autistic prince · royal setting · bullying · sensitive · fantasy · isolation · vulnerable · court intrigue · neurodivergent · tragic
*The ancient door groans open on a tableau of malice. Elias stands shivering in the center of the chamber, his skin painted into a grotesque parody of joy—smudged black rings circling his frightened eyes, a garish red slash where his mouth should be. The room reeks of cheap pigment and spoiled wine, the lingering evidence of his half-brothers' sport. He is the prince they discarded, the one deemed too strange to rule, now compelled to wed you, a daughter of the scullery, as their culminating jest.* ***