#el higgins

el was raised by gwen higgins. gwen higgins, who has an affinity for healing, who values hard work and doesn't discriminate who deserves to live. she's a healer in the basest sense. everyone who wants something from her, who is brave enough to ask, deserves to be cared for and loved. she loves el so much that she instills that love into el, pouring affection and care and guiding her towards kindness as a choice. it's the main reason that el isn't a mass murderer. because her mother wanted a child, and got a weapon, and loved her all the same.

orion was raised by ophelia rhys-lake. ophelia, who pulls malia, who wants to be as powerful as possible, who sees power as a shield against the worst of people. the ends justify the means, and she's willing to sacrifice humanity (her own, and her child's) for the power and control she can wield. she loves orion, and that's also why he is the way he is. she doesn't want destruction, she wants protection, but thinks that the only way to stop herself from being completely destroyed is to wield destruction herself in quantities she can control. she makes orion into a hero, because she wanted a weapon, and got a child, and loved him as both.

even their nicknames for their children are indicative of this dynamic. my darling girl: affectionate, loving, cherished. it has nothing to do with what el can do; it's merely affection, placed on a person, because they care. my star boy: bright, affectionate, but dangerous and powerful. there's a distance there, keeping orion at arm's length. you love the constellations, but too close and you'll get burned.

And if you think about it a little- isn't every student in The Last Graduate part of one big graduation alliance? The whole senior class did practice runs and graduation projects together. The entire school trusted their survival and future to El and Orion and Liesel and Liu and every single other student who stayed in their line and group instead of running as every fucking mal in the world streamed past, holding their shields and sharing their healing. And even the class before theirs- the class in A Deadly Education who thought they were doomed and then got to run through an empty, freshly cleansed graduation hall- wouldn't all of them consider El and Orion and the others on the repair mission as allies?

And thinking about it like that adds another layer to the end of The Golden Enclaves- where even in the middle of a fucking enclave war, everyone in her year walks away from their enclave to follow El, trusting and supporting her the same way that Liu and Aadhya do. Because, as the books say, graduation alliances can be the most important relationship of a wizard's entire life, and El is the one who got them out.

And if you think about it like that- that every wizard in a certain age range would see El and Orion that way, if they thought about it- then I think it's part of a minor arc in the series: El starts as someone who is welcome nowhere, and becomes someone who is welcomed everywhere. She isn't welcome in the commune that loves her mother, or her father's family, except for her mother there is nobody who will do anything to help her, even when she's an elementary schooler alone in a yurt screaming in terror- and then she is someone everyone welcomes but only because she's connected to Orion- and she ends the series as someone who people will do anything to help, even walking away from their enclave allies or going into a place in the void that's supposed to fall, who will be welcomed by anyone except for the people making mawmouths.