A Court of Mist and Fury: Chapter 34
Feyre experiences a restless night thinking about Rhysand flirting with the Summer Court princess, worrying that she’ll eventually overhear noises coming from his room. She sorta reflects on her feelings towards Rhysand, but it’s a little too subtle for a reader who’s now halfway into a whole book of this.
He could still be my friend. Companion – whatever this thing was between us. His taking someone to bed didn’t change those things. […] I didn’t have the nerve to come out of my room for breakfast, to see if Rhys had returned.
She also briefly reflects on what she thinks of Tarquin and his social justice interests, but immediately arrives at the wrong conclusion.
[…] a High Lord who might very well overturn the order of things.
For a heartbeat, I missed Velaris.
“Dear Diary, I met this great new world leader who wants to break down the rigid social barriers between the upper and lower classes! It made me miss a city that systemically excludes subpopulations that are just too unsavory for us to conduct trade. I miss Margaret Thatcher.”
Feyre spends her morning experimenting with her newly discovered water-manipulating magic in the tub, making little animals out of water. When she meets up with Tarquin later for their tour of the Summer Court’s treasure troves, she wonders if Tarquin can tell she was using powers that she inherited – or took – from him. Also of note is that when Tarquin arrives at their agreed-upon meeting place, he arrives with Rhysand and the others, who he just had a discussion about potential military strategy with, but they immediately don’t stick around, because I guess they thought it was fun to follow Tarquin to his next meeting that they weren’t attending.
Before departing, Feyre notices that Rhysand brushes against her mental shield, almost like a warning to be careful. Tarquin takes her to the first trove of treasures, which Feyre finds impressive, but doesn’t see any books or feel any magical pull towards any item.
“What’s the most valuable thing in here?”
“Thinking of stealing?”
I choked on a laugh. “Wouldn’t asking that question make me a lousy thief?”
Tarquin studied me. “I’d say I’m looking at the most valuable thing in here.”
Ariel made an observation to me in our personal chat that as the A Court of Thorns and Roses series goes on, Feyre gets more and more… shall we say… Zoey Redbird. And now I can’t not see all the little House of Night-y ways that ACOMAF keeps insisting that Feyre is the specialest chosen one who is special. Which is really disheartening since she started out the series as a self-driven young woman who used her own skills to make her own decisions, but now she’s just been given more magic than anyone ever for reasons while everyone keeps telling her how important she is, yet somehow has less agency than before.
Feyre comes across a mysterious necklace in the treasure trove that seems like the sort of thing that would not be remotely surprising if it turned out to be a trap.
a necklace of black diamonds.
Each of the dark stones was a mystery— and an answer. Each of them slumbered.
Tarquin came up behind me, peering over my shoulder at what had snagged my interest. His gaze drifted to my face. “Take it.”
This can’t not be a trap, right?
He rubbed the back of his neck. “As a thank-you. For Under the Mountain.”
Ask it now— ask him for the Book instead.
But that would require trust, and … kind as he was, he was a High Lord.
He pulled the box from its resting spot and shut the lid before handing it to me. “You were the first person who didn’t laugh at my idea to break down class barriers.”
GODDAMMIT, I CAN’T TELL IF THIS IS A TRAP OR NOT.
Feyre accepts it, and Tarquin says that he could use an ally in the North. He very openly explains that he knows she has sway with Rhysand, whom everybody has told him can’t be trusted but he isn’t totally buying it.
“Other High Lords have told me about Rhys – and warned me about him. But he spared me Under the Mountain. […] Sometimes, I think Rhysand… I think he might have been [Amarantha’s] whore to spare us all from her full attention.” […]
“You know I can’t tell you anything. And I can’t promise you anything.” […]
“Forgive me if I’ve been forward. I’m still learning how to play the games of these courts – to my advisers’ chagrin.”
“I hope you never learn how to play the games of these courts.”
They end the day subtly indicating that the two of them might forge a genuine friendship, but Feyre’s mission to detect the book proves fruitless and she determines it must be hidden elsewhere in the city, or even another city. She returns to Rhysand with this information, but he sees it somewhat differently.
“Tarquin is a good male— a good High Lord. You should just ask him for the damned Book.”
Rhys snapped shut the lid. “So he plies you with jewels and pours honey in your ear, and now you feel bad?”
“He wants your alliance— desperately. He wants to trust you, rely on you.”
This obviously just becomes a fight about how they have feelings for each other they won’t openly talk about, but sure will openly fight about constantly.
