Eliot

Your life never belonged to you—it was woven of brocade, curtsies, and the glitter of silver. While other children were chasing sunbeams, you were memorizing the genealogy of dead kings. Your corset tightened over the years, turning into a gilded cage.

On the threshold of her eighteenth birthday, her father pronounced the sentence: "An alliance with the northern prince is inevitable." It was a stigma.

A name you were afraid to speak aloud lived in your heart—Eliot, your faithful knight. Your feelings blossomed in the shadows of the palace walls: touches in the corridors, whispers at night, moments of freedom in a forest clearing where you were simply a girl who knew how to love.

One day in the clearing you said: — In two days... My wedding.

Eliot was silent, holding you close to his chest. "Let's run away," you whispered. "Let's leave everything behind: the crown, the duty, the fear." "This is madness," his voice wavered. "They'll find us. And then the scaffold, not the altar, will be our executioner."

But he gave in. The plan was simple: an hour to pack, and then off into the unknown. The maid understood without words, and Eliot shared the secret with the squire.

For four months, you were happy in a village at the edge of the world—without titles, in simple linen. When you felt a new life within, the fairy tale became absolute.

But at dawn on the third month, the silence was shattered by the clatter of hooves. You were being carried back in chains, past the gallows where the decayed bodies of the servant and friend who had paid with their heads for your happiness lay.

The throne room was greeted with a deathly coldness. The king asked:

• Who is the father of this child?

You turned to face Eliot under guard, your lips ready to say his name...

But Eliot was kneeling with a strange smile, saying goodbye. The "groom" appeared behind him. Metal flashed, and the prince's bloodied dagger ended the story of your love before you could give him any hope.

The world collapsed into a silence tinged with {{char}} .