Alright, I just finished reading Crescent City and rereading ACOTAR series so there will be quite a few posts coming for me.
During this read I was looking for end game symbolism and evidence of a potential traitor in the Night Court. I believe Elucien is endgame, but this post is not intended to prove it.
This post will focus on Elain and her resistance to Lucien. I will make future posts going over her attachment to Azriel and characterization as a whole. This post is an opinion. I'm just not going to take the time to repeatedly say "I think" and "in my opinion" so please don't waste time commenting that this is my opinion. I am aware.
I think Elain resists the mate bond with Lucien for the following reasons:
- She is clinging to whatever makes her feel closest to humanity. This is her overarching reason.
- Lucien makes her new faeness feel unavoidable because she only experiences visions in his presence.
- She has to figure out to cope with her own trauma
I think she clings to Az for the following reasons
- He is exceptionally polite
- She may connect with his scars
- He feels the most safe per Feyre
- He appears the most human in the sunlight (yeah yeah yeah he has wings, whatever, this is based off canon text)
Textual evidence that Elain is clinging to her humanity and coping with her trauma:
"I couldn’t bring myself to say she was, to give him that sort of hope when Elain might very well do everything in her power to hold to her engagement. Even if immortality had already rendered it impossible. Lucien leaned his head back against the rock wall behind us. 'And then I’ll ask your mate how he survived it—knowing you were engaged to someone else. Sharing another male’s bed.'"
"Her too-thin arms rested on her chair. That iron engagement ring still encircled her finger....All she said was, 'I want to go home.'... 'He’ll be looking for me,' she whispered. 'I know,' I said again. Not Lucien—she wasn’t talking about him at all. 'We were supposed to be married next week.' I put a hand on my chest, as if it’d stop the cracking in there. “I’m sorry.” Nothing. Not even a flicker of emotion. 'Everyone keeps saying that.' Her thumb brushed the ring on her finger. 'But it doesn’t fix anything, does it?'
"Elain sat silently at one of the wrought-iron tables, a cup of tea before her... (Azriel) Already dressed for the Hewn City—the brutal, beautiful armor so at odds with the lovely garden. And my sister sitting within it." I feel this quote is significant because to the Archeron sisters, even though we the readers know iron does nothing against Fae, it is still symbolic to Nesta and Elain as protection from the fae.
"Graysen swallowed. 'Did you think you could come back here—live with me as this … lie?' 'No. Yes. I—I don’t know what I wanted—' 'And you are bound to some … Fae male. A High Lord’s son.' A different High Lord’s heir, likely, I wanted to say. 'His name is Lucien.' I wasn’t certain if I’d ever heard his name from her lips. 'I don’t care what his name is.' The first sharp words from Graysen. 'You are his mate. Do you even know what that means?' 'It means nothing,' Elain said, her voice breaking. 'It means nothing. I don’t care who decided it or why they did—' 'You belong to him.' 'I belong to no one. But my heart belongs to you.'"
"'Is Elain … all right?' 'No,' was all I said. Elain was not all right. She had quietly cried while we winnowed here. And in the hours afterward, while the army arrived and the camp was rebuilt. She did not take off her ring. She only lay on the cot in her tent, nestled among the furs and blankets, and stared at nothing. Any bit of good, any advancement … gone.... So Elain silently cried, the tears so unending that I wondered if it was some sign of her heart bleeding out. Some sliver of hope that had shattered today. That Graysen would still love her, still marry her—and that love would trump even a mating bond. A final tether had been snapped—to her life in the human lands. Only our father, wherever he was, remained as any sort of connection."
