#clesta

Other things I had hc'd about this:

When Cassian and Azriel try to pull the "we're the ones on your side" card, Clare is there to tell Nesta "the first thing I remember when you summoned me was these two joking about pushing you down these stairs."

When they try to push Nesta to scry using Elain, Clare is there encouraging Nesta to let Elain do it, resulting in Nesta getting some concessions for her help

Clare clocks Morrigan right away (and Nesta explains her fucked up dynamic with the bats), and pushes Nesta to make sure Emerie "makes good choices" (i.e. "doesn't stick her metaphorical dick in that whole quagmire") even if it doesn't end up as Nesta/Emerie(/Gwyn). In general Clare is the voice of reason and the only person who is willing to talk to Nesta who actually likes her until she bonds with Gwyn and Emerie.

In my head, Clare is Nesta's 'what if' in here, so they had never gotten together despite both of them being interested at various points.

okay i didn’t forget about you, i just had one of the most evilest awfulest unluckiest weeks of my life and was (and still kinda am) running on fumes and like .00075 of a brain cell

i love the idea clare being this like spirit guide for nesta, but when i think about how i would do it, i think it would be interesting also if clare was a bit of an unreliable guide, like she’s still clearly on nestas side, but she’s just the ghost of the girl nesta loved, a sweet tragic human girl who’s advising with nesta as best she can with her own lack of information on the fae + her extra trauma biases from being brutally tortured and murdered by then - she’s warning nesta away from cassian and az not cause they were joking but because she thinks they are legit planning to push her down the stairs and kill her in that way so it looks like an accident

clare sounds like a voice of reason to nesta because they have the same ish background and even as clare ends up helping nesta into the safer and loving arms of gwyn and emerie, nesta also has to come to the realization that to be happy she will have to let go of clare’s ghost and the past and what could have been with clare and start to learn to live for herself