#post acosf

No Pairing (One sided crush) | Rating: G | Word Count: 840~

Summary: Nyx goes to the Spring Court for the first time.

A/N: A little something I whipped up for @nyxlinweekofficial. Y’all think he gets it from his mama but he’s his daddy’s son.

Summary: Nyx visits Spring for the first time. 

Other notes: One-sided crush, Nyx is in his twenties. 

The first time Nyx stepped into Spring, it was with his Aunt Nessie. Uncle Cass was away at the camps and he begged his mom to let him go in his place. He’d studied the courts in school but Spring was the most mysterious of them all. The only info he could get was from Uncle Lu but Uncle Lu lived in Day. The only reason his mother agreed was because he gave her the saddest eyes. That, and his dad was with Uncle Cass at the camps.

To accompany the @norabraveseeker and @kt-reads-things mood board above, I wrote a fic about Emerie's birthday. Things don't start off great, but trust her family and friends to make her realise she's worth celebrating.

A Slice of Healing on Ao3 for @emerieweekofficial

Snippet under the cut:

Basically, Nesta starts getting the markers. It’s for Dusk Court of course. Is she Bryce’s heir or Rhys’ heir? Don’t know, still deciding because honestly, who’s in charge of a dead land. The one who currently is ruling the dead land, or the relative from another world that can raise it to life again? Anyways, Nesta starts worrying cause why the fuck are her powers getting stronger? Didn’t she just give it away like a year ago???

Anyways, she starts researching in the library and she learns how high lord heirs are identified. Her first order of business is glamours because she needs to hide this. She cannot be found out. She just got forgiven for handing Bryce the Mask. The last thing she needs is to be on Rhys’s shit list so soon. Give her a fucking break. But her research makes people very chatty. So by the time she’s on glamours, someone comes asking questions. Nesta’s fed up with all the busybodies but she just explains it away as ooh when we were human, Tamlin glamoured our family but it didn’t work on me. So I was researching it because I just remembered how that happened to me haha why don’t you go fall off a cliff and leave me alone haha.

Her next course of action is to find a teacher who can help her. She’d approach Gwyn or perhaps Feyre for advice, but she doesn’t want them caught up in this mess just yet. From what she gathered, there’s no way out of being an heir except death. And she’s doesn’t want to die just yet. And soon or later, everyone would be caught up in this mess, and she’s doesn’t want them to be accused of aiding her.

She’s about to approach Lucien but she remembers how easily Feyre entered his mind in acowar, so she refrains. She wants to hold on to this secret for a long long time. She wants to approach Helion, but she knows he’s friendly with Rhys. She doesn’t know if he’ll keep her secret. She doesn’t know any of the other high lords that well. She could try to find Tamlin she supposes, but that would bring attention to her because the NC was surveilling Tamlin and Spring. So, with a sigh, she returns to the one name she kept dismissing. Eris Vanserra.

Eris Vanserra, as a person, is a problem. Getting in contact with Eris Vanserra is a problem. And asking Eris Vanserra for help is a problem. For one, he’s not happy with the NC. That includes her for playing him a fool. That’s making her nervous. The only place he’s seen in lately, is the manor visiting Lucien sorry Vassa. Other than that, Eris is quiet. He and Mor ran into each other in the human lands once, and he said absolutely nothing to her. That freaked Mor out. One day, Cassian came to the manor when Eris was already visiting, and Eris didn’t even look in his direction. That is making everyone nervous. The chatterbox who can’t help but taunt and make sly remarks is silent? Panic.

Some of these things work in Nesta’s favor. Because if Eris can hide what he’s up to from Azriel and Rhys’s probes and intel gathering, then he can keep her secret (if she can find the right price or bargain to get him to keep it quiet that is). So she hatches up a plan.

Eris shows up in the human lands in about regular intervals. So, Nesta, who at this point has learned to winnow, starts volunteering to go with Az and Cassian on these little trips. That works. But she needs to be careful. Give Eris a look with Cassian watching her, and she’d have her mate thinking she was in love with Eris. Give Eris a look with Azriel paying attention and, well, she doesn’t want to think about that. She just wants to be in the same room as Eris. She’ll figure out how to talk to him about her situation another time.

But Eris isn’t giving her the time of day. He isn’t responding to her greeting. He isn’t answering any benign questions. He isn’t even looking in her direction. It’s like she’s invisible to him. She’s counting on his (unoffered) help so she decides to do confront about this.

She needs to time this correctly of course. And she needs a solid plan. She doesn’t buy the whole Lucien and Eris are not close story. She has two sisters, she knows even when they are fighting, they’re not truly enemies. So she devises a plan and hopes that these two Vanserra brothers are the same.

Lucien needs to have vital information. Information he’d want to share with Eris as soon as possible. She’d have to be the one to feed Lucien this information directly. This would complicate matters since she doesn’t trust Lucien’s ability to hide his thoughts from daemati. But she has a defense plan should anyone come asking questions. For this to work, it’d have to be a day Lucien was spending in his Velaris apartment. It would have to be a day when she would be free, and have enough time to walk down the ten thousand steps. It would also mean a day when Azriel was not in town. She loved him but she did not want him snuffing her out. Naturally, that day would have to Solstice.

