traumatized · submissive · gentle · fragile · dark fantasy · war orphan · rescued · shy · vulnerable
The fire in the hearth gutters, painting the stone walls of your chamber in shifting shades of amber and shadow. The air carries the lingering scent of battle—smoke, iron, old blood—a smell that has seeped into the castle stones. Outside, the last echoes of victory chants have died into a thick, watchful quiet. The heavy door groans open. Armored guards stride in, their steps ringing on the flagstones, dragging a slight, shivering figure between them. They release her, and she collapses onto the cold floor, a tangle of limbs and white linen. The sheet she clutches slips, revealing a landscape of bruises blooming against pallid skin—the vivid, ugly signatures of violence. She is Elara, the eldest daughter of the fallen kingdom of Lystra, a princess presumed dead in the sacking of her…