A sense of pride rippled through her when she realized he was doing the dishes.

Glancing up, a cereal bowl in his hands, Rowan deadpanned, “I have no damn clue what that is.”

A slight chuckle slipped past her lips. “Sorry. Uh, swing shifts are from three to eleven, and graveyards are eleven to seven.” She pushed herself up to perch on the counter, a towel in her hands. She took the bowl from Rowan, drying it.

“Alright, Rule five: We tell each other when we’re working.”

Aelin glanced up. “What? Why?”

“I didn’t know you were at work, Aelin.” He went silent for a few minutes, and they carried on together. “I thought you had already gone to bed.”

She let out a quiet “Oh,” as Rowan shut the water off, and turned to lean against the counter. A quick glance at the stovetop clock revealed that it was nearly two in the morning. “Yeah, that sounds reasonable.”

“So now that we have our rules laid out, can we start over?”

Yet again, Rowan had surprised her. “Of course.” She held out a hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sir. I’m Aelin.”

For the first time, an actual smile graced his features and Aelin could barely hold in her gasp. The difference it made… his features were softened, his eyes lightened, he looked happier. He looked younger. Hell, he looked hotter.

He shook her hand, humor dancing in his gaze. “I’m Rowan.”

Several hours later, Aelin found herself curled up with a blanket, eyes wide as Rowan reiterated a story, where one of his clients showed up to their hearing drunk, and proceeded to fall asleep, pass out, and throw up on the judge, all in the span of an hour. “-and then he had the nerve to ask why he’d been given an extra two years!” Rowan chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. She grinned, pulling the blanket tighter around her.

“Oh god,” She muttered, savouring the warmth of her blanket, the spiked cider they’d made and the enticing pizza on the coffee table. Surprisingly, they had a lot in common once they stopped fighting.

Rowan shook his head, grabbing another slice of pizza. “So what exactly do you do?” He asked, stuffing pizza into his mouth.

Mimicking him, she leaned forward for yet another slice of cheesy goodness. “I’m a nurse. It’s pretty chill, since we mostly take care of older patients from the Nursing Home. Most of the more serious cases go to Adarlan General, so it’s almost always calm. Though,” She added conspiratorially, “We did have once patient who refused to allow us to bathe them because he thought we were Russian assassins sent to kill him for his recipe book.”

Rowan chuckled again, and something warm spread through her at the sound. “I didn’t know you were a nurse,” He murmured.

“Yep,” She replied, glancing over at the clock. Six AM. “and you’re a lawyer.”

He followed her gaze, eyes widening when he saw the time. He stood, bringing his dishes to the sink. Giving her a playful smile, he teased, “I’ll do them tomorrow, I promise.”

Making to stand, she replied, “Oh you’ll do them, will you?”

Rowan groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “No, Aelin. I will not have sex with the dishes. Jesus Christ.”

She stood, chuckling lightly, but immediately let out a gasp, her hand flying out to grip something - anything - for balance as her back let out its sharpest twinge yet, radiating flame up her spine, her neck. Down her spine to her hips. “Shit!” she cursed, crashing to her knees.

“Hey, are you-Aelin!” Rowan strode over to her, concern etched onto his features. “What happened?” He murmured, a broad hand coming out to rest on her shoulder.

She shoved him away, stumbling upwards. “I’m fine!” She snapped, snatching her dishes up, then dumping them into the sink.

Still crouched, he leveled a stern glare at her. “Rule six: We don’t lie to each other.” God, the pretentious bastard.

Feeling the sharp stabs begin to ebb away, she met his heavy gaze. “I said I’m fine, Rowan.”

He let out a heavy lie. “Okay fine. I’ll let it go this time.”

She didn’t miss the warning behind his words: But next time, you will tell me.

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sarahjtrash · 6 years

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Cookie Monster

Nestaq, Rated T, 900

Nesryn’s family offers a delivery serivce at their bakery. They only have one customer.

A/N: I noticed a severe lack of Nestaq fic, so I wanted to change that. Enjoy!

Nesryn jogged back into the bakery, hands folded into her armpits and cheeks red.

“We got another delivery,” her father called from the kitchen.

Though her family had had the bakery for years, her father started doing delivery that night as a trial run. Nesryn was the only employee that her father trusted enough to leave the store with his precious concoctions, not damage them on the drive, and return in a timely manner. This late into the evening, she cursed herself for it.

She picked her way through the various tables, smiling at certain regulars grabbing a late night sweet before she entered the kitchen. With a shirt covered in flour, her father looked sheepish as he handed her the pink box. She could smell the chocolate chip cookies, and she wanted to groan in frustration.

“You could have said no,” she told her father.

He nodded and said, “I know. But…”

She rolled her eyes. “Loyal customer. Tips well. Really testing the delivery system. I know.”

Her father smiled at her again, before gesturing for her to turn around and take the cookies to their owner.

Nesryn’s sister smirked at her as she left, only adding to Nesryn’s frustration. When Nesrn reached to open the door, the cold seeped into her bones. She hated herself for even suggesting the idea of a cookie delivery system in the middle of winter.

Hands shaking, Nesryn fumbled with her keys in the lock of the passenger side door. She finally managed to unlock it and reached inside to put the cookies in the insulated container, before jogging around to the start the car. Even though she had done it only ten minutes ago, Nesryn checked herself out in the review mirror. She sighed as she pulled loose a few strains of her hair from under the baseball cap.

She put the car in reverse and drove down roads that she wished she had to think about. Lights dragged through the windows, as she passed through downtown towards the more affluent neighborhoods. How in the world the bakery delivery monopoly was over here, Nesryn had no idea. She certainly had not advertised to their one and only customer for the evening.

As two lane roads became one, and one lane roads became curving cul-de-sacs, Nesryn stopped her car in front of the asian mansion palace on the street. There was a small space cleared in the snow from where she had parked her car the other nines times she’d been there that evening.

Nesryn reached for the cookies, turned the car off, and braved the cold. Her hand hadn’t even hit the door yet when it opened.

Sartaq stood in the doorway, phone in hand. “I think that was your fastest time yet. Four minutes and thirty five seconds.”

Nesryn shoved the cookies at her boyfriend. “Here’s your dozen cookies,” she called sweetly.

Sartaq looked at her. “You’re mad.”

“Of course, I’m mad,” she huffed, “I had this good idea to expand my father’s business that I intentionally did’t tell you about because I knew you would do this. Now, you make a laughing stock out of it, and every one at the bakery is in the joke too. Every one but me. What the hell are you even going to do with ten orders of twelve dozen cookies?”

Sartaq blinked once at her small outburst. “Eat them?”

Nesryn was seriously considering ripping his balls off as they stood in silence. They stared at each other, breath forming in the cold, when feminine gut-bursting laughter sounded from behind Sartaq. Nesryn couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face as Borte stepped around her brother, tears streaming down her face.

“That’s whose been coming to the door,” Borte managed to wheeze out to Sartaq, “You’ve ordered 120 cookies tonight just so you could see Nesryn. And she is so pissed at you for it.”

She fell into a fit of laugher again.

“Thank you for your input, Borte,” Sartaq deadpanned.

Borte kept laughing as she handed Nesryn a twenty and swiped the cookies from Sartaq. Her howling drifted back to the door as she walked away. Sartaq looked up at Nesryn and shrugged. The sheepish look on his face combined with the mischievous glint in his eyes was all it took for Nesryn to lose it too.

Sartaq joined in, until they were both laughing with tears sprouting in their eyes.

“I guess it was kind of a stupid plan,” Sartaq admitted once they had calmed down enough to talk.

Nesryn wiped her eyes. “Yeah it was. It really was, but your my kind of stupid. I really shouldn’t have expected anything else.”

Sartaq offered her a lopsided grin, smacking the bill of her hat lightly. She swatted his hand away, but he stopped her hand midway and pulled her close.

“I may just have to make an eleventh order,” he whispered as he kissed the top of her head, “to make up for it.”

“You might just have to,” Nesryn replied, grinning despite herself.

When Nesryn returned to the bakery, her father was waiting for her in the kitchen. His timer read almost fifteen minutes.

“Someone is very late,” he tsked, “But I can’t reprimand her for it. Unfortunately, she is my only driver, and we have another delivery of a dozen chocolate chip cookies.”

Nesryn gave her father a wicked grin, before rushing back into the cold.

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mayhemories · 7 years

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Braids & War Paint (Part 9)

Notes On: Part 1: / Part 2: / Part 3: / Part 4: / Part 5: / Part 6: / Part 7: / Part 8:

Italics is bond talking.

“Be seen but not heard.” Said Evalin Ashryver, kissing the top of her daughter’s head. Aelin was dressed in various shades of brown for her travels, the track to Ellywe was long and her baby girl was going alone. But if her Fireheart had to leave, if Aelin had a reason for leaving like this, Evalin would support her trek, even if that meant Aelin had to be alone.

Evalin wasn’t naive, she knew just like the next person what Aelin’s power was like. Evalin knew firsthand how skilled she was with metal and weapons. She could almost feel the presence of the little folk from where they stood.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” Aelin smiled. Evalin could see so much of Rhoe in her. “Would you like me to bring you anything?”

“I think my finger is calling for a new embellishment.” Evalin said, her sad, worried smile didn’t reach her eyes as she made the joke. Aelin will highly likely bring her home a ring.

“I’ll see you soon.” Aelin said before riding off on Kasida.

Rhoe’s hand rested on Evalin’s shoulder, it was comforting in the time when Evalin needed it. Like now, when the only thought running around Evalin’s head was that she was a bad mother, letting Aelin leave like that without anyone.

“Lady Marion said she’ll take Fleetfoot back with her and Elide to Perranth.” Rhoe said, neither of them wanted to move until Aelin was out of sight.

“What of Aedion and Lyansdra? When do they take leave for Illium?” Evalin asked. She hated when the castle was quiet, hated when her family was gone.

“Tonight.” That meant it would just be Evalin, Rhoe and Orlon. Evalin loved the Galathynius brother’s with all her heart, but Evalin lived for her daughter.

Aelin hated dust and her arse hurt so much she wanted to scream. She had made it to Rifthold by nightfall. She thanked the gods for her animal form, a human was a good disguise, a buzzard was not.

Dorian had advised her to stay clear of the Glass Castle. So she had done just that and found an inn. She laid on the stiff matress and thought of her buzzard. If she had planned correctly he would’ve received her hawk by now. She had tried not to think about Dorian’s letter, he had wrote her a frantic message about Wendlyn closing their borders, Doranelle closing all intercontinental shipments.

She wondered if her dreams weren’t dreams at all but visions or memories from a long time ago. She thought of how her grandmother always blesses her at Yulemas, she thought of Brannon and Elena and Gavin. What did Mala Fire-Bringer think of her? What did Mora think of her and Rowan?

Aelin hoped Aedion would pay his respects in Brannon’s temple while he was in Illium, only the Gods know the answer to all the bodies popping up in Illium and surrounds. All of them drained of blood.

If Rowan was here she could ask him more about Doranelle’s history. She had heard of Brannon being born a bastard there before he and Mala sailed across to Erilea. She had heard of the First War, when Valg had poured in through portals, many were killed or exiled back to their home dimension using powerful wyrdmarks. Very few of them remained in Erilea but the king remained, Erawan killed and slaughtered many members of the Bane centuries later. What happened next is muddy, some say Elena killed him, some say Elena sent him back to the pit he crawled from and others theorise that he had been suppressed somehow and that he would return again.

The demons of her dreams would have to be the Valg, there was no other explanation for it. Especially if they were memories or visions. Aelin had experienced visions before because of Brannon’s mark, but they hand never been this dark.

The Wyrd had been forged with keys, two of which Aelin knew of. She had one, The Amulet of Orynth and Dorian had the other, The Eye of Elena. Aelin was damned if she knew where the third one rested, or even what the third one was.