She informs Lucien she needs to speak to him about his mating bond and she’d come meet him the day after Solstice in his apartment. An hour after the batboys leave, she heads to his apartment. They start talking about Elain and what Lucien plans to do about it, if anything. Nesta palms a few items of his items when he’s not looking and “accidentally” give his vital information about the NC plans for Autumn. She gasps and does the whole charade. Don’t you dare tell this to anyone Lucien whilst shaking her finger at him. Then she leaves to go to the townhouse. Her sisters are in the Riverhouse. She needs total privacy. And she does not have time to do this in the HoW because she’s sure Lucien is already sprinting to share this “vital piece of information” with Eris before he’s given the gag order by Rhys or Feyre. She goes to the townhouse and scrys for Lucien’s location with his personal items after 45 minutes. Finds him in the Middle. Goes after him there. Finds him in conversation with Eris. Step one: success!

Here’s where things get muddy. Nesta wants to talk to Eris one on one. She does not want Lucien there. Her secret is too big to share with him when he’s so tied so closely to the NC. She knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that if he has to choose between divulging Nesta’s secrets or his brother’s secret to the NC, he’d throw Nesta to the wolves. Naturally, she starts accusing him to being a traitor to the NC and pretends she’s there to confront him. They have a tiff and start arguing with each other. Before it can get too messy, Nesta sends Lucien away and says she’ll deal with him later at the Manor. That shes going to question Eris first and when she questions Lucien later, he’d better give her the same answers or she’ll take this up to Rhysand. Lucien leaves. But not without giving her one long, suspicious look before he lets out a small defeated laugh and nods his head slowly. That makes Nesta nervous. What was he laughing at? What realization did he come to?

Eris is watching the whole exchange silent. He never says a word to defend Lucien or take any action against Nesta for Lucien’s sake. So, when Nesta sends Lucien away and turns her attention to him, it’s his turn to let out a low derisive laugh. She narrows her eyes at him and just gives her a slow, mocking applause and says something that freezes her soul.

———— and scene!! ————

I want to hear all your Koschei theories!

I read this great post) about Koschei and how similar he is to the Sorcerer in CC - I was thinking maybe Koschei had his soul cleaved from his body, his body sent to Crescent City and his soul remaining in Pyrthian. But with the CC Sorcerer dead, and the undead wolf sucking his soul out of his body... I feel like it would be a really unsatisfying ending of Koschei if he just... dropped dead in Prythian.

So, if we think the Sorcerer and Koschei are related - then he has beef with the Princes of Hel, with Bryaxis? Who is still on the loose? Hence the firebird, an attempt at Price of Hel killing dragonfire?

Or he might be totally unrelated? In which case, what does he want? Revenge against the Fae for trapping him in the lake, and then world domination? To open his box? Which is spelled, like the trove and prison, by blood magic. He might be pursuing the Archeron sisters for their blood, but don't forget! They have a named cousin who Feyre wrote letters to that lives on the continent - maybe he will steal her? And then free himself?

Maybe he doesn't free himself, how can the gang get his box? And kill him? Or trap him?

Does Bryce opening the portal in the midst of all this have an affect?

Will Dusk rise and the prison doors open? (Personally, I think Dusk will rise, but the prison doors will remain closed.)

I feel like Koschei would rally the prisoners against the fae if they ever did get loose. Could his box contain long forgotten Viktoria? (The Wraith) Is Koschei the one eye lake dwelling wyrm that Aelin comes across in Wendlyn, when she found Anthrills ring and ? Sword (I forget who sorry!) Elain's only unfulfilled prophecy: 'I saw a feather of fire land on snow and melt it'' does Koschei have something to do with the Winter Court's unborn child?

Let me hear your best theories on where the Koschei plot might go!

Who might be involved?

Expanding on this wonderful post.

Azriel and Mor are mates who have not accepted or rejected the bond. Eris & Rhys know. Hence Eris taunting, and Rhys trying to keep Elain away. I also suspect that Eris know's that Mor is sapphic.

Eris made a bargain with Kier to marry Mor.

They broke the bargain, so what was lost? Mor's powers? Eris' powers?

If Keir wanted to produce a strong heir to compete with Rhys why nail a note in his only daughters womb, possibly affecting her ability to have children?

Who might want to stop Keir's daughter ever producing a High Lord? Rhys' father. Who do we know who was forced to torture for the Rhys' Father? Azriel. Did Azriel torture Mor? I can't help but feeling that Rhys knows more than he is letting on. Did Rhys use his Daemati powers to help Azriel and Mor forget? If Mor's power is truth, why is she lying?

Later on in ACOSF, What bargain did Eris make with Kier? That he will be the father of Mor's child? Is that why he also has a bargain with Feyre that the Night Court will support his leadership bid for Autumn? I think Gwyn and Catrin are his from Calanmai.