Nyx

Just a baby. Look what it took.

Rhysand and Feyre's son, born nearly three months early at the end of A Court of Silver Flames. The birth that almost took all three of them, what Nesta gave back to stop it, and the old book his name came out of.

The pregnancy

Conceived with wings. That was the whole problem.

Feyre was in Illyrian form when he was conceived, and that settled it. Shapeshifting changes a body all the way down, so the baby came with wings. Feyre's body didn't come with the Illyrian frame to deliver them. Madja, the Inner Circle's healer, could feel the shape of him and knew. She told Rhys. Feyre was told there was an elevated risk and left to be happy, which is its own kind of horror. The only early sign anyone outside that room had was Feyre's shield, suddenly too strong for anyone to get through. That was him.

The secret

Nesta said it out loud. Everyone else had decided not to.

Rhys, Amren and the rest knew the healers expected Feyre to die, and Rhys with her, because of the bargain that ties their lives together. They chose not to tell her. Nesta found out, and in the middle of a fight with Amren and Feyre she said it: the baby has wings, and they've been keeping what that means from you. Feyre was heartbroken. Rhys ordered Nesta out of the city. Nesta was wrong in every way except the one that mattered. We've argued about this chapter for years.

The birth

The night the Court nearly lost everything.

He came early, almost three months. A wing caught and tore, Feyre was losing blood, and Madja could feel his heartbeat failing. Cutting him out would kill them both. Feyre told her to do it anyway. Rhys took her pain through the bond while Madja cut, and the winged baby came out silent and went to Mor. Then Feyre started to die, and Cassian and Azriel had to haul Rhys away from her so the healer could work. We put the book down here. We had to.

What Nesta gave back

Three Trove objects and a bargain.

Nesta felt Death in the room. So she put on the Mask, set the Crown on her head, cradled the Harp, and plucked its twenty-sixth string, the one that is Time itself. Everything stopped, Feyre on her last breath. She bargained with the Cauldron: the power she'd stolen from it, given back, for Feyre, Rhys and the baby. The Cauldron took the deal. At her asking it also reshaped Feyre so a winged birth could never do this to her again, and did the same for Nesta. Then the baby was fine, and so was his mother.

The name

Out of an old book, from around the time of the Trove.

Rhys found it in an old book and brought it to Feyre: Nyx, an ancient night goddess, from around the era of the Dread Trove. When she said it out loud, both of them felt a flutter of night-kissed power answer from inside her. So that was decided. He ends A Court of Silver Flames asleep in his aunt Elain's arms, with the whole family still standing. We're still not over it.

His people

Who was in the room, and what Nesta was wearing.

Swipe to meet them all

His arc · One chapter, all of it

He hasn't done anything yet. The whole Court nearly died for him anyway.

A baby has no arc. His birth does, and everyone else is in it.

The shield
Feyre's shield goes impenetrable and nobody can say why. The baby, already.
What Madja knew
Wings, and no Illyrian frame to deliver them. A verdict told to Rhys and kept from Feyre.
The secret, said
Nesta tells her sister the truth in the worst possible way. Rhys orders her out of the city.
The birth
A torn wing, an incision, a silent baby handed to Mor, and Feyre slipping.
The string of Time
Nesta, wearing all three Trove objects, stops time and gives the Cauldron back its power for three lives.
Home
The River House. Asleep in Elain's arms. Everyone still here.

The File

Parents: Rhysand and Feyre
Born: near the end of A Court of Silver Flames, almost three months early
Wings: Illyrian. Feyre was in Illyrian form when he was conceived, so he has them
Looks: black hair like his father, blue eyes like his mother, and they glow with both their starlight
Named for: an ancient night goddess from around the time of the Dread Trove, out of an old book Rhys found
Saved by: Nesta, with all three Trove objects and the power she gave back to the Cauldron
Home: the River House, Velaris

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research, and I can't put Nyx on a shirt without knowing his eyes already glow with both his parents' starlight, 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