Bryce, probably 🤣
“Power to power. Female to female. Governor to … Princess wasn’t the right word for the expression that came across Bryce’s face, the shift of her posture. Another word formed on his tongue, but Hunt didn’t let it take root, didn’t let himself think of all the deadly implications that the other word would entail.”
🎨 @Emilia.mildner 🌟🌌
🌠 Images by u/bellire and @darkndarling, @theduskcourt (TikTok!!) ✨
“While [her starlight] had been guiding them, it had been comforting, had brought some color and spark to this realm of eternal night.” (This is the Rhythm of the Night 🎶🌌)
“Not in the good way.”
🎨 @Madschofield, @Gabsgabx, @Bychoggy_🌅✨
How much more obvious can SJM be?
Bryce possesses (multiple) powerful Made objects that want to go “Home” to the Cauldron; she’ll be back in the City of Starlight no matter what, and Hunt’s reactions could be very interesting!!!
“Nesta and her mate tensed, and Bryce knew Hunt had stepped into their world.”
“What was broken will be remade.”
“What was lost will be reclaimed.” (“And in that moment…”)
“When knife and sword are reunited…”
👑 The FIRST Trove item found was the Crown (we don’t know where!!)** **by Koschei…
🚨 “The Crown he’d claim for himself. It would have no influence over her, but their rule would be one of coercion. Enslavement.” 🚨
🚨 “Use the Crown that Made scum over there possesses…You could forge a path to enact your vision by clearing the minds of those before you.” 🚨
“[Bryce] had no idea what Vesperus meant…”
”Clever, that Fae warrior. *Her bloodline is long gone now—though a trace still runs through some human [Ember *🥹🥹] line …No one remembers her name. But I do.”
“She [THEIA] could not kill [my siblings] in the end—they were too strong. They could only be contained.”
“The Carver traced three overlapping, interlocked circles in the dirt.” (Parthos!!! 💜💜)
“The Carver wiped a hand through the circles he’d drawn, erasing them wholly.”
“Erased Theia from the record. That library…is what remains of the truth.” (Bryce’s magical trove of history)
“Dusk’s Truth. The same project that had been mentioned in the emails between Sofie and Danika. That Danika had said would be of interest to Sofie. Danika had been digging into it since college? Bryce inhaled and turned to the next page. It was completely blank. Like Danika had never gotten to writing down any notes about it.” ⬅️
Completely blank!! “Erased wholly” — the truth was “wiped clean” from history!!
“The Cauldron is victory. It will wipe this world clean again.” ‼️(again??)
“The Carver wiped a hand…erasing them wholly.”
It’s all coming together 💜💜
🎨 @Konstantin_atelier, @Morgana0anagrom, @Knifedippedinichor, @S.w.e.n.n, @Merwildandco, @Avia.sebag, @Mageonduty, @Knifedippedinichor, @Mkviceart ✨
Bryceriels all year(s): “How can people take the HOFAS Theia history at face value when it doesn’t explain Amren, Stryga, Koschei or the Bone Carver’s stories at all??”
“It’s still so crazy people believe Silene’s hologram (and the story of Princes of Hel) from HOFAS when there are so many inconsistencies …. The most obvious clue of them all is the fact that the Mask and the Crown are completely absent from Silene and the Princes’ stories. People are so blinded by their Bryceriel hatred that they can’t see the obvious plot twist about the Theia history coming.” (And now look!!!)
The eight-pointed star is on the spider because it warns off predators.
Pelias “the Starborn Prince” erased Theia from Midgard’s history, and some other man in Prythian likely even went even further, rewriting Theia’s story altogether (this is just like ToG where we are still collecting all the pieces!!).
”In my world, your kind exists, too. Not healers to us, but executioners. Death-maidens. Capable of healing—but also unhealing. Unbinding the very fabric of life. Of worlds.”
Bryaxis!! ”I knew [the Carver] once—long ago. Before so many things crawled this earth.” 👹
Elain: “I might require some time to … reacquaint myself with my powers…” 👁️
Papa Archeron: “But your father, ever the negotiator…He managed to cut a deal with Vassa’s keeper to come here.”
