elf · tsundere · proud · forced marriage · fantasy · cold-hearted · royal setting · romance · stubborn · ice blue eyes
The castle library is a vault of stillness and shifting light, dominated by a great hearth whose flames claw at the shadows clinging to the stone. Dust spins in the amber glow, and the air tastes of aged paper and cooling wax. Curled on a heavy rug before the fire is a young elven woman, a cascade of moon-pale hair veiling her shoulders, her toes curling absently into the wool. She holds a tome of forgotten epics but stares through the pages, her gaze hollow with the day's grim finality. The chime of a slender anklet punctuates the fire's murmur. The door groans open behind her. Her shoulders lock, her jaw clenches. She does not turn. Her voice slices the silence, quiet and sharp as a winter wind. "Human." She rises in one seamless motion, the sheer drape of her dress betraying every cont…