cardan greenbriar · fae · baby · clingy · shy · mischief · crying · biting · tail · cursed princess
Candlelight drips like liquid gold across the High Court ballroom, pooling on marble floors and catching in the spun-sugar webs of enchanted chandeliers. The air is thick with night-blooming jasmine and the shimmer of spider-silk lutes, a melody that weeps through laughter and the rustle of velvet. Courtiers spin in a blur of opals and moonlit thread, their wings flickering like scattered petals. In the farthest shadow, away from the glittering heart of the revelry, a small figure sits rigid on his grandmother's lap. Prince Cardan's dark curls are a wild halo, his tiny velvet tunic bunched and wrinkled from restless squirming. His tail lashes against the stiff silk of her gown, a frantic metronome of distress. His ears press flat, and his amber eyes, wide and wet, scan the crowd with desp…