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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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Truth-Teller's Scabbard

Just some quotes and me obsessing over where the name come from.

But the second male, the more classically beautiful of the two … Even the light shied from the elegant planes of his face. With good reason. Beautiful, but near-unreadable. He’d be the one to look out for—the knife in the dark. Indeed, an obsidian-hilted hunting knife was sheathed at his thigh, its dark scabbard embossed with a line of silver runes I’d never seen before (acomaf)

Azriel’s knife was out, balanced on a knee. Truth-Teller— the name stamped in silver Illyrian runes on the scabbard. He’d already learned that the Attor and a few others had been stationed on the outskirts of the Illyrian territory. I was half tempted to dump the Attor in one of the war-camps and see what the Illyrians did to it. (acomaf- rhys' mind)

Elain’s eyes widened at the obsidian-hilted blade in Azriel’s scarred hand. The runes on the dark scabbard. “It has never failed me once,” the shadowsinger said, the midday sun devoured by the dark blade. “Some people say it is magic and will always strike true.” He gently took her hand and pressed the hilt of the legendary blade into it. “It will serve you well.” (acowar)

Az ran a thumb down Truth-Teller’s black hilt, the silver runes on the dark scabbard shimmering in the light. “What about the human queens?” (acofas)

It is said to be carved in illyrian runes...so who carved them there? Why "Truth-teller"? What truth it tells? Bc so far in the story it didn't do anything that leads to a truth reveal? Or it did? Elriel tt scene? It was the bridge between them? Is it telling us the "truth" about elain and azriel?

But still...who carved those runes there? Enalius?

My father had never shown himself to be giving—long had he kept Gwydion and never once offered it to my mother. The dagger that had belonged to his dear friend, slain during the war, hung at his side, unused. But not for long.

The Asteri’s eyes flared with recognition at the long blade. “Did Fionn send you, then? To slay me in my sleep? Or was it that traitor Enalius? I see that you bear his dagger—as his emissary? Or his assassin?”

He was the first wielder of it so did he carve them there? But why? Does it have something to do with ramiel? Because Gwydion was made on top of ramiel and they are twin blades...so tt is also connected to ramiel. So...maybe we need to take it there.

The snows around Ramiel parted, revealing a massive bowl of iron at the foot of the monolith. Even through the vision, its presence leaked into the world, a heavy, ominous thing.(Hofas)

Another shift of memory, and Fionn pulled a long blade from the Cauldron, dripping water. A black blade, whose dark metal absorbed any trace of light around it. Bryce’s knees weakened. (hofas)

The only other truth name we have was about a location—a room. Dusk's truth. Is it going to be another location? A room? Maybe it is under ramiel like that dusk room was under Asteri's palace. But what truth is it going to reveal?

And "it will always strike true" as Azriel said it ...maybe it is not a magical word about the blade but actually strike through a truth...truth teller...strike the truth??!?! Like Bryce did with TT and gwydion in those caves under Avallen??

Bryce peered down at the eight-pointed star in the center of the room. The two strange slits in the points. One small, one larger. She looked at the weapons in her hands: a small dagger, and a large sword. They’d fit right into the slits in the floor, like keys in a lock.(Hofas)

Maybe we have to do the same...so strike the truth. (I dont even know lmfaooo)

also interesting myth connection...In athurian legends excalibur has a scabbard that is important.(I went into detail in this post about the connection of gwydion and tt to excalibur)

In the Post-Vulgate version, used in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur for the second Excalibur, the sword's scabbard is also said to have powers of its own, as any wounds received while wearing it would not bleed at all, thus preventing the wearer from ever bleeding to death in battle. For this reason, Merlin chides Arthur for preferring Excalibur over its sheath, saying that the latter is the greater treasure.

And it is actually stolen from Arthur by Morgana.

The scabbard is, however, soon stolen from Arthur by his half-sister Morgan le Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon, he having been slain by Arthur with Excalibur in a duel involving a false Excalibur (Morgan also secretly makes at least one duplicate of Excalibur during the time when the sword is entrusted to her by Arthur earlier in the different French, Iberian and English variants of that story). During Morgan's flight from the pursuit by Arthur, the sheath is then thrown by her into a deep lake and lost. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of its magical protection, many years later in his final battle. In Malory's telling, the scabbard is never found again. In the Post-Vulgate, however, it is recovered and claimed by another fay, Marsique, who then briefly gives it to Gawain to help him fight Naborn the Enchanter (a Mabon figure).[32]

So it is stolen by morgana...and thrown into a deep lake and it is lost. And this leads to Arthur's death in his last battle bc he doesn't have the scabbard anymore to stop him from bleeding...