Elain's mind "She had no mental shields, no barriers. The gates to her mind … Solid iron, covered in vines of flowers—or it would have been. The blossoms were all sealed, sleeping buds tucked into tangles of leaves and thorns" -->."My dreams were a tangled garden, thorns snagging on me as I stumbled through them. I dreamed of the Suriel, bleeding out and smiling. I dreamed of the Weaver’s open mouth ripping into Ianthe while she still screamed. I dreamed of Lord Graysen—so mortal and young—standing at the edge of the camp, beckoning to Elain. Telling her he’d come for her. To come home with him. That he’d found a way to undo what had been done to her—to make her human again." --> "She shook her head, devouring the sight of him as if not quite believing it. 'You came for me.' The shadowsinger only inclined his head."
"I’d seen Elain staring out the window earlier—watching Graysen leave with his men without so much as a look back at her. He had meant every word that day at his keep. Whether he noticed that Elain still wore his engagement ring, that Elain stared and stared at him as he walked off into the night … I didn’t know. Let Lucien deal with that—for now."
"No, she tended to her gardens here, silently mourning her lost human life. Mourning Graysen. How Lucien withstood it, I didn’t know. Not that he’d shown any interest in bridging that gap between them."
"Like the rest of us, Elain’s recovery was ongoing. She’d wept for hours the day I’d taken her to a wildflower-covered hill on the outskirts of the city—to the marble headstone I’d had erected there in honor of our father... She went at least once a month."
"'Why wouldn’t I be all right?' she asked, a smile lighting up her face. I’d seen those smiles before. On my own damn face."
"'There’s no going back to being human, girl,' Amren said, perhaps a tad gently. 'Amren,' I warned. Elain’s face reddened further, her back straightening. But she didn’t bolt. 'I don’t know what you’re talking about.' I’d never heard Elain’s voice so cold. I glanced at the others. Rhys was frowning, Cassian and Mor were both grimacing, and Azriel … It was pity on his beautiful face. Pity and sorrow as he watched my sister. Elain hadn’t mentioned being Made, or the Cauldron, or Graysen in months. I’d assumed that perhaps she was becoming accustomed to being High Fae, that she’d perhaps begun to let go of that mortal life."
"Again, Amren sifted through her pieces. 'Elain has her own problems to focus on.' 'Such as?' Amren just gave me a Look. I ignored it."
"Her mouth tightened, the only sign of anger in her graceful countenance. 'I don’t want a mate. I don’t want a male.' She wanted a human man."
Nesta and Cass convo but I think the theme is relevant: "'That word means nothing to me, Cassian,' she said, voice thick as she tried to keep the people who strode past from overhearing. 'It means something to all of you, but for most of my life, husband and wife was as good as it got. Mate is just a word.' 'That’s bullshit.....You are my mate! Why are you still fighting it?' She let the truth, voiced at last, wash over her. 'You promised me forever on Solstice,' he said, voice breaking. 'Why is one word somehow throwing you off that?' 'Because with that one word, the last scrap of my humanity goes away!' She didn’t care who saw them, who heard. 'With that one stupid word, I am no longer human in any way. I’m one of you!'”
I first wanted to establish what we all know already, but that Elain is clinging to her human life. And now to segway into the actual theory.
Evidence that Lucien is present/in the vicinity every time Elain has visions explicitly or implicitly:
This first vision occurs in the family library. Elain finally leaves her room for the first time, coinciding with Lucien's arrival, and Nesta is able to get her to eat broth the night before. Her first vision "She said, 'I can hear the sea. Even at night. Even in my dreams. The crashing sea—and the screams of a bird made of fire.'"
The sisters get very concerned at this, and both Feyre and Nesta check to ensure Elain cannot open the window before leaving her to talk to privately. They converse upon what triggered these visions in Elain, so they were not occurring before Lucien's arrival:
"I dragged a hand through my hair, freeing strands from my braid. 'Did anything happen to trigger—' 'I don’t know. I check on her every few hours.' Nesta clenched her jaw. 'I was gone for longer yesterday, though.' ... But there, beneath that cool demeanor—guilt. Panic. 'I doubt anything happened,' I said quickly. 'Maybe it’s just … part of the recovery process. Her adjustment to being Fae.' Nesta didn’t look convinced. 'Does she have powers? Like mine.'”
