Velaris · The Night Court
House of Wind
“Ten thousand steps to the top of the world — and the stars are closer here.”
The House of Wind · A Court of Thorns and Roses
A mountain with a heart of red stone.
The Inner Circle's home above Velaris. Carved into the peak, a training ring on the roof, a library buried in the dark. The House woke for the right people. We get it.
At a glance
The shape of the place. We've memorised it.
The fortress
Carved into the peak itself.
Warm red stone hewn from the mountain it crowns — a flat-topped peak over Velaris. Two ways up: Illyrian wings, or the ten thousand steps cut into the rock. We'd take the wings. The soaring halls open onto terraces over the whole city of starlight, and the Inner Circle comes home here between wars. Home. The kind that wrecks you a little.
The training ring
Where the Night Court's blades are honed.
On the roof, open to the wind and sky, the training arena. Cassian and Azriel drill here. Nesta climbed it every dawn to be forged into a Valkyrie. Sparring rings, weapons racks, a clear drop to the city below — a hard, high place that remakes bodies into something that can hold a line. We watched her become it. We're not over it.
The Library
And below, the dark that reads.
Beneath the House, the Library winds down level after level into the mountain. The priestesses keep it; the lower floors run deeper than anyone climbs, into a black the House does not speak of. The further down, the older and stranger the dark. The House stays watchful at the threshold — alive to who descends, and who comes back up. We would not be going down there. Absolutely not.
Landmarks
Within the House
The parts of the House we could draw from memory.
Walk on
Who and what it holds. All ours.
From the page
The House of Wind
“The steep, narrow stairwell. Spiral stairs. Each a foot high. Ten thousand steps, around and around and around. Only the occasional slitted window to offer a breath of air and a glimpse of progress.”
A Court of Silver Flames
“Cassian sat on the flat top of the mountain in which the House of Wind had been built, peering down into the open-air training ring beneath him. The stars glinted overhead. Below, Velaris was a golden sparkle, accented along the Sidra with a rainbow of color.”
A Court of Silver Flames
“We're in a book. Our stories are worth telling.”
A Court of Silver Flames — Gwyn's Solstice gift
Continue
Velaris →The City of Starlight at the foot of the ten thousand steps — the home the Night Court hides and guards. The one they'd burn the world for. Same.
Rhysand → Cassian → Nesta Archeron →