zoyalensk

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Lenore Dove and Sejanus eating gumdrops together in the afterlife while watching Snow's downfall

that's it that's the post

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Morning Doodle: “Though he and Zoya took pains to hide the urgency of their mission, they rode hard each day and never spent more than a single night in any location.”(Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

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Kaz Brekker, aka the scourge of all Ketterdam, the main fixer of all problems imaginable, the character of "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo and my love 💔

watercolor, acrylic, liners, pencils 59.4 x 84.1 cm

2025

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kel is "i am the prince's shield. i am his unbreakable armor. i bleed that he might not bleed. i die that he might live forever." but then also, the ragpicker king talking to kel about "they must know that if they harmed you, the prince would hound them to the ends of the earth. he would never stop seeking revenge," and kel knew that was true.

kel dedicating himself wholly to conor's protection. and it's not just protective, it's sacrificial. it's not just out of duty to the crown but out of personal loyalty to conor as his brother, not just to conor as his prince. and then conor, he might be a prince, might be the one who needs protection but he also shows how greatly he values kel. even though kel is supposed to protect him, conor's instinct is to protect kel right back with everything he has and vengeance will become his form of defense. when you take away their roles, what remains still is a deep brotherly bond, it goes beyond duty and this bond is so important to me.

Good I’m obsessed with Sword Catcher but I wish more people were talking about Connor and Kel’s bond because the intensity of it is killing me. I love this dynamic in which Kel would and must die for Connor and would defend him from anything and everyone but then Connor every time Kel is in danger is ready to jump into the fray because that isn’t his bodyguard that’s his brother and Kel doesn’t realize that him dying would be a worst fate for Connor than death itself and that it would destroy him and he doesn’t see it and yet the same goes the other way around and Kel would burn himself not just to save Connor but to make him happy. And then Kel is fighting Vienne and it’s clear he’s overpowered and the fucking captain of the guard has to hold Connor back to keep the prince from intervening and saving his bodyguard, his literal Sword Catcher!!!!! I’m obsessed!!!!! Someone talk to me about it!!! Why are y’all not as obsessed as I am????

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Lin Caster from the Sword Catcher Series by @cassandraclare

Had fun working on this one!

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the prince and the sword catcher

characters belong to @cassandraclare

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the ragpicker king

“I am a Prince. I can give you gold. Jewels. A fleet of ships. But you want none of those things. What I cannot do is marry you - not without smashing the alliances that are keeping Castellane whole. Not without losing the throne, and who would then take it? If there was someone I trusted, I would give it up willingly, but there is no one. I want to give them up. But I cannot. I cannot offer you what the lowest peasant in the street could offer you. Myself. Because myself does not belong to me. It belongs to Castellane.”

this whole quote is just so devastating like it captures the tragedy of conor who has almost everything but the freedom to choose love. him listing symbols of wealth and power only to realize they are meaningless in the face of love because he cannot give the one thing lin would truly want which is himself. he's not even saying he cannot marry her because he might lose everything (he wants to give them up), but because his kingdom that is already so fragile might lose everything. really heartbreaking that he loves lin enough to tell the truth that marriage with her is the thing he sacrifices to keep an almost crumbling Castellane from truly falling apart :( please give them a happy ending in the third book ms cassie clare

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nonono you don’t understand.

he will always seek to make it summer for her.

​he. will. always. seek. to. make. it. summer. for. her.

HE WILL ALWAYS SEEK TO MAKE IT SUMMER FOR HER.

HE. WILL. ALWAYS. SEEK. TO. MAKE. IT. SUMMER. FOR. HER.

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oh lenore dove, my rare and radiant girl 💔💔

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i love you like all-fire

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when talking about zoya and nikolai it's hard to tell who fell first or who fell harder. their romance was a love built slowly over years of shared burdens and understanding. they offered loyalty to each other before they realized it had already become love and what makes their relationship so special to me is that it grew in the quiet. for three years, they stood side by side not as lovers but as leaders and friends and somewhere along the way, love began to take root.

zoya who believed she was made to be a weapon and was not meant for something like love found in nikolai someone who saw her and never flinched. nikolai who carried the weight of a nation and a demon inside him found in zoya someone who didnt just try to fix him but stood with him.

its like their romance came naturally as breathing and in the end that's what makes it so perfect to me.

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Death is only meaningless if it does not change us, Vis

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@lluthiien !! :D

the forgotten royal family portrait of suus.

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reading the kos duology has me mourning for the onscreen zoyalai crumbs we couldve gotten in shadow and bone season 3 ugh i hate you netflix

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“zoya will live a very long life,” the darkling said. “despite the demon, you may not do the same.”

“then i will love her from my grave.”

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zoyalai being my instant favorite ship after reading the kos duology they are just perfect and makes so much sense to me. the slow(est) burn, the mutual respect, the aching restraint, and the way their care and love for each other grow quietly in the middle of chaos. absolutely perfect.

"her romance with nikolai would never be bouquets of flowers and pretty declarations of love. it lived in the quiet they'd found in each other, in the hours of peace they were stringing together one by one."

theirs isnt just a romance, it's a story of survival and of learning how to let someone in after being hardened by war and everything they've been through. two people who carried the weight of duty and war, learning to carry each other too. i love them.

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zoya learning that she is worthy of love is the single most beautiful, most heartbreaking thing i have ever read about in a book ever. like she is just this girl who's been betrayed by all the people who were supposed to protect her over and over again to the point where she felt like she had to turn herself into this heartless monster who only cared about herself just so she wouldn't feel that loss again and then she finally meets someone who loves her unconditionally and all she wants is to be with him but she has a such strong sense of duty that she thinks it'll never happen or that even if it does he'll come to hate her eventually and watching her learn that there is love in the world and that she is deserving of it is just so fucking emotional and leigh did such a great job conveying it in this essay i will-