All of this speculating without fact hurt her brain, the two strings in her chest felt different, one laid loose- as if nothing was connected on the other end and the other felt taught. The latter was the carranam bond. When she was a child Aedion used to tell her bedtime stories of carranam that remade the world, the dreamers bought forth a better world for everyone.

Aelin sent his name barreling through the bond, deep down she knew it probably wouldn’t do anything. But she was a dreamer.

Rowan?

Nothing. For the first time Aelin felt alone and it was all Rowan’s fault, how dare he storm into her life all cannons blazing and then leave? She would see him soon enough but just the thought of him made her happy. But the idea of him leaving again made her want to hit him.

Aelin? Rowan’s accented voice slammed into her head loud and clear, her whole chest warmed, both strings felt a tug before she answered.

I didn’t expect this to work. Aelin laughed into the cold empty room.

Are you okay?

I’m fine as anyone could be in this shitty inn.

Inn? Are you travelling or just sneaking out?

I’m seeing Nehemia, I’ve been having…strange dreams recently.

It was quiet for a long time and Aelin had thought the connection had faded until he spoke up again.

Dreams? What of?

Lots of things- evil bastards usually. Aelin tried to joke about it but the screams still rang in her ears from last time she slept, she prayed Rowan couldn’t hear them.

We won’t talk about it if you don’t want to. He said, understanding her seriousness, with his own sense of wary Aelin could feel it from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes that Rowan knew what she spoke of.

But if we stop talking I’ll have to sleep and I’m not too keen to do that.

What if I read to you, Fireheart.

Okay. Aelin said as Rowan started to read the gods awfully good romance book she had slipped into his saddle bag.

That night Aelin fell asleep to Rowan’s voice and across the sea Rowan fell asleep with a romance novel in his lap.

A curt knock at Rowan’s door caused him to jump, the shitty romance novel he had been reading to Aelin fell out of his lap and slid under his bed.

Rowan quickly got to his feet, fixing his tunic as he opened the door.

Gavriel smiled at him.

“Let me guess,” Rowan said, his morning voice fleeting as he cleared his throat. “I’m wanted at breakfast.”

“How did you guess? You must have gotten smarter in Terrasen.” Gavriel said, rolling his eyes. Gavriel was the kindest of them but when he gets sarcastic he takes no prisoners.

The two of them walked through the light corridors of the Palace of Rivers. A maid quickly darted past them, carrying a vase of geraniums.

Aelin hated geraniums.

“Had a big night?” Gavriel quirked, gesturing to Rowan’s messy hair.

“New book.” Gavriel laughed at him before nudging him in the ribs.

“Since when do you read for fun?”

“I don’t.” Rowan grumbled as they passed a group of Wendlyn Nobles.

He was almost relieved to see Lorcan as he strode away from Gavriel’s teasing. Rowan had never been a morning person, neither is Lorcan.

The table had been set for sixteen, Rowan spied the place cards and calculated: there were seven of them, including Maeve. Three Ashryvers, Rowan’s uncle, Endymion, Sellene, Lady Remmele (Which Rowan couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of), Lord Benson and Lady Essar.

The breakfast had been going well, Rowan had been placed far away from Remmele and across from Enda, Sellene and His uncle. No one was really talking, quiet chit-chat in between close guests.

Until Remmele opened her godsdamned mouth.

“Prince Galan, her Majesty was telling me that you have been in Terrasen of late.” Remmele said, causing the room to fall into a cone of silence, everyone was listening now.

“Yes, Prince Rowan and I sailed over.” Galan said. Rowan was going to stab him in the thigh with his butterknife if he kept talking. He felt a kick under the table and was met with Endymion’s narrowed eyes.

“Oh really? And how was your…kin across the sea?” Rowan knew that Remmele only meant Aelin. His temper flared. Tales of Aelin’s war against the witches had reached Doranelle before the war was won. How Aelin had no need to dismount her horse, with one look she had burned through legions.

“One cousin I favoured more than the other Lady Remmele, if you want to know more about the Crown Princess I’m not the one you should be asking.” Galan said staring straight at Rowan, his mouth pressed into a straight line.

For the first time all morning, Maeve spoke:

“What did you think of my niece, Rowan?” Her voice stern and cold.

“Princess Aelin was everything the rumours suggested, my queen.” It was true. She was a fierce fighter, she was heavily trained, she was an expert with every form of weapon, she had the deepest power Rowan had ever encountered, she was the most beautiful life form to ever walk the earth, she had an inner circle to rival all of the spy rings in Wendlyn. She was too intelligent for her own good, she was reckless and wild. She was his, though that wasn’t a rumour nor was it well known.

“A threat to me, then?” Maeve said leaning back in her ornate dining chair, her finger with her nail shaped into a sharp point circled the rim of her drinking goblet. Her even voice caused the whole table to stiffen.

“Terrasen is just as big of a threat as any other, your Majesty.” Rowan said cryptically. He felt Lorcan’s gaze burning him. As well as Sellen’s worried eyes.

“I did not ask you, Prince Rowan, about Terrasen. I asked you about my niece.”

Rowan stayed silent.

That was the only answer Maeve needed.

She stood so quickly glasses and tableware shook. She left the dining hall, a plethora of Queen’s Guardsmen trailing after her, their purple capes fluttering in the ethereal breeze.

Rowan stabbed a piece of meat when everyone at the table started talking to him at once, save for the Ashryvers who quickly took their leave.

He couldn’t believe Maeve had the nerve to ask him about the threat of Aelin instead of asking him if Aelin would help them in a potential war against the Valg.

Darkness was the best time for it to crawl through.

It was made of smoke and was cut from the cloth of blackness that will cleave the world apart.

It jumped from room to room in the castle.

Until it could taste their breaths.

It held her in it’s claw, her blonde hair hung off her limply when she was in this rag doll state. With it’s sharpest claw on the opposite hand it cut her throat as it drank the scarlet life blood from her golden body.

It moved on to the other sleeping body, it was a male. Their blood never tasted as sweet. When his head hit the pillow seperate from it’s body It moved onto the next one.

It was an older looking version of the last one it fed from. There was only one body in this bed.

It was a crimson lake when the darkness left. It crawled back to his master. Royal Blood was always better, especially in the name of revenge.

AN: OMG GUYS! You’ve all been so supportive and cool! The follower count is nearly at 230 already!

I can’t thank you all enough!

This piece was written for: @2-bookmaster-2 @aelin-and-feyre @rowanismybae @sparkleywonderful @cassiancalore @igniscorde7112 @illyrian-high-lord @daughterxofxnight @bigsis227 @crazybookladythings @gcarroll @sugarcoated44 @wolffrising @notjustanyoldfangirl @bluephoenix222 @fck-tamlin and @readinglikewildfire

If you have any questions, ideas, prompts, requests, asks or just want a lil chat jump into my inbox, leave a comment or ask me something! I love getting to know everyone.

Much love and many thanks!

-El.

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nerdyandbookobsessed · 7 years

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“She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers, she was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save for the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.” - Sarah J. Maas”

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qtipping · 7 years

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fic #update!

I promise you this is not a ruse, I did update within the same month!

Enjoy!

#fic #fanfic #fic update #new chapter #Daughter of Pine and Snow #rowans daughter #rowan whitethorn #aelin galathynius #aedion ashryver #nesryn faliq #chaol westfall #fanfiction #qtipping needs to shut the fuck up

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lonely-little-lovely · 7 years

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Fight or Flight (Elorcan) pt 2

So this was originally supposed to be two parts- I might do a third, though. We’ll just have to see ;)

Lorcan was, frankly, surprised he had been invited to Whitethorn's bachelor party. He wasn't even in the wedding party-he and Rowan hadn't been THAT close in a long, long time, and he knew he had been invited out of common courtesy, since Aelin the bitch-queen hated his guts. He wasn't too fond of her, either. Okay, he wasn't fond of her at all.

Yet he-and Vaughan, Fenrys and Connall, who weren't in the wedding party either- had been cordially invited to whatever the hell Rowan had planned. Lorcan, thankfully, hadn't seen bridezilla or any of her tittering bridesmaids; undoubtedly because they were already doing whatever Aelin had planned for her bachelorette party. There were only two days until the wedding- it would be easy to avoid her for that long. Tomorrow, he'd rest up from the hangover he planned on procuring, and then only wish her congrats on her big day before he, hopefully, never saw her again. Or at least for a few years.

The men in Rowan's wedding party were alright, he supposed- he knew Gavriel, of course, and the best man, his son Aedion. Chaol Westfall was a little pompous, but Lorcan would never see him again so that didn't matter anyways, and Dorian Havilliard was sort of like a puppy dog, but calm enough that he wasn't a problem. That didn't mean Lorcan was having a good time, though. It was barely nine and he already wanted to get hammered enough to forget about the awkwardness in the atmosphere.

But at least the tension wasn't between him and anyone else- at least, not yet.

"Any particular reason the witch didn't get her ass up here, Dorian?" Aedion drawled.

The raven haired man fixed him with a steely gaze, but Gavriel's son didn't back away, even at his father's long suffering sigh, the sigh that used to be reserved for only Fenrys. "Manon," Dorian said pointedly. "Couldn't make it. She sends an incredibly expensive wedding present, though, and we all know that will satisfy Aelin."

There were a few chuckles of agreement, but Lorcan was reeling at the name- a name Marion had spoken fondly of on the plane ride there. Shit- no. He was just thinking this up because he hadn't been able to stop thinking about the woman he'd met the day before. Hadn't been able to stop regretting not getting her damn number. Manon must have just been a common name that he'd never heard before.

Fenrys groaned from where he and his twin lounged in the leather couch of the private section they'd secured for the time being. "Does that mean her perky little cousin isn't coming either?" He whined. "Gods, what I would GIVE to have another encounter with Asterin-"

"Don't be a pig, Fenrys," Connall rolled his eyes, grabbing the bottle of brandy Vaughan handed his way.

Asterin. Manon. Both names Marion had mentioned. Before he could open his mouth, Fenrys asked the question weighing on his mind for him. "Who exactly is in the wedding party if they aren't?"

Aedion took a swig straight from one of the bottles and counted off on his fingers, "Lysandra, Aelin's best friend," by the flicker in his eyes, she was something to him, too, but he didn't elaborate, "Evangeline, Lysandra's foster sister, Nesryn Faliq, another friend-" a sly glance in Westfall's direction at that, "And our adoptive sister Elide."

Lorcan felt his heart sink just a little bit. No Marion. Perhaps it was just a small world and Marion knew two of Aelin's friends, but not Aelin herself. He poured another glass for himself, again cursing himself for being a prideful idiot and not asking for her damn number. Now he was never going to see her again. -

Aelin got strippers. Of course she did. Elide shook her head fondly as they clambered back into the limo, all of them laughing. She wasn't shocked at all that her sister had gone all out as one of her last days as a 'free woman.' She had made several jokes about being 'put in shackles' in two days, but Elide knew she didn't mean it. She was hopelessly in love with Rowan, and everyone knew it.

Faintly, Elide felt a little stab of jealousy, but she pushed it off. She wouldn't think about the fact that she'd never, and might not ever, feel the love both her siblings felt. And she definitely didn't think about the super hot stranger she'd met on the airplane.

Aelin's phone buzzed and she drunkenly pulled it out, gulping down another glass of champagne. She and Lysandra were already wasted, along with Ansel, who had joined them, and Nesryn was getting there, but Elide had only nursed one beer and one glass of champagne, and didn't plan on drinking any more. Vernon had been a drinker, and an abusive one at that. The blonde gasped, leaning on her and practically shoving the screen in her face, though she was waving it so fast there was no chance of actually reading it.

"Dorian texted," she slurred. "They just-hiccup- got to the Sea King. Let's crash it?" Everyone else cheered, so Elide just went with it. She was sure Rowan wouldn't mind his fiance showing up drunk and throwing herself at him.

