slipmerfoot

Rhys is having Helion teach him about truly impenetrable shields

Helion, High Lord of the Day Court and Rhys’s closest ally, had been the most involved. / But the male had one thousand libraries at his disposal, and had put them all to good use for the treaty. “

Feyre turned to Rhys. “We need to ask Helion to visit.

Books tumbled off the shelves in Helion's thousand libraries

"No, it's a Symphonia, a rare device from Helion's court."

"Helion?" Azriel asked, eyes pained. "I told him before he left yesterday. Pulled him aside when Feyre had winnowed home, and begged him on my knees to find something in his thousand libraries to save her. He said every head librarian and researcher who can be spared will be put on it."

"Because we need his libraries."

Cassian had heard the rumors of Helion's rare pegasuses.

"Perhaps an ancestor of mine once used it, and the warning of its cost is imprinted upon my blood." (and we later find out that Theia once had the mask - Theia who has powers quite similar to Helion)

"Something bothering you at home?" Rhys inquired falling into step beside the High Lord.

Every mention of Helion in SF is a clue into Lucien's future. Just like the scene in Lion King where Mufasa is telling Simba how everything the light touches will be his one day, Sarah is showing us the same in Silver Flames through Lucien's own father. The things he'll have access too, potential problems he may deal with, what he will be able to do with his power (impenetrable shields just might come in handy when dealing with Koschei!), the way the NC looks to the Day Court for it's help, that fact that Helion seems to have his own connection to the would have been Dusk Court what with the pegasus and comments on how "maybe an ancestor of his" once used the mask especially when in mythology Theia is the mother of Helios, the fact that we know there are potential issues in the Day Court right now and there's no better POV to lead the reader there to learn of those issues than Lucien.

Also:

Perhaps Amren was working on some way to undo the bargain—if anyone could think of a way, it would be her. Or Helion, he supposed. Cassian and Azriel were beyond Rhys’s and Feyre’s daemati range, though. They’d have no news of anything.

Feyre winced. “Mor left for Vallahan this morning and is out of our daemati magic’s range. Az can’t go in alone. We need you, Cassian.”

Sarah repeated how when someone is on the continent, Rhys and Feyre are unable to contact them. When SF ended like this: "I hope that whatever Morrigan is doing in Vallahan will counteract the damage my father will unleash" it does make me wonder if the next book will start with Mor not returning when she was supposed to and Feysand sending Lucien to the continent to track her down

What role Vallahan's hot-tempered king and proud people would play in this new world of theirs was yet to be decided, though much of its fate seemed to depend upon Mor's now-frequent presence at their court as Rhys's emissary."

"I've spent weeks in that blasted court," Mor said, poking at the flaky pastry beside her teacup, "freezing my ass off, trying to kiss their cold asses, and their king and queen refused the treaty.

"Why won't they sign it?"

"Because those stupid human queens are stirring - their army still isn't disbanded. The Queen of Vallahan even asked me what the point of a peace treaty would be when another war, this time against the humans, might redraw the territory lines far below the wall. I don't think Vallahan is interested in peace. Or allying with us."

"So you're supposed to convince Vallahan not to start another war, and I'm supposed to convince the human queens not to do so, either?"

"You won't get near the human queens," Mor said frankly. "But from what I observed in Vallahan, I know they're up to something. Planning something. We just can't figure out what, or why the humans would be stupid enough to start a war they cannot win."

"There's one person who knows those queens inside and out. Who can offer some insight." / "Vassa." Cassian hadn't dealt much with the ousted human queen - the only good one out of the surviving group, who had been betrayed by her fellow queens when they'd sold her to a sorcerer-lord who'd cursed her to be a firebird by day, woman by night."

Mor has been unable to get Vallahan to sign the peace treaty as they are weighing the possibility of starting another war against the humans to gain more territory. They know the remaining human queens have been stirring (queens plural), that their army is not disbanded and the IC knows that Vassa is their best contact for information regarding the queens, Vassa who Koschei is about to call back.

I think it's incredible when readers claim Lucien is irrelevant to the plot, that Sarah forgot about him. Right now the current plot / current threats in ACOTAR are 90% connected to Lucien when you consider how the political drama going on in their world is focused on Spring (with Beron setting his sights on potentially taking over the land in that court due to it's weakened state), with the fae in Vahallan setting their sights on the human lands and the remaining human queens keeping their army in reserve, with Vassa being the main link to all of that and Vassa being the main connection to Koschei.

Spring? The human lands? Name a single other potential leading character who has a stronger connection to both.

Lucien who helped the humans sort out their politics after the war.

Lucien who is now permanently stationed in Spring and only gives reports to Feysand in private.

Lucien who has been to the continent and Koschei's lake.

Lucien who is friends with Vassa.

Lucien who Sarah wrote as setting his sights on his target (Koschei).