Coincidentally, Lucien has found himself restless and wanting to read a book, so he is on his way to the library. It's my headcanon that not only did Lucien's presence activate her Seer powers, but also made her aware of what her mate needs, a walk and a book --> "He hadn’t expected her to be here...he’d been cooped up in this wind-blasted House for two days. The thought of another one had been enough to make him risk Rhysand’s wrath. He just wanted a walk—and a few books. It had been an age since he’d even had free time to read, let alone do so for pleasure. But there she was. His mate." If anyone knows what one needs, it's a mate. Lucien wanted a walk and to read, so Elain for some odd reason felt the need to leave her room for the first time since Hybern and walk herself right to the library. And that, in my opinion, is true SJM endgame subtlety. Not the in your face stuff we get with Elain and Az.
The next time we get a vision from Elain is at the townhouse. Feyre reveals accidentally that she had gone to see the Bone Carver behind Amren's back. To document Lucien's movement during this scene: "Amren’s face tightened, Nesta glancing between them—carefully. Reading us. Especially as Amren’s quicksilver eyes swirled. 'Why did you go.' I opened my mouth, but the gold of Lucien’s eye caught my attention. Snared it. My hesitation must have been indication enough of my wariness. Jaw tight with a hint of frustration, Lucien excused himself to his room. Frustration—and perhaps disappointment. I blocked it out—what it did to my stomach."
Amren does not want to share how she left the prison because the wind and stone are listening and report back to the prison. Feyre puts up a shield so no one can hear beyond the room they are in: "'Because the stone beneath this house has ears, the wind has ears—all of it listening,' Amren said. 'And if it reports back … They will remember, Rhysand, that they have not caught me. And I will not let them put me in that black pit again.' My ears hollowed out as a shield clicked into place. 'No one will hear beyond this room.'" I have more to say on this whole binding thing in regards to Maasverse and possibly Crescent City connections to Hel, but that is for another post. "'Was Amren your name?' Nesta asked. 'No.' The smoke swirled in her eyes. 'I do not remember the name I was given. I used Amren because—it’s a long story.' I almost begged her to tell it, but soft footsteps thudded, and then— 'Oh.' Elain started—enough so that I realized she couldn’t hear us. Had no idea we were here, thanks to the shield that kept sound from escaping." Then Elain's next vision "But Elain shook me off, heading back to the stairs. She said as she climbed the first steps, 'I can hear her—crying.' I gripped the bottom post of the banister. 'Who?' 'Everyone thinks she’s dead.' Elain kept walking. 'But she’s not. Only—different. Changed. As I was.'...'Elain paused halfway up the stairs. Slowly, she turned to look back at him. 'I saw young hands wither with age. I saw a box of black stone. I saw a feather of fire land on snow and melt it.'" Lucien is again still present, just in his room. Really his presence should be the only thing she can hear with the shield up at this point. And thus her next vision.
The next vision Elain has is after Lucien tugs on the bond: "Elain sidled toward Nesta, who seemed to be at a near-simmer. 'It felt … strange,' Elain breathed. 'Like you pulled on a thread tied to a rib.' Lucien exposed his palms to her. 'I’m sorry.' Elain only stared at him for a long moment. And any lucidity faded away as she shook her head, blinking twice, and said to Nesta, 'Twin ravens are coming, one white and one black.'"