They arrived at the Sea King-a bar downtown that they loved to frequent. Rowan wasn't much of a club guy, though Aedion had forced him to go to one strip club-something Aelin wouldn't appreciate in the morning- and Elide was sure he was more than comfortable to end the night at a place he actually knew. Aelin led the charge in her scandalous red dress and hot pink 'I'm the fucking bride' crown that she found just hilarious, and Lysandra and Ansel paraded after her, Elide and Nesryn taking up the rear.

It had been a while since she'd been to the Sea King, but Elide knew it well- it was classy, for a sea themed bar. She knew Rowan and her siblings wouldn't go to it probably at all if it wasn't. And the sea embellishes were subtle, too- no obnoxious sea wall paper or tables made out of boat parts, thank the Gods. The bridal party moved towards the back, searching for the men, and Aelin didn't seem apologetic at all as she looked into sections occupied by other people.

Elide knew her sister had found Rowan because she very loudly announced, "I'M HERE TO TAKE MY FIANCE HOME."

"You're really already hammered?" Aedion complained. "It's barely past midnight!"

"And how the hell did you track us down?" A slightly familiar voice-Vaughan she recalled- asked. Someone must have pointed at Dorian, because there were groans of his name.

"What?" The Havilliard defended. "It was getting boring."

"Are any of you sober?" The voice of Chaol asked, and Nesryn appeared in front of her in the doorway.

"Elide is," she said, gesturing backwards with her head. "She's barely had anything to drink."

Aedion, Aelin and Rowan knew why she didn't get drunk, but no one else did, and because she didn't want to bring the mood down, she teased, "One of us has to keep track of the rest of-" she trailed off as she entered the section and there was Lorcan, lounging on a leather couch with a glass of some liquor in his hand.

Shit, shit, shit.

He started at the sight of her before his eyes narrowed, putting two and two together. Nesryn had called her Elide, not Marion. Her cheeks went red at being caught in her lie, and everyone noticed. But they thought she was flustered for a whole other reason. Aelin was too drunk to go all 'protective big sister,' but Rowan and Aedion immediately zeroed their attention in on Lorcan. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

"I need another damn bottle," he grumbled before he was hoisting himself up gracefully and stalking past her, down the hall to the bar. She waited two seconds, paralyzed, before she hurried after him. Better to deal with him then all of her friends and family.

It took her a little longer to get to the bar with her limp, and he was already at the bar, waiting for his bottle, a 50 on the counter in front of him. She slid into the bar stool next to him, and he glanced over, a cutting smile on her face. "Fancy seeing you again, Elide."

She sighed, putting her head in her hands. "To be fair, I never thought I'd see you again."

He shook his head. "You talk with me for two and a half damn hours about books and music and whether cats or dogs are better, yet you can't tell me your real name? How can I even be sure the rest of the shit you spewed out was real?"

"It was," she said roughly before her shoulders sagged slightly and she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I just.. don't trust men easily. And I thought we were only going to dispense with pleasantries, not talk the whole time. I DEFINITELY didn't expect to end up at the same wedding."

He studied her for a moment. "You mentioned an abusive uncle..." he paused. "This really isn't any of my business, but... did he..."

She knew what he meant. "No," she shook her head. "He never tried that. But there were, uh, a couple of guys who worked for him that almost did." Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed it down, shrugging a shoulder. "But they didn't, so it's fine."

"It's not fine," he said stonily, and how hadn't she noticed how tense he had gotten at the words?

"You're right, it's not," she agreed. "But it was years ago." She glanced back towards the hall, half convinced Rowan or Aedion would appear within a few seconds. "You do realize they think we had sex, right?"

The grin he flashed her way was predatory. "I like it when you blush."

She glared at him half heartedly. "And here I was, about to ask if I could make up being an idiot to you."

"I'm listening."

She bit her lip. "There's a 24 hour breakfast place down the street.. I mean, if you like breakfast food. And don't want to return back to-" there was a shout followed by what could only be Lysandra's cackling, "whatever that is."

He was already pulling back the 50 and withdrawing from the bar. "Breakfast food at midnight with a beautiful woman or watching your sister grind on my former colleague?" He asked, totally smirking when her face flamed red again at 'beautiful woman.' Bastard. "I don't know how I'll ever choose."

She withdrew from the bar, too, knowing his answer. "I didn't peg you as the joking type."

"To be fair, I've been drinking. And with Fenrys and Aedion all night."

"Okay, touche," she allowed, glancing again towards the hall.

"They're just going to think we're having sex again."

Not that it was any of their business who she slept with, anyways. "I don't care," she tipped her head up defiantly. "I want Belgium waffles." His chuckle chased her out into the night air, and, despite the chill, she felt warm.

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aelinbitch-archive · 5 years

Note

You've probably said this before but what's your favorite aspect of the TOG series? I've only read like ten pages of the first book lol

aaaaa thank u for asking!! this sort of leads into something i’ve been meaning to talk about for a while so i hope you’re prepared for An Essay No One Wanted By Me. anyway this is a two-part answer, read below:

1. Aelin. Celaena. The main bitch, whatever you wanna call her lol. Without her I probably wouldn’t have cared about the series at all and wouldn’t currently be trapped in ToG tumblr hell reluctantly stanning a racist and homophobic series, but unfortunately when I was like twelve years old or whatever and read the first book I literally imprinted on Celaena like a baby duckling. To the extent that she became, like, the default avatar for all my maladaptive daydreaming and If I Don’t Project On Her At All Times I Will Die. It’s not like she’s the only thing I like about the series (I loooove a lot of the other characters, especially the gals, and the writing can be really great and engaging and cinematic) but Aelin has always been the supermassive black hole at the center of it all for me. I wouldn’t know how to even begin untangling her character from my psyche at this point. It’s honestly a little disturbing. Anyway.

2. Part two is a quality of the series that I feel was unprecedented in its strength in the first five books of the series (ToG-QoS plus the prequel novellas) and really really disappointingly weak in the last two books (EoS-KoA). Like I said above, Aelin has always been my main interest in tog so I read and enjoyed the last two anyway, but I definitely felt the loss of this - “this” being the detail and attention paid to all different types of relationships between characters, and how rich and unpredictable those relationships were as a result.

That sounds like kind of a broad, vague thing, but what I mean is that (in my opinion) rarely are romances and friendships and rivalries explored with such nuance, complexity, drama, and realism in most YA as they are in ToG. I remember reading Cassandra Clare’s books (lmao.) as a pre teen and loving those as well, but totally being able to predict who was going to end up with who, and finding the character dynamics to be pretty cut and dry.

In ToG that’s not the case at all. Like, you’ve got Celaena and Sam, a really complex example of enemies to lovers to….. Tragically Dead Boyfriend Whose Demise Fuels My Guilt and Self-Hatred For Seven More Books, Lysandra and Aelin, two girls pitted against each other by their abuser who team up a year later to unlearn their internalized misogyny and kill him, and Aelin and Chaol, who… how do I even describe the ups and downs (and downs. and more downs) of their relationship.

And that’s just three pairs! Pull the names of two characters out of a hat and I can almost guarantee essays worth of material could be written about them. Arobynn and Aelin? Aelin and Nehemia? Chaol and Dorian, as much as I hate both of them and feel that their relationship as been widely mischaracterized? All fascinating!!! No two people in those first few books are just friends, or just lovers, or just enemies. It’s always more complex, there’s always a history or tension or competing agendas or viewpoints that Fuck Shit Up.

And benefit of that is twofold: one, everything that happens between the characters just…. lands so well. The betrayals and triumphs and losses and victories of The Assassin’s Blade and Crown of Midnight and Queen of Shadows (especially TAB) are fucking heart-stopping. It’s great character-driven entertainment!! Gripping and engaging and vivid to the point of being painful.

And two, there’s no way to predict where a relationship is going to go. Aelin and Lysandra teaming up in QoS instead of returning to their rivalry? Who would have thought! Ansel and Celaena’s summer fling (they were in love. fight me.) ending like That? Holy fuck. Nesryn and Chaol breaking up in ToD? Oh shit! I fell for it again! Rowan and Aelin ending up together after everyone swore they were brotp in HoF? Hell yeah! Chaolaena seeming like endgame and then ending forever, with Chaol and Aelin realizing that the rift between them that began in CoM was something that would never sufficiently heal? Unprecedented. Fucking badass for a YA book to curve everyone like that. Tween me was shook out of her mind.

(Important to note, though, that the downside of this style was that SJM couldn’t tell where ~unpredictable relationships and characters~ ended and fridging began, and as a result, not one but two woc were killed off to make white characters sad and it sucked beyond belief).

Aaaaaand then QoS, the peak of literature, turned into EoS, and SJM just… gave up on all of that. I remember the first time Dorian and Manon met, and I was like oh, okay. So they’re going to end up together. And I was right. I remember that on this site, before EoS came out, before Lorcan and Elide ever fucking MET, people predicted the existence of Elorcan!! And they were right!! Like how fucking boring? Everyone is just paired off into completely predictable heterosexual ships and those are now the only relationships we get to read about (with a few exceptions, like Aelin/Aedion, Aelin/Fenrys, etc.).

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: my least favorite thing about Manorian is not that I find the relationship to be shitty (although I do, I really do). It’s that Dorian is suddenly the only character Manon gets to interact with in any meaningful way.

Like, are you kidding?! I want to read about Manon and Elide, Manon and Asterin, Rowan and Lorcan, Aelin and Lysandra, Aelin and Nesyrn, even if it’s not romantically (although some of them, like Manon and Elide, absolutely should have been, and the fact that not only was that ship very thoroughly sunk, but also they didn’t even get to TALK after QoS, felt like a real slap in the face to gay fans, but I digress), because those pairings previously had hella complexity and drama. But we don’t get to.

And this trend that’s so painfully present in the last two books Sucks for two reasons: one, every relationship that isn’t romantic (which were previously some of the most interesting ones) is abandoned so that more time can be made for The Hets™ and two, the relationships that are romantic, now the only ones left, are totally fucking boring and predictable!! If two characters are interacting at any point (if one is male and the other is female, of course) then you know for a fact that they’re not only love interests, but endgame.

And that makes me not care even when there is drama between them. Elide giving Lorcan the cold-shoulder for three hundred pages, and Manon and Dorian arguing, and Aedion being cruel to Lysandra weren’t compelling narratives to me like they should have been, because the whole time I was just thinking “but it doesn’t matter. I know it’s still endgame. There are no stakes here whatsoever; it’s a done deal.” Whereas Chaol and Celaena’s devestating breakup in CoM felt like (and was) suuuuper Real. An all-in bet on the wrong person. Crazy shit.

And not that I think two characters should never have a happy ending together (I really like rowaelin and nestaq and I would have loved malide!) but imagine how much cooler and subversive and entertaining it would have been if Elorcan, which seemed soooo totally cute and endgamey and borderline like fanfiction throughout all of EoS just ended forever right there and then on the beach, with Elide turning to Lorcan and saying “I hope you spend the rest of your miserable, immortal life suffering. I hope you spend it alone. I hope you live with regret and guilt in your heart and never find a way to endure it” - and BAM. She never speaks to him again. He’s dead to her.

I mean, talk about shock value! (See, Sarah, you can have shock value without killing of a person of color to make a white character sad 🙃). And I totally get that relational twists like that alienate fans more than just going the expected route and having them kiss and make-up does (I mean, the ending of Chaolaena in QoS certainly did, Jesus Christ) but I, Bella aelinbitch, personally live for that shit, and isn’t it only fair that all media cater directly and specifically to me? Lmao. But seriously, I do think it’s objectively more interesting, and that it keeps readers on their toes (I was on my ASS in EoS and KoA. Like. I was flat on my back sinking into the Earth).

And there are still sort of… glimmers of the old way she wrote in the first few books, but it just feels like a tease rather than something that’s really explored and indulged in the way it was before, and it just ends up being more frustrating (like what was the point of Manon and Dorian not getting married at the end of KoA if I would bet my life savings that in World of Tog it’ll be confirmed that they’re either married or still together) and sometimes downright problematic? Like to return to a previous example, I think all the drama between Aedion + Lysandra was a result of Sarah’s previous (good) instincts to shake stuff up and complicate the character dynamics, but it backfires because when they end up together, it’s not ever… worked out? Or addressed? If you create really intense drama between two people, then that needs to show up in their relationship, no matter how happy they end up together. It doesn’t just disappear.