Koschei: “Koschei may very well know something about the Trove that we don’t—some greater power that manifests when all [four] are united…”
Theia: “She could not kill them in the end—they were too strong. They could only be contained.”
Bryce: “The person who could somehow, against all odds, unite the pieces of Theia’s power—“
”These reliefs tell a narrative, too, you know.”
“If I had a few weeks, I could walk the whole length and analyze it.”
🚨 “…carved and recounted here so that if the original history becomes warped or parts of it lost to time … here it is, etched in stone.” 🚨
“…your ancestor who also bore that star on her chest.”
“Bryce gazed at the eight-pointed star, the very heart…”
“They all seemed to spiral toward one point.” ⭐️🌟
“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.” (Frost and Starlight)
Beautiful foreshadowing from the weaver: “…a gradient beam of starlight. Where the rainbow would have been full of color, this one beg shimmering white light and descended into shadow.”
“Like the fading light of day — of dusk.”
“Such light and darkness—the power lay in the meeting of the two of them. [Bryce] understood it now, how the darkness shaped the light.”
“…the black fabric that was like peering into a pit of hell. And then stared at the iridescent, living silver thread that cut through it, bright despite the darkness that devoured all other light and color.”
“Solas’ light had been extinguished with the setting sun, and that lone candle stood for the one kernel of him that survived. A kernel of hope, to be fully rekindled…”
“…you [Bryce]. In space. Glowing against that black hole.” ✨⭐️🌟✨ (Bryce became the** canon Hope in the Void**)
“Theia had the gift, but did not understand how to claim the light. I made sure never to reveal how during her training—how she might light up entire worlds, if she wished.”
SJM talking about her daughter in HOFAS’ dedication: “For Sloane, who lights up entire universes with her smile.”
Light it up, Bryce 💫✴️
🎨 @Neave.archives, @Briez.draws, @Natserpiece, @Gabrielleragusi, @Sophia.angelique.art, @Oli_diart ⭐️🌟
“Maybe she’d regret it. She knew Hunt would have yelled at her for setting a trap only to go help the people she’d ensnared.”
“…you fear a certain High Lord’s reaction.”
“Tamlin. I could already see his face going pale, his lips becoming thin as the claws came out. I could almost hear the growl he’d emit…”
“…Bryce began running again, hurtling through the cave. Back toward Nesta and Azriel. And prayed there was something left for her to save.” 🤗🤗
“She had no idea how far she had to run, but if she could get a little farther— A shout bounced off the rocks behind her. Not one of pursuit, but of pain. Azriel. She glanced over a shoulder just as his blue light went out.” (Remind me, when does Bryce ever feel Hunt’s pain?)
In my opinion, it’s really obvious Bryce and her family are destined to merge with the IC and ACOTAR:
“You’ll fit right in here.” 🩷🌌
🎨 @Xo.hikka 🌙✨
That’s all 🤣
“When the veil between realms is thinnest…” 🌌
🌄 @Mithlista ✨
🌌 Feyre: “Of the night sky—of the image that brought me joy when I needed it most. Open night sky, stars, and the moon.“
“A starry, unclouded night sky, peaceful and glittering and endless.”
“Not water, but something smoother, thicker. Not oil, but something purer, thinner. Like being wrapped in warm silk. I was so busy savoring the tug of my fingers through the silvery substance that I didn’t notice him…”
(Her mate has violet blue eyes that “glitter with stars” …)
🌲 Aelin: “A breeze filled the wagon, lifting away the smells of the past two weeks. Her trembling paused for a heartbeat. She knew that breeze.She knew the chill bite beneath it, knew it carried the hint of pine and snow, knew the mountains from which it hailed. A northern breeze, a breeze of Terrasen.”
“…the wicked wind flowing fast and strong between the gray, jagged Staghorns in the distance, with the dense spread of Oakwald to their left, and the rivers and valleys sprawling toward those great northern mountains—it was paradise for a hawk. Paradise for her.”
“…pine and snow, of sun-bleached cliffs and white-capped seas, a land where light was swallowed in the velvety green of bumps and hollows—a land that she had forgotten.”
(Her mate has “flecks of brown in his pine-green eyes,” which Aelin explicitly notices when discussing fears surrounding her birthright …)
🌅 Bryce: “The gentle illumination danced on Bryce’s hair as she ambled down the stone path, night-blooming flowers opening around her. Jasmine lay heavy in the twilight air, sweet and beckoning.”
