History Literature / AuroraCycle

** [[spoiler:Subverted at the end of ''Aurora's End'', where Zila is forced to stay behind in the past to ensure the success of the mission.]]

* MysticalWhiteHair: Syldrathi all have silver hair.

* LastKiss: [[spoiler: At the end of the second book, Scarlett and Fin are about to kiss, before Fin realizes the significance of Scarlett gift from Admiral Adams.]]

** Kal: [[spoiler: an antique silver cigarillo or business card case. It intercepts a Kill shot from a disruptor pistol, saving Kal's life. Contained a note written in Fin's handwriting, reading "Tell her the truth", probably referring to Kal not telling Auri who his father is.]]

** Zila: [[spoiler: gold hoop earrings with hawk charms. Encourages Scarlett, Fin and Zila to trust Lieutenant Nari Kim. Later, allows Tyler to recognise an elderly Zila in a holo-video from the distant past.]]
** Finian: [[spoiler: a metal ballpoint pen. Scarlett uses it to save his life via an emergency tracheotomy.]]

** [[spoiler:Nari Kim hates Betraskans with a passion and shoots Zila multiple times when they first meet in a timeloop. She founds Aurora Academy together with her wife, Zila and a Betraskan.]]

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Or, rather, ''eye''. [[spoiler:Auri's white eye glows whenever her Eshvaren powers are active.]]

** After the squad first meet [[spoiler:Saedii]] and Kal warns them all not to let her get close, Tyler snarks, "If I have anything to say about it, [[spoiler:the young lady in question]] will be kept at minimum safe distance from now on." [[spoiler:Later in the book, Tyler is imprisoned in the same detention cell as Saedii, and during their escape, the two briefly end up in a [[SuggestiveCollision compromising position. In the next book, they have sex]]. Minimum safe distance indeed.]]
** Tyler and Scarlett's father used to say that they were almost telepathically close as kids and invented their own language. [[spoiler:Their mom was a Syldrathi waywalker and one of their abilities is to read another Syldrathi's thoughts. They were ''literally' telephathically close.]]

** After the squad first meet [[spoiler:Saedii]] and Kal warns them all not to let her get close, Tyler snarks, "If I have anything to say about it, [[spoiler:the young lady in question]] will be kept at minimum safe distance from now on." [[spoiler:Later in the book, Tyler is imprisoned in the same detention cell as Saedii, and during their escape, the two briefly end up in a [[SuggestiveCollision compromising position]]. Minimum safe distance indeed.]]

** Tyler and Scarlett's father used to say that they were almost telepathically close as kids and invented their own language. [[spoiler:Their mom was a Syldrathi waywalker and one of their abilities is to read another Syldrathi's thoughts. The language they "invented" was just them speaking Syldrathi.]]

* FoeRomanticSubtext: [[spoiler: Tyler and Saedii appear to be attracted to each other, despite falling somewhere between "active enemies" and "reluctant allies".]]

* CastFromLifespan: [[spoiler:For a Trigger, using the Weapon will kill you slowly, in fragments, with every use. Caersan has used it once, and it is noted that while one side of his face is normal, the other is deeply carved with lines like he is ancient.]]

* ArchnemesisDad: [[spoiler: Archon Caesan, a.k.a. the Starslayer, a mass murderer and EvilOverlord verging on GalacticConqueror, is Kal's father.]]

** [[spoiler:In book 3, LoveRedeems kicks in and she rushes to help him when Aurora Academy is set to make it's last stand.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:Tyler does not curse and is all about clean living. In book 3, Auri and Kal meet an older Tyler from an alternate universe where the Ra'haam succeeded in their goal of conquest. That Tyler drinks and swears like a sailor.]]

** Zila: [[spoiler: gold hoop earrings with hawk charms. Encourages Scarlett, Fin and Zila to trust Lieutenant Nari Kim. Later, allows Tyler to recognise an elderly Zila in a video from the distant past.]]

** Scarlett: [[spoiler: a chain necklace with a silver medallion, which reads "Go With Plan B" on one side and which has a diamond embedded on the other side. The message refers to Zila's plan to ram the Weapon with their spaceship. The diamond is actually an Eshvaren crystal. It is later used to get Scarlett, Finn, Zila and Nari Kim out of a timeloop.]]
** Zila: [[spoiler: gold hoop earrings with hawk charms. Any other use unknown as of the end of ''Aurora Burning''.]]
** Finian: [[spoiler: a metal ballpoint pen. Scarlett uses it to save his life via a tracheotomy.]]

** [[spoiler:BOok 3: Zila is the true founder of the Aurora Academy. She is also the architect of the Ra'haam's defeat.]]

* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: [[spoiler: The gifts from Admiral Adams and Battle Leader de Stoy to the members of Squad 312 do not come with instructions and appear at first to just be nice trinkets. So far, three of the five gifts have proved to be more useful than first met the eye.]]

** [[spoiler:Subverted at the end of ''Aurora Burning'', where Zila is forced to stay behind in the past to ensure the success of the mission.]]

* MarkOfTheSupernatural: [[spoiler:Auri's SkunkStripe and white eye mark her as being the Eshvaren's Trigger.]]

* SkunkStripe: Aurora has one after her time in the Fold.

* StunGun: The Aurora Legion is equipped with disruptor pistols, which are usually used to stun although can be set to kill.

* TheAssimilator: [[spoiler:The Ra'haam is capable of infecting members of sapient species to become agents of itself, but only if those individuals stray onto one of the 22 planets it's incubating on. It ''wants'' to absorb everything else into its gestalt. In other words, they're biological versions of [[StarTrek The Borg]].]]

* MismatchedEyes: Auri, after her right eye turns white. [[spoiler:The Eshvaren statue also has a white right eye, indicating the connection between them.]] [[spoiler:So does Archon Caersan, a.k.a. The Starslayer.]]

The ''Aurora Cycle'' is a series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, authors of ''Literature/TheIlluminaeFiles''. The first book, ''Aurora Rising'', was published in 2019. Less than two months after the first book's release, it was [[https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/06/14/aurora-rising-ya-adaptation-coming-to-mgm-tv/ announced]] that MGM Television had optioned the series for a TV adaptation. The second book, ''Aurora Burning'', was published in 2020. The third and final book of the series, ''Aurora's End'', is set to be published in late 2021.

* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:In the second book, it is revealed that Tyler's and Scarlett's mother was Wayweaver Syldrathi.]]

** [[spoiler:Saedii hates Terrans, Wayweavers and peace-seekers. Her be'shmai is half-Terran, half Syldrathi Wayweaver and a peace-seeker. Futhermore, before they fall in love, a running gag is that she constantly knees Tyler in the balls when she's pissed off. She will later give birth to his daughter.]]

* BelligerentSexualTension: [[spoiler: Tyler spends much of the second half of the second book trapped in a detention cell with Saedii, Kal's older sister and an Unbroken Templar. They snark at each other a lot, but there is a clear undercurrent of [[InconvenientAttraction attraction]].]]

[[caption-width-right:330: They're not the heroes we wanted. They're just the ones we could find.]]