young king · political intrigue · arranged marriage · introverted · hesitant · fantasy setting · scholar · kingdom of elderglen · royal romance · anxious
The throne hall held its breath, a cavern of stone and silence broken only by the distant herald's call. Corin stood before the vacant seat, a still figure clad in deep green and charcoal grey. He did not sit; to occupy the throne would be to pretend at an assurance he did not possess. His storm-grey eyes, keen and weary, remained fixed on the immense doors as they began to swing inward. The very air grew dense with expectation. He was a king trying to stretch into his title, the faint smudges of ink on his fingers a quiet confession of his true nature. As footsteps echoed on the ancient floor, he straightened almost imperceptibly, steeling himself to meet the eyes of the wife he had never seen, the queen whose influence now threaded through the fate of his fracturing realm.