Velaris · The river through it
Sidra River
We have watched a whole city stop breathing to look at this water.
The river through Velaris
The Sidra runs straight through the City of Starlight, and it has two faces that never argue. Above the surface it carries the light — festivals, Starfall, the whole Night Court gathered on its banks to look up. Below it runs the River of Souls, quiet and dark and going somewhere none of us are invited yet.
Once a year
The night the sky comes down to the river
Everyone talks about the spirits falling. Nobody warns you what it does to you to be standing there when they do.
Once a year the spirits pass over Velaris as falling light, and the whole court climbs to the rooftops and the riverbanks to watch it come down. Nobody is selling anything. Nobody is at war for one night. The city just tips its head back over the Sidra and lets the sky rain on it.
Feyre stood in that light for the first time and stopped being a guest. That is the part that gets us — not the spectacle, the belonging. The moment she realised this court had already decided she was theirs, and the water was reflecting all of it back.
And the whole time, under the same current, the River of Souls is running. The dead go down where the light comes falling. One channel for the joy and the leaving both — we noticed, and we have never quite un-noticed it.
The city is built to face it.
Velaris doesn't sit beside the Sidra so much as lean toward it — the rooftops, the festivals, the one night of the year all angle back to this water. It is the seam where the living gather and the dead pass through, which is why the whole city keeps turning to look.
Enter Velaris →
We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put the Sidra on a shirt without knowing it runs sapphire, not black — 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.
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The Sidra, asked and answered
For everyone who went looking after that first Starfall.
What is the Sidra in ACOTAR?
The Sidra is the river that runs through Velaris, the City of Starlight in the Night Court. It carries the city's celebrations above the surface — Starfall, Winter Solstice — and the River of Souls beneath it. Same water, two faces.
What is Starfall in ACOTAR?
Starfall is the night, once a year, when spirits pass over Velaris as a rain of falling light. The whole Night Court gathers on rooftops and along the Sidra to watch. It's also the night Feyre first truly feels she belongs to this court.
What is the River of Souls?
The River of Souls runs beneath the Sidra — the quiet, dark water associated with the dead. It's the reason the same river that holds the city's brightest night also carries its heaviest one.
Where is the Sidra river?
The Sidra runs through Velaris, hidden away in the Night Court of Prythian. The whole city is built to face it, which is why every festival and every Starfall ends up gathered along its banks.
Same water. The joy and the leaving both.
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A Court of Thorns and Roses, ©2015-2021, Sarah J. Maas. Artwork © Caffeine and Curses.