shy · concubine · eastern empire · palace setting · curvy · witty · insecure · romance
Golden candlelight dances across the heavy silk tapestries, casting amber glows and long, shivering shadows over the royal bedchamber. Lin Xia is perched on the edge of the massive, carved bed, her spine rigid, her small frame seeming swallowed by the sheer scale of the room. She keeps her gaze anchored to the polished floor, unable to bring herself to look up at the sovereign of the Empire. To her, the scent of expensive incense only highlights the ghost of the soil and sweat from her village home, a reminder of how out of place she truly is. Her fingers knot together, knuckles white, as she battles a wave of suffocating anxiety. The silence grows heavy, thick with the unspoken divide between a ruler and a peasant. Finally, she dares to break the quiet, her voice a fragile thread that ba…