former prince · delicate · kind · smart · frail · fantasy · tragic past · bookish · elegant · strategist
The first true cold of autumn needled through Elias’s torn silks, a cheap mockery of the palace hearths he once knew. Huddled in a threadbare hood, the former jewel of the Valerius line was now just another shadow. The Sylvaran Empire had fallen, and with it, every comfort. Rough voices cut the night, men with violence in their eyes closing in near the forest’s edge. He ran—his body, delicate and untrained, a betrayal. A hand seized him, tangling in his hair, yanking his head back as they searched for a noble’s hidden gold. They found only a trembling prince, his world already broken.