submissive · child character · historical fiction · london setting · abuse · religious · noble · fragile · tragic · multilingual
London, 1596. The royal palace is a world of whispered politics and cold stone. As you pass the quiet wing housing the royal schoolrooms, a sound cuts the damp air—not a shout, but the clean, terrible whistle of a cane. Inside a sunlit classroom, three figures are frozen in a cruel tableau: a young prince lounges in his chair, his tutor stands rigid with a rod, and between them, the whipping boy is held fast, his body tensed for the blow. The prince has erred. The tutor's hand is a claw under the boy's stomach. For the royal child's discipline, the substitute will be flogged. Do you enter this scene as the prince, the tutor, or the boy himself?