#atatn

[for-hireath]

[clockworkbee]

[bookishchef]

So, I'm on book 2 of An Ember in The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, and I'm still waiting on the development of Elias x Laia. Like....? It feels low-key a bit rushed??? Love most of the vibes, don't get me wrong, but their romance is the weakest part of the series so far.

[dream-to-be-frog]

just finished reaper and it’s definitely the best book in the series by far. the first one was sooo ya and like. obviously it is but it made me remember why i don’t read ya as much, in the nicest way possible. it was good but wow some things made me oof. all my love to sabaa i’m reading this most because i love and respect her, but it was definitely a debut novel, y’know? second was better but still remnants of that. by reaper, she’s definitely more seasoned. it’s the first book i didn’t see all the plot twists coming and things genuinely caught me by surprise i was so thrilled with the plot. and the end?? chef’s kiss can’t wait for laia/helene bestfriendism. biggest critique is that at least one of the major characters should be gay. i think dex is actually but like is he gonna get anyone? who knows. also he’s not as important to me tbh. like faris and livvy obviously elias and laia (probably?? somehow??) helene and avitas (which i am actually a super huge fan of. not gonna lie. they’re so fun and i’m just obsessed with helene sorry blood shrike in general she’s arguably my favorite which i thought was surprising considering i was like omg finally a brown female lead. (lmao rip. i do love laia okay but of course she is who she is and who she is is slightly formulaic by nature of what kind of story this is. helene is just so complicated and fucked up. i love my fucked up girls.)) the whole thing with cook ??? with elias losing his humanity ?? oh homies we are really in it now because idk how besties will get out of this one, but i am having a blast. so obsessed with how elias changed to soul catcher in the middle in terms of chapter name. blood shrike caught me off guard at the start and this is even better. again the whole cook plotline?? yum finally some good fucking food. the twisty turnies the betrayals the fuckedupity. i’m just talking now and lost the plot of this post but i am genuinely soooooo excited for a sky beyond the storm

[disownedbytiime]

I know I should cont8nue atatn now that I’m finishing jttou but I don’t even wanna open the document, it’s too much and I don’t remember anything

[elias-veturius-laia-of-serra]

Happy Valentine’s Day! To everyone but especially to the most lovely couple I know. My most favorite couple in the world, as you all know. Behold: The Ultimate Elaia Fluff! This was a concept I’ve been wanting to do forever and finally just got up and went for it! Introducing the Elaia family. A papa bear Elias, mama bear Laia, and their twins(?) Nothing but the best for the greatest couple of all time 🥺♥️ What would you guys name the happy couple’s kids?

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Commission made by the amazingly talented and friendly @kynerie who did such a good job! I awww’d aloud as soon as I saw the finished piece!

[eliasveturiusfandom]

Dream cast?

Sorry this took me a while! I have been preoccupied with school!

Laia Of Serra:

Elias Veturius:

Helene Aquilla:

Musa Of Adisa:

Avitas Harper:

Livia Aquilla:

Afya Ara - Nur

Izzi Of Serra:

Marcus Farrar:

Keris Veturia:

[author-athenagrey]

A study of a toxic relationship written without romanticization

This post includes spoilers for A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir.

Did I enjoy ATATN very much? No. It was too slow paced for my tastes. But did I love how Sabaa Tahir portrayed Keenan and Laia's relationship in the book? Yes, I did. I am in love with the way she portrayed a toxic relationship. On first glance, it doesn't even seem toxic but then you see the subtext and go "this is brilliant." I made incoherent notes on that brilliance for this post.

For those who don't know, Laia and Keenan are a couple of sorts from book two in the An Ember in the Ashes quartet by Sabaa Tahir. We do not like Keenan. Here is why.