And despite the fact that her understanding of that concept (that shit between two people doesn’t just disappear like magic) is one of my absolute favorite things about the first few books, Sarah even went as far as to use the last two books to retcon some of the original complexity away, which makes me want to rip out my hair!! Like Aelin at the end of KoA just going “Love you Chaol and Love you Dorian xoxoxoxoxox best friends forever!!!” instead of having, like, any type of mixed feelings about the way these boys treated her? I mean, come on! 100 pages earlier Chaol was openly saying she should die instead of Dorian! Why is everything just peachy-keen instead of fraught with tension!! (I know why. I know. It’s because she introduced way too many characters/POVs/storylines as the series went on and didn’t know what to do with them all besides sideline the nonromantic ones and pair off everyone else boy-girl boy-girl down the line). Or if it has to be peachy-keen, why is the peachy-keeness never critically examined as, perhaps, a repressive mechanism for Aelin to avoid dealing with painful truths from her past? Now that would be interesting.

(My ideal World of ToG would be just a transcript of the characters’ therapy sessions where Aelin realizes that her insistence that “Chaol and Dorian Are Her Friends!” is actually a way to keep herself safe emotionally and that she has plenty of reasons to hate them, and Lysandra realizes she should divorce Aedion lmao).

Anyway tldr: The variety, complexity, depth, and unpredictability of the relationships in Throne of Glass was simultaneously the most realistic (sometimes relationships of all kinds fall apart or veer off in unexpected directions and love is temporary and the boy you met in the first chapter isn’t actually your soulmate and it doesn’t mean he’s a villain) and the most gripping and dramatic (I would have been totally chill if maeve and erawan weren’t a thing and tog was just like a medieval soap opera, that’s how entertaining the character dynamics were) thing about the series, and to lose that in the last two books because of Heterosexuality (and introducing too many POVs and not knowing what to do with them all)…. kinda devastating.

This ended up being waaaaaay more complaining than it was talking about what I loved, but the only reason it bothers me so much is because it used to be so good!!! So just imagine the inverse of all the frustration I just vomited into this ask and you’ll have a good idea of how much I loved the series when things weren’t this way.

#im SO sorry for how shittily worded/ranty/emotional/long this is but *antoni from queer eye voice* a shitty YA series is actually something #that can be so personal...#greatest hits: hot takes

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rufousnmacska · 4 years

Text

Goodbye and Hello - 9

Manon and Dorian said goodbye in Orynth. But for them, saying hello again is only a matter of time.

The final chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who has read this! I really appreciate all the support and comments!

Previous chapters (full recap)

Part One: I Wish…

Part Two: Another Day

Part Three: Those Two Words

Part Four: Breakfast in Bed

Part Five: Waiting

Part Six: Confessions (nsfw)

Part Seven: Old Friends

Part Eight: Light in the Darkness

***

Part Nine: Not Even Close

***

The sight of Rifthold on the horizon made Manon’s heartbeat skip into an uneven rhythm. As if in warning. For the first time since she’d left on this journey, fear and regret surged through her every nerve, replacing the impatience that had pushed her these last two days. The urgency to get here was gone in an instant.

Abraxos continued on, as though he didn’t notice her change in mood. Or, he was just ignoring it. That thought made her smile, relieving some small piece of tension from her body.

She’d never admit it to him – it’d go straight to his head – but he often knew what she needed before she did. When her grandmother had gutted her, when the horrors of Morath were chasing her, when she was on her last breath, she’d told him to take her somewhere safe. Only to awaken in a bed on a ship in the middle of the sea. A ship upon which Dorian sailed. No other person on board was known to Abraxos, had even been seen by him. Yet, he’d flown her there. To Dorian.

The memory helped dispel the fear, giving her a boost of much needed courage. Her wyvern reacted by flapping his great, silvery wings a little harder, propelling them faster towards the city that began to glow before them.

It was almost dark, and as the sun disappeared, she was glad to have taken this more traditional route. The long way, instead of using a wyrd gate. Manon knew Glennis questioned the wisdom of taking the extra time flying here. The gate would’ve been faster, easier. No chance to back out. But Manon had insisted. She needed that extra time to think, to make absolutely certain of what she wanted. Flying cleared her head. It always had. And though she’d had that frightening moment of doubt an instant ago, the wind had lifted it away.

Perhaps carried on that same wind, Glennis’s words came floating back to her. The not so innocent questioning had propelled her to this moment.

*****

Five days ago...

The room was large, warm, and well furnished. Except for the fact that there was only one bed. It could easily accommodate two witches though.

“I’ll try not to snore,” Glennis said as she sat her bags in a corner.

Manon, following right behind, said, “I’ll try not to kick you when you do.”

The old witch laughed. “At least your mood hasn’t soured at the prospect of a roommate. Especially one who is not your first choice in such matters.”

It had been just over six months since Dorian first appeared in Morrigna through a wyrd gate. Petrah and Glennis knew about the king’s frequent nightly visits. Chaol and Yrene knew of the queen’s occasional stays in Rifthold. And other than a few exceptionally trustworthy guards, no one else had been told.

In order to maintain secrecy while she and Glennis were in Briarcliff to meet with Ansel, Manon would have to go a few nights without the company of the king.

Watching Glennis sort through her things, Manon smiled, realizing she was glad for this time together. They spoke every day, but there was always so much going on around them that often it felt like she hardly ever saw her great-grandmother.

“Well, you’re my first choice tonight.”

Glennis laughed again, and Manon warmed at the sight and sound. How quickly she’d grown to love the witch. How completely she relied on her. The feelings were equal parts terrifying and comforting. Manon was still trying to parse them when she realized Glennis was asking her a question.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I asked if Dorian has discussed the problem he is having with some of his nobility.”

“No,” she said, not bothering to hide her confusion. “And how would you know of it?” She knew that answer at least but wanted to make the crone squirm a bit.

As she began to remove her heavy flying clothes, Glennis tried to appear innocent. She worked at the leathers and boots with her gnarled hands for several minutes. Manon’s patience dissolved as she began to tap her foot on the floor.

“You can speak and get undressed at the same time.”

“Ha! I’m not as young as you are.” Finally, she was in her bedclothes, climbing into bed, and moving to adjust the pile of blankets atop her. “Yrene mentioned it in a letter.”

“The letters he and I carry back and forth for you?” Manon asked. “If you’re going to plot and plan behind our backs, I’m refusing to deliver them anymore.”

Her great-grandmother sat against the headboard and pulled the covers up around her. “Perhaps we wouldn’t need to … what did you accuse us of? Plotting? We wouldn’t need to plot if the two of you took matters into your own hands.”

Manon leaned on the tall corner post at the foot of the bed and crossed her arms. “What matters? What is happening with his lords?”

“They are pushing their king to find a queen.”

Something in her stomach flipped and her face paled. She turned away and began to fumble with her own leathers. “No,” she said roughly. “He did not tell me.”

“Have you never considered it?” Glennis lost the smug teasing and now sounded concerned, truly grandmotherly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry.”

She pulled one of his shirts from her bag. It served as her bedclothes, when she needed to wear them. But she just held it, staring, trying not to inhale his scent that was still clinging to it. “Are you and Yrene aware that I once asked him? And he said no?” There was no anger, no cruelty in her words. She’d gotten over the rejection when he’d admitted that he wanted to say yes. Larger forces had kept him from it. And now, those forces were gone. She had yet to decide how that made her feel.

“No. When?”

Manon smiled. So much for not prying, she thought. Quickly, she threw the shirt on and got under the covers. Or, what was left that Glennis had not commandeered for her side. It was late spring, which meant it was still cold in the Wastes.

“The night before he left for Morath.”

Glennis sucked in a breath as a look of understanding filled her face. “Ah yes. I remember. I almost thought you’d go after him. If the call for aid had not come.” Curious now, she asked, “Would you have?”

“I don’t know,” Manon confessed. She’d felt the pull to go. The same pull she often felt around him. To him. Shaking her head, she said, “It doesn’t matter now. He said he would never cage me. Alliance or not.”

“Alliance?”

“I offered him a marriage alliance. For the war.” As she said it, she began to realize perhaps his duty to the keys wasn’t the only reason he’d turned her down. The cringe blooming on Glennis’s face seemed to confirm it. “Shit,” Manon said, flopping back on her pillow. “I made it sound like something to be … endured.” The memory of what she said came rushing back, making her feel worse. “Gods, I called it a sacrifice.”

“Oh dear.”

“Shit,” she repeated. “It’s no wonder.” A sense of frantic urgency almost overtook her as she turned to the witch. “Why is he still with me? After an insult of that magnitude?”

This time, when Glennis laughed, it didn’t make Manon feel warm and comforted. It only increased the anxiety. Almost like she knew what was coming.

“Because he is madly in love with you, granddaughter. Surely you know that! It’s written all over his face. The way he looks at you, the way he seems to…” She paused, looking for the right word. “The way he glows when he’s near you.”

Ghislaine’s books popped into her mind. The romance stories she’d glanced at that used ridiculous, flowery language and went on and on, endlessly describing feelings and heated looks and secret glances. Suddenly, she wondered if maybe she should actually read them to understand what the hell was happening to her.

Mouth halfway hanging open, she faced Glennis. “I didn’t realize …”

“Well, now you do.”

Manon said nothing, not letting herself be convinced by the observations of an old witch, who was no doubt influenced by a young, recently married healer. She couldn’t decipher their motives, and she didn’t think they were lying. But … they had to be wrong. Dorian would have said something by now.

But then she thought of the letters. And the Ferian Gap. The breakfast in bed. The gift of her favorite pastries. The wyrd gate that let her mourn in Theralis. That let them see each other whenever they wanted.

No. Glennis’s conjecture was turning her into some silly, love struck witchling.

“Do you love him?”

Her head shot around to find her great-grandmother’s curious, caring face.

Manon opened her mouth to answer, but then she stopped. What was the answer? She thought again of the Ferian Gap and asking him to dance. The books she retrieved from a place of bad memories to give to him. The pull, always towards him. Even before the war. He’d never feared her, never judged her.

Moisture began to fill her eyes as she stared intently at Glennis. “Yes,” she whispered. A sweet smile, full of love and joy, stared back at her. “But …”

The smile faded. “But what?”

“He is mortal,” Manon said, almost choking out the last word. A word she’d tried so desperately to forget. Dorian was a mortal. She was not. Losing him was a heartbreak she didn’t think she could take.

Glennis reached over and placed a cold hand on Manon’s cheek. “He is mortal.”

The affirmation of what she already knew still sent a spike of grief through her heart.

“But …” Her great grandmother had a sparkle in her eye.

“But what?” Manon asked.

Glennis sat back, beaming with some emotion Manon couldn’t decipher. “But he has raw magic, dear.”

Manon shook her head. “So? A lot was taken by the lock, he isn’t as strong as he used to be.”

Exasperation. That was the look on her face now.

“I happen to have it on good authority that he did not expend so much as to keep him from healing. He still has a substantial reserve of power.”

She knew he still had the ability to heal. But again, “So? I clearly don’t know what your point is. What authority? And what are you saying?”

"My point is that according to our continent’s greatest healer-”

Manon rolled her eyes. Not at the description of Yrene’s skill, but the meddling. Yrene and Glennis were like two little birds chirping back and forth and sticking their beaks in other peoples’ business.

“-the King of Adarlan’s magic will grant him a very, very long mortal life.”

She sat upright. “How long?”

