Disclaimer: I do not own the Throne of Glass series or any of the wonderful characters and stories told by the lovely Sarah J. Maas.

Summary: "Elide, my darling girl. It's time to come home." (OR what if Vernon doesn't go down without a villainous, manipulative fight). KOA what if scenario.


Elide was floating.

Surrounded by darkness that was roiling, she had no thoughts, no voice.

Other voices surrounded her, but they sounded muffled, unimportant.

Or was it important? She couldn't remember.

There was only darkness and a soothing voice, a woman.

I am here for you, my pet. No one but me.

No one. I am no one.

Until –

"I belong to her. Elide, only you."

The muffled voice was louder, clearer.

Who was tha–

Elide stirred in the darkness, agitated at the voice. The male.

I know him.

He is no one to you, the woman spat, her soothing softness sharpened.

He is someone. He knows Elide.

Elide is gone, my pet, softness returning to the voice.

"Do you hear me?"

That voice, that man.

"I am Elide."

Elide felt the shock of the oppressive darkness as her words spoke true, spoke out aloud.

"You are nobody, now," the creature hissed. Smothering Elide's voice once more in darkness. Elide bucked as she felt the thrall of the dark magic encircle her once more. Subdue her again.

You are my home.

Elide's eyes snap open and she reacts instinctually grabbing for something, anything. To take her out of this darkness.


Lorcan didn't care there was a crowd watching him kiss Elide. The creature stiffened beneath him, then pushed against him, then snarled, before abruptly– Elide was there. She was kissing him. Her hands like talons as they clung to his leathers.

Her knees buckle and Lorcan brings them down to the floor.

"You're… you're Lorcan." she gasps, "oh my god, Lorcan" before descending into sobs and throwing her arms around him, clinging like she hoped she could sink inside him.

"Elide, Elide, Elide," Lorcan murmurs into her hair, "I love you."

"She's coming back for me," Elide chokes on the words and stiffens in his arms, he almost misses her whispered, "and I am so tired."

Lorcan only clutches her tighter.

"Elide, keep fighting a bit longer. We'll get that bitch out of you," Aelin had sunk down beside them.

"Aelin," Elide has tears covering her face as she looks up from Lorcan's chest, "all of you, you're all here. You did come find me."

"Of course we did," Rowan's soft voice answers.

Elide pulls back from Lorcan's embrace, and he brings his hands to cup her face, using his thumbs to wipe her tears. He holds her gaze and watches the blackness ooze back into her eyes.

He tilts his forehead to hers.

"Elide, you have to keep fighting. I will not leave you with them."

Elide abruptly shoves Lorcan back with a cry.

"Lorcan, kill me. Kill me if you can't save me." Her words are whispered breath. But she pleads them to Lorcan. Then she's gone. Her eyes clouded and pitch black once more.

"No."

Elide tilts forward, choking, blackness spewing from her mouth.

"That, bitch." the creature sputters, out of control and panting on all fours, "THAT BITCH."

Black bands of power leap from Elide's hands, whirl and caress until they are spinning in concentric rings around her wrists.

"Everyone, get back." Fenrys shouts as he bodily pulls Lorcan away. Rowan grabs Aelin. The Valg locks eyes with Lorcan and thrusts her hands forward, her magic exploding in a burst of slippery, inky blackness.

The room is consumed by darkness. The mirror shatters.

The Valg creature stands. "No one is going to kill you, pet," she purrs as she wraps Elide back in her thrall, her light dimming once more, "Because you are so much more useful to Maeve alive."


Maeve curses when the mirror shatters, cutting off her connection, and Elide's easy return to her side.

Her Valg Princess had lost control of the situation.

A distraction only.

She was only meant to serve as a distraction while that damn human escaped.

This should have been easy.

Elide's mind was broken. She was theirs. Meave had made sure of it. Elide could not have fought off her Valg host.

And yet.

Maeve's jaw clenched as she remembered Elide's strength and endurance, her will.

She had underestimated her. Again.

Maeve lets out a groan of frustration.

Elide belonged to her. That human – Vernon, her face sneered, thought he served Erawan, but only Maeve saw the girl's true potential. The opportunity Elide presented to bring Erawan to his knees. This entire Gods-damned world to its knees. To have them worship the one true Queen. A Goddess. Erawan may have helped forge this new world order, but Maeve, Maeve was going to fucking rule it.