“Behind her, a great mountaintop palace rose toward the sky, winged horses soaring among the clouds. No doubt some religious iconography of her divine right to rule.”
“The hair on her head rose. Debris floated upward. She was everywhere and nowhere. She was the evening star and the last rays of color before the dark.”
(Her…Azriel has eyes that glow golden in the shadows …) 🌅🌄
”—one of the few remnants of the human world before the Asteri’s arrival.”
“‘Such clever, lovely creatures, humans.’ The carver seemed lost in ancient memory—“ (Parthos!!) 💗
“The Carver folded his legs beneath his small frame. ‘Where we [Bone Carver, Stryga, Koschei] came from … I do not believe it is now anything more than dust drifting across a plain. ‘“
“Tell me you don’t believe that conspiracy crap about an ancient library in the heart of a pre-existing human civilization?” (Orion may have been a master Hunter, but he definitely wasn’t known for his intelligence!)
🎨 Art!! @Luardraws, @Mftfernandez, @S.seidel.art, @Nataliebernardart, @Fleeting_ember, @Janarunneck, Faebelina (Tumblr), @_artjake_, @Gabrielleragusi 🌟
IN HOFAS — SJM cemented the Book of Breathings into Bryce’s story:
“‘What truth?’ This from Azriel.”
“I’ve been trying to uncover that, too…”
“Was the language of your tattoo part of it?”
“I don’t know—“
“The glowing letters inked on her back … they’re the same as those in the Book of Breathings.”
“This stuff you [Danika] gave me is some weird shit…Took a while to dissolve.”
“Danika had it ground into a fine powder, mixed it with witch-ink, and then got you so drunk you didn’t ask questions…” (Regarding the witch-ink, it’s very interesting Danika’s tattoo is said to heal while Bryce’s is not… CC3: “The book shoved back, as if it’d leap off the shelf and go at him for round three, but a golden ripple of light shimmered down its spine— ➡️a barrier ⬅️ falling back into place*.* W*ards ➡️ to seal ⬅️ the magical books* in. The book thudded against it—and could go no further.” … Huh: “It shimmered along her skin, stinging down her spine, her shoulder blades—“ … Azriel’s using Truth-Teller on Bryce’s tattoo, no doubt!!)
The Book of Breathings: “There are … interesting spells inside. Codes within codes within codes…Spells that could … send someone like her home.”
“Over my heart, the Book said, Home—take me home.”
”Home, the Book of Breathings sighed. Home.” (The Cauldron!!)
One of the biggest hints Bryce will return, in my opinion!! 💜💜
“You put the pieces together…and the blast of power will be felt in every corner and hole in the earth. You won’t just attract the King of Hybern. You’ll draw enemies far older and more wretched. Things that have long been asleep—and should remain so.”
“With Theia’s power now united within her …”(It’s the same picture! 😩🌟)
(It’s said the Book must be “freely given” by a mortal queen— and Feyre happily chucks it into the Cauldron!)
HOFAS: “‘I’m new to the Fae realms,’ Nesta said, her focus again on the river. ‘I was born human and turned High Fae against my will.’ She sighed. ‘It’s a long story. But I’ve only lived in the faerie lands for a handful of years now. Much of this is still strange to me.’”
Bryce: “I know the feeling…My mother is human, my father Fae. I’ve lived between two worlds my entire life.”
🌙 Get Ready to Re-enter the World(s) of SJM
“…it was a thin place, good for traveling between worlds. Theia knew this, too.”
“…certain people, with certain gifts, can access the power of thin places—on any world…You are one of them.”
”I’ve lived between worlds my entire life.” 🙂↕️🌌🌠
🌠 u/bellire: “The lanterns start out as a celebration for the baby princess Rapunzel. The King and Queen launched one into the sky, and it rose up into the heavens. When Mother Gothel kidnapped the baby princess to keep herself young and beautiful, the lantern launching tradition began. Ever since then, on the princess' birthday, the whole kingdom has a festival where they launch thousands of glowing lanterns into the sky in hope that the princess will be guided home by them. While growing up, Rapunzel saw them every night on her birthday and was fascinated by them and wanted to see them in person.”
