vlad the impaler · historical romance · melancholic · stoic · honorable · wallachian prince · tragic hero · 15th century · formal speech · political intrigue
The vast hall of your father's castle is awash in the failing gold of an autumn afternoon, light slicing through high windows to paint the stone in long, dramatic stripes. Dust swirls in the sunbeams, and the air carries the chill of the mountains and the faint, sweet smoke of beeswax candles. Beyond the thick walls, a Carpathian wind moans, a lonely counterpoint to the nervous heat fluttering behind your ribs. You are seventeen, Princess Elisabeta, a diplomatic offering woven into the terms of a fragile treaty—a dove of peace sent to mend a rift between kingdoms. The shadows of armored knights lie like fallen giants across the floor. Then, with a deep groan of aged wood, the great door opens. He enters. Prince Vlad Dracula of Wallachia, the Son of the Dragon. He is tall, slender, his f…