The Eye of Elena was an ancient necklace said to grant magical powers of protection to its wearer.
In actuality, it was the Lock - an object capable of binding the Wyrdkeys to the broken Wyrdgate, and ensuring the Wyrdgate will never be opened again.
Description[]
The Eye of Elena was a warped metal amulet composed of two overlapping circles inside a greater circle. The heart of the amulet was in the shape of an eye - with a blue gemstone in the middle.
History[]
The Lock[]
When the second Valg wars erupted, led by Erawan, the Gods and Goddesses made a deal with Mala Fire-Bringer and Brannon Galathynius. They would be sent home through the broken Wyrdgate, and then the three wyrdkeys would be sealed shut in the gate - forever rendering the gate unable to open for armies, and to destroy worlds. The returning offer that stood between them was that they would take the Dark King Erawan, including his armies, and tear him apart in their home world. The cost of the Lock, though, was enormous. Mala was required to give up her mortal body and her life with her mate and children.
Rhiannon Crochan created the basis of the Lock: the symbol of the Three-Faced Goddess in an amulet - a warped metal with two overlapping circles, with a rendering of the goddess' "Heart of the Darkness" in the middle. Rhiannon crafted a witch mirror in the middle eye, which was capable of absorbing immense power. The amulet then had been called the Eye of the Goddess.
With the help of Rhiannon Crochan, Mala cast her entire mortal being, her full Fire-Bringer gifts, and her whole essence into a small blue witch-mirror in the Eye of the Goddess. As a result, the witch-mirror glowed intensely with cobalt fire, ripe with Mala's power. Though she had given up her life to forge the Lock, Mala was still able to live on as a goddess.
Misuse of the Lock[]
The Lock was only to be used once, its power capable of sealing anything the bearer of the amulet wished.
Approximately ten years after Mala gave up her life for the Lock, Erawan's armies had nearly gotten full control of the continent. Brannon's fire magic was dimming, and he was said to be only decades from the Fading.
In a desperate attempt to seal Erawan and stop the spread of his darkness and pain across the world, Elena Galathynius stole the Lock from her father and used it to seal Erawan in a tomb in Morath. The Lock crafted a dark sarcophagus from Morath's mountains, used to physically contain Erawan, effectively locking him after displaying green wyrdmarks across the sarcophagus. This act utilized every ember of Mala's mortal essence, leaving the witch-mirror dimming from its intense cobalt fire to a pale flicker of blue light. Elena thought she had saved Erilea from the Valg's threat forever. However, the Gods' and Goddesses' furious descent entailed that the Lock was promised to them, and she had just wasted it. She did not know the Lock's purpose or that her father bore the Wyrdkeys. Upon ruining the bargain between the Gods and Brannon, the Gods expressed their rage; however, Mala Fire-Bringer paused in her wrath as if trying to remember Elena.
The Gods and Goddesses proposed that a new Lock would need to be forged by a scion of Mala blessed with her same Fire-Bringer gifts, who would have to give up their life to seal the Wyrdkeys into the Wyrdgate. They informed her that their original bargain still held: they would destroy Erawan in their homeworld. And so Elena was tasked to lead Aelin to find the Wyrdkeys, forge the Lock, and give up her life to seal the gate shut. And when Elena brought Aelin back to life after she died in the Florine river, she was given an additional punishment - she would never be able to access the Afterlife; she would merely disappear after Aelin completed her task and never see Gavin or her children again.
Rediscovered[]
The amulet first appears when Elena Galathynius, first owner of the Eye, gives it to Celaena in the tombs for her protection. It is then, when Celaena is sent to Wendlyn, given to Chaol Westfall. In Queen of Shadows, Celaena/Aelin surreptiously slips it into the pocket of Chaol in his final showdown with the King of Adarlan, creating a shield of light and deflecting the king's final blow and saving Chaol's life.
It Empire of Storms it is revealed that the blue stone is actually a Witch Mirror, capable of absorbing any amount of power. Rhiannon Crochan created the basis for the Eye, as the first Lock, and helped Mala Fire-Bringer cast her essence into the blue witch mirror, giving up her mortal body and imbuing the Lock with her power.
Manon Blackbeak reveals that the Amulet should in fact not be called the Eye of Elena, as it is the Eye of the Goddess, with the Three-Faced Godesses' three forms: the exterior circle representing the Crone, the upper interior circle representing the Maiden, and the lower interior circle representing Mother. The eye in the middle is known as the Eye of the Goddess, in which lies the heart of the Darkness, of the Three-Faced Goddess.
Second Lock[]
With the original Eye of Elena useless, Aelin and her court make a plan to forge the Lock anew. In Kingdom of Ash Dorian Havilliard retrieves the third and final Wyrdkey from Morath and takes it to Aelin. Together, they attempt to forge the Lock. As their magic is pulled from them, the Eye of Elena reforms in Aelin's hand. Dorian's father appears and takes his son's place; he is destroyed as the Eye becomes fully formed. Aelin then uses it to open the Gate to the gods' world and send them through. With help from Mala, Aelin has enough strength to return to Erilea, but the Eye is destroyed once and for all, its task complete.
Known Powers[]
- Originally, it contained a boundless supply of power derived from Mala Fire-Bringer, to be used one time only - specifically to lock the three Wyrdkeys to the broken Wyrdgate, forever sealing it shut.
- After this, the Amulet lost most of it's power.
- Its remaining, minimal power could be activated in the following ways:
- It acted as a warning device. It could emit blue light on a differing intensity - the brighter the light, the higher the warning of incoming threat from evil beings such as Valg Demons.
- It could also protect the bearer from powerful Wyrd magic, triggered by true courage of the heart - the incoming power was deflected away or shielded against.
- It acted as a catalyst for summoning Elena's ghost to Skull's Bay, a region far from the Queen's tomb in Adarlan.