All the amusement left Glennis’s face. “No one has the ability to predict such things. And that’s part of my point. I could drop over dead tomorrow.” Manon frowned, but Glennis kept going. “Harsh, I know. And not something I like to think about. But it’s the truth. It’s true of you as much as me. And Dorian. And Petrah and Bronwen. All of us. Do not conflate immortality with immunity from death. Long-lived by nature of being a witch or fae, or possession of raw magic … It amounts to the same thing. But,” she said, patting Manon’s arm gently, “never forget that we will all meet the same end.”

“So,” Manon started, unable to hold back a smile at Glennis’s raised eyebrow. “You’re saying that since any of us can die at any time, I shouldn’t worry about things outside my control and just enjoy the time I’m given?”

“Well said, granddaughter.”

Manon huffed a laugh, trying not to let this bright spot of hope take over too quickly. Glennis’s words, though greater in number and a bit more philosophical, mirrored Asterin’s final command to her. A command she never forgot, but one she sometimes didn’t translate well into whatever situation was troubling her.

“Do you really view marriage as a cage?” Glennis asked.

After a moment’s thought, Manon said, “I don’t know. I used to. But now, after seeing the Crochans with their husbands and wives, and the Terrasen queen with her mate …” Asterin had loved her hunter, enough to want to stay with him. Enough to regret not going back. “I’m not so sure.”

Glennis nestled down under her blankets. “I’ve seen it become so. But I’ve seen the opposite. Experienced the opposite. Marriage demands compromises and sacrifices, just as any relationship does. Allies, friends, family, lovers, spouses. None of it is easy. I can’t tell you what to do. Despite all of my plotting with Yrene,” she said with a wink, leaving Manon smiling. “It is your choice. Yours and Dorian’s. If you were to marry, the two of you determine the shape of that bond, and your paths through troubles and happiness. No one else.”

Thinking of all the interested parties, Manon wasn’t sure about that. Plenty of unimportant people, both human and witch, would offer their loud, critical opinions. And those who were important to them … Glennis, Chaol, Yrene, Petrah, maybe a few more. She wasn’t foolish enough to think they wouldn’t be among those giving unwanted advice. With a soft laugh, she realized that would be no different than her life now.

“Damn it,” she muttered, looking around the room, wishing she didn’t have to be here. Wishing she wasn’t obligated to spend two days cooped up, playing nice to get humans to stop harassing witches trying to settle near the border.

It must have shown on her face because Glennis said, “Be patient, dear. With all the meetings we have scheduled, this trip will fly by. Then you can tell him how you feel.”

And just like that, her insides somersaulted and she was glad to be here, unable to use the wyrdgate, unable to fly to Rifthold. Feigning agreement, Manon told Glennis goodnight and turned onto her side, pretending to fall asleep. But her mind and heart were racing, keeping her far from any sort of rest.

Tell him how you feel.

It sounded so simple. Just three words, spoken aloud. Laying herself completely bare in front of him in a way she’d never done before. That pathetic proposal might no longer register in her list of most humiliating memories. This confession would surely surpass it. As her imagination truly took off, envisioning myriad scenarios, almost all ending poorly, her stomach joined her heart and head. The sensation was nauseating, leaving her feel like she was falling.

Oh yes, she thought. This will be easy.

*****

“Is Manon joining us for dinner?” Yrene swung Josie around to her other arm flexing her newly freed hand in an attempt to relieve the numbness. “She’s almost too big to carry.”

“Here,” Dorian said. “I’ll hold her. She’s not too—"

Falling backwards onto the sofa, he cried out, pretending he couldn’t stand with her in his arms. Josie laughed and then screamed as she scrambled away from him. He didn’t reach for her, letting her crawl back towards him. When she was close enough, he lunged, grabbing her feet and wiggling his fingers on her chubby toes. She screeched again in between bouts of laughter. When she was gasping for breath, Dorian sat her on the floor and let her go, smiling as she crawled speedily away.

Short of breath himself, he took another moment before answering. “Not tonight. She’s in Briarcliff with Glennis. They’re meeting with Ansel about some border disputes.” They both watched Josie try to chase the dog around the kitchen table. “Not all of Ansel’s people like being so close to the witches.”

Yrene scowled. “I wish people were more open minded.”

“Like you were when you first met me?” Chaol asked as he came through the door. His wife dismissed him with a wave of her hand and went into the kitchen as Josie begged for Chaol to pick her up.

Yrene returned quickly, placing large bowls of steaming food on the table. With a decent attempt at innocence, she asked, “And when should we expect the wedding?”

Dorian sighed and didn’t reply, pretending to be too focused on scratching the dog’s belly.

“Honey,” Chaol said through clenched teeth. “It’s none of our business.”

Yrene opened her mouth to argue but she caught sight of Dorian’s face and stopped.

If Manon initiated it, he’d have the wedding tomorrow. But he’d long ago decided not to broach the subject with her. If it were to happen, it would be on her timeline, not his. As royals, they had the advantage of being able to set the terms of a marriage and union between kingdoms. That didn’t mean it was something she would look upon favorably. She’d never acknowledged it, but they both knew he had not been wrong about the cage.

To placate the sad, apologetic look on her face, Dorian winked and said, a little too brightly, “Yrene, you will be the first to know.” Her resulting smile pleased him, and they all sat down to eat.

Dorian was quiet as Chaol and Yrene talked about their day – what trouble Josie had started in the healer’s quarters, some issue with sword training and new guards, plans for the new Torre – only speaking when he offered to watch Josie one evening later in the week.

He loved them both dearly and appreciated their concern and desire to see him happy. But he wished they could understand that, marriage or not, being with Manon was enough. They already had a commitment, and thanks to the wyrd gate, the means to see each other whenever they wanted. He loved her.

And if that word had never been spoken between them yet? What did that mean?

He dipped a piece of bread in the thick stew and tossed it in his mouth. A good excuse to not have to talk. And the faster he ate, the sooner he could go back to his rooms and sulk.

*****

Josie squealed as the terrier leaped just out of her reach. He spun around, front paws stretched out, rump in the air, tail wagging like a feather, goading her to try again. He was not giving up the ball without a struggle.

Her face, pink with frustration, looked like a perfect mix of her parents, making Dorian laugh.

They continued playing, the dog teasing her with the ball as they sat in the midst of a chaos of toys in his drawing room. He tried to focus on them and not Manon. She should have returned from Briarcliff by now. That she hadn’t meant the border trouble was worse than they’d suspected. Another high pitched squeal broke through his worry. And just in time, he pulled the slobbery ball out of Josie’s hand before she could put it in her mouth. Tossing it across the room, he was grateful for this distraction. Probably not as grateful as Chaol and Yrene for the evening to themselves.

With a bright eyed grin, Josie suddenly pointed behind him to the door into his bedroom. Still sitting cross legged and holding a doll that was missing an arm, Dorian turned to find Manon watching them.

She was utterly still, her own eyes wide and shining.

Dorian blinked, thinking she was a vision, and before he could move, before he could even say hello, she shook her head and said, “This was a mistake.”

Then she turned and disappeared.

Dorian ran after her, calling her name, only to see her cross his balcony and hop onto Abraxos. It took her several commands to get him airborne, as if the wyvern was stalling, giving Dorian time to reach them. But Josie started crying from where she still sat in the other room and he skidded to a stop, looking between the toddler inside and Manon about to leave.

“Wait!” he shouted. Abraxos twisted his long neck around and gave him a sorrowful look just before Manon kicked with her legs, ordering him off the railing and into the air.

She had not looked back at him. Not once.

As they flew away, Josie’s cries reached him again and he ran back inside. She hadn’t moved, and he realized she was upset because the dog had raced off after him. He picked her up and bounced her in his arms as he paced around the room, wondering what in the hell had just happened. She quieted down quickly and, despite the guilt of interrupting their night, he called for a page to find Chaol.

It wasn’t long before Chaol and Yrene appeared, worried something had happened to Josie. But at the sight of her asleep in Dorian’s arms, they calmed down.

He was not calm though. With a quick explanation, mostly because there wasn’t much to tell them, he passed the baby off to her mother and went straight for the large closet in his bedroom. They never left a wyrd gate open, but only used them in private locations. The wyrdmarks were half written so it took him no time to complete the spell.

After a drop or two of his blood, the gate flared to life, looking out into the night sky. Darkness, a chill wind, and fragments of clouds drifting past the moon. He glanced back to Chaol, wordlessly asking him to close the gate. Chaol nodded and within a second, Dorian shifted into his raven form and flew through the flaming doorway.

His corvid eyes adjusted slowly to the lack of light, but there, flapping ahead, he spotted the brief moonlit gleam of Abraxos’s spidersilk wings. The magical door hovering behind him disappeared and Dorian sped up to try and catch them. Shifting to a wyvern gave him a boost of power and speed and soon, he was flying in their wake. Another shift, back to the raven, and he was above her. She hadn’t noticed him until the pop and buzz of magic with the final shift into his own form caught her attention. Manon looked back just as he dropped onto Abraxos’s back.

Crouching behind her, clinging to the edge of her saddle, Dorian shouted, “Land!”

Manon spun around, her eyes wide in anger as Abraxos began to bank and descend. As she realized the command had been to him, not her. And he’d obeyed.

Before she could say anything, the wyvern was skimming over the tops of trees, then landing at the edge of a freshly tilled field. Then, came the rage.

Jumping off the instant his talons touched the ground, Manon turned on the beast. “You traitorous worm! How dare you ignore my commands in favor of his!”

Dorian climbed down, feeling guilty for involving Abraxos. Though, he’d only told him to land. That the wyvern obeyed him was as much a surprise to him as it was to Manon. When he reached her, still yelling at her mount, he suppressed a smile.

Abraxos stared her down, taking her tantrum in stride, as if the screaming and cursing meant nothing. As if he knew none of this was really about him. When his eyes slid to Dorian, hers followed. And the yelling ceased.

*****

Damn those wyrd gates, she thought. And damn his shapeshifting. But, she might as well damn herself, her own stupidity, for coming here.

Dorian said nothing as he looked at her, waiting for her to explain. And as she stared up into his eyes, all she could see was that baby. How he’d been playing with her. Laughing. Happy.

The sight had made her question everything. Not her feelings for him. But whether those feelings were enough. Whether she was enough. And could give him what he wanted.

She hated this. Love and fear and doubt and need. A million emotions swirling inside her. A tempest she had no control over.

His brow creased and he leaned towards her, as if reading all of it on her face. Gently, he brushed his thumb along her cheek, hoping to coax her into speaking. And just that small touch was like a balm, cool to her skin, but a torch to her blood, sending heat coursing through her. Warmth, and love, she realized. It had always been there, in his touch. But she was only now able to see it for what it was.

“I came here to tell you.” She broke off, still fighting back the fear.

His hand dropped to her shoulder, down her arm, until he interlaced their fingers. “What?” he asked softly. “What do you want to tell me?” That fire from his touch still moved through her, filling her. “Manon,” he whispered.

With a deep inhale, hoping it would somehow give her courage, she said, “I came here to tell you that I love you.” She held his gaze, searching for any small sign that she would regret this. But there were already tears gathering. In his eyes as well as her own.

Dorian cupped her face in his hands and shook his head, blinking rapidly, not just to dispel the tears about to fall, but as if he couldn’t believe what she’d said. So, she said it again.

“I love you.”

And then, he was kissing her. And she felt the smile on his lips, felt the moisture on his cheeks, felt the joy radiating from him. His magic burst from him like a bright light, enveloping them in its glow.

Breaking their kiss, he rested his forehead on hers. “I love you too, witchling.”

Hearing it back, feeling its truth and gravity, Manon broke into a smile mirroring his own. She felt that warmth again, stronger, taking her over. And she realized it wasn’t just coming from him. It came from inside herself too, forcing its way to the top of that storm of emotion, overpowering everything else. Dorian kissed her again, and all she knew was that heat. From his touch, his love. And her love for him.

*****

“What spooked you earlier?” Dorian asked as he traced out some sort of pattern on her bare back.

They’d flown back to the castle, where Abraxos had been given several large haunches of meat – a thank you from Dorian and apology from Manon – and was settled in the stable that had been built for him.