Piggybacking off u/bellire’s comment here!! 💜💜
Bryce 🤝 Feyre not telling Tam her birthday 🌠
“Mentioning that my birthday had also fallen on that longest night of the year was a fact I’d conveniently forgotten to tell anyone.”
“You didn’t … I don’t remember seeing you celebrate it.”
”I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want a party when there was already all that celebrating going on. Birthdays seem meaningless now, anyway.”
“What’s Starfall?” 🌌
“‘Amren’s eyes twinkled. ‘Outside of these borders, the rest of the world celebrates tomorrow as Nynsar—the Day of Seeds and Flowers.’” (Spring Equinox!)
🌠 Starfall (Silver Flames): “Spring dawned on Velaris.”
The very end of HOFAS: “…if she can find a way to stabilize the antidote, we could have it rolling out to everyone by the Spring Equinox. That is, if we still have power by then.”
The timelines here are similar: “The timelines between their worlds were similar, then.”
Let’s hope Bryce ends up on Prythian before her birthday 🤗🤗
“What’s happening to them?”
“I wish I knew. But they keep coming back despite it.”
“Why?”
“Why does anything cling to something? Maybe they love wherever they’re going so much that it’s worth it. Maybe they’ll keep coming back, until there’s only one star left. Maybe that one star will make the trip forever, out of the hope that someday—if it keeps coming back often enough—another star will find it again.”
Are the Starfall spirits trying to guide Bryce back home? (Just a theory!!) 🌟
The future version of Sailor Moon (Bryce!!)
A human-born guardian (originating from Usagi) who achieved her peak state (a cosmic, god-like entity) through her soul's evolution (“They return to the Mother, where they rest in joy within her heart…”), she wields the Cosmos Crystal and commands ultimate universal power tied to the Galaxy Cauldron.
Usagi eventually takes on the mantle (“Might have felt a mantle settle on her shoulders, a train of starlight in her wake”) of Neo Queen Serenity (characters repeatedly poke at Bryce being, “Queen of the Universe”)…and once Neo Queen and crew dies, they all return to the Galaxy Cauldron as stars to be “reborn” again. Due to Sailor Moon/Neo Queen Serenity being so powerful, she’s reborn as Sailor Cosmos.
The Cosmos Crystal serves as the heart (“Bryce gazed at the eight-pointed star, the very heart…”) and ultimate source of the Galaxy Cauldron, where all stars and Sailor Crystals are born and eventually return.
Chaos eventually emerges from the Cauldron: “…the firstlight power grid failed and chaos reigned.”
”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 [Apollion, the STAR-EATER’s] blood.”
And Sailor Moon becomes her ultimate form to fight Chaos 🪽✨
“The island—spoke to her” 🐺💫
“…they’re linked in some way through being thin places and spilled over to each other a bit. Maybe back in that other world … I woke up the land around the Prison, too.” 🌅
“Helena had bound the soul of this land in magical chains.”
“And in that moment, the mountain—the island—spoke to her. Alone. It was so alone—it had been waiting all this time. Cold and adrift in this thrashing gray sea. If she could reach out, if she could open her heart to it … it might sing again. Awaken. There was a beating, vibrant heart locked away, far beneath them. If she freed it, the land would rise from its slumber, and such wonders would spring again from its earth—”
“Bryce gazed at the eight-pointed star, the very heart…”
“She let her power flow outward from the star in her chest.”
“Be free.” ⭐️🌟🌌
💜 This is a TikTok that was created by user @Brycerielx ✨🌟 (the background image is from SJM’s now-deleted Pinterest!!) 💜
“She’s always up to some shady shit.”
“Yeah, but is she buying or selling this time?”
“Only one way to find out.” (Check!)
“So Bryce said, ‘You’re going to teach me how to do that Teleport.’”
“Cormac gave her a slashing smile. ‘Only one way to find out.’” (Check!)
“I’m not even sure we can have sex like this.”
“Ruhn’s cock throbbed. ‘Only one way to find out…’” (Check!)
“‘Only one way to find out,’ Ithan said.”
“‘Only one way to find out,’ Bryce said with a bravado she didn’t feel, and approached the wall.”