I know Elain will be the one to save the day as all SJM fmc's do but she typically writes the mmc as being the gateway to that. Feyre would not have been involved in the war with Hybern had Rhys not been the one to draw her in, Rowan was Aelin's "in" with Maeve and all that came from that, Yrene would have never taken up the battle with Erawan had Chaol not landed on her doorstop and Nesta would not have trained had Cassian not continued to push her.

"Elain needs to get over herself and accept the bond"

"Elain doesn't deserve Lucien"

"I only want Elucien because I want Lucien to get a happy ending"

"Lucien deserves Elain because of everything he's been through"

"Lucien deserves better than Elain"

My eye twitches and an angel loses its wings 😔

I don't see it too too much in the main Elucien fandom, mostly TikTok comments by casual readers or whatever, but ughhhh...

I know we all have different favorites and different interpretations of characters, I just personally can't get behind shipping a couple if I don't love (or at least LIKE) them both and think they'll be happy together.

Toxic dark romance type ships aside that's not what we're talking about here

Like, yeah, Lucien has been through a lot... But so has Elain? Lucien has had centuries to process the death of Jesminda, but Elain has had a year-ish (?) to process:

Being abducted and turned fae

Being brutally cast aside by Graysen

Dealing with her Seer powers

The concept of the mating bond in GENERAL

Her complex feelings about being mated to Lucien specifically, given that you can infer from SJM's word in CHD that she holds Lucien at least partially responsible even if the reader may not

Her father's death!!!

And she's what, 23/24? I was a freaking head case dealing with barely a fraction of that at 23 💀

They're immortal! Why are we begrudging a girl a few years (with soooo much other shit going on) to figure things out before she commits to a mating bond? Lucien is clearly giving her space and cutting her some freaking slack, why can't you?

Elain, get behind me 🤺

Anyway... That's my rant.

A flower without thorns

Sarah is sort of wrong about one thing. Rhysand’s parents were not poorly matched. Fate is incapable of such a thing. They were perfectly matched. But Rhys’s father exercised his free will and did not behave in a way that honored that gift. He didn’t officially reject his mate, but he behaved in such a way that was a rejection of her. Of her essence, of her self, of her unique and special energy in the world. Energy that was created to perfectly compliment him.

Even “perfectly matched” mates aren’t guaranteed an easy happy relationship. They still have to work at the relationship and make it work.

We see it with Rhysand and Feyre. We see it with Nesta and Cassian. Hunt and Bryce. Ect. Ect. You don’t accept the mate bond and suddenly everything is rainbows and sunshine just because you met your person. It’s still something you have to work at.

There’s even a line Rhysand says to Feyre when he’s talking about mate bond in WaR that so often gets overlooked: “some try to make it work for years before deciding to go their separate ways.”

I think they are the most feminine ones, and I see a bit of her in all of them. I see Elide's endurance, for they are both not figthers, but can fight in their own way and be very suprising. I see her in this spot as someone with really important magic skills, just like Yrene. And although Lysandra does fight, I think they are both more social and lady like characters.

This was seconds after Elain was angry/upset that Nesta wasn’t coming to Solstice. But as soon as they move towards where the IC is Elain plasters a smile on her face despite the fact that she’s not okay. Despite the fact that Cerridwen hinted at the fact that it wasn’t a good day for her.

Does this seem like someone who is comfortable being themselves around this group? Because it doesn’t to me.

Sure she sometimes allows Feyre and Nesta see her angry/upset but they’re always surprised when she does so. And Rhys also reflects on how maybe it’s perhaps she doesn’t want her siblings to see her that way because she’s afraid that if she does she’ll disappoint them.

Yet here is the thing they are telling us this only now when it our character that has to share space. And they are only telling us this because it affects when their favorite character gets a story. Feyre didn’t have to share space, Nesta didn’t have to share space, but Elain yeah she has to share space.

If Nesta’s book was multi pov where she had to share her book page time with Mor or Elain’s pov and their plot development then 100% yeah ALL the characters are important.

But we went through 5 other books prior to these where Feyre and Nesta’s journey were explored exclusively through THEM. Which creates this narrative that THEY are different. That THEY are important.

So maybe just maybe we felt that Elain the LAST Archeron sister, the OTHER Cauldron Made Fae, the Female who is this big MYSTERY to the story still, was going to have a journey that the audience and her fans would explore exclusively through her and her found family. Just like we did for Feyre with the IC and just like we did for Nesta with the Valkyries.

And us “Elain Fans” wanting Elain to get her own book, does not mean we DON’T think Gwyn and Az deserve a book. Some of us just don’t want them sharing space in the same book where the much needed character development and pacing would be affected by a shared duel story in 1 book.

And I know this is hard to hear but Gwyn and Azriel journey from being friends to lovers (because they already have an established relationship) does not need 900-1200 or god forbid 2000 pages to tell.