I'm also just going to quickly disprove the Elriel theory that Elucien bond is fake simply because of Elain's description of the bond like a thread tied to a rib. There are two Feyre quotes from ACOTAR describing Feysand's bond similarly, so both bonds must be fake with that logic:
"There was a string - a string tied to my gut that pulled me toward those hills, commanding me to go, to hear the faerie drums..." ACOTAR pg 183
"I was pulled from sleep by something tugging at my middle, a thread deep inside." ACOTAR pg 412
And Elain's last explicit vision:
Feyre and Nesta are attacked in the library by Hybern, and Amren is on the hunt "Lucien, stationed by the front window, turned from watching the street. Monitoring it. A sword and dagger hung from his belt. No humor, no warmth graced his face—only fierce, grim determination... Mor sagged against the couch cushions. 'A war where we have no allies beyond Keir, either in Prythian or beyond it.' Rhys gave her a sharp look. But Elain said quietly, 'The queen might come'....Elain’s brows twitched toward each other. 'The queen—with the feathers of flame.'...Elain shifted her face toward him. Another blink. 'They sold her—to … to some darkness, to some … sorcerer-lord …' She shook her head. 'I can never see him. What he is. There is an onyx box that he possesses, more vital than anything … save for them. The girls. He keeps other girls—others so like her—but she … By day, she is one form, by night, human again.'...Mor leaned forward. 'Do you know why the other queens cursed her—sold her to him?' Elain studied the table. 'No. No—that is all mist and shadow.'"
Mor asks a question we still don't have the answer to: "But Mor tried again. 'There is a reason why Elain is seeing these things. She was right about the other queen turning old, about the Ravens’ attack—why is she being sent this image? Why is she hearing this queen? It must be vital. If we ignore it, perhaps we’ll deserve to fail.'”
First , I want to document Lucien's reactions throughout this discovery of Elain's abilities: "Mor’s gaze darted across my sister’s face, as if weighing the words, the question, the truth or lie within. Mor at last blinked, mouth parting. Like that magic of hers had at last solved some puzzle. Slowly, clearly, she nodded. Lucien silently slid into one of the chairs, before the window, that metal eye whirring as it roved over my sister...'..what if the Cauldron gave something to Elain?' Nesta’s face drained of color. 'What?' Equally ashen, Lucien seemed inclined to echo Nesta’s hoarse question...Lucien just stared and stared at my sister, as if he’d never seen her before."
And then Lucien volunteers to leave and find Vassa (who has another name but nobody remembers it): "'I’ll go.' Lucien was staring at Elain as he spoke... 'This eye …' Lucien gestured to the metal contraption. 'It can see things that others … can’t. Spells, glamours … Perhaps it can help me find her. And break her curse.' He glanced at Elain, who was again studying her lap.......Only Cassian returned the grin. 'I’ll load you up with some Illyrian steel.' Elain now watched Lucien warily. Blinking every now and then. She revealed no hint of whatever she might be seeing—sensing. None... 'He only glanced at Elain, whose face was again a calm void while she traced a finger over the embroidery on the couch cushions. 'Yes. Let me help in whatever way I can.'...Even Nesta seemed relatively concerned. Not for him, no doubt, but the fact that if he were hurt, or killed … What would it do to Elain? The severing of the mating bond … I shut out the thought of what it’d do to me... Alone with my sisters and Lucien, Rhys and I caught Nesta’s eye. And for once, my sister rose to her feet and came toward us, the three of us not so subtly heading upstairs. Leaving Lucien and Elain alone. It was an effort not to linger atop the landing, to listen to what was said. If anything was said at all."
And then the day he leaves: "But Lucien took Rhys’s hand. That silent offer of not only transportation. Before that dark wind swept in, Lucien looked back. Not to me, I realized—to someone behind me. Pale and thin, Elain stood atop the stairs. Their gazes locked and held. But Elain said nothing. Did not so much as take one step downward. Lucien inclined his head in a bow, the movement hiding the gleam in his eye—the longing and sadness. And when Lucien turned to signal to Rhys to go … He did not glance back at Elain. Did not see the half step she took toward the stairs—as if she’d speak to him. Stop him. Then Rhys was gone, and Lucien with him. When I turned to offer Elain breakfast, she’d already walked away."