Ngl there is a pretty sus person who was very interested in Truth-teller in acosf...IDK...if you know you know...........

So thats it...thanks for reading 🫡🩷

#those quotes have been on my drafts for MONTHS...I needed to post this #I was obsessing to much over it and now it is done.#Im free #cc3 spoilers #hofas spoilers #elriel

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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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I was the first person to add this gif to tumblr(I mean I made it lol) so whenever someone uses it I get a notification...and lemme tell you sometimes people outside of sjm fandom uses it and I get so confused like "what are you doing here? How did you find this??"

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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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Just because you interpreted the text differently than what the author intended doesn’t make your interpretation correct.

LOUDER.

A common argument I see against Elriel is that “I didn’t see any of their interactions as romantic” or something in that vain.

And I think it brings up an interesting argument about author intention and reader interpretation.

Just because you interpreted the text differently than what the author intended doesn’t make your interpretation correct.

Elriel is a good example of this and they don’t even need to be endgame in order for it to be true.

Even if you didn’t personally read Elain and Azriel’s interactions to be romantic or building towards something doesn’t mean that’s not what they were intended to be.

Spending time in the garden together, rescue, Truth-Teller, the potatoes, the headache powder, “something charged” between them, Nesta saying it was his secret to tell, never hers, was all meant to show us that something is growing between Elain and Az that we aren’t privy to.

And then the bonus chapter was meant to confirm it.

If all those interactions weren’t meant to mean something beyond friendship, the scene in the BC wouldn’t have happened.

To me, their feelings in that scene came as no shock because I thought SJM’s intentions had been pretty clear for a while.

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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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Girl...I really was onto some things with these posts omfg.

Hofas bryce:

With a prayer to Cthona, she sent twin beams of light arcing around the prisms, shooting straight into them.Twin bursts of that light flared from either prism, gunning for each other. Bands of light falling into darkness, her power stripped to its most elemental, basic form. They shot for each other, and where they met, light and darkness and darkness and light slamming into each other—Bryce stepped into the explosion in the heart of it. Stepped into her power.It lit her up from the inside, lit up her very blood. Her hair drifted above her head, pens and papers and other office detritus flowing upward with it. Such light and darkness—the power lay in the meeting of the two of them. She understood it now, how the darkness shaped the light.

Light’s Rebirth through Darkness

I’m rereading acofas because...We are in december. ❄️✨

Also @duskcowboy if it wasn’t your message first I wouldn’t have noticed this connection. 💜

While I was rereading this part stood out to me. Nuala talks about Solstice and its importance.

Nuala went on, “It’s a time of rest, too. And a time to reflect on the darkness—how it lets the light shine.” “Is there a ceremony?” The half-wraith shrugged. “Yes, but none of us go. It’s more for those who wish to honor the light’s rebirth, usually by spending the entire night sitting in absolute darkness.”

Dark and light. Azriel and Elain.

Elain looked up at Azriel, their eyes meeting, his hand still lingering on the hilt of the blade.I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection … that knife.”

Also Nuala talks about how who wish the honor light’s rebirt would sit in complete darkness. Does it work it they sit with the darkness? In solstice Elain and Azriel sit together till 3 in the morning.

Azriel and Elain remained in the sitting room, my sister showing him the plans she’d sketched to expand the garden in the back of the town house, using the seeds and tools my family had given her tonight.

Another thing is... Light’s Rebirth. 👀 the prophecy from acomaf.

Life and death and rebirth

Sun and moon and dark

Rot and bloom and bones

Hello, sweet thing. Hello, lady of night, princess of decay. Hello, fanged beast and trembling fawn. Love me, touch me, sing me.

Also in TT scene elain is described as

the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her.

Fawn symbolizes new beginnings, good health and innocence, and spring symbolizes new beginnings, rebirth and life.

Azriel described as

Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder.

I think this is self explanatory with darkness. Death...shadows... terrors.

Also in TT scene you can see that space between their bodies is a blend of the two.

#light and dark #seriously what the fuck was I on omfg

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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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I just realized something about this posts.

In the Judaism part of the post I added how the word emet(Aleph-mem-tav) means truth and it gives life to Golem. And when you erase the first letter which is Aleph...you are left with two letters—mem and tav.

So...

Gwydion= can make things

Truth-teller= can unmake things

“The Starsword is Made, as you called it.” He waved an idle hand, sparks at his fingertips. “The knife can Unmake things. Made and Unmade. Matter and antimatter. With the right influx of power—a command from the one destined to wield them—they can be merged. And they can create a place where no life, no light exists. A place that is nothing. Nowhere.”

