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 — a fortress carved into the peak, a training ring on its roof, and a library buried in its dark.
At a glance
The shape of the place.
The fortress
Carved into the peak itself.
The House of Wind is hewn from the warm red stone of the mountain it crowns — a flat-topped peak rising over Velaris. You reach it one of two ways: borne up on Illyrian wings, or by climbing the ten thousand steps cut into the rock. Inside, soaring halls open to terraces that look out over the whole city of starlight below. It is the seat of the Inner Circle, the place they return to between wars.
The training ring
Where the Night Court's blades are honed.
On the roof, open to the wind and the sky, lies the training arena. Here Cassian and Azriel drill — and here Nesta Archeron climbed every dawn to be forged into a Valkyrie. Sparring rings, weapons racks, and a clear drop to the city below: a hard, high place where bodies are remade into something that can hold a line.
The Library
And below, the dark that reads.
Beneath the House, the Library winds down level after level into the mountain. Its priestesses keep it; its lower floors run deeper than anyone climbs, into a black the House does not speak of. The further down you go, the older and stranger the dark — and the House itself stays watchful at the threshold, alive to who descends and who comes back up.
Landmarks
Within the House
The features that make the House of Wind itself.
Walk on
Who and what it holds.
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 glittering at the foot of the ten thousand steps — the home the Night Court hides and guards.
Rhysand → Cassian → Nesta Archeron →