Elain and Lucien are not even talking to one another. Even Cassian and Nesta were talking to one another for the year that Nesta “cut him off”.

Elain and Lucien are started from well beyond the starting line.

And all of this has to be explored in an Elucien story:

-They have their own personal traumas and hardships to overcome.

-they have their shared mate bond conflict to explore.

-They have a found family to develop (you know the same thing that both Feyre and Nesta explored and created in their own books something Gwynriel does not need to do because it’s already established).

-They have to world build 2 new courts (Day and Autumn) because neither Feyre or Nesta had any interest in getting to know the other courts.

-They have to explore the struggles and hopefully heal the spring court.

-Their story has to delve into the current Human Fae conflict and maybe forge the alliance.

-Their book has to develop and explore Koschei’s history with Prythian and the threat he currently presents to Prythian.

All of this world building and new character development has to happen in Elucien story and somehow people think “oh yeah Elucien story can be covered through half of book 7”, or it gets developed on the pages when we are not with Azriel and Gwyn and Nesta and the NC.

And people can disagree with this statement but when 2 out of 3 sisters are given their own books it’s sets up this narrative to the audience of:

And Elain is testing how much fire she can handle 😏 ❤️‍🔥

But if you think you also deserve a chance with the Vanserra brothers, today’s your lucky day… Just choose the image that represents you from my Patreon post 😘🔥

Nestha did the same by rejecting Cass, so why would Elain be any different?

Besides, they have the idea that rejection is just about someone telling Lucien and that she'll never see her partner again and not having to deal with a bond that will NEVER go away.

Elain has feelings, she may be rejecting Lucien because of the trauma, because she still wants to be HUMAN and her ex-fiancé.

More on the beauty aspect, I always thought that Sarah emphasized beauty and her fragile appearance as something not so positive, because it made people see her as someone incapable of taking care of herself.

I remember very well Feyre thinking that Elain wouldn't be able to handle the male passion of Autumn because she only saw her for her appearance and what she showed.

Az arrives and once again highlights Elain as fragile, beautiful, yet another angel who can't take any risks…

I don't think Sarah included this to portray Elain as something beautiful or positive about her being judged by her appearance.

"Mor is the most beautiful in Prythian and Gwyn rivals Mor for looks so she's the most beautiful, Elain is only the prettiest of the three sisters and not the most beautiful everywhere!" - said by some non e/riels.

Sarah writes every single one of her characters as "the most beautiful" to someone but that does not mean they are the most beautiful to everyone so I'm not sure why this always turns into a competition in the fandom. Beauty is subjective and therefore this is an unmeasurable thing.

Feyre thinking Mor is the most beautiful female she'd ever seen doesn't mean she's the most beautiful female to all.

Nesta thinking her friend is a beauty to rival Mor or Merrill also does not mean she's the most beautiful female to all.

Cassian thinks Nesta is the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Rhys thinks Feyre is the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Lucien thinks Elain is the most beautiful female he'd ever seen.

Clearly, these are all gorgeous women but not everyone will think they are the "most" gorgeous in all of Prythian. The only reason that Elain's looks stand out for her character in a way that is different is because of how others treat her.

Mor being the most beautiful to Feyre doesn't mean much to the story.

Gwyn being a beauty to rival Mor's doesn't effect anything beyond the reader having the knowledge that she's beautiful.

But Elain's looks? It's what causes others to dismiss who she is inside.

She's the only character whose looks cause others to treat her a certain way, with girls showing jealousy towards her at age 13. With Eris hearing that his brothers mate "is quite the beauty" (literally the talk of Elain in Prythian is not how she's a human who survived the Cauldron but of her physical appearance whereas Nesta's power was whispered among even Death Gods). With her mother feeling the only thing she had of value to offer them as a family was her looks.

When non-e/riels dismiss her looks and claim "she's just the prettiest of the sisters", they erase a huge part of why she's underestimated by everyone and why she's been treated the way she has. There's clearly more to her looks than her just being the prettiest of the Archeron's.

Az was just there.

It seems a bit odd that they've been around each other so much, yet it's only when a certain someone's right upstairs that she's sleepless, wandering around, and considers sleeping with him.

She likes him well enough. He's been good to her. He's rescued her. He's gorgeous. There's a little crush going on.

But from what we know about Elain, she's not the type to act on something as little as a crush. She is profoundly different from her sisters in that way, and that fact has come up more than once.

Lucien—whose heartbeat she hears through the stone—is right upstairs.

She feels Lucien through that bond, not Azriel.

Azriel is a deterrent.

I don't find it coincidence either that the very same "bonus chapter" (which, don't get me started on that nonsense) shifts focus right after to Gwyn.

Also, I'm dating this 6/28/26.

Still, we haven’t seen her in a muted orange or red and I assure you it’s gonna EAT.