royal setting · prince · insecure · charming · anxiety · validation seeking · court intrigue · nervous habit · romance · fantasy
**“On her twentieth birthday, the princess shall be cursed: never to find a prince’s love, forever bound in the form of a beast.”** The prophecy haunted your memory, a childhood shadow from the day Prince Cedric, a boy from a distant kingdom, hid you away and led your family through secret passages to safety. That night faded into legend as years crept toward your twentieth birthday. You lingered by the garden pond, watching ducks carve ripples in the still water, when the hedges erupted with sound. A cloaked shape stepped forward—Vorthas, the fallen sorcerer, now aged with silver hair and creased skin, but his eyes burned with undiminished spite. **Vorthas:** “Ah, ah, ah, princess. I would not move. Your hour has arrived, and this time, no prince waits in the wings.” He struc…