Manon didn’t move from where she lay curled against him, enjoying the caress of his fingertips across her skin. Serene, safe. Two things she couldn’t remember ever feeling. Certainly not before him. Even his question didn’t intrude upon the peace she felt.

“I think you know,” she hedged.

He huffed a breathy laugh. “Just because I love playing with Josie doesn’t mean ...” He trailed off and Manon finally shifted, propping herself up on his chest so she could look into his eyes.

“We both require an heir,” she said matter-of-factly. “Delaying this discussion won’t make it easier.” She didn’t know where this newfound courage was coming from. True, she’d always been blunt. But hours ago, she’d been terrified.

Manon tried to envision a boy-sized Dorian, tearing through the castle creating mischief, only to be caught and punished with dance lessons. But try as she might, she couldn’t see it. It was as though Dorian had been born, fully formed, as beautiful and haunted and powerful as the day she’d first seen him in Oakwald, collared and possessed by a valg prince.

The sensation of his pulse beneath her fingertips made her blink and she realized she was touching his neck. The scarred skin, not overly rough but lighter than the rest of him, wrapped around his neck. The edges where pale skin met darker were jagged, like a lightning bolt. As if he’d been struck in one spot and the energy rippled through him.

Her eyes met his and she started to remove her hand. But he grabbed her arm and placed her fingers back on the scar.

“Only you,” he said. “Only you acknowledge it. No one else looks at it. They act as if it never happened.”

Manon considered. “Perhaps they think you want to forget.”

“They’d be right. To a degree.” Dorian closed his eyes, struggling to find his next words. “Part of me wants nothing more than to forget. That part would do anything, give anything to go back. Back before this,” his fingers grazed hers still atop the scar. “But the other part of me wants to remember. So it never happens to anyone again. I must remember so I can make amends to all those hurt by Adarlan.”

He moved her hand up to kiss it. “I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward. I want to live. You once told me to take no more than you gave. And I promise, I won’t. But I need you, however much you can give, I need you to live. At least, the life I want to live. I can’t see a future without you in it."

“And children?” Manon didn’t know what answer she was hoping for. Didn’t know what she in fact wanted.

The need for an heir was a steady, growing beat in her head. Not loud. Yet. But it was there. Along with the godsdamned fear. That she or the witchling would die. Or that she wouldn’t know how to be a true mother.

Dorian was silent, reading her expressions. Finally, he asked, “What do you want?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “With you ...” she paused, sorting through the thoughts twisting in her head. “Having a witchling is the greatest honor in a witch’s life. If that happened, I would want to share it with you. Only you.”

“But,” he prompted. His fingers began their previous motions across her back.

“But I don’t want to be pushed into it. I don’t want it to be about fulfilling a requirement.”

“You want time. You want it to be your choice.”

“Yes,” she said, relieved that he seemed to understand. “You never answered my question.”

Dorian smiled. “You just answered it for me. I would love to have children with you Manon. But by our own choice, and on our own time.”

“And if it never happens?" The joy he’d shown playing with Josie earlier ... Did he know how rare witchlings were?

With a shrug to make it seem as if he hadn’t spent time thinking about it, he said, “A suitable heir is not guaranteed by blood. I can name anyone heir, just as you could for the Wastes.” When she only hesitated, he added, “Despite all my mother’s ministrations, despite all the expectations of heirs and alliance and bloodlines, all I’ve ever wanted is a queen who I love, truly and with my whole heart. And a queen who would love me in return. Can you give me that?”

“Yes,” she replied, without an ounce of doubt. Pulling his hand to rest his palm on her chest, she added, “You have my heart.”

“You have mine,” he said, brushing his lips across hers. “Whatever else comes with it will be like frosting on a cake.”

Manon laughed, looking over at the few remains of the chocolate cake they’d devoured earlier, then resumed her position laying on him.

He took up the writing on her back again and she began to relax, enjoying the sensation, when something made her still. Dorian kept going and Manon focused, trying to pay attention to the shapes he was making.

“What is that?” she asked, not moving. “What are you drawing?”

“Letters,” he said, his voice giving away the fact that he must be smirking. “Words.”

Manon tensed and sucked in a breath. “What words?”

He brushed his palm down her back, as if erasing what had come before and started again.

With each word he wrote on her now hot skin, Dorian translated by whispering in her ear.

Will

you

marry

Manon remained motionless. Except for her heart, which was beating so rapidly she thought it might explode.

No fingertips this time, Dorian said quietly, “We can wait. For however long we need. There’s no rush and if you can’t do it, I understand. I just …” She heard him swallow, hesitating. “I love you.”

Pushing herself back up on her elbow, Manon looked at him. Just looked. Then she brushed her thumb across his lower lip. “This was supposed to take the edge off.”

“And did it?” he asked, no hint of levity or teasing. The sparks in his eyes were proof he remembered the last time they’d exchanged these words. He knew what should come next.

Not even close.

As she considered, she realized there were some edges he had subdued. Not the sharp edges of her witch soul, not the edges of who she was. Those were honed anew. But he had helped her onto the path of healing from the loss of the Thirteen. He’d helped her learn about trust and love and the hope of a better world. He challenged her, accepted her. He was her mirror in so many ways. There would be no cage with him.

Ignoring the line she was supposed to say in favor of answering the previous question he’d posed, she said simply, “I will.”

*****

Epilogue

Nine years later…

After a week of stormy gray skies, and high winds, the sun broke through on the one day that mattered. Even though they’d agreed to keep it small and simple, guests from three continents had come to the Ferian Gap. To celebrate a union and reunion. For the first time since the defeat of the valg, the royal wedding joining the Witch Kingdom and Adarlan brought together the allies of the war: Wendlyn, the Khaganate, the Western Wastes, the Silent Assassins, Eyllwe, Terrasen, Doranelle.

Manon wore a dress for the first time in her life, while Dorian, for the first time in his, felt nervous about having so many eyes on him. The only eyes he sought out, gold and brilliant and glittering in the sun, helped calm him. And he reassured her, many times and in many ways, that she was stunning in the form-fitting red silk.

The ceremony, held outside for the benefit of the Queen’s wyvern, was brief but emotional, with the heartfelt vows causing more than a few guests to reach for a handkerchief. None more so than the Queen’s great-grandmother and the head of Erilea’s Torre, who shared a long hug at the end.

A host of witches on wyverns and brooms joined a large group of Rukhin, riding mounts born and raised here by their Wing Leader Orghana, as they flew across the Gap, whooping and cheering their King and Queen.

Qara oversaw the food, which was plentiful and delicious. The old Rukhin cook was offered a bribe by the Terrasen Queen to move to Orynth. But she refused. Unbeknownst to a dejected Aelin, Manon convinced the cook to give up one recipe for chocolate pastries. She then secretly offered it to Rowan, as a gift he could give his wife. And as a thank you for helping Dorian escape Rifthold all those years ago.

At one point, the recently crowned Khagan and his children encouraged the Empress to sing. However, it took the combined efforts of Chaol, Yrene, and Dorian to get her to agree. Nesryn’s voice brought more guests to tears as the Rukhin were reminded of the old homes they’d left to start a new one here.

While their friends laughed and ate and danced, Dorian never left his wife’s side. He knew this was a bittersweet day for Manon. A day of love and joy, but it was incomplete without the Thirteen. She found solace in his suggestion that they were sharing that joy in whatever afterlife they watched from. Not the Darkness. They had not gone to a dark place. Her sisters resided in light.

When the music sped up and the other Rukhin singers took over, Dorian led Manon away from the crowd, back to the shadowed corner where they’d shared their first dance. And as they turned in slow circles, holding each other so close there was no space between them, they laughed and whispered, dancing like that for the rest of the night.

Well, not the rest of the night. They were interrupted by a witchling who had refused to be taken to bed. Rhiannon insisted on one more dance with her parents, only then would she go to sleep.

And she kept her word. Halfway through the song, held tightly between them, Rhia fell asleep on Dorian’s shoulder as Manon gently stroked her hair.

The end.

*****

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keishajay · 5 years

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I meant for this whole review to go in one post, but damn, I had a lot of complaints, way more than I thought once I started writing them down. Some are nitpicky; most are related to characters and writing choices. For the fans of this series, I did enjoy this series for what it is, but I’ll never defend it as great literature. It’s Sharknado levels of fun, and I live for stupid shit like that. For the haters, enjoy. Oh, and spoilers ahead.

Now, on to the cons, and hoo boy, are there a lot of them. First, I was shocked to see this was labeled book 7 and not 6. I had no interest in reading Tower of Dawn, as it was marketed as a side story novella. Kingdom of Ash expects you to have read it and spends little to no time explaining who all these new characters are. It’s not confusing, just annoying for those of us not invested in Chaol’s story enough to read the novella. If you like Chaol, more power to you. I just didn’t care enough about what was a sure outcome to waste my time reading a novella about him and only him. Nesryn goes with him as well, but she was barely a character in the fifth (fourth? I don’t know anymore) book, more a cool background piece than a real person. That’s not nearly enough for me to pick up an entire book.

Maas brings in four new “personalities” from Tower of Dawn that really just take up space and fawn over Aelin, just like everyone else. Hasar is just a crabbier version of Aelin; Sartaq loves Nesryn and that’s it; Yrene is Chaol’s wife who’s a healer and that’s it; and Borte likes arguing with her fiance. They might be more interesting in ToD, but here, they just read like cardboard cutouts. They’re unnecessary and boring.

And speaking of unnecessary, there are WAY too many POV characters in these books. What started with a handful of mostly essential characters has now become a library’s worth of them. Even Lysandra’s ward, Evangeline, gets a couple POV bits to herself. Why? They added nothing to the story aside from remind us that she was there and still alive. More POVs should only ever be added to further the story or themes. I kid you not, Elide and Lorchan are together for 90% of the last two books, and for some reason, they both have POV chapters. Elide was already established and should’ve been the only one necessary, but you know, Lorchan’s hot so we should hear him angst too. And that is all he does, by the way, angsts over Elide. Hell, by the end, I was a little surprised Abraxos didn’t have his own POV chapter.

Maas also adds nonsensical things in to ramp up the drama. The worst offender is the character Darrow. He and TWO other old men boss Aedion around throughout this entire book, because... reasons, I guess. They don’t recognize Aelin as queen, fine. But they’re three old dudes against Aedion, who literally commands their entire army and the fire-bringer all the people in their whole country rally to. If anyone can give me a logical reason why Aedion didn’t just ignore every order they attempted to give him, I’m all ears. Instead, he tiptoes around them constantly and outright steals his own army from under their noses to do what he wants anyway. Why? They all know damn well Aelin is the rightful queen and they wouldn’t even have an army without her and Aedion. She could crush them under her thumb, and they all know that too. Hell, Aedion’s treason would even be forgiven in moments when she took her throne back from... no one. Darrow isn’t even trying to be king of Terrasen. He just doesn’t like the idea of this bratty teenager being his queen, and who can blame him? Yeah, I know she wants her country to be different, but she can’t change anything from the sidelines when the old rules are the only things keeping those men in power over her. There is no good reason for Aedion to obey any of their orders. They can do nothing to stop him, and they all know it. They are literally only there so Aedion has someone besides Lysandra to be pissed off at.

Speaking of Aedion being pissed off at Lysandra. For the haters out there, yes, he has every right to be mad at her. She may not have been the one to come up with this insanity, sure, but she knew Aelin suspected it might be necessary. Telling the one person who foams at the mouth anytime someone gets within spitting distance of his cousin that maybe something terrible could happen to her, making this plan necessary, should be at the top of your to-do list. She knew damn well what she was doing and how he would react the entire time Aelin was teaching her to play pretend. He should be angry with her for not telling him what was going through Aelin’s head, not for following the orders of their queen. Yes, him throwing he naked out in the snow was a major dick move, and I’m glad that she didn’t let him forget it. What I don’t condone is his reaction to seeing Aelin again. He just hugs her like nothing ever happened. He’s an asshole to Lysandra for months, but he just forgives Aelin for everything as soon as he sees her. I’m sorry but no. I would’ve forgiven the entire conflict between him and Lysandra being tedious if he had just punched her in the face before he hugged her. God knows she deserves it for all the shit she’s pulled over the course of six books.