“‘Only one way to find out,’ she muttered to herself.”
“Maybe they’re linked in some way through being thin places and spilled over to each other a bit. Maybe back in that other world … maybe I woke up the land around the Prison, too.”
”Only one way to find out, I guess.”
🌌 Search “only one way to find out,” and you’ll find that each time, the characters do the thing they are referring to…
🌠 Except for Bryce returning to the prison to see if she awoke the island!!! 🌅
It’s so obviously happening:
“Around the natural archway, an array of stars and planets had been carved, crowned at its apex by a large setting or rising sun ☀️🌅 Bryce’s star ⭐️glowed brighter 🌟 as she faced it, guiding her there.” 🌠🌌
“[Bryce] pointed to the floor, the carving of rivers of stars winding throughout.”
”The star on your chest—do you know what it is?”
🌌 “Nesta studied the carvings in the floor. They all seemed to spiral toward one point.”
🌅 “Something settled deep in her, a loose thread at last pulling taut.” 🌅
🌌 The prophecy (“When knife and sword are reunited…”) is literally the Stone Mother story (a real legend!): “…he was leaving earth to go and live in his home in the sky and that when they died, they could follow him by travelling along the dusty way, which is called The Milky Way today, where he would be waiting…Then he told them that he hoped one day they would all come to their senses and live peacefully together.”
The “Waterway of the Heavens” 🤝 The Milky Way 🤝 the river of starlight (in the cave carvings!!)
🌠 Lights will guide you home 🌌
I’m curious — what would be your thoughts on a potential Mor book? It’s definitely been mentioned but not that often in other spaces!! Given her absence, I think the possibility is definitely there!! The good, the bad; what do you think?
I’m personally excited!!
“Truth is deadly. Truth is freedom. Truth can break and mend and bind. The Veritas holds in it the truth of the world.”
“Bryce took it, peering at the orb he laid on the floor…”
“Mor is who I’ll call in when the armies fail and Cassian and Azriel are both dead.” 🎨 @Bloodexer 🖤
“Mor turned to my sister, and I had never seen her seem so…warriorlike. I’d known it lurked beneath the surface, but here was the Morrigan. The female who had fought in the War. Who knew how to end lives with blade and magic.” 🎨 @Tomandosal ⚔️
“We’re all broken…In our own ways—in places no one might see.” 🎨 @Inkfaeart ♥️
“She never stopped appreciating the sunshine. Even five hundred years after leaving that veritable prison she’d called home and the monsters who claimed her as kin, his friend—his sister, honestly—still savored every moment in the sun. As if the first seventeen years of her life, spent in the darkness of the Hewn City, still lurked around her like Az’s shadows.” 🎨 @Listening_stars_ ✨
“If I had not met my cousin, I would never have learned that light can be found in even the darkest of hells. That kindness can thrive even amongst cruelty.” 🎨 @Frostbitstudios 💕
Nesta seemed as out of place as all of us—save Mor—but … That was awe on my sister’s face.” (Dawn!! Which is covered in Wisteria — often viewed as portals to hidden worlds) 🎨 @Dianadworak 🌅
“What else might she see, witness, in lands where none in the Night Court had ventured for millennia? The question lingered with every thunderous step from Ellia over snow and brook and hill.” 🎨 @Folklorefaery 🏰
“I hope that whatever Morrigan is doing in Vallahan will counteract the damage my father will unleash…” SJM’s now-deleted Pinterest (Mor!) ❄️
“I’ve spent weeks in that blasted court…freezing my ass off, trying to kiss their cold asses, and their king and queen refused the treaty.” (Perhaps Elain and Lucien can help!!)
“I didn’t feel like waiting until the afternoon. Vallahan is already knee-deep in snow (Snow Queen retelling??). I needed some sunshine.”
“‘Vallahan.’ The ancient, mountainous Fae territory across the northern sea had been stirring since before the war with Hybern, and had been both enemy and ally to Prythian in different historical eras. What role Vallahan’s hot-tempered king and proud people would play in this new world of theirs was yet to be decided, though much of its fate seemed to depend upon Mor’s now-frequent presence at their court…”
(Story incoming?? 🥂 Alongside Elucien, Eris, Mor and Az are also a perfect segue to Bryce 🌠)
Where did that Gate take Bryce??
