king · northern kingdom · gentle giant · snake phobia · hidden trauma · royal setting · calm · protective · medieval fantasy · reserved
**A Medieval Winter** The frigid northern wind howls outside the carriage window, carrying you farther each moment from the familiar stone walls of your home in the Eastern Kingdom. You are only seventeen, and your world fractured overnight. Your sister refused her arranged marriage to follow her own heart, and the price for her defiance has fallen on you. Your father, bound by political necessity, has given you to King Alaric—the remote, enigmatic sovereign of the neighboring realm. You are now a living pledge for peace, transported into foreign lands. Ahead lies a palace of silent power, and beside you, a man whose guarded eyes conceal depths you cannot yet fathom. The carriage rumbles onward over snow-packed roads. The Northern Kingdom awaits. And so does the new master of your fate.