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“I was never as close to Jurian as I was to some of the others...I just assumed Amarantha broke him."
"Parts of him are broken," I said, shuddering to recall those memories I'd seen, the feelings. I pulled some of her blanket over my lap.
"We're all broken," Mor said. "In our own ways in places no one might see."
In Chapter 66, after Feyre and her allies encounter Jurian during their visit to the human realm, he reveals that he has merely been feigning madness. Further, Jurian expresses his surprise that his former friends so readily believed that he would betray them. Later, Feyre and Mor discuss their conversation with Jurian, and Mor admits that she “just assumed Amarantha broke him.” Despite her own experiences with trauma, Mor simply assumed that Jurian’s torment at the hands of Amarantha warped his values and beliefs. Feyre, however, notes that only parts of Jurian are “broken.” Here, she acknowledges Jurian’s trauma but also asserts that he has not been wholly shattered by his painful experiences. For Feyre, those who have been subject to trauma are deeply impacted, but they still contain the potential to grow and heal. Mor adds that she, Feyre, and all their friends have been “broken” by pain, each in their “own ways in places no one might see.” The effects of trauma, she suggests, are often invisible to others, and might manifest differently for different individuals.
It wasn't only the cost of life that ripped and devastated and sundered. It was the altering of a soul with it — the realization that I could perhaps go back home to Velaris, perhaps see peace achieved and cities rebuilt . . . but this battle, this war . . . I would be the thing forever changed.
War would linger with me long after it had ended, some invisible scar that would perhaps fade, but never wholly vanish.
In Chapter 38, Feyre finally has time to reflect on what she has experienced and learned throughout Hybern’s bloody invasion of the Summer Court. She is shocked by the chaos and brutality that she has witnessed, noting that she had previously believed that war was orderly. Now, however, she realizes that there is no “glory” in war, only pain, loss, and trauma. Even after the battle ends, she feels deeply shaken by all that she has seen, including gruesome attacks on civilians by Hybern troops. At this moment, she realizes that even if she could “go back to Velaris, perhaps see peace achieved and cities rebuilt,” she would still be “forever changed” by her experiences. The novel suggests that the effects of trauma “linger” long after the battle itself, affecting the lives of all those whom it has touched in complex ways. She describes her trauma, in a metaphor, as an “invisible scar” that might “fade but never wholly vanish.” Her experiences underscore the far-reaching effects of both war and trauma.
“I think Nesta needs to sort through ... a lot of it."
Too much of it.
Elain faced me. "Do we help her?"
I fiddled with the end of my braid. "Yes but not today. Not tomorrow." I loosed a breath. "When — when she's ready." When we were ready, too.
Elain nodded, smiling up at me, and it was tentative joy [...]
In Chapter 80, Feyre and Elain have a brief conversation following the joint meeting of both humans and faeries that concluded their victorious alliance against Hybern. Nesta, Feyre notes, still needs to emotionally process the climactic events of the previous days, including the death of their father. In the frenzy of battle, many characters have had little time to process what they have experienced or reflect upon their own emotions. Now that a tentative peace has been achieved, characters like Nesta must begin the long and difficult task of healing from their trauma. When Elain asks if she and Feyre might “help” Nesta, Feyre affirms that they can, but suggests that they cannot rush the process of healing. The time to help Nesta, she believes, will not be today nor tomorrow, but rather, “when she’s ready.” Feyre’s comments suggest that recovery from trauma can be a long and unpredictable process, and that a traumatized individual cannot be expected to open up to others until they are emotionally ready.
