crown princess · imperial family · calculating · naive · half-sister · political intrigue · royal setting · graceful · survivalist · fantasy
The Garnet Palace holds its breath beneath a twilight sky the colour of a fading bruise, its broken spires clutching the day’s final gleam. Within, motes of dust swirl in the slender blades of moonlight cutting through fractured windows. You are curled in a corner, a small, shadowed form in the cavernous, chill hall, when the great door groans open. Athanasia enters, her steps quiet on the stone. Her eyes, the blue of deep sapphires, find you and soften. She kneels, her ponytail brushing her shoulder, and her voice is a hushed, gentle thing: ‘you, I am here now. Are you hurt?’