Maeve squeezed her hands into fists. For eons, she had patiently waited. She had hidden her gifts, protected her true power. Protected herself until it was time to rise.

Her patience had been rewarded on that beach. She had thought it was Aelin with her incredible depths of raw power. But, that had been a short-sighted approach. She saw that now. Aelin was only a tool, a powerful one there was no doubt, but a blunt tool all the same.

It wasn't until Elide stood before her on that beach that Maeve understood.

Elide was a powerful weapon to wield. To hone. A force to be reckoned with, yet able to hide in plain sight. Vernon had confirmed it to Erawan, a child who is human, witch, goddess-touched. A child who should have fallen into madness, but endured.

A conduit.

A sole individual intersecting three of the most powerful magic bearers. She sees, she connects, and from that knows. A channeling triad that can adapt and change and inform her surroundings. A true power.

"Claimed by queen, and witch, and… my Second, it seems,"

Maeve had toyed with Aelin on the beach, thinking Elide was only a pawn.

A pawn until the moment Lorcan broke his fucking unbreakable oath that bound him to her.

Something in Elide's chest cleaved open. Maeve felt it when she had called for Cairn to step forward to whip Aelin.

The Fae males went rigid. Lorcan turned near-feral behind Elide, subtly trying to drag her back, to work around the order he'd been given.

"I said you have a choice. And you do. Either you come willingly with me and get acquainted with Cairn, or I still take you – and bring Elide Lochan with us. I'm certain she and Cairn will get along wonderfully."

"No," Lorcan had said softly. Viciously fighting the oath.

"No," Elide had spat her fury.

Maeve had lied. On that beach.

Maeve stepped over Aelin's blood-splattered shirt, and brushed her hand over Lorcan's cheek, "I have no use," she crooned, "for self-righteous males who think they know best."

She had said some pretty words and drawn blood to keep control of the situation, but what kind of fool did they think her to be? That she would release two of the most powerful Fae, to freely align against her interests, for what? Her wounded pride? To wound their pride? Please.

There had been nothing for her to gain in releasing her Fae, she had had no intention of releasing those traitors. It had not been Meave's will, or even theirs. It had been hers.

Elide had done it.

Her magic had cratered the oath, creating a link that Lorcan's magic grasped to shatter the bond. Her magic had amplified his. She saw and his magic responded.

Maeve had walked away that day with Aelin in a box, but also a new understanding for the girl she chose to leave behind, a girl capable of manipulating unbeatable magic in plain sight. That ability to channel and misdirect, perhaps even was the reason Maeve herself chose to simply walk away with Aelin rather than following through on a promise to take Elide too. Why she had simply left Lorcan and Gavriel rather than kill those Fae traitors left weakened right in front of her on the sand.

Yes, to be able to capture and wield Elide's gift, that was true power. Maeve, with Vernon's help, had convinced Erawan to send a whole Gods-damned army to Anielle for Elide. Maeve would use Elide to rise, God-touched, unseen.

Maeve shook her head as she let the memories slide away as she eyed the shattered remnants of the onyx rock that had been her connection to the Gap. She lifted a finger against the jagged edges.

The shattered connection could not be restored. This time she let out a scream of frustration.

There was nothing to do, but return to Morath.

Vernon could not fail.


Rowan's icy barrier dampened the attacking Valg darkness, but the force of the magic still pummeled them backwards. Lorcan's back slammed against the stone wall and he was unable to stop a gasp of pain as his only just-healed wound jolted at the force. Fenrys collapsed beside him to his left, Aelin and Gavriel to his right. Only Rowan had remained in position, but brought to his knees as his magic punched out to meet the oozing darkness.

"The Dark Queen heard whispers. Whispers of a creature. A creature who had unfathomable gifts. Gifts that could match and manipulate Gods. A power that would crumble Fae, witches, and men – could crush Valg. She wanted that power. She waited patiently for it."

Lorcan climbs to his feet as the Valg hisses using Elide's voice. As the darkness lifts he finds Elide's gaze locked on him from across the room. She had moved back towards the shattered mirror. He doesn't look away as the others also get back on their feet. He flinches as Rowan reinforces his icy barrier, but doesn't drop his gaze.

"She thought that power was you, Fire Queen," the Valg is the one to break eye contact with Lorcan to look at Aelin, "so she took you."

Rowan growls.

