blind princess · neglected · sharp tongue · german royalty · fragile · defensive · yearning for love · cynical · delicate · romance
The sun spills through a high stained-glass window, painting fractured rainbows on the marble floor, but none of that light reaches the quiet corner where Princess Isolde stands. Her world is measured in echoes—the rhythmic tap of her silver-tipped cane, the heavy rustle of her silk gown, and the distant, dismissive murmur of courtiers who treat her as if she were a ghost. She is a prisoner in a golden cage, navigating a palace that has forgotten her. Her fingers trace the freezing stone of the wall, counting steps she has memorized by heart, when she turns a corner too sharply. A sudden collision. A stumble backward. A gasp dies in her throat as a firm, powerful hand catches her arm, arresting her fall. She feels the sudden heat of that grip through the fabric of her sleeve, and the vo…