Love bombing

Keenan was hot and cold with Laia all through book one and just generally giving her mixed signals. He would be aloof and then bomb her with attention and make her doubt her emotions and feelings. He'd make it seem like he cared and then retreat again in his cycle of manipulation when Laia got dependent on him. He used her loneliness when she was vulnerable when Elias left for Kauf and slept with her. Then he used magic to befuddle her mind and manipulated the shit out of her emotions.

Invalidating her emotions

Making her feel like she should let go of negative emotions, instead of openly expressing and feeling them like positive emotions. Making her feel as if sadness is a luxury, when it's not.

Making her question her capabilities

This seems like it's sweet on first glance, but it's not. He used his magic to manipulate her, to befuddle her mind and to make her question herself. Then, in a position where she couldn't lean on anyone else because she was alone with him, he put her in an even more vulnerable state by making himself the only person she could trust. He made it so that she couldn't even trust herself more than she trusted him. He's making her feel like she's not ready and capable and making her dependent on him instead of herself. Her inner voice figures it out but his magic wins in the end and she tricks herself into believing he's right.

Making her feel like shit for having a voice

Laia questions his authority. Can't verbalize her doubt because he's breaking her spirit. 'As if she's growing smaller day by day' shows that she feels inferior and that she thinks she should be thankful (she shouldn't) that the Great and Wise Keenan is helping her and is with her. She trusts him and his abilities over her own, which is not a good thing.

Making her trust him

He does the stuff he did and then acts like he cares so she doesn't question his authority again. After all, why would he wanna harm her if he cares about her well-being like that?

Making himself her only relief

He took away her comfort space, the coat Elias gave her, to make him her only respite. He took away her comfort space and introduced a new one that's moreso based on him so he can take her further away from who she truly is.

Loss of sense of self

She's conflicted. She wants to be herself but she has no energy to fight back because of how he's hurt her. She wants to be herself again but she can't because she isn't even aware of the fact that she isn't herself and it's all because of him and this is brilliant.

Beaten and bruised

He told her this toxicity is normal. That this is better than independence because she can't handle independence. That she screws stuff up when she's not babied and infantilized and made dependent on someone. She completely loses trust in herself and places it in Keenan, as that was what he wanted.

Tl;dr, Keenan is a toxic s/o to Laia so I hope you don't ship them and go hype up Sabaa Tahir for she is brilliant.

[maddiesflame]

elaia headers

like/reblog if saved © maddiesflame

[goblinofthecheese]

I don’t know if this has been done before, but this has been my main train of thought while reading A Sky Beyond The Storm

[poisonredheadedlover]

Unpopular Opinion

I don’t mind Helvitas’s ending in A Sky Beyond The Storm. Their relationship always made me uncomfortable considering the first time they meet is him beating her for five days and beating her so bad her father was horrified upon seeing her. It wasn’t a light beating either, even made a joke out of it, and her family ended up having to nurse her back to health afterwards.

- “He was your ally. Your friend.” The Northman pulls something from his pocket. It clinks, but I can’t see what it is. “The moment he was to be executed, a series of explosions nearly leveled the school. Do you expect anyone to believe that was a coincidence?”

At my silence, the Northman motions for the legionnaires to dunk me again.

- The legionnaires yank my head from the bucket, and I draw a deep gulp of air. The interrogator tips my face up with a firm hand, forcing me to look into green eyes that glimmer pale and unfeeling against the silver of his mask. 

-  “Very good, Aquilla.” His words are deadly quiet. Immediately, I think of the Commandant. The softer she spoke, Elias once said, the more dangerous she was. I can finally see what the Northman pulled from his fatigues. Two sets of joined, metal rings that he slips onto his fingers. Brass beaters. A brutal weapon that transforms a simple beating into a slow, bloody death

“Why don’t we begin there?”

“Begin?” I’ve been in this hellhole for hours. “What do you mean, begin?”

“This”—he gestures to the bucket of water and my bruised face—“was me getting to know you.”