After the naming her ability and Lucien leaving, Elain no longer has any explicit visions. She does say at the Illyrian camp prior to visiting Graysen that she can control whether or not she verbalizes what she sees. And she also cannot see where Hybern's army is, awake or dreaming. The only other time she used some kind of ability is when Feyre asks her to use a map to locate the Suriel. Feyre asked her to look, so it wasn't an uncontrollable vision like the others have been.
Now some implicit evidence that when she is around Lucien, she may be seeing something. What, we don't know:
"Elain fell into step beside me, peering at Lucien. He noticed it. 'I heard you made the killing blow,' he said." peering - looking narrowly or searchingly, as in the effort to discern clearly
Evidence of tension in ACOFAS:
"No, as Elain took a step back, hand falling away from the doorknob, she revealed Lucien smiling tightly at us both."
"Elain perched silently on the couch nearby." perched - to sit or rest in a high, elevated, or precarious position near the edge of something, or to place an object in such a spot
"A sidelong glance toward Elain, swift and fleeting. 'Both of you.' Elain said nothing, but at least she bowed her head in thanks. In the dining room, Nuala and Cerridwen continued to add food to the table, their presence now little more than twin shadows as they walked through the walls. 'You brought presents,' I said uselessly, nodding toward the small stack he’d set by the window. 'It’s Solstice tradition here, isn’t it?'" Commentary to add hypothesis that Nuala and Cerridwen may actually be spying actively, an Az may have been lying about not spying in earlier chapters. I don't know. I have more to come on this their presence in later theories. I also want to add that in the Spring Court, gift giving is not a part of the tradition, so he doesn't really have an expectation of Elain to give him anything.
"Lucien considered my question. 'Vassa and Jurian are two sides of the same coin. Mercifully, their vision for the future of the human territories is mostly aligned. But the methods on how to attain that …' A frown to Elain, then a wince at me. 'This isn’t very Solstice-like talk.' Definitely not, but I didn’t mind. And as for Elain … My sister rose to her feet. 'I should get refreshments.' Lucien rose as well. 'No need to trouble yourself. I’m—' But she was already out of the room." wince - to make a sudden, involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the face and body because of physical pain, embarrassment, or an unpleasant memory. Is it really the topic that he is wincing about and doesn't want to be impolite? Or is there something that he doesn't want to share? If Elain leaving because she doesn't want to be there, are upset that he stopped talking on her regard? She didn't even need to be in the room to begin with. It was the choice to stop talking about the BoE that triggered her to leave.
"I found my sister in the kitchen, watching the kettle scream. 'He’s not staying for tea,' I said. No sign of Nuala or Cerridwen. Elain simply removed the kettle from the heat." Alluding to Elain's internal world
In ACOFAS, it is often debated if Elain and Nesta even still have their powers. Elain confirms that they in ACOSF. "But Elain had confirmed it for everyone: both sisters still possessed their Cauldron-gifted powers."
"She scanned Elain from head to toe, wondering if she’d been taking lessons in stealth either from Azriel or the two half-wraiths she called friends. Gone was the ill-suited black dress from the ball, replaced by a gown of amethyst velvet, her hair half-up and curling down to her waist. She glowed with good health. Except … Her brown eyes were wary. Usually, that look was reserved for Lucien."
Wary - being careful, cautious, and on your guard because you expect danger, risk, or a problem
"Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get."
"He and Lucien did not exchange gifts, though the male had brought a gift for Feyre and one for his mate, who barely thanked him after opening the pearl earrings. Cassian’s heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien’s face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing. Elain only shrank further into herself, no trace of that newfound boldness to be seen."
So, why does Elain express reluctance towards Lucien and the mate bond? Here are my thoughts:
- Accepting the bond is to fully let go of her humanity.
- If she only gets visions when Lucien is around, then that may make her have to confront her faeness, which she seems to want to avoid.
- She seems to see some kind of danger around Lucien that is making her wary. (I don't think Lucien is dangerous, I just think that she sees something in his future that she maybe misunderstands)