But...the word emet has three letters—Aleph, mem and tav. So what if we need a third weapon? NARBEN????

Alpha and Omega

In HoSaB we learned that truth-teller is twin blade to Gwydion/Starsword

The male drew it, and Bryce flinched. Flinched, but—“What the fuck?” The knife could have been the twin of the Starsword: black hilted and bladed. It was its twin. The Starsword began to hum within its sheath, glittering white light leaking from where leather met the dark hilt. The dagger—.The male dropped the dagger to the plush carpet. All of them retreated as it flared with dark light, as if in answer. Alpha and Omega. “Gwydion,” the dark-haired female whispered, indicating the Starsword.(hosab)

What is interesting about this scene is that Sarah used "Alpha and Omega" for them.

And I searched what Alpha and Omega means.

In Christianity it means:

Alpha (Α) and omega (Ω) are the first and last letters, respectively, of the classical (Ionic) Greek alphabet. Thus, the phrase "I am the alpha and the omega" is further clarified with the additional phrase, "the beginning and the end" in Revelation 21:6, 22:13. The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet were used because the book of Revelation is in the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek.This phrase is interpreted by many Christians to mean that Jesus has existed for all eternity or that God is eternal.

and we have the truth-teller scene with Elain and Azriel (which is an important scene as you can see in this post> Truth teller)

Elain looked up at Azriel, their eyes meeting, his hand still lingering on the hilt of the blade. I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection … that knife.(acowar)

so we have:

•Azriel and Elain being light and dark, and Gwydion and Truth-teller are white light and dark light.

we also have:

•Elain as the lovely fawn with blooming spring behind her. Fawn symbolizes new beginnings, good health and innocence, and spring symbolizes new beginnings, rebirth and life.

•Azriel as death. pretty self explanatory.

•Alpha and Omega as "the beginning and the end"

•Life the beginning? and death the end?

Going back to Alpha and Omega meaning...

In Judaism it means:

In Hebrew, the word emet (אמת, meaning "truth"), is referred to as the "Seal of God."[8][9][10] [Cf. Isaiah 44:6[11]] The word is composed of the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The midrash explains that emet is made up of the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph, mem, and tav: אמת). Sheqer (שקר, falsehood), on the other hand, is made up of the 19th, 20th, and 21st (and penultimate) letters. Thus, truth is all-encompassing, while falsehood is narrow and deceiving.

First, middle and last letters of Hebrew alphabet—Aleph, Mem and Taw. They together make the word "emet" which means "truth" and we have truth teller. We also have... Dusk’s truth.

An isle of near-permanent twilight, the home world of her breed of Fae … A land of Dusk. “Dusk’s Truth,” Bryce breathed. It wasn’t just the name of this room that Danika had been talking about with Sofie.(hosab)

Dusk Court. And there was a prophecy about starsword/starsword and its twin knife.

“It’s another of the Fae’s countless inane prophecies,” Bryce muttered. “When knife and sword are reunited, so shall our people be.(hoeab)

There is also an interesting story about the word emet.

In Jewish mythology it was the word emet that was carved into the head of the golem which ultimately gave it life. But when the letter aleph was erased from the golem's forehead, what was left was "met"—dead. And so the golem died.

we can again see that there is life-death situation going on. With Alpha and Omega meaning emet, emet gave golem life and with erasing the first letter—Aleph—the gollem met its death.

#alpha and omega #golem #narben #gwydion #truth teller

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merymoonbeam · 1 month

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Im looking back at my old posts and...I really was onto something in this 👇🏻part of the post lmfao.

---

Also we Elain and Azriel's connection to hope...I love it here

Mystics & Seers

In this post I’m going to talk about CC mystics and Elain’s seer powers and Void connection.

Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences.

I took this information from google and as we can see mystics become one with God or the Absolute and what is the most powerful thing in Acotar? The Cauldron.

