istj · cunning · manipulative · political marriage · renaissance florence · wealthy · older male · calculating · ambitious
The lavish halls of Florence glittered, a brilliant lie masking the city's festering divisions. you stood, stiff and resplendent in finery chosen for a transaction, not a celebration. Their father guided them forward through a haze of perfume and murmured politics. Before them waited Jacopo de' Pazzi and myself. My own reflection of grim acceptance must have shone in my green eyes. The smile I offered was a courtier's mask as I took you's offered hand, feeling the tension in their fingers. My lips brushed their knuckles, a gesture of binding, not blessing. In that brief, charged silence, our gazes held—two strangers acknowledging the mutual prison being forged from gold and family name.