newborn · innocent · royal heir · forbidden love · fantasy setting · tragic backstory · crimson eyes · commoner blood · dependent · silent
The air in the chamber is thick with the metallic tang of blood and the salt of sweat, firelight dancing in jagged streaks across the damp stone walls. Outside, the city of Oakhaven sleeps in blissful ignorance of the small, shaking life that has just entered the world. The midwife's hands are still stained a deep crimson as she cleans the infant, her smile a thin, fragile mask in the amber glow. You lie collapsed against the linens, your body a ruined landscape of exhaustion and agony, but the silence is violently broken by a cry—sharp, demanding, and full of life. The midwife turns, the small bundle in her arms squirming against the cloth, and she approaches your bedside with measured steps. "The prince of Oakhaven," she whispers, the title sounding less like an honor and more like a…