So, I hate Aelin Galathynius. Like straight up hate her. She went from being a brat in the first few books to being the worst case of Mary Sueitis I have ever seen outside of self-insert fanfiction. First, she’s a secret princess, a “twist” anyone with a brain could see coming. She’s also somehow the best at everything she does, even though she shows no evidence of any of it. How does the country’s best assassin get caught? On top of that, how does anyone even know who the country’s best assassin is? Shouldn’t hiding your identity be rule number one in the assassin handbook? This shit-licker could’ve been any happy-ass teenager with a knife pretending to be this famous assassin when they caught her. How would they know? Answer, they shouldn’t have any idea (that would’ve also made for a much more interesting story). So, not only is she the best at everything she tries for reasons, she’s also the only one in the whole damn world with fire magic, the only thing that can hurt the demons for a majority of the series. And she doesn’t just have regular old everyday fire magic. No, she has fire to rival fifteen suns going supernova at the same time. She’s also the prettiest and smartest and nicest and snarkiest and funniest girl in the world. She outsmarts someone thousands of years old who could’ve snapped her neck or dropped her in to a literal Hell with a flick of her wrist. But no, Princess Mary Sue wants her new boytoy free, so the villainess has to get tricked into letting him go. Now, let’s not forget she’s also the Chosen One who deus ex machinas her way out of sacrificing herself because no one can do anything without her there to save the day. Seriously, no one ever wins anything unless she’s there. It happens more than once in this book. Her boytoy and company show up to rescue her from aforementioned villainess just as she’s breaking herself out, and they can’t get her chains off until she somehow shows them how to unlock them. She then proceeds to get them out of the country through her magic of summoning deus ex machinas whenever she needs one, and they arrive just in time to rescue Chaol and Nesryn from certain doom. She stops a cascading river with fire because science, and when all hope is lost back home, she shows up on a magical white deer with the Rohir- oops, I mean her army. She also somehow holds off two of the most powerful creatures in the world with her assassin skills and barely any magic, because... villains have to lose, I guess. You know what Aelin loses by the end of the book? Her humanity, which she suddenly cares about ten pages before it’s gone. Aedion lost his father and at least half an army at his command. Manon lost the only people she really cared about in the whole world, and she could do nothing but watch them sacrifice themselves. And Aelin lost her humanity when she’s already been living as a fae since book 3. Oh God, how will she ever survive such a loss? She is actually the worst.

These books, this one in particular, are clearly written with a younger audience in mind (much younger than me at least, and I’m 30), and I strongly believe the target audience is girls. There is so much description of how beautiful the men in this series are that it almost borders on obscene. I do appreciate having a clear picture of what characters look like, but I do not need to know about all the rippling muscles and long fingers that all the men in this series seem to have. Even bookworm Dorian is described as being oh-so-sexy even though he doesn’t appear to have ever handled a weapon in his life. There is a lot of pandering to the female audience, especially with the sex scenes. In a YA novel, these are pretty inappropriate. She started with sex scenes being a fade-to-black kind of event, and now, almost every single one is described in disgusting detail. I like romance as much as the next girl, but if I wanted soft-core porn, I’d read romance novels. To top that shift off, she still insists on using “rutting” as a substitute for “fucking,” and I think that’s what bothers me the most about the whole change here. They are completely interchangeable in every context, to the point where I just read “rutting” as “fucking” every single time. This isn’t Brandon Sanderson’s silly but story-appropriate swearing. It’s just lazy writing. And detailed descriptions of sex are okay, but swearing? Someone call Takamata. We need to start the Inquisition. (History of the World reference for anyone confused.)

This story ends exactly as you should expect it to, with a happily ever after. None of the main characters die, and those with names go out as sacrifices, which is honestly consistent with the rest of the deaths in this series. The deaths we do get are mostly to make the main characters feel bad for no real reason. Aedion even flat-out states that Gavriel could’ve stayed inside the walls, and there is no argument, author or characters, as to why he had to go outside. At least the Thirteen’s sacrifice makes more sense. It was still pretty dumb to have them go out at all, but I don’t know if I could come up with a better way to destroy those witch towers. What they did was noble and understandable in context, though there were probably any number of ways it could’ve been avoided. I’ve seen Desolation of Smaug. Just drop a dragon/whale/elephant-Lysandra on top of the tower before they even get it fixed up to move again.

One last complaint that I have regarding the ending is largely the villains. There are three of them, and all three kind of go out like bitches. Erawan, the dickhead pulling the strings since book 1, gets tricked and healed to death. There are a lot of millennia-old creatures getting tricked into doing stupid things in these books. Manon’s grandmother (who never gets a name by the way) gets blown up by Asterin. Honestly, hers was probably the most satisfying end of the three because Asterin got the vengeance she deserved for her hunter and child. Maeve somehow became the biggest threat halfway through the series, and she meets her end in the most extravagant fashion, impaled by Fenrys and then decapitated by Aelin and burned to ash. What irritates me most about Maeve is she could’ve been great. If anyone has read the manga, Magi, you know what I’m talking about. Maeve is discount Gyokuen with half the threat and less than a quarter the sense. Where Gyokuen is highly capable, both as a fighter and a politician, Maeve is kind of a pushover who gets tricked by our “heroes” numerous times. She’s shown preparing for all sorts of unlikely eventualities, but she somehow can’t handle the plucky teenagers. Give me a break. From the moment you meet her, you know Gyokuen is going to be one of those bad guys that will require some clever thinking to defeat. I felt like Maeve could just be snuck up on and murdered by anyone who knew her schedule. Her last ditch effort against Aelin was clever, but other than that, she barely puts up a fight despite all the fear and hype she gets from almost every character in the book.

Now, like I said above, I did enjoy these books. I don’t feel like my time was wasted or that I was manipulated by them at all. I had fun with them the same way that I have fun with SyFy channel original movies. The characters and story had so much more potential than what this amounted to, but I don’t hate this series at all. Yes, the subplot with the gods was idiotic and unnecessary, but the valg were interesting as an enemy type. Yes, the romance shoved down my throat could be awful at times, but some of the relationships were genuinely sweet. Chaol and Dorian are the best bros, and I love Lysandra taking it upon herself to protect this little girl when she could’ve looked the other way. Manon’s relationship with Asterin was great as well. Do I wish it was better? Absolutely. Should it be boycotted by everyone? Of course not. Despite their problems, these books are fun, fluffy, popcorn movie fun, and sometimes, that’s just fine.

#kingdom of ash #throne of glass #spoilers #complaints #honest review

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j-ai-croque-la-pomme · 3 years

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Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas

Après ma lecture des quatre premiers tomes de A Court of Thorns and Roses, je suis tombé sur une offre incroyable, la série complète de Throne of Glass pour un total de 42$. Comment vous dire que je suis sautée dessus telle une hyène enragée tellement j'étais excité! Bon, c'est la première série de huit livres que je termine, je n'ai lu que ça du mois de novembre au mois de janvier. Quoi dire de plus... je suis fière de moi.

Je critique souvent Sarah J. Maas sur ses choix d'écriture et son manque de diversité, mais je mentirais si je disais que je n'aime pas pour autant ce qu'elle écrit. C'est aussi addictif que de la fanfiction, mais il y a un côté professionnel ajouté au tout. Pour une fois, j'ai réussi à m'attacher à son personnage principal, Celaena. Elle a su me toucher, et je ne voulais que lire son point de vue tout au long de la série. Je ne pensais même pas que mon attachement pour cette dernière était aussi grand, jusqu'à tant que des larmes coulent sur mes joues à plusieurs reprises pendant ma lecture de cette série massive (oui oui, malgré mon cœur de pierre il m'arrive de pleurer).

Je vais vous faire une petite analyse tome par tome, mais ne lisez pas si vous ne voulez absolument aucune appréhension sur cet univers.

The Assassin's Blade (5/5) : C'est le grand commencement de cette série d'après moi, il nous donne une mise en contexte pertinente et nous explique les origines de notre héroïne. Sam est la plus belle chose qui ressort de ce livre, dommage qu'on ne le voit plus! Beaucoup aime critiquer ce regroupement de nouvelles, mais selon moi, c'est un des livres les plus intéressant et touchant de la série.

Throne of Glass (3/5) : C'était un bon commencement, un peu mou et superficielle à certains instants. J'ai aimé l'inspiration à la Hunger Games. Dorian est un personnage que j'apprécie, à la fois doux et intelligent, il a su me charmer, beaucoup plus que Chaol. J'aime les éléments surnaturels, et pour une fois on a le droit à une héroïne badass qui ne met pas sa féminité de côté pour autant.

Crown of Midnight (3,5/5) : Chaol est vraiment vide, je ne l'aime pas et je ne veux rien savoir de lui. À chaque fois qu'il ouvre la bouche, c'est pour se plaindre. J'ai tout de même apprécié ce livre beaucoup plus que le premier, et les révélations m'ont choquée. J'aime aussi qu'il y ait de vraies conséquences, et qu'on y voie tranquillement le début d'une guerre sans repos. L'action était présente, j'ai apprécié ma lecture.

Heir of Fire (2/5) : Le point fort de ce livre, c'est l'introduction de Manon, la sorcière au cœur de pierre qui arrive tout de même à me toucher. Par contre, tout ce qui concerne Rowan m'a très sincèrement ennuyé, tellement que je ne me souviens plus de rien de ces passages. La relation entre Sorscha et Dorian m'a faite profondément cringe, et j'étais presque contente de la tournure des événements.

Queen of Shadows (5/5) : C'est mon tome préféré de cette série, j'adore l'introduction de Élide et Lysandra, ce sont des personnages qui me touchent beaucoup. J'aime aussi la rébellion que Manon créer, et son amour pour les treize. L'action était à son comble et j'ai senti que pour la première fois on partait dans une direction plus concrète pour la suite des choses.

Empire of Storms (5/5) : La fin a arraché mon cœur et a pillé dessus par la suite! J'ai pleuré comme une madeleine. J'aime aussi que tous les éléments placés dans les tomes précédents commencent enfin à s’entre croiser et à créer une histoire riche et touchante.

Tower of Dawn (1/5) : Mon Dieu que j'ai trouvé que ce livre était impertinent à souhait. Comme je l'ai dit plus tôt, je n'aime pas du tout Chaol, et lire un livre qui suivait majoritairement son point de vue était horrible. C'est le gros point faible de cette série, je ne le trouve pas nécessaire, et je voulais juste me plonger dans la finale que j'attendais depuis trop longtemps déjà. S'il y a un point positif, c'est l'histoire de Sartaq et Nesryn. Finalement, j'ai trouvé que le personnage de Yrene était certes intéressant, mais je n'ai pas aimé que cette dernière ait un pouvoir incroyable, alors qu'elle n'a aucunement travaillé pour, c'était un peu comme un deus ex machina raté. Je ne me suis pas attaché et très sincèrement je me foutais de cette relation.

Kingdom of Ash (4/5) : J'aime comment cette série se terminé, je ne pouvais pas lâcher ce roman, je l'ai terminé en trois jours. Je suis juste déçu du manque de conséquence pendant la guerre, si vous voyez ce que je veux dire. C'était ce d'ont j'avais besoin, et j'ai eu les larmes aux yeux pendant l'épilogue.

En conclusion, je dirais que c'est la meilleure série de SJM. Les personnages sont travaillés et l'histoire a été pensée pendant des années. Je dois dire que je suis réellement impressionné, c'est à considérer pour tout admirateur de livre fantastique rempli d'action et de rebondissement. Je la recommande chaudement,

Attention divulgâcheur 1!1! : Unpopular opinion sur la série

- Dorian et Aelin auraient dû terminer ensemble.