“Is that why you wouldn’t look at me? Because you think I fucked [Cresseida] for information? […] Jealous, Feyre?”
It’s inscrutable how these two talk so openly about their interest in each other without actually talking about their interest in each other.
“What got under my skin,” Rhys said, his breathing a bit uneven, “is that you smiled at him.”
The rest of the world faded to mist as the words sank in. “You are jealous.”
He shook his head […] “I heard [you tell him] it would be easy to fall in love with him. […] I was jealous – of that. That I’m not… that sort of person. For anyone.”
The chapter ends with Feyre and Rhysand somehow not realizing this conversation about their feelings for each other is about their feelings for each other, but instead just pouring each other a drink and having a toast to “the dreams that are unanswered” after Rhysand laments how he, the guy who keeps the secret and segregated city of Velaris up and running, is somehow falling short of his own social justice interests. Somehow.
“I spared Tarquin’s life because I’d heard how he wanted to even out the playing field between High Fae and lesser faeries. I’ve been trying to do that for years. Unsuccessfully”
Neoliberalism is a hell of a drug.
It’s also creepy how everyone keeps telling Feyre she’s a treasure/valuable. With Rhys, I argued with myself that it was more of a well-meaning metaphor where when he told Feyre she was a treasure/worth more than gold he was saying she was incredible, which is nice. But why is Tarquin saying this? And are they all actually talking about how literally valuable she is at this point?
I think it really means valuable. Above a certain social state, women apparently cannot have worth of their own in faerielandy … the only thing Feyre could be with her powers would be a High Lady, but something like that doesn’t exist. And the last time something like that happened,it was Amarantha, so the High Lords are not really interested in repeating this woman-in-command thing soon, I guess.
So the only thing left for Feyre is being attached to man. And for this, she is obviously the most trophiest of all trophy wives ever.
Tangent: I’m not sure, maybe I missed it, but what do the fae say about the human realms being ruled by queens? Wouldn’t that be really weird or nonsensical to them? Or did Mrs. Maas just skip over it despite it being such a glaring difference between the two species which might be interesting to explore (Fae: “Nope, you cannot do anything, there are no High Ladies.” – Feyre: “Weird, our human nations are ruled by women and it works out really well.” – Fae: “Oh, you funny, stupid humans.”)?
They’ve literally said nothing so far. For a book that’s almost entirely infodumping, we have quite a lot of gaps in how the world actually works.
Really interesting breakdown of the trophy bit, btw!
Ariel nailed it yesterday when she said Maas considers overly flowery room descriptions world-building. Who needs to know how the magic system works, why women are treated like property by Fae, or anything else, really, when you can know how beautiful this fucking room is?
If I had a dollar for every opulent description of a room, mansion, city street, etc in this book, I could retire
@Andreas, I agree, it does seem to lend itself to a literal translation, which is just so awful.
I think the Fae also have kings and queens but they’ve never had a High Lady or something. It really is some shitty world-building. I can tell you how often Amren is picking her nails, but I can’t answer any of your very good questions about leadership in these books.
In the first book Maas used the word “man” even when describing Fae, and now she constantly uses the word “male.” Now, this might just be a personal hangup, but every time I see the word “male” I think of nice guys who refer to women as “females.” It’s awkward and stilted and WEIRD. What’s wrong with continuing to refer to things the same way as in the first book? It’s not like Feyre didn’t know they were Fae, and she still said “man.” Ugh.
Oooo ariel was talking to me on our personal chat about this, but i don’t think we’ve brought it up in a post yet
OMG REBECCA THANK YOU!!!! Yes, I sucked poor Matthew into a very long discussion about this because the whole time we’ve been blogging this series I never know if I can write man or if I have to write male. So confusing!
I came here to comment on how she uses the word “male” constantly and it’s really uncomfortable. I think it gets even worse in the next book. There were two words used so often in the next book I never wanted to hear them again. One was “male” and the other is a little bit of a spoiler for this book, but I was so annoyed by the end.
All I can say is thank god it wasn’t “vomit.”
@Krista I know exactly which word you mean because it’s the other one that I highlight constantly and write notes like, “ENOUGH!” or “PLEASE STOP.”
@Rebecca hahaha I think I missed a few counts in the recaps! It really is astounding how often it happens.
The “you’re valuable” thing from all these powerful men reminds me of this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/jul/14/donald-trump-brigitte-macron-in-good-shape-video Blech!