Symbols A Forgery of Fate Elizabeth Lim

The Symbol of Waterbell Flowers in A Forgery of Fate

What Are Waterbell Flowers?

In the world of A Forgery of Fate, waterbell flowers are blue, five‑pointed blossoms with a yellow bell‑shaped center. They bloom during the Luminous Hour, a merfolk festival tied to the Resonant Tide. According to merfolk tradition, planting waterbells for someone you love and presenting them during the Luminous Hour ensures that your love will be returned. The flowers are also associated with the New Year in the human realm of Gangsun, where they are bought to welcome prosperity—their bell‑shaped petals resembling gold ingots.

Where Waterbell Flowers Recur

The motif appears at several key moments in the story:

  • Truyan’s childhood wish (Chapter 27) – As a girl, Truyan tells her sisters that waterbells are her favorite flower. She imagines their bells make music and that ringing them would shower gold coins from the petals. She even tried to grow a garden of them, hoping to make her family rich.

  • Elang’s secret garden (Chapter 33) – After learning Truyan’s childhood wish, Elang plants an entire field of waterbells in the Court of Celestial Harmony. He extracts blue‑sapphire pigment from the petals to create the exact shade of Nazayun’s scales for Truyan’s painting. The maid Mailoh reveals that Elang grew them all in one night, refusing help—a gesture of devotion.

  • The Luminous Hour story (Chapter 27) – Elang tells Truyan the tale of Lady Liayin, a mermaid who weaves magical silk and reunites with her human husband. At the end of the war, Liayin’s tears become pearls that light the merfolk waters, a tradition continued as the Luminous Hour. After the story, he gives Truyan a single waterbell he grew from moss.

  • The epilogue (three years later) – Truyan, now living in Gangsun, receives a waterbell left by a mysterious man who solved her annual lantern riddle. She finds Elang—now fully human and without memory of her—selling waterbells from a boat. He confesses he has recurring dreams of waterbells floating under moonlight and feels they are “home.” The flowers become the thread that reconnects them.

How the Meaning Changes

Waterbell flowers evolve from a childish fantasy of wealth into a symbol of romantic devotion, then into a vessel of memory and hope.

  • Childhood innocence – For young Truyan, waterbells represent the hope of lifting her family out of poverty. Their bell‑shaped petals promise gold, but she cannot grow them, hinting at her later struggle with her own identity.

  • Elang’s love – Elang’s field of waterbells is a concrete act of selfless love. He grows them secretly, extracts paint for her art, and presents them during the Luminous Hour—following the merfolk tradition to ensure his love is returned. The flowers here become a proof of genuine feeling, even before Truyan fully understands his motives.

  • Loss and remembrance – After Elang sacrifices his dragon nature and loses his memory, the waterbells linger in his subconscious. He sells them without knowing why, and his dream of waterbells under moonlight mirrors the Luminous Hour they once shared. The flower becomes the only physical link to their past.

  • Reunion – In the epilogue, the waterbell serves as a clue. It leads Truyan to Elang, and his dream of waterbells becomes the foundation of their new beginning. The flower’s endurance through winter—with the help of moss—mirrors how love survives in the harshest conditions.

Character Connections

  • Truyan Saigas – Waterbells are her declared favorite flower. They represent her longing for a better life, her romantic hope, and later her patient waiting. She keeps the flower Elang gave her, and in the epilogue, she wears a waterbell in her hair when she searches for him.

  • Elang (Gaari) – His devotion is measured by his act of growing waterbells. The flower is his love language. Even after losing his memory, he is drawn to plant and sell waterbells, and his dream of them connects him to his lost self.

  • Mailoh and Queen Haidi – Mailoh explains the merfolk tradition of planting waterbells for love, reinforcing the cultural weight of the symbol. Queen Haidi’s test of true love in Nanhira (which Truyan passes with a kiss) parallels the unspoken promise of the waterbells.

Theme Connections

  • Love and Sacrifice – Elang’s field of waterbells is a sacrifice of time and secrecy. The tradition that love returned through the Luminous Hour underscores the theme of sacrificial love that runs through the story.

  • Fate vs. Free Will – Truyan’s childhood wish to grow waterbells failed; yet Elang’s gift proves that what was impossible on her own becomes possible through another’s devotion. The flower’s blooming in darkness and rising into light mirrors Truyan’s choice to hope despite the bleakness of fate.

  • Memory and Identity – In the epilogue, waterbells bridge the gap between Elang’s forgotten past and his present. His dream of them is a buried memory, showing that identity is tied to what we love, even when conscious memory fails.

  • Remembrance – Waterbells are explicitly linked to remembering. The Luminous Hour commemorates Liayin’s tears, and the flowers themselves become mementos of love. Truyan’s riddle about a waterbell—written each year on her lantern—is a call for someone to remember the love they shared.

Study Questions

1. Why does Truyan say waterbells are her favorite flower? What does this reveal about her character?
Answer: Truyan explains that she loves waterbells because they are “born in the dark, yet only bloom in the light,” and seeing them reassures her that better times are ahead. This reveals her optimism and her ability to find hope in difficult circumstances, a trait that sustains her through her father’s disappearance and Elang’s memory loss.

2. How does Elang’s act of growing a field of waterbells demonstrate his love for Truyan?
Answer: According to the text, Elang grew the entire field alone in one night, extracting paint from the petals to help Truyan with her art. He follows the merfolk tradition of planting waterbells for someone you love, intending to present them during the Luminous Hour. The scale of his effort—an entire field—shows that his devotion is practical, secret, and all‑encompassing, even before Truyan fully understands his feelings.

3. What does the waterbell in the epilogue represent for Elang’s character?
Answer: The waterbell in the epilogue serves as a subconscious link to Truyan. Elang, now fully human and without memories, sells waterbells and has a recurring dream of them floating under moonlight—which is exactly how they appeared during the Luminous Hour. The flower becomes an anchor for his hidden identity. When he gives Truyan a waterbell and later recognizes her, it shows that love can persist even when memory is erased.

4. How does the Luminous Hour tradition shape the meaning of the waterbell flowers?
Answer: The Luminous Hour is rooted in Liayin’s story of love and reunion, and merfolk believe that presenting waterbells during this time ensures returned love. The tradition transforms the flower from a New Year’s symbol of wealth into a promise of emotional (not material) prosperity. For Truyan and Elang, the Luminous Hour becomes the moment when their real feelings are acknowledged, and the waterbells become proof that their love can transcend sacrifice, loss, and forgetting.