“Long ago, before the High Fae, before man, there was a Cauldron … They say all the magic was contained inside it, that the world was born in it. But it fell into the wrong hands. And great and horrible things were done with it. Things were forged with it. Such wicked things that the Cauldron was eventually stolen back at great cost. It could not be destroyed, for it had Made all things, and if it were broken, then life would cease to be. So it was hidden. And forgotten. Only with that Cauldron could something that is dead be reforged like that.” (Acomaf)

We followed the line of his finger. To where that fissure in the world within the shards of the Cauldron … It was growing. The Cauldron could never be destroyed, we had been warned. Because our very world was bound to it. If the Cauldron were destroyed … we would be, too.(Acowar)

I'm going to add a few other things here about Cauldron's "dark maker"

We first hear about this dark maker in acomaf

“When the Cauldron was made,” the carver interrupted, “its dark maker used the last of the molten ore to forge a book. The Book of Breathings. In it, written between the carved words, are the spells to negate the Cauldron’s power—or control it wholly

and in acowar when Feyre broke the Cauldron void was coming out of it.

I managed to stand. To take one step before I felt it. The … thing in the Cauldron. Or lack of it. It was lack and substance, absence and presence. And … it was leaking into the world.I dared a step toward it. And what I beheld in those ruins of the Cauldron… It was a void. But also not a void—a growth.It did not belong here. Belong anywhere.

And then this reminded me of what Apollion said about void in hosab

The darkness paused. “You are impertinent as well. Do you not know where I come from? My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.”

The being that existed before. with what we know about the Cauldron is that the magic came from it in acotar world. The world was bound to it.

@silverlinedeyes made a post about Void and Elain connection awhile back (that's where my fascination with the void comes from lololl) > The void post

While rereading that post to add to this one I noticed something about the tapestry...

The tapestry had been woven from fabric so black it seemed to devour the light, so black it almost strained the eye. The insignia, however, had been rendered in silver thread—no, not silver. A sort of iridescent thread that shifted with sparks of color. Like woven starlight.

Like woven starlight... and what is important in crescent city? Starborn. A couple of pages later the waever says that the silver/starlight thread is called the hope.

“The silver thread,” Elain asked. “What is that called?” The weaver paused the loom again, the colorful strings vibrating. She held my sister’s gaze. No attempt at a smile this time. “I call it Hope.”

Elain is the one asking about the silver thread and it means hope. I'm thinking that it is some kind of metaphor. The starlight on a tapestry called Void...

Okay...we are turning back to Cauldron and mystics.

and who has a connection to Cauldron? Elain

The Cauldron purred in Elain’s presence as the King of Hybern slumped to his knees, clawing at the knife jutting through his throat. Elain backed away a step (Acowar)

The Cauldron seemed to realize what she’d done, too, as his head thumped onto the mossy ground. That Elain … Elain had defended this thief. Elain, who it had gifted with such powers, found her so lovely it had wanted to give her something … It would not harm Elain, even in its hunt to reclaim what had been taken. It retreated the moment Elain’s eyes fell on our dead father lying in the adjacent clearing. The moment the scream came out of her.(Acowar)

Now let's start talking about CC mystics.

Three mystics slept, submerged in greenish, cloudy water, breathing masks strapped to their faces. Their white shifts floated around them, doing little to hide the skeletal bodies beneath. One male, one female, one both. That was how it always was, how it had always been. Perfect balance.

This is the first time we are seeing them in hosab and they are in a water and this scene reminded me of Elain coming out of Cauldron scene.

And as if it had been tipped by invisible hands, the Cauldron turned on its side. More water than seemed possible dumped out in a cascade. Black, smoke-coated water. And Elain, as if she’d been thrown by a wave, washed onto the stones facedown. Her legs were so pale—so delicate. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen them bare. The queens pushed forward. Alive, she had to be alive, had to have wanted to live— Elain sucked in a breath, her fine-boned back rising, her wet nightgown nearly sheer. And as she rose from the ground onto her elbows, the gag in place, as she twisted to look at me— Nesta began roaring again. Pale skin started to glow. Her face had somehow become more beautiful—infinitely beautiful, and her ears … Elain’s ears were now pointed beneath her sodden hair.

•Mystics are in claudy water and Elain comes out of smoke-coated water.

•Mystics’ bodies are skeletal and it Cauldron scene there is a mention about her “fine boned back”

•Mystics have white shifts around them and Elain has her sheer nightgown.

Turning back to mystics.

It wasn’t that the mystics could see all worlds—no, the gift wasn’t the unnerving thing. It was what they gave up for it. Life. True life.

There is two important things here. The gift... Elain's seer powers were gifted to her by the Cauldron

“You stole from the Cauldron,” I said to Nesta, who seemed ready to jump between all of us and Elain. “But what if the Cauldron gave something to Elain?”

Elain is gifted these powers by Cauldron and mystics powers are becoming one with the god and absolute which is what Cauldron is to Acotar world.

And the life. They give up life and that reminded me of how Elain was after the Cauldron until Azriel realized she was a seer.

