#sjmaas

It’s Elucien week!

Art by wwispart

Happy Elriel Month everyone! For today's prompt, @acourtofquietdreamers and I collaborated on this commission and we are so happy we got the chance to work with the talented @lynx_illustration again!

Her work always blows us away and she did a phenomenal job bringing the prettiest in Prythian to life 🩷

There's something so beautiful about two people who seem so different on the outside being drawn together so effortlessly. In this piece, we wanted to showcase the beauty created when light and dark blend together.

Elain and Azriel representing light and dark is one of the many reasons they make such a complimentary pair. While Azriel can help Elain embrace the darkness, Elain can show Azriel he's worthy of the light he's craved since he was a young boy trapped in a dark cell.

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𐙚 art by @/lynx_illustration

𐙚 commissioned by me and @acourtofquietdreamers

𐙚 @elriel-month | Death and the Maiden

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Rowan: What, you think I had her microchipped or something?

Lysandra: Well do you?

Because they are. They never saw the world–Prythian–outside Velaris, they went to the Hewn city one time and Nesta went to a few meetings with Cassian when meeting with Eris. They do not have money of they own, we never even learn what happened to their inheritance from their father. As far as I know Nesta does not get paid for her work in the library or with the Valkyrie's. Quiet frankly they live on Rhysand and Feyre's money, and "kindness".

(Remember in acofas where Feyre made Nesta go to their solstice party using her rent money?)

Elain literally lives with them (how uncomfortable it must be to live with your little sister and her husband, and they famously like to solve their arguments with sex), and has nothing of her own. Her friends are their spies/maids that Feyre paid extra for befriending her and "helping" her.

They live in Velaris where Rhysand can tell any employer not to hire them, where Rhysand rules from.

But Nesta likes Velaris and Rhys offered her multiple jobs before locking her up!

Yes, he offered her jobs that most likely served him and where he would be her full-time boss. As a girl with a brother in law(that is like a brother to me no matter how much i shade him) I would not want him to be my boss, and do as he says.

If they wanted to escape the city they couldn't, because they do not know anyone outside of Velaris(someone they could trust). The reason they could lock Nesta up was because she had no other choice, had never saw the rest of Prythian or the Night Court.

The concept of it all is just wierd and uncomfortable for me. They live on Rhys and Feyre goodwill, and we all saw what happens when they do something they do not like.

The Archeron Sisters - A Court Of Thorns And Roses

I’d say it’s about the epic journey of a teenage assassin in a corrupt kingdom.

But if you were to ask me on a deeper level, I’d say…

It’s about how small acts of kindness can change the outcome of the world.

People don’t like what he did to Clythia (I know it’s all fictional) but truly, why would I give even half a damn about a faerie who enslaved and tortured humans? Like excuse me, I’m human. That’s me you’re talking about.

So when I read what he did to her in the end, my reaction was “well shiiit”. And that only.

Edit/Wanted to add: I think the overall unease we see directed toward Jurian from the Prythian Fae is very much due to the fact that he outsmarted one of their own. Jurian is a living contradiction to the narrative they wrote into custom over the span of centuries.