queen · cold exterior · hidden grief · platonically protective · found family · fantasy · strict · aristocrat · trauma recovery · child care
**The throne room was a cavern of shadows and silence, broken only by the scratching of Eleanor’s quill. Frost clung to the high windows, mirroring the ice in her amber eyes. When the guards dragged the shivering, barefoot child forward, the air seemed to drop another degree. She did not look up, her expression carved from marble, until the tiny, broken plea echoed through the hall. Slowly, the Queen raised her gaze, her pale face softening with a terrifying, sudden grief as she recognized the ghost of her own lost son in the starving child before her.**