-  I try to answer him, but I’m in too much pain to do more than moan. The legionnaires dump me on the floor. I lay curled in a ball, a pathetic attempt to protect my broken ribs. My breath escapes in a wheeze. I wonder if death is close.

- “Aquilla.” The Northman sounds … different. Tired. “You’re out of time. Tell me about the girl.”

“I don’t—”

“Otherwise, I have orders to beat you to death.”

“Emperor’s orders?” I wheeze. I’m surprised. I thought Marcus would visit all sorts of horrors upon me himself before killing me.

“Doesn’t matter whom the orders come from,” the Northman says. He crouches down. His green eyes meet mine. For once, they are less than calm.

“He’s not worth it, Aquilla,” he says. “Tell me what I need to know.”

“I—I don’t know anything.” The Northman waits a moment. Watches. 

When I remain silent, he stands and pulls on the brass beaters.

- “Father?” What in the bleeding hells is he doing here? Is Marcus using him as leverage? Planning to torture him until I give up information? “Your Majesty.” My father’s voice as he addresses Marcus is smooth as glass, so uninflected as to be uncaring. But his eyes flick to me, horror-filled.

- “Six broken ribs, twenty-eight lacerations, thirteen fractures, four torn tendons, and bruised kidneys.”

Helene was even so traumatized by it that when Avitas so much as moved his hands she would flinch. Then as time progresses he never brings it up again. Never apologizes. Never sits down and talks about it with her. Granted that still wouldn’t magically make everything okay. I’d still find it very problematic but at the very least it still should’ve been acknowledged. That’s not to say he’s a bad guy. As all masks had to do horrific things in their life. So I don’t think Avitas is evil or anything like that. I actually think as a friend he’s fantastic. I do not hate him. He’s done many good things and has been there through some of the roughest times to help out and battle through. He clearly is kind and does believe in the cause he’s helping.  It’s just this concept of their relationship is not okay to me. As well as the fact that the reason she caught his eye in the first place was because he realized that she was close to his brother so that peaked his intrigue. They just started off on the worst foot that I can’t look past it. It feels wrong to romanticize a relationship that had started with trauma and assault and try to pass it off as okay cause he ends up deciding to team up with her and be nice to her afterwards.

Its very triggering actually.

It’s just a very sensitive topic for me.

He crossed a line when he brutally tortured her and that’s something he can’t undo. The damage has been done and it took a huge toll on Helene afterwards. Both physically and mentally. It also doesn’t feel right to me that instead of talking about it together Helene just justifies the situation for him to herself so she can accept him as an ally. No matter how nice he was to her afterwards it doesn’t erase or lessen the grief he put her and even her family through. She wasn’t able to feel trusting or comfortable around him for months and not in an enemies to lovers sort of way but because she genuinely felt threatened and would remember the interrogation torture whenever she saw him.  I’m not saying this means his character is completely ruined and no one should ever like him. I still like him enough. Just not as a love interest. Avitas by himself? Perfectly fine. But pairing him up with the girl he tortured, traumatized, and whose mere presence had her on edge and would make her shudder and recoil whenever he was near, not so much. So I’m satisfied with their ending and glad Sabaa ended it that way.

[urlindah]

THEY ARE THEM

credit: @missescara

[clockworkbee]

My mind orders me to stay silent, but my heart screams to be heard. She is asking, after all. She wants to know. And I want to tell her. I want her to know what I am. / So I speak.

—Elias Veturius, from A Torch Against the Night

[poetic-gays]

Laia: Elias is so calm and composed all of the time. I wonder how he does it.

Elias, internally: Fuck fuck fuck fuck f

[jellybeanbeing]

When the clue all along was LITERALLY ‘go back to the beginning’ like the actual beginning of the story where everything started, when everything changed, what catapulted everything that had happened

[oh-jail-for-mother]

why don't we talk about Helene Aquilla holding up Grímmar's severed head when they took back the city of Antium i just wanna talk bc thats fucking badass of her