"She failed," Fenrys spat, "Maeve failed with Aelin."

"The Dark Queen witnessed the legendary creature on the beach," the Valg continues, ignoring Fenrys, "she watched her break an unbreakable oath bond. Twice."

Her gaze turns to Gavriel who had stepped forward shoulder to shoulder with Rowan. Lorcan feels the shock roll through them all as he snaps his face toward Aelin and sees his shock mirrored in her expression.

Elide had–

"So instead of being hasty after decades, centuries of waiting, my Queen, in her wisdom, remained patient."

"You talk way too much," Aelin buried her shock as she sashayed to stand by Rowan's other side, "and we know you're stalling. Elide prevented your escape back through the mirror."

"What a glorious gift she is," the Valg doesn't acknowledge Aelin but does start to move around the room, edging toward the door.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

"Elide is gone," the Valg's cool tone slipped.

"Bullshit. She was just here. Remember when you called her a bitch?" Aelin let out the tiniest smirk, "Our girl is fighting like hell and you're currently trapped in a room with five powerful creatures who will fucking do whatever it takes to make sure she keeps fighting."

Lorcan had stayed back against the wall, but had strategically moved in front of the door. Elide would have to go through him if she wanted to leave the dining hall.

Rowan abruptly made his move, his magic pulsing as the barrier collapsed and an icy barrage blasted Elide back, pinning her to a dining table in the middle of the room. She snarled as her own dark magic met his attack, trying to break free, but she remained pinned.

Lorcan snarled as he stalked toward Rowan, "Be careful, you're hurting her."

"Lorcan, she must be restrained until we can break that damn collar," Gavriel's voice is quiet but full of steel.

Lorcan forces his rage and worry aside, turning to Fenrys who was at his side, although unclear if it was to support him or stop him.

Aelin meanwhile had moved forward to Elide who's snarls continued even as her body surrendered against Rowan's onslaught. Her body slumps against the table as she drops to the floor and coils, her knees pulled up to her chest, hair partially covering her face as the group moves forward, surrounding Elide.

How?

The creature was silently fuming. How? How did the child fight her and kick her out so completely? Fight against Maeve so completely?

Even now, she felt the child's spark endure.

I am Elide. It was a mantra in her mind.

"For now," the creature hissed.

"Elide," Lorcan's hand reached out and grasped her right upper arm.

The girl rustled in her mind, the spark growing brighter in her mind.

I am Elide.

"NO!" the creature spat at Lorcan, jerking away from his grasp before hissing as Rowan's magic once again assaulted her, limiting her movement.

I AM ELIDE.

"- she will be able to help us, Chaol shared how she defeated the Valg in Antica. Yrene will know what to do if we can keep Elide restrained here. Go. Now!" Aelin's tone was urgent as she whispered to Fenrys, who gave one nod before disappearing.

She had to kill the child's source of strength. The male.

"That witch has no power here. My sister was weak," the Valg spat at Aelin, "besides she will arrive too late for Elide."

Aelin only sneered down at the Valg at her feet, but the creature didn't hesitate. She swung her leg around, hooking behind Rowan's calf, disrupting his stance and concentration just enough that his magic buffered. Simultaneously she twists her torso towards Lorcan, thrusting her arms forward to break through the remnants of Rowan's magic to hit Lorcan's chest with pure Valg energy.

Elide screams. Lorcan roars in agony as he is thrown back to the ground. Blood covering his chest. His stomach wound reopened.

The Valg tumbles underneath the table and grabs two throwing knives she had spotted earlier. She stands and aims with immaculate precision. One at Aelin, before pivoting to her right and throwing the second at Gavriel who was attempting to flank her around the table. He roars as the blade sinks into his thigh.

But the Valg is already moving again, bolting to Lorcan's prone form. Only pausing to scoop up a discarded dagger.

Elide is screaming, no, raging inside her. But the Valg brutally silences her.

She plants one foot on each side of Lorcan's hips before sinking down to straddle him. The blade raised high as she held the pommel with both hands.

"You are my home, Elide."

A gasp. Unbidden leaves the Valg's lips.

"My life belongs to you anyway," Lorcan whispers, "do what you must."

"She is not here, Fae," the Valg princess whispers, ignoring the shouts and movement at her back. She brutally thrusts the blade down, piercing Loracn's chest, her momentum bringing her nose to nose with Lorcan, "but I'll take your life all the same."