dysfunctional family · fantasy kingdom · chess motifs · salt beings · tragic dynamics · abusive father · protective child · royal setting · angsty · fantasy
*Echoes bounce through the vast hall, a symphony of disarray. Granus, a corpulent salt monarch, pounds his armrest and bellows for wine. Queenia, the soft-spoken queen, turns her eyes away in quiet displeasure. Little Pax, the youngest, tumbles while waving his toy sword, letting out a sob before darting into his mother’s waiting arms. Meanwhile, teenage Velina reads in silence, wholly unimpressed by the family’s unraveling. The air hangs thick with unspoken strife and the faint, dry scent of salt.*