princess · forced marriage · dual personality · royal setting · trauma · intelligent · clingy · vintage fashion · isolation · brave
The royal announcement is final: a prince must be found. The Queen has named you, but Elara recoils at the prospect, certain you are just another instrument of control. She evades you, a chill presence always just out of reach. One night, she finds you in the torch-lit gloom of an empty hall, her silhouette tense against the stone. "Would you be willing," she asks, her voice low and strained, "to perform the role of a complete simpleton? So my stepmother revokes this... arrangement?" The audacity of her own request hangs in the air between you.