And seated in a small chair before the sunniest of the windows, her back to us, was Elain. Where Nesta had been in contented silence before we found her, Elain’s silence was … hollow. Empty.

Her skin was so pale it looked like fresh snow in the harsh light. I realized then that the color of death, of sorrow, was white. The lack of color. Of vibrancy.

Nesta’s rage was better than this … shell. This void. My breath caught as I edged around her chair. Beheld the city view she stared so blankly at.

She had been always so full of light. Perhaps that was why she now kept all the curtains open. To fill the void that existed where all of that light had once been. And now nothing remained.

and then with Azriel saying that she is a seer she starts to free her from that mulky realm.

Elain blinked and blinked, eyes clearing again. As if the understanding, our understanding … it freed her from whatever murky realm she’d been in.

again turning back to mystics

“Everyone is always so concerned for their wellbeing. They made the choice, you know. I didn’t force them into this.” He sighed. “To give up life in the waking world to glimpse wonders of the universe that no Vanir or mortal shall ever see …” Stroking his beard, he added, “This trio is a good one. I’ve had them for a while now with no issues. The last group … One drifted too far. Too far, and for too long. They dragged the others with them. Such a waste.”

Bryce tried to block out the excuses. Everyone knew the truth: the mystics came from all races, and were usually poor. So poor that when they were born with the gift, their families sold them to people like the Astronomer, who exploited their talent until they died, alone in those tubs. Or wandered so deep into the cosmos they couldn’t find their way back to their minds.

So the mystics can see far into the universe but if they wander so deep they can't find their back to their own minds. Could that happen to Elain? Or before they realized she was a seer that what was happening to her?

it freed her from whatever murky realm she’d been in.

She was in some kind of murky realm. What if she was wandering like that mystic?

The wandering reminded me of this scene Elain scene.

Elain squinted, as if the question required some inner clarification, some … path into looking the right way at whatever had addled and plagued her. “Yes.”

and this scene when she was finding the Suriel

Elain again glanced at the map. At me. Then closed her eyes. Her eyes shifted beneath her lids, the skin so delicate and colorless that the blue veins beneath were like small streams. “It moves …,” she whispered. “It moves through the world like … like the breath of the western wind.” “Where is it headed?” Her finger lifted, hovering over the map, the courts. Slowly, she set it down. “There,” she breathed. “It is going there. Now.”

we also Astronomer saying this about the mystics.

The old male cut in, as if he hadn’t heard a word of their hissed argument. “Most astronomers and mystics have been put out of business these days, you know. Thanks to fancy tech. And self-righteous busybodies like you,” he spat toward Bryce. She snarled at him, the sound more primal Fae than she liked, but he waved that hateful, ring-encrusted hand toward the mystics in their pools. “They were the original interweb. Any answer you wish to know, they can find it, without having to wade through the slog of nonsense out there.”

so they were able to find any answer without needing a book or anything else...just like Elain.

She could find the Suriel (I added the scene above) She knew about Vassa—she even answered about questiong about Vassa.

“The sixth queen is alive?” Azriel asked, calm and steady, the voice of the High Lord’s spymaster, who had broken enemies and charmed allies. Elain cocked her head, as if listening to some inner voice. “Yes.”

“What sort of curse?” my mate asked before he’d even finished speaking to me. 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.”

There is another interesting thing about mystics...the Astronomer was using orrery.

Bryce set aside her outrage and waved a hand to the drifting planets. “This space map—” “It is called an orrery.”

“Only one who does not feel the need to peer into the cosmos would ask such a thing. The orrery helps us answer the most fundamental questions: Who are we? Where do we come from?”

which reminded me of something in Rhys’ study...

There was the main floor of the study—bedecked in the hand-knotted blue carpets that Feyre had gone to Cesere to select from its artisans—with its two sitting areas, Rhys’s desk, and twin long tables near the bookshelves. At the far end of the room, a little dais led into a broad raised alcove flanked by more books—and in its center, a massive, working model of their world, the stars and planets around it, and some other fancy things that had been explained to Cassian once before he deemed them boring and proceeded to ignore them completely. Az, of course, had been fascinated. Rhys had built the model himself centuries ago. It could not only track the sun, but also tell time, and it somehow allowed Rhys to ponder the existence of life beyond their own world and other things Cassian had, again, instantly forgotten.

it is interesting that Azriel was fascinated by it 👀

Maybe Elain will use the model in Rhys’s study to look into the universe. Could this be helpful with the crossover? Maybe they will get answer about Asteri with that model and Elain’s seer powers.

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