Plz say Helion.

this actually made me snort reading it, never tired of the questions! however i do love this question...

ok hear me out hear me out

i dont think rhys has had sex with that many people. sure he was crazy when he was younger but let's be real he slowed down after the war soooooooo

i'm going to say

more than 40 but less than 50. somewhere around 16 or 18 people after the war and the first 30 are before the war when he's young and horny...because i love an even number

to be fair that is not a lot for being 550 years old which is like 1 partner every 13.5 years

math

my reasoning is that i think he's a secret relationship guy. he stays with his partners for a significant enough portion of time where like azriel might be knee deep in a few girlies at a time (horrible reference)

as for who...i don't want to ruin some stuff but i'll throw a juicy bit in bc i like this ask...lilah (obvi), suniva (juicy juicy), cressida (cmon there was too much tension), amarantha (sad)

ok here's my thing about helion. i just truly think rhys's worst quality is that he's too straight

My publisher (sister) just explained to me that I dug myself this hole and now I must lie in it.

Rhys and Lilah are in a relationship. Aries and Cora are married (not to each other). Aries does not have a physical relationship with Cora.

That early chapter also went through what Az and Cass are into. All of those were also superficial which is why I'm wondering if you can elaborate on the type of females we can expect to see for the three of them?

Well here's the thing. The bat boys were saying it mockingly because they were mocking him.

Even in canon I always saw Rhys as being interested in the silent killers, the females with a lot of spark who aren't the first to speak up. Those are the tricky ones, the ones that make him laugh or raise his eyebrows because they surprised him. Az is into the females with edges, something that will push him back harder. Mouthy in the way that gets him to crack a grin, and quick with a comeback. Cassian is into bright, loud, firecrackers of partners. The ones that go in teeth bared ready to draw blood, but truly are the kindest of the lot.

I just feel like in all of the many fics I've read this one is too well thought out to make a demon out of an angel. And it feels like Aries isn't the bad guy. Am I wrong?

First off...excellent adjectives for Ceres

Second off...thank you for such a high compliment, if only you knew how often I second guess myself and my publisher (sister) is like "bro stop overthinking it"

Third off...to answer your actual question...it depends on how you define cheating. It also depends on how the character(s) involved define cheating.

Ceres does not define what Aries feels for Cora as cheating because Ceres understands it was not a conscious choice for him, and that he will never step out of line. Ceres is also, as you've figured out, pragmatic. If she finds herself in a situation similar to her husband someday, with another male, she would like his full forgiveness.

The other portion to that answer is that they're immortal. Neither of them are stupid enough to think that they will always only love each other, or that they may not be tempted over the centuries by someone new and exciting. They've been married for 300+ years at the time of HoN, that's a long time to know someone and a long time to remain married and faithful. They will always only ever be loyal to one another in the way of romantic partnerships, but there is a recognition that there are events, situations, people, that exist outside of their control.

The point of it is that Ceres and Aries chose each other when they decided to marry, and they will continue to choose each other.

In general both Ceres and Aries have a high emotional intelligence with one another and with the others around them. There's a reason they seem to be the only pair in a happy and generally healthy marriage. This also will not change throughout this fic and the fics that follow. Aries and Ceres will almost always be the stable couple of which others base themselves off of.

And lastly...as a writer I'm not interested in condemning characters for something they can't control. Aries and Ceres will continue to respect one another, Ceres does not blame nor hate her husband for loving Cora. It isn't her favorite thing about him, but she recognizes it as something that cannot be fully controlled and to his best extent Aries does control it.

It has been ages since I read the book but wasn’t Mor found out because of Eris? There was this thing that they used to do where they would check if the bride was a virgin. So I always assumed it was that.

hi hi! apologies this week has been nutso

it isn't specified how mor is found out, but it is specified that it's eris who does find out and ultimately deems her unworthy of himself. there is no mention of checking her body, and given how much trauma the IC has yet to experience i took it the route of a rumour instead of a physical exam.

either way though, mor does it to make a statement and it works. which is the opposite of what lilah is doing with rhys. lilah loves him and sees a future with him, therefore he isn't a means to an end like cassian was to mor.

More Ceres you say? Done.

Quite literally the fucking coolest, and I am so glad you picked up on that! I really wanted Ceres to have a different body type, and I do want to incorporate that more in the fic.

Much more to come.

Rhys doesn't know for a number of reasons but there are two that stand out.

Rhys is an idiot. Canon.

Rhys knows his mum thinks Aries is dumb hot, but he's not wondering who his mum is daydreaming about. For obvious reasons it would have never crossed his mind that she actually loves Aries.

I know it feels extremely obvious, Aries and Cora, but it's really not. They've been playing it off for 30 years at this point, and if it was obvious that rumour mill would have taken off decades prior.

Hi hi! Yes that's how the story goes, but there is room for canon interpretation.

It's never specified how the Court of Nightmares knows Mor spoiled herself. It leaves room to reasonably assume that Mor told them, or made it obvious enough that someone would spread the news for her, because the point of her sleeping with Cassian was to get herself out of the situation she was in. Control her own narrative.

It's really important to remember Lilah and Mor are not the same. They're similar, but not the same. No one knows Lilah slept with Rhys because she hasn't told anyone outside of her mum and brother. They can't smell it on her, they can't know at all unless she makes it known.

Virginity is valued but let's be real, even Lilah's circle of female friends don't adhere to that rule. They keep their late night dalliances within their group and pretend at chastity the rest of the time. There are a lot of parallels to our own world in that sense.

I also want to be super clear that Rhys didn't do anything. The bad bitches in HoN stand up on their own, without the support of any male.