Dreamy Bee

I dragged a hand over my face before going to Elain and touching her too-bony shoulder. “Can I set you up in the garden? The herbs you planted are coming in nicely.”

“I can help her,” said Azriel, stepping to the table as Elain silently rose. No shadows at his ear, no darkness ringing his fingers as he extended a hand.

Nesta monitored him like a hawk, but kept silent as Elain took his hand, and out they went.

Elain is given the option to have either Feyre or Azriel take her to the garden, and without saying a word, she takes Azriel’s hand and they go out together.

Today I was minding my own business, thinking about Elain, then thinking about Azriel, then thinking about them, as one does.

I thought about the quiet ones, where you’ll have to look a little further than their sleeve to see what’s in their hearts. And I thought of how they saw each other. Of faint smiles and an outstretched hand. Of sunlight bathing them as he saw her needs. Of her seeing beauty where others saw scars. Of a voice soft as night, and her throat bobbing. Of a thoughtful gift that lit up his eyes and found its place on his bedside table. Of time spent together well into the night. Of shy glances and small smiles.

I thought of charged gazes and brushing fingers.

Then I thought of a cruel fate. I thought of Elain, choice taken from her once again. I thought of Azriel, pained to the point of torment. Of sleepless nights and razing thoughts. Of wants and needs and overheated skin. Of the agony of staying away. Of Elain, well aware of that as she pivots into his touch. Of the two of them, “in the dark and quiet, with no one to see”. Of one secret taste. Of her breathing “yes” as she reads his decision. I thought of his hand in her hair, her lips parting. Of relief and need, and eyes full of trust and hope. Cauldron be damned, the Mother as their witness. Of being right on the edge of bliss as fate, corrupt as it were, once again makes its presence known.

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

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

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

And then Azriel said this...

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

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

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

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