Gwyn Berdara · The full story

From the library, to the summit.

Light that survived the dark.

Where she comes from

Sangravah, and a river-nymph grandmother.

A priestess at the temple in Sangravah, still an acolyte, and the part she loved most was the music at the dusk services. Her grandmother was a river-nymph who seduced a High Fae male of the Autumn Court. Their daughter was raised at Sangravah and had twins there, Gwyn and Catrin. Three-quarters High Fae, a quarter nymph. Merrill never lets her forget it.

The wound beneath

Hybern came to the temple.

Hybern's soldiers attacked Sangravah. Gwyn got the children down through a trapdoor in the kitchen and stayed behind to cover it. She wouldn't tell them where the children were. They beheaded her twin in front of her. What they did to her after that she tells Nesta on the mountain, and we're leaving it there. Azriel reached her and killed them all. Mor brought her to the library. She didn't leave it for two years.

The library

Shelves, Merrill, and the wrong volume.

Down in the library she works for Merrill, who is brilliant and horrible and was writing a comprehensive history of the Valkyries. Gwyn put volume eight in Merrill's office instead of seven and was frantic about it. Nesta swapped them back. Merrill found out anyway. That's how Nesta and Gwyn became friends. Over the wrong volume. Gwyn carries an Invoking Stone, like an Illyrian Siphon except the Mother's power flows through it, for healing and protection and never for harm. She told Nesta she doesn't wear hers on her head. She doesn't think she deserves to.

The Valkyries

She found them in a book. Then she became one.

The Valkyries were a title, not a race. Female warriors from every kind of Fae, better fighters than the Illyrians, three stages of training: Novice, Blade, Valkyrie. Gone for five hundred years. Then Gwyn dug the fragments out of the library, brought Mind-Stilling to Nesta and Emerie, and set the old test: cut a hanging ribbon clean in half with a sword. First priestess to put her name down for training. Her reason was so she would never feel powerless again.

The ribbon

Nothing can break me.

She stayed late in the ring to get it. Then one morning she whispered the words, lifted the blade, and half the ribbon fluttered to the red stone. A flawless slice, not one frayed strand. Nesta picked it up and tied it around her brow, the way the priestesses wear their stones, and said one word. Valkyrie. Emerie cut hers next. We have read that page more times than we're willing to say.

The Blood Rite

An arrow in the thigh, and she still wouldn't leave.

Traditionalist Illyrians took the three of them from their beds at Emerie's and dropped them into the Rite. Her bracelet charm glowed and led the others to her. On the bridge to Ramiel she took an arrow in the thigh and told Nesta she'd rather die beside her than be left, so Nesta knocked her out and Emerie carried her up the mountain while Nesta held the Pass of Enalius. Both of them touched the stone at the summit. It healed her, and she went back to the library, with a mating ceremony to attend.

Her story

From the library, to the summit.

Six moves, and the fourth one is the whole book.

Sangravah
A priestess, a twin, the dusk services. Then Hybern.
The library
Two years in the stacks under Merrill's tongue. She would not leave.
Drawn out
The wrong volume, a friend, and the first name on the training sheet.
The ribbon
The mantra, the cut, and Nesta's one word.
The Rite
Taken from her bed. An arrow on the bridge. She wouldn't be left.
The stone
Carried to the summit by Emerie. Her hand on the monolith.

Her things

A stone, a thread, and a box she doesn't know about.

The Invoking StoneA priestess's stone. Like a Siphon, except the Mother's power flows through it: healing and protection, never harm. She keeps hers in her hand, not on her brow.The braceletWhite, teal and blue, Nesta's choice, from the sleepover where Gwyn taught them what she and Catrin used to make. Nesta's wish on it found her in the Rite.A necklaceBought for someone else. Left at Clotho's desk with instructions to say it came from a friend. She doesn't know. We do.

Wielding all three

In her words

In her own words.

“Your story is worth telling, you know.”
to Nesta · ACOSF

“Gwyn's hair seemed to glow brighter with her song, skin radiating a beckoning light.”
the singing-glow · ACOSF

“Valkyrie.”
Nesta, crowning her with the severed ribbon · ACOSF

Gwyn, signing up to train · A Court of Silver Flames

← Back to Gwyn Berdara

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research, and I can't put Gwyn on a shirt without knowing her copper hair is pin-straight and her eyes are teal, so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

Officially licensed