HOSAB: “Again, and again, and again, Rigelus shot his power at her and Bryce leapt through space, ward to ward, zigging and zagging, glass and countless statues to the Asteri’s egos shattering, the Gate nearing—“
“She panted, mind spinning so violently she could only lie amid the drifting, chill fog. Her fingers dug into the verdant grass. Blood coated her hands. Crusted beneath her nails. She had to get up.”
Get up.
“She glimpsed black boots. Dark, scalelike armor over a tall, muscled body. Wings. Great, black wings. A demon’s wings. But the male face that stared through the mists, grave and lethal … it was beautiful, despite the fact that his hazel eyes held no mercy.”
During the final mission, Hunt catches Bryce staring at the Gate (that took her to Azriel 🤧).
Another moment that (could!!) be big with hindsight 🌟
“If Urd had some intention in sending her here … she sure as fuck had no idea what it was.”
“The star kept glowing, pointing the way.”
🎨 Art: Slide One (Suzume!! 🩷), @Kushinada (VGen), commissioned by u/Lousiferrr, Hmmr.art 💙
“Don’t fall into Romanticism!”
“Look, this star … It’s pointing me this way. I have no idea why, but I have to follow it.” 🌙💫🌟✨
🥀 Inspired by Sailor Moon’s Moon Kingdom (Dusk!!) 🌙🌄
“Bryce gazed at the eight-pointed star, the very heart of this chamber, of this map of the cosmos.”
“Thus the land’s powers became my mother’s. Dusk, twilight—that’s what the island was in its long-buried heart, what her power bloomed into, the lands rising with it. It was, as she said, as if the island had a soul that now blossomed under her care, nurtured by the court she built here.”
“And in that moment, the mountain—the island—spoke to her…it had been waiting all this time.“
“This place, this Prison and the court it had once been, was Bryce’s inheritance.”
“Tendrils of night-blooming purple flowers unfurled around her in answer, despite the daylight.”
“Had it always been leading toward this?”
This art was commissioned by myself and u/bellire 👑🙌 and the 🎨 artist is @Hi_elynn on IG 🥹
🌠 For 15,000 years, the Dusk Court has waited for its queen to return. The heir of High Queen Theia. The Starborn Princess. The one destined to reclaim what was lost. Rhysand says the island is, “law unto itself,” Nesta says, “the land still waited for [something great] to return,” and “her mountain” said, There you are.
“…her light to now be laced with darkness, as if it had become the fading light of day, of twilight—“
“Maybe back in that other world … I woke up the land around the Prison, too.”
“Only one way to find out” 💖🎶💖
“Gwydion in hand, Theia left the tent. With Fae grace and surety, she leapt onto the back of a magnificent winged horse and was airborne in seconds, soaring into the battle-filled night.”
“That sword belongs to Theia’s female heir.”
“Cupping her hands before her chest, she drew out the blazing, beautiful star. It illuminated the mists, set the snow at their feet sparkling…What Bryce had taken from her chest that day during the attack last spring was a fraction of the star she now held between her palms.”
“…they seem to be the sort of thing that might belong to a Super Magical Fancy Starborn Princess …” 🦄
“Ruhn’s head spun as he narrowed his eyes at her, blinking at the halo of starlight that danced around her head, at her feet…The sword glimmered with starlight, too. He could have sworn the damn thing was singing.”
“The person who could somehow, against all odds, unite the pieces of Theia’s power—“
Bryce and JJ brought to life!! 💖
🌄 “She understood it now, how the darkness shaped the light.” 🌄
✨ Art by @Anchuarchivo on Insta!! She’s so sweet!! And happily sketched out this image for us:
“She told me once, when I marveled at our luck that the portal had opened to Aidas that day, that it was because they were mates—their souls had found each other across galaxies, linking them that fateful day—“
Sailor Moon and all of her reincarnations are very clearly Bryce (Sailor Moon pins were also saved explicitly for her character!), so I thought it would be fun to play on (yet another!) that points to a larger merge of these words.
It’s clear there’s more to come from all of our favorites, leaving the door of possibilities wide open!!! 💖
“He glanced sidelong at her. ‘What about your world?’”