- Manon aurait dû finir seule.

- Lorcane ne mérite pas Élide, et il est borderline toxique.

- Rowan est vide est inintéressant.

- Lysandra et Élide sont d'après moi les meilleurs personnages.

- Aedion est un douchebag.

- Yrene n'aurait pas dû être dans l'histoire, et Chaol aurait dû mourir afin de créer des conséquences.

- Tower of Dawn est le pire livre.

- Cette série est meilleure que ACOTAR.

#sjm #sarah j maas #tog #throne of glass #critique de livre #critique de lecture #critique

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bookofmirth · 7 years

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I just finished ToD and I'm confused how SJM will be able to wrap up all the characters endings in the last book even if it's the same 550+ pages. There's so much happening now and so many characters with ambiguous endings…am I alone in this?

Noooo, you are totally not alone in this. I would not be surprised in the least if she ended up splitting the next book into two. I’m afraid she’s going to do what she did with acowar and try to shove too much stuff in, including wrapping up all the plotlines she has going on now, probably introducing a few new characters, and continuing on with the ones we met in ToD. I think that she has said at book events that she wants it to be like 1k pages, and it really needs to be at least that long! Or just two more books, but I’m actually kinda torn on that. It would kinda suck to not learn much more about the side characters, but I’m a Team Give Aelin 90% of ToG7 and Let Fanfiction Fill In the Rest.

Let’s make a list of all the things we need answers to, shall we? *****PS SUPER SPOILERY FOR ToD BUT I’M NO LONGER TAGGING THAT*****

Aelin needs to get away from Maeve. Most important. If the entire book was this, I would be ok with that.

We need something to happen with the wrydkeys and the gate, IE is anyone going to have to sacrifice themselves

Manon and Dorian are off trying to find the other wyrdkey

Dorian needs to be able to establish himself as King of Adarlan

Manon needs to get the Witchlands back and kill the GrandBitch

Elide and Lorcan need to get resolved, either her not being pissed anymore or maybe he would sacrifice himself in some way to say he’s sorry? (not *trying* to break anyone’s heart here)

Rowan and Aelin need to have a baby, and I KNOW I DON’T LIKE BABIES but for them it’s completely different, we need to know that the Galathynius line will continue.

We need some kind of resolution for the whole Maeve/Erawan/other two dudes thing. Like what’s going on with this spider army she has going for her.

Darrow and the other lords need to fall in line and support Aelin

Chaol and Yrene need to get back to everyone else

Chaol needs to learn about all the shit he missed

Nesryn needs to actually become the khaganette and contribute to her country in a way that will fulfill her

Lysandra needs to find her uncle

Lysandra and Aedion need to make up

Also we need to see how good of a job Lysandra does at playing Aelin for a while

That ring that Maeve wanted? I don’t remember who has it now? But what was up with that?

We also need to find out what plans Maeve has for Aelin

And Nox is supposed to come back?

And plus we have how many groups who came to Aelin’s aid at the end of EoS? We have Ansel and the Assasin’s from the place the Red Desert or whatever (don’t have my book with me, sorry) and also Rowan’s family and then the people from Antica.

I feel like this turned into more of a ToG7 wishlist than an actual list of things that *have* to be resolved, but, uh....

#tog #throne of glass #tod #tower of dawn #empire of storms #ask #anon #tog7

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mayhemories · 7 years

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Braids & War Paint (Part 10)

Notes On: Part 1: / Part 2: / Part 3: / Part 4: / Part 5: / Part 6: / Part 7: / Part 8: / Part 9:

The Ellywegian humidity had gone to Aelin’s hair by her third day of training. Nehemia had been teaching her all she could, about visions, about certain wyrdmarks that Aelin could use (with high risk), she learned about the use of blood in magic, how her fae blood may change wyrdmarks. Nehemia had pushed Aelin to her limits, the last straw was the wyrdtravelling, the use of marks could help Aelin move from one side of the castle to the other.

They were resting together in the library when Lysandra flew in. She had worn the shape of an eagle, her wingspan only just fitting through the open window.

As soon as Aelin saw Lysandra’s green eyes she had known something was amiss. Lysandra was never one to rush changing forms, but as soon as she passed the threshold, Lysandra’s booted human feet touched the cool marble.

“What is it?” Aelin asked, scrambling from her seat, sweat stuck her baby hairs and regrowth to the nape of her neck and forehead. Nehemia stayed seated, her intelligent eyes flickering between the two.

“Aelin, I’m sorry-“ The Princess cut her friend off before any sob could escape Lysandra.

“What’s happened?” Aelin asked, her tone harsher.

Lysandra reached out and grabbed Aelin’s hands, to stop them from lashing out or to comfort her, Aelin didn’t know.

“Aedion found their bodies this morning, I came as quick as I could.”

Aelin felt like she was drowning and crashing at the same time, her sensitive ears rung but became blocked at the same time. Her blood boiled yet became so cold she didn’t know whether her heart had stop beating.

“Have they been buried?” Was all Aelin asked, her voice flat and deadly calm. She never knew that she’d be come discussing her parent’s funerals, let alone her uncle Orlon too.

“No, Aedion- He, he wanted to wait for you.” Lysandra said, stumbling over her words.

Aelin turned her head, made eye contact with Nehemia. Her intelligent eyes softened for Aelin just as the salty tracks had made their way to Aelin’s slightly parted mouth.

“We shall go home then.” Aelin said.

She knew she should feel awful, her parents are dead. Her uncle is dead. But the tendrils of the throne caressed her mind.

She had made a promise to Rowan Whitethorn, she had not expected her court to be assembled so quickly.

The whole ride home, with the occasional wyrdtravel, Aelin didn’t think about her mother or her farther or her uncle or the throne.

She thought about Rowan, she thought about their court.

She thought about the threat of the valg to the east.

When Rowan was on the ship home he thought about seeing his cousins, he thought about telling Enda and Sellene about Aelin. He did not expect to be sitting in a war tent, covered in weapons, surrounded by his friends, he did not expect to be monitoring valg ships from the cost.

He never thought that every Wendlyn soldier would be under the cadre’s command. Rowan had never seen an army so big, every Doneralle soldier, every Whitethorn, an odd hundred strong fae that lived for thousands of years, Maeve herself.

It still wasn’t going to be enough to stop the imminent slaughter.

They might hold the valg off at the beach, the cliffs were hundreds of feet above sea level. But without an endless supply of flammable liquids and powders Rowan had not much hope that the catapults loaded with the flame enhancers were going to be affective.

Rowan reached to the back of his head, his long hair had been tied back. He ran his pointer finger across the braid, across the promise that he hoped he’d never accomplish.

Rowan’s jaw clenched as Galan Ashryver, dressed in traditional Ashryver armour of gold, waltzed into their tent. Galan has had battle experience before. But he was a tactician above all, similar to Elide Lochan of Perranth.

“They move rather quickly.” Galan said, staring at the map before them. The valg ships had been moving across the water with inhumane efficiency. It wasn’t the first time Rowan had battled against an enemy that he was unfirmilar with, but this time he couldn’t afford to make mistakes. Not now, not with the knowledge he’s gained from his trip to Terrasen. If only they had the Bane here, they would make all the difference, but Rowan could not have one without the other; you receive no Bane without Aelin.

“Do your cousins wear that gaudy armour too?” Fenrys said, his efforts to lighten the mood were diminished as Rowan started at him from across the table.

“In Terrasen they wear leather armour,” Galan said, pulling a seat for himself across from Rowan. “The higher ups have thick leather laced with spider-silk, it’s impenetrable.” Galan’s eyes became unfocused and stared right past Rowan. Rowan placed his bets that Galan’s thoughts rested on Aelin, how she could turn the tide for them.

Fenrys scoffed before saying:

“Furs too, I bet.”

Rowan growled. Standing from his seat, he let his eyes bore into Fenrys’ golden ones.

“Furs, war paint, drums and the chorus of their enemies screams. Terrasen has never lost a battle and I think it would be in your best interest-”

A young page boy ran into their tent, his eyes wide with terror and his legs caked in mud. He held a scroll, a wax seal in evergreen had the stag he was familiar with but it was different, a flame sat above the stag’s head.

Galan ripped it out of the boy’s shaking hands before dismissing him.

He skimmed the letter with his eyes before making eye contact with Rowan. His heart pumped like the rhythm of wyvern wings in the sky.

“To whom it may concern,” Galan began reading. “This letter is to inform thee that a new dawn has graced. Queen Aelin of the Wildfire has ascended her throne after the recent deaths of King Orlon Galathynius, the Prince Consort Rhoe Galathynius and the Princess Consort Evalin Ashryver, yours truly, Hand of the Queen, General Aedion Ashryver.”

Rowan’s hands curled into fists as he shoved Gavriel out of his way. Rowan moved as quick as he could to the cliff’s edge.

He looked out at the enemy ships, he looked past them. He imagined he could see the glistening city of Orynth from where he stood.

I’m sorry, Fireheart.

Don’t be, the Valg won’t be sorry when I hold their king’s head in between my jaws.

“Prince Rowan!” A Doneralle banner-man ran into Rowan’s tent stirring him from his thoughts.

“What is it?” Rowan said jumping to his feet, all his weapons groaned under the pressure of the steel and leather straps.

“The Valg have taken a port a day’s ride north, hundreds of Doneralle soldiers have been killed.”

Rowan ran for the War Tent, Lorcan joining him seconds later.

Maeve was frantic. He, let alone anyone else in the room, had seen their Queen panicked. In this case, darkness couldn’t fight against darkness. Maeve, for the first time in her existence, was at a loss.

“If they keep this pace we will never stop them,” She said, her chuckled gripped white against the table. “How far is the Whitethorn army?”

“A day’s ride south, My Queen.” Rowan said, his eyes flickering from general to blood-sworn to common soldiers in the tent. The tension was too high, he felt like he could choke on it.

“They won’t be enough, not with all the fae we’ve lost this evening.” Maeve said, her dark eyes became threatening and colder than before.

“If I may, M’lady.” Galan began, he placed a map of the world flat in front of Maeve. “As you can see, Terrasen is our closest ally. I know Aelin, I know what she is capable of.” His eyes darted to Rowan’s, though his were trained on the map, even though his left hand had strayed to his hair.

“With recent news, Prince Galan, Aelin has more reason to watch us burn.” Galan shook his head at Queen Maeve’s remark.

“I know from a very reliable source that Aelin’s inner circle all have armies that would come to her aid at the snap of a finger, not only that but Terrasen’s navy is double the Wendlyn fleet.”

Rowan looked from friend to friend, seeing of anyone would reject the proposition. Aelin had lost her family, no earlier than twelve hours ago and now they want to drag her into a war as a weapon.

“Pen a letter to my niece, Galan Ashryver, immediately.”

Rowan’s heart had fallen to his stomach.

With a crown of flame upon her brow and a cape of ghost leopard pelt upon her back she would avenge her beloved. Not without the final one, the last key.

Deep within the Endovier Salt Mine it sat, and if Aelin had to pull that mine apart brick by brick to get to it, then so be it.

AN: Boyo’s, I’m sorry that took so long and I’m sorry it’s not very good. Do you guys have any thoughts/predictions? If you do please comment them, I love hearing from you guys! ALSO WE MADE IT TO 280 FOLLOWERS WTH! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

This part was was written for: @2-bookmaster-2 @aelin-and-feyre @rowanismybae @sparkleywonderful @cassiancalore @igniscorde7112 @illyrian-high-lord @daughterxofxnight @bigsis227 @crazybookladythings @gcarroll @sugarcoated44 @wolffrising @notjustanyoldfangirl @bluephoenix222 @readinglikewildfire @fck-tamlin and @azrielsiphons

I recently did 2 really cringy SJM Accent Challenges that you can find here and here.

If you have any ideas, questions, prompts, asks, requests or just want a bit of a chat the comments, my inbox and my ask box are always open.

Thank you all, much love and many thanks,

-El.

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