A & G

It’s all there

A precious late submission by @/ kloartz!

Gwyn whispered, “I am the rock against which the surf crashes.” Nesta straightened at the words, as if they were a prayer and a summons. Gwyn lifted the blade. “Nothing can break me.” …

Emerie said, “Nothing can break us.”

The world seemed to pause at the words. As if it had been following one path and now branched off in another direction. In a hundred years, a thousand, this moment would still be etched in his mind. That he would tell his children, his grandchildren. Right then and there. That was when it all changed.” …

Nesta’s voice was thick as she declared, “Valkyrie.”

—A Court Of Silver Flames 🤍🗡

Cassian on Nesta:

“Here I was,” Nesta said, a pillar of ice and steel beside the hearth, “thinking I heard you flapping around for ten minutes. It must have been a pigeon stuck in one of the chimneys.” Cassian just stared at her. She stared at him. His temper rose with dizzying speed at the words, the absurd perfection of her. A blade given form—that’s what she was. He smiled, slow and vicious, precisely in the way he’d learned made her see red. A smile that he knew instantly unsheathed those lovely claws of hers. “Hello, Nesta. Nice to see you.”

Rhys on Feyre:

His eyes danced with feline amusement. “Cruel, beautiful thing.” I snorted. The idea that he found me beautiful at all— “You are,” he said. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I thought that from the first moment I saw you on Calanmai.” And it was stupid, stupid for beauty to mean anything at all, but … My eyes burned. “Which is good,” he added, “because you thought I was the most beautiful male you’d ever seen. So it makes us even.”

Lucien on Elain:

But sunlight on gold caught his eye—and Elain slowly turned from her vigil at the window. He had not seen her entire face since that day in Hybern. Then, it had been drawn and terrified, then utterly blank and numb, her hair plastered to her head, her lips blue with cold and shock. Looking at her now … She was pale, yes. The vacancy still glazing her features. But he couldn’t breathe as she faced him fully. She was the most beautiful female he’d ever seen.

Azriel on Gwyn:

He wouldn't go so far as to call Gwyn a friend, but... "Fine. Thank you."   Clotho's pen moved once more. She deserves something as beautiful as this. I thank you for the joy it shall bring to her. Something sparked in Azriel's chest, but he only nodded his thanks and left. He could picture it, though, as he ascended the stairs back to  the House proper. How Gwyn's teal eyes might light upon seeing the necklace. For whatever reason... he could see it.  But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly. 

Azriel on Elain:

It had never gone this far. They'd exchanged looks, the occasional brush of their fingers, but never this. Never blatant, unrestricted touching.  Wrong -- it was so wrong.   He didn't care.   He needed to know what the skin of her neck tasted like. What those perfect lips tasted like. Her breasts. Her sex. He needed her coming on his tongue --    Azriel's cock strained behind his pants, aching so fiercely he could hardly think. He prayed she didn't peer down. Prayed she didn't understand the shift in his scent.   He had only allowed himself these thoughts in the dead of night.  Had only allowed his hand to fist his cock and think about her then, when even his shadows had gone to sleep. How that beautiful face might appear as he entered her, what sounds she'd make.

Stumped? Need a hint? Fine, I'll give you the answer. The only time Azriel thought about how beautiful Elain was when he considered having sex with her. And the extremely thoughtful present he had for Elain? He could clearly envision how Gwyn's specific eye color would react when she received it.

Sketch commission for @amandapearls 💕

One of my biggest pet peeves in this fandom is when people take a line from 3-4 books ago and then say it trumps more recent canon.

And e/riels are the biggest culprits of this. They claim that Azriel's shadows disappearing is a good thing, and then reference ACOMAF. Now it's a huge possibility that SJM considered Moriel endgame back then, so once upon a time she probably did intend his shadows disappearing as a positive thing.

But this information is no longer relevant. Truthfully, SJM is not a perfect writer, she's not always consistent, and she has clearly not planned out certain things long-term. Things change and we as readers need to adjust our expectations accordingly.

We are presented new information in ACOSF, specifically in the bonus chapter. Azriel confirms that his shadows are his companions and will always be with him, we then see their interactions with two separate characters. It's a clear juxtaposition. They skitter back and vanish around Elain, they are playful and curious with Gwyn. That's it. That's all we need to see to know where this is going. The connotations alone are extremely obvious.

It's actually such an incredibly simple concept that it blows my mind sometimes that certain people continue to downplay or twist the meaning of this. If one outcome only requires you to read the literal words on the page, and the other outcome requires you to believe a benevolent character is actually evil, which do you think is most likely happening here? Occam's razor is a principle that can be applied to SJM's writing, and almost every single time you're going to be right.

Also, the simple fact that the shadows now disappear around both Mor and Elain is concerning in and of itself, because if e/riel is indeed endgame, then the shadows should not be behaving the same exact way with her as they already do with someone who we know is definitely not going to be Azriel's endgame.

Lovely art by nightsgazer on Instagram!

Domestic Life

I present you my version of Gwyn and Az on a cozy winter evening in their seaside cottage ...

Artist @brielyasmin thank you for giving me such a tender and beautiful piece of art 😍

Repost Not Allowed

Characters belong to Sarah J Maas

A cozy Az & Gwyn by manaarts_