Spoiler alert! I’m discussing House of Sky and Breath by Sara J Maas. Lots of spoilers! You’ve been warned.
So I just finished the second Crescent City novel, House of Sky and Breath by Sara J Maas. She is known for her plot twists but she really did it this time. HoSaB ended with Bryce landing in Prythian with Rhys and the gang. This has set the fan groups reeling with all matters of theories and connections. Let’s explore some of them!
Are the worlds on the same timeline?
Towards the end of the book Bryce has a conversation with Rigelus. He tells her:
“Why do you think we allowed you to live this spring? You are the key to opening the doors between worlds again. You will undo the actions of one ignorant princess fifteen thousand years ago.”
785 HOSAB
Queen Theia and her daughters, Helena and one unnamed, came through the rift from another fae world. Now we have a timeline- it was 15,000 years ago. When Bryce lands in Prythian she speaks the old fae language to them. Amren reveals that the old fae language hasn’t been spoken in Prythian in 15,000 years:
The dark-haired female observed Bryce from head to toe: the clothes so thoroughly at odds with their own attire, the blood and cuts. Then she replied in the old tongue,”No one has spoken that language in this world for fifteen thousand years.”
797 HOSAB
This tells us that both worlds are on the same timeline.
Rigelus tells Bryce about her star scar on page 784:
If the star is suppose to lead her back to the world the fae originally came from, and she landed in Prythian, then it seems that IS the original home world. She tried to travel to Hel but was pulled sideways to Prythian. We need to pour back through the ACOTR books to see clues about who these brethren were, but I feel like it’s the old dangerous creatures mentioned in ACOSF. I’m currently pouring through it again looking for clues. However, if this is the original home world, why isn’t her star glowing? Is she just not around the fae she’s descended from yet? Or is she out of power and need to juice back up?
Hope is not lost about her reuniting with her family and friends!
She clung to her brother, unable to stop her sobbing. Even as a small weight dropped into her pocket.
785 HOSAB
This is the communication orb that he had used to make initial contact with Day! Earlier he mentions that he was bringing it along with them:
He clutched the comm-crystal in a fist, occasionally opening his fingers to study it. As if it might offer some hint about Day’s welfare. He’s said he hand’t used it since the first contact with her, but he’d grabbed it before they left in case it could help locate her, if she had its twin on her.
Ruhn 744 HOSAB
These stones could help them communicate with Bryce! Or could help her and Rhysand communicate with Ruhn (assuming Rhysand’s power could boost the signal).
Next we have the prophecy about Ruhn:
But Ruhn whispered in her ear, “I lied to the Autumn King about what the Oracle told me as a boy.” She stilled. Ruhn went on, swift and urgent, “The Oracle told me that the royal line would end with me. That I am the last of the line, Bryce.”
785 HOSAB
Ruhn interprets the prophecy as his royal line ending. But what if it’s not? What if the oracle was talking of another royal line? Possibly the Asteri royal line? The oracle harkens back to Greek mythology. The Oracle at Delphi was notorious in Greek fiction for giving out prophecies that were difficult to interpret.
Rigelus talks about the island Bryce’s people are originally from. Could this be in Prythian?
An isle of near-permanent twilight, the home world of her bread of Fae… A land of Dusk.
763 HOSAB
Rigelus talks about the fae coming from a land of dusk, an island. Which island could this be in Prythian? In A Court of Silver Flames Nesta and Cassian visit the prison island. While there Nesta asks him questions about the prison’s origins. Cassian tells her “No one knows, it’s always been here” (252). They discover the harp in a room Cassian has never seen before. They begin to wonder aloud who put the harp there:
Your guess is as good as mine. Someone who existed before the High Lords rules. Rhys told me once that this island might have even been an eighth court.
Cassian 533 – ACOSF
Perhaps this is the dusk court! As she tries to locate the harp inside the prison she mentions that the magic she is pushing against feels different then the Night Court magic. She goes on to say:
This sounds like a description of fae falling through a gate to another world! Rigelus mentions that fae wouldn’t realize until it was too late that Midgard was a trap. The evidence is strong that the prison was once the dusk court that Rigelus mentions in HOSAB.
Our people, who built fearsome warriors in that world to be their army. All of them prototypes for the angels in this one. And all of them traitors to their creators, joining the Fae to overthrow my brothers and sisters a thousand years before we arrived on Midgard. They slew my siblings.
Rigelus 761 HOSAB
Perhaps these are the Illyrians in the ACOTR series! They are certainly fierce and rebellious enough to meet this description. There are also the seraphim.
What about the horn? Does it connect with the other books? Rigelus tells Bryce that:
You are Starborn, and have the Horn bound to your body and power. Your ancestors wilded the Horn and another Fae object that allowed them to enter this world. Stolen, of course, from their original masters-our people.
Rigelus 760 HOSAB
These objects could be the objects in the Dead Trove in COSF! They mention that there is one item in the Dead Trove that Nesta can’t see. Maybe she can’t see it because it’s the horn and it’s in another world! Or because Bryce wears that protective magic that shields her from sight.
These are but a few of the many fan theories going around! There are so many more. I’ll post more once I’ve finished combing through COSF for connections. One thing is clear looking back at Maas’s faerie series: she has been laying down the crumbs for this crossover for awhile. They all mention other worlds and travel through them by other beings.
HOSAB means House of Sky and Breath, COSF means Court of Silver Flames
